Tennin's Arcology

Toomin 1183

EDIT: I played 3 games on stream with this deck Watch them here

Tennin's Arcology

An exploration of Tennin Institute's power

There have been a few decks around that have looked at some options for using Tennin's power to its full effect. I haven't seen any that abuse Haas Arcology AI as a fast advance mechanism yet.

Key Deck Concepts

  • Taxing all the way. We want to have as many turns as possible where the runner can't run, which allows us to use our ID ability. The most important taxing cards are Tollbooth, Eli 1.0, Inazuma, Wall of Thorns, and Caprice Nisei (which forces multiple remote runs)
  • Use your ID ability to place an advancement token on Haas Arcology AI (which can be done even when rezzed), then use the token to score agendas from hand. By placing Haas Arcology AI in a taxing server instead of an agenda, you gain all of the benefits (scoring next turn), with none of the risk of putting an agenda down.
  • Trick of light to agendas from other installed cards is a back up plan, but also works just fine in many situations.
  • This is a Fast Advance (score from hand) deck, but is not a Rush (finish the game quickly) deck.

Playstyle

  • Try to ice up both HQ and R&D with ice like Eli 1.0, Yagura, Pup, Rainbow and create 1 taxing remote which you will be using to put Haas Arcology AI, Caprice Nisei, or agendas into (if you identify an appropriate timing window). Your remote will ideally have 2 or 3 pieces of ice and will cost a lot to get through. Archives can be lightly protected (maybe 1 piece of ice), with a Shock! dumped in there asap.
  • Gila Hands Arcology is important for your economy, so scoring one early is important.
  • During the early stages of the game, don't be afraid to not rez central ice and allow accesses if it benefits your mid-term aims like getting a Celebrity Gift or Hedge Fund played the next turn. Exception: if you're agenda flooded in HQ or for special runs like Indexing or Siphon.
  • If you suspect siphon, just make HQ expensive to get into so that they don't profit from siphons, then use Gila Hands Arcology and Celebrity Gift to recover once the pressure has abated. I don't usually feel it necessary to use Caprice Nisei on HQ as it often serves your remote better, but use your judgement and adjust for each game.
  • Interns is stunning in this deck. The most important cards to use it on are Caprice Nisei and Haas Arcology AI.
  • Don't be afraid to manually advance a facedown Haas Arcology AI if they're making too many successful central runs. This forces an expensive remote run and either opens up a regular scoring window, or one using a different mechanism once they're poor.
  • Trick of Light can either be used on its own to score 3 advancement agendas, or in combination with Haas Arcology AI to score Nisei MK II or the first Medical Breakthrough.

Weaknesses

  • Decks with very strong economy and efficient breakers. If they can ensure a successful run every turn, it may be tough to tax them to the point that they can't keep running. Aim to place and rez more ice on the servers its needed.
  • Successful/cost effective Account Siphon recursion. This is a weakness of most decks. Make HQ expensive to get into and use Caprice Nisei if necessary.
  • Ice destruction. These decks will make it tough to keep your centrals taxing. Use Interns (and then Jackson Howard to return Interns to your deck), to return destroyed ice to play where you need them most.

Potential Adjustments and Alterations

Additional Notes

  • After completing the deck, I discovered that someone had made use of the idea here, so props to Chicken Slayer!
7 comments
10 Aug 2014 wswan

This is cool cool cool. What a good catch. Definitely impressive. I would almost swap Eli for Ice Wall, though, as it's so useful for Tennin.

11 Aug 2014 aermet69

I'm with wswan here. Advancing Ice Wall can make it just as taxing or more, than Eli 1.0 and works with Trick of Light. Gila Hands Arcology seems fine over Unorthodox Predictions as I see that card more as a tool in IAA type Tennin. Looks really cool, nice with Haas Arcology AI. I think I'd personally try and find room for one more Shock! to shore up that Archives run earlier or heavilier.

11 Aug 2014 paulxthompson

This is nice - very interesting - thanks for the introduction to Gila Hands Arcology - a card that i'd not really noticed yet :-)

11 Aug 2014 divadus

To mimic what others are saying, I do think swapping Eli for Ice Wall seems like a pretty decent play. As taxing (and generally fantastic) as Eli typically is, Atman at 4 is poised to chew through almost the entirety of your ice suite, with a single Datasucker token. That said, using Arcology AI in Tennin is pretty sweet synergy and impressively creative deckbuilding, so props for that.

12 Aug 2014 AkAnderson

I've been playing a lot of Tennin lately and I really like your ideas. Having played both with and without Icewall I must say that I believe it's necessary to the ID. Being able to save those tokens for later in case the runner does consistently get in is huge. It's also not uncommon in my games to bump one up to 8, just to stop the Knight. Really innovative, though, thanks for sharing.

14 Aug 2014 Dydra

This is the first Jinteki deck that I see here in months, that utilizes something original. Of course I'll mod it for my meta and playstyle, but the idea is definitely interesting, thanks.

19 Aug 2014 Pazuzu

How about a single Hudson 1.0 for the scoring remote to protect caprice? More taxing than Eli.