Sysops of the Round Table 2.0 (Jinteki)

SYSOPS OF THE ROUND TABLE

This Jinteki deck is all about pressuring the Runner to make runs by using Ice Wall-Trick of Light Fast Advance combo and then decimating them by using sysops The Twins, Midori and Marcus Batty who exploit the abilities of Grail ice and the Komainu. If you like making Runner feel like a big dummy, this deck is perfect for you! While not exactly for begginers, deck is really fun once you learn how to use it.

What castle lies beyond an Ice Wall? (Corp identity):

Well, making the Runner's life a living hell costs money and that's why Pālanā Foods: Sustainable Growth is the best choice for this deck. We are basically going to get a credit every turn, and because of that simple, generic ability, the Runner will have no idea what he is up against.

Plots and trickery... (Agendas and scoring):

On first glance, this looks like a Fast Advance deck, and we certainly can play that way. There is a good number of easy to score 2 pointers as well as Trick of Lights that combo with Ice Wall. While this deck can certainly win by scoring out, once the Runner sees us advancing Ice Wall he will be making a lot more runs to disrupt us, and when that happens we will catch the Runner by suprise and let all hell break loose, which will be explained later on. We are not terribly worried if the Runner happens to steal Medical Breakthrough since the next one will be much easier to score. And Philotic Entanglement is an easy to score 2 pointer, which also punishes the aggressive Runner. Fetal AIs are also included because they can really bite the Runner and tax him a little bit as well. Finally, we will score The Future is Now to get the critical cards we need in HQ, because the lot of our games will depend on what ice we have in HQ.

Knights, wizards and wild dogs... (Ice and upgrades):

Ice and upgrades (namely sysops The Twins, Midori and Marcus Batty) are very connected in this deck. This deck runs a great number of Grail ice and 3 Komainus, all of which gain subroutines every time the runner encounters them. Because of this you can rez The Twins for 2 to force them to encounter them again. So then they gain additional subroutine on top of the old ones. Twice encountered Komainu can easilly flatline the Runner, while twice encountered Grail ice can flatline them, destroy their Rig or stop them in their tracks.

Midori is a nasty card in this deck, because she can swap ice for another ice that Runner does not have programs to break. And if that is the outermost piece of ice, the Runner cannot jackout and he is forced to suffer the effects of those Grail ice or Komainu subroutines mentioned earlier. Midori also works great with The Twins whether they are installed in the same server or different servers. If they are in the same server Midori catch the Runner by suprise with a nasty piece of ice, while the Twins can then finish him off. Or if they are installed on the different servers Midori can return ice to the HQ that will be used as ammunition for The Twins later on.

We will use Marcus Batty mostly to end runs, trash programs and, if he is installed in a server with another sysop, making the bad situations even worse.

Because they are cheap to rez, The Twins, Marcus Batty and Midori can also be used for bluffing or intimidating the Runner. We can install any of these 3 sysops alone as bait in a server protected by a piece of ice and then immediatelly rez them when Runner makes a run on that server, and crush him.

Rest of the ice are primarily cheap "end the run" ice like Ice Wall, Vanilla and Quandary which are used to secure centrals and remotes in the early game. We can also use these ice with Midori to end runs at virtually no cost. Ice Wall is also an advanceable ice that can be strenghtened to make runs more costly, and we can move it's advancement tokens to an installed agenda with a Trick of Light. When able, we should always advance it so we can Fast Advance agendas later. Galahad and Enigma also end runs, but they can also be a dangerous ice to facecheck or to be combined with Midori or Marcus Batty. Excalibur is another Grail ice that works great on R&D, and when using Midori or Marcus Batty to shut the Runner down.

Calling to arms and filling up coffers... (Operations and assets):

Operations and assets in this deck are primarily concerned with two things: the economy and a draw engine. On the economy side we have Hedge Fund and Restructure, and on the draw side we have Jackson Howard. We will use Recruiting Trip to quickly search out The Twins, Midori or Marcus Batty. As we have seen before, Trick of Light is the card that we will use as a Fast Advance tool in combo with Ice Wall. Interns is another great card that can be used to reccur sysops, install a piece of ice that sysops can use or install Jackson Howard.