Shrike: a bird that impales its prey.

Alternate name: Brisingr: "Fire" in the ancient language from the Inheritance Cycle novels; also the name of Eragon's sword from said novels that sets aflame on command.

Anarchs are great at burning through their decks and recurring key cards to quickly knife corps, and Ryō “17 Influence” Ōno is the only non-criminal runner with enough influence to run 3x Jeitinho + 1x Malandragem to make the knives even more consistent!

This deck went 1-2 at Off the Grid and, with the help of my jankier Mitosis BANGUN corp deck that went 0-3 (available here), got me the "Scorched Earth" prize for lowest ranked non-dropped player at the event. But I have a >50% winrate on jinteki.net casual with it and despite my bad performance at OTG I still believe this core Jeitinho Phoenix shell has a lot of potential.

The Core Gameplan

3x Jeitinho. Your Wizard’s Chests are guaranteed to either pull a Jeitinho or another The Wizard’s Chest when you name hardware, and if you pull another chest just pop it to search for Jeitinho again.

Sometimes, especially if you already have a Jeitinho installed, you'll instead want to use The Wizard’s Chest to search for a program or resource that will help you deal with ice (usually, Malandragem, Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga, or Arruaceiras Crew). This is a hard call, though. Running Hot and Katorga Breakout can help you activate multiple The Wizard’s Chest on the same turn, but you'll sometimes want to instead hold onto The Wizard’s Chest to instead use it to pull out another Jeitinho next turn.

Malandragem is hugely important to this deck. It gives the bypass to install a Jeitinho from the heap and can be flexibily used on any ice if threat is 4 or you have Devil Charm. And it always feelings amazing when The Price ends up trashing a Jeitinho and installing Malandragem for 1 credit.

Before I switched to Ryō “Phoenix” Ōno: Out of the Ashes for the 17 influence, I tried 3x Jeitinho + 1x Physarum Entangler in Esâ Afontov: Eco-Insurrectionist, but Malandragem is so much better because it doesn't need to be pre-hosted on a non-barrier and can't be purged.

If you incidentally steal tons of agendas while trying to make the knives happen, you should probably pivot to remote lockdown to steal the last few points, but that's not as fun as continuing to focus on the knives.

Dealing with Ice

In most games, you'll end up relying on the unconventional suite of Botulus, Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga, Arruaceiras Crew, and Malandragem to get through ice. You can Rejig a Botulus or a Malandragem in a pinch.

Sometimes Banner will come out and help you get Ryō “Phoenix” Ōno: Out of the Ashes triggers by letting end the run subs fire. Sometimes Num will come out to deal with an annoying high strength sentry like Biawak.

Buzzsaw used to also be in this deck, but I dropped it because this deck doesn't have that much econ to use it, I enjoy the puzzle of relying on unconventional icebreaking suites, and fewer programs makes using The Wizard’s Chest to find Malandragem more reliable.

I used to run 2x Devil Charm but the admittedly very few times the extra charm hosed a The Wizard’s Chest search for Jeitinho were a bit too frustrating, so I swapped the 2nd charm for Rejig.

Econ

There isn't much money here because your gameplan doesn't need much. Sure Gamble, The Price, Steelskin Scarring, Strike Fund are core Anarch econ.

Raindrops Cut Stone gives burst card draw after letting a bunch of subs fire and will sometimes help you draw into the next The Wizard’s Chest, Katorga Breakout, or Jeitinho.

Bahia Bands helps draw cards and save a click installing Jeitinho/The Wizard’s Chest.

Friend of a Friend is a great The Price install and will either help you clear the Arruaceiras Crew tag while gaining some credits or give you a big burst of credits and a tag before attempting your final Jeitinho.

As for econ cards that weren't included but could have made sense here: Wildcat Strike is perfectly fine but slots are hard.

Rent Rioters used to be in here, but I found the 3-click cost too disruptive to my attempts to quickly Jeitinho before the Corp has time to further ice servers. I swapped them out for Friend of a Friend.

Laguna Velasco District also used to be in here and maybe still should be, but I got tilted too many times when it trashed something I didn't want it to (e.g., the last Jeitinho when I already have a The Wizard’s Chest on the table; Malandragem when I already have a Jeitinho in the heap). Katorga Breakout helps offset those problems, though.

The biggest econ question here, though, is why I don't have any Fermenters. Fermenter is great! Sometimes I use The Wizard’s Chest to search for Malandragem, so I didn't want to put in more programs that would make that search even more inconsistent. But Fermenter is so much value, and using Wizard's Chest on anything other than Jeitinho is so rare for this deck that slotting some Fermenters is probably worth it.

Winning

Usually when I win with Jeitinho, it's in a game where I started with or mulliganed for a turn 1 Jeitinho or The Wizard’s Chest, accomplish 2 Jeitinho before the corp has put any meaningful hard end the run defenses on centrals, and then assemble enough ways to get past ice to accomplish the 3rd Jeitinho before central ice becomes an unsurmountable problem. I often prioritize Jeitinho speed because I want to get them all done before the Corp has had enough time to draw into better central defenses.

My one 3x Jeitinho win at the event was actually a game where I played a bit safer and slower than I normally would and ended up getting the 3rd Jeitinho while having more than enough options to get through the Corp's ice on the table:

-Turn 1 The Wizard’s Chest for Jeitinho against 0 ice. I saw a Public Trail during the central runs, so I was highly cautious of End of the Line for the rest of the game and made sure to keep my grip at 4-5 cards at the end of each turn from then on.

-I later questionably installed a Banner even though there were only code gates rezzed (2x Afshar) because I happened to have credits and was still trying to draw into Jeitinho #2.

-I installed an early Friend of a Friend in case I needed to clear a crew tag later or really needed the burst of 9 credits later.

-At one point I foregoed what could have been the a Jeitinho turn to instead install Malandragem (a click 1 The Price had ended up trashing both).

-Next turn, I used the Malandragem and a Botulus, to get through the total of 2 ice defending centrals at the time (2x Afshar on HQ) and score the second Jeitinho.

-I Rejigged the Malandragem on an off turn just in case I'd need the other counter.

-I used Running Hot on a setup turn that led me to draw into the final Jeitinho as well as Devil Charm and Arruaceiras Crew.

-By the time I was doing the final Jeitinho, I had Banner, 2 Malandragem counters, 1 Devil Charm, 2 Arruaceiras Crew, and 1 Botulus on the table vs the Corp's 1 Maskirovka on RnD and 2 Afshar on HQ.

Shortcomings

While this deck can often accomplish the Jeitinho kill in ~6 turns if it draws well and the corp doesn't use enough ice to slow it down, I got flatlined a lot at Off the Grid for ending turns with 3 cards in hand while prioritizing quick Jeitinho completion turns that often involve playing 1-2 cards from grip. A big part of this is me personally being a reckless pilot that often focuses on completing Jeitinhos as quickly as possible and doesn't mind having barely any credits or letting numerous remotes sit uncontested.

My first loss was to a Measured Response after I unfortunately got to threat 4 turn 1 by stealing 2 Offworld Offices and then ended a later Jeitinho turn with 3 cards in grip (but the opponent might have been able to do 2x Measured Response even if I had drawn up). That particular turn was one where I had to decide to either draw up to 4 or complete the Jeitinho and I took the risk of completing the Jeitinho instead. The game may have gone better if I had pivoted to trying to steal agendas after getting to threat 4 turn 1 and contested several of the value assets the opponent had on the board (they were repeatedly using Warm Reception to derez and rerez Spin Doctors and had installed agendas in unprotected remotes among various spammed assets several times throughout the game).

Second loss was to a Reaper Function Bladderwort Sting! for 4 damage when I had 3 cards in grip. So I maybe just needed to slow down a bit to keep my hand full or contest some of their uniced remotes to find and kill things like Reaper Functions.

Some cards that could help this deck stay alive: -Stoneship Chart Room: Emergency card draw that can alternatively charge Malandragem in a pinch. (I think click compression from Bahia Bands is generally better, though).

-Marrow to increase hand size (but more non-knife hardware will worsen The Wizard’s Chest consistency unless you replace Devil Charm with it)

-Verbal Plasticity, DreamNet, or Gourmand for more card draw to keep your hand healthy.