Sorry about the instant topic, but I've recently started playing A:N with a couple of friends, and I can't figure out whether tags are consumed in Corp actions or not.

Example 1: Runner gets one tag and still has it on the Corp's turn, Corp has two Scorched Earth cards in hand. Can the Corp immediately play both Scorched Earth operations and win the game, or does the first one consume the tag?

Example 2: The Corp scores a Breaking News when their turn begins, and wants to spend the turn trashing the Runner's resources. Can they trash with all three actions, or are the tags consumed by the first two? (The same goes for any case where the Runner has one tag, of course.)

Example 3: The Runner has one tag, the Corp has three different cards for that (e.g. Closed Accounts, Scorched Earth, a scored Private Security Force); can the Corp play all three actions on the same tag, or is it used up by the first one?

Example 4: The Runner has already accumulated one tag, and the Corp scores a Breaking News to start their turn, with two Psychographics and a high-value agenda in hand. Can they play the agenda openly and use both Psychographics for a total of six agenda points on that new one, or are all three tags used by the first Psychographics?

The main reason why I think they might be consumed (other than "Oh dear lord, that hurts a Runner") is the Breaking News blurb, specifically: "When you score Breaking News, give the Runner two tags. When the turn on which you scored Breaking News ends, the Runner loses two tags." It's not tag-specific, so it indicates that there's some meaningful difference between the tags, that if you were to use one or two tags out of a total three, Breaking News doesn't allow you to specify that it's the BN tags you used, the other one will be used up with that final clause.

Tags aren't consumed by the corp ever. In each of your questions, the first proposed answer is the correct one. The reason Breaking News is worded like it is is probably because of cards like Decoy or New Angeles City Hall.

You can think of tags as being data the corp has on the runner - most commonly their location. Making use of that information doesn't make it go away; the runner has to actively spend effort to get out of the corp's line of fire (2 cr + 1 click) or have a way of dodging them in the first place, such as false info being fed to the corp (Decoy) or a favour called in from government contacts (New Angeles City Hall).

I realise that's a thematic argument, but it's one I use to back up the mechanics. If you were required to remove tags upon making use of them, the rulebook would explicitly tell you to do so.

The reason Breaking News is worded that way is to make those tags explicitly temporary by the Corp, thus giving them a risk/reward type of a situation. Scoring it from hand and fast advancing it all in one turn? No risk, no reward. Leaving it advanced and scoring it at the top of the runner's turn? High risk of getting stolen, but then you have three clicks to punish the runner or score agendas.

Look at the artwork--the illustration is some Shadowrunners being chased by the cops, being caught live on the news--so the corp knows where the runners are *right now* but in a very short time won't know where to find them.

I supposed if the agenda is stolen, then the runner has discovered secret plans for the NAPD to arrange its hot pursuit at times and places conducive to exciting news coverage.

Oof, brutal. It is a brutal game, of course, but yet another reason to hate running against NBN or Weyland.

Thanks for the quick answers, all!

Oof, brutal. It is a brutal game, of course, but yet another reason to hate running against NBN or Weyland.

Thanks for the quick answers, all!

Wait until you steal an agenda and then get hit with Midseason Replacements Trace ¹¹ .

"Wow. I guess, ummm...yeah, I'm tagged forever now."

Or you could just run an Andy-tag me deck and not give a hoot how many tags you've got on you.

That would require a willingness to run an Andy Tag-Me deck.