Should Jackson hit the MWL, even more IDs will disappear from the competitive scene.

Even greater issue is what is going to happen once he rotates out. There will be little to do against agenda flood and given how broken Faust is games will end in 2-3 HQ runs. The first pack of the seventh cycle should have something similar to him.

Even though Damon Stone doesn't seem to care about the competitive community, Dan D'Argenio does, and he has said that if necessary he will use his 2015 world champion card to keep a card as close to Jackson as possible present in the game. On that basis, I feel optimistic that the game can survive Stone.

If there isn't an agenda-flood solution, many people will simply stop playing. The brilliant thing about Netrunner is that it offers so many ways to sculpt your hand, tutor that card, bring that other card back, disrupt your opponent's tempo and so forth. It's the best game I've ever played, and easily one of the most complex. It does happen, but it is only a slim minority of games that can be said to have had their result determined by pure luck. Without a Jackson-like effect the skill ceiling lowers, and the luck factor increases exponentially, because if at any moment whatsoever you draw too many agendas for your HQ or servers to comfortably accommodate, that may well be game over.

Also, side-note: rotation begins when the first pack of the 8th cycle drops, not the 7th.

Seems like I can't count to 8

Even though Damon Stone doesn't seem to care about the competitive community, Dan D'Argenio does, and he has said that if necessary he will use his 2015 world champion card to keep a card as close to Jackson as possible present in the game. On that basis, I feel optimistic that the game can survive Stone.

 

If there isn't an agenda-flood solution, many people will simply stop playing. The brilliant thing about Netrunner is that it offers so many ways to sculpt your hand, tutor that card, bring that other card back, disrupt your opponent's tempo and so forth. It's the best game I've ever played, and easily one of the most complex. It does happen, but it is only a slim minority of games that can be said to have had their result determined by pure luck. Without a Jackson-like effect the skill ceiling lowers, and the luck factor increases exponentially, because if at any moment whatsoever you draw too many agendas for your HQ or servers to comfortably accommodate, that may well be game over.

 

Also, side-note: rotation begins when the first pack of the 8th cycle drops, not the 7th.

Corporate Shuffle, Daily Business Show, Disposable HQ, Museum of History and Rework are other possible cards to avoid/lessen agenda overflow. You don't need Jackson Howard. Also, another thing to do would be including less agendas and more ICE.

I'm participating in a 10-week netrunner-league, where the main purpose is to have fun. We have some weekly crazy stuff to add some flavour (corporate begins with 10 creds while runner starts in-faction console installed, for example) and I myself have made the decision to NOT play Jackson in that 10-week period, anywhere. It is somehow fun on its own accord to play without Jackson, even though everyone else is playing it.

So what I am trying to say, is that I figured I have been over-saturated with Jackson and I am having more fun than ever when I don't include it into my decks. Sure, it makes life harder but it is the challenge that invigorates us!