Hybrid Release

Hybrid Release 2/1

Agenda: Expansion

When you score this agenda, you may install 1 facedown card from Archives.

"By disabling their bodiesʼ ability to create a variety of necessary enzymes, weʼve ensured their loyalty to us. If they donʼt return for supplements every month, they die; simple as that."
—Dr. Vientiane Keeling
Illustrated by Marlon Ruiz
Decklists with this card

Parhelion (ph)

#105 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Parhelion
Rulings
  • Updated 2023-03-25

    Can the Corp use the effect of Hybrid Release to install a piece of ice and trash an existing piece of ice that was protecting that server in the process?

    Yes.

  • Updated 2023-03-25

    If the Corp uses the effect of Hybrid Release to install a piece of ice on a server already protected by ice, do they pay install costs?

    Yes.

  • Updated 2023-10-04

    If the Corp scores Hybrid Release while the Runner has Hermes installed, what order do those abilities resolve in? Can the Corp rez the card they install before Hermes has a chance to add it to HQ?

    Both Hybrid Release and Hermes become pending in the same reaction window, but the active player resolves their abilities first. Since agendas can only be scored on the Corp’s turn, this means the Corp is the active player and must resolve Hybrid Release’s ability first. Then the Runner resolves Hermes’s ability, adding an unrezzed card to HQ, which could be the card that the Corp just installed. The Corp does not have a chance to rez any cards in between the two abilities.

Reviews

A solid little 2/1 agenda. The first one in Jinteki since Clone Retirement! And a much better one too - Jinteki decks seldom ran with much bad publicity, and Clone Retirement was not a reliable way of removing it. (Since if stolen, it just made the problem worse!) Hybrid Release is a much better agenda overall, that doesn't have a downside in the same way Clone Retirement did.

So first off, it's a 2/1. This is nice just for scoring reasons - it's only one point, but you can fast-advance it out of your hand with no other tools. The effect is solid also - Installing cards from archives is both very handy, and very in-theme for Jinteki. (Although note that you still have to pay for the install. No cheap ice towers for you!) It does have one other limit though - you can only install cards from archives that are facedown. So you can't install anything that the runner has already trashed, for example. But that's fine - it's still a great way to pull out failed traps or agendas that you have stashed! (Or just useful cards that you have discarded.)

I also really like the design of this card. Every startup-legal Jinteki identity synergizes with it in a different way:

  • Jinteki: Personal Evolution loves 1-point agendas, and ones that are safe to score are basically just free net damage.
  • Jinteki: Restoring Humanity likes having facedown cards in the archives anyway, (and tends to have at least some defense on their archives) so will very likely have something to target with the agenda ability.
  • Issuaq Adaptics: Sustaining Diversity can play it facedown on the board, unadvanced, and if the runner doesn't check it, next turn they can Seamless Launch it to score and trigger their identity, making it effectively worth two points.

Other synergies are mostly just things that put things into the archives facedown for it to target. Hansei Review is a classic. Moon Pool can leave things in archives facedown, if you already have an agenda in archives when you trigger it. And the new card, Simulation Reset is a fantastic way to both recur useful cards, while leaving some facedown cards in archives.

So yeah. It's not a terribly exciting agenda. It's not going to break the game, or be the final piece in some ridiculous janky combo. (Issuaq nonsense notwithstanding) It's just a very solid agenda with good numbers, clean design, and a useful effect, that can fit right into almost any Jinteki deck and be useful. Give it a whirl next time you are deckbuilding, and you will probably find it useful!

(Parhelion era)
755

You could also combo with Kakurenbo to score it and install ANYTHING from archive.

That is a really good point! I forgot that Kakurenbo doesn't block scoring, but that makes it a really nice combo with this card, doesn't it?