[Jesminder Sareen] No, Masanori Doesn't Work

I figured I’d get this inevitable discussion kicked off! I didn’t expect to be, but I’m actually rather excited for Jesminder’s arrival. While her ability is not particularly interesting, the tag avoidance that we had previously associated with Criminal is novel. Also helpful in the yellow-filled world we live in. Her console, Maya, is what really makes her shine. The ability to both control your opponent’s draw while digging deeper on repeated RnD runs is promising indeed. It’s also worth nothing if you can’t trash something, whether it’s ICE/Operation or if you can’t afford it, putting it on the bottom of R&D is the next best thing. Especially if you’re putting Jackson Howard, their only way to shuffle, down there.

Some other cards the synergize with Jesminder:

  • Code Siphon: Previously panned, removing the tag actually makes this a reasonably efficient tutor. The issue is what are you tutoring, especially if you have enough rig to get past ICE? Opus, Multithreader, and Medium are the first things that comes to mind.
  • Account Siphon: The classic. Halving the cost is not nothing, even if influence is tighter than it has ever been.
  • Vamp: See above. Can also help you set up the repeated RnD digs that Maya loves.
  • Zona Sul Shipping / Rachel Beckman: It’s worth noting that she stops Data Ravens and Snare!s from randomly hosing these cards. Breaking News is still an issue.
  • Security Nexus: If you do fail the trace, she will avoid the tag. Probably not enough to be worth running this over Maya or with Jesminder over Kate/Kit.

Things that synergize with Maya:

  • R&D Interface / Medium > Maker’s Eye > Indexing: You want repeated multi-access over burst to get the most out of this ability. Not only can you dig deeper, but you can laugh as you line the bottom of the deck with Scorched Earths.

As for decklists, this is the first thing I came up with. If the goal is RDI usage, Stimshop with a dash of Vamp seems like the most obvious place to start. The rig is straight forward, the econ is simple. Clot or not is the biggest question. I’m probably going to try this Clot-less version first, after some input from the inimitable Calimsha. I’m still worried about the Fastro matchup, but testing is required. Code Siphon and Artist Colony are in there because I want to play with new toys, and really hate News Team. It could probably use some Daily Casts, and those are the first things I’ll add with cuts.

StimShop Jesminder

Jesminder Sareen: Girl Behind the Curtain (Kala Ghoda)

Event (17)
2x Code Siphon (The Source)
3x Diesel (Core Set)
1x Legwork (Honor and Profit) ••
2x Quality Time (Humanity’s Shadow)
3x Stimhack (Core Set) •••
3x Sure Gamble (Core Set)
1x Test Run (Cyber Exodus)
2x Vamp (Trace Amount) ••••

Hardware (7)
1x Feedback Filter (Creation and Control)
2x Maya (Kala Ghoda)
1x Plascrete Carapace (What Lies Ahead)
3x R&D Interface (Future Proof)

Resource (8)
1x Artist Colony (Kala Ghoda)
3x Personal Workshop (Cyber Exodus)
2x Same Old Thing (Creation and Control)
2x Symmetrical Visage (The Valley)

Icebreaker (6)
2x Atman (Creation and Control)
1x Corroder (Core Set) ••
2x Femme Fatale (Core Set) ••
1x Torch (Mala Tempora)

Program (7)
2x Datasucker (Core Set) ••
3x Magnum Opus (Core Set)
2x Self-modifying Code (Creation and Control)
15 influence spent (max 15)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Kala Ghoda

Random bonus theme time! According to Wikipedia, the Hindu word ‘Maya’ is a form of illusion. In a spiritual sense, it is described as “that which exists, but is constantly changing and thus is spiritually unreal.” If knowledge of your Atman is knowledge of your truest self, knowledge of Maya is only knowing how things seem to be. So by mastering Maya, you gain some control over the future and reality of the corp by way of the order of R&D. (Bonus points if you play both Atman and Maya in the same deck.)

So, what are you brewing up for the girl behind the curtain?

5 Likes

First suggestion - Artist Colony is not for Jesminder. Maya + Jes’ ability already clear up News Team really easily compared to every other ID in the game.

My first thought for inf would be something along the line of 2x Account Siphon, 2x Stimhack, 3x Clone Chip, and maybe Vamp or a (barf) Planned Assault? Two Peddler’s is probably better.

Second thought is to build her more like a Reg-Ass anarch, with some combination of Parasite/CC/Peddler/Career Fair/Lady/Stimhack/Mimic and just use the Maya/Code siphon/Severely reduced impact of numerous good ice as all the justification you need.

Eater is also on my radar.

4 Likes

You’re probably right about the Colony. Again, lure of new cards and the delicious possibility of grabbing a Plascrete out of nowhere more than anything.

I do like the idea of the Parasite/CC version. Reg-Ass worked because you build a strong RnD threat for the late game. Maya gives you an incentive to do the same, even with the new inf costs.

Agreed. Jesminder’s already naturally good against Haarp, why would we include unplayable cards that are only remotely fine in an already solid matchup?

On the topic of Jesminder deckbuilding, I think you really need to work to make her ability good to make playing her worthwhile. If you’re getting slightly more efficient Vamps every so often then you should probably just play Kate and build that efficiency into the other parts of your deck. I think you want at least two Siphons (preferably three) to make her worthwhile. The ID is not playable without playing cards in your deck that make it good deliberately. Maya is okay but it’s not ground shattering or at all worth the ID ability on its own.

Code Siphon gets significantly better when paired with Account Siphon. Code Siphon is first-pick material in cube and it’s because your econ is wonky and the ICE you can rez isn’t great (also tutors are good). It’s a strong card with Siphon and Jes makes it more efficient. The downside was real for other IDs, and removing the downside whilst pairing it with Siphon is probably the best chance it has at being good.

This will be my starting point. I’m very sceptical and it might be (is probably) garbage, but I’d rather be testing a garbage deck built to be good in Jesminder than a bad Kate deck with some Vamps in it.

Jesminder (45 cards)

Jesminder Sareen: Girl Behind the Curtain

Event (18)
3 Account Siphon
3 Code Siphon
3 Diesel
2 Scavenge
3 Sure Gamble
3 Test Run
1 Vamp

Hardware (6)
2 Maya
1 Plascrete Carapace
3 R&D Interface

Resource (11)
2 Kati Jones
3 Daily Casts
3 Professional Contacts
3 Same Old Thing

Icebreaker (7)
1 Atman
1 Battering Ram
1 Cyber-Cypher
1 Femme Fatale
1 Gordian Blade
1 Inti
1 Torch

Program (3)
3 Self-modifying Code

6 Likes

The Vamps are there more to support Maya, more than to profit off of Jesminder’s ability. Unlike most IDs we’ve seen so far, Jesminder seems pretty inseparable from her console. Maya’s ability seems stronger than what a few Account Siphons offer without other denial. It feels a lot like what people were doing with Leela at first; going too far in on leveraging her ability over just playing a strong game.

1 Like

I don’t think this is really comparable. Leela’s ID isn’t one you have to build around to make good (aside from making a solid deck that suits her playstyle). Sareen’s ID text is a bit more like Ken Tenma’s, where if you take your standard Criminal deck and put it into Ken, it’s probably worse, because Ken needs a lot more run events for his ID to be ‘worth it’ over the rest. The same is also true of Noise: his ID works with viruses and you need to build your deck with and around viruses, even though your reg ass Whizzard decks do play Parasite and Datasucker, you need to leverage Noise for him to be worth it. Just as Noise needs more-than-usual viruses and Ken needs more-than-usual run events to be ‘worth it’, Sareen needs more-than-usual tagging cards.

Maya alone is not a good enough reason to be playing Jesminder, and having enough turns where you can get into R&D twice for Maya to be crazy is already pretty Magical Christmas Land without potent HQ pressure to back it up.

It’s a pretty decent console and the numbers on it are good, but getting some bonus R&D accesses every now and again isn’t earth shattering on its own.

4 Likes

Maya is getting all kinds of hype from the masses, and I feel like a 1 man weed wacking army against it. Seriously, outside of Jas its not a good card, because of the tag. As Xenasis says, she’s not worth running just for the console (because it’s power is pretty shit). I need compelling evidence for a good reason to run her. Sure Code Siphon might be it, using atman at strength on RnD or testran femmes…sure maybe. Unfortunately, I don’t think she merits a special build, but rather is just a choice if you’re going to run up against Bshop/Cshop/anytagnbn. I wish this surprise ID would have been better :confused:

edit: Took an old tag-me chaos theory deck that also might jsut be better as kate (but you can prolong going tag-me easier so you have more room to find your plascretes).

Jesminder Sareen Girl Behind the Curtain

15 influence spent (max 15) •••••••••••••••
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Kala Ghoda
Event Event (27)

3x Account Siphon ••••• ••••• ••
3x Code Siphon
3x Diesel
2x Indexing
1x Levy AR Lab Access
3x Modded
3x Quality Time
3x Scavenge
3x Sure Gamble
3x Test Run
Hardware Hardware (7)

3x Plascrete Carapace
3x R&D Interface
1x Spinal Modem ••
Resource Resource (3)

3x Same Old Thing
Icebreaker Icebreaker (5)

1x Femme Fatale •
2x Gordian Blade
2x Snowball
Program Program (3)

3x Magnum Opus

Again, probably better as kate.

I agree with the mentality you have for Sareen and I very much agree that she’s not worth running just for the console, but I think your list misses on one mark.

Her ability fires often in your list, but it doesn’t actually give you any real benefit (you have 3 Plascrete, are you planning on playing Tag Me? If you’re playing Tag Me, why Sareen?). You’re not planning on removing your tags which seems like somewhat of a waste. There is no upside to running this deck in Sareen as opposed to any other ID because we don’t care if we have 0 tags or 300 unless the Corp has tag punishment.

Sareen needs her ability to fire often, yes, but she also needs her ability firing to matter. If removing the tags doesn’t mean anything then I don’t think we’re getting adequate value. As such, I feel like a ProCo and/or Kati based econ suite is essential.

8 Likes

I love Sareen but I’m still not sold on Code Siphon.Just because you can avoid 1 tag doesn’t mean it’s a good card.
Here’s my take.Guess it’s shitty.

Shaper Denial (45 cards)

Jesminder Sareen: Girl Behind the Curtain

Event (22)
2 Account Siphon
3 Diesel
1 Indexing
1 Legwork
2 Modded
3 Scavenge
3 Sure Gamble
3 Test Run
2 The Maker’s Eye
2 Vamp

Hardware (7)
3 Maya
1 Plascrete Carapace
3 R&D Interface

Resource (6)
3 John Masanori
3 Same Old Thing

Icebreaker (4)
1 Atman
1 Battering Ram
1 Femme Fatale
1 Torch

Program (6)
3 Magnum Opus
3 Self-modifying Code

As mentioned in the OP, she protects Beckman. Most importantly she protects Beckman FROM YOUR OWN VAMP.

This means you can play Beckman Mopus Vamp for a level of non-interactivity not yet imagined.

Take 10 for days. Take all their money.

You can even install SoT, Vamp with it and run R&D twice using her console with RDIs

7 Likes

I think she can’t remove the tag from John.

Right now I’m on the vamp plan, but not stimshop. I think the best way to leverage her unique skill set is the addition of another card that can help quickly set up the mopus econ, and also making vamp painless. I also would rather use the influence on a more aggressive test run/scavenge like breaker suite.

Jesminder Sareen: Girl Behind the Curtain (Kala Ghoda)

Event (24)

Hardware (8)

Resource (3)

Icebreaker (5)

Program (5)

11 influence spent (max 15-4☆=11)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Kala Ghoda

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

Such interactivity wow (45 cards)

Jesminder Sareen: Girl Behind the Curtain

Event (21)
3 Diesel
1 Legwork –
1 Levy AR Lab Access
3 Modded
3 Quality Time
3 Scavenge
3 Test Run
1 The Maker’s Eye
3 Vamp – -- –

Hardware (8)
3 Maya
2 Plascrete Carapace
3 R&D Interface

Resource (6)
3 Rachel Beckman - - -
3 Same Old Thing

Icebreaker (4)
1 Cerberus “Lady” H1 *
1 Faust –
1 Femme Fatale -
1 ZU.13 Key Master

Program (6)
3 Magnum Opus
3 Self-modifying Code

Here’s my ridiculous Beckman build. Make dat Magnum money by the 10s, burst draw -> Vamp with Faust -> huge dig R&D with RDIs and Console (which makes for lots of Modded targets). Lady for wraparound/eli, zu for hq turing, femme for swordsman/random problems. Jesminder protects Beckman from your Vamp tag.

5 Likes

I ran Rachel in exile for a while, for opus. Guess what? Still too slow.

Can you be more specific? Too slow for NEH? That’s probably true, but against most decks playing fast you can get the vamp off pretty quickly, after which the game is basically over. If they play slow and try to out-money and protect HQ then Rachel is an all-star.

We’re not brewing tier 1 decks here, we’re playing with the new ID. “That’s bad against Astro” is not that damning of a criticism in this context…

7 Likes

Nah, even against a fast moving RP deck that can reasonably stick a sundew/mhc or recur them enough to make it too laborious to trash them, or even a well piloted HB, which now often packs crisium. Opus, which I love, still saps a ton of clicks, and the corp game can move much too fast.

Obviously you can’t just MINDLESSLY take 10 every turn. You can react to asset economy. There is play to it. Those match-ups are totally fine and if your opponent is at all worse than you then you will win.

It’s an interesting question whether or not she can avoid the tag from Masanori. The text in the flowchart is:

“The run ends and is considered to be unsuccessful. Trigger any abilities resulting from unsuccessful run.”

Really?Dream crusher…

What do you mean?

1 Like