Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: SCG Open Las Vegas Dec-9th-2012 type 1.5/Legacy, just 1 perspective out of 170!

  1. #1
    Member
    feline's Avatar
    Join Date

    Dec 2011
    Location

    USA
    Posts

    586

    SCG Open Las Vegas Dec-9th-2012 type 1.5/Legacy, just 1 perspective out of 170!

    Prelude -aka- some stuff up to the tournament in the "long story short" form of a couple paragraphs:
    As you may know, I have been pushing the type 1.5 format in the pacific northwest for a little while now, what might be lesser known to the majority, is that when I actually started playing magic about 10 years ago, I started in the Southern California region, not the pacific northwest area, & now with time moved on, my old card group in So Cal still plays, though they are bigger on pushing type 2, and my current, or 'newer' card group here in the pacific northwest, are bigger on the type 1.5 format. To put it in numbers, I started magic around 2003, started competitive magic about 2004, did type 2 until 2008, moved & stopped magic until summer of 2011, then started up again, this time in the south of Seattle area, & have for the most part remained out of the type 2 scene save for some limited release events & even about half a dozen fnm's during Innistrad/Mirrodin sets.

    Anyhow, all that means is that if I really want to, my primary locations for "bigger events" like the SCG open series, are the Seattle / Portland area's, & with just a bus ticket, I have secondary options out of the So Cal region, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose, San Francisco, Sacramento etc. Anything beyond that likely requires more hotel $, transportation to/from hotel & whatever convention center likely via a taxi or walking if close enough, me going pretty much by myself (Which I don't mind doing, but I understand how enjoyable it can be to show up with a large group of friends from your local card shops) if you get the idea, basically I am confined to the west coast for most of these.

    Now, (as in now, a couple weeks ago) I was approached with this option "Las Vegas December 8th-9th" & "Los Angeles December December 14th-15th-16th"...
    The obvious that likely stands out here is what stood out to me as well, there is the option to go to 2 events here & it would only require 1 out of town trip, needless to say, if I am writing this report, then I took advantage of the situation 7 tried not 1, but 2 attempts at these large magic events hosted by our legacy promoting Starcitygames.com

    Skipping the long bus trip of about 30 hours and the night before of little sleep because I never sleep at night & I never sleep before these events anyhow, the only other thing I can note out is that I let 2 of the people in my group here borrow decks, one borrowed my Goblin deck & the other borrowed my Liliana pox deck, while a 3rd borrowed a set of Chain Lightnings, so if you are reading this & played against a Chris playing goblins, or a Carlos playing pox, then forgive me because I am partially to blame for what they played.

    As for what I played, I will post the deck list, as suspected, I again pushed High Tide because I'm still addicted to the deck & I just love it!
    12 Island
    3 Misty Rainforest
    3 Scalding Tarn
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Ponder
    4 Preordain
    4 Force of will
    3 Flusterstorm
    4 Merchant scroll
    3 Cunning wish
    1 Meditate
    1 Turnabout
    1 Snap
    1 Wipe away
    4 Time spiral
    4 Candelabra of tawnos
    4 High Tide
    -SB-
    1 Blue Sun's Zenith
    1 Intuition
    1 Meditate
    1 Turnabout
    1 Snap
    1 Wipe away
    1 Rebuild
    1 Flusterstorm
    3 Pact of negation
    1 Surgical extraction
    3 Grafdigger's cage

    As for why I pushed the specifics of what I pushed:
    18 lands, even though I at one point looked at 17, I eventually gave in to the 18th since Stifle is a card that is played in the format, thank you RUG.
    I'm big on 4 / 4 / 4 Ponder / Preordain / Brainstorm, more draw spells in the deck are better post spiraling, & these 12 are also useable from turn 1 to start sculpting the hand.
    Force of will's are ran for obvious reasons, I also run Flusterstorms for both protection when needed, as well as it working against early discard like thoughtseize, hymn to tourach, inquisition of kozilek, etc, as well as some other vital things from decks casting reanimate, show and tell, tendrils of agony, empty the warrens, any combo deck that is fast and uses an instant / sorcery.
    Most decks are 3 candel 3 turnabout, but I do 4 candel 1 turnabout 1 snap since the turnabout's are searchable & I like having a candel in play already when I start going off, as well as having them in play so they're not in my deck when I spiral, I could go into the specifics alot more, but for now I will refrain from those few paragraphs.
    I do 1 meditate main 1 side since they are searchable via Wish / Scroll
    -Sideboard-
    Most of the 1 of wish targets are known enough & for what reasons, Blue Sun's Zenith is the kill condition, Intuition helps you get to Time Spirals when needed, rebuild is awesome against Affinity, Stax, Mud, Death & taxes (Ethersworn canonist & an Aether Vial with 2 counters, bouncing just the canonist means it comes right back) & other random stuff I can not currently think of.
    For my graveyard hate, I went with the wishable surgical extraction, and some grafdigger's cage's, since the cage's are both graveyard hate, & are also useable against other random stuff, like narcomeba's coming into play, Green Sun's Zenith's, & that crazy person in the room casting Dragonstorm's or whatever else!

    1 thing I should probably note, even though I don't want to push it because the people that are reading this possibly already know, is that I was lucky enough to be able to win the Legacy Open series in Seattle on the 18th of November just a month prior, the reason I bring this up is because, even though I can't deny it is very, very awesome to pull that off, & there were so many congrats from people all day which I very much appreciated, yet at the same time nearly every single round, my opponent would congratulate me, or say they knew what I was playing, or ask "oh are you playing high tide again" or whatever else, so from a strategic perspective, it is a double edged sword, & I have to note that the "element of surprise" in playing a fringe legacy deck, was completely destroyed as an advantage for me.

    Another interesting note at the start of round 1, I sat right next to Michael Bernat, not across from or that would have been a high tide mirror match from hell! Anyhow, before the tourney started, I saw Michael in a random location going through a Goblin deck on the table in front of him, I recognized the Indianapolis Colts uniform he sported during his win in October pushing high tide and I knew it was him, so I asked him at that time, but I either mispronounced his name, he misheard me, or I misheard him. In either case, when we sat down next to each other during the start of round 1, seeing him again now sitting next to me, I then, instead of asking his name, asked if he had won an open about a month prior & he said yes & I was like "I knew it! Congrats & etc" keeping it short since we were about to start our games. I had to note this since I found it amusing that we both have had some success with the deck, & we were now literally 1 table away from nearly starting out the Las Vegas Open Series with a round 1 mirror match between us.

    Round 1 Table 4 vs Loya, Noel D BUG control
    Game 1: High Tides casted: 4 - The life totals are at 19 for myself & 18 for my opponent when I go off, no real pressure from an aggressive standpoint, just have to fight through those counter's. Combo'ing off accordingly with protection along the way, results in a game 1 win for myself.
    -Sideboard- IN 1 Flusterstorm 1 Pact of negation 1 Blue Sun's Zenith(In case discard hits a Wish & then it's extracted) - OUT 1 High Tide(Again, for extraction reasons) 1 Snap 1 Wipe away
    Game 2: High Tides casted: 3 - Here comes the fun part, I'm at 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8 Combo time & a few minutes later, FIZZLE yea that's right, I start the tournament with a round 1 fizzle already thrown in! ouch! Needless to say, I lost this game thereafter.
    Game 3: High Tides casted: 2 - Meditate's casted: 2 - This however, wasn't the most efficient go off, because it was rushed, as in, we went to time, & I didn't have enough time to go off so I had to High Tide & use meditate's, never getting the option to Time Spiral, or enough card draw/mana, which is difficult to do without getting in at least 1 Time Spiral, I never really get to combo like I want to, run out of steam not having enough to start with accordingly, though at least I got to meditate & try at all, it goes to time because we're both alive at the end of turn 5.
    End result: Draw! I am now 0-wins 0-losses 1-draw
    BUG's new favorite toys:


    Round 2 Table 42 vs Morris Lent, Christopher Goblins
    Game 1: High Tides casted: 5 - Meditate's: 1 - The opponent starts out with little pressure, I am at 19, then 18 before I start going off, getting game 1 fairly quickly.
    -Sideboard- IN 2 Pact of negation(I can at least use them against Surgical extraction / Mindbreak traps / Pyro & Red E. Blasts - OUT 1 High Tide 1 Wipe away
    Game 2: High Tides casted: 0 - I'm at 20, 19, 18, 14, 8, 1, DEAD There really is nothing else to note here, I just didn't get there, it's a race & this time I lost.
    Game 3: High Tides casted: 2 - Meditate's 1 - I decide to go off after getting down to only 15 life, but there's enough out there that with what's in hand, I could likely take lethal next turn, however along the way, they resolved a Thorn of amethyst against me, backing it up with a Red elemental blast. (I was not expecting the thorn, if I was, I would have kept the wipe away in my main deck so I could tutor for it with wish & scroll, now wishing for it was my only option, so I have noted that accordingly in my brain ^.^) However, with 2 High tides from the start, a candel in play, & enough Islands, I'm able to start going off, it's just a slower start, and I know I'll need to bounce the Thorn A.S.A.P. However, as I start moving along, I get to the point of continuing to combo, and out comes another vital Red elemental blast to hit me, long story short, I take my first loss against goblins the following turn!
    End result: Loss! I am now 0-wins 1-loss 1-draw (The most uphill strategy ever, I have to win all my remaining games at this point & it's only 2 rounds in)


    Round 3 Table 64 vs Baca, James R/W/U
    Game 1: High Tides casted: 1 - Meditate's: 1 - After I start to combo off & I resolve the first Time Spiral, they shortly conceded if I remember correctly, & we go right to game 2
    -Sideboard- IN 2 Pact of negation - OUT 1 High tide 1 Snap
    Game 2: High Tides casted: 3 - Meditate's: 1 - Pact of negation's: 1 - 20, 19, 17, 14, 12, 6, 4, Combo time -turns into- Fizzle time (Again! Yikes) -turns into- I have to pay for my pact of negation next turn -turns into- them swinging at me for lethal -turns into- a loss, which turns into, game 3:
    Game 3: High Tides casted: 5 - Meditate's casted: 3 - 20, 18, 17, 15, 13, 11, 8, 7, 4, 3, again combo time! this time however, there is no fizzle thank goodness, (2 fizzles in the first 2 match ups, the odds are slim, but I guess it does happen, obviously, since it happens here)
    End Result: Win! I am now 1-wins 1-loss 1-draw
    Don't forget that upkeep cost for pact:


    Round 4 Table 42 vs Kainz, Thomas Storm (Basically TES without Orim's chant/Silence)
    Game 1: High Tides casted: 0 - Opposing Ad Nauseam's casted: 1 They combo off accordingly, hitting my counters before hand with their discard, & they go off with the usual, ritual's, mana producers & ponder/brainstorm like spells, getting a high enough storm count to cast Tendrils of Agony for lethal.
    -Sideboard- IN 1 Flusterstorm 2 Pact of negation(I mainly bring in the pact's because my main deck bounce is useless & likely to remain so post sideboard) - OUT 1 High tide 1 Snap 1 Wipe away
    Game 2: High Tides casted: 3 - Luckily, it was my turn to show this opposing storm deck, how to really go nuts & cast an even more excessive amount of spells, so we get there on game 2, both of us each showing each other that we can do it, so now it comes down to game 3
    Game 3: The first very interesting game of the night that really stands out to me & I have a vivid memory of is during this game We go back and forth taking our turns, then they start to combo out accordingly, going up & down with red / black / blue mana in their pool, casting ponder's, rituals, an Infernal tutor, & then, they cast the red one, Past in flames! As they do, I still have a cunning wish in my hand, now I brought in my Flusterstorm, didn't have 5 lands in play to pay for pact on the next turn, & it basically came down to 1 option, which was still a good one. In their graveyard, they had the ponder's, ritual effects, but the only card that actually meant anything, was the 1 infernal tutor in their graveyard, so I Cunning Wish'ed for the Surgical Extraction in my graveyard, & used it to Extract their Infernal tutor's, it was a sweet move, but, against anyone who know's what they're doing, they can still continue using their remaining card draw, and hopefully net something along the way to get a lethal kill against me. After "flashing back" the first ponder & keeping it there, they then "flashed back" the 2nd one and I was thinking "ok now they are just looking at that 3rd card, while keeping something they wanted, could I get lucky, could I get lucky? Yea? nyah? ...nope! They ended up getting what they needed, which was Ad Nauseam, & it was game over after that!
    -Thank you Thomas Kainz for a very memorable game 3, it was one of the most enjoyable games for me of the night-
    End Result: Loss! I am now 1-wins 2-losses 1-draw


    -Mid Report- Now that we are half way through the tournament, & half way through the report as noted here, we are no longer in contention for playing for top 8, once you have 2 losses of more you are out, and I was at 2 losses & 1 draw on top of it, so now we're just playing for prizes, trying to keep it at a minimum top 64, if lucky, top 32 for a big more $ reward. Taking a loss against goblins was tough, but if you fight enough match up's, you're not going to win them all, favorable or not, fizzling, TWICE, is also tough, especially when it's twice during the first 2 matches of the night, & now half way through, and a minimum 8 more games to play, it's still possible that I could experience a 3rd fizzle in that time frame (Luckily however, I never did)

    Round 5 Table 55 vs Whitney, Michael Goblins
    Game 1: High Tide's casted: 5 - Meditate's: 1 - Turn 1 Cavern of souls, name goblins, play Goblin Lackey (It is possible, since I played goblins twice here, that the turn 1 cavern-lackey, might have actually come from a different game, if my memory is not correct on this, forgive me, but I didn't actually write this note down, I just remember it happening & I believe it was this game) I'm at 20, then 19, 18, 14, enough goblins on the field, then combo time! a fairly, short, to the point, cliche game 1
    -Sideboard- IN 1 Pact of negation - OUT 1 High Tide
    Game 2: High Tide's casted: 3 - Meditate's: 3 - 20, 19, 18, 17, 15, 13, 11, 9, 8, Combo time again! another cliche game where not alot stands out, goblins -vs- high tide, when it all comes down to it, it's just a race to see who get's to their version of lethal first.
    End result: Win! I am now 2-wins 2-losses 1-draw


    Round 6 Table 39 vs Higashi, Chris J BUG
    Game 1: High Tide's casted: 5 - I was at 18 when combo'ing off, there is nothing else written here & I remember nothing else about this game 1, forgive me on that.
    -Sideboard- IN 1 Blue Sun's Zenith, 2 Pact of negation - OUT 1 High tide 1 Snap 1 Wipe away
    Game 2: High Tide's casted: 0 - I'm at 20, then 19, 16, 15, 11, 10, 4, DEAD
    Game 3: High Tide's casted: 3 - Meditate's: 1 - I go to 18, then 15 before I combo off, picking up protection along the way & casting counterspells accordingly
    -I must note that, Extirpate, is very good, I can counter Surgical Extraction, but I can't counter a split second version of it, if more people start pushing BUG/Team America, call it what you will, & strategies that use discard, start sideboarding in Extirpate a lot, that is bad not just for high tide, but for any combo deck, & this match was a reminder of that since it was casted on me, for some reason however, I don't remember what they extirpated, & I don't remember which game it was, but I believe it was game 2, the game I lost.
    End result: Win! I am now 3-wins 2-losses 1-draw


    Round 7 Table 28 vs Tompkins, Scott A
    Game 1: High Tide's casted: 5 - Meditate's: 2 - Another game of "What's my life total?... 20, 19, 18, 16, 15, 13, Combo Time" WIN!
    -Sideboard- IN 1 Blue Sun's Zenith(Again, in case they get the option to Extract Wish'es) 1 Pact of negation 1 Flusterstorm -OUT 1 High tide 1 Snap 1 Wipe away
    Game 2: High Tide's casted: 0 - This time, it is their turn to show me how to win a game at magic, not via a combo, but the route of BUG, including it's new toys that are Abrupt Decay & Deathrite shaman, I have to say, I hope gatecrash nets type 1.5/Legacy some more new toys for us as a format, especially when these 2 cards specifically help keep RUG down some, I don't mind seeing the numbers for RUG dwindle as myself being a combo player ^.^ My apologizes to rug players everywhere.
    Game 3: High Tide's casted: 1 - 20, 19, 15, 8, Time to combo accordingly, however I high tide, do some tapping / untapping, Cunning wish for a Meditate since I don't have enough mana to do a 1 sided Time Spiral in that of a Blue Sun's Zenith for 7 & still have enough mana left over, yet the Meditate doesn't allow me to continue on much this time, & I basically "fizzle" but it is a combination of factors, not a Time Spiral that doesn't net me draw, but "just barely not enough mana"
    End result: Loss! I am now 3-wins 3-losses 1-draw
    If only enough mana to Wish-Intuition-Time Spiral:


    Round 8 Table 35 vs Caudill, Eddie Stoneblade
    Game 1: High Tide's casted: 5 - Meditate's: 2 - 20, 19, 14, 8, Combo off, & just in case you are unsure after all this time what that means, I go "High Tide, Time Spiral, draw a new 7 & untap, Cast more High Tide's if I can, Tap for mana, use Candelabra's to untap my lands, generate more mana, cantripping & tutoring along the way, repeat the above steps accordingly, sometimes a multitude of times, until I can Cunning Wish for a Blue Sun's Zenith with enough mana in my pool to make them draw more cards that are in their deck, backing it up with as many Force of will's & Flusterstorms in my hand as I can net along the way.
    -Sideboard- IN 1 Blue Sun's Zenith 2 Pact of negation - OUT 1 High Tide 1 Snap 1 Wipe away
    Game 2: High Tide's casted: 0 - This time, it's 20, 19, 16, 10, 4, DEAD -There really is no other way to put it, I didn't get everything I needed to via my draw & my tutors, and I never got the chance to combo off before I died.
    Game 3: High Tide's casted: 0 - Meditate's: 1 - 20, fetchland 19, Stoneforge mystic Batterskull next life loss brings me down to 14, then I'm at 13 because of my own cards, then I go down to 4 via trying to Force of will a Vendilion clique that is forced through via my opponents opposing counter's, followed by the damage that comes from that next combat step, my last turn, I am unable to get there before I am swung at for lethal and that's the game! I don't remember exactly when I casted the meditate, but I am certain it was when I was at a safe point earlier in the game, when it would be expected to be cast where one is still well safe from combat damage.
    End result: Loss! I finish with 3-wins 4-losses 1-draw, netting me 81st place out of 170


    Congrats to all of my opponents:
    Loya, Noel D who somehow got 2 draws that day
    Morris Lent, Christopher who was my first defeat against a goblin deck at a bigger event playing high tide, if I had only have seen Thorn of Amethyst coming I would have never sideboarded out that wipe away!
    Baca, James playing R.ed/W.hite/blU.e, I believe that is the deck that should be called Team America, since the colors of the flag aren't Black/Green/Blue, lol
    Kainz, Thomas who also finished with the same record I did, & left me with a very memorable game 3 of our match.
    Whitney, Michael who also played goblins, while I myself push high tide, one of my secondary decks is Goblins, love the red, the tribal, the aggro, the consistency, & how those goblins can just keep coming!!!
    Higashi, Chris J who placed in the top 50 at the end of the night -congrats on prizes!
    Tompkins, Scott A who placed in the top 32 at the end of the night -congrats on prizes!
    Caudill, Eddie who placed in the top 64 at the end of the night -congrats on prizes!
    Congrats to my So Cal card group members that decided to go for the Vegas round, Carlos Lopez playing Pox, Christopher A Depue playing Goblins, Cary Thomas playing Burn & Tony who decided to do side events.

    As well, thank you all for reading, and for those responsible for these forums we all use for still being here, and if I made any mistakes on my tournament report and you either saw a match or played against me & something is slightly incorrect or w/e else, just let me know and I will remedy it, I didn't get to do this tournament report until about a week and a half after it happened, and there's just some stuff I will forget, & other stuff I just don't have time to write down between matches before it leaves my memory.

    I also have to thank sdematt, because after reading his report from Seattle, I noticed he put images into his report of cards & I thought that was a great way to liven up the report & give it some visuals, so I got the idea of putting certain cards in relation to each match from how he laid that report out.

    -As noted in the beginning of the report, this is not the only tournament report I will be posting up, for the "Part II" of the week, the Los Angeles Open Series the following weekend, an explanation on why I didn't use my invite to play in the invitational, a note for saturday since I, for the first time since Regionals 2007, participated in my first large scale type 2 competitive event in over 5 years, the results of foiling out my High Tide deck & even getting an artist there to sign a certain, legacy popular card, & one of the most epic Liliana of the Veil play's I have ever seen from someone named Jeph Foster, & the number of people it took to make it the largest Saturday & Sunday on record for SCG open's for the West Coast ^.^ stay tuned for the next report!
    Primary legacy deck High Tide primer

  2. #2
    Salt of the earth

    Join Date

    May 2009
    Location

    Canada
    Posts

    4,685

    Re: SCG Open Las Vegas Dec-9th-2012 type 1.5/Legacy, just 1 perspective out of 170!

    Nice job on the finish, and thanks for the shout-out.

    See you in Denver?

    -Matt

  3. #3
    Member
    feline's Avatar
    Join Date

    Dec 2011
    Location

    USA
    Posts

    586

    Re: SCG Open Las Vegas Dec-9th-2012 type 1.5/Legacy, just 1 perspective out of 170!

    I would like to go to Denver when that comes down but the realism will probably not have me going to any more until March 2nd-3rd for Las Vegas, right now though it is not 100% that I'd not go to Denver, meaning it's still a possibility.
    Primary legacy deck High Tide primer

  4. #4

    Re: SCG Open Las Vegas Dec-9th-2012 type 1.5/Legacy, just 1 perspective out of 170!

    Great read Feline!

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)