Yin - World's Top Ranked PE

Ehill 1832

YIN - Punitive and Personal

This is the top placing PE deck at the 2015 World Tournament

At worlds I finished 24th with 22 prestige: 11 Wins - 4 Losses - 1 Tech Loss (an unfortunate extra HQ access in a runner game)

It went 6-2 on the day as well as 4-1 at King of Servers, our team got 6th.

The only two people to beat it in Words Swiss were Spags and Lucas Li in a pair of intense and brutal matches.

Yin is a vicious and heavy variation of PE that relies on being rich, hard advancing big agendas, and attacking when and where your opponent least expects it. It can kill with net, meat, and brain damage, but most terrifyingly it is reasonable to score out with.

The raw threat this deck wields cannot be understated. One play in-particular has made me notorious in my local meta. I regularly construct multiple 5 advanced remotes, then, simply sit on them, and watch my opponent look for a way out that doesn't exist.

Strategies and Card Choices

Building the Flatline - The deck very rarely kills with only one tool or one type of damage, normally you will find yourself chunking and killing with a mix of angles.

That being said, Punitive Counterstike is the absolute cornerstone of the deck. It is a savage and upsetting card that demands respect from both the user and the target. You should use it any chance you get.

-Two copies cost as much Influence as Scorched Earth

-No Tags required

-It rewards you for running heavier agendas, freeing up vital deckslots

-It crushes unsuspecting players of any caliber (Style points if you [C1-C2] Celebrity Gift reveal the punitive as the last card and then kill them [C3])

-Even when it is seen or expected all of your advanced remotes become explicit threats.

In order to support the counterstrike the deck employs a fairly standard PE trap suite with special mention to the inclusion of Chairman Hiro, and the exclusion of Psychic Field (not enough drive by in the current meta and you want heavy advancable traps).

Money at Any Cost - This deck needs money and is willing to do normally painful things to get it, trading information, runner credits, and even bad pub to balance the books. It is a freight train of event econ running 2 celebrity gift, 2 medical research, 2 hedge and 1 targeted marketing. But the biggest and flashiest play is scoring Profiteering, 15 credits for 3 bad pub is a trade this deck is willing to make over and over again. Bad Pub is useless for combating your shell game and more importantly unusable in beating a Punitive Trace. The pub will only help your opponent run centrals or trash Chairman Hiro, and thanks to a neat rule, the runner isn't allowed to do either of those things if they are dead.

Tech and Counter Tech The main counter threats at Worlds were clear going in, Plascrete, FilmCritic, and Account Siphon. Deus Ex and Feedback Filter were literally non-existent on the floor and I've Had Worse was rare and surprisingly inconsequential.

Plascrete Carapace - This is easy enough to play around with a single shattered remains and the constant threat of brain damage. It is also unnerving how many players will not drop it, as if a red ID must mean only Net Damage.

Film Critic - a thorn in the side, and enough of a counter threat to justify profiteering into snatch and grab in some board states. But you don't need Punitive to kill and there is a bad habit thinking she makes it safe run. On the positive side her presence lets you play currents to better effect.

Account Siphon - This deck is hard to bankrupt, the event econ and raw efficiency is strong enough, but an early profiteering throws it further over the top. But to ensure Siphon defence I chose targeted marketing over Cirisum Grid. Why? Its cheaper, it nets you money every time, you don't care about the runner gaining money, and most importantly it forces them to hard score agendas to turn off.

Keeping the Mind Game Alive

I believe, Yomi (reading/bluffing) play-styles are underrated in the current scene. This deck proves that a well honed mind games can still match the performance of hyper-mathed Glaciers. To pilot this deck well you need to focus your energy on understanding and empathizing with every person who sits down across from you.

Every game I lost I lost because I either misjudged my opponents aggression level or took a turn too long to get a hard lock on their state of mind.

Spags was particularly shocking/impressive, after beating him in the first game, he got very quiet... only to begin rushing my board like a berserk highlander. I couldn't over bluff or build a strong enough trap before he ripped 7 points out of my deck.

While Lucas was in a constant state of pivoting between passive and aggressive action, he called one of my hard bluffs 1-2 turns sooner than I was expecting, and took 5 points off of me. I struck back with a punitive for 5 meat damage and gave him a heart attack right before drawing a card and letting him know I had no way to kill him at 0 health. He then proceeded to Levy > Indexing me to score out before he had time to worry about about my traps.

Looking to the Future

PE isn't going anywhere anytime soon, But with DLR-aggedon looming for now, I think I'll have some fun experimenting with Biotech or maybe even something in Teal.

18 comments
23 Nov 2015 Cliquil

This deck has largely been Favourited for the final line of the description

24 Nov 2015 yog-sothothry

Very fun deck- I love it! Lots of different angles. One question- why the pups? They're pretty worthless once you score a profiteering, and the deck doesn't feel like it taxes money especially well. Also curious about the targeted marketing- why that card in particular?

24 Nov 2015 Ehill

Most of the ice in this deck is strongest face down, and its best to think of pup as a bad pub sponge rather than being invalidated by it. Targeted Marketing, for PE, is much better than a Singleton Crisium grid against account siphon. Cant be trashed without scoring, its free to play, and you can use it against any deck that has to play cards to win.

24 Nov 2015 Elusive

I'm very glad to see you have success with my baby, i was too late for a worlds-ticket to do this myself ;)

At the very least you have shown that i am not mad, this really is a strong new PE-archetype. Which were your hardest matchups, disregarding Yomi?

I'd love to see some in-depth on the slots you chose to change in the deck as well, especially the OP-econ since that could be antisynergic with the Punitive-plan.

24 Nov 2015 Jai

No Shi.Kyu? I'm surprised.

24 Nov 2015 hi_impact

Art in the description is so fucking fancy. Nice.

24 Nov 2015 CJFM

Good to see the deck, @Edje! Congrats at the finish!

25 Nov 2015 neoreadinggrid

thanks to a neat rule, the runner isn't allowed to do either of those things if they are dead

25 Nov 2015 spags

Tough deck, tough opponent.

I was only a bit salty after scoring 3 Astros and losing to 1-in-5 HQ pulls all game. Worst loss of the day, for sure, and prob. cost me a shot at T16.

Well played!

25 Nov 2015 Ehill

Same to you Spags!

27 Nov 2015 forktines

Have you considered trying to find the space for a Vanity Project or two to help with the Punitives?

28 Nov 2015 Ehill

@Forktines That could very well be feasible, I was considering testing it for worlds, but was concerned with its lack of self-protection. I'll probably start tinkering with it in the near future

4 Dec 2015 lolpaca

Going to give it a go with the following agenda mix:

3 Vanity Project

3 House of Knives

3 Profiteering

1 Philotic Entanglement

dropping Targeted Marketing and a Cerebral Overwriter, and adding in a Neural EMP and Project Junebug. Losing the Overwriter might hurt, but I guess I'll see.

4 Dec 2015 Elusive

Switching overwriter/junebug is OK. As long as you have one in there for the bluff.

By changing you agenda composition that way however you split one of the key strategies, threat of scoring out. Changing to Vanity allows you to score out on two agendas only, which could be a boon, and somewhat boosts the punitive threat. However runners play around punitive all the time, it is not the 'go to' strategy, it is more of a threat to a give you time to set up your board state without being RD-dug early.
Also, House of Knives doesnt do much when the goal is to kill them on your turn.

I would suggest you go: 2 Vanity 3 Profiteering 3 Future Perfect

And spend the slots on more killy things. Might test this myself.

11 Feb 2016 gumed85
12 Feb 2016 Ehill

@gumed85 Film Critic, to stop it from turning off punative

13 Feb 2016 ChairmanHiro

What changes would you make for the MWL?

13 Feb 2016 ChairmanHiro

Also how exactly do you use kitsune? It can't just be for snare alone, can it? Do you force them to steal fetal and take damage?