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Let it be known that in the last year of Quetzal's standard legality they appeared in the grand final games of the two biggest events of the year - via DJ Fenris - as well as top 16 ID in their own right, going undefeated, in the second of those events. Added to a critical Rebirth into Quetzal to win the final of Magnum Opus, Quetzal has an incredible legacy - a legendary champion of freedom.

Adding a review as there isn't one at the time of writing.

Malandragem is another bypass card released in the Liberation Cycle, one of many such tools primarily designed for Mercury: Chrome Libertador, such as S-Dobrado, Alarm Clock, Laser Pointer or even Physarum Entangler. Though it's worth saying that Criminals have always had a penchant for disposable forms of bypass, Lustig, Demara and Abagnale all come to mind. While Inside Job originates from the Core Set itself and cards like Spear Phishing and Always Have a Backup Plan build off the same archetype.

Criminals are the kings of bypass. The only non-criminal bypass cards in the game's history are the one-off mini-faction cards Security Nexus and Logic Bomb, as well as the neutral run event Rigged Results. So it's not surprising that if Malandragem were to show up anywhere, it would be in Criminals. A very fitting addition to the line-up, both mechanically and thematically.

But just how good is this card, well, I figure the simplest and best comparison is probably Inside Job itself, much in the same way Sure Gamble is the classic gold standard of Econ that all other Econ cards must be compared to so too Inside Job is the classic and gold standard bypass card, originating in the Core Set, having been reprinted 3 times in the Revised Core Set, the System Core 2019 and the System Update 2021 this card is a staple by design and still sees regular play to this day.

Well, Inside Job offers you one bypass for a draw, a click to play and 2 credits while Malandrgem offers you a maximum of 2 bypasses for a draw, a click to install and 4 credits. Which averages each Malandragem bypass at about half a draw, half a click and two credits. If you account for the fact that Inside Job is a run event and by extension click compression while Malandragem needs you to spend two more clicks running to gain the full benefit (but at the same time those two runs were probably runs you wanted to make at some point anyway) then the two bypasses are roughly equivalent in value.

Malandragem is also a program that takes up precious MU, but since you'll probably dispose of it relatively quickly it shouldn't be a long-term intrusion either. Additionally, Criminals have some of the weakest recursion out of any Runner faction (Shapers have Harmony AR Therapy, Simulchip and Test Run, Anarchs have Retrieval Run and Katorga Breakout while Criminals are limited to the rather mediocre Rip Deal) so the distinction between trashing and removing Malandragem from the game is minor and we'll assume the Runner wants to use the Threat 4 Bypass if able to.

From here there are 3 different situations Bypass is useful in:

1. Early game aggression, as a way to get around gear check ICE, pressure the Corp, get some accesses and touch some cards nice and early before you find your breakers.
2. Late game efficiency, for a set price of around 2 credits and a non-fungible card you get to avoid one piece of ICE altogether, no matter its strength or subroutines, allowing you to avoid even the largest, scariest and most-taxing pieces of ICE for a convenient pre-set price (think Tyr, Bran, a late game Boto, or an advanced Logjam, Pharos or Colossus), something you could break conventionally but would cost you a substantial amount of credits, making it harder for you to run as often, something Criminals especially want to avoid due to their high speed, low to the ground econ.
3. Full break-less Crim, i.e. using Mercury: Chrome Libertador to get around ICE without technically breaking any subroutines to get her additional central accesses.

For the first one Malandragem does well as much of the early game gear check ICE the corp has the credits to rez are going to also have quite low strength, Thimblerig, Tatu-Bola, Border Control, Ping and Ablative Barrier are all weak gear checks that see common play that you can bypass for a single power counter and even against some mid-tier scarier ICE like Anemone, Unsmiling Tsarevna, Jaguarundi or Saisentan that bypass can still come in handy to prevent some damage.

Malandragem can't help against an early Bran or Tree Line though and only works against Gatekeeper after the first turn (by which point Gatekeeper has already done its job) which limits some of your early possibilities depending on the corps Faction and early econ. By contrast, Inside Job works against any single piece of ICE, regardless of strength and double stacking ICE, letting alone rezzing multiple pieces of ICE on one server in the first few turns is a risky move that can bankrupt the Corp if they're not careful and can leave other servers open to attack. While Malandragem can work early, it lacks the same universal consistency that Inside Job offers.

By contrast, in late-game board states, especially against Glacial, Malandragem is arguably favoured, with Spear Phishing rotated, a lot of Bypass comes from the outside in, not only Inside Job but also the aforementioned S-Dobrado and Alarm Clock, in this way, stacking big ICE on the inside of servers and following up with cheap ICE on the edge to eat the Bypass effects is a good idea but Malandragem can avoid this once you reach Threat 4, by allowing you to bypass anything, regardless of positioning.

In this situation Backstitching is arguably a better comparison, coming in a similar price point of 2 credits, on par with Inside Job, S-Dobrado and half a Malandragem it's very comparable and can also ignore positioning. To choose between them, consider the circumstances, Backstitching can only target central servers and even then you can't choose which central on any given turn, while Malandragem offers the more reliable option to choose and can target the scoring remote but requires Threat 4 before it can bypass anything over 3.

For Mercury, you want as much bypass as possible and some decks I see run Inside Job, S-Drobrado, Backstitching and Malandragem, though heuristically, Malandragem does seem to be the least common of the four at the time of writing.

The other limitation of Malandragem is more intangible, for a runner who starts the game with 5 credits, spending 4 of those on installing a Malandragem that may not fully pay itself off until Threat 4 is a heavy investment to leave just sitting around. It's a tempo hit, to put it simply, even if the breaks are roughly on par with Inside Job, having to invest the 4 credits upfront can be brutal for Criminals who might often prefer the speed and low price point of cards like Inside Job, S-Dobrado and Backstitching.

It will be interesting to see what will happen with Dawn arriving early next year as Inside Job itself rotates. Will another re-print/near print be issued to fill the hole, or will Criminals reappraise Malandragem with new eyes?

A somewhat tangential consideration I was theory crafting for a while was using Captain Padma Isbister: Intrepid Explorer and her associated "Charge" cards to continually refill Malandragem while using strength shredding effects like Ice Carver, Leech or Devil Charm to stretch the definition of "3-strength" and create a kind of ongoing bypass engine, rather than treating it as disposable. But it never really went anywhere due to influence and consistency problems, especially after the World Tree ban and it's just generally more efficient to use conventional breakers. But maybe someone else can cook up something interesting...

(Disclaimer: I am not Brazilian, nor do I live in Brazil, everything below is based on what I quickly found online, any clarification, corrections, context or additions from those more familiar with Brazilian culture would be much appreciated!)

Thematically, Malandragem is a Portuguese term that refers to the lifestyle of petty crime embraced by "malandros," which roughly translates to English as "bad boys," literally, mal- + -andro. Malandros like to live fast, dress well and shirk responsibilities in favour of easy living, often being synonymous with a rogue, scoundrel or hustler. They've become significant in Brazilian folklore as a kind of archetypal anti-hero who sheds society's expectations and lives as he pleases and has become significant in Brazilian literature, cinema and music, traditionally samba. If I had to extrapolate, I'd say that the Malandragem program outsmarts, outmaneuvers and cheats its way around the "petty challenges" of small ICE, but struggles with the responsibility of dealing with large powerful ICE. Why it gains the ability to bypass anything at Threat 4 is somewhat unclear, in American cinema, it's not uncommon for anti-heroes to avoid responsibility and do their own thing until a true problem comes along, when, at the final hour, they step up to the challenge and sacrifice themselves for a worthy cause, but I'm unsure how well this translates to the Brazilian conceptualisation of an anti-hero/malandro. It also seems Malandragem is related to the Brazilian concept of Jeitinho, which doesn't translate well into English but seems to refer to something akin to street-smarts, creativity or finding unconventional or perhaps even illicit means to achieve one's goals, being pragmatic, opportunistic and even cunning, to find your own way do something, so to speak, instead of just following the rules.

The art shows a Malandro shuffling a deck, though why is open to interpretation, is he engaging in gambling as a vice, is he preparing to pull a con to make a quick dollar or is he simply stacking the deck in his favour in a more abstract sense?

As a somewhat contemplative finish to this review, I can't help but wonder about the thematic dissonance between Mercury the character, her ability and the other cards in her set. She's a Liberator, her title says it plainly, a freed Bioroid who pursues the goals of bringing down the whole corrupt system, see The Powers That Be and Jeitinho and yet her faction, and the cards it contains, espouse a much less grand goal. Criminals are scrappy and sly and cunning and they use their tools to get in, get out and get paid, Malandragem suits them perfectly, I can easily imagine a world where this set included a Criminal identity who could be considered a Malandro, someone who gets in by bending the rules to his favour and simply outmaneuvering problems he doesn't want to have to deal with. Mercury honestly seems like she would be more at home in Anarch, as someone with a grand mission, someone disillusioned with the system, someone who wants to bring it all down, and someone who's willing to resort to murder to root out the corruption within the government. But she does not strike me as someone who lives their life by the principles of Malandragem, skirting responsibility in favour of an easy life.

TLDR: A cool card thematically that is very fitting for the Faction and the setting of the Cycle it was released in but struggles to find a place in Criminal decks due to the high up-front investment, tempo hit, conditionality around strength and need to wait for Threat 4 for the full power. Also very difficult to export because of the very high Influence cost.

Adding a review as there isn't one at the time of writing.

Hammer is AI hate with extra upsides. For those new to Netrunner, there are three basic types of ICE: Sentries, Barriers and Code Gates and three corresponding Icebreakers that can break subroutines on the associated ICE, Killers, Fracters and Decoders respectively. However, there are also AI programs, that can break any type of ICE, but usually have some special rules to limit their power. Still, some AI breakers are incredibly powerful and the Corps form of counterplay to these AI breakers are pieces of ICE like this, ICE with special rules to make it impractical to break it with AI. If this card were "balanced" we would expect it to be painful but not insurmountable for AI-reliant runners, but be slightly subpar against regular Killers.

Since AI programs are usually not also Killers, you can only break one subroutine on this piece of ICE using an AI breaker, which guarantees at least 2 of the subroutines firing. As long as you didn't run on your last click (you shouldn't be running on your last click anyway), a tag is removable and almost always a lot less painful than losing an already installed resource, piece of hardware or program. This means that this card comes down to the question for the runner: do you have a more valuable resource/piece of hardware you want to protect or a more valuable non-conventional breaker program you want to protect? Either way, this is terrible for the runner, if they break the program subroutine they risk losing a critical resource like the The Class Act or The Twinning or they risk losing their console or a critical MU providing tool like DZMZ Optimizer or another important piece of hardware like WAKE Implant v2A-JRJ or Docklands Pass. If they break the hardware/resource subroutine then they risk losing a program, presumably the AI breaker in question, though the Corp can also target non-breaker programs like Cezve, Paricia, Fermenter or even Self-modifying Code. Plus taking a tag in either situation to boot. Definitely a nasty surprise.

This card also has some very nice externalities due to its wording, think Boomerang, Botulus, Rielle “Kit” Peddler: Transhuman, Pelangi, Egret, you start to get the idea, a lot of the runner's creative tools to break Sentries without Killer's start to look a little sketchy.

However, bypass effects do still work, Physarum Entangler, Laser Pointer, Inside Job, S-Dobrado, Backstitching and Alarm Clock can all still completely bypass Hammer without ever needing to technically "break a subrountine."

The next major downside of this card is that it is a pretty pathetic early-game face check. If the runner has no programs, hardware or resources installed, running first click on their first turn, they're probably very happy to see this, because if you didn't already know, 6 credits is not the market rate for a tag. Quite frankly, whoever sold you this is ripping you off because you can get a tag for 1 or 2 credits: Ping, Virtual Service Agent and Vasilisa all come to mind and even something like Funhouse is much better value.

But assuming the runner does have installed cards they want to protect and assuming the runner already has their Killer, what kind of costs are we looking at?

• 5 credits for Carmen (3/5 to Install)
• 2 credits and 3 hosted power counters for Revolver (2 to Install)
• 9/6/3 credits for Echelon (depending on the number of installed Icebreakers) (3 to Install)
• 4 credits for Orca (plus you get to charge another card) (10 to Install)
• 6/4 credits for Ika (depending on if it's already hosted) (0 to Install)
• 3 credits for Afterimage (requires stealth credits) (or 2 credits to bypass, still requires stealth credits) (4 to Install)
• 6/3 credits for Na'Not'K (depending on the number of ICE protecting the server) (4 to Install)

Also worth mentioning that Mimic can't break it without assistance and Femme Fatale breaks it for 7 credits but that's somewhat beside the point of Femme. Also at the time of writing Bukhgalter is banned but if it wasn't it would break it for a net expenditure of 4 credits if that's the first Sentry.

All in all I'd say that this worked out pretty much as expected, ingnoring fringe cases like installing an Orca from hand (rather than with Spark of Inspiration) or a solitary Echelon or this being the only piece of ICE against a Na'Not'K this doesn't exactly break the bank. Against a runner with a Killer this is hardly the most taxing piece of ICE and as we've established it's pretty meek in the early game.

An advanced Colossus can tax the runner a lot more, with similar levels of damage if it's subs fire, Saisentan is still probably one of the most terriying cards in the game for just killing an overeager runner and Winchester gives you the same strength and number of subs, with similar levels of damage if they fire for 2/3s of the cost (asssuming it's over HQ).

Thematically, though, this card really hits the mark, see you can try all of your little tricks and bring all of your little AIs and you may think that you're sooooooo smart with your viruses and making my ICE think that it's something that it's not but let's see how well you deal with a freaking Hammer to the face. Plus the art is awesome, showing the thunderous moment when the Hammer strikes the Anvil. Oh wait, Anvil, despite being released in two different Cycles and having 2 very different effects and use cases, this is a nice extra little easter egg, the Anvil sets them up and the Hammer strikes them down.

If I could make one change to this card, I would probably have made the tag subroutine something else, like an End The Run or maybe dealing 3 net damage. Something just as punishing as the other two subrountines, so when you try to break it with something other than a Killer you either sacrifice a program and a hardware/resource to continue the run, or protect one and lose the other while being unable to get in. It also doesn't make a lot of thematic sense why a Hammer would be tagging you...

TLDR: Considering our starting premise, I'd say that this card pretty much hits the mark in terms of balance, there are better options against true Killers but this is quite punishing against runners relying on AI or other non-Killer tricks. On the whole, whether you choose to include this card is a matter of meta and playgroup, if the meta favours AI and Botulus and the like, this looks promising, if one of your friends you regularly play with loves Aumakua Crim then consider including this card to really mess with them, otherwise, there are probably better options for a standard Corp deck.

Ablative is the cat.