Jinteki: Personal Hell v2.2 MWL (The Rage Inducing Flatline)

ivanbarker 666

My take on the Cambridge style Jinteki PE deck that I've been tinkering with for a while.

I absolutely love this deck. It's exciting, it's rage inducing, and it's thought provoking. Winning is almost always through flat-line (you can score out though). But how you get there is the exciting part.

Traps, to me, are an awesome piece of what Netrunner is. Hidden information. One thing that divides Corp and Runner is that as the Corp I know what all of the cards on the table are. The runner does not. Bluffing skills, and being able to read the runner is what wins or looses games with this deck (plus some good set up too).

The Cambridge style deck is a reactive style deck in my mind that taxes the runner for not being able to read the Corp correctly. Cards like Psychic Field are there to bait the runner, and then punish them. With this deck I'm trying to flip that around a bit and put more control into the Corp's hands into when the flatline can occur.

As you can see, my agenda density is fairly low, with some higher point agendas. This is a bit counter intuitive for the PE ID. You would think that you want lots of 1 pointers to maximize the ID. You are right, but I've found that this way, this sets me up for the kill, versus just taxing them with 1 of net damage. Plus the higher agendas all have some sort of self protection and I can score using them if I need to. I can now slot in some more cards that might net more damage than just 1.

As you can tell, low amount of ICE in order to bait the runner to run more. So the general strategy is just to rush out naked remotes, and hope the runner takes your traps. Try not to be predictable. If you have a choice of 2 cards, shuffle them and then grab one to install without looking at it. Stock pile Snare!s in hand. The R&D is the weakpoint in this deck, so ICE it up with Yagura, and depending on who the runner is, something else.

This is my first published corp deck, so I'm not too sure how to break down a write-up on it. So I might as well go by sections:

Agendas:

  • Fetal AI is, in my mind, the best agenda in the game. 2 net damage right away, 2 credits to steal, and then 1 more once stolen? Awesome.

  • I include 3 The Future Perfect in order to lower my agenda density. Another fantastic card with it's self protecting psi game. I absolutely love the psi game. There are so many subtle nuances to the psi game. This agenda usually ends up in archives.

  • I usually rush out Philotic Entanglement nice and early. If they steal it, not a big deal. But if you can score it later in the game, it can be very deadly. It also doesn't require a click to score. So try a Ronin + this.

  • Chronos Project is a stupidly annoying card. This is super nice for any recursion decks. Might not be as useful since clone chip went away, but we will see.

  • Profiteering is here for the money. We don't care about how much money the runner has (or how much bad pub we have). We don't have much ICE. But we need credits for firing off traps.

Assets:

  • Cerebral Overwriter is here to aid in the kill. This deck has net damage, meat damage and brain damage. Best to send this out with a Mushin No Shin.

  • Jackson Howard is to pull your agendas out of Archives, but also useful for grabbing traps or Snare!

  • Shattered Remains is a key card to get rid of pesky hardware.

  • Ronin. Oh the Ronin kills. If you play this right, the runner will think it's just another trap. Best left at 3 advancement tokens for a while, until you are ready to strike. Can be combined with many offensive things, including another Ronin.

  • Shock! is a fantastic little card. Free to fire off, and activates from anywhere. Fantasticly combined with The Future Perfect in archives.

  • Keep Snare!s in hand, shuffle back into R&D, or bluff into a remote if the runner is checking everything. Added bonus is a tag (explain later). Make sure you always have at least 4 credits available.

  • Allele Repression is an amazing card. It's like Jackson Howard in a way, but I like it better. I might increase the count to 2. What's nice about it, is that it can mascarade as a trap, you can collapse a server, and you can use it on any rez window. Things you can do with it: 1. When the runner is running HQ, pull snares back into hand. 2. Go for the Double Scorched Earth kill. 3. Pull itself back out of Archives. 4. Pull Mushin No Shin out too. 5. Grab any number of traps back. 6. Send Shock! into Archives. A devious play could be, install Himitsu-Bako early and make so the runner pulls out and installs a Fracter. Once both Himitsu-Bako are rezzed and no longer needed, pull them back to hand using their ability, and use them to grab things with Allele Repression. Now the runner has a useless Fracter sitting about, and you have some good cards.

Upgrade:

  • Shell Corporation is the Corp's Kati Jones, and this deck likes credits. Use this card on a failed trap to turn that useless trap into something useful.

Operations:

  • Cerebral Cast is being used instead of Neural EMP. I feel it is more versatile, and I told you I like the psi game. I think this card works awesome in this deck. It's a choice for the runner, Brain Damage, or do I take the risk of being Scorched? You will find most runners take the Brain Damage if they know you have Scorched Earth.

  • I include 2 of all the credit operations to be the most diverse. We don't care how many creds the runner has, so Medical Research Fundraiser is excellent. Celebrity Gift is here for some excellent bluffing games. Have 6 cards in hand, show off Cerebral Cast.... what could the final card be, Scorched Earth? The runner doesn't know and might take a brain damage.

  • Mushin No Shin is awesome. You don't even need to use it on an advancible asset. Try using it on a snare!

  • Scorched Earth is here to punish the tags from Snare! or Cerebral Cast. Can double Scorch using Allele Repression.

  • Punitive Counterstrike is here to punish those higher point agenda steals. However I have been debating swapping this out for Enhanced Login Protocol to punish the frequent running.

ICE: I feel this is all pretty self explanatory (aside from Himitsu-Bako explained above). Low amounts of ICE to allow the runner to run a bunch. And it is all fairly cheap to rez. Kitsune into a Snare! is super fun.

Let me know what you think!

6 comments
14 Jan 2016 lilelia

I like that you've put enough econ in here to support your play strategy, I find a lot of similar decks that don't. I can see this deck working really well against certain decks and really poorly against others. I tend to build decks with lots of AS/Vamp and the credits to back it up, and Film Critic with either multiple copies or tutoring, and I could see that really hurting your deck (though I don't know how common my deck-building habits are). Have you considered Crisium Grid to slow some of that down? Or even Caprice for sticking on HQ? You did say you like the psi games :P

14 Jan 2016 lilelia

Also, Kudos on the Kitsune include, especially with Allele Repression in there. <3 that card, number of times I've totally unbalanced runners with a Kitsune res is staggering.

14 Jan 2016 ivanbarker

Thanks for the comments @lilelia! Account Siphon and Vamp do wreck this deck for sure. Shell Corporation helps mitigate this a bit by having stored credits. Now of course, if they drain you fully, you won't be able to fire any traps and they could trash Shell Corporation. But this is the reason I put Shock! in, it's free. Account Siphon also gives tags, which you can punish with Scorched Earth. Many runners still haven't wised up and float tags against this deck.

Film Critic would turn off PEs ability, Philotic Entanglement and Punitive Counterstrike. I think there's enough other ways to win though. i haven't played against that card yet, so I'm not sure!

I love putting Kitsune out there and not rezzing it for a while. And then when the runner isn't expecting it, bam!

14 Jan 2016 WayneMcPain

Love everything about this list. Probably wouldn't change a thing outside of serious local meta calls.

15 Jan 2016 lolpaca

I love the idea of shuffling 2 cards and Mushining one without looking at it, I might have to steal bit of theatre that for my Beale or No Beale deck. (Even better when they're both traps or both agendas)

15 Jan 2016 ivanbarker

Thanks a ton for the compliments! Like I said there's some cool mind games to be played. My mind was blown when I learned you could mushin anything. For something that would super confuse the other player, try Mushin No Shin on a Shell Corporation, and then install an agenda on it, and advance the Agenda (useless I know, but fun). 2 advanced things in one server? Mind = blown.