9th Place at TJ's Legacy Challenge with UR Miracle

[pateuglow]

TJ's Titanium Weekend
Legacy Challenge
March 5, 2017
61 Players

9th Place


List:

4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Stormchaser Mage
2 Bedlam Reveler

4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
1 Fireblast
3 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Price of Progress
1 Thunderous Wrath
4 Chain Lightning
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder

2 Island
2 Mountain
3 Volcanic Island
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand

SB
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Force of Will
1 Price of Progress
2 Smash to Smithereens
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Spell Pierce
1 Submerge
1 Grafdigger’s Cage


Round 1 Grixis 2-1 (1-0)

I played against Mike, on Grixis. Lost game one on the back of an early Gurmag Angler, was not able to get much of a board presence. G2 and G3 went smoothly. Matchup felt fine, as his mana base punishes him with PoP. I didn’t see any Fatal Push in his list (could be a card availability issue), and his main removal was Abrupt Decay which didn’t match up well vs UR.I know Thunderous Wrath caught him very off guard in G2 (which I used to great effect to take out an Angler that was clogging the board). It is likely he was unaware that the card is considered a 1-of in many lists now. I didn’t sideboard too much in these games, as Daze was too good vs his aggressive casting of Gurmag Anglers. I believe I brought in a 3rd PoP for Force of Will.


Round 2 Sneak and Show 2-0 (2-0)

I played against Bryan on Sneak and Show. Game 1 he actually resolved Sneak Attack because I kept a hand with no real permission, just creatures and burn. He hit with Griselbrand on consecutive turns, but did not use the draw 7 activation. After that, he basically was out of gas and I aggro’d him out with Swiftspears and a Delver. G2 I was able to keep him off his Omniscience plan with a grip of REB, FOW, and Spell Pierce and won handily. The SnS matchup feels pretty good in general, and this match was pretty standard. I believe the SB here was pretty light here too. REB for counter wars and a resolved Omniscience, and a Spell Pierce. I think I shaved a Chain Lightning and the Bedlam Revelers, as I felt I wouldn’t get a chance to cast them.


Round 3 Feature Match 2-1 (3-0)

I played against John (he eventually took down the event) and he was on BUG. Game one was over quickly with an early Delver which was killed after 2 attacks, but a pair of Swiftspears and removal for Deathrites and Dark Confidants won it. He ran away with Game 2 on the back of a beefy Tarmogoyf and enough Stifles to keep me of mana for a few turns. Game 3 was on camera and ended up being pretty one sided. I had enough pressure and he flooded pretty hard. I think the final turn was PoP for 6, then Fireblast with a Stormchaser on the board that could attack for lethal had Fireblast been countered. John was a very nice dude from the Boston area and I was happy to see him win out in Top 8. SB here was pretty basic as well, bring in PoP and a Submerge and side out Reveler, I think that was about it.


Round 4 Feature Match 1-2 (3-1)

Played against Jason. He was also on SnS with Cunning Wish, and was able to Show and Tell an Emrakul into play when he was at 5 life, and I quickly lost that game. Game 2 was very much in my favor, as he had all the action in hand (a Probe revealed Sneak Attack, Griselbrand, Emrakul, and Omniscience) but I had plenty of counters, a Swiftspear, Stormchaser Mage, and PoP to carry me through the game. Game 3 was again a story of a resolved Omniscience and Emrakul. I remember having to mulligan both G2 and G3, and especially in G3 when I had a 6 card opener of 3 lands, a couple creatures/cantrips, and a REB as my only permission. This was likely a bad keep, but I wasn’t convinced I’d get a better 5 card hand. Was kinda bummed to lose in Round 4 because it made getting into T8 harder, but we still had a chance.


Round 5 Sneak and Show 2-1 (4-1)

This was against our friend and fellow podcaster Peter, also on Sneak and Show. Peter lost G1 to us getting deck checked and he failed to de-sideboard properly, which sucks. He took G2 on the back of Show and Tell + Emrakul, but Game 3 was pretty one sided, as I was able to get on the beatdown pretty quickly with 3 Swiftspears. Early Probe revealed Emrakul, Ancient Tomb, Griselbrand, Spell Pierce, Sneak Attack, Sneak Attack, Flooded Strand. I kept up enough countermagic to fight the Sneak Attack.


Round 6 Feautre Match 0-2 (4-2)

Round 6 was against Noah Walker. Looking at breakers there were too many 12 points to draw into Top 8 so we had to play it out. As we were walking to the feature match area he noted I was on UR and was doing pretty well, I asked if he was on Grixis and he said no. Found out he was running a BUG list with Deathrite, Snapcaster, Strix, Clique, Fatal Push, and Kolaghan’s Command. G1 was pretty close, but after losing my opening threat to a Fatal Push and my second to a Snapcaster + Fatal Push, it was tough to get back up to speed. Game 2 I had an early Probe and he was sitting on Push, Brainstorm, Flusterstorm, Counterspell, Kolaghans Command, and Engineered Explosives. I had a hand of 2 Swiftspears and Delver of Secrets for threats, so those weren’t great against his opener. Later in the game I played into his Flusterstorm too easily, completely failing to check my notes. I have a Swiftspear online, and he’s got 3 duals out and no creatures to block, he’s at 12. I know if I don’t kill him this turn I’ll die on the crack back, as he is playing really flawlessly, using Jace and Clique to card advantage me out of the game. So I PoP, he goes to Kolaghan Command my Stormchaser in response. Knowing I need to keep the SCM online to win this turn, I sac my 2 red sources to play fireblast, but he played Flusterstorm and puts 2 copies on each of my burn spells. With only 1 open mana and REB in hand, it was game over. It was rough and a lesson learned.

Overall, the deck was great. Playing Sneak and Show 3 times was an excellent streak of luck, as that matchup is definitely favored for the UR Delver player. I had to mulligan only a few times which was also nice. I loved only running 3 FOW in the main, because the deck has a very hard time recovering from 2 for 1-ing itself. I had more than a few listeners ask me about running Young Pyromancer in this build, and I have a lot of thoughts on that subject which will be turning into an article soon. I would likely make a couple changes based on what I saw, including adding a Flusterstorm to the SB (I don’t own one) and maybe trading a Reveler for a Clique. Also, I ended up playing 3 of the Top 8 players during the Swiss, so it was definitely a slog of a day to come in 9th, but 10/10 would jam again.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to hit me up!

[Michael Keller]

Pyroblast is strictly better here, if for nothing else than to pump your Swiftspears and Mages by targeting anything.

Otherwise, nice work!

[pateuglow]

Pyroblast is strictly better here, if for nothing else than to pump your Swiftspears and Mages by targeting anything.

Otherwise, nice work!

100% agree for those exact reasons - only trouble was I hadn't played paper Legacy in a few months and couldn't find my Pyros lol