Tinkering

Tinkering 0[credit]

Event: Mod
Influence: 4

Choose a piece of ice. That ice gains sentry, code gate, and barrier until the end of the turn.

"There's that moment, you know, when the whole world seems to fall away and it is only you and your mod, and the mod is the world."
Illustrated by Christina Davis
Decklists with this card

System Core 2019 (sc19)

#47 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Rulings

No rulings yet for this card.

Reviews

Tinkering is a very niche card that has had some use out of decks using Rielle "Kit" Peddler: Transhuman or maybe Quetzal: Free Spirit(Though the influence would be very tight then) to get more out of their base abilities. Paintbrush Kit it hasn’t really seen a lot of use, which maybe should be thought about in a different light.

The big thing that is often overlooked on Tinkering is that it does not have to be on a rezzed piece of ICE. Any ICE can be targeted with Tinkering, even unrezzed pieces, giving the runner quite an opportunity. It becomes a Shaper version of Inside Job, when the runner only has a single breaker out. Certainly no where near as effective, and without knowing what the ICE is trying to calculate the cost of the run is very difficult, but there are ways around those issues.

Though it has not seen a lot of play, it is certainly a card worth re-looking at and considering again in a different light. If seen early enough it can help get into servers the corp thought were safe, and even late game it can allow more efficient breakers to work on ICE that is costly to get through for another type.

(Written during the meta of Breaker Bay, part of the SanSan Cycle. For more reviews like it, visit wyldside.blogspot.com)

(Breaker Bay era)
423
Agreed, this card is underplayed. It's fantastic early game to bust into a server that the Corp thought was safe. Even lategame it can be an econ card - eg to make an expensive sentry ice into a code gate for Study Guide, Refractor or Gordian Blade to breeze through. —
It can also be a sneaky way to break an abnormal ice, like a Trap or a Mythic, that otherwise might not be breakable with a traditional breaker suite--say, to get 2+ runs on a turn despite an Excalibur, to avoid a Universal Connectivity Fee, or to break a Mother Goddess with no other rezzed ice. —
Also a fairly good splash for decks running surfer —
The other big thing that's often overlooked is that it says until the end of the TURN, so you can potentially hit a central three times through the tinkered ICE. Not to mention that if you're using Snowball as your Fracter and the corp put something in front of a piece of natural Barrier ICE... —

Tinkering is a trickster among shaper cards. In essence, it is like using Pelangi, but that last the full turn. What this mean is up for all the janky deck you can pull while being Shaper (at 4 influences, it will not be used outside Shaper).

1- If you use Pelangi in your deck, Tinkering can be an extra Pelangi token for you.

2- Like Pelangi, it will allow any breaker to matter for any ice. Inversificator will be able to move the ice. Ankusa will be able to return the ice to hand.

3- Since it last the full turn. If you need to make multiple runs on the same server (usually HQ, sometime R&D), you can do so with only one breaker. Bonus points if you are using Gebrselassie, allowing you to keep the strenght all turn.

4- Some breaker need the ice to be a specific type. Nfr can be boosted easily if you run multiple time on a weak ice (which must be a barrier). Persephone can do its effect only if the ice is a sentry. Surfer can be used to continue the run always on the same ice (making it a barrier).

Not the best card, not the best art (I do not get the abstraction), but the quote is as amazing as the jank you'll pull just because of this card.

(Uprising era)
4240

The art is a reference to Hunter, a sentry from the core set.

—