Chrome City PE

Dydra 2799

The Chrome City data pack bring some of the greatest ICE Jinteki has seen in a while. The way Crick is a 2 and 3 of in RP / Genomics , the same way Lockdown will be in any Neural EMP deck.

This is my take with PE on the latest data pack. I came up with it, after making my Nisei Division build, in which though I feel like I need to size down 4 cards ( since playing 22 pts - 54 cards )

I know there are a bunch of interesting card choices in the deck, but I'll go very briefly over few of them.

  • Encrypted Portal is an Agenda which, now after Lockdown and Clairvoyant Monitor are out, I'm seriously building around. My Nisei Divison 3.0 build is around it as well. Boosted Lockdown to 6-7-8 STR is just one of the many possibilities.

  • Breaker Bay + Hostile Infrastructure. This works. Snare costing 4 net is a lot more scary than 3 ... and not trashing snare becomes a big issue in PE.

  • Sweeps Week. Many can argue that this card doesn't make sense in PE. Yet we saw Worlds last year. :) Truth is, it can go both ways. You decide if you want it ro not.

  • Quicksand , finally a barrier Jinteki can use at will. This will fit in pretty much any Jinteki deck that wants to ETR early game.

Note: Why Lockdown is so good in PE?

A: The proper way for playing against PE has always been running, stealing an Agenda ( usually 1st or 2nd click) and then drawing back up. Lockdown addresses that issue in particular, in a very solid and PE way. 0 cost rezz. That's what I'm talking about.

9 comments
29 May 2015 Badeesh

Lockdown is a big big part of getting PE back up and running. Solid list.

29 May 2015 Jashay

Looking forward to getting back into Jinteki, and I agree that Lockdown will be an important part of that. I think Ancestral Imager will also be important; tanking a Komainu or Tsurugi, and then you cannot afford to jack out? Yikes...

Are you intending to use Genetics Pavilion when it is released, or will you continue to use Lockdown as the... draw-lock? Is that a term?

Breaker Bay Grid seems an odd choice, as there is only one card in the deck that can benefit from it. Hokusai Grid would seem the natural fit.

29 May 2015 Jashay

As an aside, I'd be interested in seeing the Nisei deck. I got a bit more excited about Clairvoyant Monitor when I realised it puts the advancements on any installed card, not just advancable ones. It might have a place in Tennin too, because of that.

But it does occupy an odd niche, in that it isn't especially taxing for its cost, and it isn't a hard etr. I'm cautiously optimistic, though.

29 May 2015 tuism

You say you're building around Encrypted portals... But with just 7 Code Gates?

29 May 2015 aero

How much scorch play do you see with snare being your only tag method?

29 May 2015 ANRguybrush

@aero singleton scorch is not unusual for jinteki PE. playing scorch means you'll have to decide wether you want to draw cards or clear a tag after hitting a snare.

Also, tag-me decks will have to be more careful.

30 May 2015 Saan

Here's my thoughts, in the order I think them.

Breaking Lockdown isn't actually something that most runners are going to want to do if they can get away with it, and the way that they're gong to get around this is by simply drawing up before the run, like you want to do against PE (that has their ice behind Lockdown rezed) anyhow. The only real way to punish this is to play Komainu behind the Lockdown, which you are only playing 1 of.

However, I can see why you wouldn't want to play more than 1 of Komainu, since it's expensive and dies to Parasite easily. Plus, many of the popular decks are playing Parasite, making Komainu's death a likely scenario.

So honestly, I don't see Lockdown as that good a card, assuming the runner is running correctly; that is to say, drawing up before the run. Boosting it to 8 through scoring 3 mediocre 3/1 agendas in a deck with 6 economy cards total doesn't seem like a bad thing for the runner. Sure, you get some cash refunded on the Encrypted Portals for the rezed code gates, but I'd be very surprised if all scored Encrypted Portals netted more money than a Gila Hands Arcology over the course of the average game.

Next, I'm not sure that Closed Accounts will actually ever do much. It's more or less assumed that PE is running Scorched Earth as a 1-of, so almost no one is going to float tags. I suppose you might be able to catch someone floating account siphon tags with 5 cards in hand for a turn, but even that's a bad idea due to Scorched Earth -> double Neural EMP, so I wouldn't even imagine that will happen often. And no one is going to hit a Snare! 4th click. If they do, you were winning that game anyhow.

Breaker Bay Grid + Hostile Infrastructure might work, but only running 1 of each in the deck means that it rarely will, or if it does it will happen so late in the game as to almost not matter. It might happen early on occasion, but seems really inconsistent. But you have to see both cards, and Breaker Bay Grid is literally dead until you can find Hostile Infrastructure.

Which you can't Jackson for. Holy balls, I just noticed you're not playing Jackson Howard. So that's what that lone, weird Reclamation Order is doing in there! I'd probably ditch the Reclamation Order, the Closed Accounts and the Breaker Bay Grid/Hostile Infrastructure combo and add in 3x Jackson Howard and maybe a Project Junebug or something to give the runner more threats of running advanced things other than a lone, cold Cerebral Overwriter (also, something to throw a Lockdown in front of that might be threatening even if you draw a couple times before the run). Your consistency will go up by roughly 1 million percent.

I guess Quicksand is okay, if it doesn't get Parasite'd down early. If the server it's on gets focus-fired enough, it could get decently taxing. The first three times, it's better as a Wall of Static, but after that it becomes okay.

Anyhow, those are my disjointed thoughts. I could ramble on some more about other aspects, but this post is getting pretty book-ish as it is. Good luck with the deck. It's definitely unique.

30 May 2015 Dydra

Hey all, thanks for the many suggestions and comments. I'm out of town atm, but I'll answer a few.

Jackson is an all-mighty card - true. I just dont feel it's needes here, unlesss for hard muligan. Feel free to include if you like.

Breaker + hostile infrastructure is an odd choice and yeah, maybe 2x Hokusai will be the better include. Currently I'm playing a very solid Genomics deck with 3x BB and 3x HI, that's why it is a current favorite of mine and fell like including it.

1 Jun 2015 Dydra

@Saan pretty long feedback and you are right about some things. However, the main thing I want to point out, is that if they draw-up prior running ( as you suggest ) to deal with Lockdown they have to run only and only on third click, otherwise they risk bumping into a Snare tag, which in this case will make them lose all of their money or get Scorched.

I'm pretty alright with such trade.

If Quicksand provides to get Parasite that much, at least that's not a parasite on your Tsurugi, Komainu etc. etc.

Reclamation Order will be an MVP, like it has been in pretty much any deck that I've put. Either picking up back your ICE/ Neurals / Hedge / Sweeps Week etc. etc. . It always works. Only minus is that you have to keep it in hand, until the right time comes and in this deck you will already be keeping Neurals + Scorch + Closed Acc + Agendas .... pretty tight

@tuism if 50% of my ICE are code gates, I'm fine with this choice. In my Nisei deck, it is a lot more than that. However, I think that going pure code gates just for the sake of Encrypted Portals is the wrong way to build the deck.