Hypermantle Kit III (EMEA 2024)

Coming to EMEA 2024

When EMEA Bergamo was first announced, I was excited about European Worlds that I missed and wanted to come to a big event like it. I wasn't sure how EMEA Bergamo was going to unfold and decided to not go and wait for 2025 Worlds, presumably in Europe.

When I heard that the ticket was almost sold out for 110 people, I thought it would be the experience I was looking for, and started getting hyped about it. At first I thought I might come alone and wasn't sure about getting all the logistics and accommodation solved, but I got a lot of help and support from organizer Atien, fellow players, and Tratt who decided to come with me.

Hypermantle Kit

Lobi is made for Kit. If someone came and said "I made this for you", and you are like "Thanks, but I don't want it; I am gonna ride off my cheetah into the sunset..." --Council

Hypermantle is the nickname I gave to the combo between Hyperbaric, Mantle, and The Twinning. Hyperbaric's boost ability can be used at any time, and I can fuel it for free with Mantle. Combined with The Twinning, I can charge up my multi-access at a rapid pace while preparing for high strength ices. (You can leave Mantle credit for use during opponent's turn)

With 3 Mantles in the deck, the sentry breaker of choice is Afterimage. Afterimage is a great icebreaker for decks that can use it. The bypass ability can dodge Stavrun combo, Hydra, Archer, and it can break Drafter, Ansel, and Hammer per mantle very efficiently. (Turbine or Takobi also combos with Afterimage, but I find this unnecessary)

Barrier breaker of choice should be either Gauss or Pressure Spike, depending on what kind of ice is expected. (For EMEA2024, I think Gauss would have been more useful than the heavy Pressure Spike.) Against Ob and BTL, Quetzal: Free Spirit lends great help breaking Sandstone and Tree Line

Setup

Early game, I look for Aniccam, Hyperbaric, and Rigging Up to efficiently set up breakers and pressure single iced servers. Into the Depths is very useful here and it is best used as a tutor to find Mantle or other Breakers. Self-modifying Code tutoring is not desirable when Into the Depths alone can do the job, but it is the best option to find Paricia in asset matchups.

Full rig

A full rig of boosted Hyperbaric, Afterimage with stealth support, and Pressure Spike can handle most type of servers efficiently with help of free credits and multi accesses generated by Mantles. DJ Fenris is also very flexible adapting to matchups (usually Quetzal and Loup, sometimes Steve and Los) However, most games did not go long enough to see full breakers laid out like this.

T400 Memory Diamond is there to provide MU for third mantle or Pelangi addon to deal with stacked sentries or high strength barriers. If no punitive decks are expected, or if you are on Stoneships, reverting back to DZMZ Optimizer is also a good economic choice, making installing Mantles very easy.

Flexible slots

There is zero free influence in Hypermantle Kit, so all flex slots come from in-faction. I consider the single Burner and Simulchip as flexible. I used to run with Burner and second Telework Contract. This tournament, I thought 1x Burner was important to disrupt FA decks, and then I was torn between Simulchip and Overclock: Since I had no idea what the meta looks like and I was afraid of rigshooting decks, I included Simulchip to retrieve one-off breakers. Otherwise Overclock is a great run event overall. Other cards in consideration were second Telework, second Burner, and Because I Can. I did not see any rig shooters this event so Simulchip was not very useful.

Flexible choices summary

• Burner: Hand based disruption
• Because I Can: Install based disruption, R&D shuffling.
• Telework Contract: Slow economy
• Overclock: Versatile run economy, used to be 2x-3x before Trick Shot
• Simulchip: Recursion, renew Gauss/Pelangi/Mantle
• Gauss vs. Pressure Spike: Ease of install vs. efficiency against big barriers
• Cyberdelia vs. DZMZ vs. T400: Economy vs. damage resistance
• Nuka vs. Stoneship: Efficiency vs. damage resistance
• Pelangi vs. Takobi: Versatility vs. Reliability

Weaknesses

This deck is weak against ZATO City Grid's rig shooting and other on-corp-turn rigshooting/denying options, such as Trojan Horse or SDS Drone Deployment, and Self-Growth Program, Amani Senai. That said, losing a breaker is not an immediate loss thanks to other tools available in the deck (Redundant Hyperbaric, Kit ability, Pelangi, Quetzal)

It is also somewhat weak against assets, because it cannot run Miss Bones and burst trashing will cost a lot. However, it can get some help with René “Loup” Arcemont: Party Animal and Paricia in some matchups where burst trash is less important.

It can survive punitive with T400 Memory Diamond or Aniccam, but cannot deal with 8 damage combos seen in some NBN and Ob matches. I did not consider stoneship still because the deck already has some damage resistance, but it might be a good idea to use Stoneship Chart Room, replacing some of Dr. Nuka Vrolyck if massive damage kills become popular.

Finally, corp can play around Kit's ability by stacking ice and not exposing easy run event targets. This doesn't always happen because corp needs to be able to draw the right amount/type of ice at the right time, but if they do, it can slow down Kit's game plan.

Practicing matchups

As a newer player, I do not have a lot of experience with various decks. I have two sparring partners in the local meta, which is not enough to cover various flavor of decks Netrunner can bring. As such, I have limited matchup knowledge with this deck (and almost none in other decks)

I have most practice against JackMade's Ob list, normal PD and Asa, punitive Ag/RH and Banana Breath. In some matchups, I can build my rig slowly and pressure up gradually, in others I need to look for anti-asset or disruption card aggressively and solve the game that way. Burner or Because I Can can fill in this niche, improving these matchups.

Even though the deck is limited with 10 influences only with limited flex, I find it very fun discovering my winning lines against very hard matchups!

Reactions

A lot of people assumed I was running Spark Kit when seeing my ID. After seeing the first breakers come out, my opponents often made reminiscence about Smoke, the stealth breakers, and Study Guide. James was very happy to see Afterimage and Mantle+Hyperbaric, Kikai talked fondly of the interaction between Trick Shot and Hyperbaric, and Tuno once was surprised to see how fast it can build up multi-access with Mantle. Its unfortunate that I didn't get to show the strong side of the deck in the top cut; in round 2 and 3, Tuno and Kikai's decks have such a demanding game plan and my deck could not fly.

In an alternative universe where I am a more competitive player with serious investment in matchup testing, I think it could have shone more than it did in the event.

Results

This deck got 7 matches. It won 3 games (Sportsmetal, Asa, Issuaq), lost 3 games (2x Ob, Azmari) and drew 1 (Asa).

I met many friendly Netrunner players, and it was a great experience. Many thanks for people who gave me advice, and cheered me for a chance for getting into intercontinentals. The fact that I got into top cut was amazing, let alone queen of Swiss! Maybe next time, I might have some more experience with a testing group, I can try it one more time :)