Vivat Academia

I am so excited to try this, been professoring this last week :D

I've started playing the dirty hands exile build put out by action phase, and I'm in love with the flexability. It is so tough to keep out because of all the access tricks. This falls into the same category, only even more flexible. Having keyhole and sneakdoor at your disposal, and slightly less so imp, is amazing. This kind of deck is super tough to play against.

I don't know if you've played the Dirty Hands deck, but it uses massive draw to FCC programs to the heap where 2 tutors can hit it as needed. What does this deck do to keep the wanted programs at your finger tips? I feel like just drawing is pretty slow. Is the draw the weak point here?

Another thing Dirty Hands does is use like 3 MU counting MO, so like 1 or 2 programs remain static, ever changing in the rig, do you find yourself keeping programs around (not counting scavenge which obviously flips programs).

For people inexperienced in rig morphing decks:

One up-tempo trick that people will overlook often in these decks, a trick that keeps you very aggressive on scoring remotes is a test run -> femme, install SMC, and run. Generally this will get you past 2 pieces of ice criminal style, for slightly more money than a crim would pay (thats why you have opus!) You have to be prepared to know your entire program suite, and find the best answer for a piece of ice. Your kneejerk when you get a heimdall rezzed in your face is corroder, but think hard and install deus X and beat it on it's AP sub type. Or ichi in your life? Go get sharpshooter (not in this particular deck). The key here is to pay attention to other subtypes to exploit them.

Faerie for ichi and all other destroyers.

I don't know if you've played the Dirty Hands deck

Nope, wasn't aware. Interesting read, though, thanks!

What does this deck do to keep the wanted programs at your finger tips? I feel like just drawing is pretty slow. Is the draw the weak point here?

I tend to play it a bit like an Anarch - huge early threat (most often Keyhole or Nerve Agent) to slow the corp down and make it react, then start building up the most efficient set of tools for the particular match-up. Part of this is investing spare clicks into Opus and just drawing, one card at a time.

I did have card draw effects in, but ended up moving away from them, as they felt like card slots that could be used better - most of the time when I'm drawing, I'm drawing for an answer (one of several) or a tutor card. Given how Clone Chip becomes a tutor card once SMC is in the trash, there's plenty of both to go around.

oh, and a sidenote:

Your kneejerk when you get a heimdall rezzed in your face is corroder

If that's your knee-jerk, you're doing it wrong :D Obviously, you should be getting Morning Star instead! Corroder is in the deck for Ice Walls, Paper Walls and Wraparound. If you meet anything beefier, Teh Star is almost always the correct response. Of course, it really, really wants to have a Sucker out.

Earlier, I was playing tons of programs with like 60 cards total to try to land the whole FCC combo for big money with Monolith after and all, but you basically had to go for this big diesel play, and sometimes you didn't get the cards you needed, and ended up dumping a bunch of stuff. Or you had to choose between saving programs for Monolith and FCCing them.

Played this deck a little, and I have to agree that Modded is absolutely huge for the strength of this deck. It single handedly gives you the ability to run early and hard without fear of not being able to land your opus afterwards. I was never able to fit in both modded and FCC, so I personally feel like modded wins.

I think it is an absolute necessity for shaper decks to run hard and early, drain the corp as much as possible so they have more time to build their rig. That is how Anarch-Shaper works, and I think this deck does a pretty good job at it.

When Upstalk hits, would you change Yog.0 for another decoder, or add another decoder to combat Lotus Field? OR just use Femme/Atman to combat it?

Good question!

Personally, I won't care about Lotus Field at all - str 4 is one of the Atman sweet spots anyway. If you want to add another decoder, though, go with Cyber-Cypher - it's very good in this kind deck. I just don't play it because I feel like my Scavenge is overtaxed already.

I hope you include D4v1d once that card comes out. Seems like a natural fit with its high influence and your recycling.

Your thoughts on the Prof largely echo mine. I've been planning on moving my Prof deck (on here as Professorial Anarch) away from Pro Contacts/Kati to a MO economy and I like the look of yours. I especially like the Atmans.

A couple of questions: 1) How much do you mind the lack of draw power? I'm surprised you don't even have a couple of Diesels in there. 2) What will you do with Leprechaun? I would probably swap out The Toolbox for them, but Opus obviously means you can afford it.

@skydivingninja We'll see - right now D4v1d doesn't strike me as terribly critical, but of course I'll test!

@JWHamner Thanks!

Draw power: I originally played The Prof with ProCon as well, but found it too slow in general - matchups where you can afford to go slow (where PC would shine) aren't really your problem, and in those ones where you just have to go fast, they are a dead card. My concerns about the lack of draw power were why the deck originally had Diesels in the Modded slots, but I found them underwhelming. Modded is much better, and I honestly think I'd rather have 3 programs than 3 Diesels.

Leprechaun: don't ditch Toolboxes for them - Toolbox is super awesome in here, because a) the Link means you dont'have to break some annoying ICE (like, Caduceus and Viper) b) it's a free Magnum click every turn on which you run (or play an Atman, as paying the X cost to pump Atman is considered "using an Icebreaker"). That's insane value, which Leprechaun will never rival, in my opinion.

this deck after many plays. Is super brutal, I love it

@PeekaySK: I have always loved Modded with the Prof and would only cut it in a Workshop build... would never trade it for Diesels. I do have a heretical suggestion: -3 Sure Gamble, +3 Quality Time

I know, I know nobody runs a deck without Sure Gambles, but I think you want some draw when you just can't find an SMC/Clone Chip or whatever and Sure Gambles aren't nearly as useful for an Opus deck as they are for others.

@JWHamner I've tested a version without Sure Gamble, but felt like I was losing too much flexibility - with them, you can both choose to delay the Magnum Opus a bit if you need to, and have the ability to surge up money-wise just a little bit faster on occasion - this often makes the difference between getting in and not geting in.

@PeekaySK - First of all, I LOVE this build immensely. :) It's so good, I've strayed away from Criminals and gone to Professor as my main runner deck for tournament play.

Question for you though. I know above you stated you'd never sub a Toolbox for a Leprechaun. I wouldn't either, but my question is...would you consider subbing 1 Opus for 1 Leprechaun instead? There's plenty of tutoring going on, and since the smart play is usually to get that Opus in play ASAP (I mean, it is, isn't it?), I think there'd be a case to bring it down to a 2 of here.

My next concern here, is that of Morning Star and not having a Dinosaurus around to get through those nasty Heimdall 1.0s, Heimdall 2.0s and other monster barriers. Now, yes, I know Femme Fatale is there for a reason...but what if she doesn't get drawn, or she gets outnumbered by big ICE?

Yes you want opus right away, and you want to mitigate the use of your tutors, since they are your lifeblood. 2 copies is probably right if not 3. Deus x is your other he heimdall answer. Deus x first, femme second.

Thanks, x3r0. :) I'm still learning the machinations of A:NR just about daily, regardless of the ID I'm playing atm (Corp or Runner), heh. My Professor deck does have both Deus and Femme, so I'm covered in that regard. I'm just worried about running Morning Star and Yog in my meta right now.

It seems that no matter what the hell I do, my opponents always have a friggin' answer...and it's ALWAYS at the perfect time, too. Oh, and they never lack econ...and somehow, I always do (especially when I play Corp...I've shelved my NEXT ID desires for now in favor of the core Jinteki). :(

II know going beyond 45 cards is the Great Heresy, but I always wonder if 48 cards including 3 Diesel isn't a better deck for Shaper than 45 cards without it...

Regarding going above 45 cards, I'm reminded of Patrick Chapin's MtG article on why you never go to 61 cards. Its MtG but the same idea applies even more so when netrunner uses smaller deck sizes, here's the article if interested: www.starcitygames.com

Regarding subbing for only 1 Leprechaun make's it a tempo loss when doing a double tutor and now you aren't likely to draw into that Opus if you're removing it. Even if he didn't remove an Opus for it and instead removed a Cyber Mem Solution, it would seem whether or not he wants to play Opus would be slightly contingent on trying to get out that Opus rather than just being able to play it out right. So on that note, I think if you go Leprechaun in a Professor deck, you either go 3 copies or none at all.

^ (correction) "it would seem whether or not to play Opus would be slightly contingent on trying to get out that [Leprechaun first] rather than just outright playing the Opus. (I couldn't figure out how to edit my own comments that are already posted)

Well, I ended up simply adding a D4v1d to the awesomeness of this deck, and while yes, it is more memory to fuss with, I think it will add a useful element to a breaker suite that is very solid already. Chipping, Scavenging, Test Running...this little guy is kind of like Overmind on 'roids if you ask me, and you don't need to worry about free'd up memory for tokens.

I'm gonna try it out for the next couple weeks; hopefully I'll have some success with the new addition!