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Swordsman
Submitted
Darksbane
, Nov 14 2013 04:02 AM | Last updated Nov 14 2013 04:02 AM
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SwordsmanType: ICE: Sentry - Destroyer - AP Cost: 3 Faction: Corp Jinteki Faction Cost: 1 The Runner cannot use AI programs to break subroutines on Swordsman. [Subroutine] Trash 1 AI program. [Subroutine] Do 1 net damage. Strength: 2 Set: Second Thoughts Number: 033 Quantity: 3 Illustrator: Adam S. Doyle |
Recent Decks Using This Card: [Core 2.0] Jinteki Nisei wants to play (1) Super-Heavy ICE Jentki Speed Replicating Frustration |
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Netrunner is a TM of R. Talsorian Games, Inc. Android is TM & ©2012 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Netrunner is licensed by Wizards of the Coast LLC. ©2012 Wizards.
10 Comments
HAHA TIME FOR SWORDSMAN.
Swordsman needed to happen though.
Even with no AI programs on the table, against the upcoming Chronos Protocol Jinteki ID you really want to break this. Because the corporation is able to make that 1 net damage matter.
Any decent sentry breaker gets through this for a single credit, so I'd be inclined to break it regardless of ID. Swordsman does great work against certain builds, but in my experience more often than not it's a totally dead draw. I rarely include it in my decks anymore.
The best and most expensive Killers in the game (Garrote/Femme) are more than "decent". Decent Killers (like Cuj.0, Ninja or Creeper+E3) need more than a single credit to break the net damage subroutine. Mimic? I don't run this thing without an installed AI as a backup. It's too risky. So in Mimic's case, there are 2 subroutines to worry about.
Yeah, Mimic and Femme are what I had in mind. The stuff you classed as decent is never played in my experience, so they don't enter my mind when deckbuilding.
Swordsman is a meta card; it waxes and wanes based upon the commonality of degenerate AI breaker decks in a given meta.
The card's real value is simply existing in the card pool as a natural brake against AI only breaker suites.
And it's never truly a "totally dead draw" as even against a no-AI runner it does do 1 net damage if they don't break it. It usually translates as a $1 tax per run. Not very impactful, but still not "totally dead". A totally dead card would have zero impact / be completely irrelevant when drawn or played; a card that has low impact / is mostly irrelevant is still slightly better than that.
So, yeah, I think I have only 1 deck that still runs Swordsman and it is a seldomly seen card these days. But, that makes the line of play that much more disruptive when Swordsman gets sprung on an unwary Runner using, say, Eater. Etc.
You'd want to stack this with, say, Trap or Mythic ICE.
Force the AI out, then force the support out to keep the AI on the table. Swordsman works well with Excalibur, for example (imagine that? The Swordsman wants a really good sword . . . ).
That's the bigger tax: forcing the Runner to drag out the whole rig.
Sensei > Excalibur > Swordsman: 8 to rez the whole thing, requires AI to beat (or a Femme on a card that rezzes at 2), can't only have AI but must have a Killer installed, can't be Yogged without support . . . things are getting awfully heavy for the Runner.
That's not an unbeatable server, of course, but it's only 8 to rez and it takes time to handle. It also works pretty well for a corp that can win well enough running no ICE at all.
Chronos Project or Blacklist to threaten the AI with extinction.
Or, forget the combo: Swordsman is useful in front of R&D for slowing down Eater + Keyhole, which is and will remain a thing, at least for a while. Anarch remains poor at tutoring breakers, so the time to get more out is expansive.
Also, let's all remember that Jinteki doesn't really always want to stop the Runner (which is why things like Susanoo-no-Mikoto exist). Getting "just 1 more" net damage out of a run is exactly what Jinteki wants, all the time, whether a flatline is on the table or not.