This is part of a series of short articles I'll be writing to help beginners understand the finer points of running the nets. I'll be mostly covering some of the basic key concepts and strategies that more experienced players tend to take for granted, and how this understanding can significantly improve your gameplay.

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The Psi game. Love it or hate it, there's a pretty good chance that you'll end up having to play it sooner or later from either side of the table, most likely in the form of Caprice Nisei. So what exactly should we do when it comes down to the wire and we're forced to bid between 0 to 2 credits?

A Naive Look at the Odds
In this little minigame - which rests ontop of a complex system of bluffing and counterbluffing between both players - both players take credits from their credit pool and secretly bid either 0, 1 or 2 credits. The Corp player wants the Runner player to bid a different amount of credits, while the Runner player wants to bid the same amount of credits. However, no matter what the result is, the credits that are bid are going to be spent.

On a prima facie inspection, it seems that the Runner has a flat 1/3 chance of getting the bid correct and therefore succeeding. After all, if the bid was purely random, that would be the odds of both players coming up with the same number from a range of 0 to 2, right?

Well... kinda, but not really. Here's why.

• The Runner is usually the one who triggers the Psi game. This means that the Runner has the option of choosing whether he wants to play the game or not and, therefore, will only choose to play the game if he is confident that he will come out ahead of the situation. This is not always the case, but is often the case. If it is too expensive to run the server with Caprice on it, run somewhere else. If you cannot afford to keep running into Snowflake, run somewhere else or get your Fracter up. You get the idea.

• Bid credits are always spent regardless of the outcome. This has led to a prevailing strategy of the Runner taxing the Corp by always bidding 0, thus forcing the Corp to either bid 1 or 2 if he wants to succeed against the Runner. Because the Runner can usually repeat the action that triggers the Psi game, he can do so until he succeeds, and every time he triggers the Psi game, he can bleed the Corp a little more... until the Corp is so broke that he is forced to let the Runner succeed.

• The board state serves as an additional point of information. This is sort of auxiliary to the above, but it bears mentioning. If the Corp is poor, the Runner can choose to tax the Corp by simply triggering the Psi game multiple times. However, if the Runner is the one that is poor... can he afford to stay with his established pattern of bidding 0? What if he can only get into that server one time? Is his best move then to continue bidding 0? Also consider the flipside: if the Corp is poor, what are the odds of him bidding 1+?

• The Psi game is repeated several times over the course of the game. Everyone knows that best-of-1 RPS is fundamentally different from best-of-5 RPS, and that's because when you repeat the game enough, patterns start creeping in, which means more information for you to read your opponent with. If the Runner has shown that he will always bid 0 no matter what, and then cleverly chooses to bid 1 at an opportune moment, he has beaten you with skill. I've had games where I had such a lockdown on my opponent's reads that I won 100% of all my psi games. I've also had games where my opponent read me so well that he won 100% of all the psi games. The more the RPS is repeated, the more opportunity there is for skill to matter.

• The odds are only moderately in the Corp's favour. If the Runner only has 1 credit, his options are severely curtailed: the Corp can simply choose to bid 2 and he will instantly win. However, the flipside is not true: if the Corp only has 1 credit, the Runner still has a (prima facie) 50% chance of getting it wrong. But it's not really 50%, is it? For the Runner, it becomes a calculated guess about how much the Corp wants to keep him out of that server. If he really wants to keep you out, he'll bid 1... but he knows that you know that too, so maybe he'll bid 0, but if you stick with the strategy of always bidding 0 he'll likely lose so maybe he'll bid 1, but if y-jinteki mindgames

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Runner Strategy
As Runner, your best strategy is to always bid 0. There are better articles out there with the math to show you why, but the idea is a pretty simple one. By establishing a simple pattern of always betting 0, you can train the Corp to always spend 1 or more in order to keep you out. More than that, if your pattern is sufficiently consistent, you'll train the Corp to always spend exactly 1 whenever a Psi game fires (because who wants to overpay?), making Caprice Nisei read, "pay 1c to end the run".

But what about when it really matters, such as when you're sure that the server with Caprice has the last agenda point you need to win? Remember that the Corp knows, just as well as you do, when it is clutch and when it is not: more, perhaps, since the Corp has all the information at his fingertips.

When it comes to clutch, the Corp is just as tempted as you are to break his pattern of spending 1 by spending either 2 or 0. Whether you should break your pattern by spending 2 is a call on your part, but already - just by consistently spending 0 - you have increased your odds from 33% to 50%. If you keep to your pattern and spend 0, even if you bounce, you've forced the Corp to spend a not-insignificant amount of credits just to keep you out.

--- Corp Strategy
As Corp, however, your choices are a lot less straightforward and depends on exactly why the Psi game is firing. For the most part, try not to put Caprice down on a server that is not sufficiently taxing. If it is cheaper for the Runner to run Caprice and make you pay 1c every time he hits it, he will do that until you are broke.

If on the other hand the Psi game is firing because of a Future Perfect or Psychic Field, this becomes a potential clutch moment. At times like these, stop a while and observe the board state. Is it worth spending 2c for the effect to fire? If so, can you get away with spending 1c?

The second question can also be put another way: "how much does the Runner think losing this psi game will hurt him, and how badly does he want to win it?" If the answer is "very badly", then you probably can't get away with paying 1c. If the answer is "kinda", then you can probably get away with paying 1c.

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Executive Summary
As Corp, read the board state and try to get away with bidding as low as you can, as often as you can. If the Runner doesn't always bid 0, then you should try to bid 0 regularly because hey, free success! If the Runner bids 0 regularly, learn to read clutch moments and guess if the Runner will break his pattern during such moments.

As Runner, always bid 0.

This is part of a series of short articles I'll be writing to help beginners understand the finer points of running the nets. I'll be mostly covering some of the basic key concepts and strategies that more experienced players tend to take for granted, and how this understanding can significantly improve your gameplay.

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"When Your Turn Begins..."
Many cards such as the Supplier, Personal Workshop and PAD Campaign trigger off the start of your turn. It's fine if only one of them triggers, but when multiple cards trigger at the same time, things can get confusing. So here's an easy way to look at the start of your turn.

When your turn begins, the game checks for all the things that fire "when your turn begins". These things are then gathered into a queue which the active player can order however he likes. Note that this is the only time you can shove things into the queue: once you begin resolving things from the queue, you can no longer start introducing more things into the queue. Once the queue is finalised, the active player then begins resolving each thing in an order of his choice.

Why does this matter? Consider this scenario. You have Woman in a Red Dress and Vigil. Both are installed when your turn begins, so you shove them into the queue. You then choose to resolve Woman in a Red Dress first, to give the corp the opportunity to draw up to his maximum hand size. The corp does that. You now resolve Vigil, which checks that the corp is at his maximum hand size, so you draw a free card. (Relevant ruling here)

Consider a different scenario. You have Vigil loaded up on The Supplier. You only have one trigger, so you put the Supplier into the queue and start resolving. Supplier pops Vigil out for free, and that's it. You do not get to check for Vigil's free draw, even if the corp is at his maximum hand size. The moment you begin resolving things from the queue, you can no longer add stuff to the queue. The same is true for Executive Boot Camp + Adonis Campaign and so on.

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Run Structure
This is extremely important to know, and until you know it intimately, it is perhaps best to put a business-card sized printout of the run structure in front of you, to help you resolve some rules issues. Let's refer to the structure and look at some of the common timing issues we may have with it.

• A run is successful before you begin accessing cards. This means that you add a virus token to Nerve Agent / Medium / Datasucker before access; that you gain money from Desperado before access; that Manhunt resolves before the run ends, and so on.

• Caprice Nisei triggers when all the ice in a server has been passed. This means that you have to rez Caprice before the last piece of ice has been resolved (in other words, together with the last piece of ice) because there is no rez window after that. If Caprice is alone in a naked iceless server and you want to use her ability, you have to rez Caprice before the runner declares his run.

• You can use House of Knives after the runner commits to accessing, but you must do so before he starts accessing cards. Basically, your last window to use House of Knives is at 4.3, before the run is successful but after the runner has passed his last opportunity to jack out.

• If the runner has Doppelganger, which fires when a successful run ends, and the Corp has something like say Dedicated Response Team which also fires when a successful run ends, the runner - as the active player - gets to resolve his triggers first. This means that the runner can make another run (and possibly trash the DRT) before the DRT fires. Each trigger must fully resolve before another trigger can fire.

Off the top of my head, that's all the common run timing issues I can recall, but I'll add more to the list upon request. As a general rule of thumb, if you rigidly adhere to the structure and don't take shortcuts - eg. as corp, always ask the runner if they want to access before showing them the cards, and always ask them how many cards they want to access if they have multiaccess - you'll do fine.

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Damage
If the corp ever does more damage to the runner than he has cards in hand, the runner dies. Doesn't matter how many I've Had Worse he's holding in his hand: if he has less cards than damage, the runner dies. However, if the runner does not die from damage, damage is then done one card at a time. The corp takes out and discards, one by one, cards from the runner's grip equal to the damage done. If any of the cards are I've Had Worse, the runner draws after all the damage has been inflicted. (Relevant ruling here)

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Access
When your run on Archives or a remote server is successful, you must access all cards in the server. You do not have to trash any of them, but you must access all of them, even if you know that there's a trap. This is why Shell Corporation on a trap - say, a Project Junebug - is so good.

When you run on HQ, you must access one random card from HQ as well as any upgrades. When you run on R&D, you must access the top card of R&D as well as any upgrades. If you have optional multiaccess in the form of Medium or Nerve Agent (R&D Interface and HQ Interfaces are compulsory), you choose how many cards you want to access (to a minimum of 1) before you start accessing. Upgrades do not count towards your multiaccess limit.

When you are accessing multiple cards, you access them one at a time. This matters because of things like Edward Kim's ability, where you trash the first operation you access, and things like Imp which allow you trash stuff once per turn. As an example: if you run HQ and choose to use your Imp on a Scorched Earth and, later, access a SEA Source that you would rather trash, sorry; it's too late now.

This is part of a series of short articles I'll be writing to help beginners understand the finer points of running the nets. I'll be mostly covering some of the basic key concepts and strategies that more experienced players tend to take for granted, and how this understanding can significantly improve your gameplay.

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We Need To Talk About Ichi
Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Running Naked

A lot of beginner runners tend to worry about running. "What if I don't have enough credits to break their Neural Katana", "what if I run into a Heimdall", "will my click be wasted if I hit a Wall of Static?" and so on. The end result is a runner that isn't aggressive enough: which, in turn, lets the Corp grow his economy fearlessly and expand every which way like a Japanese tentacle monster.

This is bad. A Corp that doesn't have the fear of god put into it is a Corp that can get away with murder, and sooner or later, you're going to find that the person next on the hit list is you. But how can you, a solitary keyboard warrior, put the fear of god into a multinational corporation?

You run naked.

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Rub A Dub Dub...

Let's look at what's the absolute worst thing that you can facecheck by running on turn 1, when the Corp has (let's be generous) 13c from a double Hedge Fund or something funky like that. Well, you could eat a Hadrian's Wall and end the run, but that's hardly exciting. You may also faceplant into a Heimdall 2.0, which would be bad, but you can always click through it as long as you're running early enough. You may also run into a Komainu, which would hurt, but at least you'll still be alive.

What's the main thing that all of the above situation has in common? Let me spell it out for you.

• You survive. Hooray!
• You forced the Corp to spend money; money that would, otherwise, be used in some other way to make your life miserable.
• You now have information.

Let me repeat the last point: when you run, you get information. True to its cyberpunk theme, information is the main thing that you as a Runner needs. You can beat the corp in almost anything from economy (Kati Jones is a monster) to card draw (Quality Time can't be beat), but the Corp has a significant information advantage because he and only he knows what each facedown card is.

This information is vital because you not only know what breaker you now need to dig for, but if you're lucky, you also get a valuable opportunity to count some Influence. See an Ichi splashed in an NBN deck? Hmm, doesn't leave much Influence for 3x Scorched Earth. He might still be playing a SEA-Scorched deck, but it's unlikely that he's going to have Scorched so early on. See a handful of Tollbooths in Weyland? Probably not enough Influence to have more than one Midseasons, so you probably wouldn't have to worry about operational tags.

In short, every time you run and force the Corp to rez something in the early game, you get information, which helps balance the scales somewhat. Better yet, you stop the Corp's economy from growing, which lengthens the early game where you as the Runner can dominate. I've had games as Corp where the Runner basically dropped my credits to 1 or 2 by turn 3 simply just by hammering R&D with R&D Interface and forcing me to not only rez the ice over R&D, but to further ice it up on my next turn; and, once you're put into that position, it's going to be an uphill battle to recover.

Economics

The economic hit you're handing out to the corp is also something that shouldn't be underestimated. Even in our ridiculously generous scenario, rezzing a Komainu will knock the Corp down from 13c to 8c. Suddenly, the corp's options become that much more limited just by you forcing him to rez ice. Was he planning to fast advance something? Well, he doesn't have the cash to do it now. Was he planning on Midseasons-Scorching you? Good luck doing that with 8c.

Of course, in most situations the Corp wouldn't have 13c on turn 1. A standard turn 1 play for Corp is to double ice centrals and play an economy card: say 1x Hedge Fund for 9c total. If you force an Ichi or Komainu rez, the Corp is now looking at having only 4c remaining, forcing him to drop out of Hedge Fund range.

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Running Smrt

That said, don't keep running recklessly! Remember Komainu? That's a real and common thing. Or how about Komainu into a Shock? That's also a thing. Or Neural Katana into a Snare? Or a naked server with Ghost Branch?

Well, OK, maybe not the last one because nobody plays Ghost Branch (which is a shame, because it's so beautiful). But you get the idea. You should only run when it's smart to do so. And what, pray, exactly signals a smart run?

The key here is to look at the Corp's credits. If the Corp is Jinteki and has 4+ credits, beware of running on HQ or a naked unadvanced server because Snare exists. Don't run with anything less than a full hand against Jinteki, and never run last click in case you need to draw up to save yourself from a Neural EMP or something equally horrible.

If the Corp is NBN or Weyland and you suspect that he's playing SEA-Scorched or Midseasons-Scorched, try to run only when you have about as much money as the Corp so he can't kill you out of hand. Remember that Midseasons cost 5, SEA Source costs 2, and each Scorched costs 3, so if he has less than 8c or 5c, he can't Scorched you out of hand provided you have 4+ cards. Even if he can, as long as you can beat his trace through sheer gumption and money, you're safe.

Anarchs also have a very interesting card called Vamp that I'm sure you looked at, made a face and then put carefully back in your card box. Armed with the knowledge from this article, I'm sure you're suddenly thinking about how that card can - maybe, just maybe - be actually more useful than you thought it was. Sure, it's still not necessarily an auto-include, but it can be really powerful in the early game, where the runner usually has an easier time making money than the Corp.

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When Corps Fight Back

So! Your opponent read this article and is now running everywhere and anywhere in the early game, effectively making your life a living hell. What on earth do you do? You simply don't have the economy to rez everything, and when you do rez stuff, he either runs elsewhere or starts digging for the right things to break it for a ridiculously low rate.

The key as corp is to pick when you rez ice carefully. Remember what I said about information advantage? Hang on to that advantage as much as possible. Sure, it hurts to give the Runner free accesses, but try to hold back on rezzing stuff if they're running naked. Once they start dropping stuff down to power up their runs - like Datasuckers, Nerve Agents, Legwork or whatever - then you rez your ice.

The one exception to this rule is R&D ice, which you should just rez as soon as you can. A good score off R&D can kept them in business for days to come, and you just want them to stay out of there for as long as possible so they stop messing with your draws. If the runner is able to get cheap and consistent access to your R&D every turn, we call this state "R&D lock". This is bad, and you should strive to get out of this situation ASAP. Rez your first piece of R&D ice early and, when you can afford it, double-ice R&D so that there will always be an unknown variable that you can threaten the Runner with.

Always be aware that HQ is vulnerable to Account Siphon. For this reason, you should always have a piece of ice over HQ regardless of whether you have any Agendas in hand or not. Don't go overboard by stacking 4+ ice over HQ just because you're worried about Account Siphon, but also make sure that you're able to keep them out if you need to, or that you have some place to dump the money before they're able to Siphon you (eg. Adonis Campaign, The Root).

This is part of a series of short articles I'll be writing to help beginners understand the finer points of running the nets. I'll be mostly covering some of the basic key concepts and strategies that more experienced players tend to take for granted, and how this understanding can significantly improve your gameplay.

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Parli l'Italiano?

Tempo is Italian for "time" and is one of the most important concepts to master in many boardgames. Popularised by Chess, tempo describes an abstract advantage one player may have over another. For instance, if you force your opponent to make a move that does nothing but retreat to save a piece, we say that he has lost tempo. If, on the other hand, your opponent makes a move that does two things at once - say, he pins your Rook against your Queen and manages to secure the centre of the board at the same time - we say that he has gained tempo.

Tempo is one of the most important things that a burgeoning Netrunner has to understand as well, because once you understand tempo, you'll be able to better understand how to construct a deck to take advantage of tempo, and why doing some things - like purging viruses - is often considered a tempo hit (but sometimes necessary).

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Click Compression

So, every player can click for 1 credit or click to draw 1 card: that's good, gives us a baseline to determine what things are worth at a minimum. When you have a card that allows you to do more than that, playing said card usually gains you tempo because you're doing more things in the same amount of clicks. For instance:

• Magnum Opus & Armitage Codebusting gives you +2c for 1 click
• Easy Mark gives you +3c for 1 click
• Lucky Find gives you +6c for 2 clicks
• Sure Gamble gives you +4c for 1 click

Of course, there's also things like cost, opportunity cost, draw cost, amount of time the card stays on the board etc to consider, but I'm not going into there. You'll have to decide for yourself if a Magnum Opus is worth 5c and 2 MU, or if it's better to play Armitage Codebusting, or if it's better to just stack event-based economy and so on.

The main takehome lesson here is that click compression exists and is (assuming that all costs are equal) universally a good thing. The moment you end up doing more in the same amount of time that another player would, you've gotten yourself some tempo. Some other cards that give click compression not in the form of credits on the Runner's side include Mass Install, Quality Time and Doppelganger.

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Burst Economy vs Drip Economy

A deck with burst economy gets large amounts of money immediately, whereas a deck with drip economy gets small amounts of money over a period of time. Burst economy tends to be event/operation-based, whereas drip economy tends to be resource/program/asset-based.

One of the main reasons we see burst economy more these days is that burst economy, although more unreliable, gives you tempo. Why? Consider: Easy Mark, one of the weakest burst economy cards, gives you 3 for 1 click, whereas Magnum Opus, one of the strongest drip economy cards, gives you 2 for 1 click. Whenever you play Easy Mark, you get a small surge of tempo because you have money that you can spend right now; whenever you play Magnum Opus, you lose tempo because you have to spend at least 3 clicks on it before you break even (although, after that, you have an infinite source of money, which is nice).

Another way of looking at this is to think of burst economy as being able to give you what you need when you need it. If you need 4c to get into this server this turn, it doesn't matter that your Daily Casts will pay out more over time than a Sure Gamble: you lost your window of opportunity to steal the agenda. Drip economy lets you build up money, but burst economy gives you money when you need it.

This isn't to say that burst economy is inherently superior to drip economy, of course. However, you'll have to keep in mind that drip economy almost always has a hidden tempo cost, so be prepared to lengthen the game if your deck is powered by drip economy. Hearkening back to advice from my previous articles, you have to be aware of which game phase your deck is strongest in and build your economy accordingly.

Burst economy also has another disadvantage, and that's its lack of staying power. The moment you recover the cost of your Magnum Opus, every click thereafter is pure profit, and the Opus is going to stay around for a very long time, to give you money whenever you need it. However, the moment you play your Sure Gamble, that's it. Until you draw another economic event, you're stuck clicking for money.

>Example: Daily Casts pays out 5c net over a period of 4 turns without any clicks needing to be spent. However, for the first 1.5 turns, the runner is still struggling to break even with the tempo cost that he lost by paying 3c to put the Daily Casts down.

>Example: Sure Gamble pays out 4c net immediately. However, if the runner lacks the 5c he needs to pay the card's cost, he must click 5 times to put the money together first: which is, itself, a loss of tempo. For this reason, people who play Sure Gamble must make sure that they're able to meet the cost easily, either by making sure they have enough money in hand all the time, or by making sure they have cheaper sources of bursts.

Case Study: Liberated Accounts

An Anarch Armitage Codebusting that pays out 4c per click? Holy shit that's great! Except that it costs... 6c? Aw man. It's still good, but why isn't Liberated Accounts being included in every Anarch deck? It's because of the tempo cost associated with the card.

Anarchs are a notoriously poor faction. The way they gain tempo is, often, not by compressing their own clicks, but instead by wasting the corp's clicks. How's that work? Well, for starters, Noise gets to discard a card from the top of the deck, which will end up denying economy to the corp or disrupting their plans one way or another. Whizzard trashes the Corp's economy for cheap, bringing them down to the Anarch's level of poverty. Reina makes it more expensive to rez ice. You get the idea.

Now add in the fact that Anarchs can threaten multiple servers at a time - through Medium, Nerve Agent, Keyhole, Datasucker and more - and you'll end up with a Corp that is forced to take a tempo hit in order to ice up everywhere. Viruses, an Anarch specialty, can also get out of hand sometimes, and the only way to rein them in is to purge: which, in turn, costs the Corp an entire turn of doing stuff.

So, Anarchs cost the Corp tempo instead of gaining tempo themselves. That's great. What's that got to do with 6c? Well, because they specialise in disrupting tempo, they have very little means of gaining tempo themselves, which makes it difficult for them to scrap together a large amount of money like 6c. Even after scraping together that amount of money, you take a further tempo hit by only recovering your investment after 1.5 clicks, making it a card that - while strong - is rarely played in most Anarch decks.

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Dancing to your Faction's Tempo

Shaper gains tempo by compressing card draw. By being able to draw many cards (Diesel, Quality Time) or tutor the right cards at the right time (Test Run, Self-Modifying Code), Shapers ensure that they will always have the programs they need at the right time.

Criminals gain tempo by compressing economy. Many of their cards have the ability to make them ridiculously rich, but many of their cards also cost a lot of money, which equals them out. However, they have influence, which means that they're able to import some less costly options from out of faction in order for them to capitalise on their in-faction economy.

HB gains tempo by manipulating clicks directly, either by getting more clicks themselves (Director Haas, Biotic Labor) or by forcing the runner to lose clicks (bioroid ice).

Jinteki gains tempo by forcing the runner to draw more cards (net damage) or by forcing the runner to spend clicks making runs that they don't want to make (Replicating Perfection + Sundew, checking out facedown cards in a shell game deck). They're something like the corporate equivalent of Anarchs, in that they gain tempo by forcing the runner to lose tempo.

Weyland gains tempo by being ridiculously rich (GRNDL Refinery, Building a Better World). I mean, honestly, that's pretty much their entire gimmick. Oh, and I guess they're also able to threaten to kill you once in a while (Scorched Earth). Whatever, no big deal.

NBN gains tempo by being able to gain free clicks (SanSan City Grid, Astroscript Pilot Program) or by taxing the runner through tags (Data Raven, Midseason Replacement).

This is part of a series of short articles I'll be writing to help beginners understand the finer points of running the nets. I'll be mostly covering some of the basic key concepts and strategies that more experienced players tend to take for granted, and how this understanding can significantly improve your gameplay.

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Ice, Ice, Baby

So, let's talk ice. This article will mostly be drawing upon the excellent points found on Stimhack and Satellite Uplink. However, I'll be simplifying some of the definitions and arguments so that you, gentle reader, won't feel quite so lost.

Ice can largely be categorised as either "taxing", where its role is to make the runner pay lots of cash every time he wants to get through, or "binary", where its role is to keep the runner out. Of course, depending on the runner's breakers, binary ice can sometimes be expensive to break, and taxing ice can sometimes be cheap to break, but those cases should be the exception rather than the norm.

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Binary Solo!

Binary ice are either on or off: there's no midway state. They are very good at keeping the runner out of the server, but they falter and become ridiculously cheap to break the moment the runner gets the right breaker out.

The epitome of binary ice is, of course, Paper Wall. It's a 0 to rez 1 strength barrier that trashes itself the moment the runner breaks through it: which is absolutely perfect for keeping the runner out of your servers until he gets a single Fracter up, at which point it doesn't even exist anymore.

Ice Wall, Quandry and Guard all follow the same pattern, but Chimera is an interesting one. Chimera is the perfect example of midgame binary ice: until the runner gets either a full rig up or an AI breaker running, there's no way in hell he's getting into a server protected by Chimera. However, it costs a shitton of money to continually rez, which in turn taxes the Corp a lot. But it does its job well, and keeps the runner out for a good long time.

Another interesting ice in a similar vein is Mother Goddess, which can only be broken by AI breakers if it's the only ice that's rezzed. However, the moment you start rezzing other pieces of ice, it steadily gets easier and easier to break; although, if you have a deck that's full of sentries (the most taxing ice type, generally speaking), it can straddle the line between binary and taxing due to its 4 strength.

When you have a deck full of binary ice, you're looking to dominate the early to midgame. In fact, the simple fact that you're playing cheap binary ice makes it so that the early game becomes nearly non-existent: you launch the game immediately into the midgame by forcing the runner to start digging for his breakers ASAP.

One last point. If you're building a deck full of binary ice, you'll want to diversify as much as possible. You don't want all of your ice to suddenly roll over the moment the runner gets a single breaker out! You'll want the runner to dig not just for a fracter, but a decoder and eventually a killer as well just so that he can run past your multi-type ice.

Death and Taxes

A great example of taxing ice is Tollbooth which, although it says "end the run" on it, forces the Runner to pay money every time he so much as encounters it. What's more, Tollbooth is also a 5 strength code gate, which means that it usually costs even more money on top of the 3c tax it exacts on the poor runner.

Another less obvious example would be Archer. Why is this taxing ice instead of binary? Well, for starters, it has four subroutines, three of which must be broken each and every time. But wait, that's not all! Archer is also a 6 strength sentry, which is a ridiculously high strength for a sentry. It costs anything from 4c (Faerie) to 11c (Femme Fatale) to break through Archer.

What do we think about Eli 1.0: taxing or binary? I would argue taxing because it's a 4 strength barrier that's leaky as shit. A Corroder would need to spend 4c or two clicks just to break this piece of shit that the Corp rezzed for 3c.

In other words, if you have deck full of taxing ice, the runner is almost always able to get into your servers, but he'll have to bleed for every step he takes through it. When you play a deck that's made up primarily of taxing ice, you're looking to extend the game into the mid- and late game as quickly as you can. Most taxing ice is fairly expensive to rez, which makes it paramount that you spend most of the early game getting your economy up ASAP. However, there are some taxing ice (Eli 1.0, cough cough) that are cheap and effective, and you should probably include a few of those ice to tide you over in the early game.

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Why Not Both?

That's a great question, and one I'm glad you asked. The problem with mixing ice archetypes is that they dilute and muddle your strategy. Do you want to stay strong early on and score Agendas quickly? Well, then your Tollbooths are going to be burning a hole in your hand until you get a strong enough economy going to be able to rez it; and, even then, do you really want it up instead of a rezzed SanSan? OK, say you want to dominate the late game instead. Well, sorry, your binary ice disagree and will gladly roll over to let the runner in at minimal cost. What's more, the mere presence of binary ice on a taxing server is going to cost you extra unless you trash it.

By mixing ice archetypes, you're relying on the luck of the draw. Sure, it'll be perfect if you manage to draw your Paper Walls turn 1 and throw them down, and then draw your Tollbooths midgame right when you need it, but let's be realistic here. What are the odds of the ice not only appearing when you need it, but also in the right order?

But wait. What about Account Siphon? Don't we need some binary ice on HQ to prevent us from being siphoned early game? Well, not really. You see, taxing ice - if it's sufficiently taxing - will do a very good job of keeping a runner out of a server. Plus, I'm a big fan of playing around Siphon instead of trying to counter it. If you suspect the big old Blue Steal, keep your money low, put down some assets - Adonis, Eve, Pad, whatever - and rez it when the siphon inevitably hits. Or just play Sealed Vault if you really need a counter. Mixing binary ice and taxing ice just to keep a Siphon out is not a good idea, IMO.

Some corp players can and do get away with mixing, but that's mostly because they're expert Netrunner players who can roll with the punches, whatever they may be. However, for the majority of mere mortals like ourselves, I strongly suggest that you pick a strategy - i.e. earlygame or midgame - and focus your ice accordingly.

Also remember that your choice of strategy will not only inform your ice choice, but the rest of your deck as well. A deck with binary ice will benefit most from surprise program destruction and other cheap ways to "reset" the board to an earlier state, whereas a deck with taxing ice will benefit most from the threat of winning the game out of hand.

How does that last bit work? Consider the Data Raven. By itself, a tag from a Data Raven doesn't cost the Runner anything. However, the mere presence of the Data Raven in the deck threatens punishment: will it be double Scorched, a Closed Accounts, the loss of my Kati Jones...? This translates the tag into the runner spending a click and 2c, or the runner digging for his Plascretes. But remember, by itself, the tag is nothing more than a threat, and the Corp is relying on that threat to tax the runner.

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NEXT Ice

/u/keylimetart brought up an interesting question in the previous N4N article: where does NEXT ice fall in the spectrum? NEXT ice is really quite interesting because it can be either, depending on which stage of the game you're currently at.

Early game, NEXT ice is simply binary: you just force the runner to dig for his decoder or fracter before moving on. However, once you get a bit of momentum going and more NEXT ice starts getting rezzed, suddenly it becomes more and more taxing for the runner to break your el cheapo binary ice. What do you mean I now have to pay 6c to break through your 3c NEXT Silver? NEXT scales with the game stage, and that's something beautiful.

However. NEXT is also imperfect, and ultimately leans more towards the binary side of things than taxing. Remember that there are very few ways for a corp to rez ice without the runner slamming into it facefirst. If the runner realises that the deck is packing the NEXT suite and steadfastly decides to hammer one and only one server, the odds of the existing NEXT ice on the server growing in strength becomes lower and lower, and the cost of giving all your NEXT ice a +1 strength or +1 subroutine becomes higher and higher as you start to stack.

Eden Fragment may change this, but I doubt it. At the end of the day, I would still argue that NEXT is ultimately more binary than taxing, but it definitely has the potential to grow into taxing ice, which is nice.

This is part of a series of short articles I'll be writing to help beginners understand the finer points of running the nets. I'll be mostly covering some of the basic key concepts and strategies that more experienced players tend to take for granted, and how this understanding can significantly improve your gameplay.

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Why Time Is Everything

The average Netrunner game can be broken down into three main phases:

• the early game, where the Corp doesn't have much ice up on the board;
• the mid game, where the Corp has a strong economy and can rez (or has rez) most ice;
• and the late game, where the Runner has most of his breakers out and can break through almost any server, given enough time and money.

The astute reader would probably conclude, rightly, that the Runner is strongest in the early game, the Corp is strongest in the mid game, and that things sorta equal out during the late game. However, how does understanding this help us as either Corp or Runner?

Runners Gone Wild

As a runner, you'll want to run everywhere and anywhere often early on, to either get as many free accesses as you can or to simply tax the corp by forcing him to spend money. If you're able to successfully keep the corp poor, you're set: you're effectively lengthening the early game by preventing the corp from getting his economy set up so that he can rez everything.

Remember that rezzing ice is not always good news for the corp. Not only does it cost them money, it also lets you, the runner, get a peek into the breakers that you'll need to start digging for. The moment you know that the ice over R&D is an Archer, you'll know never to run that server unless you have your Killer out. However, if the Corp never rezzes the Archer, you're just going to keep getting free accesses off R&D. It's usually win-win no matter what.

Creme de la Corp

However, inevitably - unless the Runner gets very lucky, or the Runner is very good - the Corp will eventually reach a point where he not only has enough money to rez everything, but to also put down his Agendas and score them. Welcome to the mid game: this is where it gets exciting.

During this time, as the Runner starts digging desperately for his breakers to get through the ice keeping him out, the Corp has a short period to catch his breath. This is what we call a scoring window, or a period of time during which the Corp can (more or less) safely put down an agenda and score it. It is vital, at this stage, for the Corp to get as many agendas scored as possible, because very soon we'll be entering...

The Late Late Show with NBN

When the Runner gets his rig up, he can go anywhere and everywhere. Scoring windows are now defined by the Runner's economy. To determine if it's safe for the Corp to try and score an Agenda, he has to ask himself this one question: does the Runner have enough money to break through all my horrible ice? We're assuming that the Runner has the programs to do so (because he either has the program he needs out, or has ways to tutor for it midrun), but does he have the money to power the rig, and is he willing to do so?

At this stage, both Runner and Corp should have a few Agendas under their belt, and both will probably be hungry for the last few Agenda points for them to cinch the game. The Corp must now carefully control the tempo of the game through the clever use of traps, bluffs and control of the Runner's economy.

Case Study

You have a remote server that will cost the Runner, with his current rig, 10c to get through. The Runner has 8c right now, but also has a Magnum Opus out. Both of you are at 5 points, and you're holding onto a 1 point agenda in your hand with no traps. What should you do?

If it were me, I would first make sure that my centrals - in particular, R&D - is as taxing as it is humanly possible for me to make it. Remember that a single lucky score off the top of R&D now can possibly make the game for the Runner, so you've got to protect that.

Next, I'll try to draw through my deck for another Agenda so that I can cinch the game. Once I have both in hand, I'll try to bluff out a scoring window for myself by putting the 1-pointer in the remote and advancing it by 1. If the runner hits the server, he'll tax himself to death and will probably have to spend his next turn charging up for another run: which then gives me the window I need to score my other agenda.

Addendum

Always bear in mind, however, the fact that nothing is ever certain. For all you know, in the case study above, the Runner may play a Sure Gamble and radically reduce the time he needs to spend running your server of death. What are the odds of him doing that, though? This is where understanding deck archetypes come in handy.

If you were building a deck with Magnum Opus, would you include Sure Gambles as well? Ehhh... maybe? But more likely than not, a deck with Magnum Opus isn't going to have event-burst economy as well. Or maybe I'm just talking out of my ass, and it's common in your meta to have mixed economies. I don't know. The point is, you'll have to understand the common archetypes that you're going to meet in your local meta and find out how they work so you can make educated guesses when you next match up with them.

Exceptions

So, as you're reading this article, I'm sure many of you are going, "but what about NBN/HB fast advance which scores Agendas out of hand? What are their scoring windows?" Well, smarty pants, there are always exceptions to every generalization, and fast advance is one of them.

A fast advance deck is successful when it is able to shorten the early game - by either using cheap, easy to rez ice, or by having a very strong burst economy - and lengthen the mid game. For them, a scoring window is defined only by one thing: when they have enough money to rez a SanSan and score an Agenda out of hand, or put down a Biotic Labour and score an Agenda out of hand. The strength of these decks is that it usually only cares minimally what the Runner does. It's playing its own game, and when you can force the other player to play solitaire with you, you're in control.

The counter to this is multiaccessing centrals. In Netrunner, unlike in many other games, there's no truly safe place to hide your victory condition. If it's in R&D, the runner can get at it. If it's in HQ, the runner can get at it, albeit with slightly more difficulty. Multiaccess solves this problem by letting you dig deep and dig fast. Multiaccess creates a scoring window for the Runner in the midgame, and that's fantastic. Now the Runner is back to forcing the Corp to play Netrunner instead of solitaire, and the Corp has to start paying attention again.

What about switch decks, where they have an alternative victory condition of flatlining the Runner? SEA-Scorched is the most famous way to go, but there's also the Jinteki death by a thousand cuts or the simple Jinteki Komainu-Fetal AI combo. How do these fit into the picture we've painted above?

Corps playing these decks can mostly ignore the phases we outlined above and rely purely on the Runner making a mistake to kill them. It's a bit like having a Sword of Damocles above your head when you go up against these decks: any time, your whole world can come crashing down. A good multiaccess against Weyland, for instance, may result in a Punitive Counterstrike wiping you out. A SEA-double Scorched may kill you no matter what happens. And so on.

What do you do? Flip the table and refuse to play against such decks? Of course not. The key is to simply be aware that they have a potential victory condition, and to play around them. If you see a Weyland with minimal influence spent on ice and operations, beware SEA Source, Midseason Replacements, or Snare. If you see an NBN sitting on more than 6 credits and refusing to drop anything down, beware double Scorched Earths. If you see Jinteki with unrezzed ice sitting on 4+ credits, beware Neural Katana or Komainu.

Think of the alternative victory condition as an additional layer on top of the framework I outlined above. It's something that you must always keep in mind if you're facing a deck that can potentially flatline you: and these days, almost every Corp faction has the ability to do so. As Runner, watch the Corp's economy very carefully to determine when it's safe to run and when it's not.

tl;dr

Executive summary time! Runners are strongest early, corp strongest mid, and it equals out late. You should try to score when you're the strongest. Scoring windows are mostly determined by economy and board state. Learn to identify them to decide if it's safe for you to run or score. Beware decks with alternate win conditions like flatlining: you must always keep them in mind when playing against switch archetypes.

This is part of a series of short articles I'll be writing to help beginners understand the finer points of running the nets. I'll be mostly covering some of the basic key concepts and strategies that more experienced players tend to take for granted, and how this understanding can significantly improve your gameplay.

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Ice Types

We all know that there are three main types of ice: Barriers, Code Gates and Sentries, each of which can only be broken by Fracters, Decoders and Killers respectively. However, do these ice types actually have some things in common, or are they just ways to make the runner go dig for a different breaker?

Barriers

Barriers are some of the most straightforward ice. The quintessential example of a barrier is probably the Wall of Static: 3 cost, 3 strength, simple "end the run" subroutine. Most barriers follow this template. They have reasonably high strengths for their cost, and their main role is just to keep the runner out.

As a runner, barriers are probably the safest ice type to facecheck (ie. running into unrezzed ice without any way to break it). Of course, you wouldn't know if it's a barrier until you facecheck it, but... yeah. Anyway. Barriers exist just to keep the runner out of a server, end of story.

Weyland has a ton of barriers, as does HB. However, HB barriers are a little different from the average run-of-the-mill barrier because they can also deal damage to you (the Heimdalls being the prime example)! Yikes. Still, these barriers will also tend to allow you to click through the more damaging subroutines, so there's that at least.

Anarchs are supposed to be best at breaking Barriers. See: Corroder, Morning Star.

Code Gates

Code gates are sorta like utility ice. Some of them like Chum or Sensei exist just to help other pieces of ice, while others like Tollbooth, Datapike and Enigma exist solely to tax the runner one way or another. Some have "end the run"s, some have traces, some help the corp make money... it's a grab bag, basically.

For the most part, however, code gates are also safe to facecheck. If you run into a Chum, you simply jack out if there's another piece of ice after it. If you run into a Tollbooth, you pay your 3c and end the run. If you run into Enigma, you lose a click and end the run. It's quite straightforward. You probably wouldn't lose a program or take any damage. Probably.

Jinteki has a fair number of code gates, as does NBN. Weyland has almost no decent code gates, so they'll either export from other factions or just not play any whatsoever. HB code gates are mostly focused on making the runner lose clicks, which turns them into ice designed to support the bioroid titans.

Shapers are supposed to be best at breaking Code Gates. See: Cyber-Cypher, Torch.

Sentries

Sentries are the most dangerous of the lot, and also the most expensive to break as a whole. Sentries specialise in dealing damage, tracing and tag you, destroying your programs and being giant jerks in general. They are dangerous to facecheck, which is why it's usually a good idea to get a Killer out before facechecking a corp famous for its deadly Sentries.

NBN and Weyland has a lot of sentries, but whereas NBN's sentries are mostly there to tag you (eg. Data Raven), Weyland's sentries are there to destroy your programs (eg. Archer). HB's Sentries are there to deal out some delicious brain damage (eg. Janus), and Jinteki Sentries - obviously - are designed to deal net damage (eg. Neural Katana).

For the most part, NBN's Sentries act as a soft "end the run" because there's either a trace or a condition involved in you becoming tag. For instance, Data Raven allows you to end the run instead of taking the tag, whereas Muckraker requires the Corp to trace before tagging. You can usually facecheck these with some measure of security. The same is true of Weyland's Sentries if you don't care about your programs (because you have none, or because they're shit).

Against HB and Jinteki, however, it's usually a good idea to get your Killer out and ready before facecheking them. Now, there are some popular HB/Jinteki variants that don't rely on their sentries to wreck your face, but that's something you'll just have to get a feel for when deciding if it's safe to run naked or not.

Criminals are supposed to be best at breaking Sentries, but they're still kinda shit anyway. Every Killer is extremely costly to use: the most efficient is probably Garrotte, and that costs 7c to install and takes 2 MU. Faerie is great but trashes itself as part of the cost, and Ninja is just hilariously expensive to use. For this reason, many runners just pack a single AI breaker like Knight or Atman for the sole purpose of breaking Sentries.

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Subtypes

• Tracer: traces you, duh. Hard-countered by Gingerbread.
• AP: Anti-Personnel, deals net damage. Hard-countered by Deus X.
• Destroyer: destroys programs. Hard-countered by Sharpshooter.
• Illicit: gives Corp 1 Bad Pub when rezzed
• Trap: usually unavoidable, and trashes itself when its subroutine fires.
• Mythic: fancy ice that either changes subtypes or is supposed to be unavoidable
• Psi: makes you play the Jinteki psi game
• Deflector: moves you somewhere else

So What?

Alright, executive summary time. Barriers keep runners out, Code Gates support other ice and mess with the runner in some mild way, and Sentries wreck the runner's face by destroying programs, tagging him or dealing damage.

If you want to stay safe as the Runner, the first breaker you should tutor is probably a Killer. However, if you want to get through a server, you're better off searching for a Fracter, because many Sentries do not end the run.

Corp - General

• Corp only gets a mandatory card draw and 3 clicks per turn.
• The Corp dies when he has to draw from R&D and has no cards remaining. This is known colloquially as being decked out.
• You cannot include Agendas from other factions: only your own and neutral Agendas.

Corp - Ice

• You can only rez ice that's being approached, but can rez assets or upgrades from anywhere almost anytime.
• Ice that's rezzed does not automatically get derezzed or trashed after the runner breaks it.
• Ice does not have an automatic "end the run" subroutine at the end of everything; that is to say, if the runner doesn't break through all the subroutines, he does not automatically get booted out of the server. He suffers whatever side-effects the subroutines inflict on him, and then he moves on past the ice.
• Ice can only be installed in the outermost position on a server, and the Corp has to pay an install cost for each additional ice on a server past 1. The second piece of ice costs 1c, the third piece of ice 2c and so on. This cost is paid immediately, upon the ice being installed. However, when installing ice, you can freely trash any other ice on that same server to lower your install cost.

Corp - Assets, Upgrades and Agendas

• Assets do not need to be advanced to be rezzed; you simply pay the rez cost and flip them up.
• It does not take a click to rez an asset.
• You can have either one asset or agenda in a remote server, but any number of upgrades. You do not need to declare what type of card you're putting down when you play it, but you do need to retain the play order (i.e. the runner must be able to identify which facedown card you played first, second, third etc).
• You cannot advance assets or ice unless they say they can be advanced.
• You do not need to score an agenda once it has been fully advanced. You can, of course, and probably should, but you do not need to. You also cannot score Agendas on the runner's turn, but may do so anytime during your turn without spending a click.
• You can only use an agenda's paid ability after scoring it: e.g. you can only spend a click to deal damage to a runner after you score that Private Security Force, not any time before.
• It costs a click and 1c to advance something. This means that an agenda with a cost of 3 will take at least two turns to score (play, advance, advance; then advance again on the next turn), and an agenda with a cost of 6 will take three turns to score (play, advance, advance; advance, advance, advance; advance).
• Facedown cards, when trashed or discarded, are sent to the Archives facedown. A card is considered facedown when it's an unrezzed card in a server, a piece of ice or a card that has been discarded from HQ. Corp can look at all facedown cards in the Archives at any time.

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Runner - General

• Runner has no mandatory card draw and 4 clicks per turn.
• The Runner does not die from being decked out.
• Damage requires you to randomly discard cards; you do not get to choose which card you want to discard. Usually, the corp just picks a random card to discard for each point of damage.
• Brain damage is also a type of damage and therefore, in addition to lowering your maximum hand size by 1, also forces you to discard a random card.
• Runner only dies from meat/net damage when brought down to -1 hand size, not 0.
• Runners cannot use stolen agenda abilities.

Runner - Events

• Playing a Run event like Account Siphon or Retrieval Run includes the run as part of the click cost, i.e. you don't have to spend another click to make the run. You only need to spend the one click for playing the event, and you get the run for free.

Runner - Programs

• Runner starts with 4 Memory Units (MU).
• The runner must use the correct icebreaker for the right ice (e.g. if a breaker says "break sentry subroutine", your ice must be a sentry), and the icebreaker must have strength equal to or exceeding the ice before it can even interact with it. Yes, that means when you use Wyrm, you must pump its strength to the ice's strength first before you can start lowering the ice's strength.
• Icebreaker strength resets between ice unless it explicitly says otherwise.
• Not all icebreaker strength can be pumped.
• You cannot trash a program except as part of an install action. However, once you start an install action, you can trash any number of programs off that single action, even if the new program would not bring you above your memory limit.
• You cannot move a program once it has been played. e.g. if you play a Datasucker followed by a Djinn, you cannot retroactively move the Datasucker onto the Djinn.
• A single program can only have a single host. Once the host is destroyed, all hosted programs go into your heap.

Runner - Hardware and Resources

• You cannot destroy hardware or resources voluntarily.

Runner - Runs

• Events cannot be played mid-run. For that matter, anything that costs a click cannot be used mid-run.
• However, you can use stuff like Self-Modifying Code or Clone Chip mid-run.
• Runner can choose to jack out when approaching any piece of ice except the first piece of ice. The order goes something like this: you approach the ice and decide if you want to jack out or continue; if you continue, the corp decides if he wants to rez it; if he does, you then encounter the ice, and whatever "on encounter" triggers fire.
• Runs are successful before cards are accessed. e.g. if you run with Desperado, you get 1c before you start accessing cards; if you have a Medium out, you add a virus counter before you count the number of cards you access, and so on.
• Runner only looks at one random card from HQ when accessing HQ. If accessing multiple cards (because of a special card effect), you must randomly choose the cards to access one at a time, and they are not returned to HQ until you finish accessing all the cards you wish to access.

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General

• You cannot do things "in response" to another player's actions unless they say "prevent". Therefore, if the Runner decides to Parasite a piece of ice and Datasucker it to death, you cannot rez Corporate Troubleshooter "in response" to this happening: the active player gets to finish all his actions, then you get to do whatever you want, then he gets to do any other actions and so on.
• If something has the keyword "prevent", you can use the paid ability to prevent the effect from taking place. e.g. the Corp plays Scorched Earth on the Runner. The Runner may then spend tokens from his Plascrete Carapace to prevent an equal amount of meat damage from hitting him.

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FAQ

>What happens when I'm running against Jinteki Personal Evolution with 6 agenda points and 0 cards in hand, and I manage to steal an Agenda? Do I die or win the game? - You win the game first, unless it's an Agenda like Fetal AI where you get hit with net damage the moment you access it.

>What happens if I access a Fetal AI/NAPD Contract and do not want to pay the additional cost?

• You must steal an agenda you access unless it has an additional cost, as is the case of Fetal AI/NAPD Contract. Even if you can pay an additional cost, you can always choose to decline it. If you choose to decline the additional cost, you do not show the card to the Corp and just put it back where you accessed it from.

>After using Crypsis to break a piece of ice, can I choose to trash Crypsis instead of removing a token (e.g. as a response to Will o' the Wisp)?

• Yes.

>If I try to bypass Tollbooth via Femme Fatale, do I still suffer the "on encounter" effects?

• No. Both Femme and Tollbooth's effects trigger "on encounter", so the active player's effects are resolved first. The runner then bypasses the ice, at which point the Tollbooth's "on encounter" trigger is no longer valid. The same is true for Inside Job, Data Raven etc.

>If I try to kill Tollbooth with Parasite + Datasuckers, do I still suffer the "on encounter" effects?

• Yes. Using Datasuckers is a paid ability, and you only get a paid ability window after you encounter the ice. Tollbooth says that you have to pay 3c or end the run; if you did not pay 3c, then you must have ended the run before you get a paid ability window to use your Datasuckers.

>If I get hit with a Chum's subroutine and then bypass the next piece of ice with a Femme Fatale, do I eat the net damage from the Chum subroutine?

• Yes, because you did not break the subroutine.

>Does Femme Fatale need to have strength equal to the ice in order to bypass it?

• No.

>Can I play Account Siphon and use Sneakdoor Beta at the same time?

• No. Account Siphon includes a run as part of the event, and that run must be made on HQ. Sneakdoor Beta costs a click to use, and you cannot use clicks in the middle of a run. Besides, even if you could, you would be making a separate run altogether that will not allow you to Siphon their funds.

>When I play Account Siphon, must I take the money and tags, or can I choose to forfeit its effect to just access HQ normally?

• Yes, as long as it says "you may". If you play Account Siphon and choose not to take any money from the Corp after a successful run on HQ, you can access HQ normally and do not gain any tags. Note, however, that the same is not true for cards like Security Testing which lacks the "may" clause; you must take 2c in place of accessing the first time you run it.

>If I play 2 Security Testings and choose the same server, do I get 4c the first time I run it?

• No. You get 2c the first time you run it, and nothing else thereafter. Security Testing says that the first time you make a successful run on this server, instead of accessing cards you get 2c. You must always opt to take the money the first time you successfully hit the server, but you can only use one "instead of accessing cards" ability at any time. Y