The Zwicky Group: Invisible Hands

The Zwicky Group: Invisible Hands

Design-wise, Zwicky batches Operations with with Agendas (an ability on an agenda or operation). CF. Nuvem, which batches Operations with Expendables (finish resolving an operation or an action on an expendable card).

And it's a Weyland ID that draws cards!

Its “Earning-Ops-matter” (The first time each turn you gain credits through an ability on an operation or _, …) generalizes WC: Building a Better World’s “Transactions-matter” (Whenever you play a transaction operation, …). For example:

  • Each Hedge Fund in BaBW was Gain 5[$].
  • The first Hedge Fund in Zwicky is Gain 4[$]. Draw 1 card.

Also, it cross-synergizes with Plutus’s “Transactions-matter”. All Transactions can gain credits (and most always do). They're now cantrips (modulo the click) too.

"Draw a card a turn" is the one of the most best lines of text that can be on an identity. If you jam Hedge Funds, *KPIs**, **AAPs*, and so on, this ID can be as easy as The first time each turn you play an operation, draw 1 card.. (As in @Au_Revoir_Dog review, drawing one card each turn is more fun than earning multiple credits, and could be even better if you're drawing into FA/Kill.)

Synergies:

  • Hedge Fund → Gain 4[$]. Draw (up to) 1 card.

  • Government Subsidy → Gain 5[$]. Draw 1 card.

  • Armed Asset Protections → Gain ~2[$]–5[$]. Draw 1 card.

  • Petty Cash is a Transaction with “Flashback”, which double-triggers Zwicky (net Gain 4[$]. Draw 2 cards., over two turns for a single click).

  • Greenmail: It both scores for Gain 2[$]. Draw 1 card., and forfeits for Gain 4[$]. Draw 1 card..

  • Key Performance Indicators can draw if you pick its credit mode. (I think you can shuffle away an agenda drawn by that mode, if you resolve the “Descent mode” second, but IDK.)

  • Predictive Planogram (1/5 inf) → Gain 3[$]. Draw 1 card. (a cheaper Green Level Clearance).

  • Offworld Office → Gain 7[$]. Draw 1 card. (giving you even more tempo)

  • Does Zwicky make Extract worth it (without sacrificing like in Ob), as an expensive Beanstalk Royalties that cantrips? (As with MuslihaT and Concerto, IDK.)

See t:operation|agenda x:gain|take x:credit f:weyland-consortium|neutral-corp z:standard b:active (IDK if you can write a query like (t:agenda f:weyland|neutral || t:operation) x:credit … in NRDB.)

Flavor-wise, Franz Zwicky coined "dark matter" (IIUC, dunkle Materie meant "unseen" more than "dark"?). In our universe, Dark Matter is 85% of all mass (the 15% of Non-Dark Matter is what we can see and what we're made of).

Fritz Zwicky

Weyland is always pulling strings and committing atrocities, not just what public bombings (like Scorched and Boom, which are the "tip of the iceberg"), but silent disappearances and private threats too.

While both the subtitle and flavor text have dark implications, "Invisible Hands" has an econ connotation ("the invisible hand of the market"), and "Action at a distance" has a physics connotations ("entanglement is spooky action at a distance"). Which is very Weyland (the original Beanstalk itself is the intersection of the two, both in its construction and then its royalties).

And rules text itself is always so flavorful: agenda or operation in "Netrunner-ese" already reads like "schemes or machinations" in English.

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Sang Kancil

Sang Kancil

Sang Kancil (🐁🦌) is “Run-Event-boosted”, like:

  • 1[$]: +2 strength. Use this ability only if a run event is active.

For example, you Bravado their Code-Gate; SK can interface with it for:

TIL it's produced more like “sung khanchill”.

Design

I love breakers that have a temporary (turn-length) benefit. It's either a mini-game (where you plan your heists each turn), or a build-around (where you made sure your deck can easily enable it every single turn). Like:

  • 🔴 If you trashed any of your installed cards this turn, … (Boi-tatá)
  • 🟢 For each card you've drawn this turn, this ability costs 1[$] less to use.
  • 🔵 Whenever you play an event, this program gets +1 strength.

Unlike Aumakua, with which you can spend one turn (re-)charging it, and the next turn using it. CF.:

  • This program gets +1 for each successful run you've made this turn. (or even 1[$]: Break up to 1 code gate subroutine for each successful run you've made this turn.)
  • This program gets +2 strength as long as you've made a successful run on a central server this turn.

I also love “Run-Events-matter” in general. (“The Ken is dead! Long live the T!”). Which is why..

Custom

..my own (WIP) mini-set had an “Active-Event-boosted” breaker-cycle, to synergize with the dance (“stackable/delayable Run-event”) and uprising (“Runner Lockdown”) mechanics. Like:

Note that Kancil would still count a played Grand Jeté before using Debbie "Downtown" Moreira (in a run where you can spend credits from both!).

Choreographer
[$2] PROGRAM [1mu]: Icebreaker [0s] - Fracter
[criminal 3/5]
This program gets +2 strength for each active event. (Events that have been played but not yet trashed are “active”, including run events.)
Interface → 1[$]: Break 1 barrier subroutine.
2[$]: +2 strength.

Grand Jeté
[$2] EVENT: Run - Dance
[criminal 1/5]
Load 6[$] and [Q][Q] onto this event. It is not trashed until this turn or the next run ends.
During the next run, you can spend or lose hosted counters.
You may run any server.

Ad-Hoc Ransom
[$3] EVENT: Uprising
[criminal 4/5]
Play only if there is no active uprising. This event is not trashed until your next turn begins.
Whenever the Corp installs, advances, or rezzes a card, they lose 1[$]. They may take 1 bad publicity to prevent this effect and trash this event.

Flavor

The stories of Sang Kancil is a series of traditional fables about a clever mouse-deer. He can fool the other animals to escape from trouble.

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Mahkota Langit Grid

Mahkota Langit Grid

The Mahkota Langit Grid (👑☁️) makes “local” assets cheaper-to-rez and pricier-to-trash (especially if protected by a cheaper-to-rez EtR too).

Notes:

  • For example (with zero-inf neutrals-only), a Langit’d Regolith Mining License becomes 0[$]-to-rez and −5[$]-to-trash (a four-credit “swing”).

  • Being a region but non-unique, you could even have multiple, lightly-iced MLG remotes. For example (in HB), two 0[$]-to-rez Otto and/or Nico Campaigns, protected by 1[$]-to-rez Scatter Fields (and their own −4[$]-to-trash costs), fueling +5[$] Fully Operationals? Like “DIY Asa Group” (🤞)??

  • The 2[$/T] ability can pay for ice rez but not install costs.

  • The Persistent ability “upsells” assets in the root of this server (not in R&D, FWIW, even if you installed this upgrade centrally).

  • The Grid can rez a Descent (or Ablative Barrier) for 0[$] on T1, but IDK if it can then rez the Anthill Excavation Contract (or Humanoid Resources) being hastily protected for 1[$] (or 0[$]) by T2. (Do its hosted credits refill soon enough? LMK to edit it in.)

AFAICT, “mahkota langit” means “crown-sky”. (Malay/Indonesian speakers, please correct me, maybe if it's a specific compound like English “rainbow”, a possessive like “sky’s crown”, has some connotation, or so on.)

PS. This card ends up looking very clean (“all two’s”), but my guess is that it was very messy to get there (especially because it increases trash-costs un-influentially). Disclaimer: I haven't played with it yet.

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Poétrï Luxury Brands: All the Rage

Poétrï Luxury Brands: All the Rage

Design-wise, Poétrï splits a When-Scored-or-Stolen trigger (like Sportsmetal) into stronger When-Scored and weaker When-Stolen (without the card-advantage or card-selection) triggers. This incentivizes you scoring agendas out (investing in their installation/advancement/protection/etc), while still compensating you for getting stolen from.

I love that NSG has been doing this more (EG. The Basalt Spire).

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Plutus

Plutus

Plutus (💀🪙🐙) seems very cool, it both has high intrinsic value and synergizes with multiple identities.

Notes:

  • It re-plays any Transaction, which all earn credits (and some can also draw, install, advance, even gain a click, etc). Any archetype that wants a lot of credits may want this. For example, “flashing Government Subsidy back” brings up to twenty credits (+10[$] for just [click], CARD over two turns).

  • It plays them clicklessly. Thus, any Install 1 card from HQ (Greasing the Palm, Peer Review) or Gain [click] (Red Level Clearance, Petty Cash) lets you fast-advance 3/Y’s; and even Place 1 advancement (Key Performance Indicators) lets you never-advance a 4/Y.

  • You could trash operations while rezzing, to clicklessly play one (immediately). But If you want to play those twice, its additional Forfeit 1 agenda or Reveal and trash 3 cards from HQ cost lets you rez it even before you scored any agendas (or if you just want to keep it). And could be ignored with Eminent Domain.

Synergies:

  • It “doubles” operations, which re-triggers the new Zwicky and Nebula (especially Gemilang), as well as Nuvem (FWIW).

  • It can forfeit a Greenmail, triggering Zwicky.

  • Cards are trashed from HQ, which triggers the new AU Co. ID.

  • Three cards are trashed, which enables the new PT Untaian ID.

  • The cards are trashed faceup, which turns on Armed Asset Protection (a Transaction itself), Logjam, etc.

See: s:transaction t:operation z:standard

Compare:

  • Bryan Stinson ([click]: Play a transaction operation from Archives.)
  • Corporate Town (As an additional cost to rez this asset, forfeit 1 agenda.)
  • Audacity (Play only if there are at least 2 other cards in HQ. Trash all cards from HQ.)

Flavor:

  • Ploûtos (Plutus) was the Greek “God of Wealth” (transaction); and
  • Ploutōn (Pluto) was the “God of the Underworld” (Archives), AKA. Hades.

en.wikipedia.org

Ploutōn was frequently conflated with Ploûtos, the Greek god of wealth, because mineral wealth was found underground.

en.wikipedia.org

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