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Remote Enforcement

CrushU

Two things to say here: This is a way way better Priority Requisition. The Foundry might enjoy this card more than other HB corps, but in general is a perfectly serviceable 4/2, depending on your ice suite.

greyfield

This is actually pretty tight, since right now HB agenda suites for glacier strategies don’t feel quite as deep as you’d like. I think the value you get out of this can often be greater than that of Corporate Sales Team, even when you factor in having to pay for installing the ice. That said, note that the floor for money is much higher than “an ice of your choice” (one reason SSL Endorsement is quite popular and Priority Requisition is that card you dread playing in cube), especially because in order to maximize this card’s value, you’re playing really expensive ice you don’t ever want to draw. On the other hand, if you fetch up a Fairchild 3.0 with this, that seems pretty fine, so vaya con dios. B-.

Ion_Fox

This is probably one of the stronger HB 4/2s we’ve seen in a while, and rezzing a Fairchild 3.0 , THE FAIRCHILD or any other expensive ice you have is no joke. However, I feel like it should be pointed out that this card does NOT ignore additional costs like forfeiting agendas, so there go my dreams of cheating out archers 🙁

Saan

This is a great way to make a remote server that no one will ever way to screw with. The question I want to ask you is “how many HB decks are running Chiyashi?” The answer is “every HB deck with this agenda.” That’s Blue Sun OAI levels of value.

miek

Our new ABT, but its a 4/2 and way more reliable. One thing that’s worth noting with this card is that it does not ignore install costs, so if you went broke scoring this out behind a FC3.0 and want to tutor your next diamond, fairchild, wotan or whatever you’ll have to create a new server or trash the existing ice. Probably a non-issue most of the time but I can imagine it’ll bite you back a few times. I suspect Corporate Sales Team is usually the better choice, but this might be a spicy pick in some form of draft tournament. Worth noting that any presence of Maxwell James in the meta significantly reduces the value of this card.

neuropantser

Fits well in decks that like to score Corporate Sales Team. The payoff is lower in many cases (8 + an install click – value of hidden information seems relatively close, and that’s approaching the best case), but it is front-loaded. Some decks like front-loaded payoffs more.

dr00

Just so we’re clear, this doesn’t ignore the install cost and does not ignore additional rez costs (so you still have a forfeit an agenda for Archer or Enforcer 1.0 if for some reason you’re playing that ice). That said, tutor for whatever ice you want and get a free install and rez can be pretty huge for helping you score your next agenda. I think this is the weakest of the 4/2s so far, but after playing with it, I could see myself changing my mind.

CritHitd20

I believe that this card is great and competes with Jinja as the strongest HB card of the cycle. I like to evaluate the consequence of cards like this in chunks; Remote Enforcement tutors an ice, installs it for you, and gives you credits equal to its rez, then rezzes it for you. That is an immediate 8 clicks of value upon scoring if you use it for Fairchild 3.0, and one of those clicks is worth much more than a normal click (tutor effects are incredibly powerful while the rez is a free effect that some decks like AoT or Foundry can exploit). I’d happily take the consistency Remote Enforcement offers glacier/rush decks over the 10 drip credits from Corporate Sales Team in many cases, and this is completely ignoring both its resilience against Turntable and its more greedy interactions such as tutoring Ashigaru/Loki in CI. If remote servers are irredeemably bad in the meta then this agenda loses value, but if they work and your deck plays with one this is absolutely worth examining.

Kamali 1.0

CrushU

Another one for the ‘If Brain damage becomes good, this is Playable’ file… How large is that thing, anyway? There’s an article that discusses Punisher cards, and this is the most crazy one there is. Things that keep this from being playable: It doesn’t end the run. The Runner can choose how to deal with this in a myriad of ways, spending clicks, installed cards, brain damage, or just breaking it. It costs 6 to rez, and is only a 3-strength Sentry, though the three subroutines at least make it painful for MKUltra to break.

greyfield

The rate is pretty good when compared against typical breakers, if you apply a modicum of planning (4 for Mongoose, 6 or 3 plus a click for MKUltra, 5 for Na’Not’K if it’s alone), but again, it’s brain damage. I thought about this card a bit, and then said, “what kind of deck would prefer this card to Ichi 1.0, and how likely is that deck to ever accomplish anything?” Again, the brain damage strategy trips and falls down at the starting line. D.

CritHitd20

Every day Mimic looks sweeter. This card does admittedly look very fun for a casual brain damage deck, but it’s going to compete with Vikram 1.0, which I think is a better tax for most runners and is easier to use in a multi-ice remote without being punished by Na’Not’K.

Warden Fatuma

CrushU

I’m not sure about this card. I went from thinking ‘Sweet!’ to realizing that it’s an Asset and requires its own server… To realizing that it has a 5 trash cost. Ultimately I think decks will play Brain-Taping Warehouse before Fatuma, but there might be a deck that plays both.

greyfield

I’m not seeing it. Since the ice has to be a bioroid, you have the option of spending clicks on it before you lose them to the Fatuma subroutine, which means either you don’t have enough clicks to break the bioroid’s subroutines and it’s already pretty bad without Fatuma, or you have enough clicks and odds are good Fatuma’s redundant because you just lost your last one. The way Fatuma shines is when two conditions are met simultaneously: 1) there’s multiple bioroid ice on the server, and 2) you don’t want to click through the outermost ice. Then losing a click actually hurts you. Add that to having a Fatuma in a separate server and you’re asking for a lot. D.

miek

At 5c to trash I could see this going into some sort of hybrid glacier/horizontal deck out of Seidr Laboratories. Given how bad Seidr is in general its probably not working, but the idea seems functional at least.

neuropantser

It’s worth noting that the best bioroids at the moment have an odd number of subs, and Black Orchestra breaks 4 subs just as well as 3. Makes it tougher to break 2-let 1 fire with the Fairchildren, but that’s only assuming the Runner can’t run last click. The payoff doesn’t seem that high.

dr00

Another good way to leverage click tax and protecting your Ikawah Projects. Would have been a lot stronger as an upgrade, but it probably would have been too strong. Decent rez to trash ratio (unless you’re Freedom), which is nice. Being an asset will hold this back though.

CritHitd20

Ignoring the dream scenarios for this card, we have precedent in Brain-Taping Warehouse on how effective cards like these are when left to the Runner’s discretion; the effect either is ignorable by running last click or it is not and the asset gets trashed. Film Critic is still the most popular restricted card in the game, so I wouldn’t hedge my bets on the Fatuma/Ikawah deck succeeding, and I’d leave this card alone.

Viral Weaponization

CrushU

Really good in PU, questionable elsewhere.

greyfield

Ooooh, I want to believe so bad that there’s a combo to be had here. More likely scoring this just says, “The Runner loses their next turn drawing more cards.” Which is okay? Real question is why you play this over Obokata, Nisei, Philotic, etc. and if there is no combo, it feels far less consistent than existing agendas. C.

Saan

I really like the theme of this card. It makes sense that it takes a bit to do the damage, so it not doing the damage till the end of the turn works. However, this does make the card difficult to use, as most decks that are trying to actually score 4/2 agendas that don’t outright kill the Runner night not care that much about the next damage, and vice versa.

neuropantser

Interesting design, but I’m not sure where this agenda fits. The decks that most want this effect have a hard time scoring a 4/2–what’s the last time you saw IG score an agenda with an advancement cost over 3?–and the decks that can easily score a 4/2 almost certainly want Nisei more. Even PU probably wants Philotic more, since it only takes one Shipment from Tennin to score.

dr00

This is the kind of power 4/2s needed to be competitive. I see a lot of people trying to make a kill work out of it, but I think it was intentionally designed so that would be practically impossible. And honestly, that’s ok. The tempo hit when you score this and the threat of Snare! is enough to basically enough for this card to practically say “take another turn after this one.”

CritHitd20

We will not see this card make competitive waves, but this is a very inspiring and fun agenda. The effect is so bombastic and yet you cannot flatline a Runner with it under any circumstance, which means it is best in decks that either want to use damage for value, or want to force the Runner into recovery turns while another score is threatened. I’m very excited to try this out in shell decks, though I’m not convinced about its power in prison, where you do need some serious work to safely score.

Envelope

CrushU

Interesting, but I think Kakugo’s better. Kakugo existing makes this card at least worth considering…

greyfield

Kakugo exists, and Paperclip breaks it for two. Not a good rate here. That said, there is something to be said for just plain being spiky – Kakugo’s weakness is the Runner can conceivably bonk into it over and over to load a Turning Wheel. Not that that’ll save this card, but food for thought. C-.

Saan

This doesn’t tax the currently used Fracters in any meaningful way, so it’s not great, and the one net damage on face check just doesn’t really do much.

miek

It’s a spiky barrier, which inherently makes it have to cost a lot because barriers aren’t usually spiky. Unfortunately, the spike on this is pretty minor (just 1 net) and the numbers are otherwise just not good. Kakugo is the common comparison here, and I think the turning wheel comparison is the only way this ever really beats kakugo overall.

neuropantser

Maybe in a world where the new Parasite scaled to ice strength, but we do not live in that world.

dr00

Original Netrunner had a lot of different Deal 1 net damage; End the run barriers of varying strengths and costs, and I always thought it was rather unfortunate that we only got Wall of Thorns’ 8 cost and 5 strength instead of any of the cheaper ones. But in the current meta, cheap taxing ice isn’t as necessary, but also more importantly, Kakugo and Paperclip exist. Envelope has a stronger facecheck potential, but Kakugo has a much more reliable tax on the Runner for getting in, and Paperclip breaks Envelope cleanly for 2 credits.

CritHitd20

Envelope has to be examined next to Kakugo, and it sadly fails due to the unconditionality of Kakugo’s damage tax. This isn’t a good facecheck ice either when compared to the fantastic in-faction Sentries and Code Gates, so I’d steer clear of this one. It’s not a bad card, just outclassed.

Inactivist

Why this isn’t called Wall of Slightly Fewer Thorns Than Previously Estimated I’ll never understand. FFG just leaving these flavour wins on the table.

Mwanza City Grid

CrushU

Okay now this card is nuts. Putting it in HQ is going to be the most common case, and PE likes it the most. I do want to see someone put it in R&D, the Runner hits a Deep Data Mining, and kills themselves accessing 8 cards. The only thing that might keep this from being playable is that Runners are pretty likely to not run HQ if you have an Upgrade installed, now.

greyfield

OH BABY am I jazzed for this. Definitely the first-level thought on this card, lots of traps plus PE/Argus, is a sound one. If you want to really get fancy, however, consider it in Haarpsichord. As Crush said, odds are good that you don’t run a server you suspect is holding this unless you’re really confident it’s the path to winning, because 8+ credits for doing nothing is a ridiculous rate, but then you’ve blanked one of your centrals. It may be this card isn’t quite as bananas as it looks, simply because you have to factor the human-psychology element into it – that is, how often are you actually going to hit its highs (tons of cash, traps firing everywhere, etc.) versus its lows (er, losing the game)? How well does your opponent understand those risks/rewards, and how dependent is your deck on them making the wrong decision? Unquestionably it’ll get played. Whether it’s actually revolutionary is TBD. B+/A-.

Ion_Fox

Ok so the fun aspect of putting this baby in Haarp was already mentioned, but I think this may have a real home in Punitive Palana decks. The things you need to win are credits, and for the Runner to steal 3 pointers at inopportune times. This does both, and even has the bonus of making it more likely for them to accidentally bump into a Snare!, and the downside can also be mitigated by Bacterial Programming, which you were probably already playing anyway. Life just isn’t fun without a little risk.

Saan

This card is the nuts. It both discourages the Runner from running your servers, and punishes them when they do. Include cards to make the “downside” a secret upside (you’re Jinteki, it’s not hard). Seems great in Punitive builds, since it gives you cash and them additional accesses. I think this card will certainly show up in decks.

miek

The secret tech with this card is to get Metamorph + Marcus Batty to install it on Archives. Suddenly you’re gaining a LOT of money every time they run there (which tbh, they probably won’t). IG maybe?

Whiteblade111

This is maybe good in a few niche builds (PE, Punitive Palana) but is absolute garbage outside of that. Making money is fun, yes, but you can still lose the game with a massive credit lead. In the early game when the Runner is vulnerable, it might be good to have the Runner access five, take some net, and then you make 10, but in the late game this card is game losingly bad. On HQ, you’re now giving a ton of decks that have limited HQ multiaccess (Pirate Hayley, Geist) a chance to see all of HQ. On RnD, you’re giving everyone a Deep Data Mining. How many Regass Anarch builds are on limited multiaccess, and would love to see more cards? Never mind that Punitive is a shaky win condition at best, and can be turned off by a credit lead, or any meat damage prevention. Overall it’s an interesting effect, but not being able to turn it off in the late game kills any viability this card has.

CritHitd20

This is an irreplaceable effect that offers hilarious consequences in PE, Argus, and Haarpsichord. You get rich and if you don’t immediately lose the Runner likely gets flatlined through some form of Punitive/tag/damage. It has cool synergies with so many existing cards and I can’t wait to see what people come up with. These are all unfortunately low-strength strategies prior to Mwanza’s printing, but this region definitely pushes these to exciting new levels.

Standard Procedure

CrushU

Sweeps Week, is that you? You really let yourself go…

The main thing holding this back is the Successful Run requirement on it. Without that, I could see some situations working out for you, especially with Azmari. The only thing interesting that it does is reveal the Grip, allowing you to land perfect Salem’s Hospitality if you choose.

greyfield

I’m actually not as bothered by the successful-run trigger as by its regular inconsistency. You need to hit two cards for this to matter, which means you need to have a really good sense of their hand, which is easiest in Azmari except Azmari doesn’t need the money because it’s Azmari. Fun combos to be had with Salem’s Hospitality, though. C+.

Saan

This seems pretty nice for decks playing Scarcity of Resources, seeing as after a couple turns you can just play it and call for the resources that have been piling up in the Runner’s grip. Outside of that, it seems like it might be a little too inconsistent.

dr00

I can’t see any way to make this very consistent in a vacuum, but with all the bounce-to-grip cards this cycle and Scarcity of Resources, the Corp can be reasonably sure what the runner has on hand. If you guess correctly at 2 cards, it’s a better Sure Gamble since you can play it from 0 credits and get to reveal the Runner’s grip. Requiring a successful run is pretty big though. I feel like this was probably designed to help out Harishchandra, but it’s time to let that one go.

CritHitd20

There are four Runner card types in the game, and on average a modern Runner deck is over 75% events and resources. With no knowledge of your opponent’s hand based on the way they have played you’re still likely to get a return of 4 credits by blindly naming event or resource, which is already fantastic. People are going to be frustrated by the run condition on this card, but I’m confident that the runners in Netrunner will run and this will be a triviality for decks that want this effect. Definitely examine this as an economic option for decks that want more operation economy and cannot optimally utilize the asset economy that this cycle has introduced.

tvaduva

If your opponent is Wu with a lot of Origamis on the board, call “program” when you play this. If it’s Adam with Net Chip, it’s either “resource” or “event” for the bigger payout.

Intake

greyfield

Like a lot of the cards in this pack, I feel like this is powerful in the right situation, but that situation is so narrow that I struggle to say whether this card is a real role-player. Unless you can capitalize on returning the program/resource, this is just a speed bump, and setting up that capitalization seems really hard. I’m not seeing it. C-.

Saan

The trash of 0 is never amazing, but this card can provide a nice tempo loss to the Runner if you are playing a tempo-oriented deck. Unfortunately, it occurs at the place where it is least helpful: after the Runner is accessing cards. This might be great in a HHN deck in a meta where high-link runners don’t exist.

dr00

This is a great tempo card that synergises with all the NBN tempo-destroying cards this cycle. Trace 4 is quite high, even against a Power Tap linkrunner if you manage to fire it early. The main problem is you don’t actually want the Runner to hit this early as there’s a much lower chance they’ll have a program installed. If you can land the trace, bouncing an expensive program can be nice, but I think the best-use case is hitting a powered-up Turning Wheel.

CritHitd20

All of the ambush upgrades from this cycle have the same prerequisites towards being competitive, and thus far they sadly aren’t. I cannot imagine a scenario where this pays off its slot; in central servers with its trash of 0 it is much less threatening than Archangel, and in remotes it doesn’t offer any meaningful interactions that could occur mid-access. Its stock rises in CtM, but there are so many powerful cards for CtM right now that I couldn’t see a cut where Intake strengthens their game plan. It is best when the Corp is ahead on board, and that is uninspiring.

tvaduva

The comparison to Archangel is apt. It doesn’t cost anything to trigger it, but the trace is lower by two. The targets for this are limited and is one less influence, but it can’t be broken (although there are few circumstances where Archangel is broken for significantly less than the trace). It comes down to if you want this kind of an effect in ice that can force an encounter from HQ/R&D or as an upgrade depending on the synergies of your deck.

Masvingo

CrushU

Hilarious in Builder of Nations, and I think unplayable otherwise.

greyfield

I actually think this card is decent. Note that its floor is a Wall of Static, which while never impressive isn’t terrible. In SSO, this card will be really annoying. It definitely feels more consistently useful than, say, Fire Wall, and that card’s a role player. B-.

Ion_Fox

Remember the last time you saw Quicksand? Yeah neither do I. I will say though that this definitely goes into ye olde SSO decks and the first time the Runner sees this, it’s already a 4 credit tax for clippy (assuming you run the public 5/3s build) which just gets bigger, so it’s outrageously good there, even if it is rather niche.

Saan

This really only goes in SSO and maybe BoN, and is pretty terrible elsewhere. In SSO, though, it’s actually fantastic, so that’s something.

I feel like this is a problem with Weyland design right now, and maybe with the card design in general for the last couple cycles. Cards are severely pushed toward the IDs if the cycle, and aren’t just good cards. Last cycle, most cards for Weyland were Jemison cards, and not really Weyland cards. This time it’s SSO cards, and not really Weyland cards. I’m hoping Boggs shakes it up next cycle as to cards being more generally inclusive in decks, especially within Weyland as a faction.

miek

I actually think this is probably the best card in what is mostly an underwhelming pack. The upper limits on this are huge, and it even comes with a counter itself. That means you’ve got possible Trick of Light style synergies built in. It feeds Mass Commercialisation on its own. It laughs at derez strategies. I suspect even decks like Tennin will be choosing this card a lot, as well as the obvious targets like BoN and SSO.

dr00

At worst, it’s a Wall of Static. For SSO, Priority Construction, or Tennin Institute, or the myriad other ways to cheat out advancements on ice, the value raises a lot. Even Sherman and the new Laamb will have to boost once before trying to break all subs. Morningstar’s fixed strength is enough, but the Runner still has to install an 8-cost program first.

CritHitd20

It’s cool in the goofy Weyland IDs that care about advanceable ice and fine in decks that don’t. It joins the ranks of ice that can punish Lady if needed, but since it starts at a base investment of Wall of Static it’s never going to be horrible if that effort doesn’t make sense. Good ice, not what Weyland needed, but it’s fine to exist as is.

Overseer Matrix

greyfield

Remember the time-old rule that cards in your hand or deck, or protecting them, aren’t “in” that server and thus won’t trigger off this. Therefore, this is strictly a remote-only card. This is an impressive effect, but again I struggle to come up with what deck exactly wants it, especially since they took the obvious step and made it really expensive for CTM to swallow it up. Presumably, then, this is a Hot Tubs card. And that deck is already tight as heck. So… I dunno. Maybe? C.

Saan

In my Gagarin Tax Firm deck, I struggled to find a way to make Commercial Banker’s Group more than just a card to get 2 credits and get immediately trashed next turn. Tubs gets it because of the HHN threat, but it’s hard to get to live otherwise. This card basically adds a limited Controlling the Message ability to your server, letting that CBMs money flow free, or exact a high tax.

miek

Seems really good to me. Combine this with Warroid Trackers, MVT, Prisec, Product Placement in any amount and you’ve got a server that’s pretty nasty to play the NGO or no NGO game, even with not much ice.

CritHitd20

Traditionally decks that stack a bunch of protective upgrades with kill packages in a remote suffer from poor economy, porous central servers, and all of the general weaknesses associated with trying to BOOM! a runner. Overseer Matrix is a card that rewards playing such a strategy, but I’m not convinced that this isn’t what makes them powerful. Even after constructing a server with plural Prisecs and Forced Connections, you’re still going to have to spend a real amount of credits to resolve those upgrades, and the Runner can just not trash the cards not named Mumbad Virtual Tour. It is a very powerful effect so I’d keep this effect in the back of my mind, but I don’t think you’ll see this very often outside of the Jnet casual lobby, where it will be everywhere.

Final Pack Thoughts

CrushU

Jinteki and Shaper are the biggest gains from this pack. Criminal and Weyland continue to get Not Much, though NBN and HB didn’t seem to get anything terribly interesting here. Anarch gets ‘fair’ Parasite, and Freedom looks to shake some things up a little, but I suspect he won’t have any lasting meta impacts.

greyfield

Far fewer obvious winners here than Dragon. I should caveat this by saying this pack seems awesome for hard-core brewers – especially those people who will never give up on Adam, brain damage, massive Shaper rigs, or any other numbers of pipe dreams. Shine on, you crazy diamonds. Other than a few small upgrades in places like Remote Enforcement, the only card I expect to see make a lasting impact is Mwanza City Grid.

dr00

Agreed with greyfield. I think there are a lot of sleeper hits in this pack that need just the right crazy deck strategy to see their full potential. Not as meta-defining/warping as the previous packs, but lots of good stuff here with solid potential.

CritHitd20

There is a lot here that encourages deckbuilders to move in new directions as opposed to enhancing existing strategies, and some of it is certainly worth exploring. What is disappointing is that corps really needed some powerful new win conditions in this cycle, and this pack doesn’t offer in that department, but there are some very strong new Runner cards. Logic Bomb, Freedom, Standard Procedure, and Jackpot! will all see tournament play, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Remote Enforcement, Masvingo, and Trypano show up at various points.

That’s it from us for this pack, stay tuned for our review of a strange new pack that we have no way of knowing the contents of. Probably weeks away, who knows? Now that the article has ended, take 1 net for every card in your grip, thanks.