Short answer: Yes
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I really think that click-for-draw with Leela is the best bet, so baby-bucks. Unless you are playing a Faust-Leela, of which I think is more effective with Gabe, you need the money for the regular breakers. Sometimes, especially with glacier or ātake my agenda and Iāll murder youā decks, during the mid-game you have to sit there for a turn or two or three. The āI can get three credits a turn with Katie and click to keep up if I mustā really needs to not be undermined with ābut I have a nasty coke habit.ā I think Leela is good enough against fast decks with her ability and the general Criminal nonsense that most of the Leela build should be focused on countering glacier. /twocents
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I personally always found Makerās Eye better for the job in Leela. Doesnāt telegraph your intention so much (nasty surprise turn 1 sometimes, when her ability really hurts), and it suits her tempo a lot more - she wants to get in and strike heavily at the right time, rather than hammer R&D consistently (which crims struggle a bit to do). I always wanted to be running 3x, but the MWL and desperado made things a bit tricky. Crims need a better barrier solution 
Lets you feel happy about running 3x SOT too, depending on your deck. Crims still have some of the best events.
So, we need to think about this card:
High Stakes Job
Event: Run - Job ā¢ Cost: 6!! ā¢ Influence: 3
Make a run on a server with at least 1 piece of unrezzed ice. When the run ends, gain 12 if it was successful.
This is a card that has serious problems:
- Itās conditional on unrezzed ice existing.
- It costs 6!!.
But the returns are huge: +6 credits for a single click, and it stacks with Security Testing or Bank Job, and whatever other run effects you can think of (Desperado, Datasucker, John M).
Itās a very strong card if you can make it work, and itās not unthinkable to do so.
- You need money to play it.
- You need to be confident you can get through unrezzed ice.
I think most Criminal decks -should- be able to get up 6 credits. Playing it off the back of a Siphon, if nothing else, isnāt crazy, especially before clearing tags.
The second point is harder, because I donāt think standard rigs will have dollops of money lying around to break anything they encounter. I think to make this playable you probably need to be looking at Stealth rigs, or B&E rigs, where you can be very confident that unrezzed ice is only going to a B&E breaker or a Stealth credit.
The big exception might be Ken Tenma lists. Public Terminal was already borderline okay in those decks - it just needed one more solid economy run event. And here it is.
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This seems like a good post-siphon card. Click 1 siphon, click 2 high stakes, click 3+4 clear tags?
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I think tag floating might be more common. Siphon, Shutdown, Bank Job, High Stakes is going to be a thing.
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It fits really well into denial decks, too. Doesnāt matter what the ICE is if youāre pretty sure they canāt afford to rez it. I was hoping for a card that would fit into the Criminal running economy, and this is a really interesting option.
The only issue I see with it is that the card itās really good with (Sec Testing) is harder to play and justify these days. Of course itās awesome with Bank Job but Iāve mainly used Bank Job to surge up from low credits while hitting an unprotected remote, which this doesnāt work with. Not to say that the situation never arises where Iād wish I had this card along with Bank Job, but itās rarer.
Sec Testing is the real value added, since this functions like a super Dirty Laundry. Unfortunately, corps have been getting really good tools to combat sec testing (ie, cheap taxers) which makes that card harder to justify than it used to be. Add to that the fact that Desperado has an influence now and the rig of a running economy is definitely weaker than it used to be.
High Stakes would also function well in a good Leela deck, Iād think. Use this on your RnD run, bounce an ICE off of your target server and use the stakes money to help pay for your attack on the target.
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The +6 payoff makes this much more palatable that Dirty Laundry on its own into a server. That you get to access or Bank Job is a bonus. I donāt think you need Sec Testing to make it worthwhile, for the reasons you stated - Bank Job is more important that that is nowadays.
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This is true, but having to have 6 extra credits to play it is a big ask. Among other things, it makes Little Engine much much more annoying.
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Itās simple, what do we do to ensure we can break 1 ice servers? Run more AIās! If we can find a way for Panchatantra to lighten the load on inf for splashing breakers (gingerbread?), we can squeeze in an AI program to ensure this run goes off (knight or something). Iād say just use Gbread, but that can go south quick depending on the iceā¦
High stakes bank job seems insane.
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Ken will certainly like it at least, and a Run-econ Geist a la @linuxmaierās variants.
Iām just super excited to test this card. I really want to know how it works in practice.
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Yeah, me too. It is a card with big problems but a big pay off. I am hoping Crim decks exist (or soon will exist) where it will shine.
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Forcing the corp to ICE harder is kinda strong. The new run event is really cool for that. Combining it with Bank Job forces the corp to not ICE lightly on remotes, and also helps Security Testing. Maybe itās also good as a splash on Leela builds, just in a similar way as Drive By does, having 1x of those cards in your builds gives headaches to the corps on how to ICE / Play against it.
Need to test this on Ken, with Public Terminal, maybe itās time to play cutterly again ā¦
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Even in the average case, there are a number of times where I make a run first or second click, and the Corp rezzes ice, dropping their credit pool low enough that Iām confident they wonāt be able to rez problematic ice elsewhere. Enter High-Stakes Job. Before I would just hit R&D for a free access, or go trash an asset or something. Now I can do that and get paid. And since Iām running Faust Gabe, I feel pretty good about getting paid.
Feels like worth trying out as a 2-of. Just gotta figure out what to cut for it.
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Iām half tempted to try Retrieval Run with Femme on an unrezzed ice for this.
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It feels very strong with Faust. Gotta keep paying those Drug Dealers.
It also functions a little bit like Forged Activation Orders, in that you can use High-Stakes to force the corp to make a hard decision to deny you or open up another more valuable server. While the 6 cost is expensive, it also makes it balanced. Imagine if this was 3 or 4. Also, be thankful this is not a double.
So High Stakes Job screams Stealth to me. getting past 1 ice per turn at least no matter what it is fits easy for stealth Andy, for example.
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The issue is that you only get the money after your rig is set up. Often, itās more valuable beforehand.
Muertos suddenly looks more valuable. Even if they derez that Pop-Up Window, now you have a perfect High Stakes Job target.
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Iām not sure itās good, but it might be. Iād be very surprised if it belonged anywhere but stealth, as you need the certainty of success from a very low cred pool.