12th out of 51 with Food Chain @ Big Tickets Legacy GP side event (GP Singapore)

[movingtonewao]

So I took part in the big tickets legacy side event at GP Singapore with Food Chain Combo.

It was a 5 round Swiss REL Competitive event with no cut to top 8.

Decklist:
4 Food Chain
4 Misthollow Griffin
2 Genesis Hydra
1 Tidespout Tyrant
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Noble Hierarch
3 Baleful Strix
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Sylvan Library
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Manipulate Fate
2 Dig Through Time
1 Ponder
3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Savannah
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
Sideboard
4 Meddling Mage
3 Thoughtseize
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Grafdiggers Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Golgari Charm
1 Null Rod
1 Night of Souls’ Betrayal
1 Abrupt Decay

So a little about this list, I used to have Spell Pierce and Flusterstorm in my board, but decided to swop them out for the 4th Meddling Mage. I also wanted both Pithing Needle and Null Rod to stop Equipment and Top, and I wanted Night of Souls’ Betrayal to deal with unflipped delvers, mentor tokens, and young pyro + elemental tokens. Also cut Misdirection. Expecting a lot of miracles and omnitell, I had sylvan library in the mainboard, and also 2 maindeck vendilion clique because they are so awesome. Not sure if I got my manabase right, was going back and forth between the tundra and savannah before I went with savannah (in case I don’t have a mana dork out and need to cast meddling mage).

Now onto the games. I try to be as accurate as I can but my memory is a little hazy and I'm typing this from memory, so if you're one of my opponents and notice something wrong please correct me.

Round 1: Kelvin Tan Choon Han with Merfolk (Win 2-0)

Didn’t notice this guy before so I chatted with him and found that he was from Malaysia. Has some pretty slick hair too.

Game 1:
He wins the roll, but starts with a mulligan. He landed the T1 vial off an island which pretty much gives away what he’s playing. Strangely enough. He choked on land though, and got stuck with just Island, Mutavault, and Aether Vial. So Mutavault beats down on me while Aether Vial ticks up to 3 and lands a Thassa. In the meantime I’m just developing my board with mana dorks and lands and sculpting my hand a little, careful to play around daze since I bet he has a bunch of those in hand seeing the lack of action on the field. He wastes my duals aggressively but with deathrite shaman and noble hierarch I wasn’t going to get mana screwed. He starts playing more creatures and beats me down to single digits. Eventually with a bunch of mana up I bait his force of will with a tasigur, which I don’t contest, and then force of will backup I go for the food chain. It resolves and I combo out by bouncing all of his permanents at 5 life.

Sideboard:
+1 Toxic Deluge
+1 Golgari Charm
+1 Pithing Needle (for wasteland and mutavault, mainly wasteland)
+1 Thoughtseize
+1 Abrupt Decay
-4 Force of Will (bad against vial decks)
-1 Food Chain

Game 2:
This was a long grindy game. He actually managed to land the beats much faster, but T1 Deathrite Shaman really did a lot of work (gaining life and shooting for damage). At one point It was a Lord of Atlantis facing down a Deathrite Shaman, he then cast a Phantasmal Image, and I responded by using Abrupt Decay on the Lord so he had no choice but to copy my DRS which was rather funny for me, not so for him since he doesn’t have the mana for the 2nd and 3rd abilities. He did Surgical Extraction my Underground Seas in the mid game (which was rather puzzling, he later told me he missed the opportunity to extract my green sources). He also made a key error when he attacked with his Master of the Pearl Trident thinking that it had Islandwalk but it only gives other merfolk Islandwalk, not itself. So my Baleful Strix traded with it. Time is called, and I assemble my griffins just in time to kill him before extra turns end.

Round 2: Muhamad Hilmi with RUG (Lose 0-2)

Quiet guy who doesn’t talk much.

Game 1:

I lose the roll, mulligan down to 5 because of no land and I was already mentally prepared to throw this away looking at how my library betrayed me. Anyway turns out he didn’t do much (meaning he has a hand full of reactive spells), until he cast a delver, which we fought a counter war over (he won). It flipped the next turn when he brainstormed to put a lightning bolt on top. Delver flipped and won.

Sideboard:
+1 Toxic Deluge
+1 Golgari Charm
+1 Abrupt Decay
+1 Night of Souls’ Betrayal
-4 Force of Will

Game 2:
I got hit by the mulligan virus again. He resolved a T1 mongoose and a T2 tarmogoyf while I didn’t see any of my 4 abrupt decays. He then stifled a fetch on my end, and then stifled my food chain when I was supposed to go off. I was at 8 life. He attacked with his mongoose and goyf down to 3 and showed me lightning bolt.

Round 3: Zheng Jin He with Omnitell (Draw 1-1)

Game 1:
He started by sculpting his hand and I knew roughly what I was up against upon seeing ponder, preordain and the like. I wasn’t really drawing well and had a couple Abrupt Decay sit in my hand doing nothing. I did myself no favour when I for some stupid reason did not want to cast a Dig Through Time on my own main phase when I had 4 lands a deathrite and 3 nonland in graveyard when he had a land in his graveyard. I got punished because he untapped and cast his own Dig Through Time while I realized I left mana up for nothing. He showed in the Omniscience and played Dig Through Time for free grabbing Cunning Wish and Emrakul and I just scooped.

Sideboard:
-3 Abrupt Decay
-3 Baleful Strix
-1 Manipulate Fate
+4 Meddling Mage
+3 Thoughtseize

Game 2:
I landed an early Meddling Mage which resolves, and I name Show and Tell. This causes him some trouble while I build up a board presence including the singleton Sylvan Library which did work. Unfortunately I couldn’t force through more pressure and this game turned out to be a grind. He Gitaxian Probes a couple times so he knows my hand packs permission, I just pressure him and eventually go for half combo with 4 Misthollow Griffins but no Tidespout Tyrant or hydra. He eventually overwhelms my permission and gets a lightning bolt through to deal with my mage, and casts a show and tell for Emrakul. I beat him down to 1 life after his Emrakul chumps one of my griffin. He attacks with Emrakul and I have like 11 permanents to choose from to sacrifice and I can chump with a griffin so my win was never in doubt.

Game 3:
At this point we barely had 4 minutes left. I had an amazing hand with 2 Meddling Mage, 2 Vendilion Clique, FOW and 2 lands. No way he was beating this hand of mine. I land a Meddling Mage and sandbag the other, I beatdown with it until he’s at 14. He Lightning Bolts it and I let it resolve, then play the 2nd one. Time was called, and neither of us could win in 5 turns. The head judge was there and this was competitive REL so I didn’t dare to offer to roll a die.

Round 4: Ricky Kee with Death and Taxes (win 2-0)

Another guy from the Malaysian contingent.

Game 1:
This turned out to be rather grindy. I have 2 Fows in my hand and 2 Griffins so I’m sitting pretty. He goes for a T2 Jitte which I think for a bit before allowing it to resolve. I Force of will the T3 Stoneforge Mystic and the T4 Serra Avenger to keep his board clear. He doesn’t have much to do, but what he did have was a flurry of wasteland to keep me down on land and a couple of rishadan port to really be annoying. He also had a Karakas. And then he had a Mangara, while I had a Tasigur, a Baleful Strix and Misthollow Griffin. He doesn’t seem to like my Tasigur and played a Revoker on Tasigur. He gets to use the Mangara trick once on my Tasigur and I FOW the Mangara when he attempts to replay it. I land a Food Chain but he plays Phyrexian Revoker naming Food Chain. I Abrupt Decay the Revoker on Food Chain and then go off with half combo via a Manipulate Fate. I have no idea why he doesn’t Karakas away my Tasigur nor equip Jitte and swing. Well, a win is a win.

Sideboard:
-4 Force of Will
-1 Food Chain
-1 Manipulate Fate
+1 Abrupt Decay
+1 Toxic Deluge
+1 Night of Soul’s Betrayal
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Null Rod
+1 Golgari Charm

Game 2:
He opens with T1 Mother of Runes. I open with T1 Deathrite fetch. He plays Stoneforge on T2. I get my Food Chain into play via Deathrite eating a fetch. T3 I Manipulate Fate for Griffins while he does something that I FOW (can’t remember) and T4 I go off full combo.

Round 5: Hirotaka Hamada with this spicy 4c mentor brew (as the Japanese brew) (Win 2-0)

Spoke to this guy before the game and practiced a little of my rudimentary Japanese with him. Learnt that he’s a Tokyo native who works for Fujitsu and was posted to Singapore. Pretty sweet.

Game 1:
We both start with a mulligan. I open with Underground Sea, Deathrite Shaman. He…does the same thing. We both laugh a little. I stopped the symmetry when I Abrupt Decay his DRS on T2 and he follows up with a Tarmogoyf. I dropped DRS No.2 and a Baleful Strix and my position is pretty good. It goes downhill for him from here. 2 DRS means the graveyards are always nearly empty, and to add insult to injury, I delved maximum for Tasigur, bringing his Tarmogoyf to a 0/1 (the goyf was never bigger than 2/3 to start with). He tries Monastery Mentor and I FOW it. I eventually get a griffin and he gets a DRS to stick, but is eventually forced to chump with goyf to the goyf wannabe (tasigur). He lost soon after.

Sideboard:
-2 Force of Will
-1 Food Chain
-1 Manipulate Fate
+1 Night of Soul’s Betrayal
+1 Abrupt Decay
+1 Golgari Charm
+1 Toxic Deluge

Game 2:
This was almost like game 1. We both opened with DRS again! No goyf from him this time though (after that harrowing ordeal in G1 he actually sided them out as I found out later), but a Monastery Mentor, which gets 1 token before I Abrupt Decay it. He abrupt decays my goyf and played a DRS. I sweep his board playing Toxic Deluge for 2. Eventually we both play a DRS each, and I follow up with baleful strix. I Manipulate Fate and that resolves, but Food Chain is met with FOW. I topdeck another Food Chain, and it gets abrupt decayed. He plays Meddling Mage naming Food Chain. I think this was the big mistake he made that cost him the match. I proceed to cast my griffins 1 by 1 from the exile zone and beat him down the “fairdeck” way.

In the end I finished 12th out of 51 with a record of 3-1-1

The payout was as follows:
15 Match Points – 1000 Prize Ticket
13-14 Match Points – 700 Prize Ticket
12 Match Points – 400 Prize Ticket
10-11 Match Points – 230 Prize Ticket
9 Match Points – 60 prize Ticket

So I got 230 Prize Tickets.

The prizes available were:
KTK/FRF/DTK Booster - 10 Tickets
KTK/FRF/DTK Booster Box - 300 Tickets
3 KTK/FRF/DTK Booster Box - 850 Tickets
6 KRK/FRF/DTK Booster Box - 1600 Tickets
FTV Annihilation - 100 Tickets
DD: Elspeth v Kiora - 100 Tickets
Uncut Sheet DTK Uncommon - 600 Tickets
Uncut Sheet DTK Rare - 1200 Tickets
Uncut Sheet MM2015 Common - 1000 Tickets
Uncut Sheet MM2015 Uncommon - 1600 Tickets
Uncut Sheet MM2015 Rare - 3000 Tickets
Uncut Sheet MM2015 Mythic - 4000 Tickets
DTK Foil Set (2 Available) - 1000 Tickets
DTK Set (4 available) - 400 Tickets
MM2015 Set (2 available) - 2000 Tickets
MM2015 Foil Set - 4000 Tickets
SDCC 2013 Black Planeswalker Set with Garruk Axe - 3000 Tickets
Oversized Griselbrand - 400 Tickets
Oversized Mox Opal - 600 Tickets
Canvas Griselbrand - 300 Tickets
Canvas Mox Opal - 300 Tickets
GP Singapore T shirt - 100 Tickets
Ravnica/Onslaught?Conflux/Eventide Booster - 50 Tickets
Shards of Alara/Time Spiral Booster - 40 Tickets
Return to Ravnica Booster - 30 Tickets

I was thinking what to spend my tickets on, but in the end word got round there was a guy buying tickets at 40 cents each as he wanted the foil uncut sheet of MM2015 mythics, so I sold my 230 tickets to him for $92. I paid $25 for the event so its a pretty good return I guess! What would YOU guys have gotten if you were me?

Back on topic: Was my sideboarding OK? I'm still learning with this deck, but the lack of activity on the forum is a little unnerving. I felt like I was on my own trying to tune this deck up, and no one really had much experience with it to offer decent advice. Most just say "oh its a bad Shardless deck" haha.

Props:
- friend Guang Yu for sticking around to support Legacy when every other Tom Dick and Harry was watching the modern main event
- Griffins for being awesome
- Australian and Malaysian players for joining us here playing legacy

Flops:
- Realizing that I was playing with a 14 card sideboard the whole time (after the entire thing was over lol)
- Nobody else played griffins when its a really cool deck, what a shame
- Night of Souls' Betrayal for not doing anything

[Admiral_Arzar]

Nice to see somebody playing this deck. I'd just like to note for the future that Food Chain is a mana ability and can't be Stifle'd. Not that that point makes RUG a good matchup - it isn't IIRC.

[movingtonewao]

Yup someone else pointed out that food chain can't be stifled as well. My weak rules knowledge cost me the opportunity to force a 3rd game it seems. I agree that RUG is still a horrible MU if they get a decent hand.

[Lushiris]

Grats on the finish!
Not sure if you are the same guy that played food chains on Friday.
If it is, I was your first round opponent playing storm.

[Admiral_Arzar]

Yup someone else pointed out that food chain can't be stifled as well. My weak rules knowledge cost me the opportunity to force a 3rd game it seems. I agree that RUG is still a horrible MU if they get a decent hand.

Yeah your best bet is to fetch early basics and try and resolve some dorks to stabilize your manabase. If you can do that, you have a shot. Abrupt Decay helps that matchup quite a bit :).

[movingtonewao]

It really does :) so does the strix. We just need to park more bodies in front of their beat sticks, even clique works here. Strix is the best answer to a goyf too