GS Shrike M2

GS Shrike M2 5[credit]

Program: Icebreaker - Killer - Cloud
Memory: 1 • Strength: 1
Influence: 2

If you have at least 2[link], the memory cost of this program is 0[memory unit], even if it is not installed.

Interface → 2[credit]: Break any number of sentry subroutines.

2[credit]: +3 strength.

Badder.
Illustrated by Donald Crank
Decklists with this card

Data and Destiny (dad)

#49 • English
Startup Card Pool
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Reviews

This is undeniably the strongest of Sunny's breaker suite, and I expect to see it in many, many other decks.

Before the release of Shrike, there wasn't a really strong choice for a universal, inexpensive killer that could efficiently break weak multisub sentries (Errand Boy, Komainu), strong single-sub sentries (Cortex Lock, Susanoo-No-Mikoto) and the great granddaddy sentry, the high-strength, multi-sub Archer. Faerie and Shiv are single-use, Mimic is fixed-strength, Garrote is too expensive and an MU hog, Dagger and Switchblade require stealth, and Ninja or Creeper are just generally terrible.

Shrike has none of those problems. It's a reasonable install cost, and either 1 or 0 MU depending on your link. One base strength is a bit low, but the 2-for-3 boost means that it can boost to higher levels decently efficiently. And the 2-for-all subroutine break helps compensate. All this, in a reasonable 2 influence package.

What this means is that if you have a rig of Corroder, Gordian Blade, and GS Shrike M2, the only thing preventing you from getting into a server is your credit pool, and with a Magnum Opus and/or Multithreaders that will not be a problem.

Shrike and Multithreader are the key cards which will make big-rig Shaper come back with a vengeance. We've already seen the first draft of this new paradigm with Feisty's Theory of Simplicity, and I expect other theorycrafters will take advantage of the late-game inevitability this breaker provides.

(Data and Destiny era)
While it's certainly a good card, I'm not sure it really counts as "inexpensive" - It shines against anything with 3 or more subs (especially the low-strength ones) it's still going to cost 4c to break just about anything else, even when it's something like Guard. And 5c install is definitely on the expensive side. —
I think I like Garrott better out of Criminal than this. You pay $2 more to install and surrender an extra MU, but that default strength of 2 pays you back in spades —

The text should be break sentry subroutines?