The Kitara cycle continues, so join a sample of the Stimhack community as we throw out some opinions (only to search and install other opinions of equal value).

Acacia

Whiteblade111

This nicely slots into a potential Freedom Khumalo deck in the future, one that leverages cards like Virus Breeding Ground, Yusuf and Aumakua to get into servers. It is a big tempo swing for the Corp to lose their turn, and then potentially make north of 7 credits. Outside of a Virus synergy deck you won’t make enough money off this in one go for it to be worth it.

TheBigBoy

3/10. I like that this is cheap and low effort, but forcing the Corp to purge is very hard and then you gotta leverage the money after which maybe you can’t do well if you’re using the new breakers, which is how you got them to purge in the first place.

CrushU

Honestly, the self-trash on this limits most of its use cases. I’m pretty sure most decks would prefer to run Fester instead of this card, anyway. If people start making CVS a staple again, this could maybe see play after you already have 3x Fester.

Miek

The problem with Acacia is that you’re most likely going to want it in a deck with VBG, Yusuf, Musaazi, Freedom just like Whiteblade111 says. However, if you’re all in on a deck like that, your main economy is actually virus counters and you have trouble leveraging credits into accesses. Don’t get me wrong, every deck needs money, but it feels like there will be a lot of situations where the Corp much prefers to purge your main economy (virus counters) in exchange for your secondary (credits).

Saan

I’m with CrushU on this one. Fester just seems to be a better card to dissuade purging. If this is meant to be an economy card (since it gives you money), then it’s a kinda bad one, since it requires the Corp to decide to pay you. It seems like with the breakers and some of the other cards we’re seeing, they’re trying to push a super virus counter heavy archetype for Anarchs, and maybe if the counters get really overboard, purging will have to occur often enough that this might see play. Until the rest of the cards are known then I’m doubting it.

tvaduva

As Worlds has shown us there is a place for synergistic economy (i.e. T16 Geist with Calling in Favors). There is a tipping point where this is worth having in your deck. The ratio of this and Fester will need to be based on testing and strategy. But, having access to 10+ credits after a purge may mean the difference in contesting a remote with the winning agenda with only a Crypsis. Do note that CVS is optional for the Corp, but Macrophage is not.

Higgs

Alongside counter-accumulating viruses, this card can serve as a sort of in-faction Sacrificial Construct for Anarchs to deter the Corp from purging trash-on-purge viruses like Tapwrm and the upcoming eXer.

Plague

Whiteblade111

Another potential piece of the puzzle in a future Freedom Khumalo deck, but I think it falls short. Virus Breeding Ground slots better into this role as it is clickless, and does not take up MU. Furthermore if the Corp really wants you to stop getting tokens they can ice you out of that specific server. Finally it’s not a reliable way to generate virus tokens for your rig. If you draw it early you’re left with support pieces and no breakers, and if you draw your breakers first then you end up with a rig that can easily be purged out and locked out. It’s great in matchups with open remotes, but Freedom was probably dominating those decks anyway with easy successful runs, while Plague falters most in your worst matchups – glacier decks that are going to lock you out.

TheBigBoy

2/10. I think Virus Breeding Ground does this job better, and I can’t see you needing both unless a crapload of more stuff that uses this comes out.

tvaduva

Having to choose at install means that’s it’s not flexible like other similar cards, but it is stackable and you still access. This is good at building up momentum, but not at restarting. But, in some cases you could be getting same or more counters than spending (nice with making multiple R&D runs for free for the upcoming eXer).

blindidiotgod

11/10 sectest viruses erryday

CrushU

Something like this is what we need to see for the Yusuf-suite to be any good. The main problem we have, right now, is that the counters on this card don’t do anything on their own. If we get a card that allows us to move Virus counters as we please, this could be playable. As it is, nope.

Miek

Supposed to work with Musaazi, Yusuf, Freedom, Acacia. Can stack ’em. Still don’t think its very good but I can see a use case.

Saan

This is pretty clearly meant to power said virus deck, but as everyone else seems to have noted, Virus Breeding Grounds seems a hell of a lot easier to play.

Higgs

I think I’d only slot this over Virus Breeding Ground if I planned on being tagged, but I also don’t see how this fits into Counter-Surveillance decks.

Credit Kiting

TheBytemaster

Femme is the only thing I can think of that I really want to use this on. Could be alright if we get some expensive cards this cycle worth using in Criminal.

CrushU

If there exists a Citadel – Power Tap deck, this card is good. I’m not sure it’s very playable otherwise.

Miek

If Criminal feels the desire to go tag me in the future (they currently don’t) then this card might be playable. Currently awful, and the newly spoiled High Profile Target seems like a pretty strong kill-shot on anyone trying tag-me.

FightingWalloon

Here is the Leela Patel list played by the winning King of Servers team at Worlds 2017. How many cards does it install that would get value from playing Credit Kiting? I would argue one: A single copy of Maw. Since “tag-me” Criminal is not a good way to win Netrunner, this card costs 1 click, 2 credits, and 1 card more than just directly installing things. If you are more generous than I am, you might say using Credit Kiting to install a 4-cost card is getting value. If that is the case, then our Leela deck has a total of 10 cards that gain some value from this card. To my mind, that value is so marginal, though, as to not be worth the slots. Perhaps the Comrades who built that list would slot Credit Kiting in over Aeneas Informant, which thebigunit3000 says is the worst card in the deck. But I’m not sure they would say Credit Kiting gains them more value than Easy Mark would in the same slot.

Saan

If more expensive Criminal programs come out that you’d actually want to play, it’s probably an okay card, a little along the lines of Retrieval Running a Femme in terms of savings. If not, then the tag probably makes it too bothersome to include, especially since you need both it *and* the program you want to install in your hand at the same time, as well as a central that you can run on easily without said program.

blindidiotgod

10/10 not Siphon but cheap Femmes and Monoliths.

TheBigBoy

3/10. The math on this is actually pretty good best case but you need a lot of things to go right for it to work and your timing has to be perfect, so I think it’s not gonna happen.

Wari

Saan

This is fits into decks that are trying to shut down (or expose) a lot of ice. Right now the expose deck isn’t a thing, and the Shutdown deck doesn’t have enough economy to sustain itself and be competitive. Either way, this card doesn’t really have a home.

CrushU

This is almost certainly unplayable. The only good interaction I see is Maxwell James, but the timing on this trigger makes it not work on the turn you use James to de-rez the ice. This goes in the Rubicon Los deck, but even there I’m not sure it’s better than any other card you could put into that slot.

tvaduva

In certain metas it’s not hard to guess the type of ice, so I like that skill-testing design. But, what do you get for honing that skill? Most likely a more conditional False Echo. I guess we’ll have to ask Rotage if he can make the next generation Dyper with this.

blindidiotgod

The possibilities/jank are immense! 11/10

TheBigBoy

2/10. Conditions on top of conditions on top of conditions for a 1-shot effect that varies greatly in effect. Not worth the effort.

Kabonesa Wu: Netspace Thrillseeker

CrushU

The more I think on this ID, the more I think it could be extremely good. For starters, you can 100% guarantee turn 1 Magnum Opus, with a SMC search, take 2 credits, use SMC for Opus. Theoretically you can do it for only two card slots. My instinct tells me there’s a deck here, and that it may not conform to existing archetypes.

blindidiotgod

12/10 can’t be scarcitied.

TheBigBoy

4/10. Tutoring on demand is powerful, but it’s already Shaper’s greatest strength. I ALMOST like this but I like other Shaper IDs better. Wouldn’t shock me if this was good but I’d be mildly surprised.

Miek

My personal favourite combo with this card is Rosetta 2.0. 2 clicks to tutor any card you want. Unfortunately at 4 inf each that’s a hard pill to swallow. Brahman + Chameleon is probably more playable here, and using SMC you can guarantee a t1 Magnum Opus with this ID.

Saan

As others have said, turn 1 Opus is pretty neat. Right now, though, most Opus decks are too slow to be competitive. Who knows though; maybe a deck with just SMCs, Opus, tons of breakers, and all the recursion you can eat would be enough to make her playable. I’m finding her a little hard to evaluate, because her ability seems to have a potential to be powerful, but only if you can keep the programs somehow, or don’t care that you’re throwing them away. Maybe just playing the Anarch bin breaker suite would be good enough.

Takobi

Miek

Shaper Datasucker. Seems okay to me, although on the weak side of playable. Unfortunately the best reasons to play datasucker are gone, and Takobi wouldn’t synergise that well with most of them anyway.

CrushU

Underwhelming. This being unique limits its usages, which is probably a good thing for the game, but unfortunate for this card. It does quite effectively make Vanilla a liability for the Corp, so there’s that.

FightingWalloon

Here is the dream scenario as I see it. Corp puts a Vanilla on HQ and on R&D and is trying to score out of a taxing remote with beefy ice. Our Shaper landed a Mining Accident early and now runs through each Vanilla a couple times each round, piling counters on Takobi for no cost. The player then farms those counters during runs on the remote saving 2-3 credits be ice. Of course, if the remote has multiple code gates and the Shaper is on Gordian Blade, then the benefits of all that effort are reduced. The “value” from all this compared to other cards does not seem very good, especially as it requires giving up a precious memory unit, which are often pretty scarce in a Shaper rig.

TheBigboy

2/10. If breaker strength converted 1-to-1 to credits this would have potential, but in general icebreaker support cards are bad unless they are extremely low effort and cheap. This is neither.

blindidiotgod

A maths problem hidden in a program, heckin’ good 12/10

Saan

Shapers already have some of the more efficient breakers out there. Also, several Shaper decks can run into MU problems trying to juggle breakers with Tapwrm, Equivocation, potentially Clot or Misdirection… It seems like adding in an expensive Datasucker further muddies the waters.

Higgs

Maybe you want this if you’re using Chameleon.

Kongamato

tvaduva

At one influence, one-subroutine ice is on alert against cutlery.

Saan

My first thought was that this helps the Anarch bin breakers get over that last subroutine without having to pay another 3c just to break it, but then I remembered they had Ice Carver and Datasucker in house, and that this only works one time. I can’t think of a deck that actually cares about it. Combos great with Street Magic, though!

TheBigBoy

3/10. This card is cute and I like it, but it’s hard to put in your deck without knowing how useful it will be. I like it a ton for draft, which is all about getting upside from your cheap, situational cards. CUBE HYPE. Almost good for Geist, but I think his breakers do this well enough already to not spend influence on it.

CrushU

At one influence, this card becomes playable in Geist. Whether you actually want to play this in Geist is a separate question. Interestingly, I could see this in a Wu deck that facechecks ice relentlessly, then uses her ability to get in at surgical times.

Miek

Since Grappling Hook is not technically an “icebreaker”, you can use this for maximum style points in Geist. Breakerless accesses. Only 1 inf, so not even a terrible sell, acting as a pseudo inside job as needed.

Emergent Creativity

Miek

A solid hardware tutor. Nexus in Adam? Definitely helps gloss over some of his early game setup problems.

FightingWalloon

Here is a recent exchange from the #adamlounge channel on Slack. Bioroid A – “I like the new Adam card.” Bioroid B – “Oh, you mean RNG Key?” I’m not an Adam expert, but as far as I can tell, Adam players think this is the second best Adam card in the pack. Maybe that means it is still good enough to slot into Adam decks, but I’m pretty sure you will see a lot more copies of RNG Key from your local Adam players than this card.

Saan

Seems neat. It’s kind of a tutor plus economy card in one. I don’t know what an Adam deck looks like these days, but maybe this helps him? At 5 inf, it ain’t helping anyone else.

blindidiotgod

Look at this college degree in a card. So good. 13/10

TheBigBoy

Adam/10. This is an Adam card. It’s good for Adam, but Adam ain’t good guys sorry.

CrushU

I mean, it’s really good for Adam. At 5 influence, this isn’t leaving his deck.

RNG Key

Miek

Value even if you guess the number. Super value with Find The Truth and Equivocation. Not sure it is enough to justify single accesses on its own, but combo with some other central punishment or multi-access and you could have a good time.

blindidiotgod

Aw, they misprinted an Adam card into neutral, like Weyland and Prisec. Poor card, still tries its best – 14/10

tvaduva

Now this is a skill-testing card that has a payoff that’s exciting.

TheBigBoy

7/10. OOOO boy I like that number in the corner. I just want that 0 to give me a big hug. What are those other numbers? 2? 3? Wow those are way bigger than 0. This card asks very little of you and has the potential to pay out big time. Situational cards become good when they are low effort and cheap and this card is certainly that. Any deck attacking centrals will easily make this worth it. If you are abusing it with Find the Truth or the like, so much the better. This card is good. Time to study the meta and find the best # to name blind against each corp.

CrushU

This is for Adam, or Equivocation if you want to be cute about it. I mean it’s really good in those situations, and you can just play the Oracle May game and guess randomly if you want to.

Saan

So far, this seems to be the standout Runner card of the pack. Remember how Temujin was still good even if the server was iced? If you find a way to know what’s on top of R&D with a way to also get at whatever is under it, then this is a great refund for your trouble. HQ is less of a sure thing (unless there’s just 1 card), but even then you might just say “3” and get lucky.

SimonMoon

People will talk about how this combos with cards that look at the top of R&D, but these people are cowards. There’s a lot of value in putting this in something that wants to run HQ a lot (Gabe / Steve / Omar) as two things happen to let you hit without knowing. First, you learn what cards are in hand and can hit a 20% minimum pretty easily. Additionally, the composition of cards that stay in HQ tends to be different than the distribution inside the deck (things like Biotic, Exchange of Information). I looked over a bunch of decks and you should be able to hit 20% – 25% just naively guessing the most common type. Anyway, you can hit much better than 25% out of a Sneakdoor deck which gives this a lot of value. Don’t be afraid to just use this to give accesses a little bit of extra value.

Join us later for the Corp side reviews, and be sure to let us know of anything we missed or how your numbers are better than other numbers.