New Angeles Sol

Thoughts so far in testing:

  • As @voltorocks has made clear, SS is bad and you should never rely on traces to land on an ice sub, PERIOD. There is a reason no one plays the ID Making News.

  • I dislike building sol as FA. Why not just play NEH and leverage the speed? Sol is as good at fa as spark, making news, etc. It leverages nothing. It just tosses in SSCG and you get currents, but no draw from NEHs ID? Not good enough for me.

  • That leaves rush or glacial. I haven’t tested rush, seems bad in concept. Glacial right now in this list feels most ideal to me. The issue with it is the remote camp. It suffers heavily from lack of Caprice, which is why I’ve squeezed a singleton into my list.

TLDR, I like sol but it feels exactly how I expected. It’s weaker than decks in faction that go faster and it’s weaker than slow decks out of faction like foodcoats. It is however feeling pretty good as NBNs attempt at glacial. News hound is huge as we all realize. It’s a great threat. I’ll keep developing.

3 Likes

Has anyone tried Media Blitz. Usually feeding an agenda to the runner is not ideal but NBN does have News Team in faction to mitigate the loss. Private Security forces could be fun in a scorch NAS deck.

Pretty sure that PSF doesn’t work with Media Blitz, since it’s self-referential (paging @jakodrako). From Lucas:

Thanks for the question. Media Blitz just gains the text box, not the
title, subtypes, etc. So if you have an agenda like NAPD Contract or
Private Security Force, the ability is not self-referential, as you
note. Hope that helps,

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Ah, I think I understand.

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this seems pretty stupid and is just a result of inconsistent formatting? Seems like PSF should be able to be Media Blitz’d.

It is stupid, but it’s also true. Don’t Media Blitz Private Security Forces.

3 Likes

“You didn’t want another card tempting you to actually play Media Blitz.” – Lukas Litzinger

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I’ve been reading this and the other Sol thread. I’ve played a handful of games with Sol Surveillance Sweep with alright results.

I think Surveillance Sweep has a subtle effect. It basically means, unless the runner has far superior economy that the traces will go off unless they can break the ice, which means that the runner won’t run unless they have the right breakers. In my experience you’re not going to get into the reverse trace game with the runner. Also, they will not contest Ash and just trash it.

To build a deck around Sol SS, you have to leverage tracer ice, which should be economical, but with a lot of ice it isn’t. It also means that weak traces (2 or less) don’t have the downside with SS out. Unfortunately, there are not many cost efficient tracing ice (especially in NBN):

  • Archangel (but really high trace doesn’t really take advantage of SS)
  • Assassin
  • Caduceus
  • Checkpoint (may or may not what BP mitigation)
  • Data Raven
  • Draco (makes it actually fairly expensive to get out of Mimic range)
  • Gemini
  • Gutenberg (but really high trace doesn’t really take advantage of SS)
  • Hunter
  • Ichi 1.0/2.0
  • News Hound
  • Resistor (much higher value if you’re running tag storm)
  • Sagittarius
  • Shadow
  • Shinobi (may or may not want BP mitigation, won’t be able to get the kill off any easier with SS, but you’ll be richer at the end of it all)
  • TMI (unlike the other ice that are still decently taxing without SS, you need SS or you shouldn’t rez it)
  • Troll
  • Turnpike
  • Viper

Unfortunately, you’ll have to pay a fair amount of influence to get ice that does more than tag.

2 Likes

You definitely forgot Troll and Information Overload, which become huge due to the on-encounter trace. Also Troll+Ash/Heinlein is a match made in heaven…

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You’re right about Troll. I meant to add it after reading your forum topic. But I intentially left off Information Overload because it’s not very cost efficient, i.e. Corps cost vs. Runners cost to break with most common breakers (although there a few that I did list that are borderline: Assassin, Data Raven, and Muckraker, which I’ll remove).

1 Like

Why remove assassin?

@Vapo You continue playing that Sol Architect Patch deck? I’m interested in sleeving it up this week and curious if you made any changes.

I personally am looking at the inclusion of slightly more econ by Popup -> Special Offer. Even outside of Spark it’s a Hedge Fund type of value like you said, the deck is rush through and through. Not many auxiliary remotes to toss Popup on. And whether you are still slotting the melange or went with something more drippy.

Edit: Oh god why is it linking the whole post.

In my Spark deck, it’s really the Special Offer that goes on auxilliary remotes most effectively, since when they come in to trash Adonis/PAD/Sansan/Launch they get taxed and I get an econ burst, and then typically the server evaporates. Pop-up is also fine, but it’s nicer on a central where it can hit over and over again.

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I want to do more testing, but I haven’t had any time to play. I might sleeve it up for our game store night tomorrow. Special Offer is something I’m yet to try anywhere, but I don’t really see it as a good fit, where are you gonna put it that isn’t gonna involve install costs? Like @linuxmaier said it’s best on secondary remotes, which require a very different setup. You could try Launch Campaign/Special Offer over Melange/Pop-Up but at that point you probably do just want to play Spark.

I did try Product Placement for alternative econ, that was ok, but unless you radically change the deck to asset spam I don’t think you really get enough benefit out of Pad and/or Marked for it to be worth opening yourself up to run econ, and Restructure is awkward, although it’d still be the first place I’d look to for more money.

Uh, punctuation/clauses/grammar is hard. I just mean that I took just Muckraker out. See? Assassin and Data Raven are in, as well as the addition of Troll, but Muckraker is out?

I ran this Psychobeale deck for a while to pretty solid consistent wins against some strong Seattle runners.

NA Noire

New Angeles Sol: Your News (Data and Destiny)

Agenda (10)
3x AstroScript Pilot Program (Core Set)
1x Breaking News (Core Set)
2x Global Food Initiative (Data and Destiny) ••
3x Project Beale (Future Proof)
1x 15 Minutes (Data and Destiny)

Asset (6)
1x Adonis Campaign (Core Set) ••
3x Jackson Howard (Opening Moves)
2x Lily Lockwell (Data and Destiny)

Upgrade (3)
1x Ash 2X3ZB9CY (What Lies Ahead) ••
2x SanSan City Grid (Core Set)

Operation (14)
3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)
2x Midseason Replacements (Future Proof)
2x Paywall Implementation (The Spaces Between) ••••
2x Psychographics (Core Set)
3x Sweeps Week (True Colors)
2x Targeted Marketing (The Spaces Between)

Barrier (3)
1x Eli 1.0 (Future Proof)
2x Wraparound (Fear and Loathing)

Code Gate (7)
1x Archangel (Data and Destiny)
3x Pop-up Window (Cyber Exodus)
3x Tollbooth (Core Set)

Sentry (6)
1x Assassin (Data and Destiny)
2x Ichi 1.0 (Core Set) ••••
3x News Hound (Data and Destiny)
15 influence spent (max 15)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Data and Destiny

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

Full disclosure: this is basically my first real experience playing yellow in three years of Netrunner.

Paywall is absolutely your preferred current, but Targeted Marketing is basically your only Siphon protection, but it helps keep SMC off the table. It’s hilarious against Chameleon, but if they’re running Chameleon, you’re probably at an advantage anyway.

Seriously though, Paywall is the thing that makes this deck work. It encourages a never-advance playstyle by discouraging the runner from checking your remotes. Eight assets and upgrades means you can wear out a runner who might otherwise check everything. And of course, when your ultimate game plan is to hit the runner with Midseasons, having them hit that GFI is not awful.

Two Midseasons is a bit of a liability, but between Jackson and Lily, you have a lot of built in draw power. Lily’s ability to turn tags into operations is also useful for grabbing your Psychographics while also protecting R&D from runners that lack multi-access.

There is no inherent Clot protection in this deck, but once your opponent knows Psycho is in hand, every install you make forces a Clot, giving you a lot of freedom to toy with the runner.

Overall, I felt like this deck performed reasonably well. Not drawing currents by turn 3 was a rare occurrence, but not overly frustrating. My biggest fear with this deck was that it would be frustrating to play against (the main reason I’ve avoided yellow all this time), and unfortunately, that was my experience taking it online; people got upset at Astro, even though I scored most of them by just leaving them be table. Because of this, I haven’t played the deck in a few weeks, so maybe people have remembered how to play around NBN again. Me, I’m going back to Tennin.

Surprising no one in this thread Paywall brought me to victory, along with just good ice and taxation. Because News Hound is the based placed ETR in existence right now as its both 4 str and a sentry.

This Just In! You! I’m Board! 1st Place Madison, WI

New Angeles Sol: Your News (Data and Destiny)

Agenda (10)

Asset (4)

Upgrade (8)

Operation (11)

Barrier (4)

Code Gate (7)

Sentry (5)

15 influence spent (max 15)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Data and Destiny

Decklist published on NetrunnerDB.

I managed to hold CT-String Theory with clot down on 0 credits to score out the hard way. It was an excellent game of netrunner.

I’m still undecided on the assassin. The deck certainly doesn’t have enough economy to rez 3x tollbooth, 1x assassin and multiple sansans, but since your strategy changes based on what you’re playing against, its rarely a problem and sometimes assassin is what finally breaks them.

4 Likes

Yup. Most decks don’t have a sensible solution to a 2-cost, 4 strength end-the-run sentry.

I tried Paywall, but it didn’t feel as strong as Targetted Marketing and 2 influence a pop for something you can’t use in multiples is hard to take. I’d rather have the extra Architect and 2x Patch those 6 inf can afford.

How’s Product Placement working out for you? I did have it in for a game or two but it didn’t show up enough to really judge it’s effectiveness, and got cut for slots.

I just decided to try a version of my list without the Assassins too, they didn’t quite feel like they were doing enough for the cost a lot of the time, and Patchitect is a far better strength 5 Sentry option. This is my new ice spread for testing, pretty similar to yours really:

Barrier (4)
1x Wall of Static
3x Wraparound

Code Gate (8)
2x Archangel
3x Pop-up Window
3x Tollbooth

Sentry (5)
2x Architect ••••
3x News Hound

1 Like

The variant I run online is 2x architect, 2x paywall and doesn’t run assassin. In real life I suck at shuffling. :stuck_out_tongue:

But, lets go down the questions:

Paywall vs Targetted Marketing

These are for different matchups. A highly tuned runner deck might give you 10 credits for TM. An singularly focused deck, like a DLR deck or noise is probably going to give you way more in terms of economic output. But, a lot of my games the runner chooses not to play cards that would trigger Targetted Marketing. I’ve had games where its a blow out and games where its just a control card keeping one, potentially only mediocre card, from hitting the table. And in those games it might never pay out. It is super clear when Targetted Marketing is what you want, but if you’re up against jank and you don’t know what they’re going to play Paywall is a more sound card to run.

Also, its worth counting the number of successful runs a runner makes. Its usually around or above 10 with paywall on the table, which is a TM fire. And getting TM to fire twice requires a really dense runner. This is just my experience with the deck. The better you know your opponents deck, the easier it is to leverage TM. The better your opponent knows your deck, they may be willing to play around TM instead. This is the pattern of play that was shifted to as I reached the upper end of the competitive field last night, where TM did less work than paywall even if paywall didn’t do a ton. It was still enough creds to win the game.

Since this deck is a hybrid glacier deck paywall does sometimes have anti synergy. But the best decks still get accesses, so you’re still getting econ. Eli, pop-up, architect, & archangel are the largest feeder of expensive, but doable runs and its often the servers you put these cards on that turn paywall into an economy card worth running.

Patch

I love patch. For reasons. But I don’t know that I’d splash for it in this deck. I don’t know that its a bad idea either, but I’m not sure I have another target I’d consider either.

Product Placement

It usually fires 2x’s a game, sometimes 3 or more if they can’t trash it. I put it in with SanSan, install it on R&D or let it sit in HQ. My play style is to protect R&D, HQ, and a single remote. Legwork inevitably gets played, and as siphon becomes more popular there are usually some runs happening where I can’t quite rez all of the ice immediately, and its during these windows that the card typically shines. I often also allow taxed runs on R&D, not quite free, but not stopped to drain the runner over the course. Product Placement fires in a portion of games on those single or multi access hits. And when 4 pts go to runner its time to seal up R&D with tollbooth, hound, or an archangel.

Assassin

It was on hand when I dropped architect; but I think I’d rather it be Archangel. I’ll probably look into swapping this as I was under this strange illusion that the card was unique for about a month. There were moments last night where Assassin would have wrecked one of my opponents, but he never made the decision to run through it when it mattered and late game newshound was enough that I didn’t want to rez the card.