A first look at Midnight Sun(ny)

Now that we know pretty much what the new Standard format is gonna look like, it is time for an in-depth look at Sunny in a Midnight Sun era

The main cards we are losing are:

• Turning Wheel: A very big deal. This was our workhorse multi-access card and synergized with turtle, Dreamnet, White Hat and Jak. Without it, we need to look at alternatives. White Hat still functions as pseudo multi-access, which is something at least.

• Data Folding: This card always kinda sucked, being more expensive than both Mr Phones and Rezeki. But Sunny wants to drip for tons of credits, so DF was nearly always played anyway. Without it we can fill up our MU, which means 3 Rezeki and 2 other programs.

• Sportshopper: A bigger loss than I initially assumed. There are very few link cards left, and 4 link is the sweet spot for Office Supplies. It also helped with Obokata steals and Punitive. No real replacement for this, Earthrise helps with the draw I guess?

New cards we play/could play

• Pinhole Threading: Just an amazing card and silver bullet. Lets you deal with Anoetic and other BS upgrades, or check a big remote while charging Aumakua. You could play more than 1.

• No Free Lunch: This is better than No One Home, unless we expect a ton of net damage. Not a must include, but worth a look. |

• Deep Dive: The coup de grace. We have some spare influence, we need multi-access, and Jak helps enable the combo. Not a must, but a strategy worth pursuing.

• Cezve: Without Data Folding, we don't care about our MU being full. So we can have 3 Rezeki ticking and an Aumakua, and still have 1 MU left. Cezve is influence heavy but 2 credits every turn you can use for Nexus is pretty sweet.

Old cards that we still play/can consider

• Aumakua: No Sandbox makes turtle very happy. The banlist is arguably a bigger deal to Sunny than the new cards or rotation. I don't think there is a world where you don't play at least 1 Aumakua.

• Gachapon: I popularized the strategy to include Gachapon in Sunny as a way to set up faster. While this is still a viable card pick (especially if you include new programs/virtuals), I like it a lot less without Data Folding and TTW. Career Fair + Daily Casts/Earthrise is probably gonna me my prefered way to play going forward. Still worth testing though.

• Find the Truth: As a one off, probably not worth it without Gachapon, but who knows. If you do play it, maybe include RNG Key instead of Cezve, as you final MU?

• DJ Fenris: With the release of Sable, DJ Steve just got some competition. If you need to pressure centrals and don't care about recurring cards, she is viable alternative. I have always been a big fan of Fenris in Sunny, and now I think it is pretty much a must include.

• Link cards: Having 3 link max kinda sucks. We want our Nexus triggers to be more efficient and our Office supplies to be free. But the few cards we have left aren't ideal. Talut does nothing for the deck and Archivist is 4 influence with an ability you want early. Dishing out 8 influence for 2 Archivist could be a viable strategy but it won't be my prefered pick going forward.

• Black Hat: In-faction and maybe worth a 1 off going forward, but I am still not a huge fan. And we are at lower link to boot. Maybe if you run The Archivist?

Outlook

Despite the lack of neutral cards in Midnight Sun, I think Sunny is in an ok spot? Her turtle/Nexus combo is still incredible at getting passed ice, and the ban of Sandbox is a huge deal. If the meta slows down just a tad from how it has been the past few month, I forsee her doing reasonably well. Time will tell if I am right.