i’ve seen this prediction, but i think people are forgetting that Fan Site’s rotation isn’t too far off
if The Shadow Net/Artist Colony are the best cards to get rid of these -1 pointers but don’t have much value on its own (ie: without Fan Site giving you 0 point agendas to pitch), i think that could be a decent counterplay where both sides end up having value instead of the current situation where no one has any value of -1 agenda cards
i realise there are other factors as well, like more agenda suites requiring the runner getting to 8 or 9 points to win, but there’s also some counterplay there too, where the -1 agenda point cards serve as a way to counter the 1 agenda runner cards like Mad Dash and Notoriety that are used to close out the 6 point game
It’s still another cycle and a half until the next rotation, which with FFG manufacturing delays could take a year. Remember back in 2016 when every new card that came out everyone would cry out OMG THIS WILL BE SO OVERPOWERED WHEN JACKSON ROTATES OUT? ;p
The game could change significantly in any number of ways since then. There might be more negative points, like you said, there might be more fake agendas like Fan Site or Notoriety, there might be more 1-pointers in the corps’ decks, and hell, they might rotate out C&C and leave Shadow Net as our only event recursion. If I NEED an Inside Job to stop you from scoring the winning agenda, sure I’m sacrificing a 3-pointer to do it, if I have no other choice. The runner doesn’t really need to win, they just need to stop the corp from winning (except in a tournament when time is a consideration, but still, better a timed win than a loss).
R&R is likely half a cycle away too, so we’re talking one full cycle maybe where fan site and hangeki will be in the card pool, then hangeki will never rotate. that’s really just my whole point there. unless people think the game isn’t going to last that long, Hangeki, et al. will be in the card pool with The Shadow Net but without Fan Site for a much longer time
Surely FFG has a plan for dealing with NEH7 and CI7 that will ensue thanks to Arella enabling the TeamCali 7 point combo decks. There’s no way that was an oversight. We’re going to need a new Clot replacement too with it rotating soon. Either Combo decks will be the norm after rotation or FFG has some kind of surprise FA hate (at least as strong as clot) coming out in the next cycle/R&R.
If you have Arella, some Team Sponsorships and some Calibration Testings, you can snowball scoring an agenda into scoring more on the same turn, possibly going all the way to 7 points (Arella installs your next agenda and gives it first advancement, Team Sponsorships recur Calibration Testings for furthr advancements).
Clot and TS are in the same cycle,they are rotated together.
Personally,I think this card is powerful but not that insane.Such combo requires a lot of combo pieces and econ,7 pt agendas in hand,super powerful card draw.CI7 is strong because it’s consistent,core engine is simply PS+JH,doesn’t actually required that much money to do;CI kill more or less the same,even much more insane;NEH also goes really fast and they actually only need Astro+SSCG as core engine.None of these tools are presented anymore.
And if as a runner you let this type of corp play TS,BBG in advance without checking so they can go off combo much easier and comfortable,I’d think it’s more or less your fault.
To score out 7 points in 1 turn they’d need a minimum of 2 Calis + Salvatore in the remote, plus 2 Team Sponsorships in other remotes, plus money to rez the Calis 3 times each. You only need to trash ONE of all those things to break the combo. If you can’t afford to get into that remote to trash a single 2 cost Cali, they don’t really need to combo out in 1 turn tbh, they’ve already won.
Also, I THINK (not certain about this) that Rumor Mill would work vs Arelle, because the corp “on score” triggers would go first, at which point RM wouldn’t have been trashed yet and Arelle would be blank, so there’s that. Not to mention Councilman (the mini-Mill).
You are correct that Rumor Mill works, but for the wrong reason. All triggers check for condition at the same time, meaning that at the time of the agenda being scored, Arella is blank and would not resolve, regardless of whose turn it is.
Ah, I hadn’t realized TS is in the same cycle. That makes a big difference then. I guess the big question is does R&R come out after Kitara, or immediately before rotation?
As far as complexity, I don’t think it’s actually that bad. Successful Field Test allows you to set up incredibly fast if you have the money. Granted Siphon 2.0 will be a thing, but It’s not unfeasible that this deck uses the mythic suite which slows down the Siphons.
You just need Arella + SFT and once you score SFT you can drop everything out of hand/recur it with TS if some got binned.
Combo in CI would look like
C1) Biotic
C2) SFMM (Jeeves, Arella, SFT) (Optionally biotic 2 in place of jevees and SFMM C3)
C3-5) Adv SFT
Jeeve’s Click) Adv SFT install (Cali, Cali, TS, TS)
If you have 3 Vitruvious in hand you win at this point
Ideally you have a BBG in hand as well to reduce Cali costs
If one Cali/TS is in the bin and the other in hand you can still score out with 4/2’s so long as you have a single 3/2. If you have only 4/2’s you need all the Calis and TS. With another Biotic you can score a 5/3 with all the Cali’s on the board or 2 Cali’s + Audacity. There’s plenty of variation but the above layout is the core.
I’d agree wholeheartedly that it’s not nearly as reliable as the old CI7 combos, but even still it’s a 7 point combo that’s not crazy hard to assemble and requires a fairly trivial amount of cards/credits for CI. It also doesn’t have complicated/obscure lines of play like the old CI7 combo did.
It’s definitely not as powerful as the old CI builds, but it’s also just strong enough IMO to be an annoying meta threat similar that can crop up and sweep unsuspecting metas like old CI7 did.
Most of the “complicated/obscure” bits of the CI7 combo were ways to play around hate, like Clot or Noise or Councilman or Pol Op.
The reason this version seems simpler is that it just doesn’t have any of those answers yet. Admittedly SFT makes it easy to just throw in CVSes, but we’re increasing the number of specific cards needed in hand.
It’s naturally resilient to Leela though, since you only have one agenda at a time on the board and can just rez everything else.
Yes, if you add another card to the combo it gets cheaper. 13-card combo, requiring all 3 Vitruvious, 2/3 Calibration and Team Sponsorship… But yeah, it’d work.
I feel the actual problem is that most of this is trashable, and easily. Part of the resilience of the CI combo was that most of the pieces weren’t trashable, or at least the ones you needed (PS/AD/Biotic)
Still, I hate CI7 in all its forms, so I’m okay with this being extremely jank.
Surely FFG has a plan for dealing with NEH7 and CI7 that will ensue thanks to Arella enabling the TeamCali 7 point combo decks. There’s no way that was an oversight. We’re going to need a new Clot replacement too with it rotating soon. Either Combo decks will be the norm after rotation or FFG has some kind of surprise FA hate (at least as strong as clot) coming out in the next cycle/R&R.