Just ***king Kill Them

The title says it all. In an age where runner money's out of control, where a single breaker may be all one needs to install, and where traces punish you for some horrible reason, kill is king. Not the tag and bag kind either. Prepare to make the runner suffer with one thousand tiny cuts.

This isn't a tournament winner, but I'd take it to one in a heartbeat, and am confident it'd perform fantastically at that. As of now, I believe it (and its similar iterations) on Jinteki sit at around an 80% win rate, and that's with more than a few games being thrown due to hilarious pilot error. This thing is good. This thing is consistent. This thing, this -beast-, can deal with practically anything the runner can think to throw at it. But most of all, it's fun. Well, okay, most of all it makes 419 suffer, but it's fun besides that.

One thing I do want to note though: this deck isn't for the faint of heart, and isn't played like most decks. You're going to bleed agendas to the runner like crazy, and you're gonna be throwing down a lot of valuable cards stark naked. But that's normal Jinteki shell, you know? You don't play Jinteki because it's safe. You play Jinteki because you want the head games that make Netrunner so dang fun.

The game plan is simple: cut them into tiny pieces. This plan does not change no matter who you face. At most, the how and when will be a little different, but oftentimes not even that. Still, to make it as clear as possible for anyone new to this type of deck, I'll give you a rundown.

Shaper - Jam agendas and score them as quickly as you can, House of Knives especially (Sting! is less good against Shapers because Khusyuk is a good card). Make sure they know that sitting back and building their rig is a bad idea as you get close to scoring out (A PE deck doing that? Whaaaaaaaaaaat?), at which point they usually start taking you seriously and start running, which is when they die. Only a problem if they have Feedback Filter, which you should always assume they have. That said, that card is not a game ender by any means. By making them constantly run through Kakugos, you'll deplete their money fast, so the damage will come. Or just use the two Wake Up Calls I have in the deck for this specific reason. Both work.

Anarch - I really don't need to write anything here tbh. Anarchs can't wait to impale themselves on your traps, nine times out of ten. Their ice destruction is a joke (unless they kill your Kakugo, which still sucks but is a small setback at most), and they have no in faction way to stop net damage, only a way to draw through it. And that actually works to your advantage sometimes! Never pay the 5 for Mining Accident, and watch out for Stargate. That card can make things suck pretty bad for you, but a couple of Kakugos on RnD makes running there a difficult prospect indeed.

Criminal - Psychic Field is real, and strong, and your friend here. It laughs in the face of 419 and all his fake paperwork. Sadaka and Voter Intimidation will destroy any rude attempts to halt your damage, and if you don't need them for that, tear their economy apart instead. They will break themselves upon your servers, their cash unable to cushion it.

Mini Factions - Same thing as the factions above. Apex's console is basically Feedback Filter, but harder to kill because it can take the four damage from Wake Up Call and then just stop the damage with that same console. Luckily, the bug is slow as hell and you can probably score a ton of a agendas before it gets properly set up. Sunny will do the same thing with the Citadel Sanctuary she's definitely packing, but she definitely bleeds a bit more than the bug. Adam doesn't care as much about damage if he gets a Brain Chip, but just plan on going through his whole deck then, instead of possibly killing him in the middle of it. Thankfully, Neutralize All Threats is a very dangerous directive for him to take against you. Jam agendas fast, Sting! especially, and wear them down like you would the others. Shipment from Tennin rules.

That's all there is to say, really. There's no Neural EMP because I've got Sting! instead, and people absolutely do not respect how strong that card is in PE yet. Don't be afraid to bin your first or even second Stock Buy-Back. That's why there's three, to be able to have one when you need it, and not feel forced to hold onto one when it's worthless. As for influence, I feel like it's basically perfect where it's at now. Kala Ghoda Real TV has been shockingly useful for both forcing the runner to trash something out of fear (and then turn on the Wake Up Call), or by destroying key pieces before the runner even knows they're coming. Archived Memories has actually been my most useless card by far, but even that has been tremendously helpful at key moments, so I'm reluctant to switch it out.

Have fun, and remember: when money and breaker woes got you down, just kill them! Even the richest runners bleed.