I love Open Market’s “Slow Drip, Fast Spend” design. IE. by:

• Spending-only: it takes about ~2–4 installs to earn +4[$] (a Sure Gamble profit).
• Dripping-only: it'd take six whole turns to cash out.
• Doing both: you can install OM, install a resource (or two), then take the last credit (or two) next turn (or two).

Notes:

• It can “Career Fair out” any expensive resource: especially The Class Act (with the “un-OM’able” Earthrise Hotel rotating). CF. a [$0] Event: Double to Install 1 resource from your grip, paying 4[$] less.. For example, Q1–OM into Q2–TCA is already (more or less) a Lie Low, with two credits and a card-filtering effect leftover; then Andy’s “Draw 4-of-5” can find a [$2+]-drop for next turn, like Side Hustle or another Open Market.

• It subsidizes connections or jobs: exactly like Az. (Including itself, being a job and non-unique too.)

• Its non-interactive Criminal econ: You earn credits by installing (CF. a faster-but-narrower Environmental Testing), and/or just waiting (CF. a slower-and-poorer Daily Casts). NB. whereas ET wants four cheap installs to cash out (ASAP), OM wants two pricy installs.

Cards:

• The Class Act (4[$]).
• Open Market itself (2[$]).
• Side Hustle (2[$]).
• “Baklan” Bochkin (2[$]).
• Info Bounty (2[$]).
• Hannah "Wheels" Pilintra (2[$], 2inf).
• Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga (1[$], 3inf).
• Dr. Nuka Vrolyck (1[$], 2inf).
• ¿Fransofia Ward? (3[$])?
• ¿¿Red Team (5[$])??

See s:connection|job t:resource o>0 z:standard b:active .

PS. I'm hoping for a tech card with this mechanic, that pairs very slow drip with a very large sum of hosted credits (an “Open Market-ified Miss Bones”). For my Crim mini-set, I had jotted down a No Free Lunch–esque custom card like the following (numbers untested), since I hadn't thought of this mechanic. But implementing it as an Open Market-esque card should(?) push its value more towards the “hate matchup” than a general matchup, which I prefer.

Charlotte Libertador
[$0] ♦ RESOURCE: Connection - Clone
[criminal 3/5]
When you install this resource, load 6[$] onto it. When empty, trash it.
You can spend hosted credits to trash installed cards.
[trash]: Gain 1[$] for every 2[$] hosted (rounding down). Use this ability only if there are at least 2[$] hosted.

Maglectric (💣) is the “new Emergency Shutdown”!

But:

• It's pre-installed (not “post-played”): so it won't tax your hand-size if you draw it a turn early (before there's something impactful enough to unrez, or before you have prepped for the successful-run, or when you have a click to spare, or so on). CF. Maxwell James.
• It's immediate: so you can derez an ice (on-success), then bounce that ice with Hermes (on-breach), if you steal an agenda from HQ.
• It can derez assets/upgrades too. (Though ice are still the most expensive card-type in rez-cost, as well as the most constrained in (re-)rez-timing. Besides badpubbing-assets or, esp., forfeiting-assets like Plutus.)
• It's unique: so you can't spam two after a single HQ-success, let alone double-derezzing during the same click. (But you can still install a second in between HQ-runs.)
• It's Hardware: for Az (creditlessly installed) and, esp., Baz (clicklessly installed). Baz can even derez the ice that “installed” Maglectric with Maglectric (afterwards).
• It's a Weapon: for Asmund Pudlat jank. (This is the most important difference.)

Illumination (💡) is “Joy Ride for installation”!

• At best: If you are holding 3 programs/resources/hardware each costing at least 1 credit, then you will get 6 “units-of-value”, while still breaching R&D. In particular, you will compress 4 clicks (3 installs + 1 run) into one.

• At worst… Mass Install is fun?

For example, you can “illuminate out”:

• a Coalescence, Knickknack, and Simulchip) (2[$] total). Then cash it out Coalescence (for Gain 4[$].). After which (next turn), Knickknack can sac the Coalescence (for Gain 2[$]. Draw 1 card., despite its actual-cost being reduced below its printed-cost).
• a Devadatta Drone, Dr. Nuka Vrolyck, and Telework Contract (0[$] total). Then immediately multi-access R&D (without the Corp expecting it, like they would with The Maker’s Eye). After which (next action), you can refill your emptied hand with Nuka.
• an Environmental Testing and two programs/hardware.

Ritual (☕) is a “quasi-Priority Diesel”, IE.:

Morning Energy Drink
0 EVENT: Priority
Play only as your first .
Draw 3 cards.

It's the same cost/inf/effect, but you can't basic-draw to topdeck it and then triple-draw the same turn, like Diesel can.

I love its “lenticular” design for a core-set, it both:

• pushes newer players into the correct sequencing heuristic, IE. you should draw before you play/install anything from hand, because you might draw into something better (and you want to draw all three cards, right?); and
• excites them later with the possibility of gaining extra clicks, like with Hannah (to draw a fourth card).

Thus, Ritual is the complete opposite of VRcation (a “quasi-Terminal Draw”).

However, Diesel’s obvious “Pay 0[$]→Draw 3” is extremely exciting for players coming from card games like Hearthstone/Magic the Gathering (Ancestral Recall!, Yu-Gi-Oh (Pot of Greed), or even from other action-based games like *Dominion (Smithy). I still remember my own "No way!" when I first saw it. See “How Good is Drawing 2 Cards in Every Card Game?” | @SodaTCG (YouTube).

“Knickknack” O’Brian is the “new Aesop’s Pawnshop”.

For example, Knickknack gets Gain 2[$]. Draw 1 card. for sacrificing an empty Coalescence, while Aesop got Gain 3[$].. However:

• Knickknack “reimburses” you: if you buy for $1, you sell for $1, as well as the 1 card itself (like Geist).
• Aesop just “swindled” for you: if you buy for $1, you still sell for the full $3, having had a much higher floor than Knickknack.
• Its The first time each turn a run begins, … is a (slightly) more interactive Whenever your turn begins, …; and can even be (slightly) more frequent, since you can run immediately after installing the resource.
• Both enable if you trashed your … gates (of Simulchip or Boi-tatá).

Synergies:

• Multi-Cards: While Netrunner lacks “card tokens”, one Muse–Coalescence provides two, $2-cost sacrificeables (from a single click/card, over the next two turns).

• Cost-Redux: If more self-cost reductions get printed (like Carmen, which costs $3 to install but reads with a printed install cost of $5) in Shaper, then Knickknack can actually profit off the sacrifice (like Aesop did). As well as cost reductions in general (like DZMZ Optimizer and Simulchip).

• “Spendables”: With virus counters, like Pelangi (or Cordyceps?). And a few with power counters, IE. those without When this _ is empty, trash it., like Coalescence (or the new Devadatta Drone?); as well as the disposable breakers like Revolver (wasting only one “bullet”, to gain two credits and a card), or even Propeller.

• “Front-loaded’s” cards: With high-value When-Installed triggers (like 5inf The Class Act?).

• Compression: If you can compress installs (like the new Illumination, which also cheapens those installs), then Knickknack’s econ can “fully-reimburse” the sacrificed installations (credit, card, and click). Likewise within an Ari or Magdalene deck.

Thus Pawnshop, with its the higher floor and its non-interactivity, seems more powerful, but the design of O’Brian feels more exciting (IMO): you have to care about printed install costs, you get a “card flow” (like Geist), you have to make a run, and so on.

PS. My hope is a Shaper card with large self-cost-reductions, like:

• a gated [$5]; This resource costs 3[$] less to install if you've trashed one of your cards this turn., which works with the Pawnshop archetype (and Simulchip in any archetype).
• or even a scaling [$6]; This program costs 1[$] less to install for each power counter among active Runner cards., which is unbounded.

NB. While it can sac a 4[$] Principia that only cost you 2[$] to install (for Gain 4[$]. Draw 1 card.), you don't want to be sac'ing Fracters. Like how Aesop sac'd a just-used/off-matchup Paricia (for Gain 3[$].).