Mavirus

Mavirus 3[credit]

Upgrade: Ambush
Trash: 0
Influence: 1

While the Runner is accessing this upgrade in R&D, they must reveal it.

When the Runner accesses this upgrade, you may purge virus counters. If this upgrade is rezzed, do 1 net damage.

[trash]: Purge virus counters.

Viruses, runners; all are food to them.
Illustrated by Jack Reeves
Decklists with this card

Midnight Sun (ms)

#47 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Midnight Sun
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No rulings yet for this card.

Reviews

What's to say? It's basically a reprint of Cyberdex Virus Suite, except now it's in Jinteki, and costs 1 less to trash.

The damage bit is interesting, but a little weird. It only functions if Mavirus is installed and rezzed. Since it costs 0 to trash, it will rarely survive direct contact with the runner. So I'm not sure why you'd ever spend 3 to rez it. If you actually wanted to use it to purge viruses, you'd just rez it right before you fired it off. And rezzing while the runner is about to access is weird, since 3 is not a great price for only one net damage - the runner is unlikely to ever commit to accessing a facedown Jinteki card at 0 cards in hand. (Urtica Cipher exists, after all!)

So in most cases it feels like a slightly worse Cyberdex - cheaper to trash, and it costs influence for anyone who isn't Jinteki. It's worse in most cases, but not much worse. Even so though, Clot still exists. Aumakua still exists. Cyberdex was a very important card for good reason, and many of those reasons are still around, so I suspect this card will still see plenty of play.

(Midnight Sun era)
742

Also, the trigger to purge virus counters works when its accessed in archives, unlike some other Ambushes.

the virus counter purge triggering in archives is more important than one might think

bugger, I hit enter too early. [...] one might think. It essentialy causes the archives to be a no-go zone for any runner heavily relying on virus programs