Benjammn
07-26-2010, 02:51 PM
Story Time
We begin way back in last November, when I decided to build Hypergenesis in Extended. I had just started playing Magic seriously when Zendikar was released and I wanted to build a decently cheap deck that was good that I personally liked and Hypergenesis fit the bill. Unfortunately, I didn't have a car up at my college until May, so I was never able to go anywhere with the deck during the last Extended season, but it was done and I was glad...
...until one night in June. Yeah, you know what happened, Wizards decided to shit on me. That was the first time I actually considered quitting Magic, but that feeling didn't last. So I was up a creek with a dead deck I had built and spent money on ....or was I?
Two articles nearly back-to-back on Channel Fireball (http://strategy.channelfireball.com/featured-articles/sweeping-ice-and-other-important-topics-emrakul-and-the-gang/) and Star City (http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/19708_One_Step_Ahead_Perfect_Jund_and_Legacy_Brews.html) proved that a Hypergenesis list might stand a chance in the current metagame, so I decided to take a shot with it. This would be my first true Legacy event (i.e. more than 20 people), and TBH I just felt comfortable playing Hypergenesis.
The List
// Lands
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Forest
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Tendo Ice Bridge
1 Volcanic Island
2 Tinder Farm
1 Tropical Island
2 City of Brass
// Creatures
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Progenitus
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Empyrial Archangel
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
2 Terastodon
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
// Spells
2 Hypergenesis
4 Ardent Plea
4 Violent Outburst
4 Force of Will
4 Show and Tell
1 Misdirection
// Sideboard
3 Firespout
2 Ricochet Trap
3 Form of the Dragon
3 Krosan Grip
4 Leyline of the Void
Card Choices
Tinder Farm over City of Traitors: Colored mana is a premium for casting Ardent Plea and Violent Outburst (to a lesser extent). Birklid argues that Farm is a more juicy Wasteland target, but considering his "ideal" board would be Island, Forest, City...I dunno, Wasteland is just as good in that situation.
Leyline of the Void in the SB: Both lists had no gravehate in the SB. The meta was unknown-ish, and having tested several games vs. Dredge, getting blown out by a GY deck didn't seem like an acceptable option.
Game Day
I get up at 6:30, eat, shower, and walk to Michael Caffrey's house to meet everyone else that is going. Our van ends up with 7 people total, including me, Caff, Harry, Ryan, Kurt, Matt, and Joe, playing Lands, Excalibur, Survival Zoo, Dredge, UBW Countertop Thopter, and New Horizons respectively. We drive 2.5 hours to Vestal and get there right as sign-ups begin. After doing so and filling out decklists (after I named my deck "Chris Brown Special" because of Violent Outburst and giving credit to GerryT because he is better than the other guy), we all Cube draft so that we have something to do between rounds. We start at 11 and get paired with...
Round 1: David Price playing New Horizons
The first thing that went to my mind was literally "FUCK". My first major Legacy tourney and get paired R1 with him?! I put on my game face: I knew I was in for a rough ride. Even if it wasn't him, NH has 12 MD counters for Hypergenesis, so winning counterwars G1 is out of the question and getting Wasted and clocked by their huge creatures makes NH one of the worst MUs for Hypergenesis. Nonetheless, we shuffle up and start.
Game 1
I lose the roll (fuck) and he opens with land, Ponder. I have Show and Tell T1, but like the noob I am, it gets Dazed. He then cantrips for 2 turns with Brainstorm, Ponder while I draw no lands beside my first two. He wastes my Mine, plays Goyf, then plays Goyf, Knight, then tutors Waste for my next land and I scoop.
Sideboard
Form of the Dragon comes in because it is the nuts card against NH. They have no MD answers and unless they are savvy won't SB in Grip G2. Ricochet Trap comes in to help win counterwars.
Game 2
I mulligan, but keep a great hand. T1, I play land, 2 Spirit Guides, Show and Tell. He doesn't have the Force, I play Form, he plays Knight. He scoops on the spot after thinking for a long time. He told me afterwords that if it was a creature, he could have tutored up Tabernacle and then try and Waste to kill what I played, but he was completely cold to Form.
Game 3
I draw a great hand: Emrakul, Progenitus, 2 land, 2 Spirit Guide, Violent Outburst. He Ponders T1, and I draw a blue card, play land, go. He plays a land and passes. I draw Force (YES), play my 2nd land and pass, after which he Brainstorms at the end of turn. He goes to Waste my land, but I respond with Violent Outburst. He attempts to Daze, for which I pay with another Spirit Guide. He doesn't have an answer and Hypergenesis resolves. I put Progenitus and Emrakul out on the field, he plays some guys and lands, but doesn't have any way to not die next turn and scoops.
1-0, 2-1
I had a great feeling after that. I was able to win one of my hardest MUs against its creator, no doubt. Obviously, not every game would be so easy, but mood is very important in doing well.
Round 2: Nick playing Grixis Control
I describe this as Grixis Control because that is what it was....I was Force, Daze, Spellstutter Sprite, Jitte, Bolt, Brainstorm, Jace. It was interesting, I guess. But another deck with 12 MD counters with more in the SB.
Game 1
He resolves T2 Jitte after little action on both sides as I mulled. He eventually plays SSS and starts beating and when I attempt to combo, he double Dazes my first attempt on T4 and then Forces my second attempt to play Hypergenesis.
Sideboard
Just the traps for this one. Hindsight, I might have sided in the Firespouts too as he only killed me with SSS, which is a real bitch BTW. Having to Force it sucks. :/
Game 2
Much of the same. He resolves T2 Jitte, gets a SSS, then wins a large counter battle when I attempt to Violent Outburst (he Forces, I Force, he Pyroblasts...I scoop).
1-1, 2-3
Match 3: Mike playing Dream Halls
There were at least two DH decks there, this one playing False Cure/Beacon of Immortality over 4 Cruel Ultimatum and playing Emrakul too for his Show and Tells. Two combo decks basically absolves into who gets there first.
Game 1
I attempt to combo out T2 with Violent Burst, but he Forces it. I then Show and Tell the next turn and he puts out Progenitus and I put out Emrakul. At least I win this race, but then he plays Show and Tell on his turn, flipping Dream Halls when I flip Progenitus to legend his. He has the Conflux and kills me, so it is on to G2.
Sideboard
I board in the Ricochet Traps, which I really want to use to redirect his Beacon to kill him :P. I also board in Grips for obvious reasons.
Game 2
I attempt to Violent Outburst T1, but he has Force. He plays Ponder and passes. We draw-go for a while, and I play a spirit guide to try and get some points in. He then plays Lim-Dul's Vault and ends up paying 11 for it to go to 9. He then plays Show and Tell and flips Emrakul when I flip Progenitus and scoops since he is at 9.
Game 3
He cantrips for three turns with Brainstorm, Ponder, Brainstorm when I mulled to 5. He then plays Show and Tell, and I flip Terastodon to kill his flipped Dream Halls. He LDVs in response to the trigger, pitching Conflux. He told me later he punted because his top 5 were DH, SnT, so he could have comboed if he kept Conflux rather than Force (I think). He pays 5 for LDV and goes to 15. I decide to only blow up the DH and his Underground Sea because I didn't want him to trade. I swing for 3 turns and he goes to 6 after chumping twice. He then plays Show and Tell again, and I play a Spirit Guide and he flips Progenitus, but to do so, he had to play Ancient Tomb and go to 4. I swing with the two guys and put him to 2 when he blocks Terastodon, but scoops when I play another Spirit Guide for which he has no answer.
2-1, 4-4
Round 4: Ryan playing Survival Zoo
We ID, since we are both 2-1 and are teammates. We play it out for fun and he ends up winning 2-1 after epically drawing Squee, Survival G3 with Horizon Canopy after I played Violent Outburst and blew up his two Survivals with Terastodon. Ryan is one of the best players I know and had the highest rating in the room to boot. I really liked his build (based on the one here on the Source), and he ended up getting 7th which was great and the highest finish on our team.
2-1-1, 4-4-2
Round 5: Jesse Kreiger (sp?) playing New Horizons
Anyone who knows David Price knows Jesse: he plays and travels with Price, and obviously is playing Price's list as well. He is a really awesome guy, but I am at a disadvantage. He was sitting next to Price during G1, so he knows what I'm playing and can play around Form.
Game 1
Jesse wins the roll and mulls, I keep. He cantrips twice with Ponder T1 and Brainstorm before T3. I attempt to Show and Tell and he Forces it. I attempt to Ardent Plea and he Stifles the cascade trigger. He then plays a Goyf, followed by 3 Wastelands and I scoop.
Sideboard
Same boarding as before. Obviously, the Forms aren't as good, so I only board in 2.
Game 2
He Ponders T1, then plays 2 Goyfs over T2 and T3. When he attacks with both, I attempt Violent Outburst, which gets Stifled. I Force Stifle, so I cascade into Hypergenesis, which he Dazes. I pay with a Spirit Guide, but he plays a second Daze and I lose to the Goyfs.
2-2-1, 4-6-2
Match 6: Jeremy playing Landstill
This MU is a little weird for me. Humility and Jace suck, Moat is 50/50 (doesn't stop Emrakul or my other blue creatures), Terastodon is great, not to mention he had several interesting choices that I haven't seen before.
Game 1
I T2 Violent Burst, I play Progenitus and a Spirit Guide, he plays...Humility. I beat him to 9 while he draws lands, but finally lands Creeping Tar Pit. My hand becomes stacked with 3 blue cards and 3 Forces, so I end up Forcing a Jace and a Elspeth, but he finally lands another Jace after Negating my 3rd Force and kills me with the Tar Pit anyway.
Sideboard
Grips, traps, and Forms came in. Grips deal with Moat/Humility, traps help vs. counters, Forms kill him.
Game 2
I first start out with a bad play. I could have floated my mana the right way in order to keep a R up for Trap when I Show and Telled T2, but I didn't and he Negates. I then suspend Hypergenesis after drawing it. He tries to Negate it when it finally is cast, but I Trap it and he lets it resolve. It was slightly confusing: he said he had Humility but didn't play it when I played Emrakul and Progenitus. Maybe I didn't understand him, but he ended up losing because of it, I guess.
Game 3
I attempt a T3 Ardent Plea. I cascade into Hypergenesis, which he Negates and I Misdirect, pitching Force (no other blue cards). I play Emrakul, he plays lands. He then Wraths (FUCK), and plays Elspeth, followed by Jace. He starts to fateseal me and then leaves Form of the Dragon on top when I'm at 2. He might have lost in this case: I had 6 mana and if I had a Spirit Guide in hand, I could have played Form, gone up to 5, and drop Jace low enough to not kill me, and then I would kill him. Luckily for him, I didn't have the Guide and he wins.
2-3-1, 5-8-2
Round 7: (Didn't catch his name, sorry) playing Jund Survival
Very weird deck. Survival, Anvil of Bogardan, Vengevine, Basking Rootwalla, Bloodghast...yeah. He had beta duals too: probably just a player that likes playing decks he likes. Don't blame him at all for that.
Game 1
He opens T1 Taiga (for which I am like YESSSS FINALLY NOT A BLUE DECK). I play Ardent Plea T2 and play Emrakul when he plays all sorts of shenanigans. He swings at me for 14, but I block a Vengevine and go to 10. He scoops when he has to annihilate too many good things.
Game 2
I cascade again on T2, he only has 2 Goyf and Anvil to my Emrakul and loses.
3-3-1, 7-8-2
Aftermath
During the day, we all had a decent time in the tournament. None of us scrubbed out, we all played decently well, and we had a Top8 in the form of Ryan's awesome Survival Zoo deck. David Price and Jesse Kreiger then invited us to Tolly's for dinner for which we were much obliged and we had a great time and some great food. We drove home and drafted M11, which was such a terrible idea because I was so tired that I thought it made sense to splash Ajani Goldmane and a UR deck for the first round. I walked back home at around 3AM and got up the next day to split the finals at the Free Sunday Standard tourney the local shop (The Portal Comics in Bethlehem, PA) with Time Sieve, completing my Magic-packed weekend of losing to Ryan in the finals of FNM M11 draft after he Act of Treasons and Flings my Stormtide Leviathan at me on Friday (obviously), but getting 2nd regardless, placing 29th at Jupiter Games in my first real Legacy event on Saturday, and splitting the Standard tourney on Sunday. Great, but very tiring weekend. And I still had to go to school today. :P
Conclusions
Hypergenesis is okay at best. The one thing that I would want to test is Intution, as a lot of times, the deck draws all gas or all creatures and while the deck is very redundant (which is why I didn't bother to say what I sided out, usually it was some combination of creatures, guides, and lands), it needs a bit of consistency that Intution might be able to provide. I dunno, it might be too clunky to play. I guess playing against essentially 5 blue decks in a 7 round tournament with a combo deck would be difficult for any player, but it certainly is possible but probably easier for other combo decks. A 2nd Misdirection MD would have been good, but finding that one was hard enough and I almost thing that Ricochet Trap is better. Everything else was pretty good for the most part.
Now I am a personal crossroads. I am going to start a co-op next month, so I will finally have the cash to pursue any deck I actually want to play, now that I am probably putting Hypergenesis to rest after being viciously attacked by new-Extended for the near future. I don't know what that deck is yet, but this experience definitely has shaped my future of playing Legacy and I definitely want to be playing it for the rest of my Magic career.
Props and Slops
Props
Michael Caffrey, for letting me borrow Forces, Show and Tells, foily Progenitus, the duals, and City of Brasses. Loaning out over $1k cards total (not just mine) for this event would certainly give me the willies and I am glad that you do so on such a great basis.
Harry Gillen, for letting me borrow the Progenitus out of his Cube, and for his Cube, which provided for some silly in-between-round games.
Ryan O'Donnell, for letting me borrow an Emrakul and for being a badass with a deck that initially others scorned (*cough Caff, Matt cough*).
Matt Bevenour, for letting me borrow his Misdirection.
Our entire crew, for not scrubbing out.
Eli and Jupiter Games, for a quality venue and decent prizes (next time though, choose the door prizes so that the most expensive deck doesn't always win, *points to Bryant Cook)
Meeting and hanging with Jesse and David Price, the fan-girl inside be squealed a bit in delight
Slops
Being so tired, starting Sunday and hopefully ending soon...
Spending a lot of money and nearly overdrafting my checking account :X
That ATM at Tolly's for only letting me take out a $20 when my meal was $5.
Playing way too many blue decks, THERE WAS SO MUCH COMBO THERE. AT LEAST IT IS A COIN FLIP. :(
We begin way back in last November, when I decided to build Hypergenesis in Extended. I had just started playing Magic seriously when Zendikar was released and I wanted to build a decently cheap deck that was good that I personally liked and Hypergenesis fit the bill. Unfortunately, I didn't have a car up at my college until May, so I was never able to go anywhere with the deck during the last Extended season, but it was done and I was glad...
...until one night in June. Yeah, you know what happened, Wizards decided to shit on me. That was the first time I actually considered quitting Magic, but that feeling didn't last. So I was up a creek with a dead deck I had built and spent money on ....or was I?
Two articles nearly back-to-back on Channel Fireball (http://strategy.channelfireball.com/featured-articles/sweeping-ice-and-other-important-topics-emrakul-and-the-gang/) and Star City (http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/19708_One_Step_Ahead_Perfect_Jund_and_Legacy_Brews.html) proved that a Hypergenesis list might stand a chance in the current metagame, so I decided to take a shot with it. This would be my first true Legacy event (i.e. more than 20 people), and TBH I just felt comfortable playing Hypergenesis.
The List
// Lands
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Forest
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Tendo Ice Bridge
1 Volcanic Island
2 Tinder Farm
1 Tropical Island
2 City of Brass
// Creatures
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Progenitus
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Empyrial Archangel
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
2 Terastodon
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
// Spells
2 Hypergenesis
4 Ardent Plea
4 Violent Outburst
4 Force of Will
4 Show and Tell
1 Misdirection
// Sideboard
3 Firespout
2 Ricochet Trap
3 Form of the Dragon
3 Krosan Grip
4 Leyline of the Void
Card Choices
Tinder Farm over City of Traitors: Colored mana is a premium for casting Ardent Plea and Violent Outburst (to a lesser extent). Birklid argues that Farm is a more juicy Wasteland target, but considering his "ideal" board would be Island, Forest, City...I dunno, Wasteland is just as good in that situation.
Leyline of the Void in the SB: Both lists had no gravehate in the SB. The meta was unknown-ish, and having tested several games vs. Dredge, getting blown out by a GY deck didn't seem like an acceptable option.
Game Day
I get up at 6:30, eat, shower, and walk to Michael Caffrey's house to meet everyone else that is going. Our van ends up with 7 people total, including me, Caff, Harry, Ryan, Kurt, Matt, and Joe, playing Lands, Excalibur, Survival Zoo, Dredge, UBW Countertop Thopter, and New Horizons respectively. We drive 2.5 hours to Vestal and get there right as sign-ups begin. After doing so and filling out decklists (after I named my deck "Chris Brown Special" because of Violent Outburst and giving credit to GerryT because he is better than the other guy), we all Cube draft so that we have something to do between rounds. We start at 11 and get paired with...
Round 1: David Price playing New Horizons
The first thing that went to my mind was literally "FUCK". My first major Legacy tourney and get paired R1 with him?! I put on my game face: I knew I was in for a rough ride. Even if it wasn't him, NH has 12 MD counters for Hypergenesis, so winning counterwars G1 is out of the question and getting Wasted and clocked by their huge creatures makes NH one of the worst MUs for Hypergenesis. Nonetheless, we shuffle up and start.
Game 1
I lose the roll (fuck) and he opens with land, Ponder. I have Show and Tell T1, but like the noob I am, it gets Dazed. He then cantrips for 2 turns with Brainstorm, Ponder while I draw no lands beside my first two. He wastes my Mine, plays Goyf, then plays Goyf, Knight, then tutors Waste for my next land and I scoop.
Sideboard
Form of the Dragon comes in because it is the nuts card against NH. They have no MD answers and unless they are savvy won't SB in Grip G2. Ricochet Trap comes in to help win counterwars.
Game 2
I mulligan, but keep a great hand. T1, I play land, 2 Spirit Guides, Show and Tell. He doesn't have the Force, I play Form, he plays Knight. He scoops on the spot after thinking for a long time. He told me afterwords that if it was a creature, he could have tutored up Tabernacle and then try and Waste to kill what I played, but he was completely cold to Form.
Game 3
I draw a great hand: Emrakul, Progenitus, 2 land, 2 Spirit Guide, Violent Outburst. He Ponders T1, and I draw a blue card, play land, go. He plays a land and passes. I draw Force (YES), play my 2nd land and pass, after which he Brainstorms at the end of turn. He goes to Waste my land, but I respond with Violent Outburst. He attempts to Daze, for which I pay with another Spirit Guide. He doesn't have an answer and Hypergenesis resolves. I put Progenitus and Emrakul out on the field, he plays some guys and lands, but doesn't have any way to not die next turn and scoops.
1-0, 2-1
I had a great feeling after that. I was able to win one of my hardest MUs against its creator, no doubt. Obviously, not every game would be so easy, but mood is very important in doing well.
Round 2: Nick playing Grixis Control
I describe this as Grixis Control because that is what it was....I was Force, Daze, Spellstutter Sprite, Jitte, Bolt, Brainstorm, Jace. It was interesting, I guess. But another deck with 12 MD counters with more in the SB.
Game 1
He resolves T2 Jitte after little action on both sides as I mulled. He eventually plays SSS and starts beating and when I attempt to combo, he double Dazes my first attempt on T4 and then Forces my second attempt to play Hypergenesis.
Sideboard
Just the traps for this one. Hindsight, I might have sided in the Firespouts too as he only killed me with SSS, which is a real bitch BTW. Having to Force it sucks. :/
Game 2
Much of the same. He resolves T2 Jitte, gets a SSS, then wins a large counter battle when I attempt to Violent Outburst (he Forces, I Force, he Pyroblasts...I scoop).
1-1, 2-3
Match 3: Mike playing Dream Halls
There were at least two DH decks there, this one playing False Cure/Beacon of Immortality over 4 Cruel Ultimatum and playing Emrakul too for his Show and Tells. Two combo decks basically absolves into who gets there first.
Game 1
I attempt to combo out T2 with Violent Burst, but he Forces it. I then Show and Tell the next turn and he puts out Progenitus and I put out Emrakul. At least I win this race, but then he plays Show and Tell on his turn, flipping Dream Halls when I flip Progenitus to legend his. He has the Conflux and kills me, so it is on to G2.
Sideboard
I board in the Ricochet Traps, which I really want to use to redirect his Beacon to kill him :P. I also board in Grips for obvious reasons.
Game 2
I attempt to Violent Outburst T1, but he has Force. He plays Ponder and passes. We draw-go for a while, and I play a spirit guide to try and get some points in. He then plays Lim-Dul's Vault and ends up paying 11 for it to go to 9. He then plays Show and Tell and flips Emrakul when I flip Progenitus and scoops since he is at 9.
Game 3
He cantrips for three turns with Brainstorm, Ponder, Brainstorm when I mulled to 5. He then plays Show and Tell, and I flip Terastodon to kill his flipped Dream Halls. He LDVs in response to the trigger, pitching Conflux. He told me later he punted because his top 5 were DH, SnT, so he could have comboed if he kept Conflux rather than Force (I think). He pays 5 for LDV and goes to 15. I decide to only blow up the DH and his Underground Sea because I didn't want him to trade. I swing for 3 turns and he goes to 6 after chumping twice. He then plays Show and Tell again, and I play a Spirit Guide and he flips Progenitus, but to do so, he had to play Ancient Tomb and go to 4. I swing with the two guys and put him to 2 when he blocks Terastodon, but scoops when I play another Spirit Guide for which he has no answer.
2-1, 4-4
Round 4: Ryan playing Survival Zoo
We ID, since we are both 2-1 and are teammates. We play it out for fun and he ends up winning 2-1 after epically drawing Squee, Survival G3 with Horizon Canopy after I played Violent Outburst and blew up his two Survivals with Terastodon. Ryan is one of the best players I know and had the highest rating in the room to boot. I really liked his build (based on the one here on the Source), and he ended up getting 7th which was great and the highest finish on our team.
2-1-1, 4-4-2
Round 5: Jesse Kreiger (sp?) playing New Horizons
Anyone who knows David Price knows Jesse: he plays and travels with Price, and obviously is playing Price's list as well. He is a really awesome guy, but I am at a disadvantage. He was sitting next to Price during G1, so he knows what I'm playing and can play around Form.
Game 1
Jesse wins the roll and mulls, I keep. He cantrips twice with Ponder T1 and Brainstorm before T3. I attempt to Show and Tell and he Forces it. I attempt to Ardent Plea and he Stifles the cascade trigger. He then plays a Goyf, followed by 3 Wastelands and I scoop.
Sideboard
Same boarding as before. Obviously, the Forms aren't as good, so I only board in 2.
Game 2
He Ponders T1, then plays 2 Goyfs over T2 and T3. When he attacks with both, I attempt Violent Outburst, which gets Stifled. I Force Stifle, so I cascade into Hypergenesis, which he Dazes. I pay with a Spirit Guide, but he plays a second Daze and I lose to the Goyfs.
2-2-1, 4-6-2
Match 6: Jeremy playing Landstill
This MU is a little weird for me. Humility and Jace suck, Moat is 50/50 (doesn't stop Emrakul or my other blue creatures), Terastodon is great, not to mention he had several interesting choices that I haven't seen before.
Game 1
I T2 Violent Burst, I play Progenitus and a Spirit Guide, he plays...Humility. I beat him to 9 while he draws lands, but finally lands Creeping Tar Pit. My hand becomes stacked with 3 blue cards and 3 Forces, so I end up Forcing a Jace and a Elspeth, but he finally lands another Jace after Negating my 3rd Force and kills me with the Tar Pit anyway.
Sideboard
Grips, traps, and Forms came in. Grips deal with Moat/Humility, traps help vs. counters, Forms kill him.
Game 2
I first start out with a bad play. I could have floated my mana the right way in order to keep a R up for Trap when I Show and Telled T2, but I didn't and he Negates. I then suspend Hypergenesis after drawing it. He tries to Negate it when it finally is cast, but I Trap it and he lets it resolve. It was slightly confusing: he said he had Humility but didn't play it when I played Emrakul and Progenitus. Maybe I didn't understand him, but he ended up losing because of it, I guess.
Game 3
I attempt a T3 Ardent Plea. I cascade into Hypergenesis, which he Negates and I Misdirect, pitching Force (no other blue cards). I play Emrakul, he plays lands. He then Wraths (FUCK), and plays Elspeth, followed by Jace. He starts to fateseal me and then leaves Form of the Dragon on top when I'm at 2. He might have lost in this case: I had 6 mana and if I had a Spirit Guide in hand, I could have played Form, gone up to 5, and drop Jace low enough to not kill me, and then I would kill him. Luckily for him, I didn't have the Guide and he wins.
2-3-1, 5-8-2
Round 7: (Didn't catch his name, sorry) playing Jund Survival
Very weird deck. Survival, Anvil of Bogardan, Vengevine, Basking Rootwalla, Bloodghast...yeah. He had beta duals too: probably just a player that likes playing decks he likes. Don't blame him at all for that.
Game 1
He opens T1 Taiga (for which I am like YESSSS FINALLY NOT A BLUE DECK). I play Ardent Plea T2 and play Emrakul when he plays all sorts of shenanigans. He swings at me for 14, but I block a Vengevine and go to 10. He scoops when he has to annihilate too many good things.
Game 2
I cascade again on T2, he only has 2 Goyf and Anvil to my Emrakul and loses.
3-3-1, 7-8-2
Aftermath
During the day, we all had a decent time in the tournament. None of us scrubbed out, we all played decently well, and we had a Top8 in the form of Ryan's awesome Survival Zoo deck. David Price and Jesse Kreiger then invited us to Tolly's for dinner for which we were much obliged and we had a great time and some great food. We drove home and drafted M11, which was such a terrible idea because I was so tired that I thought it made sense to splash Ajani Goldmane and a UR deck for the first round. I walked back home at around 3AM and got up the next day to split the finals at the Free Sunday Standard tourney the local shop (The Portal Comics in Bethlehem, PA) with Time Sieve, completing my Magic-packed weekend of losing to Ryan in the finals of FNM M11 draft after he Act of Treasons and Flings my Stormtide Leviathan at me on Friday (obviously), but getting 2nd regardless, placing 29th at Jupiter Games in my first real Legacy event on Saturday, and splitting the Standard tourney on Sunday. Great, but very tiring weekend. And I still had to go to school today. :P
Conclusions
Hypergenesis is okay at best. The one thing that I would want to test is Intution, as a lot of times, the deck draws all gas or all creatures and while the deck is very redundant (which is why I didn't bother to say what I sided out, usually it was some combination of creatures, guides, and lands), it needs a bit of consistency that Intution might be able to provide. I dunno, it might be too clunky to play. I guess playing against essentially 5 blue decks in a 7 round tournament with a combo deck would be difficult for any player, but it certainly is possible but probably easier for other combo decks. A 2nd Misdirection MD would have been good, but finding that one was hard enough and I almost thing that Ricochet Trap is better. Everything else was pretty good for the most part.
Now I am a personal crossroads. I am going to start a co-op next month, so I will finally have the cash to pursue any deck I actually want to play, now that I am probably putting Hypergenesis to rest after being viciously attacked by new-Extended for the near future. I don't know what that deck is yet, but this experience definitely has shaped my future of playing Legacy and I definitely want to be playing it for the rest of my Magic career.
Props and Slops
Props
Michael Caffrey, for letting me borrow Forces, Show and Tells, foily Progenitus, the duals, and City of Brasses. Loaning out over $1k cards total (not just mine) for this event would certainly give me the willies and I am glad that you do so on such a great basis.
Harry Gillen, for letting me borrow the Progenitus out of his Cube, and for his Cube, which provided for some silly in-between-round games.
Ryan O'Donnell, for letting me borrow an Emrakul and for being a badass with a deck that initially others scorned (*cough Caff, Matt cough*).
Matt Bevenour, for letting me borrow his Misdirection.
Our entire crew, for not scrubbing out.
Eli and Jupiter Games, for a quality venue and decent prizes (next time though, choose the door prizes so that the most expensive deck doesn't always win, *points to Bryant Cook)
Meeting and hanging with Jesse and David Price, the fan-girl inside be squealed a bit in delight
Slops
Being so tired, starting Sunday and hopefully ending soon...
Spending a lot of money and nearly overdrafting my checking account :X
That ATM at Tolly's for only letting me take out a $20 when my meal was $5.
Playing way too many blue decks, THERE WAS SO MUCH COMBO THERE. AT LEAST IT IS A COIN FLIP. :(