Scatter Field is a 4s/2↳-for-$3 when singly-protecting a server.

(CF. “Non-Porous Eli 1.0”, or an “EtR-ified Drafter”.)

Notes

Especially when you're protecting an early asset (like Humanoid Resources / Regolith), building your secondary remote (alongside Mahkota Langit Grid), or rushing an agenda. Even if you'll double-ice that server next turn anyways, an SF can act like a Gatekeeper (CF. This ice gets +4 strength if you rezzed it this turn.).

To fully-break a four-strength three-sub ice with turn-one decoders, it should cost the Runner four-to-five credits (IE. more than its rez-cost). For example:

• Buzzsaw costs 3[$] + 1[$] (but just 1[$] with a Leech).
• Unity costs 3[$] + 2[$] (or 4[$] with a second icebreaker).
• Euler only costs 2[$] + 0[$] (if they facechecked-then-installed, 4[$] if they didn't).
• Shibboleth costs 2[$] + 2[$] (even at threat level ≤ 3).
• Cat's Cradle costs 3[$] + 2[$] (wouldn't tax you +1[$] to rez, unless they pre-installed it for some reason?).
• The new Sang Kancil only costs 1[$] + 2[$] (if they Bravado or Clean Getaway into your SF; 5[$] if they basic-run).

Of course, besides breakers:

• Boomerang costs 2[$], [trash].
• Physarum Entangler costs 2[$] to bypass.
• Botulus can fully-break it after a second turn (or can pass it the same turn it's installed, but only by firing off “½ Drafter”).
• Overclock) costs 1[$] (with the decoder).
• Bankhar just costs Suffer 2 net damage (but needs a whole turn to set up).
• Arruaceiras Crew can't destroy it by itself. (EG. would need 4[$], Take 2 tags, [trash] and needs a second copy).

Thoughts

Design-wise, I love ice with some “incidental positionality” (like Turing, which is both “pro-Remotes” and “anti-AI”).

It's fun to “expose-by-deducing” (“Why didn't they just install this card into their empty remote with an already-rezzed barrier, and pay the one credit to install this in front of there?”).

Compare its ability (While this ice is the only piece of ice protecting this server, …) to other “Vertically-Positional” abilities.

• a “Flexible Curtain Wall”: EG. If this is the outermost or innermost piece of ice protecting a server, it gets +4 strength.
• an “Inverted Seidr Adaptive Barrier/Surveyor”: EG. This ice gets −1 strength for each other piece of ice protecting this server.

PS. Given Asa Group rotating, can this “Singly-Icing-matters” effect (along with the non-(◆) Mahkota Langit Grid the new “Installer IDs”) incentivize some more secondary/tertiary remotes? For Fully Operational and to “expose-by-deducing” (or try to!), like “Why didn't they just install that card into their empty remote with an already-rezzed barrier, and pay the one-credit to install that ice in front of there?”

If you squint, this card basically says, "If the runner has 2 Events in hand, do 2 unpreventable meat damage that doesn't trigger Steelskin Scarring." Why is this important? Well, it turns out the runner going from 5 cards to 3 cards in hand makes certain proactive solutions that much more effective - that is, lethal in single, rather than double doses. The caveats here are you need something to advance - easy enough, given decent advanceable ICE exists in both yellow and green, and the Runner needs two of some card type in their hand when you play it. AFAIK there aren't any grip-snoop cards in Standard except for like Focus Group but then that's a massive waste of credits and effort just for some info - so you might just have to guess. My gut tells me Event is generally the best call, especially against runners like MuslihaT: Multifarious Marketeer but idk you might call resource sometimes. Outside of green murder decks Jinteki might use this to do things with Neurospike or Phật Gioan Baotixita. I struggle to see HB using this one.

Man, I do not want the last thing I see before getting shot is that guy's face.

(Daily Casts is banned.)

Side Hustle is like a “run-based Environmental Testing”: after 5 runs begin, you profit by Gain 4[$]. Draw 1 card. (five clicks, five “units-of-value”)

For example:

• If (against Asset-Spam), immediately after installing it, you check two remotes this turn and three the next, then it pops after a single turn.
• If (within Criminal) you opportunistically run your mark with Carpe Diem (or for Sable), play a Bravado or Clean Getaway for cash, and try to land a Transfer of Wealth, then ditto. (Your actions aren't just [click]: Run any server.)
• However, if running is too expensive and/or just not valuable enough, it won't profit at all. Unless you have parallel triggers (like Pennyshaver or Leech), you can't even spam an uniced/faceup Archives (since your actions would just be like “[click]: Gain 1[$] when your next turn begins.”, which is very much not “[click]: Place one +1 strength counter on an installed Aumakua.”) Although, two simultaneously-installed Hustles (being non-unique) would be worth two credits per run.

Note:

• While beginning a run on any server is the easiest interaction, it's still harder than just waiting a turn.
• Unlike a “Red Team-ified Casts”, Hustle has still (un)paid out zero credits even at your 4th run.

Daily Clash
[$3] Resource: Job
[neutral 0/5]
When you install this resource, place 8[$] on it. When empty, trash it.
The first time each turn a run begins, take 2[$] from this resource.

Clean Getaway is the “new Dirty Laundry”.

NB. Getaway (post-is successful) earns credits sooner than Laundry (post-run ends). Thus, it can pay trash-costs (like Bahia Bands). For example (with Miss Bones rotating and Daily Casts banned), against an uniced, -4[$]-to-trash asset (like Wage Workers, or Hostile Architecture).

• Getaway only needs its own play-cost (3[$]). Even assets alongside Mahkota Langit Grid.
• Laundry needs twice that (6[$]), its play-cost plus the trash-cost.

(So if you only had three credits in pool, you'd need to re-run the server afterwards, wasting [click]. Or, if you only have enough to play the event and break a single rezzed ice once, you would need to triple-click for credits beforehand.)

BTW, before spoilers my guess for this card was just a “lightly-blueshifted” ([criminal 1/5]) Laundry. Like how NSG's Government Subsidy “greenshifts” FFG's Restructure. But I prefer this variation.

Nothing new here. It's an exact reprint of Snare!, but with a different name. You can now play six of them in Eternal, I guess?

Reviews still require 200 characters (fair), so how about we take a fresh look at the card itself - it's been five whole years since the last review on Snare, after all, and that's a lot of time for metas to shift and cards to come in and out of fashion.

So: how good is Snare Byte in 2025?

Uh... it's the same. Snare Byte remains a Jinteki staple, and the reason why the runner must always account for the possibility of taking three damage from an access (and a tag). Whether or not the card is actually in a particular Jinteki deck, its existence in the card pool inherently influences each game. The spectre of this card looms large across the board, its threat considered with every run. Perhaps no other card does so much, so often, without even needing to be in your deck.

Breaking into megacorp servers, it seems, is a risky enterprise. You're not safe from Snare just yet. In one form or another, it's here to stay.