So, me and some friends were building some decks with some new expansions we picked up and we came across Bad Times, which says;

We looked at it for a while, but we could not work out how it works.

As far as we are aware, The Corp can only play operations on their turn, so you can only reduce the Runner's Memory in the Corps turn.

Does that mean that the Runner has to trash any installed programs that exceed the new temporary memory limit that occurs in the Corps turn? Do they go into hand?

Or have we been playing it all wrong this whole time and can the Corp play operations during the Runners turn, and does it just mean the Runner can only use installed programs up to the temporary memory limit?

Or are we completely off base?

Thanks in advance!

You are correct in that the Corp can only play it on their turn.

If at any point the Runner exceeds their memory limit they must trash installed programs until they are back within the limit.

So if a runner has 4 MU of programs, no extra memory and the Corp lands a bad times they must trash 2 MU of programs or their entire rig if they managed to land 2.

The same problem would occur if the Runner had played additional memory hardware, such as a console or memory chip, utilised that memory and the Corp manages to trash that hardware. As soon as the Runner is over the limit they must trash programs until they are back within it.

Great. Thanks for the help.

May have to add some to my Corp deck

It's one of those cards that's not as good in practice as you think. The runner has to be tagged, which isn't nothing.

The runner has to be maxed out on MU, which often doesn't happen now that there are more and more options for limited-use on-demand breakers like Faerie, D4v1d, and the Cerberus suite.

The runner chooses what programs to trash; they will choose what hurts them the least. Almost certainly *not* the one that you really want gone, the one that's getting them into HQ or R&D or your scoring server. Oh darn, I have to trash a Sharpshooter, or an empty Lady, or the Cache I was planning to Aesop next turn.

You'll find yourself wishing you were holding a Scorched Earth, or Closed Accounts, or even a Freelancer.

In many cases the threat of tag punishment is more useful than its actual use.

I thought I would use bad times more than I have, but the biggest problem I have with it is its cost and for all the reasons that Grimwalker has said. That keeps it very situational, with the runner having already got out their full rig and be sitting on the memory limit for it to really have any effect. That said it is neutral and could show up in any Corp deck as an aside.

It might be fun to triple bad times someone and remove practically everything form a rig, but if you can do that wouldn't scorched earth be a more permanent and victorious strategy?

The only problem with scorched Earth is that it costs 4 influence, so if you're using it you basically need to build your deck around it unless you're playing Vitruvius shenanigans or just playing Weyland.

But yeah, I have not had much success with bad times. It's already hard enough to land a tag on a runner, I don't have 8 credits to spend on 2 bad times for an effective rig wipe afterwards. And let's be honest, runners usually keep multiple copies of their programs anyway, or if it's Shaper they'll just clone chip it back in.

The only problem with scorched Earth is that it costs 4 influence, so if you're using it you basically need to build your deck around it unless you're playing Vitruvius shenanigans or just playing Weyland.

That is indeed true, and it is in part because it can flat out win you the game (!) whereas you still have to do *stuff* even if the runner's entire rig gets dropped down a hole.