Card Analysis - Core Weyland

We finally reach the last of the big corporations, Weyland Consortium.  Known primarily for the construction of the New Angeles Space Elevator, or "Jack's Beanstalk" as it is sometimes called, it is no surprise that Weyland has numerous holdings dedicated to construction.  In addition, numerous weapons companies such as Argus Security and Skorpios Defense System can be found in the Weyland family.  There are also facilities devoted to energy production, such as Blue Sun and the Geostrategic Research and Neothermal Development Laboratories, or GRNDL as it is commonly known.  Plus, there are numerous aerospace and orbital construction companies as well.  If it has to do with building, finance, energy or weaponry, chances are good that Weyland is involved somehow.  So let us examine the core cards for this megacorp and see how it plays out.

Weyland Consortium: Building a Better World

Weyland is constantly building, demolishing, and rebuilding our war-torn worlds.  And they always make a decent profit from it.  This identity effect is similar to the effect of Engineering the Future, but instead of being limited to once per turn, it works on every transaction operation that is played.  Although there are few transaction operations in the core set, the expansions add new transactions that have effects beyond just gaining money.  As such, this identity promotes Weyland as the faction that sits on massive piles of credits.

Pair cards: Any and all transaction operations

Hostile Takeover

Weyland is not above using aggressive tactics to get what it wants, and if that means forcibly buying out the competition, then it will do so.  This agenda is remarkable because it can be installed and scored in the same turn.  Plus, it gives a nice infusion of cash, allowing you to react a bit better on the runner's turn.  Sure, you have to take a bad publicity, but there are now ways to mitigate that.

Trivia: It is a reprint, in a way.  The Netrunner CCG does have an agenda named Hostile Takeover, but it has an advancement requirement of 3, and only gives 5 credits in return.

Pair cards: Elizabeth Mills, Witness Tampering, Exposé, Veterans Program

Posted Bounty

While this card does not seem to be very good, it does have some useful points.  By forfeiting it when you score it, you can give the runner one tag.  If they are unable to avoid or remove that tag, it opens up the ability to destroy their resources or do some significant damage.  Sure, doing that will force you to take a bad publicity, but if you can severely set back or even kill the runner, it will probably be worth giving up the point.

Pair cards: Closed Accounts, Scorched Earth, Freelancer, Bad Times, The All-Seeing I

Security Subcontract

Weyland's one-of card, and the only Weyland asset in the core set, does not appear to be a very good card.  It can grant you 4 credits, but at the cost of a click and trashing a rezzed piece of ice.  With a significant number of ice in the set cost more than that to rez, this is not an efficient way to make money.  But, there are applications.  If the runner places a Parasite on a piece of ice, you could use the ability of this card to trash that piece of ice.  Granted, we now live in an era where that is not likely to happen, but it is something that could be done.

Trivia: This is actually a reprint.  Out of the Proteus expansion we have the card Syd Meyer Superstores, which does the exact same thing, but has a trash cost of 2.

Pair cards: Akitaro Watanabe, Interns, Team Sponsorship, Executive Boot Camp

Aggressive Negotiation

I first discussed tutoring back in the core Anarch card analysis.  This card is the definitive tutor.  For one credit, you can take any card in your deck and add it to your hand.  The catch is that you can only play this card if you scored an agenda on the same turn.  As such, this means you'll generally have to let an agenda sit on the board for at least one turn in order to use this.  There are a few ways around that, though, but they are a bit difficult or costly to pull off.  If you do need the ability to grab anything, though, this is a good way to do so, and can be put in any deck for a fairly low influence.

Pair cards: SanSan City Grid


Beanstalk Royalties

Weyland constructed the space elevator, so it is only natural that they take a cut out of the profits made from running it.  This is the corporation equivalent of Easy Mark, and like that card, can be easily splashed into any faction.  Gaining 3 credits is good, but is especially good when you have no cash, as the corporation is hurt more by lack of funds than the runner is.

Trivia: Yes, it is a reprint.  The original card in Netrunner CCG was called Efficiency Experts.

Pair cards: Anything

Scorched Earth

And now, perhaps the most defining card of the Weyland faction.  There's an archetype of deck going back to classic Netrunner known as "tag and bag."  The idea behind the deck is you land one or more tags on the runner, and then you flatline them with massive amounts of meat damage.  Out of the core, this card is the key to that archetype.  For just 3 credits, you can do 4 meat damage to the runner, if they are tagged.  Playing two of these will usually kill most runners, unless they have some meat damage prevention.  And while it is very expensive to import it into other factions, it is still highly effective, especially if your opponent is not expecting it because you are playing a faction not usually associated with this archetype.

Trivia: It is in fact a reprint.  Scorched Earth from the Netrunner CCG has the exact same cost and effect.  Remarkably, there is also a card in Magic: the Gathering with the name Scorched Earth, which destroys land cards.

Pair cards: Breaking News, SEA Source, Posted Bounty, Midseason Replacements, Hard-Hitting News

Shipment from Kaguya

Again, initially this card does not seem like it would be very useful.  But if you think about it, you start to see benefits.  Basically, this card allows you to advance two different cards with one action, and without spending any credits.  So, if you have multiple cards that need to be advanced, you can do so in just one click.

Trivia: Another reprint here.  The original card was called Team Restructuring, except it cost 1 credit to play.

Pair cards: Shipment from MirrorMorph, Reclamation Order, Accelerated Diagnostics

Archer

A very powerful piece of ice.  With a low rez cost, high strength, and multiple subroutines, this seems like it should be an auto-include.  But there is a downside.  As an additional cost to rez it, you have to sacrifice an agenda, which means you probably will need to have scored an agenda in the first place.  So it makes for a decent piece of mid-game ice.

Trivia: Apparently, the flavor text is a reference to the animated television show Archer.

Pair cards: Hostile Takeover, Accelerated Beta Test, Priority Requisition, Eliza's Toybox

Hadrian's Wall

This demonstrates one of the defining characteristics of some Weyland ice: the ability to be advanced.  Of course, each piece of ice that can be advanced will state what those advancement counters do for it.  With Hadrian's wall, each advancement counter on it increases its strength by 1, making it that much more expensive for the runner to deal with.  Even without any advancement counters, this piece of ice is fairly formidable, which is reflected in the rez cost.  Still, as Weyland, it should not be too difficult to bring this online.

Trivia: The historical Hadrian's Wall was a Roman defensive fortification in the province of Britannia, now Great Britain, and is still in existence today.

Pair cards: Commercialization, Constellation Protocol, Hollywood Renovation, Superior Cyberbarriers, Dedication Ceremony

Ice Wall

The much smaller brother of Hadrian's Wall, this piece of ice can also be advanced and gains strength from each advancement counter on it.  Having a rez cost of 1 means that this card can almost always be brought online, and makes for a decent piece of early game ice, with the potential to become bigger as the game goes on.

Pair cards: Commercialization, Constellation Protocol, Hollywood Renovation, Superior Cyberbarriers, Dedication Ceremony

Shadow

This card does not seem to be very useful, but there are potential applications.  Shadow is like Hadrian's Wall and Ice Wall, in that it can be advanced and gains strength for each advancement counters.  But what makes this ice interesting are its subroutines.  The first one means you gain money, and because it is not a great deal of money, the runner might decide not to break it.  The second subroutine starts a trace which gives the runner a tag if successful.  That one is more likely to be broken, but represents a potential tax on the runner, either in breaking the subroutine, beating the trace, or taking the tag.  So, Shadow could be a good way to make some money and make the runner spend some money.

Trivia: The flavor text is a reference to the serialized drama, The Shadow.  Appearing originally as a series of pulp magazine stories, it became a radio series, a comic strip, comic books, a television show, and even several movies.  The original quote comes from the introduction to the radio series, and is as follows, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"

Pair cards: Commercialization, Constellation Protocol, Hollywood Renovation, Superior Cyberbarriers, Dedication Ceremony

Research Station

Weyland's one core upgrade.  Note that this card does have to be installed in HQ.  This card is not commonly used, but being able to hold extra cards in hand means the runner is less likely to snatch agendas out of hand.  So in order to properly utilize this, you either have to make HQ impenetrable, which is next to impossible, or you have to disincentive the runner from trashing this.

Pair cards: Ash 2X3ZB9CY, Encryption Protocol, Hostile Infrastructure

And that does it for the core Weyland cards.  Next time, we will go over the core neutral cards for both the runner and the corporation.