Tiered Subscription is one of 3 new advertisements in Downfall and at first glance, it looks quite attractive (even outside of Spark) with its strong rez/trash numbers. It’s definitely the strongest of the 0 instant-rez advertisements and that’s quite a big deal as Spark when you can drain credits turn 1 without ever losing initial tempo. Its 3 trash cost isn’t too bad either and is on-par with the other commonly played advertisements/campaigns.
However, in testing I found Tiered Sub alone does not always do enough for you. Tiered Sub’s true use is being an additional supplement to other must-trash assets. Without the latter on the board, the Runner can often ignore runs altogether until they are fully set up, leaving you creditless turn-after-turn while you were wishing you had an installed PAD Campaign instead. In that regard though, Tiered Sub can really find a home in horizontal decks who constantly require the Runner to run and interact with the must-trash assets. At 1 influence, it could be widely splashable anywhere.
What about the alternatives like Paywall Implementation or Sundew? Paywall is in most cases likely to make you more money but is 1 more influence and takes up your current slot while Tiered Sub could combo with ELP or Service Outage. Sundew is a stronger way to force the Runner’s decision-making and is the superior option in RP but is pricier in influence and isn’t in-the-black 99% of the times that Tiered Sub is.
In conclusion, you want to use Tiered Sub to put the Runner into a lose-lose situation. If they run and trash/steal your stuff, Tiered Sub makes you money; if they don’t, you steamroll them with your other tempo assets.