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!