Card Set: Initializing

set code: [init] | release date: August 30, 2025

The very first CTF set, released at PAX West 2025.

Card Rarities

Program cards in [init] belong to one of five rarities. In order from most to least common:

+ is just reload. It appears in every starter deck.
• cards appear in every starter deck of their discipline (4 decks)
★ cards appear in half of the starter decks of their discipline (2 decks)
★★ cards appear in one starter deck and also in booster packs
★★★ cards appear only in booster packs

The amber edition consists of 55 starter packs, 130 booster packs, and two foils of each card. The total population by rarity is as follows:

|--------|-------------|-------------|-------|-------|
| rarity | in starters | in boosters | foils | total |
|--------|-------------|-------------|-------|-------|
| +      | 110         | 0           | 2     | 112   |
| •      | 44          | 0           | 2     | 46    |
| ★      | 22          | 0           | 2     | 24    |
| ★★     | 11          | 11          | 2     | 24    |
| ★★★    | 0           | 11          | 2     | 13    |
|--------|-------------|-------------|-------|-------|

(i.e., there are 2 foil copies and 11 non-foil copies of each ★★★ card)

Each of the five disciplines has one • card, two ★ cards, six ★★ cards, and seven ★★★ cards, for a total of 1595 program cards.

Starter Decks

Starter Deck: Breaking and Entering vs High-Energy Cosmic Rays: Smash your way through your opponent’s defenses before they know what hit them, or slow your opponent down to buy enough time to build up your engine.
Starter Deck: Battering Rams vs Null Bytes: Build a machine that hammers against your opponent’s system before delivering a killing blow, or load your opponent down with malware that’ll give you the access you need.
Starter Deck: Kernel Panics vs Crowbars: Throw a wrench into your opponent’s plans while you infect their system, or predict your opponent’s moves to find the right time to apply pressure.
Starter Deck: Defense Mechanisms vs Steganographosaurs: Outsmart your opponent at every turn, or hide a botnet in plain sight.
Starter Deck: Tripwires vs Stack Smashers: Build an elaborate series of traps to beat your opponent at their own game, or cause as much mayhem as possible.

Cards

Teams

Breaking and Entering (Brute Force && Infiltration)
Steganographosaurs (Infiltration && Infrastructure)
Tripwires (Infrastructure && Countermeasures)
Defense Mechanisms (Countermeasures && Disruption)
Stack Smashers (Disruption && Brute Force)
Battering Rams (Brute Force && Infrastructure)
Null Bytes (Infiltration && Countermeasures)
High-Energy Cosmic Rays (Infrastructure && Disruption)
Crowbars (Countermeasures && Brute Force)
Kernel Panics (Disruption && Infiltration)

(no discipline)

[init::FF] reload +

Brute Force

[init::00] breakthrough ·
[init::01] create-jumphost ★
[init::02] page-in ★
[init::03] autoscale ★★
[init::04] endgame ★★
[init::05] more-magic ★★
[init::06] packet-flood ★★
[init::07] reprocess ★★
[init::08] wind-up ★★
[init::09] preemptive-strike ★★★
[init::0A] raise-priority ★★★
[init::0B] repeat ★★★
[init::0C] reprioritize ★★★
[init::0D] suspend-firewall ★★★
[init::0E] trip-alarm ★★★
[init::0F] wrecking-ball ★★★

Infiltration

[init::10] disrupt-network ·
[init::11] port-scan ★
[init::12] rate-limit ★
[init::13] crawl-network ★★
[init::14] memory-leak ★★
[init::15] phone-home ★★
[init::16] reinfect ★★
[init::17] shell-game ★★
[init::18] trigger-exploit ★★
[init::19] deliver-payload ★★★
[init::1A] exfiltrate-flag ★★★
[init::1B] prepare-payload ★★★
[init::1C] shutdown ★★★
[init::1D] ssh root@ ★★★
[init::1E] suspend ★★★
[init::1F] timebomb ★★★

Infrastructure

[init::20] autostrike ·
[init::21] init ★
[init::22] prepare ★
[init::23] audit-alarms ★★
[init::24] overload ★★
[init::25] preserve-security ★★
[init::26] recycle ★★
[init::27] start-ddos ★★
[init::28] sweep ★★
[init::29] backpressure ★★★
[init::2A] calculated-strike ★★★
[init::2B] coordinate ★★★
[init::2C] daemonize ★★★
[init::2D] resecure ★★★
[init::2E] rollback ★★★
[init::2F] thread-pool ★★★

Countermeasures

[init::30] karmic-justice ·
[init::31] exploit-timing ★
[init::32] retaliate ★
[init::33] analyze-traffic ★★
[init::34] block-port ★★
[init::35] predict-vector ★★
[init::36] replay-attack ★★
[init::37] trap ★★
[init::38] turnabout ★★
[init::39] embed-payload ★★★
[init::3A] high-alert ★★★
[init::3B] lookahead ★★★
[init::3C] lookback ★★★
[init::3D] managed-install ★★★
[init::3E] mimic ★★★
[init::3F] rip-out ★★★

Disruption

[init::40] interrupt ·
[init::41] nullify ★
[init::42] shift ★
[init::43] adaptive-interference ★★
[init::44] flush ★★
[init::45] lock ★★
[init::46] hangup ★★
[init::47] preempt ★★
[init::48] uninstall ★★
[init::49] deadlock ★★★
[init::4A] enable-heisenbug ★★★
[init::4B] kill ★★★
[init::4C] lockdown ★★★
[init::4D] mem-wipe ★★★
[init::4E] psgrep ★★★
[init::4F] terminate ★★★