Steelskin Scarring

Steelskin Scarring 1[credit]

Event
Influence: 2

Draw 3 cards.

When this event is trashed from your grip or stack, you may draw 2 cards.

Reactive implants reclaim the memories of our fallen comrades. Their sacrifice is our shield.
Illustrated by Elliott Birt
Decklists with this card

Midnight Sun (ms)

#4 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Midnight Sun
Rulings
  • Updated 2022-09-10

    When the Runner plays Steelskin Scarring, is it trashed from their grip?

    No, it is trashed from the play area. When the Runner plays Steelskin Scarring, they will only resolve its first ability, drawing 3 cards.

  • Updated 2022-09-10

    Does the Runner draw cards from Steelskin Scarring when it is discarded to meet their maximum hand size?

    No, discarded cards are not considered trashed.

  • Updated 2022-09-10

    How does Buffer Drive interact with Steelskin Scarring?

    Both cards' conditional abilities meet their trigger conditions at the same time, and the Runner can choose to resolve either one first. If they choose to resolve Buffer Drive's ability first and put Steelskin Scarring on the bottom of the stack, they will not be able to resolve Steelskin Scarring’s ability because that ability is no longer active once its source leaves the heap. If they choose to resolve Steelskin Scarring’s ability first, they will still be able to use Buffer Drive’s ability after drawing 2 cards.

  • Updated 2022-09-28

    What exactly happens if Steelskin Scarring is on top of the Runner's stack and they play Labor Rights?

    Each sentence on Labor Rights is an instruction, and other abilities that meet their trigger conditions have the opportunity to resolve between instructions. So Labor Rights will trash 3 cards including Steelskin Scarring, then Steelskin Scarring's ability will trigger and the Runner may draw 2 cards. Then, the Runner shuffles cards (which could include the same copy of Steelskin Scarring) from their heap into their stack, and finally, they draw 1 more card and remove Labor Rights from the game.

  • Updated 2023-10-01

    If the Runner plays The Price, and the top card of the stack is Steelskin Scarring, which cards from the top of the stack will be trashed, and which ones will be drawn?

    Each sentence on The Price is an instruction, and other abilities that meet their trigger conditions have the opportunity to resolve between instructions. The Price will trash the top 4 cards of the stack all at once, and then the trashed Steelskin Scarring will allow the Runner to draw the next two cards of the stack.

Reviews

And here we have a sort-of reprint of I've Had Worse, although there are some key differences.

They both draw you 3 cards for 1 credit when played. But Steelskin only draws 2 cards instead of 3 when it gets trashed. To make up for this, it now triggers off any type of damage, meaning all the newly released core damage cards will have you drawing 2. If any corps are still brave enough to be on cards like Cerebral Overwriter with the release of Borealis, Steelskin will help you recover from that.

Furthermore, Steelskin also works when trashed from the stack, which is a nice bonus. This would crucially have worked with MaxX: Maximum Punk Rock's mill ability, which would have been a bit ridiculous, but she is now rotated. Frantic Coding and Labor Rights are runner cards that can put this in the bin. There is also Persephone but... yeah. On the corp side there are janky cards like Aimor, although you are very unlikely to run into those. Engram Flush can trigger Steelskin (relevant in Startup) but since it says "may", the corp would need a good reason to let you draw cards for free.

So is this better or worse than IHW? For being so flexible and with Esa probably being a force to be reckoned with going forward, I would rate this slightly higher. But time will tell.

(Midnight Sun Booster Pack era)
1948

Some other fun cards this works with: Patchwork, Carnivore, and Moshing.

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I would add that this triggers even when there is no damage being inflicted (such as when you trash it to pay for Carnivore), which makes it much more flexible than I've Had Worse, which was exclusively a defense mechanism.

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