Thoughts on Cyber Exodus
By Tekkactus– February 9, 2013
I’m not going to give my impression of every card in the pack, because let’s be honest, no one really cares about Viper. However, there are a bunch of really exciting (or at least giving the appearance of being exciting) things in Cyber Exodus that I want to give my thoughts on.
(I’ll add pictures to this blog when we get better quality scans. In the meantime, here are some photos.)
Dinosaurus
Dinosaurus (5) Unique
Shaper (2 Inf), Hardware: Console
Dinosaurus can host a single non-AI icebreaker. The memory cost of the hosted icebreaker does not count against your memory limit.
Hosted icebreaker has +2 strength.
Limit 1 console per player.
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The new Shaper console, in addition to being a stuffed robot dinosaur, is in my opinion one of the more interesting cards in the pack… for Anarchs. Buffed to 5 strength, Yog busts every Code Gate in the game except for Cell Portal. You’ll still need to pay Tollbooth’s tax effect, but beyond that you’re free and clear. 5 Strength Mimic? Everything except Archer and Janus. On top of all that, it frees up one of your MU for more viruses (which I guess all consoles do, but it’s still worth mentioning). At 2 INF, I could definitely see this becoming a deck, especially if you’re not interested in running the virus deck sometime down the line.
Not to say it doesn’t have a place at home. STR 5 Battering Ram and STR 3 Pipeline are both pretty exciting in and of themselves.
Emergency Shutdown
Emergency Shutdown (0)
Criminal (2 Inf), Event: Sabotage
Play only if you made a successful run on HQ this turn.
Derez a piece of Ice.
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The main event. The big show. The thing that has people considering quitting. Is it really that good?
It’s definitely good. Forcing the Corp to rez a piece of ice again for only a click and a card can be pretty swingy, especially in the current meta. Derez Tollbooth; make the Corp lose 8 credits. Janus; 15. Archer; make them forfeit another agenda. All of that is working on the assumption that they can rez the ice again in the first place!
But the game is young. I’d wager we’re going to be seeing a lot less of Archer in the post-Cyber Exodus meta, but I don’t really believe Emergency Shutdown will permanently break the game. A shift away from expensive, beefy ice may be for the better in the long run!
Just as an example, compare an Emergency Shutdown targeting Tollbooth to a successful Account Siphon:
Account Siphon: 3 clicks, Corp loses 5, you gain 6 (Assuming you immediately remove the tags). You don’t access cards.
Emergency Shutdown: 2 clicks, Corp loses 8. You can access cards from the run.
Now, this comparison is making some assumptions, but in both scenarios you’re making “good use” of the event. Siphon is a little more time consuming and you lose the card from HQ, but the credit swing is bigger overall, and it can chain into later plays for that turn. I would put them on par.
So yeah, very powerful. Not broken.
Joshua B.
Joshua B. (1) Unique
Anarch (3 Inf), Resource: Connection
When your turn begins, you may gain [Click]. If you do, take 1 tag when this turn ends.
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Let’s get the obvious out the way first: yes, you’re ending the turn with a tag. Yeah yeah, that’s asking for a Scorched Earth. Yes, they can use the tag to just trash Joshua B. But if we stop looking at this as a resource and start seeing it as a one-time play, I think it could be super useful. Combine it with Stimhack! I like it.
Edge of World
Edge of World (0) Trash: 0
Jinteki (2 Inf), Asset: Ambush
If Edge of World is installed and you pay 3 [Credits] when the Runner accesses it, do 1 brain damage for each piece of ice protecting this server.
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Edge of World is an “OH @#$%” card. When you read it, you see an Ambush that can deal multiple brain damage and immediately say “OH @#$%”, but given time to sit back on it… I think it’s kinda overhyped.
Snare! is badass because it can still do its business in R&D or HQ. EoW needs to be installed. That’s huge. An Ambush that needs to be installed but can’t be advanced is way more difficult to bluff than Junebug and Pals, so you basically need to entice the runner ASAP or they’re gonna catch on quick. So, yeah, you can get some brain damage in if the stars align, but it’s gonna take some exceptional scheming to get it done.
I’d say shooting for 2 damage is the best play, 3 damage if you’re feeling lucky. Hand size going to 3 makes a double-advanced Junebug lethal instead of triple, it makes Neural Katana an essential run-ender with Personal Evolution on the table, and well, you know… Scorched Earth is still a thing.
Marked Accounts
Marked Accounts (0) Trash: 5
NBN (1 Inf), Asset: Transaction
When your turn begins, take 1 [Credit] from Marked Accounts, if able.
Click: Place 3 [Credits] from the bank on Marked Accounts.
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I honestly have no idea if this is better or worse than PAD Campaign, but I do like that NBN is finally getting some revenue generation cards. What do you guys think?
When I saw Dinosaurus, I thought of Femme Fatale. She doesn’t pump strength well, but she’s useful against all sentries and a problem barrier/codegate. It’d save you 4 credits per time you use her.
The new runner card that impresses me is Snitch. Information in a bluffing game is top shelf. But I note it’s only for ICE, so it’s a way to save events not replace them.
Edge of World is scary. The corp gets 3 clicks. One places EoW and another places 2 cheaply rez’d ICE. You now threaten to triple click next turn and score an agenda. If they don’t bite and it’s not EoW, you just scored an agenda without giving away that it was one. I don’t think it is overpowered, but it certainly has teeth.
The corp card that impresses me is Chimera. It compels the runner to dig for multiple answers instead of just one. New best early ICE to guard a central server well, and it’s cheaply rez’d to boot. Crypsis is up to the challenge, but I still think the exchange there favors Chimera and you can use ICE that Crypsis doesn’t want to see as well.
An aside — I still see no good way to use Bullfrog. It would have been a decent card if the effect wasn’t a subroutine, or if the next ICE was considered the beginning of a brand new run (since you can’t jack out against the first ICE you encounter). At best it functions like an ETR that can fail even against a runner with no ICEbreakers. That’s bloody terrible.
I avoided talking about the stuff we already knew because they’re pretty well covered at this point, but yeah, Snitch and Chimera are both pretty dope. I don’t think Chimera is gonna outright replace Ice Wall as the go-to early game little ICE, though. Even when the Runner gets his full rig set up, they’ve still gotta pay to get through Ice Wall. Chimera is totally useless once a rig is complete. Solid option, yeah, but definitely not a hard replacement.
There really isn’t a single Icebreaker that doesn’t benefit from +2 STR, but the difference between installing a Yog on Dinosaurus and a Femme is that you’re choosing Dinosaurus over another console. I’m okay with losing Grimiore or Spinal Modem for it. Desperado… not so much. Plus, bad pumps are still better than no pumps. =/
Bullfrog has always given me the impression of being a pure Johnny card. It’s not good and probably never will be, but it’s fun to play with.
This is where the “gamer personality” psychology falls apart — I adore Bullfrog and would play 20 of them in a deck, IF they were playable. Imagine hopping one Bullfrog to another Bullfrog, then hopping the second Bullfrog back to the original server. If that was automatic, it would have been awesome fun and STILL not very good.
Bullfrog should have been this:
Cost 3. Strength 4 code-gate.
When a runner encounters Bullfrog, move Bullfrog and that runner to the outermost position on another server.
sub 1 — The corporation and the runner each secretly spend 0, 1, or 2 credits. If the runner doesn’t spend the same number of credits as the corporation, the runner immediately encounters the next ICE on this server (if there is any) without an opportunity to jack out.
That would have been playable, and STILL not all that strong. Potentially useful since you could use Bullfrog to feed the runner to a Neural Katana or something… but it would be somewhat unreliable.