Welcome to Reviewing the Little Boot Icon: Identity Crisis! an unfortunately named spin-off to an unfortunately named series of reviews for Reboot-modified cards. Today's review: Leela Patel: Trained Pragmatist, the best ID for "slow-crim" a strange and mysterious archetype.
Changes: Corp chooses which unrezzed card to bounce. Previously, Leela decks would run 3 copies of Gang Sign, (now limit 1 per deck), and when the Corp scored anything, you would get all the agendas in HQ. If the Corp countered this by sticking the agendas in remote servers, you could use Leela to bounce them back in. Thus, if the Corp got flooded, you were guaranteed a lot of points, in addition to what you got normally. With the nerfs to Global Food Initiative, The Future Perfect, and NAPD Contract, Leela proved to be far more nuts in Reboot than in FFG, especially thanks to HQ Interface being cheaper. Now Leela is still a Tier 1 deck, showing how OP she was before. The Data Leak Reversal nerf makes DLR Leela a very suboptimal choice.
Pros: Tax the Corp a whenever an agenda is scored or stolen. You can go run ice you have no interest in seeing bounced to make the Corp choose between letting you access now, or rezzing and being forced to bounce something they actually need. If you steal an agenda and the Corp has to bounce an R&D ice, you can go The Maker's Eye them and bounce something the Corp was hoping to keep down. You can flood HQ with lots of stuff, like a better version of Laramy Fisk: Savvy Investor that makes the Corp draw something they already have.
Cons: Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center doesn't really give a rip about leaving a Marked Accounts sitting unrezzed and reinstalling it for cards. Cerebral Imaging: Infinite Frontiers in Reboot doesn't give a rip, as it scores across multiple turns and has lots of room to keep the bounced cards.
Playstyle: MOpus Leela is honestly the best build known so far. FISK Leela was broken before the Fisk Investment Seminar nerf, still playable but worse than the MOpus deck. Scrapyard Leela and Leelashop are Aesop's Pawnshop decks. Generally you have to find an engine with lots of money or Logos to fetch Account Siphon to keep you in the game without Gabe's, Andy's or Iain's econ boosts.
7/10 I honestly think Iain Stirling: Retired Spook is better, or at least easier, to play. Still better than Laramy Fisk: Savvy Investor or Armand "Geist" Walker: Tech Lord.