Hubbard Defense Systems was the last of my glacier decks, and it’s an advanceable ICE deck. I had imagined it as a fast advance deck, and it got close but certainly wasn’t an all-in fast advance deck. As it is, this is also the last deck from my Terminal Directive campaign, and I suspect that I’ll be moving on to another identity very soon (though I may continue to play Weyland – we’ll see).

This deck felt pretty good to run, but wasn’t quite as fast as I needed it to be.  I had hoped that Mumbad Construction Co. would get some work done, but in the two games I played this deck, I never actually saw this card.  This was a little disappointing, but something I worked through.  I did manage to use Hollywood Renovation in its place at least once, but I think that was more luck and bluffing my ICE than actual card value.

For my agenda suite, Evidence Collection and Firmware Updates were my “easy scoring” cards.  My hope was that I would be able to score them out-of-hand with either Hollywood Renovation, Trick of Light or with the help of a SanSan City Grid.  Hollywood Renovation, as I mentioned, is mostly there to help me fast advance things or strengthen up my ICE.  Oaktown Renovation is something that I haven’t typically used, but I can now see why it’s so popular – the credit generation from this single card was pretty impressive.

The assets I included were mostly support, with the exception of Mumbad Construction Co.  This card was absolutely core to the deck, so I really should have included three of them.  Pad Campaign is there primarily for clickless economy – the last time I played an advanceable ICE deck, I found clicks in short supply, so this seemed handy.  Anson Rose was there to help keep my ICE pumped up, which worked fairly well, and Jackson Howard is there to help me get my good cards back or protect Archives.  Both upgrades I included were pretty core to the deck – SanSan City Grid for fast advance and Satellite Grid for buffing my ICE – still, the fact that I couldn’t have both on the same server, kept me from putting a lot of them in (also, the influence cost of SanSan City Grid).

All of my operations are about either gaining money or dropping advancement tokens.  These all helped keep my deck pretty consistent.  I swapped out a Beanstalk Royalties and Hedge Fund from my standard economy package for a Mass Commercialization, because even with the conditional, it almost always made me more money – I almost always had at least two ICE with advancements on them.  Dedication Ceremony also did some work, and bailed me out at least once with the ability to upgrade Hortum, Mausolus, or the Colossus for a single click and credit

The ICE in this deck were all advanceable to help take advantage of all the ways I have to advance cards.  Asteroid Belt and Orion are ones that I used to like a lot because they are good targets to move tokens from once they’ve been rezzed, but, in this deck, can’t take advantage of Dedication Ceremony or Mumbad Construction Co.  I do like the advanceable barriers a bit more though (especially Ice Wall), and the new advanceable ICE (Hortum, Masuolus, and Colossus) did a lot of work in this deck, which, I think, has made me come around to them a bit more.

Overall, I feel like this deck worked well, though it didn’t advance agendas as fast as I would have liked.  That’s something I will be working on in the next iteration, as I do want to at least try to have a decent fast advance deck (it’s an archetype I’ve never played before.)  On the flip-side, without the 3/2 Evidence Collection, it may be a bit trickier to pull off.  There was one particularly memorable (for me) moment with this deck, and that was when I was holding 4 agendas in my hand, and Anson Rose – the runner ran at my hand…  …And pulled Anson Rose.  I had stonefaced that well enough that he didn’t think I had any agendas in my hand, and didn’t run on my hand again for a few turns (after I had scored three agendas and nearly emptied my hand).

This deck is called Hubbard Defense Systems as I decided the thing that it advances best are my ICE.  Hubbard Glacier in Alaska is actually advancing, where many glaciers are retreating, so while it may not be the fastest advancing deck, the name seemed suitable.