Frantic Coding

Frantic Coding 3[credit]

Event
Influence: 3

Look at the top 10 cards of your stack. If any of those cards are programs, you may install one of them, lowering the install cost by 5. Trash the rest of those cards.

Omar goes through four, five keyboards per week, no two from the same decade.
Illustrated by Nasrul Hakim
Decklists with this card

Intervention (in)

#62 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Intervention
Rulings
  • Updated 2024-02-02

    UFAQ [Michael Boggs]

    If the Runner uses Paige Piper to find and trash the other copies of the card installed by Frantic Coding, are the rest of the cards looked at still trashed?

    No. Paige Piper interrupts the resolution of Frantic Coding, and as a search effect it shuffles the stack. After this, the cards that were looked at can no longer be confirmed and referenced, so the rest of Frantic Coding’s ability fails to resolve.

Reviews

I want to quickly note that this combos with Paige Piper to let you save the other 9 cards from being trashed. And to remove extra copies of the chosen card in your deck if you choose to. This enables playing lots of redundant cards, which helps with the random nature of Frantic Coding.

(Quorum era)
501
"[...]this combos with Paige Piper to let you simply trash ANY AMOUNT OF extra copies of the chosen card" ... Any includes 0. —
How does that even work, rules-wise? Can anybody explain it to me, step-by-step? —
https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/android-netrunner/support/FAQ/Android-Netrunner%20FAQ.pdf If the Corp uses the ability on The Foundry during the resolution of an Accelerated Beta Test, what happens? Each piece of ice is installed and rezzed one at a time. So the Corp installs the first piece of ice and then uses The Foundry to search R&D for another copy. This results in shuffling the other two looked at cards into R&D (they never actually leave R&D), preventing them from being installed or trashed. --- same interaction here. —
@Krams Good point! I'll edit that. —
If this actually works, and I guess it does based on Goldsteps explanation, then that changes things. This card alone sucks and would only be a worst case scenario play at best. But to search out a program among 10 cards, install it and save up to two credits (more with PpVP) is something else, something really good. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. —
Obviously I mean that to do so without trashing the other nine cards is something really good. —

So, this card has an obvious purpose and a less obvious one. The obvious purpose is to try and retrieve a specific program at a discount. For this, the card is...okay? You gain two credits and decent deck digging, and in exchange nine cards go to your heap. (I'm not counting the card and click spent to play this because you save a card and click playing the program). This is an interesting trade-off and whether it's a good idea depends on your exact deck. Which brings me to the less obvious purpose...

...namely, that some decks would probably play an Event that cost 0 and just sent ten cards to your heap.

This is a much more entrenched strategy in MtG, where "self-mill" as it's called there is a valid tactic. Essentially: If you have cards that can retrieve stuff from your heap then putting cards into your heap is almost like drawing them, right? The strongest example illustrates why our friend Omar is the face of this card: Dumping a Paperclip and a Black Orchestra into your heap is great. Hell, using this to find your Killer can give you a full rig in one fell swoop! Throw in some Déjà Vu and some Clone Chip and suddenly trashing all your important stuff doesn't seem so bad. Trashing a bunch of copies of Exclusive Party isn't a terrible idea either.

There's still the question of ID. MaxX probably finds this card to be overkill, although that deck sounds like it would be hilarious to play. Noise might be able to get some mileage given that Déjà Vu returns two Viruses, although you probably want Same Old Thing as insurance on that. Exile could probably use it to fuel some jank...if it wasn't three influence, anyway. And really, any recursion-heavy deck running Omar's breakers could probably look into a build tuned to use this card.

(Intervention era)
It's also worth noting that while unlikely, this card can entirely "miss". Or you may find only a program you don't need. In that case you just spent 3 credits to screw yourself over. —

I'm seriously torn on this card. The closest comparison I can make to this is Inject, which when played in a lot of current Anarch decks usually synergises quite well with the bin-breakers and anarchs having deja-vu for those precious viruses they didn't mean to trash. At the end of the day it cycles through 4 cards in your deck, for a measly cost of 1 credit, and even pays you back somewhat for the slight disadvantage of trashing programs.

The problem I see with this card is its huge investment, and the fringe circumstances where you would actually want to see this card. I've been in a few matchups where my breaker suite is almost set up save for that splashed Mongoose or Gordian Blade because i'm sick of paying 3 creds against a Quandary with Black Orchestra. In that occasion, I would love to be able to absolutely chomp through my deck, and install that elusive breaker on the same click. You save some credits, sure, but remember that this card costs 3 up-front, so if you actually manage to find the program you want then you only end up saving 2 creds, which often ends up being only 1 credit when you consider most 'good' breakers played in anarch cost 4 or less, save for Yog.0.

This card seems amazing in the above scenario, where you want to tear through the rest of your redundant cards to find that last important piece. You almost certainly don't want to play it early as it might just end up trashing stuff you really needed. For this reason, I don't think the card is nearly as good as it needs to be. I'm sure it will see a lot of testing and i'll be happy to be proven wrong, but I just don't think its drawbacks outweigh its benefits.

(Intervention era)