Dr. Lovegood

♦ Dr. Lovegood 2[credit]

Resource: Connection
Influence: 1

When your turn begins, choose 1 of your installed cards. That card loses its printed abilities for the remainder of the turn.

"You look tore up, kid. Have a seat, I'll fire up the arc welder."
Illustrated by Tiffany Turrill
Decklists with this card

Data and Destiny (dad)

#42 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
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Rulings

No rulings yet for this card.

Reviews

This is an exceptionally cool card. I'm worried that what with the obvious synergies between Dr. Lovegood and Adam's directive cards, some of the less intuitive applications will go unnoticed.

Something that is critically important to understand about Dr. Lovegood is that the card is blanked only for the runner's turn, not for the corp's. Here's some applications to think about given that fact:

The Source: With exception of An Offer You Can't Refuse, the runner cannot steal an agenda on the corp's turn, and with the exception of Plan B, the corp cannot score an agenda on the runner's turn. What this means is that if you blank The Source at the beginning of your turn, you no longer are subject the downside of the card (having to pay 3).

Drug Dealer: Because the negative effect (losing 1) occurs at the beginning of the runner's turn and the positive effect (drawing one card) occurs at the beginning of the corp's, using Dr. Lovegood to blank Drug Dealer, much in the same way as The Source, completely removes the drawback.

Donut Taganes: The corp is not going to be playing events on the runner's turn. That would be madness. Using Dr. Lovegood in conjunction with Donut Taganes ensures that the tax on events and operations remains exclusively on the corp's side of the board.

New Angeles City Hall: If you're running against a deck that seems more inclined to SEA Source than Data Raven, using Dr. Lovegood can allow you to steal agendas without trashing New Angeles City Hall on your turn and avoid the SEA Source tag on the corp's.

Here are some cards that have interactions with Dr. Lovegood that do not have to do with the fact that the text box is only blanked on the runner's turn:

Basically any card that has a mandatory loss in exchange for a situational boon. Cards such as Wyldside, Starlight Crusade Funding, and Hard at Work, could all potentially benefit from being turned off once in a while.

A strategically applied Dr. Lovegood to a Stim Dealer could potentially prevent/delay the damaging drawbacks of the card and effectively turn it into a more efficient Haas Arcology AI.

With an Aesop's Pawnshop or Chop Bot 3000 installed, a runner could blank a Muertos Gang Member and sell/chop it, preventing the corp from being able to rez a card for free while still making full use of the positive effect.

Most of the aforementioned is likely completely un-utilizable in a competitive way, and I know that. But that doesn't change the fact that Dr. Lovegood is cool. Mechanically, it explores a really interesting space that, while perhaps not necessarily good, deserves to be thought about.

(Data and Destiny era)
476
is his ability mandatory? feels like it, since there is no "may" —
Yes, but you could choose to blank Dr Lovegood for a turn if nothing else appeals. —
Does this mean a Starlight Crusade deck is finally viable?? :-) —
Well, I ALMOST made an ass of myself by suggesting this be used with The Black File. Of course, when the File's text box blanks the corp wins on the spot if they have 7 or more Agenda points. —
This will be able to be used with the Black File quite effectively, because it means you can leave it out until you really need it, at that point, don't blank the text box, start adding those power tokens and run run run! —
This is possibly true, although it seems inferior to simply not playing the File until you need it...particularly since it loses the element of surprise. Still, I can see that having some utility in some situations. —
It's hard to effectively predict exactly when you need the black file against fast advance. Once the Corp is at 5 points they are threatening to win at any time. If you play the black file against them if might not do anything, but if you have Dr. Lovegood out it's guaranteed to be effective. —
What is the interaction of this with Current cards? Doesn't it allow two (or more) Current cards to be active at the same time? —
I'll answer my own question: Currents are events, events are never installed so Dr Lovegood won't work with Currents. —
I just read this review, and I'm not sure I agree with the fact that you can prevent other "When your turn begins" effects from occuring by blanking the card. I was under the impression that all effects afire at the same time (When your turn begins) and that you just choose the order in which they execute. Am I mistaken ? —
Nevermind what I just asked. The rules clearly state that it would work. I was just under the impresssion it could not because of The Supplier FAQ. —

More importantly with The Source, it also does not self-trash when you steal an agenda (without paying the $3 tax)

Even at one influence, this resource is pretty much never imported out of faction. And almost never used in faction. Is that normal?

The idea of this card is to allow Adam: Compulsive Hacker to blank one of their directive, most probably Always Be Running. So, it is good for that reason. But all this card do is actually mitigate a self imposed disadvantage. Considering that you would have built you deck around the direction that you planned to use (in this example, it would be Always Be Running) then your need for such a card is not great.

Other uses cases are to blank a card on the board that you do want to be activated. Here are some card that could benefit from this.

  • Earthrise Hotel, when you don't want the additional draw for a turn, because you need it in a different turn.
  • Time Bomb, because you want the sabotage to be at the same time as a different action that you are preparing (for example, Chastushka).
  • Clot, to preserve it from getting trashed by a purge (but then it does nothing).
  • Any AI breaker, to not get a tag from IP Block (but not being able to use the breaker).
  • Companions (Paladin Poemu, Mystic Maemi, Fencer Fueno and Trickster Taka) because they are at 3 and you don't want to lose them.
  • Dadiana Chacon, to prevent the damage when you think you'll go to 0 that turn.
  • Lewi Guilherme, to no pay for it for a turn.

While there are some possible benefits, taking a card slow and having to pay 2 (and one influence) it just not worth it for the vast majority of decks.

The art, quote, name and lore is just plain amazing. It is kind of sad that it is for such a weak card. Still, very good design.

(Parhelion era)
4173