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Thread: StarCityGames: Denver *5th*

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    StarCityGames: Denver *5th*

    Hello, my name is Bob, and I’m a huge fan of eternal formats. Not more than 6 months ago, I was on hiatus because I was burned out. I learned from a friend that StarCityGames would come to Denver in August for a Legacy tournament. I knew then that I wanted to play and win some money. It was a long journey getting back into competitive magic. I read as many articles as I could on Legacy and began playing an Ichorid list. I quickly came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the deck for me. It was too inconsistent for my tastes and was just hated out too easily. Then, in one of our playtesting sessions, a friend gave me Saito’s Ad Naus deck, and I didn’t drop a single game the rest of that night. I was stunned. Brainstorm, Ponder, Mystical Tutor, Lotus Petal, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Chrome Mox, all unrestricted? WTF? I had the deck I wanted to play. I putzed around with other decks, including Lands, Reanimator, and Merfolk, but I knew I was set on Ad Naus. Then came the announcement that everyone dreaded: Mystical tutor banned. Like others, I was pissed and just assumed combo was dead. I came to this site and stumbled upon Bryant’s TES. I sleeved it up and played some games. Funny thing happened: I was winning. I kept thinking it couldn’t be real and that I was just getting good draws. About a week before the tourney I was down to 3 decks: Merfolk splash red, TES, and CounterTop Thopters. Saturday rolls around and I decide to test the waters and play the Legacy Challenge. My buddy (who’s mostly a Standard player) requests that I play TES, since he was playing it at the main event and wanted to watch me pilot the deck. Long story short, I went 3-0-1, beating Merfolk, Combo, and Solidarity. At that same tourney, my friend AJ Hill played Merfolk splash red and went 0-2 drop. I noticed the field was very soft with random junk (not the field to play merfolk), so I made the decision to play TES. It’s the most unfair deck, and the deck that mostly resembles something from Vintage. I came to battle with this:

    Artifacts
    4 Chrome Mox
    4 Lion's Eye Diamond
    4 Lotus Petal

    Instants
    1 Ad Nauseam
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Dark Ritual
    3 Orim's Chant
    1 Pyroblast

    Sorceries
    4 Burning Wish
    4 Duress
    1 Empty the Warrens
    4 Infernal Tutor
    4 Ponder
    4 Rite of Flame
    1 Tendrils of Agony

    Lands
    2 Bloodstained Mire
    2 City of Brass
    4 Gemstone Mine
    2 Misty Rainforest
    2 Underground Sea
    1 Volcanic Island

    Sideboard:
    2 Chain of Vapor
    1 Echoing Truth
    2 Krosan Grip
    2 Pyroblast
    1 Diminishing Returns
    1 Empty the Warrens
    1 Eye of Nowhere
    1 Grapeshot
    1 Ill-Gotten Gains
    1 Shattering Spree
    1 Tendrils of Agony
    1 Thoughtseize

    It’s Bryant’s list with a few changes. First, from the maindeck, I cut the silence and added a pyroblast. I feel that 4 chant effects is too many, and I hated drawing hands with double chant and no white mana. Pyroblast was amazing all day. Yes, it’s dead against non blue decks, but the last time I checked, those matchups were byes. This also freed up some much needed sideboard space. From the board, I went to 2 chain of vapors (expecting goblins and zoo) and 2 grip (expecting plenty of CounterTop).

    Round 1: Evan with Countertop home brew
    Game 1: I lead with duress and take his counterbalance. He has no juice, except for a turn 2 tarmogoyf. I untap, chant, and win with Ad Nauseam. SB: -1 Infernal Tutor, -1 Chrome Mox, +2 Grip
    Game 2: He looks very uneasy keeping his seven. He plays land go. I duress his hand and see 2 goyf, deed, and lands. He plays tarmogoyf on his turn. On my next turn, I untap and win with Ad Nauseam.
    1-0, 2-0

    Round 2: Kyle with Burn (2nd place deck)
    Game 1: I mull to six and put him on counterbalance. My hand is mana + disruption. I was shocked when he played turn 1 lavamancer. I duress him and see 3 bolts. I almost pull through, but he has a fireblast to kill me. SB: -1 Pyroblast, -1 Infernal Tutor, +2 Chain of Vapor
    Game 2: I duress him and see a price of progress and 2 Keldon Marauders. I take price, take some damage and win easily with Ad Nauseam.
    Game 3: He leads with double Goblin Guide in his first two turns but is stuck on one land. This gives me time to find what I need (Ponder, brainstorm) to win easily.
    2-0, 4-1

    Round 3: John with Zoo
    Game 1: He plays turn 1 steppe lynx, I play turn 1 ponder. He has fetch land tarmogoyf, swings and puts me at 16. I win on my turn 2 with Ad Nauseam. SB: -1 pyroblast, -1 Infernal Tutor, -1 Duress, +2 Chain of Vapor, +1 Echoing truth
    Game 2: I expect a ton of hate in the form of Gaddock/Cannonist. I’m shocked when he only has turn 1 Nacatl, turn 2 goyf. He puts me at 11 and I easily get there with Ad Nauseam.
    3-0, 6-1

    Round 4: Kyle with Countertop (Top 8 finish)
    Game 1: He has top but can’t find anything, while I sit back and find double chant. I chant him and easily go off with Ad Nauseum. SB: -1 Infernal Tutor, -1 Ponder, -2 Chrome Mox, +2 Pyroblast, +2 Krosan Grip
    Game 2: I think I boarded too heavily in this matchup. I stopped most of his relevant spells with Grip/pyroblast, but he casts a goyf while I draw blanks.
    Game 3: I mull to six and duress seeing 2 land, top, counterbalance, 2x Jace, 1 Clique. I take top. He eventually lands a counterbalance and clique/goyf, which gets him there.
    3-1, 7-3

    Round 5: Zach with Goblins
    Feature Match SB: -1 Pyroblast, -2 Duress, +2 Chain of Vapor, +1 Echoing Truth
    4-1, 9-3

    Round 6: Alex with UW Tempo
    Feature Match SB:-1 Chrome Mox, -1 Infernal Tutor, +2 Chain of Vapor. I felt really bad for him, as he mulled to 4 in game 3 and I had the absolute stones in game 1. Oh well, gotta love Legacy!
    5-1, 11-3

    Round 7: AJ with Lands
    We’re very good friends and test partners, I tell him I’m confident I’ll rip through the T8, so he scoops me in. Plus, let’s be honest, Lands has what, a 0.2% chance of winning the match? :D
    6-1, 13-3

    Quarterfinals: Constantine (eventual winner) with Merfolk
    Feature Match SB: -1 Chrome Mox, -1 Infernal Tutor, +2 Pyroblast

    I lost this, but I have to say, I would have won had I not savagely punted. When I duressed him in the third game, I should have taken daze, not Force of Will. I was just exhausted/too excited. I thought I had it in the bag, so I rushed this decision. Had I taken the Force, he couldn’t have dazed my Lion’s Eye Diamond, and I would have had 3 additional mana to go off. Oh well, guess that’s why I’m not a pro. At the end of turns, he had no hand, and I suspect I could have gone off one more turn. Sucks to lose that way, but he did out play me.

    So there you have it. My SCG: Denver experience. I met some awesome people and had a great weekend. Thanks to SCG for hosting such an awesome tourney here in my stomping grounds. Finally, for anyone who tests Legacy: Combo is the real deal.

    A huge thanks to:
    - AJ Hill for testing and convincing me to not play Merfolk
    - Bryant Cook for creating this monster of a deck
    - All my teammates on Meandeck for the support
    - All my opponents for being awesome
    - Everyone cheering me on!
    - SCG for hosting these awesome tourneys

    Slops to me for letting my peeps down in the top 8!

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    Re: StarCityGames: Denver *5th*

    Great Job and congratulations! Did the maindeck Pyroblast ever help out? It looks like you sided it out quite a bit.
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    Re: StarCityGames: Denver *5th*

    Who the fuck counters LED against TES? He gave you the victory in your hands directly.
    Quote Originally Posted by Pastorofmuppets View Post
    you just want us to do that because of your Silences, you sly dog.
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    Re: StarCityGames: Denver *5th*

    Quote Originally Posted by Piceli89 View Post
    Who the fuck counters LED against TES? He gave you the victory in your hands directly.
    It took me some time to figure out why he did that. I'm guessing he thought the opponent was playing LED Dredge... but even then I don't think it's right to FoW the LED itself when the Dredge player is on a 7 cards hand

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    Re: StarCityGames: Denver *5th*

    It was game 3 so I can assure you that Constantine knew he was on TES. My guess would be he was trying to keep him off mana and Tutor. You can call it a risky move but it worked.

    Grats on the finish Bob.
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    Re: StarCityGames: Denver *5th*

    Quote Originally Posted by Lifeless View Post
    It was game 3 so I can assure you that Constantine knew he was on TES. My guess would be he was trying to keep him off mana and Tutor. You can call it a risky move but it worked.

    Grats on the finish Bob.
    Hm, not sure what game you are talking about.

    I was referring to the feature match of round 6: Alexander Kiracofe vs Bob Yu. In the first game (according to the ggslive video, it's the 1st game) Alexander uses FoW on Bob's turn 1 LED, exiling Spell Pierce

    Anyways, congrats on the result!

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    Re: StarCityGames: Denver *5th*

    Quote Originally Posted by kikoo View Post
    Hm, not sure what game you are talking about.

    I was referring to the feature match of round 6: Alexander Kiracofe vs Bob Yu. In the first game (according to the ggslive video, it's the 1st game) Alexander uses FoW on Bob's turn 1 LED, exiling Spell Pierce

    Anyways, congrats on the result!
    My mistake, I though you were referencing the Quarterfinals.
    Quote Originally Posted by sasa_batora View Post
    <you> Wrath destroys it. Moreover it cannot fly over Moat.
    <Palyer> omg you are retadr

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    Re: StarCityGames: Denver *5th*

    Congrats on the finish. Good to see TES make the T8 again in a major tournament.

    Off-topic: Please PM me the Merfolk w/ Red splash decklist. I've yet to see a good one, real curious to see what you guys came up with.
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    Re: StarCityGames: Denver *5th*

    Quote Originally Posted by Plague Sliver View Post
    Off-topic: Please PM me the Merfolk w/ Red splash decklist. I've yet to see a good one, real curious to see what you guys came up with.
    Look in the Merfolk topic.
    Quote Originally Posted by Pastorofmuppets View Post
    you just want us to do that because of your Silences, you sly dog.
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    Re: StarCityGames: Denver *5th*

    Great Job and congratulations! Did the maindeck Pyroblast ever help out? It looks like you sided it out quite a bit.
    Thanks! It didn't help too much Sunday, but did help quite a bit in the Legacy Challenge. There was never a time where I drew blast and wished it was Silence. Another thing to consider, is that it gives you red, off chrome mox. In one of my Saturday games I had mox, rite, wish, pyroblast.

    Also, Alex definitely put me on dredge, so he Forced. Let's give him a break, we were both nervous as hell, and probably tired by that point.

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    Bryant Cook
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    Re: StarCityGames: Denver *5th*

    Good read. Congratulations on your finish.

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    Re: StarCityGames: Denver *5th*

    Quote Originally Posted by Clown of Tresserhorn View Post
    Thanks! It didn't help too much Sunday, but did help quite a bit in the Legacy Challenge. There was never a time where I drew blast and wished it was Silence. Another thing to consider, is that it gives you red, off chrome mox. In one of my Saturday games I had mox, rite, wish, pyroblast.

    Also, Alex definitely put me on dredge, so he Forced. Let's give him a break, we were both nervous as hell, and probably tired by that point.
    Opening with Gemstone Mine + LED does look like Dredge. I hadn't played against a Tendrils deck since the banning of Mystical. I guess this is what it looks like now.

    My biggest punt was not countering Burning Wish g3. I knew I needed to counter but I over complicated things in my head. I believe you had a 2nd Wish in you hand + enough mana for Tendrals/Empty. My Force would have just given you more storm . Anyways, congrats on the finish! I should have congratulated you in person!

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