Fear and Loathing - Card review

 What? No. We can't stop here. This is bat country.

So, we finally saw the new spoilers from Fear and Loathing and I want to review the cards. As usual I will use 6 points to assess the data pack.

1. Oh my God, this card is so bad but can be used as a beer mat.

2. A card for subject decks or one which will have it's small moments.

3. A respectable card which we will see around. It is useful, certainly not for every deck.

4. A great card. Rock solid and supports present deck variants.

5. An excellent card which you have to use, unless you don't have a good reason not to do so.

6. A meta altering card, a must have like Jackson Howard.

I will award credits as points from 1-6.

Alpha and Omega:

A flexible, expensive AI Breaker which is limited to the outermost and innermost piece of ICE. A 3 ICE heavy server will force you to use another breaker which limits the use of this this card at the moment. Sure, it costs 3 credits to install 3 ICE but that's affordable. And 14 credits for a runner is something to consider although personal Workshop and Test Run plus Scavenge could get it faster and/ or cheaper. We will see if those 2 cards will find their way into decks with all 3 other types of ICE breakers.

Blackguard:

An expensive but still very powerful card if you play as much expose cards as possible (Lemuria, Infiltration etc.). It is very expensive and needs no further preparation. 11 Credits is expensive but can cause serious trouble in mid and end game for the corp. I am not sure if it will replace Desperado and it's value but I will definitely build a deck around it.

Blackmail: 

Wow, this card is a killer. Netrunner is coming to a point where bad publicity plays a major role and I predict that Blackmail will have a huge impact on the whole meta. If more cards will be released in the future which may cause the corp to take a bad publicity it will be even stronger. You could run a server, the ICE causes bad publicity and you could jack out and run again with this card to avoid other ICE to get rezzed. Play this with expose effects and you will be able to bring the corp to tilt.

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Blue Level Clearance:

I don't like double operations not very much but that's a solid card which you could play after some fast advance tricks to restock your HQ and to gain 2 credits. Nothing special but useful.

Cybersolutions Mem Chip:

Akamatsu costs 1, Dyson costs 3 and now we have to pay 4 for 2 MU to save deck space. If you need 2 MU it will be useful to put 3 in your deck but a combination of Akamatsu and Dyson provides more flexibility. If the number of programs you really (!) need will increase it can be helpful. I don't see that at the moment.

Executive Wiretap:

I tried to use Expert Schedule Analyser (which allows you to expose the Corp's hand). I cannot make up a situation where I want to spend 4 credits and 2 clicks just to glimpse at the corps hand. Stupid card.

Restoring Face

Good Idea and maybe playable after Honor and Profit has been released but at the moment you have only really bad or awesome syops, executives and clones like Jackson Howard, Akitaro Watanabe or Isabel McGuire so if you really need the bad publicity to be removed you have to rely on the few possibilities existing at the moment.

Yagura

I like Yagura for the early game. It's cheap and the runner does not know if you are bluffing or not. But if you put one card to the bottom of R&D the next one may be an agenda so be careful to play it. It fits into the future style of "gamble - Jinteki - gameplay".

GRNDL Refinery:

This card need to be in play for one round to make it worth the clicks in comparison to Melange Mining Corp but I like it. The runner must choose if he runs a strong server to trash it. If he does you won't loose much but he will. If he does not run you could get 16 credits in 2 turns. Awesome. I like the card.

GRNDL:

Already, here we go. At first I was impressed and I guess the card is still good but it's like a scored Hostile Takeover without the agenda point and 5 influence less. Weyland: BABW can generate over 10 credits in the first round easily so I don't see the necessity to play this ID, especially with 5 influence less.

 

Hemorrhage:

Noise, Keyhole and Hemorrhage are really putting the thumb on on the corp and the savior action of Jackson Howard but the click you need to use it will slow it down. We will see how balanced the card is. Keyhole run, install parasite, use Hemorrhage and run archive can be pretty strong.

Market Research:

Tag me style will be penalized much more and NBN already good tagging options will cause the card to replace Character Assassination. A 4/3 Agenda is awesome for NBN and Astroscript will be more dangerous than before.

Quest Completed:

Nasty card and awesome flavor but can ruin a corps day. Similar to Notoriety but no guaranteed Agenda point. I don't like the card. It is so situation dependent that I don't want to put it into my deck.

Toshiyaki Sakai:

Personally I like the whole gamble style gameplay of Jinteki. It requires a totally different style to play and it can cause you to win flawlessly or loose. With 2 influence you can splash it in other decks too. maybe Weyland. Replace it with a 3 pointer in and play Punitive Counterstrike if the runner steals it or score it next turn.

Strongbox:

I played against several click denial decks but this card will definitely get trashed the same turn the runner accesses the server. usually you don't run last click versus HB so it may happen you still have enough clicks left to snitch the Agenda. I guess this card will sometimes help you to score an Agenda but I would not use valuable deck space for it.

Subliminal Messaging:

Nobody should underestimate drip economy. A huge boon is that you can wait and play the card if the runner has not made a run last turn. Criminals who run a lot won't allow you to play the card that often but you will still have the chance to do so. If you play 3 you can always get them back on your hand and use those cards to reduce the probability to draw an agenda from HQ. I suppose this card has the potential to be an auto include.

Tallie Perrault:

Let's take a look at all operations:

Grey Ops:

Big Brother, Power Shutdown, Closed Accounts, Freelancer, Invasion of Privacy, Neural EMP, Subliminal Messaging

Black Ops:

Hellion Alpha Test, Scorched Earth, Punitive Counterstrike

Some of these cards are only played to win the game so you won't be able to make use of your bad publicity. Nevertheless it is an interesting card. Let's see how often we will be able to distribute bad publicity.

Vulcan Coverup:

Awesome. I get an agenda point and can deliver meat damage to annoy the runner, potentially flatline him or to soften up the Plascrete although experienced runners will discard 2 cards and leave the carapace intact. It still can interfere with the runners plans which is always desirable. If you can score a Cleaners before this one it is getting really nasty.

Wraparound:

Good ICE. Cheap and has the potential to be more resistant to parasite attacks and AI ICE breakers if no fracter is installed. I pay 2 and you need 2 clicks to use Crypsis and 8 credits is simply stunning. Will die immediately if a fracter is installed but that's not the purpose of this card. I love it.

Conclusion

I don't think that this datapack is a very good one. We got a few good cards like Blackmail, Wraparound, Subliminal Messaging and the rest is just average. A lot of cards will find their ways into theme decks and people will try to use them with different success. Some cards may increase in value later if bad publicity becomes more and more a threat. I would recommend buying it.

Pictures:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4354

http://www.hark.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/fearandloathing.jpeg