[SevenSpirits]

Am I incorrect then in my interpretation that when I use my hand to resolve obstacles for another runner, that runner gets to keep the cards I used to resolve that obstacle?

Yes, that is wrong. Cards you play always go to your own discard pile. Glad I mentioned it! 

[Namikaze]

LOL thanks so much!  I just looked at the rules again, and it's actually really clear in the examples that your played cards go into your own discard pile.  This is what I get for rushing through the instructions.    Still, good to know that my team at least successfully aborted two runs of three attempts.  Granted, both of those times we actually allowed a teammate to go Critical to force the Abort phase. 

[Dr. Meatgrinder]

Granted, both of those times we actually allowed a teammate to go Critical to force the Abort phase. 

The players at my table agree that we're basically playing for the successful Abort until we get our first upgrade.  Then we can actually try playing the game.  That makes the elf a good sacrificial lamb.

The Abort is hard enough, though, if you have more than one Staggered/Critical runner, because all of their obstacles go to the current player on his turn.  I've had a few close games that snowballed once a runner went critical because no one else had enough HP left to absorb the beatdown.

[Namikaze]

Granted, both of those times we actually allowed a teammate to go Critical to force the Abort phase. 

The players at my table agree that we're basically playing for the successful Abort until we get our first upgrade.  Then we can actually try playing the game.  That makes the elf a good sacrificial lamb.

The Abort is hard enough, though, if you have more than one Staggered/Critical runner, because all of their obstacles go to the current player on his turn.  I've had a few close games that snowballed once a runner went critical because no one else had enough HP left to absorb the beatdown.

I had the same thing happen once.  That was the failure we had.  We also had a game where we could have killed the last obstacle facing the Critical runner, but instead we let it live.  That way we all had to only take damage from the one source.  It was metagaming to the extreme, but that's the point of a card game instead of the roleplaying game.

[Bagpuss]

Basically, yes, but other way around.  Turn one green Matrix damage symbol into 2 Colorless.  So a Mark card, for example, would deal 2 Colorless instead of the 1 Green if you wished.  Something like the big 9 Nuyen green card taht does 2 G and 2 Colorless would instead do 1 G and 4 Colorless.  Etc.

Wow, I read that the wrong way round. I thought say the obstacle needs a Matrix damage but I don't have a Matrix card, I can substitute 2 Colourless to meet that requirement, converting them into a Matrix damage.

Which seems to make more sense from a flavour aspect. I'm not a decker and have skillz but if I mash the buttons fast enough it might work!!! It's how unskilled folks win at Street Fighter.

It's a really handy ability to have.

Edit: I take it from the later discussion in the thread my original interpretation is correct.

Of course if you thought it was the other way around and bought it playing a Decker it becomes pretty useless. But when I say it is handy I mean for someone like the Street Samurai or Mage, who can convert a lot of Mana or Weapon damage into Matrix Damage, when they need it, even if their one Hacking card is buried in their deck.