Startup Review - Parhelion Era This is good ice. Especially in NBN. It hits all the points I want out of ice.

• Painful Facecheck
• Ends the Run
• Rezzable on the first turn
• Actual costs to break

No other ice in NBN actually meets these criteria. The closest is Ping, which hits the first three, but usually becomes a 1 credit break as soon as the runner has their breakers up. Tollbooth definitely hits three but is expensive enough it often sits there unrezzed. This definitely is painful to rez turn 1, but if you're doing it to a random facecheck, the first subroutine is going to ensure that the runner isn't going to immediately outpace you in economy. I would say it's nice to have a piece of ice that sits between those two and can 'do it all'.

Since I brought up Tollbooth , let's actually compare it to Mes in terms of breakability. If the runner is going to be breaking both subroutines on the Mes, the cost to break is very similar. Of our seven startup decoders, it will cost the same on Cat's Cradle (5 Credits), Gordian Blade (4 Credits), and Unity with 1 or 2 breakers (5 or 4 credits), 1 more credit to break Tollbooth with Abagnale (5/4 Credits), 3 more credits to break Tollbooth with Buzzsaw (7/4 Credits), and 1 more credit to break Mes with Abaasy (5/6 credits). Hyperbaric will cost 1 more to get up to strength to fight Tollbooth and break, then 1 more to break Mes after reaching strength. I don't want to get into the whole world of stuff that breaks them that isn't a decoder, but that extra subroutine will usually be more relevant than the additional strength. Which brings us to the main way Tollbooth is better - the -3 credits on encounter without the corp doing any extra work. Which brings me to the next question - when should you actually advance this Mes?

Advancing a piece of ice gives a huge amount of information. In Startup, there are only four pieces of advanceable ice - Mes, Ice Wall, Hortum, and Pharos. That's not a lot of ice! There are no Sentries or damage or trashing - the runner knows what can happen - the run will end and they will either, lose 6 credits, give the corp 1 credit (assuming 1 counter), or be given one tag. If the corp has 4 or less credits, the worst thing is one the 1 credit to the corp. In addition, that advance will cost the corp 1 credit and 1 click. So given these costs to advancing, when should we advance the Mes? The easiest answer is if we can advance the Mes for free or for profit, which means we're playing as either Pravdivost Consulting: Political Solutions or Weyland Consortium: Built to Last. This also is most likely going to give away the least information, since these IDs are going to run the most advanceable ice anyway (you're not necessarily giving anything away if your opponent is expecting it anyway). If you're playing any other ID outside of WC, ESPECIALLY in NBN, advancing the Mes is basically wasting a turn advertising it to the runner (I know we like ads but I prefer when they pay us, not the other way around). This does give some options for bluffing other ice as the Mes, but that's probably outside the scope of this already long review. So I would almost never advance a facedown Mes, unless it was in front of an obvious scoring server. If the runner checks without a decoder they're already going to lose 3 credits - if they're competent they won't run the advanced ice without the decoder unless they're prepared to lose 6. Once the Mes is rezzed however, I'm much more advance happy, depending on what server it's protecting - against Captain Padma Isbister: Intrepid Explorer the Mes on R&D might get advanced 3 times. Those thinking it through might see that a Mes advanced 3 times is actually costing as much as that Tollbooth I was comparing to earlier, with advancements past 3 actually costing more (not to account for the time cost). However, this way we can think of it as a 2 stage Tollbooth - paying 5 to rez early and paying the remaining 3 when it's later game and we know we're going to get broken but want to make it hurt as much as possible. Tollbooth is still going to be better for a server that the runner might want to hit lots of times, but Mes is going to compare very well.

I've mostly considered Mes in it's home of NBN - when would you want to splash it in another faction? Two influence isn't too bad so people who want the advanceable ice (WC predominately) might want this. I could also see a Jinteki who wants to have good code gates (maybe for Ivik) or to tax the runner and to make running remotes with valuable assets really undesirable - advanceable ice can also make a really nice repository of counters for a Trick of Light.

Phew that was a lot - TLDR: Mestnichestvo is good ice - think of it as a Tollbooth that gives you a discount to rez, but you have to charge up for the full effect. Probably don't advance it unless it's a late game situation or advancing ice is actively beneficial for you.

System Update - Startup Review!

Sneakdoor Beta is a card, that in startup at least, I think will excite a lot of new players before they use it and realize that while it is not bad, it is not necessarily as amazing as it looks at first glance, requiring a reasonable amount of support to reach it's full potential, and in Startup, that support might not be enough. The dream here is the corp spends lots of time icing up HQ, they think they're super safe and have lots of agendas in hand, when the runner slams this down and then gets into HQ 3 times for free, getting all of the agendas. This is a beautiful dream of course, and not impossible, but I think not really as likely as one would hope. Since I'm starting off so negatively, let's look at some cons first.

Cost: 4 is not a super high cost, but it's not a cheap card you can casually throw down. It'll probably have to be done with at least a little bit of planning. 2 is a pretty high cost as well, and even late game will crowd your memory, unless you've got your full suite of DZMZ Optimizers out.

Click to Run: Click to run cards can be pretty good. Red Team is a pretty useful tool early on for runners. However, I'd say that for that the economy is more important - you're getting 3 creds and also potentially getting a sweet access at the same time. However, for Sneakdoor Beta, since you're clicking to run, you're locked out of your nice HQ multi-access, namely Jailbreak and Legwork. You do have Docklands Pass, but you are locked out of those really big amazing HQ runs. And single accesses are downright sad. As a Corp I've giggled when a runner installs this and wastes 3 clicks running HQ when I have no agendas in hand, knowing they can't be sure if they're getting unlucky on their picks or if they're just unlucky overall.

Meta: Startup in general is not a meta which is adverse to icing up Archives. Red Team, Security Testing, Leech all benefit from running an unprotected archives. Corps might even ice up archives before dumping some agendas in their and reshuffling with Spin Doctor, just so it's not totally free. While most corps aren't putting their best ice here, something still taxing might show up, and hey guess what, you're probably running low on space for breakers since you had to install this.

So when is Sneakdoor Beta useful? It really shines when it has other cards along with it that want you to get into HQ, however Startup doesn't have too many of those. Steve Cambridge: Master Grifter is probably the runner happiest to use this, since he now has 2 routes to get into HQ and get a card back, and he can choose the easier path. The aforementioned Docklands Pass also gives you that necessary multi-access. The other two cards which reward the runner for getting into HQ in startup are Lucky Charm and Emergency Shutdown. These can both be powerful effects, and you could set up a turn where you play Sneakdoor -> get the free HQ access -> Derez their Archer -> Run the remote and stop the Anoetic from ending your run to steal the game winning agenda, but that is another beautiful dream that is even more convoluted than the first one.

The other place this can be useful is with Tāo Salonga: Telepresence Magician, since it will usually force at least some kind of ice on Archives, and with Tao's ability you can really start moving the ice around to right where you want it. If HQ is very unsafe since there's now two paths to get in, corps are going to be desperate to install agendas, and shaper has great tools for digging in R&D, and has the DZMZ Optimizers to make this affordable.

Overall, Sneakdoor Beta is a very powerful effect that I think doesn't have the support required to really make it a great card in startup, but in a few cases it can really do some work.

System Update - Startup Review!

Legwork is a card with a powerful effect that really competes for slots in a Startup deck. Looking at 3 cards in HQ is really quite nice, since it means it's more likely than not that if there is an agenda in there, you will get to see it. You'll also get to see most of the corp's upcoming gameplan. Downside is that it costs 2creds, 2 influence, and if you only look at a bunch of ice it doesn't actually give you much information. Also if the corp is only sitting at 3 cards, it's more access than is even necessary.

Your main competitors are Docklands Pass and Jailbreak. The pass can actually combo really well with legwork, letting you see a whopping 4 cards, which can be great if you feel the corp is getting Agenda screwed or is really planning something big next turn. However, getting that persistent additional HQ access is probably worth more to most decks than a slightly larger burst access turn. Jailbreak is a more interesting comparison. You're getting to access one less card, in exchange for drawing a card if successful, the run being free, and having the flexibility to target either HQ or R&D, and costing no influence. It's a lot of advantages to Jailbreak, and I would most decks who are interested in getting additional multi-access to go for Jailbreak first, and then Docklands Pass. However, it's hard to beat the sheer burst access of Legwork, so I would except many runners to still run a copy alongside the above mentioned tools, especially in run heavy event decks like Ken "Express" Tenma: Disappeared Clone, or in Zahya Sadeghi: Versatile Smuggler where the extra access will pay for themselves, making this card free.

Outside of crim, this card can be useful in Anarch who's going trash heavy with René "Loup" Arcemont: Party Animal and/or Imp, really robbing the corp of some options. Generally I wouldn't except to see it too much in shaper, where you have lots of excellent R&D multi-access tools, and would expect for runners to spend their 2 influence on the pass and using jailbreak over this.

As a startup player, every runner should be aware of Saisentan. It has the honor of being the only card in Startup that, with no setup, can flatline an unsuspecting runner with 5 cards in grip. Yes you need to have at least 3 of a card type in hand to make that possible, but that's not really that unlikely, especially if you're running a specialty runner like Az McCaffrey: Mechanical Prodigy or Ken "Express" Tenma: Disappeared Clone. But what are the odds of being flatlined? If you were curious like me, the math is: Assuming the corp picks the 'correct' card type: 3 Same type in hand - 10% chance of being flatlined 4 Same type in hand - 40% chance of being flatlined 5 Same type in hand - 100% chance....

Seeing the above math, and the fact that the minimum is 3 net damage, and you're often worried about being low on cards against Jinteki, it's clear this ice is meant to be a punishment for runners face checking random ice with no breakers, or basically an ETR against runners who don't have a killer installed (just, this ice ETR by killing the runner. Which will do it). You can even cheekily get some damage on runners who think they are safe putting a Botulus or Boomerang on this and running.

So how does Saisentan do when the runner has the killer? In startup, it's okay. Basically every killer is breaking for 3 creds. Bukhgalter gets through with 4 but their rebate brings to 2, and Afterimage also spends 2. Odore pays 5 if they don't have their virtual friends, and Echelon has to pay 6 if it's by itself. None of these are terrible deals, but really you're looking for an unprepared runner facechecking this. And that's why runner friends, always be aware of your face.

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CAVEATS: I am a new player brought in from System Gateway, playing the Starter Format, and only deck building with cards from Gateway + System Update. I've also been jamming and having the most fun with NBN: Reality Plus.

PROS: - It's a 3/2 Agenda with an ability. In Startup, that honor is restricted to the One Of Agendas released per Corporation. In NBN we also have Project Beale, but that ability is that we can treat it as a 5/3 Agenda if we have the time, which I don't count. - It is an Ambush! Glad to see the runner getting punished for taking your agenda.
- It is a way of getting a runner a tag on your turn. There's not too many ways to do this in Startup - Public Trail and Orbital Superiority are the only other ways. This is really useful if you're running tag punishment and want to make sure it connects. It also can be nice if you're running NBN: Reality Plus - and want to get more triggers.

CONS:
-It can be a little bit tricky to use the tag you're generating offensively. Putting one counter on it early and then advancing twice, scoring, and using your last to trash a resource or play a Retribution isn't too difficult, but you're unlikely to get to live the Orbital Superiority dream. Seamless Launch exists and is only two influence so it's not impossible, unless you're under no pressure and can afford to advance several agendas.
- It's a one of. It's a good sign when a problem with a card is that I can't have more of it. Though because of this, your opponent isn't going to be playing around it in an NBN deck, which is also great if you want to pop in some other ambushes....

Overall, this is a great card. I think every NBN card in Startup should run this, unless you're doing something extremely specific, or just don't want to put good cards in your deck.