Bakemono (化け物) v1.6

In japanese, 化け (bake) means to disguise oneself, to take another form, thus indicating a state of transformation. 化け物 (bakemono) would then translate into something like things that change.

My experience with Jinteki: Personal Evolution told me that every game unfolds in an entirely different way from the previous, and that's both an issue and an advantage at the same time.

An issue because it can be rather unpredictable and you need to adapt your strategy constantly. That could be said of about any kind of deck, but I think it's much more relevant in Jinteki, given how every player reacts differently to traps: some are brave and face check everything, others are more cautious and take baby steps, while others try to set up defenses before their offensive.

It can also be an advantage precisely because your opponent will hardly know what to expect and how to approach the game, especially in the early phases. Having plenty of different advanceable cards and Assets, as well as having a wide variety of ice, helps making things even more chaotic.

Now, about the Agenda selection:

• Chronos Project is the big news from First Contact, and as many already guessed, it's a (very) welcome novelty for Jinteki: PE. Against a deck full of Net Damage, losing your Heap means losing the ability to heal yourself and recover your life points.
• Fetal AI is an obvious choice, and can also be the one way to win by agenda points. If your opponent is at the end of his deck, with few cards left in hand he can be either too wary to try and steal a card with already 2 advancements on it, or just totally unable to survive stealing it. In the long run, this card can be your best friend.
• Gila Hands Arcology is basically the main economy of this deck. In more than one game I scored this over an House of Knives, and the decision proved to be correct, paving the way for my victory. The deck doesn't need much money, but it still needs enough to pay for Snare! or Cerebral Overwriter.
• House of Knives is easily the contender for the title of key card of the deck. If you aim to kill, scoring two of these can immensely facilitate that goal. Unless you already have one scored, though, GHA should be favored over this.
• The Future Perfect serves to fill in the remaining points without needing another excessive number of agenda. It's unreliable, but can prove difficult to steal, so it's definitely better than the other options (even the new neutrals). Most of the time you'll be discarding it as soon as Jackson Howard comes around.

Assets are the thing that makes this deck work, and they all serve a very important function:

• Cerebral Overwriter is a beast, and with the almost complete lack of defenses against Brain Damage, this one should be the target of your Mushin No Shin as soon as you get one. Scoring some BD on the Runner in early games is basically a game over.
• GRNDL Refinery is another good target for Mushin when you're low on money, otherwise just advance it behind some ice (possibly Kitsune. When most of your advanced cards are traps, they'll think twice before checking one, at least until they see you got this one too.
• Jackson Howard is essential, no alternatives. You need to be able to recycle stuff from the Archives, and especially to safely discard some Agenda when flooded.
• Project Junebug is another killer, considering it amounts to 6 Net Damage when powered by Mushin. That makes it another very good option to store some advancement tokens to be later used with Trick of Light.
• Shock! works wonders in this deck. Even one in Archives is usually enough to stop their runs there, and when you have 2 or 3 the extra ND might kill them, or anyway accelerate their demise. To be discarded as soon as possible.
• Snare! continues to be the biggest danger for runners, even with 2 deluxes and 2 full cycles of data packs. As one friend said: "there's just nothing else so scary". Efficient and fairly expensive, always keep enough money to use it. Even when that means scoring an Agenda one turn later, or two.

The other two keys of the deck would be Mushin No Shin which is essentially your way to get free advancement tokens, and might actually be enough to kill a runner. Trick of Light is what you need to score Gila and/or House of Knives without any problems.

I hardly ever won by scoring 7 agenda point with this deck, but I can consistently kill my opponent. It does take quite a long time to do so, however, so the deck might not be the best option in a tournament.

It's very fun to play though, and with the new addition of Kitsune, it's even better.

By the way, in ancient japan the 狐 (kitsune, fox) was considered to be the true form of a bakemono, a shapeshifting monster. Let's hope we'll see some more of these mythic creatures!