Jinteki Personal Evolution: Garden of Mines

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Jinteki PE: The Line, It Is Flat
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Jinteki Personal Evolution: Garden of Mines
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mauxfire 832

This is the deck that has been keeping me at the top of the leader boards this week on the Official Stimhack League. It's a modified version of Chris's PE deck that won Cambridge reagonals. His version of the deck did not have enough money in it so I dropped the Shi.Kyū and Zaibatsu Loyalty for 3 medical research and changed around the ice a bit to make it more taxing. Lotus Field is awesome to plug any serious holes, especially with a Komainu on hq to keep siphons out. Komainu is awesome to threaten flatlines with, if they face check it they cant proceed to check anything. If they do they will die even in the best case scenario of finding an agenda.

To pilot the deck there are a few simple rules:

  • Always expect an account siphon, you have very little ice and it's pretty easy to get into archives unless you luck out and snipe the corresponding breaker to your HQ ice. You need to do your best to keep your credits above 9, that way you can take a siphon and keep Snare!s active. It is even worth it to take a siphon on the chin early and not rez your ice just to keep your traps alive.

  • Do your best to never hit zero credits and preferably never go below 4. The moment you hit zero credits the shell game is over. It's safe to check everything, and if you are playing an experienced runner they will take full advantage of this. It is NEVER worth it to score an agenda on the table and break your self. Trust the shell game to keep your agenda safe while you get some credits. I often will drop a Gila hands keep it on the board for an extra turns to get my self over 7 credits(you still want to try to stay above 9, but it's hard against siphons) before I score it.

  • Try to score one pointers. If you get a Gila Hands Arcology or a House of Knives the game is a lot easier to win.

  • Always try to get a Ronin on the table with at least 3 advancement tokens on it. Ronin wins me 50% of my games. With one emp, you can drop them if they ever go down to 3 cards with only 2 credits. I find criminals will do this when they siphon you to two and think they are safe from triple emp.

  • Play everything(except The Future Perfect). You cant get hung up about losing agendas or wondering if you should play a trap or an agenda. Just play everything as it comes up and the randomization of your deck will make it harder for the runner to pick out agendas. Sometimes they will be lucky and pick them out perfecty, sometimes you will flatline them on the first turn. It all comes down to luck.

  • Trust that the game is rigged. This deck is rather luck based, but I consider it like a casino. There are more traps than agendas, so you, as the house, have the advantage. Make sure the odds are stacked against them and you will win most of your games.

Until people figure out how to play against PE kill decks, I think this will be a strong archetype. And it will be a fun and viable archetype after everyone figures it out. I'm super happy to see PE come finally come into it's own after wanting to play a solid kill deck since I started playing netrunner.

Deck list and video of Chris's deck in action for the idea of how to play: http://stimhack.com/regionals-cambridge-ma-2014-67-players/

Update Took this to a store tournament and went undefeated as corp. All flatlines.

22 comments
27 Jul 2014 DrunkenGineer

I love this deck, and your writeup is great. I'm curious though, why Fundraiser over Celebrity Gift?

27 Jul 2014 Myriad

I imagine because Celebrity Gift gives the runner too much information for this kind of deck. Giving the runner more cash won't matter as much if they are unable to expose remotes and are left completely in the dark.

27 Jul 2014 mauxfire

Myriad is right, it makes very little difference if they have money, the ice is some what taxing, but there is very little of it and more often than not they can get in where they want. Revealing what cards you have in your hand can be terrible, for two reasons. Sometimes you have no traps or have cerebrals/ronins that they will then go in and trash(if they are smart) so you either don't use it(dead draw) or use it and lose your traps. The second reason is because I put snares down on the table, I like to let everyone believe snares are pooling in my hand so they wont run it, though I do like to keep one in hand just in case of a legwork.

28 Jul 2014 Brendan

FYI: This was Chris Hinkes(?)'s deck, not Scott's.

28 Jul 2014 mauxfire

Thanks, updated

1 Aug 2014 Dydra

Shaper with recursion and DeusEx crushes PK kill decks .... this one included =)

Also I predict that money control ( AS/Vamp) to keep you

1 Aug 2014 mauxfire

Yup Deus Ex recursion is pretty punishing, but Deus X also makes the runner confident enough to run a munshin no shin'd cerebral. I still win 50-70% of my kate match ups.

Parasite recursion is not that big of a deal. The deck doesnt have to have ice to flatline. It just helps slow the runner down a bit.

Vamp actually does suck. Siphon is not nearly as bad because there quite a bit of money and if you stay on top of 9 credits you can take a siphon to the face and not worry. But vamp just drains you to 0 and turns off all your traps leaving the runner free to check all your remotes. The only trap that might land is psychic field and that's only if the runner is dumb and pays when you have 0 credits (there be dumb people out there). But luckily there are a very small number of players running vamp.

One of the major counters is keyhole. Just rips this deck to shreds if you don't get an early jackson on the table. You can still win, it's just really hard. Deliberately over draw and toss stuff into the archives so they are too scared to score and go for the mill. Then while they are busy key hole'ing you try and ronin them. Not easy, but I have done it more than a few times.

2 Aug 2014 esutter479

Stupid question, Maux...but has a runner ever stuck around long enough to see this deck, well...decked?? :) Just curious.

2 Aug 2014 Huafen

Mauxfire. Thanks for the deck. I had a chance to play against Chris (not knowing about his regionals win or the decks existence at that time) and went 5-0 up then boom crashing down! So good to see variation of this deck as well as the fact that it plays well for you.

Is "Keyhole + Vamp" pretty much the answer to this deck ? Because I am seeing them lot more and wonder is it because of existence of this deck/ variants.

2 Aug 2014 Dydra

Sorry, it seems my post got shred in half so obviously you couldn't read the other half. Now, I'm a long time Jinteki player ... I play ONLY Jinteki and nothing else =) So trust me I have quite a lot of exp with the corp.

That's why I'm able to point out a few problems with your deck.

Generally, I need to keep you with less than 3c, and I can run and blow-up all of your remotes. Having Vamp, Account Siphone AND Indexing can punish you hard (in my meta 3 out of 4 runners play Indexing) and as you pointed out Keyhole as well.

Also there is the issue if playing against a skilled player. Now, if you are smart and you have experience against PE Jinteki, what you would do is the moment you hit an Agenda, you stop and you draw back. If you are at 4 cards you are perfectly safe, unless they double Ronnin you, which if honestly happens, is all yourself to blame. For him to hit you with 5 net damage, that needs a 4 advance Ronnin (which again is kinda hard to pull off) and 2 Neurals .... pretty low chances.

The Scorch is Nice and no doubt it will catch some people off-guard, but once a person know it's in there (and the exact count) he will simply leave 1 plascreet down and be done with it.

The deck is definitely nice and it might do some work if your bring it on " a blind date" at your local tournament, but I wouldn't expect it to do consistent work against good players you've played a couple of times with.

What I'd recommend is the following -> Get Junebug, because you need 1c to blow it off, lower the number of psychic field to 2 or 1. Also I'd consider some shocks in there, since you don't actually need money to use them and constant protection on archives + a couple of 1-pointers in there (and jackson facedown so you can use him if they are about to win the game) so they eat 4-5 net for 2-3 points and then you finish them off with neurals ... stuff like that ;)

2 Aug 2014 mauxfire

Esutter, I haven't been decked yet, but I have come SUPER close. 1 card away before flatline.

Huafen, Vamp Keyhole is a total nighmare for this deck. It's super rare I encounter one of those and I have never encountered both. And by god's cloud cushioned balls I hope I never do.

Dydra, yup, being vamped is seriously bad news for this deck as I already pointed out. Siphons aren't super bad because generally you have enough money to stay above 9 credits. indexing sucks, but it always does for any corp. Just hope you have jacksons on the table.

Skilled players are always a problem no matter what faction you play. But this deck has a general likelyhood of flatlining people even if they constantly make the right calls. It's the nature of the deck.

Neurals get me a fair amount of kills, coupled with ronin or philotic they are a force to be reckoned with.

Smart players will always play plascrete, I rather have the threat and force them to spend a click and 3 credits to play it than not have it and have them float tags with impunity.

As far as playing against good players. Any time you want to play me on octgn, the challenge is offered.

June bug is turned off by deus, cerebrals are WAY better and win me way more games in bad match up against kate parasite recursion with levi and deus x recursion.

Psychic fields are amazing. 66% chance to drop their hand, sets up emp kills, ronins, and philotics

Shocks are super weak in my opinion, the take up deck slots that can seriously hurt, if you dont run psychic fields with snares then there is honestly not serious threat to an unadvanced server. Also most people assume you have them and dont run archives if you pitch cards into it, so you get a similar benefit.

2 Aug 2014 casteffens

Absent the Upstalk expansion, what would you substitute Lotus Field with?

2 Aug 2014 mauxfire

Yagura

2 Aug 2014 saracenus

Here is the original deck (there are links to all the Cambridge videos of Chris piloting it): Jinteki 15.5 (Chirs Hinkes' 2014 Cambridge Regional Winner)

I have been using the original to train my meta on how to deal with this type of deck. There is a very good discussion about just that on boardgamegeek.com here: I am having a hard time beating Stabteki. Hollis has some great advice in there.

4 Aug 2014 Hongkong Koma

I play a similar deck: netrunnerdb.com and it's a dangerous killing tool.

With even more small agendas. I think Profiteering helps a lot. And a False Lead can open a kill window.

4 Aug 2014 mauxfire

I'm still on the fence with profiteering, Gila hands is awesome because you can turn your snare right away if you hit 0. Prof is a great boost in encon but the deck has a fair amount of money and the bad pub basically turns of komainu and eli's. There may be little ice in my deck, but having some what of a tax does still help.

This deck still works against direct counters. It's hard to pull off, but you can do it. Last night someone pulled out Silhouette, Keyhole, (multiple) deus x, and levi on me. Flatlined them on a psychic field expose with an access on a hand full of agendas.

5 Aug 2014 Ber

Dydra you may have played a lot of Jinteki (so have I for that matter), but you are seriously underestimating this deck. I've played decks along these lines before and they haven't quite cut it, but after H&P, here is a deck in the archetype that is truely threatening even for experienced players.

It's not too different from Chris Hinkes' deck and he won a 65 person Regionals with it, including the double elimination cut where the same opponents were encountering it for a second time.

I won't go into details because mauxfire already replied, but yeah, this deck is scary, and only specific cards like Vamp and Keyhole are going to give the runner a real edge against it.

15 Aug 2014 weepinggorilla

How often does Scorched Earth actually fire in this deck?

17 Aug 2014 mauxfire

1/10 I'd say. But it has pulled clutch wins out for me more than a few times. If I have it in hand it often triggers a no win scenario for the runner when they hit a snare. Clear tags or draw? Either way they are dead with EMPs and Ronins

18 Aug 2014 weepinggorilla

How about a sealed vault?

28 Aug 2014 mauxfire

Haven't tried it yet

31 Aug 2014 IctSpiceMerchant

I love this deck a lot. It creates impossible decisions for the runner, and is fun for spectators to watch - especially when they know what I've got installed.

I made a couple of (probably unnecessary) tweaks I thought I'd share. I added 5 more cards to the deck. 2 Unorthodox Predictions, 1 Zaibatsu Loyalty, and 2 Cerebral Static. Mostly, those decisions were based on my local meta, but it's helped being able to prevent an expose, and the Cerebral Static turns off my opponents currents, while simultaneously turning off Noise's awful ability (which seems to be the deck's weakest matchup in my limited experience).