I haven't been able to stop thinking about the Sisyphus Burns / do it again deck once I read about it.

This is the decklist I played at the event - I found out I was one card short and I couldn't figure out what it was, so I just slotted a second Mavirus and went ahead. I was I glad I did, with all the Physarum and Leech and Aumakua hanging around. 2x Mavirus has definitely earned its keep. Baiting a 419: Amoral Scammer to run a Mavirus and lose all the Aumakua tokens is chef's kiss. Sorry Stephen! It turns out the missing card was a third Holo Man. Really would have loved to have that third Holo Man in every one of my game!

Changes

-1 Rashida Jaheem or -1 -1 Attini -> +1 The Holo Man

Summary

Glacier, glacier, glacier. ICE centrals, have a single ICE remote. Sorry not sorry to all my opponents for our matches running to time.

The Sisyphus tax alone ends up being only 3-6 credits for the full breaker suite on things like Anansi and Saisentan and oftentimes less if there's some BS like Leech or Cezve hanging around. So, enter Helheim Servers and Cloud Eater.

Game plan

Double ICE archives, put Anansi on R&D (and/or Sadaka, if you find it), then another large ICE on HQ. Start discarding Sisyphus Protocol and Bacterial Programming into Archives where they're the safest, using Hansei Reviews and overdrawing. Runners generally won't challenge Archives against 2 facedown Jinteki ICE, especially since you'll be rich from Hedge Funds and Hanseis. Use Tatu-Bola aggressively to help set up 2-3 ICE on every central - this little armadillo's job is to deploy your ICE from hand and net you 2 cred.

In the mean time, set up a lightly defended remote with a single weak ICE (ideally a retired Tatu-Bola) that you probably don't rez and/or a Spin sitting in it. Maybe a Mavirus to bait the runner.

When you find The Holo Man and a Regenesis install him in Archives unrezzed which is most likely the safest place. Then, rez him on the runner's discard step, move him to the remote at the start of your turn (note that the server has to exist to move him there - you can't move him into a new server), install Regenesis, use Holo man for 2 advancement counters, and your last click to advance and score Regenesis and Sisyphus Protocol.

Some things NOT to do on Regenesis scoring turn:

• Remember to rez Spin on the runner's discard phase so it sees the "When your turn begins" trigger.
• Don't play Subliminal Messaging. I know it's hard.
• Don't overwrite Spin or install a Rashida the turn before. Crack Spin instead so Spin is removed from the game, not added to Archives.

It's fine if your first Holo Man is unprotected after scoring - the runner will certainly trash it, but you can find another one without too much trouble. Trying to defend the remote with more than one ICE spreads your ICE too thin.

With Sisyphus on the board, your centrals cost a lot more to get into. Install Cloud Eater in the outermost position, and a Helheim Servers, preferably on Archives (there are probably 5-8 points in here by now) but sometimes R&D because this late in the game with < 20 cards left, it is DENSE with agendas in there.

The runner probably has the tools they need to get into your servers, once or twice, but use Sisyphus to make it cost them. You can protect agendas in HQ by trashing them to Sisyphus, and protect agendas in R&D by drawing them with Anansi then trashing to Sisyphus right after if you expect a run on HQ to follow.

Take your sweet time, wait for the second or third Regenesis to appear. Make sure you keep as close to a full hand of cards as you can, 2 credits to rez the Helheim, and 10 credits to rez the Cloud Eater, and maybe 1 extra cred for Sisyphus. When they run the kill server, rez Cloud Eater, Helheim, dump your hand, and now Cloud Eater is strength 16 and they have to deal with it twice and take the encounter effect twice. They'll probably take the tags instead of the net damage or card trash, but they probably won't be able to break it twice, and if they get through by some miracle, you can trash all their resources if they're still alive after fighting through the rest of your ICE (Attini or Mlinzi). The look on the runner's face after pulling off the combo is worth all the jank in this deck.

Your kill ICE can also be Anansi, which might be "better" overall or Mlinzi if the runner is running low on cards in stack. Note that the runner has to take the net damage from Mlinzi if their stack is empty because they can't pay the cost. Attini can also do in a pinch, at threat, as well as Saisentan. Also, Tatu-Bola is a barrier, so it doesn't trigger Sisyphus. If you're short on creds or want to run a little lower to the ground, you can have Tatu-Bola be the outermost ICE and have an ICE in HQ to swap and gain 4 cred, which lets you rez something after Tatu-Bola.

You can use Helheim Servers and Tatu-Bola defensively early on if the runner doesn't have a fracter.

Don't forget to take your RH credit at the end of turn! It actually matters in a lot of cases!

How this deck loses

The runner steals one Regenesis or trashes one Holo Man? Things are looking dicey. Better start thinking about double ICE-ing the remote to try to honestly score a Bacterial Programming. They steal two Regenesis or trash two Holo Man before you can find one? Pivot to having a heavy scoring remote as quickly as you can, use Helheim Servers defensively, keep Holo Man unrezzed in the remote so he's not trashed out of hand, and try to never-advance score the next agenda you find.

The runner gets through to Archives? Better have a Spin hanging around to save 2 out of the 3+ agendas hanging out in there.

2 Hedge funds and 3 Hansei in the bottom 10 cards of your deck? Sorry, not enough money to rez any of your ICE. Suffer.

Card notes

Sisyphus Protocol - what a cool card. What a cool concept. Love the art. It sucks to score as a 5/2, but it does a great job of securing your servers for the nominal price of 1 cred and makes it incredibly easy to manipulate agendas out of HQ.

Rashida Jaheem - you can put her in the 1 ICE remote at the start of the game, or try to bait the runner with her, but I think this is better as a Mindscaping or a Simulation Reset or another mid-tier / cheap ICE.

Spin Doctor - they protect your agendas in Archives, all the time. The best occupant for your remote server. Only crack them if you really need to, or on your Regenesis turn. Oftentimes it's better to let the runner access, because you have a few tools to get them out of Archives, and agendas are often safer in Archives than in R&D.

Sadaka - a great card to run 1 of. It's Anansi-lite, and great to put in front of R&D.

Cloud Eater - should this be a third Anansi? Probably. But Cloud Eater is a lot of fun.

Other cards to include

Mindscaping is amazing to have if the Runner eats 4 or 8 tags from a Cloud Eater, and ok to play in its other mode.

Simulation Reset - another card to load Archives with a facedown card. I think the deck is small and consistent enough and has enough trash costs that this isn't necessary.

Code Replicator as a Sisyphus-lite or even a third ICE encounter after Sisyphus. Note that you fire Sisyphus first, then Code Replicator, and the runner can't jack out (despite the weird rules FAQ on the Code Replicator card page).

Daniela Jorge Inácio as a Hokusai Grid to help protect Archives. Sadly I think she's worse than any other card in this deck.

Anoetic Void - no Jinteki glacier is complete without it. It lets you trash cards, which is nice. But I don't know what to cut for it.

Notable exclusions

Moon Pool - The Jinteki Holo Man. R&D is often less secure than Archives, and there's a lot of R&D multiaccess.

The Tournament

Thanks to Kris for running such a smooth tournament with awesome prizes and even awesomer people. I had a blast.

I was between this deck and Punitive Counterstrike Reeducation Azmari EdTech: Shaping the Future. This decision kept me up the night before! The morning of, right before I left to drive to San Bruno, I played around on Jnet because I couldn't stop thinking of this deck, and I pulled off a 14 strength Sisyphus Cloud Eater and flatlined the runner literally 5 minutes before I had to leave, and I took it as a sign to play this corp deck instead of Azmari EdTech: Shaping the Future or the classic SkunkVoid PD. Did it lead to victories? No. Was it fun? Yes. Do I regret it? Not one bit. This deck might be fragile and a little underpowered, but it is unexpected, and it is a simple glacier game plan, it's consistent at 44 cards, games are often tense and scary for the runner, and it's a heck of a lot of fun.

Phil on World Tree Arissana Rocha Nahu: Street Artist: I was lagging a bit behind you all game, and I couldn't make my Helheim stick.

Stephen on 419: Amoral Scammer. Tight game! We drew this one when I started running out of steam and you were able to steal a Regenesis and a Sisyphus Protocol in the last 2-4 turns, making us tied. The fun part about this matchup was that I don't really care about exposing my ICE - it's Jinteki. They're sentries, and probably Anansi or Saisentan.

Neel (Nykride) on Ken “Express” Tenma: Disappeared Clone. I was able to successfully fend you off for most of the game, but I was one credit short to really pound you with Helheim and Cloud Eater, so I just rezzed the Cloud Eater and had you do it twice with Sisyphus, and you had just enough creds to make it through (and took 8 tags...). Then, I landed a Helheim + Mlinzi + Sisyphus Protocol on R&D. Landed two-thirds of the combo each time, but you had just a little more gas than me and I was spread a little too thin defending both Archives and R&D.

Alex S on an ice trashing Freedom Khumalo: Crypto-Anarchist (bonus casual round): This matchup was so bad for me! Trashing all my expensive ICE and turning the 20th of July into the 20th of Shit. Arruaceiras Crew hurts, and Hippo is brutal when I put my most deadly ICE on the outside. Trashing the ICE means I can't throw you into it again with Sisyphus.

And thanks to Tom W for accompanying me to our first in person tournament. It was a lot of fun!

My runner deck was a Spark Lobi Orca Kit. More details in that writeup.