Lore review:

So...this is the great problem you get when you have a game that alludes to so many fandoms at once: you never know when the things you pick up on are things only you see, or things most people see. Anyway, here goes.

The NCC-1701 on the hopper's license plate is the ship's number of Star Trek's Starship Enterprise. The hopper looks nothing like the starship...it's the wrong color, wrong shape, wrong size, you get the picture.

The quote at the bottom is from two different Star Trek episodes: the Original Series' "The Trouble with Tribbles," and Deep Space Nine's "Trials and Tribble-ations." In the former, the crew of the Enterprise finds itself at a starbase which serves as a sort of safe haven to both members of the Federation (AKA "The Good Guys") and the Klingons (AKA "The Bad Guys"). One of the Klingons, seeking to make trouble, makes the mistake of describing the Enterprise using the above quote, which prompts chief engineer Montgomery Scott to defend the honor of his vessel by starting a bar-fight.

In "Trials and Tribble-ations" the Federation and the Klingons have made peace, but somebody goes rogue, and goes back in time to install an explosive device in one of the "tribbles" (harmless self-fertilizing fuzzballs that breed like crazy) in order to kill Captain Kirk. The Deep Space Nine crew goes back in time to try to stop the killing, and encounters a lot of the same scenes that appeared in the original.

I'm not a Star Trek expert, so some of you out there can probably catch all kinds of little mistakes in there. I just remember watching "The Trouble with Tribbles" over, and over, and over again with my dad. He's a purist and he'd "kill" me if he knew I was even talking about anything other than the original series with y'all. Thanks for the nostalgia, Nisei!

NISEI rarely prints strict upgrades to previously-printed cards but that’s what Bukhgalter feels like to the now-rotated Garrote… wait a minute, haven’t I published this review before?

Jokes aside, the two criminal Killers have the exact same paid abilities that are so rare and elusive: "1: Break 1 sub" and 1: +1 strength". But that’s where the similarities end as Bukhgalter is 4 cheaper, 1 less , and pays you money for using it while Garrote gets 1 additional strength. I think the winner between the two is obvious.

Now I can already hear you saying, “Cherries, this card is OP!” Let’s take a look:

MKUltra is better vs:

• Architect*, Caduceus *

Mongoose is better vs:

• Rototurret*, Komainu (2+ subs * or 6+ subs), Tour Guide (2+ subs* or 6+ subs), Architect*, Caduceus*, Anansi*, Enforcer 1.0, Assassin

Na'Not'K (3 str) is better vs:

• Surveyor (2 str*), Nebula *, Assassin *, Anansi *, all 3 str ice, all 2 str ice *

Na’Not’K (4 str) is better vs:

• Surveyor (2 str*, 4 str, 6 str, 8 str*), Orion *, Archer, Trebuchet, Nebula *, Assassin *, Anansi *, all 3 and 4 str ice, all 2 str ice *

*Bukhgalter is better vs. these ice if it is the first piece of ice that it breaks all subs on

Ignoring the obvious offender Na’Not’K, that is not a lot of ice. Most of the ice listed above are also asterisk-marked. Does this comparison even matter though? At 4 influence, Shapers will gladly stick to their star pupil and Anarchs to theirs. But you best believe, Criminals now have their own Killer worthy of the icebreaker spotlight. If you’re running in blue, there is little reason to run anything else.

P.S. Thank you NISEI for a powerful blue card that is not under-influenced. I look forward to future sets!

Comparing Demolisher to the gold standard of trashing assets - Scrubber - it doesn't look all that appealing. On a single access, they both give you two extra credits with which to trash an asset, but Scrubber is half the cost to install! Is it worth paying 2 more for +1 memory? Furthermore, Demolisher competes with Turntable and Patchwork for the Anarch console slot, meaning you give up on messing up corp agenda shenanigans and converting cards into economy, respectively.

There are upsides to Demolisher, however. Unlike Scrubber, Demolisher will actually grant you a real credit the first time you trash Rashida Jaheem or NGO Front, whereas Scrubber just wastes one of its recurring credits. Also, if you access multiple trashable cards in a turn, Demolisher will reduce all of their trash costs by 1, which means you can save credits on trashing faster than with Scrubber. Finally, Demolisher will also pay you back when you trash corp cards in unconventional means - such as with Hippo, the Anarch cutlery suite, Freedom Khumalo: Crypto-Anarchist's ability, and the new Chisel.

So, does Demolisher pull ahead of Scrubber? Seems doubtful. That increased install cost is a big turn-off. Maybe if you're absolutely mad about asset trashing you'll play both, as they do compliment each other nicely. It's potentially also the console of choice for Whizzard: Master Gamer if you're playing casually and allowing rotated IDs.

All through the life of netrunner people asked the question - should Astroscriot Pilot Program have been a 4/2?

Well with their first set NISEI makes that though experiment a reality.

While it can't do a fast advance train without help (such as calibration testing - the fixed sansan) but it can create a never advance train always threatening that card in the remote as another remastered or just rashida?

(System core 2019 perspective)

When I first looked at this card, I thought to myself "wow, this looks like a worse version of Inside Job or Spear Phishing". But then I thought about it a bit harder and realized that this card actually takes care of the one annoying case spear phishing and inside job fail at: what if the big ice is in the middle of the server?

Quite often, when playing against criminal, the Corp will sandwich their big ice between two lower cost ice to ensure the big ice is not bypassed by the spear phishing/inside job suite. But that's where this card comes in. You can pay through the first ice, hit an "end the run" subroutine of that middle ice, and use the second run from this card to bypass that big annoying ice and move on to the tiny innermost ice.

Since jacking out is considered an unsuccessful run, this card has great synergy with Flip Switch. If you see a scary sentry or any other big ice whose "end the run" subroutine is non-existent or after scary subroutines, you can use flip switch to jack out while encountering the scary ice (assuming the ice does not have a scary "when encountered" effect) and then bypass that ice during the second run part of this card

A bit of a jank but interesting effect: if there is a semi annoying 2+ strength ice in the outer side of the server which you can go through without the aid of this card, you can use this card in conjunction with Chisel to lower the strength of that ice by two within a single click, making it much softer and easier to destroy. Similarly, this card can create a lot of problems for Sandstone due to this exact reasoning

This is my first ever card review. Please let me know if there is a way I can improve myself. I would like to write reviews for more downfall cards from a system core perspective, but would like people's go ahead before I continue to do so.