An undervalued card.

One of the least sought after rounds for a corp player is the one where he has to spend the entirety of his turn to negate virus counters. Effectively giving the runner 2 consequtive turns to catch up/gain an advantage whilst doing nothing. So you better make sure there is a lot of counters on the table when you do wipe them. For the runner, having your counters wiped is a boon and a curse. An extra round is good, but if the corp is in a good position it is very bad to have lost some of your power.

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If the corp wants to get to that point where wiping counters feels like a natural move the corp has to set himself up economically and with board presence enough to continue full strength when he finally gets his next turn, if the corp player is forced to wipe when his position and/or economy is bad he puts himself at an even greater disadvantage than he is already putting himself in by "forfeiting" a round.

This card lets you create that extreemely bad circumstance artificially.

Generally a virus heavy deck might get viped once or twice a game, three times if things get extreeme or if the corp gets a large advantage, so this card HAS to come into play before then to be effective. This makes Fester a two or three of include card. it will only work in a deck with a lot of virus counters and even then only when the corp wipes them. Assuming that the corp wipes twice in a game one of these guys will cost them 4 at a cost of 1 to you, a net benefit of 3 per wipe. Many copies of this card in play at once stack, so if the corp wipes twice with two of these out you cost them 6 or 9 with 3 out. Assuming you force the corp to wipe at least twice, the numbers then climb higher if they must wipe more often then that. This card is basically a reverse Beanstalk Royalties, or a reverse Restructure if they wipe 3 times, and so on.

The corp has two answers to not take this huge loss in tempo. Not wipe or wipe when they are at 0 credits. Forfeiting turns when your total is 0 or when it would be reduced to 0 is nearly as good as them forfeiting the game, depending on how lucky you will be with your upcoming runs on badly protected servers. The other option, not wipe, is probably the better one, but still a sour apple for the corp. The corp does not want you to have 3 or 4 counters on 3 or 4 different copies of Medium and/or Nerve Agent, they want to wipe it, but at the cost of an entire round and 2-6 they just cant do it unless they somehow get a huge advantage.

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This card is a Ciminal card painted red. It does what you normally expect from criminals, mess with the corp's economy forcing them into bad play's. If you want to splash blue into red or vice versa consider this as an element of war against the corp, build those virus counters and play this when they dont expect it, make them choose between their and your multi-access.

If this card has a disadvantage, it is low priority. Why would you "potentially" cost the Corp some credits, when you could just as easily include cards that gain you the same amount or more streamlined cards for more dramatic effect? Streamlined as in Account Siphon.

This is not so much a review of Orion as it is a review of all space ice.

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Space ice or Asteroid Belt, Nebula, Orion and Wormhole to be precise, all have the advantage of being cheaper the higher they are advanced. A fully advanced piece of space ice can be ressed even when youve somehow been reduced to 0s.

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This is the first advantage of space ice, they can be operated cheaply. Instead of paying for them in one lump sum you can chip away at their price when it suits you.

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Space ice is strong, the weakest of the three, Nebula is still strength 5, Asteroid Belt is a respectable 6 (broken by Corroder for 5 per run or Cerberus "Lady" H1 4 per run) and Wormhole, the most interesting of the bunch (even including Orion) is strength 7 (broker by Gordian Blade for 6 or ZU.13 Key Master for 7). For ice that cost you only 3 to ress those are really good numbers. Orion has the disadvantage of being all 3 types, but its not considered a destroyer nor AP, which makes it immune to Sharpshooter and Deus X.

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This is the second advantage of space ice, it is strong and taxing.

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Space ice has a few extra good points that make it versatile. The advancement tokens stay on ressed space ice thus targeting them with Criminal de-ress cards is useless, furthermore those same tokens can be used to fuel Trick of Light if you are playing that kind of fast advance. Wormhole notably is the most versatile space ice, its subroutine can be used to trigger the effects of ice normally to weak to trigger some powerful subroutine (Neural Katana) or an exceptionally powerful routine from expensive or illicit ice (Heimdall 2.0 brain damage + end run, Checkpoint, Shinobi). Remember that Wormhole and Orions versatile routines are resolved after the runner has declined or failed to break it, you can surprise the runner by not ending the run on a remote server and doing some damage or utility instead, thus perhaps leading him to beleive that the server might not contain an agenda as he though and leave it alone for the rest of the game. If you do not have enough clicks to ress space ice when you need it, do not be afraid to ress it when its only halfway done, it may cost you 3-6 credits to ress a Wormhole but it's still worth it if you think the runner is going to run that server 2-3 times that turn. Also fun fact: If you have an Orion and Wormhole ressed, and the runner encounters and cannot break Orion, Orion will destroy a program, then you can use Orions routiene to resolve a subroutine elsewhere, resolve Wormholes routine and double up on Orions program trash.

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This is the third strength of Space ice, versatility, especially in the case of Wormhole.

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Summed up pros:

-Cheap.

-Strong.

-Versatile.

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Space ice has some definite weaknesses as well. First among them is their slow speed. It takes 2-3 rounds to make a piece of space ice efficient, that requires you to have a lot of unspent lying around. If you have a lot of Space ice it becomes an impractical chore to advance it all, it is better to mix it with normal advanceable ice to better confuse your opponent and not be forced to spend too much time advancing ice throughout the game. Asteroid Belt especially can be replaced with Fire Wall and Ice Wall. A Fire Wall with 3 tokens can masqerade as space ice and still very efficiently stop the runner cold. Over time clicking space ice tends to replace clicking for credits, this can leave your credit reserves dangerously low as you go about managing your non-space ice cards. A good thing to keep in mind that the time it takes to get Orion to 0 res cost is the time required to score a 3 point agenda.

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The first disadvantage of space ice is that it is slow, especially when you have high numbers of them.

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Space ice in general has 3 hard counter cards. Femme Fatale breaks any non-Orion for 1 credit and orion for 3, Knight is similarly efficient and D4v1d tokens liquify space ice like nobody's business, especially in combination with cutlery events (all three types of which will affect Orion). Cutlery events make space ice users cry, that cutlery events were released in the same pack as Space ice is laughtable because they counter space ice so hard its not even funny. Picture this, 1 D4v1d can melt up to 3 pieces of space ice, pre Clone Chip, the appropriate cutlery event will then remove that ice. The two can be played for a total maximum cost of 5, in this case you just spent 4 and 3 to ress a piece of ice, the runner just spent 3 and 5 tops to destroy that space ice (not including the fact that the runner may be able to break and cutler more then one ice in one round.)

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The second disadvantage of space ice is that it is countered by Femme Fatale, Knight and D4v1d.

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Summed up cons:

-Space ice is very slow due to click requirements. Advancing space ice cost you clicks usually spent to gain single credits.

-Space ice has some hard counters, Femme Fatale especially is not uncommon.

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Combinations and unique strengths:

-Wormhole obviosuly combos with any card that has a powerful subroutine, try to splash in some unusual or powerful pieces of ice when you have Wormhole around. Destructive stuff like program trash is allways good but dont forget utility ice like Shiro and Architects first routines. Wormhole can copy Bioroid routines and isnt clickable. Wormholes high strength makes it good for pretty much anything, even just ending the run. For 2 influence Wormhole can be splashed as a 2-of and do tonnes of good work out of faction.

-Asteroid Belt is only 6 strength, 1 above Fire Wall, this makes Fire Wall generally the stronger option because it is faster (the difference in is made up for in cost). The two together however makes for some untouchable servers in a Superior Cyberwalls based deck.

-Nebula is probably the cheapest no-complications way to get a program trash effect, weakness free, on the table. Other methods are weak (Burke Bugs, Lycan) alternate cost heavy (Archer, Grim) or have some disadvantage such as being trace reliant or clickable (Sagittarius, Ichi 1.0). Nebula shines along with Wormhole since Wormhole can copy Nebulas routine at a higher strength.

-Orion has every subtype and can benefit from Superior Cyberwalls or Encrypted Portals. If you get multiples of Orion you can work around the unique limit by using the The Twins. An Orion sitting for a while with 4 tokens on it may cause the runner to think its an Ice Wall or some other piece of advancing ice. Because Orion requires agenda level time investement it is best compared to Archer, archer costs 4 and 1 to deploy, plus whatever amount of and you spent on the agenda, the main difference here is what you gain for the scored agenda, generally the scored agenda is Hostile Takeover or some 1 - 3 that grants a one time benefit, the total cost of an Archer ressed with Hostile Takeover is 7 and 4, but hostile takeover gives back the 7 exactly and makes up for the bad pub by being super tough on the runner pool. This means that Orion is inferior to Archer in terms of tempo. If you run small agendas anyway Archer is the way to go, but if you plant to have as low agenda density as possible Orion is your guy. The two work well together if you have deck space.

-Shipment from Kaguya/Shipment from SanSan both let you advance cards when youre low on , use these to "force advance" space ice and agendas to speed up and make up for credits lost to advancing space ice. Matrix Analyzer and Pop-up Window together can create a mini-economy that generates ice advancements for you. Wormhole especially might have a home in Jinteki decks, i've tried it in a Tennin Institute: The Secrets Within glacier variation and it clicked right into place (Chum into surprise Wormhole with a Neural Katana ressed on the table, the runners face when they realize it wasnt an Ice Wall, priceless). Trick of Light can be used to take the useless tokens of ressed space ice.

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Generally, Space ice fits into a deck that has spare creds lying around, as well as spare clicks, if you include too many space ice you wont be able to ress them all without building around them in your deck. Wormhole especially is a gem and Orion is very much like a super ice with agenda-level effort to get it running, usually best ressed with some card support. Space ice require a time investment that fast decks cannot allocate properly, space ice is much more useful in glaciers.

Pup is great.

Although it has the potential to deal net damage the runner will all but never ever ever ever! Not have the 2 creds needed to pay off the routines. If pup deals net damage ever at all it will be because the runner values his current hand less than his current creds.

What Pup really does is tax your opponent 2 per run on that server. For a low initial cost of 1 cred Pup can build up a financial advantage over time, after 4 runs on that server the runner will have paid 8 . Pretty devestating for such a small dog.

Despite the strong tax Pup is still not an autoinclude, Pup is leaky like hell and hardly strong enough to deter runs. A breakerless runner laughts at it. Also Pup is the kind of ice you want to play immediately, the sooner it starts taxing the better. This often results in Pups finding themselves behind your ETR ice, potentially rendering them useless whilst at the same time rendering outer ice more expensive.

Pup is effective for any deck that wants to tax the runner but doesnt mind leaky servers. For just 1 inf it is easily splashable.

Pup operates similarly to Pop-up Window, the two ice are near interchangeable.

Long story short. Profiteering is not a good economy card and a terrible agenda, but it is a burst economy card without peer, it can enable you to pull off expensive stunts a few turns quicker then normal. The trade-off is that it has risks whether you manage to score it or not. It is the tempo opposite of Gila Hands Arcology.

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Short story long:

At first I considered Profiteering to be an inefficient agenda. A 1 - 3 that may net you up to 15 and 3 bad pub. It inflates agenda density, costs 3 and 4 to install and score for a "gain" of up to 15 an 1 agenda point, in return the runner gets +(1-3) per run for the rest of the game.

I thought this was bad, it is bad. If you use this thing to net yourself 15 youve spent 3 and 4 (easily worth another 8 credits for a total estimated cost of 11 credits) and in turn the runner gets 3 free per run. A very bad track record compared to a rather similar agenda Geothermal Fracking.

However, this card is still not useless.

It can get you from 3 to 15 in one turn. Kickstarting you from a weak position. Whether you just lost most of your starting credits to Account Siphon or were forced to spend too many to protect an agenda flooded HQ Profiteering might have you covered.

It synergizes with Restructure, the burst will enable you to play Restructure quicker then otherwise possible.

The huge flux can result in you rezzing impractically expensive ice such as Wotan, Janus 1.0 or Heimdall 2.0 and you would still have left. Profiteering synergizes with strong pieces of ice that on their own are taxing enough to run through to trivialize the bad pub. A very notable synergy is Archer, you can gain a huge economic advantage by scoring this agenda and then sacrificing it for Archer, the Archer more then makes up for the bad pub with sheer tax, even if the Archer winds up targetted by Femme Fatale it will still cost 4 to get through it.

Profiteering compares interestingly with other burst econ cards.

Hostile Takeover gains you 7 and 1 bad pub for 3 and 3. Less then half the of Profiteering but at a much lesser bad pub cost, and is scorable from hand.

Geothermal Fracking gains you 14 for 5 and 4, the bad pub is flexible in this case because it does not kick in until you decide you need the , however it is very slow to score.

Melange Mining Corp. nets you 14 for 7 and 1, it has the risk of being trashable but that is a negible downside compared to Profiteering being an agenda. More importantly Melange Mining Corp. has no bad pub. #Melange is also re-occurable via some pretty cool cards like Architect or tutorable quickly via Tech Startup. The most important comparison is that Melange Mining Corp. is MUCH slower due to the heavy investment.

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The main problems Profiteering has are that it's essentially an economy card dressed as an agenda. It has 2 risk factors, first that it can be stolen, second that it gives bad pub. Compared to econ cards it is slow and benefits the runner as well as yourself. Compared to agendas it's just a 1-pointer.

Good way's to play it include:

If you dont have an opportunity to use and abuse the advantage you can score it and take no or just 1 bad pub. 5 back for scoring it isnt bad for an agenda and worth taking 1 bad pub.

Install it round 1 behind cheap ETR and an Archer on R&D or HQ, if it survives the round youll have $ to seize the early advantage and feed to rezz Archer with.

My experience with this Ice is thus:

Stops the runner from entering its server unless he has an AI breaker or a full suite of breakers. Really good at slowing down Criminal decks, Stops big-rig Shaper decks cold earlygame unless they run an AI breaker, may force Anarch decks to spend their ice removal.

Usually Chimera is a super speedbump, either the runner has all of his breakers on the table or he's not getting in, but when the breakersuite is up and running it becomes more expensive for you to rezz Chimera then it is for them to break it. Often in the first rounds of a game the runner will install a killer if he is worried about damage, or a defracter if he is desperate to access what he believes to be an agenda. Chimera will stop both of them equally. Even if a runner gets all of his icebreakers into his hand early it will still cost him a few rounds to set them all up.

-Countered by AI breakers. Darwin Overmind, Alpha and Omega laught at it, Eater makes it look silly (so dont put it on R&D if you suspect youre facing an Eathole, in this matchup it is still good on HQ or remotes). Crypsis breaks it for 1 and 1, Wyrm breaks for 3, against those 2 you may rezz Chimera as a tax.

-Bad synergy in decks with lots of ice, those decks can reasonably field one of every type of ice on important servers and those ice will tax the runner more then Chimera ever could.

-Good synergy in decks that want earlygame ETR but dont want to spend card-space on multiples of cheap ice (Saves you the influence on Ice Wall if you're only including it to block access earlygame)).

-Fairly weak as the only ice on a server. The runner may run the Chimera, you choose a type for it, then he installs that type and runs again. This is mitigated by having more ice, especially if you decide to layer one Chimera after another.

-Expensive in the long run, re-rezzing it between turns can become a drain on . Spending creds is a small price to pay to immunize a server from early runner access though. Like all ice it inflates the price of installing on its server, but unlike other ice it may become useless later in the game. Nobody wants useless unrezzed ice in the middle of their server.

-Tricky for the runner to affect with some card effects, Paintbrush and Parasite for example require the target ice to be rezzed, which means the runner has to spend a click and possibly resources to dig down to the Chimera to get it rezzed, then another click to affect it with the desired effect, and then probably yet another click for the runner to access the until now locked server.

-Interesting interaction with combo ice like Chum. Because Chimera de-rezzes itself you can put it inbetween Chum and another ice. A brave runner with 1 or 2 breakers out might check Chum and keep going thinking he can break the next ice, only to meet with an ubreakable Chimera.

-Good with effects that remove programs, any program trash, Wendigo and Will-o'-the-Wisp combined with Chimera can make entering servers a nightmare.

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Final opinion.

Chimera is'nt perfect. It has a limited lifespan against most runners and may cost more credits to operate then you care to spend. AI breakers counter it. On the other hand, when it works it works amazing, locking out the runner from a server if only momentarily. This is one of those cards you use all the time when you get used to it, or never use at all if you cant make yourself fall in love with it the first time. Best run as a 3-of to have a reasonable chance to draw it early.