SG+SU21 duel – Episode 3: Steve Cambridge (vs PE)

Inspired by the final battle in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Episode 3 of the duel series pits Steve "Retrieve" against the Jinteki PE grinder. Can Keanu/Steve take a lickin' and keep on tickin', or will he succumb to a thousand cuts from the House of Knives?

Scene from Parabellum, or promo for Netrunner?

These decks are assembled from the System Gateway + System Update 21 card pool and designed to play well against each other, but are also solid standalone decks. See the corp deck here: SG+SU21 duel – Episode 3: Personal Evolution (vs Steve)

In this matchup, your goal is to install all breakers ASAP, then generate economy to fuel runs on servers while keeping enough cards in hand to absorb damage. Use your cards wisely—think of them as Health Points that get expended when performing special moves, whereas successful HQ runs regenerate health using Steve's ID.

When starting out, install Earthrise Hotel (ideally with Career Fair for a 3 rebate) as soon as you can to help draw into your breakers. Generally, Carmen is first priority (to neutralize Sentries that do net damage), then Corroder (to break end-the-run Barriers), then Abagnale (for Code Gates). Use Mutual Favor to help tutor breakers from your Stack, and Inside Job if you need early access to protected remotes.

Afterwards, your priority shifts towards finding the right balance between cards and credits. (As the saying goes: don't spend all your health gaining wealth, only to spend your wealth regaining health!) This balance will change depending on how quickly the Corp scores Agendas and how much damage you take, so stay flexible.

Almost all Events in this deck have multiple copies for Steve to retrieve. In addition to those mentioned above, you have:

• 3x Sure Gamble, Creative Commission and Dirty Laundry – "fast money" staples
• 2x Emergency Shutdown – since you run HQ often, why not derez that pesky Brân 1.0 too?
• 2x Jailbreak and Overclock – situationally useful, but before playing them, consider whether it's better to expend HP (for multi-access or temporary credits, respectively) versus a basic run
• 1x Wildcat Strike – a 1-influence filler; most times the Corp will choose to give you credits instead of cards, but you should always expect the less helpful alternative

This deck also has multiple copies of non-Event cards. If you can't (or don't want to) install the 2nd copy, it's still worth keeping in hand to soak up net damage:

• Docklands Pass – for multi-access on HQ (but see note below)
• Pennyshaver – staple Criminal console that provides run-based economy (though it pairs better with Ken or Zahya)
• Prepaid VoicePAD – since this deck runs a lot of events and Steve can retrieve them, 2 upfront pays for itself pretty quickly; worth installing both copies if still in early- or mid-game
• Liberated Account – expensive but solid "slow money" card (cheaper with Career Fair)
• Security Testing – generates money against unprotected servers (even more with Dirty Laundry and Pennyshaver); however, its value falls off when all servers are iced, in which case just keep in hand as HP
• Sneakdoor Beta – very useful as a 2nd attack vector to trigger Steve Retrieve

Some rules of thumb when playing against Jinteki:

• Don't run if you have cards in hand that you want to install (especially breakers)
• Be careful using multi-access—particularly Jailbreak + Docklands Pass—as you don't want to bite off more than you can chew ☠️
• Have at least 3 cards in hand before running to avoid getting flatlined by Snare!; increase this by 1 for every House of Knives agenda with hosted tokens + Hokusai Grid upgrade + additional card accesses beyond the 1st (e.g. Jailbreak HQ or R&D —> HoK + steal an Agenda + Snare! = 5 damage)
• The above assumes you can break or bypass all ICE without incurring damage, and don’t hit 2x Snare! ☠️
• Don’t run last click if you have a valuable Resource (e.g. Liberated Account), otherwise you might get tagged via Snare! —> Corp can trash it on their turn
• (If the Corp has fewer than 4) Snare! cannot fire and you should run aggressively
• (If the Corp has an unplayed Ronin) End your turn with at least 3 cards in hand if there is a facedown card installed in a remote server (e.g. Ronin —> 2x Seamless Launch or 2x Trick of Light —> trashed to inflict 3 damage)

In building this deck, we used PreNic's [SG+SU21] King of Recursion as a starting point, and incorporated concepts from SirLoathing's [Startup] Better Lucky (with full guide); the latter has an excellent writeup on individual cards and strategy against various Corp archetypes.

This matchup is tense but fun, especially when playing face-to-face against your opponent!

SG+SU21 duel episodes (with more on the way)

Episode 1: 🟢 Tāo Salonga -vs- 🟪 Precision Design

Episode 2: 🔵 Zahya Sadeghi -vs- 🟨 Near-Earth Hub

Episode 3: 🔵 Steve Cambridge -vs- 🟥 Personal Evolution