Let’s talk about Jinteki Biotech and tempo.

When this was announced there was a lot of discussion about mind games, bluffing and flatlining runners – ie, what normally gets talked about when basically anything gets announced for our favourite Japanese sociopaths. However, it all looks a bit wonky to me. The Brewery’s ability just doesn’t seem impactful enough. The Tank, while seeming on its face like a perfect Noise counterplay, falls down a bit when you realise it’s not like Action Jackson and you’ll need to spend a whole turn recovering from his antics.

The Greenhouse, on the other hand, opens up a style of fast Jinteki play that hasn’t existed before. Using this ability translates to a huge tempo swing, allowing you to score out a 4/2 agenda with no credit investment and using only 4 clicks instead of the usual 5. Combining it with Biotic Labour also allows you to score a 4/2 out of hand, something requiring huge effort in other factions. As a result of this, we can use my favourite plan in Netrunner – GOGOGO!

Green Russians

Jinteki Biotech: Life Imagined

Agenda (9)

3x NAPD Contract

3x Nisei MK II

3x The Future Perfect

Asset (3)

3x Jackson Howard •••

Upgrade (3)

3x Caprice Nisei

Operation (15)

1x Biotic Labor ••••

2x Blue Level Clearance ••••

3x Celebrity Gift

2x Fast Track

1x Green Level Clearance •

3x Hedge Fund

3x Restructure

Barrier (6)

3x Eli 1.0 •••

2x Paper Wall

1x Wall of Static

Code Gate (6)

2x Enigma

2x Lotus Field

2x Quandary

Sentry (5)

2x Cortex Lock

1x Pup

1x Susanoo-No-Mikoto

1x Tsurugi

Other (2)

2x Excalibur

With this deck YOU TOO can do fun things like:

score a Nisei Mk. II on turn 1

score a Nisei Mk. II from hand with 4 credits basically any time you want

go for a Future Perfect score behind a Quandary on turn 6 for the win

combine Excalibur, Caprice and a Nisei token into the worst thing in the world

fake out people who think Paper Wall dies instantly to Parasite (it’s actually strength 1!)

make people panic when they realise it’s turn 3, you have a Nisei token and a scoring remote and they have no rig

party with Blue Level Clearance

HOW TO WIN

Simple – go FAST. With this setup you can score a Nisei Mk. II on turn 3 fairly consistently. Even if you haven’t drawn one or a Fast Track, you should still be aiming to score a NAPD early to keep the pressure on. Save the Greenhouse ability for scoring out your first Nisei, either by stashing it in a remote for a turn or by using Biotic Labour to score from hand. Your goal in the first 2 turns should be to gain money and set up a remote with a cheap ETR such as Quandary or Paper Wall, ideally with Caprice for added protection. You then want to slam a Nisei in there as early as humanly possible. Don’t be afraid to go for it on turn 2! A double gearcheck remote of Quandary – Paper Wall is actually really tough to deal with so early for most runners. Use your judgement and be prepared to leave a central server open – if you don’t have agendas in hand against Shaper and you’re putting them straight into the remote, then leave HQ unguarded. Against Criminal, you can leave R&D open and trust in your low agenda density and self-protecting agendas. Get that score happening!

Your plan moving into the midgame is a server with Excalibur on the outside (or 1 layer in if your opponent is Criminal), one or two gearchecks (Eli is also good here), a scored Nisei and a Caprice in the server. Once you’re in this position you can Fast Track a Nisei, install, advance – and it’s really hard to stop.

CARD BREAKDOWN

Agendas

We go for the standard RP setup here, as having a low agenda density and agendas that protect themselves is fantastic for a deck where you are likely to bleed accesses. Nisei Mk. II is priority one to score but don’t be afraid to rush an early NAPD, and Future Perfect helps you close out the game. I tried 1x Fetal AI instead of a Future Perfect but you typically want to score 3 agendas rather than 4.

The Holy Trinity of annoying agendas

Assets/Upgrades

Jackson Howard is a good card. Caprice Nisei is also a good card. If you want to be incredibly unfair, a Nisei token can be used to end the run if you lose the psi game! Disgusting.

Operations

This is where the deck really shines in my opinion – 15 operations, all of which are either economy or making you speed up like crazy. Hedge Fund, Celebrity Gift and Restructure simply provide huge burst economy so that you don’t have to slow down when pushing Agendas.

You, basically.

Blue Level and Green Level Clearances are BRILLIANT here. You get to make money while maintaining tempo and digging for what you want. I’d run 3 Blue Levels but I need the influence. Play these whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Work it, make it, do it, makes us Harder, better, GOGOGOGO

Fast Track is honestly the MVP of the deck pretty often, to the point I’m considering 3. I often use this on turn 2 to search for a Nisei and go straight for the score. It can be used to continue the Nisei train with a search – install – advance turn, and can set you up for the final score.

Did someone say GOGOGO?

Biotic Labour serves two purposes. Apart from scoring from hand, it’s also great for scoring a Future Perfect to win the game. Install and advance once to bluff a NAPD, then Biotic and advance 4 times next turn. If you want to be a complete baller, you can score a Nisei from hand on TURN 1. You’ll have 1 credit and undefended centrals, but…you can do it.

ICE

The ICE composition in this is a mix of extremely binary gearchecks for your remote and relatively cheap and taxing ice for centrals. Quandary, Wall of Static, Enigma and Paper Wall should all be prioritised for your scoring remote over centrals. Lotus Field is up to you – it ends the run which is nice, but against Anarch you may want to throw it on a central to make sure it protects you. It’s fantastic against Noise, which according to my extremely legit statistics comprises 96% of all runners on OCTGN.

Eli can potentially be used in your scoring remote but is ideally used in multiples on R&D to make it prohibitively taxing. Tsurugi and Pup provide similar roles. Cortex Lock is a decent early game ICE to throw on centrals as people will tend to not run through often. Susanoo is something beefy you can throw onto R&D or even your scoring server if you’re in real trouble. It’s main purpose is to hate on Shapers, as it’s a difficult ICE to deal with for many Shaper decks. Honestly it’s more of a safety measure than anything else – you want to rely on the cheapies for as long as possible.

Get outta here, this is snake-octopus-person-thing territory

Excalibur should be on your remote 100% of the time, ideally in the outermost position. You really want to abuse the interaction between its effect and Caprice Nisei.

Hope you brought an AI breaker. Also we found out where they used up the flavour text budget so Hayley doesn’t get any.

HEY BUT WOULDN’T THIS BE BETTER IN RP?

MAYBE.

Probably not though. RP is good once you get the Nisei train rolling, but the Greenhouse is really effective at getting the train started. The economic benefit from the ID is surprisingly strong as well.

In summary:

slam agendas

go fast

party time

This deck works really well against runners teched for glacier, which is a decent percentage of the field right now. It requires you to play very aggressively and rush out agendas as quickly as possible, leaving centrals lightly defended. If that sounds like your style, try it out and let us know how it goes!