The ID’s I’m seeing people say on here are the two ID’s I play the most often (Andy and MaxX). I’m not putting Rebirth in either of them for different reasons. First, I have enough problems with influence in Andy to fit this card in, and I don’t think any of the other Criminal ID’s are good enough to rely on this to become. Sure, Leela is great, but if you really want that ability, just play Leela. Sure, your start will be slightly slower, but you’ll make sure you have that ability no matter what. I’ve had plenty of games as Andy where I’ve had to still dig to find one of my three Desperado’s even after a mulligan, let alone trying to find a singleton card. If that happens, the longer the game goes before you find your copy of Rebirth the less relevant it becomes.
As for MaxX, she’s one of the Anarch runners that I don’t think plays well with the others as far as deck construction and playing goes. Plus, she already has one of the most absurdly powerful abilities in the game. Rebirth can be great when it all works out, but building a deck to play MaxX just to set up and find that early is going to be worse almost every time than just playing MaxX.
I think the concept of the card is exciting, but in the end will just be a Valencia card.
I don’t think that’s the way to look at it at all. it’s not about playing a Leela deck that starts out as Andy to get set up; it’s about playing an Andy deck that sometimes has the option to switch to switch ID’s as the situation demands. “just play Leela” doesn’t account for the situations in which it would be more advantageous to switch to Gabe, Iain, or Silhouette(or even, I suppose, to Nero, Geist, or Fisk in certain edge cases), because the corp is vulnerable to one of those IDs at that moment.
All that said, will every andy deck want it? probably not. Is it a solid include in almost any andy deck? Personally I’m edging towards yes, especially with the recent influence relief that turning wheel may be able to provide.
I just know that I’m struggling every time I build an Andy deck to squeeze in the cards I want for influence. I truly feel (and this isn’t anything shocking to say) that Criminal is the faction with both the tightest influence and deck spots. You have to import multi-access, breakers, maybe draw, and if you are considering running another console over Desperado especially in the current world I think you’re crazy. Then for deck spots you want all the great cards that you’re playing Criminal for in the first place, then stack on the fundamentals that you’re splashing or need in your deck. Criminal decks are easily the ones I have the hardest time getting to 45 with.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to put it in an Andy deck. It’s fine, and could occasionally be very good if you get it in your opening hand instead of in the other 36 cards in the deck. I wouldn’t fault anyone for throwing it in the deck, I just know that I’m never going to be able to find room in my Andy decks.
I tend to agree. Prior to Desperado on the MWL, I often had 1 free influence in Andy. Just worked out that way, with R+D interface, corroder, cloak/refracter all being 2 influence. This would have been great back then. Now its so much harder to slot in, I’ve only got the spot now because I’ve replaced an interface with a turning wheel.
It feels like a bit of a luxury. The ability to turn Andy and Val’s nothing into something is pretty great on its own, but combined with the influence and restriction, is it really worth it for a card that is often going to say “once a turn gain 2 credits on future successful runs on HQ?” I still like it because 20% of the time you can be leela with a 9 card hand to start the game, and it gives you a window to switch to Silhouette and maybe get an idea of what remotes are worth running. But its the first influence I’m going to cut when I need a tech slot.
I sat down with my card binder today, thinking about possible Rebirth choices, and came up with some more. Now, obviously there are 5 runners to choose from as your main/base runner: Valencia (Anarchs), Andromeda (Criminals), Kate (for setup)/Chaos Theory (to get Rebirth faster)/Professor (for when you really hate the MWL and are willing to butcher your deck) (Shapers).
For Anarchs, the most common Rebirth targets will be Whizzard (asset-heavy decks) and Kim (operation economy decks and kill decks/combo decks). However, there are 2 more choices that can be good (as of now, at least): Reina Roja vs Blue Sun and Quetzal (it can be good if Blue Sun keeps pushing out OAI Curtain Walls, but otherwise I think Reina is a better choice).
Criminals: Iain versus any rush deck.deck that’s already ahead Gabe vs Fastrobiotics, Silhouette can be good vs PE, Leela if there is no other better choice (Ken and Geist are too build-around, and Fisk and Nero just are not good enough.)
Shapers: If you seem like you need to set up fast, you might choose Hayley (though I doubt it) or Kate if you’re a bit poor. The most obvious choices, however, will be Kit (if you have a good Code Gate breaker, might as well play Torch) and Jesminder vs tagstorm decks/kill decks (it’s great vs Data ravens, Argus, any tracer that tags, and it’s and ID that helps a lot against SYNC).
I’d pick Leela vs Fastrobiotics. It means they have to double ice HQ before they score any agendas or they will get siphoned. Leela’s popularity has always been mostly about the strong matchup vs Fastro.
Gabe is better against IG because Leela’s ability hardly ever triggers.