Logjam stocks went up in the startup format with the ban of Pharos.

However, even if Pharos is present, Logjam is still good. Why is that?

First, it gets advancements for free. This synergize with Trick of Light and Hearts and Minds, which can use those advancements, without forcing the corp to first put them there.

Second, it has 3 end the run subroutines. Making it difficult for Botulus and impervious to Boomerang.

Third, on a face check, it gives back 2 to the corp, making this ice cost functionally 4.

Finally, it can have near infinite strength (helped by cards like Tree Line), contrary to Pharos, possibly making it impossible to break.

The big downside of this ice is that Hush put it at zero strength.

Art shows a log jam, in the literal sense of it. It is a bit hard to make out, because of the color saturation. It could have been a log (as in computer logs) jam also. Both work, making it a clever word play. This gives the idea of a big barrier. Ok.

I feel like this card is half of a combo that doesn't exist yet.

Obviously, it has applications in damage mitigation and safety (an overarching theme of the Borealis Cycle). You can offset the lasting downsides of Core Damage, making it harder for Thule to set up a kill with just a single End of the Line. And, with just a pinch of Charge support and a healthy dose of card draw you can keep yourself safe from even double End of the Line MAD combos.

However, this card has drawbacks, namely the self-damaging effect and reliance on Charge synergy to make the most of it. Unlike Stoneship Chart Room or No Free Lunch which have no drawbacks and can be cashed in at minimum for a little bit of credits or card draw.

Rather, this card needs something to synergize with it, something to offer you more value than just hand size for the sake of not flatlining. Compare how Anarch decks will play Steelskin Scarring regardless of whether they are expecting damage or not because of its inherent synergy with all of their trash cards.

Hippocampic Mechanocytes feels like it needs something akin to this, something like Game Day (which has rotated) or a runner version of Your Digital Life to give you some payoff for having a large hand-size or large number of cards in hand, to warrant playing this card outside of a hard-core (hehe, get it) damage tech.

Such a good ice with a cool ability. Obviouly, the expendable trait is taylor made for Nuvem SA: Law of the Land. But even other corp will profit from this ice.

First, it is a fairly cheap early gear check that end the run. But, it get better. Suddenly, you can get rid of trojan located on the ice by bringing it back to HQ. Just like Tatu-Bola (but barring Hush). At 2, it is fairly cheap to trash a trojan (like Slap Vandal).

Better yet, it allows the corp (and Nuvem in particular) to better manage their hand and archive to bring back agendas. Just like having Attitude Adjustment, but double with and ETR ice. If the corp play more than 8 agendas, having at least one Descent has fairly good value just for that.

Finally, at 2 influences, this can be played out of faction, especially if having hand management cards and ices is restricted by card slot (like a lot of Sportsmetal: Go Big or Go Home decks).

The art, name and quote goes well together. While I'm not entirely sure how it relate to the effect, it is a very good design.

One of the most scary card to be left on the board unchecked. For the small price of 1, you get to put up to 2 advancement on another card that can be advanced. This wins games!

Of course, this naturally synergize with Weyland Consortium: Built to Last, because putting advancement counters on a bunch of ices is natural. But this goes well also with Pravdivost Consulting: Political Solutions, which get free advancements. Asset spam archetypes will love this asset, since they can put lots of cards on the table, including naked agendas that can but scored next turn.

Another synergy is with Clearinghouse. Being able to advance it just before it fire will do tremendous damage. Notice that this card is neither a region, nor is it unique. In theory, you could have multiple of them on the board! Even Ronin could be advanced this way.

While the card specify that it has an additional effect if not protected by ice, the asset can still be protected by upgrades. Things like Overseer Matrix, Warroid Tracker and Forced Connection can make trashing this asset quite dangerous.

Even protected by ices, this can allow the corp to score big agendas without having to put advancement on the turn they are installed, forcing the runner to go check the most protected remote as often as you put something in it.

For all its power, this card require some setup. At 2 to trash, it should be trashed on sight by every runners. Moreover, you need to have put advancements on other cards before using this card. Finally, this card, unlike Isaac Liberdade, cannot put advancements on cards that cannot be advanced. Thus giving information to the runner about the asset or ice that receive the advancements.

This card could see play outside Weyland, even at 3 influences. But you'll need to play the right kind of deck for it, since this will compete with Cohort Guidance Program for putting advancements faster. Lots of possibilities.

The quote, art and name of the card fit together really well, giving a somewhat oblique reference to the effect of the card. Beautiful.

This ID, whilst inconsistent in its draw, has a few hidden or less obvious benefits, which I have discovered after building with it for too long. The main thing is that it is perfectly possible to build an ampere list with a consistent game plan, and doing so makes the ID work much better than "Random BS go". Synergies between cards still exist and are relevant, and certain cross faction synergies that would never happen due to influence costs make the deck more than the sum of its cards, and make the runner have to deal with lines and board states seen basically nowhere else.

Firstly, its agenda game is elite and as good as more conventional corps, as long as you can keep it close to 8. As long as at least half the corp factions have a solid 5/3 agenda (Ikawah Project, Bacterial Programming, Fujii Asset Retrieval, City Works Project, SDS Drone Deployment,The Basalt Spire), and a 1 pointer can be slotted that works with the agenda factions already chosen, it can very easily create a 9 agenda suite of premium agendas (three 5/3s, five 2 pointers and a 1 pointer, which is good for random access reasons), by including the 3 (RIP Luminal Transubstantiation) system gateway "limit 1 per deck" 3/2s (Above the Law, Longevity Serum and Tomorrowʼs Headline along with likely OffOff or SAM as the 9th neutral). These are all strong agendas with proactive effects, and give the deck very strong NA potential similar to PD or a rush Built to Last, as long as you can include some support for scoring the 5/3s and occasional 4/2.

This makes scoring its agendas an appealing idea to ampere, as trying to make a glacier agenda suite (6 5/3s and a 2 pointer) requires at least five 5/3s somewhat spread across all factions when considering SAM, and misses on at least 2 of the 3 gateway agendas. And more agendas than 9 means running more worse neutral agendas.

Secondly, its at its best when your deck can take full advantage of all 4 (or at least 3) factions cards to build towards a singular game plan, or likes having their big power/tech cards. With HB core damage and click taxing, Jinteki net damage and etr effects, NBN credit taxing and tagging, and Weyland meat damage retribution and trashing installs, you can make a solid rush tag and bag deck that will make it hard for the runner to both access the remote and then keep safe afterwards, due to clicks lost and damage/tags taken during the run. Ampere is able to easily run every trick/tool any faction has, if its good enough.

Thirdly, unknown facedown ice and installs are scary, since there's very little giveaway on what any particular card is. Amperes inconstant draw makes the runners ability to plan ahead as hard as the corps, maybe harder, since if you know what cards are in hand and are already on the table, whereas they have to deal with it. This is also with Jinteki ice trashing cards in hand and Weyland ice trashing from board, there is no true safe place to put critical cards before the runner gets their breakers if they want to face check. NBN will hurt their early econ, and clicking through a bioroid isn't viable if they get tagged afterwards. This means most runners will play much more passively in the early turns, which can give you a bit more time to set up. And if they face check recklessly they could suffer a lot, losing hand size, credits, resources, their rig and tempo. Or it could just say stay out. They don't know.

This is in addition to being able to run a ton of strong unique upgrades, that can all stack in the remote similar to some Ob decks. The longer the runner leaves the remote due to the unknown ice, the worse it will be for them when they get there. (Light the Fire! isn't a real card and can't hurt this strat).

Fourthly, a lot of corp cards either aren't fully unique in what they do and their role in a deck, or you generally only want a single copy anyways. Ice of all types helps keep the runner out at various points in the game, gain credit operations and assets all make money, agendas need to be scored/ kept safe. Even staple cards like Spin Doctor or Rashida Jaheem are workable as one offs when considering all the other power cards in the deck. Either run some recursion (Restore, Corporate Hospitality, Ablative Barrier, Drafter) to get them back or have some alternatives (Gatekeeper, Attitude Adjustment, Descent, Longevity Serum, Sprint). And whilst cards like End of the Line or Public Trail are singles in some decks anyways, and there's some tutor effects as well (Gaslight, Pivot) to increase consistency if a single card is that important.

And finally, this ID is pretty good for trying to match the runner meta, using cards that work well vs the meta runners, or adding silver bullet tech cards that can outright win certain matchups, whilst still being ok enough in others (SDS Drone Deployment vs Lobisomem Kit” and Criminals, Crisium Grid vs Deep Dive/Steve, Eru Ayase-Pessoa, Mavirus vs Aumakua, Botulus and Physarum Entangler) as examples.

Is this ID hard to play? Yes, since every game will be different. Is it fun to play? Absolutely, since every game will be different. Is it better than people think? I personally think so, it has merits and is a near complete unknown to any meta. Is this ID good overall? Probably not, its hard to build for and play, and therefore in tournament settings auto pilot when tired will generally go poorly. And the lack of an active ID ability and only 1 Rashida Jaheem means it will be slower than other corp for as long as that card is legal, since it has no passive value to supplement its cards/game plan.

So I look forward to seeing how this ID changes with Elevations release, when all corps lose a ton of known power cards, including Rashida.