Jinteki Surgical Strike

bourgman 34

Deck Overview This deck uses Chronos Protocol as the identity for the purpose of targeting specific cards to snipe when the runner suffers net damage, ideally cards that recycle Archives, card-draw engines, economy, icebreakers, or any other cards that help the runner the ability survive damage. You can substitute Personal Evolution for the identity to do 1 net damage every time an agenda is scored or stolen, but I believe Chronos Protocol is stronger.

Playtest Results On Jinteki.net, this deck went 1-1. The first game was a quick flatline victory. The second game was more of a nailbiter, with Jinteki jumping to an early lead with agendas and completely depleting the runner's deck. It was only a late-game R&D agenda stolen that led to a 8-6 loss on points. It could have easily ended with Jinteki winning on points or flatline, but fun was had by both players nonetheless.

Strategy and Tactics Jinteki firmly believes that Ice is a crutch that should not be heavily depended upon. Use it to keep the runner honest and discourage runs on R&D or HQ. As a general rule, don't use Ice to protect remote servers. Create naked servers with unflinching boldness, look the runner in the eye and say, “your turn. Come at me, bro.” Your safety is not in Ice, but in the threat of damage and agendas that are inherently difficult to steal. You also have Self-Destruct to turn what would be a stolen agenda into potential meat damage.

However, keep a careful eye on your money situation. Snare! requires $4 to trigger. A good runner knows this and will become agressive against vulnerable servers when you're poor. Turtlebacks and Diversigied Portfolio reward the creation of new servers, so go wide and advance slowly. You can leave The Future Perfect in a server for a few turns and the runner will probably assume it's a Snare! Then, you advance it twice and they wonder if it's a Junebug or an Overwriter. On the next turn, you advance the final 3 times and score it, laughing maniacally all the way to the bank.

Neural EMP should be called Neural MVP in this deck. Since Chronos Protocol's identity triggers once each turn, this card allows you to snipe the runner on your turn after they've made a run and hopefully drawn a bunch of cards. The important thing is you get to see all of their cards and pick the one that makes you cringe the most. You definitely want to murder Film Critic or Levy AR Lab Access if ever you see them. That's why it's better to look at a grip of 5 cards than a grip of 2, unless you can Flatline them this turn. The same is true for Bio-Ethics Association, but you have less control over when that triggers.

Museum of History was so important, I made it a 54-card deck just to include it. You'll want to recycle economy events, ambush cards, or agendas that were sacrificed to Self-Destruct. As soon as the runner's turn ends, make sure to rez any assets (like the Museum) that trigger “at the start of your turn” so they fire right away when your turn begins.

Many of Jinteki's agendas have abilities that activate after they're scored, so don't forget to take advantage of them. House of Knives is excellent to trigger at the beginning of a run to see the runner's grip and inform your decisions for the rest of the run. Use Nisei Mk II can end the run as a brilliant bluff. When you end the run, the runner will assume you have an agenda, so they'll run it again only to find an ambush! BWAHAHA! Meanwhile, you get to stab them with Knives on each run.

House of Knives also pairs with Komainu. If a daring runner face-checks Komainu and gets zapped for 1 net damage per card in grip, you can immediately toss the final dagger before they make the jack-out/continue decision and flatline them for the win.

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