THE Scorched Earth alternative. Let's do a comparrison. For a Weyland deck to run Scorched Earth, it probably needs to include some of the following:
- SEA Source (2 inf each).
- Mideason Replacements (4 inf each).
- Snare! (2 inf each).
- Tagging ICE.
- Smaller agendas and or/agendas that support the Scorch.
It can add up to a lot of cards to focus your deck around. The influence cost is pretty significant, and it can be hard to include some other tricks into your deck. This isn't to say that Scorched is a bad card, because clearly it's not. This is to highlight the wonderful alternatives that Punitive Counterstrike affords while still keeping the flatline play in your deck. To run Punitive, you need:
- 3x Punitive.
- Mostly big agendas (and Government Takeover if you have balls of steel).
That's really it, although Archived Memories and some other cards are nice to help support the multiple Punitive combo. But, there you have it: Punitive Counterstrike needs itself and Agendas to work. In Weyland, it doesn't need as much influence. Outside of Weyland, it's less of a hit than Scorched. The deckspace and influence you save over the Scorched combos can be saved for other surprises.
Pros:
- Doesn't need tags to work.
- Can potentially punish multi access like no other card without multiple copies.
- Playing with it frees up deck space when compared to Scorched.
- Combos with itself.
- The Combo is cheaper to pull off.
- Only Plascrete and Riches can protect the runner from your eventual wrath.
Cons:
- Is even more vulnerable to Plascrete Carapace.
- It goes away in the late game, as the runner gets closer to winning by setting it up.
- You need to include mostly 3 pointers, which limits your agenda options.