Mtishop

I guess I might as well get this published now. This is a MCG Mti build for MWL 2.2, and I've been having more success with this one than the tempo-focused build I published earlier. As always, I'll break down the choices.

So the first question is the Unicorn. The old Mti MCG grid builds got Surveyor and GFI, now we are forced to choose. I've decided to choose Surveyor. The reasoning here is it's one of the best things to swap around on a big server, has great ratios in general, and I also like that it's one of the only ice that can tax three stealth credits, even though DNA Tracker is great against Refractor as well.

Now don't get me wrong, Surveyor is a very powerful card, so is GFI (it's hard to understate the value of that 1 agenda point that only works when stolen), though SSL is a solid card so I'm okay with losing GFI.

Now looking at the influence use, since we're on surveyor, we should commit to it and run the full playset. I've decided to also put in 2 FC3, because it's also a really good ice. I've put in 2 Marilyn Campaign, this is an incredibly underrated economy card. The value of +6 econ is very hard to understate, it has solid trash cost, so it doesn't make centrals porous, even if you install it naked and it get's trashed, it's at least a credit swing, and of course on turn 1 they can't run it without strikes. The main drawback is it's sometimes bad when they have turtle, as you'd basically have to install it in your scoring server (this deck wants to have at most 1 remote with ice, because so many cards in the deck care about stacking them.) The last inf is on an IP Block to combat turtle. Aside from that, 2 rez for a 2/3 credit facecheck isn't bad in some matchups.

Going over the card choices. Agenda suite: definitely go for a 4x2+4x3 suite here. It saves you a card slot which means an extra batty, no small deal. Triple Nisei MK II because nisei is just the backbone of glacier, last one is a Philotic Entanglement because the never-advance of the 2/3 means it's often a free score. (Who's going to want to run a 10 credit remote to probably trash a Rashida?) This in turn means it clears currents like strike. As for the three pointers, I just put in three copies of the second-best 3/5, and one copy of the third-best 3/5. Not much to be said here.

Not much to be said with assets either. NGO is god tier in this deck (turn 1 IA is often a nisei, so runners will often facecheck it to force you to put down your Thimblerig, or facecheck another server confident that you can't defend that server. That's when you slam their face with a DNA Tracker that they thought you didn't have 8 credits to rez for. Later in the game, it sometimes baits a really taxing run. Usually IA it when you have 0-3 points, as runners don't want you to have a nisei. Worst case scenario it's slow hedge fund, so this is a lot of upside for making centrals porous.) Rashida is also positive value, as it's another +6 swing card. And Marilyn I've already explained above.

Now upgrades is interesting. There are three main candidates in Mti: Marcus Batty, Mumbad City Grid, Code Replicator. So we're on surveyors, so MCG is natural. I'm running the full playset as opposed to just two, since it has a trash cost of 3, so drawing too many early means that you're just giving the runner the opportunity to economic warfare themselves if they hit then while padding HQ, and having one late is really good for having inevitability against shaper. Now Batty vs. Replicator is an interesting decision. Replicator is make the runner hit your strongest ice again, while Batty is a 2/3 chance of making the runner hit the whole server again, provided you have an EtR (which is usually not an issue) Replicator is better when that one ice makes the difference, but I prefer Batty. Now how much of them? I had three slots, so I put in three Batty.

Now operations are again pretty standard. 3 Hedges, 3 IPO, 3 Scarcity. Some ops that I didn't use but some Mti does use are Celebrity Gift, which is a nice econ card with a relevant drawback. I didn't put it in because the two Marilyn and SSLs give me enough econ, but if you are running less of those, you might want that. The other big one is Preemptive Action, and the reason I'm not using it is because you want to rush a bit with this deck, and it doesn't have that many targets (The priority is usually Mumbad City Grid, Marcus Batty, NGO Front, Rashida Jaheem, Econ if you aren't fighting currents) Though it gets better if you're facing Hacktivist, as you occasionally discard agendas and you're not icing archives (except to fight turtle).

Okay, so last subject to tackle is ICE suite. DNA Tracker, Fairchild 3.0, Surveyor, Anansi are fantastic tax and face-check, it feels really good to have 10 of the 18 ice in this deck be among these. Two Cortex Lock is a very standard number. High enough that you have a credible early facecheck threat on low credits, but don't run three because it clogs HQ. 3 Thimblerig is a must when on the MCG grid, also allows for turn 1 nisei rush, and sliding it back is a cheap way to tax Black Orchestra. The singleton Envelope is there because barriers suck, but you need to have one so the runner wastes 4 credits on his clip. (You can have two, but Cortex Lock and IP Block make secondary gear-checks, and barriers tend to neither face-check nor tax.) The options are really Vanilla, Himitsu, and Envelope, and the last one taxes clippy 2, is best against turtle, and facechecks for 1 net. But if you are facing a lot of cerb, Vanilla is prolly better for you. And then there's Excalibur, which might feel good more than it actually is good, but worse case scenario its fodder for your switcheroos and Surveyor, so having high-roll potential is pretty valuable. This one is really good at locking in an agenda score. Other options could include Sand Storm I guess, but I like having the permanent ice to resonate with Surveyor and MCG, and I like using my Mti install on a surveyor or something instead. The 17 main ice is basically-fixed, don't remove those. You can add, but I'd rather just have more Batty.

Okay, so I guess I should give some play tips maybe. Since you are rewarded so heavily for stacking servers, you want your ice divided between as few servers as possible. You mainly want to glacier two up: R&D and you scoring remote. One or two ice on HQ depending on the matchup to prevent easy DoF, information and upgrade trashes. One ice on archives to block aumakua. Aside from that, build R&D and the scoring server deep, Mumbad City Grid makes a server bulletproof once you have four ice and a beefy one at the top (Thimble can help you set that up.) Even without MCG or four ice, You just have taxing ice in general, and your Mti installs, and Batty doubles that. Since you want to build these servers so deep, sometimes you just take a 'value' Mti install on them even when you don't rez, since you won't have the chance to do that every turn.

AGENDAS OUT OF HQ. Since you have R&D and scoring so taxing, and every time they hit the bottom you get a free install to make it more taxing, make the runners pay to get them out of that server instead of hitting it in HQ. On the same note, get NGOs out of HQ because if they trash all your bluffs from hand, then all their remote runs will be on agendas, and get Batty out of HQ as soon as you have a reasonable server for it. (As little as a rezzable thimble and FC3, plus the runner letting you get an Mti install is sometimes enough.) Because he can defend himself there, and not in HQ. If they run the batty, keep in mind you can use it to do 1 brain or 2 tags (or 1net + 2c if you don't have better options) if you don't need to EtR. Leave Mumbad City Grid in HQ until you can get value out of rezzing it tho. 3 trash cost of centrals is nice, and it's just not good value when the runner can trash an unrezzed mumbad and steal your agenda with only having to break in once. If you have Marilyn campaign in your scoring remote (presumably because they have aumakua, if not you can often leave it out naked and let them trash), then you might trash it early on 2c just to get rid of this stupid agenda in HQ.

RUSH. (kinda.) Okay, so as I've said in the previous point, you want your agendas out of HQ. As a bonus, having an nisei scored, or an SSL scored, or an SSL stolen even does wonders for your game. There's a finite amount of credits you can tax with in the remote, which is often the rez cost of the two ice you install early, plus any Mti installs you got, plus the one you're about to get, so once you hit that threshold of credits, you want to draw an agenda so you can put it in before the runner gets any more time to set up. If the runner runs and steals it, they've paid a good tax and make your scoring remote stronger, so you can score a next one. Even if the runner is 30 credits and the remote costs 20 to break, if they are on zero points, they can have the nisei because the 20 credits will take a while to get back. Same principle applies if they have say triple Logic Bomb. You can hard install ice to increase the amount of useful ice, but it's often inefficient, so you usually don't do it past the first two (maybe three) unless there's strike or to free up hand space, or pump surveyor, or so you have a big ice for the top with MCG. Basically have a plan and you'll be fine.

To summarize the deck I think it's a simple old-school glacier, not too hard to play, fairly solid matchups across the board, somewhat unforgiving to runner misplays. Give it a spin.