1st Place with Tide Spiral at tiny Davis Legacy Event 11-04-09

[aahz]

Part I: Introduction
This was supposed to be a GP Providence Trial at Drom's in Davis, but there weren't enough people (only 7 showed up to play and we couldn't manage to convince anyone else to play even though several of us had decks to lend out). This didn't bother me too much as I don't care about the byes (wasn't going to Providence anyway) and the usual crowd of mildly annoying standard players was absent due a local PTQ (or so I hear). We ended up playing with 8 (including Jenkins, the Judge and senior Drom's rep, in the 8th slot). After many minutes of pondering possible tourney structures given the attendees and preferences (and at least a few games of Vintage), it was decided on four rounds with no play off. I was just glad to be playing some Legacy (and Vintage!). Given the recent SCG events, I felt I was required to play Tide Spiral because I happen to own two Candelabra of Tawnos (along with most of the deck) from way back (as in I built this deck with $5 and some cards I had sitting around). Playing Tide Spiral feels dirty (and my build isn't even that good!). I think I'm going to build a GBW deck to get the stink off:

Tide Spiral
4 Time Spiral
4 High Tide
4 Merchant Scroll
3 Turnabout
3 Meditate
3 Cunning Wish
1 Intuition
1 Mind Over Matter
4 Force of Will
1 Pact of Negation
1 Blue Sun’s Zenith
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
2 Preordain
2 Retraced Image
2 Candelabra of Tawnos
4 Flooded Strand
14 Island

Sideboard
1 Turnabout
1 Meditate
1 Blue Sun’s Zenith
1 Brainfreeze
1 Snap
1 Wipe Away
1 Rebuild
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Echoing Truth
3 Counterspell
2 Pact of Negation


Part II: Match Details

Round 1 versus Carl with SneaknShow, 2-0
Carl was a really nice guy. He was playing with a borrowed SneaknShow deck. I felt really bad playing Tide Spiral. I think I beat him 2-0. I put Mind Over Matter into play from a Show and Tell and went off looking at his Emrakul. I hope he doesn't hate Legacy after this match; it was kind of disgraceful in that (horribly) satisfying storm kinda way (i.e. my deck is WAY more broken than yours, deal with it (and he was even cheating in Emrakul!)).

1-0


Round 2 versus B.C. with Goblins, 2-1
Game One was epic. Goblins outraced Tide Spiral. Lackey into Siege Gang with a Sharpshooter. He hit me for the exact amount of damage needed. I would have gone off if I had been able to untap. This game makes me want to build Goblins. Seriously. While Islands are impervious to Wasteland, Rishadan Port can still have quite an impact.

But it turns out that combo still beats Goblins statistically speaking.

2-0


Round 3 versus Kevin with Mono-Black, 2-1
Game One is lost to stupidity on my part (and disruption from Kevin). I see Bob, Hymn, and Therapy. Even though I only run 2 Candles, I should pay more attention to Revoker. I do in games Two and Three. Game Two he has Leyline of the Void, which I have to bounce with Echoing Truth before going off. I fizzle once before finishing up in a second attempt. Cards seen include Gatekeeper of Malakir, Confidant, and Revoker again. In Game Three, I counter Abyssal Persecutor to keep him off flashback Therapy. Cabal Therapy is a really good card and very brutal when well played. This match makes me want to play Dredge. Time ran out, so Jenkins came by to ask about turns, but time didn't matter because the High Tide turn had already started when time was called. He can't stop me from getting 67 mana to finish him with Zenith.

3-0


Round Four versus Sean with Burn, 0-2
I got owned in both of these games. Game One he just outraces me (bad keep vs. burn, but I didn't know what he was playing). Turn 2 Retracing Flooded Strand; I might have made it without that life loss. Game Two I try to go off but fizzle with lethal on his board. I never see a Time Spiral either game. Even gruesome combo can die to burn. I love Legacy.

3-1


Part III: Epilogue
I still get 1st. I'm definitely going to bring a non-combo deck next time. In retrospect, I probably should have just played Enchantress, which is normally my go to deck. While the SneaknShow matchup is questionable, Enchantress would have had a good matchup against everything else I saw (aside from Sclabman's TES, though B.C. would have been playing Doomsday if his LED's weren't hangin' with Poxy at the moment).

As far as Tide Spiral is concerned, I like Retraced Image (probably back up to 3, which I used in testing but cut one from this version). It is awesome when going off and can accelerate versus fast decks. Cunning Wish is too slow sometimes; I might go down to two. I was attempting to play a fast Game One with Retraced Image and Meditate, but siding those out into a more controlling version (with Counterspell and Emrakul, unless balls out combo was more appropriate) for later games. I only played Emrakul once or twice, but he's a monster (also good vs. PaintedStone) though he unfortunately doesn't play nice with Meditate. I'm tempted to put a Personal Tutor as Time Spiral #5 in the main (see Round Four). However, going up to 4 Ponder/Preordain is likely to be better. I really wanted to work in 1-2 Fact or Fiction, just so my opponents had something to do if they weren't playing Force of Will, but they just cost too much at 4 CMC. I only used Brainfreeze once (and that was only because I could Freeze then Zenith for 1 immediately, so that instance was really just flashy win more), but I have a feeling that I should still leave it in the side.

I seemed to do worse as the tournament went on (my matches were always the longest except when I 0-2'd against burn in the last round), but this deck is pretty ridiculous. I feel like my crotch is coated in sea salt after this event, so I think I'm about High Tided out for a while and will mostly likely be playing a different deck for the foreseeable future. I can't promise I'll be attacking with creatures though (but I still suck too much to play TES despite the fact that I have the whole deck built). I can echo Ben Weinberg's statement (I'm paraphrasing and putting words in his mouth here) that for some reason High Tide flows better than counting to 10/casting Tendrils. Maybe it's because I'd rather be playing control, and Tide Spiral can sit back and play the control game in some matchups. I think it may also be that all the thinking/calculations are more spread out when playing High Tide (rather than in quick succession like typical Storm builds), so you get a break while shuffling between Time Spirals.


Part IV: Vintage Addendum
Why is it so hard psychologically to take Dark Confidants out of my Vintage deck to play them in Legacy? Also, Blightsteel Colossi (mine was Tinkered, the Lotushead's was Sculpted) kill each other with Infect even though they are indestructible.


Thanks for reading. I wouldn't normally bother to write something like this up, but this was only my second actual Legacy event (first was SCG San Jose where I didn't do too well). As a result, it was quite gratifying to actually win, though the vacant stares of my opponents during my combo turns did make me feel like kind of an asshole for playing a deck this filthy.

[Diprivan]

!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!THIS DECK IS OVERPOWERED!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!1 WE NEED MOAR TALK ABOUT BANNING TIME SPIRAL!

/sarcasm off

Nice report

PS: practice more with TES and play that pile next time. You'll get rewarded.

[hyc8028]

Congrats on the finish! Me and my friends wanted to come, but I had work on Saturday.

[sclabman]

YEAH! Too bad we didn't end up having the option to duel. I was playing so sloppily.

[aahz]

YEAH! Too bad we didn't end up having the option to duel. I was playing so sloppily.

I would have preferred the Tide on Storm matchup to Burn in the last round, too. High Tide is surprisingly weak to burn. Those games were kind of eye-opening for me. It was kind of nice to see the mean combo deck go down to a deck with basically no expensive cards in it though (even if I had to be the one losing that match). Just goes to show how wide open the field is. Hopefully there will be more Legacy events around Davis and more people will come out next time.

[sclabman]

Well wasn't the guy saying he'd throw something together on Sundays? That would just be great once in a while. It's not like they're losing much by just putting the prizes into store credit. In fact it's just a profit.

I brewed up a deck specifically to beat the combo decks present and also the random homebrews. I think it's pretty sick.