Koby
11-11-2011, 10:23 PM
I have a healthy paranoia of Wasteland.
That more or less described my weekend at SCG Vegas this past week. Being in close proximity to the City of Sin and living in the greater Los Angeles region affords me multiple opportunities to visit. So when the West Coast Legacy crew heard that the LA stop of SCG Opens would be moved to Las Vegas we all felt cheated. Clearly SCG doesn't want to have a repeat of Ben Perry's drunken Belching, or Liam Kane's storm-shenanigans beating up on their Grinder darlings. No, it's much simpler in fact. They want to provide an alternative to players who can't wade through the ranks of infinite rounds to hit the casino tables instead. For this, I applaud Star City Games even if I did not need to utilize it.
The journey starts several months ago. At the time, Mental Misstep was pervasive. This really left only several options for real competitive Legacy decks: Show and Tell decks, Natural Order decks, and Stoneforge Mystic decks. Luckily, the DCI decided that Mental Misstep was a Mistake, and things were starting to look on the up. At the time of the announcement I was already playing GW Maverick. Initially when I looked at the deck I thought to myself "Self: how does this deck win? It's a pile of weak utility creatures!" But I relented and my good friend Chuck Madlangbayan (aka SuperProxy) who has been playing Bant and other GW brews all throughout this year showed me how much it schools a lot of decks. We worked together for a while to tweak the list we've been seening in Europe to suit the American metagame. The first real shift we did was tune the E-tutor sideboard and cut all the chaff. Around June of this past year is when I put in some serious MTGO Daily Event testing with the deck to understand how it operates in a varied metagame. Let's (http://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=329158) just (http://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=330134) say it was (http://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=331036) a very (http://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=334182) successful (http://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=337163) deck (http://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=339604). This convinced me that the deck is good in a metagame that isn't infested with combo decks. From this experience with the deck I was ready to start looking at the metagame and determine if I was going to commit to Maverick.
Chuck and I are still debating whether Aven Mindcensor is worthy the slot in the maindeck. We both agree that if it cost 2 mana like white's other hate bears it would be the most ridiculous card ever. But it being 3 mana is really flooding the 3cc slot in Maverick. For Las Vegas, I was anticipating lots of Snapcaster Mages for which have been doing well in the past few weeks at SCG events. Additionally, I noticed that my singleton Scavenging Ooze was very vulnerable to removal and I wanted to have a 2nd copy for which to continue disrupting g/y decks. In the week before the event I decided to pull the trigger and cut the Aven Mindcensors to put in the 2nd copy of Ooze and the 4th Mother of Runes. That latter addition was felt justified due to all the tempo decks packing tons of cheap removal. Landing Mother of Runes really throughs a wrench into the monkey works that Tempo tries to establish in the early game. I finally settled on this list:
4 Windswepth Heath
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Savannah
2 Forest
1 Plains
2 Horizon Canopy
4 Wasteland
1 Karakas
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Mother of Runes
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Eternal Witness
1 Terravore
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Sword to Plowshares
4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
2 Sylvan Library
Sideboard:
2 Choke
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Maze of Ith
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Path to Exile
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Life from the Loam
In the weeks leading up to the event I started to get enamored with Eric English's Next Level Threshold list updated for the post-MM metagame. I had previously tried it in the last SCG LA event, but floundered at a miserable 2-3 losing to 3 tribal decks. I took the deck to the LGS Majestix for a Saturday night tourney. The crowd was usual, and I taught everyone how much fun miserable it is to play against Stifle. This is when I really got a chance to test against the UW Snap-Blade deck and determined that I need a deck with much more threats against a possibility of 8x StP. Maverick it was!
The drive out to Vegas was pretty much run of the mill. I drove over to Caleb Neufield's apartment in LA and we tested our decks out against each other. He's on Dredge and I on Maverick. After a few games we were convinced that the best SB plan for his deck was 4 Firestorm and 0 Chain of Vapor. He get some sleep while the sky opens up a deluge. In the morning, we meet up with Joe and Leo, and carpool in Joe's car to Vegas. On Friday afternoon after we arrive at the venue, we all attend the Judge conference and partake in discussions about cheating, stealing, and My Little Ponies. Awesome! Get to meet some people from all around at this conference, then half way through Liam, Kevin Long, and Ben Perry show up.
After the conference, the four of us go on a booze run. The actual adults in our group (everyone but Liam) buy some variation of whiskey, while Liam gets his smoking habit on. We head back to the hotel and break in their non-smoking room in with various substances. After a few bowls, we start to test our decks out a bit when Patrick Sullivan shows up for some adult beverages. He can't stay for long, but he does play a deck games and can't help but note that fair decks are miserable in Legacy when Blue is so damn good, and keeps getting better. He gives me a few pointers on not jumping the gun with Wasteland. Thanks Pat! John Harduvel aka Hardyballs, Tony DeVeyra, and Brain Phelan finally show up after probably close to 10 hours of Las Vegas traffic. During this time, Ben is starting to get buzzed and claims that he is the best source of knowledge for alcohol this side of the Mississippi. Naturally, he has been transplanted here from Detriot, which only works to increase his credibility. We retire early into the morning after trying to convince Kevin Long not to throw $30 away by playing in the Standard event. Not much luck with that.
The next morning, Hardyballs, Tony DeVeyra, and Liam all go out for some real food. Tony and Liam are thoroughly baked for this trip into the Strip, and everything seems wonderful for them. Tony keeps saying that Vegas is the Anus of American culture. I suggest the Mandalay Bay Bayside buffet. We arrive there, and promptly get No-Sirred since it's only $25. Not being able to convince the team, we walk around looking for something else. We stop by a cafe that has Krispy Kreme donuts and grab a table. Tony is amazed about the double espresso I order; not being able to believe how small the coffee is. When the waitress comes back to take our food orders, Tony slowly starts giving her his order. The trouble is that he's mumbling to himself about the vegatarian options and no one, including the three of us can't understand him. The waitress tells him after about 30 seconds of this rambling "I didn't understand a single thing you just said". The three of us have a good laugh with Tony about it. The meal ends up being about $25 per person...
We go to check out the Shark Tank at the Mandalay Bay, but it costs money. We're too poor to afford $18 to see caged sharks. On the way back, I spot something enormous...
http://images.community.wizards.com/community.wizards.com/user/rukcus/large/3c321f26003814dd53861fb2fb708454.jpg
The largest wine tower I have ever seen. I love Las Vegas. Nothing in this town is unique. It's literally a cultural wasteland. Who are the people that pay money to travel to the desert and stay at New York, New York casino and see cheap replicas of NY's architecture? It's pathetic.
We continued to walk up the Strip and come across some shady looking gentlemen handing out stripper cards. We suggest that Liam uses them as Goblin tokens when he combos off, but he counters that they would be better used as Germ tokens for my Batterskull. We all agree that's much better and try to find the skankiest looking stripper, by the name of Kim. I'm sure her father must be very proud of his daughter. We walk up to the Bellagio to check out the fountain show, but when we show up the performance is ending. We decide that we'd rather not wait around an hour in the 40 deg weather for the next performance and head back just in time to get ready for the Legacy Challenge.
I finalize my SB with the Metamorph in anticipation of Reanimator (since that's how West Coast rolls). Kevin starts to brew up some Legacy ideas and is thinking about playing some version of High Tide. We have a discussion about the deck, and ultimately I suggest him to play a deck he knows well, plays well, and likes to play. This is the crux of the Legacy format boiled down. You don't have to be a good player, or even be playing a good deck. All you need is to play your deck well and know it well. He decides that makes a lot of sense and audibles into Reanimator.
Round 1 - Affinity (2-0)
Pretty uneventful match. My opponent isn't too familiar with Batterskull, and I gain a ton of life and make his day not so bright. I think he was running Galvanic Blast, which is sometimes unusual.
Round 2 - Next Level Blue (2-1)
My opponent's deck looks a lot like Calasso's CB/Rug list from a few weeks ago. I still play around Stifle when I can. I think KotR resolves and he can't deal with it. I never see Counterbalance played too, so it might have been harder if I had. I notice right away that Delver of Secrets is a bitch to deal. What a little motherfucker!
Round 3 - ??? (win)
Whiskey seems to have taken its toll. I don't remember what I played against.
Round 4 - ANT (draw)
We split for prizes. I then learn he's on ANT and feel relieved.
I take the prize credit and pick up a 2nd Ooze so I can return my loaned copy to Caleb. During the tournament I met a few Source lurkers. I met Norm and his younger brother playing GW maverick. I also meet Joe from New England area. He's playing UGw Tempo (*rant* because goddamn nothing is ever new in Legacy. Take a look at the archives UGr Tempo and UGw Tempo were the number one decks many years ago.) We discuss our decks and strategies for the Sunday event and play a few games. I end up crushing him on the play, and get crushed on the draw - as typical against Tempo.
At this time we learn that Lu Cai has made Top 8 with his U/R burn deck in the Standard event. Awesome! Good job Lu!
We then head back to the smoker's den and Liam has invited the SCG darlings over to partake in mind altering activities. Edgar Flores, Nick Spagnalo, and Jacob Van Lunen show up and chill out. Hardyballs, Ben, Kevin, and I head out to grab some Earl of Sandwiches. Kevin has an insanely smart idea - take some sammiches to go. After a few days of drinking, I'm starting to feel like I need real sustenance so I order veggie sandwiches, which are still plenty good. After we nosh, Ben starts to wonder over to Fat Tuesdays to get his grain alcoholism on. He meets some lovely ladies and offers them a chance to party with us. However, he being a fine gentleman, scholar, and Good People, he informs them upfront that we're a bunch of nerds and stoners. This doesn't sit too well with the ladies. He comes back to let us know that it did not work.
We come back to the den and only Jacob Van Lunen remains with Liam and Tony. Ben decides it's now the time to crack his two boxes of Innistrad he recieved for judging the Standard event. We proceed to litter the room with ban Transform cards and scary looking pieces of cardboard. I retire early with the intention of winning something big.
That more or less described my weekend at SCG Vegas this past week. Being in close proximity to the City of Sin and living in the greater Los Angeles region affords me multiple opportunities to visit. So when the West Coast Legacy crew heard that the LA stop of SCG Opens would be moved to Las Vegas we all felt cheated. Clearly SCG doesn't want to have a repeat of Ben Perry's drunken Belching, or Liam Kane's storm-shenanigans beating up on their Grinder darlings. No, it's much simpler in fact. They want to provide an alternative to players who can't wade through the ranks of infinite rounds to hit the casino tables instead. For this, I applaud Star City Games even if I did not need to utilize it.
The journey starts several months ago. At the time, Mental Misstep was pervasive. This really left only several options for real competitive Legacy decks: Show and Tell decks, Natural Order decks, and Stoneforge Mystic decks. Luckily, the DCI decided that Mental Misstep was a Mistake, and things were starting to look on the up. At the time of the announcement I was already playing GW Maverick. Initially when I looked at the deck I thought to myself "Self: how does this deck win? It's a pile of weak utility creatures!" But I relented and my good friend Chuck Madlangbayan (aka SuperProxy) who has been playing Bant and other GW brews all throughout this year showed me how much it schools a lot of decks. We worked together for a while to tweak the list we've been seening in Europe to suit the American metagame. The first real shift we did was tune the E-tutor sideboard and cut all the chaff. Around June of this past year is when I put in some serious MTGO Daily Event testing with the deck to understand how it operates in a varied metagame. Let's (http://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=329158) just (http://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=330134) say it was (http://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=331036) a very (http://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=334182) successful (http://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=337163) deck (http://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=339604). This convinced me that the deck is good in a metagame that isn't infested with combo decks. From this experience with the deck I was ready to start looking at the metagame and determine if I was going to commit to Maverick.
Chuck and I are still debating whether Aven Mindcensor is worthy the slot in the maindeck. We both agree that if it cost 2 mana like white's other hate bears it would be the most ridiculous card ever. But it being 3 mana is really flooding the 3cc slot in Maverick. For Las Vegas, I was anticipating lots of Snapcaster Mages for which have been doing well in the past few weeks at SCG events. Additionally, I noticed that my singleton Scavenging Ooze was very vulnerable to removal and I wanted to have a 2nd copy for which to continue disrupting g/y decks. In the week before the event I decided to pull the trigger and cut the Aven Mindcensors to put in the 2nd copy of Ooze and the 4th Mother of Runes. That latter addition was felt justified due to all the tempo decks packing tons of cheap removal. Landing Mother of Runes really throughs a wrench into the monkey works that Tempo tries to establish in the early game. I finally settled on this list:
4 Windswepth Heath
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Savannah
2 Forest
1 Plains
2 Horizon Canopy
4 Wasteland
1 Karakas
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Mother of Runes
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Eternal Witness
1 Terravore
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Sword to Plowshares
4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
2 Sylvan Library
Sideboard:
2 Choke
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Maze of Ith
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Path to Exile
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Life from the Loam
In the weeks leading up to the event I started to get enamored with Eric English's Next Level Threshold list updated for the post-MM metagame. I had previously tried it in the last SCG LA event, but floundered at a miserable 2-3 losing to 3 tribal decks. I took the deck to the LGS Majestix for a Saturday night tourney. The crowd was usual, and I taught everyone how much fun miserable it is to play against Stifle. This is when I really got a chance to test against the UW Snap-Blade deck and determined that I need a deck with much more threats against a possibility of 8x StP. Maverick it was!
The drive out to Vegas was pretty much run of the mill. I drove over to Caleb Neufield's apartment in LA and we tested our decks out against each other. He's on Dredge and I on Maverick. After a few games we were convinced that the best SB plan for his deck was 4 Firestorm and 0 Chain of Vapor. He get some sleep while the sky opens up a deluge. In the morning, we meet up with Joe and Leo, and carpool in Joe's car to Vegas. On Friday afternoon after we arrive at the venue, we all attend the Judge conference and partake in discussions about cheating, stealing, and My Little Ponies. Awesome! Get to meet some people from all around at this conference, then half way through Liam, Kevin Long, and Ben Perry show up.
After the conference, the four of us go on a booze run. The actual adults in our group (everyone but Liam) buy some variation of whiskey, while Liam gets his smoking habit on. We head back to the hotel and break in their non-smoking room in with various substances. After a few bowls, we start to test our decks out a bit when Patrick Sullivan shows up for some adult beverages. He can't stay for long, but he does play a deck games and can't help but note that fair decks are miserable in Legacy when Blue is so damn good, and keeps getting better. He gives me a few pointers on not jumping the gun with Wasteland. Thanks Pat! John Harduvel aka Hardyballs, Tony DeVeyra, and Brain Phelan finally show up after probably close to 10 hours of Las Vegas traffic. During this time, Ben is starting to get buzzed and claims that he is the best source of knowledge for alcohol this side of the Mississippi. Naturally, he has been transplanted here from Detriot, which only works to increase his credibility. We retire early into the morning after trying to convince Kevin Long not to throw $30 away by playing in the Standard event. Not much luck with that.
The next morning, Hardyballs, Tony DeVeyra, and Liam all go out for some real food. Tony and Liam are thoroughly baked for this trip into the Strip, and everything seems wonderful for them. Tony keeps saying that Vegas is the Anus of American culture. I suggest the Mandalay Bay Bayside buffet. We arrive there, and promptly get No-Sirred since it's only $25. Not being able to convince the team, we walk around looking for something else. We stop by a cafe that has Krispy Kreme donuts and grab a table. Tony is amazed about the double espresso I order; not being able to believe how small the coffee is. When the waitress comes back to take our food orders, Tony slowly starts giving her his order. The trouble is that he's mumbling to himself about the vegatarian options and no one, including the three of us can't understand him. The waitress tells him after about 30 seconds of this rambling "I didn't understand a single thing you just said". The three of us have a good laugh with Tony about it. The meal ends up being about $25 per person...
We go to check out the Shark Tank at the Mandalay Bay, but it costs money. We're too poor to afford $18 to see caged sharks. On the way back, I spot something enormous...
http://images.community.wizards.com/community.wizards.com/user/rukcus/large/3c321f26003814dd53861fb2fb708454.jpg
The largest wine tower I have ever seen. I love Las Vegas. Nothing in this town is unique. It's literally a cultural wasteland. Who are the people that pay money to travel to the desert and stay at New York, New York casino and see cheap replicas of NY's architecture? It's pathetic.
We continued to walk up the Strip and come across some shady looking gentlemen handing out stripper cards. We suggest that Liam uses them as Goblin tokens when he combos off, but he counters that they would be better used as Germ tokens for my Batterskull. We all agree that's much better and try to find the skankiest looking stripper, by the name of Kim. I'm sure her father must be very proud of his daughter. We walk up to the Bellagio to check out the fountain show, but when we show up the performance is ending. We decide that we'd rather not wait around an hour in the 40 deg weather for the next performance and head back just in time to get ready for the Legacy Challenge.
I finalize my SB with the Metamorph in anticipation of Reanimator (since that's how West Coast rolls). Kevin starts to brew up some Legacy ideas and is thinking about playing some version of High Tide. We have a discussion about the deck, and ultimately I suggest him to play a deck he knows well, plays well, and likes to play. This is the crux of the Legacy format boiled down. You don't have to be a good player, or even be playing a good deck. All you need is to play your deck well and know it well. He decides that makes a lot of sense and audibles into Reanimator.
Round 1 - Affinity (2-0)
Pretty uneventful match. My opponent isn't too familiar with Batterskull, and I gain a ton of life and make his day not so bright. I think he was running Galvanic Blast, which is sometimes unusual.
Round 2 - Next Level Blue (2-1)
My opponent's deck looks a lot like Calasso's CB/Rug list from a few weeks ago. I still play around Stifle when I can. I think KotR resolves and he can't deal with it. I never see Counterbalance played too, so it might have been harder if I had. I notice right away that Delver of Secrets is a bitch to deal. What a little motherfucker!
Round 3 - ??? (win)
Whiskey seems to have taken its toll. I don't remember what I played against.
Round 4 - ANT (draw)
We split for prizes. I then learn he's on ANT and feel relieved.
I take the prize credit and pick up a 2nd Ooze so I can return my loaned copy to Caleb. During the tournament I met a few Source lurkers. I met Norm and his younger brother playing GW maverick. I also meet Joe from New England area. He's playing UGw Tempo (*rant* because goddamn nothing is ever new in Legacy. Take a look at the archives UGr Tempo and UGw Tempo were the number one decks many years ago.) We discuss our decks and strategies for the Sunday event and play a few games. I end up crushing him on the play, and get crushed on the draw - as typical against Tempo.
At this time we learn that Lu Cai has made Top 8 with his U/R burn deck in the Standard event. Awesome! Good job Lu!
We then head back to the smoker's den and Liam has invited the SCG darlings over to partake in mind altering activities. Edgar Flores, Nick Spagnalo, and Jacob Van Lunen show up and chill out. Hardyballs, Ben, Kevin, and I head out to grab some Earl of Sandwiches. Kevin has an insanely smart idea - take some sammiches to go. After a few days of drinking, I'm starting to feel like I need real sustenance so I order veggie sandwiches, which are still plenty good. After we nosh, Ben starts to wonder over to Fat Tuesdays to get his grain alcoholism on. He meets some lovely ladies and offers them a chance to party with us. However, he being a fine gentleman, scholar, and Good People, he informs them upfront that we're a bunch of nerds and stoners. This doesn't sit too well with the ladies. He comes back to let us know that it did not work.
We come back to the den and only Jacob Van Lunen remains with Liam and Tony. Ben decides it's now the time to crack his two boxes of Innistrad he recieved for judging the Standard event. We proceed to litter the room with ban Transform cards and scary looking pieces of cardboard. I retire early with the intention of winning something big.