God of War

God of War 4[credit]

Program: Icebreaker - AI - Virus
Memory: 1 • Strength: 0
Influence: 3

When your turn begins, you may take 1 tag to place 2 virus counters on this program.

Interface → Hosted virus counter: Break 1 subroutine.

2[credit]: +1 strength.

"Subtle? You don't really understand the point of all of this, do you?" -Alice Merchant
Illustrated by Andreas Zafiratos
Decklists with this card

Free Mars (fm)

#82 • English
Startup Card Pool
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Printings
Free Mars
Rulings
  • Updated 2024-02-02

    ANCUR UFAQ [Michael Boggs]

    Can the Runner avoid the tag from God of War and still get the virus counters?

    No, taking the tag is a cost to placing the virus counters on God of War. If the tag is avoided, the cost hasn't been paid and the counters do not get placed.

Reviews

There are two ways to look at God of War: as an AI icebreaker and as a tag engine.

As an AI it's not great: each turn you get two subroutine break (virus) counters, which accumulate but are vulnerable to corp purging and things like Cyberdex Virus Suite and Macrophage. To actually use those counters you need to boost strength at 2 per +1. Not great. Of course AI's aren't supposed to be very economical.

The other side of God of War is that it can generate tags, one per turn. Now normally that's a bad thing, BOOM! being a thing and all. But the clans of Mars seem to like having their contact details known to every megacorp in the solar system. Just look at Jarogniew Mercs and Counter Surveillance. Those cards use tags as fuel for quite good effects (meat damage prevention and multi-access). And another Mars-clan themed card - Mars for Martians - gives credits for tags. Oh, and it gives free draw for clan resources.

God of War has a slight downside that it takes up a memory slot even though you'll rarely use it to break ice but on the bright side it's immune to resource trashing and because it's also a virus card it works with the usual anarch virus support systems (e.g. Djinn. MemStrips, Progenitor).

(Free Mars era)
398
Not to mention having an AI at all allows you to do things like break traps. —
Note that God of War is an icebreaker, so you cannot host it on Djinn. —
@RvdH83 1 I learned that the hard way XD —
You can't host it on Djinn but you can still search for it with Djinn. —
GoW has very good synergy with Dean Lister and Obelus. Trash Dean Lister to give it as high strength as you have hand size (eg tags + 5) —

You can use virus support like Virus Breeding Ground, Hivemind or Friday Chip for breaking subroutines and strenght support such as Net-Ready Eyes or Ice Carver if you want to use it as your icebreaker, but when it needs so many support cards, it´ll be better to use good old Aumakua if you don´t want only tag engine for your clans

I am surprised nobody has mentioned these cards so far, but this combos really well with Datasucker, Parasite, and Citadel Sanctuary. Particularly if your runner has a built in link.

Yeah, it "combos" with these cards, but only if you want it for breaking. But this wasn´t meant as an AI for breaking, this was meant as a tag engine for clans, as it was used . It joined Wyrm and Persephone in the "Chamber of icebreakers not meant for icebreaking" :D