Pros

• utility value of unrestricted recursion is enormous, being able to get whatever card you need at a key moment can win games
• nice value when used to recur two viruses

Cons

• 2, the to play, plus a cardslot in the deck is a high price to pay to recur one card, so its unlikely to be used for economic efficiency
• useless in early game before cards are in the heap

Notable Interactions

• MaxX's ability gets cards into the heap fast, turning this into a kind of tutor
• excellent with limited-use viruses that are expended or trashed after achieving their effect, such as Parasite, Imp and Cache
  • Aesop's Pawnshop or Chop Bot 3000 work nicely with this to get expended viruses, like an Imp with no tokens, into the heap ready to be recurred - and giving the runner a bonus benefit too
• very worthwhile using to recur any card that can exploit a temporarily undefended central server, such as Account Siphon, Indexing, Keyhole, Sneakdoor Beta, Legwork, The Maker's Eye

Final Thoughts

• a powerful staple of the Anarch faction, many anarch decks will run 1-2 copies, hoping to see them in the mid to late game, once many of their powerful tricks are in their heap.
• rarely seen outside Anarch, as the 2 influence is expensive for a utility card, and the 2-viruses benefit is unlikely to get used out of faction
  • the more limited recursion offered by Clone Chip and Same Old Thing is often a suitable alternative in other factions
• but a third copy can result in seeing too many copies too soon, clogging up your grip and eventually having to be discarded
• except as must-have card (3 copies) for MaxX decks, as they become unrestricted tutor and recursion for her very early in the game

This is a card that has seen lot’s of use, but may not be realized for the impact it had. Everyone knows the pain of Account Siphon - there were some Noise decks in the early days that would make use of Account Siphon and Deja Vu for long suffering returns of the dreaded Siphon. Deja Vu found its way into Criminal decks for the same reason at the time, for much lower influence cost.

Clearly meant to aid in the use of the Virus theme that dominated Core Set Anarch, it never-less is good for many other uses - it’s ability to bring back any card from your Heap with no restrictions makes it powerful in recursion. Recursion is a heavy theme of Shaper, but until Creation and Control, Deja Vu was one of the primary methods of using those cards over and over again, even outside its designed intention of Virus type cards. Unfortunately its 2 credit cost and its generally only 1 card return make it a slightly more expensive card than most other options, in addition to needing an actual click to play it - unlike Clone Chip.

MaxX: Maximum Punk Rock has made this card even more useful in the current day, given her ability puts so many cards into her Heap. Like with Exile: Streethawk, using the Heap as an additional space to store cards to play requires cards that can cause recursion. Add to that the new proliferation of Virus cards with Order and Chaos, there is more use for Deja Vu than ever before.

(Written during the meta of The Valley release of the SanSan Cycle. To see more like it, visit wyldside.blogspot.com )