PanderAlexander
03-29-2011, 08:09 AM
So apparently this looks like an ongoing tournament report as people ask me stuff and I remember and improve it, or my earlier round opponents post what went on.
*Update with SCGLive videos*
Click here for R8 G3 video Alcibiades Felix (http://www.blip.tv/file/4954355?utm_source=player_embedded)
Click here for Semi-Final G3 against Liam Kane (http://www.blip.tv/file/4954351?utm_source=player_embedded)
Finals against Joe Lossett (http://www.blip.tv/file/4954273?utm_source=player_embedded)
I wanted to write a decent report but that won't happen since I can't remember the details of the first half of the tournament or what I SB, and the later rounds that I do remember already have great coverage reports. I can at least write the decks I went up against lol. I'm sorry the report isn't very detailed, 48+ hours no sleep and 13 straight hours of magic with 10 redbulls will do that.
Since joining Legacy a year ago, my favorite deck I wanted to build was Painter with Grindstone. There was some mild success last year with mono-red Imperial version, so I forked over the $600 and bought a set. I then built Ken Adam's version and had success at the local shops. Though it had fast power, it felt like a glass cannon. Then I saw Caleb Durward's version and fell in love with it, it had speed but with many more complex plays that can be taken advantage of. I took it to the local Knightware shop where 60 people showed up and I went undefeated to 1st, the only change I did was swapping out the trinket mages with misdirections.
216 players showed up for the StarCityGames: Los Angeles Legacy and the list I played was:
Creatures [9]
1 Trinket Mage
4 Goblin Welder
4 Painter's Servant
Instants [15]
1 Misdirection
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Intuition
Artifacts [14]
3 Lion's Eye Diamond
3 Mox Opal
4 Grindstone
4 Sensei's Divining Top
Lands [22]
1 Island
2 City of Traitors
2 Polluted Delta
3 Ancient Tomb
3 Flooded Strand
3 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Volcanic Island
Sideboard:
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Pithing Needle
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Show and Tell
My matchups went as:
R1 NO Show - Bill
2-0
R2 Affinity - William
2-0
R3 Canadian Thresh - Kevin
1-2
I was the R3 opp, but wasn't playing thresh. I was playing a U/R control deck with 4x trinket mage and only one trop for sideboard firespout and a third color for ee. Anyway, this is (to my poor memory) the way that the games went.
Game 1: I know from being a local (and being a judge that deck checked him a couple of weeks before) that he's probably on Painter, so I keep a hand with bolt, t-mage, brainstorm, ee and land. This game comes down to me fetching up a maindeck pithing needle and naming grindstone while he tries to land a painter and REB it to go off. I just bolt all of his painters and swing in with a couple of mages and a clique.
Game 2: We both have decent openings, I blow away a welder and a painter, but he eventually just amasses the combo with three counters in hand due to my lack of pressure.
Game 3: This one's the doozy. It really back and forth with three needles getting played and at least two ee's. He gets really close to the combo, but misplays slightly when he activates a welder with a bolt on stack targeting his painter (whereas he could have waited until after the servent died and just got it back) and I just untap and find EE with an active Jace. Meanwhile we both do pretty much nothing for a while, I make my hand sweet while he tops to try and make an emrakul or go for plan A again. He eventually finds a needle for my jace and i draw his last counter out with one of my own, and proceed to play EE for one blowing away a welder, grindstone, needle, and forcing him to flip his top, which I then fateseal away and proceed to grind him out with small blue men.
- The Welder mistake I remember within a second of doing it I commented on it, but that it would not have changed the outcome I believe. The Welder trick helped win R2 though, where I red blast your pithing, you lighting bolt my Painter, blast still on stack I weld Painter back.
R4 Sneak Show - Kevin
2-0
- Friend who I helped build and teach how to play it. I knew the deck better than him unfortunately.
R5 Dredge - Caleb
2-1
I just thought I'd post what happened in round 5, as I was the dredge player against Alex.
Game 1 he has the force for my opening study, and then t2 grindstone t3 servant. My turn 4 I see 24 cards off Imp+coliseum, but not my Woodfall Primus, which means he grinds me out. I board in my 4 Ancient Grudges
Game 2 I keep a hand with wity coliseum, breakthrough, therapy and two grudges, and I therapy for Welder, which is the only card that blows me out there. He doesn't have it, and I kill 3 artifacts, while he crypts away a grudge. Eventually I set up for a big dredge turn with the breakthrough for 1 into putrid imp, but he has SNT->Emrakul. No problem--I make 12 zombies and dread return Stinkweed imp for the win
Game 3 I mull to 4 looking for land. Yay!
- G2 - I knew a ton of artifact hate was coming in, the opponent was a friend and I've seen all the Ancient Grudges his lists packed so I figured I'd try the Emrakul plan... well I did get Show and Tell ----> Emrakul in 4th turn but against Dredge...... sac all his creatures, he gets a ton of tokens from Bridges, swing back =\
R6 Merfolk - Harrison
- This guy was an ass, I tried to be friendly but he stayed quiet looking pissed so that's fine and we quickly get on with the match. He riffle shuffles his deck and I tell him "ouch, a little ruff with the cards there" and he tells me "it's not my cards so I don't care" and I tell him you must be Dredge, Goblins, or Merfolk to be riffle shuffling, it ends up being the latter. When he shuffles my deck, he riffles it once pretty hard before I stare at him and tell him don't do it again... he doesn't. I win G1 and G2 easily, but G2 is where the issue was. I have grindstone and welder out with FoW w/bluecard and red blast in my hand and only wait to draw a Painter which I do a few turns later. I immediately cast Painter and pat the card naming blue and he says he responds with force which I force and he dazes and I pay for daze. I then weld one of my artifact lands to activate grindstone which he responds by shouting judge. While waiting for the judge I ask him what's up? He tells me I didn't name a color for Painter and I tell him I'm pretty sure I did but if he thinks I didn't it's cool that he should call the judge. Judge pulls me aside and I tell him I remember patting the card and naming blue but that I am super tired. They then ask the spectators and two of them said they heard me name a color. They pull the spectators aside and talk to them for a few minutes. That's when my opponent says he does remember me naming a color but that it was before it resolved. The head judge tells him I'm allowed to shortcut by naming the color for when it does enters the battlefield and that it is not a may trigger. I told my opponent I didn't take it personal, that I know he was playing to his outs and that it's cool, he doesn't say anything and gets up and leaves.
- No matter the outcome of the judge decision the game was still mine as I had a welder in play with 17 life. I would just weld the painter out and weld it back in and name the color again.
- The head judge and other judges asked me did I feel like he did know I named a color but said he didn't anyways, not wanting to get the guy in trouble since I really didn't know the answer I told them I don't know. But the facts were it was less than a minute from when I named the color to him calling a judge and that once the spectators said I named a color he then remembered I did and was now questioning the timing of it.
From here on out it's luckily feature matches with great coverage writing:
R7 Rock/Junk/Dark Horizon - Brian Kibler (great pro player to play against)
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/21499_Round_7_Brian_Kibler_vs_Alexander_Kwan.html
- One thing in that matchup the coverage doesn't mention is in G1 after I dropped grindstone and Painter in play I showed Brian a Lion's Eye Diamond but didn't play it because he had an untapped white mana and I had a FoW, if I crack LED I would've lost my hand and he could've swords Painter and it was my only other card to pitch to FoW since it was blue from Painter.
- This was also the only game I ever used Misdirection, which was on the Hymm
R8 UG Madness - Alcibiades
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/21503_Round_8_Alexander_Kwan_vs_Alcibiades_Felix.html
- One thing the coverage doesn't say is, he cast energy flux against me and it barely slowed me down. Each artifact gets a seperate trigger, so I would let one artifact die, then before the next one would die I weld it out for the one in the GY and since it counts as a new object that wasn't there in the beginning of the upkeep I didn't have to pay 2. Eventually I dug up two welders and did that for about 10 turns with energy flux in play and won.
Quarter-Finals Merfolk - Carlos (very friendly player, he wanted to talk but I was dead tired so I tried my best)
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/21507_Quarterfinals_Alexander_Kwan_vs_Carlos_Ale.html
Semi-Finals TES - Liam (He is a local friend and I tell him whoever wins this match will win the tournament since we both had positive matchups against the other semi-finalists)
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/21513_Semifinals_Alexander_Kwan_vs_Liam_Kane.html
- Everyone only got to see me nut draw him in G3 on the video feed, but what wasn't on the video was G2 where he nut drawed me with first turn Xantid and second turn Ad Nauseum sculpting the perfecting hand to kill me. So a little sweet revenge from me.
Also, is your list (caleb's list) fast enough against ANT/Tide with disruption by playing your own disruption?
It is in TES's favor, I would say 65/45, G1 went like how a normal game is, we both dig, him with a ton of ponders and brainstorms to sculpt his combo, and me with brainstorms and tops to sculpt mine, I combo'd one turn faster I believe. G2 he turn one Xantid Swarm and turn to he went off with Ad Nauseum. G3 I got him back by turn two comboing off. Since both decks run LED and fast mana such as lotus petal, chrome mox, rituals, mox opal, stompy lands, etc, we're both capable of explosives starts, I just believe TES does it more consistently. For the sideboard, I sided out goblin welders because if I'm recurring artifacts in GY I should be dead already. I sided in all the red blast effects so to counter all his digging cantrips. I also sided in two tormod's crypts to slow down cabal rituals and Iggy loop.
Finals Cephalid Breakfast - Joe (luckily for me, there's a resident Cephalid Breakfast player named John and I got to test against him in prior tournaments)
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/21515_Finals_Alexander_Kwan_vs_Joe_Lossett.html
- This was the only game where I talked a lot throughout the whole match. He told me all he saw of my deck was the last game against TES where I got a 2nd turn kill. When he was contemplating mulling his opening hand, I showed him a FoW telling him I can protect that 2nd turn (though he didn't know I lacked another blue card at the time and didn't have the combo). I was more content with him drawing down and knowing I had FoW. He fought hard for G1 and derserved it as I was one turn away from the win
- For G2, I had grindstone in play with Painter and land in hand. He casts cabal therapy his turn and I immediately lay my last two cards in front of him and excitedly tell him "you want to name Painter?"... and going on about how it's game if he doesn't. He names Intuition and sees the bad news. In the video I don't think there's player audio so the people online probably thought WTF he name Intuition for? He probably should've named Painter no matter what but my talking apparently worked.
- Also in G2 I forgot what I said to convince him to not crack his fetch since I knew he had Krosan in hand. I was trying to get enough mana to activate the 2nd Grindstone in response to fetch activation and ripped a city of traitors.
- In G3, those who watched the video, I only had lands in hand with Painter naming blue, I draw a top which he forced. I then draw another top and cast which I find goblin welder, pyroblast, and lands. He gets a 2/2 flying creature down and I contemplate pyroblasting it but snap a little sense in myself thinking I can take hits np, I am combo afterall. I need to save pyro for his counters for when I do find my combo piece. At this point, for two turns I see nothing but lands on top and I'm down to 7 life from the 2/2 flyer. In my mind I was thinking "oh well, at least I made it to the finals", but then I stared at the trophy sitting next to us and thought this game isn't over yet. I do a mental slap to wake myself up and realize the last two or three turns I missed taking advantage of the two tops and welder. I think to myself it's okay I messed up but that's in the past to start focusing now. I go crazy with top welder to draw many cards and dig deeper until I find a trinket mage. I have enough mana to cast trinket, pyro his FoW, cast grindstone and activate for the win.
nice finish! Curious about the SB (not posted here but probably can dig it up on SCG). What were your plans against Emrakul decks?
Everything in the SB was great except the Show and Tell / Emrakul plan, my biggest change would be getting rid of those thus freeing up 6 spots for the SB. In testing, the only matchup it was really for was Zoo where it really shined.
For the tournament I only sided it in four rounds:
Round 3 - G2 & G3 - Canadian Thresh with all the counters, lightning bolts, engineered explosives, and fire/ice for the welders was hard enough, then add in Krosans... time to S&T/Emrakul SB. G2 I didn't see the SB and won a long game fighting through the hate to grind him out. G3 was long drawn out affair, the game was boarderline when he was top decking amazingly and I had nothing but lands for 7-8 turns but still find an answer to everything of his. By the time I do end up with S&T Emrakul it's too late as I'm dead to V. Clique beats.
Round 5 G2 - I knew a ton of artifact hate was coming in, the opponent was a friend and I've seen all the Ancient Grudges his lists packed so I figured I'd try the Emrakul plan... well I did get Show and Tell ----> Emrakul in 4th turn but against Dredge...... sac all his creatures, he gets a ton of tokens from Bridges, swing back =\
Round 7 G2 - Against Brian Kibler's Rock, I knew Krosans and/or Pernicious was coming in, and I was hoping his list didn't run Karakas. Thoughtseizes/Hymms rip the hand apart for the more S&T/Emrakul combo where-as welder makes it okay to rip our main combo apart, and his dark confidant revealed a Karakas
Round 8 G2 - I open with Emrakul... great I just need to draw S&T... I draw another Emrakul.
That was it, and in three of the G2 matches I immediately sideboarded it out and won the G3s. With this deck, it's sooo much better to fight through the hate than throw another combo in the deck. Only two reason I would keep the S&T/Emrakul SB is if two decks become really popular, Zoo and Canadian Thresh, as those two have way too many ways to handle the main combo.
Props:
StarCityGames for hosting these large scale Legacy tournaments
MTGthesource for us to have a world-wide community
Knightware and Lori for providing a strong local Legacy community
Knightware regulars: Liam -3rd, Ben -8th, Tony -top32
Koga for the support
Adultcon next door
Slops:
Lack of sleep
Koga for scrubbing out
Round 6 issue
*Update with SCGLive videos*
Click here for R8 G3 video Alcibiades Felix (http://www.blip.tv/file/4954355?utm_source=player_embedded)
Click here for Semi-Final G3 against Liam Kane (http://www.blip.tv/file/4954351?utm_source=player_embedded)
Finals against Joe Lossett (http://www.blip.tv/file/4954273?utm_source=player_embedded)
I wanted to write a decent report but that won't happen since I can't remember the details of the first half of the tournament or what I SB, and the later rounds that I do remember already have great coverage reports. I can at least write the decks I went up against lol. I'm sorry the report isn't very detailed, 48+ hours no sleep and 13 straight hours of magic with 10 redbulls will do that.
Since joining Legacy a year ago, my favorite deck I wanted to build was Painter with Grindstone. There was some mild success last year with mono-red Imperial version, so I forked over the $600 and bought a set. I then built Ken Adam's version and had success at the local shops. Though it had fast power, it felt like a glass cannon. Then I saw Caleb Durward's version and fell in love with it, it had speed but with many more complex plays that can be taken advantage of. I took it to the local Knightware shop where 60 people showed up and I went undefeated to 1st, the only change I did was swapping out the trinket mages with misdirections.
216 players showed up for the StarCityGames: Los Angeles Legacy and the list I played was:
Creatures [9]
1 Trinket Mage
4 Goblin Welder
4 Painter's Servant
Instants [15]
1 Misdirection
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Intuition
Artifacts [14]
3 Lion's Eye Diamond
3 Mox Opal
4 Grindstone
4 Sensei's Divining Top
Lands [22]
1 Island
2 City of Traitors
2 Polluted Delta
3 Ancient Tomb
3 Flooded Strand
3 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Volcanic Island
Sideboard:
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Pithing Needle
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Show and Tell
My matchups went as:
R1 NO Show - Bill
2-0
R2 Affinity - William
2-0
R3 Canadian Thresh - Kevin
1-2
I was the R3 opp, but wasn't playing thresh. I was playing a U/R control deck with 4x trinket mage and only one trop for sideboard firespout and a third color for ee. Anyway, this is (to my poor memory) the way that the games went.
Game 1: I know from being a local (and being a judge that deck checked him a couple of weeks before) that he's probably on Painter, so I keep a hand with bolt, t-mage, brainstorm, ee and land. This game comes down to me fetching up a maindeck pithing needle and naming grindstone while he tries to land a painter and REB it to go off. I just bolt all of his painters and swing in with a couple of mages and a clique.
Game 2: We both have decent openings, I blow away a welder and a painter, but he eventually just amasses the combo with three counters in hand due to my lack of pressure.
Game 3: This one's the doozy. It really back and forth with three needles getting played and at least two ee's. He gets really close to the combo, but misplays slightly when he activates a welder with a bolt on stack targeting his painter (whereas he could have waited until after the servent died and just got it back) and I just untap and find EE with an active Jace. Meanwhile we both do pretty much nothing for a while, I make my hand sweet while he tops to try and make an emrakul or go for plan A again. He eventually finds a needle for my jace and i draw his last counter out with one of my own, and proceed to play EE for one blowing away a welder, grindstone, needle, and forcing him to flip his top, which I then fateseal away and proceed to grind him out with small blue men.
- The Welder mistake I remember within a second of doing it I commented on it, but that it would not have changed the outcome I believe. The Welder trick helped win R2 though, where I red blast your pithing, you lighting bolt my Painter, blast still on stack I weld Painter back.
R4 Sneak Show - Kevin
2-0
- Friend who I helped build and teach how to play it. I knew the deck better than him unfortunately.
R5 Dredge - Caleb
2-1
I just thought I'd post what happened in round 5, as I was the dredge player against Alex.
Game 1 he has the force for my opening study, and then t2 grindstone t3 servant. My turn 4 I see 24 cards off Imp+coliseum, but not my Woodfall Primus, which means he grinds me out. I board in my 4 Ancient Grudges
Game 2 I keep a hand with wity coliseum, breakthrough, therapy and two grudges, and I therapy for Welder, which is the only card that blows me out there. He doesn't have it, and I kill 3 artifacts, while he crypts away a grudge. Eventually I set up for a big dredge turn with the breakthrough for 1 into putrid imp, but he has SNT->Emrakul. No problem--I make 12 zombies and dread return Stinkweed imp for the win
Game 3 I mull to 4 looking for land. Yay!
- G2 - I knew a ton of artifact hate was coming in, the opponent was a friend and I've seen all the Ancient Grudges his lists packed so I figured I'd try the Emrakul plan... well I did get Show and Tell ----> Emrakul in 4th turn but against Dredge...... sac all his creatures, he gets a ton of tokens from Bridges, swing back =\
R6 Merfolk - Harrison
- This guy was an ass, I tried to be friendly but he stayed quiet looking pissed so that's fine and we quickly get on with the match. He riffle shuffles his deck and I tell him "ouch, a little ruff with the cards there" and he tells me "it's not my cards so I don't care" and I tell him you must be Dredge, Goblins, or Merfolk to be riffle shuffling, it ends up being the latter. When he shuffles my deck, he riffles it once pretty hard before I stare at him and tell him don't do it again... he doesn't. I win G1 and G2 easily, but G2 is where the issue was. I have grindstone and welder out with FoW w/bluecard and red blast in my hand and only wait to draw a Painter which I do a few turns later. I immediately cast Painter and pat the card naming blue and he says he responds with force which I force and he dazes and I pay for daze. I then weld one of my artifact lands to activate grindstone which he responds by shouting judge. While waiting for the judge I ask him what's up? He tells me I didn't name a color for Painter and I tell him I'm pretty sure I did but if he thinks I didn't it's cool that he should call the judge. Judge pulls me aside and I tell him I remember patting the card and naming blue but that I am super tired. They then ask the spectators and two of them said they heard me name a color. They pull the spectators aside and talk to them for a few minutes. That's when my opponent says he does remember me naming a color but that it was before it resolved. The head judge tells him I'm allowed to shortcut by naming the color for when it does enters the battlefield and that it is not a may trigger. I told my opponent I didn't take it personal, that I know he was playing to his outs and that it's cool, he doesn't say anything and gets up and leaves.
- No matter the outcome of the judge decision the game was still mine as I had a welder in play with 17 life. I would just weld the painter out and weld it back in and name the color again.
- The head judge and other judges asked me did I feel like he did know I named a color but said he didn't anyways, not wanting to get the guy in trouble since I really didn't know the answer I told them I don't know. But the facts were it was less than a minute from when I named the color to him calling a judge and that once the spectators said I named a color he then remembered I did and was now questioning the timing of it.
From here on out it's luckily feature matches with great coverage writing:
R7 Rock/Junk/Dark Horizon - Brian Kibler (great pro player to play against)
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/21499_Round_7_Brian_Kibler_vs_Alexander_Kwan.html
- One thing in that matchup the coverage doesn't mention is in G1 after I dropped grindstone and Painter in play I showed Brian a Lion's Eye Diamond but didn't play it because he had an untapped white mana and I had a FoW, if I crack LED I would've lost my hand and he could've swords Painter and it was my only other card to pitch to FoW since it was blue from Painter.
- This was also the only game I ever used Misdirection, which was on the Hymm
R8 UG Madness - Alcibiades
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/21503_Round_8_Alexander_Kwan_vs_Alcibiades_Felix.html
- One thing the coverage doesn't say is, he cast energy flux against me and it barely slowed me down. Each artifact gets a seperate trigger, so I would let one artifact die, then before the next one would die I weld it out for the one in the GY and since it counts as a new object that wasn't there in the beginning of the upkeep I didn't have to pay 2. Eventually I dug up two welders and did that for about 10 turns with energy flux in play and won.
Quarter-Finals Merfolk - Carlos (very friendly player, he wanted to talk but I was dead tired so I tried my best)
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/21507_Quarterfinals_Alexander_Kwan_vs_Carlos_Ale.html
Semi-Finals TES - Liam (He is a local friend and I tell him whoever wins this match will win the tournament since we both had positive matchups against the other semi-finalists)
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/21513_Semifinals_Alexander_Kwan_vs_Liam_Kane.html
- Everyone only got to see me nut draw him in G3 on the video feed, but what wasn't on the video was G2 where he nut drawed me with first turn Xantid and second turn Ad Nauseum sculpting the perfecting hand to kill me. So a little sweet revenge from me.
Also, is your list (caleb's list) fast enough against ANT/Tide with disruption by playing your own disruption?
It is in TES's favor, I would say 65/45, G1 went like how a normal game is, we both dig, him with a ton of ponders and brainstorms to sculpt his combo, and me with brainstorms and tops to sculpt mine, I combo'd one turn faster I believe. G2 he turn one Xantid Swarm and turn to he went off with Ad Nauseum. G3 I got him back by turn two comboing off. Since both decks run LED and fast mana such as lotus petal, chrome mox, rituals, mox opal, stompy lands, etc, we're both capable of explosives starts, I just believe TES does it more consistently. For the sideboard, I sided out goblin welders because if I'm recurring artifacts in GY I should be dead already. I sided in all the red blast effects so to counter all his digging cantrips. I also sided in two tormod's crypts to slow down cabal rituals and Iggy loop.
Finals Cephalid Breakfast - Joe (luckily for me, there's a resident Cephalid Breakfast player named John and I got to test against him in prior tournaments)
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/21515_Finals_Alexander_Kwan_vs_Joe_Lossett.html
- This was the only game where I talked a lot throughout the whole match. He told me all he saw of my deck was the last game against TES where I got a 2nd turn kill. When he was contemplating mulling his opening hand, I showed him a FoW telling him I can protect that 2nd turn (though he didn't know I lacked another blue card at the time and didn't have the combo). I was more content with him drawing down and knowing I had FoW. He fought hard for G1 and derserved it as I was one turn away from the win
- For G2, I had grindstone in play with Painter and land in hand. He casts cabal therapy his turn and I immediately lay my last two cards in front of him and excitedly tell him "you want to name Painter?"... and going on about how it's game if he doesn't. He names Intuition and sees the bad news. In the video I don't think there's player audio so the people online probably thought WTF he name Intuition for? He probably should've named Painter no matter what but my talking apparently worked.
- Also in G2 I forgot what I said to convince him to not crack his fetch since I knew he had Krosan in hand. I was trying to get enough mana to activate the 2nd Grindstone in response to fetch activation and ripped a city of traitors.
- In G3, those who watched the video, I only had lands in hand with Painter naming blue, I draw a top which he forced. I then draw another top and cast which I find goblin welder, pyroblast, and lands. He gets a 2/2 flying creature down and I contemplate pyroblasting it but snap a little sense in myself thinking I can take hits np, I am combo afterall. I need to save pyro for his counters for when I do find my combo piece. At this point, for two turns I see nothing but lands on top and I'm down to 7 life from the 2/2 flyer. In my mind I was thinking "oh well, at least I made it to the finals", but then I stared at the trophy sitting next to us and thought this game isn't over yet. I do a mental slap to wake myself up and realize the last two or three turns I missed taking advantage of the two tops and welder. I think to myself it's okay I messed up but that's in the past to start focusing now. I go crazy with top welder to draw many cards and dig deeper until I find a trinket mage. I have enough mana to cast trinket, pyro his FoW, cast grindstone and activate for the win.
nice finish! Curious about the SB (not posted here but probably can dig it up on SCG). What were your plans against Emrakul decks?
Everything in the SB was great except the Show and Tell / Emrakul plan, my biggest change would be getting rid of those thus freeing up 6 spots for the SB. In testing, the only matchup it was really for was Zoo where it really shined.
For the tournament I only sided it in four rounds:
Round 3 - G2 & G3 - Canadian Thresh with all the counters, lightning bolts, engineered explosives, and fire/ice for the welders was hard enough, then add in Krosans... time to S&T/Emrakul SB. G2 I didn't see the SB and won a long game fighting through the hate to grind him out. G3 was long drawn out affair, the game was boarderline when he was top decking amazingly and I had nothing but lands for 7-8 turns but still find an answer to everything of his. By the time I do end up with S&T Emrakul it's too late as I'm dead to V. Clique beats.
Round 5 G2 - I knew a ton of artifact hate was coming in, the opponent was a friend and I've seen all the Ancient Grudges his lists packed so I figured I'd try the Emrakul plan... well I did get Show and Tell ----> Emrakul in 4th turn but against Dredge...... sac all his creatures, he gets a ton of tokens from Bridges, swing back =\
Round 7 G2 - Against Brian Kibler's Rock, I knew Krosans and/or Pernicious was coming in, and I was hoping his list didn't run Karakas. Thoughtseizes/Hymms rip the hand apart for the more S&T/Emrakul combo where-as welder makes it okay to rip our main combo apart, and his dark confidant revealed a Karakas
Round 8 G2 - I open with Emrakul... great I just need to draw S&T... I draw another Emrakul.
That was it, and in three of the G2 matches I immediately sideboarded it out and won the G3s. With this deck, it's sooo much better to fight through the hate than throw another combo in the deck. Only two reason I would keep the S&T/Emrakul SB is if two decks become really popular, Zoo and Canadian Thresh, as those two have way too many ways to handle the main combo.
Props:
StarCityGames for hosting these large scale Legacy tournaments
MTGthesource for us to have a world-wide community
Knightware and Lori for providing a strong local Legacy community
Knightware regulars: Liam -3rd, Ben -8th, Tony -top32
Koga for the support
Adultcon next door
Slops:
Lack of sleep
Koga for scrubbing out
Round 6 issue