TL;DR it's bad.

With errata, this card is now playable. For the cost of 4, you get a for installing things for each NEXT ice in play. So let's say it's the dream and you have 2 other NEXT ice in play when the runner facechecks this. You gained ! #ValueTown

But if you're installing more ice, you're paying the costs of installing - which in this example is probably 3-4 more. The best value is probably installing lots of assets or upgrades.

Also, you're only installing stuff from hand. I think you need to build your deck around it so you have a high number of installables (AAL instead of IPO, for example). And if this is on R&D and I'm the runner about to make lots of Equivocation runs, I'll just let it fire every time. You'll get some free installs but you'll run out of cards in hand.

I think the comparison here is Architect, which gives you the same numbers but for a sentry (usually more expensive to break), lets you draw a card from your deck and install it, gives you info about whats on top of your deck, and gives you the option of installing something from archives. Plus it can't be trashed.

This needed some tweaks, either waving install costs, letting you install from archives (Crick costs 1), or being half the cost to rez. :-/

The sad thing is the NEXT suite of ice will be dragged down in power level until like 2021 when this thing rotates out.

Isn't this just a Wall of Static?

Ways in which Battlement is just a Wall of Static:

• It ends the run
• It costs Corroder 2 to break
• It costs Paperclip 2 to break
• It costs Berserker 2 to break
• It costs Eater 2 to break
• It costs Faust 2 cards to break
• It costs Lady 1 counter to break
• It costs Battering Ram 2 to break
• It costs Demara 4 to break

Ways in which Battlement is not a Wall of Static

• It costs Inti 4 to break (1 less than WoS)
• It costs Chameleon 2 to break (1 more than WoS)
• It costs Saker 4 to break (1 more than WoS)
• It costs Breach 2 to break (2 less than WoS)
• It dies to Parasite more easily by one virus counter
• It costs Endless Hunger 1 more card to break
• It protects better against single-sub-breaking effects like Quetzal, Tracker, and Always Be Running
• It gains you 1 extra Chief Slee counter
• It costs 1 extra trashed card from an Armored Servers counter
• It costs 2 more in the presence of Interrupt 0
• It has 0 Official Alt-Arts (1 less than WoS)

The Verdict

Battlement is stronger against atypical, tricksy rigs that use cards like Quetzal, ABR, Endless Hunger, Adjusted Matrix, etc. It is slightly better than Wall of Static against Saker and Chameleon metas. It is slightly worse against Parasite metas. I would consider Battlement if I'm also using Armored Servers. Otherwise it does not matter at all. Seeing how WoS is pretty much never slotted by players that have access to the whole card pool, I imagine the same fate will befall Battlement.

I like the idea of multi-sub barriers existing. This is just the most uninteresting way of doing it. The numbers on Battlement are 100% fair and appropriate. There's simply no reason to print a card if it is almost exactly identical to a neutral core set card.

Would like to see more interesting effects from barriers in the future. Bailiff, Quicksand, Bulwark, Kakugo, Seidr Adaptive Barrier, and Hailstorm are all good examples of barriers with effects in addition to ETR where you can weigh your options when deckbuilding.

Ultimately, I am disappointed by the design of Battlement. If it was in Terminal Directive as a way to give access to more Barriers in a limited cardpool, I could see it. But including it in a data pack is just a total waste. :-(

Seems...bad.

Okay, so by "bad", I mean "hard to get benefits from." Because the first clause is totally fine: when you're poor the best thing is clickless money. Definitely something you want.

But a big problem is actually the Unique part. Much like Human First, only having 1 in play means you're not getting much money for your deck slots.

Obviously, taking 3 meat is pretty rough if this gets trashed. It's probably too much to want to combo it with Clan Vengeance or I've Had Worse. So you can protect it with something like New Angeles City Hall. You'd still be vulnerable to Hunter Seeker or Observe and Destroy.

What about preventing the damage? Plascrete or Guru Davinder would be a bit expensive, but an even better option is probably Crash Space! And you know what card also loves Crash Space??

No, not Account Siphon. Well, okay, yes, but not what I was thinking of. I was gonna say...Tri-maf Contact!! You could have an economy engine of 2x Crash, 2x Tri-Maf, and a Dadiana. Even if you got All-Seeing I'd, you'd prevent the damage first and wouldn't die. And you'd feel like a daredevil for having all these cards on the table. Style points!

Yeah, so that's a stretch. But it's an interesting alternative in a deck that doesn't want to spend influence and extra cards on MOpus. I'll definitely try it out at a casual meet-up.

Can't Start a Fire without a Spark

This is a Spark card, through and through. If the Advertisement didn't give it away, CPC Generator rewards you for doing what you want to be doing in a Spark deck: denying the runner money.

CPCG helps to distance you from the runner economically: the rez lowers them a cred, and it gives you money while the runner tries to bounce back.

Minimal Drawbacks

The cost is low, but the rez cost is free, so that trade off isn't terrible. Also, if you're successfully keeping the runner poor, then a and 2 to trash this is relatively expensive for the runner.

You could argue that the runner controls when and how often the ability fires, but clicking for creds is already an action most runners try to avoid like the plague. You'd want CPCG in decks where you're forcing the runner to click for creds.

Strategies

This would be an excellent target to protect with a Special Offer: you rez it at the end of your turn to drop them a , then they run it on their turn, you rez Offer to drop them a , then you net 4 and they trash CPCG for 2. They lost 4 and a , while you gained 4. Sweet.

If you're using CaPaCaGa to win the econ race, you'll want to leverage that to help you win. Anything with a trace is good, like HHN, Enforcing Loyalty, or Beta Cat (a fav card of mine). Or you can just build up your board state while they struggle to keep up. Big ice like Tollbooth is always a good choice, especially if you're doing the pseudo-glacier.

I don't see this finding a home outside of Spark, but that's okay. Niche IDs often have pet cards, and CPCG appears to be one of Spark's.

Verdict

I like Capaca Gen. I think Spark wanted just a few more triggers, and a package of 3x CPC, 3x Astrobar, 3x Water Bottles, and 3x Friends in High Places gives you a total of 15 of Sparking, and that's not including Pop-ups, Offers, PADs, or Adones. What if they released an ICE that lets you drain the runner's credits whenever you wanted in the same data pack? Man, that would make Spark pretty strong... :-)

Huh.

Clearly, this should be a great include in Nexus+Power Tap decks. So...someone go do that real quick. Because no one does that yet. Got it? Cool.

So now we've got an Eddie Kim Nexus deck (for his ). And now we can add Bad Publicity! So this makes all of our runs cheaper. Seems alright. Oh, and Blackmail! But if we wanted to play Blackmail, why aren't we Val?

Okay okay, got it. We're Val with Rebirth into Kim with Nexus and Power Tap. And the extra BP turns on Itinerant Protesters. So let's add Investigative Journalism. Haha! Check out this mad 4-card combo that creates some HQ pressure! Yeah! Take that, Legwork.

Oh yeah, that Takeshi deck used Citadel Sanctuary and John Masanori. So throw those in. And just add some money, some IHWs, and breakers. BOOM! That's a deck. I think.

Agenda Subtypes

The Archivist is like your movie buff friend that points out idiosyncrasies in movies. You never noticed before, and you've never cared. Similarly, you've never noticed agenda subtypes and the Archivist now gleefully points out that they have them.

Security and Initiative spans quite the wide selection of agendas - 46 at the time of release. From the abysmal Project Ares, to the janky Rebranding Team, to the ubiquitous GFI, the Archivist interacts with a significant portion of agendas. The actual pool of agendas that see competitive play is very small of course because of the 3/2s from the Genesis Cycle. Once they cycle out, we will hopefully see more diversity from the agenda pool.

Here's a list of the relevant agendas you're most likely to see in a competitive deck as of release:

• Global Food Initiative
• NAPD Contract
• AstroScript Pilot Program
• Oaktown Renovation
• The Future Perfect
• Nisei MK II
• Philotic Entanglement
• House of Knives

Pretty much all corp decks have at least 1 of the agendas on this list. Hell, Pālanā can pull exclusively from this list. So, when including the archivist, you should expect him to fire about once a game.

Verdict

He fires once, maybe twice. It's a slot that nets you 2 from a Power Tap trigger and a BP. That's probably about as good as a single Daily Casts. So yeah, that's fine for a 1x include. Putting in 2x is bad because you can't install the second one, so you're getting half as much from the card slot.