(Revised Core Set Perspective)

A great addition to NBN's taxing arsenal.

This piece of ICE isn't meant to keep runners out as its strength withers at the sight of a mighty fracter. Instead, Wraparound is meant to save NBN one credit and get the same benefits as its neutral counterpart, Wall of Static. Battering Ram takes 2 to get past both. Morning Star is going to get past both for 1 too. So why use the Static Wall at all? Well if you know any Criminal players...

But, wait there's more! Wraparound is one of the first AI hate cards that beginners are introduced to in the Revised Core Set, along with Swordsman, costing Darwin 2 at 7 counters (Datasucker-less) and Crypsis 8. Unlike Swordsman though, this ICE's End the run subroutine still functions fine without any AI breakers on the board, making runners dig for that fracter ASAP. Meanwhile Swordsman becomes a minor nuisance to runners and loses its "ambush" the moment it's rezzed if there are no AI breakers available for it to slice.

In conclusion, Wraparound should be a x3 in any NBN deck and at 1 influence, deserves splashing in any other corp faction (with maybe the exception of Weyland who's already got plenty in barrier options). The 1 in rez savings may not seem like a lot in hindsight but it adds up, especially against Anarch opponents.

Wraparound is a type of soft AI hate and Engolo hate. Runner using AI breaker (most popular are Eater and Aumakua) will have to put a lot of creds to pass this ice (6 creds for Eater). Runner using Engolo as their main breaker will have to pay a lot also (7 creds). At 2 creds to rez, this is a good deal. Also, if the runner does not have a breaker, it is still a hard End The Run (ETR).

However, as soon as the runner get any fracter (Gauss, Paperclip, Tycoon), the strenght of this barrier become zero. Making it a small speed bump at best.

In this case, why use such an ice? Which archetype is good with this ice? The answers : rig shooter and fast decks. Rig shooter deck will use multiple combination of cards to trash program and other card on the board of the runner. By trashing the fracter, Wraparound become again a powerful ice that cost only 2 creds to rez. Fast deck aim to put their plan in motion faster than the runner can setup. Runner using speedier deck often use an AI breaker or Engolo. Wraparound will be very good against those.

Note that like all ices (except Guard), Wraparound can be bypassed or broken easily by Boomerang. But at 2 creds and 1 influence, Wraparound will let you have a good ice for the early game (or short game), and it will not affect your credit balance very much.

Wraparound should not be used in every deck, but it has good use in certain archetype. It can be also just a somewhat cheap barrier that is good only in the early game. Certain gameplan are forgiving that way.

Nice quote, nice art, nice barrier, nice ability, nice card.

A cheap and effective foil to AI breakers. This card is trivial for a Corroder or other fracters to break, but against an Eater or Overmind this card is very taxing. At one influence this can easily splash in any deck that you can't fit a Swordsman into if you are afraid of AI or Parasite. Against a standard program setup, Wall of Static or Eli 1.0 are better barriers.

Also, if you are using Paper Wall for some reason, just use this instead. It costs 2 more but doesn't self-destruct.