The Sorcerer Supreme

Are you ready to open your mind? are you ready to embrace the power of the cosmos?

So this deck is my most recent obsession, in large part because I can't believe I have built a functioning The Professor: Keeper of Knowledge deck.

The title is because there are so many cards that reference magic in this deck including: Reaver, Rebirth, Baba Yaga, Faerie, Yog.0 which is a reference to the silver key, Imp, Medium, Progenitor, Sahasrara.

With all this magic the The Professor: Keeper of Knowledge must be the Sorcerer Supreme.

I have upgraded this deck from Tier 2 to Tier 1.5. A bold claim I know but bear with me here.

Every single turn with this deck is either a race or a puzzle. In most games my opponent will get to 4 or 5 points with me at 2 as I race to set up and then I lock them and there is no way for them to win. You need to trigger Reaver on both turns every turn if you can. Clickless draws are critical.

I say its a puzzle because you have to know what to pawn and how to advance your board state while maintaining pressure. It took me a while but with some tips from some top tier players I think I am a sorcerer now. In the late game its all about maintaining remote threat and RD pressure with Progenitor and Medium so agendas pile up in HQ where there will likely be 1-2 ice.

EVENTS

Diesel Gives you flames. Cast fireball.

Levy AR Lab Access Helps you reset the clock if you drew all your sweet one ofs in the wrong order. Also lets you drive home the misery when you have someone Clot locked and they finally purge through the Sacrificial Construct. Rarely used except against net damage and and aggressive purgers

Rebirth: This card is so strong in professor its crazy. Who to pick is not easy and largely dependent on a good read of the current board and where both boards are going. If I need to maintain money to beat traces and its early I pick Kate "Mac" McCaffrey: Digital Tinker, if its early and I need to set up fast to keep pace with a corp its Hayley Kaplan: Universal Scholar, If I am set up and they have multisub barriers on the outside I pick Rielle "Kit" Peddler: Transhuman, if its late and I have already levy'd then its Ele "Smoke" Scovak: Cynosure of the Net, If I lost any pawned memchips to Chronos or ark lockdown then its Chaos Theory: Wünderkind.

Scavenge was a suggestion from @spags which is such a lifesaver as a one of. It enables me to save my Clone Chip for setting up and then scavenge something to trigger Reaver to reinstall clot after the Sacrificial Construct go down. It also lets me put my breakers down early to contest remotes and then reinstall them to host on Baba Yaga.

HARDWARE

Akamatsu Mem Chip Goes down easy and pawns real smooth in a pinch for draw and money. That guy Aesop needs to work on his haggling.

Astrolabe helps you accelerate while giving easy memory. If people wanna play some FIHP bullshit you can let them go, all they are doing is helping you set up and lock them down.

Clone Chip Hey kids, the professor can't go below 1 influence so pack that deck with clones. Set up fast, activate Reaver on your opponents turn. Gotta go fast. SMC is the most common target, with Cache and Parasite in second/third.

CyberSolutions Mem Chip Was another @spags suggestion. It enables me to go full big rig against glacier and also frees me up to pawn the Akamatsu Mem Chip if I drew in good order and my daemons kept the MU count low.

RESOURCES

I love Aesop's Pawnshop, I really do. It has probably been my favorite resource since the core set because it suits the way I like to play. I like to include a lot of situation tools or temporary cards, Aesop's makes those cards better by giving you a return on their installs later. This concept is illustrated in the Hayley Pitchfork builds or the pre-MWL Noise builds. However, the fact that the Professor does not pay influence for Reaver increases the return on a toolbox deck from 3c to 3c AND clickless draw! Anyone who has played shaper knows that slow set ups is what costs you games. Even though shaper has the best tutors, you still need to draw them. Most of the draw cards you have are expensive (Professional Contacts. Quality Time). You start your turn + 3 creds and +1 card with a full compliment of clicks. ALWAYS HOLD AN EXTRA COPY, if you lose this its GG.

Beth Kilrain-Chang since you are letting corps try to race you early for most of the game this will be either a free card or a free click (which is a more flexible draw)

Film Critic Keeps New Angeles City Hall alive so you don't get your set up ruined by 24/7 or regular Breaking News BS. Also, I am terrible at PSI games and I hate taking fetal damage.

The answer to all questions about how this deck deals with X is Sacrificial Construct. How does this deck deal with Best Defense? Sac con. How does this deck deal with FA? Sac Con. How does this deck deal with Batty? Sac Con. How does this deck deal with applying pressure and being forced to use Faerie before its on Baba Yaga? Sac con. I had three and I might go back. The card does a tremendous amount of work in this build. However, the only thing I can cut is Harbinger.

Same Old Thing Makes it so you can recur Scavenge or Levy AR Lab Access. Its there to keep me safe from net damage trashing levy. If I don't need to use it I pawn it for 3c and a card. #value

Technical Writer is a doomsday clock ticking during your set up. Corps watch these quickly climb as you install your pieces for net of zero cost with Sahasrara and Scheherazade and know the lock is coming. What usually happens is when I am ready to flick the switch I install the last breaker or two on Baba and then use a tech writer to gain 15 + credits and immediately hit each server I can to force the corp to tear through all their cash.

SPELLS... I mean PROGRAMS

If you are a planes-walking sorcerer you need some magic using friends. Baba Yaga is a pretty terrifying friend to have. She gains the paid ability of everything you host but none of the card text. This is important because it means Baba does not have the central only restriction of Breach, the trash after use text of Faerie or the set strength of Yog.0. What she does get is the ability to spend 0 credits breaking all subs on codegates and sentries and the ability to either boost 2 for 4 STR with breach and to hit odd number STRs using the 1 for 1 STR of Faerie.

Baba Yaga becomes your lock. You can get anywhere incredibly cheap making no remote safe with Imp and using the combo of Progenitor and Medium to have a permanent RDI that can get to back to 5 accesses every turn. As an example, people are fond of the unique Fairchild right now, this rig breaks that ice for 4 credits. 2x 2c for 4 STR to get to 8 and then Yog.0 breaks all subs for zero. It also breaks the ubiquitous Fairchild 3.0 for 3c. It breaks DNA tracker for 4 instead of the 7 that it costs Gordian Blade and ichi 1.0 is 2C to break.

Breach gives the primary strength boost and the only source of inefficiency in the deck in the form of its 2 for 3 subs barrier break.

Faerie gets a lot better when it never trashes. This deck breaks Archer for 4 credits.

MKUltra is my emergency killer but also...my primary late game econ. In the late game I will pawn this every turn for three credits and a card. Run a server with a sentry, reinstall it for free with Sahasrara onto Scheherazade, gaining one. I will break it with the Baba rig and then repawn it the next turn. So if there is any sentry on a server you want to run you get 4 credits and a card each turn for zero clicks.

So Yog.0 is really expensive and it can't even break the most popular code gates anymore! unless you can use dark sorcery to make it any strength you need it be. Yog.0 is the primary source of efficiency in this deck. Most taxing ice in the current meta is codegates and this deck shreds them.

Cache Makes money and makes your Reaver draws off Clone Chip even more profitable.

Clot is you dark master in this deck, you protect this card with your life. You recur it at all costs. I have trashed breakers to get this back on the board. You can always get things back but agendas have to be in servers for you to steal them. It is crushing when you Rebirth into Hayley Kaplan: Universal Scholar and they forgot your ability and as they FA you Clone Chipa Cache and piggy back clot into play from your hand. 10/10 would summon again.

D4v1d is my Turing breaker. The rig is strong enough to break anything else but it can't break Turing.

Harbinger 7 (Scheherazade) credits and 2 draws for no cost. Seems good.

Imp is really good at trashing expensive things while setting up like SanSan grid or Crisium without taxing you any dollars. Also pawns well.

Medium is your pressure, its your Magic Missile, it always hits the target with your cheap rig and it makes people freak out.

Parasite is for resistors and wraparounds so I don't have to pay 2c for them. It also is my swordsman removal tool.

Progenitor Saves you MU for Medium or Imp and makes one counter purge proof which is really damn good. Cleansing can't affect our magic!

Reaver is the core of this deck. Anytime you trash a card you draw. Your card, corp card, any card. Fire it early and often. Mulligan for it.

Sahasrara was the jank card I had the hardest time getting used to. However, after I started treated it as my second priority after Reaver I found my games going a lot better. With Technical Writer and Scheherazade and most of my pieces being 2 or 3 c it makes everything you install a net profit on TW.

Scheherazade has been discussed a lot already, put stuff on it and get an effective price reduction.

Self-modifying Code will fly on and off the board as you grab your toolbox pieces. If you can try to fire them on your opponent's turn so you get a Reaver draw.

CONCLUSION

Try the deck, its not for everyone but its definitely not bad and its definitely the most fun I have had playing runner.

• CodeMarvelous