Golden

Golden

Golden is a bit of an awkward card that is strongest against high-strength sentries - something that isn't very common in Netrunner at the moment.

Golden is strictly worse than common breakers Mimic and Mongoose for Sentries with strength below 4.

Golden is better than Mongoose for sentries of strength 4-7 if the sentries have less than 3 subs on them. For reference, the common ones there are Cortex Lock, Data Raven, NEXT Gold and Assassin. Golden falters against Ichi 1.0, Vikram 1.0, Archer and Sherlock 2.0 when set against Mongoose.

Against sentries with strength above 7, Golden outperforms [Mongoose...but there's only 2 of those.

Against GS Shrike M2, Golden only wins against Str 5 sentries with <3 subs, and Str 8+ sentries; again, 2 of those exist.

So in conclusion, in most cases, Mongoose or Shrike are better picks. I'd look to those breakers first, and only use Golden if I was worried about Mongoose's limited use clause.

17
That should read Sherlock 2.0, of course. —
Regarding Archer: From a purly 'break it or take it' stand point Golden falters, but using that last ability of Golden on Archer can be particularly devistating if the Corp only has high value agendas left to forfit. —
Aren't Ichi 1.0, Vikram 1.0, Archer and Sherlock 2.0 actually the same to break with both breakers? 6 for Ichi nad Vikram, 8 for Archer and Sherlock? —
Paparazzi

Paparazzi

So this is kind of a pointless card, to my mind. What it's basically saying is 'Butcher Shop and similar decks have to pay 2 and 1 extra to kill you for each copy of this card you have in play'. So it's a tax, I guess? But it's so small and situational that I can't really see it being important. Not great.

17
IMO it's going to be best in Data Leak Reversal decks and the like. It also gives you a little more breathing room to play a Paper Tripping or something to counter a Midseasons. Trashing it still costs a click, and the corp only gets three. —
The real problem with this card is that there are other forms of tag-punishment than meat damage: Closed Accounts or Universal Connectivity Fee come to my mind. —
You can play this in a Data Leak Reversal deck without actually being tagged. This allows you to mill the corp with DLR, but if they trash your paparazzi, you are no longer tagged so they can't scorch you. —
Additionally, it's not unique and you can use Fall Guy and the forthcoming Wireless Net Pavilion to make them spend lots of time and money killing them off. —