As the first card spoiled from its set, Burner came out of the gates swinging. This is a very strong card, giving Shapers HQ pressure they didn't previously have in-faction. It's kind of like a pseudo-Legwork, in that you see three cards from hand. That alone is useful, in that you gain a fair amount of knowledge about what gameplan the Corp is on, and what they're currently prepared to do. But you also have the ability to disrupt those plans and set up steals for yourself.

Here are a couple of modes this card can function in:

• See combo threats, scoring tools, or econ bombs in hand, and sequester them safely on the bottom of R&D for free, where they can't even be immediately recurred.

• See agendas in hand, and clear out the chaff so that your run back on HQ next click is hitting a target-rich environment.

• See agendas in hand, and put them on top of R&D so that your run back on R&D next click is guaranteed* to hit.

You can also combine these effects, ie by bottoming a dangerous threat while putting an agenda on top of R&D. Note that the last one can be disrupted by the Corp drawing or shuffling before you get access, so be careful about deploying this tactic when a Spin Doctor is on the board, or when playing against Ob with a shuffle trigger in play. A Corp player with a scored Basalt Spire can also pull the top card off the deck and into hand by spending a counter, so be careful.

All in all, a great card, and one of the reasons Shapers are ascendant with the release of Rebellion Without Rehearsal.

Burner: Single handedly forcing Corps to ice up HQ first against Shapers

Functionally Burner is similar to but much less random than Embezzle trading the ability to have an insane upside that Embezzle has with, umm, being a fantastic card. There really isn't much downside to this card beyond it being a little less damaging when your opponent has a Spin Doctor or some other instant speed ability to manipulate RnD (and even then you playing Burner forces the use of these cards).

The important three points when playing Burner is that it is always guaranteed to do some damage, it does so in a way that dodges traps or Oppo Research and that said damage is controlled. If you were to legwork into HQ and see 3 Ice or Operations, that would obviously be a wiff. Even with tools like Imp added in you might trash the "objectively incorrect" card because you are seeing the cards one at a time and might waste the imp on the wrong card. And if you legworked into 2 Snare! and a Fujii Asset Retrieval you are probably heading home in a body bag.

Burner gets around both these issues by showing you all 3 of your choices at the same time and giving you full control of where they go, top or bottom, which can be different (top the Agenda, bottom the Oppo Research ). It also does this without needing to combo with any other cards, hence a Shaper Aniccam event heavy deck running this card would have excellent HQ pressure that must be respected, even with no other HQ cards. And even with just a Twinning, Burner plus Twinning on a standard 5 card hand Corp will let you see and steal everything, which is great fun all around.

All up a fantastic Shaper card. At 3 inf it is a bit difficult to import but it is still possible for other factions. And if you as the Corp leave HQ open on the Runner's first click you have to be aware that you might be signing up to get all your fun tools chucked to the bottom of the deck.