Doppelgänger gets beat out by Desperado in most ways except for influence. It's harder to use Desperado outside of Criminal because of its 3 influence cost, and now it's tough to squeeze the old cowboy into any decklist because it's on the NAPD's Most Wanted List. I have a feeling this is going to encourage Crims to explore other options at console, which could give the D-O-double-P a chance. If it doesn't, I doubt anything short of card errata of Desperado will make Dopps and other crim consoles see play.

I most often see Doppelganger in centrals-focused decks, using the extra run to meet the requirements of Notoriety, Quest Completed, and Apocalypse. These events, combined with the centrals-only breakers and events like Inside Job and Feint, become substantially easier to play.

The most important synergies have the language, "whenever you make a successful run," or the like because these abilities trigger on both of Dopp's runs. Examples include, but are not limited to:

Other combos to note:

  • Further enhance the above abilities with an Early Bird, making two runs for 0
  • Make a run of your design, then follow up with a Doppelrun on an un-iced server to trigger Security Testing or Bank Job
  • Kick off your turn with a Jak Sinclair run (maybe against that un-iced server for creds), then make a Doppelrun during which you can use programs. Bonus: This makes 3 Steps even stronger!
  • Try to do some fancy work with Shards: Hit R&D, install Eden, Doppelrun HQ, and Eden to force the corp to draw just before a multiaccess with HQI; similarly, hit HQ, install Utopia Shard, Doppelrun Archives, and Utopia to access two cards the corp may have been guarding. Both actions seem situational, but each only costs 1.

So, all you Doppelrunners out there, get to it! Comment with other combos or strategies if you discover any!

P.S. "Doppelsucker" is a gross word. Like, it just sounds...dirty...

1067
Don't forget the "special effect for hitting all three Centrals" cards! Those become a lot easier to trigger with a Doppel run floating around. —
Thx, LR, can't believe I missed it! I added Quest/Noto/Apoc section. —

I want to like this card. It seems okay at first glance. But then you start thinking...When would I use this over other cards? Why wouldn't I just tag the runner and trash their resources? The answer is: very rarely.

Hellion's weaknesses (as outlined by @cmcadvanced) are severe: restricted timing, uninstalling instead of trashing, not guaranteed uninstallation, risk of bad pub, high influence. The low trace means you have to have an economic advantage over the runner for this to stick. Really, the window to play this is after the runner installed a specific resource and made themselves poor. That's rough.

The strength of this card is its ability to target ANY type of resource. Compared to other similar abilities from Snatch and Grab, Contract Killer, and Elizabeth Mills, Hellion's flexibility gives it nice utility.

A similar effect would be an operation that tags the runner so you can just trash any resource with another click, such as SEA Source and Midseason Replacements. If you're including these cards, you're probably building a deck around tag-punishment for synergy. Hellion allows you to gain the removal benefit without needing to spend additional influence/deck space on tag-happy cards.

Kala Ghoda Real TV turns Hellion into a Trace 2 - Trash a Resource effect. I'm not confident there are many ways to get Resources out of the heap, so this could be a strong combo. Want to make a deck with Lizzie for Wyldside AND Contract Killer for Film Critic/ProCon/Beckman/Aesop's/Supplier? Maybe try Kala and Hellion instead!

There's a strange synergy with Underway Renovation. 1 Hellion, 2 Install UR, 3 Advance and trash. Pretty weak combo, but it exists, I guess.

There's a lot of resources that could be central to runner deck strategy. Some examples (that aren't connections) include:

As for Connections that you might target:

Anything you target with Hellion cannot be saved by Fall Guy, either.

Overall, I don't think this card will be usable until there is more synergy with it, such as cards that add Runner cards to the top of their stack or trash the top cards of the stack. Or maybe if the runner cards listed above become prevalent and Hellion becomes a counter to those.

1067
Adding to the top of the stack, instead of trashing, is actually a benefit in that it lets you dodge fall guy. —
I think the problem is that the main thing that installs a resource and makes the Runner poor is overcommitting. It should be plenty possible to punish that WITHOUT a specific tool to do so. Although it is notable that trashed resources can sometimes be recurred on the corp's turn, and that's basically impossible to do if you use this instead. —
@TheNameWasTaken I didn't think about Fall Guy! I'll add that in. —
@LordRandomness Agreed - overcommitment by the runner is outside of the Corp's control, and better runners won't make that kind of choice often. Also, nice point on the resource recursion. What cards would let the runner reuse resources on the corp's turn? —