A solid and interesting bit of recursion, Retrieval Run may not have seen a lot of use but it is at least known as an understandable card. The main issue that it runs into is the three credit cost, and the possibility of ICE over archives increasing that cost even more. Given that Archives is very often a target of Anarch decks, that can limit when this card is useful. In addition, spending a click and three credits to install a card from the heap that may cost far less isn’t always the best economic idea.

Yet there are plenty of programs (mainly icebreakers) that cost far more than three, and this can be a smashingly good way to get them back into play if they were trashed. Combined with Inject it is even stronger - good card draw that is going to dump those expensive programs into the heap for the runner makes a strong case. Even for the now returning Yog.0 it is a discount to install, once it is in the heap, making Retrieval Run a worthwhile investment. Assuming of course, Archives isn’t too heavily ICE’d.

It is a solid card that has a few drawbacks that are entirely circumstantial, and can be worked around. Noise isn’t going to use it because of how fast Archives becomes ICE’d against him, but other runners can find it very useful.

The popularity of Enhanced Login Protocoll shows just how powerful the requirement of an additional click to make a run can be. Ruhr Valley does the same thing, but as a region only on the server it is in, which can be difficult to deal with. Add to that it is expensive to rez, and it must be rezzed before the runner begins a run (potentially leaving the corp with too little to rez ICE on that server).

That is what gives Ruhr Valley a severe drawback, one that may not be countered by the drawbacks Currents like ELP have. It has some interesting possibilities, especially again with cards like Brain-Taping Warehouse and Ryon Knight, but the six rez cost is so hard to get going with still floating enough credits to make ICE possible to be rezzed. It could make for an interesting situation with ELP out at the same time however, though that is a bit of anti synergy with Brain-Taping.

Like Caduceus, Viper is one of the Snake ICE, with a very similar setup. It may be a little easy for the runner to pay through the traces if they wish, but truthfully told even for a one link runner that would be a minimum of four credits. Perhaps only two credits if running on the last click, but that is a very dangerous proposition. It is also something that some newer concept HB decks are trying to push - Run last click and face the dangers, or run early and let me rez my Bioroids at a reduction.

It has seen a lot of use in that style click denial deck, and has even seen some use in combination with Enigma. Its higher strength yet the same rez cost is balanced by the fact that it is a trace style ICE, but that higher strength keeps it relevant later into the game. Plus it means that other resources must be spent for the all too common fixed strength breakers to be used to get through it, which is a different sort of tax in itself.

Sherlock is ready for a second go. As a five strength sentry that makes him rather hard to break - Killers are the least efficient of all the breakers by straight up use, and at five he is solidly outside of Mimic range (even with Net-Ready Eyes). The fact that his subroutine can set back the tempo of a runner is often overlooked. Sure it doesn’t actually stop the program from staying in play, but consider this: One click to draw, one click to play again means that if either one of his subroutines successfully hits, its half a turn lost for the runner.

Combine him with Targeted Marketing calling out the program they had to put on top of their deck, or even with just NBN: Making News for a bigger better trace, he can be a bit scary. He is also a bioroid that has to be broken in one way or another if he is toward the outer bit of the server. A lot of Shaper tricks could be stopped by putting the wrong program back on top of the stack.

Aggressively costed and an ability that really can’t just be ignored, it has to be dealt with in some way, Sherlock could very well make an appearance in the future, with the right deck.

When this ICE came out, most who saw it immediately went ‘Wow! 4 brain damage! Probably at least one if I can rez it in their face!’With the exception of oneshot killers, it is a huge tax to get through. Eight plus credits it’s going to stop runners from running very often,until it gets Femme Fatale'd. The problem becomes that it is so expensive to rez, and even with the accelerated economies of modern corp decks, it still is a hefty chunk of change to let loose on.

Still, that doesn’t make it a bad card, just one that is hard to use. Eight strength and four subroutines, even as bioroid clickable subroutines, is pretty respectable for a fifteen cost piece of ICE, and given the fact those subroutines can have a very heavy effect on the runner might make it worth the cost.

Combined with cards like Brain-Taping Warehouse and Ryon Knight it could be a devastating combo, and those cards were likely printed to give Bioroid ICE like Janus a second chance.