Rotation is fast upon us, and one of, if not the, biggest things will be the rotation of the bin breakers. They have had a huge impact on the game since their release. Paperclip alone has been a paragon of efficiency, singlehanded devaluing otherwise impactful Barriers like Tithonium or Envelopment (both of which I expect to see a lot of more of post rotation.) But before we can analyze what new ice suites will look like, we have to hypothesize what breaker suites they will rise to great.
I’ll look at this first in the abstract, and then through the eyes of the three runner factions.
Neutral - What are the “best” standalone breakers post rotation?
Fracter - There are a couple of options here. Good old reliable Corroder (cheap, decent strength, 1c to boost and 1c to break). Tycoon (very cheap, poor strength, fantastic boost and break) but it does come with a rather significant drawback. Cleaver (mid-cost, good strength, good break but poor boost) is often just as good as Paperclip was for low to mid tier ice, but it’s really going to struggle against bigger Barriers.
Decoder - Again we have a few choices. Unity is probably the first choice (mid-cost, poor strength, but great boost and good break) for a solid all-rounder. Utae (cheap, poor strength, solid boost/break) that might sometimes lead you into trouble if you hit a second Code Gate. Other than that, you’ve got Amina (Terrible cost, but great base strength, and above average boost/break) that’ll really excel at large Code Gates (and small ones) but is a real pain in the butt to get down.
Killer - Here there’s really only one choice. Bukhgalter (mid cost, poor strength, solid boost/break) has a payback function that makes the first sentry each turn cost 2c less to break, which is just too much of a savings to ignore. The only real downside is that reg-ass (as far as breakers are concerned) Shapers and Anarchs are going to have to pay 4 inf each for their copies.
But let’s look at what breaker suites we might see that require a little more support:
Shaper - K2CP Turbine Rigs. We saw them for a little while, before everyone just went back to big Hoshiko. Basically, they’re Cleaver + Buzzsaw + A Killer (usually Bukhgalter) + 1 or 2 copies of K2CP Turbine. It’s a fair amount of work to set up, so it’s definitely not a rig for aggressive decks, but once it is set up, boy howdy it eats through ice for very very little. Things that help draw and/or install cards (like Pantograph) help this rig get set up faster. Another downside is that the Turbines take up a lot of MU that’s only being used for breaking ice (compare with Cezve where the credits can be used for breaking or anything really.) Most runners want one or two utility programs that aren’t just for breaking ice, but things like clearing tags, trashing cards, or gaining credits. This is why I’m expecting to see this rig mostly in Shaper where they can run things like DZMZ Optimizer can give you the space for such a big rig as well as utility programs. Though there could also be room in Anarch decks as they have some decent cheap 2mu consoles, but it’ll be tight with Botulus and Fermenter.
Criminal - Aumakua rigs. A much more aggressive rig, as it only requires 1 breaker before you’re threatening nearly everything. The downside is that you can be extremely vulnerable to blow outs vis instant purges (like Mavirus) or just an unfortunate facecheck where you don’t have the required strength to interface. So crims will want back up breakers in order to avoid that. You’ll want these breakers to be cheap, but also to provide efficiencies or uses that the turtle doesn’t. Probably things like Tycoon, where its downside is offset by the fact that you’re not using it that often.
Anarchs - ??? I genuinely don’t know. Without the Tutoring or install helpers of Shaper, I think we’re unlikely to see really big rigs out of Anarch. We could see turtle rigs, especially out of Hoshiko (but that’s really going to be unlikely for big Hoshiko, as a late turtle is pretty useless). But the “facecheck and find out” faction is going to have to play it cooler for a little bit in terms of taking damage (looking at you Bankhar) because they can lose a lot more now. What do you think Anarch rigs post-rotation will look like?