Mighty Morphin' Mirror (3-3 at Worlds '24)

It's Morphin' Time

I've always been a big MirrorMorph player, and going into my first worlds I wanted to pay something I was comfortable. Typically I avoid bringing the 'Morph to tournaments as it can be a slower deck that can often hit time, but strongoose posted a great list that got to second at Scottish Regionals and I knew I could improve the list to get that sweet extra MirrorMorph click more reliably.

But maybe you're not a Mighty Morpher? Well, lemme give you some fun combos MirrorMorph can do:

• If you start your turn with 2 counters on MCA, you can score a 5/3 from hand! 1) Click MCA 2) Pop MCA, gain 4 clicks 3) Install Agenda MirrorMorph) Advance Agenda 4-8) Place 4 more advancements on agenda and score!

• If you start your turn with a single advanced 5/3 on the table, Restore in Hand, and The Holo Man in archives, you can score with a click to spare! 1) Restore Holo Man into the agenda server 2) Advance Agenda 3) Use Holo Man 4) Install a fresh card in the remote! Ideally a 2 pointer!

• If you start with a Bass CH1R180G4 in archives and a 2/3 in hand you can score that 2/3 from hand. 1) Restore Bass 2) Pop Bass, gain 2 clicks 3) Install Agenda MirrorMorph) Advance 4-5) Advance Agenda and Score!

• If you start with a Bass CH1R180G4, Greasing the Palm, and a 2/3 in hand you can score that 2/3 from hand. 1) Greasing Bass 2) Pop Bass, gain 2 clicks 3) Install Agenda MirrorMorph) Advance 4-5) Advance Agenda and Score!

• If you have Subliminal, you can use it to do the same thing twice in one turn! 1) Subliminal, 2-3) Unique Actions MirrorMorph) Last Unique Action 4) Do anything, even something you already did!

My record for clicks is clicking then popping MCA, scoring a Luminal, Restoring MCA and clicking it, and having 3 spare clicks while leaving the Runner with only two next turn. That's a total of eleven clicks! It's certainly no Wage Workers, but also we don't play MirrorMorph to win everything, we play it because we're having a blast!

Deckbuilding

The first thing I noticed is that, while Your Digital Life is a lot of money, it really makes it awkward to get the extra click. This is because you need to install or play an operation to get cards out of your hand, and as a result strong YDLs often come with a lack of your extra click as you scramble to dump cards, or a lot of discards. I replaced it with 2x Hansei, which is more consistent in it's output, and allows for our already agressive card draw that results in discards to be converted to cash. Even if you're not full up on cards, very often there's something in your hand you simply don't need that is better off as 5 credits. As an added bonus, it also saves two influence!

The other card I replaced YDL with is an extra copy of Charlotte, which is nice because getting one early is huge for our tempo. Adding in the second Charlotte, along with removing the YDLs, means that Calvin B4L3Y is a bit excessive, as often you can click one draw as MirrorMorph and still get an extra click. With Charlotte, Rashida, and even Subliminal, I often find my hand full either way.

Similarly, Regolith is best when repeatedly clicked and one turn, and that breaks our efficiency as well. I replaced it with a one of Nanoetching, which people are often very hesitant to trash. If you find yourself playing against this, trash it - if you don't, MirrorMorph can Click credit, Click Nanoetching, Click Anything else, and MirrorMorph Click Credit - gaining 4 credits from 0 if necessary. It's very strong against disruption decks like 419 and Esa.

Additionally, MirrorMorph really values operations that install cards. My deck runs two Restore still (which is BONKERS as you might imagine) and I went up to two Greasing the Palms. I think there's an argument to find room for one extra of either card - they're both very strong, and I often want to spend my recursion to bring back these cards as they enable some powerful turns. To do this, I dropped Sprint and Active Policing. Sprint is strong, but less so without YDL - but ultimately as a deck with tons of cheeky 'fast' advance I rarely want to shuffle cards away and would rather flood in most board states so MCA remains a threat even after a steal from HQ. Active Policing also installs a card, but isn't as tempo positive and I wanted more consistent cash so I could threaten MCA and Holoman consistently.

Speaking of, I replaced Audacity with The Holo Man and Mavirus! The latter is nice against virus decks (it's a crushing last access in my game on stream), and the former is a great way to suprise score out a single advanced 3 pointer in the remote. Audacity is strong, as you can score a 2 pointer from hand with zero credits (Click Install, Click Credit, Click Advance, MirrorMorph Click: Audacity), but you often lose in this deck if you don't score a 3 pointer and it's much nicer to have options outside of MCA Austerity to score those out. The Holo Man also benefits from the protection of Warroid, and combos well with Restore, so trashing it can be hard, and if it does, it might not even matter.

Lastly, I wanted to shift around the ice a bit. Firstly, I wanted more ice. MCA Austerity Policy is our key win condition, and it often requires two ice OR one ice and at least one Warroid Track on the remote while also defending centrals. That's because a good player will simply sweep HQ or lock R&D if you leave it unprotected which can make it hard to find the agenda even if your MCA Austerity is ready to go!

At first I added a third Bran, and while it's strong, it's a lot of expensive ice. Eventually I replaced that third Bran with an Eli 1.0 - partially to play the alt I have, which I love, but also as it's often taxing enough at half the cost to deter constant runs.

The next sore spot was the second Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper is a very strong card, but unfortunately MirrorMorph often leaves the Runner with less clicks, which means the Gatekeeper doesn't stay at high strength for very long. This means that rezzing one early can be a huge liability as you constantly push in a remote behind this newly zero strength ice. Additionally, I had two influence to spare on something a bit spicier. At first I tried Mestnichestvo, which classically is easy for MirrorMorph to keep advanced, but I found it can be awkward to keep it advanced while there's a Charlotte on the table that you also wan to keep advanced. It might be right still, but I noticed that Afshar did a similar thing, didn't require the advance, was the same influence, and also was just mean into Unity early game - and value Shaper is by far and away the worst matchup.

Lastly I wanted one more sentry that was a bit more taxing than Drafter. I ended up with Ansel, which I think is...fine. It's hard to click through it, but once we hit the late game the rez-to-trash cost isn't that great. Still, it does well on any server and makes it a bit harder for Runners to face check early as we force out more breakers.

I think this deck's slots are very tight. So tight, I cut a Rashida - which is probably wrong, but it's more fun. Some other fun cards to consider:

• I love Reversed Accounts in MirrorMorph. It's less click intesive as popping it is 'free', and it can create painful positions for the Runner. It's hard in this faster meta, but a staple in many of my slower MirrorMorph decks. Also, you can do some silly things with The Holo Man if you really want.

• I think in the modern meta, a second Manegarm might be better than the Ansel.

• Bran 1.0 is better than Eli 1.0, so swapping it in is a valid call for consistency - in which case the third Bran can always just be dumped to Hansei Review in a pinch.

• Mavirus was okay, but honestly could be cut if you want. MirrorMorph really doesn't like purging with 3 clicks as it can kill it's tempo, but the extra influence might be worth the drop.

• Getting in a third of either Greasing the Palm or Restore would be very nice, as it also opens up more Fast Advance windows.

• If you want to be a normie, you can replace Nanoetching with the third Rashida, but I genuinely think Rashida is less valuable late game than a Nanoetching is, as money often turns into Fast Advance with this deck and it's a very good way to get quick money when you're low on cash that the Runner has to either trash or let keep ticking.

Tenets

Alright, well how do you play this deck? There are a few key tenents:

1. Every turn, try to get MirrorMorph value (even if it's just a credit). If you can't, try to triple install, as that will make future turns easier to trigger.

   • Plan out your turns! Without this, #1 can be hard to achieve.

   • Draw Click 1 is very often correct - especially if you have 5 or less cards in hand after your mandatory. The more cards in hand, the more options you have and the faster you go.

   • If you're low on credits, remember you can click for a credit and still gain a credit as your MirrorMorph action! This means you can gain 2 credits and still take two other actions! Ideally you never click for credits three times in one turn as a result.

   • Operations that install are best used only when you have two seperate things to install - save them for those turns if possible!

   • Subliminal is very strong. The money is less valuable than converting a 'unique' click to a non-unique one. This means Subliminal will let you do one action twice (so long as that duplicated action is the last click you take)

2. This is a jammy deck, you will want an end the run ice on the remote as soon as possible. A lot of your tempo comes from Rashida, Charlotte, and MCA - and the Runner will trash all of them.

3. MCA is love, MCA is life. Taking a Runner click away is very nice, and it doubles as a scoring threat. Be careful to have something protecting HQ and R&D while you click it or they might just snipe the agendas you hope to score.

4. Scoring a Vitruvious with counters is often game winning, as many of your fast advance threats can now be reused.

5. Lastly, your ideal scoring plan is to sneak out a 2/3 at some point, use MCA or Holo Man to get a 5/3, and fast advance the last 2/3. You do have the tools to fast advance both 2 pointers if necessary, but it requires some luck.

6. Remember that there are no paid abilities between the third click and the 4th action of MirrorMorph! This means you cannot install MCA click 3, then click it for your MirrorMorph action as you have no window to rez it! This can be annoying, and in casual play you can usually just re-order your turn to fix it, but at a tournament it's critical to not slip there. The nice upside is that the Runner has the same issue - they have to wait until after your MirrorMorph action to do anything, or preemptively do it at the end of click two.

Results

So how did I do? Fantastic. Below I attempt to recount all my Corp games. (My runner was just 419, nothing special.)

Round 1

A win against @eli_b playing Seb.

I don't remember too much about this game unfortuantely. At some point I trashed Bankhar to prevent easy facechecks, and I recall the Runner starting to run dry on cards. We got close to time, and in the end I recall using a Bass to sneak out the last two points.

Round 4

A win against @c0ldlava playing Freedom on stream!

This deck can play glacially if it needs to, and as soon as I saw Aumakua I swapped over to that kind of playstyle. I iced up as quickly as I could and built up money while I waited for fast advance. I found an MCA, dumped my Charlotte for it, and got it ticking. C0ldlava responded by trashing my Afshar on HQ, but with my large credit pool I simply Restore'd an ice back on HQ to cover it back up. C0ldlava understandably decided to wait for the Hermes, and so instead of scoring a 5/3 in hand I scored a Luminal and used it to re-install some ice, cover up archives, and then purge. After this, my biggest goal is to score one of the 3-pointers in my turn, and the remote is looking pretty nice until I'm suddenly cornered by the Stargate. I have to dump my MIC to keep the Stargate off, and I immediately start drawing up and re-icing R&D, trying to keep the Aumakua and Stargate down. When they land the Stargate next, I'm very pleased to see Drafter, Restore, Holoman - any two of which I'll be happy to have next turn with my click one draw. C0ldlava trashes the Drafter, but now I have a win condition in the Holo Man. I install it in the remote to threaten the 5/3 score next turn, but I'm fine if they find a way in to trash it as I can just restore it. They trash it, and I restore it into a minor misplay as I've forgetten to advance the agenda the turn before, but ultimately it's fine as I score it out the next turn. At this point I'm up 5 points to zero, and all I need to do is find a 2 pointer and get enough cash to restore a Bass or Holo Man into a win. My hand is starting to flood though, I've got a Send a Message in Archives and an Ikawah in hand, and no ice on HQ. I'm lucky enough that I have a Spin on the table, and the Ikawah is hit on last click, but it's getting tense. Click one I install an Ikawah in the remote out of panic, then draw into a Vitruvious and immediately over install the Ikawah with it as the 3 pointers are protected with the Spin. At this point, I know even if Spin is trashed the Hagen on it will keep me safe, so C0ldlava makes the correct play and dumps the Holo Man, and over the next few turns I gain the credits I need to score out on the last turn!

At this point I'm 4-0 and the curse begins.

Round 6

A loss aginast @iherdn3rfz playing Ken.

Again, my memory isn't the greatest, but from what I recall I started this game off okay, but iherdn3rfz got an early Twinning going and with the amount of eco their run events got them I couldn't quite tax them out. They played really well, but unfortunately I think their deck was just really well positioned with Swift and Twinning to just keep my stuff trashed and continually check centrals despite my ice.

Round 7

A loss against @hams playing Esa.

This was a wild game. I kept an early hand with Subliminal messaging because it can really cut into the sabotage that Esa can do (don't play it in this matchup, just sabotage it). Still, I got unlucky with a sabotage on R&D and it sent an Ikawah to the bin. hams checked it last click thankfully, but the next 4 or 5 turns were us just scrambling to fight for it. I rezzed an MIC one turn, popped it the next after they Botulus'd it to keep them from scoring it. Thankfully I managed to keep them out, but it burned a lot of my tempo. Thankfully, I eventually Spin Doctor'd it away. hams was very good at keeping me from getting the Subliminal, which hurt, but I eventually stabalized. Over time we both got to game point with an agenda in the remote behind a Bran with one click left on my turn. I opted to install an Ablative from hand seeing they had no breakers in front of the Bran, which ultimately lost me the game as I had a Vitruvious coutner and could've grabbed a Gatekeeper. They installed the Beghemot with 6 core damage and I took a loss.

Round 9

A loss against @mystermerry playing Lat

I've been down to the Portland meta before, and I have to say, I love playing against mystermerry - they've always got great vibes and a positive attitude. Unfortunately, I flooded hard early, and while I had the Spins to duck them, this meant I was too slow to stop the inevitable Lat eco machine from crushing all my stuff. I don't recall scoring any points in this game, it was brutal - well played though!

At this point, I'm replaying my Cascadia run - I was on a hot winning streak early, only to tumble and only win one of the next 6 games. I'm 5-5, and I need one game to win.

Round 11

A win against @Zerothmaxima playing Kit

This game was a great example of what this deck can do. Classically, Kit destroys slower glacier play once she has her Lobi-Orca rig. A typical slow MirrorMorph would get eaten alive. Thankfully, I have enough fast advance to have a chance. I push for an early Vitruvious (potentially with a counter, I forget) behind double barriers while they're getting setup for the key first two points. I drop an MCA in the remote with a Warroid and in response they swing with their Lobi and Cataloguer over to hit R&D. Thankfully, I've already got 5 points in hand, which means there's only 3 3 pointers and 1 two pointer in there I'm worried about. They rearrange the cards, I click the MCA a second time and install a third barrier on the remote with a second drafter over R&D. On their next turn, they run back with their newly installed Orca, grab the agenda on top (Luminal I think), and sit back not knowing the MCA combo. I score a 5/3 from hand next turn and catch them off guard. They continue Cataloguer runs to lock R&D, but I already have a restore in hand and a Bass in the bin and it's game next turn.

This brought me to 65th in total, which I'm pretty happy with! Now all I need to do is figure out how to stop dropping games after early win streaks!

Thanks

I want to thank @cablooshe for forming the testing group Janktinho with me, the other members (@smitty, @Runaway, and @AbyssStaresBack) who helped ideate on the deck, the Seattle gang at large for keeping a meta going when the Bellevue one died, @Radiant and @Whiteblade who held that first Cascadia at my old local scene which encouraged me to try playing in tournaments for the first time, @Myriad and @Brainchilsahoy for being my CoS Team and generally being rad people, and the Mirror, which I often reflect upon.