Economic Warfare

Economic Warfare 0[credit]

Operation: Gray Ops
Influence: 2

Play only if the Runner made a successful run during their last turn.

If the Runner has at least 4[credit], they lose 4[credit].

He found it odd that three frozen yogurt shops, all less than a block from his, opened within the same week.
Illustrated by Michał Miłkowski
Decklists with this card

Down the White Nile (dtwn)

#36 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Rulings

No rulings yet for this card.

Reviews

I have a feeling this is going to become a staple pretty fast, and is universally useful almost everywhere.

Pros

-4 credits is basically a reverse Sure Gamble

Comes without the clunkiness of Reversed Accounts

Run condition will be easy to satisfy

Can be part of a larger combo- Hard-Hitting News becomes easier to land, and a single use of Ewar saves you 8 credits over a double Punitive Counterstrike play

Can be used in pairs of double the pain, or kick the runner while they're down, especially in Spark Agency: Worldswide Reach.

Brutal in conjunction with the "-6" cards like Bryan Stinson, Observe and Destroy, and Manta Grid/Nihongai Grid.

Cons

Clogs up the hand while waiting for other pieces, may lead to wastage- 2 is probably the most copies you want

Overall this is a very scary card and will probably change the runner's game once they see it.

(Down the White Nile era)
In terms of game impact it's not that terribly great, but it's a decent impact for a very low cost. I expect at least Weyland to pack 2 of them by default. —
This makes me think of something involving Spark Agency. Adding a surprise tax to the runner after they run, and then kicking them while they're down with that 1 credit tax can open up pretty huge scoring windows. —

By itself, this is a reverse Hedge Fund, and could be justified on that basis. But it is wildly more effective than Hedge Fund for setting up trace operations, usually Hard-Hitting News. A Hedge Fund allows you to spend up to $4 more to seal a trace, but any money spent then evaporates. Economic Warfare saves you up to $4 on what you need to spend to seal the trace, and the runner takes a $4 loss which does NOT evaporate. The credit swing of Economic Warfare on a HHN turn is usually $8, which is excellent.

Tactics: Hard-Hitting News players will probably hold this card ~exclusively for a HHN turn. If your deck doesn't have HHN, Economic Warfare should usually be played on first opportunity. (Early losses compound and make it harder for the runner to play economic cards like Daily Casts and Sure Gamble. Draining their credits early may even force several clicks-for-credits which is more impactful than a later $4 loss on a runner that's already set up).

(Parhelion era)