Wave

Wave

At first glance, this struck me as trash. The sub doesn't do much until it's powered up, and even then it's cheap to break, since the number of Harmonic ICE only increases Wave's payoff, rather than add subs or strength. And near the end, the runner can just run though it to grab the game-winning agenda.

But I think I get it now. Wave isn't really trying to be a piece of ICE.

You see, when Wave was little, it wanted to grow up to be an operation that said "0: Increase your Harmonic ICE count by 1." Instead it grew up to be an ICE, so this was the best it could do, but it actually didn't land too far from its target. It won't stop the runner or tax them much, but it counts as a Harmonic, lets you fetch another one, and the runner will probably let it fire a few times, so you'll recoup the investment of installing and rezzing it.

The only real problem is that there isn't yet enough Harmonic ICE in the game for "0: Increase your Harmonic ICE count by 1" to be any good.

64

It's really hard to evaluate its strength without seeing the rest of the Harmonic cards. Will have to revisit this card after the entire Borealis cycle is released.

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Echo

Echo

Echo looks like another NEXT Silver, but it's actually much worse. Unlike with Silver and NEXT, a newly-rezzed Echo doesn't benefit from all the other Harmonic ICE on the table. So while three rezzed NEXT Silvers have nine subs total, three rezzed Echoes have only six. If you could have 10 of each, the totals would be Silver: 100 subs, Echo: 55 subs.

Echo also looks like it combos well with derez cards like Hákarl 1.0 and Divert Power, but that isn't quite right either. Maybe you could slowly build up a behemoth Echo if it was 0 to rez, but here you're paying 2 per sub you add to your 0-str ICE.

Now if I could run 17 Echoes, would I? Maybe. I'd have tried 17 NEXT Silvers back in their day too. The problem was always that the other NEXT ICE wasn't good enough for Silver and Bronze to really shine.

64

I would rather choose to build a 17 Masvingo with NBN's new ID.

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Feels like ice that cud counter bots & boomerangs

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Trieste Model Bioroids

Trieste Model Bioroids

Yikes... so now Ansel 1.0 + Ganked! is even scarier jank. If you run past Ansel and the corp has an unrezzed card in another server, do you dare access?

Here are some more characters for you, you silly line of javascript.

64

Well hello there pinhole threading

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And Light the Fire!, I suppose, though you won't know when you need to use it.

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Er, wait... accessing the Ganked! with Pinhole Threading still gets your rig trashed, doesn't it?

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Aha! No, it doesn't. With Pinhole Threading, you access just the one card, so the Ganked! infinite loop can't happen.

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The problem is you often don't know you should use Pinhole threading or Light the Fire! before a Trieste is rezzed. Is this card behind this Ravana 1.0/Ansel 1.0 à Trieste ? an agenda ? a Ganked! ? or a Nico Campaign ? If you pinhole/LTF blindly, you'll still have to deal with the consequences as the corp rez a Trieste from another remote. Speaking about jank, did I tell you about NEXT Activation Command ?

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Running Hot

Running Hot

Has NISEI explained why this card doesn't say "Amped Up" at the top? Leech technically functions differently from Datasucker (not that I've ever seen the tiny distinction matter), but this seems functionally identical.

64

The core damage is an additional cost instead of part of the effect. It's a tiny distinction (like Leech v Datasucker), but it's not identical. If for instance you had a Runner effect that let you play an event "ignoring all costs", you could skip the core with Running Hot (but would still take it from Amped Up).

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Braintrust

Braintrust

There are no blank agendas in Netrunner,** but Braintrust comes pretty darn close.

Even if you could advance Braintrust after scoring it, it would still be a pretty iffy deal. Pay $2 and 2 clicks to reduce rez costs by 1? You'll have to rez four more ICE before you even break even!

What's worse, scoring an over-advanced Braintrust is incompatible with using it effectively: - You want to score it early, but you also need a surplus $2 and 2 clicks - You want to score it before rezzing much ICE, but it has to be protected enough to install-advance-advance - If you're a trappy corp that can bluff it out with Mushin or Kakurenbo, you probably aren't running much ICE

Between this and Project Yadi-Uga (only a bit less useless) it seems clear that NR designers feel that red 2/3 agendas would be OP if they actually did something. Compare these to Beale, Atlas, and Vitruvius. Apparently it's okay for red to have a few 2/3s, but they'd better not also be useful.

** except Vanity Project, but just being a 4/6 is special in itself

64

Reduced cost is substantially different from a credit rebate, particularly when a cost has been reduced to zero. Your math is correct but your imagination is a little stifled, here.

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I mean, there are ways in faction to protect brain trust enough to make it work. Mushin and Caprice Nisei being the first that come to mind. Certainly not the easiest agenda to make effective, but far from useless.

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