This is a card that has worked both better and worse than I expected, once I started trying it in actual decks!

My original thought was that, while it would be a potentially neat surprise, it would rarely actually fire, and would usually just be a form of click compression - sort of a mini Replicating Perfection, forcing the runner to go run Archives first, if they want to run your remote. (Or blow a Pinhole Threading on it.) It wouldn't actually do much to a cautious runner.

From playing with it though, I've come to realize that it actually has several forms. The first one you draw, actually needs to go straight onto archives, and doesn't do much to protect your agendas. (Aside from making it slightly safer to store them in archives.) And suddenly, archives is very scary to check, especially if they have to pay to break some ice on the way in.

But now that Archives is scary, a whole bunch of stuff gets better. Hybrid Release is more likely to have a target. Regenesis is more likely to have an agenda to pull out. And of course, the next two Nanisivik Grids you draw are much easier to keep active.

You only get to fire one subroutine, so you really want ice with flexible, impactful subs. A few of my personal favorites, in startup format:

• Ansel 1.0 is a little expensive on the influence, but is one of the most damaging things you can trigger. You can just trash any one runner card, so you can rigshoot programs, and even sink Endurance. (Which feels very nice when it happens!) Alternately, in a pinch you can use its last sub as a pseudo-end-the-run, to protect an agenda (and the grid itself!) if they can't afford to get in a second time that turn.
• Rototurret and Ballista are both good because they're flexible - you can use them to end runs if you need to keep the runner out, or trash a program if you are willing to let them trash the grid, in exchange for taking a bite out of their rig. Ballista is more expensive on the influence, but is also more taxing if you rez it like normal ice.
• Bathynomus is the biggest single hit of net-damage available. And it has the nice side benefit that it's a card that you probably want anyway, since it is a good way to discourage archive checks.

One other thing I've noticed is that if you're playing Nanisivik Grid, you probably want to include a little more ice than usual. Just so that you have enough to toss some into the bin without leaving your servers undefended. In fact, since you'll be tossing cards into archives more than usual, it makes sense to pair it with other cards that have synergy there. Happily, modern Jinteki has a lot of such cards! A few of my favorite pairings:

• Hansei Review is a nice, simple way to gain 5 and put a card in archives without having to overdraw/discard. Solid econ, and with a downside that is actually an upside here.
• Jinteki: Restoring Humanity is just a nice synergy, since it wants to have at least one facedown card in archives anyway. (And makes it hard for the runner to know if you're discarding just for the money, or because you're laying a trap.
• Hybrid Release and Regenesis both benefit from facedown cards, as well as the runner checking archives less frequently.
• Moon Pool is a great way to throw cards into your archives mid-run. There's a rez/activation window before the grid triggers, but after they've passed their last chance to jack out. So while it sucks using Moon Pool on something other than scoring an agenda, it can make for a really funny surprise if they think the grid can't hurt them! (And of course, you can use it to fast-advance agendas out too.)
• Hafrún and Anemone are both also ways to get ice into archives mid-run, although the runner can still jack out if they realize what's up.
• Simulation Reset lets you pull faceup ICE back into your deck, while dropping new, facedown cards into archives, which is pretty great.
• Kakurenbo isn't startup legal any more, but it can be an absolute game-changer. If you play it late when there is a lot of ice in archives, you can absolutely supercharge your Nanisiviks!

One final thought - while it's tempting to think of this as only a defensive upgrade, it's worth remembering that it can also make a very effective trap! You can just install it naked somewhere, and if the runner goes to check it, BAM, their boat sinks, or whatever. (Bonus points if you install it naked, protecting a Moon Pool, so if they run it, you sink their boat, but if they don't run it, you can just fast advance out a 4/2 at your leisure!

So yeah. This card does work! It fits in really nicely with all the other archives-based shenanigans that Jinteki has been getting lately, can be situationally very powerful. But it also feels like it has some counterplay, and requires some setup to be really scary. It's also a really interesting counterpoint to ZATO City Grid, which has a similar effect (forced subroutine firing) but has a very different cost/setup. Fun stuff!

Somehow, this AI is both really good, and really clunky, at the same time! Which is a fantastic spot for an AI to be in. If they're too limited, they won't see play. But if they're too good, they run the risk of just replacing peoples' standard breaker suites entirely. (Remember Faust?)

So. Matryoshka. On the good side - its a reusable breaker with break costs that are identical to Corroder. That's pretty darn efficient - breaking any ice for the same cost as a one of the best breakers in a faction is impressive, and being able to target any ice type means that early game, it's hard for the corp to lock you out with gear checks.

On the clunky side though - the install costs. Not the 3 - that part is quite reasonable. No, I'm talking about the part where you have to draw and install (costing a ) the extra copies to make it function. In some ways, it's reminiscent of the old Crypsis, except that when you spend clicks to "wind it up" it stays wound. (At the cost of having to draw into more copies first.) And it doesn't even do anything until you've drawn at least two copies! But luckily, you can include 6 copies in a deck, so there's actually a decent chance to get it online early enough to provide some pressure.

One interesting thing about it is that it doesn't play nicely with very many card tutors. Self-modifying Code, Into the Depths, etc, all install a program after searching for it. But since you only install the first one, Matryoshka prefers cards that bring it to your hand. Mutual Favor is the obvious choice. But I'm not sure it's really necessary - with 6 copies in a 45 card deck, you have a ~40% chance to draw two of them in your first 10 cards. And that's not even taking into account if you mulligan for them. Also, extra shoutout to Ayla "Bios" Rahim, who's extra 6 cards at startup make it way easier to get something like this online.

Also, it's worth remembering that tutors can still help you with the initial install. If you have a Matryoshka and a Self-modifying Code in your hand, you can always use the SMC to install a Matryoshka out of your deck, and then just click to host the one you already had in your hand. This only works for the first one of course, but it can be a good way of getting the ball rolling.

Once you get it installed, the only real question then is "what else do you pair it with?" If you're spending 6 deck slots on Matryoshka copies, (and maybe 3 more on tutors), that's a lot of your deck already taken up. You probably don't want to include more than 1 copy of each breaker after that, if that. But you probably want at least some other way to get past ice, so that the corp doesn't just lock you out with big ice towers.

I've actually been having decent luck in Startup Format lately, paring it with everyone's favorite big dumb console, Endurance. They make a pretty good pair - Endurance deals with the big expensive stuff, and Matryoska helps save on power counters so Endurance doesn't have to waste time on the dinky ice. But Botulus is also pretty good partner, as well as standard criminal tricks like Inside Job. The thing is - it's not THAT common for corps to put more than 2-3 ice on a server. So while Matryoshka's limit is definitely something you have to keep in mind, it doesn't actually keep me out as often as I would have expected.

One other thing that probably bears mentioning is its apparent weakness to program destruction. In a set that has Nanisivik Grid and ZATO City Grid, (As well as lots of ways to land tags for Retribution) the corp can trash programs if they really want to. Losing a pumped up Matryoshka is very sad. But it's actually more resilient than it appears - the trick is that you don't really need very many copies for it to be a useful threat. 1-2 hosted copies, and you can still get through enough ice to keep Endurance fueled up, and even if it gets trashed, you still have a few more copies in your deck to fall back on.

So overall - a surprisingly good AI breaker. I find I am liking it a lot more than I thought I would, before trying to play it. The credit cost to install and break is actually really good for what it does. The extra card-draws and clicks required to get it rolling are a little taxing, but still probably fair for the value. It's not something you just drop into your deck as an occasional backup like Mayfly. It requires you to actually structure your deck around it a little. But if you do, it can provide a surprising amount of early game pressure and consistency!

I really like how balanced this card is.

On one hand, it's scary how it can fire from anywhere, and either of the options, (core damage or -1 point) is very impactful. On the other hand though, it can only ever fire once. This isn't like Shock! or Breached Dome of the past, that just would sit in archives, taxing the runner every time they checked it. This one fires once, but then it's gone forever, either way. And while both options are impactful, the runner gets to choose which one they want, which means it will always be whichever one hurts the runner less at that moment.

I think that the biggest strength of this card is how right now, there are no legal runner cards that let you sacrifice agendas, in either startup or standard. Artist Colony, Data Dealer, etc, have all rotated. I'm not sure if that's an intentional direction by NSG, or if they're just coming later. But historically, there have been ways to sacrifice agendas, which work nicely as a counter to things like this. Here's to hoping we see a new one soon!

I love the design of this card. As a faction, some of Anarchs's key aspects are:

• Middle-of-the-road at sentry breaking. (Not as good as criminal, but better than shaper's garbage like Pipeline or Creeper.)
• A love of fixed-strength breakers.
• A lot of large extremes. Cards with incredibly good aspects, offset by really bad aspects. (Anyone else remember Duggar's?)

I love how this card captures all of these aspects in one uncomplicated 4 package. 8 strength on a sentry breaker is amazing! Even with no way to pump it, there are very few situations where you'll ever need more than 8 strength on a sentry. (And yet they can still come up, so this can be relevant!)

On the other hand, 2 is a lot to pay for each subroutine, especially since sentries often have lots of annoying subs. But you recoup at least some of that with the knowledge that you won't have to spend money to boost strength. It fully breaks Archer for 8, which is the same as Carmen!

Finally, it's a nice callback to Knight, and a nice inversion of Mimic. Very cool design!

Huh. This might just be the best general-purpose recursion card printed since the original Déjà Vu.

Overall, it's probably lost a little bit of power - it's no longer quite so amazing for virus decks in particular. (Which is probably just as well, even if Noise: Hacker Extraordinaire is no longer around.) But getting back an arbitrary card from archives is still an extremely powerful (and uncommon) effect, so this will clearly still see plenty of play.

There are some really interesting aspects of this card though!

• First off - it's a run event now. This does some fun stuff to the card's power level. On one hand, it means that it kind of saves you a click over the old Déjà Vu, as long as you were planning on running this turn anyway. (And didn't need the card you want back to do it!)
• On the other hand though, the fact that it requires a successful run also gives at least some counterplay to the corp. If you don't have any un-iced servers on the board, this card is a a little harder to play. (Defend your archives, people! Even if you're not playing Jinteki: Restoring Humanity, runners have entirely too much mischief they can apply if they get unfettered access to a central server!)
• It's a run event that triggers off of a successful run, but it does not replace your access or anything. So it combines nicely with all the "instead of accessing" triggers, like Security Testing, Zenit Chip JZ-2MJ, etc. It also plays nicely with many multiaccess tools like WAKE Implant v2A-JRJ or The Twinning. And of course, all the general tech that triggers off of successful runs, like Pennyshaver, etc.
• It has fun synergy with a lot of cards that you might want to play after a run. Emergency Shutdown after using it to run on HQ for example. Or En Passant. And of course the fun one - You can use the run from Katorga Breakout as one of your three required central runs, and then use the retrieval effect to get back your Deep Dive (or other "run all 3 centrals first" card of your choice), while still having enough clicks left to play it!

All in all - a very solid card in Anarch. It's powerful, but feels fair. It's an effect that other factions are going to desperately want (especially in startup, as of this writing, when program recursion is harder than usual) but the 3 influence cost will probably make it difficult to justify splashing more than x1 or x2.