I mean that instead of reading
Before taking your first turn, you may swap this card with any copy of Jinteki Biotech.
[click], [click], [click]: Flip this identity.
it would read
[click], [click], [click]: You may swap this card with any copy of Jinteki Biotech, then flip it.
Personally I doubt it would be remotely close to OP, and would still be considered weaker than say RP or PE. Well, maybe not weaker per-se, but definitely not stronger.
I think this would make it a very strong ID (though perhaps --probably-- not overpowered). The ability to persistently threaten 2 net without giving up the FA side, or to threaten the net/FA against Noise decks would be…significant.
Technically, doesn’t the side get chosen after the mulligan? It does say “Before taking your first turn”…
It would be less interesting, more powerful, and still not good enough.
edit: I think it wouldn’t be good enough even if you could use EACH ability once per game
I pretty much agree - if we wanted tot talk about ways to buff it, it’d be better I think to keep the mechanic the same but make the abilities better. like, maybe have the net damage one give you back a click, and the re-shuffle allow you to keep one card, or I don’t know what. Simply giving the ID all the abilities would make it way less interesting.
I’m not sure I agree with “still not good enough,” especially with it coming in a cycle full of unknown cards - but I will agree that it’s hard to make a case for it over PE (which, incidentally, is the same problem Nisei Division has, only way worse…) Being “not as a good as your faction’s gold standard” isn’t the same as being a truly bad card… time will tell though, I suppose.
I don’t think Jinteki really has a gold standard. RP seems closest, although it’s not really useful for fast advance decks. PE isn’t good without lots of small agendas and a heavy flatline focus. Nisei Division improves some already excellent cards (Future Perfect and Caprice) and makes Snowflake great. Biotech will hopefully excel at certain mindgames (is this card Nisei MK II or Edge of World?)
Yeah, I think what I should have said is “shell game gold standard,” which must certainly be PE (RP is perhaps the gold standard of netrunner overall 
, but plays mostly counter to other Jinteki IDs like PE and Nisei)
Freed from the need to run small agendas and “finisher” cards like Neural EMP, (or specific gimmick cards like cerebral casts and psychic feild) I hope that biotech will bring something new to to the Shell game table - opening up deck space by threatening both a flatline and a genuine rush threat without even playing a card.
As I said above, though, I suspect that the PE style shell game deck will remain the standard for this playstyle. It is unbelievably dangerous to play against, and it will be hard for any new ID to mimc that.