Aggro_zombies
10-29-2006, 10:32 PM
Well, I promised to write a tournament report, even if I got my ass kicked (which I did), and here it is. This is for Eudemonia’s third Legacy tournament in their Legacy series. Before I get started, brief stats: 21 players, five Swiss rounds, cuts to top four. The meta was basically mid-range aggro or combo decks, with goblins making a presence. One guy was playing the list of the recent Japanese Pro Tour side event winner. This is the list I was playing:
2 Nether Spirit
4 Dark Ritual
4 Innocent Blood
3 Funeral Charm
4 Sinkhole
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Smother
4 Infest
4 Pox
3 Chimeric Idol
3 Phyrexian Totem
2 Crucible of Worlds
17 Swamp
4 Wasteland
SB:
4 Duress
4 Sudden Death
3 Oppression
4 Leyline of the Void
So, anyway, I’ll get started. Perhaps it was a sign of things to come, but I neglected to set my alarm clock back last night for Daylight Savings time and therefore woke up an hour earlier than I needed. Congrats. After pulling out of the house on time, I read The Economist on the train ride up to Berkeley (boo for being a commuting student) before arriving early at Eudemonia. I made a few last-minute changes to my deck, dropping 3 Cabal Therapy and 1 Nether Spirit from the sideboard in favor of the Sudden Deaths, since I knew there wasn’t going to be much combo there. The tournament ended up starting about a half-hour late because of latecomers.
Match One: Jonathan, playing Slavagers Game
Game One: I knew I was going to lose this one because my deck really can’t handle combo game one, so I did some things that didn’t matter and died on turn four to the infamous combo.
Game Two: I decided to do the sideboarding as follows: -4 Innocent blood, -3 Smother, -1 Funeral Charm, -4 Infest, +4 Sudden Death, +4 Duress, +4 Leyline of the Void. We open and I get early mana disruption going in the form of Pox and Sinkhole, and he doesn’t draw lands for a while. I eventually drop a Nether Spirit and beat with it for the win.
Game Three: This was one hell of a game. I kept a sub-optimal opening hand because it had Leyline of the Void in it and I figured it would buy me some time to dig for mana and beats and win. I drop the Leyline and the first few turns proceed in a relatively unexciting fashion…until he Duresses me, nabbing the Pox I had lurking in my hand, followed by a Therapy for both of the Sudden Deaths that had been keeping Pox company. I was now basically out of a hand and went into topdeck mode, and oh, what a lucky topdeck mode it was. My opponent draws a Living Wish and grabs a Monk Realist to kill the Leyline, followed by a Gamekeeper. He gets some Therapies in his yard and uses them with Gamekeeper to name Sudden Death (which I wasn’t holding). He uses Gamekeeper to mill into an Auriok Salvagers. I figure I’m pretty much screwed at this point because my Leyline didn’t remove his Pyrite Spellbomb from the game, so it’s only a matter of time until he finds it. I cross my fingers and draw…
…a Sudden Death. I toast his Salvagers and the game ends shortly thereafter.
Matches: 1-0, games: 2-1-0
Match Two: Matt, Vial Goblins (no splash)
Game One: I am an idiot, seriously. I manage to do pest control early in the game while dropping a Phyrexian Totem, a Nether Spirit, and a Chimeric Idol. I Pox and send in the Idol for three, and pass the turn. He’s still got a few gobs in play, with two Vials, one set to five, one to three. He uses the Vial at three to drop a Matron, which he uses to fetch a Kiki-Jiki (wtf?). He then copies Matron with Kiki and pulls a Goblin Sharpshooter (wtf?!). Proceeding to his turn, he drops a Siege-Gang Commander with the Vial set to five, then drops a Warchief. “Oh shit,” I say, “Infest would be a zillion times better if it were an Instant.” I shuffle the Ritual and Infests in my hand after activating my Idol in anticipation of the game-ending attack he was about to send in. He, on the other hand, pings my Idol for one, sacrifices a token to the Commander to deal two to my Idol, then pings the Idol with the Sharpshooter to kill it, then pings my Nether Spirit to kill it, then kills me with his horde. Ouch.
Game Two: I was initially considering not boarding in anything against him (nothing really relevant), but I decide I might as well go for more removal and bring in 4 Sudden Death for 4 Hymns. I keep an iffy hand but get out a fast Pox, leaving him with an Aether Vial in play and some men in hand. At the end of turn, he uses the Vial to drop a Goblin Lackey, then swings and drops a Siege-Gang Commander. I didn’t draw an answer and he wins a few turns later.
Matches: 1-1, Games: 2-3-0
Match Three: Sam, playing Angel Stompy with a blue splash
Game One: I’d done some testing against this guy a little while back, so I knew that this round was basically a bye for me since I run more removal than he has men. It ended up not mattering this game, though, since he got mana flooded and died to Totem beats.
Game Two: I decided to go -1 Hymn, -3 Infest, +4 Sudden Death so my deck would own more. I draw lots of removal, he draws lots of men. Men meet removal and die. None of the creatures he played lasted for more than a turn, while I built up my resources and eventually killed him with Totems. By the way, Sudden Death ROCKS in the matchup.
Matches: 2-1, Games: 4-3-0
Match Four: Morgan, playing Vial Goblins with a green splash
Game One: I keep a decent opening hand, with a good amount of removal. I kill his guys, but…I draw land after land after land. In fact, the game lasted seven turns, and I drew lands every turn. I eventually run out of removal and fail to convince my opponent that Goblins can’t cross the zillion Swamps I have in play to get to me because they can’t swim, so he builds an army and kills me. What the hell?
Game Two: See game one. I mean, seriously. Wtf. I shuffled my deck for about five minutes, why do I get stuck drawing into giant pockets of lands when I only have 21 in there?!
Matches: 2-2, Games: 4-5-0
Match Five: Rafael, playing Vial Goblins with a white splash.
Game One: My opening hand had one land and no Rituals. I send it back and draw six nonland cards. I send that one back and draw three lands, a Ritual, and a Pox. It’s a hideous hand, but I’m not about to go to four, so I keep it. I don’t draw enough removal to stem the tide of little red men, though, and I die.
Game Two: I didn’t even feel like boarding for this one. I draw an opening hand of three Swamps, 3 Dark Rituals, and an Innocent Blood. I mulligan and draw six nonland cards. I mulligan again and draw one Swamp, one Wasteland, a Funeral Charm, a Hymn, and an Innocent blood. I keep it because, hey, I’m not dumb enough to send two turns worth of removal back. I kill his turn one Lackey with the Innocent Blood, then kill his turn two Lackey with the Funeral Charm. Then I find myself color screwed. I died with three Infests, two Funeral Charms (all his guys had 2 toughness), and a Sinkhole in hand…and my next draw was a fucking Swamp.
Matches: 2-3, Games: 4-7-0
Okay, so I’ll freely admit that I lost the first Goblins match to play mistakes. However, I lost the other two to sheer bad luck. I mean, what the hell. All lands? Mulligan to five two games in a row? I shuffle my deck well, and I have a favorable matchup against Goblins. Grrr…I could have made it to the top four if it weren’t for this.
Anyway, I took off after the last round because I figured I wasn’t going to top four with a 2-3 record and I wanted to get home in time for dinner. I did, however, pick up a pack of Time Spiral on the way out and opened a Flagstones of Trokair, so it wasn’t all bad. Still, I’m kind of curious as to how it would have gone if my mana hadn’t started disliking me…Pox is a good deck in general (I mean, the MWS shuffler doesn’t even screw me this badly) and I’m probably going to continue playing the version I have, with some modifications.
Props:
- Wizards, for inventing the Split Second mechanic. Sudden Death is an awesome card against so much stuff
- Bay Area Rapid Transit, for actually being rapid this time around
- Eudemonia, for hosting Legacy tournaments at a reasonable distance from my house
- Pox, for being an awesome deck
- Phyrexian Totem, for being the best Pox-dodging creature EVAR
Slops:
- Me, for being an idiot and waking up early
- My deck, for making me lose games I could have won
Top four results should be up in a few days, I’ll post them then. Not a spectacular performance by any means, but whatever…there’s always next time.
2 Nether Spirit
4 Dark Ritual
4 Innocent Blood
3 Funeral Charm
4 Sinkhole
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Smother
4 Infest
4 Pox
3 Chimeric Idol
3 Phyrexian Totem
2 Crucible of Worlds
17 Swamp
4 Wasteland
SB:
4 Duress
4 Sudden Death
3 Oppression
4 Leyline of the Void
So, anyway, I’ll get started. Perhaps it was a sign of things to come, but I neglected to set my alarm clock back last night for Daylight Savings time and therefore woke up an hour earlier than I needed. Congrats. After pulling out of the house on time, I read The Economist on the train ride up to Berkeley (boo for being a commuting student) before arriving early at Eudemonia. I made a few last-minute changes to my deck, dropping 3 Cabal Therapy and 1 Nether Spirit from the sideboard in favor of the Sudden Deaths, since I knew there wasn’t going to be much combo there. The tournament ended up starting about a half-hour late because of latecomers.
Match One: Jonathan, playing Slavagers Game
Game One: I knew I was going to lose this one because my deck really can’t handle combo game one, so I did some things that didn’t matter and died on turn four to the infamous combo.
Game Two: I decided to do the sideboarding as follows: -4 Innocent blood, -3 Smother, -1 Funeral Charm, -4 Infest, +4 Sudden Death, +4 Duress, +4 Leyline of the Void. We open and I get early mana disruption going in the form of Pox and Sinkhole, and he doesn’t draw lands for a while. I eventually drop a Nether Spirit and beat with it for the win.
Game Three: This was one hell of a game. I kept a sub-optimal opening hand because it had Leyline of the Void in it and I figured it would buy me some time to dig for mana and beats and win. I drop the Leyline and the first few turns proceed in a relatively unexciting fashion…until he Duresses me, nabbing the Pox I had lurking in my hand, followed by a Therapy for both of the Sudden Deaths that had been keeping Pox company. I was now basically out of a hand and went into topdeck mode, and oh, what a lucky topdeck mode it was. My opponent draws a Living Wish and grabs a Monk Realist to kill the Leyline, followed by a Gamekeeper. He gets some Therapies in his yard and uses them with Gamekeeper to name Sudden Death (which I wasn’t holding). He uses Gamekeeper to mill into an Auriok Salvagers. I figure I’m pretty much screwed at this point because my Leyline didn’t remove his Pyrite Spellbomb from the game, so it’s only a matter of time until he finds it. I cross my fingers and draw…
…a Sudden Death. I toast his Salvagers and the game ends shortly thereafter.
Matches: 1-0, games: 2-1-0
Match Two: Matt, Vial Goblins (no splash)
Game One: I am an idiot, seriously. I manage to do pest control early in the game while dropping a Phyrexian Totem, a Nether Spirit, and a Chimeric Idol. I Pox and send in the Idol for three, and pass the turn. He’s still got a few gobs in play, with two Vials, one set to five, one to three. He uses the Vial at three to drop a Matron, which he uses to fetch a Kiki-Jiki (wtf?). He then copies Matron with Kiki and pulls a Goblin Sharpshooter (wtf?!). Proceeding to his turn, he drops a Siege-Gang Commander with the Vial set to five, then drops a Warchief. “Oh shit,” I say, “Infest would be a zillion times better if it were an Instant.” I shuffle the Ritual and Infests in my hand after activating my Idol in anticipation of the game-ending attack he was about to send in. He, on the other hand, pings my Idol for one, sacrifices a token to the Commander to deal two to my Idol, then pings the Idol with the Sharpshooter to kill it, then pings my Nether Spirit to kill it, then kills me with his horde. Ouch.
Game Two: I was initially considering not boarding in anything against him (nothing really relevant), but I decide I might as well go for more removal and bring in 4 Sudden Death for 4 Hymns. I keep an iffy hand but get out a fast Pox, leaving him with an Aether Vial in play and some men in hand. At the end of turn, he uses the Vial to drop a Goblin Lackey, then swings and drops a Siege-Gang Commander. I didn’t draw an answer and he wins a few turns later.
Matches: 1-1, Games: 2-3-0
Match Three: Sam, playing Angel Stompy with a blue splash
Game One: I’d done some testing against this guy a little while back, so I knew that this round was basically a bye for me since I run more removal than he has men. It ended up not mattering this game, though, since he got mana flooded and died to Totem beats.
Game Two: I decided to go -1 Hymn, -3 Infest, +4 Sudden Death so my deck would own more. I draw lots of removal, he draws lots of men. Men meet removal and die. None of the creatures he played lasted for more than a turn, while I built up my resources and eventually killed him with Totems. By the way, Sudden Death ROCKS in the matchup.
Matches: 2-1, Games: 4-3-0
Match Four: Morgan, playing Vial Goblins with a green splash
Game One: I keep a decent opening hand, with a good amount of removal. I kill his guys, but…I draw land after land after land. In fact, the game lasted seven turns, and I drew lands every turn. I eventually run out of removal and fail to convince my opponent that Goblins can’t cross the zillion Swamps I have in play to get to me because they can’t swim, so he builds an army and kills me. What the hell?
Game Two: See game one. I mean, seriously. Wtf. I shuffled my deck for about five minutes, why do I get stuck drawing into giant pockets of lands when I only have 21 in there?!
Matches: 2-2, Games: 4-5-0
Match Five: Rafael, playing Vial Goblins with a white splash.
Game One: My opening hand had one land and no Rituals. I send it back and draw six nonland cards. I send that one back and draw three lands, a Ritual, and a Pox. It’s a hideous hand, but I’m not about to go to four, so I keep it. I don’t draw enough removal to stem the tide of little red men, though, and I die.
Game Two: I didn’t even feel like boarding for this one. I draw an opening hand of three Swamps, 3 Dark Rituals, and an Innocent Blood. I mulligan and draw six nonland cards. I mulligan again and draw one Swamp, one Wasteland, a Funeral Charm, a Hymn, and an Innocent blood. I keep it because, hey, I’m not dumb enough to send two turns worth of removal back. I kill his turn one Lackey with the Innocent Blood, then kill his turn two Lackey with the Funeral Charm. Then I find myself color screwed. I died with three Infests, two Funeral Charms (all his guys had 2 toughness), and a Sinkhole in hand…and my next draw was a fucking Swamp.
Matches: 2-3, Games: 4-7-0
Okay, so I’ll freely admit that I lost the first Goblins match to play mistakes. However, I lost the other two to sheer bad luck. I mean, what the hell. All lands? Mulligan to five two games in a row? I shuffle my deck well, and I have a favorable matchup against Goblins. Grrr…I could have made it to the top four if it weren’t for this.
Anyway, I took off after the last round because I figured I wasn’t going to top four with a 2-3 record and I wanted to get home in time for dinner. I did, however, pick up a pack of Time Spiral on the way out and opened a Flagstones of Trokair, so it wasn’t all bad. Still, I’m kind of curious as to how it would have gone if my mana hadn’t started disliking me…Pox is a good deck in general (I mean, the MWS shuffler doesn’t even screw me this badly) and I’m probably going to continue playing the version I have, with some modifications.
Props:
- Wizards, for inventing the Split Second mechanic. Sudden Death is an awesome card against so much stuff
- Bay Area Rapid Transit, for actually being rapid this time around
- Eudemonia, for hosting Legacy tournaments at a reasonable distance from my house
- Pox, for being an awesome deck
- Phyrexian Totem, for being the best Pox-dodging creature EVAR
Slops:
- Me, for being an idiot and waking up early
- My deck, for making me lose games I could have won
Top four results should be up in a few days, I’ll post them then. Not a spectacular performance by any means, but whatever…there’s always next time.