“Draining” multiple credits, Transfer is a “(mini) Siphon reborn”!

• It can be a nine-credit swing (their -3[$] into your +6[$]), and you still breach HQ.

• Even as a six-credit swing, and with an op/ice accessed, it's bounce-back econ with econ-denial. For example, if you detag ASAP (minus your -2[$], [click]), or if the Corp rezzed down to two credits mid-run (their -2[$] into your +4[$]).

Until release, see the reviews on Diversion of Funds and Account Siphon for the general strategy/behavior.

Synergies:

• With a PAN-Weave, it's an four-credit zap (their -4[$] into your +7[$]). And zapping credits is self-synergistic in a way earning credits isn't.

• In Zahya with a Docklands Pass, you can burst up to 8[$] from bankruptcy (while accessing two cards).

Flavor-wise, money has diminishing-returns of utility: each credit is worth more value for the less rich (Runners) than for the richer (Corp).

Batching two “run-based subtypes” (run and icebreaker), MuslihaT can draw a card a turn! (And she's the only such Crim ID in Standard, without Geist or Liza.)

Given 15–19 run-events and 3–4 breakers, she should draw on 40–50% of turns. For example (in-faction):

• 3× Transfer of Wealth
• 3× Bravado
• 3× Clean Getaway
• 3× Carpe Diem
• 2× Pinhole Threading
• 2× “Inside Job” (Window Opportunity? S-Dobrado? Tread Lightly?)
• 1× Overclock

plus:

• 1× Curupira
• 1× Carmen
• 1× Revolver
• 1× Sang Kancil (a “run-events-matter” icebreaker!)
• 1× Mayfly? (R.I.P. Aumakua)

Design-wise, it's an interactive effect with a non-interactive trigger:

• The benefit requires interaction, since the cards drawn either initiate runs, or can only be used during runs*; except for a minority of cards with optional-runs (like Carpe Diem), or some hypothetical “econ breaker” (like a new Gingerbread, that could only break Observers, but which could be trashed like No Free Lunch to detag).
• But the condition itself (BoT) is non-interactive. Even if you can't make a single run this turn (you need to remove tags after an Oppo Research, draw back up after a Fujii Asset Retrieval, find some hate card, or so on), your ID will still trigger and you might still draw a card (setting yourself up for next turn).

Such “predicated”-draw is also card-selection:

• If you're looking for an “on-type” (like Transfer of Wealth), she might draw it.
• If you're looking for an “off-type” card (like No Free Lunch), she can still dig you deeper (like the The Class Act).

Cards: s:run|icebreaker .

She also cross-synergizes with:

• “Run-Events-matter”, in particular: like Swift and Debbie "Downtown" Moreira.
• “Events-matter”, in general: like Mystic Maemi (or even Aniccam and Ghosttongue?).

IIUC, her name is a pun:

• “muslihat”: means trick/fraud in Indonesian/Malay.
• “Musliha”: is a female name (from Arabic).
• (CF. a “Patricia Kaplan” nicknamed “TricK”, but even smoother.)

Phoenix is giving “Red Mercury”, “interactive Esâ”, and “flexible MERChant”.

She synergizes with:

• Subroutine-“Rewriting”: like Bankhar.
• Subroutine-“Melting”: like Banner and Shred.
• other Subroutine-Resolution rewards: like Raindrops Cut Stone.
• and ‘other’ Sabotage: like Chastushka.

Design

His quasi-Sabotage is a pseudo-multi-access, like Mercury’s (true) multi-access, but where you must resolve subroutines, not just bypass or derez over them. (And his a successful run targets any server, like Hoshiko’s access, not just centrals.)

IMHO, “Resolved-Subroutines-matter” is much healthier than “Unbroken-Subroutines-matter”. Letting the Corp resolve their (non-EtR) subroutines is more interactive than “just don't break ice” or “just touch a card”.

PS. This is my favorite spoiled Runner ID (before playing with any).

Cards

Bankhar in Phoenix is extremely synergistic:

• sets up the a subroutine resolved check.
• helps with a run becomes successful check.
• lets you flexibly attack any server with an outermost, single-sub, rezzed ice (if available).

Banner can “melt” past most Barriers, like Kessleroid’s two ↳ End the run’s. (Will we sleeve up a Banner alongside two Rising Tide? I WANT TO BELIEVE.)

A Shred can “melt past” a singular gearcheck (Tatu-Bola, Ablative, Ping, Descent, Flyswatter) unless the Corp suffers “1 HQ damage”, while still triggering Phoenix (since the ↳ End the run was not broken and yet the Barrier was still passed), thus forcing the Corp to either suffer “1 HQ sabotage”. CF. a The Corp trashes (1 card at random or) 1 card of their choice from HQ. fork.

Raindrops in Phoenix feels kinda like Bravado in Baz.

And Chastushka will mill (at least) 2 cards from R&D, if Phoenix has bonked the Corp down to 2 cards in HQ. (That is, the smaller HQ is, the weaker R&D gets: their “Forced-Discard” synergizes with Sabotage.)

Baz is giving “Nero × Los × Az”.

For example, you can reactively install a Boomerang or Flip Switch when facechecking, to break 2 or jack out (or a Lucky Charm, if they print one without an HQ-Succeeded-gate, like Devil Charm). But you can also clicklessly install any hardware/resource, like Hermes or The Class Act, just to get value (even if irrelevant to the current encounter). CF. Masterwork (v37) (Whenever a run begins, you may install 1 piece of hardware from your grip …).

While the flavor (artwork/subtype/etc) is Gabe (a confident, handsome gentlemen), the gameplay should be more Ari (“Blue Shaper”) or Az (“Green Crim”): Runs must be initiated (modulo your FAO effects, or their Tucanas), but need not be successful.

Design-wise, there's a balance:

• Whenever the Corp rezzes a piece of ice, … means you need to interact, but (unlike Zahya) you don't need to succeed. So he supports “On-End” (vs. “On-Success”/“On-Breach”) run-events, like Bravado; or even clickless-runs, like Alarm Clock.

• Install 1 hardware or resource { during a run } is a large class, which includes both interaction and non-interaction. CF. how Ari’s Install 1 program can slap down either a Botulus or a Coalescence.

His condition synergizes with Crim’s derez effects, triggering off Window of Opportunity or the new Maglectric Rapid, and triggering alongside Saci. This may compensate for Baz’s trigger-ceiling (the Corp only has so much ICE in deck, and will only install/rez so many). Or this may be unnecessary (most Corps will sleeve up enough ICE, and if they aren't rezzing, then you'll be breaching their servers).

NB. His trigger is a Whenener …(!), not a The first time each turn …. However, your hand size is only so large, and your decks' non-program/non-event count is only so high. So you need card-flow to refill the grip.

And he punishes ice-rezzing by helping the Runner (like Los), rather than hurting the Corp (like Reina).

PS. This is my second-favorite spoiled Runner ID (before playing with any).

Measured Response is the “new Punitive Counterstrike”.

Design:

• The Play only if the threat level is 4 or greater check is implicitly satisfied by the Runner stealing a 5/3 last turn (after having stolen a second agenda earlier in the game), but also by the Corp scoring out a pair of 4/2’s. However, unlike Punitive, you cannot randomly flatline them in the early-game. (Like by a single Punitive after two 5/3's got stolen from Archives, or two Punitives drawn by a single Bacterial Programming.)

• The fixed … unless the Runner pays 8[$]. “pseudo-trace-attempt” simplifies Punitive's Trace⁵. The Runner asks themselves "Will I have eight credits left?", EG. after a Sure Gamble (not "Will I have a few more credits than the Corp?). CF. how NSG “modernized” SEA Source into Public Trail. *Note: Trace-Attempts can be interacted with by econ-denying the Corp (zapping credits via the “new Diversion of Funds”, forcing the Corp to rez ice, etc); but any expensive operation (like **MR which costs 5[$]) has this interaction.

• The symmetric threat level is 4 or greater (unlike the asymmetric sum of the printed agenda points on all agendas the Runner stole during their last turn, or a hypothetical “the Runner's threat level`” tempalting) incentivizes the Corp to score out agendas, including smaller ones (and not just wait for the Runner to steal a big agenda).

• The operation having a trash-cost (MR’s is -3[$]) means you can breach HQ to trash it directly.

See the official Measured Response: A Tale from Elevation Development for its earlier versions, playtest iterations, and the final intent:

As the threat level increases, both players start planning and anticipating when the threshold will be passed. Then, when the threat level hits 4, the dynamic of the game changes. The Runner is forced to reevaluate their resources each time they interact with the Corp’s board. And the Corp’s resources also take on new importance—securing a kill with Measured Response can be expensive both because of the hefty play cost and the need to defend the card while it waits in HQ for the runner to overstep.

This combination of play conditions entirely avoid the issues of dying early game to an inopportune access off of a central server. It can turn on very quickly with a couple of ‘lucky’ accesses, but if that happens before the Runner has invested time into their own gameplan… That sounds like a perfect representation of overstepping to me.

Requiring both the threat level to be at 4 and a successful run changes how Measured Response wants to be used in comparison to Punitive Counterstrike. Instead of sitting back and feeding agendas, Measured Response works best when the Corp is accelerating the pace of the game. If the Runner is up 4 agenda points to the Corp’s 0, they have control over when they put themselves at risk. But when the Corp is at 4 points, they’re in the driver’s seat, forcing interaction by threatening to score out.