Red (Sen)Trees (BC Regionals 2nd Place)

Took this to the final ever BC Regionals at Gauntlet Games in Victoria on 15/7/2018. I knew I wanted to play Jinteki and just had to decide on which one. The speed and click savings of Mti won out over the cash from Pālanā.

This only dropped two games all day, both against the same Ayla player. I also brought Ayla but a very different variety, (details about that over here ).

Sentries are real good right now. Scarcity of Resources is real good right now. Ergo, this setup. Some thoughts about specifics:

Agendas It's the ones you expect mostly, but I think SSL is a better choice than Obokata. Without any PE/Kakugo/Data Ward shenanigans to keep it safe, and Anarchs having more card draw than they know what to do with, Obokata isn't nearly enough of a tempo hit. Getting an SSL stolen and knowing your getting paid 9c for free is incredible. If you have a scored or stolen SSL, knowing you can go down to 0c defending an agenda and still be able to score it next turn is incredible. Yeah, the game usually ends on 3 stolen agendas instead of 4, but I'd still take this over Obokata or GFI.

Assets It's the good money ones, plus Marilyn. TBH, Marilyn wasn't incredible but it was okay. I'd like to find a better money asset and put that influence elsewhere, but I'm not sure what that would be. Some people have tried Mental Health Clinic, but with Val trashing that for 2c, it doesn't seem good enough ...

Upgrades Code Replicator is amazing. It's better than Daruma or Batty in this deck for sure. Sending someone back through a DNA Tracker or 6 Str Surveyor for 2c might as well be ETR is most cases. Crisium didn't do much work for me on the day, I would have dropped it for something else (see below).

Operations It's also the good ones, plus two Voter Intimidations. Having two was definitely worth it. Voter Intimidation won me games, for sure. It's really good right now and I nearly went down to 1x and Vancouver pal Keith talked me out of it, much to me great benefit. Deliberately left out Celebrity Gift because showing what ICE you do/don't have takes away a ton of the IDs actual power.

ICE

Sentries- they're good! Breaking anything above Str 3 with MK-Ultra is a misery and you have basically 9 Sentries that do that for 5c to rez or less. Na'Not'K isn't much more efficient. These are all incredible and even when their MU is full, you can still put Cortex Lock at the base of your remote to make your Surveyors better.

Barriers- I dunno, these maybe could have been Himitsu-Bako? You can do more tricks w/ the ID but Envelope is more taxing on Paperclip. Toss-up, I'd say.

Code Gates- Thimblerig is incredible. Being able to put an ETR on R&D/HQ early, move a taxing piece of ICE from your remote over they get their breakers down and then moving that ICE back to your remote when your want to score is just ... gah, incredible. Timblerig is the best Jinteki card in R&R for sure, and maybe the best Corp card in the box period. I thought Crick might help against CV nonsense but it wasn't that useful, this should have been Mirāju instead =(

Excalibur- when you have a Nisei token and they don't have an AI breaker, you get your next agenda guaranteed!

As for changes I'd make: - Drop Crisium and find 1 more influence for Navi Mumbad City Grid. The worst stuff Crisium is meant to prevent is prevented better by Navi Mumbad and Navi Mumbad can get you flatlines off people expecting to SMC/D4v1D/Maxwell past your nasty ICE. - Maybe turn one Code Replicator into a Bio Vault? Maybe?? - Find another econ asset aside from Marilyn, but I don't really know what. - Swap Crick back to Mirāju.

As for the event itself:

Rd 1 vs Smoke

Early Scarcity slows Smoke down to a crawl and she isn't able to seriously contest any remotes and it closes out pretty quickly.

Rd 2 vs Ayla

Ryan, and eventually Regional winner, also is running Ayla, but it's a totally different setup. Lots of programs, Clone Chips (!!) and D4v1d. Stimhack + D4v1d recursion + Indexing makes me a sad fellah. I think I got 4 or 5 pts but couldn't close it out against Ayla's late-game inevitability.

Rd 3 vs Wu

Ian and I drove over with some other Vancouver pals, so I knew he was on Laamb+Surfer. It's a good setup against almost every deck ... aside from Mti. You can't use Surfer on whatever Mti installs. We also discovered that Code Replicator forces a re-approach not re-encounter, which is good because the Runner can jack out, but bad because Laamb clears its Barrier type addition when the encounter ends. So Code Replicator + those Mti installs and it's a rough time for Wu.

At one point, I was on 4 agenda points and I drew Fast Track on my second click, so I used it to pull the one Future Perfect into HQ on my third. He could still somewhat get into R&D and had a basically impenetrable remote, but waiting for the agenda to come out of R&D organically might have cost me the game. With no HQ multi-access that I could see, having a 1/5 chance to touch it for a 1/3 chance to steal seemed a worthwhile gambit. And it was, and I scored it out the two turns after. Ian was on three points at the time and on his last turn, his final ditch attempt was a blind Mad Dash into R&D, since if he could top-deck an SSL, he'd take the game. Fate was on my side, but damn that was a move I appreciated very much.

Ian's a good player and that setup is a strong deck, this was probably his roughest match-up ID-wise. 'Twas a real good game.

Rd 4: ID

ID-ed with Peter, I got into the cut as 5th seed, he goes in at 7th.

Cut 1: Played as Runner

Cut 2: vs MaxX

Matt and another Seattleite came up to try and steal our good Canadian regional, but (spoilers), we sent those Yanks home. This was an excellent game though. It seemed like he as on a pretty expected Zero+CV setup, but also had Patchwork, D4v1d and Reclaims to get D4v1ds back. It was close and he nicked a couple SSLs, but that also ended up paying me out 18c (!!!) over the course of the game, without which I absolutely would have lost.

The deciding moment game down to be installing and single-advancing a Nisei in the remote. MaxX has binned out almost everything, there's one Same Old Thing on the table and only one Levy in the bin (I assume he's got two and the other is in his grip). Matt Stimhack the remote on his 4th click, which I think was two Surveyors at the time. I have 10c, use Mti to install a DNA Tracker at the root and rez a Code Replicator. He can get through two DNA Tracker subs, but not the 3rd. He ends up broke, the net damage pings out his second Levy and with only 2 cards in his grip, Code Replicator means he can't go in again or he'd flatline. But the DNA Tracker + Code Replicator rezzes leave me flat broke.

On my turn, I take 2 credits and then play Voter Intimidation, paying 1c as Matt has 0c. I'm able to take out his last Same Old Thing and now all 3 SoTs and both Levies are in the bin. I finally score the Nisei two turns after that, but still need 1 more agenda to win. Matt's able to farm Turning Wheel credits still and get into R&D, which only has a Thimblerig on it. I finally get the last agenda and install-advance-advance. I think he has like 10 or 12 Turning Wheel counters at this point. He goes last ditch on R&D and after he passes Thimblerig, I swap it with the DNA Tracker from the remote and after he burns the Turning Wheels counters, I end the run with Nisei. Thimblerig- it's really good. It was a very close and very good game, for sure.

Cut 3: Played as Runner

Read the other write-up to bathe in my tremendous shame

Cut 4: vs MaxX

I'm playing Matt again, as we're both 1-1 and thus in the loser's bracket final. This one was less dramatic than before, but still extremely close. I get a turn one or two Scarcity, which slows him down a ton (even with cheaper Patchwork installs) and those sentries are just so dang taxing. A single Data Hound kept my R&D safe for a real long time.

I think I have a single SSL scored when he runs through his deck once is about to Levy, and I think he only had a Paperclip and D4v1d installed. TBH, he maybe should have bounced off a Data Hound to get an MK-Ultra installed before Levy-ing, but I think he didn't want the tag clearing tempo hit, perhaps? But after he Levies, I know it'll take him a while to find his beakers again. I start stuffing agendas in the remote and he can't find the other breakers and also keep his econ up enough to contest the remote in time. MaxX is very fast, but sometimes, too fast.

Cut 5: vs Ayla

Back to Ryan and vs Ayla again. This is the one I've got to win, since I'm pretty confident I can take the SYNC matchup since I won't be a complete idiot twice. This is the harder matchup too, since Shaper shenanigans, D4v1d recursion and Stimhacks make your remote really hard to protect.

I got a lot of econ early, but honestly, too much. Two NGOs in my opening hand, a Marilyn and an IPO, I think. I was on like 20+ credits by turn 3 but basically nothing to spend them on. I put a Philotic down naked and score it, but I honestly should have advanced it once as a Nisei bluff to force out more of his Stimhacks and setup earlier. The next agenda I see I think is Future Perfect and this is basically the worst order to get agendas in. I score it too but now I'm on 5 pts with no Nisei counters and Ryan pulls two Niseis from R&D with Indexing. (see why dropping Mirāju for Crick was a bad call)

Either a scored Nisei or a Navi Mumbad City Grid (or even a Bio Vault) would have won me this game hands-down. I Fast Track a Nisei and install-advance, since he can't not run it and even if he steals it, it's still just 6 points for him. He's able to snag it with Stimhack and classic Shaper bullshit. I don't see another agenda in time and with two of my NGOs going early, I'm also out of bluff options for advanceable cards to drain his resources running through the remote. He nicks the last agenda with another Indexing before I can get could Code Replicators or something else in the remote to make it insurmountable.

Very well played by Ryan and I'm real glad a consistent and extremely awesome local Vancouver player could take our final BC Regional.

In general, I had so much fun playing this deck and it's filled with interesting decisions at every turn. Having been in love with Jinteki from basically the very first days with the game, I'm really happy an awesome ID and great event was how I was able to close out my (official) Netrunner tournament play. Thanks again to James P for running the event, Gauntlet Games for hosting and the BC (plus friends) meta being filled with all the best damn players one could hope for.