Asa's Next Top Model

Let's make one thing clear: HB Glacier is my darling. I have never felt comfortable playing any other corp regardless of its shell; I tried Palana Glacier and hated it. Same with NBN. And Weyland is Weyland, so let's not get into them.

In short, the most fun I have is with HB Glacier decks, and I have been in despair because of how much HB was being run out of CI. I hate CI with a vengeance. And then came Jinja, and my heart fluttered with what could have been hope once again. "Maybe," I said to myself, "Just maybe, I could try it out again. But with what? ETF, the greatest corp ID ever printed, has rotated out! How else can I feel like I'm gaining an advantage for doing things I was doing anyway?"

Enter Asa Group. Most Asa decklists I've seen run MCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP and other things to rush agendas. Not this one. This is classic HB-good stuff with a NEXT package thrown in because I adore NEXT Sapphire. The game-plan is simple: install things, gain money, and install things faster than you thought possible. With a Jinja City Grid out (you normally want one on both your scoring remote as well as whichever central is getting hammered the hardest), if you draw an ice for your mandatory, suddenly you're installing it basically for FREE and then installing something else along with it. You've just taken five clicks in a turn and didn't even need to pay for the first ice.

The same can be said when using Ultraviolet Clearance. Who cares about flood when you can install almost everything you draw? Install the ice you draw, trigger Asa, install for the actual card effect. Easy-peasy-blueberry-squeezy (no lemons allowed in the purple empire).

How are we paying for all this ice? Good ol' Neil Patrick Harris, of course! If they're slow to set up, just go scoring while they're caught unawares. If they're fast, bait them with NGO Front or even sacrifice an SSL Endorsement to drain their credits. Catch them with that magical "Under 6" clause and suddenly money is not an issue. I have consistently gotten over thirty credits once Bryan gets rezzed. Then it doesn't matter if the remote has five pieces of ice in front of it; you can and will rez them all.

I suppose I should quickly mention the one questionable choice. I mentioned I hated Jinteki Glacier? That doesn't mean I can't appreciate the raw power of DNA Tracker. I felt that all three copies of Marcus Batty was too much, and I wanted a cheeky singleton of a devastating ice to catch people off-guard. No one expects the Tracker in an HB glacier deck with a NEXT suite.

Even if you don't feel that the NEXT suite is best for you, that's easily remedied. Just swap out the NEXT ice for other great HB suites, like Fairchild 2.0, the new Kamali 1.0, or even our own Dear Lady Underground.

Is this feasible? I think it is. On its maiden voyage on Jnet, it lost to CodeMarvelous himself (or a dirty impostor), but then again, that's CodeMarvelous. By all means, go test it yourself. Regardless of whether it can win a regional, this is by far the most fun I've had since Foodcoats. Installing six things with one flick of the Ultraviolet is one of the best feelings ever, especially if you played it off of Neil and still have two clicks left to advance things with your newfound riches.