cyclopsismydad
08-29-2010, 06:34 AM
Hey everybody, this is my first tournament report on here so please be gentle. For those of you who don't know me, which is probably most of you, I'm a regular at the legacy tournaments around the Philadelphia/NJ area having at least prized in 7 out of 9 legacy tournaments, and splitting first in 4 of them.
This tournament was, I think, a 40 man at the store Alternate Universes in Blue Bell, PA. For those of you who are in the area and like legacy/vintage but have never been to one of that store's tournaments yet, I highly recommend it. Its ran by a great group of guys, and the tournaments always have great prize support, giving back nearly 100% of the entry fees to the players. This tournament's prize structure was as follows for just a $20 entry fee:
1st 4x jace, the mind sculptor
2nd english moat
3rd/4th $50 credit
5th-8th $25 credit
1 FTV relics was given out, as was 16 inferno titan playmats.
Anyway, on to the deck
4x tarmogoyf
2x vendilion clique
4x force of will
4x counterbalance
4x sensei's divining top
4x brainstorm
4x swords to plowshares
3x jace, the mind sculptor
3x firespout
3x counterspell
2x spell snare
1x oblivion ring
4x flooded strand
4x scalding tarn
1x polluted delta
3x tropical island
3x tundra
2x volcanic island
2x island
1x plains
1x mountain
1x karakas
SB
2x spell pierce
1x blue elemental blast
2x pithing needle
2x pyroblast
3x krosan grip
1x relic of progenitus
2x tormod's crypt
1x firespout
1x pyroclasm
So the maindeck is just a straight copy of Tom Martell's 2nd place GP deck all the way down to the sweet miser's o-ring. The sideboard was basically yanked from the UGRW counterbalance lists that showed up at the SCG 5K Denver, more specifically Kyle Yeates's. The only difference being 2x relics became 2x crypts, and the grim lavamancer became pyroclasm. Pyroclasm has the potential to 2 for 1 (or more) immediately, wheras the lavamancer takes a turn to get active and can still only eat 1 creature at a time. I also didn't have any extra lavamen, so pyroclasm seemed worth a shot. It actually ended up being relevant to my benefit.
I was running on 4.5 hours sleep as per my usual MO before tournaments, staying up throwing together something like 7 decks, each missing a couple pieces shared amongst themselves. 5 of us from the store Redcap's Corner in Philadelphia (also a great store) crammed into Jack Wang's car. Despite me knowing exactly how to get there, somehow we ended up following Jack's written directions (which he was trying to read while driving until we decided we didn't want to die and passed them off to Mike) and proceeded to get lost. Enter Lucas's iPhone. Oh sweet sweet touchscreen phonery, how I wish could own one of you. For all 1% of you still in the dark on phones with GPS, they can get you anywhere and you should get one if you are the type of person who gets lost frequently. At the very least, make sure that someone in your carpool has one if a long trip is involved. Somehow we made it there alive and with plenty of time to do all of the things that good players do before tournaments: scramble to find cards. Decks were finished, people were psyched up, and magic began.
Round 1 Tim with mono-red (2nd place list from SCG 5K denver)
My opening hand was something like 1 land, double jace, clique, and some other stuff with no tops or brainstorms. I obviously mulligan. As we're mulling, I got some information from Tim about this being his first legacy tournament, which has me put him on goblins, mono R, or maybe merfolk. He was a really friendly guy though, as the trend will be for my opponents throughout the day, so I felt a little dirty digging for info from him. He mulliganed to 6 as well. My 6 cards was more of the 1 land do nothing hand variety and it went back for a new 5. The 5 had no lands, that went back for 4. I was pretty sure my tournament was already over right here, especially considering the losing streak I had been on recently. My 4 cards involved 2 lands, counterbalance, and a card I can't remember, maybe jace. I also can't remember who went first, but I remember him playing mountain, pass, mountain keldon marauders. I CAN remember thinking to myself, "If there is going to be any deck I can beat with 4 cards, this is it". I got turn 2 counterbalance down, and a top to follow quickly enough. One turn, I was lucky to find a 2cc card in my top 3 after fetching to counter a price a progress, and then had to force my will upon him when he got up to 6 lands and cast 3 fireblast knocking me from 10 down to 1. Now normally, I probably would have died somehow by now, but Tim drew an absolutely ridiculous amount of lands this (and next) game, so I had a much larger window to do things. Eventually we reached a board state where I had Jace with 9 counters, 5 untapped lands, 2 tops and a counterbalance, and he had 2 mystery cards in his hand. I know 2 of my top 3 cards are counterbalance and firespout. He chain lightnings me, I top and find my 3rd card is a brainstorm to counter it. He then goes for fireblast #4! I was positive I was dead, but attempt to play right anyway. I flip a top to draw the brainstorm, play the brainstorm, put 2 back, activate top with 2 lands untapped still. I see the 2 cards I put back and.......... counterspell! I flip top and slam it down. He plays 1 more turn and packs it up.
At first I oversideboard, totally forgetting about vexing shusher, but remembered while shuffling before presenting. I make the switch and end up doing something like
+2 spell pierce
+1 BEB
-2 firespout
-1 jace
This doesn't actually seem right, and I change my plan when I play him again in the semi-finals. Vendilion cliques obviously should come out as they really don't do much besides mess with his hand once, get killed by lavamancer, and maybe flip for counterbalance to stop a sulfuric vortex. O-ring stays in because it handles vortex and shusher. Jace should have stayed in because, well, its jace. If I have counter/top in play, jace is better at winning me the game (or at least soaks up damage), and if I don't have counter/top, it finds it for me. firespouts are pretty solid against lavamancer and shusher, as well as being able to healing salve a resolved keldon marauders, but you probably don't want 3. I contemplated needles, but figured firespout was just better at killing both lavamancer and shusher, both of which I could needle but would still take attack damage from if left on the board. I think the right sideboarding just sees you bringing in the 2 pierces and BEB for 2 cliques and a firespout. Just make sure vortex doesn't resolve.
game 2 has me getting marauded on turn 2 again, swords-ing his shusher, fetching and forcing something, then just locking it up with counterbalance at 11. Tim drew a bunch of lands again this game, and I felt pretty bad, but he was a good sport about it. I told him to go to the 0-1 bracket and crush all of the decks that aren't prepared for mono-red.
1-0 matches
2-0 games
Round 2 Jason with belcher
Jason and I shuffled up and chit-chatted a little. I could feel him digging for info a little, and so I misdirected him by informing him that I won on a mull to 4 in R1. I mulled to 5 and kept an ok hand including 2 lands and a top, but he proceeded to empty the warrens for 16 goblins on the play. I drew for turn, pretended to think briefly, and conceded.
Because he had no idea what I was playing, I thought it was pretty safe to board out the swords as well as some other stuff. I only saw him board 2 cards and I think I went for something like
+2 spell pierce
+2 pithing needle
+1 pyroclasm
+1 krosan grip
+1 BEB
-4 swords
-1 o-ring
-1 firespout
-1 Jace
Game 2 I finally get to keep a solid hand including needle, pyroclasm, 2 land, brainstorm, top, and 1 other card, while Jason mulls to 6. I start with needle on belcher. He empties for 8. I draw counterbalance and think whether or not I should bother playing pyroclasm now, or wait until after counterbalance. I decide to pyroclasm now because there's no guarantee i'll hit land #3 with that brainstorm next turn, counterbalance isn't likely to hit with a blind flip, and I'd like to keep my life total up just in case he goes for the tendrils in sideboard with wish. I pyroclasm and pass, he passes back. I draw non-land and play goyf and pass. He burning wishes for shattering spree. I draw another nonland, smash him with goyf, and pass again with counterspell in hand. I remember thinking that I wanted a 3rd land before playing counterbalance to avoid getting blown out. He wastes a rite of flame and goes for spree on both needle and top. I gladly allow the needle into my graveyard for goyf to get bigger, and I flip top. I'm not worried about belcher anymore with counterspell in hand and counterbalance on the way. I draw the top, play my land, play top, smash him, and pass. I believe I counterspelled something on his turn, what, I can't remember. I untap, play counterbalance, smash again, and he's basically out of the game.
Now that he knows what I'm on, Xantid Swarms will be coming in against me. I think I boarded something similar to this
+2 spell pierce
+2 pithing needle
+1 pyroclasm
+1 BEB
-1 swords
-1 firespout
-3 jace
Jace can certainly lock them out of the game as well as bounce swarm, but once they've exploded their hand but haven't won with it, the deck takes a little time to recover. By then you should have something assembled so it seems better to have protection early in the game. Counterbalance should just take it home on its own.
Game 3. My opener on 7 would have been insane against any other deck, but didn't contain force, something for a belcher, or goblin tokens, so it went back. Jason was already on his mull to 6. The trend continued to 5 for both of us, and then down to 4. Afterward he showed me that his opening 4 was 2 elvish spirit guides, xantid swarm, and belcher. I tried for heart of the cards and kept 2 brainstorm, counterbalance, and spell pierce. Obviously I didn't hit land for 3 turns. Fortunately for me, jason didn't do much either other than lotus petal into swarm. I brainstormed mainphase to avoid screwing up and letting swarm chant me, something I feel I'd be pretty likely to do if distracted. Next turn is counterbalance for me, followed by top. He still hadn't done anything, and I swords his 0/1. Eventually I find a goyf, counter a spell or two, and just kill him.
Mulligan to 4 twice so far and still won both. Lady luck is with me today.
2-0 matches
4-1 games
Round 3 Nick with UGR dreadstill
I knew what Nick was on because he beat 2 of my friends round 1 and 2. That didn't help me too much because I never tested against dreadstill, but I figured I knew enough about it to be ok.
Nick wins the die-roll and leads with island. I mirror it. He plays strand. I mirror it. He EOT brainstorms and I fetch in resp, drawing stifle, but reducing the brainstorms value. I still realize that I'm dead when he passes with 3 lands and I'm still on one. To top that off, he cliques me during my draw. My hand is a bunch of nothing, and clique ends up going the distance after he draws a bunch of cards with standstills. Damn, clique is good.
I honestly thought he'd be boarding out the dreadnoughts and just beat me with standstill/factory, but he kept them in for some reason. I definitely think that is wrong. It is enough to beat this deck with some stifles/wastelands, then draw cards with standstill. We're evenly matched with goyfs/cliques/counterbalance/tops. I'm not sure jace's/counterspells make up the advantage an early standstill with mandlands will give him. I board something like
+2 spell pierce
+2 pyroblast
+3 krosan grip
-3 firespout
-3 counterspell
-1 jace
counterspell is probably ok on the play, but on the draw, you're just gonna get spell pierced or REB'd. It takes too much to hold up mana for it.
Game 2, my opener has double top, some land, brainstorms and something else. I open with top, acting like I don't want him to force, but it resolves. We play draw go for a little, when he makes the first move T3 with dreadnaught. I have force in hand with blue cards, but i let it go knowing well that the dreadnaught trigger is going to get trickbinded. I didn't have a swords in hand, but with 4 swords and 3 grips in my library, top in play, and brainstorm in hand, I figured I was ok. EOT fetch and top shows me land and 2x swords. First one gets forced, which I allow, then I flip top and resolve the 2nd. I think I spell snare a counterbalance on his turn which he doesn't have an answer to, and he plays top. We both spin for a while, me looking for a swords or goyf to answer his factory. I find another goyf and he can't draw gas and I have counter/top in play.
Game 3 was more of the same. He got dreadnaught down, but I had the swords to 2 for 1 him. He landed a counterbalance and then I forced the top he followed it with. I found grip for the counterbalance, played my own, and just controlled the game. At one point I attack with goyf, he goes to double block and pump, I swords 1 and 2 for 1 him. He really wasn't drawing too well, and what he did play I had the answers for. Despite what seems like they could have been bad draws for my opponents, I really felt like I was playing the tightest I have in a while.
3-0 matches
6-2 games
Round 4 Joe with W stax
I win the die roll, keep my 7, and lead with top. He plays ancient tomb and passes, pretty dead giveaway for stax, something I know how to play against. I top on upkeep, knowing i'm going to need extra land for this matchup. He drops trinisphere which I neglect to force because I had fetchland in hand and on top of library, as well as counterspell in hand for later turns. It shouldn't be too difficult to draw 2 lands, play goyf, and still be able to force. I draw, play fetchland and pass with counterspell, force, fetchland, goyf, and brainstorm in hand with 2 duals and fetch in play. He runs out another trinisphere and passes. Seems like he doesn't have much gas. I look with top, see nothing but tops/counterbalances, shuffle, and find vendilion clique. Draw clique, play land. And I clique him during his draw, figuring he doesn't have much business. I see land, crucible, and 2 armageddons. Crucible went down, and he drew/played o-ring on my clique. I drew and played tarmogoyf, and stupidly layed a 4th land. He went for armageddon, followed up with land, in hopes of drawing magus or something. He's pretty much just dead to my goyf though, and I smash him a little, play more lands, but he can't find what he needs to stop goyf.
I sideboard
+3 krosan grip
+2 spell pierce
+2 pithing needle
-4 swords
-3 firespout
Game 2 I mulligan to 6, start off forcing a turn 2 suppression field, counterspelling something, forcing something else, and then just dieing to baneslayer and factory. I should have seen it coming honestly.
After obviously sideboarding wrong, trying to live the dream of counterbalancing out a stax deck, I went with the right decision
+3 krosan grip
+2 spell pierce
+2 pithing needle
-3 firespout
-4 counterbalance
You could argue the spell pierces, but if you get them in early turns, they just help you conserve mana so well. Spell snares stayed in g2 and g3 because I figured chalice on 1 was coming, as well as suppression field.
Game 3 I can't believe how good my hand is. something like K-grip, counterspell, 2x spell pierce, land, brainstorm, force. I fetch a basic and spell pierce his turn 1 chalice on 1. I brainstorm mainphase, hit my land, respond to Lucas calling me a fish from somewhere in the room and pass. Spell pierce hit a turn 2 trinisphere from him. I draw, lay a land, and pass. He plays crucible off of city of traitors he just played for the turn and flagstones of trokair, his first land being ancient tomb. I let it resolve and debate letting it sit on the table. I opt to krosan grip it now to avoid NEEDING to grip it later when he has wastelands. We both pass with no plays. I o-ring (hell yeah 1 of!) his baneslayer and counterspell something on his next turn, then find goyf to beat. He gets a magus of the tabernacle down, and I didn't have the other blue card to force despite looking with top, so he gets to block for a turn or two if I can't find another goyf. I fetch and one jumps to the top. He can't stop 5/6 goyfs and dies.
4-0 matches
8-3 games
Double ID into top 8, although I should have played it out against the first ID as he was on merfolk, but I didn't know. I don't think the matchup is THAT bad (even though martell lost to saito with the deck at the GP), I just need to play smart and get a little lucky. After sideboard there's 4 firespout, 1 pyroclasm, 4 swords, and maybe 1 o-ring if I'm feeling saucy to deal with merfolk. The second ID was with Matt Elias playing the new ANT list, a matchup I'd like to play in top 8. If i wanted to face him though, I was probably better off scooping him in, rather than ID-ing, a mistake I always seem to make.
Going into Top 8, standings were (I think)
1st UWg landstill (Mike from Redcap's Corner)
2nd UGRW counter/top (me from Redcap's Corner)
3rd merfolk
4th ANT (Matt)
5th UGR dreadstill (Nick from round 3)
6th mono-red (Tim from round 1)
7th UG madness/survival (Lucas from Redcap's Corner)
8th W stax (Joe from round 4)
decklists can be found here (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?8090-Top-8-Decklists&p=485040&viewfull=1#post485040)
so pairings were
UWg landstill defeats W stax
UGRW coutner/top defeats UG madness/survival
mono-red defeats merfolk
UGR dreadstill defeats ANT
Quarterfinals vs. Lucas with UG madnes/survival
Lucas and Mike are both my friends, so ideally I wanted to arrange a top 4 split that involved all 3 of us. Unfortunately I had to play Lucas in the quarters. I really needed those jaces though, so I had to play it out. I was borrowing 2 jaces for the deck from Lucas in fact, although he was borrowing the majority of the UG deck from me. It doesn't help that I consider Lucas to probably be the best player in the room overall, and so I had to fight off that nervousness as well.
Game 1 Lucas wins the roll and keeps a nutty hand while I mulligan. We draw go a little with me brainstorming after him having the turn 1 noble. EOT his turn 4 I go for vendilion clique, knowing he only has 2 dazes in the deck. He intuitions up 3 vengevines which resolves in response as I have no force, and then has the daze for my clique knowing the path is clear. I was really looking to draw out a force there, but in retrospect should have played it safe because it didn't seem like he was going to pull the trigger (although he says he was going to at my EOT anyway). I also was playing the clique out then to try to resolve counterbalance the next turn, but he did have the force. I still have 2 land up to counterspell the survival I figured he was protecting, but he has force #2 for me and it resolves. I play out tarmogoyf, but he gets 4 flying hastey vengevines on his turn.
I did my best to avoid tilting (like one of my friends always does) while sideboarding for game 2.
+3 krosan grip
+2 pithing needle
+2 spell pierce
-3 firespout
-3 counterspell
-1 oblivion ring
Looking through my deck, it all seemed like it SHOULD be good against him, but its kind of deceptive. Survival attacks with creatures from a number of angles. I think it'd be easy to get tripped up trying to crypt them, but if survival is resolved they just survival up a trygon predator and make you blow it. I was only going to board in pyroblasts on the draw, as they are extra helpful when he goes for turn 2 survival with force backup. If I force survival, he forces back, I blast or spell pierce it. I doubt Lucas would try for that line of play, knowing that he might get blown out though, but I didn't really want them on the play. In retrospect, I probably should have left the counterspells in on the play because survival is only going to matter if it resolves in the first couple turns of the game, and counterspell can stop it on turn 2. After that, I should have grips for it, though. 1 activation isn't enough for his 1/1s and 2/2s to beat me, and keeping up 2 mana just to get spell pierced or spell snared really sucks. The only other thing I have to fear after that is an intuition for 3 vengvines, followed by 2 1 drop creatures. Pyroblast and counterspell would both be good against the intuition, but on the play I'm probably resolving counterbalance on turn 2 or turn 3. Although in retrospect it looks like a mistake to me.
Game 2 Lucas mulligans. He might have forced a turn 2 counterbalance of mine, but we then play draw go for a while. I don't see tops or vendilion cliques with my brainstorms and we're just building up lands while he looks for protective magic. I can't reasonably tap low playing the jace in my hand, and I don't have any other proactive cards in there. Eventually I draw a top and activate it immediately knowing he's going to have a grip for it, which he does. I see another top and goyf in the top 3 and set up to draw top next turn. On his turn, he's on 8 lands and plays a survival. I force, and he plays a 2nd. He gets 1 activation and I grip it. Top happens and I pass back, he gets another survival which I try to spell snare but he taps 5 to force. Some points of this game are still feeling a little fuzzy to me, but I remember that survival being ok because I had grip in my top 3 which I drew and played immediately with him having activated on his turn pitching vengevine for vengevine I think. I think I might have flipped top here and played goyf after gripping his 3rd survival. He passed back not doing anything. I drew and played top. My notes actually indicate that he had a wild mongrel earlier that was beating me down for 2 turns, but I think that the goyf played a little defense for a turn after resolving. There was also a play in this game that invovled my having a counterbalance in play, and instead of playing my top first, I played jace and it got spell pierced, followed by my top which i could have flipped up to counter the pierce easily. Funny how I can play around a card early in the game, but completely forget about it later. Anyway, counter/top happened in that game, his vengvine met my swords, and 2x tarmogoyfs got there. He drew 3/4 survivals, but he has no way to stop krosan grips because the list doesn't run clique.
for game 3 I finished my sideboarding to
+3 krosan grip
+2 pithing needle
+2 spell pierce
+2 pyroblast
-3 firespout
-3 counterspell
-1 oblivion ring
-2 jace
Game 3 he plays turn 1 basking rootwalla and I'm afraid he's going to be on the beatdown plan. I had no swords in hand and with boarding out firespouts, multiple rootwalla's and mongrels are actually a threat. Fortunately for me, he kept a 1 lander that didn't see him hit a 3rd land until after I had counter/top online to blank his deck. Basking rootwalla took me all the way to 12 in 1 point hits, but goyf and vendilion clique just finished him off.
5-0-2 matches
10-4 games
Semifinal pairings were
UGR dreadstill defeats UWg landstill
UGRW counter/top defeats mono red
I'm up against Tim again. I lucked out getting my easiest matchup, but Tim was out for blood this time. Well, not really, he was actually just as chummy as he was round 1. We joked about how he actually DID blow through the losers bracket after losing to me round 1, beating 2 merfolk and 2 zoo before drawing into top 8 and beating merfolk again.
Game 1 I win the dice roll and keep a hand that involves a turn 2 counterbalance probably with brainstorms to find land. He burns me turn 1 and turn 2 and plays a lavamancer. I'm still on 2 lands turn 3 with a force, counterspell, jace, firespout, swords, and something else. He gets down keldon marauders cause I don't have a 2 on top and burns me with lavamancer. I untap and firespout his board with the land I drew. I'm at 9 at this point. I think I force the sulfuric vortex he plays next, and he resolves lavamancer. Lavamancer gets swords'd and I either resolve top here or have a brainstorm, I can't remember. Top shows up shortly though, and jace gets on the board too. I jedi'd him once while fatesealing and made him draw a land when he had a fetch in play to shuffle the top card. Counter/top protection and jace just got there with brainstorms and another counterbalance in hand to put back to stop his 2's.
sideboarded properly this time with
+2 spell pierce
+1 BEB
-2 vendilion clique
-1 firespout
Game 2 I keep a hand that involves 2 brainstorm, 2 tops, 1 land, firespout, jace, and maybe force. He plays lavamancer. I play land, brainstorm at his EOT with him burning me with a spell and with lavamancer. I fetched and brainstormed some more over these couple turns, but nothing came. lavamancer attacked me a couple times before it got firespouted. I forced a sulfuric vortex as well. He played a weak price of progress to drop me from 10 down to 8, and then I untapped, topped, drew, and played a 4/5 tarmogoyf with 1 land untapped and a hand of 1 non-fetchland, force, swords, and top. The problem was that, despite my better judgment, I decided not to pass with my basic plains up instead of basic island just in case I need to swords my own goyf. Instead I wanted to represent spell pierce, brainstorm, or BEB or something. Dunno what I was thinking, and I wanted to take it back immediately after resolving goyf. At his EOT I greedily topped, hoping to have 5 untapped lands the next turn to hardcast force. He thought, let top resolve (my top 3 cards were land), and went all in expecting me to have the double force. Instead he bolted me to 5, and double fireblasted me to dead. swords on my goyf would have been able to keep me alive at 1 life, but that's not much vs. a burn deck and nothing on top of my library.
Game 3 I have the stone nuts 7 against him while he has a mull to 5. My hand is something like 2 lands, swords, counterbalance, top, brainstorm, tarmogoyf. We play a couple turns of the game and I mind read his plays with counterbalance always having the right card waiting on top. He only gets me to 16 before scooping, knowing that with a mull to 5 against counterbalance, burn really can't win. I'd say he did a great job especially considering that this was his first legacy tourney though so congrats to him.
6-0-2 matches
12-5 games
Top 2 split with Nick from round 3
If I could change one thing about the deck, I think it would be the basic mountain -> basic forest and the scalding tarns -> misty rainforest. I had my green sources wasted pretty frequently during the day, and its pretty nerve racking when you fetch out your last one with multiple green spells in hand, praying that they don't have that 3rd waste. The basic mountain was never really relevant, although I didn't play against merfolk or goblins over the course of the day which could have changed things. Still, it just seems right to me to fetch out the red source at the last second to firespout them, not having to worry about it getting wasted. In G1 they can't really see it coming because you wouldn't have given your opponent any indication that you even play red. I also think it might be right to add the 4th krosan grip. 3 grips in sideboard has become the widely accepted norm now, but the card is so good right now, there just isn't really room in the sideboard for it.
Thanks for reading. I know some parts aren't as specific as I would have liked them to be, but I didn't really take notes. I'm just reconstructing this report from memory and life totals.
Thanks again to Jack Wang for driving and to AU for holding this tournament. And thanks to my opponents for making legacy enjoyable while still being competitive. Final thanks to wizards for not banning sensei's divining top and brainstorm in legacy. One of the worst things in magic is uncontrollably drawing a billion lands, or never drawing any. The two cards make sure you get the right amount, provided you make the right decisions.
Feel free to comment, I know it was a little long, but I'm not very good at cutting details.
This tournament was, I think, a 40 man at the store Alternate Universes in Blue Bell, PA. For those of you who are in the area and like legacy/vintage but have never been to one of that store's tournaments yet, I highly recommend it. Its ran by a great group of guys, and the tournaments always have great prize support, giving back nearly 100% of the entry fees to the players. This tournament's prize structure was as follows for just a $20 entry fee:
1st 4x jace, the mind sculptor
2nd english moat
3rd/4th $50 credit
5th-8th $25 credit
1 FTV relics was given out, as was 16 inferno titan playmats.
Anyway, on to the deck
4x tarmogoyf
2x vendilion clique
4x force of will
4x counterbalance
4x sensei's divining top
4x brainstorm
4x swords to plowshares
3x jace, the mind sculptor
3x firespout
3x counterspell
2x spell snare
1x oblivion ring
4x flooded strand
4x scalding tarn
1x polluted delta
3x tropical island
3x tundra
2x volcanic island
2x island
1x plains
1x mountain
1x karakas
SB
2x spell pierce
1x blue elemental blast
2x pithing needle
2x pyroblast
3x krosan grip
1x relic of progenitus
2x tormod's crypt
1x firespout
1x pyroclasm
So the maindeck is just a straight copy of Tom Martell's 2nd place GP deck all the way down to the sweet miser's o-ring. The sideboard was basically yanked from the UGRW counterbalance lists that showed up at the SCG 5K Denver, more specifically Kyle Yeates's. The only difference being 2x relics became 2x crypts, and the grim lavamancer became pyroclasm. Pyroclasm has the potential to 2 for 1 (or more) immediately, wheras the lavamancer takes a turn to get active and can still only eat 1 creature at a time. I also didn't have any extra lavamen, so pyroclasm seemed worth a shot. It actually ended up being relevant to my benefit.
I was running on 4.5 hours sleep as per my usual MO before tournaments, staying up throwing together something like 7 decks, each missing a couple pieces shared amongst themselves. 5 of us from the store Redcap's Corner in Philadelphia (also a great store) crammed into Jack Wang's car. Despite me knowing exactly how to get there, somehow we ended up following Jack's written directions (which he was trying to read while driving until we decided we didn't want to die and passed them off to Mike) and proceeded to get lost. Enter Lucas's iPhone. Oh sweet sweet touchscreen phonery, how I wish could own one of you. For all 1% of you still in the dark on phones with GPS, they can get you anywhere and you should get one if you are the type of person who gets lost frequently. At the very least, make sure that someone in your carpool has one if a long trip is involved. Somehow we made it there alive and with plenty of time to do all of the things that good players do before tournaments: scramble to find cards. Decks were finished, people were psyched up, and magic began.
Round 1 Tim with mono-red (2nd place list from SCG 5K denver)
My opening hand was something like 1 land, double jace, clique, and some other stuff with no tops or brainstorms. I obviously mulligan. As we're mulling, I got some information from Tim about this being his first legacy tournament, which has me put him on goblins, mono R, or maybe merfolk. He was a really friendly guy though, as the trend will be for my opponents throughout the day, so I felt a little dirty digging for info from him. He mulliganed to 6 as well. My 6 cards was more of the 1 land do nothing hand variety and it went back for a new 5. The 5 had no lands, that went back for 4. I was pretty sure my tournament was already over right here, especially considering the losing streak I had been on recently. My 4 cards involved 2 lands, counterbalance, and a card I can't remember, maybe jace. I also can't remember who went first, but I remember him playing mountain, pass, mountain keldon marauders. I CAN remember thinking to myself, "If there is going to be any deck I can beat with 4 cards, this is it". I got turn 2 counterbalance down, and a top to follow quickly enough. One turn, I was lucky to find a 2cc card in my top 3 after fetching to counter a price a progress, and then had to force my will upon him when he got up to 6 lands and cast 3 fireblast knocking me from 10 down to 1. Now normally, I probably would have died somehow by now, but Tim drew an absolutely ridiculous amount of lands this (and next) game, so I had a much larger window to do things. Eventually we reached a board state where I had Jace with 9 counters, 5 untapped lands, 2 tops and a counterbalance, and he had 2 mystery cards in his hand. I know 2 of my top 3 cards are counterbalance and firespout. He chain lightnings me, I top and find my 3rd card is a brainstorm to counter it. He then goes for fireblast #4! I was positive I was dead, but attempt to play right anyway. I flip a top to draw the brainstorm, play the brainstorm, put 2 back, activate top with 2 lands untapped still. I see the 2 cards I put back and.......... counterspell! I flip top and slam it down. He plays 1 more turn and packs it up.
At first I oversideboard, totally forgetting about vexing shusher, but remembered while shuffling before presenting. I make the switch and end up doing something like
+2 spell pierce
+1 BEB
-2 firespout
-1 jace
This doesn't actually seem right, and I change my plan when I play him again in the semi-finals. Vendilion cliques obviously should come out as they really don't do much besides mess with his hand once, get killed by lavamancer, and maybe flip for counterbalance to stop a sulfuric vortex. O-ring stays in because it handles vortex and shusher. Jace should have stayed in because, well, its jace. If I have counter/top in play, jace is better at winning me the game (or at least soaks up damage), and if I don't have counter/top, it finds it for me. firespouts are pretty solid against lavamancer and shusher, as well as being able to healing salve a resolved keldon marauders, but you probably don't want 3. I contemplated needles, but figured firespout was just better at killing both lavamancer and shusher, both of which I could needle but would still take attack damage from if left on the board. I think the right sideboarding just sees you bringing in the 2 pierces and BEB for 2 cliques and a firespout. Just make sure vortex doesn't resolve.
game 2 has me getting marauded on turn 2 again, swords-ing his shusher, fetching and forcing something, then just locking it up with counterbalance at 11. Tim drew a bunch of lands again this game, and I felt pretty bad, but he was a good sport about it. I told him to go to the 0-1 bracket and crush all of the decks that aren't prepared for mono-red.
1-0 matches
2-0 games
Round 2 Jason with belcher
Jason and I shuffled up and chit-chatted a little. I could feel him digging for info a little, and so I misdirected him by informing him that I won on a mull to 4 in R1. I mulled to 5 and kept an ok hand including 2 lands and a top, but he proceeded to empty the warrens for 16 goblins on the play. I drew for turn, pretended to think briefly, and conceded.
Because he had no idea what I was playing, I thought it was pretty safe to board out the swords as well as some other stuff. I only saw him board 2 cards and I think I went for something like
+2 spell pierce
+2 pithing needle
+1 pyroclasm
+1 krosan grip
+1 BEB
-4 swords
-1 o-ring
-1 firespout
-1 Jace
Game 2 I finally get to keep a solid hand including needle, pyroclasm, 2 land, brainstorm, top, and 1 other card, while Jason mulls to 6. I start with needle on belcher. He empties for 8. I draw counterbalance and think whether or not I should bother playing pyroclasm now, or wait until after counterbalance. I decide to pyroclasm now because there's no guarantee i'll hit land #3 with that brainstorm next turn, counterbalance isn't likely to hit with a blind flip, and I'd like to keep my life total up just in case he goes for the tendrils in sideboard with wish. I pyroclasm and pass, he passes back. I draw non-land and play goyf and pass. He burning wishes for shattering spree. I draw another nonland, smash him with goyf, and pass again with counterspell in hand. I remember thinking that I wanted a 3rd land before playing counterbalance to avoid getting blown out. He wastes a rite of flame and goes for spree on both needle and top. I gladly allow the needle into my graveyard for goyf to get bigger, and I flip top. I'm not worried about belcher anymore with counterspell in hand and counterbalance on the way. I draw the top, play my land, play top, smash him, and pass. I believe I counterspelled something on his turn, what, I can't remember. I untap, play counterbalance, smash again, and he's basically out of the game.
Now that he knows what I'm on, Xantid Swarms will be coming in against me. I think I boarded something similar to this
+2 spell pierce
+2 pithing needle
+1 pyroclasm
+1 BEB
-1 swords
-1 firespout
-3 jace
Jace can certainly lock them out of the game as well as bounce swarm, but once they've exploded their hand but haven't won with it, the deck takes a little time to recover. By then you should have something assembled so it seems better to have protection early in the game. Counterbalance should just take it home on its own.
Game 3. My opener on 7 would have been insane against any other deck, but didn't contain force, something for a belcher, or goblin tokens, so it went back. Jason was already on his mull to 6. The trend continued to 5 for both of us, and then down to 4. Afterward he showed me that his opening 4 was 2 elvish spirit guides, xantid swarm, and belcher. I tried for heart of the cards and kept 2 brainstorm, counterbalance, and spell pierce. Obviously I didn't hit land for 3 turns. Fortunately for me, jason didn't do much either other than lotus petal into swarm. I brainstormed mainphase to avoid screwing up and letting swarm chant me, something I feel I'd be pretty likely to do if distracted. Next turn is counterbalance for me, followed by top. He still hadn't done anything, and I swords his 0/1. Eventually I find a goyf, counter a spell or two, and just kill him.
Mulligan to 4 twice so far and still won both. Lady luck is with me today.
2-0 matches
4-1 games
Round 3 Nick with UGR dreadstill
I knew what Nick was on because he beat 2 of my friends round 1 and 2. That didn't help me too much because I never tested against dreadstill, but I figured I knew enough about it to be ok.
Nick wins the die-roll and leads with island. I mirror it. He plays strand. I mirror it. He EOT brainstorms and I fetch in resp, drawing stifle, but reducing the brainstorms value. I still realize that I'm dead when he passes with 3 lands and I'm still on one. To top that off, he cliques me during my draw. My hand is a bunch of nothing, and clique ends up going the distance after he draws a bunch of cards with standstills. Damn, clique is good.
I honestly thought he'd be boarding out the dreadnoughts and just beat me with standstill/factory, but he kept them in for some reason. I definitely think that is wrong. It is enough to beat this deck with some stifles/wastelands, then draw cards with standstill. We're evenly matched with goyfs/cliques/counterbalance/tops. I'm not sure jace's/counterspells make up the advantage an early standstill with mandlands will give him. I board something like
+2 spell pierce
+2 pyroblast
+3 krosan grip
-3 firespout
-3 counterspell
-1 jace
counterspell is probably ok on the play, but on the draw, you're just gonna get spell pierced or REB'd. It takes too much to hold up mana for it.
Game 2, my opener has double top, some land, brainstorms and something else. I open with top, acting like I don't want him to force, but it resolves. We play draw go for a little, when he makes the first move T3 with dreadnaught. I have force in hand with blue cards, but i let it go knowing well that the dreadnaught trigger is going to get trickbinded. I didn't have a swords in hand, but with 4 swords and 3 grips in my library, top in play, and brainstorm in hand, I figured I was ok. EOT fetch and top shows me land and 2x swords. First one gets forced, which I allow, then I flip top and resolve the 2nd. I think I spell snare a counterbalance on his turn which he doesn't have an answer to, and he plays top. We both spin for a while, me looking for a swords or goyf to answer his factory. I find another goyf and he can't draw gas and I have counter/top in play.
Game 3 was more of the same. He got dreadnaught down, but I had the swords to 2 for 1 him. He landed a counterbalance and then I forced the top he followed it with. I found grip for the counterbalance, played my own, and just controlled the game. At one point I attack with goyf, he goes to double block and pump, I swords 1 and 2 for 1 him. He really wasn't drawing too well, and what he did play I had the answers for. Despite what seems like they could have been bad draws for my opponents, I really felt like I was playing the tightest I have in a while.
3-0 matches
6-2 games
Round 4 Joe with W stax
I win the die roll, keep my 7, and lead with top. He plays ancient tomb and passes, pretty dead giveaway for stax, something I know how to play against. I top on upkeep, knowing i'm going to need extra land for this matchup. He drops trinisphere which I neglect to force because I had fetchland in hand and on top of library, as well as counterspell in hand for later turns. It shouldn't be too difficult to draw 2 lands, play goyf, and still be able to force. I draw, play fetchland and pass with counterspell, force, fetchland, goyf, and brainstorm in hand with 2 duals and fetch in play. He runs out another trinisphere and passes. Seems like he doesn't have much gas. I look with top, see nothing but tops/counterbalances, shuffle, and find vendilion clique. Draw clique, play land. And I clique him during his draw, figuring he doesn't have much business. I see land, crucible, and 2 armageddons. Crucible went down, and he drew/played o-ring on my clique. I drew and played tarmogoyf, and stupidly layed a 4th land. He went for armageddon, followed up with land, in hopes of drawing magus or something. He's pretty much just dead to my goyf though, and I smash him a little, play more lands, but he can't find what he needs to stop goyf.
I sideboard
+3 krosan grip
+2 spell pierce
+2 pithing needle
-4 swords
-3 firespout
Game 2 I mulligan to 6, start off forcing a turn 2 suppression field, counterspelling something, forcing something else, and then just dieing to baneslayer and factory. I should have seen it coming honestly.
After obviously sideboarding wrong, trying to live the dream of counterbalancing out a stax deck, I went with the right decision
+3 krosan grip
+2 spell pierce
+2 pithing needle
-3 firespout
-4 counterbalance
You could argue the spell pierces, but if you get them in early turns, they just help you conserve mana so well. Spell snares stayed in g2 and g3 because I figured chalice on 1 was coming, as well as suppression field.
Game 3 I can't believe how good my hand is. something like K-grip, counterspell, 2x spell pierce, land, brainstorm, force. I fetch a basic and spell pierce his turn 1 chalice on 1. I brainstorm mainphase, hit my land, respond to Lucas calling me a fish from somewhere in the room and pass. Spell pierce hit a turn 2 trinisphere from him. I draw, lay a land, and pass. He plays crucible off of city of traitors he just played for the turn and flagstones of trokair, his first land being ancient tomb. I let it resolve and debate letting it sit on the table. I opt to krosan grip it now to avoid NEEDING to grip it later when he has wastelands. We both pass with no plays. I o-ring (hell yeah 1 of!) his baneslayer and counterspell something on his next turn, then find goyf to beat. He gets a magus of the tabernacle down, and I didn't have the other blue card to force despite looking with top, so he gets to block for a turn or two if I can't find another goyf. I fetch and one jumps to the top. He can't stop 5/6 goyfs and dies.
4-0 matches
8-3 games
Double ID into top 8, although I should have played it out against the first ID as he was on merfolk, but I didn't know. I don't think the matchup is THAT bad (even though martell lost to saito with the deck at the GP), I just need to play smart and get a little lucky. After sideboard there's 4 firespout, 1 pyroclasm, 4 swords, and maybe 1 o-ring if I'm feeling saucy to deal with merfolk. The second ID was with Matt Elias playing the new ANT list, a matchup I'd like to play in top 8. If i wanted to face him though, I was probably better off scooping him in, rather than ID-ing, a mistake I always seem to make.
Going into Top 8, standings were (I think)
1st UWg landstill (Mike from Redcap's Corner)
2nd UGRW counter/top (me from Redcap's Corner)
3rd merfolk
4th ANT (Matt)
5th UGR dreadstill (Nick from round 3)
6th mono-red (Tim from round 1)
7th UG madness/survival (Lucas from Redcap's Corner)
8th W stax (Joe from round 4)
decklists can be found here (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?8090-Top-8-Decklists&p=485040&viewfull=1#post485040)
so pairings were
UWg landstill defeats W stax
UGRW coutner/top defeats UG madness/survival
mono-red defeats merfolk
UGR dreadstill defeats ANT
Quarterfinals vs. Lucas with UG madnes/survival
Lucas and Mike are both my friends, so ideally I wanted to arrange a top 4 split that involved all 3 of us. Unfortunately I had to play Lucas in the quarters. I really needed those jaces though, so I had to play it out. I was borrowing 2 jaces for the deck from Lucas in fact, although he was borrowing the majority of the UG deck from me. It doesn't help that I consider Lucas to probably be the best player in the room overall, and so I had to fight off that nervousness as well.
Game 1 Lucas wins the roll and keeps a nutty hand while I mulligan. We draw go a little with me brainstorming after him having the turn 1 noble. EOT his turn 4 I go for vendilion clique, knowing he only has 2 dazes in the deck. He intuitions up 3 vengevines which resolves in response as I have no force, and then has the daze for my clique knowing the path is clear. I was really looking to draw out a force there, but in retrospect should have played it safe because it didn't seem like he was going to pull the trigger (although he says he was going to at my EOT anyway). I also was playing the clique out then to try to resolve counterbalance the next turn, but he did have the force. I still have 2 land up to counterspell the survival I figured he was protecting, but he has force #2 for me and it resolves. I play out tarmogoyf, but he gets 4 flying hastey vengevines on his turn.
I did my best to avoid tilting (like one of my friends always does) while sideboarding for game 2.
+3 krosan grip
+2 pithing needle
+2 spell pierce
-3 firespout
-3 counterspell
-1 oblivion ring
Looking through my deck, it all seemed like it SHOULD be good against him, but its kind of deceptive. Survival attacks with creatures from a number of angles. I think it'd be easy to get tripped up trying to crypt them, but if survival is resolved they just survival up a trygon predator and make you blow it. I was only going to board in pyroblasts on the draw, as they are extra helpful when he goes for turn 2 survival with force backup. If I force survival, he forces back, I blast or spell pierce it. I doubt Lucas would try for that line of play, knowing that he might get blown out though, but I didn't really want them on the play. In retrospect, I probably should have left the counterspells in on the play because survival is only going to matter if it resolves in the first couple turns of the game, and counterspell can stop it on turn 2. After that, I should have grips for it, though. 1 activation isn't enough for his 1/1s and 2/2s to beat me, and keeping up 2 mana just to get spell pierced or spell snared really sucks. The only other thing I have to fear after that is an intuition for 3 vengvines, followed by 2 1 drop creatures. Pyroblast and counterspell would both be good against the intuition, but on the play I'm probably resolving counterbalance on turn 2 or turn 3. Although in retrospect it looks like a mistake to me.
Game 2 Lucas mulligans. He might have forced a turn 2 counterbalance of mine, but we then play draw go for a while. I don't see tops or vendilion cliques with my brainstorms and we're just building up lands while he looks for protective magic. I can't reasonably tap low playing the jace in my hand, and I don't have any other proactive cards in there. Eventually I draw a top and activate it immediately knowing he's going to have a grip for it, which he does. I see another top and goyf in the top 3 and set up to draw top next turn. On his turn, he's on 8 lands and plays a survival. I force, and he plays a 2nd. He gets 1 activation and I grip it. Top happens and I pass back, he gets another survival which I try to spell snare but he taps 5 to force. Some points of this game are still feeling a little fuzzy to me, but I remember that survival being ok because I had grip in my top 3 which I drew and played immediately with him having activated on his turn pitching vengevine for vengevine I think. I think I might have flipped top here and played goyf after gripping his 3rd survival. He passed back not doing anything. I drew and played top. My notes actually indicate that he had a wild mongrel earlier that was beating me down for 2 turns, but I think that the goyf played a little defense for a turn after resolving. There was also a play in this game that invovled my having a counterbalance in play, and instead of playing my top first, I played jace and it got spell pierced, followed by my top which i could have flipped up to counter the pierce easily. Funny how I can play around a card early in the game, but completely forget about it later. Anyway, counter/top happened in that game, his vengvine met my swords, and 2x tarmogoyfs got there. He drew 3/4 survivals, but he has no way to stop krosan grips because the list doesn't run clique.
for game 3 I finished my sideboarding to
+3 krosan grip
+2 pithing needle
+2 spell pierce
+2 pyroblast
-3 firespout
-3 counterspell
-1 oblivion ring
-2 jace
Game 3 he plays turn 1 basking rootwalla and I'm afraid he's going to be on the beatdown plan. I had no swords in hand and with boarding out firespouts, multiple rootwalla's and mongrels are actually a threat. Fortunately for me, he kept a 1 lander that didn't see him hit a 3rd land until after I had counter/top online to blank his deck. Basking rootwalla took me all the way to 12 in 1 point hits, but goyf and vendilion clique just finished him off.
5-0-2 matches
10-4 games
Semifinal pairings were
UGR dreadstill defeats UWg landstill
UGRW counter/top defeats mono red
I'm up against Tim again. I lucked out getting my easiest matchup, but Tim was out for blood this time. Well, not really, he was actually just as chummy as he was round 1. We joked about how he actually DID blow through the losers bracket after losing to me round 1, beating 2 merfolk and 2 zoo before drawing into top 8 and beating merfolk again.
Game 1 I win the dice roll and keep a hand that involves a turn 2 counterbalance probably with brainstorms to find land. He burns me turn 1 and turn 2 and plays a lavamancer. I'm still on 2 lands turn 3 with a force, counterspell, jace, firespout, swords, and something else. He gets down keldon marauders cause I don't have a 2 on top and burns me with lavamancer. I untap and firespout his board with the land I drew. I'm at 9 at this point. I think I force the sulfuric vortex he plays next, and he resolves lavamancer. Lavamancer gets swords'd and I either resolve top here or have a brainstorm, I can't remember. Top shows up shortly though, and jace gets on the board too. I jedi'd him once while fatesealing and made him draw a land when he had a fetch in play to shuffle the top card. Counter/top protection and jace just got there with brainstorms and another counterbalance in hand to put back to stop his 2's.
sideboarded properly this time with
+2 spell pierce
+1 BEB
-2 vendilion clique
-1 firespout
Game 2 I keep a hand that involves 2 brainstorm, 2 tops, 1 land, firespout, jace, and maybe force. He plays lavamancer. I play land, brainstorm at his EOT with him burning me with a spell and with lavamancer. I fetched and brainstormed some more over these couple turns, but nothing came. lavamancer attacked me a couple times before it got firespouted. I forced a sulfuric vortex as well. He played a weak price of progress to drop me from 10 down to 8, and then I untapped, topped, drew, and played a 4/5 tarmogoyf with 1 land untapped and a hand of 1 non-fetchland, force, swords, and top. The problem was that, despite my better judgment, I decided not to pass with my basic plains up instead of basic island just in case I need to swords my own goyf. Instead I wanted to represent spell pierce, brainstorm, or BEB or something. Dunno what I was thinking, and I wanted to take it back immediately after resolving goyf. At his EOT I greedily topped, hoping to have 5 untapped lands the next turn to hardcast force. He thought, let top resolve (my top 3 cards were land), and went all in expecting me to have the double force. Instead he bolted me to 5, and double fireblasted me to dead. swords on my goyf would have been able to keep me alive at 1 life, but that's not much vs. a burn deck and nothing on top of my library.
Game 3 I have the stone nuts 7 against him while he has a mull to 5. My hand is something like 2 lands, swords, counterbalance, top, brainstorm, tarmogoyf. We play a couple turns of the game and I mind read his plays with counterbalance always having the right card waiting on top. He only gets me to 16 before scooping, knowing that with a mull to 5 against counterbalance, burn really can't win. I'd say he did a great job especially considering that this was his first legacy tourney though so congrats to him.
6-0-2 matches
12-5 games
Top 2 split with Nick from round 3
If I could change one thing about the deck, I think it would be the basic mountain -> basic forest and the scalding tarns -> misty rainforest. I had my green sources wasted pretty frequently during the day, and its pretty nerve racking when you fetch out your last one with multiple green spells in hand, praying that they don't have that 3rd waste. The basic mountain was never really relevant, although I didn't play against merfolk or goblins over the course of the day which could have changed things. Still, it just seems right to me to fetch out the red source at the last second to firespout them, not having to worry about it getting wasted. In G1 they can't really see it coming because you wouldn't have given your opponent any indication that you even play red. I also think it might be right to add the 4th krosan grip. 3 grips in sideboard has become the widely accepted norm now, but the card is so good right now, there just isn't really room in the sideboard for it.
Thanks for reading. I know some parts aren't as specific as I would have liked them to be, but I didn't really take notes. I'm just reconstructing this report from memory and life totals.
Thanks again to Jack Wang for driving and to AU for holding this tournament. And thanks to my opponents for making legacy enjoyable while still being competitive. Final thanks to wizards for not banning sensei's divining top and brainstorm in legacy. One of the worst things in magic is uncontrollably drawing a billion lands, or never drawing any. The two cards make sure you get the right amount, provided you make the right decisions.
Feel free to comment, I know it was a little long, but I'm not very good at cutting details.