Cerebral Bore 2.0

So, this is my opinions on the state of Jinteki. Please do not confuse me for some Grandmaster imparting wisdom, but a man that has been playing for awhile and figured a few things out. The point of this write up is to give you folks a chance to see what I see.

Jinteki, is in a good spot.

No, its not the best out there, but that means Jinteki is right where it wants to be. In the meta, when a deck that relies on springing traps and tricking opponents falls out of favor, people tend to not protect themselves against this and in doing so make themselves vulnerable.

This deck is the culmination of much thought and a fair amount of play. In the end, it is up to you to determine how you achieve victory. I have twice so far locked people out of ever being able to run again, and it is an exhilarating feeling. The idea behind this deck is that you threaten a flat line at any given moment. Do they push on wards, knowing you can potentially kill them in no time at all?

Important Cards;

Genetics Pavilion: This Card is amazing. This is the keystone to anti-faust shenanigans. It costs a whopping 5 to trash, while only costing you one to rez. This card will kill unprepared runners, and can potentially make I've Had Worse a blank card. The trick is in getting it out there and making the runner not want to run it. It suffers a bit against Wizzard, so keep in mind, you may need to protect it. He does need real money to trash it though, which is helpful.

House of Knives: This card is immense. This is how you punish the runner for bad mistakes. Did he make it to R&D with only three cards in hand? Drop him to two, just to make him sweat the Snare! that may be there. The idea is to make the runner regret making runs, when even half a hand is a bad way to run things, the runner tends to pick their runs carefully.

Cortex Lock: This is how you punish eager runners. Did Jesminder drop Maya and go on a dive through R&D? Rez the lock and make her sweat. At 4 str she needs an option that isn't mimic, and often, the runner isn't running with the thought mimic won't save them. If you have a Marcus Batty in the server that can be a double hit that will flat line most runners. Only a lucky starting hand with an I've Had Worse will keep them safe if they run naked or lightly rigged into servers. Late game its useless but mid to early game its amazing.

The Good:

Strongest against runners that can always breach. Your R&D is the little shop of horrors, and forcing them to decide between that or your remotes is a good balance. Remember the paid ability windows and abuse them when its convenient. Try to hold back on House of Knives tokens, if you can hit for two or three points before an access you can snipe an unwary runner. Leela, Andy, Valencia

The Bad:

You have to be wary of runners that can build defenses against your tricks. To defeat these foes you need to bait them onto your ambushes and traps, as sniping will not guarantee an easy path to victory. The main thing to remember is you need to layer your defenses and force them to burn out money or cards on your servers as much as possible. Your game is to score out while making them waste time recurring. Protect Blacklist at all costs. Kate, Haley, Jesminder, mostly shapers in general

The Ugly:

These match-ups are going to be an uphill battle you have a few tricks you can use against them, but in general you are going to need to rush out a House of Knives and potentially Hades Fragment. These are the match-ups where your assets are going to be dead on arrival, and deploying them is only to waste the precious resources the runner has be they imp tokens or recurring trash credits. Expect to be clicking for credits and cling to your ambushes. You must hit the ground running and go as fast as possible. If you can score a House of Knives or a Hades Fragment you have leverage and can make them wary to run. Your job is to play the mind games as a stall tactic. By the time they realize you have to real teeth you should be on the last of your agendas. Wizzard, Reina, Noise, Quetzal

Vs. Faust

How do I beat that little skull? Its a game of give and take. Caprice Nisei plays center stage against the shenanigans. If you can make a run worth too many cards they will be hard pressed to recover quickly, especially if you have a protected Genetics Pavilion. If they're trying to pressure the Pavillion that means the mental health clinics will have free reign. This is a game of give and take, if they go after the mental health clinics you can use hedge fund or celebrity gift for enough burst economy.

I like to hover around 16 credits before I push things hard, but other players more experienced than me could possibly pilot it with a much tighter budget. Marcus Batty acts as a mini Caprice in this match-up, unless you feel you can snipe some cards out of the runner's hand to limit runs. Cortex Lock can be a game breaker in this fight, as taking a chunk of cards out of their hand can be immensely helpful.

Genetics Pavillion is crucial to this match-up. Limiting the runner to two cards a turn will choke him on his Wyldeside. giving you more leeway. Mental Health Clinics won't help the runner as he will need to take multiple turns before he's in excess of five cards in hand, and that's not counting him playing any. Snipe Injects like the plague they are to prevent burst card draw as Inject does not DRAW the cards, its ADDS them to the runner's hand.

Also Faust hates Komainu, if you can snipe the normal sentry breaker and get a Komainu against Faust you've guaranteed a victory. All you need is one House of Knives token and Genetics Pavillion. They draw two for the Wyldeside, Genetics prevents more card draw, they hit the Komainu, realize they can't break it normally, and you have two ways to kill them. The window the runner breaks subroutines is a full Paid Ability window that only prevents the rezzing of new cards. Once the Runner and the ice begin encounter you can't rez, so Genetics needs to be up on approach. Then you either a) hit them for one point and let the Komainu finish them off, or b) watch Faust break all subroutines and ping them for one before checking for subroutines to fire off, again killing the runner.

It is situational, but this is something that Faust forces. The unique position that when you lose all cards in hand, or have less in hand than House of Knives with tokens, you can kill them. Watch their hand carefully, and make them dread losing any cards in hand.

Why not PAD Campaigns instead of the Mental Health Clinics?

Pad campaigns cost two credits to rez, and with genetics pavilion they will rarely get to capitalize on them.