Dec@Day.03 - Sword of Damocles

I like that your deck has gone for the No-Advance archetype and stayed on message all the way through (barring Fetal AI which is fine of course). I think you might like to consider Psychic Field on top of some of the traps you already run, some runners have the philosophy of just trying to tank every remote server that you lay down on the table and you might end up wishing you had a few more copies of Snare in your deck to reliably hurt them. Psychic Field is also a very cheap way to open up a big wide scoring window in terms of credit outlay to Net damage dealt ('when it lands' being the key caveat here).

I think Fenris is a poor splash for you, landing an errant brain damage here or there is very nice for Jinteki but you have to heavily discount the possibility that the runner will be face-checking without their Sentry breaker when you're playing this identity. He completely fails to tax any of the common breakers and, on the rare occasion when a runner does face-plant into him, you'll probably just be wishing he was Komainu. Fenris is one of those cards that works best back home in purple, where runners think it's ok to facecheck early-game so long as they leave some clicks leftover to deal with Bioroids.

I do like Viktor 2.0 though, assuming testing shows that this deck has the cash to both rez him and threaten landing his tag (I have doubts). If not look to the 1.0 model, still good after all these years especially now that Yog is far less ubiquitous.

Overall I believe that splashing in bits of Brain damage works best in a PE build that looks to an IAA/Mushin strategy more. That opens you up to cards such as Cerebral Overwriter and Project Junebug, the latter of which becomes so much harder for runners to overdraw protection against when they have any brain damage counters. That right there is one of the primary advantages of the build, maybe the biggest one. Since you're running the sleeker No Advance version I'd recommend doubling down on cheap ways to do lots of Net damage at a pop.

Finally, I think your deck wants Medical Research Fundraiser more then it wants Celebrity Gift. Celebrity Gift is undeniably good but a lot of Jinteki decklists cram it in without considering the consequences. Taxing Jinteki doesn't mind giving away their entire game-plan so much. I think that this deck does mind, however. It's a faster card as well with a much easier price of entry considering you need a full-up hand to make Celebrity Gift worthwhile. Remember always that the Runner's credit pool won't deserve mention when they are either too scared to run, or their grey matter is leaking out of their nose.

Amazing comments--thanks for the advice! Jinteki is, by far, my weakest Corp to build. I've always felt comfortable enough with the other three, but click compression and flatlining is so unique that I have some trouble with it.

I complete agree with Medical Research Fundraiser over Celebrity Gift. Once again, I'm skittish to give the Runner money, but with any luck, they'll never have a chance to spend it.

Fenris...yeah...you're right, Umbral. :) Maybe it'd be worth using the influence for the Paywall Implementations that Dydra suggested. Combined with adding those Psychic Fields and another Snare!, it gives more room to find the scoring window needed to get out the oh-so-important House of Knives.

Maybe I'll have to revisit this deck in a couple days and see how it could be improved. I like where these suggestions lead Black Tree Jinteki here. :)

I play a LOT of PE. I agree with most of the comments above. Mushin/IAA is serious scary when coupled with Ronin's and Cerebral Overwriters. But I do not play Junebugs because Deus X is a common play.

Don't like Celebrity Gifts, Medical Fundraisers all the way.

I do not like Profiteering. I played around with it in my PE deck and found that when I ran any kind of larger taxing ice (Komainu, Tsurugi, Wall of Thorns) the benefit of having the money to rez the ice was immediately overcome with bad publicity. Clone retirements helped with it, but not enough.

The main thing you need to think about when building a PE deck is what are the most successful lines of play against them.

Number one is Deus X. Playing a hard trap deck against Deus X recursion (any good shaper player) is insanely difficult. Cerebral Overwriter is my best answer to that. Mushin anything and advance it when you are sitting on credits (enough to eat a randomly splashed Account Siphon and still trigger Cerebral) and watch them squirm. Only drop traps face down with no advancements to burn through their recursion while jacksoning back in agendas till end game. Once you have a few Ronins and Cerebrals on the table it will often force a run due to double Ronin Threat.

Second is expose. You will get wrecked against Silhouette and Infiltration recursion(Same Old Thing is everywhere). Psychic Field is absolutely awesome to solve this problem. Mushin a Psychic Field and watch them still eat a hand full of net damage, setting you up for EMP or opening a window for an agenda. Or watch Silhouette eat a Psychic Field on an HQ access, lose their hand, and have to access a hand full of traps and agendas.

Last major line of play against PE is Keyhole, oh how I hate Keyhole. Only thing you can do against that is tax them to get into R&D, and honestly the best card Ive found for that is Eli. Cheap in case of shut downs and taxing as hell. Coupled with a couple of Pups or Yaguras it makes it a lot harder to freely Keyhole you. Try your best to get a face down Jackson on the table and advanced Ronins. I usually win by setting up a double Ronin while they are busy Keyholing me and not paying attention to the board state. That is, if I win at all. Keyhole is brutal.