The Professor, Redux

.... and, as inexpert as I am, I think I've finally got a Professor deck worth playing.

So the Prof generally suffers from the problem that he's not focused like other runners are; his general ability never seems to be so useful that you can't build whatever concept you've got better in another face. However, with the recent datapacks, I think that's changed.

Like all good professor concepts, this one is all about the swiss-army-knife approach. Its core breakers are Sunny's - they're powerful as all heck, if a little credit-intensive - but they're cloud, and will free up valuable MU as your link comes online. Backing those breakers up are piles of options:

From shaper, we're pulling in Hyperdrivers, opus, Leprechauns, SMC and the kingpin: DaVinci. Analog dreamers comes along as another tool in the box (one i've found startlingly useful, actually).

DaVinci is the real star - it enables you to install, just like SMC, out-of-hand on the fly or on the corp turn, /and/, on top of that, doubles as an economy card. DaVinci can give you a hyperdriver from your hand before your turn begins, letting you swing into a seven-click turn for setup or cash with no warning to the corp exactly when you wish... without burning up your SMCs. It can let you plan your strategy without requiring in-hand installs, and those credits can be used for literally anything - it's a program version of a Personal Workshop, in many ways, that loads when you're running. Howabout a free toolbox, or the first rabbit hole? Need that underworld contact for free before your turn begins? If it's in hand, it's yours.

From Anarch, we're going to bring in the primary 'tools' of the toolbox: Imp for cheap destruction, Medium and Nerve Agent for multiaccess, Surfer because /geez/ is that card interesting for an emergency access on a deeply iced server, and Trope - which will give us some much needed, very targetted late-game recursion in place of Levy.

Criminal gives us Sneakdoor Beta and Snitch - the latter for making face-checking trivial, the former for altering our options late-game when everything's calcified.

For ducking the everpresent meat damage combos, I've chosen to go with link over plascretes - the deck can develop a link of 5 fairly trivially, with the help of DaVinci. This has the added bonus of turning on the Underworld Contacts as well as making those cloud breakers mu-less.

(Oh, that I could include security chips... but those are for another deck.)

The coup-de-grace in the deck is Escher - never underestimate the ability to, late-game, reset the ice to a board state utterly advantageous to you.

The idea behind piloting this monstrosity is to focus on what you need /now/, preserving as much of your deck as you can for later. Your early setup should be to look for your breakers with a DaVinci out early, accumulating counters as you see what the corp's throwing out for you. SMC or Test Running Snitch will make face-checking absolutely painless, if that's a fear, and it can always be Scavenged into something else when it's less useful. Look for the Rabbit Holes or a Toolbox, and let that be your guide for the all-important early two link.

Once your console is up - two link, your cloud breakers, and Opus - preferably with a leprechaun or two and your DaVincis filling back up, you'll have to chose your best vector. Sneakdoor + Nerve Agent? NEH countered by Analog Dreamers? Hard Medium runs with the Hyperdriver to pull in up to seven virus counters.. and an Imp to make them go that much farther? You literally have the flexibility to play as a version of any other runner's core strategy - and it can be brutal.

Plus... you've got Scavenge. Scavenge your imp to get the counters back, or Scavenge something underperforming to free that spot up for something that will work far better.

Kati and UC fill in the gaps on econ, while Opus keeps you flush - and the latter combos well with Hyperdriver to have 'mega turns' - what corp wouldn't fear a runner that suddenly ripped in 10 credits and still had two clicks left to spend?

And yes, it's possible to have a single, tremendous turn - one with TEN clicks. Aaand.. you can do that several turns in a row, if your clone chips and DaVincis conspire on your behalf.

It's possible that I'll remove a utility item for another Hyperdriver - Surfer is a likely candidate.

It's worth noting, too, that this deck uses 25 influence - if you count the shaper programs, it literally can't be done with any other runner.