An interesting and rather unique defensive upgrade.

For an average "scoring" deck, an agenda suite usually consists of 8 or 9 agendas that are supposed to be scored out in some pattern of 2/2/3, i.e. scoring out two 4/2 or 3/2 agendas as well as a single 5/3. This agenda suite is great for easily scoring to 7, (as opposed to having to score to 9 with all 5/3s), while still keeping your agenda density low to avoid losing to multiaccess (as opposed to a deck running lots of 1 or 2 pointers). It gives you opportunities to fast advance a 3/2 to quickly close games out and the ability to play a few defensive 5/3s, or you can slot tempo 4/2s like Offworld Office to keep pace with the runner. All in all this agenda suite is probably one of the best, most consistent and most versatile in the game, but if you are running this agenda suite, you should not be running Giordano, because at best it is a worse Manegarm Skunkworks and at worst, it won't tax the runner a single credit.

For this card to be worth it, you need a lot of agendas in the runner's score area, and for that to be true, you also need to be running a lot of "small" agendas that you don't mind them stealing, because if the runner has a few 2 or 3 point agendas in their score area, then they've probably already won...

However, since running small agendas comes with its own inherent drawbacks regarding agenda density, this kind of card is best used in a Corp deck that's already ready and willing to include lots of small agendas for other reasons. The two most obvious examples are Sportsmetal: Go Big or Go Home and Thule Subsea: Safety Below but it could also be theoretically imported into Jinteki: Personal Evolution or other similar IDs.

Essentially, these IDs get some additional bonus whenever an agenda is stolen, which offsets the inherent downsides of running lots of small agendas. A Sportsmetal deck is probably happy running three copies of Hyperloop Extension, Megaprix Qualifier and/or Élivágar Bifurcation because if a couple of these cards get stolen, so what? You still get some money or card draw and as long as they don't win before you do, you don't really care how many agendas they steal.

Giordano gives you a "late" game defensive upgrade that could potentially cost the runner as much as 6-10 credits in an average Sportsmetal game by the time you're going for the final agenda push, which can be just enough to keep them out of a scoring remote they thought they could get into if you're keeping the tempo of the game fast enough and they're forced to play low to the ground.

A couple of notable details

• It's unique, so you can't protect multiple servers with these, but that's true of a lot of defensive upgrades so it's not like it's an uncommon restriction

• It's a facility, a lot of people I talk to seem to assume it's a region since it kind of sounds like it should be one, but it's not, so feel free to stack this with Regions and all sorts of other defensive upgrades

• It's ability triggers when the run is successful, this is rare, most similar effects trigger on the approach step, not the success step. Both can theoretically keep the runner from accessing any cards in the root of the server, but this wording is notable for the fact that it's a nonbo with other defensive upgrades like Manegarm Skunkworks or Anoetic Void since you can't force them to pay the Giordano tax then end the run with Anoetic. Plus, on-success effects like Dirty Laundry or Deep Dive will still technically fire too...

• This ability counts non-agenda "agendas" so cards like Nightmare Archive, Hangeki or Meridian all count as "agendas" for the purpose of Giordano calculations. As would cards like News Team, Shi.Kyū or Fan Site were they still in standard. It's for this reason that "Core Sports" decks have evolved as a way to force the runner to add Nightmare Archives to their score area, simultaneously making it harder for the runner to win despite stealing a large number of agendas and super charging effects like Giordano and Fast Break

• It dies to Pinhole Threading and Light the Fire!, this isn't something new nor unique to Giordano, but it's still worth noting that if you are relying on making an impenetrable remote server using Giordano plus a bunch of negative points to make the runner spend 20 credits or something, they can still just Pinhole it like any other defensive upgrade

I don't know enough about sports to tell you what kind of field that is or what kind of sport it is, but someone once said it looks kind of like a Dorito and now I can't stop seeing a Dorito chip whenever I look at it. The quote is a paraphrasing of the old Netrunner quote: "The world changed. Crime did not." for those wondering about that reference.

TLDR: A niche defensive upgrade for Corp decks looking to include a large number of small agendas and/or lots of sources of negative agendas.

I feel like this card is half of a combo that doesn't exist yet. Wait a minute, have I written this review before?

Compared to every other criminal run event mainstay at the time of writing, you have almost no reason to play this card. Many cards in most criminal decks are cheap, usually 4 credits or less, because criminals don't usually have the money to support a big rig and want to run early, fast and low to the ground. That means that at best, you are getting yourself an Overclock and a card draw, and at worst, you are hitting one of your 1 or 2 cost cards and end up feeling absolutely terrible.

If you want a generalist value run-event, play any of the following, each of them can make you as much if not more money with a much higher consistency. Even Overclock doesn't see much play in Criminal because they have so many other good run events to choose from and getting one extra card draw just isn't enough to make up for this inconsistency and unreliability.

• Bravado
• Carpe Diem
• Dirty Laundry
• Diversion of Funds

So what would make this card playable? Something that sets up the top of the deck obviously, if you can play a pretty Reg Criminal deck, include two disproportionately expensive cards like Femme Fatale, two copies of Concerto and a couple copies of whatever your setup card is, then you might just be onto something.

As far as I see it, there are 3 basic options:

• Something that restructures the top of your deck, like an infaction Making an Entrance reprint
• Something that tutors to the top of your deck, like an infaction Test Run reprint
• Something that lets you put cards from your hand on the top of your deck, like a Criminal version of Mindscaping or Flower Sermon

My personal favourite idea so far is like a Blueberry!™ Diesel near-print, call it say "Grape Diesel" where it says, draw 3 cards, then put one card from your Grip onto the top of your stack. This way, even outside of Concerto you can use it as source of good in faction card draw that then puts your dead draws like a spare copy of your console back on top of your deck for you to bottom next turn with The Class Act or shuffle away with Boomerang.

However, this would also give you a very reliable way to set-up Concerto, say you have a copy of Femme or whatever the equivalent future high cost card is already in your hand as well as a Concerto, the corporation then makes an obvious agenda push in a heavily guarded remote that they're pretty sure you can't get into. It's at this point that you play the Grape Diesel, putting the Femme on top of the deck, then rip the Concerto, giving you a whopping 9 credits to play around with it's quite literally an in-faction DIY Stimhack sans Brain/Core Damage.

Don't get me wrong, this whole thing is clunky, it's a three card combo that requires you to hold quite a few cards in hand in preparation for this. But... as long as each of those other two cards are worth playing in their own right, then Concerto might actually make sense as a big power play that can swing games in the Criminal's favor by giving them a sudden and massive injection of credits.

Will such a set-up card ever be printed, and importantly, will it ever be printed in Criminal? That remains to be seen, but the potential is there, will Stimhack be reborn wreathed in blue, only time will tell...

This is as much a game essay as a review, so strap yourselves in if you are up to it! Otherwise, skip ahead to the last two paragraphs for my suggestions.

Overview

Padma is undeniably weak, seeing almost no play, even at the peak strength of Shapers she was consistently beaten out by Lat, Arissana or Kit. This review will explain why she’s weak, how she could’ve been better designed and how she still can.

ID abilities can generally be thought in terms of 3 factors: payoff, play-pattern and deck-building requirements. What kind of cards do you need to include in your deck, what sort of play-pattern do you need to pursue to trigger your ability, and what is the reward for doing so?

Generalists

Speaking anecdotally, the most widely played IDs tend to have generalistic payoffs with lenient requirements.

Take Hoshiko for example, she gives you card draw and credits, something almost every deck can benefit from, while only requiring you to touch cards every other turn. Thus she can work with almost anything, Reg Anarch, Mulch, ICE destruction, etc., all can benefit from money and cards, and all want to run at least occasionally.

Lat is similar, almost all Shaper decks can benefit from clickless card draw and matching hand-size with the corporation requires almost nothing of you in deck-building and doesn’t greatly restrict your play pattern. Thus Lat can be played with a variety of archetypes, in the days of Endurance and Rezeki, he was the face of control shaper, in the days of Trick Shot and Deep Dive, he was the ID of choice, and when Aesop’s Pawnshop/Coalescence was the best engine, he could still slot in just fine.

Combo

By contrast, combo IDs tend to see relatively little play (unless their combo is busted), and be extremely confined to their specific play pattern.

Tāo, for instance, almost only ever uses Hermes, because the synergy with his ability is too great and he is currently best served by the Conduit/Aeneas engine, because he usually has to tunnel on a single server that he continually weakens in hopes of finding another agenda in time to snowball further. However, when properly locked out, he lacks the lateral options available to other IDs, he’s limited by being unable to reliably choose when and even if agendas will be scored or stolen and his ability does little against asset decks that play few ICE and combo kill decks that don’t plan to score out at all.

Similarly, Mercury usually runs few, if any, icebreakers and relies almost exclusively on finite, bypass tools to “cheat” their way through not just some of the corporation’s ICE, but all of the corporation's ICE. They then plan to win off a critical mass of multi-access supported by tools like The Twinning, “Pretty”, or WAKE Implant. But, much like Tao, they lack the flexible and strategic tools to control the flow of the game should they get unlucky, or get locked out.

Midground/Archetype Players

Most IDs fall somewhere in the middle and their playability is determined by how much value their ability can generate relative to how easy it is to fire said ability, as well as how good the cards in the archetype they belong to are.

Arissana is generally considered a good example, here, we can see the three components, Arissana requires Trojan synergies in deck-building, which lends her to a unique, trojan-centric archetype best played with her ID, she requires you to run often, something that is not-hard for aggressive runners and rewards you with clickless installs at a minimum, or game saving counter-play in a pinch (reactively installing a Hush, Slap Vandal, Botulus or Physarum Entangler can be game-saving). These reactive installs also enable her to be more aggressive with her runs, which is important for a high-tempo, run-based ID.

Padma is similar in theory, she requires you to include cards that can be charged in the deck building stage, and thus should be the best ID for any power-counter centric Archetype. Her play-pattern requires making regular runs, not unlike Arissana or Hoshiko in theory. And the pay-off is the power counters themselves, which have variable returns but can often be used for some amount of card-draw (Dr. Nuka Vrolyck), credits (Coalescence), multi-access (Cataloguer, WAKE, Twinning), breakers (Revolver, Propeller, Lobisomem) or utility (Hippocampic Mechanocytes, Poison Vial, Amelia Earhart). All in all, this seems fine, the biggest catch is that unlike these other IDs, Padma’s ability only fires when you run R&D.

The Problem with Padma

This is a bigger problem than you might initially think, locking your ability into a single server is a crushing limitation because of the counterplay it opens up to the corp. Against the other aforementioned, run-based IDs corporations would need to ICE up every server, a multiplicatively more difficult requirement than icing up just a single server. Because if you heavily ICE up one server against say, Arissana or Hoshiko, they can simply pivot and attack the new weakest server while still getting value from their ability. Whereas once R&D becomes unrunably expensive, should Padma pivot away from it, she is now playing with a blank ID box, a horrible situation to be in.

Furthermore, because her ID lacks in built protection like Arissana has, Padma is vulnerable to bad facechecks on R&D should she try to run into a facedown piece of ICE on turn one. She’s especially vulnerable, even when compared to conventional run-based decks like Criminal that try to force rezzes before they’ve installed any cards because Padma needs at least one card installed to use her ability on, simply increasing the number of potentially tempo-negative face-checks she could make.

There's a very good reason that ID design has moved away from server-specific abilities over its history, FFG era netrunner often included ID abilities that targeted a specific server like Gabriel Santiago, Steve Cambridge, Akiko Nisei or Silhouette. But NSG broadly recognized, correctly in my opinion, that these limitations are best placed on specific cards, not fundamental IDs, and you can see the fruits of these learnings in modern ID design. Zahya's ability works on HQ or R&D, as does Mercury's, Sable has to run a specific central server, but that server changes from turn to turn, so you can never truly know where to place ICE to lock her out for good. The decision to ignore all of these learnings when it comes to Padma and limit her ability to only work when running R&D confounds me as I can't see a good reason to place this limitation. It's like if Arissana could only install Trojans on ICE protecting R&D with her ability, or if Hoshiko only got to flip if she accessed cards in Archives, it just wouldn't make any sense and would be extraordinarily constrictive.

The Solution

My opinion, now more than ever, that we've had a good chance to see how Padma operates in the standard meta, is that Padma’s ability should read “The first time each turn you make a successful run, Charge 1 of your installed cards.”

This would make Padma’s gameplay so much cleaner and smoother at every stage of the game. On turn one, Icing up R&D is no longer so debilitating, because she can still run HQ and get a risk-free power counter. Even once HQ and R&D get iced up, you can still run Archives for a safe supply of power-counters, equivalent to clicking for 2 credits with Coalescence or 2 cards with Nuka, or preemptively charging up your multi-access for once you find your breakers.

In the mid-game, where you need to run the remote to keep the corporation in check, you can still generate an incidental power-counter to refund you some of the cost. If you need to sweep HQ on an important turn, you still get a power counter, if you need to run Archives to keep Jinteki honest or flush out a Spin Doctor, you still get a power counter. Even in the late game, where you might want to run R&D to close things out, you can still get a power counter, only generating that power counter once the run is successful, is a minor downside, but if anything, this is fairer than getting one when the run begins. Not to mention the fact that this reworded ability makes orthogonal game-plans like assets much more playable for her.

Ultimately, it would enable a far more "natural" style of Netrunner, one that incidentally rewards you for making the kinds of good runs you would want to make anyway, rather than attempting to force you into this awkward play pattern of "tunneling" on R&D.

How to Achieve it

I know why NSG does not do functional errata, but I want to propose an alternative solution to this problem. Create a Booster Pack, with maybe only 5 or so cards, such as this reworded version of Padma, reword Daeg to say something more like “The first time this game you install a card named Daeg and whenever an agenda is scored or stolen, you may Charge 1 of your installed cards.” Tweak the numbers on Nanuq or Tunnel Vision to give Shapers or Criminals a new playable AI, reprint Virtuoso but with 2 Memory instead of just 1, and maybe reprint Nanisivik Grid but make it unique, or give it "remote server only". Call the whole thing the “Borealis Reprint Booster Pack” and give everybody who buys the next standard release cycle a copy of this booster pack, free of charge, that way you can easily disseminate these reprinted versions to everybody who is still into Netrunner (plus worst case scenario people can just proxy the new versions from print-and-play).

I strongly believe the Charge mechanic is underutilized and with the Borealis cycle recently released and not rotating for years to come, I think there’s a strong argument to be made that these underplayed or banned cards deserve a second chance while they’re still young. Just don’t reprint the Boat lol, I think this version of Padma would still be good without it :D

Despite the enthusiastic and optimistic reviews you may read on this page, this card sees no play and saw no play historically outside of being a cheap sacrificial hardware during the days of World Tree. This review exists as a post-mortem, to break down what this card does, why it sees no play, and how similar cards can be better designed in the future.

As I see it, there are two fundamental and interlinked problems this card faces:

1. It is niche (it's a tech card)
2. It is exhaustible

Tech Cards

Being a tech card is in and of itself a limitation, tech cards will always see comparatively little play due to their niche applications when compared to something universally good like Sure Gamble, Diesel or Bravado, simply because money and card draw will always have value against every match-up while techs will, by their very nature, have fluctuating returns. Still, tech cards have their place and similarly worded tech cards for preventing damage and "when encountered" effects have seen play historically such as Hunting Grounds, Feedback Filter or Caldera.

Notably, Airblades does put some pretty serious restrictions on itself, preventing only net damage (not Core or Meat) does limit it's applications and those limitations are exacerbated by the only during run condition, so while it might mitigate the sting of Anemone or Urtica Cipher it won't help against Bladderwort, Reaper Function or Mindscaping nor will it do anything against Thule Subsea: Safety Below or tag and bag.

Still, in the matchups where it's useful, it can be quite useful, if you can prevent 3 net damage throughout the game, Feedback Filter and Caldera tells us that's worth about 3 credits of value per damage for a total of 9. And similarly, if you can prevent 3 on encountered effects like Tollbooth, Mestnichestvo or Funhouse then that should save you a similar amount of money, for a profit margin of 8, which is exceedingly good when compared to convention econ. It's so good, in fact, that in the matchups where you would want this card, such as against certain Jinteki or NBN decks, you'd probably want to include two or three since just one will quickly run out...

Exhaustible

This is where the second problem arises, all of these historical tech cards I've listed are infinite, while they might cost credits or have limitations like only being usable once per turn, they will never run out. If you are expecting a damage-heavy meta, you need only include one Feedback Filter and the money your deck already wanted to include to achieve protection, in fact, with sufficient drip economy or a Magnum Opus rig, you can outlast even the grindiest deck, causing them to deck out before you do. In it's heyday, Hunting Grounds was a popular one influence splash outside of Apex because you could pretty reliably expect it to cover it's install cost after just a couple of important runs and the longer the game goes on the more and more incidental value you'll acrue. And, critically, worst case scenario you play up against Weyland and have one dead card in your deck, or two if you felt the need to run both damage protection and Hunting Grounds.

But with Airblades, you feel pinched, in the matchups where you want this kind of effect most, you'll probably want 2 or 3, since just one will quickly run out, but in the matchups where it's useless, you want 0 as they're just dead draws. The tension of this hurts Airblade's viability from a slots perspective, as it doesn't do enough as a 1 of but isn't consistently valuable enough to warrant 2 or 3 slots.

Alternatives

Ultimately, the best tech cards are slot effienct, either simultaneously solving a multitude of common problems in one card, like how Pinhole Threading deals with Anoetic Void, or Manegarm Skunkworks or The Holo Man or Clearinghouse or Rashida Jaheem and so and so forth. Or provide incredible value throughout a game, i.e. when playing against Tollbooth, Hunting Grounds functionally drips 3 credits per turn without capping the returns at 8 credits. Or provide an alternative benefit outside of tech, i.e. having "fallback" value.

Most Shapers today will prefer to play a card like Stoneship Chart Room, which elegantly deals with all types of damage threats. So too Anarchs prefer to play Steelskin Scarring and Criminals The Class Act since these cards all provide both damage tech and alternatively thin your deck, making it more efficient, not less, in the matchups where you don't need damage protection.

Redesign

If I had to redesign Airblades without fundamentally changing it, my first order of business would be to let it recharge itself, such as gaining a power counter the first time each turn a successful run is made, by letting it self-replenish, you can feel comfortable including just one of these, knowing it can last you the whole game, without wishing you had a second copy, the instant the first runs out. To compensate, you might want to increase the install cost to 2 or 3 credits, and/or have it start with only 1 power counter instead of 3.

If this wasn't enough, you could start expanding its applications, perhaps a third option where you can spend a power counter to jack out or remove a tag, like a rechargeable Flip Switch. Or simply expand the damage protection to include Meat or Core damage and remove the only during run condition. Or you could reword the second ability to include other nasty ice abilities, like preventing "when rezzed" effects on Unsmiling Tsarevna, Ablative Barrier or Stavka/Hafrún or when encounter ends effects like Anansi or Phoneutria.

I'd be much more comfortable including a tech card like this version of Airblades that recharges itself and provides a multitude of uses against a wide variety of matchups, than the current version which is both highly specialised and painfully finite.

At the time of writing, NSG has been quite clear that they don't do errata for accessibility reasons, which I completely understand, so don't hold your breath for a new version of Airblades coming anytime soon. Rather, let Airblades serve as a lesson for future designers, on the pitfalls of tech cards, and how to ensure playability.

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.