FoundryBootCamp

Shell Corp is an upgrade. Park it in scoring remote and be done with it.
Boot Camp is nice to get the engine started. I’ve encountered a couple of Runners who did not want to facecheck things before suckerpunching me with Siphon cutting through small NEXTs on HQ for cheap.
What I’m a bit unsure of is Security Testing. Since one of the engine ideas is to tax, having naked remotes for Testing available is counterproductive. Jackson is OK since he just leaves the building when Andy Tests him, and even Bootcamp can do this. But DBS can not. Dedicating ICE to DBS seems like an overkill.

Good point about shell corp.

Regarding boot camp, as you said, early on is when you most need it, to give you more ice. Problem is you either need ice to protect it (runners not running iced centrals will run un-iced stuff) or it gets trashed. But if you do ice it, you might have been better of with just replacing the boot camps with ice in your deck, and then using this ice (and the ice to protect it) for something else. I wonder if 3x pop up window would be good, it’s basically protection which pays for itself, will deter the runner when unrezzed and helps you to stabilize earlier.

Best play against criminals (and syphon) I find is to 2x ice HQ asap, their power often lies in running early, so if they don’t do that, you’re not bad off.

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Most of my foundry decks include 3x popup just for that reason.

However, you are missing one point about the advantages of ebc. Most corp decks are running 3x jackson, for flood control. Early in the game you are rarely recycling 3 agendas. So getting the runner to run a remote, paying the costs to trash an EBC - and you then have an option.

Either pay to pull an asset to hand, or allow the runner to trash for 3. Either can be a win, depending on game state.

For example:

Pull a snare, or shi, if the run is on HQ. Or pull an econ asset. Or pull a card to decrease agenda density in HQ. Or to boost the str of IQ.

Or alternately, i fyou have a jackson out, with other cards such as melange; or if you have architect in play - allow him to trash. Corporate troubleshooter behind architect can be quite usefull.

EBC is definitely not a bad card, but most of the times I’ve used it the runner trashes it after I install it (no ice protection). I drew the card and installed it, the runner runs it and pays 3. That’s an ok exchange for me, but really nothing spectacular, especially when the runner isn’t pressured financially by running (prefers to get a full rig out to avoid grail ice surprises).

Using it to pull out an asset is an option, but really nothing I plan on doing much, Early game is most crucial, so I want cards (ice and econ) that help out then. EBC I found lacking a bit, so going to try adding 3x pop up instead.

I view ebc to be an allstar. The ability to rez cards on the Corp turn and hence pull ice is huge. The ability to do it for one less is gravy.

Dropping it behind ice is worthwhile in my opinion
as when they run it you can then trash it and summon your 1 of melange or edge of world or whatever.

for once I agree with @Chris_Pedersen, EBC is an all-star in Next Foundry. Pop it into your soon-to-be-scoring remote and get the forges up and running. Once you’re ready to score, trigger it to pull an asset that could be what you’re installing: my favorite is edge of the world, but IAA cerebral overwriter or reversed accounts can be good too, or even plain old melange mining. then install ominously and see if they even try to get in.

later int the game, that’s when you install it naked. must-trash assets are most annoying when they have more important things to be doing with clicks and cash than running your random remotes.

TLDR: EBC should be considered expendable; put it in your scoring remote until it’s served its purpose, then use it or simply trash it.

I see where you’re coming from. I think it’s mostly the interaction of EBC with grail ice I don’t like, So going to try EBC with 3x Silver, Bronze, Eli, Architect, any suggestion for a 5th ice 3-some? May be out of faction, doesn’t have to.

Oh, definitely, Grail ICE really relies on the surprise factor to get best mileage. In any other ICE suite, however, EBC can really shine.

In the list you describe, I’d consider a destroyer, preferably one with teeth like grim, but either Ichi could work too if you are allergic to BP. Some decks will see NEXTitecht and figure they’ve got you pegged, and a surprise destroyer can open a scoring window a mile wide.

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The problem with EBC/grail ice: galahad is trashable via parasite.
Lancelot rezzing spoils the surprise. Putting 3x of Merlin is OK. However it suffers from being str 4, which is a common atman target, and is expensive to rez.

Having a large hand (ala research station, panic button) mitigates some of these downsides, however excalibur will go a long way for grail ice in foundry.

If you are going to run next ice - I would include mother goddess.

Since you have 3/4 with architect, Eli, mother, I like:
Howler, Janus and Heim 2. But I run with OAI… I also like hunter, kitsune and Universal connectivity.

You correctly point out the issue - that you want a minimum of two somes and preferably three somes for the foundry ability. Ichi 1 is str 4 (atman) and you really don’t want 3 of them. Ichi 2 is str 5 - and expensive.

Lotus fields, grim deserve a look as well.

Try 3xPopup.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Grim is usually not an ice I like 3 of, as once the runner has a solution for it, you generally don’t want to rez them. Also you want to keep those as a surprise, same as grail ice.

Ichi’s srength 4 I don’t like, for atman reasons. Same goes for Lotus field.

I thought about tollbooth, but am afraid the ice suite will be a tad too expensive then, slowing down the scoring.

3x pop up, 1x godess seems like the way I’ll go. Pop up is quite good at start, but I feel like I want some more etr then. Bad point however is that I don’t get the ebc savings for rezzing those. 3x godess is overkill, but as a 1 off seems ok.

I think you have the Atman/Lotus dynamic backwards. You want the Lotus Field to force Atman at 4, so when you run strength 3 or 5 ice you make them waste Datasucker tokens (most Atman rigs finish at 0/2/4 or 0/4/6, I think).

If you want popup that deals in EBC discount, go for 3xPup. As a bonus, it’s also unyoggable tax in late too.

Pup vs Pop-up is a close call. Pop-up speeds up your game instead of just slowing the Runner, and as I’m trying more rush-y versions right now that speedup is of more value to me than Pup’s better taxing ability.

Edit:
I’ve actually returned to Peak Efficiency, but instead I’m playing now lots of cheap ICE and I try to rez it with EBC every turn.
That’s the list I’m currently having some success with against Andromeda gauntlet.

^Lategame. R&D costs 20, Peak Efficiency for +11 credits. Upgrade on R&D is Ash. I have 20 credits, Andy is at 27. Turn 17 I believe, I’m at 6 points, Andy at 5.
I still stumble during setup if I don’t get that crucial early Hedge Fund. Considering swapping Restructure for GLCs.

Haas-Bioroid: The Foundry

Cards: 49 / 45
Agenda points: 20 / 20
Influence: 15 / 15

Agenda (11)
3x Accelerated Beta Test
1x Director Haas’ Pet Project
1x Gila Hands Arcology
3x NAPD Contract
3x Project Vitruvius

Asset (6)
1x Adonis Campaign
3x Executive Boot Camp ●●●
2x Jackson Howard ●●

Ice (15)
2x Architect
3x Eli 1.0
3x NEXT Bronze
3x NEXT Silver
2x Pop-up Window ●●
2x Pup ●●

Operation (13)
1x Archived Memories
3x Biotic Labor
3x Hedge Fund
3x Peak Efficiency
3x Restructure

Upgrade (4)
2x Ash 2X3ZB9CY
2x SanSan City Grid ●●●●●●

I think you have the dynamic a bit backwards. Eli is in, atman at 4 is one of the most efficient ways to deal with it, and only needs 1 sucker to deal with S5 ice. Anything below S4 gets dealt with by regular breakers. Since Wraparound came out, you hardly see the atman only rigs anymore.

I’m also more for a rushy play style, so pop up is better than pup. Still not sure about peak eff, what do you do with all this money once all that ice is rezzed already? At this stage I’m looking more to FA the winning agenda than to force through an Ash score (at this stage, runners may have enough money to just trash ash and run the remote again, while you dumped your money in the trace to stop them first run)

You can never have too much money :slight_smile: With that boardstate huge credit pool opens up options like:

  • take siphon to the chin and still be able to FA
  • FA topdecked NAPD with double Biotic
  • Use Jackson to dig first click and score drawn 3/2 with double Biotic
  • 100% secure R&D with Ash to prevent hail mary attempt to steal the game.

The hard part is getting there. EBC with Pup/Popup help a lot to quickly reach that crucial rezzed ICE count for ridiculous Efficiency plays.

Yep, the hard part is getting there, spending the $ usually requires less effort :smile:

Still, if going that way, I’d probably cut jackson and play the full 3x of pop up and pup. You should have ice enough to score early agendas behind, so you hardly need the extra draw and you also don’t have the ice for a drawn out game (if runner parasites your silvers, eli is about the most taxing ice you have), so ditching agendas will probably just delay defeat, rather than turning it into victory.

There are enough non-atman decks that both Ichi and Lotus are good choices. If people are playing Yog in your meta play lotus. Ichi is still a 3 tax on atman for 5, which is about the best tax you can get for an atman deck. Beyond that Ichi is a great mid/late game ICE that is much more taxing for other rigs. The “Next” ICE and Architect all really hurt Atman because of the low and varying strengths, forcing more Atman or breakers.

I really, really like Exec Boot Camp in Foundry, but it’s really just a great match up with Next ICE over all. It works in ETF (Epic Loot Cards and Games (15 players) - StimHack) and is really an all star here because you can go get your Next out pronto.

The worst match up for this deck that I can see is Noise, where he is trashing your ICE and multi-accessing R&D that is full of agendas after you thin it out getting ICE. 11 Agendas is a lot when you’re taking the other cards out of the deck. I would consider trying to score at least 1 5/3 as part of your plan to try and address the agenda density.

My experience running 3rd popular and 3rd pup is that you then struggle to find etr ice. However that said, I might go look at this again splashing 2 sensai.

Secondly, howler is brilliant in foundry. Since howler allows you to pull another howler you put 3 in the deck. However, you can then drop one offs of Janus heim2 ichi from archives.

This allows you to make very profitable use of priority requisition. I agree with dj about the agenda density.

Finally, not drawing initial cash to get started: look at melange. Đropping those behind X2 pop or pup
gets you cash to start and forces the runner to run. Which allows you to rez and draw 2 more.

You can then drop another melange or even a sacrificial agenda. There are no multi access on remotes.

Atman is most often found in Kate (link 1), so ichi only taxes 2$ for an atman 4 then. (One of) the best rigs is mimic - corroder/lady - gordian/Yog - datasucker - parasite - atman 4, so I like to have at least some ice that’s efficient against those.

That being said, I once concidered ichi to be the best ice around, and it’s definitely still good. I wouldn’t mind rezzing those with ebc (unlike grim), as it is very hard to land the trash programs against a decent runner anyway.

Another thing I noticed is that most foundry decks posted here do not run 3x each ice. Why (godess I understand)? With 3x, you 're pretty sure you’ll see 1 pretty early, giving you access to the other 2. That’s one of the major strengths of The Foundry, I really don’t feel the added variety weigths up to this advantage.

EDIT: I keep going back and forth on 5/3 agendas. I really like the 9x2, 2x1 setup, as it works really well with sansan and requires the runner (and you) to score 4 agendas. This requires more running, so more possibilities to rez (and dig for) ice. Also with 15 ice, there’s place, with 18 ice room is a tad more precious.

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As far as agendas go it’s really just a choice in strategy. If you’re going all in on fast advance as a win con then the 11 agenda package makes sense. The real question becomes if Foundry can do fast advance better than ETF. I would say no but I haven’t tried it. The 5/3 plan makes more sense to me because you can get copies of all your early game NEXT ICE and force a very early mid-late game because the ICE is so very taxing on top of being binary in “end the run” functionality. Add that to the built in ability to use ABT without Jackson is huge for a glacier type taxing deck.

When I put Ichi in a deck it’s because I want a tax. Most first encounters with Ichi get 2 clicks or a program, and I’m willing to accept that for 5, along with whatever tax it provides. It seems like it’s good enough that it’s worth playing in faction because the corp makes enough money that 5 credits isn’t that much and it’s effective against a lot of runners.

Not sure why no 3x, but it only matters for Grail and Next as far as synergy. May matter the strategy being employed on the amount and size of ICE. I have a buddy who is running a Mutate build with multiples of binary ICE and 1x-2x Big things that he wants to mutate into. It’s not a “top tier” deck but when it gets rolling it’s a pain in the ass, and he leverages the ability to weed out the low end ICE to be more sure to hit with mutate.