Cybernetics Division, v. 0

I enjoyed my Industrial Genomics deck, but I figured it was time to move on. I was tentatively planning to do a Replicating Perfection deck, or maybe some sort of NBN, but then I looked at the new data pack, and realized that Cybernetics Division, Self-Destruct Chips, and Ryon Knight could be fun to build a deck around. Which would, of course, mean that I’d be building another kill deck! But at least with a different identity, and this time I’d try keeping it down to the minimum (well, 44 cards) instead of bloating it up, and I’d try leaving a real possibility for an agenda win.

Here’s the initial version:

Cybernetics Division

Cybernetics Division: Humanity Upgraded

Agenda (10)

• 3x Accelerated Beta Test
• 3x Project Vitruvius
• 3x Self-Destruct Chips
• 1x Utopia Fragment

Asset (13)

• 3x Adonis Campaign
• 2x Cerebral Overwriter
• 2x Jackson Howard • •
• 2x PAD Campaign
• 2x Project Junebug • •
• 1x Ronin ••••
• 1x Sundew •••

Upgrade (2)

• 2x Ryon Knight

Operation (7)

• 3x Biotic Labor
• 3x Hedge Fund
• 1x Restructure

Barrier (4)

• 2x Eli 1.0
• 2x Heimdall 1.0

Code Gate (5)

• 1x Checkpoint ••
• 2x Hourglass
• 2x Turing

Sentry (3)

• 1x Cortex Lock ••
• 2x Ichi 1.0

15 influence spent (max 15)
18 agenda points (between 18 and 19)
44 cards (min 40)
Cards up to Chrome City

Pretty obvious ideas: the identity and Self-Destruct Chips whittle down hand size, Cerebral Overwriter and Ryon Knight are there as traps to help with that process, Heimdall and Ichi might be windfall brain damage (but probably won’t), Ronin is there to provide a potential kill on my turn, and Junebug is there to provide a potential kill on their turn. (And I guess Cortex Lock can do that too; it’s also there because I’m going for a fast game, and Cortex Lock is cheap and is disproportionately powerful at the start.)

Checkpoint may dissuade some runs, and there are various pieces of ice designed to get the runner to waste their clicks, to activate Ryon Knight, and to just plain be tough / expensive to break. And there are a decent number of economy cards, and Biotic Labor plus three-point agendas to use them on. (I’m not sure whether I’m going to want to biotic out the Self-Destruct Chips early to let me put hand pressure or biotic out the two-pointers to help me win.) It’s low on ice in general: my feeling is that I want enough ice to let me score in the early game while the runner is setting up their rig, and then I’ll place a few more strategic pieces of ice to let me survive into the middle game, but if the game goes on for a long time then I’ll have lost.

I was hoping that there’s enough uncertainty about the meaning of both unadvanced cards and double-advanced cards for me to be able to bait the runner into wrong decisions.

I’ve tried it out twice so far, and my initial conclusion is: it’s definitely workable. I won both of those games, even though in both my opponent had cards to increase his hand size. (There seem to be a lot of those out these days, it seems like an area where FFG is actively exploring the design space.) One was through a flatline, the other was my first corp win via agenda points in more than two months. In particular, the number of ice actually turned out to be reasonable, and the amount of economy was also reasonable: I wasn’t swimming in money, but I had enough, and I did a reasonable job of having my scoring server alternate between agendas and Adonises. (And, uh, the occasional trap.)

I have no idea why I chose Utopia Fragment as my 3-point agenda: in this deck, its ability will almost never be relevant. And I don’t think Checkpoint is a good idea; maybe I’ll just swap that for a second Cortex Lock? I doubt that I will stick with two each of both Hourglass and Turing, but I don’t yet have a good feel for how those will play out in practice. (In particular, to what extent they will activate Ryon Knight; incidentally, another question is whether I should find room for a third copy of him.)

After my previous deck, one Ronin doesn’t feel like enough. Also, Sundew is a little too tempting / vulnerable to last long. So I may make changes that take one or both of those into account.

Cerebral Overwriter remains one of my favorite cards.