Welcome to the Sneakdoor Reign and Reverie Awards! It’s a totally serious look back at the box set that was, where we give out awards for “best” card in as many completely arbitrary categories as we feel like.

The “Standard Procedure” award for cards I thought would become a staple, and then kind of didn’t: Arella Salvatore! I went through a brief period of thinking it was the best card in the set and that it would end up absolutely everywhere. For some reason, she just kind of didn’t. Except for the dumb Sportsmetal combos, which luckily aren’t actually good?

The “PPVP Lucky Find” award for “wait, you just got how much money??”: Hot Pursuit! In Liza and occasionally Jesminder if you’re really cool. 7 credits and a HQ access is insane.

The Scorched Earth Traffic Accident Bryan Stinson Boom! Surveyor award for Weyland card that’s better out of faction: Drudge Work! Although to be fair, that’s only because PU loved it, and it wasn’t even super popular. It only took until literally the last set to avoid this for once!

Best Dressed Runner (best runner art): Oh god this one’s hard. FFG pulled out all the stops this pack, by which I mean they probably used a bunch of art they were holding onto for future cycles. I’m going with Office Supplies! Look how unbelievably fucking stoked Miriam is about those donuts. Really makes you think about life in the cyberpunk future. Runner up is Hot Pursuit, because penguins.

Award for Corporate Interior Decorating (best corp art): FAST BREAK. Look how much SPORTS is happening in that picture. That bioroid is going to send that basketball to the fucking moon and there’s nothing you can do about it. Honorable mention to GAME CHANGER for snail hat guy.

Best mini-cycle award: By this I mean a subset of cards with the same mechanic or theme, like the conspiracy breakers. This one goes to the entire SPORTSMETAL suite. In practice it’s only kind of good, outside the aforementioned dumb combo deck. But the general theme of falling behind and then pulling off a crazy and audacious play to win by an inch is straight out of every sports movie playbook and it’s pretty amazing how well it’s been translated into a game mechanic.

The “Remember Katman?” award for trying to make Shapers run instead of durdling: Kyuban! It’s a 0 cost money engine that sometimes forces an ice trash, what’s not to like? Most of the Shaper cards are pretty good for this – Mind’s Eye, Kyuban and Akiko all encourage running a lot. With Clone Chip coming off the restricted list and two great temporary money programs in this set (Kyuban and Bankroll) maybe we’ll see run based Shaper get some more popularity.

Best flavor text: “The world changed. Concession prices did not.” I don’t even know why that’s so fantastic, but it is.

The “Marcus Batty” award for the sky definitely falling, but not really: SPORTSMETAL MEGA COMBO, obviously. They just can’t get enough of winning, these guys/bioroids/possible snail-parasite hosts. Divide and Conquer gets an honorary mention before it was clarified that it’s not totally busted with Turning Wheel. Weirdly, it didn’t see much play before then, but that was most likely because Clan Vengeance was clearing the hand out anyway.

The “Zer0” award for turning a downside into an upside, but OOPS: Patchwork! This thing really does save you a lot of money over a game, and if you’re pitching conspiracy breakers (or maybe stuff you can Clone Chip back) then the downside barely matters. Luckily, since it’s a console it’s not going to be absolutely everywhere. YET.

Best new animal (non-dog category): Ika! It’s a shame we can’t have Team Cybersquid.

The “Daily Business Show” award for being amazing, but not getting all up in your face about it: Thimblerig! God I love Thimblerig. It’s not like Archer, where it goes off and it’s a BIG DEAL. Thimblerig just hangs out, being a cheap gearcheck, and letting you do a bunch of cool lil plays. Mess with Black Orchestra. Use it to score your first agenda, then swap it off onto centrals. Keep your big ice on centrals and Thimbles on your remote when you’re not scoring, then swap ’em back when it’s go time. Thimble doesn’t demand your attention like some of its big spidery brethren, but I’m giving it some anyway. What a great little ice.

The “Mind Game” award for sweet mind games, you guys: Every non-Thimblerig Jinteki card. Especially Saraswati, which feels like you’re supposed to mug like a Scooby Doo villain every time you install anything. Eh? Eh? BUT WHAT IF IT’S AN AGENDA oh you won on centrals.

Best Corp Card: Honestly, Thimblerig. It’s so awesome. And only one influence!

Best Runner Card: Patchwork. We haven’t seen the full potential of that console yet.

Reign and Reverie’s a really fun set. With the new MWL and its notable emphasis on removing NPE bullshit, it looks like the last official meta is going to be a good place to be. Every faction got interesting new toys, nothing is inherently stupidly broken and the art direction is, as always, off the charts. If official Netrunner had to end, this is a hell of a way to do it.

I’ve really enjoyed writing these awards, and all the other content, over the course of the last 4 years or so. Thanks so much for reading them! I wouldn’t have kept putting them out if people didn’t seem to enjoy it, so I appreciate it. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue throwing more or less coherent thoughts out there about future NISEI cards.

The coveted “Data Hound” award for being a dog: goddammit Boggs why’d you have to do me like this