Hey guys. Sovereign Sight has now been completely revealed, so here’s a rundown of some thoughts on the new cards. I’ve also theorycrafted some decks from the cards that I found the most exciting! Click the images below for a closer look at the cards.

By Any Means: I like this. Multiple instances of Demolition Run with a meat damage drawback, which can be played around with Jarogniew Mercs and IHW. Combines especially nicely with Turning Wheel and Clan Vengeance – hit R&D with a big Turning Wheel run then nuke the hand with Vengeance. Also works well for clearing out multiple assets – maybe not against IG though if their Archives is nasty.

Yusuf: Low install cost is good, high memory cost is potentially backbreaking for a card that relies on other viruses. It does have a nice high base strength though and breaking for free has shown to be strong before. Along with the spoiled Friday Chip and the design space opened up by Noise rotating, Yusuf suggests that there might be some pretty interesting viruses coming out this cycle. I’ll reserve judgement on this guy until we see more.

Zamba: This is clearly meant to be the recently spoiled 419’s console. I think there’s potentially a really nice 419 denial build but I’ll post a build for that when he’s released. Currently this is pretty unspectacular.

Puffer: Stick this on Dhegdeer and four clicks later you can break basically every sentry in the game very cheaply. Without that, currently the most common sentries are Architect (4 to break), Data Raven (5) and probably Ichi 1.0 (8). I don’t think this will be that strong as there have been many attempts at breakers that require hosting or memory manipulation to be efficient, and none have been successful. This is nice with Datasucker too though…

Lewi Guilherme: nope, bye.

Cyberdelia: Really strong. This is basically a more balanced Shaper Desperado, because you can’t do the classic “run into unprotected archives for free money and suckers” play. Not being unique makes this very efficient. Will definitely see play.

Upya: for one thing, fun to say if you’re Australian. For another, this could be pretty good and works exceptionally well with Cyberdelia. Maybe it’s Shaper’s turn to get tools that enable running a lot? Here’s a quick build around that idea:

tons o’ runs (41 cards)

Ele “Smoke” Scovak: Cynosure of the Net

Event (16)

3 Diesel

3 Dirty Laundry

3 Peace in Our Time (•••)

3 Sure Gamble

3 The Maker’s Eye

Hardware (5)

3 Cyberdelia

2 Maw (••••)

Resource (8)

3 Net Mercur

2 Patron

3 Sacrificial Construct

Icebreaker (3)

1 Dagger

1 Paperclip (•••)

1 Refractor

Program (11)

1 Cloak

1 Datasucker (•)

1 Upya

1 Misdirection

3 Self-modifying Code

1 Tapwrm (••)

The gameplan: run a lot. Patron helps us draw, Datasucker and Maw help us get value from single accesses, and the Tapwrm package either makes us money or slows them down. Plus, we get the standard Smoke Net Mercur value from running.

Assimilator: This is an Apex card, and consequently probably sucks. Actually I just don’t know how to evaluate it. Maybe it’s good? I dunno.

Asa Group: HOMYGOD. I guess HB’s color pie includes Shaper IDs? I love this and it looks really powerful. This could very well be the new go-to HB ID alongside CI. You can leverage this to gain a free click a good percentage of your turns and can make some very aggressive turn 1 plays. It synergises well with both a glacier and rush/FA style and works amazingly well with Calibration Testing from this pack. Here’s a sample FA/Rush build I put together:

Asa FA (49 cards)

Asa Group: Security Through Vigilance

Agenda (9)

1 Corporate Sales Team

3 Efficiency Committee

2 Elective Upgrade

3 Project Vitruvius

Asset (9)

3 Adonis Campaign

3 Marilyn Campaign

3 MCA Austerity Policy

Upgrade (6)

3 Breaker Bay Grid

3 Calibration Testing (•••••••••)

Operation (11)

3 Hedge Fund

3 Lateral Growth

2 Shipment from Tennin (••••••)

3 Ultraviolet Clearance

Barrier (5)

2 Najja 1.0

3 Vanilla

Code Gate (5)

1 Enigma

1 Fairchild 2.0

3 Fairchild 3.0

Sentry (4)

2 Architect

2 Ichi 1.0

The gameplan: always be installing. Lateral Growth, Calibration Testing and Breaker Bay Grid have insane synergy with our ID. We can put something into a taxing remote every turn and can make a lot of money from campaigns. Ultraviolet might or might not work, but in theory we’re installing a lot of cards and UVC lets us reload and install two cards at the same time. We also get to use the MCAAP, Shipment from Tennin and Elective Upgrades combos to score out. Another option would be cutting some FA tools to use Ash.

Ikawah Project: We all know that self-protecting agendas are very powerful and this just needs the right deck. This synergises with decks that drain clicks and money, which HB coincidentally does very well. Strongbox + Ash dream server anyone? Immediately this jumps out as working in glacier or asset spam.

Najja 1.0: I like this a lot but very possibly could be overrating it. Paying 2 for an ICE that Paperclip needs 2 to break is a great result and if anyone clicks through it that’s a major win for the Corp. It’s also amazing for Architects of Tomorrow, for what that’s worth.

Gene Splicer: I don’t know if the numbers are amazing but a trap with a benefit if the runner ignores it is a very, very strong concept. The best never-advance decks aren’t the ones where you jam cards in the remote going “but what if it’s a Snare???????? MIND GAMEZ”. They’re the decks where the cards that go into the remote benefit the Corp whether the Runner goes in or not. Think about CTM – you put an MVT behind Data Raven and either the Runner hits it and pays a ton of money or they have to go and hit it later (and pay a ton of money). Apart from that, this could be a nice way to get out the last point in a fast advance style deck like Tennin, or a game where you’ve scored 3 Niseis or Corporate Sales Teams.

Mgangagaga: A better(ish) Data Mine that fits well into PU Grinder style decks.

Genotyping: again, works well with Jinteki grinders. Maybe not as well as Whampoa though.

Self-Growth Program: Currently, when a Runner is tagged you can trash all their resources, delete all their money and now effectively trash programs or consoles. Doing all three in one turn (All Seeing I, Closed Accounts, Self-Growth Program) would be an insane power play that would basically win you the game on the spot. It also deals with Tapwrm very efficiently. This is also a fairly effective way to get around damage prevention effects to secure a BOOM! kill. Deck slots are a thing but this card has strong potential.

Calibration Testing: It’s a reprinted SanSan! That’s thankfully much less efficient! This is absolutely bonkers with Asa Group and can also slot very nicely into never-advance style NBN builds. I’m a big fan of FA so will definitely be experimenting with this.

Echo Chamber: Agenda points available for one side and not the other are worth looking at. High rez cost and low trash cost means this probably isn’t amazing, but might fit into a super spammy build. There’s also the option to combine it with forfeit effects like Corporate Town or Archer.

Urban Renewal: An interesting take on dealing damage. This creates a pretty compelling threat that the Runner really needs to deal with.

Wake Up Call: This is super strong, especially combined with Urban Renewal. Hardware is not currently a big deal in the meta but resources definitely are. This looks very compelling in Gagarin.

gr8 b8 m8 (54 cards)

Gagarin Deep Space: Expanding the Horizon

Agenda (8)

1 Hades Fragment

1 High-Risk Investment

3 Hollywood Renovation

3 New Construction

Asset (28)

3 Commercial Bankers Group

1 Daily Business Show (•)

2 Hostile Infrastructure (••••)

2 Illegal Arms Factory

2 Mumbad Construction Co.

2 Museum of History

1 NASX

3 PAD Campaign

1 Sandburg

3 Tech Startup

3 Urban Renewal

3 Turtlebacks (•••)

1 Whampoa Reclamation (••)

1 Zealous Judge

Operation (8)

1 Best Defense

1 BOOM!

1 Closed Accounts (•)

2 Consulting Visit

2 Hard-Hitting News (••••)

1 Wake Up Call

Barrier (4)

3 Hive

1 Tithonium

Code Gate (3)

3 Mausolus

Sentry (3)

3 Tour Guide

The gameplan: install assets, force the Runner to make runs with Urban Renewal, then punish with Hard-Hitting News or Wake Up Call. This isn’t an archetype I’m really familiar with so this deck is just a copy of someone else’s with some cards shuffled around.

Reconstruction Contract: At first glance, this almost gave me something I thought I’d never have – a good reason to play Builder of Nations. However…since you’re Weyland, you’re getting remote locked. This is an asset that really needs to be protected to achieve anything with it, which means it needs to go in your scoring server, which means the only time it’s getting any counters on it is on the turn where it gets trashed! It’s generally going to be trash on sight, so you’re going to need the agenda on the table the same turn this gets rezzed (and also hit the Runner with multiple sources of meat damage the same turn). So maybe…Argus? Maybe? I guess you could advance ICE, but that’s pretty bad.

Overall this pack is very exciting. Pretty much everything is interesting design and nothing jumps out as ridiculously powerful immediately. I’m going to try and put out a theorycrafting article for every pack as they come out. Hopefully Kitara can keep this quality up!