Cyber Oracle
No matter what Collectable Card Game (CCG) you play, the most prized ability in any
game is the ability to selectively search through your or your opponents deck for a
specific card.
In the Cyberpunk CCG there are a few cards that allow this, but the most versatile of
them is Cyber Oracle, a card that as long as you can pay the Eb cost,
and meet the Netrunner requirements, allows you to search either of your deck's and
pull ANY card into your hand.
While this card wouldn't be a staple fixture in every deck, there are certainly a
number of strategies that would benefit more from its inclusion. Any deck that has a
large amount of card manipulation, or relies on powerful card combinations would be
wise to play with at least a couple of these. If you play with Legendary cards, where
the chance to draw the card is one in 42, Cyber Oracle improves those chances to less
than 1 in 9.
There are a lot of dangerous cards in the game that have nasty cumulative affects when
multiples of them are in play. A good set of examples are the Data Term, Satelite
Launch Facility or the Short Circuit. Each of these provides a Power or Security boost
that with multiple copies in play can cause an opponent serious problems. Multiple
SLF's mean seriously over-extending a team in order to run an Op or hit a Location,
making that team susceptible to runner trashing cards such as Assassin or Run and
Hide, or Nothing Left to Live For.
Cyber Oracle can be used to pick and choose exactly what card you will need - either
pick that extra Location to compound your opponents problems, pick another runner
trashing card to ensure his team gets burned, or go hunting for that Operation you
want to run knowing that he can't prevent you scoring it. Trashing a team, then playing
an Arms Race can be particularly nasty.
One of the great things about Cyber Oracle is that you do not have to show your opponent
which card you went and got. This makes it useful for compiling combo's in your hand
then playing them in a single round in order to achieve maximum return and surprise.
Sure this is a rare card, but having the opportunity to include 4 in your deck is
just hard to pass up. The following are some potentially nasty uses:
* Pulling a Metal Head or Clone in a Max Tac deck where it's playing cost is zero.
* Pulling an Arms Race when you've just trashed your opponents big team.
* Pulling a second or third Fixing the Body Lotto so you can target the same 4 runners
for each and get that Coup de Grace 60+ Ops Points.
So, what are the drawbacks to the card? Well the fact it is only able to be played in
a Legwork phase seriously hampers it's offensive use as you have to wait until your next
turn to play the card you drew unless it's a Battle phase card. Good news though is
that you can play it during your opponents Legwork phase in a response to whatever he
has just acquired in his shopping phase, or as a preparation card for your next turn.
Played in conjunction with a Core Dump, you can have a combo ready to go before you
even get your turn.
If he buys a nice Operation he thinks he can run - go get a Run and Hide, or an
Assassin. If you already have cards in hand to stop the Operation, get a Failed Deadline
and capitalize on that. Put all you extra E-Sec from your SLF's on the wrong Location?
A Target Swap will fix that!
In my opinion, the only real drawback with this card is that you're only allowed to
put 4 of them in your deck!
Whatever you use it for, it's a great card to have in any deck, and at a cost of only
8 Eb, it's certainly value for money when you consider an Operation like I want that
Prototype costs 11 Eb and only allows you to select a unique piece of gear (sure you
can put it into play for nothing, but if you exploit this card you can do the same
as well - as per the Max Tac idea above).
