Tyrant

Tyrant 7[credit]

Ice: Barrier
Strength: 4
Influence: 2

Tyrant can be advanced only while rezzed and gains "[subroutine] End the run." for each advancement token on it.

Thou shall not pass.
Illustrated by Isuardi Therianto
Decklists with this card

A Study in Static (asis)

#78 • English
Startup Card Pool
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Rulings

No rulings yet for this card.

Reviews

Everything about this card suggests to me that it was printed as an inside joke among the designers at Fantasy Flight; this card is anything but tyrannical. For 7 credits, you’ll receive a generous 0 subroutines. Spending 7 credits on any ice is already a huge tempo hit, but at least the big hitters like Heimdall 1.0 or Tollbooth are taxing enough to be worth their cost. Barring any supporting cards, you’ll have to invest 1 click and a credit (we’re at 9 or more credits now for those keeping track) to be at parity with Bastion; at this point though, you could just stack two Bastions for the same price.

Let’s run these cards through the acid (Corroder) test: Tyrant (with one advancement) = 3 credits to break vs. Bastion x 2 = 6 credits to break.

This is just unforgivable inefficiency. At least with Woodcutter (another awkward ‘rez THEN advance’ ice) and Corporate Troubleshooter you could theoretically win the game.

Back to the joke thing. It’s been a long time since I read the Bible, but didn’t the Hebrews escape Egypt?

(The Universe of Tomorrow era)
I think this card is sort of viable in Tennin Institute deck, but other than that, this really is a toothless piece of ice —
without saying that morning star breaks it for 1 cred whatever the number of advancement tokens on it. —
I can't see this ever being good, but Woodcutter might get a new lease on life with PAD Factory. Runner plans for Ice Wall; gets his hand shredded out of Weyland instead. —
It might work better against Lady if you can put 5 counters on it. But at strength 4 it'd probably just get Atmaned. —
The mechanic is meant to reliably tax the runner more the more you advance it. Anything except Morning Star needs at least one additional credit to break this. You want to rezz him early and advance him once per turn. Sadly he will be parasited by then. —
Did some silly moves with this and Sub Boost. :D —

People saying this card is an inside joke better wake up. Tyrant can be super powerfull in Tennin. Just played a game where i got a Tyrant with 13 advancement tokens and the server just got unstoppable! Combine it with commercialization and you're in for a treat!

(Data and Destiny era)
I agree that it is playable, but it is hard to play. And just hope the runner isn't running Morning Star. —
Or a Parasite. Or Sherman. Or Atman-4. It is really nice against Lady and Faust though, and David can't touch it. —
Atman-4 still costs a credit per sub. Corridor - 2c + 1 per sub. I dunno what the crime run, but I bet it hurts to go vs. a 5-8 sub barrier —
To be honest, if you've gotten a piece of advanceable ice with 13 advancement counters on it, of course it's going to hurt the runner, be it this, Hadrians, or even just an Ice Wall. —

This can have an advancement (or multiple advancements) on it now when played by using Mumbad Construction Co. if you decide to invest at least 9 credits when rezzing. Same for Woodcutter.

Rez Tyrant > Move advancements to Tyrant from Mumbad Co. > ??? > Profit.

(I'd rather do it with Woodcutter).

(23 Seconds era)
PAD Factory and Tennin too. —
To be clear, PAD factory and Tennin add the counter before Rez because they don't require that the card be advanceable. —
Toss in an Anson Rose so that, when it rezzes, it instantly has tokens, or potentially a Chief Slee if there are enough end the runs on it to force them to break as many as possible... —