Flavor review:

What does Weyland do? Judging by the word used in all three of the Weyland Consortium's current megacorp identities, it's build. Weyland builds nations. Weyland builds a better world. Weyland built it.

This is why Weyland uses advancement tokens so much. It's not just construction projects like Oaktown Renovation; even Weyland's ice can be built up. With bricks of clay and blocks of code, Weyland is leaving its mark on the world.

So what is Hortum all about? Why is Weyland suddenly interested in digital gardening? Isn't that a little Farmville for Jack Weyland, the man who built the Beanstalk?

Only two other pieces of ice have Hortum's "parenthetical text" ability, and looking at them reveals what Weyland's building. Mausolus is a tomb... or mausoleum. Colossus calls to mind a certain giant statue from antiquity. Hortum here has a name that means "garden" in Latin (which you might recognize from English words like horticulture).

The Weyland Consortium is paying homage to the seven wonders of the ancient world. Mausolus is the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. Colossus is the Colossus of Rhodes. And Hortum? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Could there be a more perfect theme for Weyland? A megacorp all about building, about wonder and expanding the horizon, tips its hat to some of the great dreamers and builders of eras past. The architects of antiquity had the audacity to aspire to greatness and do what seemed impossible. No doubt, Jack Weyland sees himself in the builders of yore.

At the time of this writing, there are four wonders left unrepresented: the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Athena, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Weyland's not the type to leave a job unfinished. I expect to see these Seven Wonders ice rounded off in packs to come.

An unassuming yet surprisingly good piece of ice.

Why is Eli 1.0 considered such good ice? It's because it's 4 to break with the efficient Corroder.

Hortum is 4 with Gordian Blade if all subs are broken (assuming Gordian Blade hasn't charged up yet on another code gate). But even if the runner doesn't break the first sub the credit swing is still 4.

The possibility of advancement is nice but really of little consequence if done after the ice is rezzed. The only thing that will change is that the runner will break the first sub as well. On the other hand if the runner faceplants into a Hortum with three advancement counters and doesn't have a decoder the corp will benefit hugely. Not only will the rez cost be fully reimbursed but the corp gets two no-limits no-reveal diving trips into R&D.

Somehow I doubt runners will facecheck ice with 3 counters or with the risk of immediately getting three counters (Anson Rose) though. So in practice you'll probably use Hortum without any extra counters. But that's fine. A piece of ice which against the standard breaker creates as big a credit swing as it costs to install is a good piece of ice in my book.

This Nisei-updated version of Hortum is beautiful--the language is clearer and the illustration is both arresting and in harmony with the card's theme (as an earlier reviewer pointed out, "hortum" is Latin for "garden." Nicely done! Thank you!

Another solid piece for Weyland's advanceable ICE... thing. Mausolus is stronger once advanced, but Hortum gives you the benefit of a hard ETR right out of the box, as well as AI hate, which might save your ass with Aumakua being as popular as it is right now. Manually advancing ICE is still not a good use of your time and credits, but Anson Rose and Priority Construction have made some of these cards surprisingly good.