Jonathan Alexander
02-06-2012, 09:52 AM
So because History lessons are in fact quite boring, I do have the time to write a report. This past Sunday we drove to the monthly Legacy event in Iserlohn, Germany. Since we had to pick up a friend before the tournament, we had to get up an hour earlier than usual. Luckily we went to bed early this time so getting up at seven was cool for me.
In the car we talked about the expected metagame, and all of us expected a lot of Dredge. I didn't want to play Grinding Station then; Faithless Looting Dredge is actually a pretty bad matchup. We arrived at the site almost an hour before the event, but that was good for me since I was still missing a few cards for my deck. At first I wasn't even sure on what to play but once I realised I didn't have my Forces and Goyfs with me, I decided to just go play Grinding Station. I asked a friend if he had a Thoughtseize for me and he said something along the lines of "So you're playing combo again and cheat me out of the tournament, huh?".
Naturally, he was my round one opponent.
By the way, the list I registered:
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
1 Meditate
1 Rain of Filth
1 Badlands
1 Flooded Strand
2 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Burning Wish
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Past in Flames
3 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Rite of Flame
3 Tendrils of Agony
3 Thoughtseize
//Sideboard
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Extirpate
1 Rain of Filth
1 Sudden Shock
1 Shelldock Isle
4 Doomsday
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Past in Flames
1 Silent Departure
1 Tendrils Of Agony
Round One: David on Nic Fit
I won the roll and since I was sure he was on Nic Fit, I decided to go first. I mulled to six and cast a cantripHe had Veteran Explorers on turn one and two but no discard spells. My draw was bad though and in my fourth turn I decided to cast Meditate and hope for the best. I had some rituals already so drawing into Tendrils was enough, although it was a bit tricky because I had to play around potential Swords to Plowshares for his creatures.
-3 Cabal Therapy
-2 Tendrils of Agony
+1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
+1 Shelldock Isle
+3 Doomsday
I didn't know what to bring in so I decided to go for the easy way. Being able to go off with minimal resources is quite cool I hear. He decided to go first and I think he kept his seven. I mulled to five and kept Badlands, Scalding Tarn, Polluted Delta, Meditate and Doomsday. I think he missed his one drop and I drew Dark Ritual. I fetched for Underground Sea and cast Doomsday for a pile with Shelldock Isle and Emrakul. He had no outs, I won.
1-0
Round Two: Pierre on BUG Control
I won the roll and let him play which I think kind of confused him. On his first turn he played an Underground Sea, I cracked a fetch for basic Island I think and cast Preordain. On turn two he dropped a Wasteland and passed the turn, I played some more cantrips. He missed his third land drop and I cast Thoughtseize seeing Jace, Snapcaster Mage, another Jace, Life from the Loam, Vendilion Clique, Darkblast and a Spell Snare which went to the graveyard. I then proceeded to cast Burning Wish into Empty the Warrens for fourteen Goblins. He didn't find an out and lost the game.
-1 Meditate
-3 Burning Wish
+1 Rain of Filth
+1 Empty the Warrens
+1 Past in Flames
+1 Tendrils of Agony
I don't remember what happened in game two, but we both kept our seven card hands. I didn't find business and after 20+ minutes I lost the game to Snapcaster Mage + Creeping Tar Pit beatdown.
Game three was more of the same, although he made a crucial error at one point, where he was trying to screw my hand and cast two Vendilion Cliques in my endstep. Due to that he didn't have a fast enough clock and we drew.
1-0-1
Round Three: Micha on Lands
We sat next to each other the round before so I knew he was on Lands. I won the roll and kept my seven, keeping a pretty bad hand with lots of cantrips I think. When he had Loam online with a Rishadan Port on the battlefield to my two duals and a Wasteland I decided it was time to go off. I proceeded to build shitty Doomsday pile and lost the game. Cool.
-3 Cabal Therapy
+3 Doomsday
Game two he mulled to six, I kept my seven and quickly stormed him out without Doomsday.
Game three he opened on Leyline of Sanctity. I had no outs so I had to go for Empty the Warrens. He had Engineered Explosives though. One turn later I went off with Doomsday, making a pile that could throw out 20 Goblins, but with only one card left in my library. He had Mishra's Factory and I lost. Whoops. This was the last time I cast Doomsday the entire tournament. I didn't even want to play anymore actually.
Round Four: Someone on Goblins (sorry man, didn't take notes for this round)
I won the roll and since his sleeves looked like they were used for quite some time and his deck didn't seem to be double-sleeved I chose to play first. I cast a cantrip on turn one, he went basic mountain, go. On my turn, I had even more cantrips and he cast Goblin Piledriver. Good to know. I let him have one more turn and took one damage before going off with double Tendrils.
I didn't board for this round because I wanted to have Cabal Therapy in case he had Mindbreak Trap.
Game two he played first and opened on Goblin Lackey off basic Mountain. I had some cantrips and let him do some damage until I was on ten life. Then I went off with double Tendrils again after I played Cabal Therapy for Mindbreak Trap, just in case.
2-1-1
Round Five: Alexander on U/R Delver
Again, I played against a friend. I knew what he was playing since he sat next to me before, when he drew against Lands. He went first and started with Grim Lavamancer. On my third turn I cast a Probe to see Force of Will, double Fire // Ice, Chain Lightning and two Lightning Bolts. I cast another Probe, a discard spell, some artifact mana, Burning Wish for Grapeshot, Grapeshot for nine, Past in Flames, Grapeshot for eleven.
-1 Meditate
-3 Burning Wish
+1 Rain of Filth
+1 Empty the Warrens
+1 Past in Flames
+1 Tendrils of Agony
He opted to play first, started on Delver, I fetched for basic Island and cast a cantrip. He cast Brainstorm with the Delver trigger on the stack, showed me Lightning Bolt (which I called by the way) and attacked my to sixteen before playing another Delver. I cast some more cantrips, he attacked for four and played another Delver. On my turn I had Probe with some rituals, Tendrils and Cabal Therapy. I cast Probe and saw the Bolt and double Surgical Extraction. I cast Dark Ritual and then Cabal Therapy on him. He tanked for a while then cast Extraction for Dark Ritual, going down to seventeen. I responded with another Ritual and showed him my hand so he didn't have to search for the other Rituals because I could cast Tendrils for eighteen now.
We played some more games after that (six or so, I lost one of them and we agreed it was a good matchup for me), then did some trading (finally I have some Noble Hierarchs again) and talked to some friends. Then we heard the announcement that there were ten minutes left in the round. Interesting.
3-1-1
Round Six: Michael on Burn
Cool, I was paired down against my teammate. I thought he was on Dredge and thus wanted to talk him into conceding (after all, it's best for the team) but we played anyway. He won the roll and went first.
He led with basic Mountain and I was relieved. Burn is an awesome matchup for me. He did some stuff (think he was mana-screwed) and I cast Tendrils for lethal.
I didn't board anything and he went first. He opened on basic Mountain, I cracked a fetch for basic Island then cast a cantrip. I did nothing interesting, he had Keldon Marauders. I probed him with mana, saw Price of Progress, Fireblast and Barbarian Ring, then did some math and cast Tendrils for twelve, putting me to 22. He pinged me with Marauders, cast a Chain Lightning and played the Barbarian Ring. I drew something, cast some cantrips and found the second Tendrils to finish him off, although I went down to fourteen from my own stuff before that while he could only deal ten damage maximum.
4-1-1
Round Seven: Sebastian on UR Past in Flames / Brain Freeze
He won the roll and played first. He mulled to six and I knew what he was playing so I kept a slow hand with two discard spells and some cantrips. He led with Gitaxian Probe and then played a fetchland. My first turn Thoughtseize revealed Burning Wish, Pyretic Ritual, Desperate Ritual, Brain Freeze and Seething Song. I took the Wish. I didn't find any business in the three canrips I cast after that and he had perfect draws in land and Past in Flames, although he had to make Goblins instead of killing me with Tendrils or Grapeshot. I drew Underground Sea from the top and scooped up my cards.
-1 Sensei's Divining Top
-1 Meditate
+2 Extirpate
Game two I mulled to six on the play and killed him quite early. At some point I cast Cabal Therapy after seeing his hand with Probe. Instead of letting me take his Burning Wish which he needed to go off, he decided to use his Flusterstorm on my Therapy. He attempted to go off with Past in Flames, but I cast Extirpate on Brainstorm, seeing he had basically no outs left in his deck. He fizzled, then I went off.
Game three we both kept our seven. I had two cantrips, a Cabal Ritual, three lands and a Thoughtseize. Almost all of my draw steps gave me land and at some point he went off with no cards in hand and only two Ponders in his graveyard. He fizzled and had two lands, Pyroblast and Flusterstorm in his hand. Two turns later I went off after picking apart his hand but couldn't do more than casting Tendrils for 12 while he was at 13. My hand was Grapeshot and Tendrils of Agony at this point and I had seven or eight lands in play. He tried to go off once more but fizzled again (obviously) and I won the match.
5-1-1
At first I thought my record would be enough to finish around 8th place but when prizes were given out, I realised I actually finished sixth on breakers. That felt quite cool, especially after starting out 1-1-1. Too bad top eight wasn't played out, but to be honest, I was relieved that I didn't have to play the list anymore. Doomsday is by no means bad, but it's neither the right choice for the deck nor for me personally.
That's it for this time, I hope you enjoyed it. I hope I didn't mess up stuff, I wrote most of this in school.
In the car we talked about the expected metagame, and all of us expected a lot of Dredge. I didn't want to play Grinding Station then; Faithless Looting Dredge is actually a pretty bad matchup. We arrived at the site almost an hour before the event, but that was good for me since I was still missing a few cards for my deck. At first I wasn't even sure on what to play but once I realised I didn't have my Forces and Goyfs with me, I decided to just go play Grinding Station. I asked a friend if he had a Thoughtseize for me and he said something along the lines of "So you're playing combo again and cheat me out of the tournament, huh?".
Naturally, he was my round one opponent.
By the way, the list I registered:
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
1 Meditate
1 Rain of Filth
1 Badlands
1 Flooded Strand
2 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Burning Wish
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Past in Flames
3 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Rite of Flame
3 Tendrils of Agony
3 Thoughtseize
//Sideboard
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Extirpate
1 Rain of Filth
1 Sudden Shock
1 Shelldock Isle
4 Doomsday
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Past in Flames
1 Silent Departure
1 Tendrils Of Agony
Round One: David on Nic Fit
I won the roll and since I was sure he was on Nic Fit, I decided to go first. I mulled to six and cast a cantripHe had Veteran Explorers on turn one and two but no discard spells. My draw was bad though and in my fourth turn I decided to cast Meditate and hope for the best. I had some rituals already so drawing into Tendrils was enough, although it was a bit tricky because I had to play around potential Swords to Plowshares for his creatures.
-3 Cabal Therapy
-2 Tendrils of Agony
+1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
+1 Shelldock Isle
+3 Doomsday
I didn't know what to bring in so I decided to go for the easy way. Being able to go off with minimal resources is quite cool I hear. He decided to go first and I think he kept his seven. I mulled to five and kept Badlands, Scalding Tarn, Polluted Delta, Meditate and Doomsday. I think he missed his one drop and I drew Dark Ritual. I fetched for Underground Sea and cast Doomsday for a pile with Shelldock Isle and Emrakul. He had no outs, I won.
1-0
Round Two: Pierre on BUG Control
I won the roll and let him play which I think kind of confused him. On his first turn he played an Underground Sea, I cracked a fetch for basic Island I think and cast Preordain. On turn two he dropped a Wasteland and passed the turn, I played some more cantrips. He missed his third land drop and I cast Thoughtseize seeing Jace, Snapcaster Mage, another Jace, Life from the Loam, Vendilion Clique, Darkblast and a Spell Snare which went to the graveyard. I then proceeded to cast Burning Wish into Empty the Warrens for fourteen Goblins. He didn't find an out and lost the game.
-1 Meditate
-3 Burning Wish
+1 Rain of Filth
+1 Empty the Warrens
+1 Past in Flames
+1 Tendrils of Agony
I don't remember what happened in game two, but we both kept our seven card hands. I didn't find business and after 20+ minutes I lost the game to Snapcaster Mage + Creeping Tar Pit beatdown.
Game three was more of the same, although he made a crucial error at one point, where he was trying to screw my hand and cast two Vendilion Cliques in my endstep. Due to that he didn't have a fast enough clock and we drew.
1-0-1
Round Three: Micha on Lands
We sat next to each other the round before so I knew he was on Lands. I won the roll and kept my seven, keeping a pretty bad hand with lots of cantrips I think. When he had Loam online with a Rishadan Port on the battlefield to my two duals and a Wasteland I decided it was time to go off. I proceeded to build shitty Doomsday pile and lost the game. Cool.
-3 Cabal Therapy
+3 Doomsday
Game two he mulled to six, I kept my seven and quickly stormed him out without Doomsday.
Game three he opened on Leyline of Sanctity. I had no outs so I had to go for Empty the Warrens. He had Engineered Explosives though. One turn later I went off with Doomsday, making a pile that could throw out 20 Goblins, but with only one card left in my library. He had Mishra's Factory and I lost. Whoops. This was the last time I cast Doomsday the entire tournament. I didn't even want to play anymore actually.
Round Four: Someone on Goblins (sorry man, didn't take notes for this round)
I won the roll and since his sleeves looked like they were used for quite some time and his deck didn't seem to be double-sleeved I chose to play first. I cast a cantrip on turn one, he went basic mountain, go. On my turn, I had even more cantrips and he cast Goblin Piledriver. Good to know. I let him have one more turn and took one damage before going off with double Tendrils.
I didn't board for this round because I wanted to have Cabal Therapy in case he had Mindbreak Trap.
Game two he played first and opened on Goblin Lackey off basic Mountain. I had some cantrips and let him do some damage until I was on ten life. Then I went off with double Tendrils again after I played Cabal Therapy for Mindbreak Trap, just in case.
2-1-1
Round Five: Alexander on U/R Delver
Again, I played against a friend. I knew what he was playing since he sat next to me before, when he drew against Lands. He went first and started with Grim Lavamancer. On my third turn I cast a Probe to see Force of Will, double Fire // Ice, Chain Lightning and two Lightning Bolts. I cast another Probe, a discard spell, some artifact mana, Burning Wish for Grapeshot, Grapeshot for nine, Past in Flames, Grapeshot for eleven.
-1 Meditate
-3 Burning Wish
+1 Rain of Filth
+1 Empty the Warrens
+1 Past in Flames
+1 Tendrils of Agony
He opted to play first, started on Delver, I fetched for basic Island and cast a cantrip. He cast Brainstorm with the Delver trigger on the stack, showed me Lightning Bolt (which I called by the way) and attacked my to sixteen before playing another Delver. I cast some more cantrips, he attacked for four and played another Delver. On my turn I had Probe with some rituals, Tendrils and Cabal Therapy. I cast Probe and saw the Bolt and double Surgical Extraction. I cast Dark Ritual and then Cabal Therapy on him. He tanked for a while then cast Extraction for Dark Ritual, going down to seventeen. I responded with another Ritual and showed him my hand so he didn't have to search for the other Rituals because I could cast Tendrils for eighteen now.
We played some more games after that (six or so, I lost one of them and we agreed it was a good matchup for me), then did some trading (finally I have some Noble Hierarchs again) and talked to some friends. Then we heard the announcement that there were ten minutes left in the round. Interesting.
3-1-1
Round Six: Michael on Burn
Cool, I was paired down against my teammate. I thought he was on Dredge and thus wanted to talk him into conceding (after all, it's best for the team) but we played anyway. He won the roll and went first.
He led with basic Mountain and I was relieved. Burn is an awesome matchup for me. He did some stuff (think he was mana-screwed) and I cast Tendrils for lethal.
I didn't board anything and he went first. He opened on basic Mountain, I cracked a fetch for basic Island then cast a cantrip. I did nothing interesting, he had Keldon Marauders. I probed him with mana, saw Price of Progress, Fireblast and Barbarian Ring, then did some math and cast Tendrils for twelve, putting me to 22. He pinged me with Marauders, cast a Chain Lightning and played the Barbarian Ring. I drew something, cast some cantrips and found the second Tendrils to finish him off, although I went down to fourteen from my own stuff before that while he could only deal ten damage maximum.
4-1-1
Round Seven: Sebastian on UR Past in Flames / Brain Freeze
He won the roll and played first. He mulled to six and I knew what he was playing so I kept a slow hand with two discard spells and some cantrips. He led with Gitaxian Probe and then played a fetchland. My first turn Thoughtseize revealed Burning Wish, Pyretic Ritual, Desperate Ritual, Brain Freeze and Seething Song. I took the Wish. I didn't find any business in the three canrips I cast after that and he had perfect draws in land and Past in Flames, although he had to make Goblins instead of killing me with Tendrils or Grapeshot. I drew Underground Sea from the top and scooped up my cards.
-1 Sensei's Divining Top
-1 Meditate
+2 Extirpate
Game two I mulled to six on the play and killed him quite early. At some point I cast Cabal Therapy after seeing his hand with Probe. Instead of letting me take his Burning Wish which he needed to go off, he decided to use his Flusterstorm on my Therapy. He attempted to go off with Past in Flames, but I cast Extirpate on Brainstorm, seeing he had basically no outs left in his deck. He fizzled, then I went off.
Game three we both kept our seven. I had two cantrips, a Cabal Ritual, three lands and a Thoughtseize. Almost all of my draw steps gave me land and at some point he went off with no cards in hand and only two Ponders in his graveyard. He fizzled and had two lands, Pyroblast and Flusterstorm in his hand. Two turns later I went off after picking apart his hand but couldn't do more than casting Tendrils for 12 while he was at 13. My hand was Grapeshot and Tendrils of Agony at this point and I had seven or eight lands in play. He tried to go off once more but fizzled again (obviously) and I won the match.
5-1-1
At first I thought my record would be enough to finish around 8th place but when prizes were given out, I realised I actually finished sixth on breakers. That felt quite cool, especially after starting out 1-1-1. Too bad top eight wasn't played out, but to be honest, I was relieved that I didn't have to play the list anymore. Doomsday is by no means bad, but it's neither the right choice for the deck nor for me personally.
That's it for this time, I hope you enjoyed it. I hope I didn't mess up stuff, I wrote most of this in school.