You got an F, see me after class.

hi_impact 1732

Figured I'd publish this Professor list that's been handling very well online and offline. There's nothing special here, just good cards. Fish for a Leprechaun (no shame in using your first SMC on it) and econ, and start picking your opponent apart. Imp the kill decks, Keyhole the Jinteki decks, Clot the FA, and get a good Nerve Agent/Keyhole threat up against HB Glacier. Blue Sun has no chance against this deck with both Femme/d4v1d and the London Library. Femme Fatale is a resounding answer to the meta's pet favorite ICE Data Raven and Tollbooth. Film Critic is the icing on the cake to cover its weakness to Midseasons/The Future Perfect and reliance on Imp.

I feel that Parasite is a waste of an SMC in a deck with breakers/econ like this, memory is often a problem with hosted cards like itself, though it should probably be slotted in specifically for Pup. -1 Crescentus?

The Torch feels like a dubious choice. It hasn't been a problem yet, because Femme can get that one problem code gate thats blocking your big play, but maybe Cyber-Cypher + Yog is a better call, but once again, more slots. I hate playing Professor with more than 45 cards.

All considered this is my favorite tier 2 Shaper build yet (Kate trumps all) and I wanted to publish this for all you fans of high education out there searching the depths of NRDB for a functional Professor list. Also, you get to play Hyperdriver and your alt art Femme. With 28 to 30 influence spent on Programs, the ID feels very satisfying and validated.

5 comments
17 Aug 2015 Vimes

I'm really feeling this deck list. It is that silver bullet toolbox I always trying to build with this ID but never get close.

Can you talk a little about the economy? Outside of cheating things with Library/Scavenge, it seems to rely pretty heavily on clicking Opus. Do you feel like your speed ever compromises potential scoring runs? Do you click ProCo enough in one turn to make it worthwhile over Symmetrical Visage?

I find the Hyperdrivers very interesting and Leprechaun is a nice way to circumvent their issue. What do you most often find yourself using them for? I can see safely London Librarying things, huge Magnum Turns, or even cheating lots of Bioroid ice.

17 Aug 2015 hi_impact

The econ is slow, that's for sure. The first few turns are often draw-draw-play setup/econ. With 14 (Econ+Leprechaun/Imp) early game desirables its not too hard getting something going. Preferably you want to use ProCo and bring in Magnum midgame, but use your judgement. I am a big fan of Symmetrical Visage but ProCo is definitely the right call. Hyperdriver is often used on econ first and finishers later. The breaker suite is designed to be actually credit-lite so unless you face Pups or Architects you tend to get in really easy. Magnum Opus is nice for those times and I'm glad I went down to a 1-of and replaced Personal Workshop for Daily Casts.

Give it a try it feels fast enough. If the Corp is pushing you, Imp/Test Run are there to get you in or take back the board.

17 Aug 2015 hi_impact

I'm still very happy with the Faerie/Crescentus package and I don't foresee adding in a Parasite any time soon. RP is already heading back to the box or slotting useless currents against you.

19 Aug 2015 Vimes

Started playing this today. Pretty new to Shaper, so being able to tutor things and cheat huge breakers into play feels wonderful, but boy do I need some piloting practice. Both times I got ProCo on the opening them and played it pretty early. It was a huge tempo swing against me I had trouble bouncing back from. Is that something you do (highly matchup specific I imagine). Speaking of matchup specific, I was versing MN Tracer Glacier and it made me realize that the deck is pretty light overall in dealing with Sentries. Seems poor to use a tutor and a lot of recursion on Faerie, and Femme is super expensive for the early game and I feel I'd rather have it late game for London Library than stuck on the field. Have you thought about adding another Killer or an A.I, perhaps for Morning Star? I also need to get the hang of balancing ProCo and Opus with running and installing other cards. It was tricky, but when an NBN deck gets multiple Astros and a way to defend them in hand early maybe lots of players feel bogged down. Thanks again for this wonderful deck. It is nice to see a Professor deck that isn't just jank to constitute playig him.

19 Sep 2015 Earth Red

I'm happy to see Infinitybox has been a big inspiration. :) I've been brewing my own developed iteration as well with Hyperdrivers, but wanted to wait a while for new cards to come since I've been playing other decks.

Why the London Library over Personal Workshop, wouldn't workshop be a straight synergy to constantly drawing and playing out cards, that is, board growth, especially since you have a lot of little reactive programs, but a limited amount of memory units? Has synergy with Femme Fatale and D4v1d been strong enough to justify London Library? Seeing as you are drawing quite heavily, how often do you either have to limit your drawing a bit too low or discards cards that aren't dead draws?

Also, on Torch, the thing with Torch is that it synergizes with Test Run + Scavenge, other methods of getting it out dirt cheap such as your Library or my Workshop. Sure, short term it costs more but having a code gate breaker that can be used everywhere is a pretty big deal for a deck that's strength is being able to perform strong win plays from many different servers.