In Startup right now there aren’t a lot of options for Anarchs when it comes to in-faction Icebreakers. It is this or Mimic. As Mimic has difficulty dealing with strong Sentries, it is nice to have this card as an option for Anarchs to run for no influence cost alongside Mimic in case the corp puts out something scary like Cloud Eater.

On efficiency, Boi-tatá pales in comparison to Mimic on most of the Sentries with 0-3 strength even if the Runner has trashed a card. The only weak Sentries it handles at a better rate are Tithe and Rototurret - and even then only if the Runner has trashed a card.

When looking at Strength 4 Sentries (Ansel 1.0, Ballista and Hammer), Boi-tatá runs into the awkward issue of those ice having either 1 or 3 subroutines. It is therefore particularly bad at fully breaking them when unsupported by a trashed card (5 for Ballista, 7 for Ansel or Hammer), though after a trash it becomes a much more palatable 3 or 4. However Mimic supported by Leech or Ice Carver can do the same job for 1 or 3 credits.

Then there are the big boys - Archer, Cloud Eater and Seraph. These three are tricky even for a supported Mimic to break. Boi-tatá without a trashed card breaks these for 10 which is awful but at least possible. With a trashed card though, it can break them for 6 which is a pretty excellent rate (Carmen - queen of Killers in Startup - needs 8 for Archer and 7 for the other two).

So for Startup a single Boi-tatá as an accompaniment to Mimic could be worth a look just as insurance against the big Sentries. It helps that the strength-lowering effects that are strong with Mimic deck are also quite good for Boi-tatá since they can help it overcome its biggest weakness in how inefficient it is to pump it against Sentries 1-2 above its strength.

This isn’t a review, I’m just wondering if anyone else thinks that ‘1 or less agenda points’ doesn’t sound quite right and it would be better for this card to say ‘1 or fewer’? I think the reason I may be thinking that is because people tend to use fewer when referring to a plural (points in this case).

I noticed this is the only card in System Gateway without a review so here goes: This is a bad card.

Let’s look at all the ways this card is bad. Firstly, we know exactly how much spending a card to draw two cards is worth to the Corp - Zero. That is how much it costs to rez Spin Doctor. The ancillary benefit of having +2 maximum hand size isn’t even as useful as Spin Doctor’s ability to shuffle cards from Archives back into your deck since that can be used to recur your best cards as well as to save you from agenda flood. Superconducting Hub might save you from agenda flood if you can spend 4 and 3 on it and don’t get it or your other agendas stolen in the meantime…

Even worse for Superconducting Hub is that for the Corp drawing cards later in the turn is bad. Especially bad is putting this down one turn and scoring it the next as it potentially ups the Agenda count in your hand just before the runner’s turn. This happens to also make scoring it from hand a lot worse, which is not a great place for a 3-advancement Agenda to be in. If you can’t score it quickly, then it may as well be a 4/2 as you will be leaving it out for a turn anyway so you may as well get another point for just one more credit.

Sadly, Superconducting Hub just feels like a design miss. A neutral 3/1 shouldn’t be a strong agenda, but it should at least be a role player in some decks. An Agenda like False Lead would have been perfect as the always-available neutral. You don’t want it for most decks but when you do it plays a role nothing else can. Instead we have a card that provides at most a marginal advantage and sometimes can actively hurt you. That won’t see it played much if at all.

April 2024 Startup Review If you’re an Anarch right now, then unless you want to spend quite a bit of influence or are Sebastião Souza Pessoa: Activist Organizer, this is going to be your console. Amanuensis is only for a specific kind of deck and Carnivore is expensive, has an expensive ability and has lost Steelskin Scarring to make it really do work. For half the cost of Carnivore, T400 gives you the same extra Mu and an additional ability that will always be somewhat helpful. But the biggest upside is that additional copies aren’t dead in your hand - you can increase your Mu even more (great for having multiple viruses out at once) and build up your damage resistance at the same time.

This card seems almost tailor-made to be used with Saci. For only 2 you can install Saci and derez the host ice - gaining 3 immediately, make a run, then if the Corp chooses to rez the ice after the run you gain another 3. It’s two cards but that’s potentially a huge amount of value (a 4 profit, a free for the install and possibly what is effectively an Inside Job too. Probably worth at least considering in Startup Mercury: Chrome Libertador decks.