Use one Iq on Hq. With shipment from mirror, sometime early in the game, you should be able to use ebc to rez for 0-2. Try to get as many IQ’s rezzed as you can. When the runner runs hq, use Panic (during approach) to inflate the value of all your in Play IQs. Research station for the St 9 sentry - or more.
EBC is also critical for rezzing Next ICE.
DBS is amazing for getting the right card on draw. However, honestly, 3 is probably overkill.
As configured here, next ice leaves you vulnerable to parasite recursion. I’m really awaiting the next pack, which resolves some of those issues. Alternately, you can go with a bio ice setup or grail. Grail rocks, in which case go with:
-1 Cel Gift -3 DBS + 2 Gal, +2 Lanc +2 Mer + 3 Adonis +1 eve (-Next)
if you prefer bio +3 Howler, + 2 HB2 +2 Janus +2 Ber - Next, -Mother. Leaves you susceptible to d4.
I’ve been testing a similar deck recently. My current list is
Agenda:
3x Accelerated Beta Test
1x Hades Shard
1x Eden Shard
2x Gila Hands Arcology
3x NAPD Contract
ABT is great in The Foundry as you can fire it quite risk-free. You install ice and shuffle your deck all the time, so Shards give lots of value whenever you can score them. Gila and NAPD are simply strong filler cards (I tried Efficiency Committee and Bifrost Array in those slots but wasn’t impressed).
Tricks:
3x Jackson Howard
3x Executive Boot Camp
2x Aggressive Secretary
2x Biotic Labor
Jackson as always. Executive Boot Camp is what makes the deck work. Rezzing whatever ice you want during your turn is very strong in Foundry. Biotic is a nice option to have to score ABT or Gila. Secretary is a card I’m least sure about and will probably go to make place for 3rd Green Level and 3rd Eli.
Econ:
3x Hedge Fund
3x Adonis Campaign
2x Green Level Clearance
2x Peak Efficiency
Quite standard HB econ package with Peak Efficiency added because once you start the EBT rezzes, this gets huge quickly.
Ice:
3x NEXT Bronze
3x NEXT Silver
3x Galahad
3x Merlin
3x Lancelot
2x Eli 1.0
2x Architect
NEXT because they grow when in multiples, grail to make the runner afraid before they get a full rig and tax them late game (and of course to hunt for turn one triple Merlin kill which I hope to get one day). Architect is strong with ABT and is an anti-Parasie card, Eli is just generally strong while cheap. 19 pieces of ice total, I’d like to have more but deckspace is hard to find.
So far I have just a few games played with it so it’s very much work in progress, but in my experience most of trouble lies in early, not late game (as this is when you regret not being EtF the most). Once you set up the servers (and thanks to your ID you see way more of your ice than usually, so it’s not strange to have 4 pieces of ice on R&D, HQ and remote with two more on Archives), rez things and land a Peak Efficiency, running gets taxing enough that you can create a window by feeding the runner NAPD Contract. Other possibilities being Biotic/ABT for final points (which makes the runner feel the need to run my centrals once they find out I can FA when needed) or Secretary bluffs.
One big weakness is heavy Parasite recursion, but I see this way less often because people play Lotus Field and Architect.
Here’s my current go with it. I’ve only played a small handful of games, and I’m batting about a 50% win rate. Definitely some refining to do on this process.
15 influence spent (max 15)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to All That Remains
I’ve been toying with removing the 5/3s to put in NAPDs.
Caprice is nice on HQ.
FA as a general win condition.
Peak Efficiency becomes a fantastic economy card in a Foundry Bootcamp deck - as in no time you’ll be up to 5-6-7+ ICE rezzed.
I’m not sure about the single Ichi here. Just wanted some beefier ICE to handle parasites better. Possibly 3x Architect is excessive, might diversify that.
I’m posting here mostly because it’s very similar to an idea I’m currently working on. I like the foundry, and I’m looking for ways of leveraging the ability to quickly obtain and install ICE.
I’m using a Supermodernism approach with the ICE suite, trashing programs to keep the runner locked out. I know most of these deck are using Grail ICE and I might try them out in later revisions of the deck.
Why so much ice with an ID that draws ice as an ability?
Here’s my list, which is reasonably effective. People are often hesitant to run a lot, as they don’t want to trigger your ability and lancelot in hand can give any ice type a program trash. So you use this early window to rush out an agenda or 2, then you transform into a glacier with all the NEXT ice stacking and score the last 2 agendas through biotic labour or an ash protected server (fuelled by melang money).
No Jackson: I almost never draw with this deck, agenda flood problem is helped by people not liking to run on unexposed ice.
No campaigns: Unprotected campaigns get trashed (by good players at least), early game you might not draw into much ice so sparing one can be hard, and having a campaign trickle in your main remote is wasting the early window to score.
Only 15 ice: Your ability will fetch you some pieces, so better concentrate on money to rez the ice. Early game it’s about the etr, later on the ice is still quite taxing.
My issue with every Foundary deck I’ve made or played against has been the vulnrability of R&D as more and more ICE gets pulled out of it, increasing agenda density. It makes R&D multi-access lethal to you in the mid to late game which in turn makes it very easy strategically for the runner. Playing a relatively high number of agendas and cards with trash costs (which most of these decks appear to) will make that problem worse. I would be looking at a low agenda density (ABT is so good, but you could also try all 5/3s plus Domestic Sleepers) and high trash cost/operations for economy.
I think this is something that a lot of people overestimate with foundry. In practice, there is little different between drawing extra ICE with foundry and overdrawing with jackson to dump flooding agendas back into R&D. Both pull out non-agendas and leave agendas dis-proportionally in the deck.
The result in actual play is simply that you ensure a “draw a bunch of ICE early” start. Since the foundry ability is a “you may” you can simply stop pulling extra ICE once you feel secure enough to start scoring.
Moving on: anyone playing foundry right now, especially with executive boot camp, should look at The Tower of Babel. It’s easy to forget the EBC’s second ability, which allows a single snare to protect HQ, and allows awesome bluffing hijinks: particularly good for creating doubt and and maybe a scoring window in the late game when the runner has unlocked your severs and is just waiting for you to install something. tutor an adge of the world, reveal it, then install something behind 4 ICE. is it an agenda, or the end of your hand? or pull an AggSec, then IAA. is it a 3 pointer or will your entire rig blow up?
Up to a point I agree with you. But the point is surely that the Jackson scenario you describe is an undesirable state of affairs that the Corp deals with because it is better than the alternative and which also only happens in a finite number of games. Whereas the Foundary R&D thinning must be an integral part of your game plan because it will happen every single game.
I don’t think it makes Foundary unplayable, but I do think more account needs to be taken of it than the builds I have played against (which haven’t been the ones on here, although they have shared some key features). I try to avoid theorycrafting, so I’ll wait until I have a build that I’m happy with before I inflict further ideas on you.
I really like that list, particularly your ice and agenda composition. I am experimenting with something very similar. The main differences are that I play 1 sansan instead of your celebrity gift (sansan is insanely strong with so many 3/2s, especially when you can protect it), and enhanced login protocol which are just awesome.
Before Cel gift, I had Sansan as well. I switched because the difficulty with this deck lies in getting going. Gift is really nice, but I’ll probably go back because, as you said, Sansan is just so good. If I do this, it’s probably -1 Gift, -1 arch mem, -1 priv contr (?), +1 Sansan, +1 (+2) open to suggestions, looking for a money card but not liking the draw part of the level clearances.
I’ve been playing that type of deck for a couple of weeks now and I’ve found it way too easy to get agenda flooded. I don’t think it’s the right way to go. I run Punitives to give the 5/3s teeth, but even so it’s way too easy to lose 3 or even 6 points before you’ve got money. The Foundry/Bootcamp combo is great for getting a solid early board, but it’s also a big cash drain unless you’ve got a campaign going. That runs counter to the 5/3-Punitive plan so I think you want something else - 3/2s, sansan-based fast advance and NAPD seems like it fits better.
Definitely agree with you there, I’ve always felt that trading “steals to win” for agenda density is usually a bad trade. Especially when considering how hard 5/3s are to score.
Ultimately, I’ve just never experienced the problem of “to much agenda density” that so many seem to fear with foundry. Even if you never use it part your first two turns, it cab then a one-ice start into a 3-ice start without needing to click to draw or trust random chance.
My issue with your deck is that gala had and next ice fail hard to a simple parasite recursion deck.
With ebc pulling assets I get three rezzed ice on a abt. And I have yet to fail to get at least one ice.i originally had merlin but a plethora of Str 4 ice was not useful.
Shell corporation because you can Econ on your scoring remote.
Actually I found it’s quite good against parasites. Most rigs relying on them need to facecheck, and when checking grail ice, nasty surprises can happen. You just need to ice all centrals, wipe datasuckers if needed and watch them sweat. Sure they can come up with an answer, but usually not before you manage to score 2 agendas, at which point you can threaten the win by FA the last 2 agendas.
If you want lots of ice, I think NEXT is a better ID, as it gives you the equivalent of 4-6 clicks at the start of the game, which is often enough of a headstart to rush to victory (I know what I’m talking about, as I played NEXT to good effect in the previous stimhack league). The advantage of the Foundry lies is the fact that you need less slots for ice (more room for other stuff) and the free quality draw (ice) you get from time to time.
This looks a lot like a decklist I’ve been looking for.
My gut reaction to the absence of Eli and Architect is “surprised”, however. Architect is suprisingly strong against Anarch (they can’t Parasite it and they have to break it every time or you’ll start recurring ICE from Archives). Architect probably shoves some of that parasite-vulnerability of the archetype.
But I understand that Grail+NEXT is “all or nothing”. And there’s really little reason to run more than 15 ICE in Foundry. I’d even go as low as 12-13 if not for Parasites.
Also, no Jackson/DBS?
Liking the economy package.
Absolutely agree on your point of advantage of Foundry as an ID - you can have more ICE in play with less ICE in deck, effectively upping economy density of your deck. That could be the edge enough to push Foundry into “actually worth playing instead of EtF” territory. Much promise.
Edit:
I put together HBFA Foundry version that has some decent teeth, but was struggling with economy. The same agenda package you run, 3 BL, 3 SanSan, 3 Ash, 3 Jackson, Next, Next, Eli, Architect and money cards. Very simple idea, and should be quite effective once economy is tuned.
Shell Corp should indeed fit nicely. Subliminal also looks cute.
Peak Efficiency never really worked out for me. It’s Hedge Fund at lategame and dead early, and I need my money ASAP to setup.
I’m not a big fan of shell corp in the same way I don’t like the campaigns so much, you need to devote at least 1 ice to it, and either they start tickling and you’re set, or they get trashed and you’re poor. Shell corp is even more all or nothing. I can recommend restructure and subliminal, runners tend to not run out of fear of grail ice, so you have time to milk melange and get in restructures.
Deck can definitely work without the grails, eli-architect-something else (tollbooth maybe?) to replace them.
I know Jackson is a great card, but I feel corps often overdo the ‘ditching agendas’ part. If you have an ice / econ package that can outlast the runner, it’s a fine strategy. But if your deck is more set to rushing, you delay your scoring and may run out of steam without having scored enough.
I’m also reconsidering Boot camp. It’s nice and all, but usually I prefer to not rez the nasty ice or the ice they don’t have a breaker for yet, so too often I get at most 1 rez out of it (Silver or bronze usually), then it just sits there or gets trashed. So I’m thinking of replacing those with a Sansan, a mother godess and something else (Interns maybe).
