Neural EMP is the finisher card for Jinteki kill decks. Runners have to run in order to win, and that turns Neural on. A few of these in hand and the runner hitting a Snare! or a Junebug or any other of the many sources of net damage Jinteki has at its disposal, and they can (and will) finish off the runner.

As only a single point of damage, they are rarely used to simply tax the runner. Two credits and a click, plus a card slot in the deck, simply to knock a single card out of the runners grip is not often worth it, especially when there are many other cards that can do that single point for much cheaper. To kill with it however, the corp often needs two or even all three in their hand to get the flatline. Yet it does find its way into many Jinteki decks, and it has been the end of many runners. It does this simply because it is a way, without a tag, without advancing cards, without relying on luck of the access to do damage. Even more so than that, it is damage done during the corps turn, which while not entirely rare, is not all that common in cards either.

It will remain a staple of Jinteki kill decks, unless something is printed that does the job better. When Chronos Protocol: Selective Mind-mapping is released in the end of the SanSan cycle however, this will be a staple card for that deck.

(Written during the meta of Breaker Bay, part of the SanSan Cycle. For more reviews like it, visit wyldside.blogspot.com)