OVERVIEW

This deck won me 250$ at the VS. Games 500$ event, has racked up a couple GNK wins, and has regularly defeated some of the best players in the SF Bay area since I created it. It is part mind games, part inevitability, and 100% enjoyable to play with.

I've been playing ANR since November, and during that time I've noticed that pretty much every top player I meet completely dismisses PE as being a non-viable choice for serious tournaments. I absolutely think this deck is powerful enough to take down a large event, and it is certainly very hard to play against, even if you know the match-up well.

PE has gained a lot of new tricks since it was last popular. The two key components are:

• Bio-Ethics Association - PE had a weird issues before this card where the Runner had no reason to ever run an unadvanced card. This card single handedly brings the shell game back to life. If the runner refuses to run unadvanced cards, you now can rez 1-3 Bio Ethics in conjunction with a kill, which is often much more than enough to seal a game.

• Dedication Ceremony - The existence of this card also forces the runner to check unadvanced cards. You will often get kills where you have a 3x advanced adenda, a Bioethics or two, and an unadvanced Ronin. This is three "out of hand" Net Damage, and is absolutely a serious win condition.

HIGH LEVEL STRATS

I'll briefly talk about the "Yomi" or "Mindgames" aspect of playing PE, but I think its the least relevant aspect of what makes the deck work. Your deck has natural variance to it - You draw a combination of traps, agendas, and ronins throughout the game, and you pretty much install them all immediately, and advance some of them immediately. You usually Mushin + Ronin or a 1 pointer with a relevant effect, you usually install, advance, advance, with Cerebral Overwriter. In a high level tournament, these are generally the most intelligent plays, against opponents who know your play style well, you just mix it up.

• Advance every card to 4 advancements over time. This gives the illusion of imminent death by Ronin, whether or not its true, and forces the runner to play more aggressively, which, as a PE player, you should enjoy some good variance from. Runs on installed cards are not in the runners favor, you have many ways to punish them for it.

• Install Snare! - This is different from previous iterations of the deck, but in general, installing Snare! helps contribute to the minefield of unadvanced cards in a way that was not previous relevant in PE decks of the past. As soon as your opponent knows you're on Bio-Ethics, they will need to start checking your remotes. Abuse this! If you know your opponent won't check remotes (or hasn't been all game), you can hold onto the Snares! or just try and get them back into R&D with Jackson.

• Install and advance 100% of your Cerebral Overwriters. Install advance, advance, or, install, advance are both reasonable options. Any amount of brain damage essentially locks the game in your favor. If the runner refuses to run on advanced cards, rush out Ronins as fast as possible and try to set up for a big turn.

• Players who completely ignore the shell game will almost always lose. Your deck has traps in it, and most decks will struggle to stay at 5 cards after every turn, especially if you're scored House of Knives, or, if they are trying to rush out the game with Multi-Access.

• Score Profiteering as fast as possible. Just do it.

• Snatch and Grab Political Operative and Film Critic. Profiteering should help you achieve this pretty easily in most games.

• Only ice centrals.

DECK BUILDING

• Snatch and Grab is really important. Cerebral Casts might be OK too, but Snatch and Grab has worked out better for me in general. Picking off Pol Op, FC, or Councilman, dramatically increases your chance of winning.

• Having a horizontal facedown card in front of a central server is really the most important thing about the ICE in this deck. Yagura is the cheapest//best in-faction option for representing a spooky piece of ice while being mostly harmless/slightly taxing. Komainu is just strong in general, and must be respected by Faust decks. Usually gets parasited, but its a good road bump.

• I keep going back and forth on Gila Hands Arcology over 1x Profiteering. You're welcome to try it out!

CONCLUSION

GO FLATLINE SOME PEEPS, YO.