This ICE joins the cast of only two other ICE that is immune to Parasite; Architect and Lotus Field being the two others. This alone makes the ICE intriguing. But you can also potentially use it to save another piece of ICE from a Parasite, though I believe in practice this will not often happen. Still, I find myself inexorably drawn to this piece of ICE, he he he.

The problem with using this to get rid of a Parasite is twofold. First there has to be a Parasite sitting on a piece of ICE collecting tokens. This happens of course, but often the runner immediately trashes the ICE. He does this if the ICE has 0 strength (or 1 if they have a Grimoire), he runs at the ice with his Data Sucker tokens at the ready, or by having a loaded Hivemind. The second issue, is that you have to rez Magnet while the Parasite is sitting on the other piece of ICE. A runner used to the threat of Magnet may just try and avoid running at unrezzed ICE while his Parasite is active.

These are the two main problems I see. The second can be played around and to some extent the first one too. Having a Cyberdex Virus Suite ready may keep the Parasite on the board long enough to get Magnet rezzed. And there are ways to rez the Magnet without the runner actually having to run at it. Amazon Industrial Zone and Executive Boot Camp being two examples. A NEXT ICE build with Magnets and the Boot Camp may be able to nab those Parasites pretty consistently.

The great thing is that if you do manage to snag a Parasite, it is probably out of the game, no recursion for the runner. And it'll still be eating up a MU. The only way to get it back would be to trash Magnet another way; Spooned or Apocalypse. (EDIT: Obviously the runner could trash it when they install another program. I was thinking the card type was part of the text box, but no, it is still a program. Aesop and Endless Hunger too. My b on that point.) This ICE will also work versus Caissas. They aren't used that often, but you run into Knight on occasion. Caissas will be much easier to grab with Magnet because they don't kill their host and so stay on the board. Plus any future programs that are hosted on ICE (I think a Shaper program like this would be a cool card: 1 MU - Cost 1 – Install Morph only on a rezzed piece of ICE. Hosted ICE gains the subtype of your choice.)

I do believe this will be played often. Parasite is still one of the best runner cards in the game and just the fact that Magnet is immune to it is a big asset. Even if you don't happen to be facing any Parasites, this is still a hard end the run with decent strength. Yog.0 eats through it for free though.

What a cool card! It is probably the most unique card in the game to date. And what interesting opportunities it presents!!! In my mind, there are two main reasons to use this card.

1. Switch from an ID with a deck building or first turn bonus to an ID that will help you throughout the game. This would include Andromeda, The Professor, and excitingly Valencia. These IDs all have a powerful ability but once the game has started, they no longer provide any benefit (besides the link on Andromeda). Playing as ole Prof, filling your deck with powerful programs, just to then switch to Kate to help pay for the installs would be a good choice. I think this will become the most common use for The Professors one influence from here on out; and I think we may see some interesting and effective decks.

2. Switch from a high influence ID to one with lower influence. With this card you can squeeze a few more pips into your favorite IDs like Iain or Rielle. If you were to switch from Ken to Iain, you would be netting 6 more influence for Iain, a huge boon for him!

That being said, you may find yourself including this card under other circumstances if you happen to have a spare influence point to spend. Perhaps you can start as Nero for the early game pressure then switch to another ID once the game has progressed. Because the great thing is you can choose which ID will be best based on how the game is going. Maybe you planned on switching to Iain, but are currently crushing your opponent. In that case, maybe switch to Gabe to reimburse you for those HQ runs.

The card does have issues though. It costs an influence point, there aren't many ways to tutor it, and you can only include one in the deck. The latter two points especially present a problem. If you build a deck around it you may be left high and dry if it just happens to be sitting at the bottom of your stack. Logos is the only reliable way to get this card early that I can think of and so would be a good include if you are relying on Rebirth (it's not going to work with The Professor though :/ ).

Because of the preceding, I'm especially looking forward to using this card to switch from Andromeda to Iain. This switch would give you the first turn benefit of Andromeda with the potentially powerful ability of Iain. And you'd be stuffing 4 more influence into Iain. Oh, and you have a decent chance of drawing Rebirth early with Andromeda, or at least of getting a Logos.

So in conclusion, this card has a lot of potential and will be a lot of fun to use.

This is an amazingly good agenda. It is second only to Astroscript in my book (not just in NBN but in the entire game). Here are the reasons why:

-It's a 2/1. This alone makes it a good agenda. Being able to score it from hand makes it very valuable. That's one point on your way to 7. Or it is an easy sacrifice to cards like Archer, Corporate Town, or the upcoming Ibrahim Salem.

-It gives 2 tags when you score it. Though the runner also loses those tags when your turn ends this is still very valuable. The threat of this agenda makes cards like Rachel Beckman all but unusable v. NBN in my opinion. But the real value comes if you can score this with one or more clicks left. Honestly it isn't all that hard to do and this is the main reason I believe this agenda to be so good. Now you can:

~Trash critical resources, like a loaded Kati Jones or Personal Workshop.

~Scorched Earth for the win. Only had room for one scorch? No worries, its little brother Traffic Accident can help close. If you are certain of the win, go ahead and use the token on your Astro to set it up.

~A few other cards that aren't usually played but that could be useful are now available. This includes Bad Times, Freelancer, and Big Brother.

Now I'd like to mention 3 specific cards that make this agenda even crazier.

-The All-Seeing I! Score Breaking News with just one click left and blow away all the runner's resources. Many runners rely heavily on their resources. Pull this off at the right time and the runner might as well throw in the towel. If you have a bad publicity, you may just end up losing that instead. But 1, you will only have the runner hit you with bad pub in maybe 10% of games (and Corporate Scandal won't stop this because it'll be trashed as you score the agenda). And 2, losing a bad publicity for 1 credit is not a bad thing either.

-24/7 News Cycle is a card that I don't like because of its interaction with this agenda. It is just too easy to score this and any other agenda. That then leaves you with 2 clicks for a double scorch/traffic accident. It won't be hard to catch even a prepared runner once you have this set up. And if they are somehow still alive, they still have 2 tags to deal with.

-The upcoming Exchange of Information is tailor made to work with this card. If you have the one click left and 3 credits... wait, no credits required, you can switch the just scored Breaking News for an agenda in the runners score area, a Global Food Initiative for instance! An astro token would absolutely be worth using if necessary to make this work. EDIT: And I just realized that the two tags you gave them from scoring Breaking News would stick. This is because Breaking News is no longer in your score area when your turn ends!

In conclusion then, this is an incredible agenda. A bit too powerful with the current card pool in my humble opinion but one that is here to stay.

EDIT: They continue to release cards that add value to this agenda. The upcoming BOOM! will work nicely with Breaking News. The set up will be a little trickier because Boom is a double, but it is by no means unfeasible. One way would be to combine with 24/7 News Cycle!! :/ :/

I'm glad that they put this agenda on the MWL. Combined with the much needed limit on Astro, I think it'll be easier, fairer really to play versus NBN.

As others have noted, the rez to strength ratio is great and it has 2 subroutines. I don't believe there is any practical way to break this ice for less than 2 credits, with most options costing more (Gordian Blade, a solid breaker, will cost 4). So assume for now they let the subroutines trigger.

What subroutines can this ice trigger then? There are only a few psi ice in the game at this point, so the pool is somewhat limited. Here are the contenders:

Upayoga itself - A decent option. If playing as Nisei Division: The Next Generation, this ice will gain you two credits if you bid 0 each time, with the option to bid 1 (costing you nothing) to tax the runner 2 credits.

Bullfrog - An interesting choice. If you win the psi game, I believe that this would move the Bullfrog to the position of your choice and they'd now be running just past the moved Bullfrog. This would be fun to play around with especially in conjunction with Whirlpool or Labyrinthine Servers.

Clairvoyant Monitor - This is a cool subroutine but the ice itself is not that good at 4 to rez and only strength 3. You could certainly make some fun plays with this.

Mamba - Doing a net damage is never a bad thin;, or try and save up a few counters on Mamba for some mid run fun. Combine with House of Knives for maximum effect.

Snowflake - Not my favorite by any means. There is a reason this ice is not played. Even though the subroutine is harder to break if triggered from this ice, it just isn't very good.

Chetana - A soon to be released card that could be a great target for Upayoga.

and Mother Goddess - This may be one of the best interactions as it straight up ends the run, no chance for the sub to "miss".

With some of these cards rezzed the runner will probably be forced to just break the ice, which isn't a bad option for you either.

In conclusion, this card has some potential but will probably not be played outside Nisei. It is the first card to make me want to make a Nisei deck though.

EDIT: I forgot to mention upgraded Yog.0; Dino, Net Ready Eyes, or Personal Touch. This will obviously ruin your day if you are counting on this ice.

This card will be nuts in Jinteki Biotech: Life Imagineds The Brewery. Having just one of these installed will allow you to do 3 net damage on your turn with only 1 credit. Pair with Snare! and Psychic Field to get the set up. Asset spam Jinteki deck, here I come.