Hello everybody!
This is my first post on the source and my tournament report ever written so all feedback is appreciated as I aim to continue writing Legacy content.
Tournament report Legacy League Finals IV in Stockholm:
Two times a year my local game store hosts a legacy league where the 16 best players of that league qualify to play the finals. I managed to win a seat to the finals by piloting Lands, Aluren and BUG CounterTop to some strong finishes.
The final however is always a chaotic mystery where the qualified players tend to try and surprise the others with strong Meta reads or heavy brewing. I'm not very different from that but instead of brewing I took on the task of tuning one of my all time favorite decks.
Mono Red.
Imperial Painter.
Going into the tournament I spoke plenty with one of my better friends in the Magic community Ander about the meta and what to expect of it. We came to the conclusion that the elephant in the room was miracles and that people would play decks to counter that particular strategy. So going into the deck choice and before tuning I has to choose a deck that I have experience with against Miracles and a deck that is devastating to the people aiming to beat miracles. This left me with either RG combo lands or my good old friend Painter. After a lot of going back and forth we realized that Blood Moon is horrific to play against right now and with that my mind was set on painting.
My list looked like this after tuning it to the current meta:
2 Goblin Welder
4 Painter's Servant
1 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Imperial Recruiter
1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
1 Magus of the Moon
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Grindstone
4 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Blood Moon
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Bloodstained Mire
4 City of Traitors
1 Great Furnace
6 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
Sideboard:15
1 Manic Vandal
1 Sulfur Elemental
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Pyroclasm
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
1 Fiery Confluence
2 Pyrokinesis
I have been very amazed by Chandra, Torch of Defiance in this deck so I wanted to play three copies in the main, which is a lot of planeswalkers compared to how I usually play the version with a white splash.
I also came to the conclusion that several decks right now have massive problems in dealing with Ensnaring Bridge. Most of the answers that my opponents usually have or bring in is focused on beating Blood Moon which results in Ensnaring Bridge pulling an massive weight.
My sideboard was mainly constructed to battle enemy artifacts that I usually struggle with like jitte, needle and revoker. I made a meta call and chose not to board that much graveyard hate (which ended up being good for this tournament).
The Pyrokinesis was an addition to the sideboard that I was inspired to try thanks to a goblin player in my LGS. Theoretically I like the card but I didn't happen to draw them during the matches where I took them in. Being able to empty your hand further with Ensnaring Bridge in play while killing your opponents most relevant threats is a real treat and was really nice in testing.
So the day of the tournament came and I sleaved up my 75 feeling pretty happy with my deck. At the venue people were trying to scout but everybody was as shady as the next.
Pairings for round 1 was announced and my first opponent is a friend of mine. I had a pretty good idea of his deck of choice but knew that my deck would be brutal.
He was on 4c Leovold Control that meant that he had to burn all of his resources to make sure that I couldn't land a Moon effect. This took a huge toll on his game plan, which lead to a 2-0 victory.
1-0 start!
The second round was vs another good friend of mine who is known in Stockholm as the Goblin master.
This is a pretty good MU event though my moon effects are weak due to my fastest hand vs the goblin player’s average hands. Besides I find it very strong to be able to semi lock them behind Bridge with 0 cards in hand.
I have a quick combo both games which let me advance to 2-0 but game two was really intense where my opponent actually managed to answer my combo two times (turn 2 and 3) but ran out of resources and ways to prevent me from winning on turn 4.
My third round opponent is from the same city in Sweden as me and we are infamous for playing combo decks. I knew my opponent and knew that he was on storm. This is a hard matchup because it usually forces me to go for my own combo, which is not as consistent as my opponents’ game plan. I win the dice roll and have the one two punch to win the first game. The second game is weird. I mull to 5 and my opponent to 6. He probes t2 and see that my hand is very slow but that it disrupts his cantrips. We look at each other for 4 turns before I can combo him with pyroblast backup with painter on blue. My opponent reveals his hand that contains 100% gas but no wincon.
3-0
From this position I can double draw to get into the top8.
My next opponent is playing Dark Threshold (Jonathan Alexanders list). This would probably have been a tricky matchup even though I am favored. We end up IDing instead.
The last round of the swiss is vs Lands. This is almost like a bye to an experienced Painter pilot but I strategically ID with him to ensure his spot in the top 8 so that I might play against him there instead.
Top 8 begins and I am on top of the standings which means that I can choose to be on the play all of my matches.
Quarterfinals:
I play against the last leagues winner who is a very friendly player who loves to play green strategies. For this tournament he brought a 5c GSZ deck with more synergies than I can count on my both hands. Unfortunately my deck preys on multicolored decks and I win 2-0. Blood Moon was a massive problem for him but he put up a fight.
Semifinals:
I play against one of the better pilots I know who is on Death and Taxes. I mull to 6 in game one and get stuck on two mountains when he's doing some serious taxing on me. I lose game one (and my first game of the day).
We move to game two and the history repeats itself. I mull to 6, get stuck on two lands but in this game I can fight back more with a sulfur elemental thanks to a Simian Spirit Guide and an Ensnaring Bridge. After that I end up missing land drops for a couple of turns while my opponent swords to plowshares my elemental, plays Stoneforge Mystic and vial in a flickerwisp to get plenty of equipments. My boardstate is 6 cards in my hand and a Bridge in play. I lose 0-2 and end up placing third in the tournament.
The storm opponent from my third round ended up winning the whole thing and this was a great test for the Mono Red Painter deck. I think that Painter is very strong in the current legacy meta game because of Miracles. This deck is pretty good against Miracles but especially efficient against multicolored strategies that aim to beat Miracles. (BUG, Leovold Strategies, Delver etc)
Also due to the increase of True-Name Nemesis and Leovold, Emissary of Trest in circulation the Pyroblasts and Red Elemental Blasts have great targets that your opponents tend to tap out to resolve.
I'm quite lucky for dodging Sneak&Show during the whole tournament, as there were two players who showed up with that strategy. This build can beat it but it becomes a subgame that your deck definitely is not favored to win.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for streaming, Moomba. It's always great to have more Painter content to watch. That Stifle from your Miracles opponent was nasty.![]()
Thank you!
I usually play RW to get a stronger matchup vs combo decks but in this league finals I anticipated to play against more midrange style decks and control. That lead me to the conclusion that I want to have more business like Chandra in my main rather than tutors and a wider sideboard plan. I did miss having Ethersworn Canonist in my sideboard but Chandra won a lot of pre boarded games for me. I didn't lose a game where I resolved a Chandra.
I was also afraid of CotV as I counted that 2 maybe 3 people would playing it that weekend. From my experience with the deck I feel like the mono red deck can switch to a very smooth alternative game plan if that is the case.
I play RW but it's a Planeswalker heavy version and so far I'm so happy with it. I play chandra main and I totally agree with you about chandra being immense.
I have often gone down the beat down path when things haven't gone the way I want haha.
How many pyroblasts and REBs do people run? I'm tempted to cut down on 1 or 2
Anywhere from 6 to 7, i'm currently on 7 as the number ofdecks has increased in recent months. I think the lowest that I would be willing to go is 5 but I would have to know that almost no one is playing
in a tournament for that to actually happen. You kind of have to be a dummy not to play blue cards in the format, luckily painter makes everything
so we're covered.
I've never went below 7, then again Miracles is quite present in my meta. Doubt I'd be willing to cut blasts willingly either way as I like having that consistent protection and control with Painter. They're never really dead unless your opponent surgical the Painter, which doesn't happen game 1.
I can understand that some run 6 in metas with less, but I'd still say it takes some really important piece to push them out. Mono-R with burn main or heavy Chandra versions, for example.
Is there a new girl on the block?
Has Chandra made Jaya "like so 2016"?
Since last fall I have been impressed with Chandra's ability to close out a game. Draw cards, deal damage, kill creatures, accelerate your combo, combo with top on her own.
Jaya, what have you done for me lately?
With a healthy dose of confirmation bias I can say: not much.
Is it time to cut our once sacred cow? I would argue we start testing for it.
In closing I think a minimum of two Chandra in the main is where you want to be right now.
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I cut Jaya a while ago and replaced her with EE. I think you absolutely need a way to kill chalice in the main in the current metagame between eldrazi and 4c loam. EE for me is just faster and clears multiple chalices and mox diamond in those matchups. It's also versatile enough to include in the main, hits plenty of other things like counterbalance and can 2-for-1 delver decks.
Jaya for me was always either a way to clear hate or your opponent is already 99% locked out and you need a closer. EE is better at clearing hate and Chandra is 1000% a better closer, and can actually turn the tide when your opponent isn't locked.
Red Jace has put jaya out to pasture. Assuming she doesn't get her own planeswalker reprint, you can safely shelve jaya and just run Chandra. Both are good, but the biggest difference is that you can run Chandra into an aggressive board state and have a chance but jaya would otherwise just sit around for a turn
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For those that were expecting me to stream tonight, sorry about that, had some family matters that had to come first. I'll be streaming more Painter tomorrow at 9pm EST. Gonna be cutting my Jaya and adding the second Chandra like most of you have been saying, seems like a very fair option.
I made the swap a while back and just from playing games it feels like the only matchup where I have really wanted Jaya is d&t but at the same time between our welders, tops and grindstones their welders are already extremely taxed. Other than that it's fantastic having a removal spell for delver that eventually wins you the game whereas Jaya would get bolted and boarded out for future games.
Imo if you're running more than 1 Chandra main you should absolutely be running 20 lands.
Chiming in on the recent comments about Chandra and I agree. One main is very very good and easily slots into the prior jaya slot. The second Chandra main is actually another easy switch for those liking the style - just swap that in for the LED, obviously if you were running it. I think that is a safe flex spot where you can choose as to how you're approaching game 1s. 20 lands is another thing that is probably correct. You're probably on a 2nd bridge as well which ups the curve a decent bit. I like the fast version way too much to ever try 20 lands, but I know others will for sure test out the proper mana configuration soon
Strawberry Shortcake
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...erry-Shortcake
What a brainstorm do? Draw card and activate on draw effects fix hand, removing woods
#FreeNedleeds
Went 3/2 for both leagues tonight, thanks for those that joined. Last match vs Food Chain was a fun one.
Took Painter to a 1.5 k today being run by Black Magic Gaming. Figured I would write about it real quick.
37 people. 6 rounds.
list:
Land (19)
4x Ancient Tomb
2x Bloodstained Mire
3x City of Traitors
1x Great Furnace
4x Mountain
2x Plateau
3x Wooded Foothills
Instant (9)
2x Enlightened Tutor
4x Pyroblast
3x Red Elemental Blast
Planeswalker (2)
2x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Creature (15)
3x Goblin Welder
4x Imperial Recruiter
1x Magus of the Moon
4x Painter's Servant
3x Simian Spirit Guide
Artifact (11)
2x Ensnaring Bridge
4x Grindstone
2x Lotus Petal
3x Sensei's Divining Top
Enchantment (4)
4x Blood Moon
Sideboard
1x Duergar Hedge-Mage
1x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Ethersworn Canonist
3x Firebolt
2x Koth of the Hammer
1x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Pyrokinesis
1x Ratchet Bomb
1x Rest in Peace
1x Thorn of Amethyst
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Trinisphere
of note: no Jaya, no md Revoker, still have magus, don't like led or EE
Rd 1 - BR Reanimator
G1 opponent mulligans to 4. I didn't keep a particularly great hand but 7 is usually better than 4. He led with a Polluted Delta and I led with Grindstone into Top. Not knowing what he was on I set up a Magus as bait with the ability to follow it up with a Painter and go for the kill. After I resolved Magus my opponent untapped and made Griselbrand and Sire of Insanity but I was able to combo before he could attack for lethal.
G2 we both kept 7. He made a Sire on t2 but I had played a Welder on my turn, so I was able to draw a lotus petal and turn it into an ensnaring bridge. then we played draw-go for a bit. There was a sweet turn where he cast reanimate on Griselbrand. Then he drew 7, played a fetch and went to crack it. In response I welded in Trinisphere leaving him with no way to cast anything (he was going for a Pithing Needle). When all was said and done he was at 2 with a Grisbis and Sire out. I had a welder, 2? painters, and a top I was welding in and out. I found a Pyroblast for the gristly one and attacked for lethal. They were very weird and very interesting games. (1-0)
SB - 5 moon +rip, crypt, bridge, trinisphere, revoker
Rd 2 - Miracles - my friend Roy
We had way too much fun playing this round.
G1 - I ran him out of resources, then tricked him into letting me blow up his counterbalance so I could go for the combo.
SB - out with 2 moons, 1 magus, and 2 tutors, brought in a bridge, hedge-mage, ratchet bomb, and 2 koth
G2 Blood Moon over performed, he played the whole game with access to only two blue mana and a bunch of mountains. He resolved three counterbalances I had to blow up. I used ratchet bomb to do this each time. Eventually we went to turns because we spent too much time joking around. We didn’t do much during the game. He should have been able to kill me on turn 5 of turns using mentor, but when he cast long-term plans he got a wear//tear to blow up blood moon rather than just getting a plains. He conceded on turn 5 though I would have won if that game were a draw anyway. (2-0)
Rd 3 – Bug Delver (w/ Confidants)
G1, he mulls to 6. Keeps a hand without green, I lead with turn 1 grindstone, turn 2 painter. My sol land gets wastelanded but his Delver doesn’t flip and two turns later I draw a land, exile SSG and kill him
SB:: - 2 E tutor, magus, -2 recruiter ( never done before) / + bridge, 3 firebolt, pyrokinesis.
T1 he plays a Delver, I Firebolt it, T2 he plays a Confidant and I play a Moon. The end. (3-0)
Rd 4 – BR Reanimator
G1 T1 Griselbrand and sire
Sb same as last time, G2 goes like g1 (3-1)
Rd 5 – My friend Chris on 12 post.
G1 he mulls to oblivion, is stuck on 1 land and Top the whole time while I attack with idiots.
SB: -4 grindstone, +1 bridge, +2 Koth, +1 ???
G2 goes like 1 until he is able to show and tell in Emmy and swing for exactsies. I could have played a City of Traitors instead of an Ancient Tomb and wouldn’t have been dead to the Emrakul. Sacrificing lands and having lethal on backswing, or through two attack steps, oh well.
G3 I Moon him, I Pyroblast a few basics. He is able to crop rotation to get a Vesuva to copy the targeted basic a few times, but I was able to permanently keep him off blue or double green and he died to idiots. (4-1)
RD 6 Draw into top 8 4-1-1
Top 8
Prize split and leave.
Why firebolt over lightning bolt?
Why lightning bolt over sudden shock?
I played locally last night and was playing against miracles. He has counterbalance lock but I am already ticking up a chandra and he is digging for a way to deal with it. With Chandra just ticked up to 7 he flashes in V. Clique at end of my turn and targets me. I have sudden shock in hand and kill the clique in response. He scoops. Anything else would not have gotten there.
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The only relevant card firebolt doesn't hit that lightning bolt does is Leovold. I don't think I'm terribly worried about that card. Also I've flashbacked firebolt a relevant number of times.
Also I don't own foil lightning bolts
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