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Thread: SCG Richmond 5K - 10th Place

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    SCG Richmond 5K - 10th Place

    Finished 10th at the SCG Richmond 5k, the list for reference is here.

    4 Cursecatcher
    4 Lord Of Atlantis
    2 Merfolk Sovereign
    4 Merrow Reejerey
    4 Silvergill Adept
    2 Kira, Great Glass-spinner


    4 Standstill
    4 Aether Vial
    3 Daze
    2 Echoing Truth
    4 Force Of Will
    3 Stifle

    12 Island
    4 Mutavault
    4 Wasteland

    Sideboard:
    3 Relic Of Progenitus
    2 Back To Basics
    2 Propaganda
    2 Spell Pierce
    4 Submerge
    2 Umezawa's Jitte



    Not to be critical but the crop of players at the event were not the highest caliber. Most of my early round opponents were standard players picking up a deck and trying to figure out the format. As the rounds progressed they defiantly improved.

    For the field I felt Merfolk was a pretty solid call. The only caveat was that you had to know how to play the mirror. From our early scouting we saw Zoo, Dredge, and Merfolk in abundance. My mirror tech wasn’t the best but I know the match up reasonably well. That being said let’s get into the games.

    Round 1: Elfering, Brian - RG/u Loam
    Game One we both keep 7 as he tells me he’s a standard player looking for the points for the Invitational. He wins the die roll and plays a Foothills and passes the turn. The interesting moment was on turn 2 when he cast Treasure Hunt for 9 lands + Loam. It doesn’t get him far though as I vomit out dudes + Lord of Atlantis which Islandwalks past his blocking Goyfs + Terravores. Game 2 he beats a few times with Terravore but LoA swings my team past him.

    The U splash seems good, but it let me win the match. Agasint other decks it seems like it might be okay. Any loam players thoughts on this would be interesting.

    Round 2: Mercatoris, Stephan – RG/b Loam
    Game One I mull to 6 and am disappointed to play against another Loam deck. I notice he doesn’t play Islands and get ready for a difficult round. Game one I bounce his Goyf on two and waste his only green source. He fails to draw another as I attack past his empty board. Game two is a long game where he gets loam going. He goes to resolve Seismic Assault but I Force it, he then drops two Vastwood Gorgers in Lurgoyf form and I halt my attack. I am stuck on two lands when he wastes my mutavault and he begins dredging loam. He gets Countryside crushers online + Bob and begins attacking into my board of Adept, LoA, and 2 Cursecathcers. I draw a waste, drop Reejery then pass the turn. He looks at his board of 2 Goyf +2 Crusher and a Bob and is low off of his Bob hits. He plays EE at 2 and attacks w/ Goyfs + Bob. I declare LoA and Adept as block and take the Bob hit. He then realizes his misplay with EE at 2. He has the chance to waste my waste and keep me off a mana and chooses not to. I have Soverign in hand, with the Reejery + the Lord pump I have lethal and when he passes the turn I make the play and kill him.

    Round 3: Walters, Nick – 4 Color Landstill (no r)

    At this point the opponents are either competent or actual legacy players. Nick was of the former group.

    Game one I keep a sketchy hand on a mull to 6 and he blows me out with new Jace. Game two I beat down and its close. He and I trade Deeds for dudes and EE for dudes, swords for dudes, Factories for dudes, but at the very end he has one or two cards in hand and I play Kira when he’s tapped out. From there he FoF and can’t find an answer. As we shuffle for game three he tells me he didn’t know he had to play around her. Game three I have the lord draw, he has a EE for my vial but not for the three lords including LoA.

    Round 4: East, Matt – Survival Elves
    This is awkward because Matt is a friend. We can’t draw and have to play it out. When we tested it he was rolling me and since I had the Jitte’s moved to the board it got a lot worse. My notes aren’t good for game one, but he never gets me below 17 and I chip away for 2-3 a turn leading me to think I went the lords route. Game two is long and drawn out, he gets a hasty progenitus but doesn’t attack as I have Reejery and a bunch of dudes out. He plays great and after making a ton of dudes he can safely attack with the 10/10. Game three was really awkward. He plays a mana elf and on turn two I tap out for LoA. He thinks he is stifle safe and cracks his fetch. I submerge his mana elf and he passes back to me. I waste his taiga and he has no board as I play Jitte which is close to impossible for him to beat.

    Round 5: McKinney, Ryan – U/B Reanimator
    He wins the roll and plays Underground Sea and I put him on ANT, he corrects my when he plays Entomb for Iona. I believe I waste his Sea and he plays a series of fetches. On the end of my turn he fetches, but I stifle, in response he cracks his other fetch, which I stifle. I feel like I just have blown him out when he forces both of my stifles. He then plays Exhume. Game two I’m beating down, I counter his first Entomb, he then plays another. He does the math w/ Iona but sees he loses to LoA plus dudes and instead gets Blazing Archon. I hope to get Echoing Truth but when I don’t on the following turn he gets Iona naming blue.

    Afterwards I ask him how his Merfolk matchup is and he tells me its great. Turns out that testing is tech as I never played the match and it was never on my radar. As it stands I think I should have let him play Entomb and saved the counter magic game two for his exhume. Thoughts on this would be helpful.

    Round 6: Hatfield, Alix – Zoo
    I know from the previous round that he is on Zoo because Matt played and lost to him the previous round. I also happen to know him because Matt played him at GP Chicago last year. I draw but mull to five and his dudes roll me. Game two we both play dudes, his being better. We get a warning when I submerge his dude, when he has no forests in play (he had Treetop Village + Horizon Canopy, thanks guys for catching it before he shuffled the Lynx away). It turns out just because he has green mana it does not mean he has a forest. The judge backs up the game and from then on he never gets a forest and the two submerges that may have turned it around are never cast. Rough beats.

    Round 7: Bailey, Chase – Charbelcher
    Game one he mulls and does nothing while I beat him down. Game two he resolves Xantid Swarm and I can’t stop him. Game three I keep force and beat down while he does nothing relevant.

    Round 8: Rooks, Michael – Dream Halls
    I go into the round with the highest breaks and think I have a chance at the top 8. Game one I put him on ANT when he plays Sea and Lotus petals. I play accordingly with stifle but he resolves Dream Halls and then plays four cruel ultimatums after some Confluxes. Game two I have the counter magic hand with pressure. He waits until the last possible turn and tries to play show and tell which I force, then I spell pierce his Dream Halls, he sacks his lotus petal and taps his last land to pay, I then return Daze to my hand and finish him off. Game three I keep FoW, LoA, Island, Island, Mutavault, Mutavault, Daze. I then draw FoW, then Stifle, and Echoing truth. In the meantime mutavaults are beating down. He goes for Show and Tell, which I force, then Dream Halls which I daze, and then he concedes.

    Round 9: Lynch, Paul – Merfolk with the W splash
    I sat next to him all day and we knew what each other was playing. I lose the roll and expect to lose quickly. We play dudes and attack. I do the math and know that even if he has a lord my LoA gives me the faster clock. When I vial in Kira and anther lord he goes from 13 to three. After he draws he concedes. Game two I mull to five and as I swing for lethal he vials in Llawan and I lose. Game three he has Serji Merfolk which is really bad for me. But I play Propaganda, he reads it, says fine, and then I play LoA and attack. He goes from 19 to two and once again after he draws he concedes. I can’t believe I won it and wait to see how my breakers end up. I need a miracle to top 8 and I don’t get one.

    I finish 7-2 and feel pretty happy with the deck. Kira was great and I would keep her in the main. The Back to Basics were brought in but never drawn and even if they were I don’t know if I would have kept them. Even if I had drawn then I don’t know if they would have won me many games. The Propaganda’s were good, if you’re a Merfolk player and unsure of playing them, try them out. They are good in the mirror, Zoo, Dredge, and against aggressive decks in general. Spell pierce was also great and I would have added a few more in place over Jitte or Back to Basics. Submerge was great all day and mono-u fish should play four. Relic is relic, but I would like to cut either the 2nd Jitte or B2B for a Ravenous Trap.

    Props:
    +Testing group. Thought we did a great job with the field
    +The lack of snow for the drive from Michigan
    +The cheap hotel
    +Finished trading the blue duals we needed
    +The group all being in the top 50 especially Josh Andrews who played Dredge to 44th a week after picking up the deck and at his 2nd legacy event

    Slops:
    -Not knowing that Reanimator was so good
    -Lack of food
    -The Stax player who got pissed at Matt round one, you lost, don’t make Matt listen to your crap about how good Stax is.

  2. #2
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    Re: SCG Richmond 5K - 10th Place

    Good job on the finish.

    By the looks of it, B2B didnt see much use. Would you have replaced it with something else? Possibly Threads? Also why is Kira on main while Jitte was on side? Would you have considered switching both spots?
    I am convinced that WotC is "dumbing" the game because of all the stupid posts they come across on MTG-related forums
    Quote Originally Posted by Kyle View Post
    13NoVa plays Force of Will from his hand.
    Finglonger plays Spell Pierce from his hand.
    [10:22:43]  13NoVa: lol
    sure
    Finglonger points from his Dack Fayden to 13NoVa's Sol Ring.
    [10:23:04]  13NoVa: lol dumb ******; nice draws with retard.dec
    stupid cocksucker
    You have been kicked out of the game.

  3. #3

    Re: SCG Richmond 5K - 10th Place

    Quote Originally Posted by Avier View Post
    Not to be critical but the crop of players at the event were not the highest caliber. Most of my early round opponents were standard players picking up a deck and trying to figure out the format. As the rounds progressed they defiantly improved.
    This is probably the most dangerous aspect of walking into a large event, even being well-prepared. There are some talented Standard players who saw an opportunity to try their hand at Legacy and ended up stunning more experienced Legacy players in the early goings.

    It's difficult to prepare for because the field is wide-open. Albeit everything, congrats on your finish.

  4. #4

    Re: SCG Richmond 5K - 10th Place

    How do you feel about Kira? I've tried it out before but IMO it's just too slow for my tastes. Having Jitte main has definitely done more for me than Kira main.

    Also interested in how you feel about BtB, because I also have it SB and never even used it.
    ゆっくりしていってね!!!

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    Re: SCG Richmond 5K - 10th Place

    Quote Originally Posted by (nameless one) View Post
    By the looks of it, B2B didnt see much use. Would you have replaced it with something else? Possibly Threads? Also why is Kira on main while Jitte was on side? Would you have considered switching both spots?
    B2B was never that useful. I don't want to immediately throw it out because of how good it is against Countertop and Thresh decks. I did a lot of testing against Canadian Thresh and once it resolves its pretty hard for them to beat. That being said those match ups aren't the worst. B2B also was for the Zoo plan. I was trying out the idea that if I can Stifle + Waste their lands, then play B2B, Propaganda they wouldn't have the time to Pridemage all of them and give me the time to win. In testing it was doing okay, but never great. I never drew any of them in my Zoo match and the whole plan may just not work. I tried Mind Harness in their slots and they were okay but not spectacular. They also gave me something against 43 Lands deck by slowing them down, but in reality that match up is pretty much un-winnable. I have never tested threads as Mind Harness seems like a better option to me.

    Kira is in the main because of how much Zoo I saw walking around the event. I also saw a lot of Merfolk and I had to make the call between which to run in the board and which to run main. I decided for Kira for a couple of reasons. My group looked at the results and in the top 16 (where we all planned to be) was filled with Dredge, Merfolk, Zoo, and Thresh variants. Jitte is better in Dredge and Merfolk matches, but Kira is better against Zoo and Thresh. I need help in the Zoo match up and I really wanted to beat the Thresh decks. Dredge, while difficult, is not impossible. In testing the night before I was going 13-2 post board games with Jitte's in the side. I felt okay there and the only question was the mirror. I have played the deck pretty much since Chicago and I think I know the deck better then the average Merfolk player. I've played the mirror enough to know the important part of the match up and so I decided on Kira main over Jitte. I wouldn't have changed them after all of my matches.

    Kira was very good for me in the main. A tad slow true, but protecting the lords is great. Her flying was very relevant as she got over dudes and Factories in situations where other creatures would have traded and left me in top deck mode.

    Quote Originally Posted by (Hollywood)
    This is probably the most dangerous aspect of walking into a large event, even being well-prepared. There are some talented Standard players who saw an opportunity to try their hand at Legacy and ended up stunning more experienced Legacy players in the early goings.
    I totally agree. Round 3 was against Nick and he told me he was a Standard player. He played really well and then continued to do well. His other lost was against Alix the same Zoo player I lost to. He told me in round two he smashed Merfolk and thought the match up was easy. That tells me he knows what he is doing. I hope he stays with the format as he was a blast to play against and was one of the more interesting matches all day.

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