This seems like a really good decoder for criminals. Let's compare it to an old shaper staple, ZU.13 Key Master!

Cat's Cradle costs 1 more to install, but assuming that the corp rezzes at least one code gate, it will cost them at least 1 extra, so that's probably a wash. (Or straight-up in the runner's favor, if the corp has to rez several code gates.)

It doesn't have ZU.13's possibility for costing 0, but honestly, very few decks actually used that anyway - ZU.13 was played a lot just for it's cheap setup cost, as a way to pass cheap gearcheck codegates. Honestly, I think Cat's Cradle might actually be better than ZU.13 in most decks!

Now admittedly, the ICE landscape is a lot different these days. Back then, codegates back then were almost all either:

• Cheap gearchecks like Enigma or Quandary
• Tollbooth
• Bad

These days though, things like Fairchild 3.0 or DNA Tracker are a lot more common, so 1 strength decoders with 1:1 strength/break costs have a lot more work cut out for them.

But still - the fact that there's a criminal decoder is in the same ballpark as a decoder from "the decoder faction" is probably noteworthy. Criminal! You've come such a long way since the days of Peacock and Leviathan!