Welcome to the Stimhack Community Review for Kampala Ascendant, with hotter-than-usual takes on these completely new cards that haven’t been spoiled at all!

Zer0

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This card is sweet. Anarchs by their nature play a lot of cards they’re happy to throw away, this frequently transforms your chaff into fresh value at a great rate, it makes Clan Vengeance legitimately powerful, and the moment you trigger I’ve Had Worse off this you’ll feel like you’re on top of the world. A.

Saan

The effect is about as good as Diesel (and I’m going to say exactly as good as Build Script), so it’s good enough to see play. The fact that it’s actually Build-Script-on-a-stick makes it even better. Essentially, you’re making whatever card you lose to net damage into the Build Script. This is amazing with IHW, but is also great with the bin breaker suite. Really, if you just want some speed in your life and a little cash for your draw, Zer0 is pretty nifty.

Miek

Thematically this card just screams Anarch. It is so perfect in that sense. Clan Vengeance decks are going to go nutty for this, although I still don’t think they’re that good so it’s fine. I suspect this card will just be value anyway, maybe not enough to feed the slots in current RegAss Anarch lists but it is still a perfectly fine and strong card.

CrushU

So I don’t think this card is worth it, except specifically for decks that care about self-damage. That’s the TL;DR, I’m about to go a little more detailed why I think this…

At its core, this effect is ‘Click, Discard a random card: Draw 2 cards.’ That is, technically speaking, card advantage. However, discarding cards in our hand is usually seen as a last resort, unless we’re specifically doing something with that discarded card. (Retrieval Run on Femme, Paperclip and the other bin breakers.) But to get that, we have to be able to choose that card. That means we would want to run Titanium Ribs. But, as several have mentioned, running a bad card to make another card playable is not sound deckbuilding strategy.

This reminds me of ‘Looting’ vs ‘Rummaging’ debate in The Other Game. ‘Loot’ is shorthand for “Draw a card, then discard a card.” While ‘Rummage’ is shorthand for “Discard a card, then draw a card.” Universally, rummaging is worse than looting, unless you have a specific reason to be discarding cards, and even then, looting is still preferred. With this precedent to back me up, I’m of the opinion that this card is only going to see play in self-damage decks. Or, if it exists, some other deck that just wants to throw its cards away without caring which specific cards get binned.

tvaduva

Self-damage decks are underrated; already making top 4 at a National tournament, and this will make them extremely consistent. Not only is this amazing value for self-damage decks fueling I’ve Had Worse, Clan Vengeance, and Respirocytes (not to mention getting your conspiracy breakers in the heap where you want them anyway), then later turning your worst card into Build Script without any risk once the Ribs are down (which it helps find), it’s also great value for any deck. It’s a better Oracle May that you don’t really need to build around. Just play the cards you need first and take a calculated risk; it’s almost up there with Stimhack.

dr00

This seems like a really fun card. Obvious terrible matchups against grindy Potential Unleashed-style Corp decks though. Combos well with normal self-damage Anarch things, but I’m really anxious to try this out with Synthetic Blood as well.

Musaazi

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It doesn’t have quite the same highs as Yusuf, but most likely if you’re playing this card, you’re playing it (like Yusuf) more as a virus counter-Desperado than a real sentry breaker. Now, does that deck actually exist? I’m skeptical, since your payoffs (Freedom and Yusuf, really – this card is pretty bad as sentry breakers go) aren’t really that huge and, as people discovered during Yusuf’s brief heyday, 2 memory is a steep price. Note to self: Red Planet Couriers, except for virus counters. C.

Saan

Well, this is the last of the virus counter breakers, because guess we just get the two. If there’s something we learned from Faust, it’s that the ability to break ice with resources other than money can be absurdly powerful. Unlike Faust, these breakers aren’t AI, so you still need to find them somehow (although I’m sure most of these decks will also be playing Aumakua). Also, gaining virus tokens may or may not be harder than drawing more cards to fuel Faust. If it’s just as easy, than these cards might be great. If it turns out it’s harder, then poo. Finally, there’s no virus Code Gate breaker (yet?) which might be on purpose, given Anarchs propensity for really bad Decoders. Overall, I have no idea how this deck will go. Part of me wants it to be good, because I like decks that do things in new ways, but another part remembers the pain of Faust decks, and doesn’t want it to be that good.

Miek

I don’t think these breakers can ever be good if they don’t come as a full set, and since we now know there’s no decoder this card is just not quite good enough. It’s a pity as the numbers (apart from the 2 MU) on both Yusuf and Musaazi are pretty good, however you’re dedicating yourself pretty heavily on a resource type where the Corporation has a built in action to give you closed accounts. To top that off, every real credit you invest building your virus rig is a real credit you could’ve used on real breakers. This means not only can you break barriers/sentries but you can also break code gates and you have protection against other nasty effects like Hard Hitting News.

tvaduva

Besides Komainu, and occasionally Cobra and Rototurret, you’ll be spending a fair amount of virus counters to pump strength (unlike Yusuf). But, that’s fair since Sentries are designed to be tough to break and Killers are not in Anarch’s color pie. You’ll already want Datasucker, but maybe Ice Carver has enough value too.

dr00

I think if you’re looking for consistently, you only want either this or Yusuf. If you run both, you’re liable to start running low on virus counters or run the risk of being blown out by an ill-timed Cyberdex Virus Suite. They both have the same MU and install cost, but Yusuf has 3 strength to Musaazi’s 1. That said, Paperclip exists and makes justifying Yusuf a bit difficult. But with only 1 strength, you’ll find yourself running out of a lot of virus counters I think just to reach strength with whatever you’re trying to break. You might be better off with Cerberus “Cuj.0” H3, and we know often people play that one. If you want to play this one, definitely pack things like Ice Carver and D4v1d to help it out with higher-strength sentries.

Hippo

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Oh, so I guess we can take back what we said about Trypano being the new Parasite. I like this card a lot, though it is somewhat narrow. If you think about it as a silverware card you can play ahead of time at the price of some flexibility and getting only one use, it’s good. Bonus style points if you crack a DDoS, run a server with a rezzed piece of ice outside, Hippo it, and then walk past a newly-outermost unrezzed piece of ice inside. B+.

Saan

This is a better Parasite than the new Parasite replacement. However, running both might be awesome. We all remember the power of Dumblefork and just eating through servers once Anarch got a critical mass of ice destruction (and a good way to power them: aka Faust). There’s no way to recur Hardware atm, other than Levy, so these will only account for up to 3 dead ice over the course of a game. I still dig it, though, and I’d be shocked if I didn’t see it at the high tables.

Miek

This is definitely a stronger card than Trypano, which is the effect everyone will be comparing it to since they both give ice destruction. I still think this is a bit on the weak side, mostly because of the levels of counter-play available to the Corp. Given that this requires breakers to get past, it doesn’t help the early game vulnerability to rush that Parasite was a helpful solution for. One common solution to this card will be to leave an unrezzed ice on the outside of the server they expect to be hippo’d. One solution to this counter-play is to use the turning wheel, where an unrezzed ice on R&D/HQ allows you to build counters for free – however this is still a risky play as the unrezzed ice might find an opportune time to absolutely wreck you with its face-check. This might be okay as a one-of in competitive decks, which means that its still kinda good, but I’m way less warm to this card than most people seem to be.

CrushU

Short version: This card is good.

Long version: This is some of the most reliable ice destruction the Runner has seen in a long time. If you want proof that this card is good, they put checks on it to make sure you couldn’t ever use this effect more than three times in a game. How good this is remains to be seen, and for my part, I’m putting at about a B-level card, precisely because you can’t really make this effect happen more than three times in a game.

tvaduva

The Cutlery are the closer comparison than Parasite/Trypano, which you can probably swap out any with these. The extra targeting (and click save) from them is probably not worth it. There’ll be some times when both players forgot you broke the subroutines on the outermost piece of ice already that turn, so pay attention. At least the game state can possibly be corrected.

Amina

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As Corporate “Grant” and, well, our next card show, taking credits from the Corp is not to be underestimated, in these days where it’s much harder to do that than in the past. But woof, does this card cost a fortune. Some psychopath is going to play this in Kit, and I’ll be over here scratching my head. Only way I can see this card ever mattering is if you can Credit Kiting it out, and even then, why? C-.

Saan

Finally, something else to use Credit Kiting on! Downside: it’s pretty expensive to use, even if you can cheat it into play. At least if you Credit Kite Femme out, it’s going to do it’s Femme thing and hop you over an ice while still being a slightly expensive Killer. Amina skips the useful part and just sprints strait for the expensive bit. It’s fun to also knock a Corp credit off their plate, but at what cost, man. At what cost?

Miek

Abagnale is 4c to install and 7c to get past Fairchild3.0/DNA tracker. Amina is 7c to install and 4c to get past the same. If you expect either of these cards (which are both very relevant right now) then Amina is more efficient the first time you go through one (because of the 1c tax to the Corp) and straight up nuts on future installs. If you expect mostly enigmas and hortums then you’re probably better off with your Abagnale/Gordian rig. I suspect the Criminal go to rig in the future will be 1x Passport and 1x Amina when dealing with code gates. At 4 inf I don’t see it being splashed much elsewhere, however if Criminal gets good (feels laughable now) and Amina becomes huge, then I suspect we’ll finally see people moving away from DNA tracker and FC3 and moving more towards the big sentry almost-equivalents we have these days (Anansi, etc..)

CrushU

The key to making this card playable is offsetting its install cost. (No, Khan, I’m not talking about you. Get back in the binder.) That said, its break rate is very efficient for larger ice, and not terrible for the smaller ones. With the ability added in, I’d expect to see this becoming one of the top three Criminal Decoders. Some decks will prefer Abagnale or Passport, but Amina will be viable as well.

tvaduva

It’s interesting that Criminal’s breakers this cycle aren’t part of a set like Anarch and Shaper.

dr00

Miek made exactly my evaluation almost exactly already, but I also wanted to point out a few ways to cheat this card out. There’s Credit Kiting but also Emergent Creativity, both of which can install this very cheap. The problem with Kiting is you need Amina in your hand already, and the problem with Emergent is the steep influence cost (either Emergent’s 5 or Amina’s 4). I also think that you are planning to cheat out Amina, you have to plan for the inevitable games where you don’t find those combo cards that let you install it cheaply. See Miek’s evaluation of the opportunity cost of hard-installing it though.

Diversion of Funds

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I never thought I’d say this, but I missed you, Account Siphon. Sure, times have changed; you’re not as young and pretty as you used to be; you can’t really go twice in one turn unless it’s a very special occasion; but you still mess with Corp credit math in a way that’s vital to the game. Will this be the card that saves Criminal? No. But it’s a start! B+.

Saan

This card isn’t nearly as fearful as its predecessor, but it takes the Corp’s money and makes it yours, and that’s still awesome. I almost can’t even envision a deck that takes this and doesn’t also take Mining Accident right along with it, so get used to seeing that combo right now so it doesn’t make you vomit in the future. Even at 5 influence, I can still see Anarchs using this, and parhaps the cheeky Shaper now and again. Much like ice trashing, this is an effect that Netrunner needed back, and I’m glad it’s here.

Miek

Diversion of Funds is almost 100% about the denial strategy now, as opposed to Siphon where it could frequently be a source of economy in itself. Here’s the secret truth about Siphon – those turns where you would Siphon then remove 2 tags, were usually not that impactful. When you go tag me; or risk tags for a turn because it’s safer to remove them next turn; or when you have amazing synergy cards like Aaron Marron; that’s when Siphon went busto and people would complain about it. Siphon for 10c and then removing 2 tags is almost the same credit swing as Diversion of Funds and then clicking for credits, so we know roughly what baseline to compare Diversion to. While this isn’t anywhere near as good as Siphon was, I still think this will be a 3x in nearly every Criminal deck.

SamRS

This will be 3x in every Criminal deck for a little bit, and then die down should they ever get another strategy. Not nearly as strong as Siphon, which is both good and bad. Criminal really needs something to do with themselves, and this is kinda sorta it for now. 7/10

tvaduva

Credit denial is a valid and strong archetype and this will definitely enable it again. I’m just not sure why it’s not removed from the game like some of the other stronger effects they released. It’s when spam is added that people start getting really frustrated. But, Criminal has needed some more powerful cards since so many of them were removed with rotation and MWL.

PAD Tap

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The real question is, how frequently in the meta is this card a free one-drip-per-turn? I think these days that’s pretty common. Definitely this card will annoy the hell out of Azmari and CTM (and potentially lead them to trashing it, which seems like a win for the runner nine times out of ten). But in other metagames, this card is worse than useless. I’m reminded of Aeneas Informant, a card that ran anywhere in the spectrum from “stackable Desperados” to “stackable depression.” This card is probably a bit more consistent than Aeneas Informant, but, again, won’t be the card that saves Criminal. B-.

Saan

This is an okay little card, but I’m worried that it might end up being a little too underpowered to see much play. If it also worked off of the Corp clicking for credits (or worked off this instead) I think this would be a much better card, and would be great in credit denial decks. As it is, it seems like a spiffy little tyke, but maybe not quite spiffy enough to get much play. It seems like it might be good enough to tip the scale the other way, though, so I’m totally open to being wrong on this one.

Miek

Sure they can trash this, but if you’re on a denial heavy deck (say with Diversion of Funds) then you’re pretty happy that they spend 4c of value (click, 3c) to trash this. Palana especially cries at this card, which is potentially fine as Palana is a very strong ID. Overall I’m not a huge fan of too much drip econ in the game, so I’m not sure I like this card, but I think its perfectly playable.

CrushU

Combined with Corporate “Grant”, this card can negate Azmari’s advantage when you install whatever card type they named. Well, ‘negate’ is a strong word, perhaps ‘counteract’ is probably more appropriate. Still, the fact that the Corporation can just remove this card if it actually is a problem for them will limit this card’s worthiness. On the gripping hand, Corps could remove Tapwrm and it was a serious roleplayer for a while…

tvaduva

Semi-consistent drip for zero cost is really nice. Along with econ ID’s, it’s also great against asset-based decks. Nice to keep adding abilities on cards that can be used by opponents. Really wish this was not just one influence; Criminal should have more of their nice stuff to themselves.

Reclaim

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Pretty sweet, though I do struggle a bit with trying to figure out in how many more situations this card is better than Sacrificial Construct. If you want three more Sacrificial Constructs, though, sure, go nuts. People love it when you play Tapwrm against them, trust me. B+.

Ion_Fox

Apart from this being a way to get your Shaper recursion fix without burning a restricted slot on clone chips, I feel this card will really shine out of faction. At 2 influence a pop, this could provide some much needed safety to Criminals, allowing them to be a bit more brazen early game, and it also lets Adam recur his Logic Bombs, which I think is a pretty strong function. It also lets Hayley/Geist recur thier pirate suite by pitching extra copies of whatever they don’t need while triggering Tech Traders, so it might make the slot in those decks.

Saan

It’s great that it can’t be used mid-run, but it still allows recursion of some great stuff. Adam’s new resource from last pack now gets to be returned as well, and if someone ever needed more Clone Chips for some reason, well here’s 3 more. This seems very good.

neuropantser

It’s worth noting that this recurs everyone’s favorite bitey boi, and does so without spending a Levy. Possibly worth a look if your deck relies heavily on the pirate breakers to function.

CrushU

While it can double as a Clone Chip or a Sacrificial Construct, I think only decks that care about getting Hardware and Virtual Resources back are going to be truly interested. Pirate Hayley/Geist in particular look like they’ll want this effect.

tvaduva

It’s two click and two cards, which is a much steeper (although fair) price to recur hardware and virtual resources in addition to programs (and, currently, save your restricted slot). I guess it installs it as part of its effect (instead of bringing it to your grip) so that Exile gets a trigger? Bonus points for our friendly neighborhood dumpster diver.

Engolo

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Actually not a terrible price, upon reflection, since it’s only 1 more dollar and 1 more memory than Gordian Blade, and the strength-boosting ability isn’t substantially worse. (It actually breaks Tollbooth and Fairchild 3.0 for cheaper, though you don’t want to see them stacked.) The price is still too high for this to be anything other than a Kit card, but it does seem like a good partner with Magnum Opus to attempt to counterfeit the effects of Inversificator. I don’t think that’ll bring Kit back from the fringe, but it definitely will consign Laamb to the trash heap. B.

Saan

This seems like a better version of Laamb from last pack, which makes sense because thematically Shapers have always had the best Decoders. Much like last time, if you can find a way to be rich, this thing will make you glad you did. It’s a pity Opsu builds are so slow, but I suppose only having to find one breaker can speed that up. Of the two breaker’s of this type that Shaper has, I’d certainly rather be on the Engolo than on the Laamb.

Miek

Lets you play Kit outside of Kit, perhaps some Wu or Ayla deck. CT even lets you cover the MU problem and have a more reliable MOpus turn.

CrushU

Good card.

Can perform some serious jank if you run this and Inversificator… I don’t think there’s a good non-restricted economy option for that, though, so I wouldn’t be too worried.

dr00

Even though 2 to boost 4 is the same ratio as 3 to boost 6, that extra credit really adds up after a while. With most other values being the same, this card is quite a bit better than Laamb from the last pack, so I expect to see this used quite a bit.

tvaduva

This is the Shaper breaker to try to build the Multithreader, etc. rig, since Code Gates are the most common ice.

Flame-out

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Oh, boy, does this seem exploitable. Put an SMC on it and it’s basically +7 credits with certain minor restrictions. The trash clause is not nothing, but if you build your rig a certain way (or, say, just play Reclaim), you’ll be just fine. A-.

Saan

This actually seems sick alongside the above Engolo. This is a fairly slow Stimhack, but will still get you places that you want to go. I especially think that Decoders benefit from this card, since right now huge Code Gates are everywhere, and it’s not uncommon to spend 6+ credits getting through one. I’m in, baby. Flame On!

tvaduva

Shapers version of Stimhack. Lots of options to avoid trashing the hosted program (Scavenge, Test Run, Brahman, Compile (more of an interesting choice), Chameleon, etc) or even have this mitigate Wu’s downside for non-SMC programs. Probably too much influences to combine it conspiracy breakers, but if you’re already importing Paperclip… When you’re done just sell it to Aesop’s for even more profit and Reclaim it back and do it again. We’ll need to get clarification on how many credits you can use for SMC though.

dr00

Keep in mind that it trashes whatever is hosted at the end of turn if credits were spent, even if those credits were spent on a different program (eg: installing Self-Modifying Code and using 2 credits to go fetch another program to save for later; Flame-out will still trash whatever is hosted at the end of the turn). Also keep in mind that it doesn’t self-trash when the credits run out.

Most others have given good evaluations about what to do with the card, but I think if you plan to play with multiples, you can simply install over it with a new copy, but it can be helpful to have some things like Aesops, Trade-In, or use it as fodder for stealing Degree Mill.

Black Hat

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Since it’s Sunny, I think we can assume this trace will almost always be unsuccessful, and then it’s a big and powerful effect, no question. But it’s Sunny. So, grading on her curve… B-.

Saan

It’s an in faction Maker’s Eye squeezed together with Leg Work for Sunny! Giving the mini factions a way to save influence for better cards is always great, so I’m sure Sunny players will be happy to get this.

Sanjay

Sunny players who have been spending influence on Turning Wheel and Legwork are jazzed to start spending their influence elsewhere. Sunny players who have been spending their influence on Deep Data Mining are now salivating at the mouth dreaming of turns where they go Black Hat, Deep Data Mining, White Hat, Deep Data Mining to access 14 cards.

CrushU

Yep. It’s a good Sunny card. You’ll play it in Sunny decks. And not elsewhere, at 5 influence.

tvaduva

It’s until the end of turn, so while the effect is like Legwork and Maker’s Eye combined, you can still play those cards and add up the accesses. Check HQ, dig R&D, get taps credits all in one turn.

Kasi String

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Whoa! Take that, asset spam decks. The problem, of course, is it takes four turns minimum to work, but if you’re playing, say, a Magnum Opus deck built around Maw and Salsette Slums that only really runs once per turn, in, I don’t know, let’s say Omar, and that deck couldn’t fit Mad Dash in… what am I saying, it’ll never happen. B+.

Saan

It’s a shame that this doesn’t work on Centrals, but it does go a ways toward combating asset spam decks. This is a meta call card. If you expect a reasonable number of assets, this probably has some good value.

CrushU

One interesting use case is that this will pay you back for going into glacier’s hardened remote just to clear out their upgrades. If that’s good enough, then this card will see play.

tvaduva

If Mad Dash is too unpredictable for you and didn’t want to spend influence on Notoriety (or expect a fair amount of undefended assets), then a few of these are worth considering.

That’s it from us for the Runner half. Join us tomorrow when we trash a card from hand to bring the Corp out of the heap that they probably rightly deserve. Feel free to point out we overlooked System Seizure synergy or whatever on your chosen internet screambox in the meantime!