A solid code gate with a deceptively useful subroutine. At a mere 3 rez cost to its 4 strength, RSVP is efficient and taxing. 4 is a magic strength total in the current meta; just out of Yog.0 range but beneath D4v1d, making it hard for certain decks to deal with. The costs for some common icebreakers:
- ZU.13 Key Master: 4
- Cyber-Cypher: 1
- Refractor: 1 stealth & 1
- Gordian Blade: 3
- Yog: 1 Datasucker token barring the Net-Ready Eyes or Personal Touch combos
- Cerberus "Rex" H2: 3 & 1 power counter
The cheap cost for Cyber-Cypher (and Atman at 4) unfortunately makes RSVP weak against the popular Prepaid Kate archetype which is one of the strongest runner decks at the moment. Many Criminal and Anarch decks splash ZU.13 Key Master however, which RSVP is incredibly taxing against. If Net-Ready Eyes leads to a resurgence of Yog in the meta then the stock of RSVP will go down significantly.
While RSVP doesn't technically end the run, in a surprising number of situations it makes the runner's success unimportant. In particular, it's a great, cheap piece of ICE for protecting assets in both remote and central servers since its subroutine prevents paying trash costs. But there's a long list of defensive upgrades and agendas that require the runner to spend money, notably: NAPD Contract, Predictive Algorithm, Red Herrings, Ash 2X3ZB9CY, Caprice Nisei, Utopia Fragment, and Fetal AI. It also combos with the in-faction Pop-up Window to hard end the run, though ICE defense strategies that rely on ordering are notoriously brittle (e.g. Parasite ruins this plan). While RSVP is good in faction, it synergises really well in a couple of other decks, too:
- The Gagarin Deep Space ability
- The Caprice Nisei psi games of Replicating Perfection and Jinteki decks in general
An underrated piece of ICE that is great in certain builds but can feasibly be a one- or two-of in most NBN decks as well.