Eternal Weekend - Legacy main event 10/10/10
293 Players
Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain

After 7 swiss rounds during the day before in the Vintage event (with an acceptable 5-0-3 and an assistance of more than 150 players), I should decide what to play in the legacy main event, well... it was already decided indeed, 5 Color Epic Storm was the deck to go, why was that? When facing a big event like this you should make lots of considerations in order to choose the dek to play:

-Expected Metagame. Does the deck have good pairings in this meta you predicted?
-Would I endure fresh enough with the deck all the rounds?
-Would people pack enough hate/disruption? If so, can my deck adapt to handle that matter?
-And most important of all, am I confortable with the deck?

For the first one my thought was a metagame with lots of merfolks, Vengevine (in both incarnations WG/UG), Zoo and some CB, Landstill and Goblins. So the only paring to fear was CB-Top, being merfolks a threat if they have a nice curve, but this is not very likely, they normally have an unbalanced hand which makes the pairing slightly favorable. All this means that I could minimize my intellectual effort in most rounds.

As I 've been playing the list for long time, and before it DD ANT, I know my head was preapred for the challenge, so the second point was solved. The third question was positively answered since the regular thought is that combo, while still in the meta, is not the strongest option (IMHO this is because TES is really hard deck to master and people give up playing it before thay can even taste its true power, I failed so many times before playing it decently), so they pack few true hate making your only really bad pairing the CB-Top, and some 3hold incarnations. For the final question I have to say a big YES, I really enjoy playing storm combo (in every format I play, mostly eternal formats) and I think that TES is a very good list (some may not agree but I think that is the strongest deck in the actual legacy metagame, well done Bryant!).

Here is the list:

"T2T - The Epic Storm"

Main deck 60

4 Gemstone Mine
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 City of Brass
1 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Badlands

4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Burning Wish
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Infernal Tutor
2 Orim’s Chant
2 Silence
4 Duress
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony

Sideboard 15

1 Diminishing Returns
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Oust
1 Shattering Spree
1 Meltdown
1 Pyroclasm
1 Echoing Truth
2 Krosan Grip
2 Pyroblast

There are very few changes from Bryant's List, since I can see it as the optimal one, so the chnages were more metagame/style oriented than for efficiency.

I want to note the addition of Oust, this is a last week change (it was Deathmark beofre) in order to battle those reanimator and most important WG Vengevine that Pack Iona, Oust can do the same job than Deathmark but helps you to fight Iona that if can enter the battlefield the game is practically lost... I considered Eye of nowhere but the UU casting cost made it very hard to cast without cracking the LED, and discarding your whole hand seemed not a great Idea if your goal was only to bounce any random threat.

I'm sorry since I cannot remember the details of every match so I will eplain the ones I can remember, that may be the most relevant ones.

R1 - UG Vengevine Survival (Vicente Ferreras)

I won 2-0. The deck packs very few disruption and I could plady around daze and stifle/Wasteland for the whole first match, second match pierces came in to difficult my labor but still the goblins took his victim.

Side:

+2 Pyroblast, +1 Echoing Truth
-1 Infernal Tutor, -1 Ponder, -1 Chrome Mox

R2 - Naya Zoo (Carlos Víctor Vasquez)

I won 2-1. I lost my first match on the play resolving a second turn As Nauseam at 20 life and revealing both Tendrils and Warrens with no Chrome/Petals, a single copy of one of those (and I had 7 in the deck) could have won me the game, but this things happens when you play Ad Nauseam. In the third game I opened with orim' s chant and echoing truth and he opened with a nacatl, since I have the E. Truth I decided not to play the chant in his second turn to prevent him playing Teeg/cannonist and he played Teeg, in the second turn I bouced it and go off with Ad Nauseam.

Side:

+1 Oust, +1 IGG, +1 Echoing Truth
-2 Duress, -1 Empty the Warrens

R3 - Merfolk UB (José Higueras)

I can' t remember much about this game but it was a 2-1 in my favor.

Side:

+2 Pyroblast, +1 Echoing Truth
-1 Infernal Tutor, -1 Ponder, -1 Chrome Mox

R4 - Burn (David Rueda)

He came for constructed and as most constructed players played a fast aggro deck (Zoo/Burn/...) First game I was on the draw and he played Scalding Tarn thing that distracted me a little but in my EOT he fetched for a mountain and litghtened to my head, this relaxed me a lot, in my third turn I had a silence and gemstone mine + lotus petal in hand, and 2 land on table, I was at 11 life, and his mana was opened, so I played lotus petal --> silence in order to minimize Price of Progress damage, he responded with some sparks and I ended the game with IGG loop for the win. The second round started with lava spike on my head and after a mulligan I had a 10 Goblin hand, I proceed and in my third turn I killed him being at 1 life and him with an empty hand.

Side:

+2 Krosan Grip, +1 Echoing Truth (Only relevant possible side was Pyrostatic Pillar but he didn't played it finally)
-1 Ponder, -2 Duress

R5 - Naya Zoo (Miguel Angel Rodriguez)

I had a great hand but with no rituals at all (though some petals and tutors + cantrips) he killed me before I draw a ritual to go off,

He splashed blue (tropical island) for Meddling Mage in the sideboard but the only thing I remember is that he played Teeg I Pyroclasmed his board and go off, in the third round he kept a hand with some mages but with no fetch/tropical, so it was easy to go off w/o opposition.

SIde:

+1 Oust, +1 Echoing Truth, +1x IGG
-1 Infernal Tutor, -1 Duress, -1 Empty the Warrens

R6 - Survi-Elves (Omar Nieto)

First game, on the draw, he played Fydhorn Elves + go. My turn: land + petal + 2xLED + Infernal tutor + Burning wish. After considering my options, since I didn't want to go for srtaight Ad Nauseam kill (I try to avoid it as much as I can due to its gambling nature), I decided to burning wish into IGG then Ad Nauseam to maximize storm.

Second game was terrible for me, specially since I've mischosen the sideboard (not including the spree/meltdown), he started with forest + llanowar, I played land + ponder, then he droped and Amethyst, and next turn a second one, this was game.

Third game was similar to the firat one, I played land + go, he played forest + go, then I IGG loop into 16 goblins for the win.

Side: (2nd game):

+1 Echoing Truth, +1 Krosan Grip, +1 Oust, +1 IGG
-2 Duress (I was on the draw), -1 Infernal Tutor, -1 Empty the Warrens

Side: (3rd game):

+1 Echoing Truth, +1 Krosan Grip, +1 Shaterring Spree (should have been meltdown), +1 IGG
-2 Silence (I was on the play), -1 Infernal Tutor, -1 Empty the Warrens


R7 - BUG Threshold (David López de las Hazas)

He countered every single card I played in the first game, even the cantrips, and I was not able to find a tutor to go off.

Second game I started to burn his counter wall and in the critical turn I played silence to his FoWm then manage to make 8 storm with an infernal tutor on the stack and empty hand and 4 Black + 1 Red in the pool, my opponent was at 19 life with an scalding tarn untapped and a Dark confidant in play, inthis situations I had to options go for Ad Nauseam or a Tendrils for 18 (and wait the confidant to make his job), if I choose the ADN option he can respond with 3x Force of Will, 4x Daze and 3x Brainstorm to find one of those, and If I go for the Tendrils he could only respond with 4x Stifle, as I played Duress 2 turns before and saw not stifle/cantrips, I felt the Tendrils a safer option and played it but he had the stifle in hand. 0-2

Side:

+2 Pyroblast
-1 Infernal Tutor, -1 Chrome Mox

R7 - UB Merfolks (Pablo Marcos Medrano)

First game I lose. Second game I managed to ADN for the win. In the third round Played around his pierces/daze, and after playing a duress into his FoW I resolved ADN knowing that he had a daze in hand (well i didn't know since I have not seen his hand but it seemed pretty obvious, after the match he confessed he had it), this time being at 19 life was enough to win through ADN.

Side:

+2 Pyroblast, +1 Echoing Truth
-1 Infernal Tutor, -1 Ponder, -1 Chrome Mox

R9 - W/G Vengevine (Sergio Matesanz)

Intentional Draw into the Top 8.

Since I had a flight to Barcelona at 22:30 and the Top 8 should start at 20:30-21:00 I offered to split prizes so I can take it, though I told the players that if they prefer to play I already managed to have a room for that extra night and transport to go back home, but I prefer to take that flight for family/economy matters, and as the getlemen they are they accepted and split (12-13 dulas each).

I should thank:

-My teammates, friends and travel partners for making my weekend and exceptional adventure that I hope we can repeat, and teaching me with his great magic insight.
-Cesar for organising such a great weekend.
-Clandestino organitzation for supporting the whole thing.
-All the players in the events for making this experience possible.

Greetings,

Iñaki.-