Kit loves to study, especially with Omni-drive and Lockpick acting as key supporting sources. All it takes is a good draw, or a trip to Tyson Observatory to find the citations you need. See, you can't just walk into the final exam with one power counter and hope you're going to be able to boost up to face whatever nightmare the Corp has for you. You think you can afford that with your Student Loans? With recurring credits you're essentially able to boost for free, every turn, at any time! You'd be surprised at how quickly the counters stack up. With a Paintbrush on the table (using the MU you freed up using Omni-Drive!) or Tinkering in your hand, you can easily batter through multiple layers of ICE with minimal expenditure, since an investment in Study Guide is an investment that stays there the *entire game. Of course, such a valuable investment quickly becomes a massive target, so a Sacrificial Construct can also be useful.

Honorary mention also goes to The Toolbox, which is an excellent choice of console if you want to get more out of the Hitchhiker's Guide. The issue is usually that when you have enough money to get it set up, you already have the economy you need to fund public education. However, it won't ever rotate out, unlike Lockpick (bless its tiny decoding soul).

Egret is another possible supporter for Study Guide, acting as a permanent Tinkering on a single piece of ICE. I haven't fully tested it but it seems promising if less flexible (and Scavenge can help with that, of course). Just watch out for Magnet**.

I'm not sure if I could recommend running Study Guide by itself - it's definitely a breaker that requires support. But if you give it that support and play well, it can absolutely pay off. No server is safe! No ICE is unbreakable***!

tl;dr - Study Guide is really amazing and with a little Tinkering can even be your only breaker, but Lockpick is rotating out soon and we'll have to reevaluate after that

*when playing Netrunner

**but don't actually watch out for Magnet with regards to Study Guide, it's a code gate. Study Guide eats Magnet for breakfast.

***not a guarantee

Why doesn't Georgia go visit Hokusai sometime? Get damned if you do, damned if you don't. Unleash her Potential. This isn't business. It's war.

On a completely thematic note, you could probably restore face with her in a pinch, but how you're going to square that with special report, I have no idea.

(Zombie Emelyov. The answer is zombie Emelyov.)

An Encounter with the Teal Deer

Once upon a time, there was a happy little Runner, skipping through the deep dark forest of Jank. The sun grew low in the sky, and the shadows grew long, and the Runner thought it was about time to go home. But where was home? The black trees about them grew darker with every passing moment, and the labyrinthine woods stood threateningly..

Just then, a glittering light came flashing through the trees! A piece of ICE - the first in an four-tall glacier. Still, the Runner was not afraid. Their hand was full up, and Jinteki ICE was porous. They were not rich, but their Mimic gave them hope, and their Stimhack gave them - cash and hope that they might avoid that net damage. False hope, as it were.

The first ICE was a glittering yellow code gate, a duplicator of subs - an iridescent teal deer, drinking from a babbling brook that then split in two. Now, our dear Runner didn't have a Decoder on hand, but they decided to press on anyway. They were up at 5 points and they were sure that the twice-advanced server held the last agenda.

The second ICE was another teal deer, feet in one brook, drinking from another. Again, the flowing water split - this time into four. Now our Runner was well-versed in the math of exponentiation, and they knew what this would mean. But still, they pushed on. How bad could it be? Do or die - do or die.

The third ICE was another teal deer. The brooks split into eight this time. Now the Runner was terrified, and turned to go, but the path had disappeared. The labyrinth held them tight.

The last ICE was Komainu.

The brooks ran red with blood.

tl;dr - made a glorious, janky play and managed to chain three TL;DRs and a Komainu together for (5 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 40) net damage subs. We didn't talk to each other for the rest of the day.

As far as I can tell, Test Ground is the only card available to the Corp that allows for manual derezzing on the Corp's part. This has all sorts of useful interactions, as has been detailed in other reviews, and a few not-so-useful ones (I mean, you don't want to be rezzing your illicit ice over and over, do you?)

But the bit I'm really excited about is the interaction with the upcoming Magnet. With a little care and affection, Magnet and Test Ground together can suck up nasty parasites and miscellaneous chess bits and pieces, holding their MU hostage while completely negating their effects. It's a delicious, if somewhat unwieldy, solution to all the Parasites in my local meta.

Either way, I'll update this review once I've actually tried it. Food for thought.

Salem's Hospitality.

Same cost, less one . If you want to snipe out I've Had Worse or Levy AR Lab Access, Salem will do it for you! Still, if you're not sure specifically what to aim for, by all means include this card. You'll still get the Runner to reveal their hand... should your trace be successful.

Another possible use for this card is a way to lower the Runner's hand down to within range of a Scorched Earth or a few Traffic Accidents - probably the latter if you're running this in-faction. It's super left field and possibly halfway to janksville, but I'd love to see it be pulled off.

Edit: Another thought in a similarly janky vein would be to combo this in Jinteki with Precognition and Accelerated Diagnostics, using Invasion to peek at the Runner's Grip, then using Salem's to snipe cards out, and following up with a damage dealer like Neural EMP or even Ronin once the Diagnostics resolve. Probably a snowball's chance in hell of that ever lining up, but hey. These are the jokes.

Finally, if it came down to picking a giant boat over a creepy animatronic bear, I'd prefer the card that doesn't give me Five Nights At Freddy's flashbacks D: D: D: