Hey everyone! Jake “SkoolKnight” Barnhart here! As the newest member of the NSG Design team, Elevation was the first product I worked on, and today I have the pleasure of breaking the news that NBN is getting two of my favorite identities in the set. Allow me to introduce Synapse Global and Nebula Talent Management // Gemilang Arena!
Synapse Global: Faster than Thought
NBN Identity: Division
Minimum Deck Size: 45 – Influence: 15
The first time each turn a tag is removed, you may reveal and install 1 card from HQ, ignoring all costs.
, remove 1 tag: Gain 2.
Every Impulse Monitored.
Illustrated by Emilio Rodríguez
Synapse Global: Faster than Thought
Hi-immersion Net access used to be only for the wealthy, but Kota Kalimantan is the city of tomorrow. Every day, millions of Kali residents jack in for free at Synapse Net Access Points for top-tier Net service.
While they do, Synapse is keeping the city safe. Not a bit travels in or out of the city without brushing against Synapse’s servers, where it is cross-referenced, analyzed, and catalogued in a vast security network. OSEAN’s investors won’t let the last great space elevator fail—and Synapse gives them the intelligence they need.
Illustrated by Anna Butova, Mia Siergiejew
With the banning of NBN: Reality Plus in mind, we knew that NBN needed a new identity to signpost how important tags are to the faction. Synapse Global reflects our attempt to invert the psychology of tags to produce tense and thrilling gameplay.
NBN has alway been the faction of tags, and on first glance Synapse looks similar to other tag-focused NBN identities. But as is often the case, the devil is in the details. The thing I love most about this identity is that instead of synergizing with taking or giving tags, it makes the Runner question removing them.
In addition to including the usual economy, ice, and agendas that make up any Corp deck, Synapse asks the player to balance a series of interesting and interrelated deck building challenges. First, it needs a way to reliably give the Runner tags. Ping, Funhouse, and new additions from Elevation form the core ice package perfectly suited to this task.
Next, the deck needs enough installables to make the Runner think twice about ditching those tags and accelerating your gameplan. Maybe you plan to go tall and build a glacial remote with those free ice installs. Perhaps you’ll go wide by throwing down economic assets in new, clickless remotes. You may opt to keep an agenda in HQ just in case the Runner decides to remove their tag last click and let you seamlessly score a 4/2 during the next turn.
Finally, Synapse wants a few ways to capitalize on and punish any Runner who decides to float a tag or two in an effort to deny you the free installs. Classic tag and bag cards like End of the Line work great here (even netting you a cheeky clickless install when you graciously remove that tag for the Runner) and Elevation brings a bevy of new tag punishment tools to keep the Runner scared, including the new gray ops operation IP Enforcement that, according to earlier reporting, lets you install an agenda from the Runners score area!
One of the Design team’s goals for Elevation was to create “level up” moments through elegant card designs that impart intermediate lessons about the game. Synapse is one such card. It makes every tag and sequencing decision a meaningful choice for the Runner, and an opportunity for the Corp. Diversify your assets to punish or accelerate, make them fear the last click, and question always who removes the tag and when.
Nebula Talent Management: Making Stars
NBN Identity: Division
Minimum Deck Size: 45 – Influence: 15
When your action phase ends, if you played an operation this turn, gain 1 and flip this identity.
Igniting your potential.
Illustrated by Emilio Rodríguez
Gemilang Arena: Burning Bright
NBN Identity: Division
The first time each turn you play an operation, gain .
When the Runner makes a successful run on HQ or R&D, flip this identity.
Never stop shining.
Illustrated by Emilio Rodríguez
Nebula Talent Management: Making Stars
Want a recipe for success? From one population eager for opportunity, extract the young and talented. Fold in hands-on training, with a pinch of g-modding and behavioral conditioning, and mix it all together using NBN’s realtime trend-mapping. Watch it rise, and pop any bubbles of individuality when you see them.
Nebula’s idols sell out the supermassive Gemilang Arena every night of the week. With full creative control over hundreds of assets, Nebula has a star for every would-be fan. And when one star burns out, another is just warming up.
Illustrated by Matheus Calza, Amirul Hhf
If tags aren’t your thing, NBN is also recruiting new players with Nebula Talent Management // Gemilang Arena, a new flip identity that focuses on operations and presents its own host of deck building opportunities and challenges.
Nebula players need to slot a high density of operations and must also balance this with central server protection to reliably flip to Gemilang and stay that way long enough to capitalize on the extra clicks. What you do with those clicks is up to you, though fast advancing out a two point agenda or using Seamless Launch to score out a 5/3 without telegraphing it are both exciting lines.
In addition to fast advance returning to NBN, we hope that Gemilang will inspire combo brewers to find more creative uses for that extra click, perhaps for tag and bag flatlines, immediately capitalizing on doubles and triples, or even more avant-garde performances. How far will you go to maximize your operations? Will you forgo assets and remotes entirely in favor of operation burst econ and fast advance? Or take a more measured approach and make your 15 minutes of fame count while they last?
Working on Elevation has been an absolute joy and I am so proud of our collective work on it. As preview season continues, keep your eyes glued to the news feed for NBN’s other supporting cards that we are not at liberty to discuss here – I’ll merely sign off today saying that I cannot wait for you to meet all the new talent coming to the game on April 24th.
Join us in Kota Kalimantan when Elevation releases on April 24th 2025!
