Step 1: Make a run on R&D or HQ

Step 2: Use your Hades Shard during a paid ability window during the run

Step 3: Draw your deck after the run ends.

This is a wonderful console for tag-me Anarchs and a good counter to the tag heavy meta we find ourselves in.

This is the last of the Omar-related flavor/educational reviews. I decided to do these, not only because I love the flavor and references within this game, in general, but because I'm becoming an Omar fanboy. Anywho...

An Obelus, more commonly referred to as a division sign, comes from an Ancient Greek word for a sharpened stick or pointed pillar. Interestingly, before its mathematical implications, this sign was used in texts to mark passages believed to be corrupted or false. Such passages were marked as such to be deleted, or censored, in line with the conspiracy theme. Seems to fit fairly well with Omar.

Obelus adds to the long list of playable Anarch consoles. Some of interesting aspects of the card:

• the increased hand size means you can go tag-me against kill decks & simply draw up to an enormous number of cards, good against Midseason Replacements & Hard-Hitting News. Importantly, one Hard-Hitting gives you enough hand size to survive BOOM!
• the hand size ability is not actually that usable…because the best tagging decks are NBN & they have a card called Sweeps Week that you're turning into the best card in the game as your hand size grows
• the successful run clause has so much nuance going on:
  • if you do an access replacement effect on R&D or HQ (e.g. Security Testing, Account Siphon), the trigger fizzles & you don't get to draw on any further successful runs
  • you have to draw the cards, it is not a "may" ability
  • "draw 1 card for each card you accessed" includes upgrades so defensive upgrades on R&D or HQ turn single accesses into "draw two" opportunities

The obvious synergies with Obelus are the Anarch viruses that scale the number of accesses with every successful run: Medium and Nerve Agent. If you hit a central server three times in a row, you'll only draw the first time, but then the next turn you're threatening to pull a fistful of cards and access a bunch. It's an extremely powerful effect that's mitigated by the set up: you have to be able to access a bunch of cards (e.g. be winning already), Obelus' 4 cost is nothing to shrug off, & just one MU isn't that great either in a faction that's notoriously strapped for memory, so much so that MemStrips is a card that's seen play.

Overall I think this card has two incredibly interesting abilities that are somewhat hard to take advantage of. In the right deck, Obelus is very powerful, but it's nowhere near as general-purpose as Turntable or Grimoire, which will likely continue to be the go-to console choices for Anarch.