The one problem with Eater+Keyhole is if corp ices archives, you can’t use eater to break the ICE, as then you wouldn’t be able to access the trashed agendas. Same goes for using singularity
Good insight, and even that downside can be negated by anarch voicepad decks.
Hades Shard
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Or even Blackmail, if you’re in Valencia. Or the usual program destruction (and actually, I think Archives Interface’d still let you remove something even if you aren’t accessing anything, though I’m probably misremembering the wording).
I’m honestly surprised how many people have been going “oh, no, they can rez stuff and then Blackmail is useless” or “Caprice shuts that right down”. Like… yes? Inside Job is still good, though it works on rezzed stuff. Even if it’s not ideal, being able to force my way to Caprice for a click and a card? Not the worst thing ever. Sure, a big chance it’ll fail – but it means their scoring remote needs her even more than usual to be safe.
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Fair enough, I’m convinced. Plus, unlike plascrete, the corp doesn’t even know if you have it, so they have to play around it even if you haven’t drawn it yet. As a dual purpose card it looks strong- and another reason for Weyland to go vegan and omit the scorch, which hopefully this box will let them do.
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I mean, I don’t think it’s the biggest deal to run a secondary breaker. You’ll at least be running Parasite and you still get Datasucker tokens. Not to mention if you are running Knight or some other AI breaker. Eater + Crypsis + Keyhole seems perfectly fine since Crypsis isn’t so bad if it’s only used rarely in this case.
I think a huge thing to remember about Eater is that it let’s you facecheck with impunity, which I feel is underrated on its own. If the only thing this does is let you force 3 or more ice rezzes without fear of punishment, I’d say it’s done okay. If you are running run punishment or ice destruction (which as Anarch you typically are) its amazing.
Another card that I think this will be really great with is Hemorrage. You still run into “can’t access archives with Eater” problems, but depleting their hand is slightly more damaging to the Corps game state, though you heavily sacrifice your scoring potential.
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Am I correct in thinking that the wording on Eater is a little bit strange?
This implies to me that the runner still accesses cards, just not more than zero; i.e. this is qualitatively different from cards like Feint which say:
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Yes - this allows Archives Interface or Keyhole to work with it. If it said ‘you may not access cards’ then no card that said ‘instead of accessing cards’ or ‘instead of accessing this card’ would work with it, because there is no accessing to replace.
It also allows you to turn over all the face-down cards in Archives without being able to access any of them…
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Which is supremely useful in the PE matchup, both for avoiding Susanoo-related flatlines, and to see if your Noise can luck out on closing the game without needing to take Shock damage while finding out.
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Also, it enables Expert Schedule Analyzer!
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Only if they put ice over Archives, of course.
Why? You can pump Eater even outside of an encounter, it’s just breaking subroutines that needs a valid target.
edit: Ah, I see. The restriction on accesses is bound to the breakage, at least in the spoilers… well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see if the spoilers are accurate.
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Yeah, but it’s the break subroutines part of it that affects accessing.
So…the runner cards.
Before I do, just on Wormhole, personally I think it will start off being very popular and then drop back to being a one-off at most. Much in the same way that Inazuma has in many decks. With a whole suite of ICE destruction being introduced into the meta I think running an ICE that can be blanked by destroying other ICE is a risky pick. But we shall see.
Anarch IDs.
I really like Valencia as a piece of design. Top tier ability, several directions you can build in but the larger deck size mitigates the potential for non-interactive blackmail combo decks. Recurring money and access to blackmail is so strong, I think that her and Noise will be fighting it out for top Anarch runner. Kim feels strong but not quite the same level because the ability will vary depending on the corp’s build - whereas Valencia and Noise are always awesome. I’m not yet convinced by MaxX. I think there is enough draw support for Anarch in the set to make her ability quite expensive for what it does (had she been released in place of Quetzal I would have been much more excited by her). I think it will get stronger with more effects that interact with the Heap, but at the moment they are quite limited and influence heavy.
Poor Whizzard though. I don’t see any reason to run him over Valencia or Kim.
Events.
Jeepers. Other than Showing Off (worse than Demolition Run, which wasn’t played much anyway) and Uninstall (a very poor runner’s salvage) they’re all frigging awesome. Amped is terrifying - turning a turn of vulnrability for the corp into a potential game losing situation. Steelskin is badly needed card draw (and damage protection as a bonus) and Day Job is a massive money boost that should even out the Anarch economy enormously. The cutlery set is a nice twist on ice destruction on which more in a moment. And Itinerent Protesters out of Valencia is the first runner current that I think will actually scare the corp - with 1 BP it’s managable, but 2 BP and a hand size of three is a very tricky situation to deal with. Finally Wanton Destruction is an excellent alternative to Legwork and badly needed fast HQ pressure.
Programmes.
So…Eater. Eater plus Keyhole plus massive ice destruction (and possibly Hemorague or Harbringer) seems to me like a thing - probably out of Valencia so you can keep remotes locked down with Blackmail and make multiple runs for cheap. But Eater also acts as face-check protection in anything uber agressive. I’m not sure it will displace Crypsis in Noise - probably not.
Progentiure feels a little niche - other than Hivemind I don’t think there’s a virus I would bother sticking on it. Hivemind itself is potentially terrifying, but you have to be running a very specific type of deck to get the most out of it. I’m not sure that normal Noiseshop is quite right - you want to keeping your viruses around rather than trashing them.
Hardware.
Most of the hardware looks pretty good to me. Vigil looks mostly designed for Valencia plus Itinereant Protestors, but free card draw is always good and its reaonsably priced. Memstrips is a memory solution for virus decks without the risk of Djinn, although I think it’s main use will probably be powering Overmind. And Salveger is an influence free alternative to Pawnshop/Wyldside in a single card. That’s pretty nuts if you think that Noise now has the economy to cope without Pawnshop credits. Archives Interface feels a bit meh to be honest - very niche, if you’re worried enough by Shock etc to run it you are probably better off spending influence on Security Testing.
Resources.
Bit of a mixed bag here. I don’t much like Stimdealer, I think Amped Up makes it almost totally redundant and the upfront cost is painful. Sacrifical Clone is amusing but I’ll be very surprised if it sees play - you might be alive, but it’s pretty unlikely you’ll be recovering. Investigative Journalism will see play in Valencia, a full turn is a lot to give up, but I think it’s probably worth it - especially with Itinerant Protestors. I like Virus Breeding Ground in principle, but it is very click intensive. I think it might lose out to Incubator. Human First intriguies me but you need it early and I’m not sure that it warrents three slots as a unique. Finally, Data Folding’s upfront cost puts me off. It’s three whole turns to break even and it dies to tags. But it just might find a home in Overmind or Eater builds.
Potential stars: Valencia, Wanton Destruction, Amped, the cutlery cards, Day Job, Steelskin, Eater, Salvager, Vigil.
And it should go without saying that I think that runner got by far the better end of this set.
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One amusing aspect of Sacrificial Clone is that even though you keep your programs, you could end up not keeping all of them due to memory lost from a detonated console. Might be a reason to run program-related memory solutions.
MemStrips is great because it makes Spinal Modem more playable. I’d have liked it more if it cost 2 and gave 2 MU, but this is ok. Complicated rigs involving Keyhole, multiple Suckers and whatnot are also more feasible.
Data Folding looks best paired with The Supplier.
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Harbinger is one reason.
Investigative Journalism is useful to keep around against any corp you suspect is running some form of BP removal, such as, say, Clone Retirement.
I quite like Data Folding, because, unlike Underworld Contacts, it doesn’t need an additional card to start paying off—you can just play it turn one. It’ll be fine if Clot and Traffic Jam manage to slow down FA a little.
I think Eater will be an all-star.
Why don’t you like Wormhole? I think its the strongest out of the three. Its had the higher strenght of the three and can do any sub. If they have a Plascrete, do Taurus. If you want to give them a tag whenever you want, do a Data Raven.
Copying Data Raven won’t work. It will put a power counter on Wormhole that you won’t be able to spend.
The wording on Data Raven is “place 1 power counter on Data Raven” so Wormhole should put power counter on DR.
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Good point. I’m convinced. But an official clarification would be nice.
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after mulling over the set, some general thoughts.
Runner IDS - Kim is okay (Whizzard status), but Maxx and Valencia are both top tier imo. (but probably not Andy tier). I really don’t like the 50 card minimum for Valencia though, I highly doubt it’ll balance anything (consider that it takes 20 clicks to draw half of your deck normally with a 5 card staring hand, it takes Valencia 22.5 clicks to draw half her deck. so I don’t think the slight increase in variability is that much of an issue, if it was Chaos Theory would be performing much better than she does) and it just means I got to find where those 5 sleeves I haven’t been using have gone. I’m not sure what direction either are going to go in (I feel like Maxx is obviously an early runner, Valencia a late runner), but the numbers are just too strong to ignore.
Events - Wow. From a faction that didn’t have efficient basic cards, to being a incredible well rounded one. Steelskin and Dayjob are great no influence options. Amped, I’m not so sure on and I see it as more of a combo card (“Djinn, tutor Hivemind, Medium, install, run, etc.” kind of combos). Sans that I’d rather run Stimhack. Protesters is neat for Valencia. I was super hyped on Wanton Destruction when it was spoiled, but I’ve mellowed to it simply being pretty good. Fork/Knife/Spoon are really amazing imo. Planned Assault is a heavy consideration for Anarchs now. Showing Off is cool, but doubt it’d be played (I think the only good play is running this with RDI). But it’d be hella swag if you ran this an Quest Completed in the same deck.
Programs - Eater is amazing. At worst, it keeps you safe from punishing ice and forces them to rez everything (or non-hyperbolically at least one ice on each server). I don’t know how I feel about Hivemind. The fact that there is no way to get more counters on it naturally makes it feel very one-shotish. I mean, Hivemind + Medium is like a really expensive Maker’s Eye. Sure, you force a purge, but stacked Medium counters can force that on their own. Harbinger is decent for when they force you to chase after asset econ. Progenitor is interesting, but I’m not sure if its worth the spot.
Hardware - Salvager is just wow. Noise likes this obviously, but I think it’s solid enough to see play elsewhere. Archive Interface is very meta dependent, but good for what it does. Memstrips is okay, I kind of like it more just to be used with Overmind, but either that or Viruses is okay. Vigil seems like a legit console that is competitive with Spinal Modem for general-use consoles.
Resources - Human First is okay. I guess maybe I’d run a one-of since this is unique, but I don’t think it’s worth the slot. Journalism I feel is an easy 3x in Valencia, but not really anywhere else. Clone is funny, but little else. Stim Dealer seems interesting, I’m hard pressed to say that I’d run it over Amped if I wanted extra clicks though, though obviously it works well with Salvager or Aesops. Virus Breeding Ground is okay, but not sure if it’s worth the slot.
Neutral Runner - Uninstall is kinda cool for restocking counters. Data Folding I feel is just too expensive, but maybe if you are just running Eater? NEW META = Joshua B + Qianju PT.
Corp Identities - Deep Space, ability-wise, I feel is the best, but I’m not sure it’s all that well supported. Argus and Titan are both really solid, but I feel are in the shadow of Blue Sun. I would imagine Jinteki-like ID breakdowns with Blue Sun being dominant, and a few PE/Tennin or in this case Argus/Titan.
Agendas - MEH. Firmware is not strong enough to make want to run it. Glenn Station is okay, and I feel is underrated, but a 2/4 is always competing against NAPD and this doesn’t trump it. And if you are going BP and can’t really run NAPD, then you probably want Fracking. High-Risk is meh, just very samey to other 3/5s. Government Takeover is IMO an advancement counter too much to be considerable. 9 advancement counters means 4 turns without acceleration. (IAA, AAA, AAA, A__), if it was 8 (3 turns) then I’d see it as much more doable. 5/8 would have made me happy too.
Assets - Board is interesting. 7 trash cost is hefty. There’s probably a janky “run 1 point agendas and The Board” deck that needs to be built. Though beyond that, I suppose it does make 1 point agendas much stronger, so it perhaps changes your Agenda distribution. I could see this being run with Executive Boot Camp. Space Camp seems like a much stronger card for Jinteki. I don’t understand Mark at all, just no. Constellation is interesting, but probably not worth a slot.
ICE - The constellation Ice is all really good. Wormhole is good (but far from great). And they are all amazing with Blue Sun (basically click for 3 credits). Builder is pretty insane, imo. Firewall and Searchlight are both decent. Checkpoint seems pretty bad to me.
Operation - Accounting is really abuses a lot of runners, and there aren’t too many currents that I am impressed with (Scorched, Protesters come to mind). Against the rest though, it’s not too bad since you get to choose the card that is trashed. Patch is neat, but not worth the space. Traffic Accident, I guess if you are running NBN Scorched or Weyland Midseasons, but probably no.
Upgrade - Satellite Grid is pretty good and might be spot worthy. Twins is pretty good too, though it’s obviously a lot better in a Foundry deck. Orion/Wormhole shine here as they can be punishing to encounter and expensive to pass. Keep in mind that rezzing Twins just to intimidate the runner against running is just as valid a strategy as actually using her ability.
Neutral Corporation - Subboost is okay, but probably not worth the slot. Dedicated Technician is interesting, and I’d consider it. Cyberdex is really solid, but who knows if the meta will demand it.
Overall, I think this is the best Deluxe thus far, and is a very-much needed expansion. Weyland probably could have used a little bit more, but that’s not a big deal. Anarchs got a LOT out of it, and I also think that (while probably not taking down Andy as top runner) will cause Corps to re-think things.
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