The Professor is ABSOLUTELY MAD!! Top Cut Regionals

After playing the crap out of MaxX during Store Champs, and losing only 6 games out of over 50, I was desperately wanting to play something different. I played this deck to death not only at my league and the aforementioned Store Champs, but also online. As brutal and efficient as the deck was, it just wasn't any fun any more.

I went back to my claim-to-fame Exile build and did some revisions. And while these proved fruitful, I wasn't enjoying this either. I futzed around with a few other decks, but I just felt like I had hit this weird plateau where nothing could be as good as MaxX and, in turn, I felt my faith in the game wane for the first time.

So I decided to go back to basics. Before MaxX, I had been playing a Professor deck that ran rather than durdled, which I enjoyed quite a bit. This was before all the new Anarch goodies. I of course dove face first into the deep end of the virus pool at first, but thankfully realized that deck was slowly drifting into durdle town. Back to brass tacks it was, which lead me to this here deck I am sharing.

I played an earlier version of this against Dave Kempe (for those of you who know his early NR credentials), winning two games against his Foundry deck--which he conceded wasn't top tier. I won handily both games, after which I asked him what he thought. His summation was the deck was good, but it was "fair." And he couldn't be any more right. This deck doesn't have all the bells and whistles and high variance hooplah many do. There were no Siphons, no Chakana lock. The deck functioned much in the way Professor did when we were just knee deep in Genesis Cycle: he runs, he kills stuff, and mills cards incidentally.

This beckons the question: so why play this deck?

The answer: it's very consistent and rewards skill.

This is the part where we talk about card choices:

THE MONEY:

Cash flow has long been an issue with Anarchs. Sure, they have Day Job now, and they have had Liberated Accounts for some time, but the implicit restrictions on these cards easily lump them into the unlikeable in my book. In a deck that can and will run often, Day Job is an inflexible tempo hit. Liberated accounts often requires slow-clicking for credits to get up to installing it, which is another tempo punch to the cyber-loins.

Instead we have a reliable and stable suite of resource economy backed up with the old standby Sure Gamble. With Datasucker functioning like a liquid credit saver by shrinking down, and often assisting in killing troublesome ICE, the deck has a smooth bankroll that is seemingly resilient to hiccups.

Daily Casts has admittedly never been a favorite of mine. In the way I analyze and value vectors in the game, this card effectively outputs the same as clicking for creds 4 times--not indulging this argument here, just saying. HOWEVER, in a deck with all these inexpensive programs, the drip is efficient.

Armitage gives you the flexibility to click for what you need and then fill in the blanks with installs and runs.

Kati is obviously an econ powerhouse the more you invest, but I simply did not want to play more than a single copy since I was packing Armitage. Thus far, the choice for what I ironically call "diverse redundancy" has been awesome sauce.

Symmetrical Visage might be one of my favorite new cards. It is exactly what an Anarch wants: to move forward on two fronts (or as you snobs call it, "click compression"). Again, I only want a single copy to whittle out all dead draws, though I am always happy to see "the baby."

THE PROGRAMS:

Much of this is very obvious, but, hey, maybe this is someone's first deck tech read-through. Let's start with our largest influence expenditure:

Self-Modifying Code is one of the highlights of this deck, beyond the stable econ. Being able to muster the right breaker on-the-go is a very, very beautiful thing, as all you Shapers out there know. SMC fetches Parasites to kill weak ICE, D4v1ds to get through scary ICE, Imps to save credits on trashing Assets and such, mustering a Medium to "get to work", you name it. I will cover this later, but with Clone Chip, we can cobble together the needed "rig" while not losing tempo. And yes, I like having 3. In fact, I insist on it.

Our virus suite is pretty obvious. Datasucker/Parasite is a big part of this deck, wherein we are killing ICE, displacing cards from the corp's deck into the bin, and working functionally as a form of econ swing, wherein the corp must keep installing ICE and paying to rez them while we zap away and save creds as needed.

Imp is another very important tool of this deck, as I am not going overboard with viruses like some--12 is pretty scarce at the end of the day. This allows us to poke and prod at R&D, HQ, and remotes, saving us creds while we trash away. 3 is the right number here, as this is a key component in some matches that may otherwise be tough. For example, you may notice there are no Plascretes. Imp can trash kill cards when accessed while I've Had Worse can buy us time in the margins in between--I genuinely feel navigating Scorched Earth is largely dependent on play choices. Imp is savage against RP and NBN with a huge asset economy. I have always loved this card. I always will.

One would think that Medium is crucial for this deck, but in truth it is not. This is the reason why I don't bother with Nerve Agent--again, Imp let's us thin the hand, as well as Wanton. Obviously, when the opportunity arises, I exploit the Dickens out of this card, but you can still easily win games without ever installing this card.

Clot with SMC and Clone Chip is obviously too good to not include.

Crypsis is there "just in case." Believe me, I want nothing more than to cut this card, but I consider it a small price to pay in terms of having a Plan B--esp. with Grimoire. You will maybe install this one in every thirty games, if that.

Your other breakers are the standard fare of fixed strength Mimic and Yog, with Corroder in the mix. I am playing a single Cujo as another means to get around scary murdery sentries like Archer for those times when you don't have loaded suckers. As with the single Crypsis, having another copy of a breaker type to SMC in a pinch is imperative. As you can facecheck most barriers and code gates without fear of obliteration, having a second out is always nice. And, in particular, Cujo is quite good against Komainu and Tsurugi, which can be taxing to navigate until their assured demise by way of Parasite.

D4v1D is obviously another solution to giganto ICE, namely in throat-punching Blue Sun shenanigans via Oversight AI and whatnot. As with Cujo, I want a second copy in case one is in hand and I need to conjure it up by way of SMC.

THE REST:

Clone Chip is the rest of my influence, and a pretty obvious choice. As with SMC, I opted to play three copies. This affords me more abuse of disposable programs like Parasite, D4v1d, Imp, whatever. Recurring viruses also means more sweet milling action! And, like I said, the lynchpin of this deck is being able to adapt while in a run, which this card offers in spades.

Deja Vu, while recursion, doesn't afford the same ambush tactics as Chip, but still is a solid card. I have to admit, these often sit in hand in some matches, being used to get back Armitages instead of the classic Parasite x2 play. Still, options are never a bad thing.

The two Wanton Destruction are yet another disruptive tool that I much prefer to Nerve Agent--usually coming as a total surprise from Professor. These also help against flatline nonsense like Snares, Punitives, Scorched, blah.

Speaking of anti-flatline tech, I've Had Worse, which ironically could use a better name, rounds out the deck as our only draw power. I suppose one could argue that Visage functioning like a once-per-turn Pro Contacts, implies draw power, but not really. I tried Earthrise and it was too much. I don't want to play Djinn since I have SMC and virtually no MU issues. John Masanori feels too much like a liability with the heavy resource econ. So, in this regard, one could posit that it is a classic Anarch weakness. However, with the ability to SMC for the cards you want, reinforcing this with Clone Chip, it isn't always an issue of card quantity since you are getting card quality.

(Quick aside: I am not playing Hades Shard because I do not need it. This build harkens back to Professor's less gimmicky roots, where the milling was incidental. Remember, you can actually break/kill ICE with this deck. )

IN CLOSING:

I have played this 60+ games on Jinteki.net and have had a very high win percentage, due largely to making sound play decisions while equipped with cards that grant me options on demand. I have played this deck in my league for the last month, losing only a single game in something like 10 matches--Punitive/Takeover got me!

After close to two months of abject boredom and a near loss of faith in the game, I am glad to report this fair little deck is just what I needed to enjoy playing this awesome game once more. So give it a try. Or just start trolling.