Two weeks ago, I posted my review/overview of Upstalk, and we are already back at it again for The Spaces Between. Last time, I got a lot of responses that questioned some of my scores. To be honest, I’m happy I got so many people disagreeing with my last review because it means that interesting cards that have multiple advantages and disadvantages are being printed. These write-ups are only meant to encourage that we talk about these cards, even the ones that I blatantly overlook.

Anyway, a lot happens in this pack, which will probably make this one of those must-buy data packs (like What Lies Ahead). I feel like its important for those reading this to know that I have not been able to test most of these cards out, considering how quick they have been released and how close to Nationals this all is. This is (mostly) just a first-glance kind of impression.

The Foundry: Refining the Process

The Foundry is going to be an interesting ID, which has obvious synergy with NEXT Ice and Grail Ice. I assumed that NEXT Design would be the home for NEXT Ice due to its name and the ability to get them out quicker, but not even NEXT Design can compete with The Foundry’s speed. So what does that mean for NEXT Design? Some people swear by its ability, but I would argue that The Foundry pretty much replaces that ID altogether. Even without NEXT or Grail ICE, The Foundry is pretty strong. The ability to stack 3 Eli’s in 3-4 turns will put a lock on any server fairly quickly. However, this creates a pretty huge downside. R&D will be very vulnerable, since you are pulling out all your Ice. So those 3 Elis should probably be put over that central first. Its an interesting balance, one that I look forward to exploring. Due to the ability, Indexing and R&D lock are both going to be very weak against this ID, and that alone is something worthwhile. I think the cherry on top of all of this is the full 15 influence, which is why I think this ID will be replacing NEXT Design for the foreseeable future. I don’t know exactly how to rate this yet, but it seems strong. 4/5

EDIT: The problem with writing a review during National Season is that I didn’t get a chance to try out a lot of these cards and this review is taking forever to write. So this edit is coming from AFTER Nationals, and now that I have played with The Foundry, it seems surprisingly weak. Noise’s random milling completely wrecks the vulnerable R&D, and R&D-focused Shapers are bound to see enough agendas to win the game. I am surprised and disappointed with how much I did not like this ID. 2/5, until the Grail ICE is released.

Enhanced Login Protocol

Currents. Its the next big thing, and will probably make a bigger splash than Double Events/Operations did. Considering that ELP is the first Current of the pack/cycle/game, I’ll get into my thoughts on the mechanic right here.

First of all, Let’s keep in mind that the trash condition of a current is “until another current is played or an agenda is stolen (scored).” I’m not certain that these are going to be needed in every deck, simply because scoring an agenda turns off the ability, as well. I’ve played around with Targeted Marketing and Net Celebrity and I found that the game isn’t unbalanced when your opponent is running Currents but you are not. Realistically, it can just be a waste of 1-3 credits if an agenda is stolen/scored the next turn. A lot of people are assuming you need to pack 2-3 of these to “turn off” your opponents currents reliably, but that doesn’t make too much sense. For you to turn off another current by playing your own, you need to have been holding onto one before your opponent played theirs or miracle-draw into one immediately after they played theirs. Obviously, that second condition is completely unreliable and depends on luck. So that means that you need to have been holding onto yours without playing it in order to turn off their current reliably. And that is where this whole string of logic fails. You would have to not play your current when you have it/need it until it will cancel out another current. Instead of playing it at a time when it will help you score more points, you are instead waiting until you can react to your opponents strong play.

I don’t know if I expressed my thoughts properly up there, but the TL;DR version of all of that is that currents shouldn’t be put into decks with the intention of shutting off other currents, because you might just not see it in time, or because you will miss a good opportunity to use its ability when it might really help. And that’s why, if you don’t want to run currents or don’t have the deck space for them right now, you probably shouldn’t freak out about it.

Anyway, Enhanced Login Protocol is a card I should probably start talking about. In faction, it does a few things. It makes Bioroids that much harder to click through, and it doubles the ability of a rezzed Ruhr Valley. Those are really strong abilities, but that’s only in faction. Outside of HB, it will obviously see play in Replicating Perfection. RP’s ability is already killing one of the Runner’s clicks, so ELP makes as much sense of a splash as Ruhr Valley (which, I assure you, is definitely a strong and common-enough splash in RP already). For those who still believe that currents are going to be a auto-include, ELP has a lot of synergy with a lot of decks. At two influence, it will be hard to slot 2-3 of these out of HB, but its ability is strong enough to warrant the splash.

It is important to note that some very competitive Runner builds are built to run every turn, and sometimes more than once each turn. This card slows down those fast and aggressive decks, so the downside of “not through a card ability” is probably a pretty balanced mechanic, and not something to complain about. I’ll need to play around with ELP, but its pretty clearly a strong card. 4/5

Heinlein Grid

Heinlein Grid is the power-house card I want to see more of. Its undeniable synergy with Bioroids mean that Stronger Together might be seeing a lot of play, soon. In Stronger Together, the Corp wants the runner to waste their turn by spending clicks, and this card reinforces that ideology. Its a catch-22, and the runner has the choice between losing all of their money the hard way or losing all of their money the easy way. Heinlein Grid is also really strong with NAPD Contracts and Ash sitting behind the walls of Bioroid Ice, making it a great fit in our current meta. For a 3/3 rez and trash ratio, this card doesn’t really have any blatant downsides, assuming it is in the right deck. 5/5

My favorite part of this Region is the fact that everyone is talking about Stronger Together, an ID that has been overlooked for a long time. Honor and Profit did the same thing for Jinteki PE. Who knows, maybe Because We Built It will get a huge boost soon as well.

Encrypted Portals

Encrypted Portals is in the wrong faction. Not because Jinteki doesn’t have great Code Gates (because they really do; Chum, Inazuma, Lotus Field, Etc.), but because there are so many great 1-pointers in faction. This competes with House of Knives, Clone Retirement, and Unorthodox Predictions, in addition to Gila Hands, Profiteering, and False Lead. So, on that fact alone, it probably won’t see too much play. However, lets assume it was put into a deck….how much would it impact the course of the game?

Well, a 5st Lotus Field would probably be worth the effort to score it, as well as the agenda’s natural counter to Atman. The credit return would probably be low, and only give you a few bucks later in the game. Realistically, unless you made a janky all-Code Gate deck (Kit and/or Gordian Blade say hello), you should probably just ignore the credit-back ability in the deck building process.

The +1 strength is good, but there are other ways of getting this effect (Lag Time, Experiential Data). I think this card becomes really strong when there are two scored. A 6 strength Lotus Field or 7 strength Inazuma (placed in front of an etr) is something out of a nightmare. So, with that in mind, it would probably be best to run 3 of these, to ensure that you can see two of them throughout the game.

To wrap this up, if you think long enough about the ability, it seems pretty strong. I just don’t think it has nearly enough of an immediate impact as Gila Hands would normally, and the deck that wants 1-pointers (a Personal Evolution damage deck) probably doesn’t care much about the taxing element of Encrypted Portals. Still, its a card that can certainly see play. I can’t wait until someone scores a few of these against me, and I inevitably take all of this back. 3/5

Cerebral Static

After only four cards, we are looking at about 1500 words. I was just starting to think that I should try to be more brief with the commentary, but then we hit Cerebral Static; a card that I have a lot to say about.

Cerebral Static is obviously the Jinteki current in the pack. People seem severely divided on the power of this card. Some people (Gabe, Kit, and Chaos Theory players) are loudly expressing their woes, and complain that this card does too much for a 2 cost operation. Others, however, see it as a circumstantial with the huge downside of being a dead draw against popular runners like Andromeda.

Let’s not give it points for turning off your opponent’s current, because presumably, you want this card to do more than that. Let’s judge this thing solely on what it does; wiping the text box of a Runner. See, that is an interesting ability, and it actually discourages creative deckbuilding by punishing those who build entire decks around the Runner’s ID. The Runner that is affected the most is Kit, who is built around encountering Code Gates. When Cerebral Static works, it shuts off Gabe’s economy, trashes a program against Chaos Theory, and makes Whizzard the worst Runner in the game (a blank Anarch ID would need a lot of help being competitive). When it doesn’t work, it might as well be a blank card.

That’s a difficult thing to weigh, considering that a dead draw is literally equivalent to doing nothing for a third of your turn. Another problem with Cerebral Static is that it doesn’t actually help your deck’s game plan. Since it will vary in effectiveness, it is not put in your deck to mitigate a weakness or enhance a strength. This is a non-Ice and non-economy card that doesn’t need to be in your deck like agendas do (see above for why I don’t think currents NEED to be in your deck). Cerebral Static is like Domestic Sleepers in the sense that you need to find deck space for this card that can potentially do very little. However, Domestic Sleepers is still built around to an extent, helping you rez Archers and firing off Midseasons. Cerebral Static, on the other hand, won’t aid you in any way. It will only hurt your opponent (sometimes).

So, that’s the side of the fence I sit on. Although I am absolutely aware that it is a strong ability that can wreck some IDs, I’m not convinced a deck running this couldn’t use the slot more efficiently. It doesn’t directly help a taxing, fast advance, or damage deck reliably. And every game you play against Andromeda and draw this, it could have been an economy card. 3/5

NOTE: For those of you complaining that it’s a 2 cost “Trash a program” against your CT deck, Bad Times should then be considered a 4 cost “Trash 2 programs” by that logic. So its not out of balance with what we already have.

Targeted Marketing

Targeted Marketing is the kind of “counter card” I want to see printed more often. I’m not unhappy with cards like Plascrete and Sealed Vault, but it promotes this “Rock, Paper, Scissors” kind of playstlye that is all about hard countering what your opponent plays sometimes. Targeted Marketing doesn’t give you that “good against x, bad against y” balance, but instead lets your knowledge of your own deck, popular archetypes, and the board state make the decisions. There are literally hundreds of options that you can chose when playing this card, but only a few will hugely impact the game. A well-timed Targeted Marketing “I name Parasite” can buy you 3-4 turns of early game set-up, but playing this at the right time is what makes all the difference. If you play this in your opening hand, they can cancel it out quickly, not even have a parasite, or not have any rezzed targets for their parasite. It means that you have to think about when you play Targeted Marketing, and its that kind of knowledge and decision making that proves a great Netrunner player. In the right hands, Targeted Marketing is very strong.

There are a few more things that I love about this card. It actually promotes people having fun while playing Netrunner, for starters. No one has fun when they get siphoned every turn, and while this kind of play is very strong competitively, it can also turn new players away from the game. If a newer player is having a hard time playing against a specific card, and doesn’t see the balance in stronger cards like Siphon or Parasite, Targeted Marketing means that they can simply counter it and not have to worry about it for the next little while. The second thing I love about this card is that it is one influence. This means that it can be a solution in any deck. Just as Jackson Howard proved, if a strategy gets out of hand, people are willing to splash 2-3 influence to stop it. Jackson Howard does that against noise-mill, but Targeted Marketing can do that against any printed card (except for IDs, I guess).

Of course, it is not an effect that lasts forever. Currents are pretty easy to get rid of, in my experience, but 3-4 turns of protection can easily swing a game, and this will definitely be (at least) considered for all of my Corp decks in the near future. 5/5

Information Overload

Since Near-Earth Hub was spoiled, a lot of people claimed that it was as close to blatant power creep as Netrunner has gotten. I’m not doubting the strength of the ID, but I really don’t think it shares the same design space as Making News. It turns out we were just all using MN wrong, unsurprisingly. Those 2 recurring credits imply a trace-heavy, tag-storm sort of play that just hasn’t surfaced. Even with the popular Midseason decks floating around, it doesn’t warrant the runner packing dedicated link. Well, the Lunar cycle gives me hope that this archetype will really become a thing. Primary Transmission Dish looked underwhelming at first, but a fully-fleshed out archetype of unbeatable traces and unlimited tags seems to be more and more viable each data pack. Upstalk had PTD. The Spaces Between has Information Overload. First Contact has Manhunt. This deck is coming, and it looks awesome.

Anyway, setting aside my dreams of a beautifully thematic NBN deck, let’s talk about Information Overload’s uses in our current meta. At two influence, it might look splashable, but its really not. Information Overload is arguably unplayable without Midseasons, and adding 8-12 influence for that alone makes Information Overload strictly a Yellow card. In NBN Making News, it is a trace 3 for a tag upon every encounter (assuming that they are Femming your Tollbooth). That’s not too shabby. Neither is dropping a Data Raven in front of this thing. 4 strength puts it out of mimic range, but leaves it in perfect Atman range. Luckily, its not dead 4-strength/1-subroutine ICE against atman decks when the runner is buried in tags. “I really like it” is what I’m trying to say.

All of that, and I didn’t get to the best part: It trashes EVERYTHING. Hardware. Resources. Programs. And all it needs is a strong Midseasons trace. I’m impressed. This will certainly be a worthwhile 1-of.

Trying to be fair and non-bias, it does have a pretty huge downside: it does nothing when the runner isn’t tagged. Early game, its like a Grim. But that doesn’t stop Grim from being an amazing card, so I guess its a moot point. Information Overload is one of those teethy sentries like Grim and Taurus that I think just demand respect during the right point of the game. 4/5

EDIT: I got to test this card much more and, simply put, it is a win condition card. Cards that interact with the number of tags you have will be very strong, just like Psychographics. This is no exception. It takes a lot of set-up, but if your deck is built around Midseasons, this card is a big deal.

Paywall Implementation

Because there weren’t enough Andy/Criminal counters being released in the Lunar Cycle…

Paywall Implementation seems like a very problematic card for those Desperado-Datasucker-Security Testing decks (over 34% of winning Runner decks). Runners are practically trained to run every turn, so Paywall Implementation can essentially net you a lot of money. Obviously, Criminals will be running more than that, so you won’t be losing the economy battle with this thing out. How I look at this card is that it is a free Pop-Up Window in front of every server. It works great with Asset Economy because when they run to trash it you will get a credit out of it. All of that, and its a Transaction Operation, so original Weyland breaks even when they play it.

Paywall Implementation is two influence, but will probably be splashed often during those months of “growing pains” for currents. Its universally useful, but not overwhelming because it, like Cerebral Static, doesn’t actually help towards your game plan, it only reacts to the Runner’s.

I like this card in its usefulness, and I think it will see a lot of play in the immediate future in decks that really want to run currents. I don’t think that stage will last forever though, and I don’t think Paywall Implementation will be the first choice for Currents in a matter of months. It’s still strong though, solely because it is similar but essentially the opposite of Security Messaging. 4/5

Sealed Vault

Sealed Vault is a card that everybody asked for. It is a hard Siphon counter, but has uses for Vamp and Blackguard. Hell, maybe it can even help you get out of lamprey-lock (which is totally a thing, now). At an 8-trash cost, I don’t think it is realistic to trash this thing the old-fashion way (although Imp still works). I can get into why it is such a strong counter to Siphon, but I don’t think it is worth explaining, considering how blatant its uses are. I guess it would take two siphons and a lot of money, in addition to three clicks just to successfully siphon. Not worth it. Hence the flavor text.

The thing that is worth mentioning, however, is its influence of one(!). Expect to see this, at least immediately. And for the ability to shatter the meta, I’m going to give this a questionable deserved 5/5

Eden Fragment

More 3/5s is always a good thing. So, even if its a little underwhelming, I’m happy to get more options that don’t include the words “Executive” or “Retreat”. Eden Fragment is a Limit 1 Per Deck Agenda that has it’s uses in a 5/3-only Glacier build. In ETF, it can actually do a lot of work. Furthermore, once all of these Fragments come out, the 5/3 and Domestic Sleepers-only deck will be much stronger. So that’s pretty exciting.

As for right now, if you need a single 5/3 and you are not Jinteki or Weyland, this is probably the best option. It’ll save you some money, and is much less circumstantial than Priority Requisition. There’s not much to say about the ability, but its not “bad” by any stretch of the word. Its passive and useful, but not required. It’ll fill the slot it has to. 3/5

Lag Time

Lag Time is the Corp’s neutral current (something the Runner doesn’t get, yet), so its probably going to be the benchmark for all currents released in the future. Most decks can use the +1 strength ability, so it won’t be uncommon to see this packed in a deck that couldn’t spare the influence. Lag Time synergizes with the soon-to-be-unstoppable Stronger Together deck, giving a whole new meaning to the term “taxing”. However, its a flexible enough card that it’s not even bad in the polar-opposite Fast Advance builds. It can make some binary ETRs a little less porous in the late game, and most FA decks run Eli 1.0, now-a-days already. Lag Time makes sense in a meta that is becoming more taxing, even in those faster gas-pedal deck. Mostly, it exists to make sure that all Corps can get in on the Current action, so its nice that Lag Time is a decent and almost universally useful card. I guess ICE-less/low ICE Personal Evolution decks don’t want it. Almost universally useful. 3/5

….? 4/5? I don’t know.

Will-O’-The-Wisp

Hey, we are finally getting WotW! And, on top of that, now that the acronym has been established in this review, I don’t ever have to type out its name again. Hurray!

WotW is this scary no-influence upgrade that has everyone scratching their head. It is too good. Hell, I’ve even seen it referred to as Core Set Good. The fact that it is no influence means that they are clearly trying to push a play style or game change. I just don’t know what exactly it reinforces. We already have Corp-play that is arguably stronger than current Runners. Did that need to be reinforced? Why was this card made?

I’m not complaining about it, we already have strong cards that completely reset the Runner’s game state (Aggressive Secretary, Archer, other Core Set cards). It’ll just take some getting used to, but I think Runners have the tools to play and recur their tutors almost on-demand. It will just be more of an uphill battle, in my eyes, for the side that I have recently been struggling with. WotW may very well be this cycle’s NAPD Contracts. And that’s pretty exciting. 5/5

D4V1D

Shapers have Deus X and Sharpshooter, Criminals have Faerie, and now Anarchs have D4V1D (I guess Knight also counts). Face-checking programs are really useful, there’s no denying that. And they are much better than events with the same purpose (I’m looking at you, Cyber Threat). For 3 cost, Anarchs get to face-check most of the scary stuff AND it sticks around after its first use. That is sounding pretty sweet already! It gets better though, because this thing synergizes with E3 Feedbacks beautifully, in a way that lets it be a more permanent fixture to your rig! E3 also plays nicely with Overmind, so some of you Anarchs may already be running it. All of these pieces fit so nicely together, I can’t really complain about D4V1D. I mean, it doesn’t break Ichi 1.0 or Rototurret, but Ichi 1.0 can be dealt with by running on your 1st or 2nd click, and Rototurret can easily be Parasited with a Clone Chip.

I’m happy Anarchs got something really useful in this pack, and at 4 influence, it will probably be exclusive to the faction. Granted, other factions don’t really need it, but its a nice supplement to a very competitive rig. 4/5

Scrubbed

Well, here’s something a little bit less useful.

Scrubbed is the Anarch current that is really not worth the two credit cost. Technically, it can save you 2 credits each turn. Technically, it has synergy with the fixed breakers as well as a bunch of other tools Anarchs have. However, it probably won’t do any of that stuff.

Anarchs use Knight and Overmind, primarily. The -2 strength doesn’t do much for Knight, and honestly, any problematic piece of ICE for Overmind is destroyed via Parasite. It is an effect that won’t really be worth the 2 cost because Anarchs aren’t running Gordian Blade or Garrote, so they won’t always save 2 credits. While it has synergy with Ice Carver and Bishop, those are cards that are undeniably underplayed. Ice Carver is pretty decent, but Bishop is a very similar card to Scrubbed. They both reduce the strength of a single piece of ICE, and that’s why it won’t be played much. Even Bishop, which lets you choose the piece of ICE, isn’t worthwhile, so Scrubbed’s random and ever-changing target is even less useful.

Plus, Lotus Field puts a dent in that archetype, anyway. 2/5

Three Steps Ahead

Three Steps Ahead is the first Lunar Cycle Criminal card that actually fits nicely into current competitive Criminal decks. Paper Tripping is conditional and treated as a silver bullet for Midseasons, instead of its potential alternate use of getting tag-me players out of tag-me mode mid-game. Power Tap is as close to useless, in our meta, as a card can be. So Three Steps Ahead is welcomed with open arms. However, I’m uncertain that it’ll actually impact these decks enough to make room for it.

Usually, it is pretty easy to write off Criminal events because there are already too many good Criminal events, and these need to be better than the ones that we aren’t already including in our decks. However, Three Steps Ahead is an economy card, so it doesn’t take up unnecessary space. It’s also a good economy card in the right deck. If the Runner runs archives 3 times, they have made 6 credits in 4 clicks, minus 1 for the play cost. In a normal turn, with no cards to buff your click’s worth, you can obviously only make 4 credits in 4 clicks. So, that’s a pretty underwhelming stat. However, if you add Desperado in the equation, it is now 9 credits in 4 clicks, minus the 1 cost. That’s Magnum Opus economy for a single turn. However, these decks can make it even crazier by adding Security Testing, John Masanori, and Datasucker. With Datasucker, you potentially make 12 credits in 4 clicks, minus the 1 from the cost. With John Masanori, its 13 “credits”, and adding ST its 15 credits (not including the play cost). Three Steps Ahead should obviously be played when you already have Desperado or more installed. Considering it always nets you the credit, as long as you can make 3 runs, it is never really a risky economy card.

Of course, if you are up against a taxing RP build with a pup or two over Archives, you won’t be making much money. If you are looking at Fast Advance across the table, prepare to give them Pop Up money for each of those runs on Archives. Additionally, Datasucker doesn’t fire off if you run a Pad Campaign. These are conditions that might affect this thing’s value, and these are conditions that seem very plausible. That’s why I am uncertain about Three Steps Ahead. It can give you a lot of money, and it does compress the clicks in a way that allows you to run while gaining money, similar to Dirty Laundry. In a way, it is balanced like Security Testing, which is a strong card. Does that mean this is a strong card? Maybe. I look forward to testing this card out, because new Criminal cards don’t tend to see a lot of play*. 4/5

Unscheduled Maintenance

Unscheduled Maintenance is a boring current. It will be most effective on the turn before the game starts, but obviously that is not possible. So, instead, it remains almost useful in an ICE destruction deck. However, the Runner would need to open up two servers in order to make this thing noticeable, and that isn’t the easiest thing to do. The fact that it has a play cost of 1 is nearly insulting, considering that there are games where this active effect won’t even matter. Then, of course, there is the uncertainty factor of all currents, where it might be nullified next turn. The fact that someone would spend 1 credit for an uncertain card that is, in addition to that, just plain bad is baffling to me. This, to me, looks like an in-faction way for Criminals to turn off other currents, and that’s it. Maybe it will be more useful in a Leela Patel deck, where False Echo and her ability is bouncing every piece of ICE back to the Corp’s HQ. But a lot of us are doubtful of that kind of jank, so I’m just going to dismiss this card completely for now. 1/5

Cache

*=in faction.

Cache is worse than an Easy Mark*. It takes up memory but there are just better econ options available*.

Cache is a card that has everybody excited. It has a few key words and numbers that make it really strong- Out of faction, that is. First of all, It is a Virus. This means that it gets the mill from Noise. It also synergies with Grimoire because of this. Second of all, it costs a single credit, which makes the mill affordable for an identity that is known for being pretty poor. Thirdly, it does all of the above while being an economy card, This is really important. Noise just got a 1 cost Virus in the last pack, but this card is so good because it serves multiple functions in a single click. It is an economy card that is perfectly in line with the strategy and synergy of the deck. This is similar to why Dirty Laundry is in every Criminal deck. If a criminal can make a run while using their economy card, why wouldn’t they? If Noise can mill a card while also making money, why wouldn’t he? As if this wasn’t enough, it doesn’t auto-trash itself, which means that Noise will be selling this to Aesop, as he regularly does with Imp and Wlydside.

At one influence, this is clearly a Red card. While it is such a mediocre card elsewhere, it does so much for Noise that I can’t imagine it not being in every Noise build for the rest of the cycle. For that reason, I should give this a 5/5, even though it is strictly NOT a 5/5 elsewhere. While it doesn’t do much for anyone else, it does a lot of work in the right deck, just like Heinlein Grid. So yeah, 5/5

Net Celebrity

Net Celebrity is the only Runner current that looks universally playable. If your meta has a lot of Corp currents, this might be a strong include, since it is almost as good as having a Bad Pub. 1 recurring credit for a single credit seems like a good exchange, but of course, the uncertain nature of currents means that this might only last two turns, and then this card becomes a lot worse. It is unfortunate that it isn’t a stealth card, because it would have really helped legitimize the archetype that a lot of people are excited for. Regardless, a 1 influence current that is inarguably more useful than both Scrubbed and Unscheduled Maintenance is looking pretty decent. 3/5

LLDS Energy Regulator

LLDS Energy Regulator doesn’t have a place in any current deck I can think of. Because of Leprechaun and Lamprey, I am starting to see Sacrificial Construct pop up again, which does the same thing except in addition to saving your programs. Instead, for 1MU and 3 credits, you can save an additional piece of hardware from being trashed. The problem is that it just isn’t worth it. How often is hardware being trashed? Once a game if you are unlucky, mostly never though. I can’t imagine this actually helping your deck do anything it wants to do, and unlike Sac Con, it isn’t flexible enough to be worth the include. 1/5

Ghost Runner

I was going to give Ghost Runner a 3/5 for being a useful support tool that isn’t too great anywhere else. However, it is much better than that for one reason; These credits aren’t retrieved via paid ability. Ghost Runner means that low-econ Runners can steal NAPDs during the access, as well as pay for their breakers. Cache can’t give you credits once you are digging R&D, but Ghost Runner is the perfect back-up. It is an incredibly flexible card in the right deck, and it makes a lot of decks that much more playable. It may not be the most exciting cards for people not running those archetypes, but it is a card that is so necessary for those decks that it opens up a lot more options in the deck building process. 4/5

—–

And that’s The Spaces Between! I wrote this review over the span of a week or two, so it is messy, inconsistent, and probably inaccurate due to the occasional lack of playtesting. So, I urge you to go out and test as many of these as possible, and gather your own opinions. There is a lot of exciting stuff in this pack.