Ravana 1.0

Ravana 1.0 3[credit]

Ice: Code Gate - Bioroid
Strength: 5
Influence: 1

Lose [click]: Break 1 subroutine on this ice. Only the Runner can use this ability.

[subroutine] Resolve 1 subroutine on another rezzed bioroid ice.

[subroutine] Resolve 1 subroutine on another rezzed bioroid ice.

Illustrated by Ethan Patrick Harris
Decklists with this card

The Liberated Mind (tlm)

#87 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Rulings
  • Updated 2022-04-24

    If the only rezzed bioroid ice are multiple copies of Ravana 1.0, what happens if one of their subs resolves?

    A mandatory loop is created. The general rule is that the Corp chooses a number X and the loop continues X iterations and then stops. In this case the end result is that the subroutine does not have any effect for whatever number the Corp chooses.

Reviews

One neat trick with Ravana is in combination with Haas-Bioroid: Architects of Tomorrow: often, you can opt to (or are forced to) make the subroutines on Ravana non-ETRs, which forces the opponent to pass it if they encounter it on a rez in front of a server. If, for example, your only rezzed bioroid is Ansel 1.0, your opponent must break/click through the Ravana to avoid copying Ansel 1.0's bad subs, and then they still pass it, giving an opportunity to trigger Architects. Early game, rezzing a Ravana and using the Architects trigger to immediately rez an Eli/Bran/Ansel elsewhere can provide pseudo-burst economy. That 4 is the same as a Hedge Fund! Admittedly, it a) has to go towards ICE, b) depends on letting the runner through at least one ICE, and c) prevents any benefit of them face-checking that other ICE -- but those are workable. Most bioroids in startup outside of Tyr aren't especially punishing if the runner has a click or two to spare for bad subs.

Any Haas-Bioroid: Architects of Tomorrow deck in startup is probably running all the bioroids available anyway, but among those, Ravana is the backbone of the deck. Plus, if you aren't clicking through, it's expensive as heck to break. At best, Buzzsaw breaks for a credit and two Leech counters. A Ravana on an otherwise-empty central server shuts down any Leech farming unless the runner has a playset of the things on the field. Great Archives protection, especially, against a Criminal looking for easy targets.

(System Update 2021 era)

Assuming you've already got a bunch of bioroid ice in your deck, the only downside to this card is that it doesn't do anything on it's own. This is really only a problem early game. You can think of this similarly to positional ice, except it's temporal ice - other ice needs to be rezzed first.

It's 2 stronger than Viktor 1.0 for the same price. If you are one of the few people still using that card, swap them for this now.

(23 Seconds era)
Actually, from my experience it's not Viktor 1.0 you want to swap with this, but Viktor 2.0. The fact that Ravana is weak early game means that *you need early game ice to go together with it*, or it's useless. And Viktor 1.0 actually offers one of the best combos with Ravana, giving you the choice of either firing two brain damage routines or one brain and one end routine. Of course, all this discussion may be moot, as the two Fairchildren seem to me to become the de-facto code gate choices for any Bioroid ice suite in the future. —
Fairchild 1.0 looks to be in the same vane as Pup and Popup window, basically causing a 2 credit swing in the corps favour for the most part. I could see that combing with Ravana at the right time though, if you can see the runner has no credits and forcing them to trash something. Not bad for the price. I'll think about the combo with Ravana and Victor 1.0. It might be worth putting 1 or 2 back in my deck. —
This card has made me revisit Stronger Together. The stats are nuts! It stinks if you get 2 or 3 of these before any other bioroid, but hopefully that won't happen often. But you have so many choices once you are up and running. Brain damage, trash a program, end the run, even give a tag if you got sherlock 2.0 rezzed. I'm pretty sure sherlock 2.0 is the only ice that has a sub that straight up gives a tag. —

At first glance, this has similar numbers to Engram Flush or Slot Machine, which are some of the best code gates ever printed. So why isn't this ice seeing serious play?

  1. It needs way too many bioroids to work reliably, but very few bioroids are actually good. After the Fairchild 3.0 ban most tournament HB decks currently use 0-4 bioroid ice, usually Bran 1.0 and Ansel 1.0. Ravana needs like 8-10 other bioroids because it's blank until you've managed to draw and rez one. Problem: you can't get to 8+ other bioroids without overloading on expensive Bran/Ansels and including a few bioroids you wouldn't otherwise want (e.g. Eli 1.0 and Fairchild 2.0). Followup problem: Ravana pretty much demands that you neglect much better non-bioroid ices available. Hagen, Drafter, Gatekeeper, plus any imports, you have much better options than scraping the barrel for 10+ bioroids.
  2. Until you have enough money for a $6 Bran/Ansel and a $3 Ravana, the best this card can do is pretend to be an additional copy of Eli 1.0. Problem: the ideal number of Elis in a deck is usually 0-1 and never higher than 3.
  3. Ravana takes setup time. It'll almost never be rezzable turns 1-2, except out of possibly Architects of Tomorrow. Unfortunately, a lot of the bioroids you're running to make this card happy are themselves expensive and hard to rez early. Bioroids don't do much damage to unprepared runners because they can be clicked through. This isn't like an Anansi situation where bankrupting yourself to devastate the runner might be worth it. Bankrupting yourself to remove 2-3 runner clicks is probably not worth it.
  4. Ravana is unusually bad in challenging circumstances (e.g. you're having trouble drawing your ice, recovering from Apocalypse, under serious Stargate pressure, or have had multiple ice destroyed or derezzed).
  5. Ravana and its friends can be clicked through on face-check. Burning 2 runner clicks is good value against a routine run, but probably not enough value to scare off Stargate/Diversion of Funds/etc.
(System Update 2021 era)