Opening Moves Initial Card Ratings

Played a bunch with Masanori last night. He seemed amazing, except when I screwed up. :slight_smile:

If you are okay with transitioning into accepting tags midgame, he is quite good. he might force the transition, just dont run near the end of the turn with any risk of failure.
Once you do get tagged, they have to pay to kill him, or you just keep getting cards, so he recovers your initial investment.

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@Alexfrog That’s great to hear as he’s the runner card from this pack that I’ve been most excited about seeing it work, and with this data pack I’ve been the most excited about this game (especially between him and Jackson Howard)

How many copies of him did you run? I was thinking of putting 2 in Andy.

I know you weren’t asking me, but In my fixed breaker Andromeda, I run

3 Hostage
2 Kati Jones
1 John Masanori
1 Mr Li
1 Aesop’s Pawnshop

The fact that Hostage can search for all of them is amazing, and it’s worked far beyond my expectations. If you’re going to use a connection such as Masanori, you’re better off considering running many different ones with Hostage to increase efficiency, in my opinion.

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I’ve been tinkering with a Hostage-themed Andromeda deck too. It hasn’t worked for me so far, though :).

Soon!

How has the pawnshop been? Do you have enough targets for it to be worth the investment?

Playing a Hostage to get a card is less good than just drawing and playing the card (by a click and $1), but it has a benefit of helping you not draw worthless duplicates. It also helps you effectively have multiple copies of an out-of-faction card, thus reducing influence cost (if youre a criminal).

In my initial trial I changed from 3 Kati, to 2 Kati 1 Hostage 1 Masanori. Its seemed reasonable, as I might pay extra for Kati, but would draw less duplicates, and had a better chance to go get Masanori when he is good (when you have good chances of guaranteeing successful runs).

If a resource is only marginal prior to Hostaging for it, its clearly not worth Hostaging for, as you increase the cost. I feel this way about Mr Li. I think he is a weak card even if you draw him normally, so Hostaging for him makes him worse. Like, if I drew a Mr Li, that someone had snuck into my deck, I would decide to simply not play him and save the $3 and a click, in most circumstances. So I’m DEFINITELY not hostaging for him. I know others disagree on him though.

Similarly, though I’ve been seeing Hostaged-for Underworld Contacts, I feel that card goes from decent to bad when you increase its cost by $1 and a click, so thats probably not a play I’m going to put in my decks.

For things like Pawnshop, etc, the question is: is this card worth it, even if I have to pay extra? The answer to that is situational.

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I both agree and strongly disagree with this statement. I agree using it for marginal benefit, and for economy cards is typically a bad play, as you’re better off having included another economic option that wasn’t situational with timing issues, and the current economic options available for Hostage aren’t that great anyways (Kati being the obvious exception). In my experience Aesop has been as useful if drawn late game as he is early as long as I leave his targets on the table.

I disagree in regards to cards that aid card draws (Li and to a lesser extent Pro Contacts). Luck plays a role even for the best players, and a means of mitigating a bad draw for the small percentage of games in which its a factor is huge. Paying an extra click and credit is nothing compared to being able to draw twice as efficiently for the rest of the game. My argument gains ground the more cards incorporated into the deck that are available from Hostage.

Honestly, no. It allowed me to justify including a couple Bank Jobs, which is nice. In the end, I feel as though it’s necessary, as Masanori often gets me within ten cards of decking myself. It’s not required for those that don’t mind the risk, but better safe than sorry. I’m still not sold on it myself, and am still testing this drawing engine.

Edit: Replacing it with something that’ll aid against program trashing. Hitting an AggSec is way too debilitating. I’ll probably add a second Corroder.

Rereading our comments, it seems our opinions align on all but Mr. Li. Previously I had concluded he was terrible as well, as in order to draw him early, you had to run 3x, and even then it wasn’t guaranteed, it diluted the deck horribly, and he has no use in multiples. Hostage being able to pull a one-of Li early changes things considerably.

At least, that’s my take, though I seem to be the only one that believes Li is now playable, so perhaps it’s just me. I do find it curious people bash Li, yet justify running 3x Professional Contact.

Punitive counterstrike already has all of the tools it needs to be a deck, Jackson Howard was all the corp wanted to effortlessly setup punitive counterstrike kills

Have you guys seen Invasion of Privacy out of PE yet? Seems like a decent splash over SE, might be something I try out… just need all the money :smile:

I like Mr. Li as a one-off with Hostages, even if it seems like a bad idea to kidnap the leader of the most notorious crime syndicate in New Angeles :).

But more seriously, I have not found the hostages magic yet. It seems quantifiably worse than my other Andy decks so far.

Edit: @szymkodf I cannot wait for Reina Roja either :).

I’m just hopping in on the flavor train (no worries I’ll be off soon), but I think the runner is kidnapping Thomas Haas and getting a connection in return, so no kidnapping Mr. Li, more like freeing Mr Li
(or maybe I’m wrong, hmm hard to say if wrong even is the right word in a flavor sense…)

Ah, I assumed Thomas was voluntarily getting kidnapped to extort Director Haas because he’s bored.

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Whatever it is, it seems fishy since Thomas has his fingers crossed for some reason

Yeah, I know. It’s still kidnapping Tommy and not your own connections, no? :wink:

That’s certainly what the art shows–but how does Director Haas deliver Mr. Li to me, you see?

I love the backstories developing in the card art. Director Haas must loathe her son at this point :).

@hypomodern I wasn’t thinking that Director Haas traded Li himself but rather let you go about and establish your connection to him unencumbered by HB’s efforts.

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Thematically, in the picture, the runner has used Hostage to tutor for The Source.

The Hostage is the Connection.