Private Security Force

Private Security Force 4/2

Agenda: Security
Influence: 0

If the Runner is tagged, Private Security Force gains: "[click]: Do 1 meat damage."

"Expensive? Not when you're protecting a fortune as large as ours."
Illustrated by Mauricio Herrera
Decklists with this card

Core Set (core)

#107 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Rulings

No rulings yet for this card.

Reviews

Here in the other side of the ibiza the spanish DJ FED UP , FUCKING RESPECT ,LEAVE ME ALONE , I OWN MY PRIVACY,AND IS NOT FOR SALE . I know you are good people FIVE STARTS but starting getting mad with this BUDDY

(The Universe of Tomorrow era)
20
Quality review. —
Da fuq —
Finally, someone with the balls to give Private Security Force, not the review it wants, but the review it needs. —
Here we see why you always need to be cautious when running against Haas-Bioroid. Brain damage is no joke. —
100% agree with this review. If considering an include of Private Security Force in your deck, read this review. —
Sounds like a somebody had a serious meltdown... —

"Crapdamnit Bill, when do I get to kill a fool??"

"Hate to break it to ya kid, but probably never. You want action you shoulda joined one of those Single-purpose counteraction groups, volunteered for some incandescent structural alteration or specialised in non-medicinal trephining. We're just a security force."

If you're forced to play this (when using the Core Set, for example) and you're not focusing on flatlining the runner, this will probably seem a hard way to score 2 points. I certainly thought so, until I realised that whenever I scored this the runner would pay to remove every tag, even if they knew I had nothing else in hand to punish them. It's enough of a deterrent to make them pay that 4 after a Siphon, that extra kick from a Snare(!) and running through trace ice. It will shave small but frequent sums off the runner's account, keeping them from getting (too) far ahead and giving you the finger while the whole world watches. In the end, pretty much everyone clears tags anyway. This just glares and threatens to aggressively prod those who think they don't have to.

That said, there are fringe cases when it might actually have its moment, such as...

  • A careless 4th click run into a Snare(!) you can punish (probably fatally) the following turn.

and...erm...

  • Spending 8 on 2x Biotic Labor to hit them for 5 with a surprise robot army?

Nothing else really comes to mind.

(The Liberated Mind era)
652
Midseason Replacements. Then you simply click for 3 damage each turn. Repeat until death or deckout. —
If you're missing the second Scorched Earth component of a successful kill and the Runner is sitting on four cards, you can SEA him, Scorch him, then let Frank and D finish the job. Multi-layer warfare, ho! —

Early on when there weren’t a lot of choices for agendas this was seen, sometimes. Even then it wasn’t regarded as a great card - four for twos are usually just as difficult to score as a five for three, and don’t provide as much of a jump in points. They also clog up RD and add more cards that can be stolen by a runner to the deck.

PSF at least has a really great ability. PSF Lock it was called, where the runner gets tagged and the corp just spends three clicks a turn doing three meat damage. Not only would the runner have to clear the tag but also draw back up as quickly as possible - throwing tempo very quickly in the corps favor.

Tagstorm may see this agenda return, but compared to the other four for two neutral agenda, NAPD Contract it is a bit lackluster - that four credit cost to steal is a much more guaranteed tempo hit for the runner than maybe getting a PSF Lock - PSF is a bit lackluster, even though if scored it can be a real big threat to any runner who sees a tag.

(Written during the meta of Breaker Bay, part of the SanSan Cycle. For more reviews like it, visit wyldside.blogspot.com)

(Breaker Bay era)
418
I think it could be great in Argus. With Weyland just oozing bad pub, sometimes NAPD can be more of a liability than a benefit. PSF can fit nicely in that slot if it's played correctly. being able to SeaSource+Scorch and then click for a total of 5 meat damage in one turn is pretty sweet. —
Works out of Tagstorm decks just fine. If I'm going for that game, I'm perfectly happy to melt away a plascrete with it. With the right setup it can almost be worth burning an Astro token to enable scoring it. Paper Tripping makes it worthless, but it's not seen often enough. —
Now that NAPD has been put on the NAPD most wanted list (...oh god I just realized how dumb that is), there might be more openings for running this. —

If you manage to score Private Security Force and The Cleaners you could tag your opponent and do 6 meat damage for 3!

Or you could. you know, score your last two Agenda points and win the game, instead of screwing around. This is pretty likely, since if they can't stop you from scoring a 5/3 and a 4/2, then you could easily score Project Atlas (or just 2 Hostile Takeovers).

Now you could potentially play this as NBN, but who would want to replace AstroScript Pilot Program, Project Beale or any other card out of NBNs beautiful delicious agenda suite with useless garbage like this card?

(Business First era)
492

"Expensive? Not when you're protecting a fortune as large as ours."

I don't care who you are or what you're protecting, hiring Rick Sanchez and Sagat for your rolling hitsquad is not cheap. Plus whatever tag support they need.

(Parhelion era)

Sir/bot, the $7 you lost from the cryptocrash is unrecoverable. The $4 you lost from every yogurt store in the universe opening up next to yours, uncoverable. The $3 installing Daily Cast, eventually recoverable but not right now, it's value-over-time you maniac.