Taurus

Taurus 5[credit]

Ice: Sentry - Tracer
Strength: 5
Influence: 2

[subroutine] Trace[2]. If successful, trash 1 piece of hardware. If your trace strength is 5 or greater, trash 1 piece of hardware.

Taurus promised strength, but gave only rage.
Illustrated by Shawn Ye Zhongyi
Decklists with this card

Upstalk (up)

#9 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Rulings
  • Updated 2017-04-09

    If the Corp’s trace strength is 5 or greater, Taurus trashes a piece of hardware even if the trace was unsuccessful. This also applies to Gemini, Sagittarius, and Virgo. [Official FAQ]

Reviews

This is a 1x autoinclude for any Blue Sun: Powering the Future or Argus Security: Protection Guaranteed decks I build, as I've found it to be by far the easiest way to trash up to 2 troublesome Plascrete Carapaces. This paves the way for an easier flatline win via Scorched Earth. I've even considered splashing it in a Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center deck designed to run Scorches, as it has the extra influence to support it, but since NEH can run Flare in-faction, Taurus might not be worth it there.

The icing on the cake it that the effect is still valuable even if you don't care about Plascretes -- after all, sending the Runner's console to the heap (especially big ones like Monolith or The Toolbox or other important hardware (HQ Interface and e3 Feedback Implants come readily to mind) is always enjoyable :)

(Order and Chaos era)
296
It's important to note that Taurus effectively costs 8 to rez, unless the runner has less than 4 credits, so its cost is comparable to Flare. —
Well, only if you want to trash 2 pieces of hardware. But they'll probably meet your link strength, so the real rez cost is "5+1 less than the Runner has" —
So this can trash two pieces of hardware? —
Yes, it's a instant trash of Şifr if you pay 8 credits on first encounter :) —
Assuming the Sifr player isn't able to insta parasite it. —