Now we're getting to the fun stuff.

I really like the design of this card. It can make one piece of ICE super difficult to get through. And you can rez it at instant speed, so it can be a mid-run surprise. But it also feels "fair", since it's an asset that needs to be protected. So the runner can always just go trash Trieste, and THEN go about whatever shady runner business they are up to. So she can't make servers truly impregnable. And bioroids can always be clicked through, in a pinch. But if the runner doesn't know they're going to need to spend clicks, she can be an amazing surprise!

Anyway, some fun thoughts about this card:

• She's pretty flexible. You choose the target when you rez her, so basically she can just sit in a remote somewhere and get rezzed if you really need to keep the runner out of somewhere. (And they don't have enough clicks to just talk their way through.)
• She's a bioroid, so you can rez her via Architects of Tomorrow, although you probably don't want to. (Only a 2 gain, and you lose the surprise factor making it easier for the runner to plan around her.)
• A trash cost of 3 is just enough to be kind of annoying to trash. She might actually survive a runner encounter or two, if they don't yet know what she's capable of!
• She's not unique, so you COULD set up a chain of them if you wanted to tease the runner a bit
• She's probably going to be a high priority target, so it's probably good that she's in the faction that is so good at getting cards back. (And let's be honest, you're probably running Spin Doctors anyway.)
• You pick her target when she is rezzed, so any of the cards that let you derez her mean you can retarget her. So Élivágar Bifurcation might actually be worth playing along side her. (Or if you're not playing startup format, Divert Power, etc.)
• You can do some really silly jank with her, if you combo with Hákarl 1.0. I've written a full breakdown in a review on that card, but between the two of them, you can make a piece of ice fully unbreakable for a turn.

I think this is a strong card. It has some jank potential, but even without the jank it's a good scoring tool by itself. It's limited to bioroid ice, so it's not going to be useful to many decks outside of HB, but it seems like a godsend for making bioroid decks have a few more teeth.

Looking forward to iterating with this!

Hmm. So on the face of it, it's a more expensive Eli 1.0, that is nastier to face check. Not great, but sure, whatever. And it comes with a free way to renew your Nico Campaign. Great. Sometimes you might be able to use the ability to prevent the runner from clicking through something, if you know in advance that they're planning to click through. But mostly, it seems only really useful as one more bioroid if you need to pad out the numbers in your Architects of Tomorrow deck.

That's the basic review, and that's how this card is going to be for most decks. The end.

Now let's talk about the few decks where it can be something more.

Let's talk about jank.

So again. By itself this card is pretty boring. But where it gets interesting, is when you consider it along side another card from the same set, Trieste Model Bioroids. Consider the following scenario:

• You start scoring out an agenda behind this card, so naturally the runner runs it.
• You rez Hákarl 1.0.
• You Trieste Model Bioroids and target Hákarl 1.0.
• Runner cannot break any subs on Hákarl 1.0, eats a core damage and ends the run.
• This effect lasts for the rest of the turn, so (as long as they can't go trash Trieste and come back) your agenda is safe.
• You score out your agenda next turn in safety.

Janky? Yes. A two-card combo to score out agendas. I mean, it's not awful, but there are some holes in it. But we can do better!

First off, we probably want a second piece of ice past Hákarl 1.0, to catch Inside Job. If it's a bioroid ice, (and we're using Architects of Tomorrow) then we even get a discount on rezzing Hákarl 1.0. (Which we probably want, since 5 is a lot!)

Since Hákarl 1.0 can only use it's "cool" ability when rezzed, we could also benefit from some ways to derez our own stuff. Élivágar Bifurcation might actually be useful here, for incidental points as well as reusing Hákarl 1.0. And of course, Hákarl 1.0 itself can derez, so if we want to get super janky (read: probably never happen in a real game) we can have two servers with Hákarl 1.0, and alternate between them, letting them derez each other. (Slightly more practical, you could try scoring in a server that Trieste is not protecting, and then use Hákarl 1.0 to derez Trieste so you can retarget her at the Hákarl 1.0 as a surprise!

Is this practical? Probably not. You'd basically need to dedicate a fair amount of deckspace to this combo. And HB has other, more reliable ways to score agendas. And really, I think Trieste Model Bioroids is doing most of the heavy lifting - A lot of times you wouldn't even need Hákarl 1.0, and it's just overkill. Trieste Model Bioroids is also the vulnerable point in this combo - you need a different server to host Trieste, and if they go trash her, your combo is over.

The other thing you'd need to watch out for would be ICE destruction. That's one of the few ways I can think of that the runner could get around it once the full combo is online. Also bypass of course, but Inside Job can be blocked via extra ICE, and Femme Fatale is pretty expensive and not so common these days.

Anyway! A fun new option for glacier builds. I don't think they will be tournament winners, but I bet we see at least a few fun combos with this! And if you're not building ridiculously impractical combos, what is even the point of netrunner?

Happy janking.

Well, this is a crazy bit of Jinteki fast advance tech. Looking at this card, I think the real impressive bit is just how many problems it solves at once.

• First off, it's a surprisingly credit-efficient fast-advance tool. For and 3, you get two advancement tokens. (Compare and contrast with Biotic Labor, which costs 4, plus an addition 2 for the advancement! (Admittedly you could theoretically use Biotic Labor's clicks for something else, but let's be honest - if you're including Biotic, it's probably to rush out agendas.)
• It helps you get unwanted agendas out of your hand, if you need to.
• It helps you get vulnerable agendas out of archives if you need to!
• You can use it to recur other important non-agenda cards in a pinch.
• If you put it on the board and the runner doesn't trash it, you can fast-advance 4/2 agenda!
• It can be used to dump agendas into the trash for Regenesis. (Although you can't do this while fast-advancing, or Regenisis won't work.)
• It operates on a fast timing window, so you can use it on the runner's turn, or mid-run.

There are a few drawbacks though.

• You can't fast-advance without at least one (extra) agenda in HQ or Archives.
• You can't recover cards from archives unless they are unrevealed.
• It gives the runner info about what agendas are still in your deck.
• Runners can trash it if they find it in HQ or R&D. (Although at least it costs 3, which isn't SUPER expensive, but isn't trivial either.)

Overall though, these drawbacks seem pretty workable. Obviously this can work well in glacier decks, where you install it in your scoring remote, and if they break in, great, you just taxed them a bunch, and if they don't break in, you fast-advance out a 4/2 or something.

From the Nisei writeups, I get the impression that this is intended to speed out Regenesis, as a way of sneaking out big 5/3s, and that's probably great. But I think this card also has some serious potential in a standard Personal Evolution thousand-cuts deck.

PE decks will almost always have extra 3-cost agendas laying around, so it will be easy to power the moon pool, and this represents a decent way to speed out the occasional 4/2 agenda they have, when necessary. Also, the runner is more likely to leave unadvanced assets alone in PE, since they're unlikely to be big agendas, and they might be Urtica Ciphers or Snares. And given how cheap the whole thing is, you can do things pretty efficiently. Which is good, since PE tends to run cheap! So having a turn where fast-advance out, say, Offworld Office means that you can gain 2 agenda points, and net 2, in addition to the PE net damage.

Seems pretty good!

Also, one last parting thought: You can use this to advance things that aren't agendas too. While advanceable ice might make for a funny surprise, I think it would be far nastier to use this to power up a Urtica Cipher or Cerebral Overwriter after the runner commits to accessing it.

And let's not forget that Ronin and Clearinghouse also exist...

I think this card has some serious potential. Looking forward to seeing how it shapes up in tournaments!

Nice new econ option for criminal!

The downside, of course, is that it's a program, and so it takes up precious . And of course, this is Criminal, who don't have access to all of Shaper's fun program-searching tech.

But it's also a 2 program that gives you 2 for runs against central servers. As far as income-generating programs, that's pretty good. It can pay for itself on the turn you put it out, which is great for keeping up your tempo. (Compare with Rezeki, which doesn't pay for itself until two whole turns after install, and is STILL an amazing card!)

Now, that's not a completely fair comparison, since Rezeki gives you credits unconditionally, instead of recurring credits that can only be used mid-run, but given that this was released in a set that is all about criminals making runs on central servers (via the new "Mark" mechanic) it seems like it should be pretty easy to build decks that utilize these credits on every (or nearly every) turn.

Also, as far as restrictions go, these are pretty light! You can only spend them during central runs, but while on a central run, you can use them for basically anything, up to and including paying for breakers, paying for trash costs, pumping up your Hyperbaric, and installing things mid-run via Self-modifying Code, Prognostic Q-Loop, etc.

And did I mention that it's not unique? So you can include multiples in your deck and not feel bad if you draw them. And with even two of these on the board, the amount of pressure you can bring to bear on the centrals is huge. 4 is basically a free Sure Gamble every turn that you don't have to click for.

I think this will be a solid econ option for criminals. Maybe not every criminal deck, but for anyone that wants to keep up constant pressure on the centrals, this seems like a godsend.

This is an interesting card.

I'll admit, my first impression was basically "why would I want that?" Sure it has power counters and you can recharge them with Captain Padma Isbister or the other cards in the set that do that sort of thing. But let's be honest - the captain is going to be spending most of her time dumping counters on her boat. I thought maybe the idea was to have an extra target for Rigging Up, but it's really not worth it for a 1 program, even if you do get an extra power counter out of it.

So what's the purpose of this card? It's not a sustainable breaker. But it is a breaker that costs only 1, and can get you through Chiyashi for 3. Or it will get you through Eli 1.0 twice, for 2 each time.

At one point, I would have scoffed at the idea of a disposable emergency breaker for barriers. But that was back in the before-times, when barriers mostly just had high strength and ended the run. Today's barriers are meaner. They trash programs, apply tags, and even do dangerous amounts of net damage!

And also, I remember barriers having higher strength than they do now. I went in expecting to be disappointed, but a quick search of the legal barriers reveals that there are:

• 6 barriers with 0 cost, which you can propeller indefinitely.
• 11 barriers with 1-2 cost, which only take one token each.
• 9 barriers with 3-4 cost which cost you 2 tokens.
• 9 barriers with 5-6 cost - 3 tokens
• And only 4 barriers that are strength 7 or higher - 4 tokens

So really, propeller is guaranteed to get you through at least one barrier, and you have a good chance of making it through 2-3 barriers before it gives out. That's actually a lot better than I thought! And of course, you can always Rejig or Simulchip if you get desperate and need a refill.

So yeah. Better than I thought! You probably want an actual fracter that won't run out eventually, but for early-game aggression, this is actually a surprisingly decent choice.