…but zomg it’s already a 1c virus which is making Noise eye his new Mass Installer with a certain amount of unhealthy lust as is ;).
It gets a virus counter at the beginning of your turn, so you could always throw that on the datasucker to get your yog going aginst 4strength, or whatever.
2 Likes
a straight 1c drain would only be as uber as the influence cost I think. making it a current would also make it less threatening. If there had to be a threat it would be a virus counter somewhere I reckon as that’s anarch.
My “so what” is flat. consider it "so what ". I don’t get too excited on internets. appreciate the discussion.
Something that starts working with a certain number of virus counters e.g. Chakana?
Regardless, I just don’t see Ixodidae getting played for anything other than “trash a card from R&D, gain 3 credits from Pawnshop” anytime soon.
3 Likes
I bet we will see an Anarch identity with a card text involving the corp losing credits and/or hindering Virus purge (say an extra cost, or only if the runner is tagged). There’s supposed to be one in the First Contact expansion (that we haven’t seen yet, right?), and there is, of course the next Deluxe Expansion, which should be out close to the The Source release…
Apologies if this isn’t the right thread, but the overall Lunar Cycle one is closed, and I’m not sure it merits its own.
I’m prone to sudden bouts of curiosity about stupid things that won’t go away until I investigate. Earlier, one such thing was what cards we have/have not seen in Lunar Cycle. I’m going to put up my information here in case anyone else is interested/curious about what is left.
My method was pretty simple, I used the Four Is Flatline spoiler thread on BGG to look at what we’ve seen and used their predictions for faction card slots… in part. Any time it seemed like there could be something else in a slot, I noted that, so that we’d have some variation (because their guesses about who’ll get 2 or 3 cards in any given pack aren’t inherently right).
First, the Corp Side. Overall, we’ve seen 46 cards from them, which leaves 24 or 25 to go, by the numbers.
Of the cards we’ve seen, 6 have been HB, 8 have been NBN, 10 have been Jinteki, and 7 have been Weyland (with 15 neutral cards).
Interestingly, on the assumption that each faction will always get 2 cards to their name, HB and Weyland both have a fixed number of to-be-seens.
Which is to say, we’ll see 7 new HB cards (including their ID in Spaces Between) and 7 new Weyland cards. There could be as many as two neutral corp cards left unspoilered, but I find it pretty unlikely that we’ll see quite so many, because that starts eating into the runner side of things. Jinteki and NBN have ranges – 3 or 4 and 5 or 6 respectively. Overall, then, HB’ll have 13 new cards this cycle, Weyland gets 14, and Jinteki and NBN’ll each have one or the other total themselves.
Pretty straightforward. The corp side’s not as interesting. The runners, though…
Going by the card numbers and current spoiler (12 cards!) there are only one or two more Shaper cards left to be seen. We don’t have a perfect picture, there’s the one card in First Contact and possibly a second in The Source… but we’re close.
Anarch’s a bit more interesting, with 11 cards spoiled and as many as 5 slots open to them… but as few as 2 (including their ID). I can’t see them actually getting more than 3, though, because of Criminal.
Criminal has only had 9 cards spoiled… but has between 5 and 9 slots open to them. 5 is pretty likely, I’d say, because that puts them right at 14, which seems to be the upper bound for factions. Either way, they’re the runner faction with the most to be seen!
There’s only one space that could be a neutral card, but it isn’t a sure thing. I find it pretty unlikely, actually, so that’ll be likely staying at just 7 neutral runner cards new this cycle. Each runner faction at 14, with two corps at 14 and two at 13 makes sense.
I’m not going to speculate on what we haven’t seen (beyond the HB and Anarch IDs, since we know where they are, and the probability of NBN getting a Sentry-focused Agenda a la the Jinteki Code Gate and Weyland Barrier ones). Not going to look at how many programs/events/resources/etc have been spoiled for each and try and guess at what there might be. This was just bugging me, and in case it was bugging someone else, wanted to share and save them the twenty minutes of effort.
2 Likes
New partial spoiler, it looks like:
HB asset, IT Department. 2 rez, unknown trash cost.
Click: Place 1 power counter on IT Department.
Hosted power counter: Choose [a rezzed] piece of ice. That ice has +1 s[trength] until the end of the end of the turn for [each power] counter (including the one [removed) on IT] Department.
Seems… interesting, to say the least. More time-intensive than Corporate Troubleshooter, and has to be protected by itself… but if you can get enough power counters on it each one is incredibly valuable. Seems like a full turn of placement following initial rez (much like Melange, but not forcibly so) would be best. It loses the advantage of surprise (runner will know how much you can raise any ice’s strength by), but a full turn’s clicking will make it able to bestow +6 strength to something, if you’re willing to run out of counters to do it. Makes a lot of things scary again (un-parasited Rototurret or NEXT Silver, Architect could fire again, etc) after the one turn, but more time spent here-and-there (adding a click or two to it if you’ve got the time instead of overdrawing) could lead to it being super terrifying. After all, 3 counters means +6 max, but 6 counters means +6 to start (+21 max, good luck breaking that), so it gets more dangerous pretty damn quickly.
If the fixed-strength breakers weren’t sufficiently hosed before, this might help seal the deal some. Here’s hoping Order & Chaos has some harder-to-export replacements.
A not-quite-perfect-but-still-useful counter to Parasite, I suppose, but the real excitement for me comes from being able to use multiple counters to push easily-broken things into incredibly painful territory.
I’m assuming it’ll be fairly cheap to trash, possibly even free. Not like IT Departments tend to want to be dealing with this crap most of the time when they have other things to handle. 
Only one influence, too, so it might see play elsewhere. I could see RP having fun with it.
The phrasing of the card is a bit awkward, though. I get why they’d want to include the one just spent, but boy is it awkwardly worded. Could’ve just made it 1+remaining hosted counters, much simpler.
1 Like
Wording is indeed awkward. The fact that its an asset makes it tricky though, ideally you’re looking at 2 remotes now, one for this thing, and one for the scoring, ideally with each guarded by a destroyer (or guard?). That’s some very specific setup.
Ugh, you’re right, it could just be spammed on a single piece of ice immediately… In RP, once you’ve got 3 scary ice on the outside, any run is a plus 3 to 6 strength against damage. And if they don’t run, it’s worse MUCH faster.
Grappling Hook (and e3), D4v1d and whatever inevitable nonbreaker breaker shaper program might come will certainly see more play, if only due to how easily this can be splashed and how bad it would be to let it get more than 3 counters on it…
And yes, it should have been worded “X+1 where x is the number of counters remaining on IT Department”. surprised it’s not.
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Actually, this needs a huge amount of clarification. Is the strength boost static and set by the number of counters on IT Department when the ability is triggered, or does it change dynamically and track the number of counters currently on it?
3 Likes
While the card could have been worded better, I think it is relatively easy to understand. If IT Department has 3 counters on it, and you remove one to boost ICE, that ICE receives +3 strength (2 +1 removed) until end of turn. I think it’s safe to assume that if you click afterwards to add another power counter, the ICE remains at +3; the ability doesn’t re-trigger and check IT Department again.
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I don’t think it’s safe at all 
I completely get what it’s probably meant to do, my point was simply that it’s written in the form of “set X to Y”, but what happens if Y changes? Is X set to whatever Y was at the time and is now frozen, or does X track Y as it changes? Both are valid interpretations unless there is a rule or precedent I am unaware of (although the “including the counter…” clause does strongly suggest the former).
But the brackets remain open… maybe it ends with “trash IT Department”, or something like that…
Well, since people elsewhere are talking about it…
I like it. It’s a pretty great neutral upgrade, helps Jinteki glacier decks land some kills, could go into Weyland or HB Glacier decks as well (massive trace of programs/upgrades/an asset/agenda followed by SEA-Scorch-Scorch on their turn? Either way they’re hurting more). Makes playing the executives more viable, too, since you can just off them if they become too big a liability.
5 Likes
kinda like a card I posted in Imaginary cards back in August
“Card Name” - 6c
Upgrade
Whenever the Runner passes all of the
ICE protecting this server, you may trash any number of cards in or
protecting this server. For each card trashed, do 1 net damage.
Trash - 2c"
their version is more playable 
although thematically i don’t understand the trace. the runner is already in the server
1 Like
I fail to see the use Self-Destruct. It just seems to have too many downsides to make it playable. There are some corner case uses like installing it behind Architect and firing it two times if the runner doesn’t have a sentry breaker.
3 net damage compares to Snare and you will get a similar effect from Snare a way more reliable. I can’t find any Glacier decks using this. Destroying your whole remote server and hoping to have more money than runner seems like a bad plan for a quite minor effect. I could see Self-Destruct played in Jinteki where Runner runs to Kitsune in remote and you force to access a Snare and then use Self-Destruct but these Jinteki flatline shenanigans happens once in 10 games against a bad opponent.
Other use of Self-Destruct is to protect something. Protecting agenda feels a way too risky. Other use is Executives but the problem of Haas is that she doesn’t do anything the turn you install her and you have to rez it next turn to score 3/2 from hand or something. Self-Destruct makes Haas less risky (and a unreliable 2 card combo) but even easier to trash. There might a better use with Hiro but we might be getting close to once in a lifetime Jinteki flatline shenanigans again.
I see Self-Destruct a cool card design but the power level makes it practically unplayable like a way too many Netrunner cards. I would love to have more usable cards and not cards which might be great in the future if there will be a very specific card printed.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you can use to to “protect” any server, and then blow everything up after they pass the last piece of ICE, and before they can access. maybe this is not the case, I don’t have the strongest understanding of timing windows. even if it doesn’t work that way, you can rez it at the beginning of a run where you realize they are going to get it. it then becomes an ash in a way; Runner has to decide if it is worth it to run through just to destroy the protection (in this case self-destruct). in this case, there’s the added bonus of 3 net damage
I don’t imagine this will be used to destroy remotes with lots of ICE. if you don’t need the boosted Trace, Self Destruct has the same effect trashing 1 card as it does trashing 5. I see it as punishing the runner when they would otherwise get in and access. For this, I think it’s actually pretty good at defending agendas. it’s a way to deny the Runner an agenda in the case that they are holding out on you and make an unexpected play for a remote
Yes, you can rez and use it once they are past everything, just before they access. It saves an agenda if you have archives protected or Jackson out. The amount of credits you’ve just sunk to pull it off though is pretty nuts.
Would have been nice if it were ‘trash any’ so you could leave an agenda behind to combo with Punitive. Even then though…
Risk free way to try to score something out with a Caprice and a porous server…
1 Like