World's End

The final form of my Biotech / Valley Grid deck that I'd been messing with ever since the ID came out. While previous versions had tried to make both The Greenhouse and The Brewery viable options, this one is all about the kill.

Main Idea: Make a cheesy Valley Grid server that is bad and usually fatal for the runner to get into at any point in the game, and use it for both scoring and economy.

The Plan:

Step 1. Set up an Edge Of World behind 2 pieces of ETR ice.

Step 2. Add to the server, in any order:

• All the Shell Corporations, to start making lots of money
• A Valley Grid, so that getting into the server becomes actually fatal.
• 2 more pieces of ETR ice (ditto)

Step 3. Once you have 4 ice and a valley grid, you can trash Edge Of World and start scoring with impunity.

If the runner gets in to your server, their handsize will be reduced by 4 (either through Edge Of World damage or temporary Valley Grid shenanigans), and next turn you can flip The Brewery to flatline them. If they happen to run on the server before you have Valley Grid / enough ice, then Edge Of World will give them 2 brain damage and a single Valley Grid will be enough to keep them out in future.

As janky combo decks go, this one works relatively well because you don't care too much about what order your cards arrive in (except that we need Edge Of World early, hence 3 copies). In practice, you'll probably want to rush out an agenda or two behind the binary ice before starting on The Plan. Combo pieces getting trashed out of R&D is a weakness, hence Interns. Vamp can ruin you, hence Sealed Vault. Taxing Ice is for centrals, binary ice is for the remote, with a few pieces like Himitsu-Baku and Rainbow that can work on both in a pinch.

I'd just about got happy with this deck, and then Political Operative came out, which kind of hoses Valley Grid. Also, I hear that ice destruction is a thing. So I haven't played with this deck in a while.