Botulus

Botulus 2[credit]

Program: Virus - Trojan
Memory: 1 • Strength: -
Influence: 3

Install only on a piece of ice. (If the host ice is uninstalled, this program is trashed.)

When you install this program and when your turn begins, place 1 virus counter on this program.

Hosted virus counter: Break 1 subroutine on host ice.

Was it something you ate?
Illustrated by Cat Shen
Decklists with this card

System Gateway (sg)

#4 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Rulings
  • Updated 2021-10-11

    What is Botulus’s strength?

    Botulus is not an icebreaker, so it does not have a strength value. Its ability can be used to break subroutines on ice of any strength.

  • Updated 2021-10-11

    What happens to Botulus if the ice hosting it is trashed or derezzed?

    If the host ice is trashed or otherwise uninstalled, any cards and counters hosted on it, including Botulus, are trashed. If the host ice is merely derezzed, it keeps all of its hosted cards and counters, including Botulus.

Reviews

This card is one of the most powerful anarch card there is.

It combine well with Rejig and Simulchip. The later let you put it back on an ice after the corp trash their (now useless) ice. The former let you put it back on another ice that need more effort to break.

Against single sub ice, this card is even better, since a purge will do nothing to it.

Being a virus, you can make use of MemStrips to have the MU for it.

With Botulus, you can make get a lock on a central without problem. This open up so many lines of play.

The art is evocative and will make the corp shudder. The joke in the quote will get old very quickly, but can be a running gag also. This give the anarch a powerful tool to deal with super ices without having to use tools imported from other factions. In my opinion, this is a top tier card.

Amazing card!

(System Update 2021 era)
4247

consider recurring with with Retrieval Run since its no influence

I am very confused about this card. I was told by someone that you do not need strength to approach the ICE this virus is on. So the subroutines can be broken even if you do not have the power to approach the ICE. Is this true?

Hi webchain, that's correct. It's verified with the first ruling on the page:

@webchain : botulus doesn't need to check strength, but if you install a botulus on a Tollbooth but run out of counters, you still need to pump your decoder to break it

Can this card be installed onto an unrezzed piece of ice?

Answering my own question because I’m too dumb to figure out how to delete it. The answer is yes based on what I learned from other cards with the same text (and the card just says ice, not rez state).