Zer0 is obviously great for self-damage decks. Not playing against thousand-cuts Jinteki or tag/bag Weyland? No problem! Just Zer0 to charge Clan Vengeance and ruin the Corp's day. Unlike previous self-damage options such as Amped Up, Titanium Ribs, Brain Cage, and Stim Dealer, Zer0 not only avoids the permanent repercussions of brain damage, it also lets you stay in the game by gaining 1 and 2 cards each time you click it. Brain damage also does not fire I've Had Worse, but Zer0 synergizes beautifully. Damage is of course dealt randomly, so just wait until IHW is the last card in your grip, click Zer0, and BOOM! 1 and 5 cards. This is one of the best single-click power-draw moves in the game right now.

It's 1 to install, is a piece of hardware so is generally safe from the Corp and won't cost you any memory space, and is NOT a console, so you can still one of those, if you're so inclined.

Influence is a bit steep at 3, so I don't really see this being played outside of Anarch. The self-damage archetype usually wants to run 3 IHW (2 inf each for a total of 6 inf), and it definitely will with Zer0 as they combo so well together. But, self-damage also generally wants at least one DDoS (3 inf each) to ensure they can get into Archives and get all those juicy agendas that were hopefully trashed after popping Clan V (another 4 inf each). Too much to export this game plan.

So which Anarch ID should you run this out of? MaxX: Maximum Punk Rock seems the best choice, as her self-trashing draw ability means you go in planning to miss a bunch of cards and have to recur them or use Levy AR Lab Access to start over. Self-damage is just another drop in the bucket for MaxX. I also enjoy the mirror image of MaxX's ability with Zer0's: trash 2 cards to draw 1, then trash 1 to draw 2. If you thought MaxX was fast before then you need to read the flavor text on her card again.

The only real downside to Zer0 is that you can only use it once per turn, and therefore can't go completely bonkers with Clan V immediately after installing it. This is probably good for balance, and it's also fun to watch the Corp squirm as you build up Clan V. The fact that it's unique and you can only have one installed at any given moment isn't really a negative - cards that are considered "dead draws" in any other deck just become more tinder for the fire in self-damage. Happy self-damaging!

Oh my god, there's a goddamn black hat shape in the negative space between all the red error pop-up windows. How did I not see this sooner, how could I have been so blind?

If you run Black Hat, you won't be as oblivious as me, cus you'll get to see all the juicy cards in HQ or R&D. Or both if you're crazy.

So, first off, the flavor on this card is killer. The alias used by this runner is a reference to one of the oldest and most pervasive cons in the history of the Internet...the Nigerian Prince scam. That's right. We have a Nigerian criminal hacker who is, in essence, calling himself the Nigerian prince. Sick.

Mechanically, the base of his card is pretty boring. 45/15 deck limits, nothing fancy. He gets 1 to start with, which makes it easier to use cloud breakers or Security Nexus, if that is what you want. Nothing interesting to talk about.

So let's move on to his ability. The first time each turn the Corp installs something each turn, they have a choice; pay 1, or expose it to you.

Now, historically, pure expose effects haven't seen much play. Infiltration managed to survive the core set revision, which is strange, given how rarely it was used. No one ever uses the expose option on Deuces Wild. Lemuria Codecracker was a joke.

But this is a little disappointing because, in the game of bluffs and calls that Netrunner should be, knowing the difference between a Wall of Static and a Neural Katana is a big deal. Early game, when you don't have icebreakers, ramming a Wall is a cheap way to cost the corp some credits...but hitting a Katana without a killer means, at best, losing tempo to redraw the lost cards, and at worst you lose a key rig piece or die outright.

There was also a consistency issue. Late game, expose effects are not greatly useful; the board state is well established, you have your breakers. It's mostly only useful in giving you a way to dodge a Project Junebug bluff in their scoring remote, which many corp decks don't even use. So you don't want to put in too many expose cards. But putting in only a couple expose cards means not having them reliably when you need them early on.

But, 419 changes that. Now, expose isn't a thing you have to add to your deck. It's something you get by default, the whole game, at no cost, repeatedly. That is a terrifying amount of information. Knowing every trap the corp has laid down, knowing every ICE the corp has played, lets you make the perfect move every time.

So the Corp is going to want to stop you. And they can do this in two ways. First, they can install multiple cards in a turn. This is only somewhat effective, though; spending an entire turn to install only gives them 2 "invisible" cards and wreaks havoc on a lot of gameplans.

The other way is for them to spend 1. That doesn't seem that bad, does it? Here's the thing though. Doing that every turn absolutely kills a corp's economy. Remember the old HB core identity? It was easily the strongest ID in the faction because it generated so much freaking cash. So, inversely, losing 1 credit each turn you install makes a corp broke...which is exactly where Criminals want corps to be.

So, your corp can't just give out free information every turn, and they also can't afford to pay up every turn. So you need to prioritize. Give out some information, and keep the important stuff secret. Oh, but then you've just told 419 what stuff is important. After all, you wouldn't pay to prevent exposing a simple PAD Campaign or a Pop-up Window. So if you're hiding it, it must be valuable...or dangerous.

So far, though, I've just been describing a vanilla Criminal deck run in 419 instead of, say, Silhouette or Nero Severn. Where this gets bonkers is in the combos and support they added.

Aumakua becomes an insane AI breaker--with the amount of exposing you do, and the opportunity to bounce off un-iced remote assets, you can quickly get it to 3 or 4 strength, and cruise through low-strength ice until they purge. Falsified Credentials becomes another three Sure Gambles that can be played from 1 credit. Blackguard is okay, but is not as good as 419's own console Zamba, which is a respectable 4 for 2...and makes it so the corp has to choose between paying, and letting you get paid AND see their stuff AND buff Aumakua.

But you'll notice that while these abilities are all really strong, the combo pieces are all very simple, and there aren't that many of them. 419 has so much room to build his deck. He's strong, but versatile.

Hail to the Prince.

What's the opposite of netdecking? Bad decking. Demo run is the bad deck king. Demo run is best used for style points and to see if you really can win the game in one turn. With +click cards and +access if you can hit R&D every click with a demo run or two in hand you either win the game or cripple the corp via mass trashing critical corp cards. Of course, while you're assembling your big run the corp can win the game playing like a normal person, potentially twice. Trashing 10+ cards off R&D is really funny though. Binning the HQ can also produce a few giggles but it isn't a crowd pleaser like dumping R&D where it belongs.

Six years ago I was surfing Amazon looking for games. I've always loved board/card games and was looking to start a collection of "real" games. Games that the developers had actually put thought into. Games that were focused on more than just the roll of the dice. I ended up buying Ticket to Ride - India: Map Collection Volume 2, Thurn and Taxis and one other game. The game had cool looking artwork, a fun theme and looked to be amazing amounts of fun. It reminded me of old trading card games I had tried to get into in the past. This game of course was Android Netrunner.

I was not disappointed. Everything about the game was excellent. The asymmetrical game play, high-stake gambles, and exciting card combinations. Sadly, I didn't get to play it very much. I've never had the time or even real desire to play competitively. Not too many of my friends were into that kind of game. I purchased cards up to Honor and Profit before stopping. It sat sadly on my shelf while I looked longingly at it. Then a friend of mine found something. OCTGN; a way to play Android Netrunner online against other players. My love was revived and I spent a ton of time playing Netrunner again. OCTGN worked pretty well, but it was far from perfect. Eventually I found netrunnerdb.com, a place where I could read and write reviews of my favorite cards, along with finding cool ideas for deck building. The site continues to be one of my most frequented. I saw mention of another site, here on netrunnerdb; the site was jinteki.net. For months I just assumed it was another site similar to this one. When i finally actually visited it, and was sad it had taken me so long. Jinteki.net is so great. A strong player base, dedicated coders, and a perfect place to play Netrunner anytime.

Today 6/8/18, I stumbled upon a sad article in my Google news. FFG's license on Android Netrunner is expiring and the game is coming to an end later this year. Reign and Reverie will be the last content added to the game. Why can't this license be renewed? I don't know. I wish that the game would continue forever. I have taken breaks from the game over the years. I currently haven't played in a few months (curse you, Rocket League). I've definitely done my share of complaining. But really I've always loved the game. I hope to continue playing on jnet for years to come.

Thanks to the developers and artists and all others who made the game possible. Thanks to the people behind jnet, netrunnerdb and other fan sites. And thanks to the Netrunner community.