a couple of medium clarifications

[ShippuJinrai 0]

hey everyone. Just had a couple questions on how to properly resolve medium. since the card checks counters after the first, does that mean that it basically reads "access x-1 cards" ? Will a 3 virus medium access 2 or 3 more cards? 

Also i was a little confused on when a run is conidered successful. would i get the medium counter before or after i begin accessing cards from r and d? thanks in advance everyone.

[Toqtamish 3,643]

Medium is X-1 as you say with two tokens it will let you access one more card, three tokens two more, etc. As long as the run is on R&D of course.

 

Run is considered successful at 4.4 of the timing structure. You access cards at 4.5 so you add the counter first.

[malkavianprank 0]

oh that i never recognized

 

so if i break through all ices.. i first add a counter to the medium than access to cards and instantly benefit from that counter?

[Saturnine 47]

malkavianprank said:

so if i break through all ices.. i first add a counter to the medium than access to cards and instantly benefit from that counter?

Yep. The same way Gabriel gets his two credits on his first successful HQ run that round before he accesses a card, so he could potentially use those credits for trashing that card. As was said before, it's clear when you look at the timing chart in the rule book.

[Khudzlin 734]

Medium allows you to access X-1 additional cards if it has X counters. So you can access up to 1 + X-1 = X cards total (you have to choose the exact number before accessing any cards), including the one you normally access. 2 copies of Medium with X counters each allow you to access a total of 1 + X-1 + X-1 = 2X-1 cards.

[Butaman551 10]

Khudzlin said:

 

Medium allows you to access X-1 additional cards if it has X counters. So you can access up to 1 + X-1 = X cards total (you have to choose the exact number before accessing any cards), including the one you normally access. 2 copies of Medium with X counters each allow you to access a total of 1 + X-1 + X-1 = 2X-1 cards.

 

 

 

While the above comment is 100% correct, it kind if made my brain bleed a little, so I thought I would try to simplify this a bit for anyone having trouble with medium. 

First, like everyone above already said, according to the timing chart, the run is considered successful before you access cards, so you add a virus counter to medium before accessing cards. 

If you have one medium in play, the math is real simple. If you have 4 virus counters on medium when you access cards, you can access up to 4 cards. One is mandatory, the other three are optional. That's it. No crazy math required. 4 counters means 4 cards. Just remember that 1 card is mandatory. 

Now if you have two mediums in play, the math gets a little more complicated. Now you have to subtract 1. Add up the counters on the two mediums and subtract one. That's how many cards you can access. Like before, 1 card is mandatory and the rest are optional. 

With three mediums, you just subtract 2. 

Final rule, also as mentioned above, you have to declare how many optional cards you will access before you access them. No hitting a Snare and then deciding enough is enough. If you decide to access 5 optional cards (after you one mandatory card of course), you are committed until the end. 

I hope this helps. 

[Khudzlin 734]

Or you just subtract 1 from the number of counters on each Medium and that gives you the number of optional cards you can access (that's the text equivalent of the formula I wrote in my previous post).

[Saturnine 47]

 So many ways of saying the same thing