Holding Out for a Hiro 1st place Cascadia [Throwback] 5-0

aruzan 480

Where have all the MAD men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where's the streetwise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night, I toss and I turn
And I Pivot what I need

I need a Hiro
I'm holding out for a Hiro 'til the end of the line
He's gotta be strong, and he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from Mavirus tutoring him onto the board during the final 5.7.1.e paid ability window of the runner's turn when they are out of clicks prior to their discard phase.
I need a Hiro I'm holding out for a Hiro 'til the end of the line
He's gotta be sure, and it's gotta be soon
And he's going to be ending their life.
Ending their life

To answer your first question, here is what the deck does.

Mav to fetch Hiro at end of the runners turn, to get them to 3 cards in hand. Biotic -> MAD -> End of the line.

Here's the rough gameplan

  1. Protect HQ heavily, and R&D lightly.
  2. Shuffle back 5/3s with drudge work as you find them.
  3. Assemble in hand, 1 Biotic, MAD, End of the Line, and Mavirus. Proactively use the Pivot's to fetch the pieces, especially the biotic. Don't be afraid to do that early when you draw the pivot, so it doesn't get trashed.
  4. Install the Mav on HQ and hold HQ until the runner's last click.
  5. At the end of the runner's turn fetch the Hiro, and fire the 14 credit combo for a kill.

This went 3-0 in swiss, getting 1 score out vs Eater knife Hosh, 1 kill when a ken runner dropped to 3 cards in hand early game on their own before they knew what was up, and 1 kill with the full combo in a slow game vs another knife deck where crisum / border control held down centrals long enough to assemble.

In the cut it went 2-0 getting combo kills, killing Jfoley's Hivemind Conduit Hosh, and FireIRL's Progenitor Mulch Loup. In both games extra copies of Mavirus did a lot of work while I was setting up the combo.

FAQs:

How does this deal with stoneship?

It doesn't. Just avoid getting paired into shaper.

How does this win if they trashed the Hiro?

Plan B is get 6+ cards rezzed and go for a MAD -> double end of the line. I didn't need to do this at all on the day, but did kill a runner that had trashed Hiro, when they made a mistake and ended on 3 cards.

Does this deck ever score out?

Yes. This did win one game vs an all in Eater, Knife, Hoshiko, by just getting a crisum on HQ, and then scoring out behind a sandstone, and it did sometimes score SDS in windows that showed up, to get the SDS safely out of play and trash an important program in a way that was tempo positive even taking a few turns to score it. In one testing game of the deck vs an opponent on apoc that knew what was it, it did manage to score out all 3 SDS in windows the runner didn't have programs to steal it, often just after an apoch

How do you beat this?

Save up resources so that you can always run and trash any installed upgrades on centrals with at least 2 click left, to deal with border control, and Hiro popping up mid run.

7 comments
6 Aug 2024 jfoley

Top tier Ob kill combo throwback import. I was very curious why that Mavirus never got popped in our cut game w/ Hivemind live, but I f**ked around and found out lol.

Great tourney w/ a cool deck!

7 Aug 2024 jan tuno

i love you

7 Aug 2024 rongydoge

fellow hiro enjoyers unite

7 Aug 2024 ctz

Gong hit

Namaste

8 Aug 2024 FireRL (aka xFWx FIREBIRD)

Absolute legend

8 Aug 2024 Wentagon

S+ tier writeup this deck is so cool

8 Aug 2024 AaronMarquardt

Wow, this decklist is truly fascinating! I love how it incorporates unique strategies and card combinations. If you're into exploring exciting game mechanics, you might also enjoy Pokerogue) and check out the Pokerogue) wiki for more great tips.