When you think of Weyland 5/3’s, they’re often very specialized and require building around:

High-Risk Investment barely sees play outside of Titan and Hollywood Renovation the same treatment outside of SSO. City Works Project generally does not require being built around and synergizes well with common green cards Punitive Counterstrike and Dedication Ceremony but it does have the Public subtype downside and is blank in centrals.

So for a Weyland 5/3 to see play alongside GFI and SSL, what will it need?

• On-score/on-steal ability like SSL? Check.

• No influence or unicorn unlike GFI? Check.

• Throwback to now-rotated flavourful Weyland card? Check.

SDS Drone Deployment is nasty and is the program-trashing Weyland card that might keep runners honest again. Sure Clone Chip is back in full force and yes, the conspiracy breakers are everywhere but icebreakers are bigger and more expensive than ever these days.

Unfortunately, SDS has one big weakness and that is on-steal, it allows the Runner to choose which program to trash. Whether that be a Rezeki, a Datasucker, or maybe even a Bankroll, the flexibility is huge and I wish this had specified “icebreaker” instead.

Overall, I don’t see this agenda seeing too much play over SSL or GFI. It’s just as weak to Film Critic or Whistleblower, provides flexibility to the Runner, and it has additional hate in popular cards Clone Chip, Dummy Box (on-score), or the conspiracy breakers. It’s disappointing that this is the case though as this card screams Weyland.

While it is slightly situational, I think Focus Group is the one card in Downfall that really screams "overpowered" to me.

For starters, let's compare it to the most famous fast advance tool, Biotic Labor. While that operation might be more flexible, giving you an unconditional extra click, it will nearly always be used to score an agenda requiring triple advancement. For this purpose, you are set back 3 clicks, 1 card and 7 credits. For Focus Group, it only costs you 2 clicks, 1 cards and 6 credits, provided you "hit" at least three cards in the grip. If you hit two, it still gives you the same return as Biotic. Not cheap, but also not terrible in my opinion. Let's also not forget this card is harder to effectively counter with anti-FA-best-boy Clot.

But the real strength of Focus Group is in its potential upper limits. Many runner decks consist mostly of events and resources, and having 4 of either on hand isn't that uncommon. And if that happens, you can fast advance a 5/3 from hand. If you have multiple copies it even becomes child's play, while admittedly very expensive. It also works nicely with the never advance game, especially if you have won the game of Beale or no Beale, so that you can get 3 or even 4 points instead of 2.

Obviously the main balancing factor of FG is its dependence on the runner's hand, meaning it can backfire spectacularly. Luckily (for the corp), NBN has a few tools to peek at the runner's hand. The most obvious is Standard Procedure, which was always a decent card but willl become a staple in yellow FA. Peeping Tom and Waiver might actualy start seeing play. Harishchandra got a a fun new toy and I think Focus Group will be good in Azmari too since they have some control over the runner's plays, especially backed up with Scarcity of Resources.

Requiring a succesful run is another drawback, but as most runners will be set up and aggressive by the mid to late game, this card will rarely be dead, especially in non-glacier decks.

A possible counter play the runner has is of course keeping their hand size low, but this obviously carries the usual risks associated with having few cards on hand. I could totally see this card replace Biotic Labor in Jinteki PE decks, especially considering the lower influence. There are also ways to keep the runner's hand full, like Personalized Portal and Pālanā Agroplex.

Looking at the card pool again, I think Focus Group comes out strong in most comparisons. Game Changer and MCA Austerity Policy are technically stronger but take way effort to set up and can be trashed by the runner. Shipment from Tennin is cheaper for 3/1's and 3/2's but it doesn't let you fast advance a 5/3 and you need two copies in your hand for a 4/2. Calibration Testing, with Breaker Bay Grid and Team Sponsorship is also powerful but folds to asset hate.

So yeah, maybe I am overestimating the potential of this card, but I think it will be a serious problem for the upcoming meta.

A shaper console in blue disguise! For the low cost of 2 credits, hardware you install after this will give you a free card. This is especially strong in Geist in combination with Spy Camera. Other hardware to combo with this console include Sports Hopper, Clone Chip, HQ Interface and Lucky Charm.

The second ability obviously works very well with Az McCaffrey, whose ability negates the +1 cost so that you can install one piece of hardware for no click each turn.

While this card will definitely see play, run-oriented criminals might still prefer Paragon. Probably won't see play out of faction either due to the 4 influence pips.

MirrorMorph. Such a shame that Shipment from MirrorMorph rotated with the new System Core. At first, I said that mostly as a joke, but the more cards from Downfall are previewed, the more I believe that the shipment would've made a powerful tool in this deck.

Any new HB ID will inevitably be compared to Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future, so let's just get it out of the way. In this case, the comparison isn't entirely without reason, either. Both have a triggering condition, that, when met, can give you 1. So is MirrorMorph just a strictly worse ETF? Not quite, since if you can take four different 's, you can get an extra action instead. And I assume most people will agree that a is worth more than a . So you'll end up triggering this less often than ETF, but when you do trigger it, it will be stronger.

However, by default, the options available to you don't really encourage you to take 4 different actions per turn. Draw/Event/Install/Advance, maybe but that seems like a stretch. Luckily, assets with abilities also count. MCA Austerity Policy seems especially potent in this kind of deck. And in Downfall, we're getting a few more assets that can help with this style of deck: Nanoetching Matrix and Calvin B4L3Y.

However, all of these assets have a problem: they can be trashed. And apart from MCAAP, you can't put them in your scoring remote, since you need to keep them around to make use of them. This would mean some kind of asset-spam deck would work better, but MirrorMorph doesn't provide any way to protect your assets. A of 3 is not cheap, but it won't stop a runner. And yes, you do get some value when this happens, but getting all your assets blown up all the time means you can't take advantage of your ID.

But what if you ICE'd them? Historically, asset-spam decks don't bother putting ICE on their assets: they need the ICE they have to defend their central servers and scoring remote, and decks like Gagarin Deep Space: Expanding the Horizon and NBN: Controlling the Message have ways to stop you from just trashing all their assets. However, the existence of the card Fully Operational seems to hint at the fact that NISEI wants us to ICE our asset remotes... or is at least willing to reward us when we do.

In this approach, you would use cheap, taxing ICE, not to stop the runner, but to make them pay even more for trashing your Nanoetching Matrix and Calvin B4L3Y. When they do, you get more money and cards, that you can then use to play more assets and ICE, and so forth. Agenda-flood can be solved with Preemptive Action, Gatekeeper, Drudge Work, Attitude Adjustment, and so forth.

This would lead to a very snowball style deck: if you can get enough assets in play to draw lots of cards and gain lots of credits which you use to get ahead further and further. If the runner can stop you, you'll probably be helplessly flailing trying to stop them. I'm curious to see what this deck ends up looking like. Maybe I'm looking in completely the wrong direction, and is there a combination of cards that is yet stronger still. And CSR Campaign still needs to find a place somewhere...

One final note about the ID: getting operations that can let you install cards is important. Lateral Growth and Red Level Clearance can assist when you want to install an asset, ICE it, and still get four . Maybe Advanced Assembly Lines can be used to "store" an install for when you need it. Shipment from MirrorMorph would've worked great here, letting you fill the board with your assets, but sadly, it is not meant to be.

While doing research on this identity. I found that most cards that have the word "reveal" on them involve psi games. And of the ones that are left, a large chunk have the runner revealing something (traps, cards like Tyson Observatory or Oracle May ), which doesn't trigger Hyobou's ability. Good to know.

So, what DOES get you that sweet corp money? For starters, Celebrity Gift gains you 8 credits instead of 7. Pretty sweet. Attitude Adjustment gives you a buck even if you shuffle just 1 agenda back into R&D. Drudge Work will gain you +1 on top of the value of the agenda. Fast Track and Political Dealings reward you for going fast.

Also, since the ability works on the runner's turn as well, the grail ice suit is particularly suited for Hyobou. Lancelot, Merlin, Galahad, they all make you dough if you have ice to reveal in HQ.

Apart from that, Hyobou's build-in click ability is ideal to get a sense of what is in the runner's hand. Instead of just clicking for a credit, this allows you to play cards like Targeted Marketing and Salem's Hospitality. And if you have a good memory, you can easily leverage this ability into a potential kill with newcomers Saisentan and Complete Image. Do keep in mind that while you can reveal several cards per turn, you will only gain a credit the first time.

Last but not least, this card has fun synergy with some janky cards. Bamboo Dome and Open Forum are now credit neutral, Recruiting Trip is cheaper, you can install and rez Chiyashi for 4 credits, use The freakin Twins... If only Angel Arena were an asset, a clickless scrying and credit seems ridiculous.

This ID is very versatile and I am excited to see what people will cook up during deckbuilding.