Okay, most people underrated this ice by quite a bit. While it doesn't belong in every NBN deck, it's powerful in the decks it does.

First of all, this facecheck is brutal as hell. It's somewhat surprising, given that NBN decks haven't had affordable painful sentries for a while. If you run into this without a killer, say you're feeling adventurous turn 2, you're getting blasted. It turns out that 2 tags is actually a lot--who would have known--and if the corp is playing R+, they get refunded 2c.

This is not to downplay that a tagless runner with basic breakers gets through this for cheap, but if NBN is playing fast, you're not always going to have your killer, and that means you're in for a world of hurt.

Where this gets absolutely terrifying is with the armada of tag cards that NBNs, and especially R+ decks, pack and fire at you en masse. Oppo Research is the main toy that R+ is packing. It can be very tempting to go tagme when faced with Funhouses. I've even seen Amaze get played these days. What's important about Starlit Knight is that you CANNOT IGNORE THIS MASS OF TAGS, or the server its on is locked down. It's much more powerful than Resistor for this purpose. There's ways through Resistor (most notably just beating the trace), but its hard to ever get through a Starlit Knight that's amassed 10 subs from you going tagme through Funhouse and then slapped with the Market Forces. Not that you even need to get hit with the Market Forces, to be honest, it's hard enough to get through at that point.

There's basically two things that a deck needs to be able to play Starlit Knight. First, you need to be playing fast enough to pressure the runner into either floating tags or facechecking into it. Second, you need some way of consistently landing and forcing a large number of tags to make its effect relevant.

You usually see Starlit Knight out of R+ and wide decks with ARES, but even if they're not on ARES, it's normal for the corp to pack Oppos and Funhouses and call it as enough to play Starlit Knight. All in all, be very careful about going tagme against NBN. It's not like in the days of Boom, where even if you were about to die you could desperately search centrals to either deny the flatline or win outright. If there's a Starlight Knight on R&D, you're typically as good as dead.

I'm not even sure I'd say tags are less dangerous at this point. If you float tags trying to steal an agenda and get hit by Market Forces, or just get Oppo'd while poor, this ICE can leave you with essentially no real option to win. It's definitely one of the first ICE you should be considering in R+.

So the boat is extremely powerful, to say the least. It's worth discussing what the boat is, and is not.

The boat is arguably the strongest early game card in standard right now for Runners. That's right, early game. There is a common misconception that high-cost=late game, when the reality is that Netrunner's economy doesn't work like Magic's or Hearthstone's. If you want to SMC out a Unity when coming across a gearcheck like Enigma, you're paying 2+3 just for the install. Pay another 3 to break Enigma's subroutines, and you have now paid 8, the same cost as installing the boat and breaking through the ice for free.

But there's some important things to take into account: First of all, the boat can break essentially any gearcheck. If you've installed Unity, you can't break Ice Wall. You certainly can't facecheck carelessly in a world with Stavka. On the other hand, the boat will solve any ice that the corp will use to stop you in the early game. A second point to take into account is that the boat only gains more value over time as a sort of run economy card. Unity will force you to pay up for any gearcheck, no matter how small. The boat will continue to snowball by breaking ice for free.

What ends up happening is that the boat player will slam down the boat in the early game, and for the cheap, cheap price of 8 credits, they can run over all ice the corp installs. No need to keep drawing into Boomerang, no need to dig for more breakers, or even charging Aumakua. You have a boat, so you can get in. Nuts.

That said, as easy as it is to deem the boat overpowered (which it totally damn is), it isn't truly the be-all-end-all of ice solutions, because there are viable corp responses. Amani Senai can heavily punish careless boat installs, although in practice a good Runner will be cautious about installing the boat against NBN asset decks for this reason. Envelopment's ridiculous number of subs are a massive pain for the boat. Anansi and Fairchild 3.0 are obviously annoying for the boat for similar reasons.

It's also worth discussing what does not beat the boat. Public Trail+Retribution is a bait combo and you shouldn't try it. If you're in standard, Drago Ivanov with Retribution is simply too weak to be playable. Cheap gearchecks also don't work. In theory, spamming cheap ice can eat boat counters, but in practice, boat decks absolutely slaughter these types of rush decks because again, you can't gearcheck the boat. It breaks anything, and it's only a matter of time before the Runner manages to lock the remote. Hard-Hitting News also doesn't work, or at least not more than it usually does. The Runner saves money the turn the boat is installed by breaking ice for free, not to mention the fact that boat shapers are in a faction with Misdirection.

The boat has given all of the early game power shaper has wanted, and much more. Most rush decks are either on fast advance or a cheesy kill combo, because the boat+Pinhole Threading slaughters the jammy rush style that we're used to. Whatever corp deck you build, you have to answer the question, "How do I not just immediately f***ing concede on turn 2 when a boat gets dropped down." For many corp archetypes, the answer will be "you hope the runner throws the game." Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just how metas turn out. However, it can't be overstated how impactful the boat is right now.

Cool card thematically, and it theoretically provides a mark-based wincon by giving you extra central accesses. How sick is it that we have a violin console? Unfortunately, for how fun the card is, Virtuoso is equally, at least in my humble opinion, really damn bad. So bad in fact that I have believed, and still believe, that Virtuoso is the worst runner card in Midnight Sun. Nonetheless, it's worth discussing the card's strengths and weaknesses.

Basically, the appeal of Virtuoso is that it applies bonus pressure on all central servers, including archives. The corp will have to respect the built-in Sneakdoor Beta, and they will have to be aware that singles off R&D may also snipe some key cards out of HQ. This pressure certainly isn't nothing.

However, the strengths of Virtuoso end there. The first weakness is that these advantages aren't even strong. Although we may fantasize about getting archives mark, then smacking HQ in the liver, the reality is that with mark being random, and the triggers being once per turn, the effects are so inconsistent, and the single accesses so inconsequential that you essentially have no pressure at all. I'd go as far as to say that this weakness of mark dependency alone kills the card. This weakness is just not defensible on a 4 credit console.

The second critical weakness of Virtuoso is that it kills your aggression. It's a very common misconception that central accesses=aggression, when in reality it's only a fraction of the pie. The more important part of aggression is that you keep up in econ against the corp in doing so. Maybe you have an Aumakua that's charging up. Oh boy, the corp has to deal with your central pressure now. What about Paragon? Every run they let through is value they're giving you. What about Virtuoso? Well, you just spent 4 credits on something that cannot deal with ice or win in the econ war, so the corp can freely handle the situation however they want. As a corp, in 80% of cases I'd be fine giving the runner a free Virtuoso run on archives, because it simply doesn't help them. A myth we should probably stop telling new players is "run early, run often." Getting singles, or even doubles in the early game without getting econ in the meanwhile is really, really bad for the runner and a very common reason for runner losses, particularly in startup. You may think this problem applies to The Twinning as well, which is currently a meta-defining card, but Twinning does not share Virtuoso's other weaknesses.

Incidental HQ accesses simply suck. Mass HQ accessing can be strong to immediately give you information on the state of the game while also seeing any agendas there. However, if we're getting incidental HQ accesses, the corp has flexibility in controlling the value of anything Virtuoso does. Again, you spent 4 credits on an inconsistent Docklands Pass+worse Sneakdoor Beta, so you're putting yourself behind and giving the corp initiative. If they just jam the remote, it's harder for you to contest because you lost out on 4 credits and also any other money you lost by making Virtuoso runs. Virtuoso also gives very little if agendas have been filtered from HQ. This is not to mention losing Pennyshaver money.

And that's the other weakness. Virtuoso is a console. That means you're not playing Pennyshaver or Paragon, and why on Earth would you put Virtuoso in the same deck as these other consoles? A non-console, no MU Virtuoso at a discount would be more enticing. A card like Docklands Pass simply isn't something you want to install every game. If Docklands Pass was a 3 credit console with 1 MU, it would be unplayable. You don't want to tie down your console slot with something like Virtuoso.

Finally, Virtuoso is absolutely horrid in situations where you need to pull through the most. You lose out on something like 15 Pennyshaver credits on average. You better hope that these credits you don't have are saving you, but Virtuoso really can't pull this weight. Corp has Audacity in hand? Well, screw you, you have Virtuoso. You're going to be seeing some random ice they don't plan on installing for the next 3 turns. Need to trash Boom? Screw you, you have Virtuoso. You only get to see 1 extra card. Have fun dying. Maybe if you had 16 more credits, you'd be able to run HQ more times and trash the Boom. Maybe you wouldn't even have gotten HHN'd. You expect a 4 credit console like Virtuoso, that has no economic output, to be able to do something when it matters. It doesn't. Even Carnivore, which is rightfully called out for being bad, has better odds of saving the game. If you need to trash something from HQ, it will do it, no matter if you get purged or not. If you need to trash SanSan City Grid but have no credits, Carnivore will save you. Even with these benefits, Carnivore is at least as bad as Virtuoso, because, like Virtuoso, it's just not useful in most situations.

Look, maybe this reads as unfair, but Virtuoso really is this weak. The console slot is the most contested slot in the deck. Virtuoso can't keep you in the game because it's not Pennyshaver, and it can't close the game either. Virtuoso is carried more by criminal being strong than itself being a useful card at all. So why are you playing it? Truthfully, some cards are very bad for winning the game, but are fun because they're flashy and unique. It is for this reason that I like to play Virtuoso myself: Simply no other card is an instrument, or incentivizes you so much to run specifically your mark. If you just want to play with mark, Virtuoso is the only place to look, and I can't help but love it for that.

This card is very powerful. Without requiring a cheap-to-trash asset to stick, such as in the case of Drago Ivanov, you have the non-terminal ability to flood the Runner with tags. Generally speaking, you want to be using MAD to win the game immediately, if not the same turn. This is because if anything should happen that would delay your win, such as Misdirection, Clot, or BOOM! and Project Beale getting found in HQ, then you can lose the game on the spot. You don't expect to win a game where you've spent 4 credits, lost a turn, and blown up your board for essentially no gain besides landing tags that you can't use.

As such, our goal is to play this card in Ob and find a way to get an extra two clicks so that we can play Boom in the same turn. There are two main setups that you'll see.

1) BIOTIC BASS

Use Svyatogor Excavator on a 4 cost card to find Bass CH1R180G4. Play Biotic Labor, then click Bass. We now have 5 clicks. Play MAD on any two rezzed cards, then murder the Runner. In terms of only the pre-installed cards, any 4 cost card, an Excavator, and any 1 other rezzed card is a kill.

2) DOUBLE BASS

If you have a pre-installed Bass, click Bass, then refuse to search with Ob. Play MAD, targeting a 4 cost card and any other rezzed card. After trashing the 4 cost card, use Ob to search the second Bass. Click Bass. We now have 2 clicks, so we Boom the Runner for the kill. Even if you only have one Bass in your deck, you can use a pre-installed Spin Doctor to shuffle it back for the MAD search, but this is a pretty niche case.

Ob murder decks can be shockingly fast. If you play against an Ob deck, you can expect to be dead by turn 8 if you don't have tech. The only faster decks would be Drago Azmari and Pravdivost, and that's only because Drago doesn't require any other rezzed cards to murder you as soon as turn 3.

There are some strong tech cards against MAD Ob. Pinhole Threading should be in your criminal decks so you can trash any pre-installed Bass or Excavators if need be. Stoneship Chart Room and 5 cards in grip means you can't die. Good ol' Citadel Sanctuary works wonders.

It's not clear how strong MAD will be in a solved meta. Although these tech cards are strong, Ob is fast enough that a Runner with a single tech card may still die. This is not to mention the fact that Ob decks can adapt to have more feasible scoring plans.

This card is kinda bad. Compare to Exchange of Information. EoI allows you to make the Runner lose 2 points so that you gain 2, and if you gave the Runner 15 Minutes, then you can also make the Runner lose another point on top of that. Backroom Machinations costs 2 more credits than EoI's 0 credits, and also removes the tags. Simplifying things, Backroom is at most 25% the value of EoI.

So yeah, this card sucks. However, you don't have EoI anymore, so maybe you're so desperate for single tag punishment that you play this. Alternatively, you can also opt to not play any single tag punishment at all, which, in my opinion, is the route you want to be taking. In general, the three NISEI-original tag punishment cards are extremely lackluster, so you should think twice about putting any of them in your deck.