House of Knives caused a huge stir on release. Unlike many such cards, it's only gotten more valuable with play, becoming practically indispensable to many Jinteki builds.

Agendas come in two varieties: those that give the corporations an undeniable advantage, like Priority Requisition, The Cleaners, or AstroScript Pilot Program; and those that protect themselves, like NAPD Contract, Fetal AI, and The Future Perfect. House of Knives is clearly in the former camp--the ability is much stronger than the points it's worth.

Furthermore, since the agenda is only one point, it works well as a "test case" against runners. Versus Jinteki, runners tend to separate into "never run remotes" or "always run remotes." HoK gives an easy test early in the game. If the runner hits it, well, that's not the worst outcome. If they don't, scoring it is easy and quite the coup for a corporation in the early game. Since it's so powerful and can be played with little fear, House of knives is best thought of as a "utility agenda", like Clone Retirement or Domestic Sleepers.

The ability itself is somewhat tricky. As with all Jinteki cards, it works best by threatening a flatline, and therefore dissuading accesses. I say accesses rather than runs, as it can only fire a single net damage on a run, and only once per run. This ability, while useful in a "zaps" deck like the famous Cambridge Jinteki: Personal Evolution, excels whenever the runner is at a breakpoint. If the runner is about to access two cards and you bring them below 3 cards in hand, does the runner risk taking a Snare!?

Experienced Jinteki players know that fear is as powerful a tool as flatlines. Firing a HoK counter just before the runner's last chance to jack out tends to slow them down, even if they are very experienced. If they don't access, then that is as good as a Nisei MK II token. If they do, then Jinteki should have enough tools to punish the runner. The last counter should be reserved for actual flatlines. There are typically options to use it when the runner is committed, such as when they're face-checking a Komainu, before the subroutines fire.

As with all cards, House of Knives works best with support. Having many sources of damage, such as Mamba, Neural EMP, and Ronin amplify the pressure. Running ambushes is practically mandatory. Standard runner practice is to treat a scored House of Knives as brain damage, so more brain damage may end up locking runners out of running safely.

The best card to compare House of Knives to is Nisei MK II. Both dissuade big, eventful runs, and do so in a way that the runner really can't disrupt. In another way, it's like a Punitive Counterstrike, in that a single wrong access could spell doom for the runner. However, the way the agenda tests runners is far more valuable than either card would indicate.

Gorman Drip v1 is an essential part of a Criminal denial deck. The credit gain is a nice bonus, but the real value is in the added punishment when the corp is down.

Netrunner was designed so that no player can be totally locked out of playing the game. This was accomplished by giving both the Runner and the Corp certain minimally working actions: Clicking for credits, clicking to draw, and, to a lesser extent, clicking to install. These actions are extremely inefficient, so players will use cards like Diesel, Beanstalk Royalties, and many others to accelerate their gains.

With that in mind, Gorman Drip seems less useful--you are further punishing actions that the corporation doesn't typically want to take. The best to play this card, then, is to make other actions less appealing--or remove them from consideration all together.

Criminals have plenty of ways to keep the corporation struggling for credits. Account Siphon has caused enough tears to drown in, and derez effects like Emergency Shutdown and Crescentus both strain the corporation's economy. Using these will quickly drain the corporation's bank, leaving them clicking for credits before they can fire off economy boosters like Sweeps Week or Medical Research Fundraiser. Donut Taganes puts these cards further out of reach.

The real value of putting a corp in this situation is twofold: first, any unrezzed ice is now completely harmless, and second, the runner is usually able to take another turn, with the corporation three credits richer, one more card in hand, and a fresh card on RnD. This is where Gorman Drip can gain many virus counters; this is where the runner can get quick and easy accesses.

The inexperienced runner might look at five counters on Gorman Drip, after the corporation clicks up to Hedge Fund levels of credits, and immediately trash the card for the credits. And, should the runner need the credits, that's an excellent play. But a better play, in some respects, is to leave the counters so that the corporation must decide whether or not to clear them. Barring Cyberdex Trial, this typically means another wasted turn, which denial decks should be capable of exploiting via more poor-making strategies, easy accesses, or closing a scoring window.

If the corporation plays as if Gorman Drip v1 is not there, clicking for cards and credits as filler actions will leave the card loaded. The on-demand nature of the economy then makes this card a large threat--much like a fully loaded Kati Jones. If the corporation attempts to clear virus counters repeatedly, then the card becomes a click enhancer, like Rachel Beckman--save that the clicks come from taking two turns in a row. Either way, as long as the runner can keep from leaning on the card for economy, Gorman Drip v1 keeps the corporation slow and embattled.

Shinobi should be viewed as an alternate win condition that masquerades as an ice. Its existence on the field, rezzed or not, requires that the runner play carefully.

Jinteki ICE has been called "porous" more times than it's been played. This trend continued with their tracer ice Shinobi, which had the unfortunate side effect of being illicit as well. (For having both tracer and illicit, it does seem overcosted by 1). However, without manipulating handsize, a single trigger of all three traces will win the corp the game.

The math for getting all traces to fire is simple enough. Think of all the runner's link and credits as a stack of tokens. You want your trace strength to be higher than that stack by one. So, to get all traces to fire on the turn you rez the card, you'd need 7 credits to rez the card, plus x, x-1, and x-2 credits, where x is their link plus credits. (Ignore any negatives.) So to get all three traces to fire, you'd need 8 credits if they have 1 link/credit; 10 credits if they have 2 link/credit; and 4+3x otherwise.

This, however, is the worst use of this card. Jinteki has plenty of cards that deal damage or makes runs with a large hand more painful, such as Komainu, Neural Katana, Tsurugi, and Psychic Field. The runner, to keep his entire turn from turning into a draw-fest, will likely be running with 4 or fewer cards in hand, in which case, the first subroutine becomes unimportant. The math switches to a more favorable 4+2x to flatline the runner. At 2 cards in hand, it becomes 5+x. If they have to spend credits to beat the first two traces, all the better.

The runner, of course, could always break the subroutines on Shinobi, with enough credits. This is fairly expensive. As of the time of writing this, the cheapest way to break subroutines is via Deus X; which works a single time, or via Faerie for 3 credits a single time. If the ice is being run in Jinteki, these cards should be used by the runner regularly, leaving you with programs like Ninja or Mimic, which require more resources. This ice, then, is better suited being played behind "positional" ice, like Inazuma or Chum, to make the runner spend resources or else strengthen Shinobi. As such, this ice is a very unlikely splash, though NBN: Making News may try for it.

Much has been made over the bad publicity the ice gives out while rezzed. Remember that the BP, though instant, won't give the runner credits in the middle of the run, keeping the math in the corp's favor. In general, rezzing this should only come at the end of a runner's life, since BP is wildly anti-synergistic to a tracer ice. A deck with Clone Retirement might want to bring it online early, but I've found the uncertainty between Komainu and Shinobi useful in dissuading runs.

The best card to compare Shinobi to is Scorched Earth. Both cards set up alternate win conditions for the corp, and both can lead to a sudden win out of seemingly nowhere. But both are undercut by careful runner play. Scorched Earth is typically played against with Plascrete Carapace and both players deftly maneuvering around the possible play by manipulating tags. Shinobi, on the other hand, requires the correct number of credits, cards in hand, and a run on the correct server. As such, the placement is key--putting it on a scoring server often means the runner is forked between losing points and losing the game. And, without expose effects, the runner often doesn't even know it.

Subliminal Messaging works best as an incentive for the Runner to run. Yes, that's right. An incentive.

Corp decks are at their most vulnerable when the Runner can "explode," and deal with several threats at once. A common "explosive" play is Account Siphon / Inside Job the scoring remote, while the ice is unrezzed. This play effectively counters most early scoring strategies on the corp's side. But notice that the runner has to get into HQ. Other, similar explosions also require successful runs--deep RnD digs; Account Siphon/ Vamp/ Data Leak Reversal; and so on. These all take resources, mostly in the form of credits, to pull off.

Subliminal Messaging offers the runner a choice: either start running every turn, or let the corp amass credits like a miser. If they want these clicks to be productive, then they have to start using credits and cards to get into servers, limiting their explosive ability.

Wasting a click from the runner each turn to deny the corp one free credit every turn is good for the corp, but letting the runner bounce off an Ice Wall is the worst use of this card. Runners with constant-pressure cards like Datasucker and Security Testing like making one run a turn, and can make corps regret their decision heavily.

So, there are two ways to take advantage of Subliminal. The first is to have cards that trigger off of runs, like Dedicated Response Team, Paywall Implementation, and, to a lesser extent, operations like SEA Source. These cards have the effect of making low-risk runs much more dangerous for the runner. Now the runner can either deal with those threats, or let the corp get one free credit a turn--which quickly builds up. Either way, the corp keeps pressure off while setting up scoring servers/windows.

The other way to make Subliminal messaging work is via lots of ICE that make it painful to face-check. Neural Katana, Enigma, and Pop-up Window all come to mind. These end up more effective than ETR ice in discouraging runs, since the runner can no longer bounce off painlessly. Unless the runner can break the ice, it's not getting run on. If they do break the ice, then you've probably made them spend more than a credit--taking away their economic advantage.

Subliminal, in terms of credit output, is much like PAD Campaign or Mental Health Clinic. It works best in decks with a longer gameplan, and in decks that might need to rapidly recover from going down to 0 credits. Rush decks aren't particularly invested in it, then, and decks that spam ETR ice might not want to bother. In certain, slow-playing decks with painful ice, this card shines, not because of the raw credit production, but because of how the runner has to respond.

Running Interference is possibly the most Criminal double event printed. Like Inside Job, it allows you to threaten a server you cannot break into. Like Account Siphon, it drains the corporation of credits. However, this is where the similarities end.

Unlike either of the above cards, Running Interference only gives the runner a benefit if played on a server with mostly unrezzed ice. Since it affects all pieces of ice on that server, it's best used against a server with multiple unrezzed ice. Typically, that would be a previously-untouched scoring server or a server hammered by Emergency Shutdowns and Crescentuses.

The best use of this card, of course, is when the corporation is relatively poor. In personal use, I've found ~5 credits to be where corps are overly confident in laying down an agenda, where this card can do the most damage. Usually a corporation is still able to rez a single peice of cheap ice. Usually, the ice is at very low strength, like Yagura, or is otherwise porous, like Eli 1.0. With that in mind, it's easy to leave a few resources to break or otherwise pass the ice. Note that this doesn't help against troublesome upgrades, like Ash 2X3ZB9CY or Caprice Nisei, so take care to leave an additional click for following up after these cards trigger.

Overall, Running Interference is a strong card as the game moves into the middle stages, where the corporation typically controls the tempo. Decks with multiple run events that hit centrals hard should take a good, long look at Running Interference. Even a single copy can give the runner a significant lead.

(NOTE: Due to how A:NR uses its terms, the wording of this card may be confusing--it adds the rez cost as an additional rez cost, not including any other additional rez costs. So, for example, if a runner approaches an Archer under this run event, with Xanadu installed, and trashes a Cortez Chip to add an additional rez cost to that archer, the "rez cost" would be: {4 (base rez cost) + 1 (from the Xanadu)}; the additional rez costs would include forfeiting an agenda and the contributions from the Cortez chip and Running Interference; and the total rez cost of the archer would be: {4 (base rez cost) + 1 (from the Xanadu)} + 2 (from the Cortez Chip) + {4 + 1} (Running interference) + forfeit an agenda (Additional cost of the Archer). Safe to say, the corporation is probably unhappy.)