So as according to @andrewboydston, Top Hat is good when you are accessing cards with the knowledge that YOU KNOW what you are accessing, otherwise it's just another random access.

Well folks, thanks to Reign and Reverie, I present you ladies and gentlemen, INSIGHT =)

With Insight, runners are now able to SNIPE that agenda without double running R&D which is kind of suicidal against the new hot Corps of lobstermodernism Argus and the sneaky Mti who can install ICE on the fly despite being once per turn. Also, multi runs in the recent meta is very punishing for the fact that you need to respect the new Econ Warfare > HHN > HPT combo turn and also spending a huge amount of boon you looted just to score that one agenda.

Despite giving the Corp a chance to re-arrange what they can draw for the next 4 cards, Insight also allows you to LOOK AT the top 4 cards that the Corp just arranged. So if there's no agenda, treat it as a blank Indexing you just made and chill out to make the sniping run for agenda without breaking a sweat on R&D.

Oh, and what if the Corp ICE up R&D when they see this coming? Great! Now you have slightly vulnerable HQ or scoring remote to break in then.

Did I mention Top Hat is only 1 influence? So for each Insight and Top Hat pair, that's the same influence you spend on Indexing! Top Hat is also a hardware, so perhaps you might only need to land 1 on the board and only 1 or 2 copies will go into your deck. Although theoretically you are spending a slot of two for this pair, but it really doesn't matter as long as it wins you the game. A calculated risk and sure-fire agenda scoring is better than suicidal multi runs which would lose you the game.

In a nutshell, I can see Top Hat coming back from unplayable to super exciting card to see in the meta! P/S: Sounds like I'm reviewing Insight more than Top Hat. Jeez

I don't see much reviews on new cards recently so I decided to write one and also this is my first review so I hope this could provide some insights to players out there.

First of all, I myself instantaneously become the fan of Patchwork after it's first release and we already see how @CodeMarvelous piloted a deck on his stream to success without CV + zer0 but Patchwork as the core engine.

One thing to note is, Patchwork is essentially a 2 credit econ engine at the cost of a card. But fear not if you are thrashing the cards that you do not want to use at that particular moment or you are simply trashing your heap breakers. Therefore, one could expect to have their investment to be returned within 2 turns for 2 triggers of Patchwork, that's a very fast recovery of investment!

In addition, Patchwork turns every dead card / tech cards that do not work into a "Click: 2 credits" card. That would mean you have essentially no dead card in your deck!

Moreover, if your ID is Gnat, that would mean you can quickly achieve your ID's ability to trigger a 1 credit gain every turn. SWEET !

Few econ cards that could help you gain maximum value out of Patchwork:-

1. Dirty Laundry (Net gain of 5)
2. Sure Gamble (Gain of 6 instead of 4)
3. Liberated Accounts (Can be played at 4 credits instead of 6, nets 12 credits)
4. Guinea Pig (Nets you 8 credits)
5. Day Job (Wait whut, turns into 4 credits per CLICK ! Total net of 12 credits on play (Although you had to spend a whole turn to do it)
6. Daily Casts (Is now a 7 credit gain across 4 turns)

There are many more to go on the list but I'm listing out the most common ones that we see play. You can imagine how many credits are saved and we treat it as free credit gain if all of the econ cards are used alongside Pathwork's ability. Want to fancy some tricks on top? Slot your unicorn as Levy and see the value party rolling again.

However the cons of Patchwork is that it's a 3 influence hardware and is hard to splash outside of Anarch due to the cost to play is to thrash cards and only Anarchs LOVE to do that. Other factions would almost always want to keep their hand full of options and that's a big turn down if any card was simply thrashed for play / install cost reduction at the cost of 3 influence. Unless the deck is consistently drawing and doesn't care thrashing own cards, I don't see any other faction would want to play Patchwork. Perhaps that would mean Patchwork will only see play in Anarch decks only in the end.

All in all, it's super decent and I expect Anarch econ engine is still strong going forward.

This card surprisingly has been given some life due to it perfectly targeting Jinja City Grid installs.

If you expect Jinja in your meta (especially when it's combined with Surveyor), this card has no restrictions for ice-swapping (besides the material play cost) unlike restricted card Inversificator or make-a-successful-run-on-HQ Escher.

Unfortunately, one of the two pieces of ICE swapped will likely still be unknown to you but I never said this card was good, now did I?

This card is usually too weak to warrant deckslots, but it has many uses that are meta-dependent that might make you consider using it. These include:

-Preventing Haarpsichord Studios: Entertainment Unleashed from scoring an agenda you are unable to steal because of their ability.

-Partially trashing a high-cost asset, (preferably unprotected), such as Genetics Pavilion, Team Sponsorship, or Mumbad Virtual Tour.

-Uninstalling a potential ambush asset that is protecting upgrades in its server, such as a Project Junebug protecting a Shell Corporation and/or Expo Grid.

-Weakening a glacier scoring remote by removing defensive upgrades, such as Ash 2X3ZB9CY, Strongbox, Red Herrings, Old Hollywood Grid, etc.

Other than this, the card seems useless. If you find any more uses, (or there is a meta shift), mention it in the comments below.

I know of two main Exile archetypes that are capable, both of which rely upon run economy engines: Pawn, also known as "Streetchess", and MKUltra/Black Orchestra, also known as "Conspiracy".

---Streetchess has been removed by rotation. This is his first archetype, by which players would combine Pawns with Deep Red, Scheherazade, and Technical Writer. Each trigger, which may occur on each successful run, nets one card draw and about 1-4 credits, which also allows for click compression by triggering successful runs on archives. This engine is reliant on the amount of ice the corp player protects his central servers with, making it weaker to glacier archetypes. However, it is a very strong counter to asset spam, as it can easily and uncounterably trigger successful runs on unprotected assets, combined with the usually less protected centrals of the asset spam archetype, to create a late game click compression and run economy surpassing any other.

---Conspiracy is the modern, although weak, iteration of the Exile archetype, as it lost many of its combo pieces to rotation. This installs MKUltra and maybe Black Orchestras from the heap, (using Sahasrara, Cybsoft MacroDrive, and/or Dhegdheer to reduce their install costs), to place credits on Technical Writers and sell them later to Aesop's Pawnshop. Reliant on the ice composition and arrangement of the corp player, as you would be influenced on running certain servers over others. Requires large amounts of memory. No significant strengths or weaknesses.

Outside of these archetypes, Exile pairs well with recurring temporary programs, such as Cerberus "Lady" H1 and Nyashia. May also be used with Panchatantra, Sharpshooter, and Deus X recursion breaking, although that archetype is very weak.