DaVinci is what happens when a Shaper tries to run like a Criminal.

See, DaVinci is most similar to Desperado. If you make 5 successful runs with Desperado, you get 5 credits. If you get 5 successful runs with DaVinci, you get to install a 5-cost card from your grip for free. That's sort of the same thing, right?

Well...sort of. There are a lot of differences that make DaVinci a unique animal.

First, DaVinci is not permanent. Desperado makes you a credit a run, forever. DaVinci stops adding value either after you use it, or when you start earning power counters you're never going to use. If you use DaVinci to install a Liberated Account, then every run after the sixth gave you no additional value. The upper limit of value you can get from DaVinci is the most expensive installable card in your deck.

Second, DaVinci is not unique, or a console. You can easily have several DaVincis working at once, earning you several "credits" every run, and can still have a console alongside it. You could even be running two DaVincis and a Desperado at the same time. In fact, you probably should.

Third, DaVinci doesn't give you liquid credits. With Desperado, the credits you get from your early runs can be spent on your later runs. DaVinci gives you nothing until it pays out, and you can't go half-and-half with it; you must have the full install cost in power counters. It could be really frustrating to have 5 credits and 5 power counters, and still be unable to install the Garrote you really need.

Fourth, DaVinci gives you an instant-speed install. This is valuable on its own. You can run R&D with three counters on a DaVinci, and both a Medium and a Mimic in hand, dropping the killer if you need it and the Medium if you only see code gates and barriers. It also allows you to activate Hayley on the corp's turn. It improves the overall economy of the card, since the click you used to install DaVinci is the same click you would have used to install the other card.

DaVinci works best in an ID and a deck built for speed and stacking up "successful run" triggers. It would make a fine addition to the "Andy-sucker-rado-testing" build, but you could also make it work out of an aggressive anarch like Reina or Quetzal, or Kate in-faction, although I'm not sure if Kate's discount applies when using DaVinci. Feel free to experiment--it is a trash effect, which Geist likes, and it lets you install cards from 0 credits, which Nasir greatly enjoys. Just keep it out of Iain, and you'll probably do fine.

This card. This card is already one of my favorites.

DaVinci not only saves you a few credits, but it also lets you throw out both hardware and resources at really fun times, instead of just programs like Clone Chip and SMC.

I've picked out a list of cards that have interesting/fun/hilarious interactions with DaVinci, specifically its ability to install most any card with only a paid ability window.

• All three of the shards, as pointed out by daytodave. Mess up scorches, shut down Power Shutdown combos, and nab agendas from archives without the corp being able to do anything.

• Muertos Gang Member to derez things and generally force annoying corp decisions mid-run.

• Wait what? Weyland just tagged you with SEA Source? And you don't have any Plascrete avalible? It'd be a shame if... ya know... the Paparazzi were to show up out of nowhere and ruin their double scorch. A crying shame indeed. (Or you could be boring and throw down your plascrete like everyone else.)

• Use DaVinci to throw out a Street Peddler mid-run, use that to install a Clone Chip, and then install a breaker from your heap. Maximum jank points.

• Install The Source on the corp's turn. Enjoy their salty tears. Point and laugh at the Cyberdex Virus Suite they had ready to kill clot.

• You can pull a Rabbit out of your hat mid-run and dodge nasty trace routines. (I mean, if you have the money, I guess you could just outspend the corp, but Rabbit Hole sticks for afterwards.)

• And lastly, you could install a Security Chip mid-run to help break through unexpectedly strong ice. (Extra points for installing Rabbit Hole with another DaVinci first.)

This could very easily become one of the cards the corp hates to see lying around charged up, even if only because they have no idea what you're going to do with it. It's a shame you have to go through so much trouble to get it ready, but I still don't feel like that should hold it back too much.

I've been running Davinci in a Armand "Geist" Walker: Tech Lord deck and it is perfect in there!

Since you can only install cards less than the power counter's on it, you need low cost install cards, like the Forger, Clone Chip, Faerie, Shiv, Spike, and Crowbar. The instant speed install from the grip lets you run super aggressive early on, and a single counter on it gives a tonne of options plus the icing on the cake card draw. It's super fun to let someone play SEA Source and then bring out a Forger to clear it and get two draws out of it.

Once I needed a faerie but didn't have it. I used it to install a clone chip, draw a card but not the faerie, use the clone chip to re-install davinci and finally draw the faerie, and then use the davinci again to install faerie drawing a 3rd card and not being killed by a sentry

I have three things to say about this card: Utopia Shard, Eden Shard, Hades Shard.

You can play and pop Hades in the same paid ability window when the corp has overdrawn with Jackson. You can drop and pop Eden Shard to auto-win against any Power Shutdown combo. You can install Utopia Shard after the corp goes all in on a SEA Source or Midseasons, disrupting the Scorched kill.

Sorry, four things. It's also a new way to threaten Clot.

Ok! Five things: Nasir. Oh my god, Nasir.

It's worth pointing out that DaVinci does not have a synergy with Sacrificial Construct, since trashing Sacrificial Construct would prevent the payment of the paid effect of DaVinci, resulting in the DaVinci effect not being triggered.

It would be awesome though, if it did work - with enough Sacrificial Constructs and/or recursion, you could repeatedly pay out the stored credits on DaVinci. It would be an awesome level of jank, especially since as mentioned before DaVinci allows you to install any type of card - programs, resources, or hardware.