Finn
04-01-2010, 08:17 AM
So Legacy has finally come to Florida. It hardly seems possible. The wife gives me the OK only if I promise to win money.
Saturday:
I attended 5k Orlando with some old friends. The Legacy event was Sunday, and we arrived Saturday night while Standard was still going on. In addition to selling hundreds of old cards to SCG, I entered a Legacy side event. I used the only deck I came with. The only one I could imagine playing. Of course it was Death and Taxes! What? Did you think I would be playing Merfolk?
Here's the version I took.
4 Mother of Runes
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Jotun Grunt
4 Serra Avenger
4 Flickerwisp
3 Mangara of Corondor
4 Aether Vial
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Karakas
3 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
11 Plains
sb
2 Orim's Chant
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Runed Halo
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Relic of Progenitus
4 Enlightened Tutor
3 Wing Shards
1 Jotun Grunt
There were some cards in here that I was a bit dissatisfied with. This is what you deal with in a monocolored deck, however. I have tried this deck in countless variations in most color schemes. But I always come back to monowhite for good reason. You don't lose to land problems and you force others to. So I accept this limitation. Anyway, Oblivion Ring and Burrenton Forge-Tender were not to my complete satisfaction. Oblivion Ring has been weak ever since the advent of Qasali Pridemage, as well as sucking against Pernicious Deed. Forge-Tender is a card that could be discussed for pages, so let's just say it was the least bad choice for the meta I expected. And I went with Wing Shards for Progenitus/Reanimator defense with the hope that it would also come in against Zoo and Goblins. But I hate the casting cost. Here's the side event report for starters.
Rd 1: vs. Travis w/monoblue Merfolk
Travis is my oldest friend. I have even written about him in my column at Salvation. And I have immense respect for him as a player. But he is literally playing my Merfolk deck. I assembled it in its entirety. It is in the OP of the Merfolk thread. This is amongst my best matchups.
g1 He goes first, gets a vial, and Dazes mine. Very bad start. It just gets worse as I just can't seem to get anything going. He runs over my easily.
g2 Vial gets Forced, but I get an early Mother of Runes. He gets Lord of Atlantis and lands Standstill. Uhh, ok. We played draw-go until our libraries were almost depleted, but he drew first. My lands kept his Mutas in check. My backup plan was with the 3 Jotun Grunts in my hand. His was more interesting. He finally played Aether Vial to break the Standstill. At first I was overjoyed. He must be desperate! But, uhh. That was not the case at all. I played one of the Grunts expecting Echoing Truth. Sure enough, he has it and plays another Standstill. That was when I figured out his plan. He broke it without passing priority. I looked through his gy to find that he had 1 more Standstill somewhere. He had 7 cards in his library and 2 left in hand. I did not know how many Truths he might be holding. The answer - zero. On my turn, he Forced my Grunt, pitching Force! He forgot that he had about 17 lands in play to hard cast them. At any rate, I had three of them, but that was game. I landed my second and third Grunt and he scooped.
g3 Went like these games usually do. Merfolk did what it does when I get an Avenger with Sword of Fire and Ice. Nothing.
Rd 2: vs. Daivion w/Deadguy Ale
g1 We trade cards for a bit, but I eventually get a Mother of Runes while he has no pressure. Then I land a Mystic off my Vial, fetching Sword of Light and Shadow. When I go to equip the Sword to my Mystic, he plays STP. I give it pro-white. He plays Smother (I think it was Smother). I vial in Flickerwisp to save Mystic and get a shiny Umezawa's Jitte at my eot for my troubles. That was more than enough.
g2, He Wastes my turn 1 Karakas, and I play the other on turn 2. He plays Wasteland and passes! I play Port and Port his Wasteland on his upkeep. God I love Rishadan Port. He thinks about Wasting something and decides to let it happen. He draws and passes again. I play Wasteland, take out his, and get down a Mystic-> Sword. He draws several lands in a row and plows my Mystic, but I keep him tapped down to one with two Ports. And I land Mangara somewhere in there. After taking out a land with Mangara, I equip him with the pro-black, pro-white Sword and that is that.
Rd 3 vs. Rock - split the box
Fine. Bad matchup. Very bad.
Sunday:
I woke up and replaced most of my dedicated ANT hate with the more versatile sb you see. I have 2 bad common matchups. ANT and Zoo. I gambled that ANT would be uncommon at the 5k with all the Standard players from the day before unwilling to put effort into learning the deck for Sunday. And I included the 4th Grunt to help me out against Zoo.
Jittery as hell, my teeth are literally chattering as I draw my opening 7 rd 1. I have not played in a sanctioned event since the Urza's Legacy prerelease and I feel very intimidated with my semi-rogue pile. I felt a bit better when I looked down the table to see a deck of about 400 cards. I felt even more at ease when someone said his opponent was playing Solidarity. Doh!
Rd 1 vs. [forgot his name] w/U-Lands
I should be fine if I can get some hate going, even game 1 can be fine if my deck likes me today.
g1 My deck does not like me apparently. I scoop at about turn 4 having only played Vial and some Wastelands and Ports. He has the nuts and I want him to put me on Goblins. Not the start I was hoping for.
I side in the relevant hate in place of Forge-Tenders and some other stuff.
g2 I mull. At 6 I still have no hate, but the hand is otherwise salvageable, so I keep it and hope for the best. On turn 3 I topdeck Wheel of Sun and Moon, and I have the mana to cast it. Hell yes!
But...
He plays Engineered Explosives for 2 on his turn. I look in my hand and see my friend Flickerwisp, yes! But he still has two mana open. No! He wipes on my end of turn. damn...He quickly goes into action landing Maze of Ith, Academy Ruins, Chasm, and some mana. Aside from the asskicking I am about to receive I am not doing terrible. I get a Serra down. A few turns go by with him defended by Chasm. He can recur Explosives to end me at any time. And then I notice something peculiar about his mana. He has not seen a fetchland yet, so I get a crazy idea. I play my Flickerwisp, taking out Mox Diamond and I Waste his only Tropical Island. He is now down to only green mana. He has something like Port, Academy Ruins, Forest, and a green cycle land in play for mana. His Glacial Chasm had been hindering his mana development. He dredges, no fetchlands, Loams for the Trop and Chasm, plays them both, and passes. I topdeck Mangara. Play him. pass. He sees my Port and decides not to get Explosives. At 20 life, he pays life for Chasm and dredges. Nothing. Cycles. Plays Zuran Orb. Passes. I do not have Karakas, but I target Chasm with Mangara just waiting to lose. He sacs it and Mangara remains in play. I get 3 damage in. Play another Avenger. Where the hell is my hate? He dredges again, and gets his fetchland this time, but he still has to get Explosives. Replays Chasm. Plays another Maze. On my turn I again target it with Mangara and he again sacs it. Another Flickerwisp removes a Maze. I tap the other one and I get 9 more in. He's at 8 or something, but he has Zuran Orb and Exploration. I draw and play another Port. He dredges, looks at his hand and scoops. Hah!
g3 I get Wheel of Sun and Moon in my opening grip and 2 Plains. I play it on turn 2 and it sticks around. I get some guys. He gets Tabernacle, but I can pay it. He gets Maze, but I can tap it. I win eventually.
1-0 (2-1)
Rd 2 vs. Josh w/Aluren
Josh is a big fella. All his lands are Unlimited, some signed. His Tarmos are foil. His Recruiters are Chinese. He must defacate $50 bills.
g1 He gets some walls of Roots out and I play some insignificant little guys. He is not even blocking my attacks. He casts Aluren and kills me.
I side in uhh, some stuff that might do something somehow. Maybe.
g2 I play a land and go. He goes. I eot Enlightened Tutor for Ethersworn Canonist. Thank you for being an artifact! On my turn, I play it, but I can't attack. He had a Tarmo out. At any rate, I am in good shape as I have Mother of Runes x2 and Vial set to 3 with Flickerwisp backup. Then he goes eot Krosan Grip. Damn you for being an artifact! On his turn, he plays Aluren and it is over. BTW, he had a Mesmeric Fiend with my Swords to Plowshares under it. I could have Flickered the fiend to get my Swords to Plowshares at any time. I am sure that was the better play than the useless garbage I actually did with it. Oh, and I think the wincon in that deck is an artifact creature anyway. So Canonist was about as much protection as everything else I had - very little. Where's the bar at these events anyway?
1-1 (2-3)
Rd 3 vs. [forgot his name] w/Tempo Thresh
He shuffles like a pro and I am sure that means bad things for me. I can barely get the cards to all face the same direction.
g1 He goes first. I get turn 1 Mother of Runes. On his turn 2 he Fires it and I know his deck. This is a really good matchup, and I already tied up his first two turns with one dude. I get another Mom. He bolts her on his turn and drops out a Tarmo. He hits me twice before I have 2 counters and I barf out a Grunt at his eot. I hit him several times before he divests himself of it killing the Vial in there somewhere. I play a Flickerwisp. He plays another Tarmo. I attack and play another Flickerwisp, crowding the field a bit, and targeting my first Flickerwisp. When it comes back at my eot (untapped), I remove a Tarmo for his turn. Handy Flickerwisp use #137. Then I get Mangara online with Karakas. He Stifles Karakas after the second use (both Tarmos). He plays a Vendilion Clique eot and hopes I will reveal my hand. But I wait for him to declare the target - himself. That was a neat trick I would not have thought of. He attacks me and declares that he will "give me every opportunity to lose". I don't know what he means, but he seems to hold me in low regard. No block. I play a Burrenton Forge-Tender. By now one of the Wisps are gone, and I am low on life, so on his next attack I use Karakas on Clique. He pauses and reads Karakas. Heh - Standard players. He has 6 lands. This is important. For the next few turns I attack with BFT bringing him low on life as well and unsummoning Clique when he attacks back. He uses it on my hand - all lands. Then himself the next time and Brainstorms. He is losing and unwilling to tap his lands on his own turn. In desperation he plays a Nimble Mongoose. But now, with him at 6 lands and 4 life, I can send his Clique back to his hand at eot and again before he can block. And he can only recast it once. I had left him with no red mana so I win.
Wing Shards and Grunt come in for Oblivion Rings and Sword of Light and Shadow.
g2 He goes first again, and again I get turn 1 Mom. He Dazes. Turn 2 he plays Mongoose. I play Grunt. He Forces. He attacks for 1. I play Aether Vial and Waste his green. Attack for 1 again. He gets a fetchland and plays Tarmogoyf. I do nothing, opting to play uncounterable threats off the Vial. At some point I have a Grunt in play and he has 4/5 Tarmo and 1/1 Mongoose. We are both attacking. He sends his attack and tips his hand by attaining threshold before declare blockers step. I Vial in Serra and foolishly block the Mongoose - with a Grunt on the table. Idiot. The Grunt shrinks the Goyf and dies, but I get a Flickerwisp and a Burrenton Forge-Tender. He gets another Tarmo and they are growing again. I get Jitte! He brings me to 3 life, but he can't block the Wisp. I attack with Flickerwisp, get counters to stay alive, equip to the BFT, then back again for the next attack. In this way I am able to hold 1, 2, 3 Tarmos off while I pick away his life until he scoops. Frankly, I think it was a premature scoop. He had gotten flustered and complains that he is tired of facing rogue decks. I smile inside. Welcome to Legacy!
2-1 (4-3)
Rd 4 vs. Jimmy w/Zoo
I had seen him facing Lands in rd 2, so I knew he had Zoo. That's the problem with facing Lands or anything designed by Jack Elgin. Everyone else gets to see your deck. Well, here's how it went.
g1 I lose the roll, and he starts with Nacatl. On my turn I play a Vial. He gets the other land and bashes me. Plays Tarmogoyf. Hrmph. I get a counter, play Mother of Runes holding BFT in hand to counter his bolt. But it doesn't come. Instead he plays a Pridemage on two lands and attacks again. I suck it down and Oblivion Ring the only safe target in his deck - Pridemage. In comes the Forge-Tender and I get to 2 counters. Another attack. I Vial in Serra Avenger. He Helixes it. I sac BFT to protect it. He says OK, so I give it pro-green with Mom and he again says OK. Beautiful. On my turn, I draw and cast Mystic fetching Sword of Light and Shadow. This is exactly how I thought I needed this match to go - equip a protected guy. He does nothing. On my turn draw a land, cast my Sword, equip Mystic, and go to town. He soon takes my Sword out with another Pridemage, though. Then I lose my Mom when he fires off tow Bolts at her. Fine with me, but I am down to a Serra Avenger only. We are both in topdeck mode. He plays Runed Halo naming Serra Avenger. wtf? Naturally I topdeck another Serra Avenger just then. He gets a land. I get Oblivion Ring. Justice! But...freakin' Zoo. He Helixes one and Paths the other on successive turns. Then I topdeck Mangara and I have a Vial at three and Karakas already in play. In a few turns my opponent has no creatures. I have Mother of Runes and Mangara both online, and he concedes. Not in the script, but I will take it.
Wing Shards come in for Mangara. Grunt replaces a Flickerwisp.
g2 Turn one he casts a Lavamancer. I do not have STP. Crap. I play a Vial. He attacks for one and casts Tarmo. I get a counter and use Wasteland or something. He casts Pridemage and attacks witth Tarmo. Up to two Counters on Vial now. Pass. He attacks with his Tarmo and Pridemage into my empty field. He has 2 mana open. I Vial in Serra Avenger. "Before you block", Jimmy says..."Path to Exile." It resolves, and I happily get my land. Then I play Wing Shards. Boom!
But he gets ahead again with big 2 Tarmos. A Grunt took them down for awhile, but he hit it with Path or it ran out of food or something, and I had sent the Lavamancer farming. But now I have a Mystic with a Sword of Light and Shadow and a Jitte to block with. He has one card in hand. He Grips the Jitte and attacks. Wing Shards again! He let out an audible sigh. I won shortly after that with the equipped Mystic.
3-1 (6-3)
Rd 5 vs. Joseph w/mono-red Goblins
Joseph and Jimmy are friends and I should mention that they are both very cool cats. As soon as he sees Karakas, he asks if I just played Jimmy, but I say nothing for the moment.
g1 I open with Vial. He has a Lackey. I have the Plow, and he follows with Piledriver. I Vial in Mother of Runes. I also got a BFT early. Then an Avenger. In this way, I am able to hold him off until I get a Sword of Fire and Ice on the Avenger and pound him. He Matroned for the Tinkerer, but I was keeping him off of hasty stuff, so I killed it with the Sword.
Mangara out for Wing Shards again.
g2 I have a slow start. He does not. His Goblin Guide has been pounding me from turn 1. I am holding a bunch of stuff that costs three, and I have three lands. But only one makes white mana, so I am in trouble. Joseph did a good job of keeping the heat on, but I actually might have been able to pull it out.Then on his biggest attack, at 6 life, I make a math error and allow 6 damage to get through. Freakin', numbers. Who can keep 'em straight? There are just so many of them. Dumbass.
g3 This was not close. My stuff was just working and his was not. I think his deck was diluted a bit with ineffective Goblins to some extent. Not sure. But he used three Ringleaders and I was still ahead the entire time.
4-1 (8-4)
Jeez, I'm not doing half bad here. Bloody Aluren, though. I hope that guy loses...his cards. No I don't. But I hope he loses. I don't wanna see that deck again.
Rd 6 vs. Justin w/Dredge
Justin looks like he is about 17.
g1 He opens with Careful Study. I figure out his deck when I see the Stinkweed Imp he discards. Considering Aether Vial, I instead cast Burrenton Forge-Tender. As I had hoped, he thinks nothing of it. Justin dredges up his 5 and gets 2 Bridges, another dredger, and a Narcomoeba. With the 'moeba ability on the stack, I sacrifice BFT - just in case he has a red spell. He reads the card. Both Bridges just happen to go away. He passes. My turn play Aether Vial and Wasteland his Underground Sea. He dredges (nothing special), attacks, and passes. My turn, I add a counter, Plow the Narcomoeba, and pass. He dredges again, sees an Ichorid, Cabal Therapy, Dread Return, another Narcomoeba, and passes. I topdeck Jotun Grunt just as I get my second counter. He brings in Ichorid, dredges, and attacks with both. I Vial in the Grunt and block Ichy. Then I begin to pick apart his graveyard. He stops dredging to let the Grunt kill itself, but at three counters, I Flickerwisp Jotun Grunt out after he attacks. Those two finish him off.
Side in relevant hate.
g2 We both mulligan. He opens with - something. But at the end of his second turn I Enlightened Tutor for Wheel of Sun and Moon. I cast it on my turn and begin to land some creatures. Soon after I tutor up the Relic. From then on he made powerful plays like hardcast Narcomoeba and attack with it and a Putrid Imp. Wheel earned its permanent place in my sb right there.
5-1 (10-4)
OK. I am just here for fun. Winning is fun though. To hear Forbiddian talk about it, I should have gone 0-2 drop and burned the deck. But in my only big tournament with it ever, I am vying for top 8.
Rd 7 vs. Lewis w/Bant
We discuss the possibility of ID-ing. He is ranked 5 and I am 7. But it's a no-go. There are too many people with 15 points. The guys around us were discussing it too, and it felt pretty good to be sitting there in the midst of it.
g1 This was amongst the funnest games I have ever played. He opened with Aether Vial. Both had Stoneforge Mystic. Very similar strategies. We traded attacks and equipment for a long time. I Vialed in a Mystic to fetch Jitte. He hardcast Jitte to kill mine. Then he got another with a Mystic. At his eot I vialed in Grunt, and put my only Jitte under my library on upkeep. He equipped his Tarmogoyf and attacked. I Vialed in another Mystic to get the Jitte back and dropped it in play with the first one. His Tarmo still hit me for 2. Then I Vialed in Flickerwisp targeting a Mystic. When he came back I got Sword of Light and Shadow. He did a good job of keeping me from using it. He got another Tarmo in play, and I was on the defensive again. He drew his last equipment, Sword of Fire and Ice. But I got Mangara with Vial at three and Karakas in play. Lewis looked at it for a moment and immediately aimed Plow at it when I yielded priority. I used Karakas and he looked very surprised. He attacked with both, I chump blocked the equipped Mystic, and Vialed in Mangara at his eot. I drew land or something. He attacked again. I blocked the Tarmo and removed the Sword from the game. I took 1 damage from the Mystic holding it. And that was it. Mangara took down the next few threats he landed while I landed a Serra and took him down.
One more game against this easy matchup and I am in! I side out the BFTs for Wing Shards and Grunt comes in for Sword of Fire and Ice.
g2 I kept a 1-land hand for some reason. I had two Aether Vials, and I did not see any counterspells from him in that long first game. It seemed reasonable at the time. I thought about it for awhile before agreeing to it though. Lewis said he noticed this. He plays first. Ponder. Then I go land, Vial. Daze. Damn. He goes again, playing Mystic -> Jitte. I draw. Cast Vial. Force pitching Force ... ... I die not long after, having resolved nothing.
g3 I have a much stronger hand. Two lands and a Vial. Plenty of good creatures and Wing Shards. I go first. Vial. Resolves. He draws. Casts Pithing Needle naming Vial. It was his only one. I draw, naturally enough, another Vial. I play another land and the Vial. That was the last thing I resolved. I drew no more lands. I played a few spells, but he had counters and Spellstutters. Where did they come from? I die with 2 Wing Shards, Mangara, and 2 Oblivion Rings in hand - and two lands. So my fairy tale ended abruptly. Remember that crap I said about not having mana problems in just one color. I lied. Ain't life a bitch?
5-2 (11-6)
I gave my information for my prize. We loaded up the truck. And I drove three hours home, anxious to see my kids. Perhaps someday I will be taking them to these events. I hope so.
BTW, Lewis was a really cool kid. I wanted him to win it all.
No proper props and slops here. Just some notes.
The SCG 5k was an excellent event. The 5 of us who went (all over 35 with responsibilities and such) agreed that if it comes back to Orlando, we will definitely go again. The venue was a good choice. Jared Silva did a professional job. The judges were friendly and knowledgeable. Even my opponents seemed to be decent people.
To my own surprise I see no evidence whatsoever to convince me that Death and Taxes is weak. Looking at the top 8, I am pretty sure I had as good a chance as any of those guys at winning it all if I did not have mana problems in both games 2 and 3 against Lewis. It was a crappy way to end. That said, the field at these 5k events, piggybacked as they are with Standard, creates a skewed metagame that this deck loves. I was right to expect a lack of ANT. I only saw a few. But there were lots of Zoo and Merfolk - easy to pilot decks that these guys can just throw together. It makes sense. I wonder how things would have been different in a more Legacy-centric environment.
I hope you enjoyed the report.
Saturday:
I attended 5k Orlando with some old friends. The Legacy event was Sunday, and we arrived Saturday night while Standard was still going on. In addition to selling hundreds of old cards to SCG, I entered a Legacy side event. I used the only deck I came with. The only one I could imagine playing. Of course it was Death and Taxes! What? Did you think I would be playing Merfolk?
Here's the version I took.
4 Mother of Runes
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Jotun Grunt
4 Serra Avenger
4 Flickerwisp
3 Mangara of Corondor
4 Aether Vial
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Karakas
3 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
11 Plains
sb
2 Orim's Chant
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Runed Halo
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Relic of Progenitus
4 Enlightened Tutor
3 Wing Shards
1 Jotun Grunt
There were some cards in here that I was a bit dissatisfied with. This is what you deal with in a monocolored deck, however. I have tried this deck in countless variations in most color schemes. But I always come back to monowhite for good reason. You don't lose to land problems and you force others to. So I accept this limitation. Anyway, Oblivion Ring and Burrenton Forge-Tender were not to my complete satisfaction. Oblivion Ring has been weak ever since the advent of Qasali Pridemage, as well as sucking against Pernicious Deed. Forge-Tender is a card that could be discussed for pages, so let's just say it was the least bad choice for the meta I expected. And I went with Wing Shards for Progenitus/Reanimator defense with the hope that it would also come in against Zoo and Goblins. But I hate the casting cost. Here's the side event report for starters.
Rd 1: vs. Travis w/monoblue Merfolk
Travis is my oldest friend. I have even written about him in my column at Salvation. And I have immense respect for him as a player. But he is literally playing my Merfolk deck. I assembled it in its entirety. It is in the OP of the Merfolk thread. This is amongst my best matchups.
g1 He goes first, gets a vial, and Dazes mine. Very bad start. It just gets worse as I just can't seem to get anything going. He runs over my easily.
g2 Vial gets Forced, but I get an early Mother of Runes. He gets Lord of Atlantis and lands Standstill. Uhh, ok. We played draw-go until our libraries were almost depleted, but he drew first. My lands kept his Mutas in check. My backup plan was with the 3 Jotun Grunts in my hand. His was more interesting. He finally played Aether Vial to break the Standstill. At first I was overjoyed. He must be desperate! But, uhh. That was not the case at all. I played one of the Grunts expecting Echoing Truth. Sure enough, he has it and plays another Standstill. That was when I figured out his plan. He broke it without passing priority. I looked through his gy to find that he had 1 more Standstill somewhere. He had 7 cards in his library and 2 left in hand. I did not know how many Truths he might be holding. The answer - zero. On my turn, he Forced my Grunt, pitching Force! He forgot that he had about 17 lands in play to hard cast them. At any rate, I had three of them, but that was game. I landed my second and third Grunt and he scooped.
g3 Went like these games usually do. Merfolk did what it does when I get an Avenger with Sword of Fire and Ice. Nothing.
Rd 2: vs. Daivion w/Deadguy Ale
g1 We trade cards for a bit, but I eventually get a Mother of Runes while he has no pressure. Then I land a Mystic off my Vial, fetching Sword of Light and Shadow. When I go to equip the Sword to my Mystic, he plays STP. I give it pro-white. He plays Smother (I think it was Smother). I vial in Flickerwisp to save Mystic and get a shiny Umezawa's Jitte at my eot for my troubles. That was more than enough.
g2, He Wastes my turn 1 Karakas, and I play the other on turn 2. He plays Wasteland and passes! I play Port and Port his Wasteland on his upkeep. God I love Rishadan Port. He thinks about Wasting something and decides to let it happen. He draws and passes again. I play Wasteland, take out his, and get down a Mystic-> Sword. He draws several lands in a row and plows my Mystic, but I keep him tapped down to one with two Ports. And I land Mangara somewhere in there. After taking out a land with Mangara, I equip him with the pro-black, pro-white Sword and that is that.
Rd 3 vs. Rock - split the box
Fine. Bad matchup. Very bad.
Sunday:
I woke up and replaced most of my dedicated ANT hate with the more versatile sb you see. I have 2 bad common matchups. ANT and Zoo. I gambled that ANT would be uncommon at the 5k with all the Standard players from the day before unwilling to put effort into learning the deck for Sunday. And I included the 4th Grunt to help me out against Zoo.
Jittery as hell, my teeth are literally chattering as I draw my opening 7 rd 1. I have not played in a sanctioned event since the Urza's Legacy prerelease and I feel very intimidated with my semi-rogue pile. I felt a bit better when I looked down the table to see a deck of about 400 cards. I felt even more at ease when someone said his opponent was playing Solidarity. Doh!
Rd 1 vs. [forgot his name] w/U-Lands
I should be fine if I can get some hate going, even game 1 can be fine if my deck likes me today.
g1 My deck does not like me apparently. I scoop at about turn 4 having only played Vial and some Wastelands and Ports. He has the nuts and I want him to put me on Goblins. Not the start I was hoping for.
I side in the relevant hate in place of Forge-Tenders and some other stuff.
g2 I mull. At 6 I still have no hate, but the hand is otherwise salvageable, so I keep it and hope for the best. On turn 3 I topdeck Wheel of Sun and Moon, and I have the mana to cast it. Hell yes!
But...
He plays Engineered Explosives for 2 on his turn. I look in my hand and see my friend Flickerwisp, yes! But he still has two mana open. No! He wipes on my end of turn. damn...He quickly goes into action landing Maze of Ith, Academy Ruins, Chasm, and some mana. Aside from the asskicking I am about to receive I am not doing terrible. I get a Serra down. A few turns go by with him defended by Chasm. He can recur Explosives to end me at any time. And then I notice something peculiar about his mana. He has not seen a fetchland yet, so I get a crazy idea. I play my Flickerwisp, taking out Mox Diamond and I Waste his only Tropical Island. He is now down to only green mana. He has something like Port, Academy Ruins, Forest, and a green cycle land in play for mana. His Glacial Chasm had been hindering his mana development. He dredges, no fetchlands, Loams for the Trop and Chasm, plays them both, and passes. I topdeck Mangara. Play him. pass. He sees my Port and decides not to get Explosives. At 20 life, he pays life for Chasm and dredges. Nothing. Cycles. Plays Zuran Orb. Passes. I do not have Karakas, but I target Chasm with Mangara just waiting to lose. He sacs it and Mangara remains in play. I get 3 damage in. Play another Avenger. Where the hell is my hate? He dredges again, and gets his fetchland this time, but he still has to get Explosives. Replays Chasm. Plays another Maze. On my turn I again target it with Mangara and he again sacs it. Another Flickerwisp removes a Maze. I tap the other one and I get 9 more in. He's at 8 or something, but he has Zuran Orb and Exploration. I draw and play another Port. He dredges, looks at his hand and scoops. Hah!
g3 I get Wheel of Sun and Moon in my opening grip and 2 Plains. I play it on turn 2 and it sticks around. I get some guys. He gets Tabernacle, but I can pay it. He gets Maze, but I can tap it. I win eventually.
1-0 (2-1)
Rd 2 vs. Josh w/Aluren
Josh is a big fella. All his lands are Unlimited, some signed. His Tarmos are foil. His Recruiters are Chinese. He must defacate $50 bills.
g1 He gets some walls of Roots out and I play some insignificant little guys. He is not even blocking my attacks. He casts Aluren and kills me.
I side in uhh, some stuff that might do something somehow. Maybe.
g2 I play a land and go. He goes. I eot Enlightened Tutor for Ethersworn Canonist. Thank you for being an artifact! On my turn, I play it, but I can't attack. He had a Tarmo out. At any rate, I am in good shape as I have Mother of Runes x2 and Vial set to 3 with Flickerwisp backup. Then he goes eot Krosan Grip. Damn you for being an artifact! On his turn, he plays Aluren and it is over. BTW, he had a Mesmeric Fiend with my Swords to Plowshares under it. I could have Flickered the fiend to get my Swords to Plowshares at any time. I am sure that was the better play than the useless garbage I actually did with it. Oh, and I think the wincon in that deck is an artifact creature anyway. So Canonist was about as much protection as everything else I had - very little. Where's the bar at these events anyway?
1-1 (2-3)
Rd 3 vs. [forgot his name] w/Tempo Thresh
He shuffles like a pro and I am sure that means bad things for me. I can barely get the cards to all face the same direction.
g1 He goes first. I get turn 1 Mother of Runes. On his turn 2 he Fires it and I know his deck. This is a really good matchup, and I already tied up his first two turns with one dude. I get another Mom. He bolts her on his turn and drops out a Tarmo. He hits me twice before I have 2 counters and I barf out a Grunt at his eot. I hit him several times before he divests himself of it killing the Vial in there somewhere. I play a Flickerwisp. He plays another Tarmo. I attack and play another Flickerwisp, crowding the field a bit, and targeting my first Flickerwisp. When it comes back at my eot (untapped), I remove a Tarmo for his turn. Handy Flickerwisp use #137. Then I get Mangara online with Karakas. He Stifles Karakas after the second use (both Tarmos). He plays a Vendilion Clique eot and hopes I will reveal my hand. But I wait for him to declare the target - himself. That was a neat trick I would not have thought of. He attacks me and declares that he will "give me every opportunity to lose". I don't know what he means, but he seems to hold me in low regard. No block. I play a Burrenton Forge-Tender. By now one of the Wisps are gone, and I am low on life, so on his next attack I use Karakas on Clique. He pauses and reads Karakas. Heh - Standard players. He has 6 lands. This is important. For the next few turns I attack with BFT bringing him low on life as well and unsummoning Clique when he attacks back. He uses it on my hand - all lands. Then himself the next time and Brainstorms. He is losing and unwilling to tap his lands on his own turn. In desperation he plays a Nimble Mongoose. But now, with him at 6 lands and 4 life, I can send his Clique back to his hand at eot and again before he can block. And he can only recast it once. I had left him with no red mana so I win.
Wing Shards and Grunt come in for Oblivion Rings and Sword of Light and Shadow.
g2 He goes first again, and again I get turn 1 Mom. He Dazes. Turn 2 he plays Mongoose. I play Grunt. He Forces. He attacks for 1. I play Aether Vial and Waste his green. Attack for 1 again. He gets a fetchland and plays Tarmogoyf. I do nothing, opting to play uncounterable threats off the Vial. At some point I have a Grunt in play and he has 4/5 Tarmo and 1/1 Mongoose. We are both attacking. He sends his attack and tips his hand by attaining threshold before declare blockers step. I Vial in Serra and foolishly block the Mongoose - with a Grunt on the table. Idiot. The Grunt shrinks the Goyf and dies, but I get a Flickerwisp and a Burrenton Forge-Tender. He gets another Tarmo and they are growing again. I get Jitte! He brings me to 3 life, but he can't block the Wisp. I attack with Flickerwisp, get counters to stay alive, equip to the BFT, then back again for the next attack. In this way I am able to hold 1, 2, 3 Tarmos off while I pick away his life until he scoops. Frankly, I think it was a premature scoop. He had gotten flustered and complains that he is tired of facing rogue decks. I smile inside. Welcome to Legacy!
2-1 (4-3)
Rd 4 vs. Jimmy w/Zoo
I had seen him facing Lands in rd 2, so I knew he had Zoo. That's the problem with facing Lands or anything designed by Jack Elgin. Everyone else gets to see your deck. Well, here's how it went.
g1 I lose the roll, and he starts with Nacatl. On my turn I play a Vial. He gets the other land and bashes me. Plays Tarmogoyf. Hrmph. I get a counter, play Mother of Runes holding BFT in hand to counter his bolt. But it doesn't come. Instead he plays a Pridemage on two lands and attacks again. I suck it down and Oblivion Ring the only safe target in his deck - Pridemage. In comes the Forge-Tender and I get to 2 counters. Another attack. I Vial in Serra Avenger. He Helixes it. I sac BFT to protect it. He says OK, so I give it pro-green with Mom and he again says OK. Beautiful. On my turn, I draw and cast Mystic fetching Sword of Light and Shadow. This is exactly how I thought I needed this match to go - equip a protected guy. He does nothing. On my turn draw a land, cast my Sword, equip Mystic, and go to town. He soon takes my Sword out with another Pridemage, though. Then I lose my Mom when he fires off tow Bolts at her. Fine with me, but I am down to a Serra Avenger only. We are both in topdeck mode. He plays Runed Halo naming Serra Avenger. wtf? Naturally I topdeck another Serra Avenger just then. He gets a land. I get Oblivion Ring. Justice! But...freakin' Zoo. He Helixes one and Paths the other on successive turns. Then I topdeck Mangara and I have a Vial at three and Karakas already in play. In a few turns my opponent has no creatures. I have Mother of Runes and Mangara both online, and he concedes. Not in the script, but I will take it.
Wing Shards come in for Mangara. Grunt replaces a Flickerwisp.
g2 Turn one he casts a Lavamancer. I do not have STP. Crap. I play a Vial. He attacks for one and casts Tarmo. I get a counter and use Wasteland or something. He casts Pridemage and attacks witth Tarmo. Up to two Counters on Vial now. Pass. He attacks with his Tarmo and Pridemage into my empty field. He has 2 mana open. I Vial in Serra Avenger. "Before you block", Jimmy says..."Path to Exile." It resolves, and I happily get my land. Then I play Wing Shards. Boom!
But he gets ahead again with big 2 Tarmos. A Grunt took them down for awhile, but he hit it with Path or it ran out of food or something, and I had sent the Lavamancer farming. But now I have a Mystic with a Sword of Light and Shadow and a Jitte to block with. He has one card in hand. He Grips the Jitte and attacks. Wing Shards again! He let out an audible sigh. I won shortly after that with the equipped Mystic.
3-1 (6-3)
Rd 5 vs. Joseph w/mono-red Goblins
Joseph and Jimmy are friends and I should mention that they are both very cool cats. As soon as he sees Karakas, he asks if I just played Jimmy, but I say nothing for the moment.
g1 I open with Vial. He has a Lackey. I have the Plow, and he follows with Piledriver. I Vial in Mother of Runes. I also got a BFT early. Then an Avenger. In this way, I am able to hold him off until I get a Sword of Fire and Ice on the Avenger and pound him. He Matroned for the Tinkerer, but I was keeping him off of hasty stuff, so I killed it with the Sword.
Mangara out for Wing Shards again.
g2 I have a slow start. He does not. His Goblin Guide has been pounding me from turn 1. I am holding a bunch of stuff that costs three, and I have three lands. But only one makes white mana, so I am in trouble. Joseph did a good job of keeping the heat on, but I actually might have been able to pull it out.Then on his biggest attack, at 6 life, I make a math error and allow 6 damage to get through. Freakin', numbers. Who can keep 'em straight? There are just so many of them. Dumbass.
g3 This was not close. My stuff was just working and his was not. I think his deck was diluted a bit with ineffective Goblins to some extent. Not sure. But he used three Ringleaders and I was still ahead the entire time.
4-1 (8-4)
Jeez, I'm not doing half bad here. Bloody Aluren, though. I hope that guy loses...his cards. No I don't. But I hope he loses. I don't wanna see that deck again.
Rd 6 vs. Justin w/Dredge
Justin looks like he is about 17.
g1 He opens with Careful Study. I figure out his deck when I see the Stinkweed Imp he discards. Considering Aether Vial, I instead cast Burrenton Forge-Tender. As I had hoped, he thinks nothing of it. Justin dredges up his 5 and gets 2 Bridges, another dredger, and a Narcomoeba. With the 'moeba ability on the stack, I sacrifice BFT - just in case he has a red spell. He reads the card. Both Bridges just happen to go away. He passes. My turn play Aether Vial and Wasteland his Underground Sea. He dredges (nothing special), attacks, and passes. My turn, I add a counter, Plow the Narcomoeba, and pass. He dredges again, sees an Ichorid, Cabal Therapy, Dread Return, another Narcomoeba, and passes. I topdeck Jotun Grunt just as I get my second counter. He brings in Ichorid, dredges, and attacks with both. I Vial in the Grunt and block Ichy. Then I begin to pick apart his graveyard. He stops dredging to let the Grunt kill itself, but at three counters, I Flickerwisp Jotun Grunt out after he attacks. Those two finish him off.
Side in relevant hate.
g2 We both mulligan. He opens with - something. But at the end of his second turn I Enlightened Tutor for Wheel of Sun and Moon. I cast it on my turn and begin to land some creatures. Soon after I tutor up the Relic. From then on he made powerful plays like hardcast Narcomoeba and attack with it and a Putrid Imp. Wheel earned its permanent place in my sb right there.
5-1 (10-4)
OK. I am just here for fun. Winning is fun though. To hear Forbiddian talk about it, I should have gone 0-2 drop and burned the deck. But in my only big tournament with it ever, I am vying for top 8.
Rd 7 vs. Lewis w/Bant
We discuss the possibility of ID-ing. He is ranked 5 and I am 7. But it's a no-go. There are too many people with 15 points. The guys around us were discussing it too, and it felt pretty good to be sitting there in the midst of it.
g1 This was amongst the funnest games I have ever played. He opened with Aether Vial. Both had Stoneforge Mystic. Very similar strategies. We traded attacks and equipment for a long time. I Vialed in a Mystic to fetch Jitte. He hardcast Jitte to kill mine. Then he got another with a Mystic. At his eot I vialed in Grunt, and put my only Jitte under my library on upkeep. He equipped his Tarmogoyf and attacked. I Vialed in another Mystic to get the Jitte back and dropped it in play with the first one. His Tarmo still hit me for 2. Then I Vialed in Flickerwisp targeting a Mystic. When he came back I got Sword of Light and Shadow. He did a good job of keeping me from using it. He got another Tarmo in play, and I was on the defensive again. He drew his last equipment, Sword of Fire and Ice. But I got Mangara with Vial at three and Karakas in play. Lewis looked at it for a moment and immediately aimed Plow at it when I yielded priority. I used Karakas and he looked very surprised. He attacked with both, I chump blocked the equipped Mystic, and Vialed in Mangara at his eot. I drew land or something. He attacked again. I blocked the Tarmo and removed the Sword from the game. I took 1 damage from the Mystic holding it. And that was it. Mangara took down the next few threats he landed while I landed a Serra and took him down.
One more game against this easy matchup and I am in! I side out the BFTs for Wing Shards and Grunt comes in for Sword of Fire and Ice.
g2 I kept a 1-land hand for some reason. I had two Aether Vials, and I did not see any counterspells from him in that long first game. It seemed reasonable at the time. I thought about it for awhile before agreeing to it though. Lewis said he noticed this. He plays first. Ponder. Then I go land, Vial. Daze. Damn. He goes again, playing Mystic -> Jitte. I draw. Cast Vial. Force pitching Force ... ... I die not long after, having resolved nothing.
g3 I have a much stronger hand. Two lands and a Vial. Plenty of good creatures and Wing Shards. I go first. Vial. Resolves. He draws. Casts Pithing Needle naming Vial. It was his only one. I draw, naturally enough, another Vial. I play another land and the Vial. That was the last thing I resolved. I drew no more lands. I played a few spells, but he had counters and Spellstutters. Where did they come from? I die with 2 Wing Shards, Mangara, and 2 Oblivion Rings in hand - and two lands. So my fairy tale ended abruptly. Remember that crap I said about not having mana problems in just one color. I lied. Ain't life a bitch?
5-2 (11-6)
I gave my information for my prize. We loaded up the truck. And I drove three hours home, anxious to see my kids. Perhaps someday I will be taking them to these events. I hope so.
BTW, Lewis was a really cool kid. I wanted him to win it all.
No proper props and slops here. Just some notes.
The SCG 5k was an excellent event. The 5 of us who went (all over 35 with responsibilities and such) agreed that if it comes back to Orlando, we will definitely go again. The venue was a good choice. Jared Silva did a professional job. The judges were friendly and knowledgeable. Even my opponents seemed to be decent people.
To my own surprise I see no evidence whatsoever to convince me that Death and Taxes is weak. Looking at the top 8, I am pretty sure I had as good a chance as any of those guys at winning it all if I did not have mana problems in both games 2 and 3 against Lewis. It was a crappy way to end. That said, the field at these 5k events, piggybacked as they are with Standard, creates a skewed metagame that this deck loves. I was right to expect a lack of ANT. I only saw a few. But there were lots of Zoo and Merfolk - easy to pilot decks that these guys can just throw together. It makes sense. I wonder how things would have been different in a more Legacy-centric environment.
I hope you enjoyed the report.