Solar Grids

Def not taking the credit on the innovation here, as the Crisium/Off the Grid combo has been out there in the world for more than a minute. Add Excalibur to the mix, and now you have another tool for this very nifty scoring combo.

THE DECK

The basic premise here is to score out agendas in a naked remote by way of Off the Grid. Ideally, you will play Mushin No Shin to drop a 3 point agenda and then follow it up with Off the Grid. Naturally you want to protect Off the Grid by layering untenable ice on HQ in combination Crisium Grid, which preserves your Off the Grid by negating the drawback of being trashed when there is a "successful run" on HQ. Your backup for this combo is to put Excalibur on HQ, which won't protect your Off the Grid, but will make them unable to make another run nonetheless.

Beyond this, the deck utilizes Blue Sun's ability to reset servers, aggressively rez large ice to tax the runner, and maintain a strong and consistent economy. This means that, if all else fails, you can just play this like a glacial deck and score out of a strong remote.

AGENDAS

The fact that the deck only plays 8 agendas is definitely a strength. Both you and the runner are looking at three agendas each to achieve victory, which is miserable for the runner, as they must navigate a labyrinth of gigantic ice to do so.

You'll want to over-score Project Atlas for the ability to search out the pieces of your combo as needed--or random utility like Oversight AI, Will-o'-the-Wisp, etc. Often, you may be dredging up another agenda, as it very possible to aggressively score once you get your combo set up.

The 5/3 agendas are all pretty straightforward. Priority Req obviously gels with all the expensive ice in the deck. Hades Fragment is useful for cycling back combo pieces and other cards that end up in Archives--a nice tool against Keyhole and Noise. Eden Fragment is the weakest of the agendas, but is still helpful if scored early, as you will want to layer the crap out of your centrals anyway.

ECON

The typical Blue Sun fare here: Hedge Fund, Restructure, and Oversight AI for Curtain Wall and the like. GRNDL Refinery works with Mushin No Shin and is worth laterally zigging to pull off with Off the Grid for the potential 20 credit swing it can offer--Mushin and then next turn advance, advance, rez and click to trash. I often will drop a piece of ice in a remote, install Refinery, and advance it once. If you do this early, it often will be a nice feint for an Atlas later. If they don't trash the Refinery, just advance it twice the following turn, rez and click to trash gain 12.

ICE

The ice here is also relatively standard for Blue Sun. You basically have your early ice and your big ice, almost all of which are ETR. The ice count is high, as you don't want an early game hiccup. Ice is good. Ice is your friend.

For early ice, we have Ice Wall, Enigma, and Caduceus. Note that we are not playing full compliments of 3 on these, as they very quickly diminish in value as the game will inevitably go long. These are simply here to shore up the early game, give you some cheaper defense against crap like Inside Job, and provide variety. Caduceus is especially nice in its ability to be rezzed, get you back the 3 credits, and then be bounced back to your hand with Blue Sun's ability to gain your 3 credits. (It's often nice to bounce these after the runner hits them to not only recoup your investment, but to lay them again, sometimes in a diff server, and keep the runner guessing). I suppose that Excalibur also falls into the cheap ice category, though it is primarily placed on HQ for the aforementioned purpose of synergizing with Off the Grid.

Big ice is perhaps a misleading term, as I would consider Lotus Field and Changeling feel low risk, which, for most other decks, feel like a more substantial investment early game. They can simply be returned to hand as needed via Blue Sun, making rezzing them at any time pretty negligible in terms of risk. (Don't forget to advance Changeling as needed since you have so few sentries in the deck--this often can make him a solid blocker again if they didn't bother finding a killer. Lotus Field is obviously great against Sucker spam decks.)

Curtain Wall is your preferred weapon of choice as an outermost ice/cordone and virtual ATM card when bounced back to hand. The single copy of Hadrian's simply functions as a 4th giant barrier in your arsenal. Tollbooth is our last big ice, taxing the runner on two fronts with its encounter ability and the larger than normal strength.

EVERYTHING ELSE

The rest of the cards are combo pieces or utility.

I suppose Mushin could be considered an econ card, now that I think of it, but, nonetheless we will lump it into the "combo" category. Early game, if you have the credits to rez a troublesome piece of ice, don't be afraid to use this to drop an agenda and then protect it. This is obviously a terrible idea against Criminals because of Inside Job, but a solid play against a lot of Anarch decks. You can risk dumping your bankroll into rezzing something like Curtain Wall if needed, as you can just pop it back to your hand the following turn.

Crisium Grid has fast become a handy tool against the advent of nonsense like Eater/Keyhole. It's also great against the dreaded Account Siphon, Data Sucker, Medium, Nerve Agent, and even things like Desperado. It's an important piece of your combo, as discussed in the opener. It's a pain in the neck to trash, and, as you will be layering HQ into a Herculean feat to run, they often won't have the credits to do so--at the very least, they running HQ a second time after trashing Crisium will be nigh impossible.

Off the Grid, as mentioned, is the main trick of the deck. Just remember to rez it after you Mushin so the runner can't smash into it. Also, don't forget that you can pop it back to your hand the turn you score in your Mushin'd remote in case the runner can somehow navigate their way into making a run and trashing it for zero.

The single Will-o'-the-Wisp is simply there to bottom a key breaker. At worst, it can function as a feint for Crisium--which I do ALL THE TIME.

Jackson is Jackson, drawing you into the odds and ends needed to adapt and evolve as the game persists. He is relevant protection against Noise and Keyhole, though the latter should be a non-issue with the Crisium Grids and taxing ice in the deck. He helps to cycle back relevant cards like an errant Off the Grid being trashed on a R&D access. I often will chuck agendas if I draw more than 2, shuffling them back in as needed--with the low agenda count, you often don't have to layer ice on R&D until the multi-access cards hit the table. I typically will let the runner trash them early game, as this goes a long way in keeping your ice annoying and things like Crisium less desirable to trash.

IN CLOSING

I quite like this deck. It is extremely strong and consistent with the Grid shenanigans, defaulting to a more traditional Blue Sun in a pinch. I prefer this build over the hopeful Scorched Earth/random flatline strategies, as it pushes fundamental aspects of the game rather than trying to cobble together a kill combo WITH sufficient econ. Sure, one could argue that this deck also has a combo that must be Voltron'd together, but it remains a combo that is reinforced by things the deck already naturally does: plays ice and score agendas.

If I had one objective criticism about the deck it would be that games can be long, esp. if you are a corp player that is meek or when it comes to identifying scoring windows. It is very easy to lapse into a desire to create Fort Knox via giant ice, store up a ton of credits, and in the process not be pushing out agendas.

The deck is robust against things like MaxX and Noise because of the ice quality, Crisium Grids, and Jackson Howards. Oversight AI is a great tool against Leela, Emergency Shutdown, and even edge cases like Valencia. I certainly consider this a tier 1 build. Just make sure to mulligan away hands with a mix of agendas and giant ice you can't rez on turn one. Something as simple as an early Account Siphon can really prove to be a tempo hiccup best avoided--which I suppose it true for most corp decks. And don't forget to protect Archives against crap like Sneakdoor, which can really throw a wrench in your combo.

Thanks for reading!