Cybernetics Division: Humanity Upgraded

Cybernetics Division: Humanity Upgraded

Identity: Division
Deck size: 40 • Influence: 15

Each player's maximum hand size is reduced by 1.

Define Yourself.
Illustrated by Greg Semkow
Decklists with this card

Chrome City (cc)

#50 • English
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Chrome City
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Reviews

Welcome to the new HB dream: scored Self-Destruct chips, player hits a Gyri Labyrinth, and end of turn you rez Chairman Hiro for the win.

As anyone who's played a brain damage deck knows, getting brain damage to stick, especially enough to win, is hard. Most existing builds I know of that work try and land a chunk of BD (via edge of world, overwriter) and then rely on something like Neural EMP / Ronin / Junebug / Counterstrike to finish the job. I don't see that strategy changing, but this ID promises to make it even easier to set up that BD->kill threat, a strat supported by the new HB agenda (Self-Destruct Chips) and complimented by Ryon Knight (who dissuades running last click, which is when you need to run if you have to draw 3 after taking damage).

That hand size limit will definitely hurt the corp - hand destruction (like Wanton Destruction, Utopia Shard, and Itinerant Protestors) becomes even more potent when you only have four slots to hide agendas, and Legwork has a 3/4 chance of seeing that singleton you've kept there. I see this ID running some sort of agenda-stealing punishment (like Punitive. Midseasons) just to captialize on that fact. Or, they could invest in HQ upgrades. Research Station + Panic button, anyone? :)

One last thing. Anarch gain a lot of powerful tools (Amped Up, Stim Dealer) that give them brain damage in O&C, and Stimhack remains popular. Brain damage decks get better as these BD-inflicting cards again popularity. Then again, if this kind of HB archetype does become successful, expect to see singleton Brain Cages, and maybe even a Public Sympathy or two.

(The Source era)
Great review, it would be perfect if you added links to all the cards you mention. All you have to do to achieve this is to add a # before the card names. (when editing, then also arrow to the right across the card name and choose the card from the list.) —
"Jake Bullet, Cybernetics." "That's traffic control." —

So yeah I guess you guys have already read a dozen reviews about this ID. So I have no intention of repeating all the brain damage, hand size, etc. stuff that others have captioned in detail before me, I want to give my very specific 2 cents to this card.

I think a 40/15 ID is meant to be played aggressive. Self-Destruct Chips is an easy to score agenda (being an HB 3 pointer) which has such a good synergy with CD. So the basic idea is to be FAST on this one. Well fortunately there is a pretty nice ICE setup that is very strong early game, especially in a 40 card deck: GRAILS!

Since you have the 15 influence you can spend 9 on grails, 3 on Jackson and you still have 3 more influence left to spend. Does HB need to splash econ? Nope. Do you need to splash ICE to support 9 grails, 3 Eli 1.0, Turing and/or Architect? Probably not. So here is what we splash: 2x Research Station and a "mandatory" Crisium Grid. Research Station supports grail tactics, negates the ID's drawback.

So what do we do? Fast score at least 1 Self-Destruct Chips to have the runner down -2 hand size ASAP and prepare to kill with a double Merlin. The runner can run into any of the 3 ICE types and be hit by 4 net damage. Unless he has all 3 breakers out grail ice will always be a threat! And we even have Corporate Troubleshooter to get that one ICE up in strength so we can hit that 2x2 net damage!

Enjoy!

(Chrome City era)
99
Why didn't you just make the deck instead of writing it as a review? —
This hypothetical deck can now be even better through the inclusion of cybernetics court over research station. huzzah! —

Potentially a very interesting ID but it's worth considering that it will exist alongside cards such as Beach Party and Brain Cage which will quickly negate the -1 hand size for the runner.

The increased agenda density in HQ is also a cause for concern but otherwise shows promise of being able to place a runner under early pressure in the face of net / brain damage threats.

(Order and Chaos era)

A very exciting ID, most notably for its 40 card deck size and full influence. Perhaps a new home for Deadcoats. The question is, how will we mitigate the loss of Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future 's extra credit every turn?

(The Source era)
174