We apologize for Kessleroid.

Compare:
- Semak-samun in the same set, which for 1 credit more breaks for 3 on most breakers (excluding Rising Tide with fracters in the bin, Lobisomem, etc).
- Maskirovka, which for 1 credit more refunds 2 credits on the facecheck.
- Akhet, which again is 1 credit more and folds into the advance-able ice suite that can become a pain with Syailendra.
- Ablative Barrier, which aids HB decks in building their board state.
- Ping, which gives the runner a tag and enables NBN: Reality Plus and Synapse Global: Faster than Thought to do their thing,
- Tatu-Bola, an economy and ice correction card wearing a paper mask that says "ICE" on it like the Spy from TF2.

Who gets anything from this? Ob Superheavy Logistics: Extract. Export. Excel. will probably use it in their weird kickflips to find 1 cost cards they'd rather want. This is immune to Arruaceiras Crew and Charm Offensive, but no runner in their right mind would waste those on this. Most breakers can get past this for 2 credits - maybe in a world where runner economy is more specialized and difficult, this will be a relevant number, but right now I don't see it. If you're playing System Gateway + Elevation only, this might get into your decks out of necessity. If you are ABSOLUTELY desperate for a cheap ETR barrier and can't slot Palisade or one of the above ice, maybe go for it.

At least the other two Weyland ice in the set are bangers.

Kessleroid (🪨🕸️) is an inexpensive, “indestructible” gearcheck.

It represents Kessler syndrome: you can't trash it, because it's already just a swarm of fast trash. I've wanted more cool space names in Weyland for a while now (post–Order and Chaos/post–Red Sands), like:

• Roche Limit
• Orbital Slingshot
• Kozai Resonance
• Flyby Anomaly
• Klemperer Rosette
• Tidally Locked
• Gravitational Keyhole
• _ Periapsis (like At Perihelion, At Perijove, or At Perilune/Periselene/Pericynthion)
• Skyhook
• Plasma Railgun

However, I've also wanted a lot more “Hardened” Barriers (especially on more impactful ice than a 2s/2↳; and especially in Weyland, the “Barrier faction”):

• indestructible: like Architect (or a “larger and/or spikier Kessleroid”).
• unshrinkable: like Lotus Field.
• “un-Trojan-able”: like Tithonium.
• un-bypass-able: like Guard.
• un-derez-ible.
• “un-NonFracter-able”: like Semak-samun (or a “typeshifted Edward Kim: Humanity's Hammer”).

For example (tho IDK if the anti-Hermes and anti-Bankhar clauses would work within the rules as written or without modifications):

Kessleroided

[$3] ICE [2s]: Barrier
[weyland ●○○○○] (ele)

The Runner cannot bypass or derez this ice. While installed (even if unrezzed), it cannot be trashed or added to HQ.

This ice’s strength cannot be reduced and its subroutines cannot be rewritten. (Such as by “When they would resolve a subroutine, instead they resolve …”.)

↳ End the run.
↳ End the run.

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.