Greetings internet people. When you last heard from me I was regaling you with my top 16 report from Tales of Adventure Comics' Eternal Extravaganza 1 (linked below). I'm pleased to say I'm back with a vengeance having split the finals of Eternal Extravaganza 3.
I play Elves. The deck is great. If you put in the hours to learn all the tricks and all the lines you will be rewarded handsomely. The last 6 months have been dark times for me in Legacy. Long ago, somewhere in the dark heart of the wood, the little green men made a deal with the Legacy format. The deal was that Elves will be an unassuming "budget" deck that's hard to play correctly, in exchange all other decks would have to decide if they're going to control the stack, control the board, or just kill us first. But they can only choose one of those plans, and we're pretty good at maneuvering to exploit the half of the game you're not ready to beat. Counterbalance and Terminus paired together having been pushing the deal for a while now, but in a manageable way. Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time however altered the deal and warned us to pray they don't alter it further. As a result Wirewood Symbiote ended up encased in carbonite until WOTC infiltrated Legacy's palace disguised as a bounty hunter and chopped the head off the snake. Twice.
Once the blindness wore off, I was immediately back on board the Elves train. This is the list I played at EE3:
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Wirewood Symbiote
3 Heritage Druid
2 Birchlore Rangers
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Wren's Run Packmaster
2 Craterhoof Behemoth
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Glimpse of Nature
3 Natural Order
2 Dryad Arbor
1 Pendelhaven
4 Gaea's Cradle
2 Forest
2 Bayou
1 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Misty Rainforest
Sideboard
2 Pithing Needle
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Savenging Ooze
2 Choke
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Progenitus
The list is pretty standard. I went straight GB with the mana. White is basically obsolete thanks to Reclamation Sage. I think Blue is a viable splash in the right meta, but I was expecting more Thespian's Stages and Umezawa's Jittes than Show and Tells and Ad Nauseams so I played Pithing Needles and Chokes instead of Swan Songs.
When I tune for tournaments I think of Elves along the spectrum of balls-to-the-wall combo to GB midrange. The deepest combo side of the spectrum has 4 Natural Order and no time for reactive nonsense like Reclamation Sage or Packmaster in the main. The sideboard usually contains ways to clear out hateful permanents and disrupt the opponent's hand, whatever it can do to make Natural Order resolve as quickly as possible. The fast version has much better game against other combo decks because of its ability to crank out Ruric Thar the fastest. The midrange version has 3 Natural Order (I'd never play less) and it frequently sideboards them out for cards like Sylvan Library, Choke, Scavenging Ooze, and other disruptive elements. That build tries to play a fair game that wins the 1-for-1 war by simply having more 1's while forcing the opponent to respect Natural Order or a hardcast/Zenithed Hoof. This build is better against Miracles and anyone who brought a lot of dedicated hate like Grafdigger's Cage and Containment Priest.
My build is in the middle of that spectrum, but closer to the midrange plan. I did some tweeting back and forth with Julian about the deck in between his MKM event and my EE event. He convinced me I don't need 4 NO's, but I wasn't sold on his zero Progenitus plan. I think Progenitus is too good against decks list RUG Delver and Shardless BUG to cut from the list. If you're on the full midrange list you probably won't have Progenitus at all, as it's a wasted sideboard slot in a world where you're generally boarding out NO. Against Miracles or white decks that might have Containment Priest I'll board Natural Order out entirely. Against the fair blue decks I leave NO in and bring in Thoughtseize to clear the way for the hydra god's arrival.
The hardest choice when deckbuilding was the Wren's Run Packmaster slot. That's the slot the 4th Natural Order would go in. Once I decided on 3 NO's that slot came down to Packmaster or Sylvan Library. Those two cards overlap a lot in their function so far as they're both great in grindy games. Their differences push into opposite sides of the spectrum in that Library is a great 2-drop against combo so you can start digging and try to race early, Packmaster can't be played early but can immediately shut down an offense and quickly turn the tide of any ground-based battle in the mid or late game. Library is also a pure fun-of, a one-of that you have no way to go find on purpose. Your best path to find library is to dig for it with Glimpse, but if I'm Glimpsing I'd usually rather draw any card that does anything that turn than Library. Packmaster bridges the GSZ gap between 2 and 8, having something that hits the board harder than Deathrite Shaman when you don't have mana for Hoof is a huge deal. I decided in the shower the morning of the event that Packmaster was the right choice for the day.
With the hard part behind me it was time to go play cards. 304 wizards arrived for Legacy resulting in 9 rounds of Swiss.
I didn't take notes during the tournament. So unless something really interesting happened the game accounts will be short and accurate to the best of my ability.
Round 1: Ryan w/RUG Delver
I love this matchup. You can gum up the ground pretty easily. You outdraw them in any midgame situation. Deathrite Shaman can rip them apart by himself. And they always have to respect the NO that might be in your hand or on top of your deck. The only card in their maindeck that I care about is an early flipped Delver. Then after board I have Abrupt Decay to take that pressure off. Just don't play into Rough and you'll be fine.
Game 1: He had an early Delver and I just lost the race.
Game 2: I Thoughtseized him on turn 2 and NO'ed for Progenitus on turn 3.
Game 3: His Delver flipped on turn 3 and started pressuring me. He had 2 Tarmogoyfs that were kept in check at first by Wirewood Symbiote and Deathrite Shaman and then by Packmaster. When I was at 5 life I ripped the Abrupt decay and used DRS to go to 7 out of double Bolt range. From there winning was elementary.
1-0
Round 2: Travis with Shardless BUG
Travis and I recognized each other but weren't sure from where. More to come on that.
Game 1: Shardless BUG is a great matchup. The only thing to fear is they now maindeck Toxic Deluge. I had early pressure, but he found the Deluge the turn before he was dead to NO. He went to 6 or 7 from the Deluge then jammed some Tarmogoyfs. I just barely cobbled together a creature plus NO for Hoof to sneak in the last few points before I died.
Game 2: We went back and forth a little. When I Zenith'ed for 4 in the midgame he remembered me. "You wrecked me with Wren's Run Packmaster at EE1. Force of Will that." Fair enough. But the two-for-one of Force plus my deck full of threats buried him in short order.
2-0
Round 3: Nathan with Death and Taxes
Game 1: I went first. He died on my third turn with Aether Vial on 1 and Stoneforge Mystic in play.
Game 2: He kept a no-colored-sources hand with Port, Wasteland, and Vial. He died before putting a creature into play.
A lot of people I talk to scoff about this matchup as if it's un-loseable for Elves. I think that's a gross exaggeration. D&T doesn't come out swinging, and those early turns are basically goldfishing. But if you keep a slow hand or their removal lines up right you can find yourself in a really tough situation that it usually takes a hardcast Hoof to get out of. I felt fortunate to get through this one without much of a fight.
3-0
Round 4: Dan with MUD
Dan was a friendly, chatty dude I had never seen before.
Game 1: I won the die roll and led on Forest and Zenith for Dryad Arbor. Dan said "Hmm... Elves... What do I have for that?" Then he led on Ancient Tomb for Grim Monolith. Crap, this matchup is awful. I played a Visionary and the second Arbor on my turn, setting up for Cradle+Hoof on the next. But Dan had another Tomb for another Monolith for Sundering Titan, killing one of my Arbors. I spent my next turn playing a land and a creature, he cracked for 7 and I took it, then he deployed Metalworker and died on my turn.
Game 2: He had turn 1 Chalice for 1. The nightmare. I fetched a Dryad arbor and had the Decay on turn 2 to unlock the game and on turn 3 played some Quirion Rangers and a Wirewood Symbiote. He had been ramping up with Monoliths, but only had Ancient Tombs for reliable mana so his life total was already at 7. He tanked, did some math, then went to 3 to cast Wurmcoil Engine. I added to my board. He fired in with the Wurm, I blocked with an elf and put it back in my hand with Symbiote before lifelink could happen. He read the cards, looked at me, shrugged and packed it in.
4-0
Round 5: Ben with Lands
This matchup is generally pretty frustrating. Lands used to be a great matchup in Legacy's past. But now it's a turn 3 combo deck that also gets to play Tabernacle and Punishing Fire. The deck is still largely at the whim of its opening 7 though which puts a floor on how bad the matchup can really be. But it's not favorable if both players are doing what they want.
Game 1: He has Mox Diamond, Exploration, Loam, and Tabernacle in his opener. Tabernacle is not lights out, but it is annoying. It pushes my turn 3 Hoof to a turn 4 Hoof, but he dredges into Wasteland for my Cradle, which makes it a turn 6 Hoof, but he dredges into the Dark Depths and and I can't attack through the 20/20.
Game 2: I have turn 1 Deathrite Shaman (aka "The Stones") that pesters him until he can Punishing Fire it, but by then I'm able to Hoof him comfortably.
Game 3: We both have turn 3 hands, but he went first.
4-1
Round 6: Driscoll with Esper Stoneblade
Game 1: He Stoneforges for a Jitte on turn 2, but the way he's playing makes it clear he has the Batterskull in hand already so I hold my attacks and use Symbiote and Ranger to keep Jitte from doing anything. Turn 4 or 5 I find Packmaster and he's quickly wolf chow.
Game 2: He says he's never played this matchup before, but it seems awful for him. I confirm that it's Jitte or bust. My opening hand has Abrupt Decay in it, so bust it is for Driscoll. He has the Stoneforge, Jitte never connects, and he dies quickly to Progenitus.
5-1
Round 7: Shawn with Miracles
I know Shawn as an eternal wizard from Virginia and know he's on Miracles. This matchup is bad, but I have a ton of experience navigating it and my sideboard is really strong.
Game 1: He has a turn 2 Counterbalance but no Top. I'm able to poke in test spells and push when the top of the deck is clear. He's also under respectable pressure from 2 Dryad Arbors plus Pendelhaven. He Brainstorms during my end step at one point to Terminus me on his draw step, but that also Brainstorm locks him for another turn and I'm able to fetch back one of the Arbors immediately. I give him enough credit to have put a 1-drop under the Terminus so I play a Visionary on my turn and hold my hand full of ones. He draw-goes, I play a one drop, CB reveals a 2 and I'm off to Hoof town. After the game he shows me his hand of Red Blast and the other 3 Counterbalances.
Game 2: He goes to 6 and has a turn 1 Top. He Forces my Turn 1 Pithing Needle which I'm not upset about at all. On his turn he Tops, plays a land and another Top and passes. The game goes slow for a while, he Tops every turn and casts all 4 Swords to Plowshares in the first 5 turns. I deploy the Deathrite I've been slow rolling and start chewing him up. I find a Quirion Ranger to really get to work with Deathrite shortly after. There's a turn where I forget to attack with Ranger, so he's at 9 instead of 8. A few turns later I have to pass the turn with an untapped Deathrite and him at 3 instead of dead. He has a few cantrips on his free bonus turn, but with all 4 Plows in the graveyard I'm not really sure what he was looking for. A long sweat later on a turn that I shouldn't have given him and he packs it up.
6-1
Quick comment on this matchup. No deck can one-for-one Elves and come out on top. Miracles is so terrible for Elves because of Counterbalance and Terminus. If their draw doesn't come together or you can disrupt them into a place where they're casting Force of Will and Swords to Plowshares just to stay alive you're golden.
Round 8: Brendan with Burn
Brendan was a young kid. He excitedly told me this is his first Legacy tournament and he got to play at table 3 last round. I had just finished talking to my friend who was salty about getting burned out by a kid he got paired down to at table 3 last round. My heart sank a little. This is where it ends. I'm going to get burnt out of this awesome tournament by a kid playing Legacy for the first time. The burn matchup was bad before Eidolon of the Great Revel was printed. Now it's a faster combo deck with as many removal spells as I play creatures and a potent maindeck 4-of hate card. That sinking feeling only lasted a second though and I decided I was going to smash him. This is my tournament. Get out of my way.
Game 1: He has a Goblin Guide that draws me 2 cards before trading with a Nettle Sentinel. Then he has some spells. Mercifully he doesn't have Eidolon or Searing Blaze. Those are the two cards in the deck that he doesn't have to choose between disrupting me or killing me, which is the hardest part of this matchup to balance on the Burn side. I pushed as many creatures into play as fast as I could while my life total held out. On turn 4 he had 4 lands in play and 4 cards in hand with me at 8, I was sure I was dead. But when he Fireblasted my Deathrite Shaman I realized his hand must just be 3 more lands and I stole game 1.
Game 2: He had a turn 1 Grim Lavamancer. Crap. I Cabal Therapied him naming Eidolon and missed, but his hand was Cage, Bolt, Bolt, Land, Land so I wasn't that afraid. If he tried to hold up Bolt + Lavamancer or drew some other spell to cast instead of Cage I'd be able to flashback Therapy and get at least one of those Bolts on the next turn. He drew Goblin Guide, the attack revealed Natural Order, which prompted him to slam Cage into play 2nd main. I drew the brick NO, he drew another Guide, I died very quickly.
Game 3: I had Zenith for Arbor on turn 1. He Spiked me to 17. I had some elves on Turn 2. He had Eidolon. I had Zenith for 3 to kill it with Reclamation Sage and take zero damage. From there my position was 5 power in play and 16 life to his 5 cards. He tried to Searing Blood my Dryad Arbor but Quirion Ranger saved the day, he cast a Sensei's Top. He spent the next 2 turns spinning but not casting spells. When he was down to a 2 turn clock he suspended 2 Rift Bolts and passed. I attacked him to dead on board. He sent both Rift Bolts at me, down to 10. I looked at the 4 cards in his hand and thought "Here comes the Bolt, Bolt, Fireblast...." But it never came.
7-1
Round 9: Roland with Grixis Delver
Roland is a fellow Vintage stalwart who I've know through mutual friends for a while and had been able to talk to personally for the first time earlier during this tournament. Looking at the standings it was clear we couldn't draw in. Let me just say that I love bashing in these situations. I'm of the opinion that if you come to the tournament willing to prize split during the swiss rounds or ID into top 16/32/whatever then you should just stay in bed. But Vintage is the best community in Magic and I want every member of it to experience some amount of success. So I told Roland I'd be willing to 50/50 chop, 10% chop, or just play it out and let him decide. He thought about it while we played and agreed to the 50/50 split right before I put a lethal Natural Order on the stack in game 1. After we agreed to the split he told me he was getting tired and playing a little loose and thinks I'd have a better shot in top 8, so he scooped.
8-1, first seed going into Top 8.
Top 8: Jacob with TES
Jacob is a local Pittsburgh player who I see around all the time. He was a hotelmate for this trip. While I was excited we both made Top 8, I wasn't excited to play against TES in the first elimination round. Especially since the top 8 split was refused.
Game 1: Jacob Duresses and Cabal Therapies my hand down and makes 18 Goblins on turn 3. I have some board presence and 19 life with a Deathrite to block a Goblin with. I draw Glimpse of Nature on my turn and play a land. I take 17 on his turn down to 2. If I draw a creature I can start digging or just kill him if I draw Natural Order. Instead I draw a land and we're on to the sideboard. This was the only game of the tournament that Packmaster was in my hand and I really wished it was Library. But the two games in the swiss that Packmaster shut down for me I'm not sure Library would have gotten the job done. So I think overall I made the right choice for the day, though I'm still not 100% confident that was right.
Game 2: I keep a savage hand with Turn 2 win potential but no disruption. He Ponders on turn 1 and ships back. At the end of my turn he is still alive, but he has nothing but lands in hand and I have over 20 power in play and Hoof in my hand.
Game 3: I mulligan to 6 and think really hard about a hand of NO, Dryad Arbor, GSZ, GSZ, cradle, fetchland. It has no disruption, but it has a turn 3 lethal Hoof if I draw any 1 drop before then. I also know his deck is full of discard spells, so if I go to 5 to find a sideboard card I might just get Duressed out of the game. I decide to keep, scry a land to the bottom. He duresses me turn 1 and takes a GSZ. That only makes the plan slightly worse, I have to draw 2 one drops instead of one in my next 3 cards, but I'm still on schedule. I draw for my first turn... it's the second Dryad Arbor. I made a pitiful noise as all the air emptied from my body as if I'd been kicked in the stomach. I stared at that stupid Forest Creature with pure loathing as my tournament melted away behind me. Then I regrouped and once again decided this was my tournament, and this guy was in my way.
"Dryad Arbor. Go." On the draw. Against TES. Boom. Swipe right.
Jacob Probed me, Therapied my Natural Order, then made 16 Goblins. My hand was Cradle, Zenith, Dryad Arbor, Fetchland. On my turn I drew some 1 drop, cast it, played Cradle and Zenith for DRS. Jacob attacked, I blocked one with DRS and went to 5. On my turn I untapped. I looked at my hand of Dryad Arbor and a land. I clapped my hands and rubbed them together, channeling all that is good and right in the universe into this draw step. I peeled my card slowly... and found myself face to face with a majestic cheetah standing over a freshly slain chimpanzee. I froze. The only sound was the breeze gently moving through the jungle plants. The cheetah looked me right in the soul. I didn't hear it speak but I knew its words. "HOOF there it is, I thought you knew."
Top 4: Nathan with Bant Stoneblade
Someone refused the split again. Which terrified me because I hadn't seen the bracket and Reanimator was still in the top 4. Luckily my opponent was on Bant Stoneblade, which I knew from an earlier round and probably would have refused the split myself if I'd seen the bracket.
Game 1: He put some creatures into play then died. This matchup is pretty great.
Game 2: I came out fast early, he had a True Name Nemesis. I played a preemptive Needle on Jitte. He 4-for-1-ed me with Engineered Explosives on 1 and brought the beats with TNN. I untapped and Choked him. He had Trop, Tundra, Forest, Savannah all tapped so it was a solid Choke, but I was still in trouble to the fish. The next 2 turns he added Noble Hierarch and Qasali Pridemage to the board and his TNN got wild with exalted. I rebuilt with a bunch of dorks. He attacked me down to 1, then on my turn I hardcast a Hoof and he packed it in. After the game his friend said he could have plowed a creature with mana from the Hierarch and blocked with Qasali to get another turn. The lifegain from Plow would have put me to 6 though and out of TNN range, we'll never know but I think I still had him on the next turn.
Finals: Ed with 4-color (mostly Grixis) Delver
I asked Ed if 30 duals was enough for him. We shook hands and agreed to split the 40 dual first/20 dual second prize. Then played for the title.
Game 1: Things are going well for me. He passes the turn, I have the lethal Hoof in hand. In his end step I fetch a Dryad Arbor. He stops in my end step and casts Fire Covenant for 7. Fire. Covenant. For 7. Maindeck. Gross. GG. Sideboard.
Game 2: I sneak a turn 4 Progenitus onto a board that he is otherwise in complete control of. It turns out that Fire Covenant is a Thing, and Progenitus has protection from it.
Game 3: I'm fighting for ground from turn 1, he casts Fire Covenant at some point. Facing down a board of his DRS, Young Pyromancer with 3 tokens, and flipped Delver my only hope is to draw a Fire Covenant of my own. It doesn't materialize and I have to settle for second.
The tournament was a ton of fun. Tales of Adventure puts on a great event. This was the third Eternal Extravaganza event and I hope they keep going because they really are alongside Eternal Weekend and Bazaar of Moxen as the best tournaments for fans of eternal Magic. When the next one is announced you can bet I'll be there, trying to do one better than last time.
Top 16 report from EE1: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...t=extravaganza
Follow me on Twitter @boshnroll
Your opponent in top 4 G1 kept Jace, Daze, Spell Snare, Karakas, Misty, Savannah, Other Land.
(That may have been the only game I watched in its entirety all day)
Glad you had a great time, we're looking at dates for EE4 (and waiting for SCG to announce their schedule as well.)
Level 2 Judge
Owner, Tales of Adventure Comics and Games, Coopersburg, PA
Congrats on the great tournament, Brian.
I'm so glad that Elves is back. Welcome back, Elves. The delve spells made Legacy so bad that I spent a lot of money and bought into Vintage to get away (ok, I had some other motivations there also).
Great report. Congratulations on the finish. I saw that you were at the top of the standings from some dude who posted a picture about being in 17th playing burn and got pretty excited.
Congrats Brian.
I voted for the split. I'm glad you posted all that stuff because I forgot lots of the details of that Game 2. Did I ever play my Jitte? It was in hand when you cast needle. I don't think it ever made it out because of Choke. Choke was so devastating, I had that card and similar ones put in against me multiple times that day and that was the only time it was really crushing.Originally Posted by Bosh N Roll
You didn't mention that you played a second Choke, and that was the one that really killed me, because I couldn't block with QPM and kill the Choke, then untap and play Jitte. With both Chokes in play, the only way I could win was to find GSZ off the top for more Exalted, so I couldn't let the QPM die anyway. I might have still lived but whatever, I didn't want to try to win another game on the draw haha.
This definitely should not have been a keep with the new mulligan rule, though I don't think it's terrible against unknown opponent. It just happens to be an Uno hand against elves, haha.
My feeling was I could get my basics online if that was relevant, and had Spell Snare for their turn 2 play, and an extra draw step to find a cantrip, Hierarch or GSZ. I feared going to 6 and getting like Dryad Arbor-Wasteland-Karakas-Knight-Brainstorm-Daze. Such is life in midrange.
Great job, was really happy to see you doing well with all the preparation you put into this
The seven cardinal sins of Legacy:
1. Discuss the unbanning ofLand TaxEarthcraft.
2. Argue that banning Force of Will would make the format healthier.
3. Play Brainstorm without Fetchlands.
4. Stifle Standstill.
5. Think that Gaea's Blessing will make you Solidarity-proof.
6. Pass priority after playing Infernal Tutor.
7. Fail to playtest against Nourishing Lich (coZ iT wIlL gEt U!).
Congrats on your finish! And this was an awesome report. I look forward to reading more tales of tournament conquest from you!
Elves Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/2EVsdw2
True, I did jam the second Choke in case you could deal with the first one the turn before you cast Quasali. I think it was good against you because all Elves needs is breathing room, Choke doesn't have to be lights out. Basically anything that keeps Jitte from going active for a turn or two is worth the slot. It also helped that Hierarch didn't arrive until later. And no I never actually saw the Jitte that game.
Congrats on your finish too!
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Very well done!
At first I thought that I'm going to be working with the same exact 60, then once you got to talking about WRP vs Sylvan Library, I realized that I'm running both. Make that a 61 card main. I'll decide one way or the other sometime in the next week and a half I suppose. Or just keep both in.
Progenitus seemed to really do some work!
Just came about your comment about MUD: "Crap, this matchup is awful." I think this is a huge misconception. I would list MUD as one of the actual most favorable matchup for Elves in the meta. It's true that they have some busted starts, but the overall win% is very much in Elves favor. To add some anecdotical "evidence", I think I'm something like 6-0 in all matches vs MUD.
Here's how my match vs them went in the finals of a GPT for Lille:
"In the finals I was up against a very friendly Greek guy with MUD. Contrary to general belief, this is a quite favorable matchup for Elves and I have never lost a single sanctioned match against that deck before. Neither would I today. My opponent wins the dice role and casts Chalice of the Void on turn1. On turn3 he has Siege Mastodon Kuldotha Forgemaster, puts a Lightning Greaves on it and digs up Blightsteel Colossus — that’s the kind of draw you need to beat Elves. Game2 he’s never really in the game as I follow one of the most important rules of playing against MUD, no matter the format: kill the Metalworker. I’m not sure what he was hoping to build up to, but I’d rather not know. Game3 I mulligan to 6 and he gets one of the more busted starts the deck can produce:
Turn 1: Chalice of the Void on 1
Turn 2: Lodestone Golem
Turn 3: Trinisphere
Turn 4: His friends comes to the table looking super happy for him
Turn 5: He (pretty much) loses.
“Sorry what?“ — On turn1 and 2, I fetch Dryad Arbor, then play Gaea’s Cradle to cast Elvish Visionary on turn3. On my turn4, I cast GSZ to find Reclamation Sage to get rid of the Lodestone Golem. The following turn, GSZ finds Wirewood Symbiote and I use it to bounce and replay the Sage to also kill his Chalice at which point he’s dead in the water. He actually tries to come back with a desperate Chalice on 3 but the game is already over and he soon finds himself locked under his own Trinisphere with only Ancient Tomb in play and a bunch of City of Traitors in his yard. Elves prevail!"
Source: http://itsjulian.com/?p=1690
When I played against MUD at the Bazaar of Moxen, the opponent went Turn1 Chalice@1, Turn2 Chalice @2 and then never got to untap for turn3.
The seven cardinal sins of Legacy:
1. Discuss the unbanning ofLand TaxEarthcraft.
2. Argue that banning Force of Will would make the format healthier.
3. Play Brainstorm without Fetchlands.
4. Stifle Standstill.
5. Think that Gaea's Blessing will make you Solidarity-proof.
6. Pass priority after playing Infernal Tutor.
7. Fail to playtest against Nourishing Lich (coZ iT wIlL gEt U!).
I'm willing to believe you're completely right. GSZ gets around Chalice on any number, you can stop ground attacks pretty effectively, Cradle beats their spheres, and you'll outdraw them every game you get to cast spells in. It's usually a sweat of "how busted is their keep?" Then once you weather the storm you win easily. Maybe there was a time in Legacy when this matchup was bad and I just programed that into my memory. But now that you mention it, it's been a while since I lost to MUD and it's probably a much scarier matchup for non-elves decks.
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When I was preparing for this event and digesting as many decklists as I could there was actually a 61 card Elves deck that Top 8'ed a Star City event recently. I remember staring at the list trying to figure out how he fit everything in, then realized he just had too many cards in his deck.
I completely support leaving both in for testing purposes to see how good they feel when you draw them. And there was one game of this tournament (I don't remember which one) I did board into a 61 card deck. But I think it's lazy deckbuilding to register a 61 card Elves list in a tournament that matters. The critical mass of essential cards in this deck is too important to dilute with another card, especially one that doesn't help you during Glimpse turns (neither Packmaster nor Library do). You should use your testing and meta predictions to decide which route to take.
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Eh. I'm actually totally okay with 61 cards, especially when it comes to Elves. I think the deck is toolbox-y enough to get away with it.
Elves Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/2EVsdw2
That's one way to look at it. I look at it as a deck that already has only 14 lands that tap for mana on turn 1. The deck mulligans a lot. It mulligans very well, but it does it a lot. Adding a 61st non-land card is playing with fire.
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That's fair. And congrats again! Hopefully we can read similar reports from Elven brethren after the GP!
Elves Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/2EVsdw2
I often wonder if the chimp in the art was a prophetic bit of creative art by Terese, understanding that 15 years later people would top deck the card like complete chimps, scratch their armpits mightily, and yell out "HOOF YOU!", "DERP!".
Congrats on your finish.
I am really curious to know what you SB in and out vs Burn (given that your report indicates that you bring in discard)
Burn is a combo deck, so you want some discard. Thoughtsize will rarely be worth the 2 life, so I just bring in Therapies. It's also really hard to win with Eidolon in play, so you'll need Abrupt Decays. Then Ooze gains life, so he's a must. +7 cards.
Against most combo the Visionary/Symbiote package is too slow, so I go down to 1 of each to Zenith for if I need them. And Packmaster is obviously a giant brick. Those are the 7 cards I cut. (Probably, again I wasn't taking notes)
Follow me on Twitter @boshnroll
Hello,
First, congrats, very nice finish!
I've always thought of RUG delver as one of the firsts decks against which you want to side-out NO.
Yet you chose this MU to justify your progenitus in the board.
In your report it seems that a T2 proge offered you a quick win vs RUG delver.
Do you care to elaborate on this MU? do you always play 3 NO + proge + hoof + seizes + decay post board, what do you side out, if there is a difference between OTP/OTD, and how you are generally doing in this MU?
Hey this is the burn player that you played against round 7. You seemed really cool but I think it is gross to suggest that losing to a kid would be any different than losing to someone of your age or older. In the end all that matters is skill (and to some degree the matchup). Also, my name is spelled Brenden. But it was a pleasure ot play against you in the event and I hope to meet you again sometime.
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