(Evie here: This card review was contributed by NotAgain, make sure to follow him on everything.)

HB glacier in full swing and no longer restricted by 12 influence either! I've always felt Isaac was a very good card, it just needed a deck and this is where you slap in 3x and feel good about it. This is very much purple ag and knowing how busted and annoying ag was, this feels so much more with stegodon, triestes (and god forbid some prison build that no one is cooking certainly). This definitely needs more bioroid support though, the question is will we see it?

Additionally this also warps future bioroid design space, that does seem like a downside but I feel the addition of a glacier ID that doesn't rely on advanceable ice is worth the trade off.

I see this falling into a tier above niche utility card. Not high above niche utility card, but I think it’ll see play outside of tech for Anoetic Void and Manegarm Skunkworks. When? Not often, but maybe every now and then as a pseudo-Bankhar on servers you know have a barrier somewhere. Also I guess as protection against that new HB identity.

They reprinted Biotic Labor. It’s a word for word reprint. Even the influence is the same.

2 stars.

I’m sorry chat, we’re cooked. We’re so fucking cooked. They printed better Maxx in Jinteki. If you thought drawing 1 additional card every turn was strong, how about drawing 2 additional cards each turn? On top of that, here is every single card that enables AU Co. That’s a lot! That’s some numbers! And you can stockpile counters! And Your Digital Life is only 2 influence! Literally the only way this deck loses is if Jinteki as a faction turns out to not have the tools to play regular Netrunner.

If reg Jinteki becomes a thing, this deck will be at the forefront and it will be terrifying. It might still be terrifying anyways.

Note

The original version of this review mistakenly said that AU Co. trashing 1 of the 3 cards it looks at counts as trashing a card from HQ. It does not. The card is still in R&D when getting trashed. Sorry about that.

What is the value of adding the phrase "draw a card" to a card? What I mean is: imagine you had a card that was running a bit weak. How much would it increase the power level solely from slapping "draw a card" to the very end of it? How much value does it give?

In Hearthstone, "draw a card" is worth approximately 1.5 mana,¹, and something I'd hear is that Blizzard would make a card, realize it was under or overpowered in a way that can't be fixed by tweaking numbers, and would solve this problem by sticking "draw a card" or "discover a card" on it.

Anyways, all of this is a really long winded way of saying that Side Hustle is too weak. The numbers are too small and drawing a card is not enough to make up for it. Maybe it'll see play just because everyone will be too desperate for money with no Daily Casts, but who can say for sure.

The SBT groundhog saw its shadow and we all know what that means: 2 more years of Hoshiko¹!

That’s right, the ban list for elevation came out and while they thought it was prudent to go for Creative Commission (valid), Daily Casts (interesting but go off), and Moshing (boo), Hoshiko will continue her reign as the de facto best ID in Netrunner until Ashes rotates out I guess.

What does this have to do with the new kid on the block? It means our dearly beloved Ryō “Phoenix” Ōno will probably see about as much play as Seb and Esâ do now; not much but still above fringe. It’s a shame because I really love the vibes Ryō is giving off. They’re Anarch ID that rewards you for playing aggressively and tanking ice, and I really like the danger that comes from forcing you tank a to subroutine and succeed at the run. Ryō feels like Anarch at its most Anarch. Unfortunately great flavor is still worse than a massive pile of draw that enables whatever strategy you want to do.

If Hoshiko ever gets quick banned for being Hoshiko, Ryō goes up to 4 stars.

I really don’t know how to feel about this card. It’s exceptional on turn 1, giving you the entire turn in one click, but I think it’s kind of dogshit outside of turns 1 or 2. I’d ask myself, “Would people be willing to run three copies of this card to maximize their chance of getting a free turn in turn 1?” but the answer is immediately and obviously “Yes”. We’ve seen time and time again in multiple card games that people are willing to trade a lot to get a really strong first turn.

I’m going to remain mixed on this card until it either sees massive play or no play. I’m currently betting on no play, but I’m fully accepting the reality where it’s run in every single HB deck.

Maybe just read Veronica’s Writeup on it. She’s got good thoughts on this card.

The online TCG Hearthstone has a statistic called drawn winrate. Drawn winrate, to keep things simple, is a measure of what the expected winrate of a deck is in games where you have drawn this card. Another way of viewing this can be, "How much more likely would I be to win if I drew this card right now?"¹ All of this brings me to Rashida Jaheem, so let's talk about her.

One of the great failings of Rashida Jaheem is, I would venture to say, she has a high drawn winrate. An early Rashida can really give you the gas you could ever need, and then some, and if you never draw her, you can find yourself struggling to get the cards and money you need to get your game plan going. Now imagine the drawn winrate for two Rashidas, or three Rashidas. I think you can see my point. Rashida Jaheem is just one card with a lot of concentrated swing potential, and whether or not you can draw that one card early enough can often be the difference between winning or losing. I think it can be easy to say that Null Signal does not want to repeat the mistakes of Fantasy Flight and print a card that puts that much winning into a single package.

Anthill Excavation Contract is, in my opinion, an attempt to print a worse Rashida. When played like Rashida, it only gives you 1 credit and 1 draw, which isn't great, but the turn afterwards, it will give you 4 more credits and a second draw, which is a bit better. Is it as immediately good as Rashida? No. But I think that's the point. Rashida was too good, and this is worse. This should result in slower games, with less swing value from drawing an early Anthill Excavation Contract, while still giving the corp some gas.

Will Anthill see play outside of Weyland? I doubt it. I think there'll be some decks that reach for it, but it's very likely that it'll stay a Weyland-only card, albeit a very commonly played one.

Cheap facecheck dropped. We’re losing Ice Wall, so this will be appreciated. I have no idea if they’re going to print a replacement for Border Control as well, but cheap ice always see play, and it doesn’t hurt that this is immune to the currently (and likely futurely) very powerful Arruaceiras Crew.

Huh. Weyland is losing only one good code gate, and that’s Hortum. Is this playable over other code gates? I don’t think so. It’ll see play in the sense that every new Elevation card will see play, but I don’t think it’s going to make a splash. Cool art though.