Wake up. Shower. Drive. I groggily stepped into Comic Cellar for the Memphis Plays Legacy 15, 1k. I never know quite what to expect when I walk into one of these, but regardless I'm going to paint some stuff blue like I always do.
The list I ran:
Land (19)
4x Ancient Tomb
1x Arid Mesa
2x Bloodstained Mire
3x City of Traitors
1x Great Furnace
4x Mountain
2x Plateau
2x Wooded Foothills
Instant (9)
3x Enlightened Tutor
4x Pyroblast
2x Red Elemental Blast
Artifact (13)
2x Ensnaring Bridge
4x Grindstone
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
3x Lotus Petal
3x Sensei's Divining Top
Creature (13)
3x Goblin Welder
4x Imperial Recruiter
4x Painter's Servant
2x Simian Spirit Guide
Enchantment (4)
4x Blood Moon
Planeswalker (2)
2x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Sideboard
1x Duergar Hedge-Mage
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Ethersworn Canonist
2x Faerie Macabre
1x Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
1x Magus of the Moon
1x Manic Vandal
1x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Rest in Peace
1x Sphere of Law
2x Sulfur Elemental
1x Trinisphere
After filling out my decklist, I turn to my buddy and state, "I'm going to get paired vs. Burn round one, I'll lose super hard, like always and then I'll go home like the scrub I am."
Pairings go up, find my table and start shuffling.
R1: Burn - I guess I deserve this...
G1: He has me at 5 and I have the combo on board. Tap my Ancient Tomb + Mountain, going down to 3 activate Grindstone. He responds with Price of Progress, which is met with Pyroblast, which in turn is met with a confused look until I explained that everything is blue.
G2: I'm under the gun of two Goblin Guides and he passes back to me with 1 untapped Mountain. I cast LED, then Grindstone, then Painter's Servant and pass it back to him. On endstep he goes to bolt Painter and I crack LED in response to grind him out.
Out: 4x Blood Moon
In: Ethersworn Canonist, Engineered Explosives, Trinisphere, Sphere of Law
1-0-0
R2: R/G Lands - Time to get smacked with a 20/20
G1: I drop a quick Grindstone and tutor for Painter. He drops a Molten Vortex with 2 red up. Great. Untap, upkeep, draw. Lion's Eye Diamond. Sweet baby Jesus. I cast LED, then Painter and Pyroblast the Molten Vortex to force him into using it. He sees the same line as me and we move to G2.
G2: I drop a turn 1 Moon and it works against me as he drops a turn 2 Molten Vortex and promptly melts my face with it.
G3: Turn one Moon into turn 2 Painter + Pyroblast on his basic forest seal this one up.
Out: 2x Goblin Welder, Lion's Eye Diamond, Red Elemental Blast
In: Rest In Peace, Ensnaring Bridge, Sphere of Law, Magus of the Moon
2-0-0
R3: Burn - I need to work on my karma
G1: I get a quick combo and grind him out while I'm at 3 life and he's tapped out.
G2: He burns me out while I flounder looking for answers.
G3: With Lava Spikes and whatnot hitting me in the face, it's looking bleak. At the end of his turn 2 I Enlightened Tutor for Sphere of Law, the great, holy equalizer in the matchup. I draw it for turn, drop an Ancient Tomb and cast it, going to 8. "Response," he says. Oh, crap. He Fireblasts me down to 4. Not where I wanted to be. It resolves and I pass. He Lava Spikes me down to 3. Poop. I drop a Painter and pass with a fetchland and Ancient Tomb up. He casts Flame Rift and I fetch up a Mountain to Pyroblast it, dropping myself to 2. I draw LED, hold it in hand next to a Red Elemental Blast and contemplate how screwed I am with my Burn opponent sitting pretty at 20. He bolts me, down to 1 I go. I draw for turn. Grindstone. I cast LED and drop the stone which prompts another bolt to my face, which I redblast. Crack LED, drop hand, tap stone, flip deck.
Out: 4x Blood Moon
In: Ethersworn Canonist, Engineered Explosives, Trinisphere, Sphere of Law
3-0-0
4 of us being 3-0-0 means we get to double draw into top 8.
R4: ID
R5: ID
Quarterfinals:
We all decided to split the prize pool among the top 8 and well all get $125 cash monies. I'm sitting accross from my opponent, who, you guessed it, is on Burn. Fortunately for me, he had to make a drive back to his university and take care of some other errands. He shakes my hand, tells me good luck and tells the head judge that he concedes.
Semifinals:
Sitting accross from a good friend of mine who is on Shardless. We've played this matchup a thousand times. We each know what our gameplans are and what we need to do. I'm able to overwhelm him with the combo, moon effects and Pyroblasting his basics to get there in game 1. Game two becomes a grind fest and eventually ends with me ulting Chandra, Torch of Defiance to burn him out.
Out: 2x Goblin Welder, Simian Spirit Guide, Lion's Eye Diamond
In: Magus of the Moon, Jaya Ballard, Rest in Peace, Ensnaring Bridge
Finals: How I even made it to the top 8, let alone the finals still perplexes me. He's on R/G Combo lands, which can be a real coinflip of a match.
G1: I combo on turn 3 before he has any good way to interact with me.
G2: He has an explosive start and makes a 20/20 on the endstep of my turn 2. Fffffuuuuuuuuuuuu
G3: He has another explosive start and drops an early Tireless Tracker and starts investigating clues all over the place, doing his best Sherlock Holmes impression. I follow it up with an Ensnaring Bridge. He makes more clues and draws more cards. I follow up with a moon, but it only slows him down slightly with his Mox Diamonds. Another Bridge. Divining Top. Grindstone. Another moon. Finally, a Painter. He responds by K-Gripping my Grindstone. It's ok. Everything is ok. He drops a Chalice on 1, I pyroblast it. He says, "Ok," and proceeds to drop another Chalice on 1. It resolves. Fudge. I drop a third bridge and pass, feeling defeated. Then we both do nothing but dig. I, with top, and him with clues. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Spin top, land, pass. Over and over. I know what I need find. Spin top. There it is. I untap, draw and drop Chandra on the battlefield. I tick her up until she's at 7 and then promptly throw her in the trashcan for a shiny emblem, burning him out for the win.
Out: 2x Goblin Welder, Lion's Eye Diamond, Red Elemental Blast
In: Rest In Peace, Ensnaring Bridge, Sphere of Law, Magus of the Moon
My opponent held out his hand, grinned and congratulated me. We were both just happy to make it as far as we had, even after the hour-long slugfest that was G3 of the finals.
Bravo. I loved this report.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)