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:
- It is niche (it's a tech card)
- 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.
