Persephone, my beloved

Ever since Fear the Masses rotated, I have been left without a funny milling card. Instead, I have had to rely on the much fairer, much easier to play Chastushka, and other various sabotage cards. But I could never really mill with sabotage alone; the corp's ability to trash cards from HQ instead can save them if they are desperate. Plus, the numbers on the new cards are more toned down, and are often limited to once a turn unlike Fear the Masses. However, there is still one card left. A card which has been terrible for a very long time. Meet Persephone.

Persephone has no value as an actual breaker: Num beats it in ability costs, install costs, MU... The only thing going for Persephone is the ability, and what an ability it is.

There is no limit on Persephone's ability; you could run 4 times a turn, and get to use it 4 times. If you have multiple installed, you get to use all of them. You could even use them on multiple ICE in one run, but this doesn't really happen.

The Plan is simple: find an ICE which has a lot of subs; install Egret to make it a sentry, then either use Banner to let the "End the run" subs fire while not ending the run, or Bankhar to make the subs into Net Damage which can just be eaten. Normally you will use Banner or raw Persephone; Bankhar is just a nice option if you draw it.

To help with this, Arissana applies both early game remote pressure due to the threat of Slap Vandal, and allows Egret to enter play clicklessly. Plus, UAV is a fantastic way to generate the credits needed to overcome Persephone's monstrous install costs. Basilar Synthgland 2KVJ also allows you to run more times in one turn; this won't be relevant in all matchups, but it could mean the difference. It also sort of counters the False Lead decks which have been popping up as of late.

It is very important to have a rough idea of what deck your opponent is running, so that you have a hunch of what piece of ICE you want to smash into.

A short list of ICE that you want to see for each faction, and could realistically see:

Weyland: Anvil, Envelopment (But break the trash the ICE sub), Pharos, Winchester, and Valentão.

NBN: Starlit Knight, and Unsmiling Tsarevna.

HB: Drafter, Brân 1.0, Echo, and Eli 1.0.

Jinteki: Anansi, Phoneutria, and Vampyronassa.

Note that you don't HAVE to find these ICE; most ICE can be used for this trick, its just that these ones are more efficient

A few responses to questions you might have about the deck:

"No Ika?"

Yes. I don't have a good explanation for this; the theory is that, in dire circumstances, Persephone could break the subs, so Ika isn't needed. Feel free to try chucking it in though.

"No Harmony AR Therapy?"

This seems like a natural include, since the deck will be milling itself. However, most games do not go long enough for this drawback to become a problem; if it does, either you have milled 15+ cards and should win soon, or the corp is already pushing the last agenda. This is also why Airblades aren't here; the game will not go long enough for this to matter, and I would rather have more econ.

"If you want more clicks for runs, why not use Pichação?"

It just never seemed to work for me; Arissana already wants to use Egret with the ability, and the deck struggles hard enough with MU as it is. Basilar is just more consistent, even if it is a bit "eh".

"How does the deck beat asset spam?"

It doesn't, just try and Conduit them or something.

"Does it work?"

Currently it is sitting at a 45% winrate on jnet. This can likely be improved by me getting better at the game.

"Why is this so long?"

I really like Persephone, I'm really happy that it finally has a use, and I want to spread the word. Every year, dozens of Persephones are left without a deck to call home; adopt one today.