This is basically a reprint of Study Guide, with very small changes:
- It starts with one power counter on it, saving you a few credits.
- It's one less influence to splash it now.
Give that review a read first, it's great, and a lot of the trade-offs are still accurate.
This is going to be very attractive to Rielle "Kit" Peddler: Transhuman decks -- instead of pumping Gordian Blade's strength once per run, now they can pump it once for the entire game, and as long as they can successfully turn everything into a code gate, then they will break everything pretty efficiently.
(But, see also the study guide reviews, because you have a pretty big tempo hit if you need to pump the strength up to Ravana 1.0 and Tollbooth levels for example.)
Maybe this can be mitigated a bit with Rigging Up -- you save 3 on the install cost that way, and save 4 pumping (compared to Study Guide) if you start with two power counters, so if you encounter Tollbooth you "only" need 7 more credits to get in now.
On the other hand it may also be attractive in Captain Padma Isbister: Intrepid Explorer, because you can charge it using the ID ability and save yourself 2 each time. Not clear if that is a better use of the ID ability than charging the boat though. Maybe you can get value this way in the very early game when you haven't installed the boat yet.
I'm sure that part of the reason they had it start with a power counter was to make it a potential target for Rejig. But since most codegates are greater than 0 strength, it basically saves you an extra 2<span class="icon icon-credit"></span>, which is a lot, when talking about icebreaker install costs. (I know this isn't technically part of the install cost, but since it's a cost you have to pay before you can use it for most things, it's similar.)
— BwobI guess it´s here to make it charge-able, which Study Guide isn´t (or at least not when you install it)
— m.p
I don't know how much the influence change will matter - 3 influence vs 4 influence for a breaker are still both pretty steep. But the other change, (starting with one power counter) seems very significant.
— Bwob