Librarians do it quietly v0.1

Shiiuga 1266

The idea for this deck is based around the Hayley Kaplan: Universal Scholar/London Library/Overmind combo.

That idea really grabbed me but I wanted to meddle with it a bit. Something I felt was important that seemed not to be included in other decks was an increased hand size. Being able to have a big hand full of the programmes you need to do the damage is nice, and it protects somewhat from the meat damage which mitigates the cutting of Plascrete Carapace from the deck. Anyway, I'm a firm believer that if Weyland want to nuke your grandma, they'll find a way to do it regardless of whether she is wearing the suit of armour you gave her or not, y'know?

Anyway, that's why I've got Box-E in here instead of Comet. Plus the extra 2 MU is pretty helpful for the Overmind stuff.

For econ I've gone in the direction of MOpus because it's an easy LL/Scavenge, as well as Data Folding as only if you go really wrong will you have less than 2 MU at the end of the turn, given that Mopus is generally the only programme that survives a turn one way or another.

Diesel and Game Day are there to beef your hand up when the hand size is up, and they're the main reason that I excluded Test Run from this deck. The tutoring is nice, but it's 'spensive and hopefully drawing consistently and 2x each breaker will mitigate the need.

I expect that Autoscripter and LLDS Processor will do a big job in this deck, meaning you get to knock down 2 programmes at the beginning of a turn for free at +1-3 strength. That is, as they say, a spicy meatball.

The extra icebreakers were chosen to give the deck a bit more in terms of legs, and also to mitigate the possibility of Overmind ending up in the bin. Getting to reinstall Femme Fatale every turn and hand picking your ice is mega sexy, and Torch is a good candidate for a second Scavenge, as there aren't many code gates that will cost it more than a handful of credits to get through, even without the LLDS bonus every turn.

Replicator is a great tutor in a deck that relies a lot on hardware like this, especially as many of the hardware bits stack.

It looks like a big set up is required, but hopefully if you get London Library out early enough you can hopefully apply decent pressure throughout thanks to a decent drip/click econ and build your rig as you go. I think a mulligan for London Library/Overmind is pretty essential.

Standard caveat: I haven't tested this deck yet so I'm fully expecting to get utterly steamrolled by everything. It's tighter than my normal decks, though. Look, mum, no one-ofs!

Thoughts and torrid abuse welcome.

4 comments
28 Apr 2015 trustworthym

I reckon you could drop Game Day, Diesel (maybe) & MOpus in favour of Professional Contacts here. Using London Library and Scavenge to cheat out a MOpus is a three-card combo for something you really want to see early. The tempo hit of ProCo is more of a bummer, but it sits more comfortably with Overmind & makes it easier for you to draw into your combo pieces since you have no tutoring.

While I like the increased hand-size & memory of Box-E for your London Library gameplan, I'd drop Public Sympathy in favour of more econ - Daily Casts sits well with your gameplan, as does possibly an Armitage Codebusting in case you need more bursty econ.

I'd switch one of the Femme Fatales for a Mimic, just because it's so useful against Architect and will save your skin if you hit Swordsman, plus it's easier to hard install to real MU (not London Library) if you're worried about hitting either of those things. That said, without any tutoring, it might not be worth it.

Interested to play against this!

29 Apr 2015 Shiiuga

Played a game last night against Industrial Genomics: Growing Solutions. I lost, but it went fairly decently. The rig got set up pretty quickly, doubly so thanks to being able to install 2 pieces of hardware for one click.

Autoscripter was a particular boon, as it meant that I could get Overmind down for no clicks. I never did install 2 programs in a turn, though. Between Box-E and Akamatsu Mem Chip I was getting 5 Overmind tokens per install, with e3 Feedback Implants meaning I could happily break in to any server they set up if I wanted.

A couple of deep R&D digs put me on 4 points, but Caprice Nisei shut me down in the end as I lost the Psi game on Archives to make the SanSan City Grid reasonably trashable.

The pressure you can put on the corp with this deck is unreal, but in a way I think that was my downfall. It slowed the fast advance right down because my opponent had to worry about protecting his centrals with 3/4 layers of ice, and even then safety wasn't guaranteed. But I should have slowed down a bit myself. I got Overmind out with a decent rig after a few turns and then saw almost none of the rest of my deck because I was too busy running. Perhaps Professional Contacts with more start of turn drip econ is the way forward.

With all the above in mind I have made the following changes:

Out: 3x Game Day, 1x Scavenge, 2x Akamatsu Mem Chip, 1x e3 Feedback Implants, 2x Public Sympathy, 1x Cerberus "Lady" H1, 1x Femme Fatale, 1x Torch, 3x Magnum Opus.

In: 3x Dyson Mem Chip (for the link for UWC), 1x HQ Interface (it would have won me the game), 3x Daily Casts, 3x Professional Contacts, 3x Underworld Contact, 1x Mimic and 1x Overmind.

Never let it be said that I'm afraid to make wholesale cuts. Further testing required.

4 May 2015 lajcik

How are you finding running Underworld Contact in an ID with no Link. Sure, you have Replicator - but it effectively increases the cost of setting up that engine by 5 and 1 additional card. I'm wondering if it's worth the fuss.

4 May 2015 Shiiuga

@lajcik I actually removed that in a later build as the amount it cost to set up with the Dysons meant that it took forever to earn its money back. Data Folding and Daily Casts more than do the job on their own.