Hey all. Appreciate all the thoughts and work on this archetype. I haven’t had time to try any testing due to needing to file my taxes 
, but am excited to try some out. Some thoughts:
I like the idea of Cortex Lock and def want to test, but the thought of adding more ICE that is dead by turn 7, worries me. I think a one-of is definitely worth it, just to slow meta-conscious runners down early on. Does it do enough work later in the game to justify two slots? Just wondering. I definitely want to test for myself. Looks like @hhoo is seeing positive results.
Also, after thinking/tax procrastinating I started to have the same worries about Architect as was voiced by @Calimsha and @Saan above. How often will it fire? Is a tax of two enough for 4 credits. I do like the indestructible nature of it. Eli is so good against everybody but Lady runners.
I did try this deck with 2x Markus and 2x Eli, and usually when I rezzed Markus I was wishing it had been an Eli. This goes to @king_mob’s comments. This deck is actually giving up on prioritizing the RP “deep server”, where the runner has to pay on a central and then pay again to score the agenda. First priority is get your scoring set up with some reasonable defense on HQ and R&D, and then go for the score. With all the cheap ETR in here (which facilitate the early scoring remote) you really need the cards to go right to be able to also top each central with a taxer. If you want to go deep server, I think the long game Jinteki builds that took the other x top slots in the tourney are the way to go. So, this is a long way of saying that Markus, while probably being good in a deep server RP, is not optimal in this archetype (IMO).
I do like the idea of Ichi1.0 though. Super tax. Good on R&D. Might also close out the game against a desperate runner if you put it on the remote in front of some ETR. Usually sucks to see in your opening hand but that might be different now with Cortex Lock in peoples’ minds.
edit: to comment on Calimsha’s late-breaking post.
Subliminal, I like it! Could help with PSI games where you only have 4 credits and a one-advanced Nisei in the remote, especially if the runner doesn’t know you have it in hand.
Tollbooth seems good (it always is!). If the runner sees it early it might throw them off as to the nature of the deck. What do you think of Ichi 1.0 in that slot?
I see you’ve come around to my thinking about removing too much tax from the runner. The ICE slots are fewer here, compensated by double DBS. How is that working?
One less Chimera is something I’ve contemplated. Seems like if you put another big ICE like Ashigaru, then having Eli’s would be worthwhile to compensate for the Criminal/Reina matchup with shutdown tech.
, but am excited to try some out. Some thoughts: