So this is my very first attempt at building a deck. I used a slightly different version last weekend, one win & one loss.

I have one core set and the following cardpacks available:

What Lies Ahead

Trace Amount

Future Proof

Any sort of general advice will be received favorably. I play with a few other guys casually once every few weeks. . .

Bait & Switch

You would really like to have 3 Hedge funds,

Ice Wall makes for better Advancement batteries than traps.

Probably don't need that many traps.

One shipment might not really do much.

Tag punishment would be a welcome addition, but it's mostly for a lucky snare.

Might want to squeeze in Beanstalks too. Jinteki isn't known for their great money making machine. Pre Celeb Gift.

In addition to what the above poster said, I'd drop the priority req agendas. 3 pt agendas hurt when they are stolen and you don't have any scary "big" ice to use the priority req on anyways. You could sub in a couple of archers for more punishment and keep them in and see how it goes.

You probably don't need as many traps (keep the 3 of snares). I find having one Junebug or so is enough to have as a threat to keep your opponents worried about runs. Same with pulling in a scorched earth or closed accounts for some tag punishment. You don't want to let your opponent run around with tags from snares and not care to get rid of them (You could sub in a private security force for an agenda as well).

Finally I do like neural emps as well in there, it keeps your runners honest. Without scorched earth or the emp, it allows your runner to run on the last click, hit a snare and not care about the tag or no cards in their hand. If you add those cards all of a sudden your runner friend has to clear tags and have a sizable amount of cards in hand at the end of their turn. This equates to slowing them down and being able to score your agendas (or flatline them... which works too).

Jinteki right now is a lot of mind games and especially with friends you'll play multiple times, you need those threats to hold in your runners. I'd get the new data pack and celebrity gift... oh the mind games you can play with showing your hand and get some much needed credits too!

Updated version taking into account suggestions.

I picked up a second core set this morning, which makes it easier.

I think you have influence room to spread out your ice decisions. Trade a WoT for a Tollbooth would be a good switch. Tollbooth is a minimum 3 to break, and that's 7 for an unmodded Gordian blade , compared to 5 for a WoT against a Corroder. And at 20 ice I think you can spare 2 for some operations or another advancable trap. 1 means if it's gone its gone, 2 is at least a backup.

PSF feels like it won't get much work with only Snares as your tag supplier. If you had Ice that could tag, and not even at a level of a Data Raven, and maybe a followup like Closed Accounts or Scorched Earth, you can worry a runner about floating tags. Nisei might get better use comparatively.

I've run one PSF but it doesn't get much mileage beyond the "threat" of it. I'm ok with is b/c I need to fill a 2 slot agenda but Nisei might net you more mileage overall. I do suggest getting some of the other data packs if you can. It will really open your options. I like Gila Hands as a pretty easy to score agenda that helps if you through low econ moments.

I also second the tollbooth for your big ice over wall of thorns. It's very draining to play against as a runner (much more so than WoT). I also prefer Melange over pad campaign, pads never stay around and are too slow for me but I can usually get one melange off at least and make them run through some ice to trash it.

Shadow is low influence, makes money, and threatens a tag.

And since he's playing 3 tricks, another thing to throw advancement tokens on.

Losing a Pad is not too bad since its a tax on the runner more than a Melange, but I guess in this game of traps once something is revealed it will have to go sooner than later, and a melange can leave sooner than a pad.

Shadow sounds like a nice cheap addition to the above deck.

Pad getting trashed isn't that bad I agree since it's still an economic gain but I typically get more out of how I play my melange than I do with Pad... ymmv. A lot of opinions are based on play style but worst case scenario for each card is it gets trashed the runners turn after it's revealed.

Both cost a net 1 cred cost to res.

Melange:

if you melange on your turn you gain 7 credits and the runner trashes for 1 on their turn. Counting the trash cost as an economy gain the following for the cost of 3 clicks: +7 +1(trash cost)-1(res cost)

This is a total net 7 Econ gain against the runner.

Pad:

Res at the end of the runners turn:

-2(res cos)+1(cred gain)+4 trash cost

So a net 3 Econ gain, the benefit over melange is there's no clicks spent.

So your trade off here is no clicks spent but no inherent credit gain in your pool so if you were poor and if you couldn't res ice before you still can't. With melange you end up with a credit pool of 6 more. Now the real key is what is your economic state and what you feel you can do with those 3 clicks. You could click for 3 creds with pad but that's not as much a credit gain in your pool as melange. My deck and play style works better with melange as early game with no burst Econ is specifically my worry. You might like pad campaign depending on what you are trying to do.

Sorry OP a bit long winded and slightly off topic but it's interesting to discuss. It doesn't even touch the finer points like if you want the runner to run some ice to drain their econ, using a melange is much more tempting than a pad.

Actually I just noticed he's running RP, so his servers are going to be both plenty and probably sticking around for a good while. Pads play better there since they gain cash without your involvement. Marked could be better, but he doesn't have that set. I was thinking Melange because I played a PE challenge deck, and he would stick the melange under the agenda fort and use it to gain money ( along with sundew) until there was an agenda ready to score.

Heh, I didn't realize he was playing RP either! Point taken, I play melange in the same way you mention but if the OP is going a different identity and play style, you are right it could be a better play for the passive money gain and more expensive to trash since it costs a run on a central first.

I haven't put any serious effort into making/playing an RP deck so my advice is more theory crafted as opposed to direct experience as with PE.

Thanks for the replies!

I finally built the physical deck and will be testing it out this evening. Also hoping to pick up another data pack.

Buying them all at once is a recipe for horrible confusion.

Well, good thing you don't have that collectors mentality. I just went and bought all the cards sight unseen. Mostly been netdecking my stuff with my options.

Tell us how it worked out. I'm curious to see what worked and what didn't for you.

I can understand slowly building the collection. I started when there was only one data pack so it wasn't overwhelming but I can see if you are starting out how it could be.

Good luck with the testing. Might I recommend swapping some of your agendas to try and squeeze in Nisei MK II. I have won (and lost) several times to its ability. I’ve also noticed if scored early many runners forget about it and you can really hurt them with it later.