Immediately, M.I.C. must be compared to Border Control. Isolating strictly their trash effect and cost, Border Control is superior. It ends the run without any conditional and only costs 4 to rez. Comparatively, M.I.C. allows the runner an out for a and costs 2 more at 6. Therefore, we must look elsewhere to justify its use.

Out of faction, it is a single influence point cheaper which so far would only be relevant 50% of the time (if you are NBN or Jinteki). In my opinion, if you thought it was important enough to spend influence for an effect like this in the first place, then the 1 extra influence pip isn't even a contest--I'm spending the 3 influence to get the guaranteed effect as opposed to a "maybe" effect at an increased 2 cost. Add to this that NBN and Jin don't naturally tax runner clicks in the first place and it seems likely the runner would have the click. So again, we must look elsewhere for the justification.

So now, let's look at strength. Where Border Control succeeded in being a nice little gear check that refunded a bit of its cost against the faceplanting runner, it failed as a taxing piece of ICE at the mid game and beyond, once the runner had basically any way of breaking a single barrier subroutine. Paperclip, long our standard Fracter-measuring tool since it replaced Corroder, breaks it in 2 (with the option of just 1 if you don't care that the corp makes a bit of ). Most others will also bust it in 2 or 3. M.I.C. shines a bit here since it sits 3 strength higher at 4. Using the tried and true Gordian Blade as our template, we now have to pay 2 just to boost to match strength, plus another 3 to break the other subroutines. Of course other decoders will fare better or worse against the 4 strength 3 sub values, but you can already see that generally it's a more taxing piece of ICE. But there's one last bit.

The clever runner will always manipulate a run into their favor as much as possible and so may run on their last click, choosing not to break the first two subs. After all, you can't lose clicks you don't have. Suddenly we're back to breaking this for 3 which is almost as bad (or as bad breaker-depending) as Border Control. But of course, this is precisely the spider's web that good Code Gates create--a choice, a gamble, that the runner must choose--for in losing all their clicks, they open themselves up completely to the trash effect of the card, and therein lies M.I.C.'s strength.

You see, a runner that lets the first two subs fire is either desperate, or doesn't really care if the ICE is trashed to prevent the run. Which means you as the Corp have but one choice: make them care. Include taxing upgrades, agendas and other effects that ruin their day regardless of whether they let the run end, or whether they spend the click. Use it to stop their game-winning push for victory by providing them a catch-22.

And there resides our justification. We include M.I.C. when we want to tax the runner more than we do with Border Control, and when we want to play -intensive mind-games with them to close out the game.

I love money cards because they let us re-evaluate the value of s and s. The worst a is worth is a , so we'll use that as a baseline (it's worth more in reality). Also remember, that installing a card takes a . Format [x/c], where x = clicks spent and c = profit compared to using x clicks to click for . At the end is a capita-per-click percentage score.

Smartware Distributor: Turn 1 [2/-2], Turn 4 [3/0], Turn 7 [4/+2], Turn 10 [4/+5]* --125%--

Data Folding: Turn 1 [1/-4], Turn 4 [1/-1], Turn 7 [1/+2], Turn 10 [1/+5] --500%--

Armitage Codebusting: Turn 1 [4/+1], Turn 2 [7/+4] --57%--

Sure Gamble: Turn 1 [1/+3] --300%--

Day Job: Turn 1 [4/+6] --150%--

Liberated Account Turn 1 [4/+2], Turn 2 [5/+5] --100%--

Kati Jones (3-turn cycle): Turn 1 [2/-4], Turn 3 [4/0], Turn 6 [7/+3], Turn 9 [10/+6] --60%--

Kati Jones (5-turn cycle): Turn 1 [2/-4], Turn 5 [6/+4], Turn 10 [11/+11] --100%--

*Assumes that Smartware isn't being used a fourth time

This data shows us that as far as capita-per-click efficiency, Smartware is actually on the higher end of things, so if you want to drop a couple early and dedicatedly click them up each turn, it's not the worst plan ever. Their biggest issue is flexibility and acceleration. If you only have 1 to spare before the end of the game, then a simple Sure Gamble or a Stimhack is going to be better for you. If you have a couple turns left, the flexibility of Armitage or Lib Account are better suited for your needs. In the case of one full turn of downtime, Day Job's the winner. Kati has a little of both, giving you a bit of flexibility as well as long-term investment. If long-term investment is the only thing you need, then you can look into cards like Smartware, Data Folding, or even Rezeki. At this point, I don't think it's a matter of "is Smartware good?" so much as it's "does Smartware fit into the economic tempo your deck needs?" Obviously, Data Folding saves you 3 by turn 10 and nets you the same amount of money, but can you deal with the drought created by the first 5 turns? Smartware offsets that drought period by giving you a much easier point of entry--0 and 2.

That all being said, I think this card can be pushed even further by including it in an Aesop's Pawnshop deck, allowing you to sell it off for a sweet 3 advance without the use of a click when you no longer want it.

Boomerang is a very interesting Icebreaker-alternative. It's too early for me to have done a full analysis on the new hardware, but it seems like a very useful tool in any deck that wants to run hardware and trash cans (so Az and Geist). It can outright let you walk through some of the most annoying ICE in the game for a mere 2 credits and an install. It doesn't matter if your surveyor has 30 strength--Boomerang breaks it for 2 .

[Edit in light of clarification on hardware uniqueness thanks to Mezuzi]

There is a bit of Corp counterplay though that Boomerang users should be wary of. It's unique, which means you can only have one installed at a time. If you use it to mark an unrezzed piece of ICE that the corp can afford to leave unrezzed (or even over-install the next turn) then your Boomerang just has to sit there, doing nothing until you spend another 2 , a card and a click to overinstall a new one. This now means that in total you've spent 2 (4 if you count each card draw as a click), 2 cards and 4 credits to bypass 1 piece of ICE -- definitely not a good deal, especially if it means some of your hardware/trash can triggers were delayed at the same time. The icing (ICEing?) on the cake is that it also can't recur itself, so the Runner is down 1 Boomerang in their deck. Of course, they probably have recursion somewhere that brings it back, but early on it might be an option to nab a scoring window.

I'm sure new ideas and better analysis will be discovered as time goes on, but for now I would say this is a strong and fun card to have to in the pool.

...if you're a Runner.

This little guy is deceptively powerful. For a cost of zero, a and a card, you get to generate 1 per turn. This is on the level of Rezeki and Data Folding except putting them to shame because of its install cost. The catch is of course that you can only spend these s during a run, after a run is successful--that's a pretty narrow window... or is it?

Look, I'm no Shaper, I hate Shaper, and I will never be a Shaper, so I'll leave it up to the Green Homeboys to figure out all of the SMC-Net-Mercur-Da-Vinci-Triple-Install-Hayley-Trigger-break-reality shenanigans. Instead, let's take a much more practical approach--just using this guy's money to trash cards.

Too simple? Well, when have you ever played a runner game where you didn't trash an asset... or an upgrade? This guy gives you the same long-term security as the best of them with almost no tempo hit. Heaven forbid you see asset spam, as this poor little narwhal will be drained faster than Weyland can drain the ocean and set up a parking garage in the empty space (and then burn it down when the runner steps in; which considering, is remarkably fast).

"What if the corp isn't running assets or upgrades?"

...if I could live in a world where the inclusion of a 0 cost 1 Inf card meant that every single corp ran nothing but ICE and Operations, I'd include it in a Heartbeat. : )

Seriously though, the point is it's not really something you need to concern yourself with.

Now, the companions share a theme of punishment if you let their s build up too much. Taka's is pretty harsh which not only gives you a tag, but gives it to you with the corp primed with 3 to react to it (unless you're one of those bastard 419/Security Nexus/Citadel decks with 7 Power Taps installed but those decks don't need Taka anyway). Point-in-case, you're probably trashing Taka rather than taking the tag. Fueno though? Fueno's a bro.

Fueno operates on the concept of "pay-it-forward," simply asking that if he's gone out and scrounged up 3 s for you, that you simply give him the next he holds, because dangit, he's tired and it's hard to go hunting while he carries so much. Mechanically speaking of course, you lose 1 at the end of your turn so that Fueno can stick around and generate another at the beginning of your next. In certain situations, you're completely fine with this--especially in asset spam. Do you need to lie low against CtM? No prob--you'll pay those 1 or 2 extra s forward so that they can be used to fight help the next CtM trace after they've flipped over another Bankers Group. HB got you down with Ash? Use those Fueno s to fight the trace (and trash Ash). Gagarin? Fueno now reads "access one server each turn ignoring Gagarin's ability. You get the picture.

And Lastly (because I have to), quick shoutout to Adam and this card. Adam generally runs NaT so he he has to trash everything he runs into. Against taggers, this can be pretty rough since he wants to run hard early (potentially turning on HHN). Fueno gives just a little bit of extra cushion--no up-front tempo loss with a few 's insurance for those awkward 5-Trash Mumbads or Jeeves that you hit in HQ. Of course, if you had less than 5 credits, then Fueno might actually force you to trash them anyway but shutup, you're playing Adam so you already know nothing can be perfect. (Except of course that Adam is perfect!)

Back to reality, would I recommend a copy of this in Anarch, Adam, or any other non-Anarch deck where you have a stray Inf? Sure I would. That being said, I also wouldn't ever recommend more than 1 copy. It's unique, so you're not stacking the effect, making future Fuenos a dead draw, and in a sense, a loss of a click (because you had to draw it). Likewise, it's ability is good... but I mean, it's not that good. Drip econ is at it's best in bulk. One or two credits a turn is great, don't get me wrong, but 6 is insane, and Fueno on his own can't get you there. But really, if you grab an early Fueno in your opening hand and drop him down turn 1... are you really not going to use that money at some point?

Much like the last review by Lupis from 2015, I'm amazed that there aren't more reviews for this ID. I started playing ANR around the Red Sand Cycle in 2017, so while technically RP hadn't rotated yet, it wasn't a dominating part of the meta (or at least my meta) and so I didn't get a lot of chances to analyze how to play against it before it rotated.

Now that it's back, I'm forced to analyze how to beat it.

RP seems innocent and simple enough--you can't run my remotes until you run (running being the important distinction) my centrals. The obvious strategy in RP is to then ICE up centrals while having lots of nasty things in your remotes. Sundew is probably an auto-include, but it's tough as a runner when you start also seeing things like Synth DNA Modification, Hostile Infrastructure and Bio-Ethics Association. Suddenly "trash Sundew on sight" can no longer be your only option, especially when you're having to break through the central ICE each time you want to do it. It's also fairly common to see Enhanced Login Protocol as well, which just adds salt to the wound. Now suddenly you have to spend 3 clicks a turn just to trash one thing--it can get pretty tough pretty quickly.

I certainly don't have extensive experience against this ID, but from what I can tell, you have to be very precise against RP. You can't run and hit centrals in hopes of getting lucky. You can't trash every single asset on the board because you're probably not going to have enough money and time. Instead, it seems best to stay patient, build up money and installables, and then strike after you see RP draw up and they either A) Install a few assets or B) Don't install anything. Chances are higher that there's something in HQ during these times, and if you happen to miss something good in HQ, you can spend your next click getting rid of a key asset. ELP is particularly oppressive if you don't run currents, as you can never be truly sure when you can grab an agenda to turn it off. I know that every Runner game is a game of odds, but I usually feel more-so like I'm grasping at straws when I play against RP, even when I win.

That's kind of it from what I can tell, and I know it's not much. Partly, I'm writing this review in the hopes that players with more experience than me will add their thoughts via comments, or perhaps make a review of their own. What am I missing? Is there more to it than that? How do you keep up with the combination of taxing ICE that you're forced to run and the onslaught of assets? Any insight is appreciated. :D