[Startup] Endlessly Iterating (with writeup!)

This is my pet MirrorMorph that I've been iterating on since Ashes startup. I was planning to bring it to the Retromancer Startup CO but I decided not to partecipate so I'm publishing it for anyone to play freely.

I have mostly played it casually against random people on jinteki.net, so it may be a lot worse than I think it is since most of my games were against inexperieced players or misbuilt runner decks.

This is a relatively straightforward rush deck which aims to score 7 points as fast as possible using a combination of gearcheck ice and fast advance tools.

With the release of Midnight Sun there have been a lot of important additions to the Startup card pool concerning this deck, most notably Mavirus, Élivágar Bifurcation and Echo.

The agenda suite is exactly what anyone would expect from a deck like this, 3 Élivágar Bifurcation which are extremely easy to score and enable Archer very soon, all the 3/2s, Megaprix Qualifier, which is sometimes a 3/2, and finally the best defensive agenda in the game: Project Vacheron.

Project Vacheron is usually irrelevant when stolen past a certain amount of turns have passed since you can easily score out before the 4 turns cooldown and can even be scored if you're gearchecking hard enough or have a bunch of fast advance tools and a lot of money. You may want to consider including Big Deal to have an easier time scoring it, but I was not satisfied when I did so in my testing.

Fast Advance Tools

This deck plays a combination of fast advance tools that can each be helpful in different situations:

SanSan City Grid is excellent at punishing the runner for letting you lock R&D and a remote and can win you the game by itself if the runner cannot trash it, but it doesn't combo very well with your ID since the pattern to score with it is install-advance-advance which doesn't trigger MirrorMorph: Endless Iteration. It can be installed and used immediately to score an agenda with Red Level Clearance if you have enough credits. It is also a high priority trash target with a very high cost, which makes it a decent economic pressure tool.

Biotic Labor is your strongest fast-advance piece: untrashable, 4c to play and triggers the ID (Install-Advance-Operation-[MirrorMorph Click or credit]-advance-advance]. This makes it very good in situations where you can use the MirrorMorph click well, for example if you have a Nanoetching Matrix and a Tranquility Home Grid installed you can do the following: 1. Install your agenda in the same server as the Tranquility, gain 2. 2. Play Biotic Labor. 3. Advance the agenda. 4. [MirrorMorph Trigger] Click Nanoetching Matrix. 5. Advance. 6. Advance and score the agenda. This way you have scored a 3/2 from hand and recouped the entire cost of Biotic Labor.

The last fast advance tool I have included is Bass CH1R180G4, which is mostly there because it enables a score from hand if it it installed with Red Level Clearance and thanks to the MirrorMorph click it enables to score a Project Vitruvius with a counter on. The discovery of the exact actions needed to perform such a turn are left as an exercise to the reader. This one tool is not strictly necessary and can easily be traded for a third biotic.

Economy

Marilyn Campaign, Nanoetching Matrix, Hedge Fund and Tranquility Home Grid easily provide all the economy this deck needs to run, especially since MirrorMorph can net a lot of credits if the player is careful to trigger its ability as often as possible.

Marilyn Campaigns are very strong if the runner goes low on economy, usually if they don't get trashed when they're installed unrezzed they never get touched. The reshuffle effect is good to get out of an R&D lock, and probably shouldn't need to be used outside of that, since this deck really needs to draw agendas to go fast and you don't want to dilute R&D too much.

Nanoetching Matrix is a very strong tool to make money really quickly: you can install, click it and click for a credit to gain 4c in a turn from 0 (counting the Mirrormorph credit). If the runner goes to trash it you gain 2 more and since you're MirrorMorph 6c are enough to score an agenda with Biotic Labor. If the runner doesn't immediately trash it (which is usually wrong in my opinion) you can click it more and use it to trigger MirrorMorph more netting you a lot very quickly.

I think Hedge Fund doesn't need much of an explanation, just remember that install, credit, Hedge Fund makes you end your turn 1 at 11 credits.

Tranquility Home Grid is one of the strongest economy cards in HB, it gives you credits and cards for jamming stuff into a server (which you already want to do) and it's very costly to trash. Remember that SanSan City Grid and Tranquility Home Grid are both regions, so they can't live in the same server.

Ice

The ice in this deck are mostly there to force the runner to install breakers or other tools to pass them.

Echo is your run-of-the-mill ETR Barrier, nothing really interesting about it. The ability to gain multiple subroutines is basically always irrelevant since the deck doen't run other Harmonics and Cleaver is so prevalent. Its job is just to force the runner to install a barrier or let you score an agenda behind it if they're unable to.

Magnet is basically the same as Echo except for being a Code Gate and shutting down Botulus. It's a bit more taxing than Echo, so sometimes it is good to rez for that reason even if the runner has the correct breaker.

Drafter is the only ice in this deck that doesn't end the run. Its role is to stay on central servers and discourage the runner from running without a Killer, and then to make runs a bit taxing and slow them down once they find one. Very rarely you need this on a remote server, but apply your best judgement. Notably, if the runner faceplants into Drafter on their last click, you can install an agenda from hand to get a free fast advance that also goes around Clot.

Archer is your big boy ice that can win you the game by itself against careless runners or make your remote or R&D too taxing to get in in the late game. Usually you want to forfeit your 2/1 to rez it, but don't have fear of losing 2 points if the payoff is good enough, sometimes even just taxing the runner for a bunch of credits can get you enough tempo to score more points than you have forfeited. Also, scoring your second Élivágar Bifurcation usually doesnt do anything to put you closer to scoring out (you usually want to score a 2/1 and three 3/2s), but it can still be very good to do it to have a better forfeit target for Archer.

Other tools

Calvin B4L3Y is very good at breaking R&D locks and filling your hand with a lot of cards, hopefully agendas to score. Remember that you can score a 3/2 agenda with Biotic Labor after drawing with Calvin thanks to MirrorMorph.

NEXT Activation Command is your resident anti-boat tool, can be very good to score an agenda behind an ice when the only option the runner has to break is Endurance, Botulus or Boomerang. Be mindful of Inside Jobs out of Criminal.

Red Level Clearance is an easy option to trigger your identity and makes your non-Biotic fast advance tools slightly stronger. It can also be useful to break an R&D lock with the draw ability.

Mavirus is your anti-Clot tool, install it and keep it safe especially if you're against Shaper. Remember that you can use Mavirus to remove Clot and score an agenda in the same PAW before the runner can Simulchip it back if you already have the required advancement counters on the agenda in question.

Spin Doctor is often more useful as a draw card than a recursion tool here, since there aren't many cards you want back after having played them and you don't want to shuffle agendas back in R&D if you can score them.

Tools you might want to include

Big Deal is an option if you want to be able to score Project Vacheron, but it has a few drawbacks: 1. It is trashable. 2. It costs a lot, which means you don't usually want to use it unless it wins you the game. 3. You only have two targets in the deck for it. All of these make for an unreliable option in most situations.

Draw and filtering tools such as CSR Campaign, Daily Business Show, Sprint and Predictive Planogram can make the deck faster and should be considered if it feels too slow.

The third Biotic Labor and the third Tranquility Home Grid would be very cool slots to make space for (they are my first consideration if NEXT Activation Command proves underwhelming).