The NEXT Foundry v3.0 - A primer (FA Version)

v3.0 - FA Version

My take on The Foundry: Refining the Process featuring the NEXT ice. This is the Fast Advance (FA) version. My previous primers have the same content but it focuses on all 3 point agendas with Punitive Counterstrike. Check it out.

The Foundry concept notes:

1) The Foundry's ability increases agenda density because it removes extra ice from R&D therefore defending R&D is important.

2) The core ice should be pairs or triplets.

3) This identity naturally protects HQ because it puts extra ice in hand.

4) Our identity wants to rez ice on the corps turn as well as the runners.

Economy:

It is inefficient to click for credits without discarding valuable cards. The most efficient economy is operations and characteristic HB advertisments (Adonis Campaign and Eve Campaign).

Experimentation notes:

1) Big bioroid ice with Bioroid Efficiency Research is very clunky and awkward. It is not very effective.

2) The grail suite is not as effective as it seems. The best tools for each subtype are commonly played. Corroder meets Galahad's strengh, mimic meets Lancelot's strength, and gordian blade is near Merlin's but it costs $6 to rez. Agendas, punitive counterstrikes, and extra ice on top of grail pieces clutter HQ really fast.

3) Weyland's Amazon Industrial Zone or Executive Boot Camp are excellent tools for The Foundry: Refining the Process. Both allow The Foundry ability on the Corp's turn. Currently, Executive Boot Camp has more utility, because you can rez ice on other servers and it protects itself. The runner usually has to let it sit there, otherwise you search for another or another economy asset.

4) The Accelerated Beta Test interaction is very powerful. You pick one piece of ice in the top 3, install it, trigger The Foundry's ability and shuffle the other two back in. One piece of ice installed and rezzed for free and the non-ice cards are still useful later. Or you can choose to install two or three ice if its advantageous. With Jackson Howard in the deck, there is much less downside to using this ability.

CURRENT VERSION NOTES:

v3.0

Since The Foundry: Refining the Process thins out extra ice from the deck, we are more likely to draw agendas. HB FA has always been a solid archetype and Foundry is an excellent choice for it. Unlike most NBN Astrobiotic builds with undefended SanSan City Grids, HB can defend them, making it very frustrating for the runner to trash them. Simply ice up centrals and 1 or 2 ice on the scoring remote.

Playing Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center with Architect showed me the power of that card and this deck has lots of assets to be reused. It also is a huge deterrent for if the runner doesn't have a killer.

Naturally, when runners are flush with cash is a huge problem. Reversed Accounts provides a solution to this problem. If the threat is known, the runner has to deal with it or go broke, opening favorable scoring windows for agendas. If they deal with it, they spend money getting there and $3 to trash which is still favorable.

Private Security Force should probably be NAPD Contracts however, they are in another deck and I want to try some form of tag punishment. Runners playing tagme may ditch their plascretes because they don't suspect Scorched Earth or meat damage. PSF forces them to not drop below two cards and you can just plink away at them until something happens.