Professor Hyperdriver (1st place @Recess SC 2/28)

Alright, so this thing happened. I want to preface this with the fact that this deck is not perfect (it may not even be good), and it could use some work. But it did show up in double eliminations in a 14 person SC. On the day, it went 4/3 with one timed win. But my corp was undefeated, so it did the heavy lifting.

Why Professor? Because he let me have effectively 21 influence (and then let me replace Sharpshooter with Faerie). But it you definitely feel the pain of not being Kate, especially early game.

I came up with this deck after hearing about the Kate Deck @bblum ran at our SC the week before, and the Professor deck that made top 4 at the same SC. Peanut butter, meet chocolate.

Hyperdriver is the all star, letting you close scoring windows or pounding R&D. with Medium. I think I fired all three in every game except the grand final.

Honorable mentions go to D4v1d and Technical Writer. To hang in the late game, you need at least 1 or 2 Technical Writers, or you'll run out of gas.

The Economy needs work, and I think I might need a second Kati Jones for long matchups. Vikram 1.0 is a nightmare, and I almost want to slot a second Atman so I can have Atman 4 and 5 (in case they purge datasucker).

In hindsight, I probably would have had more mileage with a Hades Shard instead of the Utopia Shard, but I was expecting more kill. But people don't respect the Hades shard and would leave agendas in the bin with Jackson on the table, even when I had 7 credits. I would also love to use a Hades Shard off of Artist Colony.

Round 1 v. Cybernetics Division

I was totally taken aback from seeing this Corp, and I played sloppy. He got an early Brain Chip while I was setting up ProCo Engine, and then scored a GFI before I could find an answer. Being on the back foot and being unable to pound R&D, I had to check remotes to prevent an 3/2, and ate a Snare. Still learning how to pilot the deck, and definitely misplayed.

Round 2 v. ETF

Stole an Agenda and trashed his econ early, but got low and allowed him to score a Chronos Project with my Cy-Cy and Levy in the bin. Got locked out of the remote, but was able to keep him R&D locked and won 4/3 on time.

Round 3 v. NA Sol

This matchup is amazing for this Deck. Hyperdriver and Proco let you credit up and find one of like 5 cards that can get you clot, and find the clone chips to recur it. Locked him with clot, then let him fire and score with CVS, after which I Hyperdriver'd into 6 medium runs on R&D and pulled the remaining 5 points I needed.

Round 4 v. RP

He scored an early Nisei while I was setting up (this became a recurring problem). After that, he got his remote up and running and it was a race with me digging R&D with medium vs. him scoring in the remote, and while I got to 5, I ran out of econ and he found the last agenda.

Placed Second seed going into top 4.

Round 5 v. ETF

He scored out early when I was setting up, and I ran out of Gas. Vikram is a nightmare piece of ICE, and is going to cost a lot no matter what. I tried to pressure R&D, but got behind and got poor, which is a bad combo. I think I scored 4 before he won out, but I couldn't complete it.

Now, I did a little reflection at this point. I usually play anarch, so I have a tendency to go hard for Medium plays that put me behind. I realized that I had forsaken the core principle of Shaper (lock the remote before R&D), and focused on meeting that for the rest of my games.

After winning with my Corp, I made it to the loser's finals.

Round 7 v. RP

I tried to embrace my new feelings about how to run, but he still scored out an early Nisei while I was trying to find Econ/ProCo. However, I got the rig I needed to get into the remote, and found 5 points in runs on R&D while he was scoring out his next Agenda. I tried to maintain a lock on R&D, but it was able to get away from me and I failed to fire the Utopia Shard after draw (I was going to fire it the following turn). I mustered what I could to run the remote, assuming the game was over. I saved enough to get in with 10 credits and ended up having to Psi Game through Caprice and Batty, and somehow pulled out the win on both for the win. Holy shit I didn't deserve that win, and mad props to Greg for that game.

In the finals, I got to corp first and got the perfect hand to kill him in 4 turns.

Grand Finals Game 2 v. ETF

I had to find ProCo, but at least I kept enough credits to get in on possible scores. I won a Psi game to trash his Caprice and score an ABT, and then I just turtled. He scored an ABT behind an Ash when I was low, but opted not to fire it without a Jackson. In the end, three Technical Writers all with more than 10 credits made sure I had enough gas to get in the remote no matter what, and with time ticking down, he installed and hoped I didn't have a way to trash Lady. Spoiler alter: I did.

Edit: Mis-remembered Round 3 game. It was against FA Paywall Sol.