Top tier and top three upgrade in the HB faction, with Manegarm Skunkworks and Tranquility Home Grid. Of great importance for an ambush upgrade : it is NOT unique! This means you could stack 2 or 3 on the same server, ensuring you'll hurt the runner even more!

2 to do a Core Damage is cheap. And the runner can prevent it ONLY by losing all their . This could be paired with Prisec or any other ambush for added effect!

The effect is powerful enough to consider using this out of faction. Especially in decks aiming to stick a tag or deck aiming to kill the runner. Because it encourage running on your third click, discourage using clicks to break throught bioroid ices, making them that much better. And because it is quite a potent effect, the runner is compelled to trash this card, adding to the cost of the run.

Even if you do not plan to kill the runner, it is still a great upgrade, because it encourage the runner to play in a pattern that is better for the corp.

In theory, if you use the Ganked! + Ansel 1.0 or Drafter, you could hurt the runner even more. Also, using Mr. Hendrik with Obokata Protocol (especially with Jinteki: Personal Evolution) would be quite deadly or penalyzing for the runner. At 3 influences, it is a reasonable cost for the effect.

On top of being an astounding upgrade, the art is fun because of the cartoonish face of Mr. Hendrik. The quote reinforce the theme and the possibily of stacking for this upgrade. Astounding card!

In a meta where ice is of questionable value, dominated by Endurance and Boomerang and Botulus and other ways to sidestep costs to the runner, the corp is incentivized to pivot to a different way to tax the runner.

A clear alternative to consider is defense through upgrades. One can try to tax credits (Giordano Memorial Field) or cards (Hokusai Grid, Prisec) or both (Manegarm Skunkworks), but the new HB agenda Ontological Dependence really makes taxing the runner through inflicting core damage an effective strategy, with this card (Mr. Hendrik) and even a mostly meh card like Tempus synergizing together to compound its effects.

As Diogene mentions in the above review, Mr. Hendrik is most effective paired with itself, since the runner can only lose all their clicks once. But it also synergizes well with other cards and effects that sap the runner’s clicks like Manegarm Skunkworks and Tempus, and even Bioroid ice. Having multiple upgrades like this can create secure servers without any ice at all, or strengthen a server protected by Manegarm Skunkworks and Formicary. Multiple cards of this kind reduce the effectiveness of targeted interventions like Pinhole Threading, and an escalated response like Light the Fire! just feeds into your strategy to attack the runner.

I’ve found this works great as a support package for Sportsmetal: Go Big or Go Home, for punishing runners who aggressively check new servers and for creating fast advance opportunities with Ontological Dependence instead of Project Vitruvius.

Just remember that Mr. Hendrik and many cards that synergize with it like Tempus and (less effectively) Prisec require the corp to spend extra credits to land, so you have to keep your money at a sufficient level, sort of like making sure you have the credits to fire your Snare!.