Burke Bugs may be free to rez, but it also does nothing until you spend credits on the trace. Even if you are in a situation where the runner is broke so you can afford to boost the trace, they still get to choose which program is trashed. The only place it could potentially do anything is with cards that give recurring credits to spend on a trace, like NBN: Making News or Primary Transmission Dish. But even those cards usually have far better trace-cards to combo with.

Generally regarded as one of the worst ice in the game, it's incredibly hard to justify including in a deck. If you manage to make it do anything please report it in the comments!

Scrubber is an almost universally superior card to this. They have the same install cost, but this also has the heavy additional cost of suffering a brain damage. The brain damage can be avoided by installing Chrome Parlor first, but with the present cybernetics card choices it is very difficult to justify fitting this into a deck.

Once installed, in order for this to pay off better than Scrubber's two recurring credits, you would need to trash at least 3 cards in a single turn. Also, Scrubber is not unique, so you can install multiple of them if you draw them.

The only advantage this has over Scrubber is that it is hardware, which is harder to destroy, but that does not even come close to justifying playing this card.

Even the rarely-played Paricia is significantly better than this. Don't play this card in serious decks.

Same Old Thing is a staple card, used in many strong decks, but it definitely doesn't suit every deck.

The first thing you'll want to have in your deck to consider SoT (Same Old Thing) is - not surprisingly - a decent number of events.

However, SoT effectively adds 2 clicks to the cost of playing an event, so any event that simply provides efficient conversion of clicks into credits or cards loses effectiveness if used with SoT. (For example, Sure Gamble provides net 4 for a single normally, but with SoT took three , making it barely more effective than the standard ': Gain a credit' action.)

The type of events you want in your deck to make SoT worthwhile are powerful events that give unique abilities. Especially events that you ideally would include more than 3 copies of in your deck, or cost a lot of influence to import. Here are some such cards:

• Multi-access cards - The Maker's Eye, Legwork, and Indexing - are often imported at influence cost, can provide immense value by multiplying the benefit gained for the cost of breaking into a server, and repeated use of them often wins games.

• Account Siphon - this signature card is something Corps must always be worried about, and many Criminal and Anarch decks like to play it as many times as possible in one game.

• Server access trick events - like Tinkering, Inside Job - provide capabilities that are great to be able to threaten the Corp with (or even surprise the Corp with by installing SoT then using it immediately when the Corp seems to be trying to score in a remote.)

• Runner's get a significant edge in the current battle with SoT. If the Runner is trying to oppress the Corp with Hacktivist Meeting, Traffic Jam, or Itinerant Protesters, then ability to turn it right back on if they manage to score is really helpful. Or, if the Corp is trying to oppress the Runner with Enhanced Login Protocol or Housekeeping, being able to turn it off by simply recurring a Net Celebrity can be invaluable.

• The Cutlery set - Knifed, Forked and Spooned - can become a pretty effective ice destruction suite when you're able to re-use them extra times.

• Emergency Shutdown, Escher and Special Order provide a miscellany of powerful cards effects that can be worthwhile to repeat in certain game states.

• Levy AR Lab Access - Many decks that need this card typically include only a single copy which they will have to keep in grip all game until their stack is sufficiently drawn down. All too easily, a stray net damage can throw this master of recursion into the heap. A SoT installed on the table is a great plan B to ensure Levy is reliably able to be used.

As we can see, there is no shortage of good targets for Same Old Thing. And like all recursion or tutor tools, the utility value in being able to get exactly the right tool for a given moment can't be measured in clicks or credits but is very strong. However, recursion tools do have one important limitation - they're no use until there are good targets in the heap (discard pile). So sometimes they are best included in moderation - a full set of 3 copies may result in 'dead draws' of multiple copies before you are ready to use them.

Overall, any deck that includes at least a couple of the events discussed will probably be able to make good use of 1-2 copies of SoT.

Of the four ice in the 'pioneer' ice set, Meru Mati is quite plain and a bit underwhelming to read. (Others in the set are Gutenberg, Crick, and Turing).

To properly consider its merits, we should look at it on HQ and elsewhere separately:

• On HQ: It is a 2 rez, 4 strength, simple EtR (End the Run) barrier. The low rez cost combined with straightforward EtR would qualify it as a good binary 'gearcheck' ice (that forces the runner to find and install a breaker in order to continue). But it also has a favourable comparison of 2 rez to 3 to break using the benchmark fracter Corroder, which would quality it as a pretty good taxing piece of ice.

• Other servers: it's a 2 rez, 1 strength, simple EtR barrier. This is still pretty good as gearcheck ice - not quite as cheap as Ice Wall, but reasonably priced for the effect. However, at the lower 1 strength it will be 1 to break with basically any fracter in the game, so it's not at all taxing anymore.

So, it's outstanding value on HQ - especially against criminal runners that love to run all over a weakly defended HQ - and also sometimes useful on other servers. Overall, worth considering in Weyland decks, but the simple economic value it provides is unlikely to justify spending influence bringing it to other factions.

Ash 2X is an incredibly important card for HB, a staple of their glacier decks.

These decks build up heavy ice defenses on a remote server then use that server to brute force score out an agenda by making it too expensive for the runner to steal. Ash 2X is crucial to this plan as he allows the Corp to leverage their credits against the runner's to protect an agenda in the server. (Compared to the normal case that if all the ice is rezzed, the Corp credits are irrelevant and the only question is if the runner can afford to break all the ice).

Ash can also be used on R&D or HQ to protect against the runner getting a lucky agenda pull, which can be worth considering if they are on 4-5 AP already and so only one agenda away from winning. Also, as he prevents access to all other cards in a server, he can defend important assets or upgrades as well - such as a Melange Mining Corp.. However, do note that Ash 2X is unique so he can only be rezzed on one server at time.

The other 3 corps have a roughly analogous upgrade to defend agenda scoring. Jinteki have Caprice Nisei, who is an incredibly strong defense, with a roughly 2/3 chance to keep the runner out, although she does not provide the sure scoring window that Ash can when the Corp has a strong economic lead. NBN have Red Herrings, which is similar and cheaper, but cannot leverage the Corps current credit pool to outspend the runners (and also cannot defend assets). Finally, Weyland have Off the Grid, which is a bit different, but in conjunction with a well defended HQ (never a bad idea!), has a similar outcome of forcing two runs in order to steal an agenda.

Comparing the 4 cards, only Caprice has proven as strong as Ash 2X, but at a much higher influence cost. Accordingly, Ash 2X is probably the most commonly splashed card into any faction glacier deck. In Weyland and NBN glacier decks, he may splashed in preference to their own equivalents. In HB or Jinteki glacier decks it is not uncommon to see both Ash and Caprice in the same deck - they work very well together, either in the same server making it virtually impenetrable, or protecting a different server each.

There is one particular ice that has a special relationship with Ash, and that is Excalibur. When this ice is in front of Ash, and the Corp has enough money to ensure Ash's trace succeeds, the runner is in a very bad place. They must find a way to break this 3 strength ice that is not barrier, code gate or sentry, otherwise they absolutely are not accessing the contents of the server for a turn.

In conclusion Ash 2X is a uniquely powerful card that is a cornerstone of the glacier archetype, and you should strongly consider 2-3 copies of him in any glacier deck.

2016 update: Runners got a pair of new cards to mess with Ash:

Councilman: This guy is not too hard to work around. If you're planning to rely on Ash next turn to protect an Agenda, rez him a turn earlier than you need him, then either an uninstalled Councilman never gets a chance to be used, or an installed Councilman gets used and then you can rez Ash again when you really need him. Rezzing him early also helps against the occasionally seen Drive By.

Political Operative: Now here is trouble, Ash's worst enemy. If they get a PolOp installed, say goodbye to Ash. The best you can do is either install double-Ash in your remote, or keep the runner out of your HQ.