An identity I initially underrated at first, Lat has the ability to draw you a large chunk of your deck, which is something only a few cards in the game’s existence can brag about. Let’s explore him further, shall we?

Lat’s “minigame” revolves around matching the number of cards in grip at the end of your turn vs. the number of cards in HQ. The minigame is checked after the hand-size discard is completed so if Lat draws you a 6th card, a discard down to a hand size of 5 is not needed. While the minigame is fun in itself (and really, that’s all that being a Shaper is about), it can also be a great pressure tool to force an opponent to consider playing sub-optimally. This can come in the form of excessive ice installs or perhaps even excessive drawing on your opponent’s part; this sub-optimal play almost reminds me of what a Criminal like Leela or 419 can do.

Actually playing Lat can be a bit intimidating at first especially given the analysis paralysis that can come with planning all 4 of your clicks (or more) to capitalize on your ability. Common combos with Lat to fix your Lat number (cards in grip – cards in HQ) include:

• Patchwork: If you’re +2 with one click to go, “Lat-chwork” gives you the option to save 2c on a play/install and earn a draw.

• The Supplier / The Artist: If you’re +1, these are both great ways to unload a card from your grip with savings.

• Professional Contacts: If you’re -1, ProCo is a great way to make that last click draw into a Build Script. Alternatively, the same thing could be applied for Artist when you’re 0 after your 3rd click to get a Process Automation.

I hear you asking how Lat stacks up versus 40-deck Shapers, and it’s a fair comparison – both can get through their decks quickly. However, if you can fire Lat’s ability every other turn, the 5-card difference can be made up in only 10 turns with any further Lat-drawn cards just being icing on the cake. And trust me, when you earn enough experience, firing Lat’s ability 60%+ of turns becomes muscle memory.

What about Hayley and Wu? That’s a tougher question as those two have click compression abilities that allow them to spend slots/basic actions on draw while Lat is trying to spend slots/basic actions on everything besides drawing.

I actually think the biggest thorn in Lat’s side is the fact that a lot of his gameplan is controlled by the Corp’s actions. There have been many times where I’ve been screwed over by a Sportsmetal off-turn trigger, an Audacity, or just an empty HQ. Ultimately, these factors make me believe that Lat is slightly worse than those competitive Shaper powerhouses for the time being. However, if he’s given a few more hand manipulation cards - just enough to enable him to fire his ability 90%+ of the time - he has the potential to become the best Shaper in the game.

P.S. I don’t recommend playing this guy in Eternal.

As pointed out in Silvs review this card does not give you information on what the corp is going to get on his mandatory draw, making it somewhat unreliable. But what if you did knew? This where a certain escaped Bioroid comes in. With Adam you can usually get at least one successfull run a turn and look at the top card of R&D.

This creates a serious dilemma for the corp, escpecially if there are Logic Bombs on the table. And with double HQ access agendas aren't even safe in hand!

Overall i really like this card in Adam and encourage everyone to give it a spin! (Also: Good Isolation target if you are short on money and don't mind throwing your allies under the bus. Or feed them to the dogs in this case.)

A major downside to Guru Davinder is that even in the optimal case where you can afford to pay out the ears to prevent damage, you can't steal Obokata Protocol (or an agenda protected by Ben Musashi.) If you expect that, but still want to play Davinder, you'll need either Film Critic or Whistleblower to get around the steal cost. Imp would let you put the agenda in Archives for a later steal, but isn't a permanent solution.

He's also much more efficient dealing with large packets of damage, such as Urban Renewal, Snare!, Psychic Field, City Works Project, or Punitive Counterstrike. Lots of small bits of damage will quickly consume your bank account, but paying to prevent 3+ damage could be well worth the cost. Worst case, let him trash himself and at least you prevented something.

Relevant Ruling: Nisei Comp Rules 1.15.1.b: The Runner cannot pay the additional cost to steal Obokata Protocol while Guru Davinder is installed, because the Runner could not currently take 4 damage if instructed to: Guru Davinder’s first ability would prevent the damage.

For me this is one of the most elegantly designed cards in Netrunner. It's fun to play with and against because of the bluffing aspect, has great versatility and has just the right power level.

It also makes 5/3 agendas in glaciers much more viable in my opinion. Baiting the runner into runs into your four ICE deep server will probably never get old. And if your bait fails then you get to make some money, which most traps can't. Open on the field it can mask some of your money and also bait the runner into runs which you can punish them for.

Love it, love it, love it. Put it in your HB deck.

This little guy is deceptively powerful. For a cost of zero, a and a card, you get to generate 1 per turn. This is on the level of Rezeki and Data Folding except putting them to shame because of its install cost. The catch is of course that you can only spend these s during a run, after a run is successful--that's a pretty narrow window... or is it?

Look, I'm no Shaper, I hate Shaper, and I will never be a Shaper, so I'll leave it up to the Green Homeboys to figure out all of the SMC-Net-Mercur-Da-Vinci-Triple-Install-Hayley-Trigger-break-reality shenanigans. Instead, let's take a much more practical approach--just using this guy's money to trash cards.

Too simple? Well, when have you ever played a runner game where you didn't trash an asset... or an upgrade? This guy gives you the same long-term security as the best of them with almost no tempo hit. Heaven forbid you see asset spam, as this poor little narwhal will be drained faster than Weyland can drain the ocean and set up a parking garage in the empty space (and then burn it down when the runner steps in; which considering, is remarkably fast).

"What if the corp isn't running assets or upgrades?"

...if I could live in a world where the inclusion of a 0 cost 1 Inf card meant that every single corp ran nothing but ICE and Operations, I'd include it in a Heartbeat. : )

Seriously though, the point is it's not really something you need to concern yourself with.

Now, the companions share a theme of punishment if you let their s build up too much. Taka's is pretty harsh which not only gives you a tag, but gives it to you with the corp primed with 3 to react to it (unless you're one of those bastard 419/Security Nexus/Citadel decks with 7 Power Taps installed but those decks don't need Taka anyway). Point-in-case, you're probably trashing Taka rather than taking the tag. Fueno though? Fueno's a bro.

Fueno operates on the concept of "pay-it-forward," simply asking that if he's gone out and scrounged up 3 s for you, that you simply give him the next he holds, because dangit, he's tired and it's hard to go hunting while he carries so much. Mechanically speaking of course, you lose 1 at the end of your turn so that Fueno can stick around and generate another at the beginning of your next. In certain situations, you're completely fine with this--especially in asset spam. Do you need to lie low against CtM? No prob--you'll pay those 1 or 2 extra s forward so that they can be used to fight help the next CtM trace after they've flipped over another Bankers Group. HB got you down with Ash? Use those Fueno s to fight the trace (and trash Ash). Gagarin? Fueno now reads "access one server each turn ignoring Gagarin's ability. You get the picture.

And Lastly (because I have to), quick shoutout to Adam and this card. Adam generally runs NaT so he he has to trash everything he runs into. Against taggers, this can be pretty rough since he wants to run hard early (potentially turning on HHN). Fueno gives just a little bit of extra cushion--no up-front tempo loss with a few 's insurance for those awkward 5-Trash Mumbads or Jeeves that you hit in HQ. Of course, if you had less than 5 credits, then Fueno might actually force you to trash them anyway but shutup, you're playing Adam so you already know nothing can be perfect. (Except of course that Adam is perfect!)

Back to reality, would I recommend a copy of this in Anarch, Adam, or any other non-Anarch deck where you have a stray Inf? Sure I would. That being said, I also wouldn't ever recommend more than 1 copy. It's unique, so you're not stacking the effect, making future Fuenos a dead draw, and in a sense, a loss of a click (because you had to draw it). Likewise, it's ability is good... but I mean, it's not that good. Drip econ is at it's best in bulk. One or two credits a turn is great, don't get me wrong, but 6 is insane, and Fueno on his own can't get you there. But really, if you grab an early Fueno in your opening hand and drop him down turn 1... are you really not going to use that money at some point?