This is a very taxing card for the runner indeed. If the subroutine is not broken then they would suffer a major tempo hit, potentially losing an expensive card back to hand.

It also offers NBN a relatively cheap, efficient and taxing piece of ice to add to its repertoire. Rush and kill decks both would benefit from its inclusion.

However, it is a weak early game piece of ice because the runner could be running without any cards in play, thereby nullifying its impact. So if it is installed early, do not rez it until its subroutine will do some major tempo damage.

Regarding the R&D access option, consider the cost/benefit of activating the ice in relation to the current credit differential between yourself and the runner. It would cost you 3 credits to activate it, but the cost to the runner could be much more than this. However, the rez cost is just 4 credits once on the table, so many times you may opt not to activate it from R&D.

If you can rez this ice at a point where the runner has a lot of cards installed, and does not have a cheap way of breaking the subroutine, then this card is sure to reap a solid dividend.

As a Prepaid VoicePAD Kate "Mac" McCaffrey: Digital Tinker runner, I really find this ice to be a major problem these days!

This card works best in NBN kill decks. The basic strategy is to tag the runner with Midseason Replacements, ideally with so many tags that the runner cannot practically remove them. Once this happens, the game comes down to a race- the runner tries to assault R&D for the scoring win before the corp kills them! As this R&D assault happens, reveals of this card result in a score for the corp rather than the runner.

The key point is that the agenda can't be scored by the runner, rather than that it is scored by the corp. Most of the time the corp is drawing for the killing combo and is not trying to win by scoring. So the card really delays the runner scoring out.

As a result of the above, Film Critic does somewhat hurt the potential of the card since it can void its main ally, Midseason Replacements. With the recent move to 24/7 News Cycle as a killing medium, the number of tags landed is generally reducing, and thus the runner is less likely to retain multiple tags for long.

Having said that, this card is wonderful against the current Data Leak Reversal runner decks, which tend to tag themselves as part of their attack combo. Such decks can help the corp to win on points by accessing this card. Combined with the Haarpsichord Studios: Entertainment Unleashed ID, multiple agendas in remote servers can help mitigate the mass milling strategy and give the corp a reasonable chance of scoring out.

This is a very strong card in Spark Agency: Worldswide Reach decks, providing yet another way of reducing the runner's credits. Since it is an upgrade it can act as a dummy agenda, and further, multiple copies of this card can be placed in a single server. With Ad Blitz the card can be brought back into play once trashed too!

Looking at the numbers, in a Spark Agency: Worldswide Reach deck the card leads to a 5-credit swing if trashed (corp +2, runner -3 assuming it is the first rezzed advertisement that turn). If left there, the swing is 3 credits (under the same assumption). But in this case the runner may have to run into this card again!

The card does well defending R&D, but is also very good in a strong remote (for instance, one with Tollbooth guarding it). Installation may force the runner to check the remote server in case there is an AstroScript Pilot Program or similar agenda in there. Multiple copies of the card in a remote are sure to annoy the runner! And at some point an actual agenda could be sneaked in...as such this offers some extra possibilities for scoring and taxing after Clot is on the table.

This amazing card helps NBN kill decks work around Film Critic. More generally, it facilitates runner kills without the need for the runner to trigger anything. Even the most cautious of runners could be killed!

Score out Breaking News plus another agenda. Next turn, activate 24/7 News Cycle to give the runner two tags, before double Scorched Earthing (or Traffic Accident Scorched Earthing) them. Ta-da!

:)

This is the immediately obvious use of the card, and indeed it is being used in this way in a new breed of Haarpsichord Studios: Entertainment Unleashed decks.

It remains to be seen whether further uses for the card will arise over time...

This card is great in conjunction with icebreakers that "run out", since it can trash an installed icebreaker and then install the very same one back from the heap! This possibility is confirmed in the official Netrunner FAQ.

The net result is that you can recharge a spent breaker without paying any more credits. Key targets for this card include the Cerberus family of breakers, D4v1d and Overmind. At present, we can see that the card is very popular in Prepaid VoicePAD Kate "Mac" McCaffrey: Digital Tinker decks as a Cerberus "Lady" H1 recharger.

The card is also a great way of rearranging your breakers, for example when you are at the MU limit and wish to replace a breaker in play with one in your grip or heap. Again, the card helps realize this goal at a reduced cost.

Another potential use is with Cyber-Cypher, to redeploy the breaker to another server at zero cost.

Overall the card is very strong, particularly with breakers that expend power counters.