Adrian Seis

♦ Adrian Seis 0[credit]

Upgrade: Psi - Clone - Sysop
Trash: 2
Influence: 4

Whenever the Runner makes a successful run on this server, play a Psi Game. (Players secretly bid 0–2[credit]. Then each player reveals and spends their bid.) If the bids differ, the Runner cannot access cards other than this upgrade for the remainder of that run. If the bids match, the Runner cannot access this upgrade for the remainder of that run.

When your turn ends, you may move this upgrade to the root of another server.

Illustrated by João Queiroz
Decklists with this card

The Automata Initiative (tai)

#46 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Rulings
  • Updated 2023-10-04

    If the Runner is prevented from spending credits, for example from the subroutine on RSVP, what bid can the runner make during Adrian Seis’s Psi Game?

    The runner can only choose to bid 0 credits.

Reviews

Sometimes we write flavour text for a card before we know if there will be space for it or not. This is one such card, so here I present the flavour text for posterity:

Itʼs not that he can predict the future, itʼs just that heʼs seen it all before.

(Parhelion era)
386

Adrian Seis keywords the Psi Game!

Templatings:

  1. You and the Runner secretly spend 0[$], 1[$], or 2[$]. Reveal spent credits. If you and the Runner spent a different number of credits, …; otherwise, …. (cf. Mganga)

  2. Play a Psi Game. (Players secretly bid 0–2[$]. Then each player reveals and spends their bid.) If the bids differ, …. If the bids match, ….

The new templating is more readable, much more skimmable, and even has the same length as the old templating (similar word/character counts), counting the reminder text (as @Saracenar said on Stimhack).

forum.stimhack.com


Design: I like that, for the Runner, a psigame “loss” (ie. differing bids) is mostly-but-not-strictly worse than a psigame “win” (ie. matching bids), since that's when--and only when--they can trash him. Psi-Sysops (aka. PsyOps?) add a different, bidding-based variance to the intrinsic, shuffle-based variance of HQ/R&D breaches (and for the Runner, to the ignorance-based variance in remote/archival breaches).

I also like Jinteki mobility (on self-move-ing defensive upgrades like this, self-swap-ping gearcheck ice like Tatu-Bola, and so on), which is like Jinteki trickery that's “softened” (with some “encounter opt-out” or “access opt-out”). For example:

  • Midori: You may swap that ice with 1 piece of ice from HQ. (the legerdemain) + The Runner may jack out. (the softener).

  • Toshiyuki Sakai: You may swap this asset with an agenda or asset from HQ. (the prestidigitation) + The Runner can choose not to access the new card. (the loosener).

Compare:

  • Caprice Nisei, the archetypal (and archetyping) defensive psi clone upgrade; although Adrian, unlike Caprice, is still trashable on failure (cf. the defensive bioroid upgrade Ash 2X3ZB9CY).
  • Georgia Emelyov, the original “mobile sysop”: although Adrian is turn-based while Georgia credit-based.

In fact, the Liberation Cycle may have a whole cycle of “nomadic sysop’s” (ie. with When your turn ends, you may move this upgrade to the root of another server.):


(The Automata Initiative era)