Played this deck a little over a dozen times over the past month on Jnet and with my wife, usually winning.

The main idea of the deck is to try to create pressure on the runner with small but difficult-to-avoid net and meat damage if they chose to run. This is achieved with cards like:

• Kakugo
• Hokusai Grid
• Neural EMP
• Prisec

This doesn't typically kill the runner outright, but it taxes them, most importantly, by forcing them to spend clicks drawing cards.

Prana condenser can create additional pressures on the runner, giving the corp a lot of money and threatening to kill the runner if they don't deal with it. Prana condenser is not cheap to trash and is cheap to rez. With a Kakugo on R&D and an installed Prana condenser, the runner cannot maintain R&D lock without dealing with the condenser, which becomes more difficult the richer the corp gets. If the runner runs and trashes the condenser, then it did it’s job.

The Palana identity works well here because if the runner chooses not to run, they will still have to draw cards instead to build up their rig. Incidental net damage from e.g. Kakugo helps ensure that even once their rig is finished, they will still need to continue drawing cards (and feeding you money).

Ice

The big ice here are 3x DNA Tracker, 2x Anansi, 2x Border Control. The deck typically tries to score out behind a 3-deep server of these, with Hokusai grid and Prisec in waiting. Head-fakes with NGO-front are advised.

The cheap, taxing ice here are 2x Yagura, 2x Mind Game, 1x Crick. Mind game is great as a first ice in HQ or in a scoring remote near the bottom — when the runner is forced to break it rather than risk losing the psi game, say, to get your agenda, or lose the effect of Diversion of Funds, then they are breaking a strength 4 code gate that you paid 0 to rez. Crick is situational and could be cut, but it is a great archives defender in matchups where that is important.

It is quite important to put one Kakugo on R&D IMO.

Kakugo can also be a fine lone defender for a Prana Condenser — rezzing it costs 4, but if the net damage goes on the condenser you get 3 back, even if they trash it. You pay 5 to rez both, and the runner pays 4 to trash the condenser, while you got 3 money back. The Kakugo is still there afterwards and later you can play another Prana condenser in that server if you draw one.

Agendas

House of Knives helps you trigger the Prana Condenser, or just tax the runner. Biotic labor helps you score it earlier. I have been playing with 2 Obakata protocol and 3 TFP but it could easily be 3 Obakata.

Other notes

In recent iterations I added 1x Marilyn campaign and 1x Celebrity gift which help boost economy more. I think one or both of these could be cut though.

In early iterations, I wanted to try running the Weyland ice Checkpoint which fits well with the strategy here, but, (1) I didn’t want to go too heavy on code gate, and already have 3x DNA tracker (2) Border Control adds a lot of value, and uses up the influence.

Pre-emptive action is here because it helps you recur your economy, drag the game out (giving more time to mill the runner), and recover if the runner trashes ice or trashes agendas from your hand. You might prefer to cut these, you have Crick anyways. IMO Genotyping is not enough better than pre-emptive action to justify the higher cost of play. If you can spare influence (perhaps by dropping one biotic labor?) you might consider Special Report, Archived Memories, even Gate Keeper, as alternatives to pre-emptive action.

The deck does not have Snare because 4 credits is too much to pay for the effect -- Prisec can be way more cost-effective, because it only costs 2 to trigger and costs 3 to the runner to trash. You might prefer to mix in a snare though, or a 2nd Breached Dome, or cut the breached dome.

It might be nice to add a current like Scarcity of Resources but I haven't play-tested that. I am seeing less and less currents from the runners lately which makes it less important to have one of your own.