Indian Union Stock Exchange might just be the new Turtlebacks for horizontal decks, especially decks like Gagarin.

The key to using IUSE to make a whole lot of bank is knowing that Neutral cards count as out of faction.

This means that all of the most annoying Mumbad Cycle alliance assets are on the table: Museum of History, Mumba Temple and Mumbad Virtual Tour too when it comes out. All of these cards as well as Jeeves Model Bioroids, PAD Factory and Product Recall etc. can all be tutored by Mumbad City Hall.

Obviously if you are including PAD Factory you will want 3x PAD Campaign in your deck and these have just gotten better since you get paid when they get rezzed.

Mumba Temple makes all of this even better with 2 for rezzing cards.

There are lots of other useful zero/low-influence assets/upgrades as well that are found in most decks. Jackson Howard is a ubiquituous prescence in corp decks and the combination of Team Sponsorship and Turtlebacks is quite low influence too. Cyberdex Virus Suite is another common neutral card seen in many corp decks. Even high influence cards like Caprice Nisei, Marcus Batty or Ash 2X3ZB9CY can gain you 1 when they are rezzed as well.

However IUSE doesn't just apply to Assets and Upgrades, it also applies to ICE and operations.

Lets look at operations first because I want to save the best [jank combo] for last.

I think it's quite a rare corp deck that omits Hedge Fund although it's bigger brother Restructure is rarer. Now any ID can play like : BaBW getting an extra 1 with operations like these. It doesn't have to be a transaction either. Subliminal Messaging now starts earning 2-4s for zero s. I've even experimented with a BaBW rush deck that uses 3x Green Level Clearance, 3x Blue Level Clearance and 3x Jeeves Model Bioroids to really take the money to the next level.

Other great neutral or low influence operations might include: Diversified Portfolio, Fast Track, Interns, Closed Accounts, The All-Seeing I or Shipment from SanSan. With the emergence of Jeeves, Cyberdex Trial has also become more competitive with CVS.

Now ICE is one of the most exciting parts. IUSE makes gives you 1 (per copy) when you rez Neutral or other faction ICE. The traditional problem with neutral ICE is that it is often less cost efficient than in-faction options. IUSE negates that problem.

Assassin is already quite common in decks as a way to discourage face-checks and drain D4v1d. Cobra should be considered as a 'mini Assassin'. Wall of Static and Paper Wall are good gear check barriers, Enigma and Quandary play the same role for code gates.

Using the grail suite (Galahad, Lancelot, Merlin & Excalibur) is an option but it will suck up a lot of influence.

Mother Goddess is a surprisingly handy piece of ice, working well with the NEXT Suite and also great early on at stopping Account Siphon or defending a rush scoring remote.

However there is a beautiful jank combo that can be achieved using Chimera. Use Executive Boot Camp and Mumba Temple to rez Chimera for free at the start of your turn, gaining 1 for each installed IUSE. If you put it over a Surat City Grid you can also rez your other ICE, Assets & Upgrades at a discount as well. If you don't use include Surat City Grid, this combo may not even require any changes to the deck. Mumba Temple is an auto-include in Asset decks and EBC is useful both as a tutor and as a Blackmail/DDoS defence. Mother Goddess also works well with Chimera against a non-AI breaker suite.

Other low influence splashable ICE include Pop-up Window, Wraparound, Swordsman or Rototurret. At two influence (post-MWL) Eli 1.0, Ichi 1.0 and Cortex Lock are useful splashes as well.

Ultimately IUSE may prove better than Turtlebacks because it doesn't limit the player to Asset spam since it also works on ICE and Operations. Sadly IUSE does not interact with Agendas (so the dream of getting paid to score a Food must wait for another day).

Summary

  1. Spam Neutral Assets
  2. Hedge Fund and Restructure become better, Subliminal Messaging becomes insanely good
  3. Neutral ICE is good
  4. Mumba Temple + EBC + Chimera for additional drip econ. Add Surat City Grid to jank it up.
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Good combos I had not thought of. How about this for jank, though... TMI! They either let you win the trace, or it derezzes after you make the credit, and you rez it again. —
Thanks! Please like my review :-) In your suggestion of TMI the economics with 1 IUSE rezzed is that the net cost to the corp is $2 and the net cost to the runner is $2 every time it is rezzed. So in this scenario it is cost effective only if the corp can make money faster and more sustainably than the runner. Additional copies of IUSE or any runner link will change the equation of course, but I'm still not sure TMI is favourable at that rate. —
So far my favorite thing has been getting paid for using Jackson Howard. I also enjoy turning Mumba Temple credits into real credits. —
It also means getting paid twice if the runner uses Councilman. Life is good. —
This Card in any Custom Biotics decks :) —

Wouldn't it be nice if Plascrete Carapace also worked against Net damage and gave you +1 while it was installed?

Although the Sports Hopper only gives you 3 cards it is far more flexible than Plascrete and can even double as a emergency Diesel or as a reload for Faust. Plascrete is essentially a dead card if you are not facing Meat Damage. Sports Hopper will almost never be a dead card.

In decks it can pair nicely with I've Had Worse to help survive double scorch.

The only thing it can't do in terms of flatline prevention compared to Plascrete is stop a Shutdown Combo. You could trigger the ability immediately after the Shutdown but if you are facing a triple Scorch there's not much that could save you that is currently released and reasonable to play in ordinary decks.

The other downside is that you will lose the cards in your hand to the first Scorch. Better have some recursion handy.

Also see:

493
You could have TWO hoppers installed, gor the triple-scorch... —
Two Hoppers and a 5 card hand puts you to 11, still dead v. triple Scorch. —

At first glance Brahman seems to have a steep disadvantage (tempo loss) but looks can be deceiving.

The ideal deck would be a Brahman and a Scholar.

Lets look at the so-called 'disadvantages' and turn that frown upside down:

2 for +1 str

Net-Ready Eyes gets you to str 4. Datasucker can get you the rest of the way if you need it, but you probably won't need Brahman for str 5+ ICE because of the next point.

A program is uninstalled and sent to the top of the stack

D4v1d, Lady, Rex, Cuj.0 and Overmind love having infinite counters. Drool over infinite D4v1d.

Cyber-Cypher can target any server you want (Turing maybe?) and for Tollbooth or other annoying ICE you can target and maybe even re-target Femme using Eureka!.

Paricia's 2 are renewed every time it is installed.

Chameleon and LLDS Processor comes to mind but Chameleon seems a bit pointless when you have inifinite D4v1d and Brahman's incredible efficiency at breaking subroutines.

You need to draw that program again, costing a

Ideally with Oracle May to get paid for doing what you want. John Masanori gets that program back in your grip almost immediately. Patron is cheap renewable card draw.

Earthrise, Drug Dealer, ProCon, Astrolabe and Wyldcakes are other handy draw options, all of them clickless except for ProCon.

You need to install that program again, costing a

Hayley can get a free install during both the runner and corp turns. Personal Workshop, Savoir-faire and SMC let you trigger that install. Using Multithreader you can even trigger Savoir-faire and SMC for free.

You need to install that program again, costing s

Scheherazade means you get paid for re-installing programs. Sahasrara gives you a 2 discount.

Modded installs D4v1d and the dog breakers for free.

A lot of the cards I have mentioned like Paricia, Savoir-faire and SMC are 0 to install. Inti (for Wraparound) and Pawn (0) are possibilities as well.

Technical Writer will make unbelievable amounts of s.

If you don't want to use Scheherazade then London Library will reinstall programs for free temporarily. Make sure you bounce them with Brahman before your turn ends! Credit to Lynx Kuroneko for publishing this idea.

This potentially needs a lot of

...and you can't use Leprechaun, NetChip or Omni-Drive if you want to use Scheherazade. This is probably the biggest disadvantage of this kind of set-up and there's no real silver bullet.

You can play around it by leaning more on your other breakers and Brahman gives you complete control over how much you are currently using.

You can stock up with Akamatsu and CyberSolutions.

Brain Chip and Maya help with too.

Other console options include Monolith - which sort of synergises since you will certainly have programs in your grip to install and Ekomind, but both of those take a long time to set up.

Anything else?

Sacrificial Construct prevents Marcus Batty or Keegan Lane from trashing your entire Rig when it's hosted on Scheherazade.

Cuj.0 or Femme take care of Swordsman.

Paricia doesn't do upgrades. SanSan City Grid is 5. Use Econ.

Test Run works with Brahman (it's going to top of stack anyway right?) it works with Oracle May, it works with Eureka! and with all breakers mentioned earlier too.

493
*foams at mouth, then builds deck* —
so nice review —
and Harbinger(in Apex) is too —
Brahman is exactly the kind of AI breaker green has always wanted - one that inspires all kinds of Shaper bullsh*t. :-) —
I want to see this in @HopelessHeretic's Professor deck (although 2MU might prevent that from working). —
Overmind + Brahman would maybe work in a Adam / Safety First / Brain Chip deck ? —
Worth mentioning Imp, too, even if it is 3 inf. It's like the Paricia interaction on steroids. I was gonna get all hype about Cache until I realized that it wasn't actually more efficient than clicking for creds probably (although Hayley might be able to make it work) —
@LordRandomness: "...add 1 installed non-virus program to the top of your stack." —
._. —
To those doing the math at home: Lady is MWL, Cuj.o and Rex are 3 each for shaper, D4v1d is 4 plus 1 for MWL, Oracle May is another 1. Be aware that MOST of your influence is spent setting up this combo. —
Also...I know I'm super far behind...but "Atman is Brahman." Not an especially efficient combo, bouncing Atmans...but thematically interesting. Especially if your runner doesn't believe in their own existence. —
What happens if there's no program to bounce? Can I still use Brahman to break? —
Yes. There is always at least one program to bounce (Brahman itself). —
Makes sense. ;-) Thx! —

FFG worked overtime to make Security Subcontract as unplayable as possible. We've all heard that spending for a is one of the least efficient actions in the game and Security Subcontract is potentially even less efficient than that.

Lets explore the economics in detail:

NOTE: I assume that 1 card is worth a to draw, even though the corp might have received it from the mandatory draw. This is because tempo matters and both players need 'win' cards that get them closer to winning the game, whether it is Agendas, flatline combo cards, Icebreakers or run events. Playing a Hedge Fund spending a card and for 4 only gives an efficiency of 2/ because the corp still needs to draw a card directly helps to 'win' the game.

It costs to draw and a second to install Security Subcontract. It also costs to draw and install each piece of ICE, not counting s spent on installation and rez costs. It then costs another to trash the ICE. So assuming 0 were spent installing and rezzing the ICE, then it costs to gain 4, an efficiency of 1.33 not counting the cost to draw and install Security Subcontract. If you count those costs then it actually cost to gain 4 for an efficiency of 0.8, which is clearly worse than just clicking for credits in the first place. After trashing 2 pieces of ICE the corp will break even, having spent 8 s for 8 s. After trashing 3 pieces of ICE the corp has spent 11 s for 12 s, finally turning a 'profit'. To put things into perspective, those 11 s represent almost 3 entire corp turns. In the meanwhile the runner has probably installed some breakers, a Medium or R&D Interface and scored at least one Agenda from runs.

Now in order to get a free ICE install the corp will either install on servers with no ICE (so probably not containing anything valuable) or have a scored Eden Fragment which is a unique 5/3 Agenda. In order to rez this ICE you will probably want to use the in faction Executive Boot Camp (a good card) which even gives you a 1 discount. Lastly you will need to fill your deck with cheap ice like Pop-up Window, Ice Wall, Quandary and Hunter and then add more 'normal' ice so you can actually protect your servers.

The worst thing about security subcontract is the question of timing. It most likely comes into play when you are either really broke or need to have more s than the runner. In both cases it eats up valuable s on the turn when you probably need to spend your actions on installing things or SEA-Scorching your opponent. If it was similar to Aesop's Pawnshop and didn't cost a per use it would be barely usable, as it currently stands using Security Subcontract is worse than clicking for credits. The only 'beneficial' use for this card is tricking inexperienced Whizzard players into wasting a to trash it.

493
I think the best use for this one is to value cheap gear-check ICE once they become useless, like an Enigma when Yog.0 hit the table. Not that makes it a good card, though. —
This ignores that the clicks andd credits spent on installing and rezzing ICE are not ONLY going towards earning from the subcontract. While the ICE is installed and rezzed, it should ideally be doing things for you to earn the two clicks you spent on it. Subcontract is only even potentially useful in decks where a lot of your ICE will be obsoleted over the course of the game. —
could be janky fun/ a defense against ice trashing if it didn't require a click to tirgger :s —
In fact here's my redesign- o rez cost, 2 trash cost, trash symbol- trash a rezzed piece of ice gain 4 credits. Now I still dont think thats quite playable compared with other options, but its closer... —
@Lord Randomness - I don't think it ignores the value of cheap ICE. The problem is that the corp makes more profit just installing over the top of the cheap ICE (trashing it) and then playing Beanstalk Royalties, unless they trash 3+ pieces of ICE! —
Well, for starters some decks actually want to do that and for those ones subcontract is a potentially useful one-of. The other thing is the possibility of NOT replacing ICE after selling it, which has two main applications: emergency funding (you're at 6 points, you trash all your centrals ICE to beef up your scoring remote, or you're getting Medium'd and you dismantle part of your HQ defense to safeguard R&D), or as part of a strategy that involves having a giant pile of credits suddenly. In that sense it functions as more of a panic button than a strategic include (you don't WANT to use it, but sometimes you're better off losing two ICE than the entire game). Although the fact that you have to set it up ahead of time kind of makes this impractical...bleh. I think I'm not really taking into account the two clicks it takes to set up an asset. This could really have benefited from the Advanced Assembly Lines clause that grants credits on rez, would have been flavorful too. —

Nasir: Cyber Player looking at the card art he gets paid and he gets laid. If this card worked as smoothly as he does we would all be playing it.

Unfortunately the tricky set up conditions (DDoS? EMP Device? Inside Job?) and potentially negative net profit (if you target a Pop-up Window, Ice Wall or Yagura) coupled with the fact that it doesn't do much to help you get into servers means that only Nasir gets to live the dream.

493
I always thought the art depicted Chaos Theory ripping off some drunk fool —
"I'm a s..s..Sysop baby, no one gets into *hurp* my s..serverrrr...manchest324 is an unguessable password cuzza...cuzza th'4's instead a th'A's!" —