Card Analysis - Core Haas-Bioroid

Moving from the core runner cards to the core corporation cards, I'm starting with the first cards in order that you get to.  Haas-Bioroid is known for the production of bioroids, a form of android which can be used for cheap, efficient labor.  Efficiency pervades most of this faction, as your goal will be to get the most out of every click you can.

Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future

The quintessential HB identity.  All other HB identities will be compared to this one, with good reason.  The ability is incredibly powerful, as it essentially gives you a click once per turn.  Granted, it forces you to use that click to gain a credit, but the credits do add up.  Plus, since it functions on each turn, if you have the opportunity to install a card on the runner's turn, you'll gain a click for that as well.  This powerful ability means that many of the best HB decks will be using this identity.

Pair cards: Architect, Advanced Assembly Lines

Accelerated Beta Test

This agenda would be good alone as just a 3 for 2, but its ability can also be very beneficial.  If you choose to activate it, you get to look at the top 3 cards of your deck.  If any of those are ice, you can install and rez them anywhere, ignoring all costs.  So with this, you could get a very expensive piece of ice for free.  Of course, you have to trash any non-ice cards that are there, which can be bad if you end up tossing three agendas.  Still, there are ways to hedge your bets on this one.

Trivia:  We have a pretty close reprint here.  There's an agenda in the classic Netrunner called Security Purge which does pretty much the exact same effect and has the same statistics as this card.  The downside is that you actually show all the cards off of R&D to the runner, so they would know if you had dumped an agenda.

Pair cards: Precognition, Hasty Relocation, Jackson Howard, lots of ice

And yes, I realize the irony of recommending Jinteki cards to pair with an HB card.

Adonis Campaign

HB also gives a fairly efficient economy.  This could be worth at least 8 credits more than you pay for it, assuming the runner doesn't destroy it immediately.  Granted, those credits will be coming in slowly, so you may want to protect this with at least one piece of ice.

Trivia: There's not exactly a direct copy of this one, but both Holovid Campaign and Braindance Campaign start with 12 credits on them, and you slowly take credits off of them.

Pair cards: Breaker Bay Grid, Worlds Plaza, Full Immersion RecStudio

Aggressive Secretary

A very good trap to use against the runner.  Each advancement token on this allows you to trash one of the runner's programs when they access it.  Granted, you have to be able to pay 2 credits to use it, and it is fairly vulnerable while in R&D and HQ, but this card could open up a scoring window if the runner has to scramble to replace key programs in their rig.

Trivia: Another reprint.  The original name of this card in the CCG was Experimental AI.  Oddly, it has a rez cost of 2, but otherwise works exactly the same.

Pair cards: Trick of Light, Mushin No Shin, Back Channels

 Archived Memories

This card is pretty easy to overlook.  You may wonder why you would need to add a card from Archives to HQ.  However, there are a lot of reasons.  In a way, this card functions as a copy of any card in your discard pile.  So if the runner trashes an asset or upgrade you need, you can get it back into your hand with this.  Or you could play an operation, use Archived Memories to get it back, and then play it again.

Trivia: Another reprint.  Originally, this card was called Off-Site Backups.

Pair cards: potentially anything, really

Biotic Labor

And now we get into where HB really shines.  For the cost of 4 credits, you can gain one extra click.  Typically, this card will be used on a turn when you intend to install a 3 for 2 agenda and score it in the same turn.  However, that doesn't mean you have to use this card only for rushing out agendas.  If you have some plan that requires an extra click, then go for it.

Trivia: And again we have a reprint.  This time, the card was called Overtime Incentives.

Pair cards: any 3 cost agenda

 Shipment from MirrorMorph

Another example of click efficiency gained through this faction.  For one credit, you get up to 3 clicks worth of installs.  Ideally, you'd want to install 3 cards with this, but even installing 2 cards means you come out ahead.  Plus, if you are playing Engineering the Future and this is your first time installing cards this turn, you even get your credit back.

Trivia: HB seems to be the faction of reprints so far.  This time, the card was called Edgerunner, Inc., Temps, but it was worded slightly differently.  Instead of installing the cards as part of playing the cards, you immediately gained 3 actions (clicks) which had to be used for installing cards, and had to be used immediately.

Pair cards: Anonymous Tip, Jackson Howard, Blue Level Clearance

Heimdall 1.0

Here's the other part of the HB faction: bioroids being used as ice.  They tend to be fairly powerful for their cost.  However, almost all bioroid ice has the ability where the runner can spend clicks to break subroutines.  This is both good and bad for you, because if the runner spends clicks to get through, they have fewer clicks to use on their turn, but it means your ice is more porous, and you'll need more ice to defend your servers.  Still, this incarnation of Heimdall is fairly decent for its cost.  Plus, it has the potential to do a brain damage, which can be big.

Trivia: Heimdall is a god in Norse mythology known for possessing foreknowledge, keen eyesight and hearing.  From his home near the Bifrost he keeps watch for Ragnarok.

Pair cards: Bioroid Efficiency Research, Project Wotan, Tyr's Hand, Brain-Taping Warehouse

Ichi 1.0

Another bioroid, so again, this piece of ice can be porous.  However, if the runner can't break this, it can swing the game in your favor.  This can destroy up to 2 programs, and could potentially give the runner a tag and a point of brain damage.  Granted, you'll probably have to pour a lot of money into the trace to get that point of brain damage.

 Trivia: Ichi is a Japanese word meaning one or first.  Considering the card's artwork makes the model look like a samurai, it feels appropriate.

Pair cards:  Project Wotan, Tyr's Hand, Brain-Taping Warehouse

Viktor 1.0

Another bioroid, this time a code gate.  Still fairly porous, but it does have the potential to deal a point of brain damage, which means running into this last click is dangerous for the runner.  Sadly, it is at the threshold where Yog.0 breaks it for free, but otherwise it is fairly good for its cost.

Trivia: The flavor text is possibly a reference to the movie WarGames, where the supercomputer WOPR/Joshua asks the question, "Shall we play a game?"

Pair cards: Project Wotan, Tyr's Hand, Brain-Taping Warehouse

Rototurret

This can potentially be a nasty surprise for your opponent.  If they try running without a killer in place, this could destroy one of their programs.  However, you probably won't get much use out of this, as it dies immediately to Parasite, and is still easily dealt with by all killers.  Still, it can be somewhat taxing for that reason.

Trivia: Wouldn't you know it, another reprint.  Originally, the piece of ice was named Banpei.

Pair cards: Akitaro Watanabe

Corporate Troubleshooter

It's the card this blog is named for, at last.  Sadly, it's HB's one-of card in the core.  Still, it's effect is remarkable.  It allows you to spend any amount of credits to give a piece of ice on the same server that much extra strength.  This can push a piece of ice up beyond the point where your opponent can deal with it, forcing them to resolve it.  Sadly, it does not play well with Şifr, which lowers the strength of a piece of ice to 0 for the remainder of the encounter, so I don't think you could counteract that by rezzing this and using it.  Still, while not widely used, it could stop a runner cold.  Plus, it isn't unique.

Pair cards: any ice

Experiential Data

Again, not something that is commonly used.  Still, for 2 credits, giving all ice protecting the same server an extra point of strength could throw off the runner's calculations and potentially force them to abandon a run partway through.  The low trash cost means that you'll want to invest some decent protection into whatever server this is helping.  Also, if it is boosting bioroids, they can still usually be clicked through, so watch out for that.

Trivia: Another reprint, of sorts.  This time, the original card was Antiquated Interface Routines, except it had a trash cost of 1.

Pair cards: Encryption Protocol, Hostile Infrastructure, Breaker Bay Grid

And that does it for the core Haas-Biorid cards.  Next time, we look at the core Jinteki cards.

Until next time, remember the Three Directives are in place.  Bioroids are your friends.