Dorm Computer

Dorm Computer

Dorm Computer has a few uses :

  • You can use it with Masanori to face-check stress-free,
  • You can walk through some taxing NBN ice (Gutenberg, Data Raven), which does help against some versions of Butchershop (and even Astrobiotics mimicking Butchershop),
  • You can sell it to Aesop for a profit,
  • You can Trade it in for something more useful,
  • It can save your Net-Ready Eyes from being Shutdown,
  • It is useful against Enhanced Login Protocol,
  • You can avoid Snare! / TGTBT / Bernice Mai tags during a run,
  • You can make the corp underestimate you by installing it confidently turn 1.

You may want to play a single copy if your meta plays RP with ELP and Buchershops.

By the way, I'm not sure if you can avoid taking a tag with this when stealing an agenda to Argus. Can somebody confirm that?

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As Dedicated Response Team works on TGTBT and Snare!, this would work against Argus, since you steal the Agenda during the run —
Is that still considered part of the run, though? You first successfully complete the run, then you access cards, and then you steal them. I think the run is over before that point.uccessfully completed the run in —
... ignore everything after "that point". Very strange series of repeated text. Sorry! —
The run is considered successful at 4.2 and cards are accessed/stolen at 4.3, but the run doesn't officially end until all cards are accessed/stolen, which is at 6. I would say that this prevents the Argus tag. —
I think it won't. Because you chose to take the tag or the meat damages. Preventing the tag would behave like preventing tags you get thorugh Snatch & Grab. On a sided note, I'm pretty sure the run is still on when you steal agendas, that's why you can use bad publicity to trash assets for example. —
You avoid a tag, don't prevent it, so it works. In the same way tha Forger or Qiaju works for Joshua B's tag and so. But you can't prevent meat damage with Plascrete since you are not DEALT dammage, but the wording is not the same for damage and tags/bad pubs :) —

I think it would work because it´s "either suffer 2 meat damage or take 1 tag", therefore the tag isn´t a cost so it can be avoided

—
MemStrips

MemStrips

MemStrips - you simply must read the flavor text. Do it now!

...

Apart from the awesome flavor text, the card is solid: it's the most memory you can have in a single card (the other 3MU providers being Deep Red and -sic- Monolith). There's only one small catch: you have to use this memory for viruses.

The obvious uses of this card are thus the following:

  • Use it in a deck containing Sage, Folding@Home and/or Overmind
  • Use it in an anarch deck where you play a classic rig with viruses on the side (3 breakers + D4v1d + Medium + Datasucker + a floating MU for Parasite = 7 spent MU)
  • Use it on deck with BlacKat, for the flavour only. Do not expect to win, but I'm sure your opponent will not complain if you start purring / meowing during the game.

I have nyaa~thing else to say about this card, except that I can't wait to play a runner id called "Princess Space Kitten".

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Personally, I'm still waiting to play as g00ru. —
I wanna play PSK too ;_; —
Argus Security: Protection Guaranteed

Argus Security: Protection Guaranteed

A good way to see this id is the following: Argus forces runners to do many things the turn they steal an agenda. They either need to draw back to safety or clear a tag, both actions demanding they spend clicks. As Argus, you have to be able to punish this. A Supermodernism variant including False Lead seems like a good way to go.

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Isabel McGuire

Isabel McGuire

As of right now (Nov. 2014), here are the things you can do with Isabel McGuire:

  • You can have her take the blame for your corp's last mistake with Restoring Face
  • You can have her return parasited/caissa-ed ICE to your hand. Same thing with positionning ICE (Inazuma, Chum) when they somehow get at the root of a server (I'm really trying there).
  • If Bad Publicity really is your thing, she works okay in tandem with Lizzie (Elizabeth Mills).
  • You can deliberately make your deck slightly weaker to balance a game agaisnt a new player.

The good things about her:

  • She plays virtual golf! How classy is that?
  • She only costs 1 influence point, so you can put her in pretty much any deck (that might actually be key in the future - it is a Living card game after all).
  • She has a very good trash-to-rez ratio.
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You missed a couple: —
* You can restart your Adonis or Eve Campaign —
And you can pull back your failed Aggressive Secretary or Cerebral Overwriter, then install and advance the same card or an agenda. —
Ghost Branch

Ghost Branch

Ghost Branch may be one of the least used Ambush in the game. Let's see if we can change that.

Ghost Branch has several advantages over other Advanceable traps, which makes it unique:

  • It is free to trigger
  • It costs a single point of influence

Yet even those qualities are not enough to justify its drawback. The reason why Ghost Branch is not that used is simple. Where Project Junebug threatens to kill the runner and Aggressive Secretary is extremely likely to open a scoring window, Ghost Branch is more subtle in its use and need some form of tag punishment to be effective.

Tag punishment comes in several forms:

Other tag punishment may later be released and should be found here: netrunnerdb.com

You may want to play Ghost Branch in a tag heavy deck or in a kill deck as a one-of, to surprise the runner ("You're playing this? What does it do again?").

Still, there are better ways to use Ghost Branch, that can result in a win-win situation for the corp. This requires the combination of Ghost Branch with two other cards: Trick of Light and Mushin No Shin. With both cards, Ghost Branch is a token repository for Fast Advancement if the runner does not run it, and can be triggered with a low economy if the runner is daring. The fact that Mushin No Shin does not cost any creds means that you can Fast-Ad an agenda for 2 creds (1 for trick of light and 1 for a classic advancement). This should be compared with the 6 creds it takes to rez a SanSan City Grid and the 4 creds it takes to use Biotic Labor (respectively 8 creds and 7 creds to score a 3-for-2 agenda).

This means that you can easily recover from Account Siphon, or that you can simply play with very few credits in your pool, and still threaten to score.

This strategy work particularly well with two specific corp identities:

  • With Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center, opening a server with Mushin No Shin makes you draw a card. Besides, importing 3 Tricks and 3 Mushin No Shin costs 15 influence points, leaving you 2 precious points to strenghten you ICE mix. Also, fast-advancing an AstroScript Pilot Program is usually synonymous with victory.
  • With Jinteki: Replicating Perfection, you can ensure that the runner will remain tagged during a full turn if he accesses a Ghost Branch with 3 counters. It does take two click to access an RP remote, after all. A package of 3xGhost Branch and 2xClosed Accounts cost a mere 5 influence points, which leaves a lot of breathing room for the rest of the deck.

A word of warning

Using Tricks of Light with Ghost Branch (and Ambushes in general) is an all-in strategy, simply because it takes a lot of deck space to have all the pieces you need. Fortunately, you do not need all the pieces at once: you can Mushin No Shin your Ambush anytime, and then wait for an agenda or a Trick of light.

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