ON THE ROCKS 2.0

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travisrchance 2255

I messed with this, well, mess of an idea for over a month and, after a lot of losses, I decided to revise the deck into this list.

THE IDEA:

It's pretty obvious: you want to abuse The Foundry's ability to fetch up ice. Why? Because it makes your grail ice more formidable and adaptive. It allows you to layer annoying taxing ice like Pop-up and Eli on centrals, making them nightmarish to run. More on ice later.

AGENDAS:

The deck wants to score out of hand where possible with Biotic, particularly with Accelerated Beta Test to abuse your ID's ability to interrupt the potential drawback of ABT by rezzing a single ice (as long as you can hit one in the top 3 cards) and immediately searching out a duplicate--this interrupts the resolution of ABT, meaning you will not be obliged to put the other two cards in play, or worse, into archives.

Bifrost Array functions as another ABT trigger, allowing you to layer up your deck, and further abusing the Foundry's ability.

Project Vitruvius can be a functional Archived Memories (or more), but 9/10 you will score it out with no over-advance. This can be helpful against Noise and Keyhole strategies that are not as good as breaking through remotes.

NAPD is there to be NAPD, making it more taxing for the runner. Typically, this is not something you wanna score.

THE MONEY:

This deck has a consistent econ package. The Blue and Green Levels keep you up while pushing your further into the game--this is nice with Biotic. Celebrity Gift, while potentially spoiling grail shenanigans, is a nice welcome boost for the deck. Hedge Fund is a given, while Adonis works well with Architect, as well as functions as a feint for the deck.

THE ICE:

The ice offers a pretty diverse set of options, including an alternate win condition--when possible. You may notice there are no NEXT ice here. Simply put, these are a lot of work for little payout. By taking them out, you can more reasonably focus on grail setup rather than spreading yourself thin between the two. With Eater a thing now, and parasites back en vogue, you simply don't have the luxury of spending turns to Voltron this together.

1.) Pop-Up, Eli, and Victor 1.0 are great tax ice. I think Markus 1.0 maaaay be better than Viktor, but I do like the potential to land a brain damage, making your Merlin kill a tad easier. Either way, these will make central runs a nightmare in the early and, potentially, late game. Pop-Up obviously works as a functional econ card.

2.) The grail ice are an interesting element to the deck, as you can Lego them together as needed. Foundry's ability to search out additional copies helps in strengthening them, making them at the very least more taxing for the runner.

Galahad is a great early game stopper/blockers. Think of him is an Ice Wall--no frills really by his lonesome. Lancelot can ambush and get rid of a key breaker. I would rank him as the worst of the bunch due to his cost, though the ability to reveal him for the other two is where he shines. Merlin is a nasty trick, especially when you rez him first in the turn to fetch up a second. It is possible to get a flatline, and, at the worst, you are now throwing net damage at the runner as a form of disruption. Ideally, you will never play more than one copy of this, as doing so makes the 6 net damage turn impossible.

I tried Excalibur, but ended up cutting it--it make makes its way back in though.

3.) Architect is amazing. His ability to pull shenanigans, set you up for a no advance score on the runner's turn. An opener with Architect is almost always a keeper. You certainly want this on a central so you can get to work. Usually, you are looking to layer ice, saving yourself the initial expense of actions and credits to do so. You can also reliably get back Adonis Campaigns, which make trashing them somewhat moot for the runner. Another nice trick you can do is to place an Architect on a remote with an agenda. If the runner cannot break the routines, you can swap out the agenda for an Adonis or NAPD (if they don't have the cash) in a flash to blank their run. Along with Foundry's ability, this helps you to thin and manipulate your deck equitably.

That's the long and short of it. I implore you, jump ship on the NEXT ICE. You will be happier for it.

5 comments
11 Feb 2015 sruman

Two questions:

  • Given your emphasis on fast-advance, I'm curious why the pop-ups and celebrity over san-san city grid? Did you find that economy was just too stalled to utilize it?

  • Also, why the choice of AM or RO ? It would seem that RO would really pay off after 2 biotics hit the trash, enabling you to grab the 2 other you need to score out the agendas for the win.

11 Feb 2015 travisrchance

@sruman Hi, thanks for asking.

1.) I didn't want to make this blatant FA. Agreed, the influence spent could be done so to make this a more apparent FA deck, but I want this to be a Foundry deck that holes up and abuses ice. The Celebrity Gift is admittedly just a blanket econ slot. But being able to tutor up Pop-Ups and make a central a nightmare to run is a beautiful thing.

2.) I don't want more double events. In truth, Jacksons would just be a better call all around here, as he wears many hats dependent on the match up. The Blue and Green Level help with the throughput aspect, but Jackson is just a better call. And once we go down this road, we are cutting Grail ice, and then we are just playing a FA deck.

I def see your point, but I think the deck can skirt a strategy without going whole hog.

26 Feb 2015 syntaxbad

Here goes with my first ever netrunnerdb post. First off, great deck and very thorough and not-hyperbolic description of the choices and strategy. I'm also a big fan of your comments and analysis over in the Can-o-Whupass thread (they've influenced my own Noise deck - thanks!). I have also been working with The Foundry because I find it to be a really fun ID that gives you some unique options, so seeing how a more experience player tackles it is helpful. I initially tried a crazy bioroid focused version with awakening zones and all the Oversight and Efficiency cheat-rezzing and howlers I could manage. it was cute, but probably not as consistent as a real deck needs to be. On to my specific questions now that I'm done rambling!

1) Can you elaborate a little on what you find lacking about the NEXT ice. Like most, I thought of them immediately when I saw this ID, and it seems like they have low enough rez costs that "assembling voltron" can be done incrementally without going out of your way (since each rez tutors another piece for free). 2) Can you elaborate on why you went with largely event based economy (all the Clearances, vs more assets)? It seems like this deck could work using the taxed-if-you do, damned-if-you don't approach of GRNDL refineries and Arcology AI's. If they don't take the bait, then you get a pile of cash, or a free score-from-hand. And assets have the benefit of being able to be recycled for free with architect (as you mention). 3) Finally, I am curious about a few cards that seem custom fit for this ID and would love to get your thoughts. The Twins is only 1 inf and could range from a good backup that stops an access in a pinch to flatlining the running with Grail Ice. Specifically, you will always have the second copy you need, since you can tutor it up on rezzing. And regarding grail ice, when you use the twins to make them re-encounter a piece, it keeps all the rubs it got the first time round AND adds additional subs (assuming you have more grail ice to show). So you can get hilariously large amounts of net damage with Merlin. And its already a deck that will be pulling used ice back out of Archives with Architect, so trashing is somewhat mitigated. Amazon Industrial Zone also seems like a great addition (also only a single inf) because it A) acts as economy and more importantly B) lets us use the Foundry's ability on our own turn as well as the runners'. Finally, Errand Boy seems like another good (1 inf) player that gets good in multiples. Its sort of reverse taxation, since its benefit to the corp rather than pain to the runner, but it has great flexibility in that you can get whatever mix of resources you need at the time (credits or cards). Since you were already running Clearances, this seems like a good way to get passive econ/velocity as needed.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to post thoughtful decks and thanks in advance for any sage advice you can offer.

26 Feb 2015 syntaxbad

Apologies for the wall of text! I guess you need two line breaks for the system to register it. I swear it was nicely broken up when I typed it :)

28 Feb 2015 travisrchance

@syntaxbad Thanks for posting! I will try to answer as best I can.

1.) About NEXT Ice: They just feel very low impact. You can spend an inordinate amount of time putting them in play and it feels like their effect is still marginal, whereas something like Eli hits the table and is just a nightmare to navigate (esp. when you get to search for another and layer them). Silver dies to Parasite too easy--and we are in the hey day of Anarch at the mo. Bronze is fine and perhaps worth inclusion, but you have to work very hard to get him to the credit cost of breaking the aforementioned Eli.

2.) I am not a fan of trashable cards. EVERYONE plays multi R&D access, so why speed up the process. Further, I need the draw to maximize the grail ice. I personally love Green Level like no other and find it to be a fantastic card, esp. when I don't have to pay influence for it. Econ you have to install comes with no guarantees. Sure, I could drop a Refinery, but maybe I need to be 3 ice deep to make sure it doesn't get Inside Job'd, my ice broken, and then trashed. This is a turn and credits lost and lots of set up for something that just may not pay off.

3.)Influence is tight in this. Having messed with this for awhile now, I think the largest downfall is people trying to be too "themey" with it. It's a rabbit hole. The ID's ability is strong enough. Playing great ice reinforces this. You don't have to play trashable pipe dreams like the Twins. Amazon takes away your ability to ambush. You give the runner all the info they need to make informed decisions. They know what they need to the credit to get into a server. This is a big disadvantage, same as with Bootcamp. You don't have to use the ability on your turn for it to be good. This is overkill in my experience. Errand Boy is a cool card, but a 4 cost ice that gets outclassed quick is not doing you favors. I would rather have Pop-ups that will tax the runner and give me some reliable econ that gels with my NAPDs. As the deck can score out of hand, it is important to remember that layering ice on centrals is clutch. Paying additionally to install over and over in the same server and then paying 4 for something like Errand Boy is more taxing on you.