Divested Trust

Divested Trust 3/1

Agenda

Whenever the Runner steals another agenda, you may forfeit this agenda to gain 5[credit] and add the stolen agenda to HQ.

As the documents show, for eight months they have operated as an entirely independent fiscal entity. We are as appalled at the carelessness as you are, and fully support City Hall’s investigation.
Illustrated by Krembler
Decklists with this card

Downfall (df)

#55 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Rulings
  • Updated 2019-04-27

    NISEI Downfall Release Notes [NISEI Rules Team]

    Can the Corp use Divested Trust to stop the Runner from winning after stealing their 7th agenda point?

    No. The Runner wins the game while Divested Trust’s ability is still pending.

    If the Corp uses Divested Trust to snatch a 3-point agenda from the Runner, but the Runner steals that agenda again, how much damage does Punitive Counterstrike do?

    Punitive Counterstrike looks at the printed agenda point value on each agenda at the time it was stolen. Since the card moves between zones between the two times the Runner steals it, the game does not consider it to be the same agenda, and Punitive deals damage for both times it was stolen, for a total of 6 damage.

    If Media Blitz is copying Divested Trust, can the corp use it?

    No. Media Blitz is neither an agenda nor in the score area, so it cannot be forfeited.

    What if there are multiple agendas in Archives while the Corp has Divested Trust scored?

    The Runner accesses cards in Archives one at a time in the order of their choice. After an access is complete, they then choose the next card to access. They do not have to choose an order for all of the cards up front. The Corp will have to decide whether or not to use Divested Trust each time the Runner chooses to access an agenda, without knowing the order that any other cards in Archives will be accessed.

Reviews

This agenda is amazing and should be played more often. Especially with Weyland decks using faceup agendas.

Once this is scored, it give your big agendas a protection from being stolen. Imagine the runner stealing a City Work Project, paying 2 to 5 cards in meat damage in the process, only to be denied that victory. And to top it off, enabling the corp by giving it 5 creds. Insane!

It is even better if the corp was playing the big agendas, like Government Takeover or Vanity Project. This is the difference between winning and losing the game.

Once it is scored, the corp is much more relaxed, since it can deny the game point victory at anytime, while continuing to push its strategy forward.

A top tier agenda, in my opinion.

(Uprising era)
4871

There's one major disadvantage with this agenda that means it isn't played much: it doesn't stop the Runner scoring points, it just takes them back. Say you're running Government Takeover. The Runner will get 6 points if they steal it. If you use Divested Trust on it, the Runner still gets 6 points, then loses them again. That means that if the runner steals even 1 point – say, they steal a second copy of Divested Trust – your Divested Trust is now incapable of preventing the Runner winning the game.

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You forgot to mention the obvious synergy this agenda has with Punitive. They steal a 3 pointer, you take it back AND get 5 credits to blow them up with.

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@callforjudgement, I was under the impression that Divested Trust effect trigger before the runners gains the points, allowing to prevent you from losing the game. This is why I think this agenda is so powerful.

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Callforjudgement is right - you've got this agenda incorrect. This agenda cannot prevent a game-winning steal. Once the Runner hits 7 points, a scored Divested Trust cannot be used.

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... And it would have been SO easy to just write '[!] Whenever the Runner WOULD steal another agenda, you may forfeit this agenda to gain 5credit and add that agenda to HQ.' and print an actually useful Weyland 3/1 :D

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@krams that may make its scoring protection stronger, however, if it interrupted a steal than it would not synergize as well with punitive as the agenda was never Stolen as the steak was interrupted.

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Right now, the only other review of this card is almost 5 years old.
In the meantime, the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh rotation happened.
Belonging to Downfall, Divested Trust is now among the oldest cards in the whole standard format.
After more than 6 years in the active cardpool this agenda has seen … not much actually.

Let's revisit Divested Trust in the light of what's basically a different game now than 6 years ago.
Let's revisit Divested Trust in the light of Elevation and, more specifically, BANGUN: When Disaster Strikes.

I wrote a silly story of me using it in the form of a decklist, but for the sake of an actual review I'll go more into the mechanics.  

Scoring  a 3/1 is always a pain.
You have the same effort as scoring a solid 3/2 agenda, but you only get 1 point and in the special case of this one you don't even get to keep that point, since the whole point of  Divested Trust is to be forfeited.
And not in a good way (like the newest agenda that wants to be forfeited) that enables other cards. No, Divested Trust's sole purpose lies in an ability that requires forfeiting itself as a cost.

This is a lot to ask. The fact that the pace of the game generally is faster now than it was when Divested Trust was made actually makes this even more of a burden.

But it gets worse:
Divested Trust wants to be scored early, so that it can still be used when the runner steals an agenda without immediately winning the game. 
This makes it hard to use in any environment where the runner can get to 4 points reasonably fast. 
Bad news, that's the only environment we have. Corps can't really have a safe early game against the modern arsenal of early aggression tools on the runner side.

And there's another downside: 
Divested Trust wants to be scored early, but without really doing that much to help the corp to develop.
Other 3/1s either accelerate the game instantly or continue to provide some sort of meaningful protection. 
Divested Trust does both once at some future point in the game barely under your control as a corp player.

The one silver lining for this card is that it's super fun (for the corp) and swingy when it actually does "un-steal" (a very rare mechanic) 2 or 3 points the runner fought hard for, while simultaneously re-funding a corp that has spent a lot to defend these points. 
These moments are the reason I like the design concept, even if the card isn't objectively good.

Conclusion

In their early days of keeping this game alive NSG erred on the side of caution with this cool and unique agenda.
It's not good.
You should play it more often.

(Elevation era)
955