Humans will probably never get used to the lunar sunrise, arriving suddenly without twilight to herald it. In contrast, the new solar furnace adjusts in an instant. In a fluid, choreographed motion, the elements of the lattice immediately adjust themselves to focus the Sun’s rays. The lack of atmosphere allows the furnace to reach operating temperatures at a speed and consistency unattainable on Earth. The sunrise also reveals two letters stamped on the furnace: HB. They form the mark of Haas-Bioroid, the megacorporation whose exacting standards are required to create such complex and delicate marvels of engineering on the Moon.
Haas-Bioroid: Precision Design
Identity: Megacorp
Minimum deck size: 40 – Influence: 15
You get +1 maximum hand size.
Whenever you score an agenda, you may add 1 card from Archives to HQ.
Not an Atom Misplaced.
Illustrated by Emilio Rodriguez
Haas-Bioroid’s System Gateway identity evokes classic HB cards like Archived Memories and Team Sponsorship, with a hint of Cerebral Imaging. For me, this encourages a deck style I very much enjoy playing: a proactive scoring plan which uses temporary tools fearlessly. You try to score aggressively and recur the cards used to help score.
So how do you build such a deck? The immediate answer for me was a fast-advance strategy. Fast-advance is a strategy of installing and scoring an agenda from hand in a single turn, without ever leaving it out in a remote for the Runner to check. During playtesting, I made a deck that spent most of its influence on Dedication Ceremony and Reconstruction Contract for cheap fast-advances. I also included Red Level Clearance so I could score 4-advancement agendas from hand. The increased hand size is a bonus when you want to hold multiple cards in your hand for a powerful combo turn.
However, one does not have to rely on out-of-faction cards for fast-advance. For example, MCA Austerity Policy with Jeeves Model Bioroids allows you to fast-advance a 3-advancement agenda, return Austerity Policy to your hand, reinstall it, and click it again (what German Runners might recognize as UUUUND NUTZEN) to give the Runner a two-click turn.
But Precision Design can do more than just fast-advance. With HB’s new Seamless Launch, you can never-advance with the faction’s signature efficiency–that is, install an agenda without advancing it, making it look like an asset or an upgrade, and scoring it the turn after. You can also recur Border Controls trashed when protecting agendas. But I am most interested in what Precision Design might do with Jinteki’s Anoetic Void, where the identity’s recursion and increased hand size produces a very strong defensive tool…
Fitting for a corporation known for their engineering masterworks, Haas-Bioroid’s new identity is full of potential, just waiting for inventive players to put its tools to use. I’m sure players will come up with many more fun synergies with Precision Design, and I look forward to seeing them.
System Gateway and System Update 2021 will be released on or shortly after March 28, 2021, as physical cards via NISEI’s print-on-demand partners and pay-what-you want files for downloading and printing at home!
