Deep Mental Magic – Asgard Games GPT

[Stuart]

On Saturday, Asgard Games (in Houston) hosted a Legacy GPT. My buddy Mike is attending GP Columbus and has a car, while I enjoy Legacy and have a friend in Houston, so we decided we’d go. The two of us drove out Friday night, and enjoyed 2 hours of lightning, flooded roads, and dinner at a Honduran restaurant. We stayed with my buddy Ben, who lives a half hour from Asgard and also plays Legacy. The three of us stayed up till 1:30 jamming games, drinking Lone Star, and watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

I’m not attending the GP, so I wasn’t too concerned with how I did at the event. What I did know, though, is that Asgard has a large number of DnT players, and that 6 of the top 8 decks at their last 1K were non-blue. So what deck did I play?

Main Deck:
4 Goblin Charbelcher
3 Empty the Warren
3 Burning Wish
4 Tinder Wall
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Manamorphose
4 Rite of Flame
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Seething Song
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
3 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Land Grant
1 Taiga

Board:
4 Xantid Swarm
4 Carpet of Flowers
1 Shattering Spree
1 Flame Slash
1 Cave-in
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Goblin War Strike
1 Empty the Warrens

That morning we stopped at Dunkin for breakfast; Ben and I are both native New Englanders, so it seemed like the right thing to do. Registration was at 11:00. After we got that stuff taken care of, we sat around, enjoyed the new bar Asgard put in, and said hey to the players I’ve met before. Only 14 people showed up (Memorial Day Weekend might have been a poor choice for hosting a GPT), and at 12:00 we got started.

Round I: Tri playing Eldrazi: 2-1
- Game 1: I win the die roll and play a Lotus Petal. When I sac it to make a Tinder Wall, he laughs. I cast 2 Rituals into a Seething Song, a Burning Wish, and make 14 Goblins. He plays a Wasteland and says go. I swing for 14. He draws on his turn, then scoops.
- Game 2: (No sideboarding): I mull to 5 and keep a hand without a win-con. He plays a Turn 1 Thorn, and I either die or concede shortly thereafter.
- Game 3: (No sideboarding): I keep a hand that gets me a Turn 1 Taiga and Belcher, but I can’t immediately activate it. On his turn, he plays a Tomb into a Chalice for 1. I’m very thankful it’s not a Thorn or Revoker, then I exile a SSG, tap my Taiga, cast a Ritual, and Belch.

Round II: Ziv playing Mono-White Humans: 2-0
- Game 1: Ziv is a young kid, maybe 10, who’s new to Legacy. He wins the die roll and plays a Champion of the Parish. I feel confident about that and make 14 Goblins. He follows up with another Human, and the Goblins get me there.
- Game 2: (No sideboarding): Ziv says he has only 2 cards that could possibly stop me. He keeps his 7, but doesn’t play anything (including a land). I’m nervous that he has a Mindbreak Trap, but yolo, so I make 10 Goblins off an ETW. He dies 2 turns later, and shows me he had a Mana Tithe he couldn’t cast.

Round III: Eugene playing Eldrazi: 1-2
- Game 1: I win the die roll and play a Belcher that I can’t activate. He plays a Chalice for 1 on his turn. Fortunately, I draw the SSG I need to activate it on my turn, and Belch.
- Game 2: (No sideboarding): I mull to 5 and he mulls to 4. He leads off with a Turn 1 Thorn, which I never play through.
- Game 3: (No sideboarding): I keep an opening 7 of Belcher, Taiga, Rite of Flame, Seething Song, LED, and 2 Land Grants, and hope that he can’t play a turn 1 lock piece. He drops a Chalice at 0 and 1, and I die eventually.

Round IV: Ben playing Burn: 2-0
- Game 1: (This is the Ben who I’m staying with.) I lose the die roll, and he makes a turn 1 Goblin Guide. On my turn I Belch him.
- Game 2: (No sideboarding): He does something turn 1, and I cast Burning wish at 6 Storm, crack an LED for blue, make a Diminishing Returns, and hope I can Tendrils for 20 style points. My new 7 has a Belcher, though, so I Belch him instead.

At this point we cut to Top 8, with me in 2nd, Ben in 6th, and Mike in 8th. Everyone but Mike and Tri drop, then Mike wins the finals and gets his byes! That night, we go out to a Brazilian steakhouse and all wind up with a bad case of the meat sweats.

All in all, it was a great weekend. I always like the Asgard scene, and this time was no exception: all my opponents were good dudes, and it was good seeing the other familiar faces. In retrospect I have some moral concerns about playing Belcher and denying people their GP byes, but whatever. Karma-wise, I make up for that by playing tier 3 decks and scrubbing out at all the big events I go to.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

Ziv is most certainly not new to legacy.

[Stuart]

Well there goes my credibility.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

Nah, that just stuck out to me for some reason.

[Stuart]

Meh, it's probably best to make sure people like me don't inadvertently shit-talk the locals . Speaking of, Ziv's Human deck seemed cool. My buddy Mike was playing against it Round 4, and that deck gets scary once it's got 2-3 creatures out. They get big, quick.

[Esper3k]

Meh, it's probably best to make sure people like me don't inadvertently shit-talk the locals . Speaking of, Ziv's Human deck seemed cool. My buddy Mike was playing against it Round 4, and that deck gets scary once it's got 2-3 creatures out. They get big, quick.

That deck is oftentimes a Delver deck's nightmare. He calls it Death & Death!