A rock and a hard place

There are a few notable differences between this PE deck and the ones you see all the time:

1) 3x Braintrust: Wait, why run a bunch of 2-pointers? These are Jinteki's most reliable method of getting to match point quickly. Once you're at match point the shell-game becomes a much worse proposition for your opponents, but until match point it is that much riskier for you. This deck wins by scoring out just as reliably as it does by flatlining, using early end-the-run ice to protect and score two braintrusts or a braintrust and a Fetal. Wait a second....what?! SCORE a FETAL?? I must be crazy, right?

2) Mushin No Shin for scoring: Jinteki's fast-advance. Ideal 1st turn play: Mushin a Fetal into a remote and throw an ETR ice on HQ. Deny any siphons (hopefully), and force them to either cede points or lose their early momentum, giving you a scoring window for a House of Knives or Braintrust. That's what we call a win-win situation. This deck excels at them. (And just in case you can find a window to use it, there's a 1-of Junebug here to keep the runner on their toes a little.)

3) Punitive over Scorched: Leaves room for more econ (Refineries give you soooo much money), and does more of what PE does best: attrition. I've flatlined aggressive runners with them before, but more often than not they serve to simply open scoring windows so that you can win the old-fashioned way. There have been a few other decks popping up recently that also use these...guess I should've published this one earlier. :P

4) More ice than most, and not much of it is 'scary': Tollbooth is the star here - I can almost always score at least 3 points behind it, and it's not vulnerable to many tricks. Even Eater is heavily taxed getting rid of it. Chimera is also a notable way to get early braintrusts or houses scored against most runners. The ice suite has been in flux since the deck's inception, but the defining aspect is that it's full of end-the-run ice of a variety of types and strengths. Of course, it still runs a few scary sentries to catch unwary runners, but it mostly uses ice like normal: to protect and score agendas.

5) Money, money, and more money: I often have stupid amounts of money with this deck, which is part of what enables so many scoring windows for it. Being able to triple-advance agendas multiple turns in a row while still rezzing the occasional ice and keeping enough reserved to threaten the punitive/neural is super nice, and scary for runners everywhere.

Overall strategy: Just like most corps - open and use scoring windows whenever possible. If the runner takes a tempo hit because they scored a Fetal or hit a Snare or faced a Counterstrike for taking a couple agendas, they'll be drawing or gaining credits instead of running. You should score agendas while they're doing that. Especially ones that are worth 2 points. It's the primary strategy of most other corps, but for some reason people think that PE is only for flatlining. This deck disagrees with that. It can flatline runners with the standard Jinteki shenanigans, but I've won the majority of my games by scoring out. Even if I flatlined them, I was almost always on match point (the exception being Philotic wins, which are always fun).

Viability: It's had ups and downs, but is reasonably reliable in the competitive scene. Not "unbeaten" reliable all the time, but definitely "consistently losing no more than 1 or 2 rounds in swiss" reliable. It has gone unbeaten at tournaments before (SC from last year), but it's definitely not perfect. It's kinda vulnerable to hard R&D locks, but what P.E. isn't? The ice is the biggest point of contention I still have with it, and what's been most constantly in flux. It'll get there one day...but it's been my baby since the game first came out, so I'm sticking with it.