Pros

• Can be searched with Djinn
• very flexible in its use
• one of the cheapest viruses, so Noise loves it

Cons

• Virus counters can be purged, so if you rely on it too heavily to be able to defeat ice, sometimes the Corp can shut you out with a timely purge
• Memory slots for non-breakers are sometimes scarce

Thoughts

• probably the most non-committal card in order to get some pressure on Archives
• useful to enable fixed-strength breakers - Yog.0, Mimic and Morning Star
• usually you get 1 credit worth of virus counter for a successful run on a central server, just that these "credits" can be removed by the corp
• so you should try to use them liberally
• they synergize nicely with Desperado and other cards that give bonuses for runs, because ultimately each server has a certain price tag, but it gets more and more expensive for the corp to increase the price while the value of multiple Datasuckers is linear.

Datasucker is the reason that many quick, cheap to run builds worked in the early days. Consider the tokens on Datasucker to be free cash that can only be used during a run and only to modify the strength interaction of icebreakers. Also make note that a Parasite’d ICE that is affected by Datasucker counters will be trashed instantly.

This is one of the key components that allowed the fix strength breakers of the Anarchs to work. Without Datasucker, early Anarchs would have been hard pressed to break into many servers, even finding it impossible in some cases. It was also one of the ways that Andromeda: Dispossessed Ristie in the Genesis Cycle got off to a great start, even getting it’s own deck name ‘Andysucker’

This is also a card that lead to the formation of the strategy of ‘click compression.’ Running a central server with the likes of Desperado and other cards netted you multiple bonuses for the same single click. Even to this day, Datasucker remains a potent force even in the meta today, if not as common as before.

(Written during the meta of The Valley, part of the SanSan Cycle. For more reviews like it, visit wyldside.blogspot.com)

This card stinks. Most icebreakers (Corroder, Garrote, Gordian Blade) have the ability to get +1 strength for 1, which is functionally identical to lowering an ice's strength by 1. So on the click you ran to get that Datasucker token, you could have just clicked for 1 instead.

Except you had to pay to get past ice, you paid a click and a 1 to install the Datasucker in the first place, AND you still have a Datasucker taking up slots in your deck. Congratulations.

The only reason to include this card in your deck is cheap Noise mill.

There haven't been any reviews of this card in a while, so I figured I would break down the usefulness of Datasucker in the modern meta, particularly in light of the most-played Anarch breakers: the conspiracy suite.

Datasucker has been around since the original core set, and is often seen as the archetypal non-icebreaker virus. Historically, Datasucker has primarily been used to enable fixed-strength breakers. While those have fallen out of favor or rotated, Datasucker still sees some play alongside Aumakua, alongside which it doubles the value of certain runs. Other than allowing accesses via fixed-strength breakers, Datasucker counters can be used to save money, usually at an exchange rate of 1 counter = 1 for most icebreakers. However, this exchange rate is even better for the now ubiquitous conspiracy breakers.

While Paperclip, the favorite child, still yields the 1 counter = 1 exchange rate, Black Orchestra and MKUltra, infamous for their inefficiency, yield far better dividends when used in combination with Datasucker:

• 1 counter = 3 (3/counter): Archer, Cortex Lock, Data Raven, Fairchild 3.0, Hydra, Ichi 1.0, Inazuma, Little Engine, Macrophage, Mausolus, News Hound, NEXT Diamond, NEXT Gold, Oduduwa, Slot Machine, Surveyor(4+), Tollbooth, Trebuchet, Wormhole

• 3 counters = 6 (2/counter): Archer, Hydra, Little Engine, NEXT Diamond, Surveyor(6+), Trebuchet, Wormhole

• 5 counters = 9 (1.8/counter): Surveyor(8+)

• 2 counters = 3 (1.5/counter): Anansi, Archangel, DNA Tracker, Gatekeeper(first rez), Nebula

(Bold = most-played ICE as of writing (present in >7% of decks)

This card should be renamed "Funsucker". It rewards you and punish the corp for what you want to do anyway, and it does this all with a measly cost of 1, and 1 influence. This card, along with Mimic, Yog and Corroder should really have cost 1 extra influence each.

Datasucker is good. If you are Freedom Khumalo, it is very good. And if you use Aumakua, it is amazing.

The goods points of Datasucker is : it build up fairly quickly, it is super cheap and it is always useful. The only disadvantages are : it is a virus, thus prone to purge, and it take 1 MU.

It pair really well with the following.

Freedom Khumalo, to use the ID ability to trash anything.

MKUltra and Black Orchestra, because they are expensive to push the strenght (not, this apply for any inefficient breaker).

Musaazi and Yusuf, to have more virus counters to use them.

Acacia, since it accumulate token easily and fast, a purge will net you a lot of creds.

Aumakua, which allow you to use it earlier on an ice, by lowering the strength of the ice and breaking it with Aumakua. This make breaking ANY ice cheap. Best of all, if you have 2 or 3 Datasucker, you get token so fast, you will be able to break most ice after one successful run and any ice after two successful runs (on centrals).

At one influence, it can be splashed anywhere. At its base, it make boosting the strenght of a breaker free, you just pay for breaking the subs. Always useful, if youhave the MU for it.

Now, all it need is a quote to make this nice card even better.