4e you could easily be a mage/decker. Not that I want it, I'd prefer they roll back to SR 1-2(3?) where magically active people had a +2 target number in the matrix, which in later editions would have translated to just a dice pool penalty. Terrible they got rid of it, when they should have continually made a mages interactions with tech harder and harder each edition.
Ehh, I think the Essence tax on required head gear is sufficient. If anything, with the spell Overclock, they're going the other direction, where sufficiently tailored and powerful casting of magic CAN augment technological capabilities. Also makes me think of Cyberzombies with blood magic, another case where mojo (albeit blood mojo) and technology work in tandem.
Its a thematic part of the setting where magic and tech don't mesh well together. I think the rules should reinforce the setting, not ignore it. The spell overclock was a terrible addition for that reason. I never liked how cyberzombies were made but it works better than overclock in that the costs are high enough to show the magic and tech don't work well together. Its cyber zombie for a reason and not just juiced up technomagic cyborg.
Me and Shinobi rarely agree. BUT, on this point we are almost in lock step.
From 1 -3 SR, Magic and tech were mutually exclusive. They just didn't work together - like at all. This separation was so extreme that mages back in the day, had to have separate spells just to attack tech! Elemental Spells suffered a damage stage down, mana spells just didn't work AT ALL.. The only thing you could take was "Wreck" and then each type of vehicle was a separate spell! Thus Wreck Drone, Wreck aircraft, wreck ship, wreck car, Wreck LAV... and so on..
THIS was part of the reason why spirits had Immunity To Normal Weapons... Tech just had no effect on magical constructs. (But, nothing stopped someone from just punching a spirit and using their Charisma in place of Strength - made Faces useful and kept Sams from dump stating!
Good luck getting the team mage to heal your wounds if you were Essence lacking, as that affected the mages target numbers.. "Lets see... you have a Serious wound you say? And you have 0.25 essence you say??? Nothing I can do... I would need to make 4 successes against a target number of 11... and The drain just isn't worth the attempt"
There was a trade off, be awakened and cut off from the technological side of the world; Or, Embrace the technology, and lose your connection to your humanity....
Those were the options a Runner had to gain an edge over the Corps and the Cops.
But, well 4e decided to ditch a lot of the dichotomy that a Dystopian setting brings with it, and moved to a more Trans-humanist tone... And when "tech is the future' is at the core of that vision... along with simplification and rewriting the basic core from the ground up, Small things that matter get missed....
And well Welcome to MagicRun, where the Mage really CAN to anything better then anyone else!