Medieval Troubleshooter - 2nd @ Newcastle SC

This deck went undefeated in Swiss.

Its power is derived from its ability to both flatline and score out in equal measure, however at first glance it really only seems to want to do the latter. To the Runner it initially appears rather benign - no Ronin, no Overwriter, no Junebug, no Psychic Field, not even so much as a Neural EMP. Sure, there's Snares, but what Jinteki deck doesn't run them these days? On this basis your opponent will usually feel quite comfortable to run at their leisure, and this lack of trepidation is precisely what you want, because you can and will kill them. And they will not see it coming. Let me elaborate.

Grail? For a very long time I could not justify spending a whopping 9 influence on this funky but mechanically inconvenient ICE suite. So what changed? In a word: Batty. The flexibility that Grail offers Batty is enormous. Chuck him in any server with a piece of Grail and you've got your choice of 3 always-relevant subroutines to fire, depending on what is most relevant at that moment.

Corporate Troubleshooter? In a low-econ, Faust-heavy meta this little guy is hands-down the star of the show. He's the linchpin in your kill strategy. If you can't choose just one subroutine with Batty, pump the strength up with the Troubleshooter and fire the lot - all the better if they happen to be 3 Merlins. Think you can break that benign-looking Neural Katana with your Mimic? How about now that it's strength 10? Oh well, 3 net damage isn't a big deal, until Batty deals another 3, and if that didn't bring about a flatline then the Fetal AI awaiting them almost surely will.

If Corporate Troubleshooter is so important, why not switch the ID to Palana Foods? An excellent question with a pretty unexciting answer: the ID simply wasn't available in Australia at the time of the tournament. Even though Biotech is not considered a top tier Jinteki ID it proved to be the most useful for my strategy. With the unbelievable amount of ICE trashing going around RP is the weakest it has ever been, and I don't play enough agendas to get value out of PE, so having an ID with a bit of flexibility that allowed me to get a quick Nisei MkII out for free seemed pretty alright.

What about D4V1D? Doesn't that negate your Troubleshooter plans? I've very consciously chosen ICE that has no relevance to D4V1D, so often it isn't even installed. Using a clone chip to get one in in an emergency is a concern, so try and make the Runner use them up on re-installing the more immediately relevant programs that you'll be forcibly trashing with Batty.

No asset econ? Hell no. I don't want to deal with Whizzard bullshit, and I don't want to run a second protected remote filled with a Mental Health Clinic that will take several turns just to break even. Usually the operation econ carries you through just fine, and Melange can help out a great deal in a pinch.