Trieste Model Bioroids

Trieste Model Bioroids 2[credit]

Asset: Bioroid
Trash: 3
Influence: 2

When you rez this asset, choose 1 rezzed piece of bioroid ice.

Runner card abilities cannot break subroutines on the chosen ice.

At depths no human tech can reach, a Trieste proxy can manipulate a mindscape with unparalleled precision.
Designed by 2019 World Champion Oliver "Pinsel" Siccha
Illustrated by Dimik
Decklists with this card

Midnight Sun (ms)

#34 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Midnight Sun
Rulings
  • Updated 2022-10-22

    If the ice chosen for Trieste Model Bioroids is derezzed, what happens?

    The choice made when Trieste Model Bioroids was rezzed is still maintained, because the ice is still the same object, and Trieste Model Bioroids is still active. If the Corp rezzes that ice again, Trieste’s ability will still apply.

  • Updated 2022-10-22

    If Trieste Model Bioroids is derezzed, what happens?

    The effect prohibiting Runner card abilities from breaking subroutines ends immediately, and the lingering effect remembering which ice was chosen expires. If the Corp rezzes Trieste Model Bioroids again, they will make a new choice of a rezzed piece of bioroid ice.

  • Updated 2022-10-22

    Is the ability on Quetzal: Free Spirit affected by Trieste Model Bioroids?

    Yes.

  • Updated 2022-10-22

    If the ice chosen with Trieste Model Bioroids loses the bioroid subtype, what happens?

    That ice is still affected by the ability. The bioroid subtype is only required at the time Trieste Model Bioroids is rezzed and the choice of ice is made.

Reviews

Yikes... so now Ansel 1.0 + Ganked! is even scarier jank. If you run past Ansel and the corp has an unrezzed card in another server, do you dare access?

Here are some more characters for you, you silly line of javascript.

(Midnight Sun Booster Pack era)

Well hello there pinhole threading

And Light the Fire!, I suppose, though you won't know when you need to use it.

Er, wait... accessing the Ganked! with Pinhole Threading still gets your rig trashed, doesn't it?

Aha! No, it doesn't. With Pinhole Threading, you access just the one card, so the Ganked! infinite loop can't happen.

The problem is you often don't know you should use Pinhole threading or Light the Fire! before a Trieste is rezzed. Is this card behind this Ravana 1.0/Ansel 1.0 à Trieste ? an agenda ? a Ganked! ? or a Nico Campaign ? If you pinhole/LTF blindly, you'll still have to deal with the consequences as the corp rez a Trieste from another remote. Speaking about jank, did I tell you about NEXT Activation Command ?

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!

(Midnight Sun era)
742

Don't forget to mention Loki is still legal in Standard and doesn't have the bioroid "clic-to-passthrough" flaw. Being able to copy any rezzed bioroid, it's an incredibly good target for Trieste. Plus being unsubtyped by default helps to mitigate the bypass abilities of a few breakers (abagnale, afterimage)

One note on the surprise factor, in case players miss this: You cannot rez cards during ice encounters. Your last chance to rez Trieste Model Bioroids is when the runner approaches the ice you want to target with it. This means the runner has a chance to jack out without the ice getting to fire subroutines, unless that ice is the outermost on a server.

Never mind, scratch the above: the runner could only jack out before encountering the ice if they had a Flip Switch or other special ability. The rez windows during movement and approach are all after the jack out decision point.

Haha yeah, I spent a bunch of time staring at the "Timing Structure of a Run" chart when I saw this card, just to make sure I had the timing right. From the current rules, there is a rez window for the corp, where they can rez the current ice being approached, as well as any non-ice cards, and the runner has no chance to jack out before encountering that ice. So yeah, you can totally rez this when you rez some terrifying bioriod in their face, and unless they saved clicks, they're going to eat some subroutines.