Scrubber

Scrubber 2[credit]

Resource: Connection - Seedy
Influence: 1

2[recurring credit] (When you install this card and before your turn begins, refill to 2 hosted credits.)

You can spend hosted credits to pay trash costs.

"They're mindless tools of destruction, good for little else. Nice guys, though. Some of my best friends are scrubbers." -Ji "Noise" Reilly
Illustrated by Kate Laird
Decklists with this card

Revised Core Set (core2)

#17 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Rulings
  • Updated 2022-04-23

    What is the credit symbol with the arrow on Scrubber and what does it do?

    That symbol means “recurring credits”, and it means that after a player installs (or rezzes, for Corp cards) the card it appears on, they should place the indicated number of credits on it (in Scrubber’s case, 2 of them). Then, for as long as the card remains active, the player “refills” the card up to the indicated number of credits just before their turn begins. If there are already as many credits as the number indicated (or more), then no more credits will be added.

  • Updated 2022-04-23

    The wording on Scrubber looks a little different. Has anything changed about how the Runner can spend its credits?

    Only the interaction with Salsette Slums has changed, and it is restored to the original state of that interaction before Salsette Slums received its first errata. The new wording for Scrubber allows the Runner to spend its hosted credits when paying any cost that refers to a card’s trash cost, including the basic trash ability and the current wording of Salsette Slums. While Political Operative previously used a wording that would be compatible with this requirement, it has never previously been able to work with Scrubber, and so has received otherwise-nonfunctional errata to maintain this non-interaction.

Reviews

For 2 and one influence, this card turns you into a poor man's Whizzard: Master Gamer. The pressure this card exherts can slow down the corp's asset placement dramatically. Jackson Howard, Adonis Campaign, and so many others become much easier to eliminate, perhaps forcing down ICE that the Corp would rather use on central servers.

Additionally, while probably overkill when used with Whizzard: Master Gamer, it can keep the trash creds flowing if you are accessing multiple cards in the HQ or R&D.

(Order and Chaos era)
313

More and more, I feel this card to be a necessity in most runner decks. Trashing corp assets and upgrades is very important in a lot of games. If you trash the top card of R&D, you can run again for another chance at an agenda. If you trash enemy pad campaigns and the like, you deny the corp income. And there are more and more powerful corp cards being released that have a high trash cost (Team Sponsorship comes to mind). The problem is the cost. After building up your rig and paying your way through servers, you often don't have enough credits left to trash cards, or it leaves you broke. It sucks paying your way through a heavily protected server and then being forced to leave an Ash 2X3ZB9CY or a SanSan City Grid untrashed because of lack of funds.
Even without modifiers like The Supplier, this card pays for itself in one use. Against some decks, like Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center if you consistently trash their assets, its game over for them. Without income from pads and the like, their economy is shut down. Any Diversified Portfolio they are packing become dead weight. Of course some decks have little in the way of assets and upgrades. But they are almost guaranteed to have 3 Jackson Howard, so hopefully you'll get a little use out of it.

(Data and Destiny era)
It's a meta-call. If your meta is full of NEH and Team Sponsorships, go for it, and play it in Whizzard for good measure. If your meta is full of Weyland and HB glaciers however, it's next to useless. —
Not entirely. At the very least, HB glaciers usually run Adonises (and possibly Eves and BB Grids)... and Weyland these days usually packs stuff like Public Support at the very least, and a lot more depending on the flavor (Ash and Crisium come to mind as highly prevalent). —
Looking at this card for an Adam deck I am working on. —

If you cannot use Imp (which is strictly better) you could use Scrubber. Hopefully, you will trash multiple assets to make this card worth its cost. The first time you'll use it, it will have reimbursed its own cost. Using it more is like getting 2.

This card has two competitors that use to trash cards : 1. Fencer Fueno, which combo with Keiko and is free to put on the board. 2. Miss Bones, which gives you a whopping 12 in one go to trash cards. Letting you trash multiple SanSan City Grid or Jeeves Model Bioroids at only the cost of 2.

In my opinion, both options are better than Scrubber. Miss Bones is just more efficient (but will not work on card found in centrals). The drawback of Miss Bones is more than compensated by the fact that you could do multiple run in one turn to trash multiple assets. Which is amazingly useful against asset spam decks.

Fencer Fueno is free and can be used to pay for stealing an agenda like Bellona. Which will help a great deal. As such, it is usable in a wider variety of circonstances and against more corp archetypes. On top of this, it is the same influence cost.

Is Scrubber worth it? In certain cases yes. It allow you to trash card everywhere, as long as it has a cost. If you do not use Imp, it might be better for René "Loup" Arcemont: Party Animal to use Scrubber. Because René "Loup" Arcemont: Party Animal gain a lot from trashing everything that can be found.

Quote would fit in any destructive card, which is great here. The art is just so much fun. Putting this card on the board is inspiring. Enjoyable.

(System Update 2021 era)
4232