One interesting interaction with Negotiator is that the "The Runner can pay 2 to break" is a card thing, not a subroutine thing (unlike Swarm ). Which means that for 4 credits your Wormhole now has teeth, which can be very fun.

What we are looking at is a slightly different version of Rototurret - the main difference comes from it being in Weyland faction, which is hude for some archetypes, and shift in application, from binary to tax.

Given it's strength, it's passable cheaply with most of the popular facecheck breakers (Mimic, Cuj.0, Faerie, Sharpshooter) and it lacks ETR sub, so it won't stop the Runner with or without programs. While the main weakness of Roto is it's low strength, Negotiator gives up it's surprise factor with it's built-in, Bioroid-like failsafe (taxing cash instead of clicks).

While it's HB counterpart is well suited for rush and FA decks as solid remote binary, the Negotiator is the perfect example of porous, taxing ICE, which makes it a dedicated central guardian. For some Weyland archetypes it is huge in terms of influence, but for other factions it is mostly the matter of choice between fast (Rototurret) or prolonged (Negotiator) game strategy.

I'm actually a big fan of this. Notice that a lot of Weyland sentries and cards are 2+ subs (shadow, cad, negotiator, errand boy, archeretc). This allows you to run real tax, or gain real benefit. Different from RP who hurts the runner if the subs fire, weyland generally stands to benefit somehow.

I'm imagining a Midway Station Grid type build with lots of multisub weyland ice. The cost to rez is nice vs face-checking, and if we can ever drive mimic out, this is a good taxer for most permanent killers. 4/5

This card might be worth another look now that NEXT Activation Command exists. A temporarily 5-strength sentry that trashes a program and costs a net of two sounds good to me, almost like a miniature Archer.

What a perfectly designed card! For me this is love at first sight.

You rez it for 4 and either get 2 back or you tax the runner right away for 4, since he surely doesn't want to loose a program. Basically this card pays for itself on the first use. To make sure it is not overpowered they made it's strength 3, so it stays within Mimic range. This makes this card balanced, but still very useful.

Now let us go a step further and take a look at decks that might profit from this. Gagarin Deep Space: Expanding the Horizon comes to my mind right away. Use this to protect your important remotes like The Root or a splashed SanSan City Grid, Daily Business Show or Marked Accounts. Together with Paywall Implementation it will make the runner think twice before running on it. And we all know who brutal a permanent The Root can be.

I would also consider to splash this card into NBN decks, since they lack good sentries. An NBN deck has so many assets the runner should trash making this ice's taxing even more painful especially when combined with NAPD Contract and Red Herrings.

Overall we look at a wonderful addition to Weyland Ice with this well balanced card.