BUG Lands at the Denver Long Live Legacy Tournament

Good morning folks, this is aslidsiksoraksi AKA ‘slid reporting in with some BUG Lands top 4 action from the Denver Long Live Legacy tournament. Wotc & StarCity hung legacy out to dry, but we brought it back in to get wet!

The list:

4 Exploration
4 Mox Diamond
4 Crop Rotation
4 Life from the Loam
play lands get lands

3 Oko, Thief of Crowns
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Sylvan Library
do stuff to the board. when will WotC finally print the planeswalker that is also also a land?

4 Thespian’s Stage
3 Dark Depths
1 Field of the Dead
win cons

4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
1 Ghost Quarter
mana denial

3 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Nurturing Peatland
1 Waterlogged Grove
1 Forest
We do have to cast spells sometimes, unfortunately

2 Maze of Ith
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Blast Zone
Lands with cool effects

Sideboard
2 Elvish Reclaimer
3 Sphere of Resistance
1 Chalice of the Void
2 Veil of Summer
2 Choke
1 Drop of Honey
1 Abrupt Decay
3 Force of Vigor
A bunch of stuff for fighting combo decks and some hedges against creatures

I played BUG Lands, and the list is largely a copy of lists by Shinji and others on the Lands discord. But according to my decklist sheet I played ‘the wonderful miracle of nature,’ created by God himself. Because if you think about it, land is a miracle of nature, and so is Lands.

Got to the venue early, kinda nervous because I have been bombing weeklies with the deck for the last month, which was also the entirety of the time I’ve been playing Lands. But I’m always happy to just jam some spells and maybe donate some wins to my buddies so… let’s do this.

Rd 1 - Austin

While we shuffle, I see a cabal ritual on the bottom of his deck and I just mentally sigh and think to myself well I guess this is the kind of day I’m gonna have. Storm is not my best matchup.

Sure enough, g1 he sees mox diamond into stage and says ‘this is gonna be a fun matchup’ before paying life for cards off the top of his deck ad nauseum and storming me out.

I board in everything but drop of honey and abrupt decay and board out a bunch of creature-management lands, the loams, the libraries, and some other stuff.

g2 I keep tropical island, 2 veil, crop rotation, sylvan library, exploration, sphere of resistance. Trop, pass. He ponders. I cycle a veil, find a second land, then a third. Exploration, land, sphere. He’s looking sad. We durdle for a few more turns as he pays mana for his rocks, but I get there with a beautiful Dandan Artist Proof 20/20 token.

g3 I’ve got diamond, port, forest, fetch, crop rotation, and some other lands. He cantrips turn 1. I’m over here thinking well I can port him turn 1 that’s not so bad, but then my mind wanders to some bizarre idea that I should pitch the fetch to diamond or something… so naturally on my turn I play the fetch instead of the port and am instantly sad. Next turn port, port him. He cantrips. Turn 3 I play stage. I don’t port him. This is usually a tell that I have rotation and am going to kill you. But it could also be a tell that I have veil and am gonna blow you out. He sits there in the tank for a while. I pull my green land out to the side and sorta shake it there to remind him I could veil at any time. He passes the turn, I rotate end step and win. Turns out he had the kill but was spooked. Better lucky than good, I always say.

1-0, in the grand tradition of Angel Stompy reports, I am a Phantom Tiger


rd 2 Dustin

Dustin is one of those badass pox players with their whole deck altered and signed and everything. Unfortunately pox is very bad against life from the loam and sylvan library. g1 I have t1 library and t2 oko. He does some stuff to stop me, and I’m at 3 life by the end (you have to pay in blood for the knowledge of the trees), but I get there by elking my diamonds.

Bring in decay and some force of vigor. They have a lot of artifacts and enchantments. Cut some creature hate lands and shave a Loam since I want to be less graveyard-dependent.

g2 he’s got a thoughtseize for my library. I’ve still got exploration, crop rotation, and a few rishadan ports. So we go porting for a while and I do find a replacement Sylvan Library. I go very low on life against a pair of mishra’s factories, but eventually I find Loam, and then I find the combo. He’s got a bridge but Marit Lage has flying so why would this even stop her?? I dunno but Force of Vigor takes out the bridge and it’s smooth sailing.

2-0 I’m a phantom wurm. Hopefully stay a phantom all day.


rd 3 Ivan

Ivan is a very nice person who is playing UR Delver. UR is kind of harder for Lands since they have basics. Abrupt Decay is in the deck in large part to deal with Arcanist, so you have to save it for that, and if they have a fast hand it can be difficult to get there.

g1 he has a fastish start, but I manage to stabilize around 10 life with my maze against his delver. He bolts me to 7 and I start to think is he really gonna bolt me all the way down? Kinda scary and I’m not playing chasm so… He bolts me again. 4 life. Then he plays bedlam reveler. At this point I’ve got 6 lands in play. I have a maze in play, a maze in the yard, a field of the dead in hand, and a life from the loam. I figure I can make the field for the zombie to block the reveler, but then I just lose to bolt or wasteland. Or I can loam for the maze and be safe against both creatures, and lose only to wasteland. I take the second line. He doesn’t have wasteland this turn, but he finds it the next. And wastes my Maze. I do get 1 zombie, but apparently stealing a zombie is just an act of petty theft? Seems like kind of a big theft to me since it stole the whole game... I die.

Bring in choke, decay, drop, and the reclaimers. Cut karakas, bog, field, and shave some rotations and loams.

g2 I have a diamond and a port and maybe a decay and a drop. I play a few lands and port him a bit, he cantrips for a delver. I drop the delver down, draw a choke. I sorta slow-roll it so that I can play around daze and land the choke against 1 untapped land. He doesn’t have his only real out of second land into brzen borrower, so I start porting his lands to keep him to 1 mana and he scoops shortly thereafter.

g3 was a nailbiter. I’m just playing some lands like a normal magic player, and mazing his little delver, when he has the audacity to drop a true-name nemesis. Now, I’m Persian and I can tell you that no two people say my name the same (and that’s not even mentioning my utter gibberish screenname). So I don’t even have a true name. But the universe rights itself as I draw the combo pieces and a wasteland to protect them against his wasteland. I even draw an exploration to do it a turn faster, and drop them all on the table. Make a 20/20 on his upkeep. He’s hitting me a bit but I’m at a higher life total than TNN can really race. He cantrips frantically. Passes. Our Snow Princess eats his delver. His turn. He ponders. I see it on his face - first card, no, second card, no, third card, shrug. Shrug is good for me. He draws that one, it’s a ponder, he ponders again. No luck. Handshake. We did it boys.

3-0 I’m a creature Magic has yet to print


rd 4 Nathaniel

Nathaniel is a super nice guy who plays Death and Taxes. In the first game I have a turn 1 oko against his plains, go. I feel pretty good about this. He plays Thalia, I make an elk. He plays Flickerwisp and undoes two full turns of Oko-ing. I take back the part about him being nice. Oko starts taking some hits on his flawless abs and incredibly fat ass. I figure I can still get there, make another food, elk it. He flickers that one too! Oko dies. I die shortly thereafter.

I bring in decay, drop, force of vigors, and reclaimers. Shave on loams and cut bog and a few depths. The depths plan is bad here since they have karakas, swords, and vial’d flickerwisps to kill it, so you’re more on the grind plan.

g2 he gets out ahead kind of fast, with thalia against my oko again, with a vial also joining the party. I play drop of honey, he plays stoneforge. I start to eat his creatures as well as the elked vial, while oko starts taking some minor hits. I elk the sofi he found and there’s a bit of a snafu where drop should have been sacrificed the turn before and I get a warning but we restore the game to everyone’s satisfaction. At this point I’m at about 7 from library and random beats, and he’s got elked sofi and no cards in hand because he’s just dropping a bunch of dorks into play. I find a Loam and waste his Karakas but it’s not looking good until… I find crop rotation to go with my stage. He goes for a lethal attack, but here’s a surprise 20/20. Got there.

g3 sees me have double port and tabernacle against his revoker. Revoker beats me down a bit but I eventually draw crop rotation to pair with my stage. Again I do the cute thing where I don’t port them out completely, inviting them to please, sir, cast a spell. He obliges by tapping out for I think Thalia. I rotate in response and that’s all she wrote.

4-0 I’m an Everlasting Lich. Record so good they only printed it on a playtest card.

I ID into top 8. 4-0-2, second seed. Top 8 doesn’t want to split because top 4 makes so much more or something like that so we play it out.


Quarterfinals - Matt Nass

Kinda spooked to play against Matt Nass as I’ve heard tell he’s pretty good, to put it mildly. He’s on elves today, which I guess makes sense, but I’ve only played against elves once with Lands and I remember losing in no short order. Looks like only baby prizes for me :(

g1 I mull to 5. He has t1 green sun’s for arbor. I have exploration into a non-wasteland. Turn 2 sees some more dweebs, including elvish visionary. I play a turn 2 oko and make a food. Turn 3, more dweebs and a symbiote to go with the visionary. This guy likes to draw cards. On my turn I’m feeling very lucky as I find the combo and play it out. Maybe we get there? Nope, he has natural order. Good game.

I board in Chalice, drop, reclaimers, and a couple spheres. Maybe should have brought the rest of the spheres in but I figure I have to go fast too so I shouldn’t hamper myself too much. I board out bog, karakas, maybe a loam… the usual suspects.

g2 I’m on the play. Trop, exploration, stage. He green sun’s again for the arbor. Turn 1 I could play two more lands and rotate for the combo, but I figure elves can also just kill you sometimes. In retrospect, maybe not on turn 2, but I have been turn 2’d by them before so… Instead, I play the lands, rotate for the depths, and play the chalice on 1. He squints into the green sun and sees a visionary, draws a card. I untap, he plays nothing really important, and I kill him. All tied up baby. Maybe we can actually do this.

g3 I have what I imagine to be the nut draw of exploration, stage, tabernacle, port, wasteland, life from the loam, and a fetch. So I play exploration stage again. He plays dryad arbor. I waste it, play the port. He plays cradle. I loam, waste it. He misses a land drop and I’m feeling pretty great. Next turn though he finds a forest and plays needle. I copy port, with stage, he names port. On my turn I have the decay for the needle and I port him out. But he has yet another land and plays Quirion Ranger. That guarantees him one green mana a turn. I’ve seen what elves can do with that mana. Not cool buddy. I play the tabernacle to try and choke him out a bit more, and start loaming for the combo. He plays a nettle sentinel. He’s got two creatures. I find the combo, play it out. We got lethal next turn, and I’m holding up a decay to go with it. No way we lose this. On his turn, he bounces his forest and plays heritage druid. Makes three green mana. Casts glimpse. Maybe we do lose? 2 green floating. He plays symbiote. 1 Green floating, and two tapped elves. He plays Nettle Sentinel. Nothing floating, 1 untapped elf in play, and 1 symbiote untap available. I figure this is the choke point and decay the Heritage druid.

Turns out that the line worked. He couldn’t make more mana and glimpse fizzled. Praise Lage.


Top 4 split. Since the first place seed lost to 8th, I technically got 1st place, which is the best kind of first place. Great tournament.

Props to Rob and Vilo for setting this up, Wizard’s Chest for hosting, the Black Gold crew for putting 3 in the top 4 and being generally awesome and supportive, Peter for lending me the Chalice that won me a game in the quarters, and to Marit Lage for being the true queen of the night.

Thanks!

Nice work!

This is probably the funniest and most thoroughly enjoyable tournament report since M0AT_ST0MPY itself. I just had to sig the petty theft line and every other line just gets funnier the more I read it. Amazing write-up.

I do wanna mention though that Ensnaring Bridge is a shapeshifting bridge. It could probably yank Marit Lage out of the sky with its ensnaring hands (see: poor Gerrard). But you make a very compelling argument.

Won't keep them out of my Burn sideboard though. :smile: Great work and thanks for the report!

P.S: Editing this post to say that, as a long-time Burn and combo player, this report alone makes me want to play Lands. It's that good. Thanks again!

Nice report, thanks! Also nice to finally have some clues as to the origins of your username...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by alec

This is probably the funniest and most thoroughly enjoyable tournament report since M0AT_ST0MPY itself. I just had to sig the petty theft line and every other line just gets funnier the more I read it. Amazing write-up.

I do wanna mention though that Ensnaring Bridge is a shapeshifting bridge. It could probably yank Marit Lage out of the sky with its ensnaring hands (see: poor Gerrard). But you make a very compelling argument.

Won't keep them out of my Burn sideboard though. :smile: Great work and thanks for the report!

P.S: Editing this post to say that, as a long-time Burn and combo player, this report alone makes me want to play Lands. It's that good. Thanks again!

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ho snap! sorry I didn't check back sooner!! Thank you, that is really high praise. I just came on here to post another report so maybe you'll like that one too :)

That is a good point about the bridge, it's got those long stone tentacley thingies...