SSOdds - Jankuary Best Janky Deck 2024

The main writeup for this event is on the runner deck. It's a Gnat deck, so you know its gonna be good /s.

Link to runner deck

TLDR; this deck was for an odds/evens cards only format, where 0 cost cards are banned.

Some thoughts on decisions in this deck:

It SLAPS when your turn 1 is Mestnichestvo/Pharos, [Economy Card], and City Works Project. Nothing feels much more aggressively rush than that. It's safe to assume no one is on Botulus or Inside Job because those cards are even and who would possibly play an Evens deck in this format (checks my Runner deck... oh...).

Pivot and Secure and Protect are beautiful cards. Originally I was playing 3 of each, but Secure and Protect can get a bit clunky if you've iced centrals and a couple turn up at once so 2x felt better. And Pivot, I guess if you're playing a 3rd Pivot, you're probably better off with a second punitive instead so that you have an actual double punitive threat option.

Crisium is hard to fit in decks, but absolutely worth it. So many runners like to save up for one big successful run, and this shuts them down. And you can generally install it and never rez it, and the runner might choose to lose 5 credits anyway to trash it.

Oduduwa was massively overrepresented in this tournament. Surprisingly people were playing it in non-SSO decks, which means it doesn't get that supercharged first trigger (remember you can't advance Oduduwa).

Ballista was nice to snipe a program once, but then you still let them in after, and it becomes a very average piece of ice.

I got weird looks when I installed ice protecting a new remote and then extracted it away. But with limited money cards in this format, turning an ICE into a beanstalk royalties felt kinda good tbh.

Ben Musashi would've been a better pick than Vovo.

Final thoughts: SSO finally got to be playable again, before it will sit in the shadows until it rotates. A fun ID which I remember I thought was absolutely OP the first time I played against it - but hey, it can still win 50% of its matches in a tournament with a very niche format that benefits it - so it's a winner in my books.

I didn't win the tournament, I just won the prize for having the most janky decks.