[Startup] The Hollowmen (2008) [2-1 @ Naarm CO]

(my first published decklist!)

yeah so it turns out scoring a 4/2 off the top of the deck is a Good Thing to do - who would have guessed?

In all seriousness, as a newer player I was interested in trying out a style of deck I didn't have as much experience with, and the Holo Man - Epiphany interaction looked fun and powerful in a newly-powered-down Startup format. I also expected everyone to be expecting Punitive shenanigans (I certainly was!) and thought it'd be good to be on something a bit different.

Although I did have a winning record, I wasn't all too impressed with how the deck performed on the day. I've found that it's too easy to disrupt this deck's money; I don't think this deck is on a critical mass of economy-forward assets, partly because Jeitinho, Burner, Cataloguer etc., all seem to demand you run maybe more ice than you'd like. That said, there were some things to like:

Stoke the Embers out of Epiphany is massive: any unrezzed Holo Man on the board threatening a 2pt score with just 3c and an Epiphany counter is very strong closing pressure.

Cohort Guidance Program, when it stays on the board, provides a massive advantage - but I found the 3 trash cost of Balanced Coverage and Marilyn Campaign to make them a more reliable source of money.

B-1001 (at least in what limited testing I did) turned out to be stronger tag punishment than I expected; it feels like runners have to go tagme at a certain point and often one B-1001 and an Ablative is enough to secure an agenda or Holo Man for a turn. I also don't feel bad throwing a B-1001 down early just to get it on the table: I've found it gets run but not trashed and sticks around to tax another click or secure an ETR later.

Shoutouts to the great Naarm meta for testing and advice!