Release the hounds! (1st, Belgian Nationals 2016)

Okkdoko 1119

Played this deck to 1st place on the Belgian Nationals 2016, going 3-2 overall (39 players total). Shout out to Ron Zacapa, Driesel, Clercqie and Q for the testing and preparation; especially for kicking my CTM 15 games straight leading me to switch to Sol a few days before the nationals.

Thanks to Josh01 for playing the deck on his stream; changes from his version are -1 resistor -1 turnpike +2 quicksand since I wanted some hard etr barriers and more ICE which effectively deals with repeated medium runs/sec testing/temujins. Alternative would perhaps be vanilla but in general this deck is rich enough to afford the 3 rez cost.

With runners being filthy rich due to temujin and other run based econ, I found ctm to not be able to keep up with good Andy players. This deck with it's annoying ice, no open remotes and operation based econ was perfect against the crim-heavy field I expected. Game plan is to give no servers which can be efficiently broken every turn, limiting the usual econ options of temujin and sec testing. Data raven or booth on remote should allow you to rush out agendas or keep sansan alive long enough to allow the usual NBN shenanigans of BN into closed or EoI. News hound in particular is a nightmare for most decks to deal with, all for the low price of 2 rez.

Short description of rounds:

  • R1: regionals bye

  • R2 vs Anthony (Chaos Theory big rig). He sets up with mopus while I ice centrals and make a booth/hound remote. He's not able to break this efficiently in any way, allowing me to BN-->EoI for a GFI I fed him earlier on archives, followed by two Beales while he's still looking for sufficient econ and breakers. (WIN)

  • R3 vs Ron Zacapa (Andysucker). He plays the exact same 94 cards as me plus we play each other almost weekly. I got a bullshit win vs his corp game before and he repays in kind by getting a bunch of agendas from R&D while I'm flooded and unable to score fast enough in my remote. C'est la vie. (LOSS)

  • R4 vs Ryanbantwins (Dyper kate). Horrendous matchup since you generally dont have enough draw to find your FA tools and agendas before they combo out. This basically is what happens in this game as well, since I only see 5 agenda points before he combos out. (LOSS)

  • R5: ID

  • R6: ID

  • Elims 1 vs Ryanbantwins (Dyper kate). Rematch from swiss, since he's higher seeds he obviously chooses to run. His draw is quite slow and I score an astro and beale behind 1 ice, while he steals a GFI to avoid the win. He's about to go off next turn when I mandatory draw into BN, which I FA using astro token. He pitches 2 fan sites to artist colony but leaves the GFI, forgetting NBN decks play EoI. Oops. (WIN)

  • Finals vs Massisi (dumblefork). I have an insane opening with news hound, tarmar wyldside and hedge. Turn 2 I score astro behind another news hound while he is still setting up. I take some time putting ICE on central while digging for more ops econ, meanwhile sticking a sansan behind a booth/hounds remote. He plays Estrike, wyldside, pancakes; my next turn is FA BN on sansan + ASI. Brutal turn of events, and he never recovers. I swap a GFI he scored earlier and astro out a Beale for the win. While I do think this matchup favors Sol, my draw was just bonkers. (WIN)

All in all the deck performed quite decent, and had good draws in the end. Ctm is probably better in an unknown field, but if you expect a lot of crim and just want to jam those news hound, you'll love this deck.

15 comments
19 Sep 2016 johnofarc

Congratulations on the win! Love seeing a SOL deck win. I'm sure a lot of this is piloting, but can you explain ice tagging and BN as your only tagging? You have no Hard Hitting News in here. Also, only three currents?

Since this deck doesnt have a good Dyper matchup, would you slot a Executive Boot Camp?

19 Sep 2016 clercqie

Problem is: short of IG49 and CtM with Sensie in the opening hand, practically no deck has a good Dyper matchup, without giving up too much against other runners.

You can include EBC, but because this deck does not play assets beyond Jackson, it will not do a thing in other games.

19 Sep 2016 Okkdoko

@johnofarcThanks, Sol is indeed pretty fun. Tagging with this deck happens sometimes because of the annoying ice if the runner gets fed up (double raven remote is very annoying) but mostly due to fast advancing or never advancing a BN. With 3 sansan and solid remote ICE, finding a window to score a BN with a click left happens regularly. While the deck is fairly rich, none of the econ is recurring and mostly needed to rez ICE quickly and push sansans. Threatening HHN would slow you down considerably I believe, and slots are at a premium.

Only 3 currents indeed, which is why 3 BLC are so critical in this deck. I actually click to draw a LOT, since you need the ICE and econ quickly. Note that hound also works of runner currents, which does come up regularly. Perhaps the new Scarcity of Resources current will be a good fit in this deck, but I have no idea what to cut for it.

EBC as one-off both doesn't work consistently and does nothing in other matchups (well ok, barring Val which is pretty bad for Sol as well). I actually have no idea what to do against Dyper besides getting lucky.

19 Sep 2016 johnofarc

@michiel.questier Thanks for answering my questions. I did not know that about news hounds! Oops!

Like you said, space is at a premium. Really wish I could slot another current in there.

19 Sep 2016 Ladriel

Anthony from round 2 here, that EoI on the free Global food in archive was painful ! Nice games and glad to know i lost to the winner afterall :)

19 Sep 2016 konradh

What's better when you see Targeted Marketing in your opening hand vs Criminal: name Temujin or Account Siphon?

19 Sep 2016 RonZacapa

@konradhDesperado is also pretty sweet.

19 Sep 2016 Okkdoko

Usually siphon is a safe bet if you don't know what else to call, since it allows you to lightly ICE HQ and close off other centrals more quickly. Calling temujin is usually not needed if you have one annoying ice on all your servers, but if you struggle finding ICE it can help. If you know the opponent's deck then naming a necessary breaker which he needs to get into your remote and centrals is also strong. Figuring out what to use tarmar for is part of the fun in playing this deck, and understanding how the usual runner decks work and what they're missing at any given moment of the game is a big help.

19 Sep 2016 konradh

So far, I mostly play against Andromeda, so even if I ice two centrals, they will instal Temujin first turn on archives etc. vOv

20 Sep 2016 Elodius

I love you ! Remind me to take a picture next time we meet !

25 Sep 2016 Ladriel

How are you feeling about the lack of Cyberdex Virus Suite against Shapers sporting the Clot threat ?

25 Sep 2016 Okkdoko

@Ladriel I don't think Clot is a problem, since this deck is perfectly capable of NA'ing 3/2s and Breaking news in the remote. Regular shapers are quite rare anyway these days, and news hound is often a massive headache for them; lots of lists don't have a good answer besides atman4 which is really expensive. All in all, I'm not concerned about seeing clot. CVS would be a worthwhile include however to stop suckers from breaking your ICE or losing to medium digs; I just can't justify a slot for it. ICE'ing centrals and a timely purge does the trick most often, as does tarmar on medium when you suspect it's coming.

26 Sep 2016 Ladriel

@michiel.questierThanks for the heads up !

30 Sep 2016 MazeBerlin

Really enjoying the deck! How would you change the ICE in a shaper heavy local meta? A rich Kate with Atman4 can be a problem.

30 Sep 2016 Okkdoko

@MazeBerlin Great to hear you enjoy the deck, I'm still having a blast with it myself :) Atman4 once installed is indeed annoying, however it's usually the only solution to news hound and still costs 6-7 to install. The tempo hit early on is something you should try to exploit by rushing a bit harder; you can also call atman with tarmar if you're sure they need to install it. That said, shaper with clot, rabbit holes and opus are potentially annoying so you're best bet is to keep forcing them to run your remote through ICE which is still taxing. Data raven is always taxing due to the tag on encounter, and breaking hound for 2 with atman still adds up.

To improve the remote game, I'm trying a 2nd booth in the place of quicksand. Total rez cost of the ICE has gone up quite a bit, but I feel you can both afford and booth on remote is what wins me most games anyway. I expect the extra booth to do work vs Shaper as well, so you can try that out!