Love the art. Kati jones here we go.

some high powered connections that are unique or redundant in multiple:

Aesop's Pawnshop
John Masanori
Joshua B
Kati Jones
Mister Li
Professional Contacts
The Source

Special Order got a makeover it seems!

Being a double-click event doesn't seem painful, as often you would want to search for a card and then play it the same turn anyway, so getting the connection resource (assuming they don't ever make a non-resource with the connection type) and then paying to play it is going to be quite good.

My only thought is, how many connections would you have before adding this card? And then, how many of this?

My only thought is, how many connections would you have before adding this card? And then, how many of this?

Depends on the faction. If you are Criminal and want to play out of faction connections, I'd splash only for one of them and use this card as extra copies.
Similarly in other factions, when the connection you want to splash for has an influence cost of 3 or more, like Pawnshop in Anarch for example.

Man, after being The Source, Thomas Haas now got himself kidnapped. That guy should definitely be more careful.

Man, after being The Source, Thomas Haas now got himself kidnapped. That guy should definitely be more careful.

I'm not sure he is actually held captive. He doesn't sem to be tied up, but it is kind of hard to see without actually having the card.

I'm not sure he is actually held captive. He doesn't sem to be tied up, but it is kind of hard to see without actually having the card.

Yeah, maybe he's working with the runners. Just to get back at mommy, perhaps?

If you look closely, the "hostage" has his fingers crossed - indicating that he is lying. I'd venture to guess he's not a hostage at all; more like a criminal!

See http://tvtropes.org/...yingFingerCross if you need further explanation of the meaning of fingers crossed.

Lmao how amazing would it be if Li'l Tommy Haas turned out to be the next Criminal Runner identity? Don't see it as he's already an Asset, but that would be amazing...

I like how Thomas gets his own story just through the cards hes on.

Lmao how amazing would it be if Li'l Tommy Haas turned out to be the next Criminal Runner identity? Don't see it as he's already an Asset, but that would be amazing...

I love that idea but could that work when the corp has Thomas out as an asset?

Thomas Haas looks to be pretending to be taken hostage (his hands aren't actually tied and he's crossing his fingers behind his back). That means the fluff for this card is that you pretend to take Thomas Haas hostage so he can get the ransom money, and in return he hooks you up with some of his connections.

Thomas Haas looks to be pretending to be taken hostage (his hands aren't actually tied and he's crossing his fingers behind his back). That means the fluff for this card is that you pretend to take Thomas Haas hostage so he can get the ransom money, and in return he hooks you up with some of his connections.

I thought Thomas was pretending to be a hostage so he could be "swapped" for a runner hostage, like Kati Jones.

If you look closely, the "hostage" has his fingers crossed - indicating that he is lying. I'd venture to guess he's not a hostage at all; more like a criminal!

Nice catch... There is so much backstory in these cards art!

I have a hard time seeing myself using this outside of criminal. For the other factions, I would probably rather just splash another copy of the connection that I'm using. This also might be due to the fact that the only connections that I think are worth using are Aesop, Masanori and Kati.

Professional Contacts?

I generally think it's too slow; I'd rather have a better early game. You have to trigger it 7 times for it to pay off at $1/click and even more than that if you evaluate it using a greater click efficiency. This is also assuming that you only trigger it if you wanted to draw in the first place; if it makes you draw when you wouldn't otherwise then it's not as efficient as getting an extra credit for a draw. You are now in the position where you are getting a credit and a fraction of a useful draw. It's also really vulnerable to tags. Not only do you have to trigger it 7 times to pay off, but you also have to keep it alive for that long.

I usually draw through slightly more than the half of my deck during a game and even more against Jinteki. Hell, it's not even that uncommon to draw 7 times during two turns. Cards are the most valuable resource you have. Playing a ton of economy cards and drawing a lot is really strong by itself, because it makes you money and you get all your sweet goodies you want to draw anyway. It needs the right kind of deck.
If you like to play click intensive economy cards like Armitage, Magnum Opus and Liberated Accounts, PC is a bad card for you. But if you rely on draws to make money (which is pretty strong right now), you might as well get paid for it.
Clicking for credits is a bad action, especially for runners. The mindset with this card is that you are getting a credit for every draw, not a draw for ever credit. If your deck doesn't compliment that, PC is a bad fit. Otherwise it's an insanely good economic engine.

I agree that drawing is good right now. I play a Kit deck that usually draws through about 75% of the deck. That being said, Diesel and Quality Time are fantastic cards for drawing, require no setup time, pay for themselves immediately and generally allow you to draw enough cards that the addition of Professional Contacts is really not necessary.

Your drawing actions are so efficient with Professional Contacts that the addition of Diesel and Quality Time is really not necessary? Now what?

I just did the math comparing a deck with just PC in it to just burst draw cards (Diesel and Quality Time). I looked at how many actions and how much money it takes for the burst draw player to draw through their entire deck, and averaged it for each draw. If you play PC on the first action of your first turn, you have to trigger it around 18 times for it to overtake the efficiency of burst draw. That's half your deck (when you include the initial 5 cards you draw). That also assumes that you draw it in your opening hand. If you don't, you have to draw normally while the burst draw player gets increased efficiency right from the start (keep in mind that in the calculation I averaged their efficiency over their entire deck). As a PC player, you also get decreased flexibility in the early game because you need it in your starting hand, so you mulligan for it. With burst draw, you are not dependent on any one card, so you can keep a hand with no burst draw in it but has other aggressive early game options. Because of this, the PC player takes a huge tempo hit at the start, and can't as easily play burst econ and be aggressive. PC is also extremely vulnerable to tags. If it gets trashed before you trigger it 18 times it didn't have time to pay for itself. Sometimes it's unavoidable, too, through a combination of Breaking News and Midseason.