Sage Spirit V.2

The second incarnation of this deck. So far it's been preforming quite well. It plays very much like a big-rig shaper deck. The goal is to tear through your stack, get set up ASAP and then tear through any ice the corp can rez, it's focus is on unused memory to feed your berakers. So here's how to play it:

Early game: You want to see ekomind as soon as possible. Beach party always finds its way out very quickly but I almost always mulligan for an Ekomind. Unless I'm playing against fast advance I will usually just let the corp score an agenda or two while I'm getting Sage + Ekomind + Beach Party + Overmind set up. You can use the cheap MU (Q-coherence, memstrips) to get out sage/overmind for early runs. But your breakers are most useful mid/late game. If you use Overmind's counters up you can retrieval run later for 9-11 counters.

Mid-Game: This is where you start to hurt. The rig is not quite at full strength but usually the corp is kind of wondering what you're doing and wont see that this is their best time to score. Just keep the faith and get the rig set up.

Late-Game: This is where the corp gives up because they realize that you are back to a full 4 clicks a turn plus pulling in 5 credits (for free) and you have a decoder/fracter at str. 8-11. And ice is costing you only 3-5 credits to get through. Overmind will come back in as your sentry breaker with an average of 10 counters on it and if you play smart you can get into any server. Oh did they just do 6-8 damage to you? No big deal, with 10 cards in your hand you just draw back up (only 7 cards in your stack?) Play Levy then inject and I've had worse your way to victory.

How to set the rig up: You want Ekomind & Beach Party early. It sucks having only 3 clicks midgame but with Inject and I've had worse you will tear through your stack and get Adjusted Chronotype up so it won't matter. If you don't see Ekomind fast then just throw out some memory hardware and make runs that way.

Play data folding as soon as you can. You will have unused MU all game so the sooner it comes out the better. Later you stack Hard at work on there and you're golden.

Breakers: As you can see only 5 breakers. This is good because you need lots of unused MU for this deck. Also only having 5 programs means that Inject is awesome. If you accidentally trash a program with Inject you can pull it back out. I actually love when I trash an early overmind because then I pull it out later and it gets way more counters on it. Mid/Late game these breakers get very potent. Sage is such an unappreciated card, but it truly shines here. Most games it's lowest str. will be 6.

Influence Use: -E3 breaths life into Quetzal, Sage, and Overmind. It's a crucial piece. -Gene Conditioning Shoppe is a late game choice that will allow you to have Hard at Work and Beach Party out at the same time without losing clicks. I also think you could be flexible and roll with 2 beach party or 2 Hard at work (but I'm not sure how the rules work on that). -Levy AR Lab Access. I found that I was tearing through my stack too fast and struggling to keep l0 cards in hand. Especially after taking 6-8 damage and needing to draw up again. -Sage: The deck is built around this card.

Weaknesses: -This deck can be slow. -Econ is tight early game. Day job is there as a midgame boost to help you finish getting set up. -Ekomind can be dangerous. I checked the ruling and Ekomind is your BASE MU, so MU hardware CAN protect sage and overmind from being trashed if your handsize goes down. With that said; if you have Ekomind installed, never let your hand size drop below 2. -Getting set up distracts you from making runs that keep the corp spending money. If you focus to hard on getting set up the corp will gain an economic advantage very fast. This will shift later in the game when they do have to rez all their ice while your netting 5/turn but... be careful. -"Dead Cards": Lots of times you'll feel like you are wasting cards in your hand. But those "dead" cards are supposed to be in your hand for the MU. Don't feel pressured to play them.

46 cards? Seriously Inject and I've had worse are awesome. I usually use Deja Vu to Play inject a few more times. I was actually thinking of going up to 50 cards but can't really decide if that's the best choice.

Feedback is very welcomed.