Jinja Sermon (4th @ Pittsburgh, 6th @ Cambridge districts)

Jinja Sermon. The latest version of this deck from last year.

For my general play style, check the previous writeups. Changes from the previous list are detailed below:

-1 Regolith Mining License
-2 Hansei Review
+2 Charlotte Caçador
+1 Cohort Guidance Program

Since the last published version I moved away from Hansei (discarding can be rough in A Teia, you want cards badly) and towards asset econ again. While I like the idea of an NGO install being equivalent to a hedge fund on top of a discounted ice install, it’s way too easily trashable out of centrals. Also, if one has previously been on record locally saying that Charlotte sucks in A Teia, people don’t feel as pressured to run obvious NGOs, which impairs your ability as corp to bait runs. While I still don’t like Charlotte as econ in A Teia, others rate her higher than I do and she’s pretty good at encouraging the runner to use resources.

-1 Palisade
-1 Enigma
+1 Vampyronassa
-2 Rime
+1 Sadaka
-1 Tithe
+2 Anemone
+1 Saisentan

I have soured pretty significantly on cheaper midrange ice. You’re happy to have them on turns 1-2 and then basically never again in the game. I went back to the original design of having more copies of chunky ice that require a bunch of money or an installed turbine to answer well. 3 Boto, 2 Vamp, 3 Anansi.

Rime is still nice versus anarch fixed breakers but I’ve seen fewer of those round recently. Rime and Sadaka sort of fill the same ice slot (not taxing by itself, doesn’t ETR) but sadaka sniping resources from a trap slot is nice. People don’t play around this card enough.

Anemone is nice to discourage runs early and challenge deep dive runs late. Can make the runner jack out sometimes if they respect Fujii or Snare.

There’s a tough balance to be made between throwing all your ice at the remotes (which Jinja requires you do in order to keep going fast and doing shenanigans) and shoring up centrals. The top cut game with this deck was recorded (versus Wiki) and is a pretty good illustration of that.

This deck keeps teaching me fun facts about the timing structure of the turn. My latest discovery is the existence of the paid ability window before start of turn (5.6.1.b), which can’t be used to usefully A Teia install agendas but can be used to install assets with start of turn effects, like a Cohort or Rashida (or La Costa, in a different build). This lets you use assets to help fast advance, although you have to be able to install in both servers, which requires either double Jinja remotes or a scored TPR. This lets you surprise NA a 4/2 without seamless, or a 5/3 with a seamless, without risking the cohort getting trashed off the board.

Results:

I brought this to Cambridge and the Pittsburgh district championships, getting 6th in Cambridge and 4th at Pittsburgh (my first top cut!), paired with a 1-2 Lat list in Cambridge and a 2-1 Ken Tenma list in Pittsburgh. This went 5-2 between the two events, dropping two games to excellently piloted Inversificator Kit and Hoshiko.

Huge thanks to funkeyman for generously hosting for the weekend and to NotAgain for posting the Ken list in a group chat and letting me steal it. Thanks also to Marcus and London for organizing and judging and such. Looking forward to megacities!