Kind of just throwing ideas out there but I recently realized that this is the first and only "Mandate" card released. After trawling through the card list and eventually just searching by keyword I found that Rebellion Without Rehersal not only introduces a new mechanic in the form of Mandate but that this card right here is the only Mandate in the game.

What is the Mandate mechanic and why does this card's special effect only trigger if this is the first mandate? Well, that's exactly what I want to talk about.

The Possibilities:

1. A Mandate is a card that draws other cards - Unlikely, there are Operations in the same cycle that draw cards yet are not Mandates (Corporate Hospitality and Mindscaping)

2. A Mandate is a card that plays another card - Also Unlikely, there are Operations in the same cycle that play other cards yet are not Mandates (Greasing the Palm and Pivot)

3. A Mandate is a purely cosmetic subtype like Deep Net (see World Tree or Seraph) - Maybe... but probably not, otherwise why would this card care whether another Mandate has been played

4. An internal non-combo to prevent fast advance

This is the most likely consideration, as far as I can tell. If the Mandate sub-consideration did not exist, it would be possible to play 3 back-to-back Sudden Commandments, netting yourself 2 Clicks and enabling the ability to fast-advance a 4/2 from hand. Interestingly enough however, even if this was possible, it would be inadvisable because for the same number of cards (3) and the same number of credits (12) you could play 3 back-to-back Biotic Labors gaining 3 Clicks and scoring a 5/3 from hand.

That being said, Biotic Labor is rotating soon and it's possible the designers wanted to preemptively shut down fast advance combos and make it clear that this is not the new Biotic Labor, it's meant purely for tempo plays. Except... it can be used to fast advance, using this card and another card that could otherwise not be used for fast-advance like Subliminal Messaging, Red Level Clearance or Business As Usual it is possible to fast advance agendas from hand with this cards help, even post rotation.

So... why is the limitation there? Is Sudden Commandment meant to be a pseudo-fast advance tool, yet limited to only being able to fast-advance 3/1s and 3/2s, not 4/2 or 5/3s? Again, maybe it's just an attempt to curb future fast advance but since fast advance tools can be comboed together, it's still possible to use this card + RLC + The Holo Man to score a 4/2 from hand. Or use this card + Vladisibirsk City Grid to do the same thing. Is the only goal to force more complex multi-card fast advance lines instead of just being able to chain one card into itself.

Perhaps the more interesting questions are;

A. Will more Mandates be coming in future sets and

B. What similarities and differences will future Mandates have?

Will future Mandates all allow you to gain an extra click if it's the first Mandate played that turn, or would they enable other effects like gaining credits if this is the first Mandate played that turn or installing a piece of ICE ignoring costs if that is the first Mandate played that turn or even something wilder.

Only time will tell but it's an interesting new mechanic that was slipped in without nearly as much hoorah as say the Threat N mechanic was.

One of the more interesting recursion cards in the game, it can be difficult to analyze and evaluate this card, but I want to give some heuristics and speculations.

Let's consider this card in 3 different contexts:

1. How useful it is for the average Anarch
2. How useful it is for Sebastião Souza Pessoa: Activist Organizer (for whom it is designed)
3. How useful it is out of faction (and by extension whether it is worth importing into Shaper or Criminal)

It's not perfect but I think the best comparison is Retrieval Run, as they are both run events that target Archives and replace access with the ability to install a program from the Heap.

There are three main differences I can see:

1. The program recursion only works after Threat 3
2. The difference in costs
3. The tag and added resource recursion

For the threat effect, I would say that it's generally true to assume that you want recursion later in the game and as others have noted, Threat 3 is substantially preferable to Theat 4 due to the technicalities regarding Agenda distributions. If this had said Threat 4, that might have been a problem, but Threat 3 is tolerable.

In regards to costs, Privileged access is free, but requires you to pay the installation cost of the program, while Retrieval Run costs 3 up front, but installs the program ignoring all costs. While this might matter in a Faction like Shaper that plays Lobisomem and Orca it's of little importance to Anarchs due to the cheapness of the vast majority of their most common programs.

Cleaver, Audrey v2, Boi-tatá and Mimic all cost 3 to install, meaning it's a break-even whichever way you do it.

And while there are a handful of slightly more expensive programs like Buzzsaw, Stargate, Odore, Num, Banner or Begemot. They are balanced out by programs that cost less than three like Leech, Fermenter, Imp, Botulus, Chisel or Utae.

In this sense, Privileged Access has already broken even with Retrieval Run so for this card to be on par the first effect just needs to not be a drawback.

While the wording can be somewhat overwhelming and difficult to follow, let me rephrase it as this: would you be willing to take a tag to install a 1 credit Daily Casts from your heap? The answer is probably yes. I don't think taking a tag to get a little bit of extra money is a true downside and in some situations, it may even be a bonus.

Because of this, Privileged Access is competitive with Retrieval Run, perhaps the bigger problem for the average Anarch is that Retrieval Run itself often isn't competitive. Anarchs are spoilt for choice when it comes to recursion, and are also the most common users of neutral recursion, the average Anarch deck of today probably runs a Buffer Drive, an Ashen Epilogue and 2-3 Labor Rights which allow them to cycle through the entirety of their deck more than twice, allowing a 45-50 card deck to function more like a 100+ card deck. In such extreme situations limited single or double target recursion like Retrieval Run or Privileged Access just can't compete at that scale and often get ignored as a result.

When it comes to the second consideration, Sebastião Souza Pessoa: Activist Organizer can stretch this card's value proposition quite well, getting all the major benefits regular Anarchs do while also counterbalancing the cost of the tag. Not only that but Seb often runs cards like Valentina Ferreira Carvalho and Friend of a Friend that further diminish the drawbacks of taking a tag and as a result, Privileged Access already sees play in Seb decks. At minimum you can take a tag, install a card from hand and reinstall an already used Friend of a Friend and an already used Fermenter, turning this into a high-value soft econ card, that can also be used to recur trashed breakers or unique connections in a pinch. I suspect this card will continue to see play in Seb for the foreseeable future unless something changes dramatically in the meta.

For other factions this card doesn't look so promising, Shapers have plenty of in-faction program recursion like Simulchip or Muse as well as strong general recursion in the form of Harmony AR Therapy so they're hardly desperate for a card like this. And unless you are DJ Fenrising Seb then most Shapers will probably regard the tag as toxic and avoid it like the plague. Criminals, on the other hand, are desperate for recursion, lacking good options of their own and theoretically have synergy with run events in the form of Ken “Express” Tenma: Disappeared Clone, Swift and Debbie "Downtown" Moreira but I still don't think criminals are likely to play this card as if you've already decided you need to spend influence for importing something you'd probably prefer to spend the same amount of influence on a Labor Rights or spend one more influence for Harmony AR Therapy.

Some worthwhile mentions:

1. Seb cares about Connections, which are a specific subtype of Resources, but Privileged Access can theoretically recur any type of Resource, Connection or otherwise
2. This card can recur up to 2 other cards but does not remove itself from the game like most multi-recursion options do, which in turn makes it an exceptional target for other forms of recursion
3. This card installs the cards it recurs rather than put them back into the stack like Labor Rights or back into the hand like Katorga Breakout, which means the added click compression could be valuable
4. You don't have to immediately remove the tag after taking it, so you could use this card for set-up/econ and then just run HQ or R&D for some additional multiaccess off Manuel Lattes de Moura
5. You cannot play this card if you are already tagged, which is probably obvious if you've already got into the habit of playing Seb but it's meaningful that this card will not work with proper tag-me decks that play Counter Surveillance for example

More broadly I think I like the direction NSG is taking with Runner Recursion, specifically with rotation in mind, cards like Katorga Breakout or Privileged Access are more specific, limited and intentional recursion than something like Labor Rights. And Ashen Epilogue has clear downsides and risks when compared to Levy AR Lab Access, which is probably for the best since excessive runner recursion, a state of the game I think we are currently in, risks creating problematic game states for the corp where Runner econ seems both fast and limitless and it's impossible to tax them out, (DJ Fenris + Steve Cambridge: Master Grifter in Shaper is particularly disturbing in my opinion and I think the game will be easier to balance with it rotated from Standard). Plus, well-balanced Runner recursion reduces the need for aggressive counterplay like Skorpios Defense Systems: Persuasive Power, Blacklist or Chronos Project all of which have their own problems.

Thematically I quite like this card and would honestly have loved to see more Seb + Eru cards as they seem like such a cute couple. The quote is a neat reference and the art well represents Eru's ability to sneak in and recover important data from the corp as a result of her position inside the corporations due to being a clone (see Eru Ayase-Pessoa). In regards to her ability to recur a Resource... perhaps it's a reference to rioters working with Seb and Eru getting arrested and the two of them using their privileged positions to help break their friends out? That would be a cool touch. Plus the creepy dude in the background well represents the fact that you can get it, but not without being watched and noticed (hence tagged). Very cool card, a great theme, Seb and Eru may not have landed well in the meta, but the story telling of these cards is top tier.

Of special note that this actually allows a Runner: - Being (or DJ Fenris ing) Nyusha "Sable" Sintashta: Symphonic Prodigy with a mark on HQ. or - Having a Pichação on an HQ ICE to recover a click from zero clicks (e.g. if the Corp does double False Lead, MCA Austerity Policy+Active Policing etc.) and from there on use other tools like Hannah "Wheels" Pilintra or Swift to recover further clicks.

It's somewhat strange to see an ID with no review, now nearly nine months after its release. Interestingly enough, "somewhat strange" may be the perfect way to describe Mr Pessoa, affectionately known as Seb by the community. While Shapers were clearly the big winners of the Liberation cycle (looking at you Trick Shot), I'd say Anarchs have had it pretty good too, Strike Fund and The Price have quickly become staples across a wide range of trash me Anarch decks, Solidarity Badge sees a solid amount of play even outside of tag me decks as a card draw engine for Imp decks. Audrey v2 is a potent AI breaker seeing a lot of new play as what is perhaps a more balanced "near-print" of Faust, Banner has applications in both Esâ Afontov: Eco-Insurrectionist decks and breakless Mercury: Chrome Libertador decks. Even out of faction, Hannah "Wheels" Pilintra is a staple of Deep Dive shaper decks and Monkeywrench sees some play in Arissana Rocha Nahu: Street Artist. And of course, we cannot talk about Liberation Anarchs without mentioning Arruaceiras Crew which has brought ICE destruction back with a vengeance, arguably being one of the most versatile and easy-to-use ICE destruction tools yet.

Seb however is not exactly the most promising Anarch card in Liberation, which is always somewhat odd as "his toys" see more play in other hands than his own. But why, what makes Seb so hard to utilize?

Well, let's start with what he does, whenever you take a tag, you can install a connection resource paying two credits less. Because removing a tag requires a click and 2 credits, even if we assume you have a connection resource that costs 2 or more that you want to install in your hand whenever you take a tag, that still means that you only really break even from taking a tag, since you save yourself a click and two credits on the install and spend a click and 2 credits removing the tag. Which... is kinda pointless.

Normally that would lead us down the obvious road of tag-me Anarchs; if you never need to remove the tags, the install is pure profit, then, rely purely on programs, hardware and events so that there is nothing for the corporation to trash, go all out with Counter Surveillance or both.

Unfortunately for Seb, his text specifies, that whenever you take a tag "if you had no tags" ... and some of his associated cards like Privileged Access or Eye for an Eye share similar text, which means that tag me is out of the question for Seb, to utilize him to the fullest you have to continually take and remove tags, kind of bobbing and weaving in and out of the spotlight. Once again, this means he functionally has no profit margin, you gain the equivalent of a click and 2 credits on the proviso that you will spend a click and 2 credits, it's power neutral, and it might as well not even exist in isolation.

To get value from Seb, therefore, you need to play cards that treat a tag as a drawback paired with an otherwise powerful effect, Rogue Trading and Hot Pursuit are notable examples on top of his aforementioned cards released in the same cycle like Crew, Privileged Acess or Eru Ayase-Pessoa. By cancelling out the downside of the tag, you can improve the underlying value proposition of any cards that otherwise treat taking a tag as a cost.

The second application is to get more value from cards like Valentina Ferreira Carvalho, normally an extremely niche tech against tag flooding from Oppo Research, Valentina improves the value proposition of any tag combo. Now, you can take a tag, install a connection paying 2 less, ultimately saving you a click and two credits and then only have to spend a net of one click and 1 credit to remove the tag, letting you not only cancel out the bad effect of taking a tag from a card like Eru or Rogue Trading, but actually profiting you a single credit from the combo.

The other strategy, what I like to call "Spicy Seb" involves floating a tag for a single turn, then utilizing Solidarity Badge and Amanuensis to clicklessly remove the tag and clicklessly draw two cards, which is incredible value. This strategy utilizes Seb's secondary ability, as well as effects like Manuel to disincentive the corporation from trashing your precious connection resources during that turn. However, the corporation still has the opportunity to trash non-connection resources and even critical connection resources they feel are worth the sacrifice and it enables other tag punishment. This strategy gives Seb far more value from tags at the expense of a far more polarizing match-up spread, particularly against NBN and Weyland who are the most likely to be packing tag punishment of their own. However even HB and Jinteki have cards like Greasing the Palm, Hypoxia or Mindscaping, all of which enable some scary tools like damage and fast-advance. As such, this strategy is not for the faint of heart, nor would I recommend it to beginners learning the game as it can be incredibly punishing if misplayed.

The biggest problem from here is arguably a lack of good combo targets, as there is a limited number of connection resources, let alone connection resources that cost 2 or more, let alone in faction ones. Additionally, getting the right hand-states where you can install a connection whenever you want to take a tag and take a tag whenever you want to install a connection resource can be unreliable at best and can make it hard to continually generate value from his ability.

That being said, I want to quickly run through some good ways to combo with Seb to give you some deckbuilding ideas, I'll mostly focus on cards released in the same cycle as Seb to avoid referencing cards about to rotate, and I cannot predict what future card combos will arise as new cards are released:

• Eru + Manuel is a neat way to repeatedly get a Maker’s Eye worth of value off of an Archives run while simultaneously triggering Seb's ability to offset the cost of taking the tag, plus you can even use Seb's ability to install Manuel mid-run, giving you a tempo-positive way to pressure the corp and get lots of accesses

• Valentina is practically a must-include as she makes every tag combo better. By giving you a credit whenever you remove a tag instead of technically making removing tags cheaper, she also synergizes with all sorts of "non-basic-action" ways of removing tags like Friend of Friend, Bahia, Hannah or Solidarity Badge if you want to go down that pathway as well as out-of-faction and out-of-cycle cards like No Free Lunch or Flip Switch if you prefer

• Friend of a Friend is a great way to smooth the inconsistency of his deck, it's an in-faction 2+ cost connection resource and it's not unique like many connection resources are, which makes it the perfect target for Seb's ability, not only that but it can either remove a tag or give you a tag for greater gains, which means it's always useful, whether you are installing it off of taking a tag from another source, removing a tag in a credit positive way or taking a tag to install another connection, this card does it all and bridges a lot of the shortfalls of Seb decks, I'd highly recommend including 3 copies and I would probably include 6 if I could

• Privileged Access gets you value from the tag in addition to the recursion, allowing you to quickly build and rebuild board state by installing connections from your hand and archives at the same time, as well as potentially grabbing a lost program, notably, by making recursion cheap, you also further disincentive the corp trashing your connections in the first place, which adds an extra layer of protection on top of Seb's ability, alternatively it can just be a good way to grab a card lost to self-trashing like The Price as well as other out of cycle cards like Moshing or Labor Rights or Isolation. Worst case scenario you can just grab an already used Friend of a Friend for even more econ

Somewhat interestingly a disproportionate number of Seb's associated cards have Threat 3 triggers, while the Threat N mechanic, in general, is a new addition to Netrunner introduced in the Liberation Cycle, Seb arguably has more than most, Shaper's have Pressure Spike but that doesn't trigger till Threat 4 (quite late in the game) and isn't a staple in Arissana decklists while Living Mural sees arguably even less play. Criminals have S-Dobrado, which is potent as well as Debbie "Downtown" Moreira but Malandragem sees little play and Jeitinho's Threat effect is not the main draw while Shibboleth gets actively weaker.

Perhaps more than any other runner, Seb cares about the Threat level for a large number of his most important cards, and I would highly recommend keeping an eye on that as your deck can switch into overdrive after just a single 3-point steal.

Less notably:

• Hannah can be used to remove a tag and can incidentally give you a tag, but you only take a tag on an unsuccessful run, which isn't reliable and trashing her just to remove a tag and gain a click isn't her peak potential, Shaper decks tend to use her as a tech against asset spam to make guaranteed runs on unprotected remote servers and then either use her secondary ability on Deep Dive turns to access multiple agendas or use it to save themselves from False Lead + Oppo Research kill combos. I'm not saying you shouldn't include Hannah, but don't expect her just to be another Friend of a Friend, her potential applications are very different and more complex.

• Arruaceiras Crew is a potent and scary card to many corporations, but once again, IDs like Freedom Khumalo: Crypto-Anarchist or Hoshiko Shiro: Untold Protagonist can often do better with it than Seb and use other forms of strength shredding like Devil Charm or Leech while rarely using Crew's own strength shredding effect. I'm not saying you can't build a Crew Seb deck but if you like Crew and aren't really sold on Seb I'd refer you to either of those other two IDs

• Bahia Bands can also give you a click-compressed way to remove tags and make a run, in addition to one of the other effects like installing another card, drawing some cards or making trashing cheaper, however, it is worth noting that since successful run triggers resolve before accessing cards, there is some inherent anti-synergy with Manuel, so be aware of that, since this is a run event it also cannot be used at the same time as Eru's ability

• Eye for an Eye is an interesting multiaccess tool that blends Jailbreak and Carnivore, giving you multiaccess and unconditional trashing, anecdotally it sees very little play, even in Seb decks and it's worth noting that both Jailbreak and Carnivore see very little play either. Perhaps once Imp rotates with Dawn, Eye for an Eye will be reappraised as a tool with which to trash cards you otherwise couldn't like Operations, ICE or nasty defensive Agendas. As with all self-trashing it's best used on spare copies of unique cards, techs not needed in the current match-up and intentional trashables like the new Strike Fund. It also synergizes nicely with Manuel, to let you access a total of 3 cards from HQ, a kind of make-your-own Legwork, which together with Eru can give you respectable pressure on all three central servers.

TLDR: A fascinating ID that does something new in the tag me space, having an almost rhythmic pattern of taking and removing tags to maximise value instead of simply taking as many tags as possible with reckless abandon like Anarchs historically might have. That being said, he has struggled so far to make a real impact on the meta, and I'd really only recommend him to those interested in the unique playstyle as he's probably not the most competitive.

This card struggles to find a place in the meta and probably isn't very good.

Let me explain, when you account for the draw, one click to install and a rez cost of 2 credits you realistically need to make 4 credits from this card to break even, 6 credits gives you a meagre profit, the same margins as Hedge Fund but since hedge fund is substantially quicker and easier to play, and is normally untrashable, it's not a fair comparison. What would be a fair comparison is Regolith Mining License, which is also a trashable asset that needs to be left on the table to provide you credits and which nets you 8 credits (15 - 2 for the install - 5 for the clicks used to harvest the credits). That means I'd be looking to generate at least 10 credits from this card for it to be equivalent to Regolith and for me to consider including it.

That means hyper-glacial, not just regular old glacial but real, honest-to-goodness hyper-glacial. To get value from this card you need to install it relatively early on in the game (which means you probably need to include 3 copies for consistency, otherwise you'll either end up rezzing ICE with no Cybersand installed or be forced to hold off rezzing ICE while waiting to draw into your Cybersand), then you need to rez at least 5-6 pieces of ICE per Cybersand, which means a deck that has 15+ pieces of ICE, otherwise the spare Cybersand's are dead draws. Except, the Cybersand credits can only be used to pay install costs, not rez costs, which means that you also need multiple other sources of credits to pay the rez costs of the ICE to charge up the Cybersand.

Not only that, but you need to protect the Cybersands, which probably means putting one in your scoring remote while you are still getting set up and before you are ready to score. Alternatively, you could try putting 2 Cybersands on the table at the same time to generate twice the value per rez, but at that point you either need two ICE'd remote servers or some alternate way to protect them, such as a Front Company or the looming threat of Oppo Research. Don't get me wrong, 4 credits is a lot to trash, but if the runner knows they'll be denying you 8-10 credits down the line, they're probably happy to make that trade-off.

At this point I'm envisioning some kind of monstrous 54-card Weyland hyper-glacier deck, running 20 pieces of ICE building 5 ICE deep servers, using Hedge Funds, Government Subsidies, Armed Asset Protections, Regolith Mining Licenses and still needing more money...

Now, I'm not saying these kinds of decks don't exist... they do, it's just that's not the meta, like... really not the meta. The meta is a broad mixture of jammy HB, asset spam R+, shell game/tempo-based PE and a pinch of glacial in the form of AgInfusion and BTL. Aginfusion likes destroying its ICE almost as much as it likes rezzing it and tight, efficient 44-card BTL probably struggles to find slots for this kind of card.

Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't play this card, if you enjoy 54-card hyper-glacial Nuvem then this card is an option and I'm glad that option exists but I'd only really recommend using it if you've exhausted all other econ options and still find yourself needing more money.

Alternatively, A Teia: IP Recovery might be able to protect 2 Cybersands at once and might appreciate another source of income, but it might also just be easier to rely on Charlotte Caçador + La Costa Grid or something like that.

Perhaps if the numbers and wording had been changed around this card could've had more potential in standard glacial or mid-range decks. If it granted 3 credits per ICE rez instead of 2 then it might've been able to provide value sooner, easier and with less extreme amounts of ICE, or if the card had been unique and hosted credits could be used to pay rez costs instead of just install costs it could've self-sustained, being the backbone of glacial decks instead of just another source of credits you need to wait for.

Somewhat more broadly I'm confused directionally by the Liberation cycle, it brought massive pieces of ICE like Logjam, Boto, Cloud Eater, Seraph, Attini and Valentão alongside defensive upgrades like Adrian Seis or Isaac Liberdade and constructive cards like Vovô Ozetti, as well as the econ pieces to sustain them like this card right here or Janaína “JK” Dumont Kindelán. Yet a runner meta dominated by K2CP Turbine, Lobisomem/Orca Kit and ICE destruction Anarchs directly invalidates much of this corp playstyle by sawing through ICE for pennies regardless.

Thematically this card draws on Weyland's existing theme of extractive and exploitative economic moves, though I don't know enough about the net and cyberspace to really say what "cybersand" is and what the applications of harvesting it are. Maybe you harvest the building blocks of the net and use it to construct ICE, not sure... Perhaps someone else can add a comment or link a Wiki resource? I'd be interested to know. The art's not bad but I wouldn't say it's my favourite piece of Netrunner art. All in all, a bit of a middle-of-the-road kind of card.

TLDR: A setup-heavy econ piece that requires you to have and rez a substantial amount of ICE to turn a good profit. Probably outshone by other simpler and less conditional pre-existing econ options.

Edit: I forgot to mention one application of this card in my initial review: the potential synergy with Ob Superheavy Logistics: Extract. Export. Excel., having an instant speed self-trashing card is nothing to scoff at, even if this card doesn't end up netting you any profit, it still might be worth it purely as a way to easily and reliably trash your own cards to search for a one cost card you actually want.