Shapers is a Setup

Shapers card pool is not bad, but it need setup. Shaper can save money on boosting the strenght of their breakers, but sadly they do not have breakers that break multiple subs for 1. So, the issue for shaper is setup time.

This experiment was done a year ago and was barely okay. Now, it is actually pretty good.

Money for shaper is more like a snowball on a slope than a constant trickle. Environmental Testing will give you a big boost when they payoff. By midgame, Aesop's Pawnshop will let you get rid of unwanted programs that were free to setup (thanks to DZMZ Optimizer), giving you a nice 3 every other turns.

So, the main issue for shaper is that you'll want to use the first 5 turns to just setup, with maybe some runs to for rez on the corp side. Early agression is not a pure shaper strenght. That is what it should be.

Professional Contacts is underplayed currently and is a great card that show case what the shaper does best : do two things with one click.

A special card (to me) is AirbladeX (JSRF Ed.), which will allow you to face any matchup easily. Jinteki and NBN always hate to see that card, because it stop a part of their game plan (damage and on encounter ice, respectively).

Stoneship Chart Room synergize with many things here. It is way better than Diesel. It provide a extra boost to get the pay off from Environmental Testing, or an extra counter on AirbladeX (JSRF Ed.), or (most importantly) give you 2 cards in hand OUT OF TURN to save you from being flatlined by something like Neurospike or Punitive Counterstrike. This is currently underplayed and I do not get why. It is just always good (for shapers).

Finally, Pelangi is a strong card, allowing you to have the possibility of early agression. With Propeller, you can pass one ice for the cost of 1 per sub. While Propeller does not last forever, it can be extended with Takobi and K2CP Turbine or get a new one from Simulchip.

I think that shapers are not in a bad spot. But it is a different playstyle than anarch and criminal, and that is good. It is, like always, a meta call. When the meta favor slower corp (glacier and prison), Shapers will be favored (they won World 2022). Against faster corp, you need to be more agressive, but shaper do have tools for that. Getting credits will be the main issue, but that is true for every faction. In my opinion, shapers are good, sometime great. They tend to have a slower early game in exchange for a good late game. Kudos to the design team to have brought this faction to that point.

Try this, it is fun and a good way to see the shaper card pool in a different light. Cheers!