A weekend begins with Tyrio, bmjhagan, Jon, Alphastryk, and 2 others cramming into a Tahoe on their drive to Nashville. We get there early to shop around at the vendor booths. Find some sweet Russian things. Too bad Nedleeds got in a day earlier to sweep up all of the real good stuff. We meet up with him there and 10 minutes until the Vintage Gen Con event is supposed to fire there are only 5 people signed up. So I figure since 5-8 get half a box I may as well play my legacy deck in vintage for the free value. Well we end up getting 10 by the time it fires (7 being ATL people) so I debate dropping since I have no chance right? Well luckily my deck is full of hateful bears so I say fuck it and play.
Round 1: Powered UR Delver (Jon)
Not much to say about this MU. This deck is ridiculous and I get absolutely crushed.
0-1
Round 2: Powered BUG
Despite his power, I have a deck well positioned against his. I just get souls out and get weapons and he has trouble dealing with it all and I win. Game 2 we both mull to 5. I get a second land and a spirit of the labyrinth out and he doesnt interact much as I wasteland and vindicate any land he plays.
1-1
Round 3: Powered Chromium Control (Nedleeds)
Game 1 I feel like I was doing very well. I forced him into an awkward position where I had a liliana at 6 and he tinkers while he has a Notion Thief out to my 4 Lingering Souls. He goes for Sphinx of the Steel wind at first, but realizes he is super dead to a removal spell off of the top. So he gets Sensei's top instead. I of course rip the removal that wouldve been probably game had he gotten sphinx and remove his Thief, however I don't really have a good liliana ultimate pile to keep him off of a Time vault victory, and he rips like a Snapcaster off of the top for demonic or something and I die to infinite turns.
Game 2 again I feel like I am in a very good position. He is sitting on something like 10 mana though while he is top decking. I jam Batterskull and he comments how it is very good. He proceeds to rip and hardcast a Sphinx of the Steel Wind and I dont find a way to deal with that man fast enough and I die.
Round 4: Semi-Powered RUg Delver
Guy is super cool and we figure we can ID into top 8 because of the small turnout but we play for fun and I proceed to absolutely crush him in games 1 and 3. The one game I lose I believe he simply did the normal Delver tempo game.
Woo into top 8!
I believe I played against Nedleeds again? I dont really remember. I just remember I got crushed. Whatever. I got half a box, cracked enough out of the packs that I sold stuff and got entry ($30) + I got to keep the Delta and Dig Through Time I cracked. I'll take it.
Afterwards we sweat it out while Nedleeds crushes Oath and bmjhagan beats storm so they split the dope ass Gen Con prize. We leave the venue to get BBQ from the Peg Leg Porker. It was awesome and highly recommended. The local beers weren't all that exciting to me though. Grab a six pack across the street from the motel and fall asleep happy and full of beer and BBQ while watching College Football. Fucking 'Murica.
Wake up the next morning and debate playing the Legacy gen con event. I wasn't to high on my deck going into the weekend. I just didn't think it had the tools to hang. I said fuck it though and entered. Last minute though I saw some Japanese Restoration Angels for 6 bucks each and bought them. I then decided to put them into my deck. The List:
Dead Spirit Ale:
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Dark Confidant
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Spirit of the Labyrinth
2 Restoration Angel
4 Thoughtseize
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Lingering Souls
2 Vindicate
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Sorin, Lord of innistrad
2 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
1 Windswept Heath
2 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
1 Plains
4 Scrubland
2 Isolated Chapel
1 Bayou
4 Wasteland
Sideboard:
3 Kor Firewalker
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Rest in Peace
1 Choke
1 Perish
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Engineered Plague
2 Disenchant
Last minute changes were -1 Phyrexian Revoker -1 Spirit of the Labyrinth, +2 Restoration Angels and in the SB -1 Canonist -1 Sword of Feast and Famine -1 Orzhov Pontiff, +3 Kor Firewalkers. The deck is a concession to treasure cruise existing. By the end of the day, I had learned that cruise, while good, is not the best Delve Spell. Dig Through Time is INSANE.
Jump into the pairings, and as the curse of mine goes, I played against bmjhagan in round 1 on Elves.
Round 1: Elves
Game 1 goes about as poorly as a game can go on the draw. My hand is mediocre and slow and I get hoofed on turn 4 I think after he does stuff with Visionary. Game 2 goes a bit long because I have a few good cards. I have the choice on Turn 2 of going Deathrite and Thoughtseize, or Spirit of the Labyrinth. I choose the Deathrite plan so I dont simply die to a hoof since I have Perish in hand. Unfortunately I have to take his NO with Thoughtseize and leave him with glimpse, and he correctly doesnt over extend the next turn when he glimpses, making just enough dudes that I have to wipe his board while he keeps a full grip. I am forced to perish or just die, and he reloads and kills me 2 turns later.
0-1 (0-2)
After this I am in the mindset of at least I can lose out early and drop and just hang out.
Round 2: Miracles
Game 1 Goes perfectly. I am on the play. I go Inquisition, seeing Jace, Top, Brainstorm, and counterbalance plus lands. I take top and pass. He plays Fetch and pass. I untap, Play spirit of the labyrinth. He doesnt Brainstorm for whatever reason. He fetches basic island, plays an island, and counterbalance. Lol nice card. I proceed to cast spells and he never flips anything of significance while I keep him off of white mana and he dies with a brainstorm and stuff in hand.
Game 2 I dont remember well, but I just remember him not doing much. Lingering Souls is after all quite a card against Miracles.
1-1 (2-2)
Round 3: Oops, All Spells
It's a local guy and I know what he is on and I think he knows what I am on. He sits for a minutes and we joke about how he should smash me. He pulls out a coin and says: "If this is heads I'll keep this hand." It's heads. He reveals White chancellor and I simply must pass the turn. He probes 3 times and doesnt find the kill and passes. I play Bob into the Chancellors ability (purposefully). He passes. I untap, cast stoneforge fetching a SoFaI and Inquisition him seeing like a chrome mox, 2 Undercity Informer, a green pact, and garbage. I take his Green pact over his chrome mox because it represents either an IMS in elvish spirit guide or a fixer in Wild Cantor. I proceed to draw another Thoughtseize next turn and hit the Chrome mox leaving him with no IMS and I win. He says if I didnt take the mox I would have died next turn. Glad I played storm long enough to know exactly how to play aginst these ritual based combo decks.
Game 2 he mulls to a hot 4 or 5 and I have Thalia on T2 after he misses on Cabal Therapy (Inquisition of Kozilek) and it is effectively over.
2-1 (4-2)
I guess if I win out I can T8? Seems unlikely but I'll stick it out.
Round 4: URW Delver
In my opinion, the worst of the Delver decks because Stone forge is SOOOOOOO SLLOOOOOWWWWWW.
Game 1 He has a Delver opening, but I play around Daze and STP it on T2, but he cruises at some point and get buried under infinite cards. I feel salty and make a comment about Ancestral being good.
Game 2 I crush as he is forced to answer my T1 Deathrite and I never let him do much as I waste and vindicate his lands. Dont think he ever got more than 2 out.
Game 3 I am on the draw and not overly confident. Luckily he plays a fetch and passes. I play deathrite and he Swords. He plays a land and ponders. Passes. I'm ecstatic, assuming he has a TNN or two in hand since I have ZP in hand. I draw another deathrite and play it. He plays a Wasteland and TNN. I'm fine with that. I simply keep up 4 mana for ZP + Disenchant (I can't afford him to Jitte Equip so I am playing around a possible force). He simply attacks. I take it. He plays a 2nd TNN. I rub the salt in and cast ZP. He has no responses and quickly the game is over after that.
3-1 (5-3)
Feels great to crush delver. Notice I lost the only game he resolved Ancestral.
Round 5: The Deck (2014) Alphastryk
Looking at the records and such we determine that 4-1-1 will probably get in. He however is 4-0 and paired down against me. I figure we have 3 options:
1) I win and we both either ID and cross our fingers in Round 6 to hope breakers go our way or we both might have to play win and ins.
2) I lose and he is guaranteed in and I am guaranteed out
3) We ID, putting him in no matter what and me on a win and in in the next round. We take this option since he is also my teammate I am fine with it.
3-1-1 (5-3)
Round 6: Reanimator (Same guy who was on RUg semi powered Delver in Vintage)
I had watched him a couple times in the tourney since my games generally are quick because I play fast.
G1 I keep a 2x STP and Liliana hand. I'm on the draw. Play a turn 2 Deathrite that I drew. He animate Deads griselbrand. He draws 7, in response I swords, he draws 7 again. He forces. Draws his second 7. Discard end step. I untap, swords again. He forces, then I liliana and he quickly scoops. Afterwards he remembers he had a daze. Lol
Game 2 I play turn 2 spirit of the Lab. He doesn't force. Casts show and tell, I put in a second spirit, he puts in Griselbrand. I cast swords on my turn, he forces to no cards in hand, I had a second swords and he scoops.
4-1-1 (7-3)
Me winning forced the guys at table 4 to play because their breakers were garbage compared to mine. Delver beat Loam () but the good news was that our team had crushed. I don't remember how many people were in the tourney (~50?), but 4 of the top 8 was from our car (Me, bmjhagan, Alphastryk, and Tyrio), and 2 of the other guys were awesome locals who play at our store often with us. Top 8 looked like: 1x BUG Delver, 1x URW Delver, 1x Elves, 1x Lands, 1x UROmnitell, 1x Death and Taxes, 1x The Deck (2014), and 1x Dead Spirit Ale.
Top 8: BUG Delver
Was against a pretty cool guy who had a stores shirt on (don't remember the store or his name). Apparently since the judge did not announce the modified play draw rule, top seed didn't automatically get the play which seemed wrong, but I ended up winning the roll and I as the 7 seed got to be on the play! I Thoughtseize and see a hand of like, Deathrite Shaman, 2x Goyf, and stuff. My hand was full of removal but a tad slow since my plan was T2 Bob into vindicates and such. So I take Deathrite so I don't fall behind. Unfortunately he rips one off the top and plays it. I dont draw a third land so I feel forced to play Bob to try to find lands because I know he has a Waste in hand. Play Bob. He wastes Plus Goyf. I don't find a 2nd land so I have to pass and he plays a second goyf. I die to the Goofs and dont find a 2nd land.
Game 2 goes kind of long. He plays out a deathrite and a goyf. I have a RIP and Perish in hand. so he plays a second Goyf, and I have a Jitte and a SoFaI on board just sitting there that I would like to protect from his abrupt decay that I suspect is in his hand. So I play RIP out to neuter his men. He decays it on his turn and battles with 3 Squires. I perish him next turn for the blow out and we are off to Game 3.
Game 3 I keep a hand that I probably shouldn't. It was a 1 land Deathrite, Thoughtseize and 3 drops hand. He plays Verdant and passes. I should suspect something is up, but I'm also an idiot so I play deathrite off of a fetched basic swamp and he disfigures it. He plays a Goyf and I thoughtseize him. He only has a bayou and a wasteland on board and his hand is like 1 Golgari Charm, Null Rod, Ponder, and another disfigure. I take ponder because I don't want him digging just incase he rips a blue land. May have been wrong? Anyway, he rips a trop and I feel better about my decision, but I only draw another swamp for a few turns and can't do much with a sorin, restoration angel, 2 vindicates in hand. He has me looking bad at 1 and he has now needled Liliana and I rip a scrubland and stare at the liliana in hand. I play it and decide my best out is to vindicate his Goyf and hope he forgets about Go;lgari Charms regenerate ability. He does and goyf dies. He draws, Wastes and passes. I draw up to 8, discard lingering souls. He passes. I flash it back and do the same. Draw to 8, discard another souls. Unfortunately over the next 2 turns he has 2 Golgari Charms to answer my souls. I rip a fetchland while at 1 with another vindicate to kill off his Goyf on the final turn and shake his hand.
Rough stuff, but it happens. Such is magic. I still cracked my packs and got 35 cash + got to keep another delta and Strand for all of the rares I pulled out of the packs. bmjhagan and Alphastryk end up not paired in the semis and both win vs URW and BUG Delver to get to the finals for another all Tusk finals in the gen con events.
Here's a picture of round 4 when Tusk was represented at tables 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6.
Also of note: Only 1 of my match losses all weekend was to a non Tusk.
Originally Posted by Richard Cheese
#TUD ... what a beating ... the mayor of Nashville called and we get the key to the city for wreaking such devastation upon them.
I think it was Adrian Sullivan (SCG Announcer man) who walked by and just said something about us being at those tables like, "That's a lot of Team Tusk there"
(BUG Delver player in the top 8 was Greg)
(Legacy event size was 46 players)
Nice report, that Vintage event was a ton of fun - seeing Legacy Lands converted to Vintage in 5 minutes (+Strip Mine, +Demonic Tutor) do well was a pleasure to watch.
Your match against Reanimator sounds absolutely insane, triple removal spells really put the screws to him.
I think against Oops all Dicks I would've taken the Chrome Mox first instead of the Summoner's Pact? The access to black mana seems more dangerous than his access to Green mana or a Wild Cantor - assuming the rest of his hand is actual blanks. The fixer won't help him without another IMS while the black source makes Dark Rituals live (he would still need a fourth mana though).
Tusk up.
(Not so) Current Decks: GB Elves, GW Maverick, GWb Maverick, LED Dredge, ANT, TES, Jund Storm.
That is fair. It was a tough decision since I knew he was one card away from just killing me. In my head I thought about it along the lines of, the green pact was a more flexible card so I should take that. But I see your point.
Yeah, he'll need four mana anyways. I don't think it works out to be the same number of required cards.
Pact in hand = Spirit Guide or Cantor
-- Cantor needs an IMS to cast it, then needs a Dark Ritual ++ a +1 mana (IMS, Rit)
-- Spirit Guide needs a black source into either Rit... or a second IMS (Pact/Spirit Guide) into Manamorphose into either Rit.
So in the first an IMS could be 3 Chrome Mox, 4 Peddle, 3 Summoner's Pact, 4 Elvish Spirit Guides. 4 Simians for the second IMS.
And a Rit could be 4 Dark Rituals, 4 Cabal Rituals?
Mox in hand
-- Dark Ritual ++ a +1 mana (Any IMS, Rit)
-- +1 mana (Any IMS, Rit) ++ Cabal Ritual
So in the first he needs an IMS of some sort and a Dark Ritual, or double Ritual (one being a Dark Ritual).
Looks like he needs two cards with the Mox in hand and three with the Pact? Either way he needs a specific set of draws with at least two cards.
Tusk up.
(Not so) Current Decks: GB Elves, GW Maverick, GWb Maverick, LED Dredge, ANT, TES, Jund Storm.
Please post a list of alphastrk's "The Deck 2014"
-Matt
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...l=1#post844581
Tusk up.
(Not so) Current Decks: GB Elves, GW Maverick, GWb Maverick, LED Dredge, ANT, TES, Jund Storm.
If you enjoy control at all I'd definitely recommend looking into The Deck. It feels like the best Legacy deck I've ever played - including Mystical Tutor Reanimator.
Words to live by.
Great job, all you Tusks. I'll have to keep a lookout for you in the streaming coverage whenever SCG is in your area.
I was on UR delver not UWR. But there were a lot of orange shirts.
How was Restoration Angel? I'm very interested in all the details on her.
Referring to the art on Stasis:
Were you my delver opponent or were you versus Elves in top 8?
As for Angel, it was pretty much GG against delver and against BUG in the top 8, my hand was clogged with two angels, a sorin, and 2 lingering souls while stuck on 1 land, but I have been testing it a bit since I dropped sorin and something for 2 angels to rework my curve, and the few times I have played it, it's fine. I mean not getting bolted or decayed has been nice, also it ambushes walkers nicely. Not sure if I'll still be playing it at the SCG at the end of this month however. Depends on how much miracles I expect to see
Came for Thragtusks crushing Legacy. Was disappointed. But then read the report and was not disappointed anymore. Thanks for writing!
I played elves in top 4.
Oh okay. Just saw your list actually. Single gut shot? Interesting. How did it do? I've always thought it was decent and if Deathrite were a 1/1 that it would be very insane
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