[Report] 1st Place @ Curio Cavern: Legacy Altar of Alters Event!

[Michael Keller]

So this event was held at Curio Cavern in Northern Virginia. The prize pool was structured with a very healthy dose of credit going to the Top Four and the winner receiving four beautifully altered Legacy cards: Wasteland, Windswept Heath, Misty Rainforest, and Scalding Tarn. So I decided to play the usual:

Dredge
by Michael Keller.

4 Lion's Eye Diamond

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

4 Bridge from Below

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 Darkblast
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

There were five rounds with a cut to Top Four playoffs. And it's off to the races!

Round One vs. James (with Pox).

Game One: After we both settle on six, James gets off to a relatively slow start by dropping a Swamp and passing. I proceed to play Careful Study, which bins two Trolls. I drop an LED (drawing into it) and the following turn play a Breakthrough with RRR floating. It was elementary from there.

Game Two: I keep a modest seven card hand and James mulligans to six. He drops a Leyline and Swamp and passes the turn. I proceed to play a land and pass. The following turn, he plays a Smallpox. In response, I Nature's Claim his Leyline and bin a Troll with land and draw spells in hand. I finish him off in relatively short order with a horde of tokens.

So much for Leyline.

1-0 [2-0-0].

Round Two vs. Tom (w/ Combo Elves).

Game One: I am on the play and proceed to mulligan to six. Tom keeps. I then drop Coliseum and LED, and cast a Careful Study (no dredgers in hand). After binning a Bridge and Troll, I pass. Tom plays a Quirion Ranger and passes the turn. I proceed to dredge and drop another Coliseum, going crazy with Trolls and dredging thirty-six cards deep into my deck. I subsequently Dread Returned a Sun Titan (bringing back Coliseum and using the U floating from the LED to activate the new Coliseum) and it was over with relatively ease.

Game Two: Game two was an incredibly drawn out affair. I brought in Darkblast and the Firestorms here as they are typically good against Elves. I open up with the Darkblast and proceed to nix all of Tom's early acceleration. I do, however, have draw spells up the ass in hand, but upon bringing back Darkblast, I just couldn't hit anymore dredgers. Anyhow, after twenty or so minutes I am faced with a decision to Breakthrough or Firestorm away his board. I try the Breakthrough and go deep into my deck (he has Living Wish to find Faerie Macabre, but didn't have it), but I just couldn't hit anything perfectly relevant to win the game on the spot.

At one point here, Tom also has to pay eight mana for two Pact triggers, which he is actually able to do. It doesn't matter, as the perfect storm against me is in place and Tom is able to barely squeak out the win after I dredged through three quarters of my deck without finding Iona or anything else relevant to the situation.

Game Three: I am on the play this match, and I have a snap-keep. This concerns Tom, who opts to mulligan (cheap parlor trick, but works sometimes). He showed me his hand, which was perfectly keepable (note also that Tom is a very good player here, just a little inexperienced with the Dredge match-up). I start with land, LED, Looting, bin Troll with RRR floating and Dread Return into Iona.

So, yeah...

2-0 [4-1-0].

Round Three vs. Bill (w/ Burn).

Game One: Bill is a very nice guy here, and has been tearing it up so far. I am able, however, to go balls-crazy on him by dropping LED and proceeding to Breakthrough my way to an abhorrent number of Zombie tokens, but not before stripping his hand of a Price of Progress and double Fireblast which he let resolve.

This is not a good match-up for Burn, to say the least.

Game Two: After mulling to six, Bill leads off with a turn one Relic. I play a land and Nature's Claim it at his end of turn. He then proceeds to drop another, and I am waiting for answers. Thankfully, Bill opts to continue to tap out to play cards, which leaves him incapable of activating the Relic for its secondary ability. This allows me to pin down some serious action and I eventually capitalize by destroying it via Grudge and proceed to grind out a win with a few Ichorids and some Zombies.

Probably should have left a Mountain open, but oh well.

3-0 [6-1-0].

Round Four and Five: I.D. into Top Four.

3-0-2 [6-1-2].

After hanging out and watching some matches for a while, I scope out some of the other potential Top Four competitors, including Jesse Hatfield - who did Top Four. After my long break, I am in the Top Four.

Here we go!

Top Four vs. Fred (w/ Stoneblade).

Game One: Fred mulligans to six and is on the play. He drops a Tundra and passes the turn. I proceed to drop a Coliseum and LED, and Careful Study - cracking for RRR - and binning some gas. He Brainstorms and has no answer. I proceed to blow the game open and hit a Looting off two dredged Trolls. I tear his hand apart and make some Zombies, in addition to a few Ichorids hiding out in the graveyard. I flashback a Dread Return targeting Sun Titan and proceed to bring back an LED and go bonkers again.

Game over.

Game Two: A very anticlimactic second game involved Fred keeping and playing a land and passing. I proceed to play a land and LED, which he Brainstorms in response to. He lets it resolve, and I play Faithless Looting and bin some gas again. I proceed to go off and tear his hand apart, and he shows me the Relic in his hand he drew off Brainstorm (which was probably a mistake to keep in his hand since I can strip it with Therapy, but whatever). While in the process of doing degenerate things, Fred just picks his cards up as it got way out of control.

4-0-2 [8-1-2].

After finishing my match relatively quick, I walk over to the other table where Jesse is playing his RUG deck against Dragon Stompy. I proceed to watch him handle the Dragon Stompy player after drawing like a champ, so Jesse and I saddle up with the stipulation that we will draft the four cards, with the winner of our match getting first pick.

And so in this Finals it was a classic microcosm of a match-up of yesteryear between Syracuse and Virginia, respectively.

Finals vs. Jesse Hatfield (w/ RUG Delver).

Game One: Jesse and I both keep our starting seven hands, with him on the play. After playing a land and passing turn, I proceed to try and play a draw spell, which gets Pierced. My next turn involves another draw spell, which gets Forced. I try a Putrid Imp, which gets Forced again! After Jesse takes his turn with a Nimble Mongoose out and a depleted hand of nothing, I take my turn, play a Cephalid Coliseum and cast a Breakthrough, drawing four cards - two Trolls, Bridge, and Ichorid, and proceed to activate my Coliseum. I manage to blow the game wide open, and Jesse draws dead in the water the following turn.

I noted to Jesse that I also had the Breakthrough and Coliseum in my hand, but I played out the other draw spells off City of Brass and Gemstone Mine first.

Game Two: Game two started with Jesse on the play. I bring in the fourth Therapy and two Grudges. I proceed to start the game off by getting some information by Therapying Jesse, seeing nothing too extravagant. He manages to drop a Goyf and Mongoose. After forcing Jesse to cantrip repeatedly for something relevant (which he can't find), I get the action going by getting down an LED and some serious draw action off Looting. From there I have a large portion of my deck in my graveyard. My board state was two 14/14 Grave-Trolls and a few Zombies. Jesse manages to wipe a few Zombies away with Rough, which was kind of techy.

Unfortunately, he couldn't withstand the assault of multiple Ichorids and two massive Trolls staring him down. And just like that, the tournament was over and I took it down!

5-0-2 [10-1-2].

I wind up taking the Wasteland first and then the Misty Rainforest. All in all, an incredibly awesome event!

[Isaac]

Congrats on the finish. I got a question concerning the list. Did you ever miss fkz for that turn kill or is titan just flat out better. How did you sideboard for each match. I have the hardest problem sidling bemuse are 60 is pretty tight and each card is vital. Was the +1 ichorid worth any while and would you consider putting it in the side for the 4th cabal or break. Love the hogan gif btw

[Que]

Yeah sideboard seems to be key here sometimes.

Against your Burn opponent you boarded in Claims and Grudges G2? Is this because you had put him on the Crypt/Relic plan as opposed to the Macabre plan?

Its kinda hard making those decisions. I mean had he used macabre seems like your grudges and claims would have been dead. What did you cut for these?

[Michael Keller]

Yeah sideboard seems to be key here sometimes.

Against your Burn opponent you boarded in Claims and Grudges G2? Is this because you had put him on the Crypt/Relic plan as opposed to the Macabre plan?

Its kinda hard making those decisions. I mean had he used macabre seems like your grudges and claims would have been dead. What did you cut for these?

I saw Bill grab a stack from his board and move them to his main deck. I am also familiar with his general siding strategy (local) and brought those in against him. My strategy to the best of my knowledge was something like this:

-2 Breakthrough
-1 Sun Titan
-1 Ichorid

+1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
+2 Nature's Claim
+1 Ancient Grudge

I was considering not bringing anything in against him but Iona. Sometimes it just depends. Dredge is a very subjective archetype. What works for one player won't always work for another.

@Isaac: Thanks. There were a few rare instances I missed the FKZ, but I still prefer Sun Titan. His application is better beyond only facilitating an attack and basically locks up virtual wins while being able to help you when you need something in a pinch. His overall utility is just better - at least for me.

[Que]

I saw Bill grab a stack from his board and move them to his main deck. I am also familiar with his general siding strategy (local) and brought those in against him. My strategy to the best of my knowledge was something like this:

-2 Breakthrough
-1 Sun Titan
-1 Ichorid

+1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
+2 Nature's Claim
+1 Ancient Grudge

I was considering not bringing anything in against him but Iona. Sometimes it just depends. Dredge is a very subjective archetype. What works for one player won't always work for another.

Fair enough. I had figured it was something along those lines. And I will agree that what works for one player may not always for another with the archtype.

[heroicraptor]

I'm surprised Jesse's maindeck EEs didn't get there. They sure did against me.

[Michael Keller]

It takes a bit more than Explosives on zero to really do anything relevant against Dredge early on. Even if they get value on hitting a few tokens, they can't stop the process of dredging or recurring Ichorids (this is game one we're referring to). Even when activated timely, it still requires a few turns to setup to be optimal. By that time, the game is usually out of reach.

E.E. only delays the inevitable.