Viktor 2.0 is a nasty piece of work, stronger than he may appear at first:
-As a 5 strength code gate, he is well out of Yog.0's reach.
-5 credits for a 5 strength Ice is good value, in terms of rez cost vs cost for runner to break when they have a breaker out.
-As a 2.0 ICE the runner must spend 2 clicks together if they want to break him, which makes him harder to work around, and easier to rez when the runner must face the effects.

Why the power counter for brain damage instead of just dealing it? The key is the 'normal damage' part of brain damage - how it forces the runner to discard a card. Even if the runner still has a maximum hand size of 5, if they let their number of cards in grip dip below the number of counters on Viktor 2.0 - even on their own turn! - you can trigger the brain damage to flatline them. And even against a careful runner, if you catch them with a Neural Katana, Snare or Junebug, any power counters on a Viktor might provide enough damage to finish them off. But of course, you can also just trigger the brain damage almost immediately if you suspect they have an event they want to play after this run and you wantto have a go at getting rid of it.

The one downside is that as a bioroid, he is not a reliable End the Run ICE - if the runner wants it badly enough, they can always just click past him.

I think he is a little expensive for a "just 2 clicks" to break bioroid.

the thing to consider for these new cards though is you HAVE to spend two clicks. The new 2.0 cards work real well together because now runners cannot pick and choose which subroutines they can get past. this card is all or nothing and the effects of the nothing are pretty substantial. With all the new money cards in this set the trace will be easier and if you stack 1 or 2 extra 2.0 ice together they cannot click through them all and will be forced to spend a lot of money to get past these real strong ice

Just imagine what this dude does in a Jinteki: RP remote or in conjunction with Ruhr Industrial Zone.

Just imagine what this dude does in a Jinteki: RP remote or in conjunction with Ruhr Industrial Zone.

Ending the run and losing the trace?

... which is pretty much what you would expect from an ice? (:

I love the art on this guy. Reasonable piece of ice, but awesome art.

This is probably the best mid-range code gate thus far.

This is probably the best mid-range code gate thus far.

I actually think it's worse than Viktor 1.0

I actually think it's worse than Viktor 1.0

Why? It scales well (5 to Rez, 5 to break for Gordon blade, doesn't die to Yog + Ice Carver) and if the runner wants to click through, they can't click through other bioroids. Trace is only an issue when facechecking, because of the 2.0 click resistance.

Is it because it can be clicked through completely?

Is it because it can be clicked through completely?

This and because even if the first subroutine hits, you still have to win the trace to do anything. Viktor 1.0 gives you guaranteed brain damage. 2.0's effect is stronger on paper, but it won't happen all that often.

A lot of discussion thus far has focused on this card as a piece of stand-alone ice, but it deserves mention how well the 1.0 and 2.0 HB ice stack together. Any 2.0 ice behind subroutine-heavy 1.0 ice such as Eli or Ichi will be very deadly, and Viktor is probably the cheapest 2.0 ice and the easiest to surprise an unprepared runner with.

 

Viktor takes 5cr for Gordian Blade to break. Nothing to sneeze at. If Eli's behind it, that's an additional 4cr to reach it if Corroder's also out on the field for 9cr per run on this hypothetical two-ice-deep server. The two together can't be clicked through. So it's either stop a run completely, spend 9 cr, save 4cr and click through Viktor, or click through Eli and spend 5cr depending on the state of the runner's rig. None of those are good options for any runner.

When can the corp use the ability? "Hosted power counter: Do 1 brain damage."

At any point you may use any paid ability, since it is a paid ability.