Yellow Tree (Firestorm Games 2016 Store Champs)

Mechanoise 1602

Defy conventions, exploit the meta, and get your opponent thinking.

At our 2016 store champs I did reasonably well with my corp deck winning all but 1 match and my Runner losing all but 1 match.

In my local gaming group I am known for my love of mind games in Jinteki decks, and promised I was going to bring a Jinteki deck to the champs. When they learned I was taking Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center I received a reasonable amount of "boos"...little did they know.

When you're up against NEH you need to keep them poor, checking and trash things, and arm your Plascretes quickly. Well, here, neither of those things help. Install a Mimic to reduce the risk of faceplanting an Architect, but what if it's a Cortex Lock? Psychic Field punishes remote checks, and Project Junebug allows for mind games play, especially as it can be Astro'ed for increased sting...but what if it's a Project Beale being over-advanced?

Game 1 - Tricked Chaos Theory into believing my 12 advanced Project Junebug was a Project Beale I was trying to score out. Flatline.

Game 2 - Neural EMPed the remaining cards of an aggressive ICE Destruction Reina, before she faceplanted into a Snare! Flatline.

Game 3 - 1 turn away from winning against an Eater Keyhole Val deck, but a Same-Old-Thing-Blackmail on HQ out of desperation snagged him the winning agenda.

Game 4 - An aggressive Whizzard faceplanted into Cortex Lock on his 3rd click, drew a card on his 4th, and received a double Neural EMP on my second turn. Flatline.

Money is never an issue. Cheap ICE, and with the standard NBN money generating kit it allowed enough for a Restructure, letting me float about 20 credits on average. Product Placement is a must for this deck, generating lots of money and letting you fake out a SanSan City Grid on a trap.

It's a Wolf in sheep's clothing, and although it's NEH the Runners had to stop and think, doubting their instincts. So much fun was had, and I will be modifying this for the MWL list.

10 comments
5 Feb 2016 springogeek

:O I was that game 1 chaos theory player! Well played sir!

I was 6-0 on points before it, FWIW.

5 Feb 2016 GrantZilla1979
5 Feb 2016 GrantZilla1979

HNGGGG never mind that does NOT work.

5 Feb 2016 Mechanoise

@springogeek I wouldn't have tried to bluff an over-advancement if I wasn't so far down from a bad start. When I saw you pull that Femme I thought, "I need to to argue with him about something otherwise he'll suspect a bluff." Very much enjoyed the game as a whole and hope your other games went well!

@GrantZilla1979 Keeping the Astros, for obvious reasons, but I'm removing the Neural EMPs and Cortex Locks to put in 1 Ronin, and filling up the Agendas with Award Bait and more Explodapalooza. In this deck it's hard to decide what to run against, but if someone hits an Award Bait and I advance an unknown card because of it, what would it be? A sitting agenda, a Beale? A Project Junebug trap? Or Ronin primed for the next turn? The remotes must be a minefield, and so losing your grip to a Psychic field is a painful thing, and depending on what's been trashed you can get a big lead and just play normally.

5 Feb 2016 GrantZilla1979

I feel like Neural EMP is really strong here, particularly vs. Faust.

5 Feb 2016 springogeek

@Mechanoise It was legit play and as a Jinteki player I was happy with the bluff :) I was much more nervous then usual during that first round unfortunately, which I think showed.

I didn't perform that well overall, but it was a good day. All the games were exciting to say the least! :)

5 Feb 2016 Mechanoise

@GrantZilla1979 The problem with Neural is it takes up 2 slots of your grip, it's 4 influence overall, and the Runner typically reserve 2 cards in their hand, meaning you can't flatline them. However, with Ronin I can do 3 net damage's worth, not dependent on any run, and if the Runner knows I'm carrying on they may be forced to check servers often.

5 Feb 2016 Mechanoise

@springogeek Thank you :) You didn't seem all that nervous, I think you did really well, it was just unfortunate that you didn't remember how much damage the Ronin did. PE relies on that net damage, adding in Cerebral Static to shut off Employee Strike or Having something to remove Film Critic will hopefully help your deck. :)

5 Feb 2016 springogeek

@Mechanoise I'm not sure how prevalent Employee Strike is at the moment, but Film critic is a problem. not many solutions to that though.

5 Feb 2016 Mechanoise

@springogeek Snatch and Grab is usually the best, but that requires money. You could always try Cerebral Cast instead. A Psi game for either a tag or a Brain Damage is a big thing.