Jinteki Horizontal

By DeckBuilder, in Android: Netrunner Deck Building

Posted at

Always wanting to build unusual “rogue” decks, this time I’m attempting Replicating Perfection and I was hoping that some visitors of this forum/thread would give their valued input on what works and what doesn’t with this challenging ID. Below is my initial deck list which I hope to evolve.

Jinteki: Replicating Perfection

Agenda (10)

Asset (24)

Barrier (3)

Code Gate (3)

Sentry (9)

24 assets is horizontal play, play out all your hand except for Snare! vs. Gabriel. Assets act as decoys and never rezzed until useful and as late as possible. Install Brain Trust or False Lead representing an asset then next turn advance it 3 to score. The other agendas have to be played as install and advance 2, just like a Junebug. Then advance all 2 advanced cards singly if Zaibatsu is down so that Junebugs are not given away by being kept at 2. After biting a few Junebugs and Fetal AI, the Priority Requisition will be left alone to help you rez your big ice.

There are only 15 ice, quite high end but all painful to leverage the identity. Enigma is quite a weak deterrent but I need some code gates and it denies another click without a decoder before accessing remotes. In ideal set up, you want Uroboros or Ichi at the front of each central as painful deterrent.

The Zaibatsu Loyalties are key as the unknown is your best weapon. They also protect against Snitch bypassing your identity pain. Any installed beyond the first act as decoys and once accessed and not trashed, the rezzed version can be trashed to save a credit in an emergency.

I appreciate the deck is very vulnerable to Whizzard/Scrubber decks while Imp is also troublesome though thankfully limited to once per turn (most remote accesses will be one big turn of runs).

Deck building decisions are best explained by addressing cards that have been omitted.

Hedge Fund – asset income is far better here as they serve as decoys for 3-advance agendas.

Nisei MkII - this is for a vertical build with a deep remote server; it works less well horizontal and Fetal AI is a better deterrent, more synergetic with the install advance 2 strategy, threatening winning games with Snare from any R&D Medium or Maker's Eye run; if you have a spare agenda point, False Lead is more synegetic with this identity to protect accessing the agenda that next turn is scored for a win.

Akitaro Watanabe – this economy upgrade is easily guessed and Dedicated Server is more flexible for horizontal (Akitaro is for deep vertical). He is also unique.

Chimera – yes this combos well with Akitaro and Dedicated Server, but it inflicts no pain and every ice needs to inflict pain, and almost all the ice is placed in central to make accessing centrals painful; also any good player will thrash the Dedicated Servers so constantly rezzing it to deny central access is a waste of precious credits. Chimera is not for the long game and this deck plays a long game.

Hourglass – while very synergetic with the identity, unlike Uroboros, it does nothing to protect the server itself as there are no tag punishment cards

Janus – this is the ideal front end ice but is a challenge to rez without Priority Requisition and further increases the vulnerability to Criminal derez effects. It also means exchanging it for Ichi and Marked Accounts or adding it and Viper for the out-of-faction ice (having both Ichi and Janus or Uroboros and Viper is not good due to vulnerability to E3 Feedback Implants or Compromised Employee / Link respectively). In the end, Uroboros, Ichi and Marked Accounts seemed the best spend of influence.

Encryption Protocol - Imp is more common that Whizzard/Scrubber and an Imp treats all assets equally, also costs precious influence

I will be testing this deck on Friday but was hoping to incorporate viewers' experiences with this (arguably) most challenging of identities. So does anyone have feedback? Please?

Posted at

My own gut feel is that Jinteki RP is better as a vertical / deep fort design and that Jinteki PE is better for horizontal decks. How have you gone with this build. I like (and latched onto myself) Uroboros for good Ice for RP, and am trying out Dedictaed Servers as well. The issue I have is squeezing in the right blend of Ambushes into the deck - I want a balance between Snare!, Edge of World and I think I need Junebugs in there to be able to fox the Runner into wasting credits on an Ambush run down the deep fort. I'm not 100% happy with the Agenda mix either (running 54 cards) at 3x Braintrust, 2x Executive Retreat, 3x Fetal AI and 2x Nisei Mk II.

Posted at

Hi. Thank you so much for replying! Sorry to take so long replying but interactivity on this forum is so infrequent that I rarely visit it. A shame because if only a critical mass of interaction was achieved, it would do well, despite the format issues.

In my (limited) experience, neither Personal Evolution nor Replicating Perfection must be played 100% vertical or horizontal respectively, but there is a definite bias in that direction. A vertical build will venture assets horizontal and, especially end game when circumventing the first ice is just a tax, a horizontal build will build a remote fort. So maybe we are simply expressing our own playing style.

A good example is Haas-Bioroid which can be played deep vertical or a mix of vertical and horizontal, leveraging its install economy (and perhaps Encryption Protocol). But Adonis Campaign is too good an asset (needs ice protection) for it to be played purist horizontal. Eve Campaign may change this.

As for feedback on the above build, it did creditably well but it did even better with a few changes. The most amazing aspect of it is how the horizontal drip economy, augmented by Private Contract clicks or Melange turns, generates so much money. Also Uroboros (like Hourglass) appears good in theory but, in practice, it does no harm beyond wasting the run click, often at great expense against high link. The runner needs to fear the front ice. That is why I evolved the build into the deck below.


Jinteki: Replicating Perfection (49 cards, 20 agenda pts)

15/15 influence: •••••••••••••••

Agenda (10)

· 3 Braintrust

· 3 False Lead

· 1 Fetal AI

· 3 Priority Requisition

Asset (21)

· 3 Dedicated Server

· 3 Melange Mining Corp

· 3 PAD Campaign

· 3 Private Contracts

· 3 Project Junebug

· 3 Snare!

· 3 Zaibatsu Loyalty

Operation (3)

· 3 Hedge Fund

Barrier (3)

· 3 Wall of Thorns

Code Gate (3)

· 3 Enigma

Sentry (9)

· 3 Ichi 1.0 ••••• •

· 3 Janus 1.0 ••••• ••••

· 3 Neural Katana

Yes, the unexpectedly strong economy makes Janus, always the ideal front end ice, a viable choice in this deck! Replacing Uroboros and Marked Accounts with Janus and Hedge Fund, as well as replacing 2 Fetal AI (works best with Personal Evolution pain) with a 3 rd Priority Requisition (to support Janus) and a 3 rd False Lead (supports Replicating Perfection’s click denial), the deck works much better and is also admittedly more “flashy” – when it works.

It does however have a few flaws:

  • Whizzard / Scrubber / Imp – the Anarch asset destruction build is its nemesis, thankfully not commonly played. Imp however is played in all Noise builds but is limited to once per turn, requires a click to play, a click to run central, leaving only 2 clicks to destroy 1 asset for free. Obviously any Imp with 2 virus tokens will probably be virus wiped. So it is painful but there is still the cost of negotiating the front ice and no synergy with viruses that focus on centrals.
  • Emergency Shutdown / Crescentus – Shutdown is an auto-include in most Gabriel decks. This is why the deck as it stands cannot be a top tier deck. Its drip economy however can recover from a Shutdown on a Janus as Criminal lacks the asset destruction of Anarch.
  • Snitch / E3 Feedback Implants / Doppleganger / All Nighter – thankfully, these are all niche cards rarely found in runner decks. Zaibatsu Loyalty should be a counter to Snitch bypassing front ice (though this is unclear), again Priority Requisition helps here. The runner deck that focuses on the The Big Turn, usually based on repeat Medium R&D runs and/or Notoriety, is also a very rare rogue deck.

With the release of Humanity’s Shadow (which I do not have yet), I’d probably make the following changes to the deck…

Jinteki: Replicating Perfection (49 cards, 20 agenda pts)

15/15 influence: •••••••••••••••

Agenda (10)

· 3 Braintrust

· 3 False Lead

· 1 Fetal AI

· 3 Priority Requisition

Asset (21)

· 3 Dedicated Server

· 3 Melange Mining Corp

· 3 PAD Campaign

· 3 Private Contracts

· 3 Project Junebug

· 3 Snare!

· 3 Zaibatsu Loyalty

Upgrade (3)

· 3 Hokusai Grid

Sentry (9)

· 3 Ichi 1.0 ••••• •

· 3 Janus 1.0 ••••• ••••

· 3 Neural Katana

ICE (6)

· 3 Chimera

· 3 Whirlpool

I think the above (future) iteration of the deck, where Whirlpool leverages the painful synergies of its Sentries (all with no End the Run) ending with Hokusai Grid, Chimera (paid for by a Dedicated Server) keeps the runner honest in assembling a full rig while allowing Whirlpool death runs to pass through, I think the above build epitomises the philosophy of a player who likes to play Jinteki.

Jinteki is for a player who is not interested in uber-efficiency (go to HB for that) but rather in winning with style. When Jinteki works, it is a thing of beauty. Sadly, as listed above, there are just too many weaknesses. It is inconsistent on match-ups so cannot be considered a serious deck for competitive play. But it sure is fun to play casually, producing memorable games with a fair share of flashy wins.