Hello! I’m Safer and it is my privilege to reveal the one and only Runner identity in Rebellion Without Rehearsal. I joined the Null Signal Games Development team right after the release of The Automata Initiative and my first project was to refine this Anarch archetype.
By the time we had our new Anarch’s ability locked in, the community had already begun connecting the dots, tagging cards like Solidarity Badge and Eru Ayase-Pessoa as signs of what was to come. Allow me to introduce Sebastião Souza Pessoa, NSG’s first Runner identity that cares about tags.
Sebastião Souza Pessoa: Activist Organizer
Anarch Identity: G-mod
Minimum Deck Size: 45 – Influence: 15 – : 0 – Limit: 4
Whenever you take 1 or more tags, if you had no tags, you may install 1 connection resource from your grip, paying 2 less.
As an additional cost to trash a connection resource with the basic action, the Corp must trash 1 card from HQ.
Destroy the mechanisms of domination.
Illustrated by Matheus Calza
Sebastião is unlike other Anarchs in both fiction and function. He is the foundation of an engine building archetype that cares about taking tags, installing connections, and then removing tags. The value of his first ability is nuanced – taking a tag usually doesn’t play well with installing a resource, but saving a click and two credits pays back the cost of removing that tag later. Since his ability is both resource neutral and inherently risky, the synergies must be powerful enough to differentiate this deck from the meta-defining value-focused Anarch lists of the last year (or decade).
This highlights one of the big challenges we faced while working on the Anarch cards during the development of Rebellion Without Rehearsal: this is a distinct playstyle that cannot rely on the standard Anarch economy or win conditions. One thing that Seb needs is a pressure tool that would buy time to set up the engine.
Eye for an Eye
Anarch Event: Run
Play Cost: 1 – Influence Cost: 4
Play only if you are not tagged.
Run HQ. If successful, take 1 tag and access 1 additional card when you breach HQ.
Access → Trash 1 card from your grip: Trash the card you are accessing.
As the riot turned to open conflict, Seb looked down at the gun in his hand. The time for peace was over.
Illustrated by Benjamin Giletti
Eye for an Eye provides both HQ multi-access and disruption, a combination of effects that Anarch hasn’t had easy access to before. Needing to clear a tag and trade cards from your own hand are big downsides if you have to pay those costs in full, so Eye for an Eye works best in a deck that benefits from taking tags or trashing cards from the grip. Definitely a card to keep your eye on.
While we were aiming to make the Seb connection archetype feel distinct, it was also important to create tie-ins to other Anarch mechanics. Eye for an Eye compliments the theme of Anarchs trashing their own stuff, and our next card introduces recursion to the archetype in a call-back to an Anarch classic.
Privileged Access
Anarch Event: Run
Play Cost: 0 – Influence Cost: 2
Play only if you are not tagged.
Run Archives. If successful, instead of breaching archives, take 1 tag.
When you take a tag with this event, you may install 1 resource from your heap, paying 2 less.
Threat 3 → When you take a tag with this event, you may install 1 program from your heap.
Illustrated by Dimik
Privileged Access and Eye for an Eye represent a format for run events that help to define the play pattern of this archetype. Play only if untagged, take a tag if the run is successful, do something powerful as a payoff, then clear the tag later to set up your next ‘only if untagged’ effect.
Revisiting the self-tagging archetype was an exciting challenge for both the Design and Development teams. Runner cards that self-tag provide a unique style of gameplay: giving your opponent the stick to beat you with, in exchange for some kind of reward. But we found the fundamentals of risk-and-reward gameplay were often off-balance in the tag-me cards of old sets. Previous tag-me archetypes were able to quickly pile up tags, nullify risk by using multiple layers of protection, and turn those tags into game-ending rewards.
We found that the ‘only if untagged’ clause allowed us to address these issues in an elegant way and maintain the tug of war dynamic when playing against tag-focused Corp strategies. While Sebastião is better equipped to control a small number of tags, if the Corp manages to stick multiple tags, he will find himself even more restricted than other runners. We also love that it sings thematically – the reckless action represented by self-tagging cards isn’t going to be as impactful if the Corp already knows you’re coming!
Sebastião represents our new take on a self-tagging archetype. There is an exciting tension in bouncing between being tagged and untagged. Can you risk your Rogue Trading by floating a tag for a turn to allow it to be cleared for free by Solidarity Badge? Do you have the clicks to play Privileged Access to recur two cards, install a connection from hand, make a crucial run, and still clear the tag when the dust settles?
As preview season continues, keep your eye out for Sebastião’s other supporting cards – you’ll see that he’s quite good at making connections.
Rebellion Without Rehearsal will be released on March 18, 2024. It will be available on the Null Signal Games online store, through our print-on-demand partners, selected game stores and authorized resellers, and as free print-and-play PDFs from its product page. It will also be playable on Jinteki.net within a few days of release.
Excited about future sets? Apply to be a playtester for “Dawn”, the set after Rebellion Without Rehearsal. All experience levels welcome, especially newer players! Click here for details!