Show of Force = 3 More Ronins

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Repartition by Cost
Repartition by Strength
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Unified PE v.1.2
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phette23 2279

4-0 to win a Bay Area GNK featuring two Worlds Top 16 competitors. If you haven't figured it out already, people in the Bay Area are going to forever remind you of how many of us top 16'd 2016 Worlds.

Show of Force is a very good PE card that won me two games by itself. Various kill combos of the day:

  • Curfew out, fully advanced Show of Force & Philotic plus NA'd Gila Hands, score five points while doing five damage (3 from Show, only 1 from Philotic as runner hadn't scored yet, 1 from Gila)
  • Leela has Deus Ex but hits a Fetal AI on R&D & ends turn with 2 cards in hand, score Show to prompt the Deus Ex use & then Neural EMP
  • Mill out link Andy by scoring two House of Knives & running her out of cards
  • Frantic Whiz hits a 4x Overwriter, play Curfew to reduce hand size to 0, win off of Neural on the next turn

PE decks are about accumulating options on the board & forcing the runner into tough decisions. You have to put agendas in your deck & three of them are Fetal AI. Show of Force lets you add more Ronins to your deck while meeting the agenda point requirement. Use your threatening early game ICE like Cortex Lock & DNA Tracker to buy a bit of time, Mushin things, Archived Memories for what's useful (Neural, Mushin, Curfew all good targets), then win.

Also, Mind Game is a beautiful piece of ICE. You have to pay to play a psi game but it's annoying as hell & lets you force a run on any server, including your 4x advanced Junebug that forces the runner to jack out & get rid of an installed card. Except it was never a Junebug, it was Show of Force the whole time. GG.

20 comments
20 Dec 2016 tzeentchling

Man, I thought people had learned their lesson about playing their meat damage cards against PE! Guess they forgot - good way to remind them!

20 Dec 2016 tzeentchling

Also, a PE list with no Snare? That's practically heresy.

20 Dec 2016 phette23

I waited for a Plascrete to drop & ruin my fun but didn't see one on the day. I think it's kind of fallen out of favor with the new tag/meat prevention cards around, which are of course still an issue.

Snare!'s expensive was mostly my thinking & I wasn't sure if I'd have enough money (thus Gila Hands which I'm not thrilled about). I think I was wrong though, most of the ICE costs 0 to rez & Mushin makes advancing free too.

20 Dec 2016 mawa

I like how this Show of Force PE list has so many differences to mine and every other one I've seen that it's basically a completely different deck. It's such a flexible card for killing the runner and it works with everything. I'll have to publish my list soon.

How did you find running 6 Ronin? How did you deal with Medium digs when you're running no Snares? Project Kusanagi?

20 Dec 2016 phette23

6 Ronin is pretty great. Maybe even too many but I wanted to go all-in.

No one ever got around to R&D multi-access before dying. I don't feel too worried since Fetal is a free Snare & lots of one-pointers helps, too. Kusanagi looks like a trap card, unless you're doing 24/7 Philotic shenanigans it just doesn't offer much value.

20 Dec 2016 rojazu

What are salems and voter intimidation for?

20 Dec 2016 wynalazca

I'd guess preventing I've Had Worse free draws or hitting their current so Enforced Curfew stays out. Voter Intimidation for Film Critic?

20 Dec 2016 phette23

That's pretty much right, Salem's to make Anarch kills 100% certain or sometimes for siphon. VI is mostly for On the Lam but Film Critic is a worthwhile target against Shaper.

21 Dec 2016 moistloaf

Can a runner even jack out on a naked remote?

21 Dec 2016 staglore

@moistloaf Yes, the runner can jack out at Step 4.2 of a run.

21 Dec 2016 CodeMarvelous

So I ask this in all seriousness. I need a sensei to teach me when to mushin traps as opposed to agendas or ronins. That is my greatest barrier to experimentation with Jinteki. I have no clue how to make traps land.

22 Dec 2016 phette23

You can just do it randomly, Mushin whatever your deck spits up. And if the runner never checks advanced remotes you're almost guaranteed to eventually get a kill combo.

I typically try to get a read on how aggressive the runner will be, what they think various remotes are, & how concerned they are. A lot of people will run a remote after not checking a few because they figure now you think they don't run remotes. So that's a good time for a trap. You can also NA a trap onto to board & advance it later, that really screws with people & looks much more like a Ronin.

22 Dec 2016 Skarpie

I'm curious as to why you chose Archived Memories over Friends in High Places?

22 Dec 2016 phette23

Friends doesn't work with anything here, other than maybe a trashed Jackson. Archived for Mushin is a good play, installing possible advanceable traps from archives on your last click isn't productive.

22 Dec 2016 saracenus

Congrats on the win! Great deck!

Did Sealed Vault do any work in this tournament? I assume this is to mitigate Account Siphon and Vamp shenanigans.

Also what is the Eater/Keyhole plan?

22 Dec 2016 Eji1700

I can't get this to work at all most games. I've found my opponents just run anything I don't advance or install/advance/advance and ignore the 3/4 advanced mushin targets while setting up/pressuring R&D. How do you deal with the mid game?

22 Dec 2016 phette23

@saracenus yeah Vault dodged one siphon on the day, would've done more work but I net damaged the other 2 out of hand. The deck doesn't have a great Eater/Keyhole/Econ denial plan but that's in there as a concession. Pop-up helps a lot, too.

@Eji1700 if the runner isn't touching Mushins then you should be in good shape actually. I mean, you have 6 Ronins. I would stack R&D ICE while drawing for more Mushins & Archived Memories.

22 Dec 2016 clydeiii

Is it just me or are Show of Force and Mind Games not showing up in this decklist?

9 Mar 2017 Critical Brian

Thank you so much for this deck - I'd never played Jinteki until I saw this a month ago, gave it a try, and won myself some prizes at the weekend n a GNK! Very happy with this and the twisted, tortured expressions my opponents have been pulling. We talked about this deck on my podcast (I made sure to give you full credit! It can be found here: youtu.be Thanks again!

9 Mar 2017 phette23

@Critical Brian that's great to hear! So glad you enjoyed the deck & had success with it.