Psychic Blast

db0 2882

This is my first attempt at a Nisei Division deck. The main idea of this deck is that it uses PSI ICE as either Pop-ups when it wants money, or ups the PSI when it wants to block access. Sometimes you even do that randomly when you've trained your opponent to expect 0s, to make them waste clicks.

The deck doesn't run a lot of econ but it also runs very cheap since most of my ICE either give me money, and/or are very cheap to rez.

The deck strategy is Never Advance, with a side-order to Tag & Bag. I make one big remote and then start cycling my agendas and ambushes through it and hope I get them to hit the latter and let me score the former. Given lack of exposes in decks lately, it seems to work decently.

Cerebral Cast is a star in Nisei Division. It costs me almost nothing to play, and if I'm holding a scorched in my hand, the opponent will usually go for 1 brain damage rather than lose 4 cards or risk a flatline, making further cerebral casts even scarier. The Reclamation order is there to retrieve the Cerebral Casts and start the pain all over again, or retrieve Scorches against opponent who like to let them through and burn through plascretes.

The 1 Whirlpool is there because I noticed once people realize most of my ICE doesn't "bite", they will run to force me to rez. The plan is to put it in front of a Bullfrog and force an unexpecting opponent into an archer or an edge of world.

For econ I went for Melanges instead of Celeb Gift, since they work fairly well in a never advance server, and I found that Celeb Gifts tend to give away too much info from my HQ, especially waiting scorches of agenda floods.

10 comments
7 May 2014 romanoSoprano

Whirlpool & Bullfrog sounds like an excellent idea with this deck :) I also like your take on Nisei Division in general with the Cerebral Cast and Scorched Earth flavour.

Every time I see the Hunters though, they basically announce SE (or closed accounts). Then again with Cerebral Casts you probably don't have to worry about it that much as both outcomes are fine :)

I wonder if you are happy with the Archer and sacrificing 2pointers here? And from the ICE breakdown it doesn't sound like the remote is really secure going into late game (nor is the R&D which I guess could be the main weakness here, especially with easily trashable EoW, Melange and Caprice inside) but I guess that might be the point with Snares and EoW cycling through there as well.

7 May 2014 Dydra

Neural EMPs !! U need neural EMPS!! ;p

That's my only comment , lol, I love that damn card =) don't think I've ever pulled it out of a Jinteki deck since I got my 3rd copy =)

Otherwise a good deck all around, let me know how Komainu handles ... that's the card with most ?? for me from the new ICE ;)

7 May 2014 lolpaca

Agenda mix seems weird for never-advance... wouldn't Fetal AI be better than Braintrust? Looks like a fun deck though!

7 May 2014 bcavalier

I wonder though, with only Cerebral Casts and Caprice being your main triggers for your ability, do you really make a lot of creds off of it? Could this deck be better as a Personal Evolution deck? Just curious. If I were to swap it, I'd replace the Subliminals with Celebrity Gifts.

7 May 2014 Dydra

He explained quite clearly why he doesn't prefer Celebrity Gifts and honestly that's the reason I play maximum of 2 in my Jinteki decks, if I decide to play them .... just giving information to a good player can cost u 2much

7 May 2014 steevo15

@bcavalier

He has snowflake, bullfrog, and the future perfect. He mentioned that the snowflakes can act like pop-up windows

8 May 2014 x3r0h0ur

I know the deck is built to run low on econ, but while she's expensive, tori hanzo, even as a 1 of, is a GREAT way to stick a brain damage with House of Knives. I strongly recommend it. She even bluffs as a caprice/hokusai!

8 May 2014 db0

@bacavalier: The ICE are what are mostly triggering my ability since either the opponent prefers to let me take one than break them for 2 (snowflake) or 4 for Bullfrog. Caprice and Cerebral casts don't usually give me money (since I often pay something to get them to win the Psi struggle)

@lolpaca: How would a Fetal fit better in a never advance than a Braintrust? The braintrust I can score in one turn.

@Tori Hanzo is something I'd like to play as well, but I don't think she fits in this particular deck. Especially since I have no solid way to recurse her if she gets trashed from HQ or R&D. Consistency of tactics seems to make more sense here.

15 May 2014 rahmal

When the runner takes the tag and you have scorched earth in hand, do you use it even you can't flatline?

15 May 2014 db0

Depends if I can score an agenda or not. If they runner has just finished drawing and discarding something like 3-4 cards last turn, then certainly, as they're bound to be holding all the good stuff.