So...as I understand it, this card has no effect on the Professor (ability is only relevant when deck list is checked for legality, and is not relevant during the game), or Andromeda (ability only affects starting game state).

Kate, Reina, and Express probably don't care that much; they function less efficiently but otherwise no big deal.

Chaos Theory is usually unaffected.

Exile would care if his ability worked more frequently.

Nasir would just default to playing "normal".

Iain may or may not care depending on the game state. However, when he is behind in points he definitely cares.

Gabe and Shilloutte probably care, but should be able to work around it.

Kit would care in the early game but with a full rig...meh.

Whizzard definitely cares if he needs his trashing creds at the moment, but again, should be able to play around it as a Whizzard deck has to have a back up plan.

Having probably the most powerful identity ability, Noise will usually care that his milling power is neutered. Some Noise decks that are aggressively pursuing a milling strategy can be completely wrecked by it. But more balanced Noise decks shouldn't fall apart over this.

So...yeah...despite the alarming idea of it, this card actually seems pretty weak overall. Considering how jarring / fourth wall breaking it is, it is head scratching that FFG printed it, much less burning such great art and flavor text on it.

The only thing I can figure is that with this card printed FFG can maybe get a little looser with runner identity abilities in the future as there is already this card in the pool as a foil for any ID with a funky ability if the ID proves to be too effective.

This really hurts Quetzal.

Eli hurts Quetzal. Really, Quetzal hurts Quetzal; her ability is weaker than Kit's.

I read a solid article by one of my favorite voices on netrunner, David Sutcliffe at: http://thesatelliteu...ent-events.html in which he points out that all currents get better every time a new strong current is printed and that they have the potential to achieve critical mass of playability as the card pool evolves.

Among other currents he calls out Cerebral Static as approaching playability. In the 9 months or so since it was released, some new runners with powerful abilities have been introduced, so I thought I'd revisit this.

Leela probably doesn't care in a vacuum, but decks built to maximize her ability definitely get jammed up by this card and may not have enough penetration power to keep getting accesses if part of the deck's strategy revolved around bouncing ice off the table.

Similarly, this can really jam up a MaxX deck built to exploit her ability...and most MaxX decks are very leveraged in this way. She's probably less impacted overall than Noise, and in some scenarios (if the board state is already established) it might even help her somewhat in the short run as it slows down her burn rate.

Haley decks that overload her ability get moderately jammed up to some extent, but similar to Kate it mostly just messes up her efficiency. I would expect that most players with most decks would be able to play around it without difficulty.

Edward Kim kind of cares, but should be able to play around it.

Similar to Andy and the Professor, Valencia is not affected by this card at all. 

I think that's all of the newer ID's; let me know if I forgot one and I'll edit.

It's the only way to prevent Sunny from kicking some ass.

What happens if Cerebral Static is in play and Leela steals an Agenda? It is trashed, yes, but is her ID eligible for triggering from said Agenda?

What happens if Cerebral Static is in play and Leela steals an Agenda? It is trashed, yes, but is her ID eligible for triggering from said Agenda?

My understanding is: No.

Because her ID is blank when the steal occurs, the effect wasn't "in play" to be triggered when the agenda was stolen. After the current is removed, the ID text is active again but the agenda theft happened in the past (though barely) and thus it does not trigger.