Ganked!

Ganked! 0[credit]

Upgrade: Ambush
Trash: 3
Influence: 2

While the Runner is accessing this upgrade in R&D, they must reveal it.

When the Runner accesses this upgrade, you may trash it to choose a rezzed piece of ice protecting this server. The Runner encounters that ice.

Roll Initiative…
Illustrated by N. Hopkins
Decklists with this card

Uprising (ur)

#119 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Rulings
  • Updated 2020-04-15

    NISEI Uprising Release Notes [NISEI Rules Team]

    If the Corp uses Ganked! to make the Runner to encounter a piece of ice, does the Runner's position move back to that ice?

    No. The Runner is still accessing cards while they are being forced to encounter the ice. However, they are no longer accessing Ganked! itself, because Ganked! is trashed as part of resolving its ability. When the forced encounter ends, resolving Ganked!'s ability is complete, and the game proceeds with the remaining accesses from the set of cards being accessed.

    What happens if an "end the run" effect resolves during an encounter created by Ganked!?

    The "end the run" effect ends the forced encounter and the run in progress. The Runner will not access any more cards.

    If somehow Ganked! was accessed while there is not a run in progress, an "end the run" effect only ends the encounter. The access of Ganked! itself will already be over since the Corp trashed it to trigger its ability, but if more cards are due to be accessed, the Runner proceeds to access the next card.

    Can the Corp use Ganked! if the Runner accesses it from Archives?

    No. The Corp is not able to trash cards that are already in Archives, so they cannot pay the cost of Ganked!'s ability.

    If the first card the Runner accesses is Ganked!, and a subroutine on Hudson 1.0 resolves during the resulting encounter, can the Runner access any more cards?

    No. While the number of cards the Runner is to access has been set before Hudson 1.0 applies its effect, that effect says that the Runner "cannot" access any more cards. By the Golden Rules, the permission to access the designated number of cards is overridden by the "cannot" ability.

    If the first card the Runner accesses out of 2 cards in a remote server is Ganked!, and the trace in SYNC BRE's second subroutine is successful during the resulting encounter, can the Runner access the other card?

    Yes. The delayed conditional ability from SYNC BRE meets its trigger condition when accessing cards begins at step 7.6.1. Since this step has already passed, the ability cannot be triggered. If somehow another instance of accessing cards occurs before the delayed conditional ability's duration expires at the end of the run, the ability will be able to resolve and reduce the number of cards accessed in that instance as normal.

    What happens if the Runner accesses Ganked! while they have Aeneas Informant installed?

    The Runner can gain 1[c] after the Corp trashes Ganked!, but before the forced encounter begins.

    Aeneas Informant's trigger condition is equivalent to "Whenever accessing a card with a trash cost ends, if you did not trash that card during the access, …". The ability from Ganked! always meets its trigger condition first. This ability only has 1 instruction, so the Corp will choose a rezzed piece of ice protecting the server (if possible) as the required target, then begin resolving the instruction by deciding whether to pay the nested cost. If they do not pay the cost, resolving Ganked!'s ability is complete and the access proceeds normally, with the Runner potentially triggering Aeneas Informant after their normal opportunity to trash it.

    If the Corp does pay Ganked!'s nested cost, the access in progress ends immediately, because the card being accessed has been trashed. Aeneas Informant becomes pending as a "chain reaction" in the next checkpoint, which occurs immediately after Ganked! is trashed because paying a cost is always followed by a checkpoint. Though Ganked! was trashed, the Runner did not trash it, so they can resolve Aeneas Informant's ability. They cannot reveal Ganked! as it is no longer in the zone where the ability expected it to be, but they can gain 1[c]. Finally, the game proceeds with resolving the rest of Ganked!'s ability, with the Corp forcing the Runner to encounter the chosen ice.

  • Updated 2021-10-11

    If Karunā’s first subroutine resolves while the Runner is already breaching the attacked server (perhaps because of Ganked!), can the Runner still jack out? Does that stop them from accessing any more cards?

    Yes and yes. Nothing stops the Runner from jacking out at unusual times if given the opportunity by a card ability. Jacking out ends the run, which ends any breach in progress as well.

  • Updated 2023-10-04

    The Runner plays S-Dobrado to run a central server defended by 1 piece of ice, and accesses Ganked!. If the threat level is at least 4, can the runner spend a click to bypass the ice they are forced to encounter?

    Yes.

Reviews

There should be a review that mentions this: because of a rules change that makes the runner access any cards installed in a server mid-breach, Ganked! can form an infinite combo with Ansel 1.0, Drafter, or any other ice that can install from Archives on a subroutine, if the runner is unable to break the Ganked! encounter with the ice. Although there are janky ways to turn this into a kill, the main thing to note is that Ganked! + Ansel 1.0 by itself allows the corp to trash every installed runner card, and then leave a fresh Ganked! parked behind the Ansel.

(System Update 2021 era)
65

And expanding on this for the jank fans out there: the simplest instant kill with this involves Ravana 1.0 rezzed in front of the Ganked!, with Ansel 1.0 rezzed anywhere, plus an ambush that works while installed and unadvanced in HQ or Archives – you can reinstall Ganked! and the ambush every time the Runner hits Ravana (and if the Runner accesses Ganked! first, overinstall the ambush using Ravana's subroutines and try again – you have infinitely many attempts so eventually the Runner will guess wrong and hit the ambush infinitely many times). Good options for the ambush include Urtica Cipher and a second copy of Ganked!.

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Something I realized in a game is that since the encounter occurs after it's been successful, you could use credits from Fencer Fueno to pay for the encounter with the ice.

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Just posting to note that the rules were changed again recently specifically to stop the Ansel 1.0/Ganked! combo from working – although this review was correct at the time it was written, it is now out of date.

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Týr, Tithonium, Anansi, Thoth... The list of powerful, expensive, and painful to facecheck ice goes on. Each corp has access to at least a few, while a couple of them just can't get enough of the things. So what's the caveat with ice like this? Well, as mentioned above, the stuff can be expensive; even worse, it might be unique. And while that's all understandable for "balance reasons" or whatever, who wouldn't love to have the money and ability to put two Týrs in the same remote server?

Well, Ganked! doesn't completely solve that problem, but it sure helps. You know what's almost as good as two Týrs on the same remote server? Making the runner hit that single Týr a second time after they touch the Ganked! they thought was a Project Vitruvius. Or having Ganked! in there with an actual Project Vitruvius, and laughing to yourself as they trade an agenda score for 2 brain damage, you getting to wreck an integral piece of their board state, and three credits. Depending on how much they paid to get into your server in the first place, that's the kind of tempo loss that'll seal a game.

Doesn't have to involve your remote, either. Give them a second dose of the DNA Tracker that's protecting R&D during a deep dig, or slam into multiple Afshars when they Legwork. Make the Sneakdoor Beta run that they thought would be ice free Not So. Make them encounter Komainu a second time, with twice as many subs (I smell net deeeeeath~). Combining it with Konjin allows you to force the runner to encounter a piece of ice in a different server twice, all in the same painful run. There's so many possibilities, almost as many as there are ice, unsurprisingly enough.

So at only two influence and with no actual credit cost (Outside of the cost of rezzing ice you were going to rez anyway, right?), keep this little ambush in mind for your next glacier deck. Depending on your ice spread, this thing could be nasty. Of course, getting Ganked! often is.

(Uprising era)
199

This card is too strong. Every other card that does something similar has huge requirements / drawbacks and this doesn't even need to be installed...

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Sure but a vast majority of times, it only fires after your agenda has been stolen - assuming the big ice haven't already stopped the Runner from getting inside in the first place. Compared to Code Replicator which fires on the Corp's discretion but allows for a jack out.

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