When I first saw this card, I saw potential, I saw a deck, one that I wanted to build and I wanted to play.

I'd tried to make a Mumbad City Grid Grail Ice Deck before it was even released, I've been trying until I started writing this. Sure there have been plenty of games where this has turned a server with little more than a Galahad and two junk ice into a 15 subroutine unbreakable monstrosity, and given a Komainu more subroutines than the runner had cards left in their deck.

But it was too slow, Parasites and Cutlery were running rampant. The ice I needed for that beautiful remote server was needed to seal the holes that kept forming over R&D, achieving the installation of the 3+ ice needed to make the remote was nigh on impossible.

Just as I was starting to feel that the deck was tuned well enough to be able to cope with it, and as Dumblefork took a huge hit from the new most wanted list...

A card that is far easier to satisfy, has a much more potent effect, renders parasites little more than a tickle, and costs nothing to rez was released.

Sandburg.

Sandburg essentially does everything this ever wanted to do, only far more easily, and far more effectively.

My deck has run faster and more effective since I tore out it's still beating heart, and replaced it with cold, hard, unloving cash.

But it's not the deck I wanted to build...

It's not the deck I wanted to play...

It's not my deck anymore...

Mumbad City Grid was never quite fast enough to properly reach it's potential, and now... it probably never will be.

Why go to an Early Premiere when you can get Jeeves to do so for you?

Seriously; everything one of these could do, Jeeves can do better... way better.

This does at least have the edge case benefit of stacking up to 3 times, to allow you to score a Global Food or a Vanity Project from unadvanced, though with the number of ways to score a Global Food from hand with Jeeves, I'm not sure why you would want to, unless there ends up being a card that allows you to install an agenda at the start of your turn that doesn't cost you an arm and a leg for influence.

Something to know about this before going ham with the combos, is how this interacts with other cards, and why.

The first thing to know, which I had needed to get clarification for, is that "the order the conditions are written on the card matters", which is to say, "If A when B then C" is not the same as "When B then C if A"

Specifically, if it's written "If A when B then C" then the ability does not resolve when B happens if A is not true, meaning any effect that changes A during resolution of triggers for B is too late, whereas if it's written "When B then C if A" then A is checked at time of resolution.

So, at this point you are probably thinking "Get to the point already!", so here you go:

Casting Call does not work with Quantum Predictive Model, as the "If" is checked before Casting Call tags the runner. This is specifically mentioned in the FAQ

It is also worth noting the interactions with Film Critic and Maya as well.

• On the runner's turn Film Critic can host QPM first, as the runner's abilities resolve first on their turn, invalidating the access trigger, nullifying the other on access abilities.

• Maya has the different trigger of "After you access a card", so it will always resolve after QPM, however, Maya can still bottom the card, even if it's no longer in R&D, so if the runner accesses it, while tagged, you add it to your score area, then Maya can add it to the bottom of R&D, assuming you havn't won off the point.

Note: I have re-written this review from it's original state, as I was incorrect about why it interacted the way it did with Casting Call, meaning I incorrectly assessed it's interaction with Film Critic, hence the first four comments saying that this is incorrect.

So the key thing you need to ask yourself when you are deciding whether this is the ice for your deck is "how many times do I expect the runner to break this?" and "Where would I install this?".

After being broken 5 times, Quicksand costs 1 credit more than Wall of Static would have, at 11 to 10

After being broken 9 times, Quicksand costs 1 credit more than Eli 1.0 would have, at 37 to 36

(The costs above were determined for breaking with Corroder)

Of course, where this should be installed is also an interesting question, the most obvious answer is R&D if you tend to lose due to R&D Lock, or to a lesser extent R&D Digging, but it may also be good installed elsewhere, for example, against Gabe it may be a very good idea to plant one of these on HQ, and archives to make his Sneakdoor Shenanigans less effective.

The other thing is that if you can somehow cause the runner to encounter Quicksand more than once per run (Cough Mumbad Cough) then Quicksand could become very taxing very quickly, Assuming it doesn't get Parasited or Knifed immediately of course, and Quetzal just laughs in it's face.

Ok, so Akitaro Watanabe is clearly an Economy card, and as such, how much money he makes/saves you must be compared to the output of other cards that you might play instead of him.

1 Ice Rezzed: +1, but since it cost a to install, you might as well have clicked for a credit.

2 Ice Rezzed: +3, like a Beanstalk Royalties that requires an extra credit to fire.

3 Ice Rezzed: +5, now installing him is comparable to a Restructure, that has the cost to play spread out over the ice you've rezzed.

4 Ice Rezzed: +7, this is starting to get ridiculous, but at this point you must have spent 6 just installing ice protecting this server, which must be considered.

On top of the comparison to economy operations, you must of course consider that the runner may choose to trash him, which though it may stop you from lowering the cost of more ice, the cost to the runner must be accounted for as well.

Unfortunately, as optimistic as the above analysis might start looking, you have to consider that he is only really that useful if drawn early in the game, before you've rezzed most of your ice, whereas economy operations can still be useful as the game progresses. Furthermore, if you have a full 3 copies in your deck, to ensure that you draw him early; then the other copies in your deck that are drawn late, are still effectively useless.

Though in theory Akitaro Watanabe could save you quite a lot of credits, he is difficult to make good use of.

Perhaps once there are enough good Sysops for Jinteki's Recruiting Trip to be useful, Akitaro will have his day, but until then, you're probably better off with a PAD Campaign, or perhaps even a Medical Research Fundraiser.