MUSLIHAD TO DO IT TO EM

CRIMINAL IS BACK BABY or at least people are playing it again. for just how long remains to be seen. most people seem to agree, however, that of the runner cards in elevation, criminal probably received some of the more notable options (even if they're mostly reprints or side-prints).

when the IDs were revealed, everyone seemed to gravitate towards Baz. not me. he may be hot but i've spent enough time leading others down the garden path to recognize when someone is trying to do it to me. that ability seems to me like a bunch of key-jingling and, although i have been known to do a bit of that myself, i was far more interested in Musliha (or MuslihaT or Muslihat, all three of which are used inconsistently throughout her short story). i wanted DRAW.

Musliha's ability seems ultimately Fine. it's quite shit compared to Lat's, unfortunately—he is getting a trigger on like 80%+ of his turns and at the end of his turn, whereas the best Musliha can hope for is 50% at the start of her's—but at least it makes deckbuilding easy. filter for all of the run events, add in the ones that help to advance your gameplan, and take the rare criminal opportunity to play 2x of each icebreaker, since they help with draw anyway. this makes slots extremely tight, unfortunately, so you don't get to play that many tricks—sorry underpowered sneakdoor event and new e-shutdown—but at least you should have money and cards, if things don't go too poorly.

speaking as someone who is now a decade deep in the agony of being a crim player, i can say that: the deck feels pretty good. i played in our first elevation tournament yesterday and felt far more capable and confident than i have in the 13-month meta we've just completed. it's nothing compared to the old days of having strong cards and IDs and you certainly do miss the turtle, but it's nice that we actually have some functional money and draw in-faction now. unlike most, i have been playing crim consistently for the past year and so i can say with some confidence that, weirdly, lie low is probably the biggest improvement offered by elevation. it was so easy to get stuck with a shit hand and to just have no options other than slowly and painfully drawing, clicking for credits, and discarding. lie low helps you to just find a way out of that paralysis so much faster. the new siphon also feels decent, especially when combined with hermes. it feels so good to be playing the old leela games and waiting for the perfect moment to pressure and then put the corp into a headlock.

a few thoughts on specific cards:

• there should probably be a second alarm clock. card feels good as hell.

• debbie is really bad. she's always been really bad, of course, but i thought that maybe she'd be playable in a deck running this many run events. nope.

• i really want to play fransofia ward. i loved playing xanadu (especially in crim, weirdly) and i love the weird economic pressure it brings. it is, however, pretty expensive, and because of the shit icebreakers, you're not actually as rich as you might hope. it's difficult to justify including a second copy of this, but even if you draw it, it can be difficult to install. if there were more options for control, i think this would be more playable, but as-is it felt a little useless. we'll see.

• i hate carmen. even at 3, it is far too expensive to install given that it breaks the most commonly-encounter sentry for 4, more than most of the other commonly-used killers. i assumed that they would print another killer for criminal in elevation, given that killers are supposed to be "their thing." i assumed incorrectly. echelon is much better in the mid-to-late game and usable in the early game with support from leech and boomerang but it is also no doubt awkward. choose your poison, i guess. maybe i'll try carmen and use the echelon influence to ride the dragon.

• i actually wouldn't mind some additional econ but the new resources—side hustle and open market—are very underwhelming and so it's hard to justify the room for them. if i drop echelon and gain the influence, i might actually try a day job...

• it was an oversight to not have cezve in the list. i realized this during the tournament. so it goes.

okay let's hope crim remains playable somehow and also that we don't get overrun by fast advance and asset spam now that we don't have tools for dealing with either ha ha okay good luck everyone