After a long list of fixed strength breakers (including Cleaver, Buzzsaw and Mimic in the current rotation), we now get a fixed strength breaker. This alone makes Umbrella an exceptional program. So let's look at what we've got here ...

Typically, fixed strength breakers need a way to meet the strength requirements of big ICE by either getting strength support (the way) or reducing the ICE strength (the way).
So what ICE exactly do we need to deal with? Let's start an NRDB search for Code Gates with more strength than Umbrealla ... Oh, what a suprisingly short list! Let's filter it for rotation ... And we found Valentão. That's it. Only one (in numbers: 1) Code Gate in the game that's out of strength reach and it's arguably a rather niche ICE that won't be found in most Corp decks, unlike the rotated Macrophage or DNA Tracker. And we don't even have "growing" Code Gates like we have with some Barriers that can get more and more strength over the course of the game.

So, basically, we have a fixed strength breaker with simply enough strength. Not 3 strength and you cover the rest, but just enough strength.
Now we can go and break any Code Gate for just 2, right?
Well, there's another catch. With strength out of the way as a requirement we have a breaker that can break any Code Gate that hosts a Trojan, no matter what.
This means, instead of a breaker that needs support for high strength ICE we have a brekaer that needs support in the form of 1 Trojan per Code Gate.
That's potentially a lot of you might need if the Corp is running a lot of Code Gates.

When we check the list of all Trojans in the current rotation we find 14 programs, half of them in faction with Umbrella. Quite a list.
We have Hush for Tollbooth, obviously.
We have newcomers like Pichação that are designed with a whole Trojan based runner archetype in mind ("Hello, Arissana, nice to meet you.").
We finally get to see the sleeper card Kyuban back from 5 years ago shine.
And I'm pretty convinced that the second half of the Liberation cycle will only bring us more Trojans.

So, yes, really an exceptional new Icebreaker we got here. One that really feels different.

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This card is weak, because it is designed with crippling limitations.

Usage

On first sight, the effect is super strong.

  • It can get you through a lot of ICE cheaply. If it has only a single ETR, you can pass it. No matter the strength.
    Is that 5+ str barrier taxing you? "Break" for 1.
    Is the enemy trying to rush behind some cheap gear check ICE? Break any of the list with one card.
  • It counters one-time ETR effects like Nisei MK II, Border Control and Bio Vault.
    This is huge! Robbing the Corp one of their Nisei counters can easily win a game.

Limitations

This is where it gets ugly.

  • "Use this ability only if you made a successful run on HQ this turn." is the main showstopper.
    If this would instead read "Install Lucky Charm only if you made a successful run on HQ this turn." the card would be actually usable.
    This basically adds the cost of running HQ on top of the card costs and, even worse, makes the card useless on HQ runs, aka the runs where it would be most useful for in faction.
  • The "Remove this hardware from the game" part is both a deliberate lack of synergy with Geist and The Back and the reason why this card can't keep doing it's job.
    The Corp player can recur his Border Control with Preemptive Action, but you can only defend against it once with Luck Charm.
    Circumventing this by slotting 3 copes is just ridiculous, since it won't be useful in a lot of matchups.
  • The fact that this is a ♦ card is probably important for balancing reasons.
    Specifically, for the same reasons that you can't have multiple Boomerangs out.
    Still, it is a limitation, since this can't get you though multiple ETR ICE or multisub ETR ICE.

Related Cards

This is basically another limitation of LC: The alternatives and lack of synergy.

  • As already mentioned, it has no synergy with The Back, which is a huge letdown for Az and Geist, the main IDs that would want to use it.
    Az can still install LC for free, which is always nice, but far from enough to make it viable for him.
    Apex could make use LC, since he mostly cares about getting through and way less about hurtful s than most other runners. But paying 2 influence for this card? Not really gonna happen.
  • Boomerang does the job of "get me through this ICE once" way better. It has it's own limitations, but they are by far outweighed by the self-recurrence.
    Heck, the lack of a "remove from game" alone would make Boomerang better.
    That, and the protection against nasty non-ETR subs.
  • Jak Sinclair is so non-existing in the meta that he is barely worth mentioning here, but I still do it, because of another deliberate lack of synergy.
    As a hardware that can make runs successful, Jak would love this, if it wasn't for the need of running HQ first, which completely kills any synergy between these two cards.

TL;DR

Bad card.

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So after a run on HQ, when you make a run on any server and "trash" LC, the corp cannot end the run in any way, even if there is 2 Border Control, one Bio Vault and one counter on Nisei MK II. Is my understanding correct? If it is correct, this would save me a lot of grief when trying to steal the win from the corp on that last turn.

It prevents one ETR effect once. So you get by any of the mentioned things, but only one of them at a time.

Not, it says prevent ability, not abilities, else it would mean "<span class="icon icon-click"></span><span class="icon icon-click"></span>, remove this hardware from the game: Make a run on HQ, if succesful, access the card in remote server"

Sorry, Krams´s comment wasn´t there when i was writing that post

@m.p and @Krams, thanks for clearing that up. It would be a lot of clicks investment to install 3x of this for the remote chance of having a server with 2 BC. Still, when the meta was favoring asset spam and Tour Guide, this could make running a remote much cheaper (unless I misundestood and it is only one ETR that is prevented). This make me a bit sad for a card with such a good name.

Agreed! NISEI understandably erred on the side of caution a lot in Downfall. This is an unfortunate casualty. I think even just having the text say "Install only if you made a run..." instead of "Use only if you made a run" would have been a fine compromise to make the card playable, since it is unique.

@Diogene - unfortunately it will only stop 1 of those ETR subs - you will need to have a grappling hook installed to deal with the others

List of runner cards that cost at least 7 to install.

I mostly agree with @BlackCherries. And I mainly posted this review to fix the link.
But I wouldn't write off the Nexus so easily. It has been a thing in criminal and might get a comeback.

Plus, installing a Shard without the run might be situational good. Not reason enough to put either shards or Kiting into a deck that wouldn't need it without the other, but still handy occasionally.

EDIT: Link fixed.

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The thing with the Shards is the only advantage from Credit Kiting is that you're not restricted to running the respective Shard's central server. If you're looking to protect the Shard, you still need to spend an extra click removing the tag (or installing/using tag avoidance/removal). That's 3 clicks to run/access, install, and clear tag when you could just spend 2 clicks to run/install shard and then run/access if so desired. —
Not if the shard is Hades and the access is game-winning! —

From the UFAQ:

If the Runner uses Fall Guy to prevent Bug Out Bag from trashing itself, do they still draw cards?

Yes. Trashing Bug Out Bag is part of the effect of the ability not a cost or condition.

So, let me get this straight... Nothing on the card says anything about removing counters. So if you prevent the trash, you can just keep it and use it again. You could load it with, like, 7+ counters, and use it alongside 3 Fall Guys as a janky semi-permanent draw engine. Load it once and you can end 4 turns with no cards in hand to draw 7+ cards and be good for the next turn or two. That's a lot of draw. Enough, actually, to draw most of your deck and be considered your main draw engine.
As long as your deck has a consistent way of getting rid of spare cards before the end of the turn, like for example Faust, Bookmark, Severnius Stim Implant, The Noble Path or maybe some self-damage tricks.


Another interesting synergy is Safety First.
At the end of the turn, it's checked if your grip is empty. If it is, both Safety and BOB trigger simultaneously. The runner simply chooses to resolve Safety first (pun intended), gaining 1 card and then still gaining X cards from BOB despite his hand not being empty anymore, because it was empty when the end-of-turn triggered. So the runner ends up with X+1 cards in grip.
That might actually do some good work in an Adam deck that burns cards fast.

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List of all Netrunner card with type Agenda and sub-type Initiative and/or Security. (Note that this list covers more than half of all agendas!)

(This review was supposed to be a comment to @PureFlight's review, but you all know how bad syntax in comments look ;) )

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https://netrunnerdb.com/find/?q=c%210%7C1%7C2+t%3AAgenda+s%3AInitiative%7Csecurity —