This is as much a game essay as a review, so strap yourselves in if you are up to it! Otherwise, skip ahead to the last two paragraphs for my suggestions.

Overview

Padma is undeniably weak, seeing almost no play, even at the peak strength of Shapers she was consistently beaten out by Lat, Arissana or Kit. This review will explain why she’s weak, how she could’ve been better designed and how she still can.

ID abilities can generally be thought in terms of 3 factors: payoff, play-pattern and deck-building requirements. What kind of cards do you need to include in your deck, what sort of play-pattern do you need to pursue to trigger your ability, and what is the reward for doing so?

Generalists

Speaking anecdotally, the most widely played IDs tend to have generalistic payoffs with lenient requirements.

Take Hoshiko for example, she gives you card draw and credits, something almost every deck can benefit from, while only requiring you to touch cards every other turn. Thus she can work with almost anything, Reg Anarch, Mulch, ICE destruction, etc., all can benefit from money and cards, and all want to run at least occasionally.

Lat is similar, almost all Shaper decks can benefit from clickless card draw and matching hand-size with the corporation requires almost nothing of you in deck-building and doesn’t greatly restrict your play pattern. Thus Lat can be played with a variety of archetypes, in the days of Endurance and Rezeki, he was the face of control shaper, in the days of Trick Shot and Deep Dive, he was the ID of choice, and when Aesop’s Pawnshop/Coalescence was the best engine, he could still slot in just fine.

Combo

By contrast, combo IDs tend to see relatively little play (unless their combo is busted), and be extremely confined to their specific play pattern.

Tāo, for instance, almost only ever uses Hermes, because the synergy with his ability is too great and he is currently best served by the Conduit/Aeneas engine, because he usually has to tunnel on a single server that he continually weakens in hopes of finding another agenda in time to snowball further. However, when properly locked out, he lacks the lateral options available to other IDs, he’s limited by being unable to reliably choose when and even if agendas will be scored or stolen and his ability does little against asset decks that play few ICE and combo kill decks that don’t plan to score out at all.

Similarly, Mercury usually runs few, if any, icebreakers and relies almost exclusively on finite, bypass tools to “cheat” their way through not just some of the corporation’s ICE, but all of the corporation's ICE. They then plan to win off a critical mass of multi-access supported by tools like The Twinning, “Pretty”, or WAKE Implant. But, much like Tao, they lack the flexible and strategic tools to control the flow of the game should they get unlucky, or get locked out.

Midground/Archetype Players

Most IDs fall somewhere in the middle and their playability is determined by how much value their ability can generate relative to how easy it is to fire said ability, as well as how good the cards in the archetype they belong to are.

Arissana is generally considered a good example, here, we can see the three components, Arissana requires Trojan synergies in deck-building, which lends her to a unique, trojan-centric archetype best played with her ID, she requires you to run often, something that is not-hard for aggressive runners and rewards you with clickless installs at a minimum, or game saving counter-play in a pinch (reactively installing a Hush, Slap Vandal, Botulus or Physarum Entangler can be game-saving). These reactive installs also enable her to be more aggressive with her runs, which is important for a high-tempo, run-based ID.

Padma is similar in theory, she requires you to include cards that can be charged in the deck building stage, and thus should be the best ID for any power-counter centric Archetype. Her play-pattern requires making regular runs, not unlike Arissana or Hoshiko in theory. And the pay-off is the power counters themselves, which have variable returns but can often be used for some amount of card-draw (Dr. Nuka Vrolyck), credits (Coalescence), multi-access (Cataloguer, WAKE, Twinning), breakers (Revolver, Propeller, Lobisomem) or utility (Hippocampic Mechanocytes, Poison Vial, Amelia Earhart). All in all, this seems fine, the biggest catch is that unlike these other IDs, Padma’s ability only fires when you run R&D.

The Problem with Padma

This is a bigger problem than you might initially think, locking your ability into a single server is a crushing limitation because of the counterplay it opens up to the corp. Against the other aforementioned, run-based IDs corporations would need to ICE up every server, a multiplicatively more difficult requirement than icing up just a single server. Because if you heavily ICE up one server against say, Arissana or Hoshiko, they can simply pivot and attack the new weakest server while still getting value from their ability. Whereas once R&D becomes unrunably expensive, should Padma pivot away from it, she is now playing with a blank ID box, a horrible situation to be in.

Furthermore, because her ID lacks in built protection like Arissana has, Padma is vulnerable to bad facechecks on R&D should she try to run into a facedown piece of ICE on turn one. She’s especially vulnerable, even when compared to conventional run-based decks like Criminal that try to force rezzes before they’ve installed any cards because Padma needs at least one card installed to use her ability on, simply increasing the number of potentially tempo-negative face-checks she could make.

There's a very good reason that ID design has moved away from server-specific abilities over its history, FFG era netrunner often included ID abilities that targeted a specific server like Gabriel Santiago, Steve Cambridge, Akiko Nisei or Silhouette. But NSG broadly recognized, correctly in my opinion, that these limitations are best placed on specific cards, not fundamental IDs, and you can see the fruits of these learnings in modern ID design. Zahya's ability works on HQ or R&D, as does Mercury's, Sable has to run a specific central server, but that server changes from turn to turn, so you can never truly know where to place ICE to lock her out for good.

The decision to ignore all of these learnings when it comes to Padma and limit her ability to only work when running R&D confounds me as I can't see a good reason to place this limitation. It's like if Arissana could only install Trojans on ICE protecting R&D with her ability, or if Hoshiko only got to flip if she accessed cards in Archives, it just wouldn't make any sense and would be extraordinarily constrictive.

The Solution

My opinion, now more than ever, that we've had a good chance to see how Padma operates in the standard meta, is that Padma’s ability should read “The first time each turn you make a successful run, Charge 1 of your installed cards.”

This would make Padma’s gameplay so much cleaner and smoother at every stage of the game. On turn one, Icing up R&D is no longer so debilitating, because she can still run HQ and get a risk-free power counter. Even once HQ and R&D get iced up, you can still run Archives for a safe supply of power-counters, equivalent to clicking for 2 credits with Coalescence or 2 cards with Nuka, or preemptively charging up your multi-access for once you find your breakers.

In the mid-game, where you need to run the remote to keep the corporation in check, you can still generate an incidental power-counter to refund you some of the cost. If you need to sweep HQ on an important turn, you still get a power counter, if you need to run Archives to keep Jinteki honest or flush out a Spin Doctor, you still get a power counter. Even in the late game, where you might want to run R&D to close things out, you can still get a power counter, only generating that power counter once the run is successful, is a minor downside, but if anything, this is fairer than getting one when the run begins. Not to mention the fact that this reworded ability makes orthogonal game-plans like assets much more playable for her.

Ultimately, it would enable a far more "natural" style of Netrunner, one that incidentally rewards you for making the kinds of good runs you would want to make anyway, rather than attempting to force you into this awkward play pattern of "tunneling" on R&D.

How to Achieve it

I know why NSG does not do functional errata, but I want to propose an alternative solution to this problem. Create a Booster Pack, with maybe only 5 or so cards, such as this reworded version of Padma, reword Daeg to say something more like “The first time this game you install a card named Daeg and whenever an agenda is scored or stolen, you may Charge 1 of your installed cards.” Tweak the numbers on Nanuq or Tunnel Vision to give Shapers or Criminals a new playable AI, reprint Virtuoso but with 2 Memory instead of just 1, and maybe reprint Nanisivik Grid but make it unique, or give it "remote server only". Call the whole thing the “Borealis Reprint Booster Pack” and give everybody who buys the next standard release cycle a copy of this booster pack, free of charge, that way you can easily disseminate these reprinted versions to everybody who is still into Netrunner (plus worst case scenario people can just proxy the new versions from print-and-play).

I strongly believe the Charge mechanic is underutilized and with the Borealis cycle recently released and not rotating for years to come, I think there’s a strong argument to be made that these underplayed or banned cards deserve a second chance while they’re still young. Just don’t reprint the Boat lol, I think this version of Padma would still be good without it :D

When I first saw this ID, can’t help wondering what makes it unique.Just as Diogene cleverly pointed out,A Teia: IP Recovery is an ID which grants corporations with a huge amount of tempo.However,when I dive into it deeper, I find out what really makes A Teia: IP Recovery shines:flexibility.

Considering the current jinteki card pool and IDs. AgInfusion: New Miracles for a New World is designed for a glacier based strategy.Jinteki: Restoring Humanity is suitable for sneaking out agendas.Jinteki: Personal Evolution is the home to some of the most dangerous decks.Issuaq Adaptics: Sustaining Diversity has some of the most amazing combos to out pace the runners.

If you took a closer look at A Teia: IP Recovery, you might find some interesting clues.A Teia: IP Recovery is possible to host all the strategy above (glacier,rush,fast advance,kill,sneak).Thanks to the double install, A Teia: IP Recovery grants us..Jinja City Grid help build two tower at once.The two servers can serve as a perfect Fork to host Urtica Cipher and Clearinghouse ,whlie also making Regenesis much easier to fire.Combined with some R&D protection , it would make the pass to victory much smoother for a jinteki player.Not to mention jinteki has the best card recursion ,as well as some of the best encounter effects .

This is what A Teia: IP Recovery is good at:tactics ,combos and endless variations.Runners can never out guess what is in server. This is the essence of jinteki.This is the reason why A Teia: IP Recovery is my favorite identity.

Despite the enthusiastic and optimistic reviews you may read on this page, this card sees no play and saw no play historically outside of being a cheap sacrificial hardware during the days of World Tree. This review exists as a post-mortem, to break down what this card does, why it sees no play, and how similar cards can be better designed in the future.

As I see it, there are two fundamental and interlinked problems this card faces:

1. It is niche (it's a tech card)
2. It is exhaustible

Tech Cards

Being a tech card is in and of itself a limitation, tech cards will always see comparatively little play due to their niche applications when compared to something universally good like Sure Gamble, Diesel or Bravado, simply because money and card draw will always have value against every match-up while techs will, by their very nature, have fluctuating returns. Still, tech cards have their place and similarly worded tech cards for preventing damage and "when encountered" effects have seen play historically such as Hunting Grounds, Feedback Filter or Caldera.

Notably, Airblades does put some pretty serious restrictions on itself, preventing only net damage (not Core or Meat) does limit it's applications and those limitations are exacerbated by the only during run condition, so while it might mitigate the sting of Anemone or Urtica Cipher it won't help against Bladderwort, Reaper Function or Mindscaping nor will it do anything against Thule Subsea: Safety Below or tag and bag.

Still, in the matchups where it's useful, it can be quite useful, if you can prevent 3 net damage throughout the game, Feedback Filter and Caldera tells us that's worth about 3 credits of value per damage for a total of 9. And similarly, if you can prevent 3 on encountered effects like Tollbooth, Mestnichestvo or Funhouse then that should save you a similar amount of money, for a profit margin of 8, which is exceedingly good when compared to convention econ. It's so good, in fact, that in the matchups where you would want this card, such as against certain Jinteki or NBN decks, you'd probably want to include two or three since just one will quickly run out...

Exhaustible

This is where the second problem arises, all of these historical tech cards I've listed are infinite, while they might cost credits or have limitations like only being usable once per turn, they will never run out. If you are expecting a damage-heavy meta, you need only include one Feedback Filter and the money your deck already wanted to include to achieve protection, in fact, with sufficient drip economy or a Magnum Opus rig, you can outlast even the grindiest deck, causing them to deck out before you do. In it's heyday, Hunting Grounds was a popular one influence splash outside of Apex because you could pretty reliably expect it to cover it's install cost after just a couple of important runs and the longer the game goes on the more and more incidental value you'll acrue. And, critically, worst case scenario you play up against Weyland and have one dead card in your deck, or two if you felt the need to run both damage protection and Hunting Grounds.

But with Airblades, you feel pinched, in the matchups where you want this kind of effect most, you'll probably want 2 or 3, since just one will quickly run out, but in the matchups where it's useless, you want 0 as they're just dead draws. The tension of this hurts Airblade's viability from a slots perspective, as it doesn't do enough as a 1 of but isn't consistently valuable enough to warrant 2 or 3 slots.

Alternatives

Ultimately, the best tech cards are slot effienct, either simultaneously solving a multitude of common problems in one card, like how Pinhole Threading deals with Anoetic Void, or Manegarm Skunkworks or The Holo Man or Clearinghouse or Rashida Jaheem and so and so forth. Or provide incredible value throughout a game, i.e. when playing against Tollbooth, Hunting Grounds functionally drips 3 credits per turn without capping the returns at 8 credits. Or provide an alternative benefit outside of tech, i.e. having "fallback" value.

Most Shapers today will prefer to play a card like Stoneship Chart Room, which elegantly deals with all types of damage threats. So too Anarchs prefer to play Steelskin Scarring and Criminals The Class Act since these cards all provide both damage tech and alternatively thin your deck, making it more efficient, not less, in the matchups where you don't need damage protection.

Redesign

If I had to redesign Airblades without fundamentally changing it, my first order of business would be to let it recharge itself, such as gaining a power counter the first time each turn a successful run is made, by letting it self-replenish, you can feel comfortable including just one of these, knowing it can last you the whole game, without wishing you had a second copy, the instant the first runs out. To compensate, you might want to increase the install cost to 2 or 3 credits, and/or have it start with only 1 power counter instead of 3.

If this wasn't enough, you could start expanding its applications, perhaps a third option where you can spend a power counter to jack out or remove a tag, like a rechargeable Flip Switch. Or simply expand the damage protection to include Meat or Core damage and remove the only during run condition. Or you could reword the second ability to include other nasty ice abilities, like preventing "when rezzed" effects on Unsmiling Tsarevna, Ablative Barrier or Stavka/Hafrún or when encounter ends effects like Anansi or Phoneutria.

I'd be much more comfortable including a tech card like this version of Airblades that recharges itself and provides a multitude of uses against a wide variety of matchups, than the current version which is both highly specialised and painfully finite.

At the time of writing, NSG has been quite clear that they don't do errata for accessibility reasons, which I completely understand, so don't hold your breath for a new version of Airblades coming anytime soon. Rather, let Airblades serve as a lesson for future designers, on the pitfalls of tech cards, and how to ensure playability.

I probably run this card on Jnet more often than most people, and I'd just like to note one thing that the previous review overlooks. Hydra only costs 10 when it doesn't fire. Otherwise its net cost is only 5 because the second sub immediately pays you back half the cost (obviously you still need the full price on hand for the rez). This makes Hydra a surpisingly viable option as a midgame rez for an averagely rich deck. You can go broke to rez it and it will immediately pay you back enough cash to play a Hedge Fund. Meanwhile, clearing their tag costs the runner a click they might otherwise have used to capitalise on your low funds. All this means that as long as you're sure the runner is going to bounce off it, Hydra can be favourably compared to mid value ice, whether it's stoppers like Mestnichestvo or tax-walls like Funhouse. You could even argue it's preferable to Tollbooth, in certain lights, if you squint a bit.

In the case the runner can break it, the subs are irrelevant, so all you need to know is the numbers. In this case it's still not bad if you can afford it (only one strength less than Týr and without the uniqueness or alternate breaking option). This is an occasionally handy but - in my mind - secondary use. Combined with the analysis above, you might think of Hydra as a very good medium-cost ice that becomes a slightly-below-the-curve high-cost ice once the runner can break it - whether you've rezzed it by that point or not.

All this means that in its optimum use-case it's a very code gate-like sentry (note all the comparisons above are code gates). It doesn't do the runner really dangerous damage when it hits, but it creates a big economic tempo swing. You get: a big ETR ice for the price of a middle-sized ice. They get: a tag. In its less-than-optimum use case it's just some big numbers.

Kingmaking (👑) is a “DIY 4/3” if you're holding onto (or draw into) an X/1, as well as drawing up to 3 cards itself.

“Low-Worth” agendas include:

• Post-Truth Dividend
• License Acquisition
• Oracle Thinktank
• Superconducting Hub

See v<2 t:Agenda f:NBN|neutral z:standard .

Design:

• Like Regenesis, it “free-scores” an agenda when you score it (which I love). This encourages its own specific agenda-suites: Regenesis wants 5/3’s, esp. which have Archives-relevant (like when stolen) text; and Kingmaking wants 3/1’s, esp. which have (non-when you score & non-hosted agenda counter-based) abilities.

• Even if you didn't care about the extra agenda point or any abilities (like False Lead), it still “removes” one agenda in your hand from the game, which is a (petit) anti-flood effect on its multi-draw.

Note:

• While it won't trigger Superconducting Hub’s conditional (on-score) ability, it does still enable its static (in-score-area) ability. For example, in @koga’s “Teeth Azmari”, a (44-card) deck which sleeved up 4 X/1’s for 3 Kingmaking’s.
• IMO, the text would read a little better as worth 1 agenda point or less / worth 1 or fewer agenda points.

A kingmaker scenario in a game of three or more players is an endgame situation where a player who is unable to win has the capacity to determine which player among others will win.

en.wikipedia.org