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Thread: 7th with RUG Delver at SCG Baltimore 7/20/2014

  1. #1

    7th with RUG Delver at SCG Baltimore 7/20/2014

    First things first, I want to say that my success is due to having a solid playtesting group to jam legacy with: Seth Zulinski, Ali and Jeff Jafri, Will Dean and Adam Gawiniski. Also, I have two awesome stores to play at: ComicMania (best magic store in Delaware) and Redcaps Corner(Philadelphia, PA). I have lots of friends that I want to thank, you guys rock and the support really means a lot. Congrats to fellow Redcaps player Joe Jenkins for piloting Jund to a 15th place finish.

    This is my first top8 of a tournament this large, but I have had lots of success at local tournaments and have almost top8'd several opens before, losing win and in rounds in two different opens. I have played several different legacy decks to success. My go-to is RUG but I have jammed Zoo back when it was a viable deck and Reanimator after fellow playtesting group member Seth Zulinisky made it to the finals of SCG Philadelphia. Tempo decks play an important piece of the Legacy metagame, keeping combo decks in check. Unfortunately, they can struggle against fair decks. I am running the typical RUG Delver build but the flex spots are geared towards improving my fair deck match ups. I played in both the Legacy open trial on Saturday evening and the main event on Sunday. Here is my list for both events:decklist Spell Snare is criminally underplayed. It has proven to be a solid card against almost every deck. Play it. The forked bolt is pretty standard in RUG lists but Fire//Ice is a bit more rare. It has won me many games and most people don't expect it. As a side note, I typically play 4 Polluted Deltas, but a friend needed to borrow two so I substituted them with Misty Rainforests. Leading with a “safe” looking fetchland and getting to Stifle an opponents fetchland is obviously a very strong play. Also, whoever typed up my decklist forgot the 15th sideboard card, a Vendillion Clique.

    SCG Baltimore Legacy Tournament Report

    Open Trial Saturday evening, 3-0-1(7-1-1 in games).
    Rd 1 Death and Taxes 2-0
    Rd 2 Death and Taxes 2-0
    In the first two rounds I believe I countered a turn one Aether Vial a total of three times. Spell snare is a hard counter for half of their deck. Game 2 Rough//Tumble, Grim lavamancer and artifact hate is very strong, cutting dazes and spell pierces because I was on the draw.

    Rd 3 Elves 1-1-1
    These games were very awkward, neither deck had strong openings and took a while to get going. Rough//Tumble was also good in this match up, as was submerge. Game three after mulling to 5 I was able to get my opponent to three even with a Meekstone in play, but could not find a bolt to seal the match.

    Rd 4 Junk 2-0 I believe opponent had not played against RUG much, got full usage out of soft counters and won easily.

    Main Event, went 7-0(14-2 in games) in the swiss before double drawing in to top8.
    Rd 1 Chris on Red Painter 2-0
    Game two my opponent blood moons me when I had no red mana and a hand full of burn. Never been happy to get blood mooned before.

    Rd 2 Feline Longmore High Tide 2-1
    I had explosive hands all three games, delver into goyf into burn and counters. I believe hightide can go off onturn four, so in all three games I played threats, burn and dug for counters in the early turns. On turn four I would kept mana open to try to fight over combo. Feline was able to combo off in game two on turn four, at four life and lethal attacks on the board. She played very tight that game and really pulled out an impressive win. The other two games I was just very aggressive and she didn’t have enough time.

    Rd 3 Patrick BUG Delver 2-0
    I don't like this matchup, but was able to outplay my opponent. Submerge out of the board is helpful, I got hymmed both games, and abrupt decay is a very good card.

    Rd 4 BUG “good stuff” Control 2-0
    Both games he never gets much going and I am able to win easily.

    Rd 5 David Stoneblade 2-0
    Game two was really sick. I got to trygon predator a rest in peace, and the following turn I used ancient grudge to kill both the jitte (after he used 3 counters to kill trygon predator)attached to true name nemesis and an unequipped SoFaI.

    Rd 6 Sam Castrucci NicFit 2-1
    I am really bummed to get paired against a fellow Redcaps Corner player and good friend but we both decide we need to play it out. Games one and three I have really good draws and he doesn’t get to play magic. Game two he draws well and I have little going on. I lose to double Huntmaster, very cool way to lose.

    Rd 7 Dustin Shiles Jund 2-0 Decklist here
    He finished 2nd, very nice guy, was glad to see him do well. Jund is an unfavorable match up for RUG. In our match he kept a loose hand game one and struggled on lands. In game two I mulled and still was able to win. Spell snare put in some work this match.
    Rd 8 and 9 ID


    Top 8 Lloyd Kurth Shardless BUG 1-2
    His Decklist
    Coverage of our match

    I was the 3rd seed and got paired against a bad matchup, Shardless BUG. He eventually went on to win the whole thing. The coverage was decent, several things were missed but you get the main story. Game three was a really tough break for me. I cliqued him after he decayed my first goyf and was tapped out, hoping to tuck another decay. He had a hand of 4 lands, a deathrite shaman, and a goyf. I tucked the goyf and he drew a shardless agent. When I played the vortex I thought I was going to be ahead due to existing life totals and having more threats. I even double wastelanded him to keep him off of green sources. I brainstormed and had no way to shuffle two mongoose away, they were 1/1 due to grave yard removal. I couldn’t find a stifle and his ancestral visions drew him gas – he found green mana, threats and abrupt decay so he got the W. The only misplay I had the entire match was immediately killing the Lilliana with the vortex damage. I was out of cards in hand so I should have let him plus it for a turn before shooting her with the damage. It probably didn't matter, as he was really far ahead on cards from ancestral vision.

    Overall, I am really happy with how well I played. I will be changing some things with the sideboard to improve the BUG Delver, Shardless BUG and Jund matchups. I have been on this maindeck for a long time and am quite happy with it.

  2. #2

    Re: 7th with RUG Delver at SCG Baltimore 7/20/2014

    That game 3 triple daze hand was so brutal lol I will be the most powerful wizard next time tho
    Congrats on the top 8 was rooting for you to go all the way

  3. #3

    Re: 7th with RUG Delver at SCG Baltimore 7/20/2014

    How do you plan to improve your matchups against the bug and maverick decks?

  4. #4

    Re: 7th with RUG Delver at SCG Baltimore 7/20/2014

    Very nice report, thanks! I'm one of the other two RUG decks that top 8'd that one. Dustin Shiles was my one loss in the swiss... just couldn't overcome the wall of Lilianas and Abrupt Decays!

  5. #5
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    Re: 7th with RUG Delver at SCG Baltimore 7/20/2014

    Grats again on the finish! Rug is always the toughest Delver deck to go against from the High Tide side.
    Primary legacy deck High Tide primer

  6. #6
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    Re: 7th with RUG Delver at SCG Baltimore 7/20/2014

    Congratulations Josh!

    I believe you have the best 'Actual Content' / '# of Posts' ratio of anyone on theSource.

  7. #7

    Re: 7th with RUG Delver at SCG Baltimore 7/20/2014

    Thanks everyone!

    Firepaw3, my draws were very strong that match. I was looking forward to seeing you at Redcaps last night but you were not there. I am always down for losing to Huntmaster or Doomsday combo haha.

    Blitzkreuz, I am trying some sideboard changes, so far they have been very good but I have only played a few matches. I am hesitant to share the tech until the SCG Invitational. I will say that Trygon Predator is quite good in the stoneblade matchup, I have not tested Miracles with him yet but he is probably good there too.

    PacificPoem, Congrats fellow RUG brother! Jund is a hard matchup. Abrupt decay is just too good against us...

    Ace/Homebrew, fair point - I will try to keep my ratio intact while adding posts

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    Re: 7th with RUG Delver at SCG Baltimore 7/20/2014

    Thanks for the report!
    I'm a big fan of Trygon Predator ever since CB/Top happened, but I'm not courageous enough to bring it back. "Those sb slots, we need 16 of them!" I should definiitely try it.

  9. #9
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    Re: 7th with RUG Delver at SCG Baltimore 7/20/2014

    Congrats on the result, and thanks for the report! It's nice to see so many RUG Delvers in the T8. :)
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    Re: 7th with RUG Delver at SCG Baltimore 7/20/2014

    Quote Originally Posted by Purgatory View Post
    Congrats on the result, and thanks for the report! It's nice to see so many RUG Delvers in the T8. :)
    And other things you never thought you'd hear...

    #gogocommando
    11th at SCG Baltimore - 6/02/2013
    2nd at SCG Philadelphia - 6/23/2013
    28th at SCG Worcester - 7/07/2013

  11. #11
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    Re: 7th with RUG Delver at SCG Baltimore 7/20/2014

    Congrats man, RUG is an extremely skill testing deck. A few months ago it was going extinct, now it's back in force. Nice job.
    A book about the dark side of Legacy: "Magic: The Addiction" // Conversations with Magic players: "Humans of Magic"

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