Touch-ups

Touch-ups 2[credit]

Operation: Double
Influence: 3

As an additional cost to play this operation, spend [click].

Place 2 advancement counters on 1 installed card you can advance. If you do, choose a card type and reveal the grip. Choose up to 2 revealed cards of that type. The Runner shuffles those cards into the stack.

“Your Star Power is in the toilet, kid. We need a fresh face.”
Illustrated by Amirul Hhf
Decklists with this card

Elevation (elev)

#67 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
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Reviews

If you squint, this card basically says, "If the runner has 2 Events in hand, do 2 unpreventable meat damage that doesn't trigger Steelskin Scarring." Why is this important? Well, it turns out the runner going from 5 cards to 3 cards in hand makes certain proactive solutions that much more effective - that is, lethal in single, rather than double doses. The caveats here are you need something to advance - easy enough, given decent advanceable ICE exists in both yellow and green, and the Runner needs two of some card type in their hand when you play it. AFAIK there aren't any grip-snoop cards in Standard except for like Focus Group but then that's a massive waste of credits and effort just for some info - so you might just have to guess. My gut tells me Event is generally the best call, especially against runners like MuslihaT: Multifarious Marketeer but idk you might call resource sometimes. Outside of green murder decks Jinteki might use this to do things with Neurospike or Phật Gioan Baotixita. I struggle to see HB using this one.

Man, I do not want the last thing I see before getting shot is that guy's face.

(Elevation era)

I like how it has an implicit Play this operation only if there is an installed card you can advance.. You can even place the counters on an already-installed Mestnichestvo, being safely not access-able.

Touch-Ups (🎭) is like “Shipment from SanSan + Salem's Hospitality”. It:

  • compresses advancement (costing the same clicks/credits as taking the basic advancement-action twice) with disruption (taking out two of your choice).
  • deals “pseudo-damage”. The cards: get reshuffled, not trashed (the Runner can redraw them, but SS / SF don't trigger); and aren't random (by default, just choose event for the widest choice).
  • is an Operation (triggering Nebula/etc, unlike the basic-action.)
  • has an implicit Play this operation only if there is an installed card you can advance.. But advanceables need not be accessible.

For example:

  • You can IAA a 5/3 while “burning” two cards that could steal the agenda. Like pushing a Next Big Thing, while taking out some run-event that would help them breach it (or even an icebreaker if you chose program)? Or in Jinteki, for Fujii Asset Retrieval, while “softening up” the grip? (IDK.)
  • You can also just “touch-up” a Mestnichestvo, if you want to shuffle away two cards (EG. Steelskin Scarring) and then kill them (EG. End of the Line).
(Elevation era)