An extremely strong card. This fits very well with the Criminal playstyle, since it allows for almost unparalleled early aggression. On turn one you can slap this on the table and run without much fear, since any sentry that you encounter you'll be able to deal with easily, and there aren't many threatening code gates other than Merlin and a few others. It doesn't stick around, but after it leaves you can install your main sentry breaker like Femme Fatale or Mimic -- plus, it only requires a click to draw and a click to play, so losing it isn't too bad. It can also do pretty well in a Shaper deck, since they have so much recursion, but at the same time 3 influence is hard to make room for. Overall, one of the best one-shot breakers out there.

Yet another program tutor for Shapers. If Test Run and SMC didn't exist, this would be phenomenal, but they do, so it's only decent.

Looking at the card by it's own merits, it's excellent. It's installing a program for the action spent to play the event, and gets a potential discount when running R&D. The tag will probably be removed, since most Shaper decks I see have no desire to be or stay tagged.

Now I'll compare the card to the other Shaper tutors. Compared it SMC, this card is far worse, solely because it isn't instant speed. This will not replace SMC in any deck.

Secondly, this is better or worse than Test Run depending on the kind of deck you're playing. If you get a benefit from having a card out for a turn, like one would with D4d1v or Cerberus "Lady," or you Scavenge plus expensive programs to combo it with, Test Run is the better choice. Otherwise, Code Siphon is usually more effective.

Lastly, if you run enough "Toolbox" programs (x1 copies of situational programs to tutor for), or programs essential to your deck's strategy (like Keyhole or Magnum Opus), then it's fine to run all three tutoring cards. It might be a bit too much for the majority of decks, but it'll definitely be good for certain decks.

Overall, Code Siphon is a great card but to some extent overshadowed by the other tutors. Expect it to see some play, but not impact the meta much.

Rather than review just this card, I'll compare it to other cards.

First off, it's pretty similar to Compromised Employee; it just gets you cards instead of credits. I'll admit, it's hard to compare cards to credits. However, Collective Consciousness costs TWO memory more and doesn't have the recurring credit for traces. For this reason, I'd consider Compromised Employee far superior.

"But Compromised Employee is out of faction!" you might say. Sure, it might be one influence, but if you're still convinced you can't spare the influence, I'll compare it to other cards in faction.

Firstly, I'll compare it to Magnum Opus. For only three more credits, you get something that singlehandedly drives an economic engine. Compared to a thing that'll give you a bit of card draw? Magnum Opus is far superior.

Secondly, I'll compare it to Paintbrush. For only one more credit, you get something that'll let you run servers with relative ease with only one breaker. Admittedly, Paintbrush is situational, but I'd still consider it better than Collective Consciousness.

Lastly, while it's out of faction, I'll compare it to Keyhole. For two more credits (and three influence), when running R&D, you get to avoid all traps, access triple the cards, and shuffle so you can run more this turn. That can singlehandedly win you the game. Sure, it costs three influence, but it's so much better than Collective Consciousness it's worth noting.

For all these reasons, I think Collective Consciousness is extremely mediocre, especially because it costs a whopping two memory. I can't think of a deck in which this would be better pick than any cards I compared it to.

This card is a complete tragedy. Reading the text, the card is amazing. And yeah, it is. One more to break all subroutines on ice in this server! That's crazy! But it's in NBN, the faction with a total of two ice with more than one subroutine (Muckraker and Uroboros). Plus, almost every NBN deck is either Fast Advance or Tagstorm, which can't use this card effectively.

So, we'll have to import to other faction. Oh wait, it's four influence. This is where the tragedy lies -- it's bad in NBN and is absurdly expensive to import to other factions.

However... the card still has use. While it's four influence, I can see it finding its way into RP or Weyland Glacier. (I don't see it doing well in Haas Bioroid, where the runner can click through rather than pay the double cost) Sure, it's hard to fit into a deck, but it can singlehandedly lock down a server.

(It's also worth saying NBN Glacier could potentially be a thing with this card, Shoot the Moon, and potential support coming out in the SanSan Cycle. Right now it's probably not viable, but it's worth noting.)

To put it simply... this card is garbage is essentially every way. But I'll elaborate.

First off, it's broken for 0 by Yog.0. Every time. This was considered a crippling weakness back when it was released, but now Yog.0 isn't nearly as popular. Still it's worth noting that it'll be worthless against certain Anarch matchups.

Secondly, it can't be advanced while unrezzed. That means that it can't take the runner by surprise, which is the only real value in tracing tag subroutines. Futhermore, it won't do a single thing the first time it's run against. You'll just rez it and the runner will go past it, since it has no subroutines.

Thirdly, it has ZERO strength. That's complete crap. It will always be broken for one per subroutine. (discounting breakers like Knight)

I guess you could see a little bit of play in weird Weyland Midway Station Grid decks, but honestly it's likely still bad there. This ice is the true representation of the fact that Weyland has almost no good code gates.