Despite my strong opinions about this game, I’ve never left a review on a card before, but something something egregious. Here goes:

For new players, the figure on the right of this card is intended to be Sunny Lebeau. I learned how to run on Sunny. The first tournament I ever won was on Find the Truth Sunny. Yes, I liked the mini factions, but I especially liked Sunny. It was the pandemic, and I had started doing volunteer work I absolutely loved, was good at, and had a very positive direct effect on the people I worked with. It also was a job that I considered antithetical to my greater political beliefs. I was 22 and I ADORED Sunny. While the system she works for is problematic to say the least, I liked seeing a character who existed within that system, found what she loves (her wife, her children, her skills), and took joy and pride from them. When I read the flavortext on Global Food Initiative, I don’t sense a hint of irony. I sense a person trying to square the person she is with the system she (and we) exist in.

That is not who I see on Manuel Lattes de Moura. On the card I see a helicopter parent trying to boost their daughter’s (college!) grades. The exact type of parent I would hope so many of us are terrified of one day becoming. What makes this character assassination hurt so much is rather than target the her complicated line of work, it targets the passion and love for her children that drove me (and so many others) to her in the first place. I didn’t care whether Sunny was a cop, a corpie, a runner, or a hero. I cared that she tried her hardest to be a good mom in a bad world. And this is her cameo. And it’s sad, because this turns me off not just this card but the entire motif of this set bringing the mini factions back, as it makes it seem like the characters in the netrunner universe are treated as cheap jokes.

But regardless, I don’t want this page to be a wall of complaining about how Sunny is treated here. I know a not insignificant number of runners cared a lot about Sunny too. If folks wanna comment on what OG Sunny meant to you I’d love to hear it.

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I must confess I've been really quite surprised by the response to this flavour text from fans of Sunny. Prior to printing, I'd had loads of folks, including several who like the character, look over all the flavour text and not once did I have anyone mention reading this like a bribe. Which it isn't, to be clear, it's just Sunny being, at worst, taking the opportunity to be a little nosy about her daughter's university grades while she's delivering something.

Everything that D4v1d-Gr43b3r wrote still hold true. But there are other nice uses for this.

First, it is a piece of economy that do not require a run. This is important, if you play a runner deck that is more "control" than agressive. Within the anarch economy, it is better than Wildcat Strike, since it does not give a choice to the corp.

I would like to add to D4v1d-Gr43b3r excellent review that Strike Fund synergize also with Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga. When facechecking an ice and trashing cards because of Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga, you get +2 in the process, allowing to more easily break the next ice.

Another piece of anarch tech that synergize it Patchwork. This is intense, as you get to install a card for -2 and get +2, probably making the whole thing credit positive.

For criminal, there is not much use for this card, since they have No Free Lunch that give the same +3 for a click.

But for shapers, this is better, since it synergize with Aniccam, to give +3 and +1 draw, for 1 influence. That is a fairly good value for a card.

In any deck, it help that you would get some credits from taking damage (for example, by triggering an Snare!). Instead of losing cards, you also gain +2. A nice compensation.

The hard is nice, and with the coming of Rebellion without rehersal, I think the person talking to the lady is Sebastião Souza Pessoa: Activist Organizer. Putting a hard hat on the lady, but the lady still wears a skirt, probably means that the lady is supposed to be some kind of engineer or manager. The art, like the flavor and the effect, completely synergize with the name of the card. Good job.

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1

I used to think of House of Knives as sort of a "it can do one extra damage and maybe flatline in a clutch situation, but scoring an entire 3/1 for that is a li'l expensive". What I was missing was that using all three counters (on separate runs; it's a once per run ability) adds up to a reverse Diesel. In other words, House of Knives is a strong econ card. Now, the synthetis of those two perspectives means: use the tokens selectively but don't hoard 'em.

Rules note: Runners, don't quickly grab my cards after the last ice! I might need to send some knives atcha!

The last chance to use House of Knives is after the last ice, after deciding whether or not to jack out, but before accessing cards. And that goes for Hokusai Grid also.

2

Umbrella is a card that needs support from many Trojans and their corresponding support cards, but with that support, it can provide incredibly cheap (possibly free) access to servers and a draw engine.

First, let's look at the numbers. Umbrella can break practically any ICE it can interface with for 2, but it can only interface with ICE that have a Trojan hosted on them. Kyuban is the perfect mate in this regard, with this combination allowing for the ICE to be broken for free provided you can front the 2.

Second, let's look at the targets. Valentão is the only Code Gate out of range at this time (though we know Revolution Without Rehearsal will bring at least one more), but combined with K2CP Turbine, there is no Code Gate out of range. We can do better, though. Egret is a Trojan, and it can turn anything into a Code Gate, meeting both conditions required for Umbrella to work. There are currently no ICE with a strength higher than 7, so with a K2CP Turbine and an Egret, nearly every piece of ICE can be broken. There are a few pieces of ICE that can be raised to a strength higher than 7, such as Pharos, but Hush can bring all of these back down to strength and it is also a Trojan. Further, Arissana Rocha Nahu: Street Artist can install a Trojan during the run, overcoming the weakness of Egret only being installable on rezzed ICE and saving us the click. Combined with Urban Art Vernissage, the Egret can be moved each turn, providing a threat to any server.

Umbrella also pairs very well with Ika, which can be moved to a Code Gate for 2 in a pinch if you find yourself encountering one without a way to install another Trojan.

Now, in my books, all of this makes Umbrella worth including in a Trojan-heavy deck. It requires enough MU to support these Trojans, but it makes breaking ICE predictable and cheap, enabling early aggression as soon as an Egret is available. But it also provides card draw for both the Runner and the Corp, during a run, and that makes it very interesting.

For the Runner, the benefits of this are obvious. Especially in a deck that benefits from continuous running through the use of cards like Conduit or making use of Run events, this keeps everything flowing and can put a lot of pressure on the Corp.

For the Corp, the card draw can often prove beneficial as well, but there are ways you can limit that as the Runner. First, if you are using multi-access on R&D, like Conduit, the Corp is letting you dig deeper if they draw. This will likely discourage them from doing so. Second, if the Corp is drawing a lot, they are likely to end up with more agendas than they can deal with. Since the draw is happening on your turn, you can take care of any Spin Doctors on the table and use multi-access on HQ to clean up those agendas before the Corp can do anything with them.

All in all, I think Umbrella is a great card that builds a strong board state once a few Trojans are in play, but it can only be included in decks that go all-in on Trojans.