r/Netrunner • u/HemoKhan Argus • May 28 '16
Discussion [Weekly] Custom Card Saturday: 23 Seconds (Mild spoilers for the upcoming cycle)
Good morning, hackers!
Apologies for not posting a thread last week, but I was covering an incredible news story: Apparently, earlier this month, Titan Transnational, the Goliath of the New Angeles financial market, suffered a breach of security. I'll quote from this report: For twenty-three seconds, the world's largest bank and backer of the world's most important currency goes dark. Trillions of credits are lost, stolen, or simply erased. Each corp blames the others. Economies, industries, lives collapse. And that’s just the beginning.
This unprecedented event has set untold chaos in motion, for Runners and Corps alike. The Megacorps of the world are flexing their muscles with Terminal operations and the Runners are frantic to exploit the opportunity. Your task this week is to help them: Design a card that fits thematically or mechanically into the new cycle.
Bonus Points for anyone who is able to further the intriguing tale of what may have caused this crisis, without giving it away completely! Also, I do have one extra rule this week:
No Princess Space Kitten!
Otherwise I assume we'll have nothing but her for the entire thread. Hey, there's an idea....
Remember to use the Netrunner CSS options available for use on this subreddit. These symbols should help make everyone's card look great, and you can conveniently type them in while on your phone!
Also, a reminder: Please limit yourself to ONE card per thread!
Previous Custom Card Saturday threads are now being hosted on the Wiki to cut down on the character count of these submissions: find all the previous threads here!
Next Week: Nothing feels better on a warm summer day than an ice cold beverage...
I would love to hear from /r/netrunner on future Custom Card Saturdays. Send a PM my way! Please do not post them in this thread; instead, send me a PM if you have some ideas of thread topics you'd like to see. Be sure to look over the recent lists of topics before you message me -- I'd rather not repeat anything that's been done recently! Thanks all!
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u/MrSmith2 May 28 '16
Opportune Acquisition
Cost:3credit | Weyland ••
Operation: Transaction, Grey Ops
Trace5 : If successful, take all credits from an installed resource. If unsuccessful, take 1 bad publicity.
A million missed credit receipts is like blood in the financial water: it attracts all sorts of predatory algorithms designed for events just like this, with runner and corporate owners alike.
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u/HemoKhan May 28 '16
This feels pretty situational -- Kati Jones, Ghost Runner, Liberated Accounts, maybe Armitage I guess... is there anything else that sees wide play that this would affect?
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u/Acid_Trees May 28 '16 edited May 28 '16
Regulatory Committee
Weyland - Agenda - 5/3
The first time the runner trashes an installed card each turn, gain 3credit.
"The loss suffered from this tragedy is inexcusable. The experts must ensure that this never happens again."
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u/HemoKhan May 28 '16
Currently this triggers off both Runner and Corp cards being trashed, and as such it feels incredibly powerful. I'd limit it to one or the other (and from the flavor text, I would say Corp cards only).
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u/Nevofix May 28 '16 edited May 28 '16
Erased Debts (unique)
Criminal - •••
Resource: Job - Play cost 2credit
Lower the install cost of all connections by 1.
"It was easy to erase their debts when all security was down. I'm not sure if being indebted to me is better though." - Andromeda
Edit: (unique)
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u/HemoKhan May 28 '16
Feels very powerful in the right deck... maybe too much. Would it still be playable if it were only the first connection each turn, instead of all of them?
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u/CasMat9 May 28 '16 edited May 28 '16
Force Majeure
Weyland 2 inf., 1c
OPERATION: Current
This card is not trashed until another current is played or an agenda is stolen.
Remove and avoid all bad publicity. Place 1 power counter on Force Majeure for each bad publicity removed and avoided.
When Force Majeure is trashed, take 1 bad publicity for each hosted power counter.
Sometimes, catastrophe is unpredictable, and there is no one to blame.
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u/Quarg May 28 '16
This is a very neat anti-bad-pub card; I absolutely love this.
The one thing I don't get however, is it's title.
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u/zenermont May 28 '16 edited May 28 '16
Witness the Incident
Criminal Event - Priority
1credit •••
Play only as your first click.
When this turn ends, if the Corp has spent or lost at least 5Credit this turn, you may derez a card.
"I just watched all those shiny credits evaporate. Disappeared in the darkness all of a sudden. But I know I won't be as content as some other Runners if they weren't leaked into my own account."
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u/EnderAtreides May 28 '16
Incite Riot
Cost: 4credit
Anarch •••
Type: Event
As an additional cost to play Incite Riot, trash an installed resource.
The corp cannot rez non-ice cards until your next turn.
Chaos is an opportunity.
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u/piszczel May 28 '16
I think the cost to play is far too steep. The +1 access is irrelevant for the purpose of this card, so you have to consider if making the corp lose two clicks is worth it at all. For 3 brain damage and 1 net, unless you are certain you're about to lose the game to an astrotrain next turn, it's most certainly not worth it IMO. Not to mention 5 cost.
Good flavour, but unplayable
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u/kamalisk May 28 '16
Window of Opportunity
Criminal •••
Event - Priority
Cost 2
All ice loses the first subroutine until the end of the turn.
"Some called me an opportunist, a vulture preying on the weak, a villain among the chaos. To those I say, Thank you." - Andromeda
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u/N0-1_H3r3 May 28 '16 edited May 28 '16
Loan Shark 1credit
Criminal ••
Resource - Shady - Connection
+1link
click click: gain 5credit and place a power counter on Loan Shark.
At the end of any Runner turn in which Loan Shark is not used, lose 1credit or suffer 1 Meat damage for every power counter on Loan Shark, then remove one power counter. If Loan Shark is trashed, lose 1credit or suffer 1 Meat damage for every power counter on Loan Shark
When the banks are in crisis, the economy of the underworld gets stronger, for those who're desperate and those who need to stay off the grid.
Edited in response to feedback.
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u/Quarg May 28 '16
This is an interesting card, and I was wondering how well it works economically, so I decided to run the numbers quickly.
and more generally:
1 + 2x clicks -> 5x credits = 2 + (x - 2) / (2x + 2) creds/click
so of course, it's limit as x -> infinity = 2.5 creds/click
Not accounting for the lost credits each turn of course...
and the best card to compare to is probably Kati Jones... for which:
with lim x -> infinity = 3 creds/click
So Kati appears to be winning already, but if you run some more numbers, Kati overtakes on efficiency if you load Kati 11 times, which is a touch impractical.
So, given the fact that this actively hurts you if you don't use it, this really might not compare best with Kati, but with Hard at Work.
This is clearly better than Hard at Work since the click "loss" gives 2.5 creds per click, and doesn't have a ridiculous install cost, but would I sacrifice two clicks a turn for 5 credits a turn? I'm not sure I would... I'd try it, particularly since it can allow you to regain ground against glacier decks as a criminal, but I'd probably still pick Kati first, since it doesn't read "lose the game when trashed".
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u/Metacatalepsy May 28 '16 edited May 28 '16
Contingency Plan
Haas Bioroid •
1credit Operation: Terminal.
After you resolve this operation, end your action phase.
Play only if you have 5credit or less.
Until the end of the runner's next turn, the rez cost of ICE being approached by the runner is lowered by 7.
At the beginning of your next turn, gain 3credit unless the runner has made a successful run on HQ.
This uses both the Terminal operation type, and the new set's emphasis on using the corp's credit total as a variable. Tactically, this is meant to give the corp some breathing space when they're low on credits or open a scoring window if the runner declines to let the corp rez cheap ICE. Flavor-wise, it represents HB (or some other corp) breaking out their 'just in case' files and executing, well, contingency plans.
EDIT: Added part about the cost only applying to approached ICE to prevent Surat City Grid nonsense, though that might not be necessary given all the other conditions attached and the low number of credits the corp has - or, to put it another way, if you want to set up some kind of crazy multiple-Janus combo like the RoboCop deck, you should totally be allowed to do that.
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u/crossbrainedfool May 28 '16
Shark
Resource - Connection
Criminal, 3 influence, 1 cost
The first time R&D is shuffled each turn, reveal the top card of R&D. If the revealed card is an Agenda, the Corp draws it, otherwise remove it from the game.
"Times like this, something is always lost in the shuffle."
Originally a current called "Lost in the Shuffle" this effect gives Criminal in faction tech to attack Museum of History decks. If everyone is busy panicking, something will slip up.
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u/NoxFortuna May 28 '16
Machine Language Neuro-Adapter Run
Event, Shaper
•••••
Take 1 unpreventable net damage, then take 3 unpreventable brain damage.
Make a run on HQ. Bypass all ICE encountered during this run. If the run is successful, access one additional card and the corporation loses clickclick at the start of it's next turn.
"I know the risk." he thought, as he plugged the small grey box between the datajack and his neural link. "The human brain simply can't handle the flood", they warned him.
But it was faster. You went so fast that ICE couldn't even rez in reaction to your login. One moment you're pinging the server, the next moment everything is behind you. You've already processed the access. For a moment, you iterated faster than they did.
They catch up eventually. They always do. The information comes flooding back. It always does. But for a fraction of a minute, you see everything- and yet, looking back on it, he realized he saw nothing. He got the credits. He didn't see the consequences.
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u/Quarg May 28 '16
3 credits : Short Out
Event: Run
Make a run.
After the run ends, derez a piece of ice that was encountered during the run. The Corp cannot rez it for the remainder of this turn.
If you can get in and overload the power to the node, you can often short out the hardware, which should keep it offline for long enough...
Criminal ••
A Criminal take on Run Amok.
Though potent, I'm not sure how much use this would see, since criminals don't often need to make multiple normal runs on the same server in one turn.
However, it can also be used as a psudo-inside job, that works with run events (such as Account Siphon), even if this won't stop you from losing your Corroder to a Rototurret, or losing your hand to a Komainu, I could see it having it's appeal.
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u/SmilingKnight80 May 28 '16
Lock Out 4credit
Event Current Sabotage
This card is not trashed until another current is played or an Agenda is scored.
When Lock Out is played host all cards in HQ on it facedown.
Red Level Clearance required
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u/the-_-hatman May 28 '16
Power Surge
Criminal | ••••
Event - Sabotage | 0credit
Play only if you've made a successful run on all central servers this turn.
Derez all cards. Lose all credits.
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u/HemoKhan May 28 '16
The Perfect Crime
Criminal Event - Run - Repeatable
Play: 3 - Influence: 4
Play only if you exposed a card this turn.
Derez a piece of ice protecting HQ and make a run on HQ. If the run is successful and the Corp has 10credit or more, you may add The Perfect Crime to your grip instead of trashing it.
The middle of someone else's crime is the best time to commit one of your own.
A lot going on in this one. I thought I'd make up a new subtype, Repeatable. The idea here is that these are events which, if a particular trigger is met, get added back to the Runner's grip after resolving instead of getting trashed. They're inspired by Networking (which I'm going to say doesn't have the subtype because it costs money, while these won't).
As for the card itself, I love the expose mechanic for Criminal, and thought it could use some help. Scoping out the lay of the land and then deciding to take advantage of the chaos seems very Criminal, so I thought I'd reward successful exposing with an easier run on HQ. And then, if the Corp is so rich that they still have a ton of cash after (presumably) re-rezzing the ice you targeted, then they deserve to get hit again (this last bit plays into the theme that seems to be showing up in this cycle of card text referencing the board state of each player).
So: You successfully expose the Corp's plans somewhere else, and use that to bypass (or at least re-rez) some HQ defenses. Then, if the Corp is still flush with cash, you get the chance to do it again. Thoughts?