This is one of those cards that just never seems to fire the way you want unless you build for it. While 4 credits and a bad pub are a pretty small cost for a brain damage and a end the run, most runners don't run without some sentry protection unless they think they can live with the consequence. And as bad as sentry breakers are, even Pipeline, the gold standard of crappy Killers, waltzes past this thing for 4 Credits after install. Mimic takes 2 credits each run and one of those is bad pub.

So you build for it... IT Department or Corporate Troubleshooter... both in HB. Or Grim to kill the mimic, if you just want fear to be the issue and don't care about the bad pub.

But now you are focusing around this one card and hoping that it shows up early so that the gear check is enough to buy you time, cause once they have a rig, they will get waltzing in to get your agendas. And the one brain damage you land likely isn't enough to gets you the solid lead you needed. Of course, you could tech further to add more brain damage -- Defective Brainchips for example. So ask yourself, "Can I get better results without the Illicit?"

If you want something to make a simple gear check that might stab a runner, this gets about the same done as Rototurret. "Yes, you have a Killer. Thanks." So unless you need the brain damage more than the end the run, you have other options. You actually want to try to land more than one brain damage? Sorry, you're going to have to pay for Heimdall 2.0 or Janus 1.0.

This is one of those cards that suffers from the problems of positional ice.

Here's the ideas you can test for yourself with it to see what I mean.

ChiLo-Muckraker: Three subroutines with traces. If any of the traces are successful, the runner gets a tag from Muckraker and one from ChiLo City Grid. If all 3 work, that's 6 tags. And even one tag lets Muckraker end the run. Sounds brilliant, right? Except for Mimic, a very common and often seen braker can ignore the whole mess for 3, or 2 and a bad pub provided by Muckraker. And Rez cost is 3+5+1bad pub means this is costly. So now we know that one issue can be that this does nothing if a sub can't fire, so we need traces where the cost to break is higher or even ones that can't be broken...

ChiLo-Overload: The trace on this card is not a sub, so they can't break it. Sounds good right? And the card needs tags to have subs, so that works too. If they fail the trace, you've tagged them not once, but twice! And STR 4 means that it's a little harder to break, I mean at least they need a Datasucker token or need to pay to pump a Switchblade or whatever. Solid, right? Trace 1 is a little rough on a corp. Think about how many good runners have 1 on the id. I mean, unless you have money to burn as a corp, this is not a trace that will expect to win often. Plus 3+6 to rez both... Corp is losing money and Runner just has to run smart. So perhaps what we need is something cheaper?

ChiLo-tenberg. Run R&D get two tags. 5 total to Rez, on R&D pretty rough to break. 2 tags every R&D run. Of course not a bit of it works until you have Gutenburg in place and it doesn't work so well off R&D, but Sync can make 2 tags very taxing and needs fewer cards to make a deck anyway. You now have a pretty solid tax on runners getting into R&D. You could also get a lesser version of this on Chi-Hunter or Chi-Virgo that works out of R&D and Making News can help you actually afford a trace or two at that cost of making the tags tax. Now the question... was Chi-Lo ever integral to this? No. If you really want to find these cards on time, you need at least 2 of each, but you might go for 3. And except for trashing resources you still don't have any tag PUNISHMENT in these cards and that will add cards you will need slots for. In other words, when you find yourself running out of card slots, the first thing you cut is the Grid.

And there's the issue.

The goal of this card is not to set up a combo in and of itself, so much as to be the tutor.

Don't think of it as the Eureka combo creator. Instead imagine you need to get a copy of Personal Workshop and a Order of Sol out to be able to start running as Nasir. And as Nasir with these cards set up you are ready to rock.

Angel Arena helps you by letting you past the stuff you don't need NOW while you search out the stuff you do need now.

But this card has been out for more than a whole cycle and isn't setting the world on fire. So here's the issue... It is crazy expensive for something that isn't the only way to get things done.

Criminal? Mr. Li gives a very similar effect. Anarch? Try Paige Piper instead to simply thin your deck. Shaper simply says I'll use Diesel and Quality Time and then Levy AR Lab Access later to get my options back into play. While this card -- requires a huge upfront expenditure even for a tutor, and isn't a sure thing to even get your card.

So what would need to change in the meta for this to become a little more useful of a card? Well, if it did have internal combos that were easier to pull off that would help, but even then Motivation works better for most options that would work for Angel Arena.

Practically, until the need for at-will reveals of the top of your stack have a place, this card will always be one that stays in the binder crying "let me in coach." Even then, something may need to exist that makes good use of X cost cards for this to fire.

There is a good use for this card: teaching new players.

Seriously.

I mean the card functions exactly how you would expect, and at a 0 cost that trashes programs, the power curve isn't wrong.

But there are all kinds of things that this shows a new player:

It shows them that you can't assume that a broke corp cannot Rez stuff. It shows them how a trace works. It might help them learn how to facecheck ice without fear. It might give en example of why you might not want to break a subroutine, ie if you have them playing an Andy deck and they have a Faerie installed it shows them the you can use the trace to make the corp spend money and then. I mean if you break it you lose Faerie, so why not make the corp pay for you to lose Faerie, right? It will help them learn to count influence, ie if you have Burkes and

It's not something they will see in most games, but it's a clever handicap to give yourself why they are getting used to card pools and basic skills.

A few months back when everyone was just trying out Order and Chaos, I was playing a Kit Refractor deck and of course this card made a showing. I was going to make a run every turn unless something went wrong and I was going to use Refractor on that run cause, it would be the cheapest easiest way to complete whatever run I was making, so every turn this was a free clickless credit. If I had out 2, I could facecheck a Fenris or Nebula without breaking a sweat.

Of course, Refractor also means that unless you have two of these something as simple as a Orion over a Wormhole meant you needed to have another set of stealth credits... so I moved on to try a few other things.

Cyber-Cypher for example, could pound through just as hard as Refractor. But I left Lockpick in because although stealth isn't important for it, it still is a free break per turn on most early game ice and still useful later in.

And that go more more than just Kit. unless you are using Yog.0, any shaper who has space and could use a little econ can make use of this.

Let lets talk about the ones who use it best.

Besides Kit, Kate makes it turn a profit on it's second run that sees a code gate. Nasir can see it as insurance for those times when the corp Rezes a Pop-up Window and you need just one credit not in your pool to break the subroutine. Hayley can use it as an easy way to get hardware from her hand for free during a run without being behind in her econ. And if nothing else it's a cheap and easy Power Shutdown target to keep your Astrolabe safe.

At three influence, using it outside shaper is a little rough, but if you are already playing shaper, it's an easy sell.