The advantage of Snowflake is that people almost always break it once they get their Fracter out (unless you’re at 0 creds), so in practice it’s a Wall of Static that costs 1 to rez.
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Exactly. And if they feel like playing psi games on the snowflake it is possibly even worse for them.
New version up! I think I got most of the holes covered. Need to test it against insta-parasite shapers though.
Nisei Division: The Next Generation (Honor and Profit)
Agenda (9)
3x Fetal AI (Trace Amount)
3x NAPD Contract (Double Time)
3x The Future Perfect (Honor and Profit)
Asset (5)
2x Jackson Howard (Opening Moves) ••
3x Shock! (True Colors)
Upgrade (5)
2x Ash 2X3ZB9CY (What Lies Ahead) ••••
3x Caprice Nisei (Double Time)
Operation (15)
3x Celebrity Gift (Opening Moves)
3x Cerebral Cast (Honor and Profit)
1x Closed Accounts (Core Set) •
3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)
3x Punitive Counterstrike (True Colors) ••••• •
2x Subliminal Messaging (Fear and Loathing)
Barrier (4)
3x Snowflake (What Lies Ahead)
1x Wall of Thorns (Core Set)
Code Gate (3)
1x Inazuma (Honor and Profit)
1x RSVP (True Colors) ••
1x Yagura (Fear and Loathing)
Sentry (8)
2x Komainu (Honor and Profit)
1x Neural Katana (Core Set)
2x Pup (Honor and Profit)
1x Rainbow (Honor and Profit)
2x Tsurugi (True Colors)
15 influence spent (max 15)
21 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Honor and Profit
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I like this list a lot. I’ve been thinking about The Future Perfect and how to build around it recently. This list seems like it has a nice blend of taxation and win conditions. 8 economy cards makes me a little nervous, though.
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I’d love to fit in one more econ card, but there simply is no space. I would need to cut a piece of ice, but at 15 ice that’s not a good trade I think. Didn’t experience econ problems yet, so I’m fine with 8 econ cards for the moment.
Just had a rage quit on octgn. First game won in 3rd turn - had a starting hand with celebrity and two punitives. 1st turn iced HQ, 2nd turn drew and celeb for 8c (not showing punitives). He runs RND, finds Future Perfect. 3rd turn I kill… Super unlucky I guess. Second game he loses 3 consecutive bets against Caprice, rants about rock paper scissors and rage quits.
To be honest I hated the Caprice concept. But I love to play this deck 
.
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A bit of threadcromancy here, but has anyone tried Cerebral Casts in Nisei Division with Bad Times? It seems like it is probably one of the better ways to punish the tag outside of Scorched Earth.
Don’t people just take the brain damage against Cerebral Casts?
I think that is the best play in a vacuum, but depending on the rest of your game plan you might be able to nail them with a tag.
I like the idea of Bad Times to punish tags and Ronin to punish taking the brain damage. Not sure how competitive it would be, but I bet it’d be fun.
I think Nisei is missing another one or two psi cards that are worth running even without the ID before it really gets there. We already know that IDs that give you a free credit a turn are good (see HB), but this is not limited to once a turn like that identity, so if you can reach a critical mass of good psi cards you can really tax the hell out of the runner, as you can bet 1 credit forever, and even betting 2 credits doesn’t hurt that bad.
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I agree. Thing is, very few of the Psi cards at the moment gain much from the ID and I don’t think that being able to play Snowflake and getting the odd credit here and there from Future Perfect/Cerebral Cast justifies using the ID over RP or PE.
Cerebral Cast/Physic Field. Poor synergy with the ID. Single-shot effects, which limits your gain from the ID (unless you start recurring them over and over).
Bullfrog. Good synergy with the ID, but a weak card.
Snowflake. Excellent synergy with the ID and taxing to break.
Caprice Nisei. Good synergy with the ID but only if the runner keeps running it whilst you have money, whilst tends to be a losing strategy for the runner anyway.
Future Perfect. Average synergy with the ID, you don’t want be a position where the runner can keep accessing this whilst it is in a central.
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And really, the weirdest part is that all of the Psi cards do not work well in a deck together.
For example, Cerebral Cast is really really good so you can threaten scorch. But you also have to threaten with net damage in order to make the tag option even viable.
Meanwhile, Bullfrog is okay in this id, but out shined by Snowflake. Works best if you don’t play sideways, like Caprice.
Not that I would ever suggest you just mash all the psi cards together! Lets hope for two more solid psi cards!
That list makes a lot of sense. So far the most effective build I’ve had with Nisei is having 11 smaller agendas, and just scoring in a iced caprice server. Win psi I score, lose psi you score. Let’s gamble. Bearing in mind I make money to gamble, you spend a whole lot to do so.
I’ve also had some hilarious fun with the punitive build. I once discarded a future perfect into archives, watched the runner try and fail 3 clicks to score it, then he won on last click, double punitive to win.
Hehe.
I really think the advantage in Nisei is the psychological edge you gain in the psi game, not really the cash itself. When I’ve played Nisei 9/10 times the runner chooses 0 as the first wager, expecting you to try to make money, you bet 1, and the game begins. No other identity introduces an advantage like this.
Bidding 0 as the runner in a psi game is sensible play - forcing the corp to pay for an advantage. The advantage of Nisei in my view is that it allows the Corp to bid 1 without any cost, taking that easy option away from the runner.
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Yeah exactly, heh. As Nisei you have a number of patterns and gaming options from your ID’s benefit that place you in a position of strength. Your control over the game’s actual psychology is just so much more than other ID’s.
I’m still not sure that it is as good as Tier 1 options. But it’s a helluva lot of fun.
I feel like the biggest problem of Nisei Division is actually the opportunity cost of running it (i.e. the same old “Why wouldn’t you just run EtF instead?” problem… in a red dress). Jinteki has always had awesome identitites, their problem was the rest of their card pool.
This opportunity cost can easily be mitigated by good psi effects, though. Having Future Perfect and Caprice be (pretty much completely) immune to attrition runs is already on the verge for me. One more effect on that utility level and we’re completely there.
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Yeah totally, and one that is permanently in play and not ice imo. Maybe a caprice like upgrade that deals net damage or summin.
This list on ffg.com is very instructional. I do think a bait and blast approach with a number of remotes is an excellent way to play this ID. There are a number of optimisations available if you have more cards to play with, Caprice most notably, but I love the theory of this deck with this ID.
Except that deck has 6 psi games you can play once, and two you don’t want to play. That deck seems better out of PE than Nisei. I agree with the sentiment that we aren’t quite there yet. I remember a similar sentiment about Cerebral Imaging about this point after Creation and Control was released. I’d be surprised if there weren’t 2-3 cards in the Lunar cycle to tip this ID from a bit of fun to (at least) pretty playable.
Caprice doesn’t work unless she costs more than a couple of credits to get to, so I don’t think she adds anything here.
Also, I like Ghost Branch in shell game Jinteki with Scorched Earth. It’s not Cerebral Overwriter good, but it’s not too far off.
I think my decklist from few posts above could be really solid if Cerebral Casts wasn’t so gimmicky. Sometimes it fails and is just wasted resources, sometimes the runner will show courage and take a tag, which is a good choice against this particular decklist.
I tried cutting them, but running only 9 psi cards with this id is a waste. So basically as others said - one good psi card could do the trick.