Volt
01-12-2010, 06:32 PM
Around Wednesday of last week, Max (Frogboy) alerted me and Nick (Yawgmoth) that there was going to be a Legacy tournament at Mirkwood in Arlington, WA for a Beta Mox Emerald on Sunday. I've made the trip up to Mirkwood a number of times before, but it's about a 3.5 hour drive from Portland, so I don't generally do it unless I can find 2 or 3 other people to go with me. Fortunately, Nick was down, and he even managed to scare up 2 more people who wanted to go.
I have the cards to build just about any deck I want, but I had some trouble deciding which deck I wanted to play. I had been playing Zoo for a while, but felt like it just wasn't getting there as much anymore. I also didn't want to play any sort of CounterTop concoction, although that's pretty much always a solid option. I was kind of leaning towards playing Tempo Thresh, but Nick suggested I reassemble an old favorite: Aggro-Loam. In fact, I had been eying the list that Pat McGregor won the St. Louis SCG5k with. So, it was decided. I played McGregor's list (http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=30564), with one minor change to the sideboard: -1 Thorn of Amethyst, +1 firespout.
Come Sunday morning, the 4 of us piled into my car and hit the road. We got there right at noon, and about 40 minutes later were playing our first round match. There were 41 people. Here's the report:
Round 1 vs Ian w/Burn:
I didn't know what Ian was playing, but I won the die roll and opened with turn 1 Chalice for 1. On turn 2, I played a Terravore, which entered play as a 3/3. Ian had a 1-turn window to kill the Terravore, but he decided to try and race it instead. Terravore got there first.
Game 2, I mulled to 6, kept a so-so hand and lost.
Game 3, I mulled to 6 again, but found Zuran Orb, which says "lol burn" in the flavor text. Or it oughta.
1-0, 2-1
Round 2 vs Shane Berg w/Goblins:
Have you heard that Aggro-Loam smashes Goblins? Well, it does. Two quick wins, and then lots of sitting around waiting for the next match.
2-0, 4-1
Round 3 vs ??? w/Tempo Thresh:
My opponent opened with Tropical Island, Ponder. On my turn, I played land, Mox Diamond, Chalice for 1. It stuck. On turn 2, my opponent played a Volcanic Island and passed. I didn't know what he was playing when I sat down, but now I know it's Tempo Thresh. On my turn, I Wasted his Trop and cast Life from the Loam. Opponent scooped.
In game 2, he countered a couple of my early spells and got out double-goyf to put me on a very short clock. I was in a bad spot, but I lucksacked a Maelstrom Pulse and came back to win.
3-0, 6-1
Round 4 vs Michael w/Pro-Bant:
I had a very advantageous board position in game 1, but died to my own Bob before I could capitalize. Oh well.
Game 2, he came out of the gate quickly with hierarch, goyf, rhox war monk. It was looking grim until I ripped Seismic Assault. Onto game 3...
Most of game 3 basically involved my opponent trying to apply beats with exalted creatures, and me trying to kill them and keep him off 4 mana. Eventually, I killed all his critters and got out a Tarmogoyf and an 8/8 Terravore. The match ended up going to time, but I managed to kill him in the extra turns.
4-0, 8-2
Rounds 5 & 6: ID
Top 8 vs Kasey w/Countertop Depths:
I won game 1 largely on the strength of an early Wasteland to Kasey's Trop, which really put him behind.
Game 2 went on for a while, with me keeping a Wasteland ever-poised to nuke his Dark Depths in case he managed to find the pieces. Eventually, I simply drew more goyfs than he did and beat him down.
Top 4 vs Joey w/CounterTop Goyf control:
Joey was playing some homebrew list that Frogboy loaned him for 30% of the action.
Game 1 went on for quite a while because it took me a long time to find gas, despite getting the Loam engine going fairly early. Joey surprised me at one point when he cast Trinket Mage and fetched a Tormod's Crypt. It's pretty rare that I have to deal with graveyard hate in the first game. Fortunately, Crypts are only a minor speed bump for Aggro-Loam. It was touch and go, but I eventually stabilized at 2 life and turned the tide with a goyf and 2 Crushers. Seismic Assault also played a role at the end, although I didn't have Loam going at the time.
Game 2, I mulled to 6, kept a mediocre hand and got squashed by hate.
Game 3, I mulled to 6, once again kept a mediocre hand and almost got squashed. Joey assembled CounterTop and Relic in the first few turns. Meanwhile, I was stuck on 2 lands, and my turn 2 Chalice for 1 got countered. On turn 3, I cast Loam with no lands in the graveyard. On the next turn, I dredged, and failed to hit any lands. Crap. I cast Loam again, just to get it back into the graveyard. I didn't care about the Relic because I had another Loam in hand, and I didn't really have a choice anyway. During his turn, Joey played Trinket Mage, fetched a Pithing Needle and tapped out to play it, naming Forgotten Cave. That was a big mistake (Tapping out, that is. Not the naming). On my turn, I dredged and hit 3 lands! I cast Loam -blind Counterbalance whiffed- and boom, I'm back in business. Still behind, but back in business. From that point on, the gods punished Joey by putting lots of lands on top of his deck, allowing me to get a couple more Loams through. I was a bit frustrated by my inability to find black mana to cast the Bob and Maelstrom Pulse that were in my hand, but in the end it didn't matter. I found some gas, applied the beats, and moved into the Top 2.
Top 2 vs Colin McCune w/Tempo Thresh:
I felt pretty good about this matchup, but it was 9:30PM, and I was facing a 3.5 hour drive back to Portland. Colin and I agreed to draw/split, cashing out the mox and other cards for a total of $420.
Props:
- Pat McGregor for the terrific list.
- Nick (Yawgmoth) for keeping me level-headed during the tournament.
- Maelstrom Pulse for saving my ass 3 times during the day.
- Anton for stepping up and hosting monthly Legacy tournaments with Mox prizes.
- Mirkwood for being a generally awesome place to play cards, and for having a terrific vegetarian kitchen (I'm not a vegetarian, but their food is really good)
I have the cards to build just about any deck I want, but I had some trouble deciding which deck I wanted to play. I had been playing Zoo for a while, but felt like it just wasn't getting there as much anymore. I also didn't want to play any sort of CounterTop concoction, although that's pretty much always a solid option. I was kind of leaning towards playing Tempo Thresh, but Nick suggested I reassemble an old favorite: Aggro-Loam. In fact, I had been eying the list that Pat McGregor won the St. Louis SCG5k with. So, it was decided. I played McGregor's list (http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=30564), with one minor change to the sideboard: -1 Thorn of Amethyst, +1 firespout.
Come Sunday morning, the 4 of us piled into my car and hit the road. We got there right at noon, and about 40 minutes later were playing our first round match. There were 41 people. Here's the report:
Round 1 vs Ian w/Burn:
I didn't know what Ian was playing, but I won the die roll and opened with turn 1 Chalice for 1. On turn 2, I played a Terravore, which entered play as a 3/3. Ian had a 1-turn window to kill the Terravore, but he decided to try and race it instead. Terravore got there first.
Game 2, I mulled to 6, kept a so-so hand and lost.
Game 3, I mulled to 6 again, but found Zuran Orb, which says "lol burn" in the flavor text. Or it oughta.
1-0, 2-1
Round 2 vs Shane Berg w/Goblins:
Have you heard that Aggro-Loam smashes Goblins? Well, it does. Two quick wins, and then lots of sitting around waiting for the next match.
2-0, 4-1
Round 3 vs ??? w/Tempo Thresh:
My opponent opened with Tropical Island, Ponder. On my turn, I played land, Mox Diamond, Chalice for 1. It stuck. On turn 2, my opponent played a Volcanic Island and passed. I didn't know what he was playing when I sat down, but now I know it's Tempo Thresh. On my turn, I Wasted his Trop and cast Life from the Loam. Opponent scooped.
In game 2, he countered a couple of my early spells and got out double-goyf to put me on a very short clock. I was in a bad spot, but I lucksacked a Maelstrom Pulse and came back to win.
3-0, 6-1
Round 4 vs Michael w/Pro-Bant:
I had a very advantageous board position in game 1, but died to my own Bob before I could capitalize. Oh well.
Game 2, he came out of the gate quickly with hierarch, goyf, rhox war monk. It was looking grim until I ripped Seismic Assault. Onto game 3...
Most of game 3 basically involved my opponent trying to apply beats with exalted creatures, and me trying to kill them and keep him off 4 mana. Eventually, I killed all his critters and got out a Tarmogoyf and an 8/8 Terravore. The match ended up going to time, but I managed to kill him in the extra turns.
4-0, 8-2
Rounds 5 & 6: ID
Top 8 vs Kasey w/Countertop Depths:
I won game 1 largely on the strength of an early Wasteland to Kasey's Trop, which really put him behind.
Game 2 went on for a while, with me keeping a Wasteland ever-poised to nuke his Dark Depths in case he managed to find the pieces. Eventually, I simply drew more goyfs than he did and beat him down.
Top 4 vs Joey w/CounterTop Goyf control:
Joey was playing some homebrew list that Frogboy loaned him for 30% of the action.
Game 1 went on for quite a while because it took me a long time to find gas, despite getting the Loam engine going fairly early. Joey surprised me at one point when he cast Trinket Mage and fetched a Tormod's Crypt. It's pretty rare that I have to deal with graveyard hate in the first game. Fortunately, Crypts are only a minor speed bump for Aggro-Loam. It was touch and go, but I eventually stabilized at 2 life and turned the tide with a goyf and 2 Crushers. Seismic Assault also played a role at the end, although I didn't have Loam going at the time.
Game 2, I mulled to 6, kept a mediocre hand and got squashed by hate.
Game 3, I mulled to 6, once again kept a mediocre hand and almost got squashed. Joey assembled CounterTop and Relic in the first few turns. Meanwhile, I was stuck on 2 lands, and my turn 2 Chalice for 1 got countered. On turn 3, I cast Loam with no lands in the graveyard. On the next turn, I dredged, and failed to hit any lands. Crap. I cast Loam again, just to get it back into the graveyard. I didn't care about the Relic because I had another Loam in hand, and I didn't really have a choice anyway. During his turn, Joey played Trinket Mage, fetched a Pithing Needle and tapped out to play it, naming Forgotten Cave. That was a big mistake (Tapping out, that is. Not the naming). On my turn, I dredged and hit 3 lands! I cast Loam -blind Counterbalance whiffed- and boom, I'm back in business. Still behind, but back in business. From that point on, the gods punished Joey by putting lots of lands on top of his deck, allowing me to get a couple more Loams through. I was a bit frustrated by my inability to find black mana to cast the Bob and Maelstrom Pulse that were in my hand, but in the end it didn't matter. I found some gas, applied the beats, and moved into the Top 2.
Top 2 vs Colin McCune w/Tempo Thresh:
I felt pretty good about this matchup, but it was 9:30PM, and I was facing a 3.5 hour drive back to Portland. Colin and I agreed to draw/split, cashing out the mox and other cards for a total of $420.
Props:
- Pat McGregor for the terrific list.
- Nick (Yawgmoth) for keeping me level-headed during the tournament.
- Maelstrom Pulse for saving my ass 3 times during the day.
- Anton for stepping up and hosting monthly Legacy tournaments with Mox prizes.
- Mirkwood for being a generally awesome place to play cards, and for having a terrific vegetarian kitchen (I'm not a vegetarian, but their food is really good)