Biawak (🦎) is the “new Archer”!

The facecheck is similar (though not identical): 4[$], 6 strength → Trash 1 installed program. Trash 1 installed resource. End the run.. Thus, the Corp can still destroy two installations, even including two “icemelters” in general (like Bankhar and a Botulus), but not two icebreakers in particular (like the Fracter and Decoder that were breaking ↳ End the run.’s elsewhere).

Its rez-cost is either 4[$], forfeit 1 agenda (like Archer (with a Data Dealer-ish exchange-rate), or 14[$] (post–Government Subsidy?). As with Valentão, you (almost always) want to forfeit the agenda or take the badpub; but you can (sometimes) just pay the extra credits or remove the tag. I like including “secondary” costs alongside “primary” alt-costs.

Its first two subroutines (↳ Trash 1 installed _ or end the run.) are choices (like Ballista), but encountering Biawak can both EtR and trash programs/resources (like Tithonium). Thus, even if the Runner had no (relevant) non-hardware installed, the Corp can still tax with three “must-break” EtR-subs: un-Boomerang-able/un-Botulus-able (if they want to “just pass through”).

Flavor-wise, the art is a Komodo dragon (the largest lizard), and "biawak" means "monitor lizard" in Malay/Indonesian.

• Komodo dragon (Wikipedia)
• biawak (Wiktionary)

Principia (🍎) completes the Unity–Echelon cycle of “Breakers-matter Breakers” (from System Gateway).

For example, if you already have the Decoder and Killer installed, then the Fracter costs 2[$] (like Gauss); or even less, if you have an empty Propeller around too. Otherwise, it can still cost 4[$] (like Pressure Spike).

BTW, I like the (Programs trashed as part of installing this program don’t count.) reminder text, especially for a core set.

Flavor-wise, “On the shoulders of giants.” refers to This program costs 1[$] less to install for each other installed icebreaker.: the more Galileo’s and Ibn al-Haytham’s who came before, the easier “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica” was for Newton to come up with (apocryphally, after getting bonked on the head with an apple, as in the artwork).

(Cleaver is banned.)

Rising Tide (🌊) becomes a 1[$] Corroder, having base strength 2 once you've trashed your 2nd copy.

Synergies:

• Temporary Fracters: Like Propeller. Especially self-trashing ones (like a new Spike or Demara would be). Since they end up in the heap anyways.

• “Auxiliary” Fracters: Like Banner. Since it can be your 3rd Fracter, by complementing a pair of Rising Tides.

• Multi-type Fracters: Like Penrose or Lobisomem. Both are Decoder - Fracter’s, that primarily break codegates (thus filling the “decoder deckslot”), and only secondarily break barriers.

• Anarch self-mill/self-burn/sacrifice: Like Lago Paranoá Shelter and Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga.

• Any novel “Utility” Icebreakers: Like Interface → Whenever a barrier subroutine resolves, gain 1[$]..

See s:fracter z:standard .

Within Elevation (as a core set), Tide:

• nudges newer players towards multiple copies of icebreakers. Which lets them get past Barriers sooner, keeps them from getting locked out by a Destroyer, and so on.
• has an explicit deckbuilding incentive. The 101 is just "sleeve up more fracters", and the 102 is "or cards that get those fracters into the heap".

NB. You can “expend” a second copy by over-installing the first (even if you have unused memory). CF. [click], 1[$], Trash this program from your grip: Place a “+1 strength” counter on an installed “Rising Tide” program.

When installing a program, the Runner may first trash any number of programs already installed. They must do so if installing the new program would exceed their memory limit.

— Rule 8.5.6.c. (thanks @zhansonic)

Shred (🎸) “pseudo-breaks” any single EtR-effect:

• a defensive Upgrade trigger: Manegarm Skunkworks, Anoetic Void, ¿or Hyoubu Precog Manifold?.
• an off-server usage: like LEO Construction or B-1001.
• a non-subroutine ICE ability: like M.I.C. (saving a click), or Funhouse (saving a tag).
• and a Barrier/ICE subroutine (esp. gearchecks): Tatu-Bola, Ablative Barrier, Ping, Descent, Flyswatter), etc, as well as an ∞ strength Tree Line; but not a Kessleroid).

In particular, it converts a single ↳ End the run. subroutine into ↳ End the run unless the Corp reveals and trashes 1 card from HQ at random. (at the worst-ish). CF. Lucky Charm.

For example, Shred can:

• “melt past” a singular gearcheck;
• unless the Corp suffers “1 HQ damage”;
• while still triggering Phoenix (since the EtR-sub was not broken, yet the ICE was passed);
• thus forcing the Corp to suffer “1 HQ sabotage” anyways; CF. The Corp trashes (1 card at random or) 1 card of their choice from HQ.

Like Light the Fire!, Shred “attacks” (requires) larger server-roots (X is the number of cards in the root of the attacked server.), which makes it implicitly (but not necessarily) a Run a remote server. event.

For example:

• If the Corp is defending an agenda alongside Skunk–Void, they must Trash 3 cards from HQ at random..
• If the Runner has two clicks or five credits to spare (for the Skunk), the Corp must (have and) trash 5 cards from hand. Even a six-card PD couldn't retrigger Void (IIUC).

Flavor-wise, besides obviously “shredding” headquarters into archives, the flavor-text puns on “The Medium is the Message” . Some punk music can literally be about (IE. “the message”) volume/venue (IE. “the medium”).

PS. What if Shred had a Fracter subtype for Rising Tide? Because it can “frac through” any single-sub Barrier (even a high-strength Tree Line), like a “red Inside Job”.

Once Rising Tide was spoiled, I made a cycle of custom Run - Fracter|Killer|Decoder cards like:

[$2] Shred!
Event: Run - Fracter
[anarch 2/5]
Run any server.
The first time the Corp would end that run, prevent the run from ending unless the Corp takes 1 bad publicity.
If a barrier ability would end that run, instead prevent that run from ending.
(Subroutines are abilities. The Corp cannot take bad publicity to end the run this way.)

However (since Events are self-trashing), the problem is that you could just spam Shreds to “place 3 strength counters” on a Rising Tide. Some solutions would be: a one-per-namesake limi; a binary (non-scaling) check for non-icebreaker fracters; an option (for the Corp) to RFG the event; or so on.

Nano reprints Biotic exactly. The TL;DR is a fast-advance operation:

• [$5] Operation → Install 1 agenda from HQ . Place 1 advancement counter on it.
• [$6] Operation → Place 2 advancement counters on an installed agenda.
• [$7] Operation: Triple → Score 1 agenda with advancement requirement 3 from HQ.

Like Big Deal, it's an FA-op that asks you only for credits. No Runner-based checks (such as taggedness, or reprisal), just the implicit “Play this operation only if you have at least _[$].” (LOL).

Note that Clot is rotating with System Update 2021, but (at time of writing) Elevation hasn't been fully spoiled yet. (Until release, read the reviews on Biotic Labor for strategy/interactions.)

Flavor-wise, nano-management is micro-management, but a thousand-fold more obnoxious.