And here we have a sort-of reprint of I've Had Worse, although there are some key differences.

They both draw you 3 cards for 1 credit when played. But Steelskin only draws 2 cards instead of 3 when it gets trashed. To make up for this, it now triggers off any type of damage, meaning all the newly released core damage cards will have you drawing 2. If any corps are still brave enough to be on cards like Cerebral Overwriter with the release of Borealis, Steelskin will help you recover from that.

Furthermore, Steelskin also works when trashed from the stack, which is a nice bonus. This would crucially have worked with MaxX: Maximum Punk Rock's mill ability, which would have been a bit ridiculous, but she is now rotated. Frantic Coding and Labor Rights are runner cards that can put this in the bin. There is also Persephone but... yeah. On the corp side there are janky cards like Aimor, although you are very unlikely to run into those. Engram Flush can trigger Steelskin (relevant in Startup) but since it says "may", the corp would need a good reason to let you draw cards for free.

So is this better or worse than IHW? For being so flexible and with Esa probably being a force to be reckoned with going forward, I would rate this slightly higher. But time will tell.

A fuctional reprint of Amped Up. Will see tons of play in the new anarch Esa because of xir ability, but other anarchs (especially the ones who are still pulling off Apoc post-rotation) will happily consider this card as well. Also worth considering if you're on Deep Dive. Not much else to say about it. Putting yourself in harm's way to get a chance at messing up the corp. Still as anarch as ever.

If Okorina taught me anything, it's that Puppet Master is one of the coolest agendas in the game. Being able to have this ability right out of the gate led me down a rabbit hole of otherwise non-viable cards, cool deckbuilding and new win conditions. And now, we can do these kinds of shenanigans in Standard. Well, sort of. Puppet Master was not limited to once a turn, while Pravdivost is. But ofcourse, not having to score a 5/3 agenda is a big upside.

So how do we play this unusual ID? I think there are 3 options:

Value Strat

Boring, but a free advancement counter is still a free advancement counter. Build a monstrous remote (with some nasty defensive upgrades?), let the runner fish for points on centrals and they will advance your agendas/NGO/Vladisibirsk City Grid for you? There is also Ubiquitous Vig to keep charging. I don't know if this is really viable, but I am sure someone will make a list work. Maybe Embolus could help with this strategy?

The Tennin Strat

Advancement counters can go on ice, advanceable ice can get pretty good. Tennin Institute showed that this CAN work outside of Weyland, you just need a good way to not waste precious clicks on advancing ice yourself. Pravdivost is probably better than Tennin too, since outside of the few install-runner turns at the start of the game, runners do want to run and pressure (nearly) every turn. But just like Tennin, most worthwhile advanceable ice will have to be imported. And with ice like Akhet or Mausolus costing 2/3 influence a pop, this will quickly become... untenable. Still, NBN already has some pretty amazing ice, and maybe an ice suite with yellow staples, Weyland ice and Vasilisa + Mestnichestvo for support, could work?

Master of Puppets, aka the Trap Strat

NOW we're talking. We have some truly nasty traps that care about the number of advancements on them. And since the run is declared succesfull right before the access, you can give the runner extra net damage, core damage or tags. Furthermore, you can also play mind games by including cards the runner WANTS to access before they get too many counters. I have gone on record as really disliking False Flag, but in this ID I could see it actually working? There are also the newly spoiled Drago, Reversed Accounts, Ronin and Gene Splicer. Will this be a super competitive deck? I seriously doubt it. Falsified Credentials is a card, and historically trap decks have never been a super strong force in the game. But I'll be damned if I am not gonna try to make this work.

This card is unassuming looking but incredibly powerful.

A close comparison is No One Home. NOH counters any number of tags so it's a lot better against Hard-Hitting News. It also actually avoid tags, which means it won't trigger R+'s ability. However, while the numbers on No One Home are good (especially for runners with link) the corp can still overcome it with a strong economic lead. No Free Lunch also works during any ability window, which makes it a lot more versatile than NOH's "first time".

Sure, No One Home also prevents damage, but if you face a corp that neither tags or deals damage, it is completely dead. The definition of a silver bullet. NFL is at least an Easy Mark, not the strongest of cards but still a +1 in value. And at 1 influence, it is easy to add out-of-faction and not feel bad about it, whether you use it for tag hate or money.

Since it is a resource that interacts with tag removal, it is hard to counter. Sadaka comes to mind, which I think will be more of staple in tag decks going forward. There is also Best Defense, since NFL costs 0. However, none of these solutions are elegant. Tricking the runner into accessing QPM tagged or getting Public Trail combos off just got a lot more difficult. Tag deck will have to adapt to this card going forward. Whether that is a good thing is personal preference.

Remember Temüjin Contract? That absurd criminal card that went into nearly every runner deck, even with additional influence? Yeah, this is like that, but balanced. Arguably too much so.

Let's start off by comparing the two from a purely economic perspective. Suppose the corp has no ice anywhere, you aren't interested in accesses, you just want dairy dollars.

Temujin Contract: gets you 20 credits for a cost of 4 credits/1 card/6 clicks. net gain: 9

Red Team: gets you 12 credits for a cost of 5 credits/1 card/5 clicks. net gain: 1

So purely based on that, there is no comparing the two. Temujin is a LOT stronger, but we ofcourse have to keep in mind that it's widely considering an overpowered card. But comparing Red Team to other econ isn't too favorable either. A +1 gain is equal to Easy Mark and worse than Sure Gamble. And that is ignoring the fact that Easy Mark doesn't care about iced servers.

Ofcourse, Red Team isn't a pure econ engine. After the corp has iced centrals, this resource is a nice way to reimburse you after accesses. And there we find its 1 advantage over Temujin. Its effect isn't limited to one chosen central. If you want to have a peek at both HQ and R&D on a turn, Red Team will give you 6 credits for your trouble. Because you spend the clicks on a run you were gonna do anyway, you are effectively increasing your profits! If you also check archives (and then play Apocalypse maybe?) the math gets even better.

None of that takes away from the high upfront cost and slow payout. This is mostly because you can't run the same central more than once per turn. Most corps will ice up HQ turn 1 vs criminal and archives will be a waste of a click in the early game, so that leaves R&D. Unless they ice that too. Also, since you need to use the click ability on Red Team itself, this doesn't combo with run events like Dirty Laundry, Legwork, Bravado or The Maker's Eye. Bummer.

So by itself, this is not a great card. Even if you use it for value runs, it is probably just... fine? Career Fair does make the math a lot more favorable, although criminals aren't exactly lacking for good targets to install with that. Coincedentally (ahum), this is a job resource, so Az installs it for 4 credits.

The biggest consideration when considering this card, is that it adds to that critical mass of "run-econ" some criminals strive for. A run for 3 credits is kind of 'eh', but if you also get to put a credit on Pennyshaver, gain 2 from Security Testing, maybe get some Bankroll or Aumakua value? Now you're cooking!

I do expect to see this card in some aggressive blue lists, but it probably won't be a staple. Definitely not out of faction, like its spiritual predecessor. Which is probably for the best.