Master Mirror Theorycrafting

[DRK3]

So, in exactly one week we will all be busy playing and trying out the expansion that we probably wont bother coming here to discuss as much, so i decided to take this time to talk about a particular card...

At first i considered the possibility of making a thread so each one could speak about their favourite upcoming card, but then i realized that the card i want to talk about is complex enough that warrants a thread just for it:

Master Mirror, the new Gaunter card that gives the name to the expansion.
Neutral, 6pt, 10 provisions, Veil.
Deploy: transform the leftmost card in your hand into a random legendary FROM YOUR FACTION that is NOT IN YOUR STARTING DECK.
Repeat ability whenever you play the rightmost card from your hand.

I love this card, its perfect for meme decks, and i want to build a whole deck around it.
SK is my main faction and probably the best faction for this card, with discard. Also, it reminds me of the old Johnny/Sarah decks i ran in beta.

What makes this card awesome is that it transforms into a legendary, not just a gold. And by not allowing to copy legendaries in your starting deck, you can basically limit the cardpool of possibilities into something you want to get. Here's my plan:

Build the deck with the cheapest legendaries and the ones i dont want to get from Master Mirror. Also you need a deck with a lot of trash bronzes that you dont mind to transform into legendaries. That way i can probably increase the odds of getting Wild Boar of the Seas, Morkvarg HoT, Scenario, Crowmother, Cerys, Evolving card, Blood Eagle... so many amazing Legendaries. I will try to see how many Crowmothers i can get on a match, for sure.

I know this strategy is RNG heavy and wont be easy to pilot at all, but i was craving something like this, as it's probably really fun.
Unfortunately, i've also analyzed the cardpool and there seems to be no way to play Master Mirror on two different rounds with the exception of a Lippy deck.

I would like to know if other players, that prefer other factions, can also come up with plans for this card.

For example i can see NR using it, since they already have polarized deckbuilding with extremely expensive golds and cheap bronzes. Imagine running Falibor, Phillipa, Anseis, Radeyah, Bloody Baron, and still being able to get an (almost) free Draug, Viraxas or even Siege scenario!

 

[jed9653]

MO might be able to get double play through Caranthir. Would miss the initial deploy ability, but since the ability repeats by playing the rightmost card that's only one missed turn for effect.

Post automatically merged: Jun 23, 2020

I can see a meme deck with NG too. Letho: KS copying Master Mirror to double the repeat ability.

 

[DRK3]

MO might be able to get double play through Caranthir. Would miss the initial deploy ability, but since the ability repeats by playing the rightmost card that's only one missed turn for effect.

Post automatically merged: Jun 23, 2020

I can see a meme deck with NG too. Letho: KS copying Master Mirror to double the repeat ability.

I thought about using Caranthir but it doesnt work... well at least not on deploy, and you would have to pray for the 1pt Master Mirror to survive one turn. Also doesnt work with Caranthir Death's Shadow because that leader ability only allows to target MO units.

In NG doesnt work either, since when you use Letho KS it doesnt trigger any deploy abilities. You would have two Master Mirrors on board, doing the same thing (transforming the leftmost card), which isnt useful.
You also cant pick one up with tactical withdrawal since after Letho KS transforms into MM it becames a Neutral card and untargetable by that leader ability.

 

[jed9653]

I thought about using Caranthir but it doesnt work... well at least not on deploy, and you would have to pray for the 1pt Master Mirror to survive one turn. Also doesnt work with Caranthir Death's Shadow because that leader ability only allows to target MO units.

In NG doesnt work either, since when you use Letho KS it doesnt trigger any deploy abilities. You would have two Master Mirrors on board, doing the same thing (transforming the leftmost card), which isnt useful.
You also cant pick one up with tactical withdrawal since after Letho KS transforms into MM it becames a Neutral card and untargetable by that leader ability.

I knew you wouldn't get the initial deploy ability, just the repeat effect. 1pt Master Mirror would be the only reason to use the Carapace leader ability for the +3 and shield. Poor wording on my part about Letho. More so meant that he can duplicate Master Mirror should the first one be locked, but I forgot about tactical withdrawal.

 

[DRK3]

I knew you wouldn't get the initial deploy ability, just the repeat effect. 1pt Master Mirror would be the only reason to use the Carapace leader ability for the +3 and shield. Poor wording on my part about Letho. More so meant that he can duplicate Master Mirror should the first one be locked, but I forgot about tactical withdrawal.

When i read your carapace suggestion i thought it could work... but then i remembered it has veil, so it cant receive shield. I have to see the MO legendary cardpool but i dont think i would risk it on that faction.
And again, Veil, so at least Master Mirror cant be locked. and at 6 pts its safe from most removals except Parasite, Decoction and boosted Anseis.

 

[jed9653]

When i read your carapace suggestion i thought it could work... but then i remembered it has veil, so it cant receive shield. I have to see the MO legendary cardpool but i dont think i would risk it on that faction.
And again, Veil, so at least Master Mirror cant be locked. and at 6 pts its safe from most removals except Parasite, Decoction and boosted Anseis.

Crap! Forgot he had veil. *watches my dreams fly away*

Post automatically merged: Jun 23, 2020

Then the only other thing I see maybe would be a SY deck if you have gold to spare but nothing good enough to use it on and you hope fate changes a bronze to a beefy 9 tribute legendary.

 

[quintivarium]

I hope I am wrong. This card is very random, and very impactful. I fully expect that either good players will never play it (because it is unreliable), or will be forced to play it (because it is so powerful one can’t compete without it).

On the bright side, it poses some real challenges to deck building. If one tries too hard to reduce randomness by taking either cheap or undesired legenday cards, then one is forced to play with those cards when mirror is not in play. And if mirror is actually used, it will force players to actually think about how they play; the randomness won’t allow preset plays.

Unfortunately, I also fear it presents major balance issues. It benefits some factions far more than others. Some factions (NG, NR) have legendary cards that are almost always valuable at almost any time. Others (MO, SK) have several legendary cards that are weak or useless without set up, and, in some instances (Kambi, Artis, Hym, Keltullis, Weavess, Ritual Sacrifice, Crimson Curse, Tatterwing) counterproductive. Then, NG, by its usual means, will be able to play it twice. Lippy decks will likely also take on a new, scary dimension. I would be shocked if this card does not receive numerous rebalance attempts.

 

[DRK3]

I hope I am wrong. This card is very random, and very impactful. I fully expect that either good players will never play it (because it is unreliable), or will be forced to play it (because it is so powerful one can’t compete without it).

On the bright side, it poses some real challenges to deck building. If one tries too hard to reduce randomness by taking either cheap or undesired legenday cards, then one is forced to play with those cards when mirror is not in play. And if mirror is actually used, it will force players to actually think about how they play; the randomness won’t allow preset plays.

Unfortunately, I also fear it presents major balance issues. It benefits some factions far more than others. Some factions (NG, NR) have legendary cards that are almost always valuable at almost any time. Others (MO, SK) have several legendary cards that are weak or useless without set up, and, in some instances (Kambi, Artis, Hym, Keltullis, Weavess, Ritual Sacrifice, Crimson Curse, Tatterwing) counterproductive. Then, NG, by its usual means, will be able to play it twice. Lippy decks will likely also take on a new, scary dimension. I would be shocked if this card does not receive numerous rebalance attempts.

I am pretty sure this card will never be meta or part of a top tier deck. Those decks value consistency and ease to use more than point potential, and i can safely say Master Mirror is trickier to use than any card in the current cardpool.

It requires tremendous luck and RNG, because its not just about the cards you get are good or bad, its when you have to play them, since you cant just stock up on these legendaries.

So, lets imagine this: you need Master Mirror in hand, you need a bad card on the left to transform it. Then you have to play it if you want to repeat MM ability. Then you need a good card in the right side to reroll ability, then play the leftmost if you liked what you got, or rightmost if you want to reroll... Its a nightmare, unless you just plan to use effect once.
Also, you can control your rightmost card with discard (even with leader ability), but not the leftmost, your only solution is to play it until you get one you do want to transform, so basically your deck will have to consist of mostly cards that arent too good but that can be played anytime.

And you're right - after my initial post i checked SK Legendary pool more carefully and there really are a lot of unwanted ones, and will be tricky to put on deck just to avoid getting them.

NR however is pretty safe as their legendaries are all pretty much guaranteed value.
On NG i disagree, they have a lot of legendaries that can be countered or can brick.

 

[ReaperTek]

I would probably use him in a Pincer Manuver Deck* being able to place him behind a Defender in the same turn will probably be priceless (since you're able to transform unwanted Cards it's probably even worth it putting Mandrake for refreshing the Defender in the Deck) because you definitely don't want him getting removed quickly.

I think most people will try him with Lippy/Assire(if she doesn't get a 9 provision Limit for the Card she can put back into the Deck) with the intention to just transform the lowest provision Cards.

In Arena he will probably be one of the best Cards you can get, because usually you draw a lot of bad Cards that don't have much synergie.

Edit :
*Mystic Echo into Call of Harmony for the Defender will probably also be an option ST Golds aren't that bad either and with some harmony Cards and Poison it's probably easier winning the first round where you probably don't want to use Gaunter.

 

[omarlg]

It will be interesting in singleton decks due to their buildup nature where many bad 4p cards have to be included to "stabilize" the deck.

 

[DRK3]

I think this card will be pretty good if you just plan to use his effect once and dont really want to build your deck around it and just hope to highroll a good legendary. It costs 10prov, 6pt, veiled so its protected from poison or bleeding or locks, you have high chances of getting decent value if you just transform a 4p card into a legendary that will probably be 8p at least.

That is probably better value than you get from RNG memey cards as Uma's Curse, Aguara or Desert Treasure guys.

Also, i was thinking of playing this as opener in R1, but maybe its best to play R1 and R2 so you are left with several bad cards on left of hand, and several good ones on the right at the start of R3, that way you can probably get a new legendary every 2 turns if MM isnt countered.

 

[Bleach25]

Best placed to use this card are either a singleton Monster list or a Strategy Assimilate deck.

Monster has a lot of sacrificable units in the 4 provision slots, which can be used as pointslam if all else fails. Monster legendary pool offers some very powerful pointslam options (Yghern, Speartip) and many Deathwish golds, which is why commander ability should be Overwhelming Hunger (and part of the bronze pool should be Deathwish synergistic)

Assimilate only cares about getting those procs, doesn't matter whether they come from Diplomacy or a random Legendary from Gaunter. Moreover Nilfgaard offers some cards that can be very useful on they on (like Vilgefortz or Invocation)