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.

Small and innocent looking but honestly quite a beastly card. You install this in a huge scoring remote and make the ice in it stronger. Combos extremely well with Jinja City Grid,Surveyor and Mti Mwekundu. You can also rez this during any paid ability window. So no worries if you have this as your last ice with 3 others in front of it, just flip it right away. And as icing on the cake it is a mini Pop-up Window. Has potential to make glacier an even bigger powerhouse. It does die instantly to Chisel though.

As someone who played during the format when Keyhole anarch was predominant, I was very happy to see that card rotate. It led to very tiresome games where as a corp you were locked out of any line of play, as well as having to shuffle your deck dozens of times over the course of a match. So when I saw we're getting a replacement for Keyhole, I was hesitant at best and ready to bring out my pitchfork and torch at worst.

Will Stargate be as prone to being a NPE as Keyhole though? I doubt it. Let's look at the card with an open mind.

First off, the numbers on it are identical to its predecesor. 4 to install, 2 MU program, 3 influence, look at 3 cards and trash 1. This is not a card you include lightly, you build around it. In the past, anarchs tended to play Eater in their decks as a way to complement the "instead of accessing" part. But anti-ai ice is more popular now than ever due to Aumakua, and with Account Siphon rotated, Eater decks have fewer tools to be oppressive.

On that topic, let's look at the ways this card is more balanced than Keyhole. The big one is obviously that Stargate can only be used once per turn. No more running R&D 4 times and trashing 4 cards, or shenigans with additonal clicks (such as when Hyperdriver was legal). The runner gets 1 shot per turn. On top of that, the 2 cards that aren't trashed are returned to the top of R&D in the same order. This actually benefits the corp, as they will know which card is coming up due to the absence of a shuffle.

This does make Stargate actually stronger in a way. While constant randomizing of cards was very annoying, the corp still had a chance to top deck the one card they needed to get them out of a precarious situation. Stargate makes this more difficult. The runner runs, sees 2 bad cards and 1 amazing, trashes the latter, the rest go back. Now the corp has to draw those cards and make the most of it, cause the runner can just go again on their turn.

Keeping all this in mind, this is definitely a card to fear going forward and I am not a huge fan of it. But I will say,, it is a good act of balancing by Nisei, which I respect.