Entropic Recursion

Card draw simulator
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KillerShrike 17

As long as you can recur it, Overmind basically just needs money to break things. So, make a lot of money and make it count on big runs on R&D using Indexing or Maker's Eye.

Ideal early play: Test Run -> Overmind, Run w/ Indexing or Makers Eye, maybe Scavenge Overmind to refresh tokens and avoid paying 2 clicks and full retail price.

Some of the card choices:

CyberSolutions Mem Chip gives more Overmind tokens. With one chip installed, you get 7 tokens; two on the board gets you 9. Due to the recursion, this adds up fast.

Scavenge is the main enabler of Overmind recursion, with some early help from Test Run and late help from Levy AR Access.

I'm generally not a fan of LLDS Processor, but with a recursive Overmind hitting the board to run a deep r&d server the cost savings and surprise factor is significant. It can also get you in when you otherwise wouldn't be able to.

Lucky Find + Power Nap turned out to be a really effective combo. A mid game Power Nap with 4+ doubles in the trash is a nice burst of money..

Save Esher for early mid game when R&D is starting to become too expensive to run but HQ is still soft. A good Esher run can open up R&D for several more turns afterwards and put the corp in disarray.

Planned Assault is a good problem solver, especially early in the game. Try not to hold it waiting for a later opportunity, just play it as soon as you have enough bank to do something effective. The main scenario: you have Indexing but not Makers Eye in hand or vice versa but you do have Planned Assault; run the one you have and fetch the other with Planned Assault. Previously, it seemed like I was always holding 2 Indexing or 2 Maker's Eye; this card smooths the draw nicely. Situational usage: you see a window of opportunity and Planned Assault into Esher. Secondarily, it also pumps up the payoff for Power Nap.

I had Quality Time 3x, but switched to Diesel to save credits and to avoid forced discards. So far it has been a good trade.

Do's and Don'ts

Do play aggressively, not worrying about holding cards back for the late game. In the mid game when the corps is able to keep you out of R&D for two turns or more at a time, it is a good time to use Levy AR Lab Access to flip the deck and start over to regain momentum. Don't let both copies of Levy AR Lab Access get trashed; one can be recovered from as you'll get it back with the other but if you lose both the deck will sputter out hard in the late game.

If LLDS is in play, try to time it to bring Overmind into play the turn you are making a big run to benefit from LLDS (obviously).

Try to time it so that you install Parasite after you have a fully loaded Overmind in play.

Try not to install more than 1 Overmind at a time unless you absolutely need to.

Draw draw draw into Professional Contacts.

I was running Kati Jones 2x and Hostage 1x for awhile, but Arbitrage is more bursty than Kati which is what this deck needs, and I dropped the Hostage for a 2nd Parasite.

Inti is in the deck solely in case the corp is using Wraparound; otherwise do not bother playing it.

Don't waste Parasite too early. It is needed to kill annoying / problem ice such as Swordsman (!), or low strength / many routines ice like Tsurugi and Komainu that cost a disproportionate number of Overmind tokens or annoying traces such as Shadow. Things like Pup or Pop-up window that don't have to be broken and can be cheaply paid off can be ignored. Data Raven and Tollbooth can be problematic as well due to their non-breakable abilities; in a longer game they are decent targets but usually it is more expedient to Esher them onto servers you don't care about.

If you suspect tag + bag, don't let the corps get 18 credits ahead of you and hold enough bits back.to beat midseason's trace.

7 comments
28 May 2014 jdscott0111

I also have a similar deck that uses lots of recurring credits and e3. I'd consider fitting in a console, but otherwise, looks fun.

28 May 2014 KillerShrike

Thanks for the feedback!

An earlier version used Oracle May instead of ProContacts, Motivation, Eureka, and Toolbox. It was a lot of fun, but ultimately not super consistent. My inner timmy rejoiced when I'd Motivation => oh look toolbox => Eureka!, but the CyberSolutions Mem Chip turned out to be much more consistent, ProContacts is in faction and usable multiple times per turn if necessary. Also, card slots and May's inf cost.

At this point I don't really think I need a console; I considered a 1 of Deep Red but I'm not sure if the MU would count for Overmind due to the restriction on it for "Caissa only" and haven't looked it up.

28 May 2014 jdscott0111

It doesn't, but mostly people include it if they run Knights. Still, when I have mine, I would rather see a Toolbox than another Mem Chip. The recurring credits is like a strong drip economy, and after 3 turns, you have more than made up the difference. Besides, it makes those pesky traces tougher to land.

Part of the other problem is without E3 or Clone Chip, you're going to run out of counters on Overmind really, really fast, despite 9+ per install.

I like the Parasite idea, though.

29 May 2014 KillerShrike

Per your advice, I swapped -1 Parasite for +1 E3 and will try it out. There have been a few cases where I've had to install a 2nd Overmind to beat an extra taxing server and E3 promises to help that if it is out.

I also checked around and found several posts on reddit, bbg, and elsewhere that indicate that Deep Red's MU does provide OM counters if it is unused (and in this deck lacking Caissa, it will always be unused), so I swapped 1 chip for 1 Deep Red for +1 MU -2 bits.

I'm hoping to get a chance to play this weekend, so will see if it pans out.

29 May 2014 jdscott0111

I guess the Deep Red makes sense. Let me know how the changes work out for you.

29 May 2014 KillerShrike

On the subject of not having enough OM counters, I haven't had a problem with that generally.

Between Test Run, Scavenge, AR, and hardcasting its a veritable parade of Overmind.

The tempo is in the early game I'll run back to back Indexing and Makers Eye in the same turn if I can, but as R&D ices up I'll drop to back to back turns, and then to every other turn, using Indexing to bury agendas vs surface them and then counting draws to run at just the right time with either Makers Eye or to snatch one off the top.

I put so much pressure on R&D while completely ignoring HQ that the corp tends to leave HQ lightly defended to overprotect R&D. So, I wait until there's enough ice scattered around and R&D is getting too taxing and then push Esher through to destabilize the corp. It doesn't always work, but it usually does.

One thing that is a definite weakness of the deck is that it has no way to threaten archives AT ALL, and a canny corp player will figure that out and not waste any ice there. I've strongly considered adding at least 1 card that forces the corps to protect archives at least a little, but have not figured out exactly what would be best. If nothing else I might swap a Power Nap for a Dirty Laundry just to run it on archives and lure the corp into dropping a little ice there. That's 1 less thing over R&D and also likely a weaker piece of ice to be swapped later with Esher.

29 May 2014 KillerShrike

Clone Chip: yes, I would love to have Clone Chip in this deck (and also Same Old Thing), but the card slots are tight. The only card not pulling its weight is Inti, but I hit Wraparound too often to leave it out.

A secondary, self-inflicted problem, is that all 6 copies of Clone Chip that I own are in my Kit and Kate decks, and are core where as here they would be supplementary. I could breakdown and buy a 3rd C&C box, but my hobby money this month is earmarked for X-Wing Wave 4 ;)