Keeling is a solid win condition and run-forcing card. This gets played in HB even at 4 influence. On paper Keeling LOOKS slow. She's not, she immediately makes running elsewhere more difficult. On a max hand-size of 3 or less, Snare/Obokata/Sting are more likely to hit high-priority targets and the runner might not have enough time to fully restock on cards lost. On an accelerated tempo and a decreased hand size, hard-to-avoid damage cards like Anemone and Hokusai are harder to recover from and possibly even lethal.

Keeling gives the runner 4 turns (rezzed) before she straight-up kills them. Usually she's contributing to your victory in other ways, like pushing the runner to drain their economy and card-pool to trash her, or pushing the runner into risky runs elsewhere on a reduced hand size.

Pinhole Threading is great counterplay, but it's easier for a corp to recur Keeling than it is for the runner to recur Pinhole. If you're playing runner and you see a Restore or Warroid Trackers, their deck probably has Keeling. (Warroid Trackers is cost-effective punishment for Pinhole Threading and Keeling is one of the few cards which produces enough value that Restore might be worth considering).

...

"Her numbers never lie, but she doesn't write the words that accompany them." This is standard academia, the grad students do the writing. Most senior academics work in nicer offices than the broom closet at the county morgue, though.

Nova is a more promising take on influence-based identities than Custom Biotics or The Professor in fun and utility. It doesn't hold up well against standard identities and probably isn't enough of a mixup of gameplay to be as fun as Ampere if you're only playing other singleton decks.

"Infinite influence but only 1 of each card" might be weaker than "15 influence but up to 3 copies", and is certainly much weaker than "15 influence and an actual identity ability."

Secondarily, the inability to run multiple copies of key low-influence cards could make some major matchups really hard to play. Think Pinhole Threading... playing against a Keeling or Drago deck with one Pinhole Threading and no identity ability feels misbalanced. Theoretically a Nova could try using lesser tools (e.g. Inside Job or Boomerang), but so can everyone else, and they get more identity value to make lesser tools work.

Some differences between Ampere and Nova:

• Nova might generate value from being able to pull out unexpected run events, but this probably isn't as intimidating as the Ampere chaos screen.
• Runners have many more options for card draw and reducing variability.
• Your breaker suite will probably not be much better than runners already on a Bukhgalter and Paperclip, whereas Ampere's ice/upgrades are (somewhat) better and (vastly) different than most corps have access to. Nova's ability to run generically good events is more exciting than Ampere operations.

You're likely losing access to extra copies of Pinhole Threading and Dirty Laundry and Overclock but gaining a lot of cards which are generically efficient.

Events: Diversion of Funds, Chatushka, Emergent Creativity. I think Maker's Eye, Divide and Conquer, and Legwork can situationally be efficient. I'm partial to rarely used value cards like Emergency Shutdown, Mining Accident, Insight, Exploit, Khusyuk, White Hat, and Black Hat. You'll probably also be running a bunch of generic economy events, including some stuff you wouldn't need to (or want to) play in standard identities.

Non-console hardware: Hippo, Time Bomb, and Docklands Pass are really efficient and broadly useful. Depending on your setup, I'd also look at Boomerang, Zenit Chip, Simulchip, DZMZ Optimizer, Gebreselassie, and Dedicated Processor.

Resources: Logic Bomb and Find the Truth have a lot of upside. I like Trickster Taka and secondarily Paladin Poemu. Situationally, Neutralize All Threats, Safety First, maybe Beth Kilrain-Chang.

Non-breaker programs: Cezve, K2CP Turbine, Consume, Fermenter, and Tapwrm are broadly efficient uses of an MU. More situationally, I think Equivocation, World Tree, Conduit, Botulus, Stargate and Multithreader could be really good. If you're not on a lot of viruses and have spare MU, Tranquilizer's value over time is decent.

I think Nova's biggest issue is not getting printed with at least a minor ability. For example "After drawing your opening hand, pick two cards from your deck. The corp removes one from the game. Draw the other"). It's a little bit of flavor, a little bit of strategic thought, and a mystery box out of the gate. Watch corps have a coronary as they struggle to game out what you could have possibly drawn that make Basilar and Push Your Luck* a top priority.

*Push Your Luck isn't in Standard, but it is in Nova Standard, a pocket dimension which contains everything you need to shock and stun opponents and tournament judges alike. Also included, vampire overalls with collars higher than eye-level, we hear that's in this year.

—Limited in card selection. Ob does a much better job Sustaining Diversity than this. And also most everyone else.

—It’s a cool ID ability but probably not a great fit for Jinteki’s card pool. This ID ability would probably be nuts in Weyland or perhaps NBN. Very few of the cards I’d want for this ability (Seamless Launch, Audacity, good 2/1 and 3/2 agendas, any economy, reliable ETR ice) are in Jinteki. Trick of Light is helluva worse. Mitosis? Traps?

—It asks for a HUGE commitment (your ID slot, limited agenda options, a lot of deck slots and influence on cards to trigger your ability, encourages awkward lines of play, etc).

Probably not worth it if you take the 2 brain damage. At that point, you're spending 3 draws and an install and $1 on this card to gain 1 click/turn for the rest of the game and a penalty on hand size which makes things much harder against Jinteki, HB, and many Weylands. If you plan on using Hippocampic Mechanocytes to restore your hand-size, it's five draws and two installs and $1 to gain 1 click/turn. Ouch.

Basilar looks alright if you can prevent the brain damage. Having a 5th click increases the expected # of agendas stolen on a Deep Dive by around 50%. On average the 5th click adds something like .75 - 1 additional agenda point per Deep Dive depending on the agenda suite. If your gameplan hinges on 2-3 super Deep Dive turns, spending $9 on Caldera could be worth it to make the Deep Dives more effective. If you plan on turns running every central server, a fifth click could also be useful for Exploit or Encore.

Outside of Deep Dive Shaper, this might see niche usage in Apex and Nova, using Heartbeat or Assimilator to avoid the damage. Apex is extremely short on influence, but Assimilator might be able to produce enough value from an extra click to consider it.

This plays very well with any deck that has small agendas and/or negative-point agendas like News Team and Nightmare Archive. When the runner has at least 2 agendas and/or fake agendas, which will probably be most of the game, this is cheaper than a Hedge Fund and has more upside.

It's most obviously useful in Thule/Sportsmetal and PE. HB has Nightmare Archives and cards like Djupstad Grid and Big Deal which you might slot in rich builds. PE is cash-poor and can win long games. It has many cards that can convert cash into damage (Anemone, Snare, Reaper Function) or taxing ice or into forcing runs that the runner cannot afford yet (Dr. Keeling).

It's less useful in Weyland which has efficient and fast cards but generally not great cards or ID support for winning a long game.

Most corps can recur ~4-6 cards depending on how many Spin Doctors they find. This is a much better target for recursion than most economic cards. A 4th copy of Hedge Fund only adds $2-3 to your deck's economic potential. An additional copy of Stock Buyback adds something like $6-10 (assuming the runner will probably have 3-4 agendas in their score area by the time you can find the recurred copy).

It's a terminal, which makes it harder to combo with Hard-Hitting News (or Big Deal) but otherwise is not too awkward. Most of the decks that need this card do not need a huge spike to do something this turn but rather need a huge amount of money floating around.

The art is beautiful. The most obvious approach to this card would have been more boring (a bunch of investors hashing out a business deal).

"A stock dropping sharply is bad for shareholders, but not necessarily bad for the company." The only way a company is generating money from a dropping stock price is if it is secretly shorting itself. Cons to secretly shorting yourself: your shareholders didn't become The Board by NOT setting people on fire that tried to rob them. Pros: robbing your shareholders seems less likely to get you murdered from orbit than drowning millions of Californians for the insurance money? It's not uncharted territory for Weyland.