Hey everyone. I just got back from my first large Legacy event since using RG Lands. It was a fairly large SCG Open with 582 players. I played the following list:
4 Crop Rotation
4 Exploration
4 Gamble
4 Life from the Loam
4 Mox Diamond
3 Punishing Fire
2 Manabond
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Rishadan Port
4 Thespian's Stage
4 Wasteland
3 Dark Depths
3 Maze of Ith
2 Taiga
2 Tranquil Thicket
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Karakas
1 Misty Rainforest
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
Sideboard
4 Krosan Grip
4 Sphere of Resistance
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Dark Depths
1 Pithing Needle
1 Primeval Titan
Recap of the event
Round 1 vs Nic Fit
G1: I win the die roll and procede to mulligan twice. I had an early Marit Lage, but he was at 22 due to Groves. He concede after his immediate draw step because I also had loam.
Based on what I saw in Game 1, I expected that I was playing against Jund.
Sideboard
In: 3x Krosan Grip, 1x Pithing Needle, 1x Primeval Titan
Out: 2x Manabond, 1x Glacial Chasm, 1x Karakas, 1x Dark Depths
G2: I keep seven and my opponent goes to six. I spend the early turns hindering his mana development, but Veteran Explorer helps him get through. I keep digging with Loam, searching for Wasteland, Ghost Quarter, or Dark Depths, but come up empty and eventually lose to a Primeval Titan + Scavenging Ooze that I can't answer.
Sideboard
In: 1x Bojuka Bog
Out: 1x Krosan Grip
G3: We both keep seven. I lead with a Verdant Catacombs, My opponent starts the game out Cabal Therapy into Sugrical Extraction on my Life from the Loam. I attempt to assemble the combo with Gamble and I end up casting a Mox Diamond, leaving just my Dark Depths in hand, which is discarded to Liliana. A Crop Rotation two turns later allows me to kill him with my remaining Dark Depths.
1-0 (2-1 in games)
Round 2 vs Burn
G1: I win the die roll. My opponent's deck is not inner-sleeved, making me assume Dredge, Belcher or Burn. I keep a seven that has everything I need for a turn 2 combo. My opponent casts a Goblin Guide, Chain Lightning and Lava Spike before dying to Marit Lage.
Sideboard
In: 4x Sphere of Resistance, 2x Thron of Amethyst, 1x Dark Depths, 2x Krosan Grip
Out: 3x Maze of Ith, 1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, 2x Exploration, 1x Karakas, 1x Life from the Loam, 1x Tranquil Thicket
G2: I keep my seven while he goes down to six. After leading with Lava Spike, I start my turn with a Grove of the Burnwillows and Manabond. My opponent casts an Eidolon of the Great Revel. On my turn, I cast Punishing Fire. I resolve a Thorn of Amethyst and Punishing Fire his next Eidolon. I eventually die to his burn spells when I can no longer pay for Chasm or find Stage + Loam to set up a loop
G3: I have a pretty good opener. I cast a turn one Thorn of Amethyst. My opponent has Goblin Guide into Eidolon of the Great Revel. My opponent's Guide finds me my Dark Depths, but it is a turn late between Chain Lightning and Fireblast.
1-1 (3-3 in games)
Round 3 vs Death and Taxes
G1: My opening hand is wonderful. I cast Mox Diamond and fetch with Verdant Catacombs, sacrificing my new Taiga for a Dark Depths and I Manabond in Therspian's Stage and Grove of the Burnwillows. My opponent plays and activates Wasteland on Stage, but I draw another one and make Marit Lage. I was a little early on the combo and should've just played it all out when I had a chance to on Turn 2. He dropped a Containment Priest, so I was inclined to think he was on Death and Taxes
Sideboard
In: 4x Krosan Grip, 1x Pithing Needle
Out: 2x Manabond, 2x Tranquil Thicket, 1x Life from the Loam
G2: This game revolved around early mana denial and pressuring my opponent with Loam, Exploration and ports. He led with Pithing Needle on Thespian's Stage. I start to Port him and get out Tabernacle and Dark Depths. He uses Flickerwisp to blink Needle to now name Dark Depths, since I start removing counters manually. My next turn's Loam found me Thespian's Stage and Marit Lage greeted him with the loving embrace of death.
2-1 (6-3 in games)
Round 4 vs Lands
G1: We knew that we were playing a mirror and we both started off with mulligans. I went down to five while he kept six. Our life totals staggered around twenty between Groves and fetches. He eventually started Loaming before I could. He found Bojuka Bog and nixed my yard. He slowly Wasteland'd me out and had Marit Lage finish the job.
Sideboard
In: 1x Dark Depths, 1x Pithing Needle, 1x Bojuka Bog, 1x Primeval Titan
Out: 1x Punishing Fire, 1x Maze of Ith, 1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, 1x Glacial Chasm
G2: We both mulligan to six. I lead off with a fetch for Forest and Mox Diamond into a Loam. He goes Horizon Canopy into Exploration into Stage, then Pithing Needle on Wasteland. I just dredge and play Loam, adding the fetch back into play. He plays Dark Depths and Grove and passes. I dredge my Loam, making him think that I am looking for Maze or Karakas, but my Crop Rotation in hand is enough. After he combos, I Karakas his token. Eventually, I grind him down to a point in which I Ghost Quarter his Thespian's Stage so that I can use my Stage on his Depths. Life from the Loam brings back my Ghost Quarter to stop his Maze of Ith and we are on to game 3.
Sideboard
In: 2x Krosan Grip
Out: 2x Punishing Fire
G3: I mull to six and he mulls to five. He leads Port and I meet it with a fetch into Forest. He plays a second Port and ports me at upkeep. I Crop Rotation for Taiga in response and draw for turn. I Wasteland a Port, play my new Mox Diamond and Loam back my lands. He plays Stage and passes, Porting at my upkeep. I Wasteland him and Loam back Wasteland and the combo. I eventually run him out of lands and attack him for twenty.
3-1 (8-4 in games)
Round 5 vs Reanimator
G1: After losing the die roll, I keep a pretty decent hand. Mox Diamond, Punishing Fire, Life from the Loam, Exploration, Rishadan Port, Fetch and Tabernacle. My opponent immediately starts off with a cantrip, which can be anything. Unsure of what he is exactly on, I fetch, cast Exploration and play Port and Mox Diamond discarding Tabernacle. I port him at his upkeep. He Careful Study's away Griselbrand and Grave Titan. I draw and play a land, cast Loam, return some lands and port him at his upkeep. He uses the mana to Entomb Tidespout Tyrant and Reanimates it. I continue to try to slow him down with Ports and Tabernacle, but he just holds a land and casts Reanimate on Grave Titan. Even through Tabernacle and Maze, I lose to his two creatures.
Sideboard
In: 4x Sphere of Resistance, 2x Thorn of Amethyst, 2x Krosan Grip, 1x Bojuka Bog, 1x Ancient Tomb, 1x Dark Depths
Out: 3x Punishing Fire, 1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, 2x Maze of Ith, 2x Gamble, 2x Exploration
G2: My hand has a Sphere of Resistance and a Thorn of Amethyst alongside five lands, including a Wasteland and a Thespian's Stage. I play a fetch and pass. My opponent casts Lotus Petal, Lotus Petal, Brainstorm, Misty Rainforest, fetch for Island, Careful Study, Entomb Griselbrand, Lotus Petal, Reanimate. I lose a few turns later.
3-2 (8-6 in games)
Round 6 vs Miracles (Euro/Ponder list)
G1: After losing the die roll and both mulling to six, I have a quick hand that has Exploration into the combo with Loam back-up. The first token got hit by Terminus. The second got hit by Swords to Plowshares. The third kills him.
Sideboard
In: 4x Krosan Grip, 1x Pithing Needle, 1x Primeval Titan
Out: 3x Maze of Ith, 1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, 2x Manabond
G2: I use Ports and Wastes to keep him off white mana while he cantrips looking for some kind of yard hate. I aggressively Wasteland fetches and eventually Ghost Quarter him out of basics. He concedes before I assemble the combo.
4-2 (10-6 in games)
Round 7 vs Esper Thopter Foundry
G1: I win the die roll, fetch, Manabond, put combo into play and kill him on turn 2, seeing just a Flooded Strand.
Sideboard
In: 4x Krosan Grip, 1x Pithing Needle
Out: 2x Manabond, 1x Maze of Ith, 1x Glacial Chasm, 1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
G2: I lead Loam after Mox Diamond and a fetch. He Surgicals my Loams. After a slow grind, he eventually overwhelms me with Thopter Foundry plus Sword of the Meek.
Sideboard
In: 4x Krosan Grip, 4x Sphere of Resistance, 2x Thorn of Amethyst, 1x Ancient Tomb, 1x Bojuka Bog, 1x Dark Depths, 1x Pithing Needle
Out: 3x Maze of Ith, 2x Exploration, 3x Punishing Fire, 2x Gamble, 1x Karakas, 1x Glacial Chasm, 1x Life from the Loam, 1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
G3: I am able to assemble the combo, but he assembles his. I exile his first Sword of the Meek with Crop Rotation into Bojuka Bog, but I spent too many resources on that and I lost when he played the second Sword.
4-3 (12-7 in games)
Round 8 vs UW Stoneblade
G1: I win the die roll and start with my six. We both have slow starts, but I establish Exploration and begin Loaming while establishing some lock pieces, but he eventually forces through a True-Name Nemesis. He starts to beat-down, but I create a Marit Lage. He casts Swords to Plowshares on my token and we continue the game. True-Name eventually picks up a Jitte. After a few combat phases, I get another Marit Lage, which he allows to hit me, after gaining four life from Jitte. After taking twenty, he is able to Dig Through Time into another Swords to Plowshares. Now up to forty-one, we keep doing this dance, now including a Batterskull on the TNN. But I am met with a Snapcaster Mage flashingback a Swords to Plowshares. He attepts to race me, but when he goes down to 1, Punishing Fire forces him to use Jitte counters to continue living, but he dies on the following turn.
This game took about 30 minutes, most of which did not seem winnable for him.
Sideboard
In: 4x Krosan Grip, 1x Pithing Needle,
Out: 2x Manabond, 1x Glacial Chasm, 2x Maze of Ith
G2: I make a Marit Lage by removing 10 individual ice counters while taxing his mana. He has the Swords to Plowshares and the game continues. I am able to assemble Stage and Depths to do it again, but it also gets hit by Swords to Plowshares. I eventually Gamble for a Loam with an empty hand to Force his use of his Relic of Progenitus. I may a critical mistake by not playing around Counterspell. I need to Crop Rotation for my remaining Maze of Ith, but I can Rishadan Port his fetch to force action to ensure that I will resolve it. We get to a grind and I draw a lot of nothing and lose Game 2 with about 3 minutes on the clock.
G3: I rush to start up the game to try to complete it as fast as possible. I should've reboarded to include Manabonds and the 4th Depths to try to kill him quickly against the clock. I start up the game and lead with an Exploration into Port. I procede to Wasteland him and have an empty hand. I try to convince him to concede to me since his hand is 2x Council's Judgment, 1x Swords to Plowshares and 3 lands, but he won't. I am definitely feel that I am favored in that position and that we could have completed the match had he concede the first game earlier, but he wouldn't budge. A little bit of saltiness and a little bit of tilt made me just draw with him instead of conceding.
4-3-1 (13-8-1 in games)
Round 9 vs Nic Fit
G1: I lose the roll and my opponent starts things off with a forest. I start playing lands, one at a time. He plays a Scavenging Ooze after I drew and played Manabond, exiling my Loam after I attempt to dig for an answer to Ooze. My next draw is a Crop Rotation and when he taps out for Huntmaster of the Fells, I Crop Rotation for Thespian's Stage to kill him.
Sideboard
In: 1x Primeval Titan, 1x Bojuka Bog, 1x Pithing Needle, 2x Krosan Grip
Out: 2x Manabond, 1x Karakas, 1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, 1x Glacial Chasm
G2: This game is super boring. I Grove into Exploration and play a Port. He fetches and plays nothing. I draw and play Stage and Depths. My opponent concedes.
5-3-1 (15-8-1 in games)
Going forward, I think that I am going to make the following changes
-1 Primeval Titan, -1 Krosan Grip
+1 Titania, Protector of Argoth, +1 Seal of Primordium
Titania seems like a faster alternative win-con in a few match-ups and can act as a fifth Loam with Karakas.
Seal of Primordium is for Omni/Sneak and works well with Manabond.
Overall, I made a few mistakes due to being new to the deck and made some based on bad sideboarding. I would appreciate any input or advice on how to sideboard differently. I hope this is entertaining to read.
Thanks for the report, I have never been able to pay for making the token, nice to pull that off!
I do sideboard differently on some occasions. Since you liked the input, here goes:
Versus burn, I don't side in the spheres, because I think it hinders you more. You wanna combo out fast, or hide behind a chasm and cast Pfire, and both gameplans are delayed by your own spheres. I once lost a game vs burn cause my own crop rotation was taxed, which delayed my combo by one crucial turn. SInce then I've never boarded spheres again vs burn.
Versus D&T, I board in Primetime as well. If you don't get caught in their manadenial you'll mostlikely get to six mana, and resolving Primetime is huge (if you get combopieces he'll need two swords).
I've never played the RG mirror before. I did play versus RUG-lands, and boarding in Krosan Grip was very good. Wastelock with acceleration is key in the matchup, and Kgrip deals with your opponent's acceleration (killing mox supports the mana denial). I probably would board all 4 of them.
Against Reanimator, I think Bog, Karakas and Maze (and crops ofcourse) are your best cards. So wouldn't cut down on mazes, and also keep the gambles to get (if you're Lucky) these cards, or combopieces, or even a needle. Maze can slow them down, hopefully long enough to win. Also you can board in Pithing Needle naming Griselbrand.
Usually I don't board out chasm versus decks featuring TNN. Chasm is the only card that temporarily holds him off.
If noticed some times you boarded out 2 explorations instead of 2 manabond, that I don't really understand. Regarding Titania, Primetime is better. She still needs the graveyard, and she's vulnerable to lightning bolt. Primetime brings you 2 cards, these advantages are worth the extra mana. Seal of Primordium is better versus Omnitell (they still can play cunning wish for a stifle-effect in response though), but worse versus all other matchups.
Just some thoughts, none of them set in stone!
I kinda agree about the burn plan. I got mixed responses from people. If my Thorn was a Chalice, I bring that in, but the other effects are probably not worth it.Originally Posted by Rivfader
Primeval Titan is probably good vs Death and Taxes. I was running out of cards that I wanted to cut, but I probably could've cut something.
The post-board match-ups are pretty much decided by the combo. Krosan Grips are fine, but it doesn't answer Marit Lage.
Should I not board in the Spheres and Thorns against Reanimator? I figured that boarding out Maze wasn't right, but it is awkward to draw when I am trying to tax them.
I can believe that Chasm is probably better than something vs TruNN.
The matches where I left in Manabond over Exploration are where I wanted the speed and was playing to a fast combo instead of playing around graveyard hate. Mostly against combo decks, but maybe there is something else that I should board out instead.
While Titania is reliant on the graveyard, she is good because she will almost always be worth 2-3 5/3s, even if she dies.
I know Seal is worse in most spots, but it is just a consideration. Costing 1 less might be decent as well.
Thanks for the input.
Spheres (and chalice/pithing needle also) are good against Reanimator, as support of Bog/Karakas/Maze. I'd probably swap Pfire, Tabernacle, Thicket, perhaps chasm for 2 Kgrips and the spheres. The more hate you board in the less value you get from manabond, so here you might board them out as well for extra spheres.
You are right to keep manabond in if possible versus combo, but if the choice comes down to boarding extra hatepieces or keeping manabond, I usually opt for the hatepieces.
Last edited by Rivfader; 02-03-2015 at 05:36 AM.
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