I don't want to do anything extensive here, because hey, the card is new and I haven't had the time to analyze all the angles yet. Actually, in a world without NASX, this is a pretty innocent economy card, encouraging the corporation to actually put ICE in front of their assets, instead of spamming out new server after server to gain Turtlebacks money. ...the problem is of course, we live in a world with NASX.

NASX makes this card read, "The corp probably just gained anywhere from 9 to 21 credits for two clicks." With just 2 ICEd remotes with something in them (not that hard to do) this gets you 9 credits for 2 clicks (3 triggers of FO, 6 credits gained, dumped onto NASX doubling the 6 to 12 credits gained, -2 for NASX -1 for FO cost for 9 net). 9 Credits for 2 clicks and 2 cards isn't actually that degenerate--after all, Roughneck Repair Squad gets you 6 for 3 clicks, removes a bad Pub and is re-usable for just 1 card. The problem is when it starts getting out of hand--when your ASAs of the world are doing what they want to do anyway, which is dump things into servers and free-click an ICE in front of it. When these ASAs have upwards of 4 or 5 loaded one-ICE servers, FO/NASX becomes a bit nuts. Heaven forbid they have 2 FO's in hand, because at that point they might as well have infinite money.

That being said, this does require time to set up. If they have 5 remotes with ICE, it's safe to say it's around turn 4 or 5. Likewise, I'm a runner--and if I'm letting things sit in single-ICEd servers, then I'm probably a bit at fault for just letting things sit on the table. Realistically though, there is a limit on just how many times you can trash a Jeeves behind a Fairchild 3.0.

Is it broken? No, not really. There's a lot of counterplay -- trash NASX's when you find them, clean out servers of their contents, or just ignore the shell game entirely and go straight for the centrals in hopes of rushing out. I think my problem is, the FO/NASX combo just feels cheesy. It takes a more or less honest card that was meant to reward a different kind of shell game (actually ICEing all your stuff) and turns it into a "this card only exists to trigger off of NASX." Ah, well; I know those are just my feelings, and I'm sure plenty of people love this thing.

Why do we not have a review for this card yet? It feels like the elevator pitch writes itself.

• Don't you wish you could fit more copies of Breached Dome and Snare! for the Runner to impale themselves on in R&D or Archives?
• Do you want more copies of Ronin, Show of Force, and Neural EMP for more proactive flatlines?
• Don't you wish the pesky subtext "Limit 1 Philotic Entanglement per deck" didn't exist?
• Get Sting! today.

Commercials aside, the interesting comparison to make is against House of Knives, the original 3/1 agenda that has made its way into many a Jinteki deck:

• Knives does a total of 9 damage when all 3 are scored, spread out over several turns. Runs are more dangerous to do while there are still valuable cards in-hand, against ICE like Komainu, or when stealing that final Obokata Protocol, perfect for grinding down the Runner's stack and options over a long game. Best scored early, to slow the Runner down and get those pings in.

• Sting does a total of 3 to 5 damage (best case 1, 1, 3 or 1, 2, 2) in larger chunks. This is perfect for setting up proactive flatlines since this burst damage can be done clickless for a future turn, similar to Ronin. And if enough copies of Sting are scored, this turns into a Gene Splicer where you got a good chance of giving the Runner no good options to steal it, threatening flatlines on follow-ups.

So which agenda do you put in your suite? That mostly depends on what the deck is trying to accomplish.

You can't go wrong with either, but I feel decks aiming for a flatline will want Sting! for more chances at landing that killing blow. Decks that want to slow the game down early while seeing an empty stack late game will want House of Knives. Of course, you can always take both since they are doing different jobs.

And of course, you can't talk about Sting! without talking about the ID this sits most at home with, Personal Evolution. It's a bit scary how good this agenda is in there, making both defensive and offensive uses of the scorpion all that much more lethal.

Long live the scorpion.

This is a strictly upgraded Melange Mining Corp. Coming at a rez cost of 0 compared to 1, it yields 6 credits instead of 7. This makes it an even gain on its first use after rez; additional uses will yield one less credit compared to Melange, if you can manage it. Each use will additionally allow the corp to remove 1 Bad Publicity, which has been a rare effect up to this point. To cap it all off it has a trash cost of 3, raised from 1.

I usually slot one of these in my Jinteki decks because I found it very versatile and useful in several ocassions. For glacier or horizontal jintekis. By these days I use it for the following

• Put a used Snare! in my hand. Install the same snare and an agenda.

• Make the same trick with an agenda as Fetal AI or Obokata Protocol if I haven't avanced them yet. Or if I have just drawn the Mushin No Shin to play them next turn.

• Put the Snare in your hand and make your hand more scary. Install ice in other places.

• Avoid Femme Fatale tokens. Install the same ice or another one.

• Remove a Mwanza City Grid that has been already useful.

• Just install scary ice in a remote server with already lots of ice without paying anything.

I haven't tried to export it to other factions yet, but the Jinteki mind games are more difficult to import and with a 3 influence is harder to justify.

Gatekeeper is strongest when it was rezzed this turn, so it would combo with cards that allow you to derez your own. Cards that help you get more activations from the rez strength ability are needed to help combo.

Bioroid Efficiency Research makes it so if the runner does break through, you get another shot at the rez strength.

Divert Power makes something cheaper while you get to trigger this rez strength again.

Test Ground allows you to fire the trash ability, derez Gatekeeper, and then re-rez Gatekeeper with unexpected strength.

Plus, Gatekeeper is cheap and might give you some recursion of used cards if you can catch the runner flat.

Is it for every deck? No. But it might have a place in some.