NEXT Level

The fundamental question each non-Engineering The Future HB deck must answer is "Why not ETF?" Cerebral Imaging unlocks new potential with a massive handsize. The Foundry synergizes with various linear ice strategies.

NEXT, however, offers a different benefit. Tempo. However, it comes with two caveats. 1) your deck must have a lot of ice, much higher than normal, and 2) a moderate influence hit.

A deck full of ice has advantages. However, it's natural weakness, is that it takes time to convert those benefits - a never ending stream of defenses, a natural resistance to ice destruction, and a low ease of trashing in R&D/HQ - into value.

NEXT gives us that time. This deck can have all three centrals iced, a remote set up (with ice protecting it) and be at 9 credits from a Hedge Fund before the runner spends a click.

Alternatively, it is very easy to double guard HQ against Siphons, again with R&D and archives covered, and optionally with a Hedge Fund landing us at nine.

This deck is designed to challenge anyone who takes advantage of open servers. It can easily put a four credit tax on Archives runs, without worrying too much about the other centrals or the remote.

Most Andysucker builds are not capable of fighting this deck. By choking off their base game plan, they simply cannot build up the sucker tokens and credit pool needed to break into anything.

Note: the deck does not want or need Jackson Howard, as heretical as that sounds. It deals with agenda flood more passively, by having a ton of ice on the board, and by being low on tells that inform the runner whether HQ is full of Agendas, ice, waiting operations, or any combination of these. This does make Noise a difficult matchup, however the recursive elements help mitigate that somewhat.