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Thread: A long overdue tale of 20/20s (SCG Richmond top 8, Junk Depths)

  1. #1

    A long overdue tale of 20/20s (SCG Richmond top 8, Junk Depths)

    This tale really starts about a week before the tournament itself. I was pretty sure I was going to attend the open but I wasn't confident being I would be leaving for college in a week. This tournament weekend was for legacy only of course, mostly being I don't own any standard cards besides my 4 banned Jaces and Mystics. During the week before the event I knew I could play from the choices of zoo, any stoneblade variant, various standstill decks, or even the crappy cephalid combo deck. So the FNM the week before I was speaking to a local legacy player about what his thoughts on the format were and he said that the deck that seemed more fun than any of the rest was the Junk Depths deck. From that moment forward I was set, after all the only thing I had to do was track down 3 Mox Diamonds, 2 Dark Depths, 1 Karakas, 2 Life From the Loams, and 4 Living Wishes without spending any actual money. By the end of the week through a few good trades and friends I had completed this list only a few minutes before the legacy challenge on the Saturday of the event weekend....

    Maindeck:

    Artifacts
    3 Mox Diamond

    Creatures
    4 Dark Confidant
    4 Knight of the Reliquary
    3 Tarmogoyf
    3 Vampire Hexmage

    Instants
    4 Mental Misstep
    4 Swords to Plowshares

    Sorceries
    2 Life from the Loam
    4 Living Wish
    4 Thoughtseize

    Basic Lands
    1 Forest
    1 Swamp

    Lands
    2 Bayou
    1 Bojuka Bog
    2 Horizon Canopy
    4 Marsh Flats
    1 Maze of Ith
    1 Savannah
    2 Scrubland
    4 Verdant Catacombs
    3 Wasteland

    Legendary Lands
    1 Karakas
    1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

    Legendary Snow Lands
    1 Dark Depths

    Sideboard:
    1 Qasali Pridemage
    1 Shriekmaw
    1 Tarmogoyf
    1 Vampire Hexmage
    2 Extirpate
    1 Gaddock Teeg
    1 Kataki, War's Wage
    4 Inquisition of Kozilek
    1 Bojuka Bog
    1 Wasteland
    1 Dark Depths

    (This list is a 74 card copy of Brian Boss's list; the only difference was the maindeck Bog)

    The Legacy challenge wasn't too interesting. I got by smashed a fish player sadly, destroyed a dredge player with main deck Bog and sb hate, and then barely pulled of a win against a tired Burn player while losing to again to a NO RUG CT deck.... IDK what he was doing. 2-2 wasn't very exciting so I just put my thoughts aside and went with my last minute audible the next day.

    The next morning I barely arrived to the venue on time to register my deck and rip an entire UW stoneblade out of me binder to let a friend borrow. After this rush things calmed down and before I know it I'm sitting across from my round 1 opponent....

    Round 1, Edwin C. Cordova on Merfolk
    After some small conversation as we talk about how AWESOME Virginia Tech is we get onto our game.

    G1 This game was pretty simple. I drew 2 Knights and swords a lord or two. He really just couldn't keep up at all which made me feel a little better about my choice.

    The only SBing for this match was that I took out 2 Thoughtseize and 2 Loams for 4 Inquisition.

    G2 Pretty much the same thing except the creature count was closer to a couple Goyfs and a Knight. He also drew fewer lords which made it a joke of a game. The most relevant thing for this game was that I played around submerge the entire game thanks to a mox diamond, it never came up but if he had a submerge and I had been careless than losing becomes MUCH more realistic.

    Round 2, Brian S. Smith on UW Mystic

    G1 - This was really me slamming a T1 Bob on the play without him having an answer. Before long I have as many cards as he does, a Knight on the board going to town on the fact that he is drawing Tundra's and Factories. To make it worse he fetched a Tundra with his first land... not a good choice.

    If I remember correct I don’t even SB here, which is correct with this deck quite often.

    G2 - This game was led from a Life From the Loam recurring wastelands and was ended by my friend Marit Laige after I knew his options were low.

    After playing this round I felt pretty good about the deck being I could tell how good the UW match up was. You can generally keep them off 4 mana for a while and Knights and Goyfs just laugh at germ tokens. Not to mention that Hexmage loves seeing a Jace on the other side of the board.

    Round 3, Joshua H. Adams on Reanimator

    Joshua was a blast to play against. We could joke around without the stress of trying to focus on our games being we both seemed relatively confident of how to play the match up.

    G1 - Was pretty simple. I tried to stop him but he got an early Iona, but like the pro I am I had raw dogged my singleton Maze of Ith. Of course it didn't take long before he had another large creature smashing my face in.

    -2 Loam, -2 Swords, -2 Knight +4 Inquisition, + 2 Extirpate

    G2 - Involved me playing about a million pieces of hand disruption and making a 20/20 which got Echoing Truthed, but knight of the Reliquary had my back and smashed his face in alongside a Goyf.

    G3 - Was me once again ripping his hand apart and not doing much else. Eventually I wished for a hexmage and made a 20/20 after he got some good draws and brought an Inkwell into play. Luck for him he ripped a ponder which led into a repeal... Now that hurt.

    Record now 2-1, I was still happy with me deck but I knew I had to throw some A game now.

    Round 4, Crispin Allen on Reanimator

    G1 - We roll the dice and he wins and decides to draw. I then laughed and assumed he was on manaless dredge and thought it was funny being I have a maindeck bog. So he draws and discards an Iona.... I play a swamp and Thoughtseize him and take his 1 mana reanimation spell. He plays a land and passes, I then play a Bob hoping to hit a Living Wish knowing he would name white so Shriekmaw was my out. He goes and puts Iona into play on black thinking I'm on Evagreen. I slam a scrubland and a Swords. The game from there was pretty simple as he got beat down by large green dudes.

    Same Board as last round

    G2 - He chooses to draw again which I don’t really mind. I play a hand disruption spell and take his only entomb being he had 3 land, a careful study, and 2 reanimation spells. On his first turn he plays the study and hits a Blazing Archon. On my turn I wished for a Shriekmaw and a turn after that he only has lands in play. After a couple turns I got my Hexmage and Depths on Board after hitting some wishes. His last turn before he would die he plays a Careful Study and hits a Stormtide Leviathan and has the reanimation spell. I was a little upset and remembered that flying dudes can’t still attack and when I turn my buddy Marit Laige sideways he laughs and said he had to try.

    Round 5, Arthur W. Reynolds on Painter

    G1 - His hand is bonkers even after a thought seize. The turn he goes to kill me he accidently plays a land with a City in play without tapping for the 2 mana he needed to activate his grindstone. I was happy and then killed one of his pieces and proceeded to beat him down with large green dudes.

    SB was +4 inquisitions, +2 Extirpate, -2 Knights, - 2 Loam... I can’t remember what else I took out...

    G2 - I get blown the hell out as he hits combo pieces and I can’t disrupt him quickly enough. He played T1 Stone, T3 painter. Almost forgot he got the singleton LED to kill me in short order.

    G3 - He keeps a Brainstorm hand and suffers for it. Just because you have 3 Brainstorm doesn’t mean you should keep a hand. I play some dudes and disrupt a little but it isn’t even really necessary.

    Round 6, James W. Miller on Aggroloam

    I knew he was on aggroloam because he and his friend were playing the same deck so I had a little bit of good info.

    G1 - I went first and play a land. He plays T1 Bob and I play T2 bob. We both play our Knights to keep the other at bay, but he has countryside crushers while the just happen to get massive. I take a blow or two, swords one and eventually I get the combo together and forgot to swords his knight before he untapped.... He gets a Karakas and bounces my token then plays an assault and I die before I realize how bad I am.

    SB -2 Misstep(he has StP), -4 Thoughtsezie, +4 Inquisition, +2 Extirpate

    G2 - This game goes back and forth and He eventually gets attacked by a 20/20. I do have some respect for my buddy Marit Laige and have a real token which runs about 8 dollars.

    G3 - This game is very similar, but he plays a Leyline of the void and makes my knights 2/2 creatures that can fetch lands and chump block. Eventually I make a 20/20 after about 10 bad plays. I was really hungry and kind of tired, but that's no excuse really. I can tell after the game that my opponent was upset, but we talked about his deck for a while and how he smashed blue mages. I apologized for him not being rewarded by my bad plays and his good ones, but we both knew it was magic not chess so we went our ways without bad feelings.

    This made me 5-1. I knew that my next round could be a win and in, especially being my only loss was still undefeated making my breakers sweet.

    Round 7, Jimmy Cholewa playing a 100% borrowed UW Stoneforge

    Jimmy is a local player and was currently 5-0-1. He asked for me to give him the win, but I told him I just couldn't being I'm still in contention.

    G1 - Is pretty easy for me. I land an early confidant and before you know it he is on just a few lands from knights and a Living Wish for a wasteland which happened quite a few times that day. After he realized he wasn't catching up he scooped it up and we went to game 2.

    SB None

    G2 - This game he was on the play and he counters all the right spells and tries to Stoneforge for Batterskull and smashes me down. Luckily my swords resolved and stopped that equipment from coming into play. Eventually his Ancestral Visions start to resolve and his Jace starts to sculpt my mind and we are onto game 3.

    G3 - He keeps a 1 lander and hopes his Brainstorms will help him out. I Thoughtseize a Visons to keep the inevitability off and his brainstorm doesn’t yield him anything. I play a Bob and start to take the game quickly. Within the next 3 turns he gets double wastelanded and once I cast a loam to get them back he picks'em up.

    6-1!!! I was almost positive I could draw next round!

    Round 8, Erik J. Manooshism eventual winner playing Show and Tell

    As soon as I'm walking toward the table I see him waiting and The first thing I say is "Draw?" he immediately agrees and I knew I was in top 8 being I had been pared up that round.

    Top 8, James S. Pogue on a Bant Stoneforge deck

    G1 - I have to mulligan and he gets an early Stoneforge and the game was never really there. I got beat down in short order.

    No SB, would have brought in Inquisition over Thoughtseize, but losing to Jace isn’t my thing.

    G2 - I play T1 Bob and he tries to swords it on his turn but I have a Misstep fir his Swords and the Misstep he plays on my Misstep. From here the game goes downhill and a 20/20 rips his face off.

    G3 - This was by far the most intense game I played all day. He mulled this game and we both start playing knights. I play a goyf and he eventually gets double stoneforge mystic. With the second mystic he gets a SoBaM which is brutal against me. To make things worse I could make a 20/20 because he could just activate Knight in response for a wasteland and blow me out. We sit in a stalemate for quite a while and one turn I activate my knight and he slams a submerge on the table as I pick up my deck. I then glanced down at my lands, look up at him and say "I don't have any forests." The look on his face is priceless to say the least. A turn or two later I play a forest tap it for mana and the sac it to knight immediately, maintaining priority the entire time; which is a good trick top learn. Eventually I Bog him he rips the only path in his deck and Hit me for exact-sies with a Knight carrying a SoBaM.

    I won 250 in credit for my work and was happy I could update my Facebook with a sweet new profile picture.

    As to changing the deck, IDK what I would do. The 75 is super solid. I feel like this deck is favored against most of the field as UW and NO RUG have very fragile manabases and you can just wasteland them a million times. Most other matches a 20/20 can take it home for you.

    I'm pretty sure that's all for my report. Keep in mind that I made A TON OF PLAYMISTAKES. Had I had a little practice I'm almost positive I could have taken down the event. For now I'm sticking to this deck and hopefully I can make a few less mistakes at the invitational.
    Also, my grammer and things probably suck. I ran it through word, but IDK how much good that will do.

  2. #2

    Re: A long overdue tale of 20/20s (SCG Richmond top 8, Junk Depths)

    Also, a shout out to my friend Jordan Barlow and Daniel Samson for helping with some playtesting. And to all the people who helped me get the deck together. Lastly to Erik Johnson for filling me in about playing around submerge as it was a blowout every time I got to see the look on my opponents face when they realized I didn't have any forests.

    Last thing about Jordan, before we were friends I didn't really know him enough to be aware of his sexuality so there was an awkward moment of him hitting on me, but now that's over with we're cool now. I just wanted everyone to know so if you meet him you won't have an awkward situation like I did.



    Here is a link to his Facebook... as you can tell totally gay.
    http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.p...573857&sk=info

  3. #3
    Psycho Crusher
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    Re: A long overdue tale of 20/20s (SCG Richmond top 8, Junk Depths)

    Nice report.

    I would try to put the 4th Goyf into the maindeck - because I almost never found myself wanting to Wish for him. I always needed to Wish for a Teeg, 'Maw or Pridemage instead.

    And how do you feel about swapping the Inquisitions for Duresses? Duress still hits Jace and just about anything relevant, such as a Batterskull.
    A book about the dark side of Legacy: "Magic: The Addiction" // Conversations with Magic players: "Humans of Magic"

  4. #4

    Re: A long overdue tale of 20/20s (SCG Richmond top 8, Junk Depths)

    I really liked the goyf in the board. There are a lot of times where I wanted another big guy to throw in play. A lot of the time when I could get teeg or goyf I would just grab the goyf because if I was afraid of Jace than instead of preventing it the other goyf would just kill him instead. And to me it seems like Inquisition is better because against beatdown decks you want to board out thoughtseize but you wanna keep that hand hate in. Plus against combo and control 4 is enough already.

  5. #5
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    Re: A long overdue tale of 20/20s (SCG Richmond top 8, Junk Depths)

    Quote Originally Posted by Derayler View Post
    Round 5, Arthur W. Reynolds on Painter

    G1 - His hand is bonkers even after a thought seize. The turn he goes to kill me he accidently plays a land with a City in play without tapping for the 2 mana he needed to activate his grindstone. I was happy and then killed one of his pieces and proceeded to beat him down with large green dudes.
    Isn't there a trigger involved here? He doesn't miss the opportunity to net two mana from that City before losing it.

  6. #6

    Re: A long overdue tale of 20/20s (SCG Richmond top 8, Junk Depths)

    I want to say he played a painter after he played the Seat of the Synod. I just remember it was a mistake with not tapping for mana that put him short.

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    Re: A long overdue tale of 20/20s (SCG Richmond top 8, Junk Depths)

    I must say you did impress me with your play (This is Erik) though i'd never admit that to your face :-) you've come along way from the little annoying teenager at the shop. Told you it was the deck to play! Also, merfolk players never reading submurge is the best feeling ever!

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