One thing that Sherlock has over Ichi is that it is not a Destroyer subtype. This is good against shapers who have stopped playing Faerie and gone to Sharpshooter to free up influence. It definitely took my Kate deck by surprise recently. But even then, I was still able to spend a click and beat a trace so it wasn’t devastating.
When the runner has SMC, in almost all cases it is better to lose a program to Sherlock than to Ichi.
Not almost all. Shaper is more likely to have popped or not installed the SMC compared to having a clone Chip ready. Due to memory consumption issues it is comparitively rare that an SMC will be left hanging around, compared to a Clone Chip which has no memory footprint. and how much better is it to install using SMC from the top of your deck compared to drawing and installing? The runner is punished an extra 2 credits to install, and it would be pretty rare for a Runner to blow an SMC on a card on top of their deck when they probably need it to fetch some other program mid-run. Why would the SMC be sitting out there, sucking up Memory in the first place, if there wasn’t some intent to use it to find something that hasn’t yet been installed?
And why would you be using the SMC to fetch the program just trashed, instead of a Sentry Breaker to beat Sherlock? The situation described seems fanciful.
Basically for the SMC to be of benefit to pop in response to Sherlock trashing, you would need to have to want to keep using the program during that run, and also have the money to re-install it immediately plus use it immediately, but not enough money to beat the traces or to use the SMC to find a killer and break the subs normally.
With Clone Chip a program trashed by Ichi can just sit there in the heap until the Runner needs it again, whenever that is, without the tax of having to draw through it and then discard it.
So, first of all, Ichi only really has 3 subroutines in NBN, or against Gabe; I don’t think I’ve ever seen the trace be relevant in HB vs. Kate or HB vs. Andromeda, and I’ve played a bunch of games in those matchups.
Second, I don’t think the tracing nature of Sherlock is super relevant; generally a click is worth less than the 3 credits it would cost to beat the trace as Kate or Andromeda. I’m sure when a runner is constrained on clicks, but has a bank, it will matter, but I imagine the majority of the time, Sherlock is getting clicked through rather than having its traces beaten.
Third, Atman is still a somewhat-popular strategy, and depending on what other ICE you’re running, Sherlock’s one extra strength could be quite relevant. I myself tend to prefer Ichi, but it isn’t really as black and white as you’re suggesting, Kingsley.
1 Like
I should comment that Atman was the main reason why I did not include 3x Eli 1.0. Ichi 1.0, Viper, and Eli 1.0 all share 4 strength and I want to diversify my ICE strength as much as possible.