“Knickknack” O’Brian is the “new Aesop’s Pawnshop”.
For example, Knickknack gets Gain 2[$]. Draw 1 card. for sacrificing an empty Coalescence, while Aesop got Gain 3[$].. However:
- Knickknack “reimburses” you: if you buy for
$1, you sell for$1, as well as the1 carditself (like Geist). - Aesop just “swindled” for you: if you buy for
$1, you still sell for the full$3, having had a much higher floor than Knickknack. - Its
The first time each turn a run begins, …is a (slightly) more interactiveWhenever your turn begins, …; and can even be (slightly) more frequent, since you can run immediately after installing the resource. - Both enable
if you trashed your …gates (of Simulchip or Boi-tatá).
Synergies:
Multi-Cards: While Netrunner lacks “card tokens”, one Muse–Coalescence provides two,
$2-cost sacrificeables (from a single click/card, over the next two turns).Cost-Redux: If more self-cost reductions get printed (like Carmen, which costs
$3to install but reads with a printed install cost of$5) in Shaper, then Knickknack can actually profit off the sacrifice (like Aesop did). As well as cost reductions in general (like DZMZ Optimizer and Simulchip).“Spendables”: With
virus counters, like Pelangi (or Cordyceps?). And a few withpower counters, IE. those withoutWhen this _ is empty, trash it., like Coalescence (or the new Devadatta Drone?); as well as the disposable breakers like Revolver (wasting only one “bullet”, to gain two credits and a card), or even Propeller.“Front-loaded’s” cards: With high-value When-Installed triggers (like 5inf The Class Act?).
Compression: If you can compress installs (like the new Illumination, which also cheapens those installs), then Knickknack’s econ can “fully-reimburse” the sacrificed installations (credit, card, and click). Likewise within an Ari or Magdalene deck.
Thus Pawnshop, with its the higher floor and its non-interactivity, seems more powerful, but the design of O’Brian feels more exciting (IMO): you have to care about printed install costs, you get a “card flow” (like Geist), you have to make a run, and so on.
PS. My hope is a Shaper card with large self-cost-reductions, like:
- a gated
[$5]; This resource costs 3[$] less to install if you've trashed one of your cards this turn., which works with the Pawnshop archetype (and Simulchip in any archetype). - or even a scaling
[$6]; This program costs 1[$] less to install for each power counter among active Runner cards., which is unbounded.
NB. While it can sac a 4[$] Principia that only cost you 2[$] to install (for Gain 4[$]. Draw 1 card.), you don't want to be sac'ing Fracters. Like how Aesop sac'd a just-used/off-matchup Paricia (for Gain 3[$].).
Like ppl ever facecheck anything in this game anymore. Nobody runs without either full rig or some stupid broken PRO RUNNER cards. So sure even a Rototurret facechecked can hurt you. But if we all still pretend that the magical fantasy land called Netrunner still exists in this game then your absolutely right. But we arent living in this wonderful place anymore brother David. So pls stop comments like this like this ICE is good or dangerous when in the real world at the table your situation never happens.
— Force9