Secure and Protect

Secure and Protect 1[credit]

Operation: Double
Influence: 3

As an additional cost to play this operation, spend [click].

Search R&D for 1 piece of ice and reveal it. (Shuffle R&D after searching it.) Install that ice protecting a central server, paying 3[credit] less.

Secure Servers. Contain Infections. Protect Data.
—The SecTech Mantra
Illustrated by Krembler
Decklists with this card

Downfall (df)

#61 • English
Startup Card Pool
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Downfall
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Reviews

Once again Weyland prove themselves to be comically evil. Poor Darwin! Let our boy free!

Secure and Protect is similar to Priority Construction. Both are double operations that allow you to install ice at a substantially reduced cost. Pri Con is a pretty reasonable card, but it doesn't see that much play. Is Secure and Protect better?

Well, Secure and Protect can only install ice protecting your centrals, meaning you can't get a discount on building your deep glacier remote like you could with Pri Con. On top of that, you don't get any advancement counters on your ice, meaning you don't get to turn on the nasty Hortum or Mausolus subroutines. Looking bad for Secure and Protect.

The fact that Secure and Protect tutors for the discounted ice is both a blessing and a curse. On the upside, you can find the perfect piece of ice to match your opponent's breakers - or lack thereof if you're rigshooting. Weyland happens to have the exceptionally taxing and cheap Meru Mati and Afshar in-faction, so good news if you want to secure HQ! Downside is you reveal the ice, so you won't surprise the runner.

On the whole, this card is not particularly exciting for any existing Weyland archetypes. Perhaps Blue Sun will want to save influence on buying in multiple Chiyashi and will use this to tutor for an Oversight AI target? Or maybe the yet to be revealed Weyland ID due in Uprising - presumably SecTech - will reward you for defending your centrals?

(Downfall era)
I do like the Blue Sun mention. The fact that you Oversight AI it immediately removes the downside of the reveal from S&P. —

Yeah, the reveal is pretty bad otherwise... especially if you are fishing out your one-of hardcounter ICE, like anti-AI or anti-virus

Just look at the flavor. "Containing infections" in the server doesnt make sense. Secure. Contain. Protect. does.

The question you have to ask yourself before putting this card in your deck is, why not just play another ice instead?

If I simply draw another ice, instead of this card, I can install it for one click, and whatever the install cost is. There are some benefits:

  • I can install the ice in a remote if I want
  • The runner doesn't know what ice it is

With this card, you get to tutor exactly the ice you want, so e.g. if you really want an Afshar on HQ at the beginning, this is like a 4th Afshar.

The "paying 3 less" aspect of this card seems less interesting. If you are playing this as your 4th card that can become an Afshar, then the install cost is probably very low. You are also paying 1 to play this card, and a click. So this is not very much of an economy card at all in terms of saving on install costs -- efficient economy cards are giving you at least 3 credits for your click reliably.

So, the only reason to play this card is if your deck really needs to have particular ice in particular places on HQ, R&D, etc. in order for your strategy to work, and you want 4th, 5th copies of this ice to ensure you can get it there early. At 3 influence this also can't really be splashed outside of Weyland.

This seems like a niche-enough effect that I don't expect this to see a lot of play.

(Midnight Sun Booster Pack era)