2-1 @ Intercontinentals - 8th Place - Always Be Restoring

MelkorsFolly 89

First off i would like to give a shout out to @TugtetguT who i faced in the Singapore Store Champs who was a really great opponent and allowed me to see the potential of MirrorMorph, this list is an adaptation from his Mirrorbox list and also @CritHitd20's adaptation aswell, also a shout out to @Mortivor who gave me some good advice on the agenda suite.

Overall the goal of this deck is to get a Jinja in the remote and build a tower, once you get going you just MCA the runner the entire game and rush agendas, an early Vitruvius score sets you up nicely and you can just protect HQ once your remote is adequate and slot MCA in and score an SSL from hand, the MirrorMorph ability is amazing with MCA as the runner only has 6 clicks to be able to deal with the MCA before you score a 5/3 from hand. once you are able to do this scoring the final Vitruvius is really easy especially with the Restore > Bass > Vitruvius trick. if you get a good draw this deck can go insanely fast and is able to pressure the runner on time, even if they trash your MCA or Jinja you can easily Restore it back.

Round Breakdown:

Round 1 - The Kid - Aesops Hoshiko: I had a reasonable opening hand, Bass Jinja Hagen SSL and Hedge Fund, could be a risky keep but it turned out quite well, drew into a Surveyor and so started setting the remote up, Hoshiko ran the server and trashed Jinja, I restored it back and now in a good spot as I have Hedge, VLC and IPO, I decide to rush out a SSL and use VLC to install Drafter and a second Surveyor on the remote, now the remote is pretty much safe so i slow roll the SSL, open R&D remained stable for me aside from a single SSL steal which was fine, I have fast track and MCA's I'm ready to rush out even more.

I install MCA, click MCA, Draw, Hedge Fund, on 23 credits Hoshiko has Paperclip and MKultra out and runs my hand, nothing in my hand and I draw into SSL the turn before i pop MCA, score the SSL and now i just fast track Vitruvius and and wait to do the Restore > BASS > Vitruvius trick next turn, GG.

I managed to get a bye for round 4 which was quite lucky as I was down to a single life after two runner losses.

Round 5 - Cpt_nice - Earth's Best Mum Sunny: Probably one of the best match ups i could've hoped for as this deck goes quite fast.

I have double BC, Restore, MCA and Jinja in my opening hand which is pretty good, I install both on HQ and the remote and install Jinja, I draw into Surveyor and Gatekeeper and now the remote is pretty safe, I click MCA and use the MirrorMorph ability to be able to draw and credit credit (which is honestly one of the best parts of this ID) Amakua comes down and trashes a VLC from R&D and I score SSL from hand, I ice up and get a CVS in the bin and Restore the MCA again,Vacheron gets sniped off R&D but I pop a fast track and MCA to score out my one of Cyberdex Sandbox, now I just need a Vitruvius to jam into the remote, unfortunately he trashes my VLC in hand which slows me down but I was able to draw into an SSL and just jam it, and that's game.

I had to go pretty fast and I think the turn two MCA really helped in keeping sunny down long enough for me to win although i felt terrible as i was always rooting for sunny.

Round 6 - Enkoder - Apoc Hayley (my shaper brother </3): This was a match up I was stoked about, I was going into it very confident as I knew I could rush it out if I had a similar set up to the sunny game, I had a Vitruvius in my opening hand with Jinja and Hagen BC, I install Hagen on HQ and BC in the remote leaving R&D open for a single turn and Hedge Fund. Hayley runs R&D and trashes VLC, okay that's fine, runs again, steals a Vitruvius, runs again and steals my one of Vacheron. this is no longer fine.

I draw into surveyor and install it on r&d as a deterrent and install Jinja in the remote and draw a card, Hayley installs Proco and Beth going down to 2 credits, I think to myself, he can't get through the border control on such little money with no breakers out, i need to get the SSL that's been in my hand for 2 turns out so I can recover, install adv adv and unfortunately he Procos twice and must of found a stimhack and installs Ika & Gauss and runs, I rez the Border Control but I go down to 2c in the process unable to score the SSL.

I draw gatekeeper and install it via Jinja, this might've been a mistake and I should've normal installed it but I think he would've ran regardless, instead I advanced the SSL and drew Surveyor and installed with Jinja, I end on 4c and that's my downfall, he runs the remote and forces the Gatekeeper rez and it fires, I draw into yet another SSL and shuffle it back in with Gatekeeper and then runs again next turn after Procoing once, playing Sure Gamble, installing Harbinger and SMC and then running getting Engolo from the SMC, he ends with 1 credit to his name and the game ends on turn 5.

Looking back I think I should've just clicked for three each turn as that would give me enough for the Surveyor and really having another ice earlier wasn't going to help since I was too poor. I wonder how many of these key cards such as Stimhack, SMC or Sure Gamble came up from the Proco clicks and I'm dissapointed that my R&D didn't hold that single turn I left it open, even if the Vacheron was an SSL instead I think I would've been in an okay spot. an unfortunate end to my run at the Intercontinentals but that's the nature of the beast that is Netrunner.

This MirrorMorph deck has served me very well across both tournaments, it only dropped one game at APAC and I think this list is even stronger.

just a few shout outs, firstly to all my opponents who all played amazing games, never in a million years did I expect to be playing against the big names in Netrunner, to the Adelaide City Grid my local meta and to @Valkyriez_Gaming and @Maxellsg who helped with lots of practice games and support and of course a massive shout out to the Project Nisei team and especially Akira (aka @AnOrdinaryHackerGirl) who was very accommodating and put in so much effort throughout the lead up and running of Intercontinentals.

PS: I don't normally do write ups so apologies if this is long winded.

4 comments
9 Aug 2020 ValkyriezGaming

I loved every game of only having 3 clicks as a runner. 10/10, would watch an SSL get FA from hand again.

9 Aug 2020 TugtetguT

Gotta like and favourtie a Mirrormorph deck in the top 8.

17 Aug 2020 Krasty

What do you think about: -2 IPO, +2 RLC ? I must say, "terminals" sligthly doesn`t fit in MirrorMorph for me. And I think, deck has enough econ...

17 Aug 2020 Krasty

.. ok or another question: +2 RLC or +2 LatGrowth ?