To address the elephant in the room, as others have aptly noted, this keeps MaxX afloat. But in a slow the bleeding to a trickle sort of way rather than unleashing the torrent anew when the Levy breaks. Dam, that one slipped out sorry.

This is a strong utility card that I’m happy to see as a neutral for one influence. Everyone pays to play, very splashable, but not thoughtlessly so. There are a lot of really strong contenders for that 1 influence splash across all the factions with PAD Tap, Hunting Grounds, Rezeki, and the economic juggernaut that is Stimhack only scratching the surface.

On its own, it’s a decent silver bullet against 1000 cuts style decks trying to grind you into oblivion, Weyland Consortium: Builder of Nations, Black Tree and their buddy Kakugo. It even lets you decide which card to save against Breached Dome.

But kudos to the designers, it by no means completely turns the threat off.

And, you at least keep one of the cards in your deck when you need to faceplant an Obo, City Works Project, or good old fashioned trap.

But wait there’s more! If none of that floats your boat, simply use it as copy 4-6 of any card of any type! Or copies 2 and 3 of that huge influence spend…

Notable Interactions

Patchwork: Completes the circle nicely. Notice that Patchwork can trigger on the Corp turn as well? Buffer Drive has got you covered, and there are more ways than ever to make this happen.

For extra spice, play this in Wu. Patchwork any program, Buffer Drive it to the bottom, then summon it back at your leisure. With 2 Chameleons in hand (a more attractive option than ever when you’re chilling with Talut at the Café), you can Patchwork the first to install the second free, then Wu the first one back for 1 cred. 2 clicks and only a single credit is not bad to refresh your subtype and cyber up. With even 1 Technical Writer installed, the whole operation is credit positive.

NRE: Need to get that 5 strength lizard up to a 6? Buffer Drive will mitigate the risk of installing Net-Ready Eyes.

Reclaim: Now only 2 clicks rather than the unplayably bad 2 clicks and a card.

Dummy Box: What if the first time each round, I didn’t actually trash the card I pitched to Dummy Box? Yeah…

Stimhack: Doesn’t it suck when you brain your damage and lose your stash? Only users lose drugs! This allows you to bounce that to the bottom instead of losing that card.

Emergent Creativity: Adam can place the card (or one of the multiple) on the bottom of the deck rather than the trash for the same economic value. Alas, Monolith is rotating…

Null: Whistleblower: Once per turn, when you encounter a piece of ice, you may save 1 card from your grip for later...

Making an Entrance: Can be used to bounce one card to the bottom of the deck rather than drawing it.

I could go on about Mad Dash, Clan Vengeance, Respirocytes, and more but I’ll leave the rest as an exercise for the reader.

Buffer Drive seems like a very interesting card. On first glance, one might look at this card and say, "Oh, this is to mitigate corp net damage, anti-Jinteki." But, this hardware doesn't care who does the trashing. Maybe strong with "MaxX: Maximum Punk Rock and Null: Whistleblower. Another synergy is Patchwork. The trashed card for Null and Patchwork doesn't really get trashed in the end too, which minimizes the draw backs of their abilities. Sounds like a fun card!