2nd at Versus Games SF Legacy w/ Death and Taxes

[monovfox]

So, I don't write too many tourny reports, but I felt like writing this one as I enjoyed the store, and there was excellent food across the street.

Anyhow, VS Games in San Francisco is awesome, and just recently opened. To celebrate this opening, they held a free legacy tournament with the following prize support:

Wasteland, Force of Will, Liliana.

Yes, I ended up with a wasteland (wanted the force of will to get some stuff for doomsday, but I digress)

The Business (deck):

4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
4 Karakas
8 Plains
4 Mother of Runes
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Serra Avenger
3 Flickerwisp
3 Mangara of Corondor
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 AEther Vial
1 Batterskull
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Cavern of Souls
2 Judge's Familiar
SB: 3 Rest in Peace
SB: 2 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 2 Cataclysm
SB: 2 Oblivion Ring
SB: 1 Disenchant
SB: 1 Sword of Light and Shadow
SB: 1 Phyrexian Revoker
SB: 1 Surgical Extraction
SB: 2 Wilt-Leaf Liege


Anyhow, I arrive, get my deck ready and talk to some legacy regulars. Much fun was had, and then it was off to round 1:


Round 1: Esper Stoneblade
Game one I had aether vial and thalia beats. Revoker on Jace just shuts it down.
Game 2: Got to a point where I cataclysmed, I honeslty don't remember much from this round.

Round 2: Hive Mind
I saw this guy playing Hive Mind from my tournament scouting, so my goal against him was to mulligan in judge's familiar in order to counter the pacts on my side. }

Game 1: I'm on the play (thank god), so I turn one aether vial. I then get port and thalia out. After a while he show and tells (just barely avoiding judge's familiar blowing him out). I bring Mangara to Class, he brings and Emrakul to Class. I then play my karakas and procede to win
Game 2: Rishadan port locks him out of mana, I get an ethersworn cannonist + thalia, and it just kind of ends.

I really shouldn't have won this matchup, I got ridiculously lucky. There is actually a sequel to this round

Round 3:MUD

game 1: Truly an epic. I have revoker on kudoltha forgemaster, he gets wurmcoil engine out (which I am blocking with thalia, and then promptly bouncing with my karakas before damage is dealt). I have a judge's familiar with a jitte that keeps on getting tapped down by staff of dominance, and I have a flickerwisp. It was honestly down to topdeck at this point. I just happened to topdeck mangara, and that broke parity
game 2: Keep a hand with cataclysm, I misplay and play it about 2 turns too early. I get punished for it.
Game 3: Mangara, Karakas, STP, Revoker, Port, Serra Avenger (on a mull to 6). Seemed pretty solid to me, and it worked out well (won the game just due to the insane amount of tempo I had from STP and the likes)

this match was definitely my favorite from the day

round 4-5 are draws.

Top 8, I'm 3rd seed. And I'm playing against my opponent who is....

QF: Hive Mind
Game 1: I'm on the play game 1, which I lose to 5 pacts. Nothing to see here folks.

Game 2: I don't remember what happened, but I won off of swinging with mom a ton of times

Game 3: The most stressful game I played in my life. Judge's Familiar was actually countering things (he miscounted his mana *PHEW*), he played 2 show and tells, and I had hit no combo hate (all of my permanent removal was in hand due to my land situation being: Karakas, Port, Port). I was basically pinging him for 1 each turn with mom. Each turn he could top-deck show and tell. It was the scariest game of magic I have played, since I really hate show and tell, and to know I was at the mercy of my opponent's top-deck was scary. Then I hit a plains. I then proceeded to play a thalia (which I had been holding in hand, since I was trying to keep him off of show and tell mana, and thalia wouldn't do it) and pass. The game was a blur from then on, but I won.

Semi-Finals: BUG Control, no shardless

I figured my best hand for this matchup would have either port + land + vial + STP, or Waste + Vial + STP, so I mulliganned accordingly:

Game 1: Win it off of mana starving him and swinging with batterskull

Game 2: Lost, not even worth talking about because I kept an idiotic hand

Game 3: Long long long long long game. There was a board state, post-pernicious deed, where he had the following:

Liliana, Null Rod (It was under an O-ring), and 5 mana open. So what do I do?

I play a mangara and cataclysm. It was awesome. I then lock up the game with a top-decked wasteland and a top-decked mirran crusader. It was boss.

After the game he told me his only goal for the tournament was to beat me (am I really that much of a local legend already?!). It was a really well-fought match.

Now on to the finals against

Jund
No explanation needed, it's Jund, so I lost. (good player, though)

I came in 2nd, and I had a lovely time. To make things short and sweet

Top 8:
Dragon Stompy
2x Rug Delver
Death and Taxes (Me :3 ) NOT TEAM ROCKET CONTROL
BUG Control
UR Delver
Hive Mind
Jund

Props:
Store
Excellent Dim Sum Across the Street (easily the best Dim Sum I have eaten)
My friend Dara on UR Delver who finally got his first top 8! WOOT!
Judge's Familiar, for countering intuitions all day
Mangara, for winning too many games
My shiny new wasteland from getting 2nd
Dragon Stompy
Everyone who top 8d, you guys were awesome
Myself, who nearly went undefeated on the day.

Slops:
Poorly-timed cataclysm vs MUD
The Fact that Jund is a deck
Punishing Fire
Liliana
Tarmogoyf, specifically in Jund

[luckme10]

Appreciate the report. I was thinking about trying to get back into magic after a few years but to be honest, I find it a little daunting. I mean a few years ago it seemed like the bay area's metagame was pretty unrefined: most common decks were elves, merfolk, burn, affinity, some counterbalance, maybe a mono blue and a dragon stompy. Looking at this and menendian's eudemonia reports. It sounds like like things are more cutthroat these days.

Is this store easy to get to from bart?

[baghdadbob]

Great job man! I love San Fran. I spent a month there a little while back.

Excellent Dim Sum Across the Street (easily the best Dim Sum I have eaten)

Are you talking about Ton Kiang? If so I know exactly what you mean.

Also thumbs up for Thalia. First strike is one of the most underrated abilities in the game. Blocking Wurm Coil and then bouncing feels good man.

[monovfox]

@luckme10 , while the meta's decks are much more
Cutthroat, the players are all very close-knit, and definitely like helping each other out. Vs games is accessible through BART+muni (for me, I got off at embarcadero, and then took the L train to 26th and tavaral. Took me about an hour, but that's becuase I live east of the tunnel.) Was not a hassle to get to at all, though.

Baghdadbob, It was this dumpling place called "kingdom of dumpling". When my friend as I first saw it, I though "mmmm salmonella", as it looked shady. But hot damn, it was actually
Good. I also did not get food poisoning, so that is a plus.

[goblinsplayer]

Nice report! Besides, you can make a monkey play jund to a top 8. It's not hard to play.

[monovfox]

A monkey doesn't main-deck umezawa's jitte, so I'd call him a good player (and considering there were more than a few combo decks, and that he beat UR Delver in the semi's, that can attest to his play skill). Though, in a stroke of irony his only loss of the day was to the other Death and Taxes player in the room.

also, danke. I'm not the most coherent writer, remembering games is nearly impossible for me (I remember vague details from matches). I really just make more general impressions

[baghdadbob]

Baghdadbob, It was this dumpling place called "kingdom of dumpling". When my friend as I first saw it, I though "mmmm salmonella", as it looked shady. But hot damn, it was actually Good. I also did not get food poisoning, so that is a plus.

:P If i'm ever back that way i'll check it out. Just keep an eye out for a place that screams salmonella then?

[syfilisx]

Get Dara to post UR list on thread. Congrats on good performance.

[monovfox]

Thank you ^_^! Dara should be posting soon.

[XenNeophyte]

Hello Everyone It's Dara the UR burn player here. Clark asked me to post my list from this weekend so I guess I will.

Before you read the list, I would like to note that I was originally planning to pick up some extra cards but I was unable to. Thus, the list I played was not what I would have ideally liked to play.

Here it is though:

Creatures:
4 Delver of secrets
4 Goblin guide
3 Grim Lavamancer
2 Snapcaster Mage

Instants:
4 Brainstorm
3 Force of will
4 Daze
4 Lightning bolt
3 Price of progress
1 Thunderous wrath
1 Spell Pierce
2 Vapor snag

Sorceries:
4 Chain lightning
3 Ponder

Lands:
2 Island
3 Mountain
2 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Arid mesa

Sideboard:
1 Force of Will
3 Flusterstorm
4 Pyroblast
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Smash to Smithereens
1 Forked bolt
1 Electrickery

Round 1: Jund
I latter learned that my opponent had not played for quite some time. I first noticed something was off when he had to read my delver of secrets to see what it did. Anyways, he was not properly playing around price of progress and so I blew him out with it 2 games in a row.

1-0

Round 2: BUG
My opponent was playing a really weird list which included faerie conclave and a bunch of other unexpected cards. Pretty much every other card threw me off quite a bit. I saw brainstorms, liliana, faerie conclave, elver of secrets, and some weird sideboard cards. I was able 2 beat him quickly in game 1. Game 2 he played chill and engineered plague which kinda killed me. Game 3 I just rolled in 10 damage with delver and a chain lightning then blew him out with price of progress.

2-0

Round 3: Death & Taxes (not Clark)
I test this matchup with Clark all the time so I know it pretty well. It basically comes down to weather mother of runes or grim lavamancer sticks first. I won games 1&3 by sticking lavamancer early. He won game 2 by sticking mother of runes early. That's basically all there is to it.

3-0

Rounds 4&5: Intentional draw

3-0-2

Round of 8: RUG threshold
RUG has the advantage in this matchup since delver and goyf are much more solid in delver mirrors. I was able to win game 1 on the drwa in nothing short of a miracle which involved casting price of progress 4 times. Game 2 he beat me. Game 3 I was on the play with delver, daze, and brainstorm and that pretty much wins the game right there. My delver stuck for too long and I followed it up with goblin guide.

4-0-2

Round of 4: Jund
This is usually a good matchup simply due to price of progress. My opponent was playing basics in the main and knew how to use wasteland to play around PoP. I won game 1 after getting through a pesky tarmogoyf. Game 2 he stuck goyf and Abrupt decayed my delver. I couldn't win from there. Same thing game 3.

Match for 3rd: BUG
I again could not handle Tarmogoyf and was unable to stick delver. I lost 0-2 pretty quickly.
I do wanna give a shout out to Jason the BUG player because 1) he sold me some cards I needed last minute and 2) he gave me some great advice which I will go into in a moment.

Lesons Learned:

Price of progress is amazing.

I like the following land progression:
Whichever basic land I need to cat my first spell > the other one > mountain > island > mountain.
Then if I need to divert from that progression to cast something, I fetch a volcanic island. I also fetch volcanic for Dazing purposes.

Tarmogoyf is a problem for the deck. He blocks goblin guide, races delver, and is very difficult to remove. Jason suggested I play dismember in the main and submerge in the side. I am currently fixed on 3 SB submerge and am debating between 1 and 2 dismembers in the main.

Umezawa's Jitte is also a problem card. Once it connects you can no longer remove the creature it's attached to and with their next swing they kill all your important creatures or gain the life they need to survive your burn spells. I feel like I want something more effective than smash to sithereens to deal with it.

The deck doesn't play costed counterspells very well. Force of Will and Daze are great but the deck taps out a lot and so spell pierce/flusterstorm perform poorly. Not to mention you have to have them in your hand right at the moment when your opponent casts a problematic spell. The only card like this i would consider playing is spell snare simply because it hits goyf, jitte, thalia, stoneforge mystic, and chill, all of which are problem cards for me.

Since the tournament I have made some changes to the deck and arrived at the following list:

Creatures:
4 Delver of secrets
4 Goblin guide
3 Grim Lavamancer
2 Snapcaster Mage

Instants:
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of will
4 Daze
4 Lightning bolt
3 Price of progress
2 Thunderous wrath
1 Dismember

Sorceries:
4 Chain lightning
3 Ponder

Lands:
2 Island
3 Mountain
2 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Arid mesa

Sideboard:
3 submerge
2 Flusterstorm
3 Pyroblast
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Smash to Smithereens
1 Rough and Tumble
1 Price of Progress

I hope you all enjoyed my first post here. Thank you all.