NBN Grail/Midway

Grail ICE is so much fun in TWiY. I run a similar deck, except I run different agendas (Gila, PriReq, Astro) and 3x Reversed Accounts instead of Melange and Midway. Reversed Accounts is amazing in an NBN deck with ICE that's actually expensive to break. I might try Midway though, it's a combo I didn't think about, but it seems equally suited to open up scoring windows.

I also have Eli three times. I think Wraparound might be counterproductive, since the runner will go get his barrier breaker - which you don't want until you trashed half his Rig with Galahad + Lancelot.

That's probably a fair point about Wraparound. Maybe I could throw in another type of ice. I can't think of one off the top of my head though.

One thing I forgot to mention, I've really enjoyed Character Assassination. Most think it's an NAPD and don't even bother going for it if they're low on credits. Great for taking out fully stacked Kati's and Personal Workshops.

Played against this deck a couple of hours ago. It's really annoying - but in a good way - and definetely a welcome variation!

I was literally thinking of this deck idea (Grail + TWIY + Midway) hours ago. I love this community.

I just love any NBN that is not Astrobiotics.

Could the two Wraparound's be Mother Goddesses? A bit more expensive to rez, but synergizes with the Grail.

Excalibur is coming... Maybe some Interns to recover Midway and the Kati Jones Corp: Shell Corporation instead of Melange?

Great deck. I like it so much

I had been thinking about TWIY and Grail Ice, but not with Midway! Love this deck, great original idea.

@Spaceman_Spiff I love the look of this deck. I considered Grail in TWIY a couple weeks ago but Midway Station Grid didn't cross my mind at all. Are you finding that you have too much ice? I'd consider -2 Wraparound -1 Archer +2 Eli, unless Archer is important enough that you want to see it quickly. Additionally, you might want to look at Enigma or Datapike for multi-sub Code Gates.

@Oisin Mother Goddess doesn't interact with the Grail ice at all. In hand, its text box is inactive, so it's not Grail, and when installed, it doesn't gain anything from becoming Grail.

Have you thought to include Reversed Accounts in the deck?

@Freeman 1.0 I would maybe stick in one Excalibur, but I personally don't think its sub is nearly as strong as the other grail subs. Shell Corp is certainly a possibility to replace Melange. Seems kinda like a personal preference thing. Reversed Accounts could also certainly fit. There's a fair amount of leeway in this deck as far as what you want outside of Grail and Midway. IMO you could play around with taking out things like Lag Time, Melange, Wraparound, and maybe an Archer to include cards such as Reversed Accounts, Eli, or maybe even a singleton of some trap like Aggressive Secretary.

@DrunkenGineer While the ice is maybe a tiny bit high numbers-wise for a 44 card deck, some amount of it is situational (Archer and Lancelot). In the beginning that's what made me include Wraparound - for some consistency in early ETR ice. -2 Wraparound -1 Archer and +2 Eli would certainly be viable, and would remove some of the ice issues. It does remove some of the consistency of an Archer surprise (which, as I mentioned, has been really valuable for me so far). Enigma and Datapike could work, although Yog makes me hesitate to include more than a couple.

Really, I'm sure there are improvements to be made on this deck. I've only played it a dozen or so times. I encourage everyone to try out their own versions and let us know how it went!

License Acquisition instead of Breaking News would be good to reinstall the trashed Midway Station Grid.

Replacing the Wraparounds with at least one Excalibur once it comes out (and maybe either a 3rd Tollbooth or -1 Archer +2 Eli 1.0) might make sense. Excalibur lacks the power to reveal other Grail ice, but it's a great 3rd subroutine on the others when revealed from hand. As a rezzed ice, it can only be broken by AIs (or trashed by Parasite) and can be a very unpleasant surprise to a runner who expects to make 2+ runs in a turn (Medium/Nerve Agent dig, Indexing + run, Security Testing + run, or even checking 2 servers in one turn). It also would work very well with Shell Corporation in place of Melange; use Shell Corporation to bait a run on a server with Excalibur while you put an agenda in another server.

I really like the Grail ice, and TWIY* is a great place for them (along with The Foundry of course). The fact that it makes all 3 basic types of ice capable of ending the run, trashing a program, and doing net damage (without picking up the destroyer or AP subtypes) is excellent.

I love it! It pretty much answer a BUNCH of questions I've been asking lately. How can someone use TWiY effectively post-NEH? Can Midway be effective in faction? I look forward to trying it out, cheers!

Love the general idea, especially with Midway Station Grid, which is a card I really like, but it's hardly useful with NBN ice and it also costs a lot to splash, unfortunately.

I played a lot with Grail ice recently, though, and it ultimately is worthless against Parasite recursion. It is also general very bad against Anarch's icebreakers.

Even Merlin costs 0 for Yog.0 with Ice Carver or a single Datasucker token... I ended up splashing a couple of Lotus Field in my The Foundry Grail deck, just to slow Anarchs down.

How have you found Character Assassination? I feel as though NAPD Contract could be better.

@AwkwardPizza NAPD Contract is probably better by the numbers, but Character Assassination is much more fun. Plus it has two advantages: the runner thinks a 1-advanced card is a NAPD and is less likely to go after it, and the runner almost never expects Character Assassination.

This has led to multiple times in which I've trashed a 12 or 15 credit Kati, a Rachel Beckman, or a fully loaded Personal Workshop. That's incredibly painful and can even be game-deciding.

Looks like fun, I'll have to try it out.

Two things:

Regarding Datapike/Enigma for multisub Codegates and Yog problems; Yog should not be nearly as bad as it normally is since with Midway Station the runner will still have to pay for breaking the subs, I think it could work.

How has Lag Time been working for you? To me it looks like it doesn't do much, the barriers are the same for corroder, Merlin and Tollbooth are already un-Yogable and Sentries make no big difference either? Maybe I'm missing something :)

Yeah, I feel like Lag Time is a bit of a trap with Grail ice. You could run Targeted Marketing so that when the Runner grabs their Corroder to deal with Galahad and Wraparound, you at least get a return on investment.

Alternatively, Daily Business Show could really help this deck out. It may end up being better in a NEH Grail/Midway deck, but I think it's worth considering.

I tried this deck on ontgn last night with a slight agenda rework (-3 Character Assassination +1 beale +2 napd contract), against a noise mill and mulliganed into two tollbooth, two breaking news and two beale. I was able to score a breaking news, get an archer on archives and when they eventually ran it I trashed a Crypsis and Scheherazade followed by slowly over advancing a beale to 15 for the win. best game ever!

Did you think about San-Sans? Even with a more glacier strategy, you provides an FA option if runner has an economy to keep up in mid-to-late game (Kate, etc.) ? With ice that is that taxing, it would be difficult for them to trash. I guess you'd want that 3rd beale but just a thought.

Also, how do you find your money situation until you find the melange (could be a while).

Have you played many Noise? How close is the mill situation against the new -- virus, virus, virus -- archetype?

@cranked @Yoshi you're probably right about lag time, thinking back...I'm not even sure why I included it. Probably quite a bit of stuff you could slot in its place.

@sruman I almost included San-Sans but similar to my inclusion of Character Assassination over NAPD, I just wanted to for once not make an NBN deck that does the same old thing. You could definitely throw in some San-San's if you wanted the option though, I"m sure it only makes the deck stronger.

My money is usually fine, most of the ice is cheap enough that I'm able to keep up with a couple of hedge funds or sweeps weeks. Plus runners usually become very timid about running once they see the first grail ice, since it suddenly means just about any ice type can come with 2 net damage or a program trash.

My main issue with noise is actually ice destruction and not milling overload. This deck doesn't like Grail ice to die.

How about -2 Lag Time -1 Wraparound for +3 Anonymous Tip?

I find an opening hand with AT gives draw to 8, play two ICE and then left with a hand of 6. With this Grail ICE that means you have better selection from 8 cards and potential more left in HQ. Or install 1 ICE and Hedge Fund for credits to rez.

Have you come back to this with the O&C cards? The Twins really jumps out as working well with the Grail ice, wondered whether anyone has tried it!

The problem with the Twins is that you need to discard a copy of the ice. If you're aiming for a Merlin flatline it doesn't matter as much though.