Let’s talk about Project Vitruvius
By El-ad David Amir– February 14, 2013
With the fanfare regarding the two recent Runner power houses in Cyber Exodus, it seems to me that this neat Haas-Bioroid Agenda has not been getting the attention it’s due. I’ve been excited about Project Vitruvius since seeing it in the Cyber Exodus preview- I rate it at the same power level as Project Atlas. It opens up several interesting options for its Corp (in addition to the economic gain of recycling Adonis Campaign indefinitely).
Synergy with Accelerated Beta Test and Snare!, and the bane of Noise
Using the Project Vitruvius Counters does not require a Click. This means that you can immediately recover crucial cards (mostly Agendas) after Beta Testing. Even better, you can retrieve a Snare! in delicate moments, making the Runner sweat whenever he runs HQ. Project Vitruvius nullifies Noise’s special ability (as you can rescue Agendas after a Virus dumps them in Archives) and in fact turns the Hacker Extraordinaire into an effective tutoring machine for the Corp; “thank you, dear Runner, for milling my deck! Now I can pick and choose exactly which cards I need”.
Six three-for-two Agendas deck
A three-for-two Agenda sits at a comfortable spot: you can install it, let the Runner ponder whether it’s an Ambush, an Asset/Upgrade, or an Agenda, and then advance x3 and score on the following turn. Such dilemmas are unusually painful with HB’s characteristic Tower of Ice: oftentimes the Runner would prefer not to squander 10+ Credits if there’s a risk of just trashing Melange at the end. As of Cyber Exodus, Haas-Bioroid is the only Corp capable of building a deck with six three-for-two Agendas. This opens up options for fast, early- to mid-game decks in a Corp which has been known for its turtle tendencies thus far.
Store Clicks for later use
Once Biotic Labor hits your Archives, each Counter on Project Vitruvius becomes “4 Credits: gain a Click”. While the trade-off is expensive, it is also repeatable. Someone already posted an idea for a deck with Private Security Force and Project Vitruvius: if the Runner is tagged you can smash him with five or six Meat damage through Counters (and apologies for the original poster, I forgot who you are!). The Clicks can also be used for advancing Agendas, again reinforcing the notion of a fast Haas-Bioroid deck.
Comborific Corp potential
Project Atlas opens up an easier route for Scorched Earth (as you do not need to draw the eponymous card, just download it when needed). Project Vitruvius also has a lot of combo potential through repeated use of one-time Operations. One straight-forward example involves Commercialization: pump an Ice of choice to a high amount of Advancement Counters and then repeatedly rip the reward through Commercialization. Another is Big Brother and Psychographics: if the Runner hazards a single Tag he could quickly find himself burdened with nine. Trick of Light is another candidate for repeated recycling.
The Runner is often filled with dread when Weyland scores an overflowing Project Atlas. I suspect that Project Vitruvius will be much worse: with Atlas you at least know what to expect and how to prepare. Once Haas-Bioroid has set up its abomination, a plethora of unfortunate surprises will follow.
Very good ideas all the way around. Recursing cards out of the Archives/Heap is always very powerful and this card is even more so since it doesn’t require a click to utilize!
If you get bogged down with events or any card that isn’t helpful early game, it’s not quite as rough to discard it as long as you get get off a decently over-powered Vitruvius later to start recycling. I’m also a big fan of Atlas’ing in Snares on HQ runs. This just makes it even more dangerous with the ability to recycle Snares from the Archives as well as pull them from R&D for a very nasty run into HQ.
Don’t forget, you won’t even have to discard down to 5 until the end of YOUR turn, so you can even temporarily overload your hand and try to offload the other cards next turn onto the board so you can keep a Runner-smashing hand for a few turns!
It’s a really versatile agenda. You can score it if you need to, but if you feel safe, you can go for the gold. Excellent.
Anything that can aim at Noise is a good card. It isn’t even that Noise is “better” than other runners — he’s just able to attack you in ways other runners cannot, and the number of cards that can aim at him are few. There are so many great Operation cards you could fetch with a PV counter… even if it is only a Hedge Fund grab, it is really useful.
PV goes extremely well with Aggressive Secretary, IMO.