The Rookie

I am also quite new to Netrunner, so please take my advice with a grain of salt. #Scorched Earth seems like a waste of influence points to me: you only have #Snare! and #Shadow for tagging the runner. On the other hand, you are lacking some stronger lategame-ice: I would consider #Wall of Thorns and #Tollbooth. With some luck you can rez this ice with #Priority Requisition, which I would prefer to #Executive Retreat. I do not think that #Research Station is a strong upgrade; you need a good reason to use it out-of-faction (and I fail to see this reason in your deck). If you would own Humanity’s Shadow, #Hokusai Grid would probably be the best choice, since it combos very well with #Fetal AI and the Jinteki core identity. But you do not have this card, so I would recommend #Akitaro Watanabe and if you can spare the influence #Red Herrings, which makes steeling #Fetal AI very painful for the runner.

Thanks for the feedback, @flott!

After reading a few articles and trying to understand Jinteki, I was attempting to create a fast deck. The lack of late game Ice reinforces this idea. Research Station is something of a splash that I also imagined could work, with this (hopefully) speedy Jinteki build.

Because of the cheap Ice, I struggled to see how I'd really benefit from Priority Requisition's effect; Executive Retreat seemed like my only other option...

I think Research Station is iffy - if you're going to try to hide agendas in hand, it isn't bad. At the same time, you want them to access your snares.

I'd look at Project Junebug. If you want to make a scare the runner/kill the runner deck, you need to have threats to back that up. You can put Junebug out, advance it a couple times - if they hit it, BOOM! If not, then just trick of light the counters over to something else after you play it - Ronin for damage or an agenda for scoring. You need the runner to be afraid of your servers if you're going Ice light on ETR with no rush. You only have 4 ice that can end the runner officially, with Neural Katana being a defacto ETR.

Junebug, Snare, Fetal AI are all scary. You want to keep the runner afraid, drawing up, etc. Right now, you're unlikely to straight up flatline the runner - they're going to be staying at 4+ cards in hand pretty much all the time if they're smart. So you're really taxing them hugely for doing anything. You want them drawing up to 7 to run on your Melange.

Which is another argument for Junebug - a double advanced Junebug could be a kill, if it's behind Neural Katana or Data Mine. At the very least, once they see a Junebug, they are now calculating every advancement token as 2 net damage. So they aren't going to run through a Neural Katana they can't break to score a double advanced agenda without drawing up to 7 first. Chumming a Neural Katana is going to be really useful for you. That puts it outside the Mimic breaker, and means that, until they can break codes and sentries, what ever is in that server is probably safe.

And as a last point, I'm not sure about Beanstalk Royalties. 9 credits for influence seems like it could have a better return. Maybe Green Level to get 1 less credit, but also a card? Or just a PAD campaign or Adonis? That also helps with the "Put down 3 new servers to terrify the runner" scenario.

Thanks for the thoughtful words, @Wookiee!

I find myself agreeing with a lot of your thoughts.

You don't mention Scorched Earth. @flott is of the opinion that I lack the tagging to make it worthwhile, and I see the merit in that. On the flipside, there's something deliciously pleasant about it as a rather grossly unpleasant unexpected surprise for my opponent...

I'll take both sets of comments into consideration, update the deck and play test it.

Thanks again. This feels like a pretty sweet community! :)

A one of Scorched Earth isn't a bad idea, but I would replace the Shadows. You don't want the runner to see the Scorch coming, and people tend to float the tags off Snare!. The hard part is dealing with people who shake the tags after seeing the Scorch, or worse yet, put up Plascrete Carapace like the cowards they are.

I would also swap out Private Security Force for Nisei MK II, if you do keep the Scorch. The power of ending the run at any time, even once, makes runners pause.

Project Junebug and Trick of Light are excellent choices in a deck like this. Also, Neural EMP is in faction.

Jinteki is a faction for the patient and adaptable corp player. Don't be discouraged if you have to switch from flatline to scoring.

I like the Scorched in there, simply because most people expect, at most, 3 damage coming their way on Jinteki's turn. Whether it's from a Ronin or 3 Neural EMPs, a runner that's feeling pressured may well just draw up to 3 instead of 4. Also because Scorching a runner is fun. ;) Plus, Scorched + 2 PSF is a win unless they Plascrete, if you do keep those in.