A new Psi card, yay! And an interesting one, too. Only downside is the strength of 3, which makes it vulnerable to Yog.

Yeah, neato, but never has a card so needed Chum or Encrypted Portals . . . nifty art too, but it seems like it'll be awfully fussy just to hope at winning the psi game.

I guess it was time for Nisei Division to get some love...but not enough to make a difference.

Due to the variance you can't rely on it, and the low strength and 1 subroutine makes it pretty toothless.

I'd like to point out the fact that its subroutine allows you to advance any card, not just those that are advanceable. Just like Tennin Institute, you may advance a Snare! to lure the runner into it, for example. The card also does not have to be in/in front of the same server.

I'd like to point out the fact that its subroutine allows you to advance any card, not just those that are advanceable. Just like Tennin Institute, you may advance a Snare! to lure the runner into it, for example. The card also does not have to be in/in front of the same server.

Yeah, neato. Too bad Yog exists . . . it's a low-strength Psi Code Gate that costs 4 to rez . . . it's not reliable enough for its effect.

8 credits (plus your Psi credits) to make a ruse on a Snare, if the Runner does a bunch of stuff to help the Corp out? No thanks: there are easier ways.

I'd like to point out the fact that its subroutine allows you to advance any card, not just those that are advanceable. Just like Tennin Institute, you may advance a Snare! to lure the runner into it, for example. The card also does not have to be in/in front of the same server.

Ya, I had noticed that actually, I just didn't think it significant enough of a pro to compensate for the cons.

But, sure, I suppose you might get some play out of it in Tennin. Of course that begs the question...what ice would you swap out from the usual Tennin line up to make room for this? And outside of Nisei and maybe Tennin, where would you want to run this ice? 

It has a synergy with any deck that makes use of Trick of Light and/or baiting techniques. As already mentioned, it is vulnerable to Yog.0, but so are Datapike and Enigma - and I wouldn't call those bad ICE. Since we're already in Jinteki, put some Lotus Fields into your deck, if you're that afraid of Yog.0. (in my meta, i don't see that thing at all. *shrug*)

It has a synergy with any deck that makes use of Trick of Light and/or baiting techniques. As already mentioned, it is vulnerable to Yog.0, but so are Datapike and Enigma - and I wouldn't call those bad ICE. Since we're already in Jinteki, put some Lotus Fields into your deck, if you're that afraid of Yog.0. (in my meta, i don't see that thing at all. *shrug*)

I don't play Datapike in anything. Enigma still sometimes sees use in my decks, but increasingly rarely. The bar continues to rise on ice quality as the card pool grows and cards that were once reasonable are no longer the best available choices. And I wouldn't say that this card is as good as Enigma in a general comparison. In a Nisei Division deck, the drain on the corp's econ to play psi games is lessened, and it could certainly replace Enigma in such a deck if it were being used. Tennin wants to end runs and get advancement counters, and can be pretty econ stable, so it might be useful there on a case by case basis. But other Jin ID's certainly have better options available to them. 

Looked at a different way, this card is similar to Snowflake in effect and it costs +$3. Snowflake itself is a card rarely sees play, despite it's solid rez to strength ratio. While this card does have the chance to generate an advancement token, it will rarely fire, and also even when it does there may or may not be a viable target to usefully receive the token. Yes, ToL can mitigate dud tokens, but you want two tokens on the card you are tricking off of, or else ToL is wasted.

So, bottom line, the card is just very situational and unreliable. High variance, relatively low impact, moderately expensive...these are not desirable traits for a piece of ice. Outside of very specific use cases, I just don't see the utility. Obviously other peoples mileage will vary.

Fair enough. I think it's a good card in Tennin Institute and Nisei Division, but you're right that outside of those decks there are better alternatives.

I think someone misprinted the [subroutine] icon on this card... Just sayin'

I can think of better things to throw Chum in front of. Assuming I was playing Chum in the first place. Even Nisei lacks a strong reason to play this card. There are cheaper ways to tax the runner, better ways to end a run and more reliable means of advancing cards when you need to.