Ugly Ducklings and shrinking violets no longer. Ready to make their late debut, they are:

THAT RUNNER’S HOT NEW THING

Made great by Citadel Sanctuary and CTM decks full of tracer ICE like Resistor. In hindsight, Sunny’s trace triggering current being released in 23 Seconds, alongside NBN: Controlling The Message should have been a sign that the age of Power Tap was here (and that there was a decent but rarely seen matchup for Sunny runners slotting it). But it was Takeshi’s Castle, rojazu’s Andromeda + Citadel + Power Tap deck that brought the combo into the popular consciousness.

It’s also facilitated some nasty Nexus + DLR decks that trace twice a turn. Yummy.

6 credits for 3 link (and 3 influence)? Turns out link of all stripes would be good against all those CTM traces.

Actually, since we’re here…

Favoured over Paper Tripping (which was played more often but never went mainstream exactly) for being better over a long game with CTM’s ability firing and Hard Hitting News and potentially Siphon tags to shake. SYNC was a big thing for a while there too.

It was showing up in Hayley lists to protect Clots and the like, and to sell to Aesop, but now it’s here to protect your gross Tapwrm for some runaway clickless credit economy or to force the corp to purge twice. Also for protecting your Baba Yaga breaker soup. Again, speaking of the devil…

Apparently a solid choice for throwing on Baba Yaga with that strength to credit ratio. The good witch also removes the centrals only restriction.

Hacker headhunter befriends aging conspiracy theorist – the original odd couple. Interrupts your Frantic Coding after the install/before the mass trash and also thins your deck for some surprising consistency.

Both seen in early Khan builds that wanted to derez everything. Not quite a tier one synergy in the end, using a lot of slots in a small deck, but it worked and was fun. On the other hand, the London Library + raptor breaker “ornithology” technique worked with Peregrine out of that NRDB deck of the week Kit list and somehow never quite made its way back into Khan with all those other birds…

Years after its release, and thereafter consistent swapping for Mimic, Femme or Dagger in most shaper decks, ol’ Pipey’s back with Sifr! Likewise with Ankusa, which has the trifecta of a high install cost, a non-existant base strength and a hefty price ber broken subroutine. The effect is strong enough though that removing the strength cost with Sifr makes it viable and punishing.

CORPORATE DARLINGS

Their stock appreciated by the prevalence and efficiency of those darn Paperclips.

CTM dishes a lot of tags. Stands to reason that the original tagstorm tools would finally have their time in the spotlight. To a lesser extent we’ve seen a bit more Keegan Lane and Lily Lockwell around.

It has better targets (DNA Tracker, Chiyashi) more support cards (Hasty Relocation, Nihongai Grid [sorta], Psychokinesis [also sorta]) than ever before. You used to see it never. Now you see it sometimes. Also, Hasty Relocation into Mutate can bury 2 unwanted cards back in R&D if you put the ICE on top. Non-Jackson agenda filters, they’re everywhere now!

Pulled out of obscurity by Builder Of Nations for a hot week or two and still viable in that ID.

The Rumor Mill started it all. Jinteki/Caprice decks started slotting Scarcity Of Resources, Clone Retirement and “Clones Are Not People” in retaliation. Employee Strike vs Paywall Implementation in Blue Sun. I’ve seen decks with three Strikes and three Paywalls go head to head spamming and recurring those things. thebigboy’s Sleeper Hold brought Enhanced Login Protocol to the forefront of people’s minds. Fairchild 3.0 made it even better. Enforced Curfews from Cybernetics Division and IG 49/Ronin-Ceremony decks hoping to slay devotees of the SifrCite. The current wars are real now. Whose narrative shall be superior?!

[PYGMALION REFERENCE HERE]

There are quite a few other cards that have poked their faces into newly opened slots as factions received new tools. Did I miss some cards here? You betcha! Please let me and the world know what you’ve pulled out of Archives over the last 6 months.

I’ve loved the Flashpoint cycle and, if the scoops are anything to go by, things are only getting weirder and more wonderful in the next few weeks. Chairman Stone may be moving on to bigger and better things but his designs are not yet done.

Disclaimer: runner research biased by the pathologically criminal meta of Melbourne, Australia.