Finally a way to tutor a console.

Plus it can recycle Plascrete if the latter does not fit the matchup

Agreed; great way for Shapers to save Inf importing consoles

Actually, I think this one is a binder card. The parenthetical (round down) kind of kills it as it is already a card that requires a very suboptimal board state to be true before it is useful:

You have a piece of hardware that you paid to install that you no longer want.

You have not yet drawn some other piece of hardware you want more that the piece of hardware you have already installed.

You don't mind paying some overhead and are ok with suffering from a disadvantageous rebate ratio.

For starters, there isn't much hardware in the candidate group of "stuff I installed that I don't mind trashing". Next, clicking and paying to install for that notional piece of hardware incurrs a credit and tempo loss. Then clicking and paying to play this card to trigger the tutor effect incurs yet more.

Just not seeing it.

If they come out with a "Limit 1 per deck" piece of hardware that is just super awesome squared, this might become a unpleasant but tolerable means to make sure the one-off makes it out of the deck, but otherwise...rather than jump through the hoops this card requires try just using Diesel or Quality Time to dig the deck faster and leave this card out.

Tutoring is always pretty expensive. SModCode costs an un-get-roundable 2 and has vexing memory issues. Hostage and Planned Assault are both doubles that effectively increase the cost of the card they find. Granted, this is somewhat more vexing, but I think it has its place.

 

For starters, there isn't much hardware in the candidate group of "stuff I installed that I don't mind trashing".

Public Terminal (even use it to pay for this event) or Q-Coherence Chip comes to mind

Public Terminal (even use it to pay for this event) or Q-Coherence Chip comes to mind

Both of which are crap cards. Wasting deck slots on crap cards to tutor a piece of hardware in the games where you happened to have drawn the crap card and Trade In before the hardware you actually want is not a good strategy.

Also, Public Terminal says: "Use this credit to play run events.", so...no it can't pay for Trade In. You might be thinking of the much better Prepaid Voicepad. And, if I'm running Prepaid Voicepad in a deck it is part of my economy and I am not going to want to trash it to Trade In generally speaking...particularly in the early and mid game when I would most likely want to tutor up something.

Tutoring is always pretty expensive. SModCode costs an un-get-roundable 2 and has vexing memory issues. Hostage and Planned Assault are both doubles that effectively increase the cost of the card they find. Granted, this is somewhat more vexing, but I think it has its place.

SMC doesn't just tutor, it does it at INSTANT speed including in the middle of a run. Paying $2 for the ability to go fetch the breaker I need right now is totally worth it, and not losing a second click is a nice side benefit.

Hostage grabs connections, but does not trash an installed connection to do it.

Planned Assault grabs a run event, no trashing or other wasteage of resources, and enables several synergistic combos like indexing + makers eye or account siphon + vamp when you've just got one or the other in hand. It also basically doubles the number of a particular run event you might have if you are trying to get around the 3-of limit on a particular run event...like say account siphon. Due to the strong effects and one shot nature of events this is significant.

By comparison Trade In has conditions on its usage, and is suboptimal in its overall costing.

Both of which are crap cards. 

Used the chip to great effect myself. Maybe just crap cards to crap players?

Granting Shapers the ability to run just one copy of Desperado sounds pretty cool to me. With the new console Astrolabe you won't mind to much swapping it for an R&D Interface late game (in both the cases where you got Astrolabe late or early). You can also reduce the copies of The Toolbox, since the second one is always a brick, but you'd like to see one often enough.

Search effects are very powerfull, so it's natural there needs to be a cost attached to it. But being able to fetch anything you're needing that exact moment, trading up an Akamatsu Mem Chip or another less important Hardware is quite good. Replicator also cames to mind... you can trade away the extra copies freely and bring about any hardware you might be running, perhaps some Lockpicks or Silencers for your stealth rig?

Don't forget also the extreme cases where you Trade an R&D Interface or CyberSolutions Mem Chip (something more important, let's say) for a Plascrete... sounds bad, but it's definately better than losing the game, no?

It has its usages and as any search effect, I think this might see some play. It also shares the commom "added-value" like SMC or Test Run, as more Hardware come out, this card will just get better, never worse!

Used the chip to great effect myself. Maybe just crap cards to crap players?

Maybe just an unnecessary ad hominem attack? Way to be classy.

I don't think it's news that Q-Coherence Chip is generally regarded as a bad card. It has an unfortunate ruling associated with it that renders it even more suboptimal than it's text already does (see below). It carries a 2 rating on this site, and it is generally panned in set reviews.

By all means, even bad cards can be put to good use in the right deck, but including weak / sub-par cards in your deck makes your deck worse than it otherwise would be, and if you are doing it for the express purpose of having some fodder to sacrifice to fuel some other effect...particularly if that effect can otherwise be realized more effectively without resorting to suboptimal includes...it is even worse.

So, hey; go ahead and include them in your deck and sacrifice them to trade in if it makes you happy. You're welcome to your opinion of course, and there is no "bad fun"; I just don't happen to agree with you. I await the day your Q-Coherence Chip / Public Terminal + Trade In deck lights the world on fire with its pure awesomeness.

Lukas's response:

Granting Shapers the ability to run just one copy of Desperado sounds pretty cool to me. With the new console Astrolabe you won't mind to much swapping it for an R&D Interface late game (in both the cases where you got Astrolabe late or early). You can also reduce the copies of The Toolbox, since the second one is always a brick, but you'd like to see one often enough.

Search effects are very powerfull, so it's natural there needs to be a cost attached to it. But being able to fetch anything you're needing that exact moment, trading up an Akamatsu Mem Chip or another less important Hardware is quite good. Replicator also cames to mind... you can trade away the extra copies freely and bring about any hardware you might be running, perhaps some Lockpicks or Silencers for your stealth rig?

Don't forget also the extreme cases where you Trade an R&D Interface or CyberSolutions Mem Chip (something more important, let's say) for a Plascrete... sounds bad, but it's definately better than losing the game, no?

It has its usages and as any search effect, I think this might see some play. It also shares the commom "added-value" like SMC or Test Run, as more Hardware come out, this card will just get better, never worse!

I'm not questioning the value or power of tutor effects; obviously tutor effects are generally good, that is card game 101.

I'm questioning the value and power of this particular tutor effect, as it is more niche and less efficient than the other tutor effects available...so much so that normal levels of increased card draw already found in many decks will often prove to be a more reliable way of getting the desired card.

Is it a virtual auto-include in certain decks like SMC? No. Is it a go-to card in and out of faction like Special Order that can slide into almost any deck? No. Are there some uses for it in decks that fit a certain profile? Maybe. Is it a strong card in a very specialized niche deck? Maybe.

To me, Plascrete is probably the most compelling reason to play Trade In at all as it is a card that will save you vs tag & bag and is useless in most other match ups. In the games you need it and you need it now, it's worth it to sac something useful but not essential to it. And in the games you don't need it, it might be worth it to install Plascrete to feed it to Trade In to go get something sufficiently strong.

So, the target deck would run Plascrete, some other misc hardware, and another piece of hardware that is worth the overhead of tutoring for it. Maybe 2 copies of Plascrete, 2 copies of the other "desirable" pieces of hardware, maybe 2-6 other pieces of hardware, 2-3 Trade Ins. That's a lot of deck slots but, it is an option and it might save you from getting burned out sometimes.

Trade In probably fits well into a Replicator deck if the card slots are available as it already fits the profile of a "good fit" for the card, and there is some synergy there as having some extra hardware that could be sac'd is already a "natural" outcome of using Replicator.

But zooming back to look at decks in general, Trade In is not as useful or as splashable as many of the other tutor effects, and it does not naturally fuel certain game-winning strategies in the same way SMC does or synergize with certain powerful cards in the same way that Test Run does. Etc.

Peoples mileage will vary, obviously, but looking at the top decks today and then looking at this card I don't see it becoming a thing in the current card pool and meta. I could be wrong. As the card pool grows it might become "the answer" to getting some new uber hardware into the game. Until then, I expect to see this card sit in my card box.

 

Maybe just an unnecessary ad hominem attack? Way to be classy.

 

 

 

If you are so opposed to the word "crap" then why did you introduce it to the conversation?

Q-Chip could also be a cost-effective way of having enough MU for something like cache (which can be traded in quickly) or Lamprey (which is always in danger of being trashed anyway).

Now please tell me that 2 examples are not enough to justify that point of view and that you require more.

If you are so opposed to the word "crap" then why did you introduce it to the conversation?

Wow, that's a really good point. Because I totally said exactly that and you are not in any way stating things that I never actually said or completely ducking under comprehension of what ad hominem attack means, or misconstruing the situation whatsoever.

Your logic and debating skills are amazing, and I am beyond impressed...indeed, I am humbled by your incredible genius and unmatched lexical mastery.  Well played, sir. Well played. Game set match Nerdmeister. Here's your trophy, bask in the glory of it.

And now that you've totally won with your unparralleled rhetoric, perhaps we can get back to the point of discussion.

Q-Chip could also be a cost-effective way of having enough MU for something like cache (which can be traded in quickly) or Lamprey (which is always in danger of being trashed anyway).

Now please tell me that 2 examples are not enough to justify that point of view and that you require more.

I don't require you to justify your point of view. As I said...

 

So, hey; go ahead and include them in your deck and sacrifice them to trade in if it makes you happy. You're welcome to your opinion of course, and there is no "bad fun"; I just don't happen to agree with you.

If, for some reason, you feel like playing Q-Coherence Chip no one is stopping you. You aren't going to convince me that it is a good idea however.

However, this thread is about Trade In, not Q-Coherence Chip. My stated opinion is, that Trade In is not a good card. Details of why have been provided.

If you don't agree, that's totally fine. I'm perfectly ok with that.

If your position is "playing Q-Coherence Chip with Trade In is great!", well ok then. Go make that deck; and good luck with it.

I would try something like 3xMem chip, 3x Rabit hole, 3x Clone chip, 3x Trade in, 1x desperado. To get fast desperado in shaper without spending a ton of inf. With Datasucker/parasite Kate it might make sense. (Rabit hole is definitely less than ideal, but it does make deck smaller if you pay for it and there are some traces that are worth reducing to 0)

If record recostructor worked it would be nice candidate to trash as one is enough and it costs 0.

Probably wont work, shapers need more good cheap hardware, ideally with enters play effects or "one is enough" type. Maybe they'll get more.

Still borrowing inf expensive console with reliable way to get it into play might be worth it at some point.

Trade In is definitely not a card you just put into a random deck, but it might make something possible that would otherwise be too inconsistent. Or maybe running 2 console types and swapping them. Eureca! monolith into some other console and get 9 back? (if only there was a simple way to put monolith on top of stack)

But with tauros and shattered remains and no way of getting hw from heap i'm not convinced. Even if it works (and it probably wont) there are already strong hard counters to hw based plays... and there is simply not enough of good hw in the game to begin with.

Trade In is definitely not a card you just put into a random deck, but it might make something possible that would otherwise be too inconsistent. Or maybe running 2 console types and swapping them. Eureca! monolith into some other console and get 9 back? (if only there was a simple way to put monolith on top of stack)

Now there's something I want to try.  Eureka Monolith, take advantage of it's cost-reduction, then Trade-In for a Toolbox/Desperado.  The savings!  It'd be a terrible deck but the satisfaction would be immense!

Dumping a Clone Chip or a Replicator that's offering diminished returns when your Toolbox won't get out there is plenty useful. Trade-in isn't stupendous, but a Toolbox on the table certainly is. It works decently well with Kate, who probably got a discount on the trashed hardware and won't lose her discount on the tutored one (if Trade-In is played correctly). Not everything does that.

I see this as an insurance card: when certain bits of hardware are starting to become less useful, but that big piece is still hidden in the deck, Trade-In does its job.

It's not a bad thing to dump that Plascrete with 1 token on it for another with 4 in certain circumstances. (And Plascrete is another insurance card: not glamorous at all, really, and a total waste much of the time, but sometimes necessary). It's not a bad way to change that Plascrete into a Feedback Filter either, depending on what your situation is.

Does Trade-In water down your deck? Sure. Is it often useless? You bet. Is it rather terribly slow and clunky? Uh huh.

Will it sometimes save you from bad luck when timed correctly? Yes indeedy. It gives you a kind of resourcefulness when the hour is late and the chips are down.