Off the Grid Jinteki Thought Experiment
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Old Jim 41
I am aware this is not a great deck, but my real goal is to get some suggestions of where to take it and try to inspire some conversation on the whole subject, so stay with me best you can on this.
As a bit of background when I first met one of the guys I played with we both found some fondness for Off the Grid. An impractical card yes, but we thought it would be fun to try to build a deck around it.
The obvious choice is HB to get a nice, big server over HQ and with Oversight AI and Bioroid Efficiency Research it would be trivial to get some big hitters up quickly, but we thought that a bit played. One of the problems with Off the Grid is iceing up HQ heavily is that leaves R&D lock a pretty big problem. So, our thought was to bring it to Jinteki for the internal R&D traps to help lessen that problem.
As a side benefit we would also have Caprice Nisei in faction such that even if all of the ice was broken, there is still that chance of pulling out an unsucessful HQ run. Add to that the amount of incredibly taxing ice (since this is a slower deck cheap end the runs were not favorable) Jinteki has access to after Honor and Profit, along with the control ice that is Bullfrog and Susanoo-No-Mikoto and we thought we would have a little bit of synergy going on. With the amount of Psi going on, Nisei division seemed to be an alright choice, though we are always open to Personal Evolution to get that extra bit of killing open. And we were also thinking about how some of Jinteki's ice stacks really well with Chum and whatnot, and gave Sunset a chance for our positioned mega-server.
One of the thought processes that goes on with Off the Grid is what's so important that it has to be protected in such a way, and we felt maybe Chairman Hiro such that even getting though the big server we planned, the runner wouldn't have the money to trash. Then, recure with Interns and/or Jackson Howard.
So those are our general thoughts. I know this deck is not great, but I'm interested to see what people have to say on the subject, just to get some gears turning. It'll never be compeditive, but sure could be fun or at the very least interesting
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18 Jun 2014
surgeus
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18 Jun 2014
Old Jim
Let me try to justify myself on a handful of points and feel free to refute me again if my logic is not sound. If I do have Chairman Hiro out and thus they will not be running with fewer than 3 cards, then wouldn't Komainu still be a good pick with at least 4 subroutines? (this could just be my love of the card blocking my judgement). Second, what would make Akitaro Watanabe a poor choice for this deck? I figured I was concentrating on making a larger server over HQ, and thus when I can get him out (and he's quite cheap) that 2 fewer rez cost would be a boon, since as I said I feared for my economy in this respect. As for the suggestion of Tennin Institute: The Secrets Within, I really like that suggestion, but if I'm focusing on iceing up HQ and slightly on R&D, wouldn't that divide my attention further to Archives so they don't get free runs? (Unless of course I'm playing Criminal or anyone with Sneakdoor Beta. which would of course fully undo me) I suppose Shock! would help curb this but is making them spend that one click going to be worth it? Again thanks for the suggestions, I'm not a great player so I try to make these decks focusing on less played cards in order to increase my understanding and thought processes of the game. Jinteki is something I still don't have my head fully wrapped around in terms of playing as or against, so learning what to keep in mind is helpful. If any of my thoughts aren't sound in my rebuttal let me know (and sorry for the full essay with each post!) |
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18 Jun 2014
surgeus
You want to be using Off the Grid for scoring agendas rather for making running a little more dangerous cause that doesn't get you closer to winning against a careful runner. Off the Grid will probably go down eventually even if it takes a while for them to get into HQ. Akitaro Watanabe looks good on paper, but in reality you will often find he comes too late and your ice is already rezzed or he just gets trashed as soon as they make the first run and before he can really pay off. He costs you 1 click and 1 credits to play and rez, so you effectively break even after using him on 1 ice, have gained 2 credits after rezzing a second piece of ice with him, etc. For him to be as effective as having another Hedge Fund in your deck he has to be used to rez 3 pieces of ice without being trashed and even then he's only 1 more credit (which is the same payoff as Restructure). To get that benefit you basically have to rez all that ice in 1 run and you will often run out of money after the first couple of ice and then they come in and trash him. Hedge Fund is generally a welcome 4 credits for 1 click whenever you draw it (early/mid or late). |
Here's my two cents,
It's an interesting idea and Off the Grid is great when it works. I think you have too much stuff you need protecting by off the grid at the moment and that includes Chairman Hiro. With him showing, the runner will never run with less than 3 cards in hand (since they will assume snares are in play). He's also a liability in a deck where you are otherwise trying to minimise your agenda density. Also Komainu is more expensive to run through with more cards in your hand so you are actually forcing the runner to maintain a lower hand size and make his runs cheaper.
Akitaro Watanabe, Sunset, and Whirlpool are just not great cards and I don't see enough synergy and I think you should be able find room for more useful cards. Celebrity Gift might be good for econ and the downside (the runner getting to see HQ) isn't so bad when you have a fortress of ice on HQ, caprice and snares and fetals.
PAD Campaign Is just going to be trashed by every runner and never provide you with econ. You want to be saving your ice for centrals rather than defending econ assets.
You have 2 each of Chum and Inazuma which I think is too much positional ice. Last thing you want to see in a starting hand is Whirlpool, Inazuma, and/or Chum.
I'm not sure Nisei Division or Personal Evolution are the right choice of ID. Maybe Tennin Institute might be a better id for this style since you are wanting to prevent successful runs. And you can keep advancing (for free or with money) up an Ice Wall on HQ to make it ultra expensive to run.
Not sure if all that will work but that's just my thoughts. Parasites with or without recursion in the hands of aggressive runners might still be a significant problem.