Sadaka

Sadaka 2[credit]

Ice: Trap
Strength: 3
Influence: 2

[subroutine] Look at the top 3 cards of R&D and either arrange them in any order or shuffle R&D. You may draw 1 card.

[subroutine] You may trash 1 card in HQ. If you do, trash 1 resource. Trash Sadaka.

Illustrated by Mariusz Siergiejew
Decklists with this card

The Devil and the Dragon (tdatd)

#73 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Rulings
  • Updated 2024-03-15

    ANCUR UFAQ 22 [Michael Boggs]

    If the second subroutine on Sadaka resolves, does the Corp still have to trash Sadaka if they do not trash a card in HQ to trash a resource?

    Yes. "Trash Sadaka" is independent of the other parts of the subroutine.

Reviews

Trap ice are special. Sadaka is better than most because it has a strenght of 3, making it less likely to be affected by Aumakua (the most popular AI). Sadaka is also the only trap that require the corp to sacrifice a card in order to get its effect, on top of having a rez cost of 2.

Before the ban list, when Film Critic was widely played, Sadaka had a superb value. Allowing you to trash Film Critic. Now that Film Critic is banned, there are less amazing ressources to trash, but still worth it. Trashing Hunting Ground, The Turning Wheel or Professionnal Contacts is a major loss for the runner. If you are lucky, trashing a fully unspent Liberated Account will cost a lot for the runner.

Sadaka is also pretty good for R&D protection, by allowing you to rearrange the top 3 and maybe put a Snare! on top. You'll also be able to draw a card, which will give you some tempo.

So, it has its place, and like all trap ice, it serves as a deterrent for runner, because the runner doesn't know the ice until they encounter it. It is a well design card.

One thing to make it better : give it some flavor text. Right now, the only thing I found was that Sadaka, in japanese, mean sure/definite. Some flavor would be welcome here.

(Uprising era)
4249

Sadaka, like many traps, don't act like normal ice, but instead function as a weird kind of operation that fires when the runner runs on it. Since it doesn't end the run, it won't protect any servers, and it trashes itself so it's a one-time use, just like an operation.

The only key difference between Sadaka and an operation that has the subroutines in it's text box is consistency. Operations you play are resolved immediately, whereas Sadaka requires the runner to run on the server in order for it to trigger.

If you start to analyze the efficiency, you'll realize it's actually really darn good. This costs 2 credits, a card, and a click. First sub gives you back a card, while the second sub has you discard a card to trash a card from the runner. The first sub makes Sadaka card neutral. So where did our click, two credits, and an HQ trash go? Well, it went into trashing one of the runner's resources! Suppose you trash a daily casts with 6 credits on it using Sadaka. Then you've essentially traded a card and a click for 4 credits. That's the same efficiency as hedge fund! (Of course, this is assuming a few things like runner credits/clicks/cards are of equal value to your own, which probably isn't entirely true). Trash anything larger like The Artist, Professional Contacts, Red Team, Liberated Account, or Assimilator and you're coming out on top by a ridiculous margin. While this doesn't seem that likely, keep in mind that you get to choose which resource to trash, and the runner will likely build up quite a few resources (Assuming they aren't going tag me). All this doesn't consider the additional value you get from this being a facedown ice that has bluffing value, and might eat the expose of a Deuces Wild, something Hedge Fund never could've done.

I think the best way to think about Sadaka The efficiency of this card is nuts, it just needs you to be able to get the runner to actually run the ice decently soon. In a sense, it's like you are investing a card and a click to give you higher returns, but significantly later. It's like if hedge fund read "Net 6 credits after 2 turns." I'm not sure if that's better than the current hedge fund, since it means you recover slower and there is a window of weakness where you've invested without return. If you think you can get the runner to run Sadaka consistently and soon, this could be a valuable include - albeit as an funky value operation, not a piece of ice. Something like Jinteki: Restoring Humanity could be a good home for this card, allowing you to put it on archives which will likely be ran.

(System Update 2021 era)

Worth noting that the most obvious place to put it is R&D, as it will very effectively protect your agendas if it fires. The economic impact is often significant of course, but high variance and situational enough that I'm not sure how useful a comparison Hedge Fund is. That card is good because its efficiency is predictable, consistent and instant. Also, making the runner broke is quite different to making money for yourself. In a world with no money at all, the runner is usually going to be quite happy because it won't cost anything to run. By contrast, Hedge Fund will put you in range to rez Anansi.