Dallas of the Void: a Classic SCG Weekend

[Stuart]

[WARNING: this is a long report.]

SCG Dallas was this past weekend, so some buddies and I decided to book a hotel in Fort Worth and go play a bunch of Legacy. On Friday afternoon, my friend Patrick and I drove up from Austin. Traffic wasn’t great and we stopped for In N Out, so we got in around 7. The other two, Ben and Tim, were coming from Houston and didn’t get in till 8 or 9, so Patrick and I jammed some games at the hotel while we waited. Patrick was on Reanimator and kicked the shit out of me on Enchantress. I shredded his Reanimator hands on Grixis Delver, and then we played some super interactive games of MUD vs Dredge.

When Tim and Ben arrived, we headed down to the hotel bar and drafted a box of EMA. I built an underpowered RB Aristocrats-type of deck, and Patrick wound up beating us all on GB Elves. We rare-drafted the box afterwards, and when I came away with a Gamble and GSZ, I realized how much of a waste of money EMA is. In classic MtG style, we went to bed around 2:30.

#

On Saturday morning we showered (separately), had breakfast at the hotel, and headed over to the Fort Worth convention center to play the day’s Legacy Challenges. After signing in, trading in some bulk, and finding more caffeine, we sat down for the first Challenge. I was feeling spikey, so I played Grixis:

4 Delver
4 Deathrite
4 Pyromancer
2 Gurmag Angler

2 Therapy
1 Forked Bolt
1 Spell Pierce
4 Probe
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Force
4 Bolt

8 Fetches
4 Wasteland
2 Volc
2 Underground
1 Trop
1 Badlands

2 Therapy
2 Submerge
2 Flusterstorm
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Graffdigger’s Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 REB
1 Dread of Night
1 Terminate
1 Fire Covenant

(As you’ll notice, my notes are a little . . . basic.)

Round I: Chris on DnT: 1-2
- Chris was a nice guy who beat the crap out of me game 1. In game 2 I did what Delver does, and in game 3 he resolved a turn 2 Thalia and my hand fell apart.
-
Round II: Patrick on Burn: 1-2
- Patrick sat down with a playmat of Bernie holding a kitten, so I kinda guessed he was on Burn. Very nice guy with a very millennial fashion sense. I don’t remember what happened, but from my notes it looks like he used burn spells and cheap creatures to reduce my life total to 0.

Round III: Tai on RG Lands: 2-0
- Tai was playing Lands for the first time, so I just Delvered him pretty effectively. Punishing Fire never really happened, which helped.

Round IV: Oscer on ANT: 2-0
- Oscer was a reformed Elves player who’s moving to Austin this fall – maybe we’ll battle again in the future! I Therapied, Dazed, etc’d him out of the game.

2-2 was a bit lackluster, but the rest of the gang did well: Patrick went 3-0-1 on Reanimator, Ben went 3-0-1 on Omni Sneak, and Tim went 3-1 on Belcher. For the 2nd Challenge, I thought I’d show my true colors and play non-blue:

4 Argothian Enchantress
1 Eidolon of Blossoms
1 Newlamog
1 Emrakul

4 Enchantress’s Presence
4 Sterling Grove
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Wild Growth
4 Elephant Grass
3 Mirri’s Guile
2 Exploration
2 GSZ
2 Solitary Confinement
1 E Tutor
1 Replenish
1 Banishing Light
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne

3 Serra’s Sanctum
4 Fetches
1 Savannah
9 Forest
2 Plains

3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 RIP
1 Helm
2 Stony Silence
1 Banishing Light
1 Nevermore
1 Aegis of the Gods
1 Choke
2 City of Solitude

Round I: Brandon on Pox: 2-1
- In the 1st Challenge, Brandon had a Belcher mirror against Tim. Knowing that, I wasn’t super thrilled to sit down against him. When he went turn 1 Swamp > Dark Rit > Lilli, I was thrown for a loop. He shredded my hand and lands, and that was that. Games 2 and 3, Leyline of Sanctity was insane and eventually I got there. In a theme for the day, he wasn’t familiar with Enchantress and didn’t have many ways of killing enchantments.

Round II: Sara on Lands: 2-0
- Sara was another new Lands player, and didn’t know how Enchantress worked. Elephant Grass and Sterling Grove made the match pretty comfortable, as did game 2 RIP Helm.

Round III: Patrick on Reanimator: 0-2
- Well, it had to happen eventually: I got paired against a friend. Unfortunately, it happened when we were playing a historically poor matchup. Despite Elephant Grass and RIP, Tidespout Tyrant made short work of me.

Round IV: Jason on Burn: 2-1
- Jason and I have met before, when he was playing Burn at a Pat’s 1K. He was on Burn this weekend, too, and killed me immediately on game 1 with 2 Goblin Guides and a Swiftspear. Games 2 and 3, Leyline and Solitary were insane.

3-1 felt a lot better, and I was reminded how nice it is to play decks people aren’t familiar with. Patrick went 3-0-1 again, Ben went 2-2, and Tim went . . . 1-3, I think? They were still on Reanimator, Sneak, and Belcher, respectively.

When the Challenge was over, we headed back to the hotel to drop off our bags. Ben and I have a childhood friend who lives in Houston, so the 4 of us met him for drinks and unhealthy food.

All told, it was a good first day of SCG. We ran into lots of Austin and Houston players we knew, our combined win records were good, and we all played fun decks. We even got to bed around midnight, too!

#

On Sunday we got up around 7 to shower, eat, fill out decklists, and pack up before heading over for the player’s meeting. At the convention center we ran into more familiar faces, which was nice.

I’d decided to play MUD. I love the deck, I wanted something that wasn’t too mentally taxing, and Miracles is purportedly on the rise, so it seemed like a good choice. My list was:

4 Metalworker
4 Lodestone
3 Forgemaster
3 Wurmcoil
1 Emperion
1 Sundering Titan
1 Blightsteel
2 Ugin

4 Monolith
4 Chalice
3 Trinisphere
2 Coercive Portal
2 Greaves
1 Staff of Domination
1 Spine of Ish Sah

4 Wasteland
4 Tomb
4 City
4 Cloudpost
4 Glimmerpost
2 Vesuva
2 Cavern

1 Karn Liberated
1 Platinum Angel
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Contagion Engine
1 Trinisphere
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Coercive Portal
2 Warping Wail
2 Pithing Needle
2 Tormod’s Crypt

We talked Patrick into playing Reanimator again after going undefeated in the Challenges. Ben was on Eldrazi, as he wanted something more straightforward for an 8-rounder. Tim was on Merfolk, because Force of Will.

Round I: William on OmniTell: 2-1
- William was a cool guy who doesn’t get to play Legacy very often. Game 1 Trinisphere did a lot of work, and when his SnT got me a Sundering Titan I closed it out quickly. Game 2 Trinisphere and Chalice were awesome, but I had no pressure and he was able to slow-roll Omniscience into Emrakul. Game 3 Chalice locked out his entire hand, and I got there.

Round II: Jarrod on DnT: 0-2
- Jarrod sat down and said there was a chance he’d have to drop, as his wife was expecting their first kid. Unfortunately for me, she didn’t. Fortunately for Jarrod she didn’t, as he went on to beat me and win the entire event.

Round III: Sahil on UR Delver: 2-0
- Sahil’s one of the local Austin players, so I was a little bummed we’d have to play so early. I Trinisphered him out of both games.

Round IV: Bill on Merfolk: 1-2
- Bill was a nice guy with some nice Arena Islands. Game 1 he ramped Lords quickly while I played basically nothing. Game 2 Metalworker ramped out a quick Sundering Titan. Game 3 he went crazy with Aether Vial Lords and killed more before I could land my Ugin.

Round V: Joni (sp?) on Dark Lands: 2-1
- Joni was a judge from OK City. Game 1 she got a turn 1 Waste lock, and I considered scooping. However, she had no pressure and I had an Ancient Tomb and Metalworker in my hand, so I figured I’d sit around, hope to draw a Monolith, and then hope she couldn’t kill my Metalworker. I did that, eventually played a 2nd Metalworker, and got there. Game 2 I couldn’t get a Metalworker and she Wasted me out of the game. Game 3 we went to time, and although I had no lands, I had a Crucible, an Emperion, a Platinum Angel, and a Sundering Titan that let me swing for lethal on my last turn. I was pretty stressed by the end of this round.

Round VI: Christopher on ANT: 2-0
- Christopher was a Modern player borrowing a friend’s deck. I did basically nothing Game 1, but his Ad Nauseum flipped into a Tendrills, Dark Petition, ETW, and a few other things to kill him. Game 2 he Duressed and Therapied the lock pieces out of my hand, but I topdecked a Trinisphere and locked him out. This is an easy matchup for MUD in general, but I totally pulled this one out of my ass.

Round VII: Jason on Aggroloam: 2-0
- Jason was a nice guy and fellow MUD player. Metalworker let me go nuts both games, and Wurmcoil and Sundering Titan got there.

Round VIII: Micah on RUG: 0-2
- At this point I was 5-2, and probably should have tried to draw into top 32. Instead, we played. My turn 1 Trinisphere went awry when Micah Wasted my subsequent 2 land drops, and game 2 RUG rugged me. I didn’t feel too bad, though, cause Micah was a nice guy.

So I finished the day at 5-3, which was 36 out of 202. I came away with $50 in credit, which will probably go towards some Red splash cards for Enchantress.

The day wasn’t over, though, because both Patrick and Ben made top 8! Patrick beat his DnT opponent and Ben beat his Dredge opponent, and then they played each other in the top 4. Ben got there, and then lost to DnT in the finals. The 4 of us were extremely amped; what are the odds that 2 of the 4 of us would make top 4?

We parted ways around 9. Patrick and I drove back to Austin, stopping for Taco Bell, and getting in around 1.

All in all it was an awesome weekend. My opponents were, without exception, nice and fun to play against. I played decently, and my "team" did awesome. And I got to play Legacy for a combined ~18 hours. Would do again .

[DemonicDust]

Hey...nice report...I was the Imperial Taxes player in Top 8,chatted with you guys on the way out....wish I had gotten the win to play in the finals but I made a boneheaded draw after a mulligan,accidentally drawing 7,and my hand never recovered.....Congrats to the other top 8ers...it was a great top 8 group...friendly and skilled.Hope to see you guys next time.

[Stuart]

Hey...nice report...I was the Imperial Taxes player in Top 8,chatted with you guys on the way out....wish I had gotten the win to play in the finals but I made a boneheaded draw after a mulligan,accidentally drawing 7,and my hand never recovered.....Congrats to the other top 8ers...it was a great top 8 group...friendly and skilled.Hope to see you guys next time.

Cheers man! Congrats on the finish - it was a tough field, and the Top 8 was very skilled.

Yeah that mulligan was tough. I was standing behind you, so I could see that you never even saw the 7th card. I guess that stuff happens though. Besides for my buddy's sake it's probably good you weren't his Finals opponent - Eldrazi doesn't exactly love Blood Moon .