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Mechanic Monday: Keeping up Out of Mana Cipher a While

Weeeeelcome back to Mechanic Monday! I definitely have something for this, and DIDN’T just scroll back a few entries to that informal list of mechanics and latch onto one that I can roll out into a sheet, slice into very very fine strands, boil in salted water, and then hurl at the wall.  And it’s definitely well thought out, and not loopy from tiredness at all ok here we go!

Trojan Horse Battering Rams

In Cyber-GREEM, you have a number of attack vectors to try and infiltrate the system of a rival corporation.  A runner? Don’t be silly, individuals don’t have the resources to compete with ponderously powerful financial entities, it’s just giant conglomerates harnessing skilled and indentured labour to mount electronic offensives and counter-offensives on one another.  There are five lanes between players, and each round, players play cards face-down into their side of the lanes.  At the end of a player’s turn, they choose two lanes with which to boost and attack; cards may be revealed as part of an attack, as part of a defense, or upon successfully penetrating with an attack or warding off with a defense.  For example, a Worm card may be revealed, which grants its Attack Vector +2 for overcoming the other player’s defense on that lane; a Bastion card might be revealed, which grants +1 to all lanes’ defense; a Gelatin card may grant additional card game if that Attack succeeds; a Spines card grants VP for every successfully repelled attack in that lane.

Alright, so this is a real Richard Garfield goulash, tossed in a combination time machine and crockpot to stew and morph.  The inspirations here are Netrunner, which Richard Garfield designed after Magic: the Gathering (and which I didn’t really get to play until Android: Netrunner, which was after Richard Garfield had moved on) and cipher, a Magic: the Gathering keyword that I’m pretty sure was introduced between when Richard Garfield designed Android and when I first discovered Android:Netrunner.  Could I type Richard Garfield any more times, or create a more convoluted view of time? Probably, but that’s enough of both for the time being.  I like this, it feels like an actually playable Corp vs Corp take on Netrunner; instead of David trying to get his engine up in time to thwart Goliath, it’s a sumo match between two octopuses on drugs.  Fun stuff.  Til net time!

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