Prāna Condenser

♦ Prāna Condenser 1[credit]

Asset
Trash: 4
Influence: 3

[interrupt] → Whenever you would do 1 or more net damage, you may prevent 1 net damage. If you do, place 1 power counter on this asset and gain 3[credit].

[click][click], [trash]: Do 1 net damage for each hosted power counter.

Constructive feedback to the neural field reliably causes greater degradation than spike inputs. The mind has no defense against its own echoes.
Illustrated by NtscapeNavigator
Decklists with this card

Uprising (ur)

#107 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Uprising
Rulings
  • Updated 2020-04-10

    NISEI Uprising Release Notes [NISEI Rules Team]

    What happens if both players want to prevent the same instance of net damage?

    The active player has the first opportunity to trigger interrupts and prevent the damage. Once the expected amount of damage is 0 or less, any further interrupt abilities preventing damage are not relevant and can no longer be triggered.

    If the Corp plays Neural EMP and prevents the damage with Prāna Condenser, then they use Prāna Condenser's other ability to do net damage, can the Runner use No One Home?

    No. Since the Corp is playing Neural EMP on their own turn, they can prevent its damage before the Runner has a chance to trigger No One Home, stopping it from being relevant at that time. Then, the damage from Prāna Condenser is the second time the Corp "would do net damage" that turn, so No One Home's trigger condition is not met.

Reviews

This card is scary, and for good reason. Notice whose branding is at the bottom left corner? Yeah, this belongs in Jinteki for a major reason: Jinteki specializes in dealing massive amounts of net damage to underprepared/unsuspecting Runners. If you're running a Jinteki deck of any sort that focuses on net damage punishment, this is probably a good card to pack. Essentially, you're saving a net damage for later use. That huge line of blue applies here: if the Runner is unfortunate to hit your guard dog or its baby without a killer or credits, you can stack each net damage subroutine onto Prāna Condenser and, if I'm reading this right, gain 3 for each net damage. In other words, hitting a Komainu with a full grip will net the Corp 15.

As for the Runner side, this should be a high-priority target for you. Yes, it's expensive to trash, but 4 instead of a lethal amount of net damage is something you shouldn't spend too much time weighing in on. Unless you have a reliable way to prevent net damage (sorry, the only ones that come to mind for me are Feedback Filter and Guru Davinder), this thing needs to go ASAP. Freedom shouldn't have too much trouble, as well as Imp with a few spare virus counters, but odds are if this thing's hitting the table, you're going to have a very bad time until you get rid of it.

Finally, the flavor text really hits home. If your mind is its own echo chamber, the psychic agony can become unbearable...

(Uprising era)

Prāna Condenser may only prevent 1 net damage per source.

It does only let you prevent 1 net damage per source, however cards like Komainu and Pup have multiple sources of net damage. Each sub-routine becomes it's own individual source of net damage, so you could prevent all 5 of them to gain five counters and 15 credits, or you could prevent any number of them.