If this is the situation, if you’re the runner you run R&D, run the bin, run R&D. You therefore get more looks at R&D. As that’s the case, is it best to trash Jackson before the runner gets their first look at R&D? I guess you’re trading 2 runner clicks for 1 access and you’re giving up the better of the 2 looks at R&D. I’ve never seen anyone make that move though.
I wondered what people thought about this.
I’ve seen people (who know their opponent knows about this play) do this with regularity actually. Accesses are bad, and leaving agendas in Archives is something of a liability these day anyway.
There’s a lot of situational dependencies here (how rich in AP is the rest of R&D? how late in the game is it? how likely am I to plug R&D next turn? etc.), but in general my inclination is to wait and let them burn their clicks.
Agree here. If you can get them to whiff on their first two clicks and spend yet another to maybe get agendas, I think you’re winning as corp because you’re stringing them along. If it backfires, well… price you paid, but if you’re reasonably sure that R&D or 2 points won’t kill you, it may be the better play than loading up R&D with more agendas for that first access and leaving them with 2 clicks to with as they please.
Funny you bring this up, @mediohxcore decided to make this exact move last night against @kiv. Seemed like the right play.
Well it depends but i would probably use Jackson on the first run to avoid let the runner sees 3 cards (if the first one is an agenda). If it’s late game and there is little chance that the first card is actually an agenda, i would let the runner waste his clicks.
The reason I think it was right that time was how cheap it was for me to access Archives.
With Desperado, it would be efficient for me to hit Archives and come back to R&D, therefore shuffling in right away denies me my best line.
I don’t remember how many agendas were sent back, but if you’re sending 2 or fewer agendas back, you’re also adding non-agendas to R&D and agenda density doesn’t increase much. If any of the agendas are NAPDs or TFP then it’s even less of a consideration, etc.
It’s definitely a situational play but one that’s right a portion of the time.
Should have mentioned this as one of my “situational dependencies” above. If the archives run is going to bear other fruit, definitely time to think about using Jackson before the first access – at that point, the runner is no longer ‘wasting’ his clicks.
Last GNK event I did this on the corp side, and then promptly confused myself about how many clicks the runner had spent.
I always burn jackson when I’m vulnerable to this play, unless the agenda density of RnD is super low from my counting of their locations, or I desperately want to double tax the runner for some odd reason.
So…depends.
If R&D costs enough (either/both in creds or tokens), I have no problem letting the Jackson sit tight and only use it on the Archives run. When running R&D, Archives then R&D again becomes easily affordable I might use Jackson on the first run. Depending on Agenda density also.
I think a lot of this comes down to deck composition, and personal style. I like making the runner burn clicks for any reason, just to make those clever plays where the runner always ends up in your remote with just enough creds to play sure gamble, and do it again before you recover fast enough, just a little harder to pull off.