This is a basic concept I threw together when I saw The Foundry and the Grail-type ICE. I figured, if rezzing the ICE gives me another copy of that same ICE and that ICE is Grail, then I can immediately double the subroutines on it. The NEXT ICE just fall into line. If I rez one NEXT, I get another, and so on and so forth. Most of the deck is just abusing the identity, but here's a little spin I wanted to put on it.
- The Twins
These cuties are nigh unstoppable. Assume I only have one unrezzed Merlin and the Twins. The runner makes a run on that server. When the runner approaches the unrezzed Merlin, I rez Merlin and The Twins. When I rez Merlin, I search for another Merlin. The runner encounters the now-rezzed Merlin. I reveal Merlin from HQ to give the rezzed Merlin another subroutine. Provided the runner either has an icebreaker or survives the 4 net damage, I use the Twins and trash the Merlin in HQ to make them encounter it again. With a total of 8 net damage dealt, that's quite a hit.
Assuming you had the third Merlin in your hand, that's 6 damage on the first encounter, discard the tutored Merlin to The Twins and reveal the third Merlin again for 8 damage on the second encounter, discard the third Merlin for a third encounter, dealing a grand total of 22 net damage by discarding two cards and rezzing two cards for a total of 8 credits.
NOTE: That combo can be set up in three clicks if you also have a Hedge Fund and two if you also have a Shipment from MirrorMorph.
It's certainly a glass cannon, but one that can be set up on a central server, one that can go off potentially on the runner's first turn, and one that gets stronger over time.
Please comment and let me know what I can do to improve this deck!
Grail + NEXT + Twins is certainly one of the strongest decks out of The Foundry, and GFI is almost always a great choice (no exception here). This does seem strong, if a little unpolished. Here's some observations:
Use your last 4 card slots. There's some great influence-free cards that can augment this strategy. Cybernetics Court comes to mind, letting you more easily store the grail ICE in hand without cluttering up your HQ. Traps like Cerebral Overwriter and Aggressive Secretary are always nasty surprises in a low-density deck.
Excalibur is unique. You can use multiple in your hand to add extra subs to another grail encounter, but otherwise there's no reason to have 3. I'd cut at least one for Mother Goddess, and probably go down to 1 to add another non-ICE card.
3x NEXT Gold makes more sense than the full set of Excalibur, but is still excessive. You don't want to see it early and you probably won't get all three rezzed at once. Cut a single copy.
Shipment from MirrorMorph is fantastic when you have three things you want to install in hand. That doesn't seem like it will happen much for you, and works directly against grail ICE. I'd go down to one copy, as you just don't have enough targets to use all three effectively (if you were running asset econ instead of operation econ I would think over this again).
3x The Twins is too many. You won't have the ICE to keep up with them and keep your servers safe, and you can use the influence for an Executive Boot Camp, Jackson Howard or Project Junebug or something.
Parasite is a common card, and there are lots of other ways to trash ICE, plus you will be chewing through ICE with The Twins. Luckily, you are playing the faction with Archived Memories, Reclamation Order and Project Vitruvius. I'd drop one or two Mandatory Upgrades for some Project Vitruviuses and look at some of the recursion options available to you to get ICE back into play.
Eden Fragment is really strong in this deck.
That's all I can think of for now. This is a really strong start, I can't wait to see where you take it!