Government Contracts

Government Contracts

This card sums up Weyland. Score points; make money. Its only drawback is being a 5-advancement requirement. But once scored, it provides near-limitless economy for the rest of the duel, on par with Magnum Opus, even if a bit inflexible. It doesn't provide the burst econ that Hostile Takeover or Geothermal Fracking does, but it also doesn't stick you with a Bad Publicity, either!

It decreases agenda density, which is great in kill decks (Punitive Counterstrike appreciates these agendas). If you're scaring the Runner with Project Junebug, you could probably install - advance - advance these agendas and put on a bold face, daring the Runner to act. I'd consider this agenda for any Weyland deck seeking 3-pointers.

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One caveat is that corps only have 3 clicks to spend freely each turn (barring certain shenanigans out of HB). This means that the restriction of "must spend two consecutive clicks gaining money" is a bit harder for corps than runners. —
The problem is that there are so few cases where this outperforms High Risk Investment. If you're racing the runner for credits in a kill deck then at some point HRI just flat out wins that race. In other Weyland decks, you still have to click Government Contracts a lot of times for it to be worth even a smallish windfall from HRI. —
I scored 2 Government Contracts, if I then spent the 2 clicks to get paid, would I take 8 or just 4 credits? Hope that makes sense. —
No matter the number of Government Contracts in your score area, if you spent 2 clicks on this agenda, you would gain 4c. If you used the ability twice (spending 4 clicks in total), you would gain 8c. —
Green Level Clearance

Green Level Clearance

This card fills what I call the 'blank spaces' in a deck, though I'd honestly say its hard to find those nowadays. Perhaps if your deck was extremely 1-dimensional, this could do its job. Otherwise, you're probably better off with a card that provides more , draw or anything else, really.

I feel this card is best used in Weyland Consortium: Building a Better World, if you have the influence to spare, mainly because it suddenly becomes a Beanstalk Royalties plus card draw. Is it worth that 1 influence to add filler to your deck? That's probably up to you to decide. Kill decks want to find those meat damage sources and score decks want to find ice. This helps with everything, really.

I personally love this in BaBW and rarely exclude it.

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The game is set in a dystopian future city which is controlled by an artificial intelligence construct called The Computer (also known as 'Friend Computer'), and where information (including the game rules) are restricted by color-coded security clearance. Players are initially enforcers of The Computer's authority (known as 'Troubleshooters', mainly for the fact that they shoot trouble), and will be given missions to seek out and eliminate threats to The Computer's control. The players are also part of prohibited underground movements (which means that the players' characters are usually included among the aforementioned 'security threats'), and will have secret objectives including theft from and murder of other players. —
The full order of clearances from lowest to highest is Infrared (visually represented by Black), Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, and Ultraviolet (visually represented by White) (Think ROY G BIV, but with Ultraviolet and Infrared). Within the game, Infrared-clearance citizens live dull lives of mindless drudgery and are heavily medicated, while higher clearance characters may be allowed to demote or even summarily execute those of a lower rank and those with Ultraviolet clearance are almost completely unrestricted and have a great deal of access to The Computer; they are the only citizens that may (legally) access and modify the Computer's programming, and thus Ultraviolet citizens are also referred to as "High Programmers". Security clearance is not related to competence or even authority: clearance is instead a measure of The Computer's trust in a citizen. —

Gotta love paranoia but I don't think it's a reference to that

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Underworld Contact

Underworld Contact

This card is best used with Runners that begin with 1 and are utilizing -boosting cards such as Access to Globalsec, The Helpful AI, Borrowed Satellite, Dyson Mem Chip or even Rabbit Hole. Prime candidates (in my opinion) are Andromeda: Dispossessed Ristie, who has a better chance of installing the necessary cards early on and Kate "Mac" McCaffrey: Digital Tinker, who can install Dyson / RH for 1 cheaper. Nasir (and Shapers in general) should have the best chance of utilizing UC efficiently, since THA, RH and BS are Shaper, and they have access to The Toolbox, which turns on UC without support. Another honorable mention includes Iain Stirling: Retired Spook, who beings with 1 and has an ability that supports passive economy.

to tiedyevortex and SPHNX!

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Predict this will become a staple economy for Sunny LeBeau, link 2 at start. —
It'll definitely be the most viable for her. I didn't mention her solely because she's not released yet. The only trouble would be getting this early on. It'll be there if its there; otherwise, too bad. I doubt she wants to spend influence and money on #Hostage (though in a connection-based deck, maybe). —
Rabbit Hole is another under-utilized shaper trick for getting absurd amounts of link very quickly. —
No mention of Iain? He loves playing this card though I suppose he's not the most popular runner. —
In my opinion, the biggest user of this now is 'Armand "Geist" Walker: Tech Lord', who runs tons of cloud breakers, requiring 2 link for that. Forger is typically used in tandem. —
"I never really learned how to hold a mobile! I'm just improvising!" —
Synthetic Blood

Synthetic Blood

Jinteki hate (and Argus to a lesser degree) for Shapers that saves them 1 MU and credits over the course of the game (I'm talking to you, Net Shield), but also functions as a drip Plascrete. For any Runner (Shaper) using Genetics, this is a MUST.

Plus, the Genetics flavor is delicious (pun intended.)

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This card is great. Anarch loves it with I've had worse. —
It can also mitigate the damage deliberately taken from Stim Dealer, Stimhack or Amped Up. —
I think this card is intended to be used with the self-inflicting cybernetics resources down the road. —
I completely forgot to mention those - thanks! —
Bank Job

Bank Job

Nothing yells naked remote hate more than this card. It is best used after a naked install for a 3.5 x 2 investment (probably the best click to credit ratio barring Sure Gamble, Luck Find and loaded Gorman Drip v1). I don't know if I'd install it early, if only to not give away your secrets.

Clearly will not have as much use in a Biotic Labor deck.

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If you have Aeosp's Panswhop it's even better, as you can take all but 1c off of Bank Job and then sell it. —
I knew I was forgetting something important - thanks! —