lordofthepit
10-26-2013, 05:12 AM
Introduction
Previously, our pugnacious protagonist ventured to the depths of Mirkwood to wage war. Relive this harrowing tale (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?26620-FIGHT-ME!-Top-4-at-Mirkwood-Cup-with-Zoo) if you are so inclined.
The day did not start off auspiciously. Because of "real life" issues, I didn't get to do as much testing as I would have hoped. While I had set myself on playing Zoo for the past week, it was motivated more by a sentiment that it would be cool if I could have another successful run with my pet deck than by the belief that this was the clear-cut best choice in the metagame, which had seen the likes of Shardless BUG, Deathblade, and Omniscience combo recede in favor of a resurgence of decks like Miracles and Sneak Attack. My choice was also dictated in part by my friend Batman, who declared "you're a bitch if you don't play Zoo", and by my nemesis, who informed me that "I'll play your deck at SCG if you don't". Of course, I'm not a bitch and I couldn't let my precious fall into the hands of the cackling fiend who refers to me as "the smug balding man".
I had planned to sleep early the previous night to get some rest, but as it turns out, I had to frantically put together two additional decks to lend to some friends as well as scrounge up about 20-30 other cards to lend to various other people for the Legacy event, leaving me deprived of much needed rest. I knew I could not expect SCG to hold up the event like some of the local stores to allow me to arrive fashionably late, so I settled for "fashionably on time as late as possible". Everything was going smoothly until I took the exit off the I-5 to the Greater Tacoma Convention Center, an unfamiliar site not used for previous SCG Opens in Seattle. As I sought directions from my phone, which doubled as my GPS, the aforementioned cackling fiend called me to leave me bereft of the much needed directions. I sent him to voice mail, only to be interupted twice more by his incessant need to get smacked back down.
Meanwhile, I circled around the convention center futilely looking for a place to park, with my urge to relieve myself becoming uncontrollable. After finally parking about a block away, I set off on a brisk walk to ensure that I find the restroom quickly, although careful not to move so fast as to cause my sphincter to relax. I entered the convention center and found that the restrooms which promised me the respite I so needed were available the fifth floor where the Open was held. I hurried onto the esclators, which zigged and zagged to and fro, which in my state of great impatience felt like a trip on M.C. Escher's Infinite Staircase. I finally ran through the door, greeted by exclamations from my friends of "that's a bitch move!" and "do you have my deck?". I dismissed them all with a hurried reply of "get the hell out of my way" and finally found relief.
I paid my entry fee, then provided the borrows to my friends and teammates who had been waiting anxiously for them. One of my teammates was set to pilot Miracles, and because he has balls like Chuck Norris, included Karn Liberated, which automatically makes him more awesome than anyone else. Unfortunately, because of a communication breakdown the previous night, I was unaware that he needed to borrow the deck and lent the pieces to someone else. I felt terrible as he walked dejectedly to the judge's table to collect his refund. Captain Karn, I'm really sorry about this.
The Deck
// Lands (23)
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Taiga
2 Plateau
2 Savannah
2 Wasteland
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Karakas
1 Dryad Arbor
// Creatures (19)
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
// Other (18)
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Punishing Fire
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
SB: 3 Engineered Explosives
SB: 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
SB: 3 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Pyroblast
SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 2 Ancient Grudge
SB: 1 Bojuka Bog
Due to the resurgence of Miracles and Sneak Attack, I added a couple Wastelands to the deck and swapped out a REB for a Gaddock Teeg.
The Tournament
R1 - Omniscience (2-0)
I get paired against a teammate, although much of my interaction with this crew (which I recently joined) to date has consisted of profane shit talk and belligerent calls to fight, all while condescendingly interrupting their discussions on Standard and Limited. I have not yet playtested Legacy with these guys; unfortunately, this meant I had no idea what he was on.
G1: I lose the die roll. My opponent keeps his seven, and I do likewise with a solid grip that consists of a few lands, a Zenith, a Nacatl, and some other cards I don't remember. He fetches for an Island and Probes me, and I figure I'm likely facing a combo deck. I believe he plays a cantrip and ships the turn. I rip a second GSZ on my first turn, and I decide that setting up a turn two GSZ for Teeg is better than applying immediate pressure with Nacatl, especially since it wouldn't actually reveal that I had drawn a second Zenith, so I fetch up a Dryad Arbor. My turn 2 Zenith resolves and I play a couple more beaters while he cantrips into nothing.
SB: +3 Thalia, +3 Canonist, +1 Teeg, +2 REB/Pyro, -4 Swords, -2 Elspeth, -3 Punishing Fire
G2: My opponent opts to take the play and keeps his seven. I mull a 7 that has a ton of hatebears but no lands, and I keep a risky six that includes Thalia, Canonist, and Teeg, but only Karakas as my only land. He cantrips on turn 1, and I rip a blank and play my Karakas. He cantrips some more, and I rip a fetchland like a champ on my second draw and slam Thalia, which resolves. This slows down his cantripping on his third turn (which included an Ancient Tomb), which allows me to play my Gaddock Teeg. He still cantrips into nothing on his fourth turn.
On my fourth turn, I try to play Canonist; as you may know from my previous report, I usually prefer to put it into play for free off Show and Tell, but I figured I had him locked out of Force of Will and would still like to slow down his cantripping some more. He plays Pact of Negation and wastes his fifth turn paying the upkeep trigger. That's enough for me to get there in combination with the damage he's done with his Ancient Tomb.
R2 - Sneak Attack (2-1)
My opponent and I make some small talk before the match. We sat near each other in the player's meeting, and he's wearing a Peyton Manning Broncos jersey, but I have no idea what he's on.
G1: My opponent wins the roll and both of us keep our sevens. Mine is a slow hand with a few fetchlands and some removal. My opponent starts with an Island and a Volcanic Island, and I figure he's on combo. I play a second fetchland and crack it, and I get blown out by Stifle. Although this is usually an uncomfortable feeling, I'm drawing very light on threats and have plenty of removal and lands, so I am temporarily relieved, as I now assume I'm facing a tempo deck.
My opponent then proceeds to play a Tomb into Sneak Attack, drop a Petal to play a Griselbrand, draw 7, pitch Simian Spirit Guide, and then annihilate me with Emrakul. Apparently, none of my reads were right.
SB: +3 Thalia, +2 Canonist, +1 Teeg, +2 REB/Pyro, -4 Punishing Fire, -2 Elspeth, -1 Swords, -1 Bolt
G2: I keep my seven on the play, my opponent mulls to six. I don't remember much about this game, but I try to play around Blood Moon early and stick two Pridemages on the board. I believe I'm either afraid of Pyroclasm or a Stifle on my Karakas if I sandbag my Knight for Show and Tell, so I run it out on turn 4, and he accidentally shows me a Flusterstorm but the Knight resolves. I think he stumbles on mana because I take the game very quickly.
SB: Same
G3: Both of us keep our sevens; mine is a slower one with both of my REB effects, some ramp, a Pridemage, and a Knight. I REB his turn 2 Preordain and his turn 3 Show and Tell, despite holding a Knight, because I fear Sneak Attack and Stifle. I draw either a second Knight or a Zenith and use that to deploy a Knight, which proceeds to destroy his mana base after he stumbles.
R3 - Death and Taxes (2-0)
This is a friend and teammate who I had also faced in round 3 of the Mirkwood Cup, which I had previously written about. I knew he was on Death and Taxes again since he was borrowing some of my cards and since we were at adjacent tables in Round 1. I've managed to play Death and Taxes several times since the Mirkwood Cup, and I now realize it's a very favorable matchup, although I need to watch out for his new Spellskite tech which I saw during Round 1.
We get called to a fake feature match. Another teammate that I faced in round 1 watches on the side. My opponent/teammate requests a sheet of paper. I complain it will damage the structural integrity of my composition notebook. The two of them tag team to rip a page out. I call them out to fight me.
G1: He wins the die roll, takes the play, and mulls to six. I keep a strong seven with a good mix of creatures and removal. He has Swords for my Nacatl and a second creature, but I get Punishing Fire early to take out several Revokers. I'm in firm control because I have Punishing Fire active and am drawing plenty of land, and he has Port active but no Wasteland, so he settles instead for tapping down my Dryad Arbor which would beat for 2 with exalted triggers.
The first interesting play comes much later in the game when he lands a Spellskite and a Mirran Crusader which threatens to make short work of me. Fortunately, I had more than enough mana to cast Punishing Fire twice in a turn, forcing him to pay life into the Spellskite before taking out both cards. The game ends shortly after when I draw a Knight (or some other beater).
SB: -2 Elspeth, -1 Teeg, -1 Safekeeper, -1 Ooze, +3 Engineered Explosives, +2 Ancient Grudge
G2: Both of us keep our sevens. I have a good mix of lands (including Groves), ramp, and creatures, along with a Punishing Fire, an Ancient Grudge, and possibly a second Fire or a Bolt.
He opens with an Aether Vial and passes the turn. I play a fetchland and pass back. He ticks up his Vial, misses a land drop, and passes back. I play a fetchland. Because I'm worried about an EOT Mother of Runes, I ship the turn back, ready to cast Punishing Fire if he cheats a Mom in, but prepared to cast Ancient Grudge on the Vial during upkeep if he doesn't. He puts the Vial trigger on the stack, and I smash it; he responds by putting the Mother in. I summon a couple Knights, and although he eventually draws a land and a Rest in Peace, I'm able to beat him for 5 a turn (including a Dryad Arbor) to quickly end the game.
I asked after the match why he didn't Vial in the Mother at the end of my second turn. It turns out he had a Spellskite in hand and was hoping to be able to play both on the same turn, which would have been very difficult for me to beat. I thought he played this sequence very well, but I was fortunate to have the Ancient Grudge and also timed it perfectly by using it on upkeep rather on the end of my turn.
R4 - Affinity (2-0)
My opponent and I are called over to the backup feature table match. I don't recognize his name, but I ask if he's a pro or whether he has any significant Grand Prix or Pro Tour qualifications, since I'm not sure why we'd be called to the feature table area otherwise. He confirms that he does (I later find out that he has a lot of credentials in Standard and Modern, but doesn't play a lot of Legacy). Neither of us know what the other is on.
G1: My opponent wins the roll but mulls to five. I keep a pretty strong hand with Noble Hierarch, Qasali Pridemage, Zenith, and either a Bolt or Swords (I would shortly draw the other copy). He leads with a turn 1 Memnite; I respond with a Hierarch. He plays an Arcbound Ravager and a Vault Skirge; I play a Pridemage. He plays a Glimmervoid and attacks, sacrificing his two artifact lands to Ravager, leaving him with a beefed up Ravager, a Memnite, and a Skirge, as well as the untapped Glimmervoid.
Perfect time to blow him out, I think to myself, and I'm prepared to play both of my removal spells and then pop the Pridemage to destroy his board. However, I decide to lead with an attack to see if he chumps, and he throws the Memnite under the bus and then sacrifices it to Ravager. I respond by casting Swords on the Ravager, to which he responds with a Spell Pierce while I had two mana available--totally did not see that coming! Fortunately, I had a Lightning Bolt, so I declined to pay for Pierce, so I was able to trade that and the Pridemage for his entire board. The game ends shortly thereafter.
SB: -2 Elspeth, -1 Teeg, -1 Safekeeper, +2 Grudge, +2 Engineered Explosives. I was contemplating bringing in REBs for Tezzeret, Thoughtcast, and Master of Etherium, but I figured the versions that ran Ravager were less likely to include Tezz and Master. Engineered Explosives is mostly a hedge against Etched Champion, which totally dominate the board, although I wasn't sure he ran it. It turns out he ran Tezz and sideboarded Etched Champions, but not Masters.
G2: We both keep our sevens, although mine is a greedy: Savannah as my only land, but Hierarch, Bolt, Bolt, Grudge, Pridemage, Zenith. I think he dumps an artifact land, a Memnite, and a Vault Skirge on the board. I take my turn and rip a fetchland like a champ. Although my inclination was to play Noble Hierarch first, I realized I would likely only have access to one red source next turn, which meant I could not play two removal spells on turn 2 unless I was willing to flashback Ancient Grudge, which was my most flexible removal spell. So instead, I led with Lightning Bolt on Skirge, setting up a Hierarch and a second Bolt on turn 2.
Meanwhile, my opponent played a Ravager, a Glimmervoid, and some other threats. However, I ripped a third Bolt off the top and was able to wipe his board fairly quickly. He was able to rip an artifact land, followed by an Ancient Tomb and an Etched Champion, but I was able to use Qasali Pridemage as a Stone Rain to keep him off Metalcraft and quickly end the game.
Despite the result, Affinity is absolutely not an easy matchup, and I was fortunate that I absolutely nut-drew my opponent (although the faster Ravager builds are considerably easier than the ones with more Masters and Etched Champions). However, he would keep commenting to me throughout the day that he hoped to avoid me in the top 8--you and me both, buddy. In any case, he ended up finishing top 4. Congrats!
R5 - RUG Delver (2-0)
My opponent and I talk a little bit, and he informs me that he recently moved from the East Coast. We're sitting at table #2, so we wait to make sure we're not called to the feature area, then we begin our match.
G1: My opponent wins the roll and mulls to six. I keep my seven which includes an Elspeth. He opens with a cantrip while I open with Wild Nacatls on my first two turns. He eventually plays a Delver of Secrets, and I'm holding a Swords to Plowshares, but by this time, I put him on RUG and realize that I should save my Swords for the Tarmogoyf. I continue to crash in, and he drops a Tarmogoyf on his next turn, which I immediately Swords. At some point, he deals with one of my Nacatls (perhaps after transforming his Delver, although it's possible I killed his Delver while he Bolted my Nacatl). I rip a second Elspeth and play my first one into a Spell Pierce. The second one eats a Stifle after resolving but eventually wins the game, along with the Wild Nacatl and an EOT Dryad Arbor via a fetchland.
SB: -2 Elspeth, -1 Bolt, -1 Punishing Fire, -1 Teeg, -1 Safekeeper, -1 Qasali Pridemage (?); +3 Thalia, +3 Engineered Explosives, +1 Bojuka Bog
G2: I can't remember too much about the beginning of this game, but we both keep our sevens, and my opponent gets off to a more aggressive start and I assume the control role. A Punishing Fire deals with his first Delver of Secrets, and I believe an Engineered Explosives answers a Mongoose, but he's putting quite a bit of pressure on my life total. I play a Knight of the Reliquary, which gets Submerged to allow him to continue to beat in, but I redraw and cast it. He beats me down to 5 and passes. I draw a land, play it, and pass back; I think I have about seven at this point so I feel good if I can stabilize. He attacks me against with the Delver, so I activate Knight which fortunately neither gets Submerged nor Stifled. I grab a Grove, return Punishing Fire, and have enough to pay through his taxing counters. Eventually, I draw enough blockers to get on the offensive with Knight and win the match.
R6 - UWR Delver (0-2)
My opponent for round six is a friend, teammate, and a regular at our local card store. He is also a powerful wizard (with an SCG Legacy Open Finals appearance to his credit) and a dignified one to boot, proving to be above the shenanigans that goes on in our discussions. I set aside my trollface and put on my gameface. We both know what the other are on, and although I suspect that I'm favored in the matchup, I haven't played this out too much. However, my opponent has played my friend Batman on Zoo several times though, so I ask him how the matchup usually goes.
"This is stone-cold unwinnable for you," he deadpanned. "You should just scoop now."
Well, so much for no trolling. Fight me!
G1: After complaining that I had only one game on the play after six rounds, I finally win a die roll. I should do this more often.
I quickly ship back a hand of Noble Hierarch, Dryad Arbor, four more lands, and a Swords to Plowshares, since that just loses quickly to a Geist. My six is decent, but not strong. I believe it included two lands, a Taiga and a Wasteland. I believe we played lands on our first few turns, and I rip a Karakas and a fetchland over the next few turns. Meanwhile, I cast a Lightning Bolt to deal with a Stoneforge Mystic, which fetches Batterskull. He has a follow up Stoneforge Mystic fetching Jitte. I have the option of paying 1R for Punishing Fire, leaving up Wasteland for Daze or to Waste his white source; alternatively, I could tap the Wasteland, leaving up Savannah for Swords in case my Punishing Fire gets forced. I take the second line of play.
I'm feeling pretty good after he stumbles on mana, but I have no threats. He then cantrips into two Wastelands, leaving me with just a Karakas. Lavamancer and Delver hit the board and get suited up with Jitte to take the game in short order.
SB: +2 Ancient Grudge, +3 Thalia, -2 Elspeth, -1 Gaddock Teeg, -2 Swords to Plowshares
G2: I keep a reasonable seven which included a Thalia, a Nacatl, and several lands. Thalia hits the board for me turn 2, and I choose to attack with it before playing my turn 3 Qasali Pridemage since I would prefer he use the removal spell on the Thalia rather than the Pridemage. My Pridemage resolves, but end of turn, he Bolts the Thalia anyway, so I missed a point of damage. He then jams a Geist on the board and has another Bolt for my Pridemage, leaving me on the defensive.
My Scavenging Ooze meets a Swords to Plowshares, and I believe a Knight of the Reliquary gets hit by Snapcaster into Swords. I have a Pridemage to try to play defense, but he had already resolved a Grim Lavamancer by that point. It didn't last much longer from there.
I bemoan my fate, because when I scouted, the X-0 bracket looked like it had many more favorable matchups than did the X-1 bracket.
R7 - Goblins (2-0)
I don't recognize my opponent, but we engage in some smalltalk, and he tells me he's from Idaho. I scouted the X-1 tables after losing quickly in round 6, and I think he's on Goblins, but I'm not entirely certain. We get called for a deck check, and when he puts his deck back into his box, he reveals a Pyrokinesis in the sideboard to confirm my suspicions. I felt bad that I got this advantage, but I wasn't deliberately snooping around.
Both of our decks are confirmed to be legal, and we're off to game 1.
G1: I win another die roll and keep a hand with a few lands and a bunch of green creatures, including a Hierarch, an Ooze, and a Knight. I aggressively jam all my creatures down, using the Knight to both ramp as well as to hold together my shoddy manabase in the face of Wasteland to keep the Nacatls wild. I eventually summon in addition to my Hierarch and my Knight, an Ooze and three Nacatls, which are crashing in aggressively to force his Goblins to chump block. A Matron picks up an Incinerator, a second one gets a Warchief, and a Ringleader finds a Siege-Gang and a Chieftain. I have not drawn a single removal spell in all this time, but I've managed to convince my opponent via my lines of attack that I'm holding a Lightning Bolt (by sending in the Knight which I had previously been holding back for defense and utility), and he's forced to make some suboptimal decisions based on that bad information, although I think he played well given that assumption.
He reveals after the game that he should have searched up a Krenko with the Matron. Yeah, that would have been pretty problematic with the Warchief on the board.
SB: -1 Teeg, +1 Engineered Explosives. I may have swapped out the Safekeeper for a second Explosives.
G2: My opponent mulligans to six, and I keep my seven, which contains a few lands, a Knight, a Zenith, and some Punishing Fires. He passes the turn with a fetchland; I play a land and Zenith for Arbor, which eats a Tarfire at the end of turn. He plays a land, and I follow with a Hierarch (or a Zenith for one). He plays a Warchief on consecutive turns, each of which connects once before taking a Punishing Fire. I then play a Knight, and it's able to survive a turn to search up Grove. I've drawn plenty of lands in the meantime, so I'm hitting all my land drops to supercharge this engine, and the game ends shortly thereafter.
R8 - Deadguy Ale (2-0)
I am paired down for my win-and-in. I find my opponent after some confusion, since another player with the same name is seated at an adjacent table. We are called to the backup feature table. As we walk to the feature area, I run into Batman playing Cube, who yells some words of encouragement. Thanks, man!
G1: My opponent wins the die roll, and we both keep our sevens. I am encouraged to see a Tidehollow Sculler hit the board on his turn 2, as I have lost only once ever to Deadguy Ale in almost three years of playing Zoo, and only to a version running Phyrexian Crusader, which is pretty close to unbeatable for me. He takes an Elspeth, but he knows it is unlikely to last long, as I have access to both Qasali Pridemage and Punishing Fire. Although I do not yet have a Grove at the ready, my chances of getting this set up is extremely high given enough turns.
He plays a Bitterblossom, and I respond by blowing it up with my Pridemage. He plays two Stoneforges, which fetch up Jitte and Batterskull. Somewhere during all of this, before I could play an Elspeth, he plays a Hero of Bladehold, and my plan to aggressively jump my Knight is stopped. Instead, I plan a Sylvan Safekeeper and play defensively with my Knight, preparing myself for a long grindfest. This is confirmed when he plays a Lingering Souls. My Elspeth is pretty much useless against Hero of Bladehold, Lingering Souls, and Umezawa's Jitte, and I don't even blink when I lose it a Thoughtseize. However, I manage to clean up the Hero of Bladehold with a pair of Punishing Fires before doing the same with the Germ token. I play super defensively with Punishing Fire to prevent him suiting Batterskull to a non-0/0 creature or from connecting with a Jitte, since I can easily control the board, but a single misstep will likely cause me to lose the game on the spot.
Punishing Fire begins to dominate the game, and I gradually wipe out his army. Almost 30 minutes into the game, my opponent valiantly gives it a last-ditch effort. He plays a Swords to Plowshares on my Knight; I sacrifice Wasteland to Safekeeper to protect it. With that activation on the stack, he casts another Swords, I sacrifice another land. We move to my turn, and I attack with a huge Knight, which he does not block. I grab my pen and mark his life total down to 6, then awkwardly stare at the Lightning Bolt and Punishing Fire in hand, since I could have ended the game by sacrificing another land to the Safekeeper. I ship the turn, and he flashes back Lingering Souls and Swords my Knight yet again. By this time, I'm a bit worried about running too low on lands to profitably use Punishing Fire, so I allow the Knight to go farming. However, I have enough to burn him out.
SB: -1 Teeg, -1 Safekeeper, -2 Elspeth, +2 Ancient Grudge, +2 Engineered Explosives. I suspect Perish and/or Zealous Persecution, so the Safekeeper is a liability. Elspeth doesn't seem very strong given his access to Jitte and so many token producing cards.
G2: We finish the grinding game 1 with about 20 minutes left in the match and are moved onto the camera. We both keep our sevens, with mine containing two Groves, Hierarch, Pridemage, two Knights, and a Zenith. My opponent leads with Top into Tidehollow Scullers on his next two turns, missing his third land drop, but I rip into a Punishing Fire on turn 3 and I'm able to wipe out his board while holding up a Grove of the Burnwillows at all time to play around Extirpate effects. I'm probably able to jam creatures more aggressively, but given the importance of the Punishing Fire in this matchup, I am happy just to control the board.
Eventually, I draw a Swords to Plowshares and an Ancient Grudge in case he's able to play larger creatures (such as Hero of Bladehold) or a Batterskull that I cannot easily deal with, but unfortunately for him, he draws no gas and I am able to easily end the game.
R9 - Elves (ID)
At the end of eight rounds, I am the 5th overall seed (3rd among the 21 pointers). Several of my friends had volunteered to do tiebreaker math in case it was necessary, but I'm confident enough to just sign the match slip and grab some sushi. OM NOM NOM NOM.
T8 - RUG Delver (0-2)
At the end of the Swiss rounds, I am the 6th seed. I get paired against a fairly prominent professional on RUG Delver. I believe the matchup is in my favor, but several factors temper my optimism: (1) my opponent is arguably the best RUG Delver player in the world, (2) he is on the play with a tempo deck, and (3) he has nearly perfect information given the access to opposing decklists during the top 8 and due to his inclusion of Gitaxian Probe. That third point is actually a pretty big deal given that I'm playing a rather unconventional deck choice, especially in the hands of a pro who can make great use of it. That being said, I was really excited to play this match, and despite the stakes involved, I feel like I was pretty relaxed and have no regrets about my play (although I did make several mistakes which I will point out below).
G1: My opponent opts to be on the play and keeps his seven. I ship my seven and keep a six with two lands, Hierarch, Pridemage, Bolt, and Elspeth. My opponent leads with a Ponder and keeps; I lead with Hierarch. He Probes me on his turn 2 and drops a Goyf that he ripped off the Probe. I make a Pridemage and ship the turn. He drops a second Goyf and Wastes me on his turn 3, with Goyf and Pridemage trading beats. Eventually, he is able to find a Bolt to deal with my Pridemage, while I have a Swords to answer one of the Goyfs. However, I am forced to jam Elspeth into his Spell Pierce due to having no answers to the 4/5 Goyf quickly working on my life total.
Eventually, I play a 4/4 Knight with a mana open, and he rumbles in again with a 5/6 Goyf with me at 7 life. I play a Bolt on the Goyf pre-combat with the intention of trading both my Knight and the Bolt for the Goyf if the Bolt resolved, but it is Dazed instead, so I decline to block and fall to two. The ground is therefore stalemated until he cantrips into a Lightning Bolt a few turns later.
Notes on this G1:
- I naturally had both basics in my hand by second turn, but I ripped a fetchland on that turn after he Probed me. I played the fetchland in order to play around Stifle, thereby giving up even more information and playing into Wasteland because I had no more basics to fetch with the fetchland. I play extremely conservatively around Stifle, as seen by this play, but I'm not sure is right. Does anyone have opinions?
- With only sorceries and lands in the yard, my opponent plays a Brainstorm on his 4th turn. I instinctively say "resolves" before immediately realizing that I probably want to play Swords there to prevent him from gaining an additional life off Tarmogoyf. This turned out to be absolutely irrelevant, and you can probably argue that withholding that information about the Swords until after he Brainstormed may have been more valuable, but it was not the play I initially wanted to make (and one of the commentators noted this). Even when you're playing a deck without counterspells, think carefully before you pass priority.
- My opponent had the option of casting Fire/Ice to remove either my Pridemage or my Hierarch, or of using Lightning Bolt to deal with one of them and holding up blue for Spell Pierce. I was forced to jam Elspeth in that position because the Goyf would have wrecked me otherwise, but I was fairly sure it wasn't going to resolve. I wonder if he would have played the Fire/Ice instead to make more efficient use of his mana if he hadn't seen my Elspeth off Probe. That's an example of the power of having free knowledge off Gitaxian Probe.
SB: +3 Engineered Explosives, +3 Thalia, +1 Bojuka Bog, -2 Elspeth, -1 Punishing Fire, -1 Bolt, -1 Pridemage, -1 Teeg, -1 Safekeeper. I knew he would be bringing in Submerges and Rough/Tumble. While Teeg and Safekeeper are good against Submerge, they are terrible against Rough. I decline to bring in the REBs since I don't want to be too reactive and the only permanents they destroy are the Delvers, which I have approximately a million ways to contain. Punishing Fire is okay if the game becomes very grindy, but I don't want it to clutter my hand. Neither burn spell reliably kills the green creatures, so I shaved one copy of each.
G2: I choose to be on the play and ship my seven, which contained no lands, trading it for a six that contained a Zenith and a Knight, but an awkward Dryad Arbor; my opponent keeps his seven. My turn two Zenith for Hierarch is met by a turn two Goyf. After a Submerge to buy time, my Knight of the Reliquary is countered by Force of Will, instantly putting me on the defensive. I deploy an Explosives on two to answer the Goyf, but I'm choked on two mana sources after a timely Wasteland and some removal. I conveniently rip a Swords after he plays a Delver, and since I cannot afford to let the Delver hit me, I play the Swords and the Bolt to deal with his threats instead of popping the Explosives. His follow-up Sulfur Elemntal meets a Punishing Fire. I rip several lands in a row, while he passes without threats, but eventually sticks a Mongoose. I follow that with topdecked Bojuka Bog and then Wild Nacatl. However, he is able to Brainstorm into two Lightning Bolts to end my tournament run.
My opponent would go on to win the entire tournament, marking the second time in as many attempts that I'm dismissed from the Legacy Open top 8 by the eventual champion. At least it gives me something to strive for next time!
Notes:
- I lead with a Windswept Heath and pass the turn in order to play around Wasteland. I decline to crack when my opponent cracks his fetchland on his first turn, even though he specifically asked whether I'm cracking my fetchland. I don't remember why I did this, but this is pretty bad (even though it turns out my opponent boarded out his Stifles).
- I'm not sure whether my choice of casting Zenith for Hierarch on turn 2 was appropriate. I don't think I could afford to sit on the Zenith for too long, and my plan was to ensure that I could cast my Knight through any taxing counters in his hand, so I chose Hierarch over Nacatl, especially since they both die more or less to the same targeted removal.
- After my opponent Submerged my Hierarch on his turn 2, I tanked on whether or not I wanted to play the Knight into a possible Daze. I chose to replay the Hierarch and play a Wasteland, without activating it. I considered playing Dryad Arbor, as one of the commentators also suggested, but I was irrationally afraid of Fire/Ice or a Submerge on my Arbor (indeed, my opponent had a second Submerge, but it was his only blue card to pitch to Force of Will). I ended up having to jam Knight the next turn into a potential Daze anyway after a Bolt took care of my Hierarch, but it turned out to be irrelevant since my opponent had the Force.
- Several people asked me what was going on during the delay that involved a judge call. I used Wasteland to take out his red source, but did so on his upkeep in order to play around Stifle. He actually began drawing his card as I passed the turn and said "upkeep", and in the process, he saw a little bit of the card he would have drawn. The judge explained that he would resolve it by shuffling that card into his library, since the deck was randomized at that point (he kept off his turn 1 Ponder, but he ended up drawing those cards already).
- Upon watching the replay, I noticed that the Tarmogoyf that eats the Swords actually incorrectly was placed in the graveyard. I'm sure this was accidental, but this stuff is really hard to notice in real time (as no one pointed it out).
Props:
- To SCG for running a terrific event.
- To the Boldwyr and TLT crews for their support.
- To Card Kingdom for placing 3 regulars in the top 8 and an additional 4 in the 9th through 16th. There is a large weekly Legacy scene, and this competition makes us all better players.
- To my opponents for being really cool.
Slops:
- To whoever labeled my deck "Punishing Maverick".
Previously, our pugnacious protagonist ventured to the depths of Mirkwood to wage war. Relive this harrowing tale (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?26620-FIGHT-ME!-Top-4-at-Mirkwood-Cup-with-Zoo) if you are so inclined.
The day did not start off auspiciously. Because of "real life" issues, I didn't get to do as much testing as I would have hoped. While I had set myself on playing Zoo for the past week, it was motivated more by a sentiment that it would be cool if I could have another successful run with my pet deck than by the belief that this was the clear-cut best choice in the metagame, which had seen the likes of Shardless BUG, Deathblade, and Omniscience combo recede in favor of a resurgence of decks like Miracles and Sneak Attack. My choice was also dictated in part by my friend Batman, who declared "you're a bitch if you don't play Zoo", and by my nemesis, who informed me that "I'll play your deck at SCG if you don't". Of course, I'm not a bitch and I couldn't let my precious fall into the hands of the cackling fiend who refers to me as "the smug balding man".
I had planned to sleep early the previous night to get some rest, but as it turns out, I had to frantically put together two additional decks to lend to some friends as well as scrounge up about 20-30 other cards to lend to various other people for the Legacy event, leaving me deprived of much needed rest. I knew I could not expect SCG to hold up the event like some of the local stores to allow me to arrive fashionably late, so I settled for "fashionably on time as late as possible". Everything was going smoothly until I took the exit off the I-5 to the Greater Tacoma Convention Center, an unfamiliar site not used for previous SCG Opens in Seattle. As I sought directions from my phone, which doubled as my GPS, the aforementioned cackling fiend called me to leave me bereft of the much needed directions. I sent him to voice mail, only to be interupted twice more by his incessant need to get smacked back down.
Meanwhile, I circled around the convention center futilely looking for a place to park, with my urge to relieve myself becoming uncontrollable. After finally parking about a block away, I set off on a brisk walk to ensure that I find the restroom quickly, although careful not to move so fast as to cause my sphincter to relax. I entered the convention center and found that the restrooms which promised me the respite I so needed were available the fifth floor where the Open was held. I hurried onto the esclators, which zigged and zagged to and fro, which in my state of great impatience felt like a trip on M.C. Escher's Infinite Staircase. I finally ran through the door, greeted by exclamations from my friends of "that's a bitch move!" and "do you have my deck?". I dismissed them all with a hurried reply of "get the hell out of my way" and finally found relief.
I paid my entry fee, then provided the borrows to my friends and teammates who had been waiting anxiously for them. One of my teammates was set to pilot Miracles, and because he has balls like Chuck Norris, included Karn Liberated, which automatically makes him more awesome than anyone else. Unfortunately, because of a communication breakdown the previous night, I was unaware that he needed to borrow the deck and lent the pieces to someone else. I felt terrible as he walked dejectedly to the judge's table to collect his refund. Captain Karn, I'm really sorry about this.
The Deck
// Lands (23)
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Taiga
2 Plateau
2 Savannah
2 Wasteland
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Karakas
1 Dryad Arbor
// Creatures (19)
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
// Other (18)
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Punishing Fire
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
SB: 3 Engineered Explosives
SB: 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
SB: 3 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Pyroblast
SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 2 Ancient Grudge
SB: 1 Bojuka Bog
Due to the resurgence of Miracles and Sneak Attack, I added a couple Wastelands to the deck and swapped out a REB for a Gaddock Teeg.
The Tournament
R1 - Omniscience (2-0)
I get paired against a teammate, although much of my interaction with this crew (which I recently joined) to date has consisted of profane shit talk and belligerent calls to fight, all while condescendingly interrupting their discussions on Standard and Limited. I have not yet playtested Legacy with these guys; unfortunately, this meant I had no idea what he was on.
G1: I lose the die roll. My opponent keeps his seven, and I do likewise with a solid grip that consists of a few lands, a Zenith, a Nacatl, and some other cards I don't remember. He fetches for an Island and Probes me, and I figure I'm likely facing a combo deck. I believe he plays a cantrip and ships the turn. I rip a second GSZ on my first turn, and I decide that setting up a turn two GSZ for Teeg is better than applying immediate pressure with Nacatl, especially since it wouldn't actually reveal that I had drawn a second Zenith, so I fetch up a Dryad Arbor. My turn 2 Zenith resolves and I play a couple more beaters while he cantrips into nothing.
SB: +3 Thalia, +3 Canonist, +1 Teeg, +2 REB/Pyro, -4 Swords, -2 Elspeth, -3 Punishing Fire
G2: My opponent opts to take the play and keeps his seven. I mull a 7 that has a ton of hatebears but no lands, and I keep a risky six that includes Thalia, Canonist, and Teeg, but only Karakas as my only land. He cantrips on turn 1, and I rip a blank and play my Karakas. He cantrips some more, and I rip a fetchland like a champ on my second draw and slam Thalia, which resolves. This slows down his cantripping on his third turn (which included an Ancient Tomb), which allows me to play my Gaddock Teeg. He still cantrips into nothing on his fourth turn.
On my fourth turn, I try to play Canonist; as you may know from my previous report, I usually prefer to put it into play for free off Show and Tell, but I figured I had him locked out of Force of Will and would still like to slow down his cantripping some more. He plays Pact of Negation and wastes his fifth turn paying the upkeep trigger. That's enough for me to get there in combination with the damage he's done with his Ancient Tomb.
R2 - Sneak Attack (2-1)
My opponent and I make some small talk before the match. We sat near each other in the player's meeting, and he's wearing a Peyton Manning Broncos jersey, but I have no idea what he's on.
G1: My opponent wins the roll and both of us keep our sevens. Mine is a slow hand with a few fetchlands and some removal. My opponent starts with an Island and a Volcanic Island, and I figure he's on combo. I play a second fetchland and crack it, and I get blown out by Stifle. Although this is usually an uncomfortable feeling, I'm drawing very light on threats and have plenty of removal and lands, so I am temporarily relieved, as I now assume I'm facing a tempo deck.
My opponent then proceeds to play a Tomb into Sneak Attack, drop a Petal to play a Griselbrand, draw 7, pitch Simian Spirit Guide, and then annihilate me with Emrakul. Apparently, none of my reads were right.
SB: +3 Thalia, +2 Canonist, +1 Teeg, +2 REB/Pyro, -4 Punishing Fire, -2 Elspeth, -1 Swords, -1 Bolt
G2: I keep my seven on the play, my opponent mulls to six. I don't remember much about this game, but I try to play around Blood Moon early and stick two Pridemages on the board. I believe I'm either afraid of Pyroclasm or a Stifle on my Karakas if I sandbag my Knight for Show and Tell, so I run it out on turn 4, and he accidentally shows me a Flusterstorm but the Knight resolves. I think he stumbles on mana because I take the game very quickly.
SB: Same
G3: Both of us keep our sevens; mine is a slower one with both of my REB effects, some ramp, a Pridemage, and a Knight. I REB his turn 2 Preordain and his turn 3 Show and Tell, despite holding a Knight, because I fear Sneak Attack and Stifle. I draw either a second Knight or a Zenith and use that to deploy a Knight, which proceeds to destroy his mana base after he stumbles.
R3 - Death and Taxes (2-0)
This is a friend and teammate who I had also faced in round 3 of the Mirkwood Cup, which I had previously written about. I knew he was on Death and Taxes again since he was borrowing some of my cards and since we were at adjacent tables in Round 1. I've managed to play Death and Taxes several times since the Mirkwood Cup, and I now realize it's a very favorable matchup, although I need to watch out for his new Spellskite tech which I saw during Round 1.
We get called to a fake feature match. Another teammate that I faced in round 1 watches on the side. My opponent/teammate requests a sheet of paper. I complain it will damage the structural integrity of my composition notebook. The two of them tag team to rip a page out. I call them out to fight me.
G1: He wins the die roll, takes the play, and mulls to six. I keep a strong seven with a good mix of creatures and removal. He has Swords for my Nacatl and a second creature, but I get Punishing Fire early to take out several Revokers. I'm in firm control because I have Punishing Fire active and am drawing plenty of land, and he has Port active but no Wasteland, so he settles instead for tapping down my Dryad Arbor which would beat for 2 with exalted triggers.
The first interesting play comes much later in the game when he lands a Spellskite and a Mirran Crusader which threatens to make short work of me. Fortunately, I had more than enough mana to cast Punishing Fire twice in a turn, forcing him to pay life into the Spellskite before taking out both cards. The game ends shortly after when I draw a Knight (or some other beater).
SB: -2 Elspeth, -1 Teeg, -1 Safekeeper, -1 Ooze, +3 Engineered Explosives, +2 Ancient Grudge
G2: Both of us keep our sevens. I have a good mix of lands (including Groves), ramp, and creatures, along with a Punishing Fire, an Ancient Grudge, and possibly a second Fire or a Bolt.
He opens with an Aether Vial and passes the turn. I play a fetchland and pass back. He ticks up his Vial, misses a land drop, and passes back. I play a fetchland. Because I'm worried about an EOT Mother of Runes, I ship the turn back, ready to cast Punishing Fire if he cheats a Mom in, but prepared to cast Ancient Grudge on the Vial during upkeep if he doesn't. He puts the Vial trigger on the stack, and I smash it; he responds by putting the Mother in. I summon a couple Knights, and although he eventually draws a land and a Rest in Peace, I'm able to beat him for 5 a turn (including a Dryad Arbor) to quickly end the game.
I asked after the match why he didn't Vial in the Mother at the end of my second turn. It turns out he had a Spellskite in hand and was hoping to be able to play both on the same turn, which would have been very difficult for me to beat. I thought he played this sequence very well, but I was fortunate to have the Ancient Grudge and also timed it perfectly by using it on upkeep rather on the end of my turn.
R4 - Affinity (2-0)
My opponent and I are called over to the backup feature table match. I don't recognize his name, but I ask if he's a pro or whether he has any significant Grand Prix or Pro Tour qualifications, since I'm not sure why we'd be called to the feature table area otherwise. He confirms that he does (I later find out that he has a lot of credentials in Standard and Modern, but doesn't play a lot of Legacy). Neither of us know what the other is on.
G1: My opponent wins the roll but mulls to five. I keep a pretty strong hand with Noble Hierarch, Qasali Pridemage, Zenith, and either a Bolt or Swords (I would shortly draw the other copy). He leads with a turn 1 Memnite; I respond with a Hierarch. He plays an Arcbound Ravager and a Vault Skirge; I play a Pridemage. He plays a Glimmervoid and attacks, sacrificing his two artifact lands to Ravager, leaving him with a beefed up Ravager, a Memnite, and a Skirge, as well as the untapped Glimmervoid.
Perfect time to blow him out, I think to myself, and I'm prepared to play both of my removal spells and then pop the Pridemage to destroy his board. However, I decide to lead with an attack to see if he chumps, and he throws the Memnite under the bus and then sacrifices it to Ravager. I respond by casting Swords on the Ravager, to which he responds with a Spell Pierce while I had two mana available--totally did not see that coming! Fortunately, I had a Lightning Bolt, so I declined to pay for Pierce, so I was able to trade that and the Pridemage for his entire board. The game ends shortly thereafter.
SB: -2 Elspeth, -1 Teeg, -1 Safekeeper, +2 Grudge, +2 Engineered Explosives. I was contemplating bringing in REBs for Tezzeret, Thoughtcast, and Master of Etherium, but I figured the versions that ran Ravager were less likely to include Tezz and Master. Engineered Explosives is mostly a hedge against Etched Champion, which totally dominate the board, although I wasn't sure he ran it. It turns out he ran Tezz and sideboarded Etched Champions, but not Masters.
G2: We both keep our sevens, although mine is a greedy: Savannah as my only land, but Hierarch, Bolt, Bolt, Grudge, Pridemage, Zenith. I think he dumps an artifact land, a Memnite, and a Vault Skirge on the board. I take my turn and rip a fetchland like a champ. Although my inclination was to play Noble Hierarch first, I realized I would likely only have access to one red source next turn, which meant I could not play two removal spells on turn 2 unless I was willing to flashback Ancient Grudge, which was my most flexible removal spell. So instead, I led with Lightning Bolt on Skirge, setting up a Hierarch and a second Bolt on turn 2.
Meanwhile, my opponent played a Ravager, a Glimmervoid, and some other threats. However, I ripped a third Bolt off the top and was able to wipe his board fairly quickly. He was able to rip an artifact land, followed by an Ancient Tomb and an Etched Champion, but I was able to use Qasali Pridemage as a Stone Rain to keep him off Metalcraft and quickly end the game.
Despite the result, Affinity is absolutely not an easy matchup, and I was fortunate that I absolutely nut-drew my opponent (although the faster Ravager builds are considerably easier than the ones with more Masters and Etched Champions). However, he would keep commenting to me throughout the day that he hoped to avoid me in the top 8--you and me both, buddy. In any case, he ended up finishing top 4. Congrats!
R5 - RUG Delver (2-0)
My opponent and I talk a little bit, and he informs me that he recently moved from the East Coast. We're sitting at table #2, so we wait to make sure we're not called to the feature area, then we begin our match.
G1: My opponent wins the roll and mulls to six. I keep my seven which includes an Elspeth. He opens with a cantrip while I open with Wild Nacatls on my first two turns. He eventually plays a Delver of Secrets, and I'm holding a Swords to Plowshares, but by this time, I put him on RUG and realize that I should save my Swords for the Tarmogoyf. I continue to crash in, and he drops a Tarmogoyf on his next turn, which I immediately Swords. At some point, he deals with one of my Nacatls (perhaps after transforming his Delver, although it's possible I killed his Delver while he Bolted my Nacatl). I rip a second Elspeth and play my first one into a Spell Pierce. The second one eats a Stifle after resolving but eventually wins the game, along with the Wild Nacatl and an EOT Dryad Arbor via a fetchland.
SB: -2 Elspeth, -1 Bolt, -1 Punishing Fire, -1 Teeg, -1 Safekeeper, -1 Qasali Pridemage (?); +3 Thalia, +3 Engineered Explosives, +1 Bojuka Bog
G2: I can't remember too much about the beginning of this game, but we both keep our sevens, and my opponent gets off to a more aggressive start and I assume the control role. A Punishing Fire deals with his first Delver of Secrets, and I believe an Engineered Explosives answers a Mongoose, but he's putting quite a bit of pressure on my life total. I play a Knight of the Reliquary, which gets Submerged to allow him to continue to beat in, but I redraw and cast it. He beats me down to 5 and passes. I draw a land, play it, and pass back; I think I have about seven at this point so I feel good if I can stabilize. He attacks me against with the Delver, so I activate Knight which fortunately neither gets Submerged nor Stifled. I grab a Grove, return Punishing Fire, and have enough to pay through his taxing counters. Eventually, I draw enough blockers to get on the offensive with Knight and win the match.
R6 - UWR Delver (0-2)
My opponent for round six is a friend, teammate, and a regular at our local card store. He is also a powerful wizard (with an SCG Legacy Open Finals appearance to his credit) and a dignified one to boot, proving to be above the shenanigans that goes on in our discussions. I set aside my trollface and put on my gameface. We both know what the other are on, and although I suspect that I'm favored in the matchup, I haven't played this out too much. However, my opponent has played my friend Batman on Zoo several times though, so I ask him how the matchup usually goes.
"This is stone-cold unwinnable for you," he deadpanned. "You should just scoop now."
Well, so much for no trolling. Fight me!
G1: After complaining that I had only one game on the play after six rounds, I finally win a die roll. I should do this more often.
I quickly ship back a hand of Noble Hierarch, Dryad Arbor, four more lands, and a Swords to Plowshares, since that just loses quickly to a Geist. My six is decent, but not strong. I believe it included two lands, a Taiga and a Wasteland. I believe we played lands on our first few turns, and I rip a Karakas and a fetchland over the next few turns. Meanwhile, I cast a Lightning Bolt to deal with a Stoneforge Mystic, which fetches Batterskull. He has a follow up Stoneforge Mystic fetching Jitte. I have the option of paying 1R for Punishing Fire, leaving up Wasteland for Daze or to Waste his white source; alternatively, I could tap the Wasteland, leaving up Savannah for Swords in case my Punishing Fire gets forced. I take the second line of play.
I'm feeling pretty good after he stumbles on mana, but I have no threats. He then cantrips into two Wastelands, leaving me with just a Karakas. Lavamancer and Delver hit the board and get suited up with Jitte to take the game in short order.
SB: +2 Ancient Grudge, +3 Thalia, -2 Elspeth, -1 Gaddock Teeg, -2 Swords to Plowshares
G2: I keep a reasonable seven which included a Thalia, a Nacatl, and several lands. Thalia hits the board for me turn 2, and I choose to attack with it before playing my turn 3 Qasali Pridemage since I would prefer he use the removal spell on the Thalia rather than the Pridemage. My Pridemage resolves, but end of turn, he Bolts the Thalia anyway, so I missed a point of damage. He then jams a Geist on the board and has another Bolt for my Pridemage, leaving me on the defensive.
My Scavenging Ooze meets a Swords to Plowshares, and I believe a Knight of the Reliquary gets hit by Snapcaster into Swords. I have a Pridemage to try to play defense, but he had already resolved a Grim Lavamancer by that point. It didn't last much longer from there.
I bemoan my fate, because when I scouted, the X-0 bracket looked like it had many more favorable matchups than did the X-1 bracket.
R7 - Goblins (2-0)
I don't recognize my opponent, but we engage in some smalltalk, and he tells me he's from Idaho. I scouted the X-1 tables after losing quickly in round 6, and I think he's on Goblins, but I'm not entirely certain. We get called for a deck check, and when he puts his deck back into his box, he reveals a Pyrokinesis in the sideboard to confirm my suspicions. I felt bad that I got this advantage, but I wasn't deliberately snooping around.
Both of our decks are confirmed to be legal, and we're off to game 1.
G1: I win another die roll and keep a hand with a few lands and a bunch of green creatures, including a Hierarch, an Ooze, and a Knight. I aggressively jam all my creatures down, using the Knight to both ramp as well as to hold together my shoddy manabase in the face of Wasteland to keep the Nacatls wild. I eventually summon in addition to my Hierarch and my Knight, an Ooze and three Nacatls, which are crashing in aggressively to force his Goblins to chump block. A Matron picks up an Incinerator, a second one gets a Warchief, and a Ringleader finds a Siege-Gang and a Chieftain. I have not drawn a single removal spell in all this time, but I've managed to convince my opponent via my lines of attack that I'm holding a Lightning Bolt (by sending in the Knight which I had previously been holding back for defense and utility), and he's forced to make some suboptimal decisions based on that bad information, although I think he played well given that assumption.
He reveals after the game that he should have searched up a Krenko with the Matron. Yeah, that would have been pretty problematic with the Warchief on the board.
SB: -1 Teeg, +1 Engineered Explosives. I may have swapped out the Safekeeper for a second Explosives.
G2: My opponent mulligans to six, and I keep my seven, which contains a few lands, a Knight, a Zenith, and some Punishing Fires. He passes the turn with a fetchland; I play a land and Zenith for Arbor, which eats a Tarfire at the end of turn. He plays a land, and I follow with a Hierarch (or a Zenith for one). He plays a Warchief on consecutive turns, each of which connects once before taking a Punishing Fire. I then play a Knight, and it's able to survive a turn to search up Grove. I've drawn plenty of lands in the meantime, so I'm hitting all my land drops to supercharge this engine, and the game ends shortly thereafter.
R8 - Deadguy Ale (2-0)
I am paired down for my win-and-in. I find my opponent after some confusion, since another player with the same name is seated at an adjacent table. We are called to the backup feature table. As we walk to the feature area, I run into Batman playing Cube, who yells some words of encouragement. Thanks, man!
G1: My opponent wins the die roll, and we both keep our sevens. I am encouraged to see a Tidehollow Sculler hit the board on his turn 2, as I have lost only once ever to Deadguy Ale in almost three years of playing Zoo, and only to a version running Phyrexian Crusader, which is pretty close to unbeatable for me. He takes an Elspeth, but he knows it is unlikely to last long, as I have access to both Qasali Pridemage and Punishing Fire. Although I do not yet have a Grove at the ready, my chances of getting this set up is extremely high given enough turns.
He plays a Bitterblossom, and I respond by blowing it up with my Pridemage. He plays two Stoneforges, which fetch up Jitte and Batterskull. Somewhere during all of this, before I could play an Elspeth, he plays a Hero of Bladehold, and my plan to aggressively jump my Knight is stopped. Instead, I plan a Sylvan Safekeeper and play defensively with my Knight, preparing myself for a long grindfest. This is confirmed when he plays a Lingering Souls. My Elspeth is pretty much useless against Hero of Bladehold, Lingering Souls, and Umezawa's Jitte, and I don't even blink when I lose it a Thoughtseize. However, I manage to clean up the Hero of Bladehold with a pair of Punishing Fires before doing the same with the Germ token. I play super defensively with Punishing Fire to prevent him suiting Batterskull to a non-0/0 creature or from connecting with a Jitte, since I can easily control the board, but a single misstep will likely cause me to lose the game on the spot.
Punishing Fire begins to dominate the game, and I gradually wipe out his army. Almost 30 minutes into the game, my opponent valiantly gives it a last-ditch effort. He plays a Swords to Plowshares on my Knight; I sacrifice Wasteland to Safekeeper to protect it. With that activation on the stack, he casts another Swords, I sacrifice another land. We move to my turn, and I attack with a huge Knight, which he does not block. I grab my pen and mark his life total down to 6, then awkwardly stare at the Lightning Bolt and Punishing Fire in hand, since I could have ended the game by sacrificing another land to the Safekeeper. I ship the turn, and he flashes back Lingering Souls and Swords my Knight yet again. By this time, I'm a bit worried about running too low on lands to profitably use Punishing Fire, so I allow the Knight to go farming. However, I have enough to burn him out.
SB: -1 Teeg, -1 Safekeeper, -2 Elspeth, +2 Ancient Grudge, +2 Engineered Explosives. I suspect Perish and/or Zealous Persecution, so the Safekeeper is a liability. Elspeth doesn't seem very strong given his access to Jitte and so many token producing cards.
G2: We finish the grinding game 1 with about 20 minutes left in the match and are moved onto the camera. We both keep our sevens, with mine containing two Groves, Hierarch, Pridemage, two Knights, and a Zenith. My opponent leads with Top into Tidehollow Scullers on his next two turns, missing his third land drop, but I rip into a Punishing Fire on turn 3 and I'm able to wipe out his board while holding up a Grove of the Burnwillows at all time to play around Extirpate effects. I'm probably able to jam creatures more aggressively, but given the importance of the Punishing Fire in this matchup, I am happy just to control the board.
Eventually, I draw a Swords to Plowshares and an Ancient Grudge in case he's able to play larger creatures (such as Hero of Bladehold) or a Batterskull that I cannot easily deal with, but unfortunately for him, he draws no gas and I am able to easily end the game.
R9 - Elves (ID)
At the end of eight rounds, I am the 5th overall seed (3rd among the 21 pointers). Several of my friends had volunteered to do tiebreaker math in case it was necessary, but I'm confident enough to just sign the match slip and grab some sushi. OM NOM NOM NOM.
T8 - RUG Delver (0-2)
At the end of the Swiss rounds, I am the 6th seed. I get paired against a fairly prominent professional on RUG Delver. I believe the matchup is in my favor, but several factors temper my optimism: (1) my opponent is arguably the best RUG Delver player in the world, (2) he is on the play with a tempo deck, and (3) he has nearly perfect information given the access to opposing decklists during the top 8 and due to his inclusion of Gitaxian Probe. That third point is actually a pretty big deal given that I'm playing a rather unconventional deck choice, especially in the hands of a pro who can make great use of it. That being said, I was really excited to play this match, and despite the stakes involved, I feel like I was pretty relaxed and have no regrets about my play (although I did make several mistakes which I will point out below).
G1: My opponent opts to be on the play and keeps his seven. I ship my seven and keep a six with two lands, Hierarch, Pridemage, Bolt, and Elspeth. My opponent leads with a Ponder and keeps; I lead with Hierarch. He Probes me on his turn 2 and drops a Goyf that he ripped off the Probe. I make a Pridemage and ship the turn. He drops a second Goyf and Wastes me on his turn 3, with Goyf and Pridemage trading beats. Eventually, he is able to find a Bolt to deal with my Pridemage, while I have a Swords to answer one of the Goyfs. However, I am forced to jam Elspeth into his Spell Pierce due to having no answers to the 4/5 Goyf quickly working on my life total.
Eventually, I play a 4/4 Knight with a mana open, and he rumbles in again with a 5/6 Goyf with me at 7 life. I play a Bolt on the Goyf pre-combat with the intention of trading both my Knight and the Bolt for the Goyf if the Bolt resolved, but it is Dazed instead, so I decline to block and fall to two. The ground is therefore stalemated until he cantrips into a Lightning Bolt a few turns later.
Notes on this G1:
- I naturally had both basics in my hand by second turn, but I ripped a fetchland on that turn after he Probed me. I played the fetchland in order to play around Stifle, thereby giving up even more information and playing into Wasteland because I had no more basics to fetch with the fetchland. I play extremely conservatively around Stifle, as seen by this play, but I'm not sure is right. Does anyone have opinions?
- With only sorceries and lands in the yard, my opponent plays a Brainstorm on his 4th turn. I instinctively say "resolves" before immediately realizing that I probably want to play Swords there to prevent him from gaining an additional life off Tarmogoyf. This turned out to be absolutely irrelevant, and you can probably argue that withholding that information about the Swords until after he Brainstormed may have been more valuable, but it was not the play I initially wanted to make (and one of the commentators noted this). Even when you're playing a deck without counterspells, think carefully before you pass priority.
- My opponent had the option of casting Fire/Ice to remove either my Pridemage or my Hierarch, or of using Lightning Bolt to deal with one of them and holding up blue for Spell Pierce. I was forced to jam Elspeth in that position because the Goyf would have wrecked me otherwise, but I was fairly sure it wasn't going to resolve. I wonder if he would have played the Fire/Ice instead to make more efficient use of his mana if he hadn't seen my Elspeth off Probe. That's an example of the power of having free knowledge off Gitaxian Probe.
SB: +3 Engineered Explosives, +3 Thalia, +1 Bojuka Bog, -2 Elspeth, -1 Punishing Fire, -1 Bolt, -1 Pridemage, -1 Teeg, -1 Safekeeper. I knew he would be bringing in Submerges and Rough/Tumble. While Teeg and Safekeeper are good against Submerge, they are terrible against Rough. I decline to bring in the REBs since I don't want to be too reactive and the only permanents they destroy are the Delvers, which I have approximately a million ways to contain. Punishing Fire is okay if the game becomes very grindy, but I don't want it to clutter my hand. Neither burn spell reliably kills the green creatures, so I shaved one copy of each.
G2: I choose to be on the play and ship my seven, which contained no lands, trading it for a six that contained a Zenith and a Knight, but an awkward Dryad Arbor; my opponent keeps his seven. My turn two Zenith for Hierarch is met by a turn two Goyf. After a Submerge to buy time, my Knight of the Reliquary is countered by Force of Will, instantly putting me on the defensive. I deploy an Explosives on two to answer the Goyf, but I'm choked on two mana sources after a timely Wasteland and some removal. I conveniently rip a Swords after he plays a Delver, and since I cannot afford to let the Delver hit me, I play the Swords and the Bolt to deal with his threats instead of popping the Explosives. His follow-up Sulfur Elemntal meets a Punishing Fire. I rip several lands in a row, while he passes without threats, but eventually sticks a Mongoose. I follow that with topdecked Bojuka Bog and then Wild Nacatl. However, he is able to Brainstorm into two Lightning Bolts to end my tournament run.
My opponent would go on to win the entire tournament, marking the second time in as many attempts that I'm dismissed from the Legacy Open top 8 by the eventual champion. At least it gives me something to strive for next time!
Notes:
- I lead with a Windswept Heath and pass the turn in order to play around Wasteland. I decline to crack when my opponent cracks his fetchland on his first turn, even though he specifically asked whether I'm cracking my fetchland. I don't remember why I did this, but this is pretty bad (even though it turns out my opponent boarded out his Stifles).
- I'm not sure whether my choice of casting Zenith for Hierarch on turn 2 was appropriate. I don't think I could afford to sit on the Zenith for too long, and my plan was to ensure that I could cast my Knight through any taxing counters in his hand, so I chose Hierarch over Nacatl, especially since they both die more or less to the same targeted removal.
- After my opponent Submerged my Hierarch on his turn 2, I tanked on whether or not I wanted to play the Knight into a possible Daze. I chose to replay the Hierarch and play a Wasteland, without activating it. I considered playing Dryad Arbor, as one of the commentators also suggested, but I was irrationally afraid of Fire/Ice or a Submerge on my Arbor (indeed, my opponent had a second Submerge, but it was his only blue card to pitch to Force of Will). I ended up having to jam Knight the next turn into a potential Daze anyway after a Bolt took care of my Hierarch, but it turned out to be irrelevant since my opponent had the Force.
- Several people asked me what was going on during the delay that involved a judge call. I used Wasteland to take out his red source, but did so on his upkeep in order to play around Stifle. He actually began drawing his card as I passed the turn and said "upkeep", and in the process, he saw a little bit of the card he would have drawn. The judge explained that he would resolve it by shuffling that card into his library, since the deck was randomized at that point (he kept off his turn 1 Ponder, but he ended up drawing those cards already).
- Upon watching the replay, I noticed that the Tarmogoyf that eats the Swords actually incorrectly was placed in the graveyard. I'm sure this was accidental, but this stuff is really hard to notice in real time (as no one pointed it out).
Props:
- To SCG for running a terrific event.
- To the Boldwyr and TLT crews for their support.
- To Card Kingdom for placing 3 regulars in the top 8 and an additional 4 in the 9th through 16th. There is a large weekly Legacy scene, and this competition makes us all better players.
- To my opponents for being really cool.
Slops:
- To whoever labeled my deck "Punishing Maverick".