Another great ice for HB. Early game, it is a gear check for fracters. But it shines on the late game, letting you bring back an essential piece for closing the game.

Examples of essentials pieces that will help you close the game :

In the mid game, it can help you bring back cards that will push you forward, such as :

Unfortunately, since it brings back a card (or install from HQ) only to put it in a different server, it cannot be used to give a better defense where it is positioned. But it can save an agenda that is in HQ or Archive, especially if the runner went in on a last click.

Still, an ice that have a mild recursion ability, coupled with an End the Run and a price of only 2, it is fairly good. Not the best, but good for the price. Very much worth it, if you are looking for a cheap barrier in HB.

I understand that an ablative armor is. a form of reactive protection, which is a way to say that this barrier can have a reaction to do something when rezzed. It fits with the effect of the ice. However, the art is a bit on the abstract side for my taste. Maybe with more contrast, I would get the intention of the art. Is that a face I see in the flames?

4232

One small thing you overlooked is that it specifically has to be a non-agenda that you install. And it's a shame not to mention Asa Group: Security Through Vigilance for that second non-agenda install when you trigger Ablative Barrier.

@Krams, correction done! It is true Asa Group: Security Through Vigilance benefit a lot from Ablative Barrier.

The Virus program is an excellent addition for players aiming to maximize their efficiency in accessing cards during runs. With its ability to accumulate virus counters and provide additional accesses, it can turn the tide in a game when used strategically. What are some effective cards to pair with the Virus program? slope game asks.

So really Eye for an Eye tries to be a Sebastian card that tries to be interesting in reg anarch and currently (rwr :3 meta) just falls flat. So realistically you have to approach this card from two angles:

Reg anarch: It just costs too much for the effect. A double 3c cost for disruption is many pennies considering that you have other options for the disruption. Maw and imp just contest the space too much. Also having to trash cards out of your hand is cute when you consider cards like steelskin and strike fund. But that space is also contested by B bankhar and moshing. Twinning plays into it nicely witch is cool but you don't need a clunky card that can sit in your hand kinda dead.

Sebastian: It gives you a tag so it does do something neat in seb. Problem with that is Sebastian just has not done anything within the lifecycle yet. And all the current seb decks are kinda too engine focused to be able to discard cards to the effect. Maybe if sebastian is good and really lacks disruption in the future.

All in all the card just has been bit of a letdown. Solid fun include but has to fight too much with more consistent options.

622

Another amusing agenda, which is niche like Salvo Testing. In theory, if you run a mix of very expensive ices with some very cheap ices, you could get those expensives ices rezzed for free.

For example : On a server, you have Rime, Archer, Bloop and a rezzed Ablative Barrier, you could rez Rime, then use Lightning Laboratory to rez Archer and Bloop (at no cost!), the runner can jackout of course, but after the run, you would derez Ablative Barrier and Rime while keeping the two other ices rezzed. In this example, you would save 7, one agenda and you would not have derezzed an harmonic ice.

And those economy can be even greater, if you use expensives ices like Tollbooth or Anansi, giving a saving more than a dozen credits.

This require quite a bit of setup. Also, you need to setup your ices, then score this agenda, and after all that, the runner must run the server where the setup is in place. Fairly difficult.

Of course, there are cards that will help for this, such as Jinja City Grid, which would help you setup. Or Vovô Ozetti, which would let you derez more expensives ices (like Drafter or Sorocaban Blade) while not breaking the bank to rez them back after. And Working Prototype will get more counters from those rezzing actions.

Despite all this, this agenda is competing against better 2-4 agendas, such as Architect Deployment Test and Offworld Office.

If Lightning Laboratory could have more than one activation token, it could compete better. After all, it would allow the corp to put super expensives ices that would be rezzed only with Lightning Laboratory for more than one run. But with only one token (there are no ways, currently, to have more token on the agenda), being able to protect against ONE run is a tall order. In this sense, maybe it would be more just to compare this agenda with Nisei MK II. Both aim to save the corp from one crucial run. With Lightning Laboratory exchanging the certainty of an End the Run for possible extra benefits.

Someday, someone will create a list where this agenda is busted. This agenda has the potential for it! But for now, it hasn't happened yet.

Art is okay, we can understand that it is a research facility and the quote can be a marketing sales pitch for the lab (I like the cheesy quote). Still, it feels kind of uninspired. I blame the wall of text of the agenda from allowing the devs to put more lore on the card.

4232

The near-grinder type agenda of HB. This agenda define an entire archetype in HB, done around rez-derez. It is also the reason why Formicary became banned.

Once scored, this will make runs on any server much more expensive for the runner, if they use any breakers (Botulus, Physarum Entangler, Boomerang and bypasses will not be affected).

Some ices are really good with this, here is a few :

But also, some other cards get enabled :

Scoring a 1-3 agenda is not too demanding and can be done early in the game. The main issue is that you need to be able to rez back ices. For this, you have Vovô Ozetti, which will help rez back ice for cheaper.

This is a very good agenda, unique in style to Haas-Bioroid, and it enable good player expression within the game. Only draw back is that deck with this agenda tend to be slower. I love how it enable a very different archetype around a basic mechanic like rez and derez. Great design.

Nice art, good quote, all in line with the name of the card. All of which seems to have no relation with the effect of the card, which is a missed opportunity.

4232

Could you explain, why you're saying that Echo, a 0 strength barrier, is particularly good with reducing icebreaker strength? Your list is mostly comprised of low strength ice that can still be broken cheaply even if you reduce a fixed strength breaker suite down from 3 to 1. Wouldn't actually big ice benefit more from building on that strength gap? Brân 1.0 is already good versus a turbined cleaver, but with 2 extra strength to gap it get's 4c more expensive to break, which is quite a tax.

@Krams, those are fair points. I was focusing more on the derez effect. Doing multiple rez-derez will increase the number of subs on Echo. It could be added that against bigger ice, and especially in a glacier, this will dramatically increase the cost of breaking ices for the runner, just like you say.