Dallas SCG Legacy Classic with Imperial Taxes

[DemonicDust]

I went to the SCG event on Saturday thinking about playing in the Legacy Challenge at 4 PM....after trading in enough cards for 2 Imperial Recruiters,I priced out the Magi and Plateaus,debated spending rent money for the rest...but drove to work and borrowed 500 from my prince of a boss and went back to Ft Worth and picked up last 2 recruiters,the magi and plateaus...(spent some of the money I had banked...so still have rent..ha).....did not play the challenge,went home and built Imperial Taxes by distilling down several lists for what I thought would work for me.Gambled on 61 cards(Resto being 61st,but have done that for a year or so now) and 22 lands(goldfishing showed me land was not seemingly an issue).I also was wondering if going in cold with Imperial was suicide,but turned out...no.



Showed up Sunday right around 8 am,purchased a foil Rest In Peace to match the other two in my side,then sat down and did deck list,adding Resto at last minute.My report is a little fuzzy as I had no thoughts of getting to top 8 at the start...so did not take notes.So please bear with the vagueness of this report.
Round 1 WIN 2 - 0 - 0 VS Edward Solis
Edward was on a Delver(Grixis If I remember correctly)All I can really remember is I was able to stick vial right away in both and surprised at not getting countered,then D&T did what it does and this round the red never really came into play,so it was like playing D&T anyhow.Match went quick,and was happy to get through round one with a win.

Round 2 WIN 2 - 0 - 0 VS Dustin Carriere
Dustin was a nice guy,closer to my age(I am 52)and I had no idea what he was on. I can not remember who played first game one,but all I saw was a fetch land,and a probe,I had Thalia and Ethersworn in hand,he scooped.
I guessed correctly on Storm and sided in the other 3 ethersworns and a couple rest in peace...and game two taxed him quick and the hate bears did there thing.Still,red did not come into play ....after the match he said he was thrown by the main deck ethersworn.Also,I read some good advice that to play D&T well you should play as may other decks as possible so you know how to beat them,and since I have storm built and have played it,I was able to correctly put him on storm with two cards shown game one.

Round 3 WIN 2 - 0 - 0 VS John White
John is someone I have known for years,and a good player with an extensive collection,so I was not confident on winning this one.
Game one just happened,can't remember any specicifics but never really felt under pressure,game two I went wide and got him to 1 life,he fetched,smiled,and held out his hand...GG .I was now 3-0 and thinking all down hll from here.

Round 4 WIN 2 - 1 - 0 VS Russell Cooper
Russell(Andy) was a really nice guy with a lot of mutual friends(I had never met him before though)and was on lands....Can not really remember who won game 1 and 2...just remember having to battle through punishing fire/grove....and somehow got one of the first two games(I think one)
Game 3 I pithing needle his thespian stage,went wide,and battled through punishing fire and maze of ith and managed to eventually get enough damage through to kill him...it was a battle of wills,and I had to keep the pressure on.was relieved this one was over..and thought I would be in for a loss in the next round or 2,as the competition would only get stronger.

Round 5 DRAW 1 - 1 - 0 VS Raynaldo Ruiz
Did not know Raynaldo but he was friendly,he was on BUG Delver(a delver variant,I think bug)....we held each other at bay for two long games and each got a win with no time left for a game 3....

Round 6 1-1-1 VS Bo Zhang
Bo was friendly and on Miracles...a deck I despise,all I remember is games that ended with 1 and 1...and a game three that we held each other off so we each ended with 12-14 life at the end of turns....now real pressure,I had to win next two rounds to get in to top 8.At this point I was starting to realize I might be able to do it.

Round 7 WIN 2 - 0 - 0 VS Micah Lupa
Micah was on rug..and I quickly ran him over with a stream of creatures which had him proclaim how there was no interactive element to our games...but he was not salty and took it in stride...he just seemed to have off draws I think.Now,had to win and in...

Round 8 2 - 1 - 0 VS Tom Andrews
I have know Tom for a while and have never beat him....so was not at all confident I could beat his maracles this time either,I was in 10th place at this point.

Game one,he never drew white mana and I quickly kept him under pressure and attacked to the win,game 2 he got his Vendillion online and I could not stop it,and the moat he dropped kept me from attacking as I had no fliers and no remoaval for the moat....game 3,he never got his counter ballance online,and at one point he threw an angel(hardcasting entreat for one to try and survive)I flickerwisped the angel and finished it.Whew....top 8!

Quarter finals...Albert Huang on Doomsday.I have know him for years and played against him a few times...He won game 1 easily,then game 2 and 3 was able to get thalia and ethersworn out in time to shut down his comboing off,game 3 dropped ethersworn after he doomsdayed,and he spent a long time trying to think of a way out...so...win 2-1

Semi Finals....Jarrod Freight on D&T....game one I won by winning the creature race,game two,he had two active moms and a jitte with counters which kept me from castin or dropping creatures after a while and made sudden demise useless....game 3,I mulled to 6,but accidentally drew 7 cards,my options were look at the hand,decide if I wanted my opponent to look,and shuffle one of them into my library,or go to 5,I went to 5...had no lands,decided to try it anyhow with the vial,figured if I went to 4 it would not be any better....and never drew a land,this was THE only time all day I had mana issues,and I am still racking my brain on what the right decision here was,I had a great hand of seven but only two lands,and he would have thrown one back,so I took the risk,and it was a miserable failure.

The Imperial Deck is basically D&T so I never felt out of water with it,and the red only came into play a few times,but recruiter is such a good tool for getting whatever utility you happen to need at any given time.Resto just kicks ass,and I love ambushing people with her....That is my report,and next time I will keep notes through the day in case I top 8 again.

[Stuart]

Thanks for the report, and nice run! It was awesome getting to see your semis match vs Jarrod, despite the unfortunate mulligan situation. Hope to run into you at future events