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(I've been meaning to write some "banned/rotated card retrospectives" for a while. This one's my first.)

Ah, Formicary. A card that started its life as a way to give the Runner a mildly annoying surprise when they ran an apparently unprotected server, and ended up as part of way too many degenerate combos. There's an entire official article about why this one card was banned, which basically summarises to "trying to ensure that newly designed cards didn't combo too degenerately with Formicary ended up being too restrictive on the card designs".

The basic idea behind most Formicary combos is that you trigger a "the Runner approaches the server" ability of another card, then after that's resolved, use a long-distance Formicary rez to cancel the approach, thus allowing the original trigger to trigger a second time once the Runner passes the Formicary. There's are quite a few possible effects you could use with this, but most of the combos weren't being actively played at the same time, so it's worth looking back at just how much chaos this one card caused:

• Formicary + Cayambe Grid. This makes the Runner pay the Cayambe Grid tax twice, and in the typical Cayambe Grid deck, the tax is enormous and trying to pump it up out of reach is one of the main things that the deck does. Cayambe Grid got banned in June 2020 with minimal explanation: the ban was apparently a targeted ban to kill one specific deck that was extremely unfun to play against, but the balance team didn't specify which. I do think the "the ban was to kill Formicary + Cayambe Grid" theory is plausible, though.
• Formicary + Manegarm Skunkworks. This was basically the same idea as with Cayambe Grid, but didn't cause as much friction, and wasn't played that commonly. Most likely this is because people preferred to combo Manegarm Skunkworks with Anoetic Void instead (although there was nothing actually stopping you from comboing all three cards together, but people preferred not to bother with that in tournaments, most likely for influence reasons).
• Formicary + Dedication Ceremony on Reconstruction Contract in Ob Superheavy Logistics. This uses up three cards and requires a specific identity, and only works in Eternal, but is effectively an automatic win (barring specific removal cards like Pinhole Threading), and is much simpler than the typical Netrunner win combo. The basic idea is that Dedication Ceremony costs 1, and most ambushes cost 0, so once the Runner is locked into breaching Dedication Ceremony's server, you can trash it to move the counters (as long as there's a legal target anywhere, e.g. you have advanceable ICE), use Ob to install an ambush from R&D in the server the Runner was accessing, and then choose the newly installed ambush as the card to put the Dedication Ceremony counters on. Many players' immediate reaction is "does that work?", and the answer is "yes, as long as you don't destroy the server mid-run by removing all the cards in and protecting it", which generally implies that there must be ICE protecting the server. The Runner might well jack out – but then you could wait until your own turn and choose a different card to search for and put the counters onto, making for a nearly automatic win because you can choose between, e.g., Project Junebug and Clearinghouse based on whether the Runner accesses or not. Ideally, you'd want 6 counters rather than just 3, using double Dedication Ceremony (because that makes both Project Junebug/Cerebral Overwriter and Clearinghouse definitively lethal against normal hand sizes), but that takes an entire turn to set up; adding Formicary to the mix therefore lets you set up the combo using only 3-click turns via allowing you to ICE the server clicklessly if the Runner decides to run it. This sort of combo isn't the only reason Ob was added to the Eternal points list (first at 1 point, then 2), e.g. Ob also combos with Estelle Moon which is one of the most broken cards in Eternal, but it can't have helped.
• Formicary + HB "derez matters" cards (e.g. Stegodon MK IV, Brasília Government Grid). One of the main drawbacks of Formicary is that its trigger typically only works once, because it needs to be derezzed to trigger but rezzes itself when it does. One of the main drawbacks of the HB cards is that you need to find ICE (sometimes even off-server ICE specifically) to derez. As such, the cards cancel out each others' drawbacks, with each giving you more uses of the other, in a self-sustaining cycle. This is what finally ended up getting Formicary banned.

Also, there's one card theoretically combos with Formicary, but where the combo wasn't really the problematic part: Formicary + Nanisivik Grid. The idea is that you can use one Nanisivik trigger to, e.g., trash a program (the Runner's killer could be a good choice, as that makes Formicary more expensive to get through), and then if the Runner runs back through, use a second Nanisivik trigger to end the run. It turns out that Nanisivik Grid was broken enough on its own, however, that the Formicary combo was overkill (you put one Nanisivik Grid on Archives and it makes it almost impossible to disable any of your Nanisivik Grids, including both itself and ones placed elsewhere).

Some non-combos include Letheia Nisei and Mti Mwekundu: Life Improved, which are only usable once per run even if you use Formicary to interrupt the trigger.

I can see why the card got banned. In most of the combos above, at least one piece got banned (or for Eternal-based combos, pointed); the only exception is the Manegarm Skunkworks combo, and that's a card that lots of casual players surely were wishing would be banned (Skunkworks combos were part of what was the best archetype in Standard for quite a while). Perhaps the lesson here is that, when you find a degenerate combo, maybe it's both halves that are banworthy!

The most fearful and annoying agenda of them all. If this ever get scored, the runner will be in for a world of pain.

The ability to force the runner to pass AGAIN one ice is usually a tough proposition. Of course, it just makes runs more expansives. But Jinteki has very good sentries that are expansive to pass.

For the runner, this can be mitigated by doing high impact runs. And not running every turns. But this will allow the corp to have more time to setup and get rich.

This agenda combine really well if ice that have on encouter ability. In faction, there is Cloud Eater (very expensive) that would be a real pain to pass a second time. Out of faction, Funhouse and Tollbooth (or a Mestnichestvo with load of advances) would be quite annoying. Of course, this can be mitigated somewhat with Hush.

The main issue for this agenda is to score it. You score it like a 5-3 agenda, but only get 2 points. This is were Regenesis can help to score this agenda for free. The second issue is that you have to build your corp around this agenda. Because to be effective, you need to use big ices, which are expensive and thus, must have a robust economy for your deck. At which point, it is worthwhile to ask yourself if you could win faster with an agenda that is easier to score.

The best identity for this agenda is probably AgInfusion: New Miracles for a New World, because it allow the corp to for the runner to always encounter the WORSE ice possible. In this case, you only have to rez ONE big ice to be truly annoying.

The art is nice and colorfully violent. The quote is the best part, which basically tell you the ability of the card. Well done.

Awesome agenda! Its only draw back is that it it actually require an out of faction card (End of the Line) to be truly effective. The combo does a total 5 damages, which can flatline most runner. If somehow you there is another click left, you could also use either Mindscaping for a total of 6 damages or Neurospike for 7 damages total. This makes See How They Run a combo kill piece, just like Fujii Asset Retrieval.

Also, it is possible to do a core damage, which then make the runner more susceptible to traps.

In Jinteki: Personal Evolution, coupled with End of the Line, this agenda does a total of 6 damages, without any other combo piece.

Along with Fujii Asset Retrieval and Sting!, Jinteki has a lot of agendas that can help the corp flatline the runner. Which combine with other in faction cards like Ronin and Reaper Function.

To top it off the art is beautiful, with a rare showing of psi ability, helped by a quote that shows the power of the agenda, with the very name of the card completing circle. A masterpiece!

Maybe it's just cause I'm an old player of this game, but I can't understand why there aren't more reviews of this card. Astroscript Pilot Program was one of THE defining cards of pre MWL netrunner, and Remastered Edition is its reinvention. I'd have thought that would draw more inspiration for comments!

For myself, as someone who played almost exclusively NBN in the olden days with every deck having an instant full set of Astroscript Pilot Program, I think Remastered Edition is an amazing bit of redesign.

I actually disagree with folks who say Astroscript Pilot Program wasn't fun to play with or against. When you were NBN, scoring one felt like you were picking up the star power in Mario. Music started playing, lights started flashing, and you felt invincible. If you lost, it came with a quiet shock and admiration that the runner got to win one over against Goliath. If you won, well... winning feels good. As the runner, the corp scoring Astro felt like someone poured gasoline over the whole game and took out a matchbox. You knew the chips were down and so it became do-or-die time. Bold risks that failed felt like a heroic stand and managing the win with the APP token sitting there unused made you feel like a real criminal. No matter who you were, APP turned up the heat and made the game exciting.

That said... the way APP got used meant that NBN decks felt 'one note'. I love FA decks, but it felt weird that even in a PsychoBeale deck you had APP as your primary threat goading the runner into making runs that could trigger Midseason Replacements. It's like an episode of House where Dr House isn't even at the hospital and everyone's asking each other what he would think about the situation. He's not there, but... c'mon, it's still about him.

Remastered Edition tweaks APP's power in just a perfect way to preserve what felt fun about it while allowing other kinds of play to come to the surface. Having an APP token scored still feels like an incredibly powerful ability, arguably the best hosted agenda counter power in the game. If I manage to score Remastered Edition in a game, it adds the same delicious pressure to the runner to hit me hard to make sure no Beales or Tomorrow's Headlines can sneak out, bringing the game within reach. Add to that the fact that the current meta has cool tools in it for scoring 4/2s (annoying ICE, Vladisibirsk City Grid, and Seamless Launch to give just a few examples), and Remastered still feels very scoreable. What makes it more fun, though, is that as a 4/2 scoring each individual Remastered Edition is its own puzzle, rather than a single chain of puzzles where you get the answer to all of them at the beginning as it was with Astroscript Pilot Program.

Remastered Edition stretches the excitement of fast advance threats out over the whole game, rather than turning it into a timed rush when the first APP gets scored. I don't win as much with NBN FA as I used to, but each game is more fun and exciting and what a win that is for a card rebalance.

PS: What theming, oh my god. The salty attitude in the flavor text is exactly what I feel when I win with NBN FA even without APP.