Pālanā Agroplex

Pālanā Agroplex 1[credit]

Asset: Facility
Trash: 5
Influence: 2

When your turn begins, each player draws 1 card. 

Expensive to build but dramatically more efficient than traditional farming, agroplexes are emblems of the inevitable corporatization of the food industry. 
Illustrated by Emilio Rodríguez
Decklists with this card

Business First (bf)

#31 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Rulings

No rulings yet for this card.

Reviews

A support card for the new Pālanā Foods, this asset allows the ID to double dip & receive drip credits on their own turn as well as the runner's (assuming the runner draws, which is guaranteed with Wyldside, for instance). Currently, Drug Dealer, Astrolabe, & some rarer interactions (e.g. I've Had Worse triggered by pro-active net damage) are the only ways to get that credit.

While this card looks simply like a bland support piece to make Pālanā even richer, it's extremely interesting as sources of corp card draw are few & far between (Jackson Howard most notably, Anonymous Tip mostly forgotten). With one Agroplex running, the Corp is essentially a runner with Wyldside installed (draw 2, 3 left) & no Adjusted Chronotype. I await with bated breath the corp version of Noise that makes this a viable proposition all on its own. Given that the Agroplex is continuously active & more likely to stay in the game than JHow, it's actually the only source of stable increased card draw other than the Near-Earth Hub ability.

There will be times when Agroplex will be counter-productive, because giving the runner a free draw is a tremendous downside. It's likely wrong to simply install it as soon as you see it. Rather, Palana might shine in the late game when the runner is already set up & additional cards do little to improve their board state. Besides the runner's draw, there are certainly times when the corp doesn't want to draw, either because they're already agenda flooded or because their whole turn is locked up advancing an agenda to score. Unlike Wyldside however, the corp can simply turn off Agroplex by installing over it.

Other potential uses outside P Foods:

  • Industrial Genomics likes to overdraw so it can discard, Agroplex is an in-faction way of supporting that
  • Jinteki Biotech also might not mind overdrawing since The Tank ability can simply flip archives back into RnD
  • In general, asset spam decks that Always Be Installin' need to draw a lot to find new assets to install, that's mostly only been possible in NEH due to the ability but Agroplex is decently splashable card draw
  • Corp combo decks aren't very prevalent at the moment, other than Cerebral Imaging where the influence is too tight, but this card will deserve a look from them

Pālanā Agroplex is a balanced, interesting card with an effect we haven't quite seen before, the corp forcing the runner to draw a la Fisk Investment Seminar. There are probably going to be very inventive uses but finding a way to gain value from it despite the downsides will be tricky. In P Foods, it's probably an auto-include, though maybe only a 2-of as running multiple at once introduces too much corp draw.

(Business First era)
2278
One interesting interaction is with Kala Ghoda Real TV. since it is a paid ability and both effects trigger at the beginning of the Corps turn, you can trash key pieces before the runner has a chance to draw them. —
I think a lot of Jinteki players have had games where it's hard to win until the runner's stack runs out (this happens to me sometimes in PE). I think Agroplex can help speed up that situation, especially with Kala TV. Also, Chronos Protocol gets an extra card to snipe with EMPs, and brain damage decks can force runner overdraw (Cybernetics Div comes to mind). Could help with a Harmony Medtech rush deck too. —
I guess KG TV is an interaction. The runner would've eventually drawn the top card anyways, regardless of Agroplex. —
Tough part of Cybernetics Division is the corp's hand size is smaller too & corp discards are generally more troublesome than runner. Then again, Cybernetics Court can counteract the downside, definitely something there. —
Does this card stack? ie. Will two Palana Agroplexs cause both players to draw an additional two cards? —
Yes. —