With the announcement at Gencon of rotation happening before a lot of people were expecting it (even before worlds), thought it seems like a good time to get a thread going of what to swap out older cards for when rotation hits as a quick reference tool for deckbuilding. Some cards are pretty obvious replacements (Shock! for Breached Dome, Commercialization for Mass Commercialization), but others are more nuanced (does mining accident fill the same role as vamp, who will be replacing jackson?). What do you guys think? Are there any obvious replacements you think the community has missed out on?
1 Like
If you could just swap out cards 1:1, rotation would be pretty pointless. 
There are cases were you can do this (Shock! and Breached Dome is the prime example), but I think in general you should not think this way.
7 Likes
I dont think you can swap out all cards 1:1 but you can say āthis new cards fills an extremely similar/the same role as this old cardā, which is a good way to think about rotation, especially with players less familiar with deckbuilding
The one hole Iām going to really feel that hasnāt been filled yet is Punitive Counterstrike rotating. I can totally understand waiting until next cycle to print it, since you probably donāt want both legal at the same time, but itās something I really have to put in any of my decks that are running 3+ point agendas.
2 Likes
Iāll just echo what others have said about not looking for 1:1 replacements. I think thatās the wrong approach and will basically lead to watered down versions of current decks. For instance, in reaching for a Jackson replacement you may end up putting in unsuitable cards that only do half the job (Whampoa, Preemptive Action, etc.) and just donāt offer enough value.
One interesting aspect of rotation is the potential for previously lower tier archetypes to shine in the new, smaller card pool. The first thing that comes to mind for me is non-DLR tag-me Anarch (Obelus, Mars for Martians, Counter Surveillance, God of War, etc.); thereās little reason to play it when DLR is a better win condition but after rotation there might be a good deck there, who knows until we try it.
I donāt think the Genesis/Spin cycles had too many strong hate cards so itās not like a whole lot of archetypes are opened up by those being removed, but the absence of Plascrete maybe gives a boost to meat damage decks while Jacksonās passing may help Noise.
1 Like
Assuming 1:1 replacement is not the most helpful, broadly speaking you have some cards gain additional value by losses to the cardpool:
- RD pressure: RDI, Indexing, Keyhole gone: Medium (gets even more value), DDM, and Equivocation.
- HQ pressure: HQI, Nerve Agent, Vamp (also in denial category) gone: Siphon (gets even more value), Legwork (even more), and Gauntlet (probably more out of faction, since it doesnāt work with Sneakdoor and Gang Signs)
- Asset spam control: Whizzard, Scrubber, Imp gone: Aeneas (gets even more value), Paricia, Hacktivist, Skulljack?
- Runner econ/draw: Kati, Liberated Accounts, Compromised Employee, Quality Time, Underworld Contact, Queenās Gambit, Power Nap, Lucky Find, PPVP, John Masanori gone: Bloo Moose (gets even more value), Temujin (even more), PIOT (?), ERH, Opus, some archetype specific cards like Keros, any more relevant ones?
8 Likes
One of the holes I was hoping was filled towards the end of this cycle but was not, was operation economy for Jinteki. With them losing Celebrity Gift and Restructure, they only have Hedge Fund and IPO as influence free options. I hope another comes early next cycle.
My fear is it will lead to even more asset spam as so many asset spam control options are also leaving.
5 Likes
Jinteki asset spam loses tās main win condition, so it wonāt be oppressive.
I actually miss the days, where decks were slotting Pads and MHCās for econ. That is just not viable at the moment. Those are more interesting and interactive options than most of the operation econ.
Also the loss of Jackson Howard will be a huge hit for asset spam, especially if the rumours about MWL3āing FihP are true.
You also have medical research fundraiser, but thatās dependent on being the kind of deck that doesnāt care about their money (PE or PU)
2 Likes
In a deck where you are protecting an Obokata with Prisecs, Ben, and as many Kakugoās / Data Loops as you can muster, giving the runner a few credits is literally nothing. Who gives a shit if they have money if they need 10+ cards in hand to steal your Obokata safely?
1 Like
Jackson has been ground up and distributed to each faction in unique ways.
Teki has heritage/hasty + shuffle effects (mutate for isntance), as well as draw filtering effects to mitigate bad draw.
Weyland has audacity, liquidation, and other trash cards effects mixed with preemptive (sure preemptive works with anyone, but weyland can stuff cards instead of having to survive a turn to simply discarding).
NBN, the faction whose apparant skill set, among many things, includes agenda manipulation, has varied effects like special report, claire, corp shuffle (this rotates?), Disposable HQ, DBS, Sensie, etc. Easy to handle here.
HB has few options, but could easily import these from other factions, since they have most things they need in house. Also HB is usually just scoring agendas rather than filtering them.
The loss of howard is much more overstated now than it was when realized he was leaving. In fact, its really his draw ability that weāll miss, not just the holding in archives to keep RnD strong.
3 Likes
On the subject of replacements & Jinteki, I think everyoneās severely underestimating how good Miraju is. It does some of the work that Jackson did but in an ICE card slot, which is great. Itās not impressive right now but as Iāve fiddled with post-rotation decks itās an easy 2 or 3 of in all my Jinteki decks.
Agree about the worrisome lack of econ though. You have a great econ ID in P Foods. Iāve been using Marilyn Campaign to supplement operation econ in a lot of decks; low influence, can sit in a scoring server for a few turns, its ability helps with R&D density just a tiny bit.
4 Likes
NASX is also a good choice, especially in Palana. It works well if you only play a few asset econ cards and rely on operation econ.
1 Like
Iāve been playing around with Whampoa Reclamation in a couple of decks and Iāve found it to be almost better than Jackson Howard at dealing with agenda flood. As long as they arenāt playing Showing Off, bottoming agendas is almost always better than shuffling them in.
Obviously it isnāt going to work in every deck, because you need either a secure remote or some other means of protection (Gagarin/CtM/IG abilities, Hostile Infrastructure, etc.), but Iāll probably be working it into most of my post-rotation decks until we get something else like it.
I really like cards like Preemptive Action and Special Report too, but Whampoa working at paid ability speed and once per each players turn is just huge.
2 Likes
As you say later you get one on your turn and one on the runnerās turn. Both, before the runner can run it. So worst case youāre taking care of 2 agendas and costing the runner a click and 3 credits. I think itās the best post-Howard way to deal with agenda flood in any deck. The 3 credit rez cost and 2 influence make other cards worth considering in specific factions/archetypes.
What are people using as replacement for Midseasons to tag the runner for a Boom! in Weyland? Midseasons was amazing in how few card slots needed to be dedicated to a very potent kill threat in an otherwise scoring focused deck.
Obviously I know about Hard Hitting News, but itās just so much easier to play around for the runner.
Well, Iām sure they use Midseasonsā¦ replacements!
Serious answer, HHN + Zealous could work, but iāts a lot worse.
9 Likes
If you plan to protect a Zealous Judge, MCA Informant into rez Judge start of their turn works without spending HHN money and can clear a pesky Connection off the board at the same timeā¦
3 Likes
Correct, but the cool thing about HHN + Judge is that the runner has just 4 clicks so It will be tagged 100% in his turn no matter what he does. I think that is worth to consider.
3 Likes
As often as tags are relevant in the meta, runners will slot anti-tag tech cards. Thus I would assume HHN + Judge to be a ā100% taggedā situation the same as Traffic Accident + Scorch is a ā100% killā.
It works, until a very common tech card comes into the mix.
1 Like