Chop Bot 3000

♦ Chop Bot 3000 1[credit]

Hardware
Influence: 1

When your turn begins, you may trash another of your installed cards. If you do, draw 1 card or remove 1 tag.

There was a sickly smell coming from his closet. He hoped it was only a mouse this time.
Illustrated by Maciej Rebisz
Decklists with this card

Order and Chaos (oac)

#45 • English
Startup Card Pool
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Reviews

Chop Bot is (currently) a very important card for Apex: Invasive Predator. It allows him to chop a card and together with Wasteland & Reaver and he gains money for them and get's card draw additional to the ability of Chop himself. He is part of the economy engine of Apex, as Aesop's Pawnshop is for Hayley Kaplan: Universal Scholar or Noise: Hacker Extraordinaire. On top of that he can remove Tags, so cards like Hard-Hitting News are not as awful as before as you will start with 3 Tags that need removal leaving one click when you have cleared the other 3.

Remember to keep one in hand, to install him after Apocalypse! To get the cards installed back into the heap. Also he works well with the conspiracy breakers (Paperclip, MKUltra and Black Orchestra), as you can install them with the Apex ability face down and chop them after, so they can be used in future runs and you don't have to overdraw. As well as Harbinger which can be used twice.

This can make an Apex deck with Faust really strong, as it enables additional card draw at the start of your turn.

Usually he will net you 2 - 3 extra triggers like:
1 card & 2 creds beside the Chop trigger.

I'd like to recommend the following deck, for the state of the Meta Start 2017: netrunnerdb.com

(Quorum era)
835
Nice update on the card, just one small additional note: The card doesn't have to be installed before Apex starts, since he can use his ID ability to install a card from grip at the start of his turn and instantly chop it in the same 'start of the turn' window, making the combo even easier to use. —
Is that true though? Start of turn isn't a window as such, and as the card was not installed when the turn switched over, would chopbot work? If it does it opens up lots of other OP combos in other decks. —
Yes you can do it. You can use your Apex ability to install a card and then chop it. You will need to have at least one card installed to make it work i assume. —

Aesop's pet robot? This card is a weird one.

Pros:

  • It's Hardware. I hate Programs clogging up MU and Resources can be fragile.
  • It's cheap to install
  • 1 Influence
  • It's versatile. You might just begin your turn with a handful of crap. And just maybe you're in a position to give up an installed card to get some more options. Maybe an Imp or a D4VID that's out of counters is better used to grab a card than sit on the table. Also being able to remove a tag is nice and could come in handy.
  • Nice synergy with Activist Support. Beginning of your turn, Corp takes Bad Pub, you get to trash Activist Support with Chop Bot AND remove the Tag you received. Pretty snazzy. I can see the combo working in a Valencia deck.

Cons:

  • Cost efficiency? Is trashing a card worth the 2 credits and a Click you save removing a tag, or the single Click you save drawing a card? In some situations, yes. In others...meh.
  • Usefulness is limited. This will only work in a deck where you don't mind trashing your own RIG. And if you're running a Noise deck, you'd probably rather have the 3 bucks from Aesop's than a single card.
  • Only going to work in combo decks.

Overall, it's fine. It seems fun and I think there will be some cute combos with Bad Pub decks, but other than that, it definitely won't fit in many places.

(Order and Chaos era)
177
Note that the tag removal is at the beginning of your turn, so you won't be able to remove a tag you got this turn... —
Don't think a Valencia deck would need Activist Support right? —

Chop-worthy cards:

Programs

Hardware

Resources

(Order and Chaos era)
188
you might say they are on the chopping block —
Worth noting that, because all your "start of turn" triggers enter a queue & must be executed, Activist Support will still give you a tag even if you trash it to Chop Bot. —
phette23, you can avoid the tag if you resolve Chop Bot 3000 before Activist Support. Look at the interaction between Aesop's Pawnshop and Wyldside on page 22 of the rules. —
I don't think you can replace your console.. ever. If you install it, that's it. Not even a second install of the same console. —
@HandKing You can't install a console if you have one installed. But if you feed it to the Bot, you can install a second copy or even a different one. —

The main problem with activist support would be that you get the tag at the beggining of the corp´s turn, giving them a whole turn to do scary things before you can send your chainsaw bug to take care of the activists

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