Another Kenny-themed piece, next to Express Delivery, Public Terminal and, in a way, Clone Retirement. Is it any good? Let's see!

As a Criminal, you are going to spend quite a lot of time running with event cards. What do you play events for? For starters, to sneak around, to borrow some creds, to eat yoghurt, among many other things. That's what we all know. You rarely get to play these cards on your first click each turn - when you actually use these, you really, really want them to succeed - you take some time to set it up or else waste a good thing and fall behind your opponent.

This card, though, is different. This is a run to be played strictly as your first click. And it is your most genuine, vanillia run without any fireworks. If you succeed, that's cool - you managed to snatch a fifth in your turn and made it count, not exposing yourself to risks of getting a fatal stroke. If you don't succeed, you are back at four (provided the Corp didn't hand you your butt in a disposable bag).

What does this mean? Well, since the former happens rarely and most times you are going to screw this one run up, there is one field in which this Run is exceptional - for 1 (or 0, if you are cool enough), you get a click-free facecheck! And you can facecheck for a number of reasons - to simply get to know what's in the box, to make the Corp lose some creds for rezzing and sometimes even let himself off the guard (possibly clearing the way for other, meaner Run events you've got in store?). With a combination of proper sense and some sheer luck, this card might work similiar to Forged Activation Orders, and who wouldn't like more of this stuff?

But apart from our white-haired driver and his partners in crime, there is one guy in particular who may like this card. Enter Adam and his compulsions - Early Bird might either be a way to save an otherwise wasted click or a way to break any one subroutine for just a click instead of two.

It is two influence a piece, and given the card's specific usefulness I highly doubt we are going to see it outside Ken's own pocket - and even if so, certainly not outside Criminal faction, as it best fits their playstyle - with Adam being a possible exception. But who knows?

The best uses of this card have already been mentioned before, but I think there's one more good use of this card: Apocalypse

With an extra click in your turn, you can make the three all important runs and still have time after the fallout to check R&D or HQ before the corp can ice up again. Add a Comet or Doppelgänger to your rig and suddenly that's effectively a six click turn. In a pinch, these extra clicks can be spent on a Same Old Thing to play a previously trashed event, albeit without the surprise factor.

Alternatively, if complete annihilation isn't your thing, there are alternatives; Notoriety being particularly effective if you can keep all three in hand to score the lot in one turn (that's a pretty big if though, with Exploit being more reliable, with a potentially equal impact on play).

If you're running a pre-rotation deck, you could also use Quest Completed if you're so inclined.

The main drawback to Early Bird for this purpose is that you can't combine it with another run event to bypass that nasty ice on the centrals (the same applies to users of Doppelgänger), and depending on your choice of breakers and centrals event the influence can start to stack up.

It's not a combo for many decks, but I've built a Ken deck built around this concept that's at least been fun to play, if not all that successful.