[Report] Dredging to Glory - 13th Place at SCG: Baltimore.

[Michael Keller]

Dredging to Glory - 13th Place at SCG: Baltimore.

Preface

I'd like to take a second and point out before going through this report by saying this was by far and away the most personal tournament I've ever competed in. Generally speaking, I go into every event with plenty of confidence, but for me at this point in time in my life with transitioning out of the military, it has become kind of difficult keeping up with the competition trying to stay at the top of the pack. This tournament wasn't just about going and trying to do well, this tournament was to be a career statement win that I needed to make - and bad. I kind of lost that fire I used to have, but I've got it back.

I guess when you're away from the things you love most, you tend to lose to touch with everything just a little bit and it effects your performance in everything you do. I have tried on numerous occasions to make the Jupiter Games NELC tournaments and to no avail. I have enjoyed a great deal of success there, and while I haven't been able to make it to every event because of proximity and my military obligations, I always try to make every one of them count. I have, however, learned a lot about myself as a player and student of the game (even after all these years) from surrounding myself with people like the Hatfield's and the rest of the Virginia crew. I've seen and played with both sides now, and it's made me a much better player because of it. I've met some incredible people down here, I really have.

With that being said, I was fully prepared to give the best performance of my life at the Legacy Open in Baltimore - a tournament a bit more saturated than most would think. We're talking about competing in the same tournament as people like Sam Black - which means if you're not on your "A" game, you're done. It was a tournament that felt a lot like the old days of "1.5" when the Virginian's and Syracusian's would clash, except now we have "pro's" thrown in the mix. As a veteran of this format and having played it exclusively since the dawn of man, I have seen so much, met so many countless people, but nothing was as unbelievable as this; this was incredible.

The Report

After getting about two hours of rest the night before the tournament, I wake up and head on out to the event. It's about an hour drive, so it wasn't that bad - especially with the Five Hour energy drink. I was jamming to the original "Karate Kid" and "Rocky IV" soundtrack in my new car, which was totally awesome.

So after some inspiring music to start my day, I arrive in Baltimore and proceed to the venue. I meet up with Eli Kassis, Bryant, and the rest of the Jupiter crew before the event begins. I get my deck-reg sheet filled out, and this was the (fully pimped) seventy-five I ran:

Dredge
by Michael Keller.

4 Lion's Eye Diamond

4 Golgari Grave-Troll
3 Golgari Thug
2 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Putrid Imp
4 Stinkweed Imp
1 Sun Titan

4 Bridge from Below

1 Darkblast

3 Breakthrough
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Careful Study
2 Dread Return
4 Faithless Looting

4 Cephalid Coliseum
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Undiscovered Paradise

//Sideboard
1 Ichorid
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Coffin Purge
3 Firestorm
3 Nature's Claim
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Breakthrough
1 Cabal Therapy

After a few minutes, the player meetings are up and the pairings are posted. There are 264 players at this event, so it's nine rounds of action. It's off to the races!

Round One versus Hardenberger, Bryan C (w/ LED Dredge)

Game One: Bryan is a really cool guy and we wind up chatting for a bit. He explains he is relatively new at Legacy, and is borrowing a deck. He wins the die roll, and elects to play first. He ponders for a second, and winds up keeping. He drops LED and discards his hand. So, I wind up running into the mirror.

He goes all in with no lands and a Faithless Looting. I wind up starting with a really good hand including Breakthrough, lands, Troll, and a Study, but his dredges were good enough to just barely seal the deal - even with no lands. Cabal Therapy was key here, as he was able to hit my key spells. He missed on the first try, naming LED. It was moot after he had two more in his graveyard, in addition to two Narcomoebas and two Bridges.

Game Two: I am unsure as to what kind of hate Bryan could be on, and I don't see him bringing in a lot, so I don't put him on Leyline. I proceed to keep my LED's in here and side in my Coffin Purges and Iona. I am able to blow the game open easily with LED and Careful Study, which nets me a Looting. Bryan tries to Surgical Extract my Bridges, but his mulligan to five was barely keepable and a pair of Ichorids cleared the way. I wound up Purging a Troll, which crippled him dearly.

Game Three: Now that I know Bryan is on Extraction, I keep the plan as is and my opening hand is absolutely nuts. I Breakthrough him out with double-LED into Troll and Imp and he has no way of stopping it. I wind up overwhelming him with Zombies and bring back a huge Troll to seal the deal!

2-1-0, 1-0.

So after taking the first round down after battling back from a game one loss against the mirror, I am in dire need of a drink. Of water, that is. I walk around for a bit and the second round pairings are posted.

Round Two versus Telkamp, Paul (w/ Pox)

Game One: Paul is a really nice guy and he wins the roll, and decides to go first. I would like to point out that I just cannot win a die roll for the life of me. It seriously feels like it's been years since I've won one, but whatever. He drops a Swamp and Zuran Orb and passes. Hmm.

I proceed to take my turn and go crazy on turn one. I manage to nail down an LED into some pretty good stuff, make a bunch of Zombies, and cripple his hand. Paul then plays a Mishra's Factory, and after consulting a judge, his belief is confirmed when he can nuke my Bridges with a dead Factory. I nodded to him and we both laughed a bit. I wound up getting there with repeated Ichorid attacks and a beat-down consisting of five Zombies.

Game Two: I fully expect the Leylines to come in so I bring in Claims and Ray, in addition to Coffin Purge. It didn't matter as Paul mulled to four and dropped a Leyline. I proceed to dig into a Nature's Claim, blow it up, and kill him shortly thereafter.

4-1-0, 2-0.

Round Three versus White, Harold K (w/ EsperBlade)

Game One: Harold and I meet up and we exchange greetings. Ironically, Bryant is sitting right next to me. Harold and I talk about old-school Magic for a bit, and Harold explains he is just getting back into Legacy after a small break and we begin the game. I start off by casting a Careful Study off City of Brass, and after a few turns of me explaining to Harold what some of my cards do, I proceed to overwhelm him in short order with a horde of Zombies.

I had decimated his hand of business after seeing his land configuration, hitting two Snapcasters and a Brainstorm (after he elected no to use it; sometimes opponents will ponder responding if they don't think I'll name it, but I will if I'm in a dominating position and my opponent expects me to whiff).

Game Two: I wind up bringing in some artifact hate as I fully expected to have to deal with Jitte. I mulligan to five, and Harold has double-Extraction - with a Snapcaster in hand. I am able to still somehow go beat-down with Ichorids for a few turns later and he winds up getting Jitte online with Souls tokens.

Game Three: I throw the LED's back in after boarding them out and decide to try and crush him turn one. I wind up grinding out this game for a long time trying to find answers, and although I was able to get Harold low on life, he stabilized with a Jitte and found Force of Will to save his Snapcaster and top-decked into Extraction for the win.

I had activated Coliseum, but it just wasn't enough by that point.

5-3-0, 2-1.

Round Four versus Sunell, Jeremy J (w/ Punishing Maverick)

Game One: Unfortunately, this match wasn't really much to talk about. Jeremy and I are acquaintances from Xanadu Games in the Baltimore area and we have ironically never played against each other before. I wind up going off turn one into the absolute nuts: LED, LED, Breakthrough, land, Troll, Troll, Looting. Turn one Sun Titan and flip my deck.

And, on to game two.

Game Two: I have been following this trend in testing where against Maverick I keep in the LED's. This is basically what happened here as Jeremy mulled to four, couldn't find anything relevant, and I proceeded to turn one him again with pretty much a similar draw. Unfortunately, that's how it goes sometimes and he wishes me the best of luck.

7-3-0, 3-1.

So after cruising around, chatting, and checking out the games in progress (it's nice sometimes to finish early), I proceed to check out the round four pairings as they're posted and noticed a familiar name I'd be paired against...

Round Five versus Michael Caffrey [mchainmail] (w/ EsperBlade)

Game One: Mike and I have never actually played against each other, and we're generally regulars on the Jupiter Games circuit (me less frequently these days, as I mentioned earlier). Bryant finds himself next to Caffrey, yet again not straight across from me where I'd prefer him to be. At any rate, Mike and I exchange greetings, chat for a bit, and start playing. Mike wins the roll and proceeds to Thoughtseize me on the first turn, and sees a hand that looks like this (I mulliganed):

City of Brass
Careful Study
Careful Study
Careful Study
Stinkweed Imp
Stinkweed Imp

Mike obviously takes a Study, and after drawing my cards with another Study, I find an LED and proceed to win the game in short order with recurring Zombies and Ichorid.

Game Two: I decide to bring in the Grudges and Purges to test his hate. At this point, I mulligan to five, but Mike is fine with his seven. He proceeds to gain the upper hand on me with Surgical Extraction on my Bridges, but I am able to stick with it. This becomes only momentarily plausible as I miss with my Therapy on Snapcaster (which he hid on top with a Brainstorm in response), and I lose shortly thereafter by a Jitte and Spirit tokens followed by Surgical Extraction.

Rough beats.

Game Three: Back on the LED plan, I begin humming the "Back to the Future" theme song. Bryant and Mike are amused, and I play my six cards out very slowly.

Me: "LED?"
Mike: "Resolves."
Me: "Breakthrough -> Holding Priority/Crack for RRR?"
Mike: "...Yep."

From there it was textbook, and Mike was never able to draw into anything relevant to save him from the swarm of Zombie tokens coming after him.

He extends the hand, and I pick up the victory.

9-4-0, 4-1.

Round Six versus Mosso, Antonio B (with Combo Elves)

Game One: Antonio is a nice guy who is doing well with his Elves deck. I am very excited to see him across from me because upon scouting earlier I noticed he was on Elves, and I know that with the right start I can blast him apart. I win the die roll (finally) and proceed to keep my seven cards. He does too, but it isn't enough with LED and Faithless Looting off a land with Troll. He picks it up after I proceed to hammer him for an arbitrary amount of damage and stripping his hand apart at 100% accuracy on Therapy (naming Heritage Druid and Glimpse, respectively).

Game Two: So finally in come the Firestorms, which I might have boarded into the round against Jeremy, but I'm just finding that with LED against Maverick I don't really care about Ooze. The one card I do care about is Enlightened Tutor (or a top-decked Bog) in that match-up, which is important. At any rate, I keep the LED's in and Antonio mulls to five. I proceed to punish him on turn two by dredging deep with Study and Coliseum.

However, Antonio managed somehow to put together a board with Nettle Sentinel and Mirror Entity, with Heritage Druid on board, but my 17/17 troll and Iona on "Green" sealed the deal.

11-4-0, 5-1.

So at this point, I've rocketed up the standings and need to take a breather (remember, I'm on almost zero sleep here). I proceed to drink tons of Gatorade and try my best to stay in it. I am not really worried at this point, because I'm feeling hot and quite confident.

Round Seven versus Braun-Duin, Brian S (w/ EsperBlade)

Game One: Brian brings over his deck with some fries and such and I am just relaxing with my Gatorade. We both are pretty lax at this point and introduce ourselves to each other. Brian is one of the new faces of Magic in Star City's Open Series, with me representing the old guard of Legacy. We laugh it up a bit and start the game. Brian wins the roll, and drops a fetch and passes. I proceed to Careful Study, and it resolves. I drop a few dredgers, and draw into an LED. I drop it and it resolves.

Turn two he passes, and I proceed to try and go off on my next turn. However, I was only able to hit two Narcomoeba, and all four Bridges. After a long and drawn out affair, I am able to make some tokens and get some action in. Brian lands Jace, and starts drawing. I keep attacking him out, and at one point get him down to one life. He is able to stabilize by nailing some absolutely huge draws off Jace, namely Souls. I purposely did not attack Jace because I was too preoccupied with killing him, so as to put him on a decision and fast. He had two Souls and a hard-cast Batterskull, which wound up saving him the game. After a ridiculously long game (almost a half-hour), I finally succumb after all of my Bridges are exiled and he finds a way to get Jitte online.

He sinks in his chair and exclaims as to how lucky he was to have even been in that match, mainly because of my early four of a kind of Bridge. We both agree that attacking Jace at that point offset critical damage to him, which was necessary to keep him low enough where I could threaten lethal. The only card that could really save him at that point was a Lingering Souls, which he found.

So, that was that.

Game Two: I bring in some anti-artifct hate and proceed to try and go all-out on him early. I have to mulligan into oblivion (four cards), and he winds up keeping on seven. After getting some action in, Brian Extracts a Narcomoeba and then hits Bridge from Below the turn after.

Crippling.

I knock a Jitte and Snapcaster out of his hand blind with Therapy, which was something at least. I am able to get two Ichorids online as attackers somehow, someway and force in some damage. I wind up drawing naturally for my turn a few times into some serious gas like LED and Breakthrough (people forget Dredge can top-deck really well when it has to at times; just apply some math as to what is left and what has been dredged away), but he finally found the second Jitte and I gave in.

It was a pleasure playing against him, and I know I played the match as best as I could - even on my mulligan to four. I also brought in Coffin Purge, which kind of surprised him. It would have been extremely relevant in the instance he would have flashed back his Extraction or hit my Narcomoeba/Bridges.

Either way, it happens sometimes.

11-6-0, 5-2.

So after dropping this round, I look around and start talking with some friends. Turns out Parcher (Damon Whitby) was watching my match and took note of some things I could have done differently, but still noted how well I played. We both exchanged ideas about scenarios and how to deal with them under the circumstances.

Round Eight versus Hoey, Matt E (w/ ?)

Matt was a no-show here, which kind of surprised me with Top 16 on the line. I am sitting next to some friends, and after informing a judge immediately and subsequently waiting for ten minutes (for the match loss), turns out he was a no show.

I get the easy win, and right now I'm just fine with that.

13-6-0, 6-2.

As it turns out, getting this quick win was incredibly important to me as I was able to peruse the top tables in search of my potential next opponent. I keep a mental list of what they were playing, and as it turns out my next opponent was currently playing against Dredge.

This should be fun...

Round Nine versus Jones, Kevin (with EsperBlade)

Game One: Kevin and I talk for bit and the stakes at hand, which are pretty high at this point. I am very relaxed and at ease, and by this point I'm just ready to play. I win the roll and go first.

Kevin is not going to like this.

I proceed to start with LED, LED, Careful Study, land, Imp, Looting, Looting. I hit everything I need, and Kevin is a little upset. He talks about how degenerate the deck can be, and with a judge sitting right next to me he shakes his head and smirks.

Game Two: By this point I am familiar with the hate package Esper brings to the table, however Kevin brought something a bit different - Relic of Progenitus.

I wasn't expecting Relic, which is fine I guess, except for that it's a bit mana-intensive early on for him and something like Surgical/Crypt would be fine. Turns out I could be wrong, as I do bring in artifact hate in the form of Ancient Grudge. I am able to fight through his hate for a while, but eventually I get overrun by a few tokens and Jitte, to which I have no answer for. He had dropped Relic into play in a dominating board position, which to me could have been a mistake as it tipped me off to bringing in more hate.

Game Three: I go back with the LED's and keep a good seven card hand with LED, land, Breakthrough, and Thug, and manage to hit a Looting along the way. Kevin had mulled to six, and I managed to nail two Relics in his opening hand blind and sealed the victory with an army of Zombies and cemented my place in the Top 16.

15-6-0, 7-2.

So, after a long and arduous day of Legacy I place 13th overall. I am incredibly proud of this achievement and it certainly was very rewarding, especially after all I've had to endure these last few years of watching my friends and fellow competitors take full advantage of an exploding Legacy scene. I have made the most of my life away from the game by making a future for my family, which is by far more important than anything else. But Magic is something I live for and have played competitively for sixteen years, and winning is still something I strive for every time I play.

This was by far the sweetest accomplishment in that time, and I owe it all to the people around me who have made me better as a player, a competitor, and a person. I've had some big Top 4's/8's before, but even after all these years I still learn a thing or two by surrounding myself with good, wholesome people who love the game and understand it as well as I do. I am thoroughly pleased to say that being now on the tail-end of my military life (less than five months) and nailing this big Top 16 finish in one of the most star-studded Legacy Opens to date...

Hollywood is back!

Look for updates in the new Dredge forum.

[FlyingSkull13]

Hollywood, your my hero, my first deck was mono green chalice stompy, i love this format so much, thanks for your guidance:)

[joemauer]

I was all amped up with "eye of the tiger" playing in my head while reading just to find out the report is in progress......bummer.

[Michael Keller]

Report is up!

[jares]

Congrats again!

Cheers,
jares

[NewDredgePlayer]

Congrats on your finish Hollywood!

Do you feel the dread return package is needed? It didn't seem like they were cast much and zombies were the usual route to victory.

[K1w1]

Nice report. Each round i watched the coverage, i hoped to see you.
Now i have a picture :D

[JustPAT4]

It's always a pleasure to read your posts. The care you afford to detail is something to marvel at. I always feel I learn more about the game I love, how to teach it, play it, and keep it fun, through your example.

I'll never forget the Jupiter Games' tournament where the only two matches I lost were to Michael Keller, piloting a newly designed rogue deck of his, The Gate, against my newly designed rouge deck, Sneak Attack with Show and Tell. I had more fun in those loses than in any of my wins because of the smart, friendly, competitive energy you brought to the table. You're truly a class act, sir.

Congratulations on this finish.

[HokusSchmokus]

It's always a pleasure to read your posts. The care you afford to detail is something to marvel at. I always feel I learn more about the game I love, how to teach it, play it, and keep it fun, through your example.

This is exactly why Hollywood was the perfect choice to write the new dredge primer:)


Great and entertaining report, congrats on the top16.
Boo for scg not wanting to put you on camera.

Also, I am really wanting to test my skills against you in a tournament some time. Too bad you live in the US.

[Michael Keller]

Thank you to you all. I appreciate the kind words.

I honestly could care less about not being put on camera. All I care about is winning.

Also, in regards to Dread Return, it came up a lot in the event, and cemented me some big wins against Elves and Maverick. Sun Titan is just ridiculous when it lands.

[Izor]

Congratz on top16'ing. Awesome job!


I would have liked to see you play on camera too, but mainly for the fact that it would have been nice to see someone play a whole match of Magic with Dredge without making any fundamental errors ;) Last time I saw that was when 4eak won last year I think.



Anyway, well done!

[Technics]

Epic report is Epic.

Nice job man, congrats!

[Que]

1st Off. Congrats on the performance.

I think your list looks fine as far as opting to actually play DR and its targets. Sun Titan seems really good on paper with regards to recurring things like LED into a looting. I haven't tested it yet myself.

Would you mind going over what the boarding looked like for each of these matchups? I'm intersted in what you boarded in/out. I think a lot of dredge players have varying opinions as to what gets brought in and against what. Being able to compare would be a great benefit. If you dont' remember then don't worry about it.

Do you also have general boarding strategies? I'm just trying to find out what cards are getting the shaft in Games 2 & 3. To me the maindeck is so packed in that I have difficulty deciding what to cut during those games.

Thanks

[Michael Keller]

Replied to in the forum, Que. Thanks.

[n0mad]

great read Michael! :D