Shadow is an underused piece of ICE. In faction tagging is extremely good for Weyland, but that comes on the price of it being ICE - Subroutines rarely fire more than once, and certainly not a second time without the runner being prepared for it to do so. Shadow however, is advanceable. This means that even if the runner isn’t going to hit it, they may not be able to run it if they don’t want the tag. Runner is using Mimic as their primary killer? Then triple advanced and this card means the runner now has to deal with a trace five (From the free two credits) to avoid a tag, or waste a click every time they want to run through it. A Builder in front of it can suddenly put it out of the runner’s reach to break, and of course Corporate Troubleshooter can really put the subroutines back into effect.

Still, tags from ICE are harder to land, more often needing on encounter effects (Data Raven) or simply being that it is more effective to take the tag and clear it afterward, for being too expensive to avoid in the first place (Gutenberg). Shadow is however, in faction for one of the most potent forms of tag punishment, and that makes it dangerous - if underused.

(Written as Chrome City was just released . )

As an advanceable piece of ICE, Hadrian’s is the big guy, the tall and strong barrier. Two subroutines makes it taxing even for those breakers with high strength, and the ability to advance it means that it can always get more taxing.

So why doesn’t Hadrian’s see more play? As a taxing barrier goes, it is phenomenal, taxing breakers for (usually) six plus credits. It is hard to get out, and that is a problem - getting to ten credits can be an issue, and advancing it after it’s rezzed can be hard to do because of the cost to rez it. Other big barriers are at time even more taxing - Curtain Wall can tax even more for only a Hedge Fund more worth of credits, Asteroid Belt taxes less but can potentially be free. Tricks to rez it, like Oversight AI can leave it vulnerable with only the two subroutines, though a Priority Requisition can be very nice to target Hadrians with, it is hard to score such a five for three without the big status of the wall first. It is smack dab in the middle, and as with a lot of the variety of similar cards, the ones in the middle of the pack get used least.

Hadrian’s Wall is posed to make a comeback though. Gone are the days where Corroder was the only fracter needed. As runners start to make use of token based breakers like Cerberus "Lady" H1 or even D4v1d, Hadrian’s could make a comeback. Only one token for Lady, but four credits is still a respectable tax. D4v1d takes an even harder hit, using two of its tokens just to get through Hadrian’s wall. That is pretty respectable.

(Written as Chrome City was just released . )

Possibly the most devastating piece of ICE in Weyland, it is a sentry that all fear when facing the corp. It is extremely taxing to run through - while maybe the runner doesn’t break that 2credit subroutine, it can still cost a pretty penny to get through for most breakers. Despite the forfeit additional cost to rez, it is rather cheap, making it easy to force a runner into it. Not only does it keep them out then, but it also can really set the runner’s rig back, opening up huge scoring windows. Against some runners that play dangerously with only one copy of a breaker and little to no recursion it can completely shut them out.

Don’t let the cost of the agenda put a bad side on this card. First, Weyland has a Two for One in faction in Hostile Takeover. This is a staple part of a lot of Weyland’s economy, especially those Weyland decks which care less about keeping the runner out and more about just slowing them down to set up for the Flatline. Hostile is a perfect target for Archer - indeed, while it can be very possible to sack a two or even three pointer to Archer, rarely the tempo gained is worth the loss of points for anything beyond a single pointer.

With that agenda in faction and very easy to get on the table to power up Archer, this sentry becomes a devastating weapon to use against a runner who face checks without a killer - or two broke to use the one they have installed. Archer remains a constant threat and will remain a strong piece of ICE.

(Written as Chrome City was just released . )

Free advancements sounds like a great thing, and indeed - like Shipment from SanSan this is more of an economy card than anything else. It saves money, and also clicks, compressing work down to the benefit of the corp. The drawback comes with having to have two different cards to advance to get the worth out of it. Agenda’s are difficult to use with it, and while there are some assets that can be advanced, it is hard to keep those things on the table long enough to make the free advancement worth it.

It really shines with the advanceable ICE however, especially when playing around those types. More often than not there will be more than one piece of ICE that can be advanced on the table in a deck that uses that mechanic, making full use of the card. Advanceable ICE hasn’t really seen its day in the sun yet, and while some uses have been made for them, they haven’t really come out as a strategy to be reckoned with. If/When they do, Shipment from Kaguya will undoubtedly make a bigger splash as part of that strategy.

(Written as Chrome City was just released . )

The corp version of Easy Mark the bonus that Beanstalk has is its Transaction key word, which out of Weyland Consortium: Building a Better World makes it absolutely fantastic. Zero credits for four makes it as good as a Hedge Fund with less investment, and puts the corp up into range to quickly use Hedge Fund into Restructure.

Unfortunately, it has fallen out of style. While it is a great way to jumpstart an economy that has fallen low (or even bankrupt) there are only so many deck slots. There are economy cards that give better profit (for more investment, of course, or more risk) that often work out better for the deck slots available. Economy creeps, one of the few things that gets progressively more powerful in Netrunner, and older cards like Beanstalk fall out of style to make room for economy that gives more total profit. It is still a good solid card; one card and one click to make three credits is a pretty standard baseline, and even other economy cards just get slightly better (one or two more credits) for substantially more investment.

(Written as Chrome City was just released . )