Bloom Nobly, Ink Black Cherry Blossoms

Everfree616 588

"Lure with bait. Strike with Chaos."

Konpaku!

Escalation is finally here and with it come a slew of new and exciting cards. Least of which due attention has been given to Jinteki: Potential Unleashed. Thousand cuts has never been a great strategy after all. As a dedicated Blacktree player I will be the first to postulate that a good PE player builds the kill. They don't wait for it to happen over time.

However, playing JU (I refuse to call it PU because I'm too much of a child to be able to take it seriously) for the first time it feels like the thousand cuts method is a kill that can be built. Thus far I've ran this deck through a 12-0 win streak on Jinteki.net against the likes of Dumblefork and Temujin Andy. The ID works a lot faster than it might appear at first and Runners will either have to approach slowly or risk losing vital cards that can hit their tempo something fierce.

You see the key to milling is not to take out all of their cards, that will come naturally, but merely to take out the cards that matter most. Losing just one of their vital breakers can send an unprepared runner into complete disarray. And personal experience has taught me that chaos and Jinteki go very well together. So how does the deck work exactly?

Your economy is tight given your rez costs. Sundews are mostly there to bait reckless runs into dangerous ice and, being Jinteki, Siphon and Vamp are a very real danger. As such I've forgone the inclusion of Snare! for the much more humble Shock! instead. Shock! utilises the ID just as well without a four credit price tag and the goal isn't to flatline, it's to disrupt.

Standard Jinteki kill tricks are online such as the ever versatile Komainu kill and the deck boasts a more versatile damage suite thanks to the inclusion of DNA Tracker which is just as good as it appears. So much so I'm considering dumping Tsurugi for a second one.

Hostile Infrastructure is an MVP as the runner will have to make a difficult decision. Gut their own deck or allow you to make a ridiculous amount of credits. The smart ones will trash them. That's part of the plan. The more cautious ones won't. That's even better.

Finally Ark Lockdown serves as the final word in ensuring the enemy cannot recover from a devastating hit. Paperclip, Levy and other vital cards that either aid with recovery or provide a false sense of security with singleton includes can prompt opponents to concede there and then. Either grind them down to a slow and painful flatline or score behind an impenetrable server. There's a certain cruelty to scoring out the Future Perfect behind Vanilla against an Anarch whose lost all their Parasites and barrier breakers.

Jackson isn't just for agendas. Use him to recur your Ark Lockdowns and Bio-Ethics Associations. Speaking of which, don't hesitate to rez those as soon as you can. 2 cards, 2 credits and a click is well worth the investment. Especially when you can just bring them right back. Crisium of course helps keep those pesky criminals at bay, either protecting against Siphon or shutting down an ill-timed Temujin. Keyhole can be a bother against Anarch too.

Those are the basics. With that out of the way, I feel it's time to address the elephant in the room. I'm sure many of you have been thinking it and at first it seems like pure common sense - why not just play Chronos Protocol instead, right? I mean, if the goal is disruption surely the ability to pick the card you trash yourself is extremely valuable AND you have an extra 3 influence to play around with. It's just... better.

Wrong. Chronos Protocol is disruptive, true, but it is not chaotic. You might think you're the one choosing which card ends up in the bin, and occasionally it's true, but by and large, your opponent is the one who gets to choose what cards are worth risking and which aren't. They have the option to stop and play a truly vital card before making a run - the primary trigger for most net damage cards bar a select few - and they get prior notice as to what the stakes are before they make that run. Got a Levy in hand? Yeah, that's going to stay there until a Same Old Thing is on the table unless a run absolutely needs to happen.

But with JU, that's simply not the case. The opponent has no control over what gets dumped. There's no chance to mitigate or make sure a card is safe short of wasting click after click drawing for it. And, hey, guess what kind of win condition overdrawing opens up for us.

JU is for real. Don't believe the naysayers. This ID can cut a good game plan to ribbons.

12 comments
17 Oct 2016 cortexjackal

What are your thoughts on Aiki instead of Yagura? Other than that, it looks pretty nice. How are you liking the econ?

17 Oct 2016 MrHuds0n

You lured me with the title. 2hutards (::

I quite like this one though.

18 Oct 2016 AsteriskCGY

Hey that's a Youmu

18 Oct 2016 Everfree616

@cortexjackal I've actually been playing around with Aiki just recently and it's a fantastic replacement. I originally went for Yagura as the deck seemed naturally quite porous and felt the deck manipulation would help without compromising the net damage but that really doesn't seem to be an issue. So, yes, Aiki is usually a better use of the deckslot.

Econ can be tight at times but there's usually enough to sit pretty comfortably for the majority of the game. Bar dedicated Siphon spam I never really found myself bankrupt. Even then Sweeps and Gift can turn things around in a pinch. The operation econ allows you to bounce back from a bad position and also means you don't choke against Whizzard while the drip either makes for a nice, steady income and lets you punish the runner with Hostile Infrastructure. The Infrastructures and the big ice are really the only heavy spends as well and the deck actually performs solidly with around 6+ credits on a given turn.

Ideally you want to burst early so you can get your drip and Infrastructures online at which point you're usually set for the game. Either the runner will meticulously run your defensive assets first and then your money assets giving you a huge credit swing or vice versa which accelerates your game plan. Or they ignore them and you can just swim in credits. You might want to protect one or two with cheap ice if you don't get a nice burst early on though.

@Protégé and @AsteriskCGY I couldn't resist. : ) The name seemed very fitting though.

18 Oct 2016 Everfree616

Changes to the deck:

-1 Tsurugi, -2 Yagura, +1 DNA Tracker, +2 Aiki

18 Oct 2016 Inermis

Why only 2 Hostile Infrastructure? I think this is the Key card to this concept. Runners can break ice, but they need to trash BioEthics/Hostile.

How Sundew is working for you? I was considering It, but decided to dump because I do not want to rez it before HI on the table, so I need credits to rez HI first.

Also I use Tech Startup to setup faster.

18 Oct 2016 MrHuds0n

I've played a bit of this and I gotta say the Sweeps Week is the most underwhelming card in this deck probably. I haven't ever had a situation when the opponent had 5 cards in their hand bar the opening turn.

Would probably replace them with some other kind of econ, maybe beanstalks or clearances.

18 Oct 2016 killj0y

@Protégé I agree, that was my first thought on seeing this deck also. Decks that rely on damage output would seem to be a poor choice for sweeps. But I think there's a "know your opponent" portion of the process here. When the runner sees your ID they are going to change their run/draw behavior fairly drastically. Anytime a butchershop or thousand cuts deck hits the table the number of cards you want to keep in your hand goes up radically. If you're playing against a non-damage dealing deck you might hold 5 cards in your hand just because. If you're thinking about having to guard against a ronin, neural katana, shock or snare then you're likely to hover closer to 4 while you're running and end your turn by adding more cards.

Jinteki isn't going to output Boom! levels of damage on the corp turn but the runner still has to wonder about a 3x Neural EMP turn. So you have to weigh if a sweeps for 4 credits is actually worth the inclusion.

Since we still want runs to occur to put people into the position of taking more damage I would pull them anyway and add a third sundew and maybe something wild like Genetics Pavilion

20 Oct 2016 Myriad

@killj0yI dunno... isn't the idea to grind them to dust and land the Neurals to secure a flatline? Or throw stuff in the garbage and close out a game by tossing a clinch breaker?

I just don't see Genetics being worth a slot. I would much rather include Ronins, go up to 54 and include museums or throw in snares.

20 Oct 2016 killj0y

@Myriad I wasn't talking about tossing a damage dealing card in favor of the pavilion. If anything quite the opposite. If the runner is restricted to only drawing two cards an we can get a net of 3 damage a turn from various sources you're going to get that kill much faster. Including it as a one of means it's not key to any kind of combo or pressure, it's simply something that once again forces the runner to make the decision to keep a much lower hand size than they'd like or go get rid of it which might entail dealing with Hostile Infrastructure House of Knives and whatever ice you decide to stick in front of it. You're looking at a must trash card that will net you another chance for 3-5 damage and another 3-5 mill off the deck. In exchange for a card that might net you 3 credits if you're lucky.

31 Oct 2016 Everfree616

After playing with the deck for some time now there are definitely improvements to be made. My list has changed a lot over the last couple weeks and I'll probably update it once it sees some real competitive play in November. The core of the deck is still the same but now that people have figured out how to play against the ID it's become a lot clearer as to what needs fine tuning in order to make it tick.

22 Nov 2016 LordRandomness

That fight was a pain in the ass, but what annoyed me the most was dying stupidly in the first 5 seconds of Resurrection Butterfly and then perfecting the rest of the spell card. Like, goddamit.

Oh and I guess the deck is good too.