Finger Snap V.4

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bubo 351

This is the latest revision of my Finger Snap deck. I have evolved Finger Snap from punishing Central runs into a multiple threat flat line deck. While the potential for an Agenda Point win is present, it is tuned more for preventing Runner theft of Agendas than a win condition. As with the previous version, this deck promises a long run time so it would best be paired with a fast Runner deck to stay within competition time limits.

WIN CONDITION

This deck seeks to flat line the Runner in one of many ways:

  • Shinobi has a high potential to be a one card win if Jinteki holds enough credits. Inazuma or RSVP into Shinobi just about guarantees a flatline against everything except Deus X.
  • Snare!/Cerebral Cast into Scorched Earth has a high probability of flatline if the Runner cannot recover their full hand and do not have a Plascrete Carapace available.
  • Mushin no Shin into Project Junebug has a high potential for flatline either in early game or as a surprise turn in late game.

ECONOMY

Phase 1 economy is primarily provided by Celebrity Gift. Phase 2 economy comes from Successful Demonstration taking advantage of the Runner jacking out of Central runs after the first encounter. Sundew supports these economies, but is at high risk due to Runner hate after rez. It would be preferable to rez Sundew during Phase 2 to double as enticement for the Runner, but don't hesitate to use Sundew during Phase 1 if the economy is stalling.

AGENDA

The Agenda list was selected with defense in mind. All Agendas include a credit fee to steal, which combos with RSVP for additional protection. The Future Perfect is typically not installed into a remote as this deactivates it's defense.

ASSET

Snare! is present to assist with the Scorched Earth combo and discourage completing runs against the Centrals. Sundew is both economy and enticement, as described above. Project Junebug is the third win condition in combo with Mushin no Shin, with a potential very early game flatline and also a possible phase 3 flatline against an over confident Runner. Succesful deployment against a good Runner will require skill in judging Runner temperature and defenses.

Upgrade

My love affair with Caprice Nisei continues unabated. I have arrived at the conclusion that Caprice deserves to stay in the Centrals unless the deck is an Agenda driven deck. In this case, Caprice is definitely a Central operator. Unless the Corp player has meta knowledge about the Runner's deck, Caprice will want to reside in HQ against Criminals and in R&D for other Runner identities. Remember that Caprice prevents access of the cards by ETR after ICE is passed, so she's just as difficult to remove as she is to breach.

OPERATIONS

Celebrity Gift and Successful Demonstration are core economy cards, as described above. Celebrity Cast should be paired with Scorched Earth to ensure that the Runner is harmed regardless of their choice. Scorched Earth is a win condition as described above. Mushin no Shin is a real workhorse in this deck as he hides Snares!, fuels Project Junebug, or just plain pushes out Agendas to pressure the Runner's tempo.

ICE

The ICE breakdown almost reads like a Phase breakdown. Cheap analog ETR barriers are used during Phase 1, with Himitso-Bako having the potential to be moved back to the Centrals for Phase 2/3 layering if necessary or as fuel for Celebrity Gift shows.

Code Gates hold your Phase 2 ICE, with RSVP providing support for your Agenda Remote and the central not hosting Caprice Nisei. Bullfrog is a funny piece of ICE that can wreak havoc on the Runner's tempo by directing them towards traps, away from Agendas, or just to play mind games with the Runner (I was moved onto this advanced remote, so it's obviously a trap, right?). Inazuma is a high utility card in this build, supporting RSVP, Komainu, or Shinobi with brutal efficiency.

Sentry holds your Phase 3 ICE, with Komainu providing a high tax and Shinobi being a win condition. With either of them paired after an Inazuma or RSVP, the Runner will be in an extremely precarious position after their encounter with these powerhouses.

FUTURE

Port Anson Grid and Lag Time both have potential in this build, with Port Anson Grid looking like a required inclusion in Jinteki RP decks after release. I'm a little shaky on the economy in this build, and may restore some Hedge Fund or GRNDL Refinery love after a little play time, but it's hard to cut cards from the current list. Ronin had a position for the longest time in this build, and was only recently replaced by Scorched Earth. Ronin may substitute against one of the Scorched Earths if influence is needed. Jackson Howard was also a long time inclusion in this deck, but was cut to bring in the second Scorched Earth. If Ronin is brought back, then Jackson Howard will likely return as well.

9 comments
25 Apr 2014 caesar

Successful Demonstration is a brilliant splash into RP. Can't believe I haven't seen that elsewhere before.

25 Apr 2014 bubo

@caesar I recommend it in just about every RP build that I comment on. The only thing to keep in mind is that it's really a Phase 2 economy card due to the amount of facechecking good Runners tend to employ in Phase 1, so you need to plan an alternate Phase 1 economy.

25 Apr 2014 rahmal

How did you format this? and how do you gain reputation?

25 Apr 2014 bubo

@rahmal I formatted using code characters off of the number keys. # at the start of a line gives you a header and surrounding a word in * gives you italics.

  • If you start a line with * after an empty line, then you get bullet points like this.

There are also some format commands that only work in comments instead of deck descriptions, for example you can get the red effect by surrounding a word with ` in the comments but not in the description.

Reputation is earned by other people favoriting and liking your deck builds.

25 Apr 2014 bubo

I have gone back to rebuild the Finger Snap V.3 deck with the original central gauntlet and Port Anson. It's proving to be very interesting, and forking substantially from the V.3 and V.4 build. I'll probably fiddle with it all weekend, and then introduce Finger Snap Core as a full fork on Monday.

25 Apr 2014 cspieker

I like the cerebral cast/snare > scorched plan, and RSVP combined with your agenda selection is great. I'm not getting the logic for your successful demos. It is a good plan to be able to score them as you write, and also a great kick in the teeth after getting smacked down by Caprice. What I don't like is that you have no Hedge Funds. Hedge funds would seem much more valuable being as they are not conditional. If you had both demos and hedges then I think this would make more sense.

Now, say you lose the successful demos, wouldn't this be a great deck to use the Nisei Division Identity?

25 Apr 2014 bubo

@cspieker The major combo with the Successful Demonstration is that the most common good Runner tactic against Jinteki RP is to initiate a run on a Central Server, then jack out after encountering the first piece of ICE. It's an unsuccessful run, but satisfies the RP requirement to allow access to remote servers. With Successful Demonstration, you capitalize on that activity and discourage the Runner from employing it as frequently.

With that being said, Hedge Funds likely do have a role in this build. As I said in the Future section, I'm not as confident about the economy model here. I'm fairly confident that at some point I'm going to add either Hedge Fund or GRNDL Refinery back in.

The Nisei Division Identity is a different strategy altogether. Without the RP tax on the remotes, the Sundews are too risky to play without Encryption Protocols. It likely would also require a remix of the Agendas as the Runner would not have to invest two clicks plus the added tax of running a Central in order to hit an installed Agenda.

I've toyed a little bit with the Nisei Division Identity, and I personally don't think it's quite competitive yet. There just are not enough variety in the "secret spending" cards to support a deck with all of the available cards in it, and the identity really does nothing without those cards. At best, it nullifies the secret spend cost on average. Once more "secret spend" cards are released, then Nisei Division will probably grow in power just like Replicating Perfection did. At this time, I don't think it provides enough positives to justify use at competitive level.

26 Apr 2014 caesar

I would consider Closed Accounts as your tag punishment rather than Scorched Earth. I think it's pretty unlikely you're ever gonna get the flatline from Cerebral Cast/Scorched, but Closed Accounts is still good tag punishment, and it's a lot cheaper in both creds and influence.

27 Apr 2014 bubo

@caesar: Closed Accounts is a good idea, and I've used it elsewhere. The idea behind this deck is to tax the hand as often as possible, and to that end I don't want to discourage the Runner from running. Closed Accounts significantly sets back the Runner as far as their run capability is concerned. My goal is to force the Runner into a situation where they can't fully recover from a run (especially after hitting a Snare!), and then capitalize on it with the Scorched Earth.