System Update - Startup Review!

Legwork is a card with a powerful effect that really competes for slots in a Startup deck. Looking at 3 cards in HQ is really quite nice, since it means it's more likely than not that if there is an agenda in there, you will get to see it. You'll also get to see most of the corp's upcoming gameplan. Downside is that it costs 2creds, 2 influence, and if you only look at a bunch of ice it doesn't actually give you much information. Also if the corp is only sitting at 3 cards, it's more access than is even necessary.

Your main competitors are Docklands Pass and Jailbreak. The pass can actually combo really well with legwork, letting you see a whopping 4 cards, which can be great if you feel the corp is getting Agenda screwed or is really planning something big next turn. However, getting that persistent additional HQ access is probably worth more to most decks than a slightly larger burst access turn. Jailbreak is a more interesting comparison. You're getting to access one less card, in exchange for drawing a card if successful, the run being free, and having the flexibility to target either HQ or R&D, and costing no influence. It's a lot of advantages to Jailbreak, and I would most decks who are interested in getting additional multi-access to go for Jailbreak first, and then Docklands Pass. However, it's hard to beat the sheer burst access of Legwork, so I would except many runners to still run a copy alongside the above mentioned tools, especially in run heavy event decks like Ken "Express" Tenma: Disappeared Clone, or in Zahya Sadeghi: Versatile Smuggler where the extra access will pay for themselves, making this card free.

Outside of crim, this card can be useful in Anarch who's going trash heavy with René "Loup" Arcemont: Party Animal and/or Imp, really robbing the corp of some options. Generally I wouldn't except to see it too much in shaper, where you have lots of excellent R&D multi-access tools, and would expect for runners to spend their 2 influence on the pass and using jailbreak over this.

As a startup player, every runner should be aware of Saisentan. It has the honor of being the only card in Startup that, with no setup, can flatline an unsuspecting runner with 5 cards in grip. Yes you need to have at least 3 of a card type in hand to make that possible, but that's not really that unlikely, especially if you're running a specialty runner like Az McCaffrey: Mechanical Prodigy or Ken "Express" Tenma: Disappeared Clone. But what are the odds of being flatlined? If you were curious like me, the math is: Assuming the corp picks the 'correct' card type: 3 Same type in hand - 10% chance of being flatlined 4 Same type in hand - 40% chance of being flatlined 5 Same type in hand - 100% chance....

Seeing the above math, and the fact that the minimum is 3 net damage, and you're often worried about being low on cards against Jinteki, it's clear this ice is meant to be a punishment for runners face checking random ice with no breakers, or basically an ETR against runners who don't have a killer installed (just, this ice ETR by killing the runner. Which will do it). You can even cheekily get some damage on runners who think they are safe putting a Botulus or Boomerang on this and running.

So how does Saisentan do when the runner has the killer? In startup, it's okay. Basically every killer is breaking for 3 creds. Bukhgalter gets through with 4 but their rebate brings to 2, and Afterimage also spends 2. Odore pays 5 if they don't have their virtual friends, and Echelon has to pay 6 if it's by itself. None of these are terrible deals, but really you're looking for an unprepared runner facechecking this. And that's why runner friends, always be aware of your face.

So, this asset is great in One Server To Rule Them All, obviously, but really it's great in any glacier/fast advance hybrid deck. FedEx Mars means the drip of ICE advancement this gives you is actually building up to Taking Over The World. If you're Built to Last, this card can provide a turn-start drip worth 6 clicks of tempo.

And when you want to put down an agenda to fast-advance, a special field worker, or anything else you might need in the space, you don't have to trash it. It can bounce itself to HQ. Then when you put it back, all that ICE you just sucked the tokens off of is fodder to get the maximum tempo from these wall-to-wall ads as a long-term investment again.

Are there any other cards that provide 4 clicks of tempo every turn by themselves? Chicago Construction Season refunds 2 tempo for every 2 tempo invested after installing it, at a net tempo cost of 1 when you get it to scoring. This is slightly better than a wash since the way credits and advancement work, you come out ahead in credits on that deal, with the agenda fueling itself so that it only takes 1 credit in the pool to start advancing it, and effectively gaining instead of losing a credit on each click. This agenda is rightly considered an incredible tempo advantage. But it's straightforward - you don't get a spread of tempo across all the things you need to do with your time. Sure, advancing agendas towards scoring and getting credits are both important, but you can't use that time for anything else, and it DOES cost you clicks.

Once installed, Wall to Wall does not cost clicks. It drips you 4 tempo every turn. If you only get one turn out of it, it's at least as good as Hedge Fund. If you get 2 turns out of it, it's better than the most popular neutral econ card of the moment. It puts mister ICE pre-advancer and the home of free advancement drip to shame. The only things that come close to this level of swing from a single card are the WTO, which although less efficient at 5 clicks and 1 credit to create a swing of 6 clicks (3 lost by the runner, 3 gained by the corp the turn it pays off in the end), does enable single turn scoring of a 5/3 agenda all by itself - which is only matched by Punitive Fast-Advance - and that lacks the click-screw effect on the runner, so I don't think it ranks as high for tempo (though it's as impactful for swing as our Martian truckers, which is notable enough). Another card that comes close to this level of efficiency is Ka-me-HA-ME-HAAAAA!, which gives credits while you charge it up and can actually win the game by itself if you get to charge your attack for 5 whole minutes.

It's in the faction which loves to glacier very deep and to post very effective keep-out signs. No seriously, keep the fuck out. So I say: glacier deep and tall. Hire Couriers and Robots. Eat hot chip and lie.

While psi_lifeup has an excellent write up from when the card launched, time has moved on. Multithreader has a new sibling from Ashes, Rezeki. I think that people are reaching for the shiny green thing where this might work?

Rezeki is clean. 1 and for outside shaper though, it's the same influence as multithreader. And I suppose that you can have the credit carry over to the next turn. But when are you not breaking ice or playing cards?

Multithreader is more restricted, it costs more if you don't run straight after install. You also need to run each turn to activate it. It sure is a shame that the name of the game doesn't mention running... The payoff is an extra who knows if that makes better in general. But if you're running each turn, a free credit is stil a credit.

The real downside is that it costs influence in shaper.

Reviews for this keep calling it a draw card, and it just isn't. It costs 2 to draw and play this, which you could have just used to draw two cards the regular way. (This isn't quite true if you draw it using some other effect, but even then it could have been some other card).

The trade-off for this card is therefore that it moderately delays your draw in favour of making it slightly more filtered. That's, erm, only very slightly better than nothing. Then again, it is better than nothing, which made me think BbD would be an auto-include for most crim decks when I first saw it. Why wouldn't you want free filtering, and an effectively slightly smaller deck to boot? The answer is that the delay to your draw is more noticeably annoying than you'd think. Starting your turn with BbD in hand, or drawing into it, effectively means it will cost you a to see your options for the turn, and although it's paying for itself in terms of long term economy, it's making your short-term options more of a faff. In a game where a single can make the difference between snatching the winning agenda and not, the negative impact of this card is far more memorable than its benefit.

That said, I think there's a more human reason why BbD isn't seen more often. Keeping runner decks down to size is hard. If your deck is 42 cards + 3 BbD, the odds are you can think of a ton of other things that can go in those slots. Although it's a valid argument that small decks are good, so a virtual 42 cards is better than an actual 45, in reality it's psychologically difficult to devote three slots to cards that do little more than replace themselves when there is so much cool stuff you could be playing instead.