Wake Up Call

Wake Up Call 1[credit]

Operation: Reprisal - Gray Ops
Influence: 3

Play only if the Runner trashed a Corp card during their last turn and the Runner has at least 1 installed piece of hardware or non-virtual resource.

Choose 1 installed piece of hardware or non-virtual resource. The Runner must either trash that card or suffer 4 meat damage.

Remove this operation from the game.

Illustrated by James Cory Webster
Decklists with this card

Sovereign Sight (ss)

#19 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Rulings
  • Updated 2023-10-12

    ANCUR UFAQ [Michael Boggs]

    Can the Corp use Wake Up Call to trash Jarogniew Mercs while other resources are installed?

    Yes. The Runner is the player specified to trash the chosen card, so Jarogniew Mercs's second ability does not apply.

    Can the Corp play Wake Up Call if the Runner does not have an installed hardware or non-virtual resource, and if so is the Runner forced to suffer the meat damage?

    No. Choosing an installed hardware or non-virtual resource is a requirement for playing the card. The Corp cannot play Wake Up Call if such a card cannot be chosen.

Reviews

This card is exactly what Weyland needed. A thug ith a baseball bat smashing the runner's fingers saying, "No!" after they trash your Multibillion credit mining industry. Seriously, this card is great. Punishment has always been a concept trodden lightly upon, but never really explored. We got Hellion Beta Test in Flashpoint, which was a good start, but I think this card is even better.

Pros:

costs a mere 1 credit to use

Does not rely on tags or other prerequisites other than a trashed card, which is very easy to arrange

Does not give Bad Publicity or require a successful trace like Hellion Beta Test

Can cause a chain reaction effect if used to destroy memory giving consoles. Additionally, many runners throw away their extra copies after they've found one, this could make that a painful mistake

Multiple copies can utterly destroy a runner's boardstate. Taking the hit from one copy leaves the open for punishment by another

Cons

Removes itself from the game, but I doubt you'd need to recur it

Nullified by Sacrificial Construct

4 meat damage seems like a huge setback, but some runners would rather take the hit and can even benefit them if they are running I've Had Worse or Clan Vengeance

Overall I think this is an excellently designed card that will find its way into many Weyland decks running high-priority assets or upgrades

(Sovereign Sight era)
Can't be nullified by sacco —
Okay, now that I am on something that won't post my comment before I finish writing it, It can't be blocked by SacCon. The runner is given a choice: Trash that card, or take 4 meat. If they trash the card, then prevent the trash with SacCon, then they didn't trash it and as such, they take the 4 meat. —
You CAN use SacCon to prevent the trash. Same reason you could prevent the Data Raven tag with Decoy / NACH. But it is easy to get confused with "additional cost" rulings of Obokata and Ben Musashi. —
I asked ANCUR on Twitter for a clarification of the point about SacCon and Wake Up Call: https://twitter.com/ANR_RulesWiki/status/950936061919686656 —

I was a big fan of this card for a long time, but having played it a lot recently I think I have come around to think it is too fair to be good. By this I mean that there are so many conditions attached to it that make it a less-than-effective card. These include:

  • Runner needing to have trashed a card of yours last turn
  • It can only hit non-virtual resources (mostly fine, you want this to hit Hardware)
  • Choice between trashing the card or taking 4 meat
  • It RFGs from the game

Combined, they present a critical mass of things that can go awry. Props to Bridgeman for finding the right meta and decklist to make it shine nonetheless. But I think it is too fair a card to be really strong. Still cool tho. :)

(Parhelion era)
1883

It is a good counter to No Free Lunch, since it act as Best Defense but with the ability to target hardware (which could force a runner to trash a program from lack of MU).

This is the king of value meat damage. For $1 and a click, you can destroy an important runner card (usually an early resource or a console) or inflict 4 meat damage. Pretty much every runner has a console or important resources so you'll probably have a high-value target early.

Even if your best target is a mere Daily Casts, Wake Up Call denies $6-8 in eventual income or 4 random cards from hand. That's arguably a bigger setback for the runner than Economic Warfare, which is also very playable. (It does not however have Economic Warfare's crazy immediate value on a HHN turn).

Tactics: Since Endurance has been banned, I'm less worried about getting wrecked by a console, and I'd generally prioritize "hit a good target as soon as possible" rather than waiting for the best possible target. (Most installed cards generate value-over-time, and the earlier you strike, the more value is denied. Meat damage also hits harder earlier). Personally, post-Endurance I tend to prefer economic hits over consoles, because a runner usually has redundant copies of their console in-deck whereas something like a Daily Cast is a value hit whether or not they have another Daily Cast on hand.

(Parhelion era)