Draw rules and THE best cards

[SaszaPL]

It looks like there is a winning strategy / set of cards, that cannot be really stopped, while other cards costs a lot while their value is minor.

Top 2 cards are Futuristic Smartphone (FS) and Ultimate Portal (UP).
FS allows to grab 4 chosen cards on R1 if taken&drawn at the start. Play FS - take the card not drawn plus FS, play a card (Droid) FS (draw FS and Droid), then play 2 cards and FS (get the 2 cards back), if that was a droid and you had only one era duplicate flipped, you just cleared 4 eras round one.
Obtain UP, Data Analyzer (DA), Transporter or Double Portal (DP).

UP allows you to ignore almost all other effects, including negative like swap eras with Pistol or draw additional hidden.
R2/R3 you skip turn, destroy portal cards drawn and keep one in hand (condition - you have only one of three in the new hand: UP, FS or Droid. Next round you play UP 4 times, droid twice.

If draw happens before the card is discarded (first resolve effect, then discard) we would not have such loops.

Costs of cards also seems unfair - Recycler Robot (RR) costs 2 eras as Advanced Tech, but allows to take 1 card from grave. As shown above single FS allows to take 4.
Laboratory is advanced tech, but YOU have to pay and then your opponents get similar bonus as you do... So why? If they had to pay the cost, then the usage would be more reasonable after 2 rounds (they also had to get 2 eras at this point of time), but still they get those tech cards, usually worth it's cost (or more!).

I mostly played 2 players games, above effects may be less visible in 3 or 4 p games, but I can risk a statement that UP and FS are the best cards, hands down, if possible - grab them.

[KafkaCrow]

I agree FS is the strongest opener but I don't think FS/UP is as strong as you say. Your combo doesn't let you win in 3 turns, only 4-5, and if you have 4 turns out your opponent has counterplay like playing clock multiple times a turn to dump eras at you, or using advanced lab combos to spam a bunch of high-tech cards to both clear efficiently while guaranteeing they win the tie-breaker.

You need to clear 12-13 eras, more if you take on other pieces. If you're wasting T2 burning cards that means there's no way you can clear 8 eras in T3, and you'd also struggle to clear by T4 (since you need to average 4 eras/turn, which is hard). So maybe 33% you can clear by T4, 55% you can clear by T5 without interference. Since you're also not doing any damage to your opponent, your opponent can also probably clear in 4-5 turns, while accumulating more tech. Or they can try messing with you, ideally with the clock, but to a lesser extent with the gun.

[kravmaka]

Data Analyser is by far the strongest card in the game. After playing several games against high rated players, it comes down to who can thin out the deck first and start a horrific combination lab/uportals/clock combos. Add a Cyber Glass or Smartphone and it gets brutal fast. Its very rare you can break this (maybe Thieving Robot and the Discard Drone thing) with stealing the cards before it gets impossible as the deck is just less than 10 cards and there is no discard pile anymore.

I would personally go so far and ban the Data Analyser, it would change the game to a more interesting meta. Right now I feel it really depends how the cards lay out and pop up to get the above mentioned cards first.

[Xhad]

You're underrating Laboratory. Every use of it gives you the option for an Advanced Tech vs. your opponents being limited to Basics, and you can do it in the middle of your turn, and you control the timing. If you took an Advanced Tech you'll also have first crack at researching the new one before anyone else can. These are not small advantages, and that's before considering that "turn 1 Laboratory, never research a tech again" is a potential wincon on its own.

[Denim Samurai]

best is probably the one that lets you draw 5 cards and trash them since it's the only card in the game that lets you trash and it lets you draw to boot and for some reason is only a basic tech.

[frotes]

I believe you can also trash if you skip playing cards a turn. still get to buy and next turn start with 6

might be worth at certain points in the game

[omarsindri]

IMO:
SS: Ultimate Portal
S: FP, DA
A: Temporal Blaster, Quantum Clock, Giga Transporter
B: Droid, Chrono-boots, Ion Batteries, Interdimensional Gloves, Digital Wallet, Transporter
C: Slashing Drone, Giga Droid, Recycler Robot, Laboratory
F: Time Bomb, Thieving Robot, Vortex