How to Optimize (PE)

[lmccart4]

How would you guys optimize this deck? Is it ok to have just 13 influence? I feel like I should have something else in there from out of faction...

Jinteki PE

Jinteki: Personal Evolution (Core Set)

Agenda (10)
3x Fetal AI (Trace Amount)
3x House of Knives (Honor and Profit)
1x NAPD Contract (Double Time)
3x The Future Perfect (Honor and Profit)

Asset (15)
3x Cerebral Overwriter (Creation and Control)[color=#8A2BE2] ••••• •[/color]
3x Jackson Howard (Opening Moves)[color=#FF8C00] •••[/color]
3x Psychic Field (Honor and Profit)
3x Ronin (Future Proof)
3x Snare! (Core Set)

Operation (13)
3x Celebrity Gift (Opening Moves)
3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)
3x Mushin No Shin (Honor and Profit)
3x Neural EMP (Core Set)
1x Scorched Earth (Core Set)[color=#006400] ••••[/color]

Code Gate (3)
3x Yagura (Fear and Loathing)

Sentry (8)
2x Komainu (Honor and Profit)
3x Pup (Honor and Profit)
3x Tsurugi (True Colors)

13 influence spent (max 15)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)

[jawZ]

Your best bet is to look at the PE deck piloted by Minh Tran.
Otherwise check the decklists Minh mentioned: Jürgen Marx and Chris Hinkes.
You can watch some videos showing the decks of Minh and Axul as well: Worlds Final and German Nationals Finale.

[MasterAir]

I think Gift is bad in PE guessing games decks. You need a really good hand to be able to play it. I much prefer Medical Research Fundraiser - Runner credits are rarely a problem. Sweeps Week is also good if you have spare influence.

I like a handful of etr ice you can score behind early.

I think 1-3 barriers is good. Means your net damage sometimes wins the game by hitting their last fracter. Means they need to find and play 1 more card during the game.

I don't think you have economy to support your ice choices.

[prozz]

gila (agenda that makes money) helps, id think about it here.

[mediohxcore]

DO NOT play medical research fundraiser.

You have some spare influence. Sweeps week is great in PE. If you need econ and can't afford the inf, play Subliminal Messaging.

[Humanoids]

By the way, what usually is the optimal number of Subliminal messaging in a deck? Of course, 3 isn't acceptable. But is 1 not enough and 2 too much?

[mediohxcore]

By the way, what usually is the optimal number of Subliminal messaging in a deck? Of course, 3 isn't acceptable. But is 1 not enough and 2 too much?

I think they get worse as you add more of them, but 2 is fine.

[Humanoids]

Ah, Thanks, I think it's only worth to include 1 but, then again, it becomes very, very inconsistent...

[bblum]

If you need econ and can't afford the inf, play Subliminal Messaging.

Shell corp is better.

[moistloaf]

I agree with ben; shell corp is strong.

[mediohxcore]

Shell corp is better.

It's really, really slow, taking at least 4 turns to pay off anything at all. Until then, you're actually down money vs clicking for credits. It's vulnerable to removal and trashing from centrals, and it can't pad your hand. It also needs a 'failed trap' to work very well at all, and unless it's a 3-adv overwriter, they can just run the trap and take the hit to trash it when you put $6-9 on it. PE doesn't need a whole lot of money, it just needs to 'keep its head up' so to speak so it can continuously pay for Snare/Overwriter. I think subliminal is a lot better against Shaper and Anarch, (where it will probably gain you the same amount of money without any of the stipulations) and Shell Corp is only anywhere close to as good vs Criminal where they can Sec Test to keep you off recursion.

[Paranoid]

Yeah, I think the most you're getting out of Shell Corp is 6c. If there are 9c or more on it then the Runner is taking a hit and trashing it. The Corp has enough reliable econ cards that you don't have to play stuff like Melange, Successful Demo, Shell Corp. It might work well in IG though.

[bblum]

I've never put more than 6 on shell, and as far as I can remember I've only had a runner come kill it once. Even if you only put 3 on it, it's the same rate as gila hands (you get the money later, but it's more flexible, most importantly you can use it on turns you also mushin). At 6 it's a magnum opus that's only good if you already have a decent cushion in your pool.

It's not brilliant. The rez/trash sucks (they must have mixed it up with DBS on the drawing board) and it makes R&D worse. But I tried subliminal, and never once got more than 2 credits from it. I dunno if I'm doing something wrong, but my kate and noise opponents were always able to find time to run once per turn, not just criminals.

IMO, subliminal is basically just green level clearance, while shell is extra copies of gila hands (that stacks with a scored gila instead of being redundant).

[mediohxcore]

The click for playing it and the cost of rezzing it is what makes it such shit, though. I agree, Subliminal is very much likeGLC or Beanstalk. Sometimes, against Shaper/Anarch they keep you off of it, but usually not without wasting clicks of their own to do so. Shell Corp is unappealing to me mostly because of (1) the rez cost, and (2) doing absolutely nothing for a minimum of 3 turns after you play it. It's also awkward to use with Gila scored sometimes, and it loses value on any turn where you score an agenda or don't use it for whatever reason. It can also be miserable if you don't have something to protect it with. The biggest advantage of it that I see is that you can throw it down in a shell game.

[Syntax]

I could remove Cerebral O. for Junebugs and put Sweep Week in it, or Blue Level Clearance.

+1 for barriers.

Shell Corp have no role in a PE double guessing deck IMO

"How to optimize" a strong-by-piloting deck makes me raise an eyebrow though.

[MasterAir]

You're usually right, but care to explain? It's +5 creds for a click. I usually find vs PE I (as runner) have a mountain of creds and that doesn't help much. This is especially true if you're playing Chris Hinkes deck.

[Stiv]

I like a handful of etr ice you can score behind early.

I think 1-3 barriers is good. Means your net damage sometimes wins the game by hitting their last fracter. Means they need to find and play 1 more card during the game.

Not really true. Any PE deck worth it's salt should just be putting agendas down blindly, same as psychic fields. And install advance-advance (or Mushin) Fetals/Future Perfects, as well as Ronins and Cerebrals.

Ice should be primarily used to make RnD (and perhaps HQ) runs inefficient.

My main source of moneys when playing PE is Gilla hands. And it goes excellent in 1 pointers tactics.

[mediohxcore]

You're usually right, but care to explain? It's +5 creds for a click. I usually find vs PE I (as runner) have a mountain of creds and that doesn't help much. This is especially true if you're playing Chris Hinkes deck.

This sometimes happens, but it's not what you WANT to be happening. Criminals in particular can cash up pretty hard with a combination of Testing and Siphon, but Anarchs and Shapers still need to work for their money against you.

What little ICE you play is usually taxing for the most part, (I am currently playing a mix of Yagura, Pup, Enigma, Komainu, and Eli). If you place this ICE well, you can often become a pretty taxing deck, (I usually try to ICE R&D with 1-2 pieces, HQ with 1, and the rest on a remote). If the runner has to get money, that's time they're spending not drawing cards and running. Are people playing Gambles against you? If so, MRF just saved them a click to draw a card and a click to play the card. That's a pretty big deal. You want to be installing things fast enough that they don't have infinite money, and thus have to make a choice between installing things and gaining money and actually checking some/all of your installs. There is maybe a version of PE that actually doesn't care how much money the corp has. Such a deck would play less taxing ICE, (no pup, less Elis, more Bako/Enigma/Komainu, maybe very little ICE at all), but cambridge is not that version.

[Syntax]

That's just because you don't ever, ever, give something to the runner, being information, credit or handsize in those types of deck. You are the problem, not the solution (or one of them).

Especially in PE double guess : to avoid net the runner can... Stop running. Giving him credits mean ease to instal. And mean the runner will come back stronger and sooner.

[Syntax]

Well if you play those with Giraffe (aka french slang on Run4Games for Celebrity Gift), it comboes nicelly in non Cambridge Jinteki.

The Subs comes back. When your turn starts, you've got 8-9 card including Giraffe.
=> by playing Giraffe you choose 5 to show with the Sub, hiding 2-3 cards like this, then play 1 Sub for 1 clic left and discard back subs.

=> the information you hide is very powerfull in a faction who have all those traps and "trouble at access" cards.
They would say "okay, nice, I saw an agenda but what if the installed thing is a Snare now he've got 11 credits, he could afford it ?" and sometimes you want to make the runner enter those sorts of questions he can't solve but by exposing. Next turn the runner will asks himself if that's a Junebug or an agenda