We arrive at Mirkwood with at least an hour to spare. Plenty of time to get decklists written, relax a bit, and take the all-important pre-tournament poo. My allergies were kicking in a bit so I popped a Benadryl just to be safe. I’ve learned that I’d rather be braindead with a dry nose than self-conscious with a runny one. Nate, who came just to hangout and watch some wizards do battle, was also suffering from allergies. I talked him into taking some Benadryl too and soon we were two pill pals drifting through a pink wonderland, hand in hand. But I have at least 50 pounds on Nate so that meant I felt high as a kite while he was just struggling to stay awake. It was adorable.
After killing time with a few rounds of 13, we all shuffle down the creaking stairs into the nerd dungeon that is Mirkwood’s basement. This is where some of the most epic and legendary Legacy/Vintage battles in the Pacific Northwest have taken place. Tales of glory here live on forever in the hearts and minds of Seattle-area mages. And it didn’t hurt that my Benadryl high was starting to ramp up to its full power.
We expected 30-40 people to show up. But as the 1pm start time began to draw closer, more and more hardcore Legacy grinders began to arrive. This tournament was not going to be as soft as we thought it would. One player notorious for piloting Aluren walked in and my buddy Jordan, who is the most active unofficial scouter for our group, ran over to our table to give us all a quick rundown of how to beat that deck. He was going over very intricate interactions and telling us exactly which trigger to wait for and all that. But my Benadryl high was not interested in tactical advice. I just told myself my strat was to dodge that matchup.
You see where this is going, right?
MD
1 Birchlore Ranger
1 Llanowar Elves
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Quirion Ranger
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Viridian Shaman
2 Craterhoof Behemoth
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
4 Glimpse of Nature
3 Natural Order
4 Gaea’s Cradle
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Bayou
1 Savannah
2 Forest
2 Dryad Arbor
SB
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Natural Order
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1 Progenitus
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Reverent Silence
72 players. 7 rounds of Swiss. Cut to Top 8.
Round 1
Martin - Aluren
Game 1
I win the die roll and start applying non-combo pressure. He is Pondering and Brainstorming and durdling around. If I didn’t already know he was on Aluren, I might have put him on some kind of Storm combo based on the cards he showed me this game. I am able to put together a Hoof before he is able to find his fourth land for his Aluren.
Game 2
I’m a fan of playing a bit loose in Game 2s as long as I have won the first, just to get a little relaxed and whatever. So I keep a hand with Dryad Arbor as my only land. I may have simply been too lazy to mulligan and shuffle. I’m not sure. You might have to ask the Benadryl.
He keeps a real hand and my T1 Arbor, T2 GSZ for Arbor #2 into Spell Pierce, T3 GSZ for Arbor#2 is clearly not competitive enough. When he finally does resolve Aluren, he just tells me he is going to kill me. Maybe he expected me to scoop or something. But I’m not rational right now, so I make him play it out. Also I have some super secret tech in my hand that I want to try out.
Aluren resolves and he casts Imperial Recruiter. With that still on the stack, I go to cast Reverent Silence. He looks puzzled and I stop to read my own card. Read that thing. See the line that says “Sorcery”? Well that makes one of us. But lemme ask you this, did you buy foil copies of that card in hopes of using it as sick sideboard tech? No? Okay, that makes one of us again.
“Oh. That’s a sorcery...K I scoop.”
“So I guess you won’t be boarding those in for Game 3?”
Anybody WTB 2 Foil Reverent Silence?
Game 3
I’m on the play again and lead with Bayou, Nettle Sentinel. He goes blue dual, pass. I play Gaea’s Cradle, attack with Sentinel, and then drop Gaddock Teeg and pass. He reaches to tap his land, I assume for a Brainstorm in response, pauses and...
“JUDGE!!”
Oh shit. What did I do? Where am I? Man, I’m thirsty. This guy is on Aluren right? WTF does that even do? Am I in trouble though? At least my nose isn’t running anymore. Ooh. Shiny cards!
“JUDGE! My opponent...”
“Sorry about that. I just took some Benedryl and I’m really high right now and...”
“Hold on. One person speak at a time.”
“Judge, my opponent tried to cast an illegal Gaddock Teeg with no white sources in play, and then he passed the turn. How do we resolve this? Do we backup to his mainphase? Or is his turn finished, with no Gaddock Teeg in play?”
Fack. This guy really hates Gaddock Teeg. I’m dizzy and I think I might fall over. I need to sit down. Shit. I’m already sitting down.
The judge tanks.
“Okay. Nothing else has happened?”
“No.”
“No.”
“Okay, then we will rewind this to the moment before the illegal spell was cast. Return the card to hand, untap your lands, and continue play.”
I pick up my Gaddock Teeg and apologize profusely.
Then I follow up with a Heritage Druid and a mana elf. Pass.
He EOT Brainstorms. Then untaps, plays a fetchland, and passes.
I play a land, GSZ into Birchlore, resolves. Tap Birchlore+Nettle for W, tap Cradle for some, then (legally) play Gaddock Teeg. He tanks a bit and Forces it. Then I attack with Nettle + Whatever I have and pass. He draws, plays his third land, passes. I draw and cast the Natural Order I’ve been holding the entire time. My opponent is flabberghasted.
“You played Gaddock Teeg with a Natural Order in hand?!”
“Yeah.”
“Why?!”
“I dunno. I knew you would counter it?”
“You knew I couldn’t counter it the first time you played it. Why would you think I could counter it the second time??!”
“I’m not sure. I just trust that your Brainstorms are better than other people’s and that you would find the Force.”
He goes on life-tilt. Natural Order resolves and I grab Hoof with enough buddies to swing for lethal. He signs the match slip and starts explaining how he had the win in hand with Thoughtseize back up and all that. He explains that he analyzed it *this* way and would still win. He also analyzed it *that* way and still won. He goes on with very detailed explanations of why I should not have done what I did, but I’m kinda zoning out because a judge call with Benadryl in your system is quite frightening. I tell him that he is clearly much smarter than me and that I had no right to win that match. My buddy, Andrew, was watching the match and later commented that my opponent perhaps thought I was next leveling him somehow with that first illegal Gaddock Teeg when clearly, I was just high on Benadryl and made odd plays. Anyways, I was happy to have gotten through that match with the W. Who the hell knows how to play against Aluren anyway?
Be cool. Stay in school. Don’t do drugs.
1-0 Matches, 2-1 Games
Round 2
Sasha - UB Tezzerator
Game 1
He shuffles weirdly and I can see his entire deck. So I know what he’s on before we even start. I lead with Fetch, Deathrite Shaman. He sticks a Turn 1 Chalice @1 and I’m not surprised. I kept my hand anticipating that. I start attacking with Deathrite while waiting on land drops for the GSZ in my hand. I can grab a Viridian Shaman and go buckwild with Glimpse +3 elves in my hand. He starts making mana rocks and gets enough mana to make an early Tezzeret, which he uses to find more stuff. I make every land drop and eventually tap out for GSZ to kill the Chalice. Next turn I go off with Glimpse.
Game 2
I start building up an army and do Wirewood+Visionary tricks for card advantage. He sticks Jace and V.Clique and starts beating in + Brainstorming. I go for an early Natural Order with plenty of guys on board and he Forces it. Then he finds Perish from his Jacestorming and wipes my board while swinging in the V.Clique. I bounce my lone Visionary and quickly rebuild and start swinging in to race his V.Clique. His turns are just V.Clique swings and Jacestorms. When I get to 4 elves in play, he Perishes again. I bounce my lone Visionary and tank before his EOT.
He is at 5. I am at 7. I have 4 lands + G.Cradle in play, just the Visionary in hand. He has a tapped V.Clique, Jace, and no hand. I need to rip like a boss to get out of this. I draw a Dryad Arbor and play it. Then I tap two lands for Visionary and draw...Natural Order. Better lucky than good. I tap two lands for GG, tap Cradle for GG, cast NO saccing Arbor, get Hoof and swing in for lethal.
2-0 Matches, 4-1 Games.
Round 3
Loren - Jund
Game 1
I win the roll and start with a Deathrite. He goes Wooded Foothills, Badlands, Bolt my guy. I have a land-heavy hand so I start playing out nonbasics to tempt him to Waste them, as I have piloted Jund and know Jund needs their lands more than I do. He takes the bait and Wastelands my next two land drops without any other action. I make enough elves off of my remaining lands+Deathrite to go beatdown and take the first game.
Game 2
I mull to 5 looking for lands. He Hymns me once and that’s enough to put me too far behind.
Game 3
I start with mana dork. He leads with Grafdigger’s Cage. I usually hate that card with a passion, but I have a Craterhoof in hand so it’s not that bad. But my 2x GSZ are blanked. I begin playing out guys to pump the Cradle I play. He makes a Bob and passes. I make more elves and attack, assuming he won’t block. He doesn’t. He takes his turn, plays his third land + a Jitte and passes. I sigh with relief as I only had the Hoof +2xGSZ in hand. If he Hymned me there, this would be terrible. I untap with enough mana to hardcast my Hoof and take the game.
3-0 Matches, 6-2 Games.
Round 4
Chase - Reanimator
After Round 3 I find Chase and ask him what his record is. We are both X-0 and I tell him that I want him to stay far, far away from me on the pairings sheet, as this matchup is almost a bye for him. I should probably stop doing that.
Game 1
He makes an early Tidespout Tyrant, which is actually the least scary thing he could do against me. But that card disrupts me enough for him to leisurely find his way into an Elesh Norn and I scoop em up.
Game 2
He is on the cantrip plan and I’m on the aggro plan. I start swinging in with the team while he digs and digs and throws like 4 different monsters in his yard. I find a NO and cast it when he’s tapped out. Resolves. I find a Ruric Thar. LOL. We are both very amused by this. Then I swing with the team to put him at 10. He draws, casts Brainstorm and goes to 4, then shows me the Exhume he found off the Brainstorm. GG. Ruric Thar for the win.
Game 3
He is again on the cantrip plan and I make some dudes into a NO. Resolves. Let’s go Ruric Thar one more time, since I don’t have enough guys for a lethal Hoof. I stick it with him at 15. He EOT Submerges Ruric Thar, going to 9, and casts Entomb to add Elesh Norn to his Grislebees and Blazing Archon already in the yard. But he is stuck on one land. He untaps, rips, sighs, and passes. I cast a second NO for a lethal Hoof and he shows me the Exhume in his hand.
4-0 Matches, 8-3 Games.
Round 5
Adam - Deathblade
Game 1
On Turn 3 I go for a Glimpse hoping to make it into a Hymn. He Forces. I follow up with Natural Order into a lethal Hoof.
Game 2
I keep an absolutely terrible hand with Dryad Arbor as my only land drop. He Plows it and plays an E.Plague. I rip and play Bayou, Cabal Therapy, just to see what’s up. He shows me Perish, Jitte, Bob. Okay. Well at least I let him draw all of his hate this game. So his mojo will be spent for the next one. I’ve already lost but I let him play it out. I’ve come back from some stupid board states and our first game took five minutes. So I give it a chance and let hope float. And it sinks. I just made a Sandra Bullock movie reference and I don’t know where that came from. Disgusting.
Game 3
I keep a hand with a couple of X/2 elves. He tells me later that he had an E.Plague the entire time but didn’t want to spend the turn to play it unless it was going to matter. I’m just a lucksack I guess.
I lead with DRS. I have 2xNatural Order in hand but need some time to set up enough mana+dudes to make them matter. He goes land, DRS, cantrip, go. I go land, tap out to make a Viridian Shaman with no target. I just needed bodies on the board to pump Gaea’s Cradle and the Hoof to follow. Lucky me they were X/2 bodies.
On his turn he plays his third land, fetches for a thing, does nothing with his DRS, and passes at 19. I feel the V.Clique coming. I rip a Heritage Druid and he attempts to eat a land out of my yard with his DRS in my draw step. I think a bit and let him. He has enough lands that I can’t keep him off of V.Clique mana by using my own DRS in response, and I’ll need my DRS untapped for this attack. So he gets his mana and Cliques me seeing 2xNatural Order, 1xHeritage Druid. He looks sad and takes a Natural Order. I Clique-draw and find a fetchland. Tap one land for G for Heritage Druid. Fetch for Dryad Arbor. Tap Cradle for 4, NO saccing Arbor, resolves, find Hoof and attack with DRS, V.Shaman, and Hoof for 5, 6, and 9. That’s 19 with a V.Clique block. Exactsies.
If he had not tapped his DRS for mana, it would be ready to block and he would have been able to eat up 2 more damage to stay alive, but even then it’s not great for him. Alternatively, if he had taken my Heritage Druid, I would have only been able to tap Cradle for 3 (DRS, V.Shaman, Arbor), requiring me to use my DRS for mana, making the Hoof attack much less than lethal. But that’s how Magic is sometimes. And I’ll take the W however it comes.
5-0 Matches, 10-4 Games.
Round 6
Ceramic Plate - Sweet Potato Fries with Honey Mustard on the side
I ID this round and 2-0 a tasty plate o’fries. The scrub didn’t even know what was coming.
5-0-1 Matches, 10-4 Games.
Round 7
Another Ceramic Plate - Cheesy Garlic Bread with Marinara
I ID this round and 2-0 the previous opponent’s friend or whatever. I cannot be stopped.
5-0-2 Matches, 10-4 Games.
Top 8
It’s a clean cut and I’m 2nd seed. I get paired against my buddy Mike who was in the carpool with me. We have played many times before and know each other’s lists fairly well, so when the judge hands me Mike’s decklist I am relieved to see no Grafdigger’s Cage and no Leyline of Sanctity, as those are usually the cards he uses to beat me.
Mike - Sneak and Show
Game 1
I’m on the play since I’m higher seed and start making elf dudes. He Spell Pierces an early GSZ for 1 and Forces an Elvish Visionary leaving me with a bunch of Do-Nothing Elves facing down his Turn 3 Sneak Attack. He untaps and shows me Emrakul and we go to the next game.
Game 2
He keeps a weak hand, mulling to 6, and I lead with Cabal Therapy naming Force. It sticks and I take a Force. He shows me Show and Tell, Emrakul, Sneak attack, fetchland, Echoing Truth. I pass and he makes a land and passes. I play Nettle Sentinel, fetchland into Dryad Arbor, sac Arbor to flashback Therapy naming Emrakul. He shows me he drew a land. On his turn he plays a second land and passes. On my next turn I play out Heritage Druid, Quirion Ranger in that order. In response to Ranger, he Echoing Truths Nettle Sentinel, forcing me to wait to cast the Natural Order in my hand. Instead I replay Sentinel and pass. On my next turn I’m able to NO into Hoof and he doesn’t have the Force.
Game 3
He’s on the play and I mull to 6 looking for disruption. I find it in a single Cabal Therapy. Good enough. He leads with Ancient Tomb, Petal, Petal, Sneak Attack. Pass.
WTF.
I tank.
I know Mike is a gambling man. In the swiss rounds, he mulled to 4 in Game 3 against Josh Ravitz on Shardless BUG. Mike managed to find Blood Moon, land, Petal, Petal, and won off of a Turn 1 Blood Moon against deck with no basics. Mike likes to ride the lightning. And I felt like he was doing that in this case as well.
I draw, play fetch into Bayou. Then drop Cabal Therapy. He has 3 cards in hand. Clearly, I have to name either Griselbrand or Emrakul. I’m not sure Mike would keep that hand if it just had Emrakul, as that isn’t really a guaranteed kill against me. He would need to draw into another monster before I Hoofed him. And that’s a bit risky. Also, I could take an Emrakul swing and probably get back in the game. I would only lose 1 land.
On the other hand, if he drops a Griselbrand, he can draw into Emrakul + land/Petal quite easily. And that is definitely lethal.
So I name Griselbrand. He makes a sadface and shows me Griselbrand, Brainstorm, Intuition. I pass. He draws and passes. I play a mana dork, fetch into Dryad Arbor, and flashback Therapy saccing Arbor naming Brainstorm. He shows me Intuition and 2x(!!) Brainstorm. Bad beats. He couldn’t come back from that and I find Hoof to take the match.
6-0-2 Matches, 12-5 Games.
It’s 11:45pm by the time all the quarterfinal matches are done. We decide to split the Top 4 so we can all go home. The venue offers to buy back the duals they were giving as prizes, so I walked away with a wallet full of cash, and a couple Modern Masters boosters. It was a good day.
Props to Neil for text of the night:
Slops to nothing because Sunday was pretty cool.
And he still wins. danyul don't fucking care.Originally Posted by danyul
Nice job, Daniel. Who needs more cardboard when there's cash money to get?!
Here's an interesting situation. I actually think the card to name here (on flashback) was Intuition as it is guaranteed to find a fattie. He had a Tomb in play so any fetch would get a Volcanic and cast Intuition on your end step only to promptly kill you on his next turn. What do you think about this one? I see it didn't matter, but I always play for the worst case scenario.So I name Griselbrand. He makes a sadface and shows me Griselbrand, Brainstorm, Intuition. I pass. He draws and passes. I play a mana dork, fetch into Dryad Arbor, and flashback Therapy saccing Arbor naming Brainstorm. He shows me Intuition and 2x(!!) Brainstorm. Bad beats. He couldn’t come back from that and I find Hoof to take the match.
The Quad Cities: twice as nice as the Twin Cities.
Hey man, congrats for your performance.
You write some funny things, sir.Please do keep us "fed" with your reports.
...
IRT to the use of Cabal Therapy, it is nice to read your thoughts on this on the report, since I confess I struggle a lot to know which is the correct card to name to it, when it comes to use it.
Well, after the recent discussion about it on the thread, at least it eases my worries to know that there is not a real consensus on its use (I mean, on which less obvious MUs one must bring it in, and what to use it to for).
Congrats on the finish Daniel. Since you changed up your MD a bit, here are some questions I have:
1. Did the 2nd arbor matter game 1? I am removing the crop rotation package as well and was thinking of adding the 2nd arbor in the sb.
2. How relevant was the ooze in the main deck? I am debating between ooze and 2nd birchlore in place of rotation.
3. Did you miss the 2nd llanowar to make 3 mana on turn 2?
4. When boarding in Ruric Thar against combo, did you bring in NO#4 as well?
Keep up the good work with the posts!
Nice job, and entertaining report, as always. Wish I could have survived the quarterfinals to have split the top 4 with you. Next time!
Care?! I do not!
Yeah you are probably right there. I was just relieved to have made that Griselbrand call. I think against these Show and Tell decks it's always a safe bet to call Intuition. They all lean on that card a bit too much, it seems.Nice job, Daniel. Who needs more cardboard when there's cash money to get?!
Here's an interesting situation. I actually think the card to name here (on flashback) was Intuition as it is guaranteed to find a fattie. He had a Tomb in play so any fetch would get a Volcanic and cast Intuition on your end step only to promptly kill you on his next turn. What do you think about this one? I see it didn't matter, but I always play for the worst case scenario.
Yeah the card definitely has some nuances to it. In my example against Sneak Attack, having access to Thoughtseize over Cabal Therapy would have actually been safer for me. As I could have messed up that initial Griselbrand call pretty easily. But there have been plenty of other situations where being able to flashback Cabal Therapy, in tandem with the second Dryad Arbor, have allowed me to cripple my opponent without slowing myself down too much.
1. The 2nd Arbor helps in very subtle but somehow substantial ways. As you know, being able to make 1-2 additional mana can be the difference between winning that turn or having to wait and give our opponent a drawstep to hit their outs. Being able to EOT fetch into Arbor to boost our Cradles or to interact with Quirion Ranger is very helpful. I recommend you try a 2nd Arbor in the main, as I never ended up siding it out (although perhaps I should have?) and I don't like it in the SB at all. I've tried that before and the effect is so subtle that I rarely found myself bringing it in. But I do appreciate it when it's there without me actively thinking about it. It's a case of the deck being smarter than me. You should test it out.
2. I also wanted a 2nd Birchlore in that MD Ooze slot but at the last minute went with Ooze since Riley Curran was running that config. I just assume he's smarter than I am. That Sunday, I never actually drew the Ooze or felt compelled to GSZ for it. And I had access to one in the SB anyway. But they can be situationally very strong, as you know. Now that you bring it up, I might try the 2nd Birchlore in that slot. It can give us very explosive starts.
3. I did not miss that second Llanowar. However, I did find myself dropping Heritage Druids/Nettle Sentinels on turn one a bit more often than I'd like. But doing that and not being scared or concerned is just a matter of experience, I think. Also being a lucksack and always seeing DRS in the opener does help.
4. I did not board in NO #4. I probably should have. Good catch.
Thanks boss. We will meet again in the finals someday. Both mull to zero?
Thanks man.
He is a diligent caller of judges. I'll say that much. And I could very well have been the most annoying Benadryl-bum ever. I can't quite say. Either way, it was a memorable moment for sure.
Thanks for your suggestions. I'll go ahead and test the 2nd arbor in place of the 2nd llanowar. There have been times where I wanted to gsz/fetch for arbor but already drew/played it. Having the 2nd birchlore should mitigate against not having that 2nd llanowar to produce 3+ mana on turn 2 anyways. Since putting the 2nd arbor in the main saves a sb slot, how's the 3rd decay working for you?
I like it. It feels safer than just 2. In matchups where you bring them in, you really want to see them. So might as well run 3 yeah? And they are so versatile. I can bring them in for damn near anything.
I think running 2 Decay 1 O Ring is probably a better idea, but I guess 3 Decay can be fine.
That's actually probably better. I never thought of that. Works against Show and Tell decks and can hit Humility and whatever. K you win. I'll go find an O-Ring.
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