Holo Ops - 1st and 6th at NANPC Vancouver 2024

maninthemoon 1517

This is the list that Podo and I took to NANPC Vancouver taking 1st and 6th.


I will not be posting the runner list as it was only 2 slots off from my CBI list. They were conservative changes going into an unexplored meta and neither helped at all πŸ™ƒπŸ€·
-1 Buffer Drive +1 Ashen Epilogue +1 Boi-tatΓ‘


Little Backstory

I have been working on this shell since September 2023 and almost took it to worlds, but at the time the deck struggled to beat skilled players with maw and could randomly lose with porous centrals. I had very little time to prepare for the event and The Holo Man immediately jumped out at me as one of the power cards in this new set. Turns out it was just what this deck needed and pushed it over the edge to become competitively viable. The ability to never advance (NA) a 5/3 with a single card that gets to stick around and become a fast advance (FA) tool is just incredible and everything the deck was missing. And well I don't think Holo Man is broken (he's very expensive), he's exactly what this deck had been missing all along.

How it Works

The general game plan is simple. Thanks to Your Digital Life all the ice has is tempo positive when the runner interacts. Use this early game strength to build a credit total with Rashida Jaheem and tradition to scoring a Bellona or 3 point beale and then NA or FA your remaining points. If you're opponents try and stop you counter attack with Oppo Research. Ideally you want to score one Bellona and then two 3/2s.

Trash holo or lose?

The Agendas

This deck has a wild agenda suite. The deck gets to play six 5/3s four 3/2s and only 7 "real agendas", let me explain. You get to count Project Beale as both a 5/3 and a 3/2 this deck is willing to score a Beale with a counter. Holo Man let's you do this fairly easily. You're basically only playing 7 agendas because the Oracle Thinktank only gets the runner to 7 if they steal exactly 2x Bellonas or 3x 3/2s which are both fairly unlikely. The Oracle Thinktank is a powerful trap sitting in the list doubling as the 18th required point (only downside it does still proc Hermes). If there's no Hermes it's often worth suffling back vs a tag-me opponent just to pad R&D with a 2 credit/card "trap".

The Ice

All the ice is tempo positive on rez with the help of Your Digital Life. This makes your early game extremely strong. Don't install the Hydras unless you are extremely desperate you should be discarding the first 1-2 you draw as soon as possible. They are almost exclusively in the list as the teeth for Trust Operation. If your opponent let's you rez one for 3 credits sure, but I would never rez a hydra my opponent can break, you need the money. And only install them if at least one is already in the bin.

The Ops

Holo Man is very expensive so we need to play Hedge Funds + YDL πŸ˜”. Trust Operation and Self-Growth Program are the strongest punishment for a single tag in standard. A lot of this decks strength comes from the this ability to punish hard when the runner intentionally or accidentally floats just one tag. I didn't end up playing vs any Seb decks on the day, but this tag punishment gets to have a lot of fun with that deck. With all this single tag punishment Public Trail is a very useful card 😌 Of course Oppo Research is amazing in Reality Plus. You're going to need Audacity to close most of your games vs anarch, crim and Kit as they can remote lock you eventually.

Just one Tag

Why 14 influence

I cut a Magnet for a Self-Growth Program while writing the decklist for submission. I didn't want to cut the 13th ice (10th real ice), but couldn't find another slot to lose. I'm sure there is a more optimal 15 influence version out there, but I'll leave that for you to find 😘

Tips to Beat the Deck

This deck is the strongest in the early game, but if you have the right tools early you can really cripple the deck. Pinholing a turn one Rashidas is huge. Boomerang is also very good against this ice, Gatekeeper, Authenticator and Hydraare all very sad to see Boomerang. Trash The Holo Man if the crop is rich and you have the credits to clear Oppo Research otherwise probably leave it. Generally attack HQ especially if you have Imp or Maw there are only 4 tag punishment cards and taking them out is a game changer. Save Burner for high impact moments like turns you want to float tags or need to find agendas to not lose, just "value Burnering" is wrong in my opinion.

Huge Thanks to:

@podo for helping me put the finishing touches on the list at 1am the night before the event πŸ₯³
Everyone who played in the NANPC Vancouver the weekend was such a blast and it was so wonderful to see everyone who came out for the epic day of new cards netrunner.
Special Shout out to @rongydoge, @Kyrsa and @CTZ who all flew in for the event πŸ₯³ The organizes @whiteblade111, @Sindarin, @Solomir, @Thike, and @CephlpodWizard who traveled all the way from Olympia WA to judge.
Huge shout out to my testing Team Muntal Bost and the wonderfully supportive Seattle netrunner meta, Love you all ❀️

10 comments
28 Mar 2024 xFWx FIREBIRD (aka FireRL)

πŸ“°πŸš¨πŸ”¨πŸ”ͺπŸ‰ Brutal

29 Mar 2024 rongydoge

baby you can drive my car (thanks for all the rides <3)

29 Mar 2024 Gyro88

Admit it, you just like leaving 1 inf left unspent as a flex.

Neat deck and congrats on the result!

29 Mar 2024 BinkBonkle

Bost Bost Bost Bost

Next time I'll try to stay up for the midnight deckbuilding session

29 Mar 2024 Council

Seems like 14 inf is now the signature move. WP!

30 Mar 2024 maninthemoon

@Gyro88 you caught me πŸ˜…

30 Mar 2024 maninthemoon

@BinkBonkle please do! ❀️ A lot of great decks have been made after midnight pre tournament πŸ˜‚

30 Mar 2024 maninthemoon

Anytime @rongydoge

@Council I’ll have to see if any of my other lists would be better with 14 influence. . . It has been working for me πŸ™ƒπŸ˜

2 Apr 2024 ctz

I wish I was this cool

8 Apr 2024 maninthemoon

@ctzYou are ❀️