Letheia Nisei

♦ Letheia Nisei 1[credit]

Upgrade: Psi - Clone
Trash: 2
Influence: 3

The first time the Runner approaches this server during each run, play a Psi Game. (Players secretly bid 0–2[credit]. Then each player reveals and spends their bid.) If the bids differ, you may trash this upgrade. If you do, the Runner moves to the outermost position of this server. They may jack out.

Decklists with this card

Downfall (df)

#46 • English
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  • Updated 2019-04-27

    NISEI Downfall Release Notes [NISEI Rules Team]

    What does Letheia Nisei actually do?

    If the Corp wins the Psi game, the Corp may choose to trash Letheia and force the Runner to go back to the top of the server and progress through all the ice protecting the server again. Since her trigger condition is “the first time each run the Runner approaches this server”, once the Runner gets through the ice a second time, another copy of Letheia Nisei cannot trigger.

Reviews

Basically the poor man's Caprice Nisei. And I mean that in a good way, because Caprice could be absolutely absurd.

The main similarity between the two sisters is in the actual psi game. Both upgrades have a (theoretical) 67% chance of denying the runner access to a server. There are two MAJOR differences though. First, Letheia trashes herself if she fires successfully. This means the runner will only have to suffer the consequences once. So no bs turns with Caprice where you run a remote 4 times and get thrown out because you suck at psi games. And secondly, even if Letheia fires, she will cause the runner to approach the server again. This means they can either choose to jack out or just continue through all ice again, if they're rich. Caprice would actually tax the runner clicks, a more important resource than money in many Jinteki glacier games.

Letheia does cost 1 to rez while Caprice costs 2, and their trash costs are 2 and 1 respectively, meaning Letheia is marginally cheaper and less bad in R&D/HQ. Since she trashes herself for her ability though, this isn't a super relevant distinction. Also, gotta love that Nisei Division support.

If you want more ways than ice to protect your servers, you should first consider Marcus Batty and Bio Vault over this, imo. Letheia is definitely not a bad card but especially in Jinteki, the masters of bouncing runners out of servers, I think this isn't strong enough to warrant competitive play.

(Uprising Booster Pack era)
1956
This should have worked every run. not just the first. And not self trash on a successful psi game. It would have mr'sade it a soft nerf to Caprice, since it wouldn't tax the runne clicks. Such a shame. Caprice was so important for the game, and the replacement is just bad. Luckily, Chris made Border Control, so glacier is still functional. —
made* it —

Letheia should either have been a "psigame to trash to etr" (basically the same thing palana glaciers do with bio vault, except the advancement token requirement would be swapped for a psigame), or once-per-run run psigame to bounce the runner to the outermost ice on this server (without trashing her).