Lateral Growth is not just a super-Career Fair for :ETF and :BaBW. Lateral is actually the final piece in the puzzle that makes Jeeves Fast Advance playable out of .

The combo works like this: Rezzed Jeeves on the table, 1st corp plays either a click-gaining operation like Biotic Labor or Subliminal Messaging or an agenda installing operation like Casting Call or Shipment from MirrorMorph, next are spent on Shipment from SanSan. spent on Operations triggers Jeeves to gain a which is spent to put the final advancement on the agenda. This will allow the corp to score a 3/2 from hand, unless Biotic Labor was played, in which case the corp could potentially score a 4/2 from hand. Throw in CVS to counter Clot and the agenda is as good as scored.

Up til now NEH has been the most logical ID to play Jeeves fast advance, since both Casting Call and Shipment from SanSan are influence free, having the best 3/2 Agenda (Astro of course) and asset spam mixed with SanSan City Grids giving Jeeves a good chance to survive (except against Whizzard).

Lateral Growth's strength is that it is a positive tempo card, for the cost of a you get an install and gain 2/3. This compares quite favourably to the other 1st options which either cost s like Biotic or Mirrormorph, influence like Casting Call or are potentially awkward like Subliminal Messaging (if you use it, it might not be available for the combo). Lateral Growth may even be worth including in a deck that doesn't run Jeeves FA - the numbers are certainly comparable to Hedge Fund out of ETF/BaBW.

There is also another use for Lateral Growth. If paired with draw effects like Jackson Howard or Blue Level Clearance - you can productively use two cards from hand with a single , potentially saving you from discarding useful cards.

Rutherford Grid is a very useful card for Tracer ICE/Trace based decks. The IDs that are best suited for this would be Making News, SYNC and NAS.

Rutherford does nothing by itself except take up deckspace, so to capitalise on it the Corp needs to threaten either punishing or profitable traces during runs on the installed server. The most useful ways to force traces are with Ash 2X3ZB9CY or Bernice Mai - Ash even has the benefit of protecting Rutherford Grid. There are also a few pieces of ICE that can force a trace 'on encounter': Information Overload and Troll. TMI forces a trace on rez and Rutherford can make it almost playable [in :Making News]. With Aryabhata Tech the corp gains 1 and runner loses 1 for every successful trace. Broadcast Square can also trigger off the rezzing of Illicit sub-type ICE giving the corp bad pub. Finally Manhunt can also function as a egregiously uneconomical version of Bernice.

The other big benefit benefit of Rutherford is that ICE with weak trace s are greatly boosted. This helps a lot with ICE like Caduceus, Dracō, Muckraker or Shinobi. All of the Zodiac ICE (Gemini, Sagittarius, Taurus and Virgo) will also benefit having a default trace strength of 4 instead of 2. In a lot of cases this means the runner will be forced to use their breakers to get through ICE, instead of just beating the traces. Cards with already decent or strong traces like Archangel, Assassin, Resistor, Viper or Waiver become even more painful to encounter. Where the runner has the right breakers it will just increase the taxing ability of the server - never a bad result, especially if you have Ash inside.

Sunny decks (especially with Rabbit Hole) and other linked runners (maybe using multiple Sports Hoppers can be a problem too. At least Rutherford works on Nexus traces so it may help the corp to contest a game-critical run.

One theme that you might have noticed reading this review is that to get 'good value' out of Rutherford Grid it needs to be installed on a server that the runner will want to run and that the server (and the corp deck) needs to contain a lot of trace cards and trace support cards. Whether these restrictions are a net plus or minus depend on the deckbuilding and piloting skills of the corp player. Rutherford Grid presents both a challenge and an opportunity for players interested in playing trace-based corp decks.

One last thing: Rutherford Grid is a Region so it can't be used to protect a SanSan scoring server.

Moving through the Mumbad Cycle lots of new and interesting uses for Casting Call are now possible and have not yet been explored in the deck design space.

Jeeves Model Bioroids + Shipment from SanSan:

Casting Call easily solves the 1st click problem since it is an operation. Another small benefit is that if the runner wants to Clone Chip a Clot or use Artist Colony to install The Source then they will take two tags to steal whichever agenda the corp installed.

Mumbad Construction Co. / Dedication Ceremony:

finally has a fast-advance option. However the downside is that it doesn't work on older face-down Agendas like Project Atlas, High-Risk Investment or Government Takeover. Using casting call to install any Agenda face-up makes Mumbad Construction far more flexible.

Film Critic/Imp/Singularity tech-check:

Does the runner have Film Critic or Imp in their deck? If not just naked install a Quantum Predictive Model. Since the corp chooses the order in which corp simultaneous effects resolve, the two tags on access can resolve first causing QPM to be added to the corp's score! Under normal circumstances there is no rush to score QPM either, it can be left on the table until the Apocalypse comes.

Advantages:

• 0 to play, Shipment from SanSan is also 0 too, with Jeeves you can FA a 3/2 Agenda for only 1.
• With the exception of Imp and Kim, Operations tend to help defend against repeated multi-access against HQ & R&D

Disadvantages:

• Film Critic is becoming increasingly common due to the prevalence of The Future Perfect in Bio-Lock decks
• Casting Call is a combo card, so it can't be used unless the right Agenda is also in HQ and the appropriate assets (Jeeves or Mumbad Construction) are rezzed
• Deck space issues may be a serious concern because it is a combo card and requires other 'combo' cards to function
• Face up agendas make it easier for the runner to decide when to install Clot or The Source

Viper might be the new Eli 1.0 post-MWL. One influence, str 4, 2 trace-3 subs. AI breakers are such a problem now that basically all ICE is porous so the 'disadvantage' of Viper is quite minimal.

At 3 to rez and armed with s that end the run as well as punish the runner for facechecking (losing a ) Viper is extremely similar to Enigma. The only difference is that it trades strength for porousness and vulnerability to runner . Given that Faust and Parasite are such big threats this is a good trade in the mid-2016 meta.

The most useful function of Viper is as a one-inf card that can help get the corp deck closer to 6 cards in order to activate the Jeeves alliance. Viper also slots well into every other faction too: needs code gates, needs ETR ICE with decent strength and low rez cost and also benefits for the same reasons as Jinteki, with the added bonus of having trace boosting cards in-faction.

Key stats:

• 3+ to break at 0, 2+ at 1, 2 at 2 and free at 3 - however the corp can always pump the ETR trace if they have the s
• 3 cards (or 2 + ) for Faust to break
• 4 for Eater or Gordian Blade to break
• 5 for ZU.13 Key Master to break
• 2 for Cyber-Cypher or Torch to break
• 1 Datasucker counter for Yog.0 to break

P.S. Even though it is porous, it still has a degree of built-in Account Siphon defense, since the corp can pump an unbroken trace to dump s.

My first impression upon encountering Executive Search Firm was to think:

"Why would I ever use this instead of Executive Boot Camp which is far more flexible? After all I can't use it to search for Bioroids, Clones or Regions and EBC can already tutor any asset!"

Now considering EBC can save your bacon from DDoS and Blackmail it seems almost silly to include the far less flexible ESF.

ESF does have one advantage however, it can be used repeatedly at the cost of revealing the card to the runner. How do you make that work then?

That's where every runner's least favourite card comes into the picture. Yes, the bloody museum of bloody history.

What do you want to recur with it then? Batty & Keegan

• Batty + nasty ICE can be fired over and over again every turn
• Keegan Lane + Data Raven can lock any runner (except Jesminder) out of a server, with the only answers being bypass tricks, tag prevention or Hunting Grounds
• Ryon Knight isn't recommended because it would take either a desperate runner or a very determined corp to land the brain damage more than once

You can also pull utility cards like Jackson Howard, Elizabeth Mills, Mark Yale or Zealous Judge as well but that's really just a secondary side usage for this card in my opinion.