voltron00x
03-21-2012, 11:22 PM
Split the finals of a ~30 player tournament with Dredge on 3/17:
4 Faithless Looting
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
3 Careful Study
3 Breakthrough
4 Putrid Imp
3 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Bridge from Below
3 Cabal Therapy
2 Dread Return
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
3 Golgari Thug
4 Cephalid Coliseum
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Undiscovered Paradise
Sideboard:
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Breakthrough
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Ichorid
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Dread Return
2 Firestorm
3 Chain of Vapor
3 Nature's Claim
Would definitely revise the sideboard as I didn't see enough hate to warrant Grudge, 3 Chain, 3 Claim. I played this without any testing, as I haven't played much Legacy the past 5 months.
Here's a brief report:
Rd 1 - U/W Stoneblade
Game 1 is a total blowout. Stoneblade doesn't really have much game against you in game 1 situations. I board out LEDs for Ichorid, Grudge, Cabal Therapy, Iona. Game 2, he keeps a 7-card hand with no colored mana sources, but with a Top, Wasteland, Mishra's Factory, Surgical Extraction, and Snapcaster Mage. I have to mull to 5. The game drags a bit as he Extracts my first Dredger and it takes a while until I find another, and even then I'm basically slow-dredging and attacking with Ichorid and Narcs. I finally hit a few Bridges in one good Dredge, and he breaks them all by animating his Factory and then Wasting it. But, I still win pretty easily as the blue source never shows.
(1-0, 2-0)
Rd 2 - U/B Counterbalance
So this round I'm against Jimmy Hangley. He got a 1st round bye, and had a 62-card CB/Top control deck with some sweet one-ofs (Grave Titan, Cryptic Command, etc). Game 1 is not remotely close. Game 2, I mull to 5, my hand is very slow, and he has a bunch of Bobs and Snapcasters, and uses his Liliana to break Bridges. Eventually I get a bunch of tokens out, but he removes them in back to back turns with Sever the Bloodline (!!!) and then breaks my last Bridges, and I lose. Game 3 isn't close, he mulls to 5 and I blow him out.
(2-0. 4-1)
Rd 3 - Burn
I had a win and in the last AU Legacy I played against this gentlemen, when he was on Burn and I was on Elves. I won that one on turn 3 both games. He's on Burn again. I win the die roll, have a chance to win turn 2 if I wanted to be aggressive, but I wait until turn 3 so I can Therapy him; I wanted to make sure I didn't whiff and then have my Bridges broken by him killing his own Goblin Guide or playing a Hellspark Elemental. Game 2, I win on turn 2. This is a pretty easy match-up as you get to go full-on combo and they don't usually have cards for you.
(3-0, 6-1)
Rd 4 - ID
Rd 5 - ID
I end up being the 3rd seed in the top 8 after the two IDs.
Top 8 - Esper Stoneblade (GP deck)
Game 1 is, again, not all that close. I should have won much more quickly, but 3 of my 4 Bridges were hiding in my bottom 9 cards. In game 2, he elected to draw and snap-kept his 7. So, I led on City of Brass and Cabal Therapy for Surgical Extraction, and saw: STP, Snapcaster, Stoneforge Mystic, and 4 lands including Tower of the Magistrate. Not what I expected. He then drew EE, which he played for zero. So I got to be pretty aggressive this game and ended turn 3 with 4 Narcs and Elesh Norn in play, giving him one turn to draw a STP, which he did not.
(4-0-2, 8-1)
Top 4 - Aggro Loam
He had just beaten Dave Gans who was playing a very similar deck to mine (probably within 70/75), but Dave said it was due to play mistakes on his part in game 1. Here, my opponent led on Lavamancer, and EE for 0, which is a good start, but despite this, the game wasn't really that close. He couldn't stop me from Dredging and I got all 3 Ichorids running, and also Therapied the hell out of him, hitting Scavenging Ooze and Goyf and leaving him without a good way to fight back. Game 2, he mulled to 5 to a no-land hand, but I mulled to a slow 6. Hand would've been ok but he had double Extraction and hit land drops, letting him drop Ooze, and I scooped to get to game 3. He double-mulled again, while my hand was very good. He again had one Extraction which he used on my Bridges, but I bashed him to 12 and then brought back an 8/8 Grave Troll while he was still landless. His opening hand had 2 Oozes plus Extraction, so he risked it, but it didn't work out this time.
(5-0-2, 10-2)
Finals - Split with Esper Stoneblade, scoop to give Oliver the win (Planeswalker points mean nothing to me at the moment)
I'm not quite sure what I'd want in the board but probably -3 Chain, -1 Claim, +2 Bloodghast, +2 Unmask, or something close to that. If Unmask doesn't test well, perhaps I'd just go 2 Bloodghast (helps a lot against Surgical Extraction) and up to the full set of 4 Firestorm for Ooze control.
Anyway, deck seemed quite legit to me. I was very happy to have 3 Ichorids main with the 4th in the board as they were clutch all day, and I found that DR + Troll / Norn / Iona wasn't a bad plan post-board as people mostly went after Bridge, Ichorid, and Narcomoeba, but it often seemed possible for me to Therapy away a removal spell and DR into a beater. A few Bloodghasts out of the board would probably help cement that plan.
4 Faithless Looting
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
3 Careful Study
3 Breakthrough
4 Putrid Imp
3 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Bridge from Below
3 Cabal Therapy
2 Dread Return
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
3 Golgari Thug
4 Cephalid Coliseum
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Undiscovered Paradise
Sideboard:
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Breakthrough
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Ichorid
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Dread Return
2 Firestorm
3 Chain of Vapor
3 Nature's Claim
Would definitely revise the sideboard as I didn't see enough hate to warrant Grudge, 3 Chain, 3 Claim. I played this without any testing, as I haven't played much Legacy the past 5 months.
Here's a brief report:
Rd 1 - U/W Stoneblade
Game 1 is a total blowout. Stoneblade doesn't really have much game against you in game 1 situations. I board out LEDs for Ichorid, Grudge, Cabal Therapy, Iona. Game 2, he keeps a 7-card hand with no colored mana sources, but with a Top, Wasteland, Mishra's Factory, Surgical Extraction, and Snapcaster Mage. I have to mull to 5. The game drags a bit as he Extracts my first Dredger and it takes a while until I find another, and even then I'm basically slow-dredging and attacking with Ichorid and Narcs. I finally hit a few Bridges in one good Dredge, and he breaks them all by animating his Factory and then Wasting it. But, I still win pretty easily as the blue source never shows.
(1-0, 2-0)
Rd 2 - U/B Counterbalance
So this round I'm against Jimmy Hangley. He got a 1st round bye, and had a 62-card CB/Top control deck with some sweet one-ofs (Grave Titan, Cryptic Command, etc). Game 1 is not remotely close. Game 2, I mull to 5, my hand is very slow, and he has a bunch of Bobs and Snapcasters, and uses his Liliana to break Bridges. Eventually I get a bunch of tokens out, but he removes them in back to back turns with Sever the Bloodline (!!!) and then breaks my last Bridges, and I lose. Game 3 isn't close, he mulls to 5 and I blow him out.
(2-0. 4-1)
Rd 3 - Burn
I had a win and in the last AU Legacy I played against this gentlemen, when he was on Burn and I was on Elves. I won that one on turn 3 both games. He's on Burn again. I win the die roll, have a chance to win turn 2 if I wanted to be aggressive, but I wait until turn 3 so I can Therapy him; I wanted to make sure I didn't whiff and then have my Bridges broken by him killing his own Goblin Guide or playing a Hellspark Elemental. Game 2, I win on turn 2. This is a pretty easy match-up as you get to go full-on combo and they don't usually have cards for you.
(3-0, 6-1)
Rd 4 - ID
Rd 5 - ID
I end up being the 3rd seed in the top 8 after the two IDs.
Top 8 - Esper Stoneblade (GP deck)
Game 1 is, again, not all that close. I should have won much more quickly, but 3 of my 4 Bridges were hiding in my bottom 9 cards. In game 2, he elected to draw and snap-kept his 7. So, I led on City of Brass and Cabal Therapy for Surgical Extraction, and saw: STP, Snapcaster, Stoneforge Mystic, and 4 lands including Tower of the Magistrate. Not what I expected. He then drew EE, which he played for zero. So I got to be pretty aggressive this game and ended turn 3 with 4 Narcs and Elesh Norn in play, giving him one turn to draw a STP, which he did not.
(4-0-2, 8-1)
Top 4 - Aggro Loam
He had just beaten Dave Gans who was playing a very similar deck to mine (probably within 70/75), but Dave said it was due to play mistakes on his part in game 1. Here, my opponent led on Lavamancer, and EE for 0, which is a good start, but despite this, the game wasn't really that close. He couldn't stop me from Dredging and I got all 3 Ichorids running, and also Therapied the hell out of him, hitting Scavenging Ooze and Goyf and leaving him without a good way to fight back. Game 2, he mulled to 5 to a no-land hand, but I mulled to a slow 6. Hand would've been ok but he had double Extraction and hit land drops, letting him drop Ooze, and I scooped to get to game 3. He double-mulled again, while my hand was very good. He again had one Extraction which he used on my Bridges, but I bashed him to 12 and then brought back an 8/8 Grave Troll while he was still landless. His opening hand had 2 Oozes plus Extraction, so he risked it, but it didn't work out this time.
(5-0-2, 10-2)
Finals - Split with Esper Stoneblade, scoop to give Oliver the win (Planeswalker points mean nothing to me at the moment)
I'm not quite sure what I'd want in the board but probably -3 Chain, -1 Claim, +2 Bloodghast, +2 Unmask, or something close to that. If Unmask doesn't test well, perhaps I'd just go 2 Bloodghast (helps a lot against Surgical Extraction) and up to the full set of 4 Firestorm for Ooze control.
Anyway, deck seemed quite legit to me. I was very happy to have 3 Ichorids main with the 4th in the board as they were clutch all day, and I found that DR + Troll / Norn / Iona wasn't a bad plan post-board as people mostly went after Bridge, Ichorid, and Narcomoeba, but it often seemed possible for me to Therapy away a removal spell and DR into a beater. A few Bloodghasts out of the board would probably help cement that plan.