Accelerated Diagnostics

Accelerated Diagnostics 1[credit]

Operation
Influence: 1

Look at the top 3 cards of R&D. If any of those cards are operations, you may play them (paying their play cost), ignoring any additional costs. Trash the rest of the unplayed cards you looked at.

"I'm getting a reading that is…off the charts. No, it crashed the charts. That counts as off, right?"
Illustrated by Gong Studios
Decklists with this card

Mala Tempora (mt)

#52 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Rulings
  • Updated 2017-04-09

    Looking at the top 3 cards of R&D does not remove the cards from R&D. The cards are still in R&D and able to be affected by operations played with Accelerated Diagnostics. [Official FAQ]

  • Updated 2017-04-09

    Each operation the Corp looks at can be played in any order. The Corp does not have to play the topmost operation first. [Official FAQ]

  • Updated 2017-04-09

    When the Corp plays an operation, they fully resolve it before playing another one or trashing the rest of the cards. [Official FAQ]

  • Updated 2017-04-09

    If any of the 3 cards looked at are no longer in the top 3 positions of R&D (as determined when Accelerated Diagnostics was played), then those cards cannot be played. [Official FAQ]

  • Updated 2017-04-09

    The Corp can only play and look at the top 3 cards (as determined when Accelerated Diagnostic was played). Even if other cards are moved into the top 3, those cards are not eligible to be played/ looked at by the Accelerated Diagnostics. [Official FAQ]

  • Updated 2017-04-09

    If one of the operations played shuffles R&D, the remainder of Accelerated Diagnostics’ effect is ignored. [Official FAQ]

Reviews

Gutsy Diagnostics

On the face of it gaining some 's to be able to play 0-3 random operations at the cost of potentially losing the game in archives makes Accelerated Diagnostics look like a high-risk low reward card, however played judiciously with some powerful combos can really make it more of a sure gamble.

Stack R&D for one final push: With Jackson Howard installed (or at least in hand might still work) with 1st Power Shutdown is a quick and efficient way to get a your ENTIRE R&D moved into archives. (the fact that the runner is going to lose a program is merely a side benefit) then follow up with Jackson Howard's paid ability to remove him from the game getting any 3 cards (preferably operations like Biotic Labor and 2x Shipment from SanSan etc) out of archives, shuffle them well and place onto your now empty R&D pile. 2nd to play Accelerated Diagnostics to pull and play those three cards to score a previously installed agenda. Particularly if in hand already, play a Subliminal Messaging whenever possible for that extra 1 (really though with any 3 operations of your choice there are dozens of very elaborate & powerful chains that can be pulled off)

Poison Archives A casual use of Accelerated Diagnostics is going to inevitably result in agendas going into archives. One method to mitigate this in combo with Haarpsichord Studios: Entertainment Unleashed is to stall the runner who is trying to score agendas from archives meanwhile giving the corp an opportunity to score elsewhere and/or build up some traps inside of archives such as Cyberdex Virus Suite, Shock! Shi.Kyū, News Team Space Camp, TGTBT, Quantum Predictive Model Franchise City etc making scoring out of archives more cost that it's worth.

Know before you draw In combo with Precognition provides the corp with knowledge before taking the plunge with Accelerated Diagnostics, it may also provide the corp with the opportunity to shift agendas further down into R&D to avoid putting them needlessly into archives

Modify Archives Archived Memories, Jackson Howard, Reclamation Order, Interns etc can help mitigate the accidental trashing of agendas (and other cards) by Accelerated Diagnostics

(Did I miss something obvious, I'd appreciate suggestions in the comments below, I may add it to this review)

Pros

Basically gain up to net 2x 's and play to play up to 3 operations

Near infinite combo of up to 3 operations can be game ending in many circumstances

Influence cost of 1 makes card rather inexpensive to splash

Cons

Inadvertent trashing of agendas and other important cards can possibly hand the win to the runner

Summary

This card can do more harm than good in many decks, still for those specifically built around powerful operation chaining & possibly archive mitigation would do well to consider this card (flatline or fast advance for example). See Haarpsichord-doomsday for a fun example of Accelerated Diagnostics at work.

--It just saddens me when I see cards with no reviews. If you appreciated this review, please give a heart and I'll be encouraged to write more.

(Data and Destiny era)
730
Also Works very nicely with [Subliminal Messaging](/en/card/04100) —
Thanks etal05,it's in there now! —
I'm interested in seeing if the tank holds any possibilities —
The review touched on subliminal messaging but didn't make it clear that if you play it with Accelerated diagnostics it hives you both a click and a credit making it miles better than Biotic Labor if you only need the one extra click. —
Does this mean that Accelerated Diagnostics can play Scorched Earths without the Runner being tagged? Or is that not an 'additional cost'? —
They still have to be tagged —
You forgot to mention the important point of ignoring additional costs which synergies nicely with doubles and 24/7 News Cycle. It potentially saves you 5 clicks. —
The three operations being SEA/Scorch/Scorch isn't bad either —