Lokipilled (4th at Brighton CO)

anarchomushroom 897

I hate Jinteki.

I hate trap decks. I hate grinder. I hate the false notion of "tempo damage". I even hate Jinteki glacier decks like Palana. The faction fucken sucks, and if I could reboot Netrunner from scratch, I'd probably axe them. The only Jinteki deck I've ever truly enjoyed are the wide decks like RP and IG. I hate Obokata Protocol, I hate Snare, I hate Urtica, I hate Mushin, I hate Anansi. And when Snarebears created the Loki Ag deck and brought it to Worlds, I hated that too.

And then I saw the light.

My hate shrouded my judgement.

I love Loki Ag.

I brought this to the Brighton CO and utterly loved it, despite only going 2-2 with it, losing two close games against Tag Me in swiss and 419 in the cut.

I think the deck is excellent still, with a bunch of great matchups. I think there's a tonne of space for refinement and exploration as well, I'm convinced there's a way to make Simulation Reset even stronger in the deck, but I'm not sure what that looks like.

The deck isn't unbeatably strong, there's counterplay to the deck that doesn't involve slotting bad tech. The Esa deck has a good matchup into it provided it can win the game before Ag can grind it out. Smoke obviously quite strong but lmao who's playing fucken shaper anymore. Sec Nexus decks are similar but we have Enforcing Loyalty for the 419 versions, and lmao Sunny.

I love this deck, it's a total blast to play. The feeling of forcing your opponent into an unbreakable Chiyashi is a truly sickos feeling of joy. Even when they have Caldera, making them spend 12c is still a great feeling.

I realised that I was wrong about Loki Ag. It's a great deck, and fantastic fun. I think it loses an awful lot in rotation and doubt it will be anywhere near as good when it loses Tracker and Chiyashi, but until then, I'm going to enjoy the time we have.

Thanks to Eric for providing sage wisdom and discussions on the deck, and to the pigeon fighters for being a great group to test with. It feels great having people cheer you on when you're at a tournament, and it makes playing comp netrunner a blast

====================

She gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken her to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the unrezzed ICE. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of her nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. She had won the victory over herself.

*She loved Loki Ag.*

8 comments
8 May 2023 cableCarnage

awaken

8 May 2023 sebastiank

Respect. Congrats on the finish! Was replanting useful on the day? Adding a subliminal in place of it could get more use out of Sim reset, although admittedly if the runner isn't running that may be a sign that you're winning anyway.

8 May 2023 Council

What is a little core damage between friends...

8 May 2023 anarchomushroom

@sebastiank I played replanting once against Tag Me Zahya just to fix some slightly less than optimal ice placement. Overall I think I'd cut it and just bank on not encountering the matchups where it's relevant. I was wishing it was Sadaka in my cut game where it would've been significantly more relevant.

Yeah the Subliminal/Simulation combo is genius, I'd love to find room to fit that but I'm not sure what to cut. Probably Rashida if I'm honest, which feels sacrilegious.

9 May 2023 jan tuno

I'm curious to know what exactly Replanting is doing here. I imagine recurring Regolith is often a big part of it?

9 May 2023 anarchomushroom

@jan tuno it's there to beat hush, which the deck just hardcore loses to

11 May 2023 rongydoge

this is a good writeup. i look forward to curiosity getting the better of me, trying this deck, getting hooked, and then absolutely shitting the bed in an event and throwing my jinteki cards into the compost

11 May 2023 anarchomushroom

honestly they would do more good for the world as compost