"Donors Wanted"

Once again the holiday season is upon us, the time of giving. In that spirit I've decided to share this gem of a stack with my fellow Runners.

10 Bodyweight Synthetic Blood
3 MIT West Tier
3 Temple Microcode Outlet

4 Organ Donor
4 Livewire's Contacts
4 Score!

1 Loony Goon
1 Jackhammer
1 Codecracker

1 R&D-Protocol Files
1 Microtech AI Interface
1 Bodyweight Data Creche

1 Promises, Promises
1 Inside Job
1 Valu-Pak Software Bundle
1 Priority Wreck
1 Executive Wiretaps

2 Militech MRAM Chip
4 Identity Donor

This stack was inspired by Ed Chen's tournament reports. Reading them, I felt the deck was interesting so I decided to design my own version. Since the reports were sketchy about actual card contents my stack does not exactly match what he plays. But that is where the stack shines, it does not require an exact balance of cards to run well. A couple cards can change and it ends up playing fairly differently yet still perform well.
 

The Cards


"Donors Wanted" runs off the classic Bodyweight Synthetic Blood and MIT West Tier card engine, providing a lot of card drawing power. In fact, there are more than enough Bodyweights to draw the entire stack. Barring difficulties getting the first one, I almost never have to draw single cards. That will rarely be a problem since there should be at least one in the opening five cards about 80% of the time. The Temple Microcode Outlets are very important to get the icebreaker suite quickly. Against fast advancement Corporations, you need to go A1: run the fort, A2: TMO for the right breaker, A3: install it, A4: run and get in. Using the Short Circuit instead leaves you an action short unless it was already installed; in which case the Corp would not have taken that risk. The MITs are needed since the purely prep-based bit engine could otherwise run dry.

This version runs more bit gainers than it needs. But when do you ever hear a Runner complain about having too many bits? Being able to gain this many bits allowed me to keep up with a Rent to Own Siren Corp when making the Siren runs totaled more than 100 bits. The Organ Donors are necessary since they can dispose of those excess BSBs and other useless cards, such as TMOs once all the programs are found. The number of Score! and Livewire's Contacts is a bit much and you have to sell some of them off if you plan to use every Organ Donor to maximum capacity. The excess of the bit gainers could be considered to be in the utility section and swapped for other utility cards.

The breaker suite is one of my favorite parts of the stack. While I do not consider Bartmoss cheesy, I prefer other breakers. Regardless, Bartmoss doesn't fit in well here. The stack thrives on efficiency. If Joan returns twice, the installation action and bit cost is worst than the setup here, and Valu-Pak cannot help with the action part. If Bartmoss ever gets trashed, you need to MIT and start drawing just to be able to run again, wasting a lot of time. Bartmoss also isn't the best for speed when you need it the most, against Psycho Tycho. Getting Jackhammer and Codecracker is two bits cheaper than Bart and Joan and freely runs against Psycho Tycho using just Data Walls and Filters. In any case, unless the Corp only uses sentries, this suite will eventually make up the cost difference.

The R&D-Protocol Files and Microtech AI Interface combo is one of the safest ways for the Runner to win by agenda points. There is no chance of accessing any nasty ambushes from R&D and at the same time, the Corp is prevented from drawing agendas himself. The R&D-Protocol Files are also a useful scouting tool before the Interface is installed. The Bodyweight Data Creche is mostly there to save an action when using the combo but also lets you keep tabs on archives. The program setup also requires one extra MU that the Creche provides.

Utility cards give "Donors Wanted" its flexibility. Since those cards are not required for the stack to function, those slots can be filled with almost any useful cards. This way even if the Corp deduces what style of Runner he is up against, a number of surprises still waits. I would recommend keeping the Promises, Promises and Valu-Pak Software Bundle but the rest can be changed.

The last few cards round out the deck. Identity Donors are perhaps the best form of bag protection. Since there are no resources anyway, tags are not much of a problem. IDs are ideal since you do not waste an action installing them if they are not needed. They can provide a secondary victory route if the Corp keeps on trying to blow your brains out. The MRAM Chips smooth out the BSB/OD engine, allowing you to hold extra cards on turns when you are not ready to sell your organs yet but are holding more than five cards from the Bodyweights. They also defend against all sorts of damage by allowing a larger buffer of cards to lose before flatlining.
 

Comments


Gaining bits and getting the cards you need quickly are the strong points of this stack, letting the Runner put pressure on the Corp early and not letting up. It is not focused on locking the Corp up or taking a long time to setup, so you get to play the deck, not just follow some rote formula on how to play. It has a larger factor of interaction than many other top-notch Runner stacks making it more fun to play and play against. The utility cards allows the deck to be customized for the playing style of the individual Runner and tuned slightly against whatever Corps are expected to be most prevalent.

The setup does have some downsides to what utility is available. Since the MU is set up with no room to spare, using other programs as utility cards means you have to waste a utility spot on MU. Due to the way it deals with bag protection, almost all resources are also out.

The deck is somewhat rare heavy so it is not available to everyone. A lot of those hard to get cards can be replaced with easier to acquire cards and still keep the concepts of the deck. In fact, when I last played this in a tournament, I had to substitute several cards, not having enough BSBs, ODs, or IDs at the time. It still performed well enough to win all my Runner games.
 

From: Temple Microcode Outlet (Benjamin Ford)