Stimhack Cube Runner - Mar2024 (RWR)

This is a special, one-card update of the Stimhack Cube, a curated pool of cards to draft with to create decks with powerful and fun interactions. If this is new and intriguing to you, there's a detailed explanation at the end. I'll be releasing an update shortly after the entire set has been spoiled. Feel free to chime in on GLC's #drafts and Stimslack's #cube to recommend modifications for the new set. (As always, shoutouts to bblum/jdeng/other cube testers for creating and honing the Stimhack Cube.)

I'd love to talk about how to use the card, strategies, and what archetypes it fits in. But first, y'all are here for the new card, so here it is with an explanation from card designers Sanjay and Laura:

The first thing to look at is the question, "Without other powers, how many birds do you need in the habitat for Amelia to cache a food?" In the base game, Amelia needs at least two other birds in the forest besides herself to activated, and in the grasslands is on as soon as she arrives (as long as you have a food to discard). With the Oceania pack it turns on in both habitats with one additional bird (as long as you can discard an additional resource)

All in all, for a 0-point bird that costs 3 food with a middling egg capacity, the base ability of merely gaining a point every activation is somewhat lackluster. But it's the potential of the second part of the activated ability that gets really exciting. This bird has the potential to gain 8 points in one activation (1 cached on it, plus ten for the 10 cached food minus the 3 cached food you give up). That's a ludicrous ceiling. And Wingspan isn't really a game where you tend to lose abilities, so in an ideal world, you could do this more than once.

Of course, your opponent is probably not going to have 10 food in their supply... But in the base game, even hitting a few food with this and forcing your opponent to shuffle their food types a bit can be powerful disruption. Food tends to be scarce in the base game, so while the point value for Amelia is lower, she also can really slow down opponents trying to execute their strategies. With Oceania, the disruption of the ability is mitigated by the availability of wild nectar. However, several expansion bird cards provide powerful payoffs for food accumulation, and the more powerful forest row means your opponent is more likely to be stockpiling an amount of food that make Amelia a truly fearsome points generator.

Amelia Earhart is playing in scarcely explored mechanical and strategic territory and that's really exciting. Wingspan has had some birds that steal food before, but always replacing it, like Amelia does. Those birds ended up not being very impactful, but with the volume of food draining that Amelia can do, I'm optimistic she can play some pretty sincere, if subtle, denial. I'm most excited to pair her up with some Hummingbirds, which generate food for everyone at the table. This is a game about racking up points with your discovered synergies than it is hard denial. Other games, of course, are different.

Jonas here, and I've made a few modifications to get this to work in the Stimhack Cube. Netrunner is less about tableau-building and more about interacting with your opponent. In this case, when you interact a lot with your opponent by accessing cards from HQ or RND, you get the opportunity to interact with your opponent by punching a hole in their defenses, denying precious credits they may need to close out the game.

In the cube, it could be reasonably played anywhere. Whenever you've got multiaccess, this can do work. IDs like Leela, Tao, and Kit may be good at guaranteeing these multiaccess runs. And astute drafters may realize the potential it has in Captain Padma.

Sweaty competitive tryhards that haven't already scrolled to the bottom are probably asking themselves, "Why would I draft this card? I've already seen 9+ cards off of central servers. Won't that win me the game anyways?" And to them, I would reply that not everything, especially in cube drafting, is for them. Maybe you'll win the game, but maybe you'll flatline yourself trying to access too many cards at once from a deck chock-full of traps. Maybe you'll manage to miss all of their agendas and this is your corvid insurance policy to make up for your bad luck. Maybe still, you'll end up taking their 10 credits, but they'll have enough credits saved up that they can put up a fighting chance of winning anyways. Regardless, I'm certain that Amelia will add complexity and excitement to an already fun Netrunner game format.

I suppose if you were to put the card in a Netrunner frame, it might look a little like this:

How to create and draft a cube

This list, as well as the Corp list, are missing 16 IDs each. You can draft IDs just as you would any other card. All IDs are 40 cards, infinite influence, and you can play any agenda you want regardless of faction. If you do not draft an ID, you play as a blank ID (The Syndicate / The Catalyst)

Games are played to 7 points as usual. Corps have access to 1x Jackson Howard and 5x Priority Requisition. Runners do not receive any free cards.

The cube supports up to (and ideally) 8 players. Each player will start with 4 random 'packs' of 15 cards each. Corp is drafted, alternating the direction passed with each pack, and then Runner is drafted.

The Runner IDs are:

Alice Merchant: Clan Agitator

Armand "Geist" Walker: Tech Lord

Captain Padma Ibister: Intrepid Explorer

Freedom Khumalo: Crypto-Anarchist

Hayley Kaplan: Universal Scholar

Kabonesa Wu: Netspace Thrillseeker

Leela Patel: Trained Pragmatist

MaxX: Maximum Punk Rock

Nyusha "Sable" Sintashta: Symphonic Prodigy

Quetzal: Free Spirit

Reina Roja: Freedom Fighter

René "Loup" Arcemont: Party Animal

Rielle "Kit" Peddler: Transhuman

Steve Cambridge: Master Grifter

Sunny Lebeau: Security Specialist

Tāo Salonga: Telepresence Magician