I know this card is getting somewhat overlooked as a "poor mans Political Operative", and at first glance that seems to be the case. It has a similar, but weaker effect, but is neutral and cost no influence. Compared to PolOp, this card is easier to install (no HQ run needed) and cheaper to use most of the time (you pay the REZ cost of the card, not the trash cost) but only delays what that card does for one turn, while PolOp trashes it completely. Of course, often that one turn will be more than enough for either PolOp or Coucilman to be worth putting down, like when you shut off an Ash 2X3ZB9CY to get that agenda from a foodcoats or RP server. Though it should be noted that Councilman is a card that needs to be held onto until the turn it is needed, if you put it down early, the corp can just early rez their cards and councilman does jack squat.

However, while the first impression of councilman is to just be an "easier but weaker PolOp", there is actually one very important thing to keep in mind that coucilman does that PolOp does NOT do. It counters "trash to use" trap upgrades, like Ryon Knight, Keegan Lane and of course Marcus Batty. Councilman will stop these from going off, PolOp will not. Now granted, the only one of those cards that is played with any real frequency right now is Marcus, but Palana is making us see an awful lot of him at the moment, so it might be worth taking a harder look at council man if Marcus or similar upgrades become popular in the meta.

Fun fact, Councilman and PolOp have nifty interactions with Jackson Howard. PolOp will counter a rezzed jackson, but not an unrezzed one, while Councilman does the opposite (will stop a facedown jHow but not an already faceup on). Together these anti-howard bros do a great job of double teaming Jackson between them............................OH SHIT PHRASING. SHIT SHIT SHIT DO NOT LOOK UP THAT IMAGE ON RULE 34. DON'T DO IT. DO NOT. OH GOD YOU DID IT, DIDN'T YOU??!! NOW IT'S BURNED INTO YOUR MIND FOREVER.

PolOp and councilman are going to turn the meta on it's head for sure, though above all it feels like they are a-little-too-much-ash/caprise-combo-hate. Because lets be real, the first thing everyone thought when they saw those cards is "punch foodcoats in the face". Which probably needed to happen to some degree, foodcoats was not only choking out the meta, but choking out other HB identities very hard. While these cards where probably needed in some way, it does feel like a bit of overkill, and PolOP should DEFINITELY be more influence. I won't be suprised if it goes on the MWL eventually. It feels like a card that was meant to catapult criminals out of the slump they were in, but instead at only 1 influence will just get splashed into the other top tier decks to make them even more overbearing.

HOWEVER, perhaps one thing that is being overlooked a bit much, is that first clause that the runner has to make a successful HQ run to put down a PolOp. Early on, yeah they will probably get at least one out, but if you are adequately icing up HQ, even though polop itself only costs 1 to install, if it costs them 6 credits to get to HQ , polop is now a 2 click, 7 credit card to install, and if they trash, say, an ash, the total cost is 2 clicks and 10 credits to trash that ash. Throw on a crisium and that's another run and the 5 to trash crisium, meaning that single ash took 3 clicks and 21 credits to take down. I wouldn't exactly call that a bargain. Don't forget the ever-more-popular card Hostile Infrastructure, which means your polop still makes you take a net damage. Early game yeah polop will still be a huge player, but I think people are underestimating how much it will fall off in late game or at least how much harder it will be for the runner to get more than one out.

One last thing, though, If I understand the rules correctly, you CANNOT use whizzard credits to pay for PolOp, since PolOp is doing the trashing and you are paying for the ability rather than the trash itself. Is that correct?

Super wide Gagarin toy? Yes. Worth it? Ehhh, maybe. IG insane econ tool? Yes. Worth it? Yes. Stupid IG. Inherently weaker than the other 3 cards in it's cycle? Yes. Does it have another, highly underrated use? Yes. Oh? And what, praytell, is that?

BAITING SEA/SCORCH RUNS. THAT'S BLOODY WHAT.

While IG is making every asset broken and I'm not sure if this is worth a card slot in Gagarin, this is definitely an underrated tool in sea/scorch type decks. It's the baitiest bait that ever baited a bait. It sits there, in a naked server, just calling for you to come take it. If you don't your corp opponent gets a passive 3 creds a turn. That's massive. It MUST be trashed or you will probably lose the game from econ disadvantage. If you run it........welp, we've seen this dance before, haven't we? (SEA SourceScorched Earth.

This card has 3 foreseeable purposes:

1. MIGHT be useful in Chronos Protocol: Selective Mind-mapping, as a way to get net damage off without the runner having to run or baiting runs for Neural EMP. Though I'm honestly not sure if it will be worth it.

2. Helping flatline decks get that 1 point of extra oomph to go along with their Ronin and Punitive Counterstrike and Neural EMP. It's basically a mini-ronin for that purpose. Not bad.

3. Being F**KING DISGUSTING SATAN'S THONG BULGE INFURIATING IN Industrial Genomics: Growing Solutions. For real, this whole cycle of cards is fondling IG's balls ever so lovingly, but this one is just insane. With Hostile Infrastructure on the board and IG doing IG things, you crush the runners tempo almost no matter what. Their choices are "take a net damage EVERY TURN" or "spend 8 credits and take another net damage now". It's a major lose/lose for the runner. Yeah, it could do some work in RP, but it'll have to wait until IG is done making out with it in the back room. Oh god......so much tongue.....

This card.......seems to be kind of aimlessly wandering around, looking for a place to fit. It looks like a fast-advance card, but at 4-rez-3-trash, no sane runner will let that stay out for more than a turn, it needs to be protected and left out for several turns to do it's job and there are much better fast-advance cards out there. Even if you were trying to make a jinteki FA deck, you would likely just splash in better options. FA decks don't run the kind of ice needed to keep this safe for long enough to be worth it.

Well, what about IG? I mean, when it costs 8 credits and a net damage from Hostile Infrastructure to trash it, then it would be able to sit around even with no ice, right? Except IG wants to run lots of 5/3 agendas like #thefutureperfect and Global Food Initiative to keep their density as low as possible so they can make the game last so long your grandchildren have to finish it. You wouldn't be able to score the agendas and would just be giving them up for free.

Wait......what's that.....off in the distance............a pair of loving arms willing to take this poor lonesome card in and give it a home. A place where it will fit right in and get all the affection and belly rubs and treats it could ever want. And that place is Palana Foods.

Yes, I believe this card is the main piece of the puzzle to create what will likely be the primary archetype for palana foods decks.......a "phoodcoats" if you will. Allow me to explain: You play the Palana Foods ID, you build a deck of heavy EtR ice, lots of econ, and most importantly, almost nothing but 3-to-score agendas. You ice up R&D and build an arctic wasteland of a scoring remote, BUT instead of putting agendas in it, you put in Political Dealings. Why? Because you have a few Pālanā Agroplex and Daily Business Show sitting around, ALL OF WHICH STACK. It shouldn't be unreasonable for you to be passively drawing at LEAST 3 cards a turn (on a good day 4 or 5), and with a handy pile of credits at your side, the instant any of your 3-to-score agendas hits your hand, it's yours. As long as your "server-formally-known-as-scoring" can keep your Political Dealings alive (hi there Ash 2X3ZB9CY, Caprice Nisei, jeez just get married already.....) you literally just set up your remote and some money, then sit back and let the 7 points fall into your lap. If the runner does trash your precious Political Dealings, you can always use Interns to just drop it right back in. With Biotic Labor you can score 4/2 agendas as soon as you draw them, and with the new "Clones are not People" you can get some extra points sprinkled on to make that clock run even faster for the runner, putting an enormous amount of pressure on them (that last Medical Breakthrough becomes a 2/3. Gross.) It might take a bit of setup, but once this engine is online, you should reliably be able to score out from 0-win in 4 or 5 turns. That's just dirty. Wait until the right moment and you can turn a scoring window into a scoring "took out the whole damn wall". Throw in some Hostile Infrastructure, and trying to get through your Ashigaru Tollbooth Komainu server to trash 3 cards (ash, caprise, Dealings) will be a tempo hit they will take a long time to come back from, giving you time to just Interns or drop another Dealings into the server and almost guaranteed get 3 or 4 agenda points scored before they recover enough to contest you again.

I have a strong feeling this will be the go-to jinteki glacier shell, especially after RP rotates. It's not my playstyle, but I find it hard to ignore how effective this deck can be and how relatively easy to pilot. Someone out there give it a whirl and tell me how many j.net games get ragequit when you are scoring an agenda out of hand almost every turn in a glacier deck. :P