Power Up! - Exploiting Power Boosters

Power Up! It get's all of us video game addicts twitching at the mere prospect of being temporarily more powerful than we like to kid everyone we are at the moment. Visions of firearms suddenly becoming multi-barrel building levellers, or armor becoming that fine shield of indistructable kevlar. Walk through a hail of lead? Sure! Every Cyberpunk could do with that, right?

Cyberpunk the CCG caters well for Power boosts, afterall Power is the most important attribute in the game, it's what gives the Solo his Combat Sense, the Cop his Authority, the Netrunner his Interface, and the Rockerboy his Charisma. It's the Credibility of the Media, the Street Deal of the Fixer, the Resources of the Corp, the Family of the Nomad, Jury Rig of the Tech, and Medical of the Med-Tech. The greater a runner's Power, the greater impact and influence he or she will have on the game. This article will attempt to look at all of the current Power boosts in the game, and evaluate their usefulness. It will also make suggestions as to what your core deck should be packing based on your deck's theme.

Power boosts exist in four of the seven card categories at present, Locations, Events, Cyber and Equipment (five if you include the Nomad ability). Rather than look at each card category separately, the best approach is to look at the runner types, and see which of the cards benefit them most. That way, you can determine what is better for your deck based on your deck theme.

Netrunners

Netrunners receive perhaps the best variety of Power boost cards in the game at present, as they have the ability to utilise cards from all three groups, as well as receive a boost from their friendly Nomad pals as well. Short Circuit is a critical card when playing a Netrunner focused deck, a couple in play can assist one in reducing even the highest E-Sec of a Location or Operation. They are also a useful backup in case you go up against a Cop deck. Knowing you have an unused Short Circuit on the table will stop your opponent using almost all of his Cop related Power boosts against you, having a second will almost guarantee he'll be using multiple Cops to bust. Attaching a Cyber Deck or a Gargoyle Suit adds a permanent +1 or +2 respectively to the runner, and combining all of these with an In My Element will allow even the average runner to reduce the E-Sec to a manageable level.

Cops

Along with Netrunners, the Cops profit most from Power boost cards. R.B's Doughnuts is a less powerful Short Circuit, and Justice Database Archive is a great anti-Netrunner card that will effectively negate a Short Circuit, but the key Cop card is the Event Crackdown that adds a +2 to all Cops (be careful in using it though as it affects ALL Cops, including your opponent's). Although Oni's Badge is a Legendary card, it's still worth including it, as is Street War which has value when busting runners in a skirmish.

Media

Reporters, and members of the Media would have to come next, afterall Media's get the best Power boost Location in the game with Data Term. At a cool +4, a couple of these in play can make for a dangerous wall of tabloid trouble. Media's can add their Power to the M-Sec of any Location or Operation in play, so if you need an easy way to halt your opponents progress, just boost the M-Sec of the Operation they just bought to a level they can't overcome, then run it yourself in the next round. Rebecca Miller with a couple of Data Terms and a Scream Sheet attached can boost the M-Sec by +19. If she has a couple of friendly Nomads on her side, that can hit almost 30! A well powered Media in this example can be worth a couple of decent Solo's.

Techies

Techies love Cyber, and a Techie with a Tool Hand is a much more adept and useful one, adding a standard +2 to his Power.

Fixers & Corps

The last two runner categories that benefit from Power boost cards are the Fixer and the Corp. They have been included together in this article as the only cards that affect either of them, affect both of them. Business Cards is an effective Toy that can be used in a number of ways by the versatile Fixer. He can increase the value of Cyber or Equipment he is able to recover, further reduce the cost of running your opponent's Locations or Operations, or lower the cost of a long range hit by one of your runners. Corps on the other hand gain the greatest advantage in being able to produce more cash, although it gives average Corps the chance to recover better Locations from the trash.

In order to capitalise on the current Power cards, there is a definite deck theme that would cause problems. We have already discussed the fact that Cop's possess one of the best Power card choices, as well as the highly effective Justice Database Archive, along with Netrunners. Combining the two ideas into an NCPD deck with a core of the following:

4x Pixel
4x Clone
4x Milo Stevenson
4x Beat Cop

4x R.B's Doughnuts
4x Short Circuit
4x Justice Database Archive

4x Crackdown
4x In My Element

The strength of this deck lies in the dual ability of its two key runners - Pixel and Milo. Pixel is a Netrunner and can crack E-Sec for your regular runners, but can also bust opposing runners. Milo can not only bust opposing runners, but can lend his Power to Pixel to help in lowering E-Sec. The 4 Clones simply expand on your core runner combo, or allow you to Clone your opponents key runners. The remaining cards, most of which should be recycled if possible, allow you to boost your core runners to ensure their actions are never compromised. One distinct advantage, but also a problem is that Cops at present cannot be busted by other Cops, hence all of these runners are safe if you go up against another Cop deck.

Some additional cards to consider using in a deck like this are Cruiser, which allows non-teamed Cops to bust runners in a skirmish, and Run and Hide, which can greatly increase the arrest level in a skirmish. For those more powerful runners that you can't bust easily, or as a safeguard against other Cop decks, it would make sense to pack a couple of Assassin's.

Although a Power Up deck has as a major vulnerability in the fact that it would leave most of your cards used at the end of your turn, having some sort of Power advantage, particularly in an NCPD deck is always a good thing. If you elect to run another Sponsor, there are still certain cards that should be included in most decks. In My Element is an extremely versatile card adding +4 to any runner's Power. Whether you are running Solo's, Media's, Cops or Corps, an added Power boost is extremely useful at a critical moment, both offensively and defensively. Coupled with cards like Run and Hide or Shadow, Street War can add much welcome Power to any combat situation. It might give your opponent's runners a boost, but if you can reduce the odds in your favor, it's a dangerous card as it affects all runners.

Whatever Power strategy you use, you should always attempt to maximise any advantage it will give you, or look at the versatility of a card. At the end of the day, even the most powerful runners are no match for an Assassin or an I Used to be a Bozo, but that added Power is always a deterrant...