Magnum Opus? Holy Grail

greyfield 3915

I've been working desperately for a good NBN glacier deck for a while now, and this is the latest and best version. The core concept is from vapo's Black Knight Blue Sun deck. Grail ice at its core is vulnerable to Parasite recursion (especially fueled by Datasuckers), but this deck trades Blue Sun's built-in protection for the raw power of NBN's Fast Advance core (not to mention Wraparound for an ice that drives Faust Noise crazy). Now if the runner tries patiently busting up your rig after hitting every piece, you can just press the issue and force them into a misplay.

I definitely think Haarpsichord is the best identity to play this in. Besides giving you added security when using big Power Shutdowns (e.g. on Magnum Opus) and occasionally letting you trade an agenda for a huge stack of cash by "accidentally" declining to use the Jackson with multiple Explode-a-Paloozas in your heap, it makes it substantially harder for the runner to race you if it comes to that (since it'll take them four separate turns to score seven points) - which also makes it more important that they run hard early, which also plays into the inherent advantages of Grail ice. Remember, what Grail ice lacks in fortitude it makes up for by requiring the runner to set up a full kit before they can feel truly safe against Lancelot trashes and Merlin damage. That plays right into the hands of rushing.

There are definitely a few cards that could be changed around. It would be nice to get an 18th ice for further insurance against Parasites; I'm torn between Blacklist + Breaking News versus Chronos Project as the solution to recursion, and once D&D comes out, it would be nice to have Breaking News in particular to enable The All-Seeing I. Also, while Grim has been excellent, I might want to trim one to make room for some Archangels, which are the true motive for playing NBN Glacier.

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