Indexing

Indexing 0[credit]

Event: Run
Influence: 3

Run R&D. If successful, instead of breaching R&D, you may look at the top 5 cards of R&D and arrange them in any order.

A little corporate restructuring is necessary once in a while.
Illustrated by Mauricio Herrera
Decklists with this card

Future Proof (fp)

#106 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
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Rulings

No rulings yet for this card.

Reviews

This card is great for two main reasons:

  • it let you check R&D and avoid all the nasty traps that could hide there
  • it gives you knowledge about what will be the next five cards drawn by corporation

In most cases, you will want to play it on your first click, to have enough time to come back for any agendas you moved up front. Be careful about Jackson Howard, because his deck-shuffling mambo jumbo can negate effect of this card. But on the other hand, you can use Indexing to lure corporation into wasting Howard sooner that they would want. If you play it, be sure your run will be successful and you will be able to use it, it would be a shame to lose it's powerful effect to Caprice Nisei or Crisium Grid.

If there are no agendas in five cards in R&D, you will at least now know to look for them elsewhere.

With 3 influence cost it's not something you can fit in any deck, but one copy here and there in Criminal or Anarch deck can be very surprising for the corporation. In the way they won't really appreciate the surprise. It's event, so after Comet lands, there will be some pretty nasty combos to play with The Maker's Eye.

(Order and Chaos era)
287

With Jackson Howard rotated out this has gone from nigh-unplayable to extremely reliable wincon. If you have the resources to pull off two or three R&D runs in a row it's prettymuch GG. If you pull one of these off and don't see the agendas to stack the deck with, it still serves as reliable information to go fishing in HQ instead. Even if you fail to see things you want to steal you still get the chance to guide your opponent's next few draws.

Now that Jackson Howard is gone I don't think Deep Data Mining or Maker's Eye stand up to this. While they provide similar effects they're both more expensive to run, with Deep Data Mining requiring a rig built around maximizing MU and Maker's Eye not pulling as much information. While they both allow you a glimpse into the future, Indexing alone lets you change it. Against players running ambushes DDM and ME may end up getting you killed, while Indexing wont.

Adding "Freedom Through Equality" or Mad Dash to the mix makes this even crazier.

(Crimson Dust era)
27
Unplayable through Jackson? In my experience, Indexing was one of the most heavily played Shaper forms of R&D pressure. —
With every deck running 3 of Jackson and his ability to RFG to force a shuffle on R&D before your next run is successful, the information and scoring opportunity provided by Indexing was preventable if he was anywhere on the table. Knowing every deck out there is packing three-of a card that counters this one made it a poor choice over Maker's Eye. —
Of course that is just my opinion, based on what I played and what the people I played against used. Museum's prevalence didn't help it either. —

Want to setup the game of the corp for the next few turns, Indexing is there for you. Want to make any crp miserable, Indexing is there for you. Want to be Shaper, feel like the top of the world and win games, Indexing is there for you.

With the return of Indexing, every Shaper deck will have it. No reason not to have it. That is how powerful this card is.

Even the almighty Khusyuk is not as good. Indexing require no setup and is mainly enable if the runner can make run for cheap, which Shaper is the best at.

Even Trap heavy deck can't do anything about this. The only prevention is to put a lot of strong ices on R&D, or to use Crisium Grid or Hokusai Grid. Otherwise, there is always Salem's Hospitality to make sure you get rid of it in the hand of the runner.

A top tier art, a top tier quote, a top tier effect euqal a top tier card.

(Salvaged Memories era)
3830