Sol Taxman

Why

I haven't been toying with many D&D cards. This is going to be the first deck I dedicate some real time to. While SYNC: Everything, Everywhere looks to be the strongest new ID on paper, New Angeles Sol: Your News has me intrigued. All Corps, including NBN, get a huge boon with Global Food Initiative. Remember when NBN was always stuck with 11 or 12 agendas? Those days are over, and those 2 extra slots are huge.

Let's be honest: the real reason to play this ID is News Hound. 2c for a 4 STR ETR on a Sentry is incredible value; however, we only get this if a current is active. The biggest issue with this deck and ID overall is finding that first current. After that, barring any currents played by the Runner, it sticks all game. I'm not too scared about Runners playing currents until we get to Mumbad.

First I considered what current to go with. I felt that it was important to use a 0-cost current, because taxing yourself is never good. First I considered Targeted Marketing, and briefly experimented with it in a glacier deck. I found it to be underwhelming, and too easy to play around. This left me with Paywall Implementation and Predictive Algorithm. I think it's important to run 3 copies of your current in Sol; you want to see it early, to turn on Hound. Moreover, Paywall is anti-synergy with Hound, because it ends the run, whereas with Paywall you want them running successful to ideally no avail. I decided Paywall was not worth pursuing for the type of Sol deck I was imagining. All this has been a long-winded way of saying:

I think Predictive Algorithm is the best we have currently to leverage Sol. A lot of my card choices should make sense considering you generally have one up by turn 3 (worst case scenario). I frequently mulligan aggressively for it.

Agendas

AstroScript Pilot Program is an auto-include in all NBN, IMO. GFI helps ensure that the Runner will almost always have to score 4 agendas. Ideally you are only scoring 3. NAPD Contract is controversial despite the obvious synergy with our current. It is not ideal to score, but you can still pull it off if you need to. Don't be afraid to pitch NAPD to Archives or install it naked; you lose your worst 2 pointer and the Runner loses 6c. It's more than a fair trade. 15 Minutes could be Breaking News, probably, but I wanted to try it since it's new.

Note: Film Critic is an obvious problem with this deck's entire strategy, but I don't see a way around that.

ICE

RSVP makes central accesses largely insignificant until they fetch a decoder. Even then, you only paid 3 for it. Maybe I'm trying to be cute here, but so far I have been almost always happy to see RSVP.

Pop-up Window makes you money and taxes them; synergy with RSVP.

Eli 1.0 for taxing.

Wraparound for cheap gearcheck; good against Faust.

Tollbooth for when you need real ICE, used to shore up a central under severe pressure or your scoring remote.

News Hound: see above.

Note: this suite is very weak to Atman 4, which is not a small issue. I am considering Markus 1.0 for this reason, over Eli. I know; it doesn't feel good, but neither does Atman 4 invalidating 9 of your 16 ICE.

The Tax

Beyond the ICE suite and our perpetual 2c on steals, we have some more cards to tax the Runner. Product Placement is for your scoring remote. You generally want to save it in HQ until you start building that remote. In an ideal world, your scoring remote is SanSan, Ash, and triple Product Placement. This sounds unreasonable, but this is an attrition deck, and games tend to go for awhile. I have already achieved this ideal remote state in several games against reasonable opponents.

Daily Business Show is still a powerful, must-trash card. It can help you find that early current, and provides good value even when trashed. Runners who leave it up will be giving you a lot of advantage. The same can be said for SanSan, and Ash helps leverage all the taxes the Runner has been paying. It's not always for your scoring remote, though; I've used it to defend RND on crucial turns.

While this list is obviously slower than many NEH variants, it can still race. The list overall is very flexible. So far, the beauty of this deck is its ability to maintain pressure through every stage of the game. Early game you force gear checks and asset trashing. Mid-game you frequently have taxed the runner enough to score a few agendas. Late-game your centrals are still resilient thanks to Predictive Algorithm.

Thanks for reading. This is a first iteration, and I plan to continue to tweak it until Mumbad comes out. There are many more cards I'd like to play, and several extra copies (like a third SanSan and Ash, for example), but spots are tight. I only have about 5 games under my belt so far, but I believe 4 of those were victories, against Sunny Drip, Val Desperado, Notorious BAG, and Reina Tax. The loss was to Sunny (couldn't go fast enough and it's tough to out-tax her drip).

I know there are many problems with the list and poor match-ups, but not too many are posting Sol lists so I figured I'd contribute one. Happy to answer any questions, but again, I don't have many games in yet.