Dr. Vientiane Keeling

♦ Dr. Vientiane Keeling 3[credit]

Asset: Academic
Trash: 4
Influence: 4

When you rez this asset and when your turn begins, place 1 power counter on this asset.

The Runner gets -1 maximum hand size for each hosted power counter.

Her numbers never lie, but she doesnʼt write the words that accompany them.
Illustrated by Dimik
Decklists with this card

Parhelion (ph)

#106 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Rulings
  • Updated 2023-03-25

    When is the last paid ability window in which you can rez Dr. Vientiane Keeling and affect the Runner’s discard phase?

    Step 5.7.1e, after the Runner finishes their last action.

  • Updated 2023-03-25

    Is Dr. Vientiane Keeling’s hand size reduction cumulative with the hand size reduction of core damage?

    Yes.

  • Updated 2023-03-25

    Do the power counters stay on Dr. Vientiane Keeling if you derez her with Élivágar Bifurcation or other derez effects?

    Yes.

Reviews

Well, if you ever wondered what happened to those Itinerant Protesters that camped outside Weyland's HQ until the cops were called and currents got the boot, I guess one of them got her degree and started working for Jinteki!

If Cybernetics Division: Humanity Upgraded were legal to play, this would be an absolutely crippling for most runners. Already you're playing with a 4-card hand as a base, then they rez Dr. Keeling and now you've got a ticking clock until you run out of hand size. Leave it up for too long and your hand size would go down to 0 or even -1, which would result in a core damage flatline and a corp victory.

Four to trash isn't exactly peanuts either, but that's honestly a good development in my eye. It was frustrating as a corp to have runner economies that were so robust that they could trash most of your stuff. (New players, be glad you missed the bad old days of Temüjin Contract. shudders)

(Parhelion era)

Keeling is a solid win condition and run-forcing card. This gets played in HB even at 4 influence. On paper Keeling LOOKS slow. She's not, she immediately makes running elsewhere more difficult. On a max hand-size of 3 or less, Snare/Obokata/Sting are more likely to hit high-priority targets and the runner might not have enough time to fully restock on cards lost. On an accelerated tempo and a decreased hand size, hard-to-avoid damage cards like Anemone and Hokusai are harder to recover from and possibly even lethal.

Keeling gives the runner 4 turns (rezzed) before she straight-up kills them. Usually she's contributing to your victory in other ways, like pushing the runner to drain their economy and card-pool to trash her, or pushing the runner into risky runs elsewhere on a reduced hand size.

Pinhole Threading is great counterplay, but it's easier for a corp to recur Keeling than it is for the runner to recur Pinhole. If you're playing runner and you see a Restore or Warroid Trackers, their deck probably has Keeling. (Warroid Trackers is cost-effective punishment for Pinhole Threading and Keeling is one of the few cards which produces enough value that Restore might be worth considering).

...

"Her numbers never lie, but she doesn't write the words that accompany them." This is standard academia, the grad students do the writing. Most senior academics work in nicer offices than the broom closet at the county morgue, though.

(Parhelion era)

a fun trick to pull with this : use Divert Power to derez it and then Rez it back again, now you just added a counter to it, making the doom clock shorter by one turn!

One of the most inspired and inspiring card in Parhelion. I wonder what will be done with the keyword "academic".

This fit in any Jinteki kill deck, especially with Jinteki: Personal Evolution. Lowering the handsize is very valuable for this. Of course, you must protect this asset, but at 4 to trash, it will still have an impact for the runner.

The best (or worst, if you are a runner) part of the card is that it act like Superdeep Borehole. It will eventually win you the game once the runner is at negative handsize. You would usually rez it on the runner last click. On your turn, you would have 2 counters. On a normal runner with a handsize of 5, the handsize will be at -1 after 5 turns, making you win the game. That is a long time, but you could build a deck around this.

But this become much more powerful if you can do Core Damage. Either you import them (Mr. Hendrik, Djupstad Grid, Hypoxia, Nightmare Archive and Fairchild 3.0 or other ices like that). But Cerebral Overwriter would probably the best tool.

Or, you export Dr. Vientiane Keeling to another faction. It is especially powerful in HB, were Core Damages can be part of the game plan with Ontological Dependence. If you can do 3 Core Damages, then Dr. Vientiane Keeling can make the handsize negative for the runner in 2 turns! Giving an alternative win condition.

The art is gorgeous and the quote give a deeper meaning to it. Just plain amazing.

(Parhelion era)
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