I love so many cards that it’s hard to choose just one.
Snare! is a brilliant card for all those reasons above… And the Art is just fantastic on it. I love Ice Wall/Fire Wall for their flavor text and blatant ‘BUILD IT BIGGER’ mentality that Weyland has. I like the boundless enthusiasm for a brighter future on display in Space Camp, paired with the grim reality displayed in Punitive Counterstrike/Witness Tampering.
I love Aesop’s Pawnshop on the Runner side. ‘… Eh, I’ll buy it for 3 bucks.’ No matter whether it’s a Monolith or a weird little Harbinger. 3 bucks. The array of random stuff available is great in the art, and you really get a sense that Aesop just doesn’t care anymore, everything costs the same. I love the idea behind Faust, using your ‘soul’ to power some arcane program, are we sure this is a bargain we want to make? I like Iain Sterling a lot, because come on, who doesn’t want to retire and become him? Old dude that can still kick butt if you drag him out of retirement. Without spilling his drink, too. I like the idea of Self-Modifying Code, more than anything else it sells me on a Future level of tech that we simply can’t reproduce right now, and that once we can, we’ll become closer to Netrunner.
Account Siphon. There just isn’t any better feeling than landing one against pretty much anyone. I get to get all up in your face AND I get rich too? So solid.
Fast Track. I love how this card forces the Runner to consider getting into HQ, and how you can make super aggressive plays with it.
Parasite
Why break ice when you can trash it? My favorite card from the core due to how much it warps the game. Still the best way to blow up corp defenses.
Easily Mushin No Shin. Might not get to run it very often, but it’s so very Netrunnery. Just being able to plop something down probably undefended and say, “hey, come at me bro,” is so great.
I’m a fan of Escher. Mostly because switching a Crick on Archives for a Susanoo is an amazing feeling. The art’s good too. So green. Love the green.
I’m surprised nobody has said Jackson Howard. It’s not like he’s just a great card mechanically. He’s so photogenic! I cannot help but imagine his mug shots (assuming he was arrested) would be worth framing, just for his radiant smile.
i really love Net Celebrity / Notoriety / Daily Casts
i just love the idea of a runner having their own personal vlog, which is much more than simply having a live stream where they do whatever and get paid by the viewers. they get paid for doing stuff that’s often highly illegal and its morality is arguable. some people agree with what the runner is doing, exposing the corp for what they really are underneath, while others disagree. there are the obvious people who disagree, citing the legality, and there are others who don’t want their blinders taken away. they want to continue to be force-fed infotainment by NBN, have android helpers from HB or Jinteki augment their lives, and store all of their money, feel secure, keep the power on, etc., etc., etc. from Weyland.
it basically touches the tip of the iceberg of what cyberpunk and netrunning are all about imo. that moral grey area of corporation and runner, where no side is truly good or bad.
Parasite and Imp are certainly two of my favorites, and have been mentioned.
In this current moment, Inject stands out as my favorite card. I consider it one of the highest utility cards in the game, and the exhilaration of revealing those 4 cards has yet to wear off. Trash 3 programs? Big deal; I made 3 bucks and found the Resource I wanted anyway. For me it epitomizes the Anarch faction: reckless, resourceful, and efficient.
Design-wise Data Raven is, and always has been a favourite of mine. To me it demonstrates the principal that you can’t balance things simply by fiddling with the numbers. Imagine DR without the “when encountered” ability. It’d either be OP (oops you ran without a str4 Killer, now I can insta-tag at any point during the game) or completely unplayable with a cost too high and a trace strength too low. (Contrast this with the upcoming Brainstorm).
Flavour-wise soooo many to choose from. But Reuse stands out to me as a card with just the right amount of darkness to its tone.
Art-wise is even harder to choose, but I’ve always wanted a playmat of SanSan City Grid.
Play-wise I like simple abilities with many different potential plays, like Interns. So flexible you could write a small essay on the myriad of uses.
Nasir Meidan. Partly because he justifies 3*Stimhack and my love of running recklessly, but I love how much bullshit he can pull off. His ability can justify big, meaty cards that are otherwise useless, as well as tricks that leave even experienced players just shaking their head in disbelief. He rewards skill, familiarity and lateral thinking, all while flying by the seat of your pants.
I love this card, but hate the art.
Are they upside down? No, the person ‘taking the picture’ is perpendicular to the ground, because of the skyscrapers… But then, how is he getting this shot? Why is it tilted so oddly? It would’ve been fine if you could see them just going straight up the side of a skyscraper, why was the frame of reference tilted? Argh~
I love when my Pop-Up dies to Parasite. It is a good value for me. You’re two clicks down (Run + Install) three cred (1 for Pop-Up, 2 for Parasite) while I am a click down (Install) and a cred up (Pop-Up). That’s great.
