I've played about a dozen games with this console on jnet, out of anarch. Sometimes as Ryō “Phoenix” Ōno: Out of the Ashes and sometimes as René “Loup” Arcemont: Party Animal. The idea being that, these runners already want to trash HQ.

• Trashing cards the corp already drew hurts their tempo more than trashing cards in R&D that they didn't spend a click to draw yet.
• For these kind of "trash everything" runners, you need to have a plan for how you are going to disrupt corps that just want to kill you. Trashing the kill cards before they can get all the pieces together is a straightforward way.

Detente appeals in that when it takes a card, it's kind of a pseudo-trash. It's not in their hand anymore, they might be able to get it back, but they will have to screw around with clicking on detente.

If you hit agendas with detente, that's might seem ideal, because if they try to get the agendas back, there is at least some probability you will randomly access that agenda in their hand.

Also, if you trash detente itself, all cards on detente immediately go to archives. This also happens if you over-install detente or install another console. So that can be a way to close out the game if there are agendas on detente.

If you steal things that aren't agendas, the corp can try to click to get them back, and then you will get to randomly access one card.

• You might get to trash something on the corp's turn, triggering René “Loup” Arcemont: Party Animal and triggering Cacophony if you have that installed. However, depending on the corp, you might access something with no trash cost. Or the cost might be too high to afford. So it's nice if you have a Gourmand installed at the end of your turn. (However, Gourmand don't often stick around.)
• If you are running Audrey v2, a major part of the tactics is that the corp will try to lock you out and purge so that you can't trash anything and get anymore virus counters. However, if you have two cards on Detente and a Gourmand, then you will always be able to click Detente, access a card in HQ and trash it and get a virus counter, no matter how hard they purged you. So there is some synergy there.

However, that's pretty much all the good there is to say about detente. If you "steal" a bunch of ice or something, it may be momentarily annoying for the corp, but in most cases they can just click on detente once to get two of their ice back, with minimal risk.

Sometimes, detente can actually make the corps job easier, because it lets them hold onto important cards for later without needing to discard something else. Think about the runner Ayla “Bios” Rahim: Simulant Specialist -- she sets aside cards at the beginning that she can access for one click, and this makes the runner better, not worse. Detente at its worst creates a similar kind of side-board for the corp where they can access cards later if needed without clogging their hand right now.

The problem with Detente is that, on any given turn, if you don't have a Gourmand installed, and the corp is not currently flooded with agendas, then they can probably click on Detente without fear and get whatever cards they want back. Or, draw a card or two and most likely get to such a state. However,

• Gourmand doesn't usually stick around, and I have yet to see any type of "infinite imp" constructions in current standard (Elevation).
• If the corp is flooded with agendas, it sort of implies that you have not been running HQ very much lately. But that means that Detente has not been doing anything lately.

I've slowly convinced myself that Detente is too weak to be viable. Why not just play Docklands Pass, which costs less and costs less influence, and gives you a real access instead of the detente pseudo access.

Another card comes to mind that "hosts" agendas without technically stealing them -- Film Critic. That card was important to play around things like Obokata Protocol and Punitive Counterstrike in previous metas. Similarly, you might hope that with Detente you can host agendas on it without raising the threat level and being at risk of e.g. Measured Response or big Oppo Research, and then steal them all at once at the last second to win the game.

However, I think in practice that's fraught with peril. If I'm the corp and you have agendas on detente, and would otherwise be in kill range with Measured Response, then first click I'm going to click Detente, put two agendas back in my hand, and force you to access. There's going to be a significant chance that you hit one of the agendas, and then maybe I follow up with 2x Measured Response, possibly using a The Basalt Spire counter, when you don't expect it, and win the game right there. This risk happens because Detente allows the corp to force you to access cards one at a time. If you don't hit an agenda, great, I got my agendas back, now maybe I install it click 2 and score it next turn. Even if you, by chance, access and trash my Measured Response, trading MR for an agenda is likely worth it.

Even worse, if the corp clicks detente, you access, and you hit a Snare! or a Behold!, (or Tomorrowʼs Headline or Oracle Thinktank, ...) then you just got tagged on the corps turn and they have more clicks to kill you with End of the Line.

It's true that strictly speaking, the corp can't force you to access -- you can decline if you think you might die if you choose to access. But if you are afraid to take the accesses that Detente is giving you, then why are you playing it?

For criminals, it seems that you have way better consoles in Hermes and Swift, and I don't know why you'd consider playing Detente instead.

So, the art is cool, but I think this console is binder fodder:

• It would likely be viable if the card were stronger, like, "click, add 2 hosted cards to HQ: The Runner may access 1 card from HQ at random, and may trash it at no cost even if it cannot normally be trashed. Any player can use this ability."
• It might become interesting again in standard if future sets bring back the "infinite imp" stuff, or if some other card is created that helps you trash operations that you access.
• Or in some other way generate value. For example if the runner somehow had the Maw effect also in play, that would be quite strong with Detente.
• If the runner can somehow draw a card when the corp clicks detente and they access something uninteresting (ice or operations?), that might be enough to discourage the corp from clicking it.

How does ryo play like?

Run head first into ice like it was nothing
Bully the corp over and over
Watch the corp spend an entire turn drawing cards
Make them do it again

Runner Side Interactions

Banner all of a suddenly makes a lot of sense (mostly Ivik, Pharos, Brân 1.0)
lose 2 credits becomes save 1 credit (didn't break a sub that cost a least 1 credit with most icebreakers) and gain 1 if your successful
Raindrops Cut Stone net damage?, yes please!
Bravado BFF s you even have 17 Influence
Esâ Afontov: Eco-Insurrectionist without the core damage
Constantly draw hungry make sure to have Verbal Plasticity or Dr. Nuka Vrolyck

Corp Side Interactions

Don't res ice id cant trigger save those credits to FA End your turn with no cards in HQ
Trash an agenda before ryo can access it then Spin Doctor it back to safety
Cohort Guidance Program is always ready
If have 2 cards in hand if ones a Byte! you can force ryo to draw it
All that net damage cant be good for you Measured Response, Fujii Asset Retrieval, BANGUN: When Disaster Strikes, Byte!
Allergic to getting tagged, less clicks to draw or run and possibly lose Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga
Hates Manegarm Skunkworks

Conclusion

Ryo is an id that rewards reckless aggression (that occasionally blows up in your face) and synergies with most anarch card.
This is gold standard of card design its not just here's some credits or card draw, It's a unique reward that requires you to take risk. Excellent work Null Signal, the future looks of netrunner looks bright. 10/10 perfection

Is it possible to derez Cold Site Server with Warm Reception and thus save the power counters from being removed? I believe the Corp player gets to order start of turn effects however they choose, but I'm not sure if derezing Cold Site after the effect has already been queued so to speak would prevent it from happening.

I don't fully disagree with the general negative opinion that's going around about this card. The review that compares it to all the other currently cheap Barriers makes a great point, it's at the bottom of that tier list no question.

But I do think it's being slightly underrated.

We're in a meta right now where cheating ice is extremely common. The runner's spoiled for choice for ways to get through ice without using breakrs: Boomerang, Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga, Arruaceiras Crew, Botulus, Physarum Entangler, S-Dobrado, Alarm Clock, and probably more that I'm forgetting. I've had conversations with more than a couple players who find this really frustrating, who feel like the core interaction at the heart of Netrunner is not a particularly big part of Netrunner at the moment.

But, here's the thing: with the exception of Dobrado on Threat 4, every option I just listed can only cheat you through one piece of ice. So one of the ways to counterplay ice-cheaters is to go heavily vertical, and going heavily vertical necessitates cheap ice. Cheap ice like Kessleroid.

How does Kessleroid actually stack up against all those ice-cheating options?

Physarum and Crew are non-starters, they can't do anything against this guy. Bankhar slips through it relatively painlessly, but Kessleroid also eats the Bankhar trigger for the turn and leaves the runner having to actually contend with the stronger, meaner ice you put behind it. And because they can't Crew it, that's a problem they can't get out of solving. It's a similar story with Alarm Clock, which can bypass it no problem... but only by making the runner burn 2 clicks on a 1-strength ice and still have to break whatever's behind it.

Boomerang and Botulus break it no problem, except here, I'd actually say that Kessleroid's weak stats are in its favor. If the corp has multiple pieces of unrezzed ice and I Boomerang one of them only for it to be a Kesslroid, I'm irritated. I could've broken that thing for peanuts, and instead I wasted a valuable resource. And if that second piece of ice is something I can't crack and I permanently burned that Boomerang on this thing? Ooh buddy I'm steamed. It's even worse with Botulus, where you have the same problem of wasting a valuable resource on a piece of garbage, but in that case you can't even get through it any faster than once every other turn (Cookbook aside).

Notably, it's the Anarch ice cheaters that dislike this thing the most: it's immune to the Crew, eats Bankhar so it can tag in a buddy for the runner to have to break honestly, and feels like a total waste of a Botulus. Anarchs have been wildly powerful for a good long while now, so I think it might be worth giving this lil' guy a second look. I would never waste the influence to import it and it would never be my first choice for a barrier, but if I was building a glacier Weyland deck I would absolutely give it some serious consideration.

i think this is actually better than imp in the current card pool!

• cant get purged
• draws a card
• costs 0
• self-trashes, which is actually a benefit with simulchip and scrounge
• no knobkierie or friday chip in standard