Kala Ghoda Real TV

Kala Ghoda Real TV 0[credit]

Asset: Cast
Trash: 4
Influence: 1

When your turn begins, you may look at the top card of the stack.

[trash]: The Runner trashes the top card of the stack.

"A new property has two, maybe three hours. If it doesn't sell, cut it and move on."
Illustrated by Stéphane Gantiez
Decklists with this card

Kala Ghoda (kg)

#15 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Kala Ghoda
Rulings

No rulings yet for this card.

Reviews

At one influence, it could see some use in a Chronos Protocol deck that focuses on trashing icebreakers, usually from the runner's grip using net damage. Kala Ghoda Real TV can perform a similar function by using its trash ability to trash icebreakers from the top of the runner's stack.

(Kala Ghoda era)
345

Knowing what's in the Runner's grip is a huge advantage for the Corp, but a subtle one. You might not even notice how much the card is helping you. Maybe you see a Faust or a Yog.0 or a Mongoose and plan your ice accordingly. Maybe you see an Account Siphon or Inside Job you can't afford to deal with this turn. Maybe you spot the deck's only Hades Shard and chuck it with sadistic glee. There's a lot of potential here!

I don't see myself using the trash ability very often, but for the cost of a single click this card forces the Runner to figure out a way to draw 2 cards per turn if they want to have anything hidden from you. That's something only a few Runners/builds can manage without blowing through clicks. I'm looking forward to testing this one out.

(Kala Ghoda era)

Might be a good counter to Making an Entrance. Timmy Wong certainly demonstrated that card's filtering power. But then if an Anarch suspects that Kala Ghoda Real TVis laying in wait then maybe they'll put a worthless card on top of their stack. Ohhh the game theory!

(Salsette Island era)

The type of Cast is a new one, I do believe. Perhaps we will see a cycle of ones similar to this that provide infomation about how the runner is playing while also providing a way to interact with them.

0 to rez and 4 to trash is a good rez to trash rate. The ability provides very little useful info to be honest, and the trash ability doesn't do much.

Maybe if Test Run becomes a big thing, this might be an appropriate counter, or for trashing something followed scoring a Chronos Project or rezzing Blacklist.

(Kala Ghoda era)
We've actually seen Cast twice before, with Daily Business Show and The News Now Hour. There doesn't seem to be a theme between them, though. —

The best case scenario for Kala Ghoda Real TV is that you can snipe away the sentry or code gate breaker1 or another vital card. That threat forces the runner to draw multiple cards in one turn since you can only see and trash the top card. Then again, a runner who's waiting for a specific card will generally draw multiple in a turn so realistically you have a chance at sniping the card. But if you do manage to snipe a breaker you could conceivably lock a runner out of several servers for a several turns. That's a big tempo win.

The trash ability becomes much more potent when you're playing Skorpios. You can trash the top card during either the runner's turn or yours, depending on where you already want to use Skorpios' ability. At the very least this combination lets you kick an extra runner card out of the game adding to the Skorpios game plan of screwing up the runner's game plan. Unlike with most other Skorpios methods however this doesn't even let the runner use the card once. Since the influence cost is • and the rez cost is 0 the required investment is pretty low.

1The fracter is probably Paperclip so you'd actually help the runner if you were to trash it.

(Free Mars era)
398