AgJinja Coldsnap (5-2 MOPUS)

obscurica 1313

It's a cold day in the gardens of Mars. You try to go anywhere, and it's as if the chill's beaten you to the punch.

Victims of this unseasonable cold have included the following: punk artist MaxX, graduate student Hayley Kaplan, known con artist "419..."


I went 5-2 with this deck at Magnum Opus, which is significantly better than I expected. At its core, it's a straightforward glacier deck: make big money, rez annoying ice, and score out 5/3s whenever you can. For an AgInfusion deck, there's not a whole lot of trickiness involved -- except for two key issues:

  1. Rashida Jaheem/Jinja City Grid is a brutal combo, and getting to install both and a Thimblerig to a remote on turn one is some jaw-dropping efficiency. You can start scoring out as early as turn two with only a bit of luck.

  2. Lady Liberty. Yes. When I originally fielded the idea, it was to some controversy. But it proved crucial at surprising times. Shutting off a Jinja that's already done its job means not having a dead card mid-game, for one -- for another, it forced a preoccupation on being able to run either the remote or HQ, which is extremely draining into an Endless EULA/Tollbooth/Architect ice suite. While five credits can certainly feel like a lot, its 4 trash cost and passive threat is even more expensive to the runner to ignore.

I believe I've scored a total of 9 points throughout Day 1A through it. I've lost count of the credits I've cost runners in the process. Even when they are able to trash it, doing so opens up a scoring window anyhow.

2 comments
9 Sep 2018 EnderA

No Restricted as Jinteki is a bold move! While some would probably switch out for Obokata Protocol, this deck doesn't really pressure the grip so that makes sense. Also interesting skipping Fast Track, as I know that can sometimes make the difference between chaining Nisei MK II's and getting locked.

How effective do you find Architect to be? It doesn't tax very well, and the facecheck penalty isn't immediately painful, compared to, say, Cortex Lock.

9 Sep 2018 obscurica

Architect feels weak late-game, but the first facecheck is more than valuable enough to accelerate the gameplan. And afterwards it's just another face-down Jinja-installed card to pitch for the ID ability.

Ultimately, I valued econ/action tax more than grip threat like with Cortex Lock. And it worked out great! With Thimblerig to rearrange ice at your leisure, setting up money-punishing run scenarios was relatively easy.