The Shiden Strider - Endless possibilities.
by The Artful Dodger A.P.P.A.™
The Shiden Striders special ability is that the gets his CyberAffinity added to his Firepower when he attacks. His base FP is 3, his base CA is 4 which makes him a FP 7 attacker. Not bad for only 0/0/3 deploy and 0/0/1 attack. Note that his ability does not require his target to have less perception as in the case of Turima. He get's that bonus guaranteed! So that make him an obvious choice in Disarmament Talks decks.
His base CA of 4 allows him to run programs such as Dial Static (to tap Raul Granges, Biomech Raptors, Security Checkpoints, CrowsNest Stations and all other assets with perception 3+), Digital Pyro (for additional 3 damage before he attacks), Fog (makes a nice pair with Corporate Enforcers), Logistics Network and Satellite Imagery. Oh, and he can run Repair Expert System and tap ELV Fielded bases (and remove Shackles...).
Now let's take a look at the stuff that makes him even beefier. We will not discuss FP enhancer, but instead focus on cards hat use his special ability, raising CA AND FP. The first card to be noted here is the Cortical Augmentation (Ascension common). It gives the Strider +4 FP and +4 CA, so he tranforms into a CA 8 programmer that can attack for 15 (!!!) damage. Did I mention he can run all programs (aside of Failsafe AI) now? A related card, Essence of Gaia (1stEd. rare) gives him 'only' +4 CA (so he attacks 'just' for 11 points), but he still is CA 8 then. Combining the Cortical with an Essence makes for obscene FP 19 with CA 12. With him, the Cortical and the Essence being Monastery he can be really cool in a Bion HQ deck with Persuasion - heck... with Persuasion he can remove his own blockers in any deck.
CranialTutor (CyberOps) raises his offensive FP to 9 and allows him to play such nice programs like Black Out (useful against those new HQs :), Crash & Burn, Deconstruction, Luddite Revenge 3.0 (against Bion defense), Realtime Ops Control (for the Enforcers again), Scatter Hack and Termites. Corrosive Mites or False Alarm can be run as soon as put him next to a Library Link (giving him +1 FP).
Riojule's Parasite gives him a quick +4 CA boost but kills him in the long run.
For a pumpable FP/CA slab a Mnemonic Upgrade (Overture Common)on him, which makes him pumpable by raising his CA and there is no limit (as opposed to Lancer Rifle for example).
And, at the very last, being Monastery he can be used for the deadly Mark of Gaia/Disruptor Symbiont combo. Now that's evil.
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