It is the epitome of jank - but imagine a world in which the Old Hollywood Grid protected your R&D, your HQ, and a remote. Imagine raising the trash cost through various cards. Imagine a world in which the runner simply isn't allowed to score anything unless he comes in and destroys things.

Destruction is a thing - but using rez cost mitigation (like the Root), Marcus Batty an Caprice to keep a runner out or make him pay dearly for the run, Ash to make it hard to steal... this card has distinct possiblities, left to brighter minds than mine to find. One way or another, it has the potential for significant utility - up there with SanSan.

Oh, man - this card.

Turn every failed trap, every mushin'd-and-avoided thing into a GRNDL Refinery? That isn't shabby at all.

At one influence, it's splashable - able to turn a PE trap deck into an economic engine.

What's not to love, here?

It's worth noting that this card doesn't give you a tag - it /is/ the tag.

That is to say, when this card goes, so does the tag it generates. Until the corp destroys it, you are immune to meat damage, period - and if it does, the tag it gave you is gone.

This is definitely playable.

I've read reviews of this card all over the 'net, and watched the debate go back and forth about how good it 'might be', or how good it 'probably isn't' - but there's not been a lot of commentary about how it actually plays.

Please remember, I'm no world-class player. That said:

This card is far, far better than it seems - especially in shaper, where it can be situationally pulled out and applied to the game at hand. This card does three very nasty things:

1) It is a run event with the amazing phrase 'you may' right in the center of the card.

This means that the card neatly circumvents Enhanced Login Protocol, which is always nice. It also means that the corp isn't entirely certain whether you intend to use the card for the duration of your run, and they can't be certain of your target. They have to decide whether to rez all the things, or watch their carefully constructed servers slowly lose things that have cost them clicks and tempo to install.

And, if they do rez? You access R&D anyway.

2) It allows you to (fairly safely) cause the corp to remove potential traps or other nasty surprises when you can't afford to face-check or gut-check a card in a server.

Essentially, you can return these items to R&D, where a shaper can deal with them at their leisure. Just not sure what that card is? Torn between a Snare and an unadvanced 3/1 for game point? Just go stuff it back in R&D and buy yourself both time and tempo.

3) It causes suprisingly large tempo hits to the corp.

Because the card goes to R&D, and not HQ, the card is basically 'lost'. Whatever that is is now mixed in with whatever the corp has still got to work through - if it was vital to the corp's strategy, it's likely now gone.

And you? You, the runner, you don't lose tempo - if they rez their things, making them invulnerable? You just access cards in R&D anyway, and enjoy the fruits of your successful run.

It's worth noting that this card combos surprisingly well with John Masanori, giving you a dreamers run and a free card, so your own steps don't falter. It has an obvious combo in the overlooked Exploratory Romp, which can let you revoke tokens and pick up something that they've /really/ spent effort working on.

That combo, should it come to pass, is a direct counter to Mushin no-Shin, allowing you to rip off all of the tokens and stuff the card back in R&D without ever bothering to access it.

Having now played the card in a Kit-themed runner deck? It definitely punches suprisingly above its weight class. Once it hits the table, the corp now has limited options - it allows you to work solely in R&D, target remotes, and ensure that the corp has to advance important things lest they simply be drowned in other cards, made available for your heavy R&D access. It shines against Personal Evolution and Replicating Perfection decks, and does very well with NEH, at least in local matchups.

It's definitely more useful than it seems - especially in faction, where it's easily tutorable if needed, or ignored if not particularly useful in the current match.

It's interesting, really, that this card is so often ignored, especially with (written during Breaker Bay) the prevalence of Replicating Perfection on the world scene.

Expose is an often underrated mechanic - this of course makes face-checking ICE far safer, and makes things like Self-modifying Code and Clone Chip a bit more interesting during the run. Expose, though, isn't the real reason to use this card.

In the normal turn order, you can't jack out on the first piece of ICE in a server. This card allows you to do just that, to spend a click to see what's there and then leave before it has an opportunity to affect you. Against RP decks, this doesn't save the click for the required run, but does save the cash necessary to interact with that first piece of ICE on the central server you've chosen to attack before turning your attention to more choice targets.

It turbocharges Au Revoir, allowing a runner with a surefit of MU to pull up to three credits for bothering to look at a piece of ICE, making it an interesting potential economic engine.

Most importantly, though, it introduces options - letting you make decisions with fewer corp secrets. Its affect on the game is subtle, and, when used well, can offer interesting synergies, especially in decks where Self-modifying Code is a high influence cost.