Fast Track to death

Actually, it looks surprisingly workable :D

My thoughts:

• Drop the chimeras, you don't have support or econ for them, and can use the space elsewhere (see below)
• Consider Fetal AI. It does have a bit of anti-synergy with the Philotic concept, but it can set up a kill-shot on its own, espeially with Neural EMP, Snare and/or multi-access
• Drop the Restructure for the third EMP, you'll need it
• I'd probably clean up the ICE selection (Jin already has enough awesome ICE, with more coming in H&P) to free up influence for the third Biotic
• Strengthen up the Econ a bit - Subliminal Messaging fits in very well here, as presumably the runner will need to draw back up often. Celebrity Gift would be bad here, Fundraiser might work
• Change Quadraries into Yaguras - same cost, way better for what you're trying to do here

Other than that, I really, really like the concept!

What a fascinating concept. Kudos!

I'll second Peekay on the Yagura; it's perfect for what you're going for here. Maybe even less ICE overall? I mean, if you want them to steal agendas... ;) Lastly, could you make room for any number of Punitive Counterstrike? As soon as I heard "Let the runner steal agendas" I thought about that card.

Cheers!

If we want to bring this deck into a high funtioning state, then we need to address the fact that Philotic Entanglement is a singleton. To help with the rebuild, I'd like to clarify that this deck feels like a classic Jinteki flatline deck, and really does not support Agenda Point wins.

Before I start suggesting changes, there are a couple of questions I'd like to hear answers to first. What is the purpose of Biotic Labor in this deck? Also, why is a third of the deck devoted to ICE when we want the Runner to steal Agendas?

Looking at this deck, my first thought is that we need to make room for the cards that we need to support Philotic Entanglement. Since our concept is to let the Runner steal Agendas, the ICE is my first source of cuts. Evaluating the ideal board state, I feel that our protection goals are HQ and a single Remote Server. To that end, I'm borrowing some concepts from the Jinteki ICE-less builds that a few of us have been playing with, and propose the following to replace the entire ICE list:

• 2x Shinobi - ETR and potential flatline by itself
• 2x Rainbow - Powerful ETR
• 2x Yagura - Critical R&D protection of Philotic Entanglement
• 3x Caprice Nisei - Critical HQ and Remote Philotic Entanglement protection

This defense list brings our total deck count down to a sleek 45 cards while still giving us 4 additional card slots to play with and frees up a lot of influence. With that, I turned my attention to the economy. Between Gila hands Arcology, Profiteering, Hedge Fund, and Restructure the Economy feels OK. However, my thoughts are to drop Biotic Labor (unless I miss the point of it's inclusion) and Restructure in favor of 3x Blue Level Clearance. BLC provices us a 3 credit gain and 2 card draws, which will help us burn through this deck to our Philotic Entanglement and Fast Tracks.

With Defense and Economy addressed, let's take a look at how to find and play our Philotic Entanglement. We have 4-8 card slots available at this time.

A concern that I have is how exposed our Philotic Entanglement is and the fact that it is only usable in Phase 2/3. With the card ratio introduced by the 1 copy limitation, our only feasible method to access Philotic is via Fast Track which needs to be bumped up to 3 copies. Unfortunately, using Fast Track alerts the Runner that we are manuevering for a kill during Phase 2/3 during which this deck usually finds the Runner Agenda mad and credit rich, resulting in a Run on anything under the sun. We want to convince the Runner that the Remotes are Agenda poor targets, which means re-introducing the Jinteki Shell Game. With 3-7 card slots still remaining, I'd like to introduce 3x Mushin no Shin, 2x Plan B, and replace one of the Snare! with 1x Project Junebug. Thanks to the Agenda selection, Plan B should be able to snag something out of our hand during access. If we Plan B during early game, it discourages the Runner from using Remotes, or we could Plan B during late game to get our Philotic Entanglement out.

Mushin no Shin is an interesting card to play with, and you can look at some of my strategy discussion for this card in my GRNDL: Quick as a Corpse deck. Don't forget that you can Mushin your Snare! to make them appear to be Agendas. In this particular deck, we can use him as a shell game analysis tool. Take the Runner's temperature during Phase 1 by pulling a Mushin into Plan B to score an Agenda. Play an Agenda immediately after the score to determine if the Runner is Remote shy or Target hungry, and use that knowledge while you are crafting your Philotic Entanglement ending to determine the end game strategy. String the Runner along with Agendas that you are willing to lose until you can Fast Track for Philotic Entanglement. Depending on the Runner temperature and Remote protection, you should be able to determine if end game is drop and score (Mushin or straight), Mushin into Plan B, or Mushin into Project Junebug.

We'll need some play tests of the altered deck before we can properly evaluate this, but I have a feeling that under the revised deck we'll find that Ronin gives us better value than Neural EMP. With Ronin, we can ensure increase value in our Plan B (and probably increase it to 3x Plan B) because the Runner will not be able to ignore advancing cards in the Remote for fear of a paid off Ronin.

Yikes! I was just playing around with a copy of this deck when I realized exactly what Rainbow was. Take Rainbow off of the list above, and I'll have a suggested replacement in a little while.

Biotic labor is included (I assume) so that you can install and score Philotic from hand.

OK, I feel that it's a toss-up between Himitsu-Bako and Guard for the 2x slots vacated by Rainbow. The preference should rely on how heavy Inside Job is in the local meta.

Pants, I can see that idea, but (directed to Torf instead of Pants) it doesn't feel like it would play out very well due to Fast Track giving the Runner advance notice on the Philotic coming out. It seems to me that the Runner would devote the turn following a Fast Track to running HQ over and over to catch that Agenda before Biotic could be used. In my opinion, I would take shell gaming with the Philotic over Fast Advance. Fast Track the Philotic to hand, then Mushin a card into the remote to make the Runner wrestle with odds that the Corp put Philotic or Plan B in the remote.

After playing with this deck design a bit on my own, I ended with the build out below. At this time, I'm still not convinced that this is a winning concept. It is viable, and will probably win around 38% of the time, but most of those wins come from Scorched Earth and shell game plays rather than Philotic. The high Agenda density with low ICE density to support Philotic just hurts too much. I tried tweaking by incorporating The Future Perfect to drop Agenda Density by 6 cards, but I don't think this is enough to change the odds and it works against the Philotic Entanglement synergy.

Jinteki: Personal Evolution

Agenda (13)

• 3x False Lead
• 3x Profiteering
• 3x House of Knives
• 1x Philotic Entanglement
• 3x The Future Perfect

Asset (7)

• 1x Project Junebug
• 2x Ronin
• 1x Jackson Howard
• 2x Plan B

Upgrade (3)

• 3x Caprice Nisei

Operation (17)

• 2x Scorched Earth
• 3x Blue Level Clearance
• 3x Cerebral Cast
• 3x Medical Research Fundraiser
• 3x Mushin No Shin
• 3x Fast Track

Barrier (2)

• 2x Himitsu-Bako

Code Gate (2)

• 2x Yagura

Sentry (2)

• 2x Shinobi

15 influence spent (maximum 15)

20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)

45 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Honor and Profit

WOW, thank you for your feedback!

I had the following ideas:

1. Play Philotic Entanglement with Biotic Labor from my Hand
2. Use Fast Track to get Philotic Entanglement and then create a remote with a snare and some ICE and play PE after the runner got "snared?" ^^
3. Use Fast Track to get Philotic Entanglement and then create a remote some ice

I thought Chimera is a good ide for stoping the runner to get my PE because i can change the subtype dynamic. The whole ice was only for the remote with the PE when i dont have an Biotic Labor.

Fetal AI are two points. It is an good agenda but i had the fear that the runner would get to much agenda points with one run. For PE i need the number of agendas and not the number of agenda points.

I thought Restructure would be a good idea for some eco.

I'll take the advice from you and change "some" details :-)

(sry for my english)

Like i said, it was my first silly idea after i saw Philotic Entanglement and Fast Treck :D

@Dydra, we are in agreement on it's competitiveness. However, unless the Runner is familiar witht his build out I see Deus X being burned against a Shinobi earlier in the game. If not, a savvy shell gamer would use Junebug to burn the Deus X prior to the Philotic.

I've been meaning to ask you, how are you formatting your text? I stumbled across bullet points by accident, but haven't found the code that allows for font changes and bold.

@Dydra: The other problem is, that the runner only need to steal Philotic Entanglement. It is a high risk deck relatet to an single card

@Torf: For your future Jinteki builds, consider Caprice Nisei over Chimera. She's a hard upgrade to get around, providing the Runner a 1:9 shot of accessing anything inside the server. This is a hard thing to end run even after she's rezzed, so she maintains value past the initial contact.

Oh and BTW - Precognition would totally kick ass in this deck.

Torf, have you considered aggressive negociation to get philotic entranglement ? You can use it while scoring clone retirement if it is already on the table. That way the runner does not know what card you will get. BTW really nice deck concept.

@PeekaySK: Precognition is a really good idea. I'll consider it for my next version :-) Thank you

@ryson282: The Problem with aggressive negociation is, that i have to score an agenda and i need an additional click for AN. Fast Track is easier and saver then AN

@bubo: I'm going to kick chimera vor Caprice Nisei. Thank you.