Marjanah

Marjanah 0[credit]

Program: Icebreaker - Fracter
Memory: 1 • Strength: 1
Influence: 1

Interface → 2[credit]: Break 1 barrier subroutine. If you made a successful run this turn, this ability costs 1[credit] less to use.

1[credit]: +1 strength.

“You canʼt rule a kingdom by standing still.”
–Zahya Sadeghi
Illustrated by Jack Reeves
Decklists with this card

System Gateway (sg)

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

No rulings yet for this card.

Reviews

Best backup barrier breaker for criminal and shaper. The best barrier breaker belong to anarch, of course. But Marjanah as two things going for it.

First, it cost only 1 influence. Making it an easy backup for barrier breaking.

Second, it cost 0 to install! Amazing!

While is not a very efficient barrier breaker, especially for ices with multiple subroutines like Pharos, you do get a chance to make it more efficient by running something else first.

Thus, if you do not have the influence for a second Paperclip, this fracter will act as a great backup if you draw it before Paperclip. And it will not hurt you to trash it after (remember, is cost you zero to install, aside from the click). Furthermore, it will help you against Wraparound.

I really like the art, it is funny and endearing. The quote is good. I just cannot fathom what the name mean and how it fit with the card (or the art, or the quote). I still smile everytime it appear on the board.

(System Update 2021 era)
3864

In Arabian Nights, I think Marjanah is the daughter-in-law of Ali Baba. Previous cards like Scheherazade and BOOM! are also named from Arabian Nights.

If you're influence poor, it's not a bad backup for criminal, (I mean it's not great - it will cost you a few credits more for every barrier than an anarch fracter, but that's why we spend influence. :D) But Shaper's in-faction fracters are, as a rule, generally better than criminals. So influence-starved shapers will probably just use a shaper fracter, rather than importing this.

I like this as an early game fracter and if you're running Poison Vial then that can make up for some of it's downsides if you need to use it without a successful first run on something with a few subs. In asset spam games a lot of the time you hardly need to break ice anyway and paying 1 extra credit going through a ping or something isn't a big deal - using Curupira will only pay off after you've been through a similar barrier (without getting the discount) 3 times and that costs tempo/which might be worth more than 3 cash anyway if you have a lot of successful run triggers

Marjanah is a bad card - unplayably bad - and that's fine within the context of Gateway where the ice is relatively tame and your breaker options are twofold.

There is however one use for Marjanah outside of System Gateway and that's if you're running an AI-only build and expect to see Wraparound but also don't already have an answer in your deck.

So if you're in this one specific situation and you're one influence short for Boomerang, and you really can't afford Gauss or Corroder, then please get in touch; I'd like to hear from you.

(Midnight Sun Booster Pack era)
88