At the beginning of the card, this card is amazing! You can choose the correct type without a problem. Its self derez effect makes this ice expensive to use, unless you are also playing Vovô Ozetti. Paying 1 for a (possibly) 3 subs ice is fairly good. But 3 is too expensive.

This ice is obviouly meant to be played in Thunderbolt Armaments: Peace Through Power, where it would consistently get a 4th subroutine and +1 strength. Again, good if you have Vovô Ozetti.

Of note, those subs matters. And possibly getting 2 subs to fire makes this even better.

Considering all this, it is a fun idea for an ice, but will be a low priority ice (unless you are playing Thunderbolt Armaments: Peace Through Power). There are so many great ices in HB.

The art is trying to convey the effect of the card. The chosen animal (buffalo for barrier, snake for sentry and lion for code gate) actually help understanding the concept of the card. Which is also in the name of the card. Everything combo together really well. Well done!

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Top three economy engine card for Haas-Bioroid. Rez it and get a net 2. In any asset spam deck, it is fairly easy to get 5 rezzed card (including itself), allowing you to get 6 AND taking out a resource from the runner. Slowing the runner AND getting a big amount of credits (6 for one , nothing better).

Again, at 2 influence, this can be splashed easily out of faction. Even non asset spam will like it. Asa Group: Security Through Vigilance can do a lot with it, so does Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center.

Amazing art! Good quote! Great name! Incredible effect! Should be played more often. Well done devs!

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While Wage Workers can allow you to install a 4th card on the board in a turn, this is almost as good. You get to install something on the board (anywhere!) clicklessly. Talk about click efficiency.

On top of this, Warm Reception is obviouly made to combo with Working Prototype, with its derez ability. But it also combo with assets like Spin Doctor, Malia Z0L0K4, Marilyn Campaign, Regolith Mining License, Drudge Work.

It also powerup harmonic ices like Echo in theory, but that is kinda expensive, unless you are playing Vovô Ozetti. Better to use it on Gatekeeper, Ablative Barrier. If you want to be spicy, you could derez Anemone, Magnet, Ping, Unsmiling Tsarevna or Stavka.

The issue is, as always, card slot priority. Because you could get the same effect with Red Level Clearance and Wage Workers has more uses. Still, this card could easily go into asset spam deck like Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center. In NBN, trashing this asset would make Oppo Research enabled, which is what you want anyways. At only 2 influences, it is really easy to splash out of faction.

A banger of a card. Art, quote and name of the card all go together, along with the effect of the card. Kudos to the devs!

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Another great ice for HB. Early game, it is a gear check for fracters. But it shines on the late game, letting you bring back an essential piece for closing the game.

Examples of essentials pieces that will help you close the game :

In the mid game, it can help you bring back cards that will push you forward, such as :

Unfortunately, since it brings back a card (or install from HQ) only to put it in a different server, it cannot be used to give a better defense where it is positioned. But it can save an agenda that is in HQ or Archive, especially if the runner went in on a last click.

Still, an ice that have a mild recursion ability, coupled with an End the Run and a price of only 2, it is fairly good. Not the best, but good for the price. Very much worth it, if you are looking for a cheap barrier in HB.

I understand that an ablative armor is. a form of reactive protection, which is a way to say that this barrier can have a reaction to do something when rezzed. It fits with the effect of the ice. However, the art is a bit on the abstract side for my taste. Maybe with more contrast, I would get the intention of the art. Is that a face I see in the flames?

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One small thing you overlooked is that it specifically has to be a non-agenda that you install. And it's a shame not to mention Asa Group: Security Through Vigilance for that second non-agenda install when you trigger Ablative Barrier.

@Krams, correction done! It is true Asa Group: Security Through Vigilance benefit a lot from Ablative Barrier.

Another amusing agenda, which is niche like Salvo Testing. In theory, if you run a mix of very expensive ices with some very cheap ices, you could get those expensives ices rezzed for free.

For example : On a server, you have Rime, Archer, Bloop and a rezzed Ablative Barrier, you could rez Rime, then use Lightning Laboratory to rez Archer and Bloop (at no cost!), the runner can jackout of course, but after the run, you would derez Ablative Barrier and Rime while keeping the two other ices rezzed. In this example, you would save 7, one agenda and you would not have derezzed an harmonic ice.

And those economy can be even greater, if you use expensives ices like Tollbooth or Anansi, giving a saving more than a dozen credits.

This require quite a bit of setup. Also, you need to setup your ices, then score this agenda, and after all that, the runner must run the server where the setup is in place. Fairly difficult.

Of course, there are cards that will help for this, such as Jinja City Grid, which would help you setup. Or Vovô Ozetti, which would let you derez more expensives ices (like Drafter or Sorocaban Blade) while not breaking the bank to rez them back after. And Working Prototype will get more counters from those rezzing actions.

Despite all this, this agenda is competing against better 2-4 agendas, such as Architect Deployment Test and Offworld Office.

If Lightning Laboratory could have more than one activation token, it could compete better. After all, it would allow the corp to put super expensives ices that would be rezzed only with Lightning Laboratory for more than one run. But with only one token (there are no ways, currently, to have more token on the agenda), being able to protect against ONE run is a tall order. In this sense, maybe it would be more just to compare this agenda with Nisei MK II. Both aim to save the corp from one crucial run. With Lightning Laboratory exchanging the certainty of an End the Run for possible extra benefits.

Someday, someone will create a list where this agenda is busted. This agenda has the potential for it! But for now, it hasn't happened yet.

Art is okay, we can understand that it is a research facility and the quote can be a marketing sales pitch for the lab (I like the cheesy quote). Still, it feels kind of uninspired. I blame the wall of text of the agenda from allowing the devs to put more lore on the card.

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