Let it be known that in the last year of Quetzal's standard legality they appeared in the grand final games of the two biggest events of the year - via DJ Fenris - as well as top 16 ID in their own right, going undefeated, in the second of those events. Added to a critical Rebirth into Quetzal to win the final of Magnum Opus, Quetzal has an incredible legacy - a legendary champion of freedom.

Adding a review as there isn't one at the time of writing.

Malandragem is another bypass card released in the Liberation Cycle, one of many such tools primarily designed for Mercury: Chrome Libertador, such as S-Dobrado, Alarm Clock, Laser Pointer or even Physarum Entangler. Though it's worth saying that Criminals have always had a penchant for disposable forms of bypass, Lustig, Demara and Abagnale all come to mind. While Inside Job originates from the Core Set itself and cards like Spear Phishing and Always Have a Backup Plan build off the same archetype.

Criminals are the kings of bypass. The only non-criminal bypass cards in the game's history are the one-off mini-faction cards Security Nexus and Logic Bomb, as well as the neutral run event Rigged Results. So it's not surprising that if Malandragem were to show up anywhere, it would be in Criminals. A very fitting addition to the line-up, both mechanically and thematically.

But just how good is this card, well, I figure the simplest and best comparison is probably Inside Job itself, much in the same way Sure Gamble is the classic gold standard of Econ that all other Econ cards must be compared to so too Inside Job is the classic and gold standard bypass card, originating in the Core Set, having been reprinted 3 times in the Revised Core Set, the System Core 2019 and the System Update 2021 this card is a staple by design and still sees regular play to this day.

Well, Inside Job offers you one bypass for a draw, a click to play and 2 credits while Malandrgem offers you a maximum of 2 bypasses for a draw, a click to install and 4 credits. Which averages each Malandragem bypass at about half a draw, half a click and two credits. If you account for the fact that Inside Job is a run event and by extension click compression while Malandragem needs you to spend two more clicks running to gain the full benefit (but at the same time those two runs were probably runs you wanted to make at some point anyway) then the two bypasses are roughly equivalent in value.

Malandragem is also a program that takes up precious MU, but since you'll probably dispose of it relatively quickly it shouldn't be a long-term intrusion either. Additionally, Criminals have some of the weakest recursion out of any Runner faction (Shapers have Harmony AR Therapy, Simulchip and Test Run, Anarchs have Retrieval Run and Katorga Breakout while Criminals are limited to the rather mediocre Rip Deal) so the distinction between trashing and removing Malandragem from the game is minor and we'll assume the Runner wants to use the Threat 4 Bypass if able to.

From here there are 3 different situations Bypass is useful in:

1. Early game aggression, as a way to get around gear check ICE, pressure the Corp, get some accesses and touch some cards nice and early before you find your breakers.
2. Late game efficiency, for a set price of around 2 credits and a non-fungible card you get to avoid one piece of ICE altogether, no matter its strength or subroutines, allowing you to avoid even the largest, scariest and most-taxing pieces of ICE for a convenient pre-set price (think Tyr, Bran, a late game Boto, or an advanced Logjam, Pharos or Colossus), something you could break conventionally but would cost you a substantial amount of credits, making it harder for you to run as often, something Criminals especially want to avoid due to their high speed, low to the ground econ.
3. Full break-less Crim, i.e. using Mercury: Chrome Libertador to get around ICE without technically breaking any subroutines to get her additional central accesses.

For the first one Malandragem does well as much of the early game gear check ICE the corp has the credits to rez are going to also have quite low strength, Thimblerig, Tatu-Bola, Border Control, Ping and Ablative Barrier are all weak gear checks that see common play that you can bypass for a single power counter and even against some mid-tier scarier ICE like Anemone, Unsmiling Tsarevna, Jaguarundi or Saisentan that bypass can still come in handy to prevent some damage.

Malandragem can't help against an early Bran or Tree Line though and only works against Gatekeeper after the first turn (by which point Gatekeeper has already done its job) which limits some of your early possibilities depending on the corps Faction and early econ. By contrast, Inside Job works against any single piece of ICE, regardless of strength and double stacking ICE, letting alone rezzing multiple pieces of ICE on one server in the first few turns is a risky move that can bankrupt the Corp if they're not careful and can leave other servers open to attack. While Malandragem can work early, it lacks the same universal consistency that Inside Job offers.

By contrast, in late-game board states, especially against Glacial, Malandragem is arguably favoured, with Spear Phishing rotated, a lot of Bypass comes from the outside in, not only Inside Job but also the aforementioned S-Dobrado and Alarm Clock, in this way, stacking big ICE on the inside of servers and following up with cheap ICE on the edge to eat the Bypass effects is a good idea but Malandragem can avoid this once you reach Threat 4, by allowing you to bypass anything, regardless of positioning.

In this situation Backstitching is arguably a better comparison, coming in a similar price point of 2 credits, on par with Inside Job, S-Dobrado and half a Malandragem it's very comparable and can also ignore positioning. To choose between them, consider the circumstances, Backstitching can only target central servers and even then you can't choose which central on any given turn, while Malandragem offers the more reliable option to choose and can target the scoring remote but requires Threat 4 before it can bypass anything over 3.

For Mercury, you want as much bypass as possible and some decks I see run Inside Job, S-Drobrado, Backstitching and Malandragem, though heuristically, Malandragem does seem to be the least common of the four at the time of writing.

The other limitation of Malandragem is more intangible, for a runner who starts the game with 5 credits, spending 4 of those on installing a Malandragem that may not fully pay itself off until Threat 4 is a heavy investment to leave just sitting around. It's a tempo hit, to put it simply, even if the breaks are roughly on par with Inside Job, having to invest the 4 credits upfront can be brutal for Criminals who might often prefer the speed and low price point of cards like Inside Job, S-Dobrado and Backstitching.

It will be interesting to see what will happen with Dawn arriving early next year as Inside Job itself rotates. Will another re-print/near print be issued to fill the hole, or will Criminals reappraise Malandragem with new eyes?

A somewhat tangential consideration I was theory crafting for a while was using Captain Padma Isbister: Intrepid Explorer and her associated "Charge" cards to continually refill Malandragem while using strength shredding effects like Ice Carver, Leech or Devil Charm to stretch the definition of "3-strength" and create a kind of ongoing bypass engine, rather than treating it as disposable. But it never really went anywhere due to influence and consistency problems, especially after the World Tree ban and it's just generally more efficient to use conventional breakers. But maybe someone else can cook up something interesting...

(Disclaimer: I am not Brazilian, nor do I live in Brazil, everything below is based on what I quickly found online, any clarification, corrections, context or additions from those more familiar with Brazilian culture would be much appreciated!)

Thematically, Malandragem is a Portuguese term that refers to the lifestyle of petty crime embraced by "malandros," which roughly translates to English as "bad boys," literally, mal- + -andro. Malandros like to live fast, dress well and shirk responsibilities in favour of easy living, often being synonymous with a rogue, scoundrel or hustler. They've become significant in Brazilian folklore as a kind of archetypal anti-hero who sheds society's expectations and lives as he pleases and has become significant in Brazilian literature, cinema and music, traditionally samba. If I had to extrapolate, I'd say that the Malandragem program outsmarts, outmaneuvers and cheats its way around the "petty challenges" of small ICE, but struggles with the responsibility of dealing with large powerful ICE. Why it gains the ability to bypass anything at Threat 4 is somewhat unclear, in American cinema, it's not uncommon for anti-heroes to avoid responsibility and do their own thing until a true problem comes along, when, at the final hour, they step up to the challenge and sacrifice themselves for a worthy cause, but I'm unsure how well this translates to the Brazilian conceptualisation of an anti-hero/malandro. It also seems Malandragem is related to the Brazilian concept of Jeitinho, which doesn't translate well into English but seems to refer to something akin to street-smarts, creativity or finding unconventional or perhaps even illicit means to achieve one's goals, being pragmatic, opportunistic and even cunning, to find your own way do something, so to speak, instead of just following the rules.

The art shows a Malandro shuffling a deck, though why is open to interpretation, is he engaging in gambling as a vice, is he preparing to pull a con to make a quick dollar or is he simply stacking the deck in his favour in a more abstract sense?

As a somewhat contemplative finish to this review, I can't help but wonder about the thematic dissonance between Mercury the character, her ability and the other cards in her set. She's a Liberator, her title says it plainly, a freed Bioroid who pursues the goals of bringing down the whole corrupt system, see The Powers That Be and Jeitinho and yet her faction, and the cards it contains, espouse a much less grand goal. Criminals are scrappy and sly and cunning and they use their tools to get in, get out and get paid, Malandragem suits them perfectly, I can easily imagine a world where this set included a Criminal identity who could be considered a Malandro, someone who gets in by bending the rules to his favour and simply outmaneuvering problems he doesn't want to have to deal with. Mercury honestly seems like she would be more at home in Anarch, as someone with a grand mission, someone disillusioned with the system, someone who wants to bring it all down, and someone who's willing to resort to murder to root out the corruption within the government. But she does not strike me as someone who lives their life by the principles of Malandragem, skirting responsibility in favour of an easy life.

TLDR: A cool card thematically that is very fitting for the Faction and the setting of the Cycle it was released in but struggles to find a place in Criminal decks due to the high up-front investment, tempo hit, conditionality around strength and need to wait for Threat 4 for the full power. Also very difficult to export because of the very high Influence cost.

Adding a review as there isn't one at the time of writing.

Hammer is AI hate with extra upsides. For those new to Netrunner, there are three basic types of ICE: Sentries, Barriers and Code Gates and three corresponding Icebreakers that can break subroutines on the associated ICE, Killers, Fracters and Decoders respectively. However, there are also AI programs, that can break any type of ICE, but usually have some special rules to limit their power. Still, some AI breakers are incredibly powerful and the Corps form of counterplay to these AI breakers are pieces of ICE like this, ICE with special rules to make it impractical to break it with AI. If this card were "balanced" we would expect it to be painful but not insurmountable for AI-reliant runners, but be slightly subpar against regular Killers.

Since AI programs are usually not also Killers, you can only break one subroutine on this piece of ICE using an AI breaker, which guarantees at least 2 of the subroutines firing. As long as you didn't run on your last click (you shouldn't be running on your last click anyway), a tag is removable and almost always a lot less painful than losing an already installed resource, piece of hardware or program. This means that this card comes down to the question for the runner: do you have a more valuable resource/piece of hardware you want to protect or a more valuable non-conventional breaker program you want to protect? Either way, this is terrible for the runner, if they break the program subroutine they risk losing a critical resource like the The Class Act or The Twinning or they risk losing their console or a critical MU providing tool like DZMZ Optimizer or another important piece of hardware like WAKE Implant v2A-JRJ or Docklands Pass. If they break the hardware/resource subroutine then they risk losing a program, presumably the AI breaker in question, though the Corp can also target non-breaker programs like Cezve, Paricia, Fermenter or even Self-modifying Code. Plus taking a tag in either situation to boot. Definitely a nasty surprise.

This card also has some very nice externalities due to its wording, think Boomerang, Botulus, Rielle “Kit” Peddler: Transhuman, Pelangi, Egret, you start to get the idea, a lot of the runner's creative tools to break Sentries without Killer's start to look a little sketchy.

However, bypass effects do still work, Physarum Entangler, Laser Pointer, Inside Job, S-Dobrado, Backstitching and Alarm Clock can all still completely bypass Hammer without ever needing to technically "break a subrountine."

The next major downside of this card is that it is a pretty pathetic early-game face check. If the runner has no programs, hardware or resources installed, running first click on their first turn, they're probably very happy to see this, because if you didn't already know, 6 credits is not the market rate for a tag. Quite frankly, whoever sold you this is ripping you off because you can get a tag for 1 or 2 credits: Ping, Virtual Service Agent and Vasilisa all come to mind and even something like Funhouse is much better value.

But assuming the runner does have installed cards they want to protect and assuming the runner already has their Killer, what kind of costs are we looking at?

• 5 credits for Carmen (3/5 to Install)
• 2 credits and 3 hosted power counters for Revolver (2 to Install)
• 9/6/3 credits for Echelon (depending on the number of installed Icebreakers) (3 to Install)
• 4 credits for Orca (plus you get to charge another card) (10 to Install)
• 6/4 credits for Ika (depending on if it's already hosted) (0 to Install)
• 3 credits for Afterimage (requires stealth credits) (or 2 credits to bypass, still requires stealth credits) (4 to Install)
• 6/3 credits for Na'Not'K (depending on the number of ICE protecting the server) (4 to Install)

Also worth mentioning that Mimic can't break it without assistance and Femme Fatale breaks it for 7 credits but that's somewhat beside the point of Femme. Also at the time of writing Bukhgalter is banned but if it wasn't it would break it for a net expenditure of 4 credits if that's the first Sentry.

All in all I'd say that this worked out pretty much as expected, ingnoring fringe cases like installing an Orca from hand (rather than with Spark of Inspiration) or a solitary Echelon or this being the only piece of ICE against a Na'Not'K this doesn't exactly break the bank. Against a runner with a Killer this is hardly the most taxing piece of ICE and as we've established it's pretty meek in the early game.

An advanced Colossus can tax the runner a lot more, with similar levels of damage if it's subs fire, Saisentan is still probably one of the most terriying cards in the game for just killing an overeager runner and Winchester gives you the same strength and number of subs, with similar levels of damage if they fire for 2/3s of the cost (asssuming it's over HQ).

Thematically, though, this card really hits the mark, see you can try all of your little tricks and bring all of your little AIs and you may think that you're sooooooo smart with your viruses and making my ICE think that it's something that it's not but let's see how well you deal with a freaking Hammer to the face. Plus the art is awesome, showing the thunderous moment when the Hammer strikes the Anvil. Oh wait, Anvil, despite being released in two different Cycles and having 2 very different effects and use cases, this is a nice extra little easter egg, the Anvil sets them up and the Hammer strikes them down.

If I could make one change to this card, I would probably have made the tag subroutine something else, like an End The Run or maybe dealing 3 net damage. Something just as punishing as the other two subrountines, so when you try to break it with something other than a Killer you either sacrifice a program and a hardware/resource to continue the run, or protect one and lose the other while being unable to get in. It also doesn't make a lot of thematic sense why a Hammer would be tagging you...

TLDR: Considering our starting premise, I'd say that this card pretty much hits the mark in terms of balance, there are better options against true Killers but this is quite punishing against runners relying on AI or other non-Killer tricks. On the whole, whether you choose to include this card is a matter of meta and playgroup, if the meta favours AI and Botulus and the like, this looks promising, if one of your friends you regularly play with loves Aumakua Crim then consider including this card to really mess with them, otherwise, there are probably better options for a standard Corp deck.

Ablative is the cat.

Adding a review as there isn't one at the time of writing.

Attini is an important reminder that ICE doesn't necessarily have to be about keeping the runner out (EtR) or about killing the runner (net damage). It's enough just for ICE to tax the runner and, in doing so, squeeze out their options elsewhere.

So, with that in mind, let's jump right in, assuming one has their preferred Decoder at hand, just how good is Atttini at taxing the runner? For the purposes of this initial analysis, we'll ignore the spend 2 credits, the damage, and the Threat effect and treat this as a generic 6 cost, 5 strength, 3 subroutine code gate.

• 3/7 credits for Euler (depending on whether the card has been played this turn) (2 to Install)
• 4 credits for Penrose (requires stealth credits) (2 to Install)
• 4/5/7 credits for Unity (depending on the number of installed Icebreakers) (3 to install)
• 6 credits for Gordian Blade (with extra upside against stacked Code Gates) (4 to Install)
• 3 credits for Hyperbaric (if fully pumped) (3 to Install + 8 to pump)
• 5 credits for Lobisomem (net a power token of course) (8 to Install)
• 2 credits for Umbrella (requires an attached Trojan) (3 to Install)

Outside of Shaper, the options are more limited and generally worse:

• 8 credits for Buzzsaw (4 to Install)
• 7 credits for Abaasy (with a minor upside for cycling cards) (2 to Install)
• 7 credits for Abagnale (or trash to bypass once) (4 to Install)
• 7 credits for Cat's Cradle (2 to Install)
• 5/7 credits for Shibboleth (gets worse after Threat 4) (1 to Install)

From what we can see, Attini breaks even against most Decoders after a single run (if you include the Decoder's Install Cost) and it's pure profit from then on for any subsequent runs. Not bad, but not amazing either.

The first and most legitimate criticism of this card is that it is a terrible gear check, as even if the runner has no Decoder installed, they can still break it for 6 credits (or tank the 3 net damage). In fact, if you're using a Decoder from outside of Shaper, chances are 6 credits is actually a discount.

If you're looking for a scary card to face-check, this just isn't it, there are far more terrifying cards in Jinteki, Saisentan being one of the first to come to mind. But, the two aren't really comparable, if you're face-checking Jinteki ICE without an installed Killer then quite frankly you've got much bigger problems than anything Attini can throw at you.

But it would be wrong to dismiss Attini just like that because Attini isn't trying to be Saisentan, it never claims to be Saisentan, it doesn't want to be Saisentan. You wouldn't dismiss a piece of Bioriod ICE just because the runner can click through its subroutines. Taxing the runner is an end in and of itself and since 1 click is generally accepted to be worth 2 credits, I think the value contrast of Attini to Bioroid ICE is very fair.

Once Threat 3 is reached, not much generally changes, if the runner still lacks a Decoder then Attini functionally becomes a 3 net damage ICE, which is still relatively poor for a 6-cost ICE (once again, contrast Saisentan) and is unlikely to kill on it's own. That being said, most runners still wouldn't want to tank 3 net damage to the face and assuming they have their breaker suit installed, all this means is that the non-shaper cards lose their small discount. One minor thing of note, as mentioned in the above rules clarification is that this effect also stops the runner from spending credits to use interrupt abilities to prevent the damage, (i.e. something like Caldera could not trigger) however, there are very few cards that function this way and even the ones that do exist see relatively little play in the meta at the time of writing. For this to have any effect Threat 3 would have to have been reached, the Runner must have something like a Caldera installed, but not a Decoder installed and then must attempt to run into a facedown Attini only to get shocked when they take 3 net damage, all of which just seems too niche to be meaningful. However, if future cards are released that offer a cheap and efficient way to prevent damage such that some new breakless runner strategies emerge this card could have some added usage, but obviously, this is purely speculative.

But how does it compare to other similar Code Gates? Well quite frankly, there aren't many. There are no other 6-cost Code Gates in Jinteki and the next cheapest card is Lotus Field, which costs 5, has 4 strength, ends the run and has a niche tech against Anarch strength shredding. Outside of Jinteki the closest comparison is M.I.C. another 6-cost Code Gate that has 3 subroutines but only 4 strength, M.I.C. has the added selling point of ending the run and can be trashed to attempt to end the run in a pinch, but against a runner with a Decoder set up and a click to spare it's ever so slightly worse than Attini. Meanwhile Valentão and Piranhas are off doing something very different with conditional end-the-run effects and bad publicity.

The closest comparison is probably Vampyronassa which costs 7 and has only 4 strength, making it slightly worse on the face of it. The only upside is that if Vampyronassa triggers you get 2 net damage, tax the runner 2 credits, gain 2 credits and can draw 1-2 cards. If we assume the runner triggered Attini in such a way that they took 2 net damage and paid to 2 to prevent the 3rd net damage then the two pieces of ICE are remarkably similar with only small econ upsides for the Corp from Vampyronasa. Once again, Vampyronassa is not an early gear check and when it comes to taxing a Runner with a full rig, a 4 strength 4 subroutines piece of ICE vs a 5 strength 3 subroutines piece of ICE is the same for many breakers, and similar for a couple of others. All in all, they're pretty similar and it will often come down to personal preference, Attini is 1 cheaper, but if you get even a single Vampyronasa trigger it will have a net cost of 5 due to the 2 credit "cash back." In certain Sisyphus Protocol glacier decks you may even be tempted to include both.

On the whole, this card isn't necessarily bad, but it's not a terrifying game-changer like Anansi or Cloud Eater. This card probably struggles to find a place in butcher-shop archetypes that need more consistent net damage and generally run a pretty lean budget. Similarly, Fast Advance wants cheap gear-check ICE to keep the runner out long enough to score and thus has little use for Attini. For 3 Influence I doubt this gets splashed into any other factions either. It's one home is probably Glacial Jinteki, who is willing to pay the upfront cost to rez and expects to reap the rewards over the course of many expensive runs. It has some nice synergy with Ivik too, by cheapening it's rez cost, if you don't want to look out of faction for your Barriers. Glacial A Teia: IP Recovery anyone?

Thematically, Attini refers to a tribe of ants who farm and cultivate fungi, essentially gathering leaves and other organic matter for the fungi to decompose and then feeding on the growing fungi, as the art beautifully represents. Attini can be found throughout the Americas and can form massive hives ranging from a few hundred to a few million individuals and live in huge subterranean nests. Personally, I think it would have been cool if this card leaned more into this theme, perhaps it could've cost a bit more but whenever certain conditions were met (perhaps on encounter, or when an encounter ends, or when a subroutine triggers or is broken for example) the card gains credits on it, which can then be spent to install or rez other pieces of ICE. This way the Attini could be used to collect "organic matter" from the runner to "grow the fungus" which can then be "fed" into other ICE, gradually growing the Corp's "nest" of threats. Just a thought, though obviously not the direction this card took.

TLDR: A pretty decent card all around, it has a cool theme with very fitting art that is quite at home in the cycle in which it was released. It has solid numbers and can work in Glacial Jinteki decks looking to tax the runner such as A Teia: IP Recovery which was also released in the same cycle but I'm not looking to splash this card into every Corp deck I can.