Hey guys, I played in my first legacy event this weekend with U/W Enlightened Tutor Control going 3-5-0. I based my list off of Adam Barnello's list from last April. I just wanted to open up a discussion about this archetype and what I found really helpful and really confusing when playing this list
4 Enlightened Tutor
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Humility
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of the Meek
2 Thopter Foundry
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Counterbalance
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
3 Jace, the Mindsculptor
5 Islands
2 Plains
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Ancient Den
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Academy Ruins
Sideboard:
3 Spell Pierce
2 Path to Exile
1 Stony Silence
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Counterbalance
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Wheel of the Sun and Moon
1 Aura of Silence
Round 1: 0-0-0 Loamstill (Ubwg Standstill with Life from the loam)
Game 1 - My opponent opens up with Underground Sea and I respond with turn 1 Top. I can't seem to guess what he's playing when he lands a Tundra turn 2 and passes the turn. I brainstorm and leave Force on top for next turn keeping some land a thopter foundry and a jace, this turns out to be fatal when he drops Landstill the next turn. It's over from there, as we battle to play Jace's and resolve spells for the rest of game 1, I do discover that he is playing Life from the Loam and am glad I always fetch basics.
Game 2 - I sideboard for the control matchup bringing in CBs and pithing needleI manage to grind my way from turn 1 top and an early thopter combo to hold my own. He can't seem to get ahead but there is no way we aren't going to time. I play tight and we go to turns.
Round 2: 0-1-0 NO Bant (w/ Daze and Spell Pierce)
Game 1 - I go turn 1 Tundra holding 2 StPs, SFM, and some land, he goes noble hierarch and passes the turn back. He ramps up a bit and plays goyf while tricking me with Dazes and Spell pierces that I did not at all expect. I try to stabilize with ensnaring bridge but Green Sun's Zenith for X=2 finds Qasali Pridemage :-(
Game 2 - I bring in all my path and bridge effects and try to run his dudes into the ground. He gets multiple goyfs and a Knight of the Reliquary and I can't find enough removal. I conceded when he snapped at me to "pick up the pace of play" when I couldn't think of any outs when he played Natural Order, I needed a bridge but he had he the Q-Pridemage.
Round 3: 0-2-0 Cat Sligh
Game 1 - I won the die roll and dropped a island and passed. He dropped a savannah playing steppe Lynx and I brainstormed on his turn seeing Land, Counterbalance, SFM. This was a play straight outta the Countertop text books, so I put SFM then CB on top. I drew CB played it and passed. He laughed at how this was the first of "that deck" he'd seen all day. He played a fetch beating for 4 and played a second Lynx, I thought about it then let it resolve, he complimented my play understanding I knew what was on top, he played a Loam Lion and passed. I played SFM searching for Sword of the Meek (I had Batterskull in hand) and passed. He attacked, I delcared "no blocks", he smiled pathing his own dude to get a land drop and hit for 4 with both Lynx. I scolded myself for missing the blindflip and drew a land. I passed. He went to play another Lynx not attacking, I cheated Batterskull into play. After several turns of me attacking into no blockers and him not getting fetches to swing for a kill I blindflipped Top when he played a kirdape and he said "I can't deal with that" suggesting we go to game 2.
Game 2 - I brought in my bridge and path effects as well as my CBs. He dropped a Lynx and passsed. I dropped a Tundra this time and passed (guessing a lack of Wasteland). He tried to fetch and swing but I StP'd the 4/5 Lynx. I dropped SFM searching for Sword of the Meek. He played 2 Lynx this turn and passed. I dropped the Sword having the Foundry in hand. He swung in for 8 and dropped a Lynx and Loam Lion. I played Thopter Foundry, made a dude, and in response he went Surgical extraction on the Sword in my Graveyard. Another play straight outta the Countertop play book: in response I tapped my last mana to sac Thopter Foundry to itself, making a second dude and saving my Sword. He complimented me and conceded.
Round 4: 1-2-0 Deadguy (w/ Elspeth??)
Game 1 - I went plains Top. He thoughtseized taking my Jace (At this point I didn't understand what he was playing). He played a Bob. I top decked Sword of the Meek and dropped it. He beat with Bob and Hymned me hitting Bridge and Force (Ouch). I top decked Thopter Foundry, played it with a land and passed. He smiled and chuckled getting his Bob flip. We played for a few more turns but I had an army of dudes by then. I was very careful to always leave a mana open to save my Sword of the Meek if he had main decked Extirpate effects.
Game 2 - I brought in CBs bridge effects and removal, getting rid of my forces like I had been doing against aggro all day. This game was uneventful as he needled my Top, I got not lock pieces, and he beat me to death with Bob, SFM, and Jitte on Bitterblossom tokens.
Game 3 - Turn 1 top, he went Bob go. I upkeep topped, played a land, and StP'd his Bob (having Jace in hand and maybe a second Top?). He played SFM to get Batteskull, but I had no answer. I played a land and passed. He played bitterblossom instead of speeding in Batterskull yet. I found Bridge with Top and played it. He made dudes and sped in Batterskull on my turn beating me with SFM and a bitterblossom token. I played jace with 1 card in hand, Fate-sealing him with 2 cards in his hand. He played Elspeth much to my surprise, but my bridge protected me, he chose not to swing at Jace. Using Top to keep me at 0 cards in hand, I left Hymns and Thoughtseizes on top turn after turn as he begged for a Vindicate. But I eventually found the second bridge I sided in and promptly dropped it. We were going to time, and I played a SFM, and made my worst play of the day. I found a Batterskull and put it in my hand..... Not being able to play it..... He swung in at Jace right before I was going to Jace him out. Fortunately we were going to turns, so even if I had Jaced him he had enough cards in hand to bring us to a draw. Much to my surprise AGAIN, he conceded saying that I had won even though we were out of time. I gave him the firmest handshake I'd given someone that day. What a guy.
Round 5: 2-2-0 Dredge (Against my playtest partner :-/)
This round had some politics in it. My last game was the final game of the round to go to time, and I spent a few minutes de-sideboarding and talking to him after it. My good friend and excellent dredge player told me angrily that we had to play each other, and to be sure I walked over to the posting and back to our seats. We shuffled up and rolled and he mulliganned when he noticed we had no results slip at our table. When we asked the Judge he said we were late and would have to recieve game losses. I explained politely to the head judge standing right there that my last match went to time, but he said these were the rules and I respected that. With my sparring partner thoroughly tilted we went to Game 3 with NO SIDEBOARD, did I mention my friend plays dredge?
Game 1 - My tardy match loss
Game 2 - My opponent's tardy match loss
Game 3 - We know this matchup really well, he can't break lock peices game 1, and that is my ONLY out game 1. So either I have 3 land and enlightened tutor or he wins. I had niether and he took what he called "a heartless win".
Round 6: 2-3-0 ANT (w/o Past in Flames)
Game 1 - I had Force, Force, Jace, Foudry, land, land, land. I dropped a land and passed. He dropped underground sea, then duressed taking Jace (lol wut?) saying that's what he was afraid of. I played a land. He did that thing Storm does with ponders and brainstorms, I eventually found my 1 counterbalance in the maindeck with a brainstorm and dropped it immediately. He dropped an LED to blindflip a top (Luckiest man on earth right here), after which he infernal tutored revealing Cabal ritual (Not quite at thresthold yet) I let it go. When he tried to go off I nailed his hellbent-tutor with Force of Will (Again lol wut?). After I dropped top he played for another 15 minutes before he conceded.
Game 2 - He sided for slow ANT with Bob to find him answers, it didn't help when I tutored for Ethersworn canonist. I took my time and found my lock pieces (Counterbalance and Top) and it was over.
This matchup is most fun a Countertop player can have, period. :-D
Round 7 3-3-0 Reanimator
Game 1 - I had no forces just an StP. He went turn 1 ponder with an underground sea, I prayed for my favorite matchup. I was dissapointed to see him Entomb Exhume next turn. He brought out Empyrial Archangel, I cried. I looked for my bridge but no dice.
Game 2 - I brought in GY hate, Bridges and CBs Taking out Stoneforge package (leaving in just 2 to search for the 1 Sword of the Meek). I tutored immediately and found Wheel of the Sun and Moon, he read the card and said "Good thing I have the Leyline sideboard plan". He never found his sideboard plan.
Game 3 - I was tired and dumb and kept a 1 lander with Top (which is awful in this deck if you didn't know). He brought the angel out and Top only saw Sword of Feast and Famine, Sword of the Meek, and Batterskull :-(. No land or Bridges for me.
Round 8 3-4-0 NO Bant (w/o any counterspell?)
Game 1 - We were the lucky winners of the random deck check that round, and thank goodness for reading stories on SCG and the source so I knew to make sure I carefully de-sideboarded after each round :-). We chatted about magic and stuff for a while. When we got our decks back with no issues he dropped turn 1 Noble Heirarch. I kept my second 1 lander with Top, and StPs for the day. He ramped up without using any dazes or spell peirces, I StP'd Goyf and Knight. He eventually found his Natural Order and got the Protection from Everything super beast. I had 2 turns to find Bridge and I did. But he found Qasali Pridemage.
Game 2 - Being super tired after my first long day of matches I politely conceded.
So I had a great time and learned a ton about legacy and my deck. I was thrilled even with my tardy game loss, I mean, you gotta learn those lessons somewhere :-). My good and bad experiences with cards are as follows, cards with * by them are sideboard only cards, cards with (*) are main and have additional copies in the sideboard.
Cards that got there for me:
Enlightened tutor - Rarely did I have this and not find a way to at least survive a few more turns. Turn 1 enlightened tutor to find Counterbalance, and play it blind turn 2 against Storm is plenty when you have no counterspell in hand.
(*)Ensnaring Bridge - Best, card, all day. Only rarely do you have too many cards in hard to drop this piece of magic. It locks out everything, and forces your opponent to find something to answer it before they can even play magic :-). People often complain about countertop lock as being frustrating, but what titled my opponents in Nashville was an ensnaring bridge they couldn't answer, I might even call it a 1 card combo.
(*)Counterbalance - When I needed it I could find it, when I didn't it was either not there or fed to Force of Will, that said I never had it in my hand and didn't want to play it against somebody. I would probably like to play more of them.
(*)Pithing Needle - Helped me beat opposing Jaces, Elspeths, SFMs, Equipments fetched with SFM, and even helped against Cat Sligh where I named fetches. When it was randomly in my opening hand I was happy, when it wasn't I was happy. Best use of this card all day was naming Qasali Pridemage.
Thopter Foundry - Aside from pulling tricks to save your Sword, using this to create blockers before you play Humility is great. I sacced artifact lands, Tops that had been pithing needled and other Swords to make blockers and gain life even without having the combo going. Also was tutorable when I needed a blue card to pitch to FoW (Very clutch against a storm player at the Legacy challenge the day before)
Artifact Lands (W/U) - You wouldn't believe it, but these where clutch all day. Whether they were sacced to save my Sword of the Meek or just tutored to play a 1 land hand of Plains, Top, Counterbalance, Enlightened Tutor, against combo. When you absolutely have to have another land to play your nut draw hand, these lands can be tutored to get you there.
Sensei's Divining Top - Functioned as more enlightened tutors finding me the lock pieces I needed. If you have enough redundancy in the deck, finding just 1 of something isn't hard. Having more than one of these can be painful, but you can play 2 out and spin the second 1 before you shuffle to take something you need off the top.
*Ethersworn Canonist - When you Tutor turn 1 and drop this turn 2 against Storm, you literally have FOR....EVER to establish some form of lock on your opponent. When I played it, life was good.
*Wheel of the Sun and Moon - Tutorable playable Leyline of the Void, it's amazing. Even though it only puts things on the bottom of the library it's still the nuts against Dredge and Reanimator.
Cards that got there sometimes and confused me others:
Stoneforge Mystic - This card was at odds with me during the weekend. It was very useful as an emergency shuffle effect, and as extra tutor to find Sword of the Meek so I that could use my few Enlightened Tutors to find Thopter Foundry. But when playing against a deck with "dudes", you want to find Batterskull to stabilize with it's lifelink-vigilance awesomeness. But there is a thing about decks with "dudes", they often have removal, making Batterskull an awful choice when you can't cheat it into play.
Batterskull - It's super $%^#ing broken in the Merfolk matchup, it is completey unfair and breaks everything. When combined with Humility it's a 5/5 and funny as hell. However in other matchups I didn't have enough protection to make it good and cheat it into play. Additionally it does not work together with Ensaring bridge, I can block their 1/1s but I can't use it's vigilance when bridge is on the field.
Humility - Was awesome the day before at the legacy challenge where I ruined a guy's Progenitus and his Qasali pridemage in 1 move. But often it's scary to have in hand because it takes so long to come online. You really need some other board position already (whether that's Ensnaring Bridge or Thopters) to make it useful otherwise they continue to beat you to death with their 2 1/1 Noble hierarchs, 1/1 Qasali Pridemage, 1/1 Dryad Arbor, and 1/1 Progenitus.
Counterspell - Sometimes, it was a clutch way to nail their Infernal Tutor/Natural Order/Hide Tide, most of the time it was something I had to hold 2 blue open for, and when I'm topping turn 2 on my upkeep, and playing enlightened tutor to find bridge to survive Progenitus, I would rather be doing something. I could see replacing this with Spell Snare or a similar hard counter that's easier on the mana.
*Stony Silence - Definitely a great card, I just didn't get to use it much, the day before I used it on Belcher to get me a win in game 2, but that's the only opportunity I saw to use it. It also destroys the usefulness of your equipment package and Thopeter Combo, so the matches you need it better be desparate desparate matches.
Cards that just didn't get there, or I didn't know how to play correctly:
Inkmoth Nexus - With all the wasteland and StP flying around there is just no way I was ever going use all the mana required to equip it and swing, it was always too risky. So this just ended up being a bad colorless land for me.
Sword of Feast and Famine - At no point did I ever have enough dudes to play this and swing with it. This ended up not blocking any Bobs, Goyfs or Knights as I assume was intended, cause I could never get any bodies to hold it. At most it was a dead card or a Counterbalance flip for 3 I kept on top against Green Sun's Zenith (I know good right?)
Cards I would want to consider given my experiences:
Engineered Explosives - I kept it out because I did not want to splash a third color. Turns out EE for 0, 1, or 2 could have been a huge help this weekend (e.g. against Belcher, Dredge, Deadguy tokens and Bob/SFM/Jitte, Cat Sligh and even to trip ANT players trying to drop double LED).
I would love any and all feedback, and if you're interested in 4 round legacy challenge results as well from the day before I'd be happy to include those.
Last edited by Dalapin; 10-11-2011 at 10:27 PM.
Congrats on your first legacy event, I hope to see you around at more of them. I was the merfolk guy that you lost against at the first round of the legacy challenge. It's good to see you did not go to time very often, after our match I was of the opinion that you played a slow deck too slowly. It was a shame you didn't change the inkmoth and sword out after the challenge though, i recall you not being too happy with them even after OUR match.
SFM/BS is simply not good in Thopter Control. Take them out for other stuff. Maybe another Ensnaring Bridge.
It was a pleasure meeting and getting to play you. I figured I would leave them in and see if by playing a variety of matches I could come to understand Adam Barnello's deck choices.Originally Posted by DrHealex
Slowplay is somewhat of a daily battle for me :-) I'm working hard to cure the habit.
Last edited by Dalapin; 10-11-2011 at 10:27 PM.
1 Counterbalance? Sword of Feast and Famine with four (non-evasive) creatures? Inkmoth Nexus?
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While I understand that now, I did not before, I had to playtest to understand why. I will probably move to a traditional 4 SDT 4 CB list.
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