Top 2 with Aggro-Loam at Mirkwood

[Volt]

Around Wednesday of last week, Max (Frogboy) alerted me and Nick (Yawgmoth) that there was going to be a Legacy tournament at Mirkwood in Arlington, WA for a Beta Mox Emerald on Sunday. I've made the trip up to Mirkwood a number of times before, but it's about a 3.5 hour drive from Portland, so I don't generally do it unless I can find 2 or 3 other people to go with me. Fortunately, Nick was down, and he even managed to scare up 2 more people who wanted to go.

I have the cards to build just about any deck I want, but I had some trouble deciding which deck I wanted to play. I had been playing Zoo for a while, but felt like it just wasn't getting there as much anymore. I also didn't want to play any sort of CounterTop concoction, although that's pretty much always a solid option. I was kind of leaning towards playing Tempo Thresh, but Nick suggested I reassemble an old favorite: Aggro-Loam. In fact, I had been eying the list that Pat McGregor won the St. Louis SCG5k with. So, it was decided. I played McGregor's list, with one minor change to the sideboard: -1 Thorn of Amethyst, +1 firespout.

Come Sunday morning, the 4 of us piled into my car and hit the road. We got there right at noon, and about 40 minutes later were playing our first round match. There were 41 people. Here's the report:

Round 1 vs Ian w/Burn:
I didn't know what Ian was playing, but I won the die roll and opened with turn 1 Chalice for 1. On turn 2, I played a Terravore, which entered play as a 3/3. Ian had a 1-turn window to kill the Terravore, but he decided to try and race it instead. Terravore got there first.

Game 2, I mulled to 6, kept a so-so hand and lost.

Game 3, I mulled to 6 again, but found Zuran Orb, which says "lol burn" in the flavor text. Or it oughta.

1-0, 2-1

Round 2 vs Shane Berg w/Goblins:
Have you heard that Aggro-Loam smashes Goblins? Well, it does. Two quick wins, and then lots of sitting around waiting for the next match.

2-0, 4-1

Round 3 vs ??? w/Tempo Thresh:
My opponent opened with Tropical Island, Ponder. On my turn, I played land, Mox Diamond, Chalice for 1. It stuck. On turn 2, my opponent played a Volcanic Island and passed. I didn't know what he was playing when I sat down, but now I know it's Tempo Thresh. On my turn, I Wasted his Trop and cast Life from the Loam. Opponent scooped.

In game 2, he countered a couple of my early spells and got out double-goyf to put me on a very short clock. I was in a bad spot, but I lucksacked a Maelstrom Pulse and came back to win.

3-0, 6-1

Round 4 vs Michael w/Pro-Bant:
I had a very advantageous board position in game 1, but died to my own Bob before I could capitalize. Oh well.

Game 2, he came out of the gate quickly with hierarch, goyf, rhox war monk. It was looking grim until I ripped Seismic Assault. Onto game 3...

Most of game 3 basically involved my opponent trying to apply beats with exalted creatures, and me trying to kill them and keep him off 4 mana. Eventually, I killed all his critters and got out a Tarmogoyf and an 8/8 Terravore. The match ended up going to time, but I managed to kill him in the extra turns.

4-0, 8-2

Rounds 5 & 6: ID

Top 8 vs Kasey w/Countertop Depths:
I won game 1 largely on the strength of an early Wasteland to Kasey's Trop, which really put him behind.

Game 2 went on for a while, with me keeping a Wasteland ever-poised to nuke his Dark Depths in case he managed to find the pieces. Eventually, I simply drew more goyfs than he did and beat him down.

Top 4 vs Joey w/CounterTop Goyf control:
Joey was playing some homebrew list that Frogboy loaned him for 30% of the action.

Game 1 went on for quite a while because it took me a long time to find gas, despite getting the Loam engine going fairly early. Joey surprised me at one point when he cast Trinket Mage and fetched a Tormod's Crypt. It's pretty rare that I have to deal with graveyard hate in the first game. Fortunately, Crypts are only a minor speed bump for Aggro-Loam. It was touch and go, but I eventually stabilized at 2 life and turned the tide with a goyf and 2 Crushers. Seismic Assault also played a role at the end, although I didn't have Loam going at the time.

Game 2, I mulled to 6, kept a mediocre hand and got squashed by hate.

Game 3, I mulled to 6, once again kept a mediocre hand and almost got squashed. Joey assembled CounterTop and Relic in the first few turns. Meanwhile, I was stuck on 2 lands, and my turn 2 Chalice for 1 got countered. On turn 3, I cast Loam with no lands in the graveyard. On the next turn, I dredged, and failed to hit any lands. Crap. I cast Loam again, just to get it back into the graveyard. I didn't care about the Relic because I had another Loam in hand, and I didn't really have a choice anyway. During his turn, Joey played Trinket Mage, fetched a Pithing Needle and tapped out to play it, naming Forgotten Cave. That was a big mistake (Tapping out, that is. Not the naming). On my turn, I dredged and hit 3 lands! I cast Loam -blind Counterbalance whiffed- and boom, I'm back in business. Still behind, but back in business. From that point on, the gods punished Joey by putting lots of lands on top of his deck, allowing me to get a couple more Loams through. I was a bit frustrated by my inability to find black mana to cast the Bob and Maelstrom Pulse that were in my hand, but in the end it didn't matter. I found some gas, applied the beats, and moved into the Top 2.

Top 2 vs Colin McCune w/Tempo Thresh:
I felt pretty good about this matchup, but it was 9:30PM, and I was facing a 3.5 hour drive back to Portland. Colin and I agreed to draw/split, cashing out the mox and other cards for a total of $420.


Props:
- Pat McGregor for the terrific list.
- Nick (Yawgmoth) for keeping me level-headed during the tournament.
- Maelstrom Pulse for saving my ass 3 times during the day.
- Anton for stepping up and hosting monthly Legacy tournaments with Mox prizes.
- Mirkwood for being a generally awesome place to play cards, and for having a terrific vegetarian kitchen (I'm not a vegetarian, but their food is really good)

[frogboy]

He was just in the car I drove up in; we all split. He was actually going to play Aggro-Loam, but I had Counterbalance built, so mise.

Grats etc.

[GreatWhale]

Congrats Chris, nice work.

[Aggro_zombies]

Congrats on this. Don was giving me real-time updates at the 5k.

[AngryTroll]

Nice report, and congrats on the finish. After the tournament, would you change anything about that list?

So Ninjas (minus Nick) went a combined 15-6-2 for the weeekend? I'm the weakest link...except for Nick, so I guess it's alright.

[frogboy]

I went 2-2 if that factors into your calculations :/

[Volt]

Nice report, and congrats on the finish. After the tournament, would you change anything about that list?

Well, keep in mind that 6 actual matches played isn't much of a sample size, but the decklist seemed just about perfect to me. I might consider swapping out one of the Tranquil Thickets for a Taiga, but that's about it. Well, that, and I continue to wonder if I'm just not using Volrath's Stronghold as much as I should be. I never activated it all day.

So Ninjas (minus Nick) went a combined 15-6-2 for the weeekend? I'm the weakest link...except for Nick, so I guess it's alright.

Yeah, Nick had pretty much his worst tournament ever. He decided at the last minute to play ANT and ended up severely regretting it. We should definitely kick him while he's down.

[AngryTroll]

One more question about the list, and AggroZombies should answer this one too: How often were the Maelstrom Pulses better than, the same as, or worse than Vindicates? I know that a topdecked Pulse blew up two Goyfs at one point in Mirkwood, and I think A_Z had one opportunity to Pulse (but it was countered).

Ha, I finished the middle Ninja. I'll take that.

[Volt]

One more question about the list, and AggroZombies should answer this one too: How often were the Maelstrom Pulses better than, the same as, or worse than Vindicates? I know that a topdecked Pulse blew up two Goyfs at one point in Mirkwood, and I think A_Z had one opportunity to Pulse (but it was countered).

Pulse was better than Vindicate exactly 3 times during the day. At various times, I Pulsed 2 goyfs, 2 pridemages, and 2 noble hierarchs. There were one or two occasions that I wanted to use it as a Vindicate on someone else's goyf, but couldn't really, because I had my own goyf in play. Still, those were relatively minor nuisances compared to the multiple times it saved my ass.

[Odd Mutation]

Congratulations on the great finish!

And that list looks really good!

Robrecht

[Aggro_zombies]

One more question about the list, and AggroZombies should answer this one too: How often were the Maelstrom Pulses better than, the same as, or worse than Vindicates? I know that a topdecked Pulse blew up two Goyfs at one point in Mirkwood, and I think A_Z had one opportunity to Pulse (but it was countered).

Ha, I finished the middle Ninja. I'll take that.

The countered Pulse in this instance was targeting one of three Aether Vial against Merfolk in round four.

Maelstrom Pulse is a big reason why the deck has good game against blue decks, including Counterbalance. I don't actually mind using it on a Tarmogoyf, since I have ways to get my own Tarmogoyfs back whereas my opponent usually doesn't. It's also more useful than EE at blowing up some problem cards like Survival or Counterbalance (EE would kill your own Bobs and Tarmogoyfs along with those two, making it slightly less attractive).

The biggest advantage Vindicate has over Pulse is the ability to hit lands, specifically basics. The "echoing" effect of Pulse also allows you to occasionally get card advantage out of it when targeting things other than Tarmogoyf, which is gravy.

[Odd Mutation]

Some questions if you don't mind:

* How does 1 Terminate work? Would it be better as an extra Maelstrom Pulse? Or is there a special reason to run the lone Terminate?
* Have you missed Devastating Dreams at all? It used to be such a huge game winner. Could the Firespouts be Devastating Dreams or do you think the Firespouts to be good enough/better?
* Did you have any problems in dealing with Progenitus decks in testing? What is your general strategy here? Would devastating Dreams make any difference here?
* Is 1 Terravore significant, does it make a difference? Or did you just want one more creature?

Thanks in advance,

Robrecht.

[Aggro_zombies]

I can't speak for Volt, but...

Terminate kills the opponent's Tarmogoyf without killing yours. It's also much better than Pulse if you expect the mirror since Maelstrom Pulse is so awkward in mirror matches. Being an instant is also a point in the card's favor. On the other hand, the two mana casting cost and the inability to hit enchantments and artifacts are definite negatives that made me decide to not run it in the main (and narrowly to drop it from the board).

Dreams is mediocre in blue matchups but can be surprisingly hand for the land destruction effect against random decks. It's not nearly as useful as it used to be, and I prefer only running one in the main in most cases.

Terravore as a one-of is a big dude backup plan. I don't like Terravore because of its sensitivity to hate, and I particularly don't like it in the absence of Dreams, so I run Witness instead. It can be randomly good, though, and is much better in game one against decks like Zoo that can spam blockers for Crushers.

Progenitus decks can be easily dealt with through Perish if you're expecting them to show up in enough strength to warrant the sideboard slots. Otherwise, a combination of Firespout, EE, and Assault can keep that deck's creatures off the table on your turn, allowing you to attack freely. Assault can also burn out an opponent who gets Progenitus into play - it usually takes two turns to kill you, but you can kill much more quickly than that with Assault and Loam and four-five lands.

[Odd Mutation]

Thanks! That was really helpful!

Robrecht

[Purgatory]

Congratulations on your finish, and thanks for writing this up for us.

[Maveric78f]

Terminate kills the opponent's Tarmogoyf without killing yours. It's also much better than Pulse if you expect the mirror since Maelstrom Pulse is so awkward in mirror matches. Being an instant is also a point in the card's favor. On the other hand, the two mana casting cost and the inability to hit enchantments and artifacts are definite negatives that made me decide to not run it in the main (and narrowly to drop it from the board).

You'll love Putrefy.

[Aggro_zombies]

You'll love Putrefy.

Not really. Most of the problematic artifacts for this deck sacrifice themselves. There's more troublesome enchantments than anything.

[Volt]

Some questions if you don't mind:

* How does 1 Terminate work? Would it be better as an extra Maelstrom Pulse? Or is there a special reason to run the lone Terminate?
* Have you missed Devastating Dreams at all? It used to be such a huge game winner. Could the Firespouts be Devastating Dreams or do you think the Firespouts to be good enough/better?
* Did you have any problems in dealing with Progenitus decks in testing? What is your general strategy here? Would devastating Dreams make any difference here?
* Is 1 Terravore significant, does it make a difference? Or did you just want one more creature?

Thanks in advance,

Robrecht.

I should emphasize the fact that I didn't build this particular list, nor did I test it. I goldfished it a couple times the night before the tournament, but that's it. Heck, I hadn't even played Aggro-Loam in several months. Basically, I chose this particular list because a) McGregor won a $5k tournament with it, b) McGregor is really good and has a long history of playing Aggro-Loam, and c) I was intrigued by the fact that it didn't play Burning Wishes or Devastating Dreams.

I suppose the lone Terminate seems kind of random, but I don't worry about that sort of thing anymore. It's just one more removal spell. Would it be better as a 3rd Pulse? Maybe. I don't know. I would probably have to play the deck a lot more to figure that out. I will say that I drew it a few times during the day and was always happy to kill something with it.

I never wanted Devastating Dreams during the tournament. With all the Counterbalances and Spell Snares you have to contend with nowadays, I think DD is a questionable maindeck choice. If you're playing Burning Wishes, then it goes without saying that you have a DD in your wish-board. Firespout almost always gets the job done. The one matchup I might want DD for would be Survival, since you really want to kill their lands as well as their creatures, particularly when they have an active Survival.

As for the Progenitus matchup... Again, I've done no testing. I played against it once in the tournament, and my general strategy was to try to keep him off 4 mana by killing his hierarchs and wasting his dual lands. It worked, this time. Maybe I just got lucky.

I think I drew the lone Terravore a disproportionate number of times during the tournament, but he was generally pretty good. Like I said, I don't worry much about the apparent randomness of "one ofs" anymore. Basically, I considered it to be Crusher #5.

[Aggro_zombies]

As for the Progenitus matchup... Again, I've done no testing. I played against it once in the tournament, and my general strategy was to try to keep him off 4 mana by killing his hierarchs and wasting his dual lands. It worked, this time. Maybe I just got lucky.

No, this is a sound strategy. Dreams is actually pretty good against the non-Countertop versions because it destroys their lands and their mana dorks, and the only thing they can counter it with is Force (usually those decks only run Force and Daze).

[sauce]

non countertop versions run spell snare...