Gold Standard Glacier

Card draw simulator
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blue sun glacier w/ reversed accounts
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bblum 5030

This is my gold standard blue sun build, the one that I compare to when I say "oh, X is good in blue sun, but I'd rather have the consistency of the vanilla glacier build more". It's also the shell I start from when trying new builds.

There is nothing fancy about this deck. No meat damage, no grid combo, no (dare I say it) information overload. The only game plan is to score, and unless they know my deck list the runner will have to install plascrete anyway. Win-win.

20 ice: Like any remote-building glacier deck, you want to be in the 18-20 neighbourhood, and here we're also expecting ice to die wearing OAI. Not running goodies like scorched earth means we have to mulligan for ice less often.

Interns: A mandatory card nowadays, if you ask me. Insures against noise, gets ash back, gets curtain wall back, etc. I would also consider archived mem here (for OAI, of course), if I wanted to shave a TB or an ash.

Only two 3-pointers: This is a little greedy. If the runner finds one first, you're basically stuck having to score 4 agendas to win (although sneaking through unadvanced atlas is not too bad). On the other hand, blue sun excels at protecting centrals early, so if you draw a 5-3, even if you need to pitch it to jackson, you can adjust your play to make it take as long as possible for the runner to have a chance at seeing it (and if you don't see it, just focus your ice on R&D). I would consider changing the corporate war into a third 5-3, increasing the odds that both the runner and the corp can find one, but I think a skilled pilot can take bigger advantage of the fact that there are only 2.

Sentries: Bit of a sticking point here. Caduceus is great against Noise, but Andy can easily go the whole game against us never installing a killer that's not faerie. I used to have 2 hadrian's for extra OAI consistency, but I've replaced one with a changeling for a 7ish-cost 4-str sentry that can give some breathing room against criminals. Perhaps Lycan when it comes out.

6 comments
6 Nov 2014 Thike

I've been doing something similar. 2x Changeling really hurts criminals, unless they run Ninja. Do you miss the kill package? Its been working for me, but influence is so tight. It'll be a huge boost when O&C brings more ICE diversity to Weyland.

6 Nov 2014 bblum

I don't miss the kill package in the slightest. The version with scorches is also a good deck, but less consistent, so when people are expecting scorch, I like this way better. To some extent the existence of each version makes the other one stronger.

Better big ice in O&C will be a huge boost. Multi-ETR is good, but it'll be much better to make 15 off Orion then put him face-down for much more punishing face-checks.

6 Nov 2014 Thike

Confirmed: this style is scary as hilarious as it is to Midseasons someone in Weyland, having that early game where they are afraid of flat lines is great. I almost want to bring in Targeted Marketing and name Plascrete.

Have you tried Corporate Troubleshooter in place of Ash? Or a mix? While you have no destroyers, it would still be a nice surprise.

6 Nov 2014 bblum

While troubleshooter saves influence, the advantage of ash is the runner still has to pay through your curtain/hadrian's wall. Troubleshooter is only really good with punishing ice that the runner needs to break... but could be good when orion comes out.

7 Nov 2014 Thike

One more question for you: any advice for the Nasir matchup? So far my strategy is basically 1) know his math for installs, Atmans, etc 2) Hope you draw all of your Oversights and Ashes, and make good use of them.

7 Nov 2014 bblum

Versus Nasir is a very weird, but fun, matchup. Eventually you will have to give him 14 off your curtain wall. The key is to set up the game in advance so he will only be able to use that 14 for setting up his rig, not for getting in to steal anything. Later, pick up an ice wall and put it unrezzed in front of your remote, so when you are trying to score, he won't be able to pass whatever's behind it, let alone beat Ash.

I don't know if it's popular with most nasir players, but my friend who I playtest with most splashes a d4v1d in his nasir build. Very important to play around that.