Now that this card has returned in SU, it’s worth taking another look at it. Celebrity Gift is an enormous operation-speed credit machine with a huge downside. You almost always reveal the entire 5 cards, netting 7 credits, or rather 3.5 credits per click. That’s an obscene rate.

However, in recent times, we all realized the painful truth: Don’t mind game people with this card. Revealing traps is bad. Revealing that you don’t have traps in hand is bad. Revealing that you do or don’t have agendas in hand is bad. You’re not mind gaming, you’re just giving the runner information. Any deck that plays this needs a way around its downside of giving the runner information, or you it can lose you the game. The clearest way to lose is to reveal an agenda flooded hand. The runner can fetch singles on HQ and slaughter you.

In other words, Jinteki glacier decks are great gift vehicles. It’s no secret that you’re putting an agenda into the remote at some point, and you usually run no weird combos or tricks that you must keep hidden. With SG’s new filtering tools, and also the jammy gameplay, it’s unlikely you privy the runner to a flooded HQ.

Overall, this is a very strong card. It’s basically two economy cards in one. However, its downside makes it much worse in trap decks.

I can write a long write-up expounding about how analogous this is as an econ option compared to SSL or how this is just a better PriReq and the merits thereof, but instead I'm just gonna tell you to play this with the mafia Corp for the lore. Yes, it's actually incredibly potent being able to rez 10 and 7 cost ice for cheaper than free (That oughtta show em. Ah, there's my money. Hah? SSL banned? Fuggedaboutit!). Yes, even if you lose the element of surprise in the process (Whatcha lookin at, punk?).

Yes, overall it's pretty good and can fill in that space that SSL left in certain decks, but who cares about the little stuff? I added it in for the flavor. It being good was just a side effect.

"Now come on, Tony. Let's Send em' runners a Message."'

I have opinions about this card. Of all the cards in System Gateway, I don't know why this one sticks out to me: but it does, so here goes.

At worst, Mutual Favor is a straightforward upgrade on Special Order - costing 1 less credit, with 0 downside.

Special Order was a staple 1x in the majority of criminal decks - filling the slot of "2nd Paperclip" for reg decks playing 2 x of each breaker, giving flexibility to Aumakua lists to find the breaker they need to stop being locked out of turtle counters, and helping Engolo lists find the only breaker they need to start landing Diversion of Funds. So, at worst, this is an easy upgrade.

But here's the wild part.

At best, if we've made a succesful run this turn, Mutual Favor is a better use of a slot than any redundant copy of any icebreaker - and in this situation it's actually preferable to draw Mutual Favor than the icebreaker we plan to install - because not only does Mutual Favor gives us the flexibility to install any icebreaker, it removes that icebreaker from the deck so we won't draw it later as a dead card.

I humbly propose Mutual Favor for consideration as the most understated card of System Gateway, and I invite you to try playing it as a 2x or 3x instead of any redundant copies of Bukhgalter, Amina or Aumakua.

This card requires a re-evaluation now that [[Cyberdex Sandbox]] is a thing. Before, it was a hate-card first and foremost. Now, it is a powerful economic tool that is arguably the most extreme example of Code Gates Rez-to-Break ratios. Macrophage is positional, Macrophage is phenomenal.

Assume you play glacier, and the runner has spent 8-ish credits breaking two pieces of ice in front of it, they now sit opposite of an ice that costs either 5+ credits to break with a powerful breaker like Engolo, or will encounter two pivotal traces - Trace 4, or the corp gains 0-12 credits, and Trace 1, or the Corp ends the run. Sine the first sub will often feed into the 2nd, runners can't expect to be able to get away with paying low sums.

[[Thimblerig]] helps move Macrophage to the innermost position of each server, and that's where it should be - after all, the subs are most punishing post breakage of other subs. One way to counter this power a little bit is to understand that [[Cyberdex Sandbox]] only gives money the first time the corp purges viruses. This means that repeat fires of the first sub don't do much beyond removing virus counters.

There's also the problem of the Sandbox score being a requirement to turn Macrophage "on". This means that the ice is particularly suited to AGinfusion builds, that have a relative ice flexbility meaning that if not yet active, Macrophage can be used as a boop too.

Given the relatively prevalence of the NWE's new Maxx build, Macropage stock can be expected to rise up and up.

This card is brand new but I'm going to pretend that I only have a mayfly's lifespan to write a review! So here are my initial impressions of Mayfly after jamming a bunch of casual games.

Mayfly is the AI Icebreaker out of System Gateway, replacing the old standard Crypsis, and I think a replacement was much needed. I recently have played some System Core 2019 games and watching the Runner install Crypsis was too painful. It was such a tempo hit to install and use! Mayfly trades off this cumbersome cost with a one-time use effect. I think this design is inspired, showing new players that the strength of the program doesn't matter, as long as it gets you into the server. As an introductory AI icebreaker, Mayfly is a handy tool that will teach new players the fundamentals of the game as they play.

In a competitive sense, I actually think Mayfly has a lot to offer. People have talked about its synergy with Kabonesa Wu and Flame-out, which certainly seems strong. But even in other decks, I think Corps would do well to worry about this little guy. The ability for the Runner to turn a sum of money into an access, no questions asked, is not to be underestimated. I have already had several games where I felt safe rushing out behind two pieces of ice, only to have a Mayfly and a handful of credits ruin my plans. Mayfly will surely have a place in decks looking to land critical runs, such as those using Apocalypse, but I think it may be more generally useful in the early game to keep Corps honest. I kind of live in fear of this bug.

So I guess my message is this: Remember the Mayfly! An install and an Overclock could be all it takes to break a critical early-game advantage, like an Atlas counter or an ARES score. I think Runners should consider slotting one of these, as it can be helpful at all stages of the game, if you have the credits.