TheInfamousBearAssassin
03-16-2012, 10:08 PM
Way back in October I decide I'm going to get back into Legacy somewhat seriously, but I don't know what deck to play. I've been discouraged with the state of board control, my go-to archetype, for quite a while. During this time I'm testing online with Godzilla a fair bit. I'm working on a build of MWC that uses the Mighty Quinn framework of drawing cards off of Scrying Sheets + Top, but ditches the reliance on E-Tutor and permanents and uses planeswalkers rather than Painter/Grindstone as a kill. There's no Orim's Chant so it's just dead to combo but theory is that everyone else will keep combo in line. After some discussion SFM-Batterskull is added to speed up the clock, replacing the more stall-y sets of Wall of Shards and Pulse of the Fields.
I do pretty well with it immediately, making money at the next three (small) tournaments I go to.
This is not the story of that deck.
WomBlade ended up losing to every bit of hate aimed at Blade Control excepting Choke, and generally had trouble coping with the widening plans of attack as the Legacy metagame exploded in a dozen directions in December onwards. I kept trying to revive it but ultimately got tired of getting my ass kicked at SCG Opens.
Maverick's been one of my go-to decks in testing since around last June, before it was cool, as it were. Despite being utterly unimpressed with Mother of Runes and despising some of the cuter cards people run like Cradle or Scryb Ranger, the fundamentals of the deck are very sound. I decide to get the deck together with help from Kyle Miller and the Hatfields primarily, with another couple cards each, I believe, from James Pogue, Lance Hartbarger and Jeff McAleer. I finish in money for the first time in what feels like five million years, and I like the g/w list I'm running, but I'm not quite wowed by it and not sure what I'm going to end up playing at the GP.
Dan Signorini has by this time spent months trying to perfect a Bant list, which is incredibly hard because there's so many good cards that have to be cut. The topic comes up at a local tourny of what the core of the deck should be; for instance, it's pretty widely agreed that it's impossible to run Force, Stoneforge Mystic, and GSZ all in the same deck effectively, and even two of these might be greedy.
Having been playing a lot of planeswalkers recently, I suggest, half-jokingly, that the deck should just be built around 4 Hierarch, 4 GSZ, 3 Jace, 2 Elspeth.
A few seconds later, however, I really that actually sounds really good. I get to brewing when I get home.
Here's the list I wound up playing with;
The List
4 Windswept Heath
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Savannah
3 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Wasteland
1 Karakas
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Maze of Ith
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Eternal Witness
1 Rhox War Monk
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Spell Pierce
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Bant Charm
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
SB:
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Flusterstorm
3 Submerge
2 Parallax Wave
1 Umezawa's Jitte
I really wanted to run the 4th GSZ as per the plan, but I didn't know what else was better to cut. Per my own rule, uncertainty of which is the correct card to cut is the only reason I'll accept to run 61 cards, and I might've gone with that here, but enough people I talked to seemed to lean towards the 4th GSZ having the least marginal value that I went with it.
The sideboard probably should've had another Flusterstorm, but I didn't know what to cut for that either and also no one had them available since the Hatfields both went with High Tide decks.
So quick analysis-
The mana base: Green is obviously the primary color here, so the duals/fetchland setup should make sense. The Island is the second basic since two of your utility lands tap for white and none for blue; I never really found myself wanting more than two Wastelands, and it's awkward with Bant Charm and RWM so I didn't; and Stirring Wildwood is just there to have a manland that's good at killing Delvers and Jaces.
The one drops: Just 18 really powerful, flexible cards that can run out on turn 1, giving the deck a pretty low mana curve and allowing you more freedom of action in the first turns of the game.
The GSZ package: Thrun for removal decks and as an additional bomb to draw, Witness for recurring powerful spells and or just situational answers, RWM for being up on aggro decks, Ooze and Pridemage as answers to annoying strategies and Tarmogoyf to be a big bulky three drop with GSZ.
Knight of the Reliquary: Second most important kill condition and route to victory.
Planeswalkers: Primary kill condition and route to victory. The 2/2/1 split worked out very well for me. I cut the third Jace for Garruk to have more situations where I could drop two Planeswalkers at once. What I found was that Garruk, albeit at one more mana, was actually pretty solid at fulfilling the roles of both of the others. If I had a Garruk and an Elspeth in play, I would use Garruk to draw a shit ton of cards; if I had Garruk and Jace in place I would keep Brainstorming and use Garruk to churn out elephants.
Other stuff: Bant Charm is additional removal that gives you a maindeck out to Equipment and can even randomly counter removal, Price of Progress, Ad Nauseam or High Tide; Jitte is, SFM or not, the best equipment in the format generally and essentially another planeswalker effect, if you have creatures to slap it on, in terms of giving you a range of free useful effects every turn.
Sideboard: Crypts I brought in once over the entire weekend; two of them to have additional answers to a Thopter Foundry deck. Flusterstorm was golden, Canonist I wanted a few times but could've just been more counters, Submerge was the other all star and Parallax Wave, while only coming in a few times, dominated the matchups where it was relevant; also the matchups, generally, where you want the extra Jitte.
Most of the cards I end up borrowing from James Pogue, with Jeff, Kyle, Alix and Jesse also helping out. Mike Turpyn fails in his last minute bid to get me to play Solidarity, and a ten hour car drive through just the worst states and an all you can eat biscuits-n-gravy from Cracker Barrel (it was a trap) later, and we're off and running. These are all based on my shoddy notes and memory so details might be slightly off.
Round 1: Lucas Sleasman, Bantblade Thing?[b]
Game 1: I see a Sejiri Steppe and Karakas and want to put him on Knight, but I never see green mana. He StPs a Pridemage or something, I stick a Jace and he concedes soon thereafter.
I don't think I boarded since I had seen little of his deck.
Game 2: He draws green mana this game, but only in the form of a Treetop Village. He still ends up casting a Knight that eats an StP, but aside from that he's not in the game at all and I still have no idea what he was playing.
1-0 in rounds, 2-0 in games.
[b]Round 2, Jim Morley with Zoo-Blade.
Game 1: I draw approximately infinite StPs this game and kill him with a tutored Rhox War Monk from what I can tell from the notes.
I board out Garruk, 2 Jace and an Elspeth for Submerges and the third Jitte.
Game 2: He gets a Sword of Fire and Ice in play, which gets Bant Charmed when he swings with a guy. Submerge + RWM ruin him from that point.
2-0 in rounds, 4-0 in games.
Round 3: Gary Smith with Rug Tempo.
Game 1: I don't get Knight this game, but Thrun will do. He loses soon after a Garruk hits the board.
My board plan against Rug Tempo for this and every other round is: -5 Planeswalkers, -1 Bant Charm, +3 Submerge, +2 Flusterstorm, +1 Jitte. Their best route to victory is for me to get mana screwed, so I just want to lower the curve.
Game 2: I don't get Knight this game either, but Tarmogoyf + Jitte will get there just fine anyway.
Round 4: James Bush with W/G Maverick
Game 1: He gets a Thalia that, sans removal, actually slows down my plan in hand significantly. Some other dorks join the team and I don't have the removal to keep up.
Sideboard: I know I want to bring in the Jitte, the Submerges and the Waves here, but I don't know what besides Spell Pierce to get rid of. I settle on a mix of one offs, actually; I think I even sided out a Brainstorm.
Game 2: I get a crappy aggro plan that stalls out with exalted dorks, chipping away at his life total a bit before he sticks equipment on a Scryb Ranger and kills me with it. I also forget a couple Thalia costs in this matchup, which doesn't interfere with the game play but he complains about it and I go at least a bit on tilt.
Rounds 3-1, games 6-2
Round 5: Nicholas Montaquila, RUG Tempo
Game 1: I mull but it doesn't matter even slightly; I go as low as 13 before crushing him with Knight.
Game 2: He mulls and decides he has to keep a slow hand apparently. I don't dip below 18 before Knight beats.
Rounds 4-1, games 8-2
Round 6: Graig Wymer, Rug Tempo I think?
I don't have anything written down here but, "Knight, RWM, Thrun." I went as low as 5 life game 2, but didn't lose a game.
Round 5-1, games 10-2
Round 7: Brendan Sheirdan, SNT-Hive Mind
Game 1: I have a Spell Pierce and even put him on Hive Mind, but use it to counter an Intuition stupidly instead of letting him resolve Hive Mind with mana open.
Game 2: I side out StP/Maze and Jittes for Wave, Canonist and Flusterstorm, determined not to repeat my mistakes of earlier. I in fact convince myself that I'm really favored here, so I keep a shitty seven because it has Canonist and Knight. I then fuck up my plan by running Canonist out into a Force instead of letting him cast SNT. I really need food at this point. Dan comes through with some smuggled Arby's.
Round 8: Eric Blanc, B/G Nic Fit w/ Wish-Depths
Game 1: I see some discard and a Hexmage but little else, attacking with RWM and then a Knight.
Game 2: He gets a turn four or five Marit Lage and kills me with it.
Game 3: I bring in Submerges and get to a point where I could Submerge a Marit Lage, which would be amazing. I don't because I have the Karakas in hand so I just play it and resolve to tell people I Submerged it, Submerging a Goyf a few turns later to swing through for lethal.
This opponent was really cool. I also quite liked his deck.
Rounds 6-2, Games 12-5
Round 9: Sean-Michael Ryder with W/G Maverick
Game 1: I play defensive the entire time, ending up going form 20 to 8 to dead under Knight pressure.
Game 2: I was too tired to pay attention to my notes, but iirc I just out-tempoed him here with Submerges helping quit a bit, killing him off rather quickly.
Game 3: Parallax Wave is a four mana Time Stretch and we're on to day 2.
Rounds- 7-2, Games 14-6
My alarm is on silent for some reason but Alix Hatfield wakes me up bright and early Sunday.
Round 10: Peter Smutko, Thopter-Foundry Control
Game 1: Lots of basics and duals, so not the Gearhart build. I get both Wastelands early and decide to go after what look like off-colors instead of Academy Ruins. Note to self: Always go after Academy Ruins. I can Bant Charm away Thopter Foundry once but he has time to get it back, going down to 2 before stabilizing and killing me.
Game 2&3: Board in a couple Crypts and Flusterstorms, cutting StPs and Maze, and attack him to death with creatures and land Planeswalkers.
Round 11: Kenta Hiroki with Blade Control
Game 1: I mull to six on the play and keep a hand with Maze, StP, StP, StP, Fetchland, something else, on the grounds that I don't know what he's playing and this hand will destroy a certain set of decks. His isn't one of them however and I do approximately no damage to him before he gains control of the game.
I board out StPs for 2 Flusterstorm, the third Jitte and I think a Canonist just because it's another creature that will turn off Snapcaster.
Game 2: I keep a hand that has planeswalkers and shit to counter his creature-removal plan, but he goes aggro SFM and gets a Sword of Feast and Famine, a Jitte and a Batterskull all onto the board by turn 5. I can't do anything about it really and just die.
Rounds 8-3, Games 16-9
Round 12: Chris Coston with Show and Tell
Game 1: I get a hint of what he's playing because he's shuffling perfectly horizontally and thus showing me Ponders, Islands etc., but I don't know if mull into Pierce is a tenable plan game 1 so I keep a decently fast hand and he goes turn 2 Progenitus.
Game 2: I board in the hate, he gets turn 3 Show and Tell, which I Flusterstorm. I cast a Knight because at this point I want to put pressure on him, and he has another Show and Tell for Hive Mind and a Pact for my Spell Pierce.
Rounds 8-4, Games 16-11
Round 13: Ryan Forsberg, RUG Tempo
Game 1: He gets a Delver in for a couple swings before Knight takes over the game.
Game 2: A second Delver joins his brother and he's able to put me into burn range.
Game 3: I get a slower start, but end up raw-drawing the amazing combo of Thrun + Maze of Ith to foil his triple Mongoose action.
Rounds 9-4, Games 18-12
Round 14: David Gleicher, Team America
Game 1: I am completely confused by an early Deed and cannot figure what he is playing. I think I Brainstorm away removal at one point, putting him on something like Paulo's Bug-still, before he drops a Tombstalker and quickly kills me with it.
Game 2: I draw a fair number of StPs but little else, and then he lands a Jace confusing me even more before putting me out of the game.
Rounds 9-5, Games 18-14
Round 15: Kurtis Frazier, Pox
Game 1: I keep a slow hand and get quickly locked out of it by turn 2 Liliana.
Game 2: He knocks me around with a Tabernacle for a bit but eventually I manage to land some kind of planeswalker, which is too difficult for him to deal with.
Game 3: I mull to seven, have to call a judge, have to mull the five and end up down at three, which at least includes a land and a Hierarch. I'm never really in this game of course and get blown out by double Cursed Scroll.
Game 4: We play again because it's for funzies and my opponent is super cool, I manage to get an early planeswalker this game and pull out of range of his effects.
Rounds 9-6, Games 19-16 (ugh)
I miss Alix missing out on the top 8, but get to watch Colin for a bit. I then went off to Cube with some of the Nova people, Mike T and Ruckus and his friend from California (I had looked for Kurtis to drag him into the pod but he had disappeared at this point, probably to go get food.)
I felt like the deck was pretty amazing in that meta, although whether it's ideal for the way the format's settling up now I don't know. I felt pretty confident I had the best Maverick list in the room though.
Everyone goes back to get drunk and celebrate Alix's almost-top-8, I partake in a game of Escape from House on the Hill in which I am attacked by lots of bats and do nothing else useful, and then it's another long drive back through flatopia.
Props:
- Most of my opponents were pretty cool.
- The head judge was legitimately the best I've ever seen. Also, dat acc. ent.
- People that lent me cards: Kyle Miller, James Pogue, the Hatfields, Jeff and Sarah, Gearhart, Lance.
- All you can eat biscuits and gravy.
- Colin for Top 4'ing
- Alix for almost Top 8'ing
Slops:
- TO for not letting actual food in and forcing people to buy shitty $6 hot dogs.
- Thieves for being thieves.
- Double Cola
- West Virginia
- Indiana
- Ohio
- Western Pennsylvania
- West Virginia
- I really need to take actual notes and not just write random card names down.
- Or at least do the tournament report while everything's still fresh.
- Especially West Virginia
- But especially Double Cola
Rofflecops:
- Lance for trying to kill me with bats
- GSZing a Krosan Tusker
I do pretty well with it immediately, making money at the next three (small) tournaments I go to.
This is not the story of that deck.
WomBlade ended up losing to every bit of hate aimed at Blade Control excepting Choke, and generally had trouble coping with the widening plans of attack as the Legacy metagame exploded in a dozen directions in December onwards. I kept trying to revive it but ultimately got tired of getting my ass kicked at SCG Opens.
Maverick's been one of my go-to decks in testing since around last June, before it was cool, as it were. Despite being utterly unimpressed with Mother of Runes and despising some of the cuter cards people run like Cradle or Scryb Ranger, the fundamentals of the deck are very sound. I decide to get the deck together with help from Kyle Miller and the Hatfields primarily, with another couple cards each, I believe, from James Pogue, Lance Hartbarger and Jeff McAleer. I finish in money for the first time in what feels like five million years, and I like the g/w list I'm running, but I'm not quite wowed by it and not sure what I'm going to end up playing at the GP.
Dan Signorini has by this time spent months trying to perfect a Bant list, which is incredibly hard because there's so many good cards that have to be cut. The topic comes up at a local tourny of what the core of the deck should be; for instance, it's pretty widely agreed that it's impossible to run Force, Stoneforge Mystic, and GSZ all in the same deck effectively, and even two of these might be greedy.
Having been playing a lot of planeswalkers recently, I suggest, half-jokingly, that the deck should just be built around 4 Hierarch, 4 GSZ, 3 Jace, 2 Elspeth.
A few seconds later, however, I really that actually sounds really good. I get to brewing when I get home.
Here's the list I wound up playing with;
The List
4 Windswept Heath
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Savannah
3 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Wasteland
1 Karakas
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Maze of Ith
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Eternal Witness
1 Rhox War Monk
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Spell Pierce
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Bant Charm
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
SB:
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Flusterstorm
3 Submerge
2 Parallax Wave
1 Umezawa's Jitte
I really wanted to run the 4th GSZ as per the plan, but I didn't know what else was better to cut. Per my own rule, uncertainty of which is the correct card to cut is the only reason I'll accept to run 61 cards, and I might've gone with that here, but enough people I talked to seemed to lean towards the 4th GSZ having the least marginal value that I went with it.
The sideboard probably should've had another Flusterstorm, but I didn't know what to cut for that either and also no one had them available since the Hatfields both went with High Tide decks.
So quick analysis-
The mana base: Green is obviously the primary color here, so the duals/fetchland setup should make sense. The Island is the second basic since two of your utility lands tap for white and none for blue; I never really found myself wanting more than two Wastelands, and it's awkward with Bant Charm and RWM so I didn't; and Stirring Wildwood is just there to have a manland that's good at killing Delvers and Jaces.
The one drops: Just 18 really powerful, flexible cards that can run out on turn 1, giving the deck a pretty low mana curve and allowing you more freedom of action in the first turns of the game.
The GSZ package: Thrun for removal decks and as an additional bomb to draw, Witness for recurring powerful spells and or just situational answers, RWM for being up on aggro decks, Ooze and Pridemage as answers to annoying strategies and Tarmogoyf to be a big bulky three drop with GSZ.
Knight of the Reliquary: Second most important kill condition and route to victory.
Planeswalkers: Primary kill condition and route to victory. The 2/2/1 split worked out very well for me. I cut the third Jace for Garruk to have more situations where I could drop two Planeswalkers at once. What I found was that Garruk, albeit at one more mana, was actually pretty solid at fulfilling the roles of both of the others. If I had a Garruk and an Elspeth in play, I would use Garruk to draw a shit ton of cards; if I had Garruk and Jace in place I would keep Brainstorming and use Garruk to churn out elephants.
Other stuff: Bant Charm is additional removal that gives you a maindeck out to Equipment and can even randomly counter removal, Price of Progress, Ad Nauseam or High Tide; Jitte is, SFM or not, the best equipment in the format generally and essentially another planeswalker effect, if you have creatures to slap it on, in terms of giving you a range of free useful effects every turn.
Sideboard: Crypts I brought in once over the entire weekend; two of them to have additional answers to a Thopter Foundry deck. Flusterstorm was golden, Canonist I wanted a few times but could've just been more counters, Submerge was the other all star and Parallax Wave, while only coming in a few times, dominated the matchups where it was relevant; also the matchups, generally, where you want the extra Jitte.
Most of the cards I end up borrowing from James Pogue, with Jeff, Kyle, Alix and Jesse also helping out. Mike Turpyn fails in his last minute bid to get me to play Solidarity, and a ten hour car drive through just the worst states and an all you can eat biscuits-n-gravy from Cracker Barrel (it was a trap) later, and we're off and running. These are all based on my shoddy notes and memory so details might be slightly off.
Round 1: Lucas Sleasman, Bantblade Thing?[b]
Game 1: I see a Sejiri Steppe and Karakas and want to put him on Knight, but I never see green mana. He StPs a Pridemage or something, I stick a Jace and he concedes soon thereafter.
I don't think I boarded since I had seen little of his deck.
Game 2: He draws green mana this game, but only in the form of a Treetop Village. He still ends up casting a Knight that eats an StP, but aside from that he's not in the game at all and I still have no idea what he was playing.
1-0 in rounds, 2-0 in games.
[b]Round 2, Jim Morley with Zoo-Blade.
Game 1: I draw approximately infinite StPs this game and kill him with a tutored Rhox War Monk from what I can tell from the notes.
I board out Garruk, 2 Jace and an Elspeth for Submerges and the third Jitte.
Game 2: He gets a Sword of Fire and Ice in play, which gets Bant Charmed when he swings with a guy. Submerge + RWM ruin him from that point.
2-0 in rounds, 4-0 in games.
Round 3: Gary Smith with Rug Tempo.
Game 1: I don't get Knight this game, but Thrun will do. He loses soon after a Garruk hits the board.
My board plan against Rug Tempo for this and every other round is: -5 Planeswalkers, -1 Bant Charm, +3 Submerge, +2 Flusterstorm, +1 Jitte. Their best route to victory is for me to get mana screwed, so I just want to lower the curve.
Game 2: I don't get Knight this game either, but Tarmogoyf + Jitte will get there just fine anyway.
Round 4: James Bush with W/G Maverick
Game 1: He gets a Thalia that, sans removal, actually slows down my plan in hand significantly. Some other dorks join the team and I don't have the removal to keep up.
Sideboard: I know I want to bring in the Jitte, the Submerges and the Waves here, but I don't know what besides Spell Pierce to get rid of. I settle on a mix of one offs, actually; I think I even sided out a Brainstorm.
Game 2: I get a crappy aggro plan that stalls out with exalted dorks, chipping away at his life total a bit before he sticks equipment on a Scryb Ranger and kills me with it. I also forget a couple Thalia costs in this matchup, which doesn't interfere with the game play but he complains about it and I go at least a bit on tilt.
Rounds 3-1, games 6-2
Round 5: Nicholas Montaquila, RUG Tempo
Game 1: I mull but it doesn't matter even slightly; I go as low as 13 before crushing him with Knight.
Game 2: He mulls and decides he has to keep a slow hand apparently. I don't dip below 18 before Knight beats.
Rounds 4-1, games 8-2
Round 6: Graig Wymer, Rug Tempo I think?
I don't have anything written down here but, "Knight, RWM, Thrun." I went as low as 5 life game 2, but didn't lose a game.
Round 5-1, games 10-2
Round 7: Brendan Sheirdan, SNT-Hive Mind
Game 1: I have a Spell Pierce and even put him on Hive Mind, but use it to counter an Intuition stupidly instead of letting him resolve Hive Mind with mana open.
Game 2: I side out StP/Maze and Jittes for Wave, Canonist and Flusterstorm, determined not to repeat my mistakes of earlier. I in fact convince myself that I'm really favored here, so I keep a shitty seven because it has Canonist and Knight. I then fuck up my plan by running Canonist out into a Force instead of letting him cast SNT. I really need food at this point. Dan comes through with some smuggled Arby's.
Round 8: Eric Blanc, B/G Nic Fit w/ Wish-Depths
Game 1: I see some discard and a Hexmage but little else, attacking with RWM and then a Knight.
Game 2: He gets a turn four or five Marit Lage and kills me with it.
Game 3: I bring in Submerges and get to a point where I could Submerge a Marit Lage, which would be amazing. I don't because I have the Karakas in hand so I just play it and resolve to tell people I Submerged it, Submerging a Goyf a few turns later to swing through for lethal.
This opponent was really cool. I also quite liked his deck.
Rounds 6-2, Games 12-5
Round 9: Sean-Michael Ryder with W/G Maverick
Game 1: I play defensive the entire time, ending up going form 20 to 8 to dead under Knight pressure.
Game 2: I was too tired to pay attention to my notes, but iirc I just out-tempoed him here with Submerges helping quit a bit, killing him off rather quickly.
Game 3: Parallax Wave is a four mana Time Stretch and we're on to day 2.
Rounds- 7-2, Games 14-6
My alarm is on silent for some reason but Alix Hatfield wakes me up bright and early Sunday.
Round 10: Peter Smutko, Thopter-Foundry Control
Game 1: Lots of basics and duals, so not the Gearhart build. I get both Wastelands early and decide to go after what look like off-colors instead of Academy Ruins. Note to self: Always go after Academy Ruins. I can Bant Charm away Thopter Foundry once but he has time to get it back, going down to 2 before stabilizing and killing me.
Game 2&3: Board in a couple Crypts and Flusterstorms, cutting StPs and Maze, and attack him to death with creatures and land Planeswalkers.
Round 11: Kenta Hiroki with Blade Control
Game 1: I mull to six on the play and keep a hand with Maze, StP, StP, StP, Fetchland, something else, on the grounds that I don't know what he's playing and this hand will destroy a certain set of decks. His isn't one of them however and I do approximately no damage to him before he gains control of the game.
I board out StPs for 2 Flusterstorm, the third Jitte and I think a Canonist just because it's another creature that will turn off Snapcaster.
Game 2: I keep a hand that has planeswalkers and shit to counter his creature-removal plan, but he goes aggro SFM and gets a Sword of Feast and Famine, a Jitte and a Batterskull all onto the board by turn 5. I can't do anything about it really and just die.
Rounds 8-3, Games 16-9
Round 12: Chris Coston with Show and Tell
Game 1: I get a hint of what he's playing because he's shuffling perfectly horizontally and thus showing me Ponders, Islands etc., but I don't know if mull into Pierce is a tenable plan game 1 so I keep a decently fast hand and he goes turn 2 Progenitus.
Game 2: I board in the hate, he gets turn 3 Show and Tell, which I Flusterstorm. I cast a Knight because at this point I want to put pressure on him, and he has another Show and Tell for Hive Mind and a Pact for my Spell Pierce.
Rounds 8-4, Games 16-11
Round 13: Ryan Forsberg, RUG Tempo
Game 1: He gets a Delver in for a couple swings before Knight takes over the game.
Game 2: A second Delver joins his brother and he's able to put me into burn range.
Game 3: I get a slower start, but end up raw-drawing the amazing combo of Thrun + Maze of Ith to foil his triple Mongoose action.
Rounds 9-4, Games 18-12
Round 14: David Gleicher, Team America
Game 1: I am completely confused by an early Deed and cannot figure what he is playing. I think I Brainstorm away removal at one point, putting him on something like Paulo's Bug-still, before he drops a Tombstalker and quickly kills me with it.
Game 2: I draw a fair number of StPs but little else, and then he lands a Jace confusing me even more before putting me out of the game.
Rounds 9-5, Games 18-14
Round 15: Kurtis Frazier, Pox
Game 1: I keep a slow hand and get quickly locked out of it by turn 2 Liliana.
Game 2: He knocks me around with a Tabernacle for a bit but eventually I manage to land some kind of planeswalker, which is too difficult for him to deal with.
Game 3: I mull to seven, have to call a judge, have to mull the five and end up down at three, which at least includes a land and a Hierarch. I'm never really in this game of course and get blown out by double Cursed Scroll.
Game 4: We play again because it's for funzies and my opponent is super cool, I manage to get an early planeswalker this game and pull out of range of his effects.
Rounds 9-6, Games 19-16 (ugh)
I miss Alix missing out on the top 8, but get to watch Colin for a bit. I then went off to Cube with some of the Nova people, Mike T and Ruckus and his friend from California (I had looked for Kurtis to drag him into the pod but he had disappeared at this point, probably to go get food.)
I felt like the deck was pretty amazing in that meta, although whether it's ideal for the way the format's settling up now I don't know. I felt pretty confident I had the best Maverick list in the room though.
Everyone goes back to get drunk and celebrate Alix's almost-top-8, I partake in a game of Escape from House on the Hill in which I am attacked by lots of bats and do nothing else useful, and then it's another long drive back through flatopia.
Props:
- Most of my opponents were pretty cool.
- The head judge was legitimately the best I've ever seen. Also, dat acc. ent.
- People that lent me cards: Kyle Miller, James Pogue, the Hatfields, Jeff and Sarah, Gearhart, Lance.
- All you can eat biscuits and gravy.
- Colin for Top 4'ing
- Alix for almost Top 8'ing
Slops:
- TO for not letting actual food in and forcing people to buy shitty $6 hot dogs.
- Thieves for being thieves.
- Double Cola
- West Virginia
- Indiana
- Ohio
- Western Pennsylvania
- West Virginia
- I really need to take actual notes and not just write random card names down.
- Or at least do the tournament report while everything's still fresh.
- Especially West Virginia
- But especially Double Cola
Rofflecops:
- Lance for trying to kill me with bats
- GSZing a Krosan Tusker