I'm so impressed with Netrunner's deep cut cultural and mythology references! I recommend looking up the Russian folktale, The Unsmiling Tsarevna.

It's literally about a poor guy who is given a couple coins, and has a bunch of bad luck. Incredible.

That's a cool card concept! I can definitely relate to the struggle of shifting sleep schedules. This card mechanic seems like it would really shake up resource management in the game. It reminds me of trying to focus after staying up late playing games. Speaking of games, if you're looking for a fun, quick distraction, you should check out Drift hunters. It's surprisingly addictive!

Why is this card so bad? I feel like it could have been 10 payoff and it would have been fine as a grudgingly-included last economy card. At the moment I think it can sometimes that, but including it feels horrible.

It is however an opportunity to showcase the objectively correct way to evaluate economy cards™. This involves numbers in the format 'x/ for y clicks. This should be calculated using the simplifying assumption that a card requires 1 to draw and 1 to play. A Sure Gamble, for instance, makes a profit of 4 spread over the 2 it takes to draw and play. This means its payoff is is 2/ for 2 clicks. Sometimes you migh situationally want to count or not-count a click in this evaluation. If you're making a Clean Getaway, for instance, you might choose to count the associated run as an end in itself and accordingly discount the cost to play it. This makes its payoff an efficient burst of 3/ for 1 click. If you're just running archives for no other benefit, though, it makes sense to count the click in your evaluation, making it a much less attractive 1.5/ for 2 clicks.

In addition to the pure numbers, of course, you should also count in the faff and delay associated with said economy. Many resources are more efficient than Operations in terms of the calculation above, but annoying in other ways. Examples include Environmental Testing (3/ for 2 clicks!) and Smartware Distributor, which asymptotically approaches 3/ for ∞ clicks but only manages 1/ for 3 clicks over 3 turns, 1.5/ for 4 clicks over 6 turns, 1.8/ for 5 clicks over 9 turns, etc. Faff and delay is often far more situational to evaluate than the pure numbers, but you can often put numbers on it using sensible rules of thumb, for instance counting the card drawn by Side Hustle as a saved. You can also use this framework to evaluate, for instance, the efficiency of clicking for a so that you can afford to play a Sure Gamble (1.667/ for 3 clicks).

So using this framework, let's evaluate Rent Rioters. It's ability requires extra s to be spent, so overall it pays us 1.4 / for 5 clicks, a total profit of 7. That's pretty uninspiring - it's less efficient per than the Clean Getaway on archives we evaluated, which is a pretty horrible indictment. Its only advantage is that it allows us to get that horribly low-efficiency economy over more s invested. Added to this, it is significantly faffy to use. Spending all together is unwieldy enough that it usually stops the runner running for the turn, taking significant pressure off the corp. And until you've done that, this card puts you 2 down.

So that's why it's bad. It has bad numbers, and it's a pain to use.

Slow advance Nebula

"The first time each turn a tag is removed, you may reveal and install 1 card from HQ, ignoring all costs."

"install 1 card from HQ, ignoring all costs"

"ignoring all costs"

Synapse is NOT asset spam, Synapse is an old school Glacier id

Play style

1. get rich (Petty Cash + Hedge Fund or Hansei Review = 6 hedge fund)
2. tag the runner (Funhouse, Oppo Research, Behold!)
3. install big ice (Ivik or Boto lol NBN ice is trash right now)
4. slowly manually advance agendas
5. win

I love this card, thematically. Using one scheme to restore a "dead" Agenda and bring it to fruition. I feel like all sorts of cloning or Frankenstein-y metaphors could have been used, but I love the choice to go full Jurassic Park! De-extinction is such a fun big swing. And it's simultaneously a reminder that InGen [and John Hammond] IS a giant megacorp doing questionable science. Not a traditional go-to reference for the genre, and I just think that's neat. : )

"Welcome... to Holocene Park!"