This is going to be hard to do, impossible with just CSS unfortunately. We need to add a feature to the Deck component which has it stay open, that’s the best way for this to be done. I’ll change this to an Idea.

Actually, I talked to a programmer at my office and he helped me achieve my goal.

In an in-line CSS resource, the following code forces the box to stay open:

div.sm-deck-searchwrapper {
display: block !important;
}

And removing the buttons can be achieved by:

div.sm-deck-actionswrapper { display: none !important; }
div.fa.fa-fw.fa-reply.sm-deck-titlebutton { display: none !important; }

I was also able to change the position of the search box and get it to span the length of the page for prominence. Nothing on my page seems to be negatively affected and the deck still works as intended. It’ll still be a good built in feature to have.

Nice work, glad you could get it to work in the interrim! I like being proved wrong