Welcome to our third stimhack Meta Predictions article. We’ve gathered thoughts and opinions on the newest data pack, Daedalus Complex, from several members of the Stimhack community.

Pushing the Envelope

miek

This is like Injection Attack, but +2 Strength and for all icebreakers not just one. I don’t really see Injection Attack making much play, and although Pushing the Envelope is conditionally stronger I similarly think it is unlikely to see play with how tight deck slots can be.

Inactivist

Power of the card aside, it’s difficult to justify a card whose conditions you can’t directly control when you need to. Your opponent sees a window and pushes an agenda into a remote. You smile knowingly and look down at your fixie breakers and your game-winning Pushing the Envelope in hand… as well as three other cards. Your smile fades.

Thebigunit3000

Let’s go through the Christmasland math. You’ve got your rig of Yog, Mimic, and Paperclip (already installed, as it won’t get the boost if you’re installing it mid-run). You’re facing down a Foodcoats super-server of Fairchild 3.0, Ichi 1.0, and Eli 1.0. You decide to push your Anarch envelope, and save a buck on Eli. Fairchild 3.0 and Ichi 1.0 will cost a Sifr activation and some clicks, assuming you don’t have some spare Datasucker counters lying around. Jumping through many hoops to trade 3 credits for a few saved clicks is not what you want to be doing.

SimonMoon

I think there is a lot to like about the design of this card. Non-AI Anarch’s most common build involves using Fixed Strength breakers, which come with the weakness that if you get locked out of Datasuckers you in turn get locked out of everywhere. Giving them one-off tools to get around this is good design, as they’ll still end up in a bad situation, but they have limited tools to play around it. Additionally, the two-card clause is a cool restriction that also prevents this from being used with Faust. However, this card ends up being massively overcosted (to see any play, it likely needs to be 0), and because of that I doubt this will ever see play (though it would not shock me).

Maw

miek

The power on this is really big, although six credits is huge. That said I think this is really strong, and 2 MU is very nice. The power level of this is obviously weaker than Sifr, so it depends what kinds of response FFG is going to make to how ridiculous Sifr is. Sort of combos well with Alice, except you’re asking the Corp to ice Archives by using these cards, which makes it a bit less effective.

Echo

This console looks too happy for me to hate it. Putting that aside, I think the ability is powerful although six credits to install might put it out of contention for the extremely tricky Anarch console choice. It definitely has synergy with the upcoming Alice Merchant ID as this lets you take two cards out of HQ each turn and access them both, within two clicks.

The Archivist

miek

The power of this depends on the agenda suites people are using, but if you expect your opponent to score a Security or Initiative agenda, then this is huge value. Both of these types are very common, although Research is the other common type that does not trigger this. One downside of this card is that it is unique, so if you’re trying to gain link for its own sake, then you don’t want multiple copies of this, but if you want to see him early, then you do. I find it hard to evaluate how good this card is, but it definitely has potential to be strong.

Thebigunit3000

I like this card, the cost and abilities seem strong enough. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to slot into an existing Anarch build, and its influence is highly prohibitive for splashing into other factions. I don’t expect it to see play now, but I would check on it in a few months when new cards have come out / a new MWL has been released.

Echo

This seems fairly narrow to me. I think the +1 Link is largely irrelevant in Anarch decks and the 4 influence means you shouldn’t be considering it anywhere else. The bad publicity isn’t completely irrelevant, assuming you’re on some sort of regular breaker suite rather than pure Faust/D4, but you can’t rely on this to enable Blackmail. Looking at the current meta the matchups I would most want this to fire in are either prison decks that never bother scoring agendas anyway, or NEH asset spam which will normally have one or two agendas that trigger it.

Exploit

miek

Seems to me that this is the worst of the run all central cards, but worth noting that this combos really well with Los. Dunno how to rank this as of yet, but a dedicated derez and rerez Runner deck would probably like this a lot. The already spoiled Keros McIntyre is a strong combo with this card.

Higgs

I play two Emergency Shutdown in Gabe right now. Those are two deck slots well-spent, so I can see this card fitting into modern Criminal decks. It’s less flexible than Shutdown, which I often use in combination with Sneakdoor Beta or Inside Job to contest a remote server or enable Account Siphon. On the other hand, Shutdown can be frustratingly low-impact against cautious Corp play, and I think it’ll be possible to play this in the mid-game. With Desperado, Temujin Contract, and Security Testing giving rebates on central server runs, and powerful enablers like Sneakdoor Beta and Inside Job in faction, Criminal is well-positioned to play a card like this. I’ll definitely be trying it out.

Thebigunit3000

This card is a Criminal derez Apocalypse — it’s super swingy and everyone will know it’s coming the moment you run on the second central. Typically in an Apocalypse Shaper, you’ll have Hyperdrivers and other click gaining sources to take advantage of open servers after you blow up their servers. No such luck in Criminal with Exploit, as you’ll have to take advantage of their servers after they’ve had a full turn to recover. This makes Exploit into more of an econ denial play, and derezzing three Ice probably isn’t worth jumping through hoops for, even with support cards coming down the line.

Spot the Prey

miek

This is kind of what we were hoping for with Deuces Wild. I like the idea but two credits to play is too much, would rather play Infiltration and then run.

Thebigunit3000

Miek is absolutely right, this card is too expensive and less flexible than Infiltration. Play that (or Drive By) instead.

Bio-Modeled Network

miek

Helps with damage prevention, but not so good. With Deus X in faction you’d never want to play this, but in the future when Deus X has rotated it might be viable. Seems underwhelming for sure.

Thebigunit3000

Deus X is less vulnerable to resource trashing, and can be tutored and recurred much more easily. Pass.

SimonMoon

I approve of very narrow hate cards being terrible. Good design.

Network Exchange

miek

This is actually a pretty big tax on the Corp, and they stack so you can make something even as simple as the second piece of Ice on a server cost four credits to install. This is pretty significant and you don’t have to be playing a very glaciery deck to want to go to two Ice, however finding them early is important for this. On its own it probably isn’t super great, but with Ice destruction (Parasite/cutlery) or with Leela’s bounce ability you’re probably going to cost the Corp a lot of money.

Thebigunit3000

Worth experimentation in a Dyper build. Probably not valuable enough in other builds.

Inactivist

Surprisingly irritating. Also has some utility in Kit builds or anything that wants to disincentivise stacking Ice. It doesn’t take much to make the Corp start frowning at Ice math, and the fact that it’s not unique is just plain mean.

SimonMoon

As a two cost resource, I think the negative money value on the Corp over the course of the game needs to end up on average at least 8 credits for this card to be worth it over the next best card. The reason for this is you’re trading credits at the beginning of the game (which are more valuable) for credits of the Corp’s later in the game. If you pay attention to Netrunner games, 8 outer Ice installs are not common, and you’re not going to draw this within the first few turns a lot of the time. I think for this card to be good, the Runner is going to need some sort of tool that can force additional Ice installs over the course of the game.

Mad Dash

Miek

This reminds me of “Freedom through Equality” obviously, and with Indexing this is really good, especially after Jackson rotates or Rumor Mill is in play. This is better than FTE as it lets you use another current and costs way less to play. In particular mini-faction runners like Adam are going to love this card, as it is a zero influence card that fits right into their game plan.

Thebigunit3000

Definitely the best Runner card in the pack. It combos very well with Indexing, Keyhole, and Turning Wheel runs on HQ. Adam, with Find the Truth and Neutralize All Threats, also wants to seriously consider packing a playset of these. In decks that previously ran Notoriety or “Freedom Through Equality” this is almost certainly an upgrade.

NEXT Wave 2

miek

A 4/2 that only does a brain damage (conditionally). Probably not even worth it in a dedicated NEXT deck, as 4/2s are difficult to score unless scored early, in which case you might miss the condition. In the future this could be more relevant, depending on any new NEXT Ice that are printed or if they are leaning towards more brain damage cards like the recently spoiled Black Level Clearance.

Inactivist

Gonna sit this one out and wait for Wave 3.

Zed 2.0

miek

Definitely a strong effect, especially compared to how terrible the last Zed was, however this is mostly focused on trashing hardware. Trashing hardware has potential to be pretty good, but really most of the time you’re hitting a console or something not hugely important. Console trashes can be very impactful if you take away their MU, effectively trashing a program, except the Runner gets to choose which program to trash. Like Ichi 1.0, this is weak early game, and I’m not sure this is good enough to see play. If the Runner does decide to break this, then it is a similar tax to Ichi, except they can’t choose to take the trace instead.

Thebigunit3000

Sick and tired of Sifr? Well, this *might* do the trick. Imagine you’re the Sifr player and you facecheck Zed. If you’ve got a spare Sifr available, you’re likely to let the subroutines fire and walk through the server until the Corp installs and rezzes a piece of Ice on that server that you need to Sifr-site. If you absolutely need to hold onto your Sifr, clicking through the Hardware trashes and taking two brain damage isn’t the worst. As far as other consoles go: trashing Desperado probably isn’t worth it for a 6-cost Ice. Trashing Nexus would be gold, but this Ice would likely be a prime target to be Nexused. You may want to consider packing Marcus Batty with this Ice to make sure that the subroutines fire the way you want them to.

Defense Construct

miek

For its primary ability, this seems like it would telegraph itself pretty strongly, but maybe it could work. Obviously you can guarantee it will fire if you put it on Archives, or you can “mushin” style send it out there otherwise as a risky play. One hidden thing that’s really nice about this is that you can put an asset (such as a trap) in a server and then install advance this to bait it as the agenda. For that I think it may be a game changer, but this general strategy is unlikely to be strong enough to have to worry about too much as the Runner.

Inactivist

A more conditional Allele Repression, really. I’m sure, as the game’s first advanceable upgrade, that someone’s going to have fun with using this to bait non-advanceable traps, but having to advance to get actual use out of it will keep it out of general play. Is this what we’re going to look to for recursion in the post-Jackson rotation wasteland?

Synth DNA Modification

miek

I’m not super impressed by this card. One nice thing about this card is that Jinteki has a lot of AP Ice, and if they want to avoid its effect they will have to faceplant the Ice instead, which you don’t want to do because AP Ice does damage, but 1 conditional net damage a turn that will then just get trashed is pretty weak IMO. I doubt this card will see much play except by people wanting to have a fun time with a weird deck.

Thebigunit3000

Like Bioethics, it will probably do one damage and then get trashed. The bad news is that sometimes it won’t do any damage.

Inactivist

It’s begging for a Hostile Infrastructure setup ala Biolock, but there are already better tools for that that don’t rely on the Runner running into the right Ice at the right time.

Kakugo

miek

The prevalence of Parasite is going to keep this card down, however I do really like its effect. Knowing full well that runners are getting extremely efficient with money and that it is difficult to tax them there, Jinteki have created an Ice that taxes the Runner’s cards instead. Still acts as a gearcheck early game and still acts as a card tax late. Cool.

Higgs

This card is brutal for anyone who can’t destroy Ice, especially Criminals who might otherwise run through it to collect Temujin or Testing money.

SimonMoon

This card is a good demonstration of how much a difference a single credit in the cost of a card can make in Netrunner. At four credits, a hard ETR barrier that is weak to Parasite and taxes one credit and one net damage on break is not good. At three credits, it’s actually really good even considering the Parasite weakness (since you’re generally okay trading a 3 cost Ice for a Parasite). Compared to Bastion, one credit and net is generally worse than three credits, while compared to Wall of Static it’s generally better at taxing. The thing is, these are neutral cards, and I’d really like to see Jinteki getting a strong midrange barrier like Eli (something taxing to come through, but that has the drawback the Runner can pay an alternative resource).

Net Analytics

miek

Conditional draw. Draw is a bit of a double-edged sword for corps, so really you don’t want it unless it is under your control. Anonymous Tip is barely played and this seems much worse as it is reactive instead of proactive, and probably going to give you a similar number of cards on average.

Thebigunit3000

I like it. I don’t think it’s quite strong enough to see play in an ID that would want it, like Controlling the Message. The magic trash cost right now is four (one more than Whizzard’s recurring credits) so it needs to justify itself on more than a conditional ability. But analyze this: if a certain yellow political asset becomes a lot harder to play, this might be able to absorb some of its loss. And now analyze a tag-me Runner, removing tags so that they can see fresh cards from R&D. Certainly an interesting card, but likely relegated to fringe decks.

Sync BRE

miek

Decent rez/str costs, but doesn’t compare favourably to Data Raven. Trace-2 for a reasonably weak effect. I can’t unread the misprint of the text here, and hope FFG sorts it out soon.

Echo

I’m going to assume this card actually lasts until the end of the run instead of… forever. The numbers seem quite reasonable, especially with the subroutines being relevant on both remotes or HQ/R&D. The closest comparison would be Archangel, but splitting the traces up does make this worse against any amount of Link. Still worth keeping an eye on for sentry choice in NBN.

Thebigunit3000

Good numbers, high strength, decent facecheck punisher. Papa John’s SYNC BRE.

SimonMoon

It’s strength-to-rez ratio is pretty insane for a sentry, and 95% of the time no-one is actually going to break these subroutines. The issue then is twofold: the subroutines don’t do enough, and it’s super vulnerable to link as well as any deck that does not care about tags. This can maybe see play in a meta with almost no link runners or tag-me decks, but that meta is not now (or in the visible near future).

Jemison Astronautics: Sacrifice. Audacity. Success.

miek

This looks really good, and we’ve already had quite a few of its support cards spoiled already. I suspect this creates an entirely new FA-based archetype in Weyland. My only concern is that it is one of those cards where they will have to say in the future “Yeah this card is cool normally but it is busted if we use it in Jemison, so we can’t print it”. Coolest interaction here is to score 2x False Lead. You can then Install an agenda and forfeit your False Leads to make the Runner lose four clicks, putting four advancements on that agenda and letting you score it even through Clot. If you Install, Advance, Advance and then use False Lead, that leaves you with 6 advancement counters and 3 clicks on your next turn, enough to then score out a Government Takeover. The biggest weakness of Jemison is that it encourages you to run Government Takeover, so you will occasionally just lose games because the Runner accesses it before you can get it. The best Jemison decks will probably avoid this trap, but might still end up on Vanity Projects. The strength of this deck entirely depends on the support being provided for it, but it does seem that there is a fair amount of this being made.

Thebigunit3000

Many IDs, when they come out, enjoy initial success by being an unknown archetype but flounder when runners change their playstyle and tech cards to be suited to handle the NRDB flavor of the week. I think Jemison Astronautics may qualify as one of these IDs. That said, I think there are a few lasting strengths that this ID may have. First, False Lead (and advanceable traps) become a lot more valuable. Forfeiting False Lead provides two free advancement counters on demand, very important when the Runner has committed to accessing a trap. Similarly, forfeiting any X/1 to Oberth Protocol sticks three counters on a trap in the server. Second, Project Atlas counters are very valuable and this ID has many tools to over-advance it. Third, because of the imbalanced agenda suite, Jemison can use Exchange of Information to help crawl its way up to seven points. (Similarly, if Jemison decks become widely played, Turntable’s stock rises considerably.) The agenda suite of this ID is arguably the most important thing to get right. In my opinion, the first nine cards you should add to a Jemison deck are three Project Atlas, three Hostile Takeover, and three False Lead in that order.

Echo

This is an interesting new direction for Weyland, and I’m excited to see where the cycle takes it. I’m still apprehensive about the setup required to really take advantage of the ability; This requires a reasonable number of effects that let you forfeit agendas before you can rely on the ability, and then you need an opportunity to take advantage of it such as fast advancing an agenda while putting a Mausolus over its threshold. On top of this, you actually need some sort of initial thrust to get your agendas into the score area so you can start forfeiting them. I think with the current card pool this isn’t quite there yet but some of the spoiled cards from further down the line are encouraging – Tithonium being my favourite for letting you choose to forfeit an agenda without being completely blank otherwise.

Inactivist

This waves excitedly at a lot of different strategies, none of them quite cooked yet. Running it as straight Fast Advance leaves you vulnerable to both Clot AND Employee Strike in a way that traditional FA builds haven’t been, and the sheer number of agendas you have to push through to make a viable ramp can seem like a struggle when you’re constantly taking two steps forward and one back. I want to believe there’s something here though, that later releases will put some meat on. In the meantime dumping four counters on a Junebug pre-access is champagne comedy.

Higgs

Everyone’s talking about Oberth, but I think getting two advancements of tempo when you rez Archer is a huge buff to that venerable core-set staple. How’s Archer / Mausolus / Satellite Grid for a spicy Never-Advance play?

Quarantine System

miek

Obviously you only play this in Jemison. You can get a lot of value out of this while triggering Jemison’s ability clicklessly. Rezzing Ice outside of a run has a lot of utility against some degenerate matchups too, such as pre-rezzing against the infamous Dyper or anyone using Blackmail/DDoS.

Echo

Exactly the kind of support card I’m interested in. This seems strong in Jemison as an on-demand forfeit lets you fire the ability as much as you want, and it actually has utility against Blackmail which tends to be one of Weyland’s biggest problem cards. In a meta that’s heavy on Blackmail and Dyper I would actually consider this outside of Jemison as it’s one of the best proactive Ice rezzing cards, without the self-trash of Oversight AI or the delayed trigger from Executive Boot Camp.

Higgs

Put this in your Oberth remote for on-demand Magnet rez against Para-Sifr!

Oberth Protocol

miek

The synergy here with Jemison is obvious, but this card seems good on its own anyway. Basically a cheaper to rez SSCG (in terms of credits), but harder to rez in terms of agenda points. One cool thing of note is that unlike SSCG, if you naked install an agenda with over-advancement bonuses (Project Atlas, Project Vitruvius, Project Beale), you can use this to spend your entire turn getting it a counter. There is also a weird combo here with Rumor Mill, which lets you rez this without paying the agenda cost, although then it will likely get trashed before you can use it.

Thebigunit3000

Absolutely nuts and required three-of to make any sort of Jemison deck. Unlikely to see play in any other ID. Because it is so flexible and can never-advance three- and four-point agendas, as well as providing serious teeth to any sort of trap game you might have, I highly recommend packing some number of Friends in High Places or Interns to always maintain the Oberth threat in your remote. I have dreams of Oberth Protocol, Reversed Accounts, and Bryan Stinson in a remote, draining an insane amount of Runner credits and rocketing back up with a Stinsoned Restructure.

Echo

Another strong support card. This seems very focussed for Jemison, as the power turn where you forfeit an agenda to rez this has huge payoff. Losing a Hostile Takeover to rez this will let you score anything up to a 5 advancement requirement from hand – Global Food Initiative or a loaded Project Atlas seem like prime candidates. The low trash cost does mean you’ll probably be relying on gearcheck Ice to protect this, and it is vulnerable if sitting in HQ whilst you wait to set up. In the late game, this still gives you a good threat that can force the Runner to break into a remote without giving up an agenda.

Higgs

High-Risk Investment for life!

SimonMoon

As I discussed in my article on threats in Netrunner, the biggest thing Weyland lacks is a reason for the Runner to care about what the Corp is doing. The Runner is in complete control of the action of the game when playing against Weyland, and what we see here is one of the best attempts to change that. Just like SanSan City Grid, the Runner needs to deal with this card or the Corp can run away with the game. However, I think the trash cost on this is probably undercosted given that sacrificing an agenda is typically worth more than four credits. Overall I think this and Jemison are a good sign for Weyland, though I do not know if they will be good enough to lift Weyland as a faction.

Khondi Plaza

miek

I don’t think this card is that good, but it is funny in a sad kind of way that it is yet another card trying to make degenerate asset spam a thing.

Thebigunit3000

The numbers just aren’t here on this card. Khondi Plaza needs significantly more setup to come close to the power level of Akitaro Watanabe.

Echo

Another card defeated by the power of mathematics. To make this better than hedge fund you need seven remote servers, the Runner needs to be running this specific server, and you need some high rez cost Ice to spend the recurring credits on. Not going to happen.

Signal Jamming

miek

A neutral one-off answer to SMC/Clone Chip/Artist Colony. I think I like it but dunno if it is good enough to use. I never did end up trying Navi Mumbai City Grid even though it solves the same situation, but one of the main reasons for that was the high influence cost of importing it into a faction that is likely to use it, so this has potential to offset that.

Thebigunit3000

My vote for “Card Most Likely to Send You On Tilt at the First Round of Worlds”. It shuts down Shaper shenanigans, but also importantly shuts down Street Peddler and Anarch install-from-heap breakers.

Echo

This is pretty neat against the conspiracy breakers from Flashpoint Cycle, which have become pretty prevalent in Anarch decks. It also prevents Street Peddler, SMC, and Clone Chip, which seems most relevant against Sifr-Parasite style destruction decks. Before jamming this in your deck I’d try to make sure you have enough punishing facechecks, as that’s where you’ll get the most payout from this.

SimonMoon

People have been begging for a SMC / Clone Chip hate card for a long time, and we finally got one. However, it’s pretty underwhelming for a lot of reasons. First off, Corp deck slots tend to be way tighter than Runner deck slots, so slotting hate cards has always been harder to do. Secondly, because this is card trashes itself on use it only works once. Which means you need to have a greater effect on the Runner than jackout run again to get any value, so you need to get an Archer style blowout. However, you’re either blowing them out with Archer in the early game which is recoverable, or its trivial to play around in the late game once the Runner is fully set up. So you end up with a card that only works with a very narrow subset of other cards, against a fraction of decks in the meta, and only in a small portion of the game does it actually do anything. This sort of effect should really have been attached to an Ice so you can have it at a reasonable power level where you do not need to sacrifice a card slot.

Final Thoughts

Thebigunit3000

Aside from the SYNC BRE misprint, I don’t think there’s anything too busted in this pack. That coupled with the interesting deckbuilding challenge of Jemison and friends is leaving me excited for what’s to come on Mars!

Inactivist

FFG Presents: The Jemison Starter Pack! Featuring some other cards I guess.

Higgs

Remember SanSan Cycle, when mechanically-connected cards were all released in the same pack? Oh, how I wish Damon singled out Jemison for that treatment. At least I’ve got a reason to look forward to the rest of the cycle (and to the inevitable 3.0 Bioroid that is better than Tithonium)!

SimonMoon

This pack is probably the least powerful pack of all time (the last time I said that about a pack it was Kala Ghoda, which as we all know had no game-breaking cards in it). I’m looking forward to Jemison which is some of the stuff closest to fixing Weyland’s core issue (bad scoring plan). I’m not looking forward to Mad Dash which is unnecessary power creep on FTE.

miek

I too found this pack underwhelming, but I think there are a few sleeper hits here that may see some future play. Only time will tell whether these cards are alright, but I think some cards here may have the potential to end up being the new Networking or Power Tap.