This might well be the worst agenda in Weyland, which is hard to believe..

The first thing to note is that it is a 3/1. 3/1 is a terrible profile for an agenda, and demands a very good effect in order to play it. Very very few 3/1 agendas of any type ever get played, even in factions that are better at scoring agendas than Weyland is. Contrast with 3/2, where Merger shows how strong the setup is....they printed a worse-than-blank 3/2, and it might see some play. 3/1, by contrast, is an agenda graveyard.

In Weyland we spend 6 agenda points on Oaktown Renovation, 6 points on Project Atlas. (Blanket statement, but I'm mostly right. Some hot tub decks or punitive decks rely on 5/3 instead) Depending on your prefs the remainder might be some combination of Global Food Initiative , Hollywood Renovation or what have you. Usually we take 2 5/3 of whatever provenance, and then a pair of Hostile Takeover.

So a 3/1 is trying to bump into that suite. Replacing a hostile is really hard. Hostile scores from hand, and also doubles as a turn where you make 5 creds. A 3/1, by contrast, has to sit on the table for a turn, and then takes a whole turn while costing you 3 creds. It is a tough sell.

Argus is one of the few places where you see the 3/1 's of the world show up., as the ID works off the runner stealing lots of agendas. Mushin No Shin on Posted Bounty is a straight power play. If they don't run it you can clicklessly tag them whenever you want. If they run it it might be a Project Junebug or similar ambush. Chronos Project is an example of the kind of 3/1 that sometimes gets used by Argus.

Firmware Updates in Titan deserves a mention, with Mark Yale selling the creds, turning it into a sort of high risk, high reward Hostile (have to leave it on the table, but makes more money and no bad pub).

So there is very little room for even the strongest 3/1 in Weyland. (I recognize that I've spent a lot of time on this review and haven't mentioned the card beyond it being a 3/1...that's not a wrong way to think, I believe) The deck has to be a bit of an odd duck and the 3/1 in question has to be Chronos level mighty.

How does Crisis Management stack up? Well, if the runner isn't ending their turns (against WEYLAND!) tagged, it is a blank 3/1. This is really the end of the part of the review that means anything. Runners don't end turns tagged vs. Weyland, so this is a blank 3/1. Blank 3/1 isn't worth playing.

But let's indulge this card. What if the runner is letting you start the turn with a tag. They suck down that meat damage. You've got your 2 Scorched Earth on line. How does this change things.

< No protection (card does nothing, they are getting scorched out) < Papparazi (card does nothing, they are immune to meat damage when it fires) < Plascrete + 5 cards (card doesn't let you kill) So the card's contribution lies in the middle cases. Guys with 5 cards and a Sports Hopper , or an I've Had Worse situation.

It is incredibly situational. You are probably better with one of Weyland's other 3/1's that never get played (Hey Vulcan Coverup !), and that is saying something.

MCC is a heck of a card. I've been playing it since it came out, and I can honestly recommend it to most any Weyland deck.

Here are the basic plays, as I've used them:

1: Put it down never advance as part of a horizontal Gagarin strategy. The notion here is that eventually you'll have a Dedication Ceremony and a public agenda in hand and you can FA a 2 or 3 pointer. This fails if they are checking every remote, but you have all the usual Gagarin tricks to make that obnoxious (ambushes, paywalls, the ID ability). If they are dedicated remote checkers they might well bring themselves into scorch range.

2: Put it in Fort Weyland, your one remote. Having a MCC ticking away in your scoring remote is immense pressure on the runner. It reminds me of how it feels when the runner puts down an Incubator. If they don't go in and trash it, you will use it fast advance points. If they do trash it, they get no points.

There is a lot of other cute stuff you can do. Here are a few secondary plays I pull off from time to time.

Death by never advanced Junebug. If they check a facedown junebug and you have 3 counters on your MCC just rez it and load it up in the Jackson window, then let them access.

Dodging cutlery: Change the type of a Wendigo or Changeling after they play the event.

Dodging Clot: If they have a clot in heap, waiting to get clone chipped, you can wait until you have enough counters, then install a public agenda and score before they have a chance to get their clot out. Happens surprisingly often.

The math on this guy is usually about like this: Scoring an Oaktown Renovation from hand takes you all 3 clicks and 2 counters, as well as 2 creds. Install the Oaktown, advance twice (spending 2 creds, gaining 4, for a net gain of 2), then spend 4.

Scoring a Hollywood from hand takes 8, install and advance twice for 2, then 6 more to push over the counters.

The rez/dedication combo play to score a Hollywood from hand is 14.

I encourage every Weyland player to give this card a try. It has really helped out my Weyland decks. We can usually protect one remote, and this card is the right card to live there.

So, this is a very interesting card. On the face of it this is just 'Win More' at its finest. If the runner is tagged why are you clicking to add tags, instead of clicking to Scorch/All Seeing I/Closed Accounts?

But having played with it a time or two, the true effect of this isn't so much to bury the runner in tags as it is to make it harder for the runner to de-tag.

Consider. Second click, runner runs R&D through a Data Raven. Plan is to de-tag third click. After he passes it, however, you rez the ZJ. Now the runner has to spend his third click running over and trashing the ZJ, or else his de-tag will be undone on your first click. This is still doable. Runner who gets tagged second click can run over to ZJ and trash third click, then detag fourth click. But throw in a Snare! on the second click access? Or another Raven in front of the ZJ? It's easy to imagine situations where the runner can't get de-tagged.

This is basically an attack not on the runner's econ (the all important Corp vs. Runner cred totals aren't naturally changed by the corp spending 2 to rez, runner spending 2 to trash), but on their clicks. If they have planned out a click to detag they may receive an unwelcome surprise when it basically takes 2 clicks and 4 creds instead.

Bottom line, every runner knows how bad it is to end the turn tagged. Either your deck is built around it, or you are wincing in preparation for incoming meat damage/yellow tag punishment cards. From now on 'end the turn tagged' is mostly equivalent to 'end the turn with a ZJ rezzed'.

I suspect that this card will ultimately prove to be a very influential and powerful card, an auto-include in criminal and worth considering splashing in the other factions.

This card's effect, as compared to your expenditure, is utterly unparalleled. In return for one click and 5 creds you create a space wherein the Corp CAN'T WIN (save by flatline). You have the remainder of the turn you install it, then the entirety of the turn where it has 1 counter on it, then the entirety of the turn where it has 2 counters on it. Discounting the install turn (since the Corp doesn't score out on the runner's turn) and presuming no 5 click shenanigans, you get 8 clicks to fix a lost game.

This is, to be sure, a tall order. But the alternative is defeat. In a close game, is 8 clicks enough time to make your way into R&D one more time? Remember, it is only the Corp that can't win during this time. You can absolutely win yourself. This can lead to hilarious situations. Imagine the Corp losing 7 to 7, or, heck, 8 to 7.

A few notes:

First off, the best use of the Black File would be to have a way to install it as a paid ability. Put it on a Street Peddler or what have you. That way if the enemy isn't going to win you don't have to pay for it, and if you do end up installing it you don't lose a click putting it down. In this case you'd use it like you'd ordinarily use a clot.

Next, the Corp is not entirely powerless during these 2 protected turns. It is easy to imagine them staring at their 7 agenda points and just taking creds and adding ice, but they do have an alternative. If they can tag you there is nothing about this card which keeps the Corp from trashing it.

Also, this is a virtual resource, and therefore Apex can use it. Hard to imagine he has the influence to spring for this, but the possibility is there.

Edited to remove misread. I was thinking it worked on ice of one subtype. Obviously that's not the case.

Alright, take 2, this time looking for one sub, not one subtype.

Archangel

Ashigaru (only if there is just one card in HQ)

Asteroid Belt

Bailiff

Bandwidth

Bastion

Brainstorm (only if there is just one card in grip)

Bullfrog

Burke Bugs

Cell Portal

Changeling

Checkpoint

Chimera

Chum

Clairvoyant Monitor

Cortex Lock

Crick

Data Hound

Data Mine

Data Raven

Draco

Excalibur

Firewall

Flare

Galahad (only if the corp doesn't reveal any other grail ice)

Gemini

Grim

Guard

Gutenberg

Gyri Labyrinth

Himitsu Bako

Hive (Only if they have scored 4 agenda points)

Howler

Hunter

Ice Wall

Information Overload (only if the runner has 1 tag)

IQ

Ireress (Only if the corp has just one bad pub)

It's a trap!

Kitsune

Komainu (Only if the runner has just one card in grip)

Lab Dog

Lancelot (Only if the corp doesn't reveal any other grail ice)

Lockdown

Lotus Field

Lycan

Magnet

Marker

Matrix Analyzer

Merlin (Only if the corp doesn't reveal any other grail ice)

Meru Mati

Minelayer

Mother Goddess

Nebula

Neural Katana

News Hound (Only if there is no current in play)

NEXT Bronze

NEXT Silver (Only if it is the only NEXT ice rezzed)

Paper Wall

Pop-up Window

Quandary

Quicksand

Rainbow

Resistor

RSVP

Sagittarius

Salvage (Only if the corp has advanced it once)

Sensei

Snoop

Snowflake

Special Offer

Susanoo-no-Mikoto

Swarm (Only if the corp has advanced it once)

Taurus

TL;DR

TMI

Tollbooth

Tour Guide (Only if one asset is rezzed)

Turnpike

Tyrant (Only if the corp has advanced it once)

Universal Connectivity Fee

Vanilla

Virgo

Waiver

Wall of Static

Whirlpool

Woodcutter (Only if the corp has advanced it once)

Wormhole

Wraparound