A staple of Jinteki kill decks, this card relies on the fact that a ‘failed trap’ is often left alone. Install and advance advance and a runner will go after the card, assuming it to be an agenda. Install and advance only once, and the runner will stop to consider, look at the board state - maybe they won’t run. Maybe they will assume it is a trap and let it be. A few more slow advanced turns and all that is left is waiting for the runner to drop below three cards in their grip.

In combination with Industrial Genomics: Growing Solutions this is a rather common strategy, boosting the trash cost to high levels, in combination with Shock!s in archives and Hostile Infrastructure as an additional cost, leaving a runner in a potentially bad state. Ronin has other uses, and when played in the right manner is a great way to snag a kill.

A five for two is an unusual agenda cost, and because of that it doesn’t see as much play. Not only is it difficult to score, but unlike a five for three, it doesn’t reduce the number of agendas in a deck as well. It has two difficult drawbacks because of that. Yet it still sees a lot of play.

This is simply because of the fact it protects itself. It bites back when accessed, and if the runner doesn’t have the credits to steal it, it stays there. It is used with other agendas like it that protect themselves, and creates a difficult situation for the runner. Not only is damage a threat, but a number of credits has to be kept on hand ‘just in case’ during every run which might encounter these kinds of agendas.

While Fetal AI hasn’t seen as much use out of the currently powerful Jinteki: Replicating Perfection, it still is a common agenda that has been a staple part of many Jinteki plans at world domination.

Possibly the least used agenda in all of Jinteki, Braintrust doesn’t give much bang for its buck. Requiring a double turn scoring window in order to get any bonus out of scoring it, and its effect is not going to be as needed once those ICE protecting it have been rezzed to keep that scoring window open. It is a three for two, which in a Fast Advance strategy is just what the doctor ordered - Some Jinteki have tried that approach, but it has never really caught on.

It could be used for some crazy positional ICE Whirlpool Cell Portal infinite loop combo kill server, but the number of moving parts in there is simply so complicated, it is unlikely to ever be pulled off with any sort of consistency. It is possible that Braintrust would see more use with Fast Advance strategies out of Jinteki, a place where most players have not forged ahead - and that means for at least a little bit, it could be quite a surprise deck to see.

The HQ version of Medium, it suffers from the fact that once it hits five counters, for most decks, additional runs are not gaining any additional benefit. Of course, being able to access the entire hand of a corp is very strong, and given that often agendas pile up in HQ while waiting for scoring windows, can be a very strong card mid to late game.

It is great for runners who want to be able to apply some HQ pressure, especially if their decks were concentrating heavily on another server to begin with. If the deck is very good at getting into RD or a remote, the corp is going to hold agendas in HQ (or try to get them in there with a Jackson draw) and a sudden swoop in of a Nerve Agent series of runs can snag many of them out of the hand when the corp is not expecting it. It is a strong card that helps bring HQ pressure, which can be useful in many decks all across the meta.

As most people have said, Force of Nature is one of the worst decoders in the game. Not only is it expensive to install, but it is strikingly inefficient. Peacock is almost as inefficient, and for at least some ICE Peacock is strikingly more efficient. Force of Nature is the only pumpable decoder in faction for Anarch, but when you take a look at the alternative in faction - Yog.0 - it might become obvious why it is so bad. Yog is simply so good. If the runner doesn’t want to include the support cards that make Yog even better (Net-Ready Eyes, Datasucker, or even a few others) then perhaps, but spending a few influence might be a better choice than Force of Nature.

What is most interesting is that ZU.13 Key Master is only a credit or two cheaper to break most ICE, but used far more often as an alternative decoder, especially when it needs to be splashed. Why is that? When one looks at Sneakdoor and compares Zu to Force of Nature, the cost to get through is very very similar. Of course, of the course of a game that single extra credit per ICE can really add up. A single credit can make the difference between being able to steal a NAPD Contract or not. It can make the difference of getting through that Pop-up Window window or not. It can make the difference in a Psi game. Zu is also so much cheaper to install, part of which gives Force of Nature its bad rap. Yog exists too, which is simply so much better - with a few support cards, most code gates are simply free to get through, and D4v1d exists for the rest.