Pharos, but worse. A 1 discount is not even vaguely worth the cost of being useless in the early game, coming down at (up to) the same 5 strength but requiring setup time and runner cooperation, and being more expensive to boost. It's an option for decks that really want to run 6x Pharos, though, or Ob Superheavy Logistics decks after a passable 6-cost bridge between Pharos and the rest of the deck.

It does have one saving grace: Boomerang immunity. Is that enough to be favourably comparable to Pharos? ...no. Don't expect to see this one flying solo any time soon.

EDIT: it is a quick stack of advancement tokens for Red Planet Couriers. While I still don't think that makes it good, it does increase the likelihood of me specifically building some kind of hilarious jank deck that fast-advances 5/3 agendas from hand, probably playing Biotic Labor and Red Planet Couriers to score The Basalt Spire then recur the same two cards for re-use, and possibly something to derez Logjam for re-use as well. Interesting note: if you derez and rez Logjam repeatedly, the advancement counters stack. If only Government Takeover still existed...

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As you mention here, it seems likely this card exists to be a repository of advancement counters that you don’t have to spend clicks on rather than a particularly strong ice. As a result I love the design here - a role player in certain decks where the synergy with advancement counter trickery will be more useful than the better stats of Pharos.