Fun, illicit (meaning it generate bad pub) ice. Just like with Piranhas, if you do not want to get a bad pub, you can put Funhouse or Ping in front of it.

The interesting thing about this is the economic difference this ice generate. On facecheck, +2 for the corp make the ice functionally cost 3. But on top of this, it also drain the runner's credits, pushing the runner to break the ice. With a strength of 6, it resist Arruaceiras Crew fairly well.

Of course, this combine well with The Outfit: Family Owned and Operated, making the ice cost only 2.

Otherwise, it is a great ice for rush decks, because of its strength and price. The bad pub does not matter as much if you win before turn 10. In combination with other bad pub / illicit cards (like Hostile Takeover and Too Big to Fail), it allow the corp to reliably play Regulatory Capture.

At 3 influence, you need a good reason to play this out of faction. It might go well with some NBN decks that tag the runner, since those decks will allow you to either not generate bad pub, or drain the credits of the runner faster.

Name, art, card effect and quote combine seamlessly together. Beautiful!

What a great design for a card. TLDR is this : either the runner pay 4 to trash this (or a virus with Imp), or the corp save some money.

The corp NEVER lose money with this card. You'll rez this card only if you rez an ice, which means that on rez, the corp is already at a break even point. Over the game, Cybersand Harvester will allow you to stack ice without paying for it. Not a big thing, but a credit saved is a credit earned. In an emergency, the corp can still trash this asset to get any credits on it.

Ideal for glacier. Leaving this unprotected for a glacier deck is not a problem. Since either the runner runs a server with multiple ices on it, making Cybersand Harvester get more than 2, or the runner check this card and trash it, thus costing the runner some ressources (unless the runner is using 2x Paricia or Scrubber, which are "infinite").

The main issue with this card is that it will compete with other card that give the corp more tempo. As such, it might be better to combine it with some sort of trash punishment, like Oppo Research. Then, the runner is incentized to NOT trash it, and if the runner does so, the combine cost of ressource + punishment will give the corp some momentum.

The art, quote and name of the card combine well together, but I fail to make the link with the ability of the card. Otherwise, everything in this card evoke the reckless ressource extraction of Weyland. Nice.

I have no idea why this doesn't have a review because it already shows in up 2/3s of Anarch's decks at the time of writing so here we go.

It's a card draw engine, with complexities, that can make it hard to read and hard to estimate so I'm going to break it down into 3 components:

1. Draw a card once per turn (specifically on the Corps turn)
2. Do so only if the corporation has installed a card in the root of a server
3. You must trash one card off the top of your deck

First off, drawing a card once per turn is frankly amazing, it's what makes Hoshiko Shiro: Untold Protagonist one of the best Anarchs and what makes Lat: Ethical Freelancer one of the best Shapers. In Lago's case, it's also somewhat reminiscent of MaxX: Maximum Punk Rock if that's your sort of thing. It's worth noting that outside of ID abilities, most card draw is finite, Diesel, Steelskin Scarring, Moshing even card draw you install often runs out like Dr. Nuka Vrolyck, Earthrise Hotel or The Class Act (though Class Act is a bit more complicated).

For this reason, the best analogy is Verbal Plasticity, which also functionally gives you one extra card draw per turn (assuming you click to draw at least once). At a glance, it's easy to argue that Verbal is better, it's less conditional since you can choose to activate it instead of relying on your opponent to do something, and it doesn't require you to trash your own cards at random, sure Lago's a credit cheaper and doesn't require the continual investment of a click but still, the flaws clearly outway the benefits right?

Wrong! This card is amazing! Precisely because it trashes the top card of your stack, not in spite of it. That's not inherently intuitive looking at this card in isolation, to understand why we have to look at the kinds of other cards Anarchs regularly include in their deck

1. Buffer Drive offsets half of the downsides of this card, since you can recur every card trashed off the top of your deck if you so choose. Since Lago technically triggers on the Corps turn it satisfies Buffer Drives "once per turn" phrasing, which means you can use Buffer Drive to recur cards trashed by Lago and still use it on your turn to recur cards trashed by Moshing, The Price, Patchwork, Bankhar etc. Not only that but you can choose not to recur cards instead, so if you trash a dead draw that you didn't want anyway, you can just leave it in the Heap to give you a distilled, high value second half of the deck (the opposite of Class Act where your worst draws end up clumped together at the bottom of your deck)

2. Steelskin Scarring and Strike Fund, I'm grouping these cards together because they do something very similar to each and always show up together, and by always so up together I mean they're in every Anarch deck. Since Lago trashes the top card of the deck, there's a substantial chance that whenever Lago fires, it doesn't just draw you a card, it actually draws you 3 cards, or a card and 2 credits, a nice little surprise bonus that propels you forward more than Verbal ever can, since it doesn't interact with any other cards to give you that extra value. With the help of Buffer Drive, you can do this combo multiple times per copy of Strike Fund or Steelskin if you draw through your deck multiple times.

3. Aniccam Anarch is another reason to play Lago, Aniccam Anarchs have been rising in popularity recently and I think Lago is a big reason why. Whenever you trash an Event with Lago, you'll clicklessly draw two cards with Lago instead of one, which is crazy good. And like Buffer Drive, it has a "once per turn" trigger meaning it can draw you two cards with Lago on the Corps turn and still draw you another card on your turn off of playing (or trashing) any event. If you trash a Steelskin or Strike Fund it starts to get crazy good, since you could end up clicklessly drawing 2 cards and gaining 2 credits or even clicklessly drawing 4 cards!

4. Labor Rights / Ashen Epilogue. Even if you don't want to include Buffer Drive, or if you want to install Lago before you've found your Buffer Drive then having additional sources of recursion can be very useful to salvage the most important cards you happen to trash, or recur your entire Heap back into your deck to repeat the process again. Either way, recursion always pairs nicely with decks that are prone to trashing their own cards

With all this in mind we can see that with the proper support and setup, Lago is not only as good as Verbal Plascitity but has several notable upsides and factional synergies that Verbal lacks. And since many of these cards are already common or becoming more common it's really not much of a deckbuilding burden to include Lago anyways.

That being said there are a couple limitations I want to discuss for completeness sake.

1. Per-turn effects - These are naturally better the longer games go on and the sooner you can get them started. For this reason even the identical text would be better on an ID than a Resource, once again that's part of what makes Hoshiko and Lat so good, and why someone like Smoke was worth more than just another Cloak. However since IDs and Resources innately take up very different deck slots that's less of a problem and more of an observation, and I've even seen decks with built-in card draw like Hoshiko or Loup play this card in addition to their innate card draw. Additionally, as the meta can be rather fast at the time of writing with PD games or Reeducation Azmari games being as short as 6 turns it can be hard to generate consistent value from slow cards like this over burst card draw. But that also means that this card will likely only get better if the meta slows down even a little (due to Rashida's rotation, for example). Lastly, you'll want to install this card as soon as possible, but that's not much of a problem since Anarchs are happy running three copies of a unique card an then just feeding the "dead draws" to cards like Patchwork or Moshing.

2. Counterplay - Generally you don't want to give your opponents much of an opportunity to counter-act your plans, this is part of why Wildcat Strike sees limited play while Sure Gamble is ubiquitous. Giving your opponents the option to mess up your plans if able is generally a bad idea and since Lago only fires if your opponent does something, that can be a drawback that causes it to fire less consistently than once per turn. Notably, it checks if something is installed in the root of a server, so that includes Upgrades on centrals and Upgrades or Assets in remotes. Taking a turn off installing ICE, playing Operations, Advancing an Agenda or using a card ability like Regolith Mining License won't trigger it. Furthermore, you can "batch" installs together, since Lago can only fire a maximum of once per turn. While this is some counterplay for the Corp, most Anarchs can put on enough pressure that denying them a Lago draw is the least of your worries. And several Archetypes like Rush or Asset Spam require you to install something pretty much every turn, with the occasional turn off to score an agenda. Meanwhile, the kind of decks that can afford to take turns off from installing cards in the root of a server (like Glacial) generally play slower and make games last longer, which gives you more "opportunities" for Lago to fire. Thus, Lago can provide a deceptively consistent amount of card draws over the course of a game. Though the pace and pattern can be very inconsistent and it's for this reason that I wouldn't recommend relying on this card as your only source of card draw.

Lastly, Seb does have some bonus value he can derive from this card since it is a 2-credit connection that he can install clicklessly for free off of taking a tag. But otherwise, it generally works pretty well in any Anarch deck.

I wouldn't recommend exporting it to any other faction as it's nowhere near as good without all the support cards I outlined (especially Steelskin and Strike Fund), and importing a full playset of Lago, Strike Fund and Steelskin Scarring is going to set you back your full 15 influence, leaving no room for Buffer Drive or Ashen.

Thematically, Lago Paranoa Shelter looks like a kind of animal shelter that Seb and his family/friends also use for meetings and other "insurrectionist purposes" or just generally hang out there it seems. Lago Paranoa means "lake Paranoa" in Portuguese which in turn literally translates as "lake sea cove" as derived from Paranoa River, it's an artificial lake in the capital of Brazil, Brasilia where much of the Liberation Cycles story takes place. I'm somewhat unclear as to the ludonarrative intent here, why does the corporation installing something cause the runner to trash something and then draw and what does that have to do with an animal shelter on the shore of a lake? The Corporation doing Corporate stuff incidentally hurts citizens and animals but then Lago Paranoa Shelter helps them get better perhaps, it's a bit tenuous and I'm struggling to follow along but there you go. I don't particularly like the art, I can't quite put my finger on it but it just sort of creeps me out. Anyway, that's my problem.

TLDR: This card is somewhat unintuitive, and it can be hard to appreciate its power, but in the right "trash-forward" Anarch package and with the right support cards, it can be an absolute powerhouse of clickless card draw and value generation.

NBN has an unfortunate history of impotent ICE, with criticisms ranging from "porous" to "useless" to "weak" to just plain "terrible." Capacitor isn't helping those stereotypes.

But wait! I hear you say, 4 for 5 strength is amazing, with just a little bit of support, this could be one of the most cost-efficient pieces of ICE in the game! Eli 1.0 levels of efficiency, without any of the porous drawbacks associated with Bioroid ICE.

OK... let's be objective and consider all the possibilities

1. How good is this piece of ICE without support?

2. How good is this ICE when the runner has a single tag

3. How good is this ICE when the runner is buried in tags

4. How good is this ICE when paired with guaranteed tags (such as having a Funhouse installed on top of it)

Scenario 1:

Pretty terrible. 4 for a 3 strength 1 sub barrier is atrocious, Cleaver, the gold standard Fracter eats it for a credit and you'll notice that no other 3 strength barrier sees consistent play for this exact reason. I've almost never seen Klevetnik and Maskirovka and I've only really seen Hafrún as part of Stavka Ob Superheavy Logistics: Extract. Export. Excel. combos. All good Barriers in the format fall into 2 categories: cheap, utility gear checks like Tatu-Bola, Ablative Barrier or Ping and large value ICE like Bran, Logjam, Pharos and arguably Boto. Capacitor without tags has the misfortune of falling right in the middle, where you end up paying a rez cost that is twice as much as an Ablative Barrier for the exact same taxing power, without any chance of recursion to sweeten the deal. I feel confident saying that as long as Cleaver remains the go-to Fracter you should never play Capacitor without tag support.

Scenario 2:

The runner has a single tag, you're probably playing some sort of tag punishment so the runner is almost certainly not ending their turn tagged, so we'll assume that for the sake of argument, they somehow managed to take a tag on their turn, maybe they've run a trap and then run the Capacitor without removing the tag, perhaps they're playing Seb and took a tag for Manuel, perhaps they used Eru. Whatever, it's not important, still arguably a lacklustre piece of ICE, the dominance of K2CP Turbine in the current meta ironically makes the difference between a 3-strength Barrier and a 5-strength Barrier somewhat mute, and the difference between having 2 live subs and 1 live sub equally as irrelevant when it comes to Cleaver. Perhaps if you're expecting more Shaper playing Gauss/Pressure Spike or Criminals playing Curupira then maybe you tax them an extra 2 credits, maybe an extra 3 credits if they're willing to spend a credit to deny you a credit but considering how niche a situation this is and how meagre the increase in efficiency, I'm still not about to include this ICE just because my deck happens to give a few incidental tags.

Scenario 3:

The runner is swamped in tags, we're talking Behold! into Oppo Research or AMAZE Amusements + Oracle Thinktank into Oppo Research, pick your poison but the fact of the matter is that clearing tags is no longer an option and the runner now has to go "tag me." This does 2 things, first off, the ICE is always 5 strength from now on, rather than needing a niche scenario, and the first sub is giving you 5-10 credits now so the runner really feels the need to break. It's still not very good, everything I said about Cleaver and Turbine is still true and you're still only taxing Shapers and Crims a few extra credits (unlike Starlit Knight which scales continuously with the number of tags the runner has). In total, you tax Shapers and Crims 6 credits with Pressure Spike or Gauss or Curupira (assuming they haven't hit threat, aren't flickering Gauss or aren't bypassing it). These numbers sound good on paper but when more than a third of the meta is on some form of Anarch, when runner econ is so high that even 10-strength Barriers aren't enough to consistently keep runners out and when you remember that the Runner is going tag me so you probably have much better things to do like Mindscaping + End of the Line or Shipment from Vladisibirsk or scoring out a Freedom of Information for free then this ICE really just isn't making much sense.

Scenario 4:

Paired with guaranteed tags, perhaps the most interesting and least conditional option is simply pairing this kind of ICE with guaranteed tags effects, the most obvious example of which is just to install this, then install a Funhouse on top of it, somewhat reminiscent of installing a Data Raven on top of a Data Ward. This way, you guarantee it's always 5 strength, regardless of whether the runner hit a trap the click before or is going full tag me. The only way to beat this is paid-ability window tag-removal like No Free Lunch or Flip Switch and this is probably a poor use of such powerful cards so let's a assume everything works out. This whole situation is still absolutely rubbish for you, you're now paying at least 10 credits (4 for the Capacitor, 5 for Funhouse and 1 for the added install cost) to get yourself a 5 Strength Barrier and a porous code-gate, Yikes! the Runners are just quaking in their boots I'm sure.

As you can see despite the alluring promising of 4 for a 5-strength Barrier the truth is far less glamorous and far more disappointing, this ICE just rarely makes sense, even if you're playing a tag-centric deck your ICE is probably more interested in giving tags to set up other, aforementioned pieces of tag-punishment then getting a slightly more taxing barrier.

This is really a shame because NBN has occasionally had pieces of ICE that made sense in that respect, the perfect example being Data Ward of course, even accounting for the combined install costs of Data Ward + Data Raven (only 11 credits actually) the payoff is so much better, 1 guaranteed tag, + 2 more possible tags unless the runner pays 3 and beats the trace, plus an 8 strength 4 sub barrier, all 4 subs needing to be broken for access so something like Boomerang, Botulus or Slap Vandal will still struggle with it. Capacitor is like Data Ward's little brother, Data Ward's sad, pathetic little brother no less, something that just doesn't live up to it in any respect. Which is a real shame, because the idea of making NBN ICE care about tags and be conditionally really good when supported by something like Funhouse is a cool idea, unfortunately, the simple reality is that Capacitor just isn't enough of a payoff.

This might sound hilarious and maybe I'm just being naive but I do really hope that NBN gets some genuinely good ICE next set.

Thematically a Capacitor refers to a kind of device within electrical circuits designed to temporarily store electrical energy and can be used in power transmission to smooth and stabilize the flow of electricity. How this relates to this card is eluding me as it neither gains nor stores charges or power counters or advancements and it's not like it temporarily removes tags and then releases them like some kind of modern Data Raven or something. In regards to the quote, presumably, Seb is struggling with this kind of ICE because he's exactly the kind of runner who would otherwise normally like to be running tagged but honestly if Seb is playing Cleaver + K2CP Turbine or Arruaceiras Crew or Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga or Botulus or any of the other tools Anarchs have at their disposable, it's really not all that much of a struggle.

TLDR: Yet another mediocre piece of NBN ICE that sees no play, absolutely gets shredded by Cleaver and fails to fill the big shoes left by Data Ward.

In the beginning, Cupellation was under valued. But by late 2024, Cupellation was in a lot of competitive decks, especially shaper.

Why is that? Mainly because of Simulchip, which allows shaper to reuse this program easily. Shaper could also use Reclaim, but it is an all but forgotten card nowaday. This let shaper to pressure the corp better, while having the equivalent of Legwork to check HQ.

But also, and this is why it is so good, it act as an Imp that cannot be purged and that does not trigger Oppo Research, because nothing was trashed. Cupellation also allows the runner to take out any important card from the corp, that cannot be taken back by the corp, since it is hosted on a runner's card!

That is huge! Want to make archive less toxic to run, put Mavirus on Cupellation. Encounter the high influence fast advance tool of the corp, such as Audacity, put it on Cupellation and then the corp cannot use it for their game plan. The potential for corp disruption is amazing!

In faction, the fact that this takes up one MU is a problem, as MU are usually tight for criminal. But it just means a bit more memory management for the runner.

Out of faction, especially for shaper, 2 influences is a bargain for this program. It does compete with Imp, but you'll probably win more games with Cupellation than with Imp, because sweeping HQ matters to win games.

The name is a bit of an arcane metallurgy process (as explained in MattOhNo review) and I would have loved a quote, along with an art that is related to the name, but understanding the ability of the card through the name or art is rather esoteric.