Root Access

Root Access
Deck	Max
Rarity	Uncommon

Root Access is a uncommon Max card.

Description

Costs 0 energy. When played:

1. Your rightmost card gains Retain.

Exhausts.

Upgrades

Root Access A

Costs 0 energy. When played:

1. Your rightmost 2 cards gain Retain.

Exhausts.

Root Access B

Costs 1 energy. (+1) When played:

1. Your rightmost card gains Recycle.

Exhausts.

Strategy

Root Access aims to improve your deck's long-term consistency by giving a card Retain, at the cost of short-term consistency (because you'll draw it instead of something else). It's pretty hard to control what Root Access hits since there are few ways to ensure a card is on the right (Selective Memory being an exception), but thankfully most hits are decent (and the rest can usually be played to get them out):

Adding Retain to Corrupted Core or unwanted basics can allow you to hold them indefinitely without having to draw them again

Adding Retain to cards you drew mid-turn without enough Energy to play allows you to play them next turn (and makes them targets for Admin Deploy later)

Many of Max's cards are much better with Retain, like Reroll, Branch Prediction, Backup Stick, and Total Cache Wipe

Root Access is great with Flow State, as Flow State means your rightmost card changes throughout the turn, and in return, Root Access's 0 cost makes it an easy way to get full value out of Flow State, plus Root Access can address Flow State's tendency to draw expensive good cards mid-turn that you can't play.

Its A upgrade makes it apply to your rightmost 2 cards. Usually, you need card draw (such as Flow State) for this to be worth it, as you won't benefit from the second Retain unless you don't play those two cards this turn, which means you only have 2 other cards you're playing this turn - which is often a waste. Still, with card draw, particularly Math.Max, this can provide a lot of consistency.

Its B upgrade is quite ambitious, adding Recycle instead and making it 1 cost. The list of things that want to have Recycle is a lot shorter than the list of things that want Retain, and it's still hard to manipulate what card is on your right side. But there are some powerful targets. Big Shield B every turn? Many enemies can't damage you now. Scoot or Seeker A/B every turn? Most enemies have no way of hitting you now (and the latter will eventually kill them by itself). Basic Shot A with Recalibrator and Grazer Beam? You've got a lethal infinite now, regardless of your deck size. But you're often at the mercy of the draw order to set these combos up, so you'll either need exceptional card manipulation or an ability to improvise to make this work.