Valtrix
07-27-2013, 11:44 PM
Well, I got out to play Legacy for the first time in ages. Probably the first time in at least 6 months. Having only played a few rounds of cube and some EDH, I was pretty rusty. I like writing though, as it's fun and helps me reflect on my plays, so this is why the report exists, even if I had a miserable record. Anyway, it was a ton of fun, and this is the list that I went with:
//Creatures
4 Baleful Strix
//Spells
1 Entreat the Angels
4 Counterspell
3 Counterbalance
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Terminus
3 Force of Will
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Brainstorm
//Lands
3 Underground Sea
4 Tundra
2 Plains
2 Island
4 Flooded Strand
1 Kor Haven
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Marsh Flats
1 Scrubland
1 Karakas
//Sideboard
SB: 1 Counterbalance
SB: 1 Force of Will
SB: 2 Porphyry Nodes
SB: 2 Rest in Peace
SB: 2 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
SB: 4 Spell Pierce
SB: 1 Batterskull
SB: 1 Enlightened Tutor
I didn't think about it too much. I mostly wanted to play with cards that I like, which is why there were so many counterspells and strixes, which most people don't play. Strix wasn't particularly useful against most of the matches I played today, but I was actually very happy with them in general and definitely saw when they would be incredibly useful.
Round 1: Lands (1-2 match; 0-1 total)
G1: I basically have no hope of winning game 1 due to no graveyard hate in the main and a slow clock. I was hoping to find a Jace, but got multiple wastelanded and ported out of the game. He found Thespian's Stage and Dark Depths before I found anything useful.
Sideboarding:
-4 Terminus
-4 Baleful Strix
+2 Rest In Peace
+1 Enlightened Tutor
+2 Ethersworn Canonist
+1 Counterbalance
+1 Force of Will
+1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
Ethersworn canonist seems like an odd choice to bring in; it can occasionally slow them down a little, but really I just need a clock by hoping they've boarded out most of their answers to creatures. I left swords in because I know he will sideboard in Dark Confidant, and it's useful for buying some time against a darks depths beast.
G2: I play top turn 1, him a fetch. Then I play out a Rest in Peace and he plays a dark confidant. On turn 3, I oblivion ring his dark confidant (because he had to tap too many lands to port me). He plays a second confidant, but on my turn I draw into a canonist, play it, and then swords the dark confidant. Canonist pings him down by 2 each turn, without him finding any answers or gas. He eventually finds a Tolaria West for Engineered Explosives, but I have the force to stop him. 2/2s win games!
G3: I had top and counterbalance in my opener and three non-wasteable lands in my opener so I decided to keep. I found a rest in peace on top of my library, and played it on turn three foolishly, as I did not have another 2cc card for the top of my library. He played Sphere of Resistance and Dark Confidant on the same turn. I had a swords for confidant, but the sphere really punished me the rest of the game because he had multiple ports. I was able to keep him off spells with balance and answer most of his things, but eventually he naturally drew thespian's stage and dark depths, and with no removal, threats and him answering my Karakas and [/cards]Kor Haven[/cards] in play, the game was done. I think I would have been able to win if I wasn't in a rush to cast Rest in Peace. Such things happen when I haven't played in so long.
Round 2: Storm Combo (1-2 match; 0-2 total)
G1: He mulls to 5, and I setup counter-top by turn 2. Not really a game.
Sideboard:
-3 Terminus
-1 Swords
-2 Oblivion Ring
-4 Baleful Strix
+4 Spell Pierce
+1 Force of Will
+1 Counterbalance
+2 Ethersworn Canonist
+1 Enlightened tutor
+1 Elspeth, Knight errant
I left 1 terminus in as a possible out to Empty the Warrens, swords stayed in to answer possible dark confidants or Xantid Swarms, and a single Oring stayed to be tutored for. I should have taken it out because really I have no reason to tutor for it, but I didn't draw it, so it wasn't an issue. Elspeth was for more win conditions.
G2: He plays land, cabal therapy naming force of will. I play a top. He wins second turn. Magic is pretty fun.
G3: I keep a hand of counterspell, counterspell, counterbalance, ethersworn canonist, fetch, fetch, top. After playing top, he duresses the counterbalance out of my hand. Next I play Ethersworn canonist, he passes. However, when I go to attack next turn he had abrupt decay for my canonist and I pass. Next turn he uses Gitaxian Probe on me to see my hand. End of turn I top to see counterbalance, fetch, fetch. At this point I was really unsure what to do. I could leave up BB and try to build to 4 mana to have enough mana for counterbalance + counterspell or run out the counterbalance right away. Since he already played an abrupt decay I figured the odds of him getting cabal therapy were greater than another decay, so I played the balance. Turns out this lost me the game since he had the second decay for it EOT and was able to go off the next turn. It probably would have been safer to just try to get to 4 blue mana first though.
Round 3: Merfolk (0-2 round; 0-3 total)
G1: I'm playing against a friend, and this should be a reasonable matchup for me. Not one-sided either way, but I felt pretty confident with all of my creature removal. I fetch for an island, fetch for a plains, and he goes island, waste standstill. I have a Kor Haven in hand, so I play my Tundra to hopefully bait the wasteland. He plays a mutavault and destroys my tundra. I play my Kor Haven, but of course he has the second wasteland. I take a few 3 hits from the mutavault while building some mana and accumulating cards, but after I break it with swords he has answers for every single one of my removal spells for several turns and I die to the mutavault.
Sideboard:
-3 Force of Will
-2 Counterbalance
+2 Porphyry Nodes
+1 Enlightened Tutor
+1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
+1 Batterskull
G2: I keep a hand of 3x Baleful strix, Swords to plowshares, Oblivion Ring, top, flooded strand. I should have probably mulliganed here because of one land, but the hand seemed so strong to keep. I fetch an island, but draw into a plains, sad day. I top to see batterskull, oblivion ring, and swords. The swords buys me a turn but he pithing needles top. On my 4th draw I get a brainstorm, and finally get a land, and end up sending one strix back. I manage to start playing cards at this point, but not getting to do anything for so many turns was too much to come back from.
Round 4: Burn (not completely creatureless) (2-1 round; 1-3 total)
G1: Barely a game. He just vomits his hand and I don't get a counterbalance to stop him.
Sideboard:
-4 Terminus
-3 Oblivion Ring
-4 Baleful Strix
+1 Counterbalance
+4 Spell Pierce
+1 Batterskull
+1 Enlightened Tutor
+1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
+1 Force of Will
+2 Ethersworn Canonist
G2: I have counterbalance, entreat, brainstorm, top, and 3 lands, so I keep. I lead with top, and he starts with a lava spike. I go to 16 from a fetch next turn and slap down a counterbalance. He casts Flame Rift, but I reveal a fetch, which makes the life total 12 to 16. I pass on turn three, and he attempts to cast a blood moon but I brainstorm in response, putting my Entreat on top of my library. Next turn I miracle the entreat for only 1 angel, with one mana open for counterbalance. I wanted to get more value, but since he plays goblin guides I thought it would be nice to have a blocker as well and I wanted to start racing. He plays a flame rift, to which I respond by topping; however, he responds by casting price of progress to hit me for 6 (yeah, couldn't avoid the nonbasics unfortunately), bringing me to 6. In the meantime he plays draw-go while Entreat beats him from 16 to 12 to 8 to 4. When he's at 4 he tries to play out his hand, but counterbalance was enough to stop him.
G3: I almost lost this game. I keep a hand with spell pierce, counterspell, enlightened tutor, brainstorm, Jace, and 2 lands. My plan this game is to go for counterbalance or batterskull with the tutor, while buying some time. He plays a first turn goblin guide which draws me a land first turn. I play a land and pass. He brings me to 16 from guide, netting me a Kor Haven from my library, and tries to lava spike me, but I spell pierce it. Next turn I get brought down to 14 from guide, revealing a brainstorm on top of my library. He gets his second land and then tries to flame rift me, but I counterspell that. I still have not seen straight creature removal, but play the Kor Haven. I really wanted to use it, but instead played a canonist to block the guide. He burns it of course, but I use my open W to tutor for a batterskull. I get hit for 2 again, going to 12. On my turn I play a fetch and pass. He attacks me, bringing me to 10. Then he casts two lightning bolts bringing me to 4, and follows up with Fireblast. I brainstorm in response, seeing nothing, so I fetch, and the second brainstorm gets me a spell pierce on the third card. I pierce his fireblast, and he's left with no mana. Next turn I play batterskull and he scoops.
Round 5: Lands (Intentional draw, we just played one game for fun; 1-3-1 total)
G1: This was just for fun, as the guy said he just wanted to practice. I know he's on lands and have no hope of winning without a sideboard. Mostly I just prevent him from being able to win the game in a timely manner, but never am able to get control of it.
Overall I had a lot of fun considering how long it's been since I've played legacy and hopefully this report was somewhat fun to read. Although my list was somewhat nonstandard, I was pretty happy with it. I really liked having access to counterspells and strixes. I always gear a little more against creature decks at Monster Den, because I feel like there generally a lot of decks that play a lot of them, but I never seem to run into many of those matchups. A few changes I would make are to put the 4th Force in the Main, probably over the 3rd Oblivion Ring. I just wish I had it more often, even at the card disadvantage. I also would change out at least one Oring for a Detention Sphere, but I didn't have one to play with this time. I think I would have also have liked a 24th land, or land effect because I always felt color and/or mana strained, but haven't really considered what I would cut for it.
//Creatures
4 Baleful Strix
//Spells
1 Entreat the Angels
4 Counterspell
3 Counterbalance
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Terminus
3 Force of Will
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Brainstorm
//Lands
3 Underground Sea
4 Tundra
2 Plains
2 Island
4 Flooded Strand
1 Kor Haven
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Marsh Flats
1 Scrubland
1 Karakas
//Sideboard
SB: 1 Counterbalance
SB: 1 Force of Will
SB: 2 Porphyry Nodes
SB: 2 Rest in Peace
SB: 2 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
SB: 4 Spell Pierce
SB: 1 Batterskull
SB: 1 Enlightened Tutor
I didn't think about it too much. I mostly wanted to play with cards that I like, which is why there were so many counterspells and strixes, which most people don't play. Strix wasn't particularly useful against most of the matches I played today, but I was actually very happy with them in general and definitely saw when they would be incredibly useful.
Round 1: Lands (1-2 match; 0-1 total)
G1: I basically have no hope of winning game 1 due to no graveyard hate in the main and a slow clock. I was hoping to find a Jace, but got multiple wastelanded and ported out of the game. He found Thespian's Stage and Dark Depths before I found anything useful.
Sideboarding:
-4 Terminus
-4 Baleful Strix
+2 Rest In Peace
+1 Enlightened Tutor
+2 Ethersworn Canonist
+1 Counterbalance
+1 Force of Will
+1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
Ethersworn canonist seems like an odd choice to bring in; it can occasionally slow them down a little, but really I just need a clock by hoping they've boarded out most of their answers to creatures. I left swords in because I know he will sideboard in Dark Confidant, and it's useful for buying some time against a darks depths beast.
G2: I play top turn 1, him a fetch. Then I play out a Rest in Peace and he plays a dark confidant. On turn 3, I oblivion ring his dark confidant (because he had to tap too many lands to port me). He plays a second confidant, but on my turn I draw into a canonist, play it, and then swords the dark confidant. Canonist pings him down by 2 each turn, without him finding any answers or gas. He eventually finds a Tolaria West for Engineered Explosives, but I have the force to stop him. 2/2s win games!
G3: I had top and counterbalance in my opener and three non-wasteable lands in my opener so I decided to keep. I found a rest in peace on top of my library, and played it on turn three foolishly, as I did not have another 2cc card for the top of my library. He played Sphere of Resistance and Dark Confidant on the same turn. I had a swords for confidant, but the sphere really punished me the rest of the game because he had multiple ports. I was able to keep him off spells with balance and answer most of his things, but eventually he naturally drew thespian's stage and dark depths, and with no removal, threats and him answering my Karakas and [/cards]Kor Haven[/cards] in play, the game was done. I think I would have been able to win if I wasn't in a rush to cast Rest in Peace. Such things happen when I haven't played in so long.
Round 2: Storm Combo (1-2 match; 0-2 total)
G1: He mulls to 5, and I setup counter-top by turn 2. Not really a game.
Sideboard:
-3 Terminus
-1 Swords
-2 Oblivion Ring
-4 Baleful Strix
+4 Spell Pierce
+1 Force of Will
+1 Counterbalance
+2 Ethersworn Canonist
+1 Enlightened tutor
+1 Elspeth, Knight errant
I left 1 terminus in as a possible out to Empty the Warrens, swords stayed in to answer possible dark confidants or Xantid Swarms, and a single Oring stayed to be tutored for. I should have taken it out because really I have no reason to tutor for it, but I didn't draw it, so it wasn't an issue. Elspeth was for more win conditions.
G2: He plays land, cabal therapy naming force of will. I play a top. He wins second turn. Magic is pretty fun.
G3: I keep a hand of counterspell, counterspell, counterbalance, ethersworn canonist, fetch, fetch, top. After playing top, he duresses the counterbalance out of my hand. Next I play Ethersworn canonist, he passes. However, when I go to attack next turn he had abrupt decay for my canonist and I pass. Next turn he uses Gitaxian Probe on me to see my hand. End of turn I top to see counterbalance, fetch, fetch. At this point I was really unsure what to do. I could leave up BB and try to build to 4 mana to have enough mana for counterbalance + counterspell or run out the counterbalance right away. Since he already played an abrupt decay I figured the odds of him getting cabal therapy were greater than another decay, so I played the balance. Turns out this lost me the game since he had the second decay for it EOT and was able to go off the next turn. It probably would have been safer to just try to get to 4 blue mana first though.
Round 3: Merfolk (0-2 round; 0-3 total)
G1: I'm playing against a friend, and this should be a reasonable matchup for me. Not one-sided either way, but I felt pretty confident with all of my creature removal. I fetch for an island, fetch for a plains, and he goes island, waste standstill. I have a Kor Haven in hand, so I play my Tundra to hopefully bait the wasteland. He plays a mutavault and destroys my tundra. I play my Kor Haven, but of course he has the second wasteland. I take a few 3 hits from the mutavault while building some mana and accumulating cards, but after I break it with swords he has answers for every single one of my removal spells for several turns and I die to the mutavault.
Sideboard:
-3 Force of Will
-2 Counterbalance
+2 Porphyry Nodes
+1 Enlightened Tutor
+1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
+1 Batterskull
G2: I keep a hand of 3x Baleful strix, Swords to plowshares, Oblivion Ring, top, flooded strand. I should have probably mulliganed here because of one land, but the hand seemed so strong to keep. I fetch an island, but draw into a plains, sad day. I top to see batterskull, oblivion ring, and swords. The swords buys me a turn but he pithing needles top. On my 4th draw I get a brainstorm, and finally get a land, and end up sending one strix back. I manage to start playing cards at this point, but not getting to do anything for so many turns was too much to come back from.
Round 4: Burn (not completely creatureless) (2-1 round; 1-3 total)
G1: Barely a game. He just vomits his hand and I don't get a counterbalance to stop him.
Sideboard:
-4 Terminus
-3 Oblivion Ring
-4 Baleful Strix
+1 Counterbalance
+4 Spell Pierce
+1 Batterskull
+1 Enlightened Tutor
+1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
+1 Force of Will
+2 Ethersworn Canonist
G2: I have counterbalance, entreat, brainstorm, top, and 3 lands, so I keep. I lead with top, and he starts with a lava spike. I go to 16 from a fetch next turn and slap down a counterbalance. He casts Flame Rift, but I reveal a fetch, which makes the life total 12 to 16. I pass on turn three, and he attempts to cast a blood moon but I brainstorm in response, putting my Entreat on top of my library. Next turn I miracle the entreat for only 1 angel, with one mana open for counterbalance. I wanted to get more value, but since he plays goblin guides I thought it would be nice to have a blocker as well and I wanted to start racing. He plays a flame rift, to which I respond by topping; however, he responds by casting price of progress to hit me for 6 (yeah, couldn't avoid the nonbasics unfortunately), bringing me to 6. In the meantime he plays draw-go while Entreat beats him from 16 to 12 to 8 to 4. When he's at 4 he tries to play out his hand, but counterbalance was enough to stop him.
G3: I almost lost this game. I keep a hand with spell pierce, counterspell, enlightened tutor, brainstorm, Jace, and 2 lands. My plan this game is to go for counterbalance or batterskull with the tutor, while buying some time. He plays a first turn goblin guide which draws me a land first turn. I play a land and pass. He brings me to 16 from guide, netting me a Kor Haven from my library, and tries to lava spike me, but I spell pierce it. Next turn I get brought down to 14 from guide, revealing a brainstorm on top of my library. He gets his second land and then tries to flame rift me, but I counterspell that. I still have not seen straight creature removal, but play the Kor Haven. I really wanted to use it, but instead played a canonist to block the guide. He burns it of course, but I use my open W to tutor for a batterskull. I get hit for 2 again, going to 12. On my turn I play a fetch and pass. He attacks me, bringing me to 10. Then he casts two lightning bolts bringing me to 4, and follows up with Fireblast. I brainstorm in response, seeing nothing, so I fetch, and the second brainstorm gets me a spell pierce on the third card. I pierce his fireblast, and he's left with no mana. Next turn I play batterskull and he scoops.
Round 5: Lands (Intentional draw, we just played one game for fun; 1-3-1 total)
G1: This was just for fun, as the guy said he just wanted to practice. I know he's on lands and have no hope of winning without a sideboard. Mostly I just prevent him from being able to win the game in a timely manner, but never am able to get control of it.
Overall I had a lot of fun considering how long it's been since I've played legacy and hopefully this report was somewhat fun to read. Although my list was somewhat nonstandard, I was pretty happy with it. I really liked having access to counterspells and strixes. I always gear a little more against creature decks at Monster Den, because I feel like there generally a lot of decks that play a lot of them, but I never seem to run into many of those matchups. A few changes I would make are to put the 4th Force in the Main, probably over the 3rd Oblivion Ring. I just wish I had it more often, even at the card disadvantage. I also would change out at least one Oring for a Detention Sphere, but I didn't have one to play with this time. I think I would have also have liked a 24th land, or land effect because I always felt color and/or mana strained, but haven't really considered what I would cut for it.