T-101
12-01-2013, 01:59 AM
Today was the monthly-ish Legacy tournament at the Channel Fireball Game Center, and I squeaked in to Top 8. Hooray for me!
I ran a wonky Junk build. I'm a long time B/G/W Junk player, and after a break of a few months, I've picked up Magic again. I have always loved legacy, and I'm comfortable enough with Junk that I felt like it was the right choice for me today. As I'm getting back into the swing of things, I didn't want to lose to myself with sub-perfect Doomsday piles, or try to go nuts with Pyromancer, so Junk was it. I played pretty decently, and certainly got lucky a few times.
Here's the list:
4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Dark Confidant
4x Tarmogoyf
3x Tidehollow Sculler
4x Knight of the Reliquary
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
1x Cabal Therapy
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Umezawa's Jitte
2x Chains of Mephistopheles
3x Abrupt Decay
4x Hymn to Tourach
1x Swamp
1x Forest
1x Plains
3x Verdant Catacombs
4x Marsh Flats
3x Bayou
3x Scrubland
3x Wasteland
1x Cabal Pit
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Karakas
1x Maze of Ith
Sideboard:
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Thoughtseize
2x Diabolic Edict
2x Sylvan Library
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1x Ethersworn Canonist
3x Golgari Charm
1x Tidehollow Sculler
A couple of notes about the deck.
Chains is pretty odd here, but my plan A was to hammer on combo decks/Jaces/Brainstorms more heavily than normal. It worked out... ok. The idea is that with your CMC 1 and 2 discard, you can jack their hand up enough to slow them down, and Chains will make digging more painful. If they are discarding cards to find pieces, hopefully your future discard spells will be more effective. Sometimes you just have to play cards in your maindeck and see how it works first hand.
Sculler is also not a terribly common card. It does see play sometimes, more often in Deadguy Ale, but less so in Junk. It does fit well with the plan of "nuke their hand, attack them quickly." It's another discard spell, but it can actually attack. Turn 1 discard, T2 Sculler disrupts, while putting some clock on them.
Zero Stoneforge Mystic, Zero Green Sun's Zenith. These are both awesome cards, and I like what they do in Junk (GSZ particularly). But they are slow, and they do not hurt my theoretical combo opponent's hand. I decided to run Knight as my big, awesome, toolbox card, and since I wanted a bunch of disruption, I didn't play these today.
Cabal Pit. This card is freaking sweet. It's a toolbox land for Knight, one that not everyone sees when you have an untapped Knight. It kills tons of things, it makes mana, it comes into play untapped. I first played this card in GP Denver, and consider it an auto-include if you're playing Knight. Fun Fact - it kills Metalcrafty 10/2 Etched Champions outta nowhere.
Junk often does pretty well against fair decks that want to attack with guys. I figured I could sacrifice some of that strength and go for more quick disruption vs the combo decks, and then board back to being strong against fair decks when that happened.
The matches:
Round 1 vs Manaless Dredge
My opponent won the die roll, and elected to draw. This immediately caused me to think Manaless Dredge, but I pondered a few other possibilities... While I was drawing my opening hand, he said, "I keep," before he had looked at his first card. So yeah, that's Manaless Dredges alright. I had 2 lands, Deathrite, Bob, Cabal Therapy, Goyf, and Swords. I know I have to Therapy and hit something, so I cast it. I was wondering if there was a better card to name than Narcomoeba, but couldn't think of one, so Narco it was... and it hit one! His hand was not very spicy and the Cabal slowed him down a turn. Turn 2 Deathrite, with Bob and more disruption to follow wrapped that one up in decent time.
IN: Crypt, Bog, Thoughtseize, Sculler, Thalia, and an Edict. OUT: Chains, Hymn, Inquisition
Chains is bad vs Street Wraith, Hymn will likely help him out a whole lot, and Inquisition might force me to put a Dredger or Bridge in in the bin. I would be on the play again, so Thoughtseize could at least put a sub-optimal card in the yard, which is better than him drawing, and choosing a discard on turn 1. The other board cards vary somewhere between "super amazing," and "does stuff." I threw in an Edict because I knew I was taking out 8, and Edict can kill my guys to nuke bridge. But my main had 61 cards... so I could have just brought in 7, took out 8. Oops.
My 7 has Deathrite and Thoughtseize. It's tempting to Thoughtseize and try to bring his hand down to 6 and get a non-relevant card, but I lead with Deathrite. Manaless doesn't really explode turn 1, and active Deathrite is good to pass up. He draws, ends turn, discards Grave-Troll. Deathrite Shaman is a cool dude. I grind him out slowly, keeping Deathrite active. At one point, he trades a Zombie for Bob, which I thought was odd, but I was more than happy to exile the Bridge. I win, 2/0.
Round 2 vs Shardless BUG
He wins the roll. It's a slow start, he just plays 2 BUG colored fetch lands, I play a T2 Bob. Since he's not doing anything, I suspect Shardless, and fear a Brainstorm into turn 3 Shardless. But instead he cracks both, and Abrupt Decays the Bob, then plays a Goyf. It becomes a Goyf/Abrupt Decay war for a bit, he eventually blind cascades into Ancestral. Damn. I resolve a Chains of Mephistopheles, because I will have no more of that non-sense. I have more removal than he does, and I start drawing Knights. He gets Jace, but with Chains, he's basically an Unsummon Machine. I get down to 1 life at one point, but kill his shaman with that spicy Cabal Pit, and eventually get my own Shaman to climb to a whopping 3 life. Knight of the Reliquary acts like The Abyss for a while, then she gains the line of text "TAP: Destroy target planeswalker." After a lot of back and forth of making creatures, killing creatures, him playing planeswalkers, and me turning Knight sideways a bunch, I win, with about 7 minutes left on the clock.
I'm pretty sure I can't lose that fast, but he needs to play game 2, and he takes a bit to sideboard. I keep an ok hand, that I'm pretty sure will not lose a game with the time we have left. He has turn 2 Goyf, turn 3 Jitte, I Abrupt Decay the Goyf, and he can't kill me in time. Victory, 1/0/1. Knight is awesome, and Chains did work. This is probably the dream match up for Chains. While I'm not really sold on continuing to run it in the main, this game did make the card look sweet.
Round 3 vs Miracles
I win the roll, and lead with Deathrite. He gets a Top on turn 1, while it takes a while for the Counterbalance to show up, he does cast a lot of Swords to Plowshares and Terminus, and Rest in Peace in the main kind of hurts my big creatures a lot. Eventually Jace aids in creating 4 Angels, and I'm dead.
I bring in Golgari Charms and Thalias.
Game 2, I get Vendilion Cliqued on turn 3, while I have a Chains out. Very rude. I Abrupt Decay the Vendilion, but then he gets Jace, Venser + Karakas, and Angel Tokens. The Wrath of God/Jace deck is good against my creature deck :( I lose 0/2.
Round 4 vs Death and Taxes (Mangara Style)
My opponent wins the die roll. He says he is new to Legacy, but it turns out he is a good DnT pilot. I get Deathrite and Bob, he has Mother of Runes and Thalia. He is busy attacking me with Thalia, and he is wisely playing around my Abrupt Decay by declining to block Bob with Mother of Runes. It can be tempting to try to block there, but if he never taps Mother, my Abrupt and Swords are dead. Eventually he gets a Revoker on Deathrite, and keeps swinging away with Thalia. I attack with Bob and Deathrite, he blocks Deathrite with Revoker, and Bob with Mother, giving Revoker protection, but of course I Abrupt Decay the Revoker in response, which opens up Deathrite again. The unstoppable killing machine that is Knight of the Reliquary comes down, and after digging up Maze, she goes to 11. Swinging, killing a guy, and untapping to get ready to block is sweet, and finding a Wasteland or Cabal Pit on top of that each turn is extra sweet. He dies.
I bring in Golgari Charms, Sculler and Edicts for Chains and Hymn. Hymn is sweet, but with Vial, I might just not have any cards worth getting at that point.
I was hoping Golgari Charm would do some serious work here, but I never drew them. I eventually get Deathrite, Knight and a second Bob. He gets one Mangara + Karakas activation, but after that, I Sculler his Mangara away. I get down to 6 from my two Bobs. He seems eager to pass the turn and kill me with Bobs. I activate Knight to turn a Bayou into another Bayou, and double check for 3 and 4 drops. I was pretty sure there were no 4-drops, and with 1 Knight in play, 1 in hand, and 1 sent to the farm, there was no chance I'd Bob myself to death, but checking is good. I do run Garruk and Humility at times, and I'd rather not kill myself today. I'm trying to think what he could have that makes him so excited to kill me off Bob. A flash guy? Oh yeah, Mindcensor. I Cabal Pit one of my Bobs to death to ensure I don't F-Up later. He has no board, so my existing 3 guys should kill him. They do. There was much rejoicing, 2/0. I'm off to find the food court at Costco. I decided to eat there, take my time, and chill out for a minute. Bad decision.
Round 5 vs Lands
I get back after finding a new, farther-away parking space, and I'm about 6 minutes late, so I get a game loss. That's 100% my fault, and I knew it could happen. I figured since all the previous rounds had gone over time I would be safe, but that it the risk you take. I had seen my opponent playing earlier, and knew he was on Loam/Marit Lage token shenanigans. I kept a hand with Deathrite and Sculler, but he goes Land, Exploration, Land, Mox Diamond, Punishing Fire. That kinda sucks for me. Marit Lage kills me, which, for the time being, is WAY cooler than Emrakul killing me.
I looked at board options just for fun, and all I really thought I would bring in was Bog and Crypt. They are strong cards against him, but I think it would be a long shot to win two back to back. I figure that in this matchup, the game-loss I received probably didn't mean as much as it would have in other rounds.
Round 6 vs Goblins
After looking at the standings before round 6, I figured I probably wouldn't make it even if I won, but it was worth playing. I'm not a mathamagician, and don't dabble in the dark arts that are tie-breaker rules. I know my opponent is on Goblins from seeing him play earlier. I don't really have much info on this matchup, as I've stopped taking decent notes at this point. He doesn't explode out of the gates, which is awesome, and I end up with Knight and Goyf. Eventually I let a Lackey in (I think it was Warchief, Ringleader, and Lackey coming down on one turn, and I was not expecting something like that). Lackey made a Siege-Gang, but he's tapped out from casting Ringleader, so I can Swords the Siege-Gang on my next turn. Knight becomes Abyss, as she does vs. creature decks. Eventually she kills him.
I bring in Golgari Charms, again hoping that they will do some serious work.
Again, no turn 1 play from him, which is exactly what you want when you play vs. Goblins. He would have Ringleaders later, but as long as I don't get turn 2 Siege-Ganged, I feel good about my chances. There's a point where he tries to cycle Incinerator for 4 against my 3/4 Goyf. I have a tapped Knight, a Bob, and the Goyf. There's already a creature in the bin, so the Incinerator would indeed kill it, but I have an option. I can Abrupt Decay a token/matron, which both puts an instant in the yard and makes Incinerator's damage less than 4, or I can Golgari Charm, regenerating my guys (which would make Goyf bigger, and give the shield to my team). I go for regen shield. He already knew about the Decay in hand, but I figured that I could better use that later, and Golgari Charm was not really going to blow out his team like I hoped it might. He says he misplayed, because he knew about my Decay, and was kind of confused about the Charm use. After he draws his card from Incinerator, he attacks his Ringleader into my untapped Bob and Goyf. He has 2 mana up, and fearing he might have some way to kill Goyf after it's regeneration shield is used, I block with Bob. He has no trick, and regen shield saves Bob. Knight goes crazy on his mana, blowing up Plateau, Cavern, and a Port, and he can't cast spells anymore. I win 2/0.
Top 8 Round 1 vs RUG Delver
Sadly, there is not a unanimous vote to split the prize, and we have to play. As #8, I'm paired against the #1 seed, which sucks, and I don't know what he's playing. It turns out he's on RUG, and Mongeese are very hard to kill without Liliana, or giant guys. My Goyf gets Forced, and Sculler is not cool enough to kill a Mongoose. I am dead.
I brought in Edict, Crypt, and Bog. Nuking his graveyard is a viable route to shutting off Mongoose, and it seems like the best plan I have.
My 7 in game 2 has guys, but no green mana. I decide to risk it. I play Scrubland, Crypt, pass. He Wastelands me. I play Bojuka Bog, to protect my other dual land from a wasteland. He Wastes my Bojuka Bog. He doesn't really have any action, but I get Wastelanded a 3rd time. I am stuck on 7 and discarding while my opponent Ponders and Brainstorms. Eventually I find a Bayou to cast my Deathrite Shaman. There is hope! Always play it out! He Submerges my Deathrite, then the 4th Wasteland comes. I'm taking 1 a turn, then 2 a turn from Mongoosen. Finally, he plays Delver, but Forces it to achieve Threshold, swings for 6, Bolts me, and my pain and suffering are over. Sweet, sweet death, 0/2.
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After thoughts
Sculler did a lot of work all day. I didn't really outline a whole lot of the plays that involved him, but on the whole, he was very useful all day. I am very glad I ran it, and frequently boarded in the 4th copy. The disruption + clock was very good. Yes, they can get their card back if they want, he dies to everything, but Sculler is also a reasonable fighter. He will often trade with a guy in combat, or eat a removal spell that would have went for your better creatures. I recommend at least play testing him a bit if you are interested in Junk.
Chains was pretty underwhelming, as many suspected it might be. The game 1s where it mattered were pretty sweet (especially against Shardless BUG), but I don't think it merits the maindeck slot. This is pretty much everyone's opinion already, but I just had to try it. Glad I did, but will not be running it main again.
Golgari Charm was very awesome. I've been behind the card for a while, but haven't actually gone to a tournament with it (I've been out of competitive for a few months). I'll be hard pressed to play less than 3 in future 75s, and though I didn't mass murder any Elves or Merfolk Rogues, I eagerly await the day that I do.
Land Base. I kind of threw it together from the cards I had sorted. I'm kind of organizing my collection right now, and couldn't find a Nantuko Monastery in time, so I played a 3rd Scrubland. I definitely had a few times when I wanted to Knight for it, but I knew I didn't have one and was sad. The 4/4 firststrike from nowhere is pretty appealing as a suprise clock when at their EOT, or a fearsome blocker if you want your Knight to get in a fight. I also feel like the Plains and Dryad Arbor can come out. There are few white cards, several duals, and Deathrite to get white mana, and without GSZ, Dryad Arbor is very underwhelming. It got Massacred once on turn 2, which really sucked. I might still play the Arbor for the Fetchland Special play which can be sweet against X/1 attackers like Bob and Revoker, but I want to add a Savannah and/or a Horizon Canopy. I couldn't find the Horizon before the tournament, and since I'll be taking Chains out, the edge case scenario becomes a 0% chance, which is something. Also, the 4th Verdant should be there, instead of the 4th Marsh Flats, as I need more green, and the basic Forest will remain, while the Plains might come out.
Thanks for the read and comments!
I ran a wonky Junk build. I'm a long time B/G/W Junk player, and after a break of a few months, I've picked up Magic again. I have always loved legacy, and I'm comfortable enough with Junk that I felt like it was the right choice for me today. As I'm getting back into the swing of things, I didn't want to lose to myself with sub-perfect Doomsday piles, or try to go nuts with Pyromancer, so Junk was it. I played pretty decently, and certainly got lucky a few times.
Here's the list:
4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Dark Confidant
4x Tarmogoyf
3x Tidehollow Sculler
4x Knight of the Reliquary
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
1x Cabal Therapy
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Umezawa's Jitte
2x Chains of Mephistopheles
3x Abrupt Decay
4x Hymn to Tourach
1x Swamp
1x Forest
1x Plains
3x Verdant Catacombs
4x Marsh Flats
3x Bayou
3x Scrubland
3x Wasteland
1x Cabal Pit
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Karakas
1x Maze of Ith
Sideboard:
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Thoughtseize
2x Diabolic Edict
2x Sylvan Library
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1x Ethersworn Canonist
3x Golgari Charm
1x Tidehollow Sculler
A couple of notes about the deck.
Chains is pretty odd here, but my plan A was to hammer on combo decks/Jaces/Brainstorms more heavily than normal. It worked out... ok. The idea is that with your CMC 1 and 2 discard, you can jack their hand up enough to slow them down, and Chains will make digging more painful. If they are discarding cards to find pieces, hopefully your future discard spells will be more effective. Sometimes you just have to play cards in your maindeck and see how it works first hand.
Sculler is also not a terribly common card. It does see play sometimes, more often in Deadguy Ale, but less so in Junk. It does fit well with the plan of "nuke their hand, attack them quickly." It's another discard spell, but it can actually attack. Turn 1 discard, T2 Sculler disrupts, while putting some clock on them.
Zero Stoneforge Mystic, Zero Green Sun's Zenith. These are both awesome cards, and I like what they do in Junk (GSZ particularly). But they are slow, and they do not hurt my theoretical combo opponent's hand. I decided to run Knight as my big, awesome, toolbox card, and since I wanted a bunch of disruption, I didn't play these today.
Cabal Pit. This card is freaking sweet. It's a toolbox land for Knight, one that not everyone sees when you have an untapped Knight. It kills tons of things, it makes mana, it comes into play untapped. I first played this card in GP Denver, and consider it an auto-include if you're playing Knight. Fun Fact - it kills Metalcrafty 10/2 Etched Champions outta nowhere.
Junk often does pretty well against fair decks that want to attack with guys. I figured I could sacrifice some of that strength and go for more quick disruption vs the combo decks, and then board back to being strong against fair decks when that happened.
The matches:
Round 1 vs Manaless Dredge
My opponent won the die roll, and elected to draw. This immediately caused me to think Manaless Dredge, but I pondered a few other possibilities... While I was drawing my opening hand, he said, "I keep," before he had looked at his first card. So yeah, that's Manaless Dredges alright. I had 2 lands, Deathrite, Bob, Cabal Therapy, Goyf, and Swords. I know I have to Therapy and hit something, so I cast it. I was wondering if there was a better card to name than Narcomoeba, but couldn't think of one, so Narco it was... and it hit one! His hand was not very spicy and the Cabal slowed him down a turn. Turn 2 Deathrite, with Bob and more disruption to follow wrapped that one up in decent time.
IN: Crypt, Bog, Thoughtseize, Sculler, Thalia, and an Edict. OUT: Chains, Hymn, Inquisition
Chains is bad vs Street Wraith, Hymn will likely help him out a whole lot, and Inquisition might force me to put a Dredger or Bridge in in the bin. I would be on the play again, so Thoughtseize could at least put a sub-optimal card in the yard, which is better than him drawing, and choosing a discard on turn 1. The other board cards vary somewhere between "super amazing," and "does stuff." I threw in an Edict because I knew I was taking out 8, and Edict can kill my guys to nuke bridge. But my main had 61 cards... so I could have just brought in 7, took out 8. Oops.
My 7 has Deathrite and Thoughtseize. It's tempting to Thoughtseize and try to bring his hand down to 6 and get a non-relevant card, but I lead with Deathrite. Manaless doesn't really explode turn 1, and active Deathrite is good to pass up. He draws, ends turn, discards Grave-Troll. Deathrite Shaman is a cool dude. I grind him out slowly, keeping Deathrite active. At one point, he trades a Zombie for Bob, which I thought was odd, but I was more than happy to exile the Bridge. I win, 2/0.
Round 2 vs Shardless BUG
He wins the roll. It's a slow start, he just plays 2 BUG colored fetch lands, I play a T2 Bob. Since he's not doing anything, I suspect Shardless, and fear a Brainstorm into turn 3 Shardless. But instead he cracks both, and Abrupt Decays the Bob, then plays a Goyf. It becomes a Goyf/Abrupt Decay war for a bit, he eventually blind cascades into Ancestral. Damn. I resolve a Chains of Mephistopheles, because I will have no more of that non-sense. I have more removal than he does, and I start drawing Knights. He gets Jace, but with Chains, he's basically an Unsummon Machine. I get down to 1 life at one point, but kill his shaman with that spicy Cabal Pit, and eventually get my own Shaman to climb to a whopping 3 life. Knight of the Reliquary acts like The Abyss for a while, then she gains the line of text "TAP: Destroy target planeswalker." After a lot of back and forth of making creatures, killing creatures, him playing planeswalkers, and me turning Knight sideways a bunch, I win, with about 7 minutes left on the clock.
I'm pretty sure I can't lose that fast, but he needs to play game 2, and he takes a bit to sideboard. I keep an ok hand, that I'm pretty sure will not lose a game with the time we have left. He has turn 2 Goyf, turn 3 Jitte, I Abrupt Decay the Goyf, and he can't kill me in time. Victory, 1/0/1. Knight is awesome, and Chains did work. This is probably the dream match up for Chains. While I'm not really sold on continuing to run it in the main, this game did make the card look sweet.
Round 3 vs Miracles
I win the roll, and lead with Deathrite. He gets a Top on turn 1, while it takes a while for the Counterbalance to show up, he does cast a lot of Swords to Plowshares and Terminus, and Rest in Peace in the main kind of hurts my big creatures a lot. Eventually Jace aids in creating 4 Angels, and I'm dead.
I bring in Golgari Charms and Thalias.
Game 2, I get Vendilion Cliqued on turn 3, while I have a Chains out. Very rude. I Abrupt Decay the Vendilion, but then he gets Jace, Venser + Karakas, and Angel Tokens. The Wrath of God/Jace deck is good against my creature deck :( I lose 0/2.
Round 4 vs Death and Taxes (Mangara Style)
My opponent wins the die roll. He says he is new to Legacy, but it turns out he is a good DnT pilot. I get Deathrite and Bob, he has Mother of Runes and Thalia. He is busy attacking me with Thalia, and he is wisely playing around my Abrupt Decay by declining to block Bob with Mother of Runes. It can be tempting to try to block there, but if he never taps Mother, my Abrupt and Swords are dead. Eventually he gets a Revoker on Deathrite, and keeps swinging away with Thalia. I attack with Bob and Deathrite, he blocks Deathrite with Revoker, and Bob with Mother, giving Revoker protection, but of course I Abrupt Decay the Revoker in response, which opens up Deathrite again. The unstoppable killing machine that is Knight of the Reliquary comes down, and after digging up Maze, she goes to 11. Swinging, killing a guy, and untapping to get ready to block is sweet, and finding a Wasteland or Cabal Pit on top of that each turn is extra sweet. He dies.
I bring in Golgari Charms, Sculler and Edicts for Chains and Hymn. Hymn is sweet, but with Vial, I might just not have any cards worth getting at that point.
I was hoping Golgari Charm would do some serious work here, but I never drew them. I eventually get Deathrite, Knight and a second Bob. He gets one Mangara + Karakas activation, but after that, I Sculler his Mangara away. I get down to 6 from my two Bobs. He seems eager to pass the turn and kill me with Bobs. I activate Knight to turn a Bayou into another Bayou, and double check for 3 and 4 drops. I was pretty sure there were no 4-drops, and with 1 Knight in play, 1 in hand, and 1 sent to the farm, there was no chance I'd Bob myself to death, but checking is good. I do run Garruk and Humility at times, and I'd rather not kill myself today. I'm trying to think what he could have that makes him so excited to kill me off Bob. A flash guy? Oh yeah, Mindcensor. I Cabal Pit one of my Bobs to death to ensure I don't F-Up later. He has no board, so my existing 3 guys should kill him. They do. There was much rejoicing, 2/0. I'm off to find the food court at Costco. I decided to eat there, take my time, and chill out for a minute. Bad decision.
Round 5 vs Lands
I get back after finding a new, farther-away parking space, and I'm about 6 minutes late, so I get a game loss. That's 100% my fault, and I knew it could happen. I figured since all the previous rounds had gone over time I would be safe, but that it the risk you take. I had seen my opponent playing earlier, and knew he was on Loam/Marit Lage token shenanigans. I kept a hand with Deathrite and Sculler, but he goes Land, Exploration, Land, Mox Diamond, Punishing Fire. That kinda sucks for me. Marit Lage kills me, which, for the time being, is WAY cooler than Emrakul killing me.
I looked at board options just for fun, and all I really thought I would bring in was Bog and Crypt. They are strong cards against him, but I think it would be a long shot to win two back to back. I figure that in this matchup, the game-loss I received probably didn't mean as much as it would have in other rounds.
Round 6 vs Goblins
After looking at the standings before round 6, I figured I probably wouldn't make it even if I won, but it was worth playing. I'm not a mathamagician, and don't dabble in the dark arts that are tie-breaker rules. I know my opponent is on Goblins from seeing him play earlier. I don't really have much info on this matchup, as I've stopped taking decent notes at this point. He doesn't explode out of the gates, which is awesome, and I end up with Knight and Goyf. Eventually I let a Lackey in (I think it was Warchief, Ringleader, and Lackey coming down on one turn, and I was not expecting something like that). Lackey made a Siege-Gang, but he's tapped out from casting Ringleader, so I can Swords the Siege-Gang on my next turn. Knight becomes Abyss, as she does vs. creature decks. Eventually she kills him.
I bring in Golgari Charms, again hoping that they will do some serious work.
Again, no turn 1 play from him, which is exactly what you want when you play vs. Goblins. He would have Ringleaders later, but as long as I don't get turn 2 Siege-Ganged, I feel good about my chances. There's a point where he tries to cycle Incinerator for 4 against my 3/4 Goyf. I have a tapped Knight, a Bob, and the Goyf. There's already a creature in the bin, so the Incinerator would indeed kill it, but I have an option. I can Abrupt Decay a token/matron, which both puts an instant in the yard and makes Incinerator's damage less than 4, or I can Golgari Charm, regenerating my guys (which would make Goyf bigger, and give the shield to my team). I go for regen shield. He already knew about the Decay in hand, but I figured that I could better use that later, and Golgari Charm was not really going to blow out his team like I hoped it might. He says he misplayed, because he knew about my Decay, and was kind of confused about the Charm use. After he draws his card from Incinerator, he attacks his Ringleader into my untapped Bob and Goyf. He has 2 mana up, and fearing he might have some way to kill Goyf after it's regeneration shield is used, I block with Bob. He has no trick, and regen shield saves Bob. Knight goes crazy on his mana, blowing up Plateau, Cavern, and a Port, and he can't cast spells anymore. I win 2/0.
Top 8 Round 1 vs RUG Delver
Sadly, there is not a unanimous vote to split the prize, and we have to play. As #8, I'm paired against the #1 seed, which sucks, and I don't know what he's playing. It turns out he's on RUG, and Mongeese are very hard to kill without Liliana, or giant guys. My Goyf gets Forced, and Sculler is not cool enough to kill a Mongoose. I am dead.
I brought in Edict, Crypt, and Bog. Nuking his graveyard is a viable route to shutting off Mongoose, and it seems like the best plan I have.
My 7 in game 2 has guys, but no green mana. I decide to risk it. I play Scrubland, Crypt, pass. He Wastelands me. I play Bojuka Bog, to protect my other dual land from a wasteland. He Wastes my Bojuka Bog. He doesn't really have any action, but I get Wastelanded a 3rd time. I am stuck on 7 and discarding while my opponent Ponders and Brainstorms. Eventually I find a Bayou to cast my Deathrite Shaman. There is hope! Always play it out! He Submerges my Deathrite, then the 4th Wasteland comes. I'm taking 1 a turn, then 2 a turn from Mongoosen. Finally, he plays Delver, but Forces it to achieve Threshold, swings for 6, Bolts me, and my pain and suffering are over. Sweet, sweet death, 0/2.
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After thoughts
Sculler did a lot of work all day. I didn't really outline a whole lot of the plays that involved him, but on the whole, he was very useful all day. I am very glad I ran it, and frequently boarded in the 4th copy. The disruption + clock was very good. Yes, they can get their card back if they want, he dies to everything, but Sculler is also a reasonable fighter. He will often trade with a guy in combat, or eat a removal spell that would have went for your better creatures. I recommend at least play testing him a bit if you are interested in Junk.
Chains was pretty underwhelming, as many suspected it might be. The game 1s where it mattered were pretty sweet (especially against Shardless BUG), but I don't think it merits the maindeck slot. This is pretty much everyone's opinion already, but I just had to try it. Glad I did, but will not be running it main again.
Golgari Charm was very awesome. I've been behind the card for a while, but haven't actually gone to a tournament with it (I've been out of competitive for a few months). I'll be hard pressed to play less than 3 in future 75s, and though I didn't mass murder any Elves or Merfolk Rogues, I eagerly await the day that I do.
Land Base. I kind of threw it together from the cards I had sorted. I'm kind of organizing my collection right now, and couldn't find a Nantuko Monastery in time, so I played a 3rd Scrubland. I definitely had a few times when I wanted to Knight for it, but I knew I didn't have one and was sad. The 4/4 firststrike from nowhere is pretty appealing as a suprise clock when at their EOT, or a fearsome blocker if you want your Knight to get in a fight. I also feel like the Plains and Dryad Arbor can come out. There are few white cards, several duals, and Deathrite to get white mana, and without GSZ, Dryad Arbor is very underwhelming. It got Massacred once on turn 2, which really sucked. I might still play the Arbor for the Fetchland Special play which can be sweet against X/1 attackers like Bob and Revoker, but I want to add a Savannah and/or a Horizon Canopy. I couldn't find the Horizon before the tournament, and since I'll be taking Chains out, the edge case scenario becomes a 0% chance, which is something. Also, the 4th Verdant should be there, instead of the 4th Marsh Flats, as I need more green, and the basic Forest will remain, while the Plains might come out.
Thanks for the read and comments!