None Corp Era Card Talk #7 Martian Rails

[RoyalRook]

Today's card is Martian Rails (#007):

https://ssimeonoff.github.io/cards-list#007

Active card (Blue) | Base game

Cost: 13 | Requirements: None | Tags: Building

Action: Spend 1 energy to gain 1 MC for each city tile ON MARS.

This card is not passable for None Corp Era (NCE). Whether you are Tharsis or none Tharsis, if you see this in your intial card pool, just grab it. With a good animal, you know what to do now. Drag the game out. You just grind your opponent out. Now you want the game to go on forever. Especially with modest plant production. From Gen 7 and on it's drop city and ride the rails. The psychological aspect of this card is just unreal, it's extremely demoralizing for your opponents to see it been played, especially when there are 5-6 cities already on board. I lost count on how many games I have won by playing this seemly innocent looking card. In Corp Era, it's a trash card, but in NCE, you can't pass it. I know I will be keeping it always, if nothing but to counter possible Tharsis on board. What do you think about the card? Is it possible that we overlooked this card even for the Corp Era?

[Corbz]

On this one we differ. As with all prod cards, this one doesn't have long enough to pay off in Non-Corp era. And to top it off it doesn't help with any Awards if played late, and only marginally helps with Builder Milestone if played early. I'd rather play the much maligned Zeppelins mid/late game to help with Banker.

I can barely recall playing this at all in my games. I think I'd only take it mid-game as MG if it helps with Builder or I have loads of spare steel and nothing else to spend that on. But keeping this in starting hand as MG is expensive given low starting MC, so I probably wouldn't ever keep in opener.

[ChesterDeBester]

1 energy is worth about 1.2MC. So after your initial investment of 13+3MC, you are effectively paying 1.2MC to use it. I think we can all agree here that playing Martian Railsin gen1 is an extremely bad play, unless you stumbled into a match where there are 4+ cities in gen1.

So considering a game on average lasts 8 generations and we established that gen1 is not viable, let's say the earliest opportunity would be playing it in gen2. And let's also say you didn't lower your energy production to 0 in gen1. So you get to use Martian Rails 7 times.

Given the current meta and format, where cities are popular (whether that's the optimal play or not is irrelevant, so let's not digress into discussing that), a fair amount of cities per gen, starting at gen2) is probably 3-5-5-6-7-8-9, translating to the same amount of MC gained in each respective gen.
So in total 43MC earned, at the cost of a hefty 16MC early in the game and 1,2*7MC per generation worth of energy means Profit = 43-(16+(1.2*7) = 18.6
In theory that translates to a 3.5VP gain. A bit if you do some compounding.

The opportunity cost however is hard to measure. As Corbz correctly point out, it's a big investment for something that contributes nothing to milestones or awards (aside from a building tag). As soon as you miss out on a milestone or award because you went with Martian Rails over anything else, the business case for playing Martian Rails goes out of the window and it ends up being a net loss.

If you weigh all possible scenario's, it's more likely to harm you than help you, so when this is in your opening 10, it's best to let it go. If you draw it later on and there's reason to think there are enough gens/cities to make it work, go for it.

[cranesflyhigh]

One of the worst cards in the game. Even worse with expansions like Venus, as it adds cities off mars, which don't help it. I agree with Corbz - only ever keep it mid / late game if u have tons of steel, nothing better to spend it on and somehow come out with net positive cash. It happens sometimes as steel has struggles with getting lategame score cards (hello 11 steel prod MGs), so this at least gives some coin for it, but still really really bad.

[RoyalRook]

It may not sounds good on paper, but in NCE with build in steel production, it turns excess steel to instant MC, along with deltas like ants and predators, it shape up a proper strategy to drag the game out to counter ecoline and Tharsis.

This card needs animals and proper plant production to shine for engine strategy. You also need to make sure the third player understands the game need to go longer, so take away heats during draft is important, that means play molhole as MG in mid game to store heat for Thermalist.

So if you see marginal cards like Lava Flow, just hate draft them to be safe, and count on your engine to outscore the terraformers later. You marginalize the MS and Award impact as well.

[cranesflyhigh]

What you are talking about is still insanely cost inefficient - cause mainly you are talking about making more production. Even in the lategame there are better stuff for it - like Zeppelin, and that one is still kind of a meh card, but helps with Banker and is a point in itself. Also you are assuming a third player plays along, which is very speculative not just on the third player, but on the terraformer being unable to end fast enough. Sure there are very few situations where it is okay. Most situations it is not drafted, if drawn somehow else it is either sold for 1 cash or discarded with Mars U. Truly one of the worst cards in the game.

[RoyalRook]

What you are talking about is still insanely cost inefficient - cause mainly you are talking about making more production. Even in the lategame there are better stuff for it - like Zeppelin, and that one is still kind of a meh card, but helps with Banker and is a point in itself. Also you are assuming a third player plays along, which is very speculative not just on the third player, but on the terraformer being unable to end fast enough. Sure there are very few situations where it is okay. Most situations it is not drafted, if drawn somehow else it is either sold for 1 cash or discarded with Mars U. Truly one of the worst cards in the game.

We are talking about none corp era

[KeithHendricks]

Sometimes it is bad, sometimes it is good. It depends on the board state. Sometimes I am very excited to draw that card, like when all of my opponents are motivated to build on mars (tharsis, mining guild, ecoline, thorgate). Prelude can make an early play of this one a lot better. Sometimes with Prelude there are 5 cities on the board at the end of generation one.

A very situational card (like about half of the cards in the deck). If you can make it work early, it’s great. Electro catapult and space elevator are more interesting because they come with VP and have more of a straight payout.

[cranesflyhigh]

What you are talking about is still insanely cost inefficient - cause mainly you are talking about making more production. Even in the lategame there are better stuff for it - like Zeppelin, and that one is still kind of a meh card, but helps with Banker and is a point in itself. Also you are assuming a third player plays along, which is very speculative not just on the third player, but on the terraformer being unable to end fast enough. Sure there are very few situations where it is okay. Most situations it is not drafted, if drawn somehow else it is either sold for 1 cash or discarded with Mars U. Truly one of the worst cards in the game.

We are talking about none corp era

Are there on average 2-3 cities more in non-corp game compared to corp game? Then maybe. That said I excuse myself then, I am admittedly really ignorant about the non-corp format and as it is generally not the way the game is played, I am fine with that

[Corbz]

What you are talking about is still insanely cost inefficient - cause mainly you are talking about making more production. Even in the lategame there are better stuff for it - like Zeppelin, and that one is still kind of a meh card, but helps with Banker and is a point in itself. Also you are assuming a third player plays along, which is very speculative not just on the third player, but on the terraformer being unable to end fast enough. Sure there are very few situations where it is okay. Most situations it is not drafted, if drawn somehow else it is either sold for 1 cash or discarded with Mars U. Truly one of the worst cards in the game.

We are talking about none corp era

Are there on average 2-3 cities more in non-corp game compared to corp game? Then maybe. That said I excuse myself then, I am admittedly really ignorant about the non-corp format and as it is generally not the way the game is played, I am fine with that

I'd say that early cities are incentivised a little more in Non-Corp era for a few reasons: (i) game's shorter so early points is relatively better than prod; (ii) start with a energy prod so city cards are less costly to play; (iii) start with plant prod so easier to get an early greenery by using city to pick up plants from the board.

However, I don't think this justifies Martian Rails for the reasons I explained in earlier post. Specifically, because the game is short, prod cards just aren't that great, and this is a prod card.

In the Arena I've never had a game go longer than 8 gens unless I chose to extend it to secure victory, so there just isn't time to recoup enough income from the investment.