Philotic News Cycle

moondark89 196

Total Jinteki Shell game deck. Can play Fast Advance, using a Project Junebug as your Trick of Light token holder, Medical Breakthrough + Media Blitz for a potential one advancement, 2 point Agenda, never ending House of Knives pings with 24/7 News Cycle and Genetic Resequencing, occasionally turning into Brain Damage with Tori Hanzō. Line them up for the ultimate KO with Philotic Entanglement and a subsequent 24/7 News Cycle or two for the finish.

Jinteki: Personal Evolution + Snare!s should slow the Runner down enough to allow you the relatively short set-up.

This deck is very light on ICE. Aim to score out an early House of Knives and install Tori Hanzō on centrals to seriously dissuade the Runner from central runs. Install ICE sparingly on remotes (and possibly a Yagura in front of R&D), comboing Chum to make those Pups nasty to pass.

The deck is also fairly light on Econ. However, EVERY card is cheap to use/rez (most are 0 - 2 credits). Try to set up a Shell Corporation on an Advanced Project Junebug to start some cashflow.

When you get a House of Knives scored, do not hesitate to start pinging them aggressively on runs, especially if you can land some Tori Hanzō brain damage! Don't hesitate to use 24/7 News Cycle to fill back up a House of Knives when they have run out.

Switch up between installing your small Agendas and the Traps, hitting their first Psychic Field will seriously slow the Runner down.

Mushin No Shin can be used to install a 3 point Agenda, or a Project Junebug for the Flatline, especially when you are low on credits. It is typically best to start using Mushin No Shin after they have seen the first Project Junebug, they will be extremely reluctant to check the Mushin No Shin'ed card after that.

Even having the Runner steal 1 point agendas is not a terrible thing, let them pick up ~3 1 pointers, and you now have a great target for your Philotic Entanglement + 24/7 News Cycle finishing combo! Trick of Light Fast Advance Philotic Entanglement for a solid ~4 net damage. If they do not draw back up next turn, sacrifice an agenda to 24/7 News Cycle to stick them with another Philotic Entanglement for a further ~3 net damage. If they do heal back up, wait until you can grab the Flat Line with 1 or 2 24/7 News Cycle'ed Philotic Entanglement effects! Its a Jinteki Scorched Earth combo that doesn't require Tags!

As with all Flatline tactics, it should never be the solo path to victory. This deck has 3 Trick of Light to fast advance agendas and Medical Breakthrough, which become easier to score as the game progresses. It can actually be advantageous to let the Runner take the first Medical Breakthrough, then use a Media Blitz to make the second Medical Breakthrough a 2/2 Agenda! ?Using the other Media Blitz when you and the Runner have 1 Medical Breakthrough makes the last one 1 advancement point! A 1-advancement, 2 point agenda?!

This deck is hecka fun to play. Make all those big-rig Shapers cry when they find out that most of their breakers are useless against this deck and laugh as you fatally net damage them through their precious Plascrete Carapaces for the Tagless Jinteki Flatline!

8 comments
19 Oct 2015 FarCryFromHuman

You can't have two Media Blitz in effect at once as they are currents, so the lowest you can ever get Medical Breakthrough is a 1/2 (4 - 1 Media Blitz - 2 Medical Breakthrough). Of course, that's no small thing.

My only major concern here is that you won't have enough to trigger your ambushes as you are repeatedly beat into the dirt by Account Siphon/Vamp.

I'd also strongly consider 3x Himitsu-Bako for early agendas.

19 Oct 2015 moondark89

@FarCryFromHuman Thanks for picking up on the Medical Breakthrough error. I wasnt thinking of having 2 Media Blitz active at once, just screwed up the maths ;) Fixed it now.

I think you have have valid concern with the HQ attacks, a reason that setting up the Tori Hanzō + House of Knives defense for centrals ASAP is key. Consider throwing a Swordsman over HQ to further tax the runner.

I did try working Himitsu-Bako into the deck, however I found that after hitting a Project Junebug or Psychic Field, most runners would not run on most of the early installed cards. Its definitely worth keeping in mind and still seeing how I can slot them in somewhere. Perhaps in place of the Media Blitz?

19 Oct 2015 FarCryFromHuman

Media Blitz only has Medical Breakthrough as a target, but it is a really nice combo and I think we are going to see a lot of Employee Strike. Maybe 1x Media Blitz and 1x SanSan City Grid?

20 Oct 2015 ixwt

Perhaps a Shi.Kyū? It will go great with Philotic Entanglement due to the fact it is counted as an Agenda.

20 Oct 2015 moondark89

@ixwt I tried really hard to slot Shi.Kyū in, but I could never really get it to fire reliably in playtesting. Frequently, I didn't want to drop the 3-4 credits required to make it sting, or they poached it out of R&D and there is nothing forcing them to run on Archives for it to stick. Once they hit the first Psychic Field, most opponents rarely run on unadvanced installs anyway...

You're correct that it would pair fantastically with Philotic Entanglement, but I just couldn't get the thing to stick!

20 Oct 2015 moondark89

@FarCryFromHuman That is a good point regarding Employee Strike. That would seriously hamper this decks ability to slow the Runner down and let them run rampant on your small Agendas with very little consequence.

20 Oct 2015 Dydra

Employee Strike and Film Critic will make this deck R.I.P.

20 Oct 2015 sruman

I disagree on the fear of Employee Strike. It is fairly easy for this deck to score an agenda by threatening traps and scoring a 3/1 off the table (often, PE just has one sitting there for awhile to use). I don't see Employee Strike lasting long. imho, although it is a good card, I don't see employee strike making the cut into many competitive decks.