[Free Article] Attacking in Legacy, Part 2: Winning an SCG Open is Awesome!

[voltron00x]

On Sunday, 6/6, I attacked my way to victory at the Starcitygames.com Philadelphia Open. This article explains why I played Zoo, goes over some deck construction choices, and reviews the tournament.

It appears the deck is still going strong, with a very similar build coming in second at the Starcitygames.com Seattle Open yesterday.


http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l...s_Awesome.html

[nitewolf9]

I enjoyed the article and the report, once again congratulations. You are spot on with your assessment of Zoo's consistency, and you seem to make a few judgements about your sideboard not being as useful as you would have liked.

So with that, given this tournament, how do you think you would change your sideboard?

[voltron00x]

I think there may be some legitimacy to ignoring the ANT match-up in the sideboard and just accepting that one as a loss, in favor of additional support for the mirror (such as Path #4, and some Jittes, as a start). The mirror seems a much more likely match-up than ANT, for the moment.

Of course, these things are all cyclical, as a field full of Zoo that is ignoring the ANT match-up is asking to be wrecked by a good ANT player.

[Phoenix Ignition]

Great read, congrats on the win!

[mchainmail]

I definitely don't think the Lands matchup is as bad as you make it out to be. Definitely 60/40 for Lands, but possibly closer. T1 Steppe Lynx puts the Lands player on such a quick clock that it becomes difficult to stabilize. Add on some amount of instant speed burn, and the match can very easily tilt.

[voltron00x]

You might be right re: lands, but I definitely got housed by it at the GPT in DC. Could've just been bad luck on my part but it felt very one-sided. I didn't draw any Price of Progress though, having a 4th should help a lot.

[Arrg]

Good read, I'm glad this wasn't premium. Congrats on your win!

[Valtrix]

I appreciate a lot the thoughts behind approaching the tournament, and the considerations when constructing the decklist. Also, I'm very intrigued by the "original" sideboard:

4 Leyline of the Void
4 Mindbreak Trap
2 Serum Powder
1 Price of Progress
2 Pyroblast
2 Krosan Grip

Given the chance to test, do you think you may have used this board instead? I really like the philosophy of that board. Namely, opening with trap or leyline against their respective decks will likely be enough to slow them down to goldfish them with the fast clock that the deck runs. (Or at least make it too hard for them to win with such low life)

[voltron00x]

I appreciate a lot the thoughts behind approaching the tournament, and the considerations when constructing the decklist. Also, I'm very intrigued by the "original" sideboard:

4 Leyline of the Void
4 Mindbreak Trap
2 Serum Powder
1 Price of Progress
2 Pyroblast
2 Krosan Grip

Given the chance to test, do you think you may have used this board instead? I really like the philosophy of that board. Namely, opening with trap or leyline against their respective decks will likely be enough to slow them down to goldfish them with the fast clock that the deck runs. (Or at least make it too hard for them to win with such low life)

I think it definitely helps a lot vs. Lands, because you really just want Price of Progress no matter what.

I’m not sold on it vs Reanimator. It might be fine; if they have to Mystical for Echoing Truth, you’re probably in the clear for a few turns, and that might be enough. However, you lose the ability to draw into more hate cards and have a bunch of dead draws floating through your deck. So far, I think the 6th Graveyard hate card should just be another “free” hate card like another Crypt / Faerie, which more or less accomplishes the same thing.

Vs Storm it’s probably fine, they’ll know you have MB Trap, but that probably buys you at least 1-2 turns, and you can still draw more Mindbreak Traps and have them be “live” hate cards.

[Hitman82]

Great article! I hope you keep these articles up as they're a great way for new players to understand the format better and those familiar to get a deeper understanding about what's going on.

[Vacrix]

I also enjoyed the article. Well written sir.

On the topic of the experimental Serum Powder SB.. I think your point that storm players try to play around bears, not traps is a valid point. I personally am not a fan of trap since your opponent can quite easily just play some land, and then Dark Ritual into AdN and then your trap just sits in your hand smiling at you as they play around it with their plethora of spare cards and mana in hand before going for the throat. Of course you might run into a bad player who doesn't take that precaution but if you have the resources to play around Trap, you might as well do it. Trap is strongest in Game 2 because your opponent will try to play around it in Game 3. I don't know about Mindbreak Trap and Serum Powder working together. It sounds great on paper but Mindbreak Trap is strong because its a surprise. Especially if you play first in game 2, Serum Powder says "I'm mulliganing for my hate." Your opponent will then try to play around the hate instead of trying to ghost you with a fast hand. Too often while playing storm my opponents would rather keep their solid 7, apply some pressure quickly so that AdN draws me fewer cards (even though I don't play AdN) and then they will hope to draw their hate pieces. Honestly, my opponents have beaten me more often by keeping their 7 and drawing into their hate then they have by mulliganing down to 4 just so they have that one piece of hate.
I think those 2 Serum Powder would be much better as 2 Gaddock Teeg. As you said, Teeg is modular between many different matchups, not just storm.

[Aggro_zombies]

Doesn't combo want to lead off with Chant against a partially or completely untapped Zoo opponent anyway? All Zoo lists have Bolts, and then some mix of Lightning Helix, Fireblast, and PoP or something. That means you have to be careful about your life total because your opponent could burn you out after Ad Noz (although you could get lucky and find what you're looking for quickly, which makes burn worse).

It just feels like Zoo can throw so much damage at you so quickly that mediocre to weak hands are in serious danger of causing you to suicide off of your draw engine. Chant lets you be a bit more cavalier with your life total because you don't have to worry about the burn spells.

[joshpart23]

Hi,
Have you tested your Zoo list against the newer Merfolk lists, similar to the one that won the Bazaar of Moxen tournament? I have been testing the matchup and been getting results that indicate that while still unfavorable for Merfolk, it is much closer than it had been with previous iterations of mono blue Merfolk. Just wanted to know if the sample size was too small or the matchup had significantly improved. Congrats on the win, your articles are always excellent and avoid the condescending tone of many eternal articles that makes them annoying to read.

[frogboy]

I think there may be some legitimacy to ignoring the ANT match-up in the sideboard and just accepting that one as a loss, in favor of additional support for the mirror (such as Path #4, and some Jittes, as a start). The mirror seems a much more likely match-up than ANT, for the moment.

Of course, these things are all cyclical, as a field full of Zoo that is ignoring the ANT match-up is asking to be wrecked by a good ANT player.

Dan Marley took this approach last weekend, yeah.

[jazzykat]

1. Congratulations.
2. This is a fantastic report up with the old Bardo reports in terms of quality, usefulness, and entertainment value of what is normally a dry subject. IMO while you are probably more excited about winning a SCG open, what you did with this report is harder to achieve. Think about it, there is a winner on average every month or so. There is an excellent tournament report only a few times a year.

[Bardo]

Great article and well done!

Not only is attacking awesome, it's also fun.

This particularly resonates with me:

Third, I was comfortable playing Zoo and confident I could play it close to optimally. This was going to be a long tournament if I was in contention, and playing a deck that was less mentally taxing, and one where I was less likely to agonize over misplays, would play to my strengths. When you misplay with Zoo (such as when I almost punted game 2 in the finals by playing around Daze at the wrong time), you can still win. When you misplay with ANT or Reanimator, often the result is an immediate loss. I also just really enjoy playing this deck, and that enjoyment helps keep me mentally focused on the game itself

And your metagame observations are valid.