Not a super comprehensive review but one neat thing about this card is that if you combine it with Subliminal Messaging this becomes a 3 credit Biotic Labor in NBN. That's pretty good, except for the trash cost, the fact that it's a two card combo, and it requires Threat 3, but it does save you a bunch of influence, and draws you some cards. You can also do this with Red Level Clearance, which costs some influence but gives you some flexibility, especially if you are using its install mode to get a FA tool like SanSan City Grid or Calibration Testing. You can also use this to compress Doubles into a single click. You can chain this with Pivot, for example, which also requires Threat 3 to compress another operation or install by a click. Other options include Distributed Tracing or Threat Level Alpha, which gives you 2 clicks to spend on tag punishment instead of 1.

Kind of just throwing ideas out there but I recently realized that this is the first and only "Mandate" card released. After trawling through the card list and eventually just searching by keyword I found that Rebellion Without Rehersal not only introduces a new mechanic in the form of Mandate but that this card right here is the only Mandate in the game.

What is the Mandate mechanic and why does this card's special effect only trigger if this is the first mandate? Well, that's exactly what I want to talk about.

The Possibilities:

1. A Mandate is a card that draws other cards - Unlikely, there are Operations in the same cycle that draw cards yet are not Mandates (Corporate Hospitality and Mindscaping)

2. A Mandate is a card that plays another card - Also Unlikely, there are Operations in the same cycle that play other cards yet are not Mandates (Greasing the Palm and Pivot)

3. A Mandate is a purely cosmetic subtype like Deep Net (see World Tree or Seraph) - Maybe... but probably not, otherwise why would this card care whether another Mandate has been played

4. An internal non-combo to prevent fast advance

This is the most likely consideration, as far as I can tell. If the Mandate sub-consideration did not exist, it would be possible to play 3 back-to-back Sudden Commandments, netting yourself 2 Clicks and enabling the ability to fast-advance a 4/2 from hand. Interestingly enough however, even if this was possible, it would be inadvisable because for the same number of cards (3) and the same number of credits (12) you could play 3 back-to-back Biotic Labors gaining 3 Clicks and scoring a 5/3 from hand.

That being said, Biotic Labor is rotating soon and it's possible the designers wanted to preemptively shut down fast advance combos and make it clear that this is not the new Biotic Labor, it's meant purely for tempo plays. Except... it can be used to fast advance, using this card and another card that could otherwise not be used for fast-advance like Subliminal Messaging, Red Level Clearance or Business As Usual it is possible to fast advance agendas from hand with this cards help, even post rotation.

So... why is the limitation there? Is Sudden Commandment meant to be a pseudo-fast advance tool, yet limited to only being able to fast-advance 3/1s and 3/2s, not 4/2 or 5/3s? Again, maybe it's just an attempt to curb future fast advance but since fast advance tools can be comboed together, it's still possible to use this card + RLC + The Holo Man to score a 4/2 from hand. Or use this card + Business As Usual + Vladisibirsk City Grid to do the same thing. Is the only goal to force more complex multi-card fast advance lines instead of just being able to chain one card into itself.

Perhaps the more interesting questions are;

A. Will more Mandates be coming in future sets and

B. What similarities and differences will future Mandates have?

Will future Mandates all allow you to gain an extra click if it's the first Mandate played that turn, or would they enable other effects like gaining credits if this is the first Mandate played that turn or installing a piece of ICE ignoring costs if that is the first Mandate played that turn or allowing you to shuffle agendas back into the deck if this is the first mandate played that turn?

Only time will tell but it's an interesting new mechanic that was slipped in without nearly as much hoorah as the new Threat N mechanic was for example.