DavidHernandez
04-01-2014, 02:07 PM
SCG Invitational Qualifier San Diego, Legacy, First Place
First off, here is what our San Diego meta told me: Expect to see a lot of UW, D&T, and Elves. A lot. I knew that we would have 3 or 4 UWr Miracles, at least 2 D&T, and at least 3 Elves! I also expected 2 or 3 Merfolk, 2 or 3 Red Deck Wins, and at least 2 Goblins decks. Beyond those, there were going to be at least 2 ANT decks and a bunch of UB Control, not to mention 2 or 3 Patriot Delver and a few BUG builds. I figured 60 percent of the decks, or more, would be sporting blue.
I’ve been playing a lot of Reanimator and Tin Fins lately -- along with a couple of other players down here -- and a lot of people in our area have been bringing uber graveyard hate. I agreed with my friend Joey Valente that a graveyard based deck was a bad idea. In fact, I didn’t think we’d see more than 1 Reanimator build and 1 Dredge.
As it turns out, this was pretty spot-on.
I almost put UWr Miracle Control together, but really wanted to use my Sneak Attacks...they were gathering dust. I started testing Sneak Show a couple of weeks ago, and in playing and testing I found the most frustrating matchups were against Elves and UWr Miracles. I wanted something built into my main deck to beat those. In our weekly tournament last week, I cast Show and Tell, plopped down Griselbrand, and my UWr opponent dropped a Detention Sphere. I was unreasonably annoyed.
While reviewing Reanimator builds and S&T decks for the past 6 months on MTGtop8, I saw one Reanimator build that had Empyrial Archangel in it. Then I found a S&T list that ran a main deck Elesh Norn. I found both of those ideas interesting.
Normally, I would have sideboarded a copy of Ashen Rider, and until the night before the tournament I was going to put it in the maindeck, but then I thought… “ok, how is Empyrial Archangel better than Ashen Rider?” I think just about everyone would agree that it's not better...but it did exactly what I wanted it to do…come down and be untargetable. In fact, everything that runs Oblivion Ring and Detention Sphere also runs Swords to Plowshares, so Ashen Rider could survive Detention Sphere/Oblivion Ring, but then it would get STP’d. I chose the Archangel specifically to put into play with a Show and Tell against UW Miracle decks. As a bonus, it also turns off burn decks for up to 3 turns (redirects damage) and can buy me one or two critical turns of life against aggro, all the while beating in the air for 5.
Elesh Norn was added to the main with the same type of reasoning. With an expectation of multiple D&T, Elves, Goblins, Merfolk, TNN, Deathrite Shaman, Stoneforge Mystic, etc., Elesh Norn was a great way to maindeck a board wiper while providing a vigilant blocker that put the opponent on a 5 turn clock. Even if it only came down with Sneak Attack it would board wipe D&T, Goblins, and Elves (not so much Merfolk, but as it turned out it DID wipe Merfolk for me) and perhaps block. In fact, this won the match for me against Goblins (details below) and was a great boost in game three vs. Merfolk.
My original build (2 weeks ago) included 2 Jace the Mind Sculptor (based on Kelvin Young’s build below), which I really liked, but I thought we might see a lot of non-basic lands and I wanted Blood Moon in the board. Getting 2 blue for Jace, or for Wipe Away, just seems too hard under a Moon…so I dropped the Jaces and went with maindeck Archangel for one slot, and a Red Elemental Blast for the other slot. The REB turned out to be a great choice. Even though it’s dead against some decks, having it in the main was a great choice for this particular tournament and it also helped win the Merfolk matchup in round 2. I used the REB against UWr Miracles too, and had it handy during the Semi Finals vs UW Miracles (the one with Humility main).
I based my “Jace build” on this one by Kelvin Young, who took 6th(?) at the SCG Open in Los Angeles on March 23rd 2014 out of 374 players:
// Deck file for Magic Workstation created with mtgtop8 .com
// NAME : Sneak Show
// CREATOR : Kelvin Young
// FORMAT : Legacy
1 [UNH] Mountain
2 [EX] City of Traitors
3 [TE] Ancient Tomb
3 [UNH] Island
3 [ON] Polluted Delta
3 [R] Volcanic Island
4 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
4 [ROE] Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 [AVR] Griselbrand
2 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 [TE] Lotus Petal
4 [US] Sneak Attack
1 [MM] Misdirection
3 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
4 [CMD] Brainstorm
4 [AL] Force of Will
3 [NPH] Gitaxian Probe
4 [M12] Ponder
4 [US] Show and Tell
SB: 1 [4E] Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 [5E] Pyroblast
SB: 1 [TE] Intuition
SB: 2 [CMD] Flusterstorm
SB: 2 [DS] Echoing Truth
SB: 4 [M11] Leyline of Sanctity
SB: 2 [M13] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 [MM] Misdirection
Again, I thought the Jaces were great -- but I wanted Blood Moons in the board. After playing the list once in a local tournament (5th place out of 18 :rolleyes:) I researched and re-built. I found this list with Elesh Norn in the main, played by Tim Dutton at the SCG Open in Seattle on March 16th 2014 and piloted to a 12th place finish out of 321 players:
// Deck file for Magic Workstation created with mtgtop8 .com
// NAME : Sneak Show
// CREATOR : Tim Dutton
// FORMAT : Legacy
1 [EX] City of Traitors
1 [UNH] Mountain
3 [UNH] Island
3 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
3 [R] Volcanic Island
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
4 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
1 [NPH] Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4 [ROE] Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 [AVR] Griselbrand
4 [TE] Lotus Petal
4 [US] Sneak Attack
1 [TE] Intuition
1 [SC] Stifle
2 [NE] Daze
2 [MM] Misdirection
2 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
4 [CMD] Brainstorm
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [M12] Ponder
4 [US] Show and Tell
SB: 1 [TSP] Wipe Away
SB: 2 [CHK] Through the Breach
SB: 2 [5E] Pyroblast
SB: 4 [M11] Leyline of Sanctity
SB: 3 [9E] Blood Moon
SB: 1 [THS] Ashen Rider
SB: 1 [M13] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 [DKA] Grafdigger's Cage
I really liked his sideboard and main deck, and almost went with this exact build. However, I didn’t like having only 2 Daze in the main -- I’m of the opinion that if you’re going to play Daze, play 4. I also didn’t like the singleton Stifle or the 4 Ancient Tombs/1 City of Traitors (vs 3 Tombs and 2 City of Traitors), although a Stifle is good vs both Storm and Miracle triggers, specifically Terminus. I am testing the Stifle now and may replace the mainboard Flusterstorm with it.
So, based on my expectations and reasoning, I chose to play the following list:
Lands:
2 city of traitors
1 mountain
3 island
3 flooded strand
3 volcanic island
3 ancient tomb
4 scalding tarn
Creatures:
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Griselbrand
1 Empyrial Archangel
Artifacts:
4 Lotus Petal
Spells:
1 Flusterstorm
4 Sneak Attack
2 Gitaxian Probe
1 Misdirection
2 Spell Pierce
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
4 Force of Will
1 Red Elemental Blast
SB:
1 Wipe Away
1 Through the Breach
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Blood Moon
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Pyroclasm
1 Echoing Truth
1 Flusterstorm
I didn’t miss Intuition and I didn’t miss Jace. I was only sorry to see Flusterstorm (in the main) once. I never did have to play against the one Tin Fins deck that showed up, nor did I have to play against the two ANT decks that were there. At least I was prepared…
I may change the 3 Flooded Strand to 1 Flooded Strand, 1 Polluted Delta, and 1 Misty Rainforest...just to further protect against Surgical Extraction. Every little bit helps.
I was happy with 2 Gitaxian Probes and thought it was a good number, especially when playing with 3 Ancient Tombs and 7 fetchlands. I pulled them in a couple of matches due to the life loss against Merfolk and Goblins, boarding in 2 Pyroclasm in their place for both of those matchups.
I want to make room for a second sideboard Through the Breach. The card won a match for me under Pithing Needle and I want to make sure I have it available. One is not enough, and I got lucky.
THE TOURNAMENT
ROUND 1 vs Jesse Guerrero with Old School Black Discard (2-1)
He won the die roll.
Game 1: My opening hand is Island, Fetchland, Show and Tell, Griselbrand, Lotus Petal, Lotus Petal, and Sneak Attack. I’m very happy. He drops Swamp, Dark Ritual, Duress, Hymn to Tourach. LOL. Welcome to Legacy. I lose my two Lotus Petals and my Show and Tell. I play Island and say go. He drops Swamp and Hymn to Tourach. I’m left with a Sneak Attack. I draw something stupid and pass the turn. He plays a Swamp and a Hypnotic Spector, and then 2 things with Exalted, and I’m taking four per turn from a Hypnotic Spector. I die.
Game 2: I board in 4 Leyline of Sanctity and 2 Pyroclasm. I have Leyline in my opening hand and play it. It shuts him down and I win this easily.
Game 3: I mull to 5 and get the Leyline. It shuts him down and I win easily.
---------------------------------
ROUND 2 vs Mike Duran playing Merfolk (2-1)
Apparently, I’m not going to win any die rolls today.
Game 1: I manage to win a counter war, get a Sneak Attack in play, then a Griselbrand. I drop to one life drawing for a lotus petal and Emrakul, find them both, and swing for 22.
Game 2: He gets a great hand with threats and counters. He wins the counter war and takes me down quickly with his dudes.
Game 3: Another counter war. He has a Pithing Needle on Sneak Attack, but I’m able to Wipe Away, then Elesh Norn and Emrakul swing for the win.
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ROUND 3 vs Kurt Calbus playing Goblins: (2-1)
Okay, I won the die roll!
Game 1: My opening hand can’t possibly be better. Island, Lotus Petal, City of Traitors, Show and Tell, Elesh Norn, Brainstorm, Force of Will. First turn Elesh Norn basically shuts him down, but he plays it out trying to find some kind of answer. Not sure what he was looking for in a Goblin deck…maybe he was running the dude that bounces a creature to it's owner's hand...but finally I take him down and he never got anything on the board.
Game 2: He gets a great opening. I do cast a Show and Tell revealing Emrakul, and think I have the game won, but he reveals Angel of Despair and my Emrakul gets shuffled back into my library. I die on turn 3 to an Angel of Despair leading a horde of enraged Goblins. I'm going to have to be more careful in game three....
Game 3: I kept a good hand with Sneak Attack, Sol Lands, Lotus petal, and THREE Griselbrands. I’m really happy. And then I can’t draw a red source. He gets a bunch of Goblins out. I finally get Sneak Attack live and drop a Griselbrand. He has lethal on the table, and I’m at 8. I need a Mountain and an Emrakul to win. I draw 7 and go to 1. I have one Island open. I find a bunch of fetchlands (useless at one life!) and a Ponder. Ponder won’t be enough since I need to find two cards. I’m forced to swing, putting me back to 8. I use the life and draw seven more. I find my Emrakul and Mountain, but playing an Emrakul during my End Step will not win the game for me because he has 4 Goblins out and I’m at one life. I Ponder. He has no response. I see Island, Ponder, Elesh Norn (!). I draw the Elesh Norn. I check with the head judge to make sure my understanding of the end step is correct and my play is legal, and then cast Elesh Norn via Sneak Attack during end step. His board wipes except for the 3/3 dude who is now a 1/1, and I have a blocker during his turn. He does nothing and passes. My Elesh dies, but I have an Emrakul in hand along with an Empyrial Archangel and a Griselbrand, and I activate Sneak Attack 3 times to put them all into play for the win. Why all 3? Because it looked cool and I wanted to make sure I ground him to powder.
---------------------------------
ROUND 4 vs Cody Guy playing UWr Miracles: (0-2)
Game 1: I have the win on the board and I PUNT. I had cast Sneak Attack using all my red mana, leaving Ancient Tomb untapped and Emrakul in my hand. Stupid. I lose because of this. Just STUPID. No other excuses.
Game 2: Really intense game! Very close, but he shuts me down with Pithing Needle on Sneak Attack and Meddling Mage on Show & Tell. I Echoing Truth the Neelde and swing with Emrakul, but I’m a turn late and he survives, killing me with the mage.
---------------------------------
ROUND 5 vs Darren Roberts playing “MegaTron” (2-1)
Darren’s deck is awesome. It’s resilient, fast, and has main deck hate in the form of Pithing Needles, Phyrexian Revokers, and Surgical Extractions. He runs maindeck Emrakul, Kozilek Butcher of Truth, Ulamog the Infinite Gyre, Sundering Titan[cards] x 3, [cards]Phyrexian Metamorph x 3. I know I can’t cast a Show and Tell because I’ll die. It's 12-Post on steroids because he runs the Post lands and Urza lands proteted from Wasteland by the Pithing Needles and Revokers.
Game 1: I get a fabulous opening hand but I’m on the draw, which always scares me. However, Force of Will slows him for a turn and I get an active Sneak Attack for Emrakul followed by Griselbrand and I win it.
Game 2: He opens with Pithing Needle on Sneak Attack. I’ve removed all S&T’s at this point and boarded in 3x Blood Moon and 1 Through the Breach. I Blood Moon on turn 2, but he manages to get an Oblivion Stone in play. He saves his Pithing Needle, wipes the rest of the non-land board, and then casts one of his three Karn Liberated. Over the next two turns I get no business spells, and I lose 2 lands to Karn exile. Then he locks me with Lodestone Golem followed by a devastating Sundering Titan. I die horribly.
Game 3: I get a great hand and manage to get Sneak Attack in play early. He needles it before I can activate it, but I rip Through the Breach and cast it for Emrakul, wiping his board. Next turn I rip Griselbrand off the top and swing for 7 to win.
---------------------------------
ROUND 6 vs Jonathan “Nemo” Salem (ID)
I’m in 6th place and he’s 3rd or 4th. We ID and I make Top 8 in 8th place.
---------------------------------
TOP 8
A rather bizarre top 8. I’m paired against Cody Guy, the UWr Miracles player I lost to during the Swiss rounds when I punted. He isn’t going to be able to make it to any of the Invitational Opens, and he’s happy with the top 8 split, so he concedes to me. In the meantime, Nemo loses his match, and the winner (Benjamin Brueseke) plays His BUG deck against the winner (by concession) of Dark Maverick (played by Corey Armstrong) vs Elves match (the Elves player conceded because he was leaving with Cody, the UWr Miracles player). The winner of the Dark Maverick vs BUG match will go to the finals.
At the next table is Wes Calbus (UW miracles with Humility main) playing against Kane Lee on Sneak and Show. I will have to play the winner in the Semi Finals. Wes (UW Miracles) has Humility and Thopter Foundry in the main and in both games against Kane, Wes gets Humility into play. It was a sick thing to watch as a 1/1 token beat down on the S&T player until he died. Twice. In the second game I noticed that Kane’s Blood Moons hurt him far more than they did Wes due to the number of basic lands Wes had in his deck. Also, Kane didn't pull an Island the entire game, and only pulled 2 Lotus Petals when it was far too late. Note to self, don’t put Blood Moons in against Wes.
---------------------------------
SEMI FINALS vs Wes Calbus playing UW Miracle Control (2-0)
Game 1: I resolve an early Sneak Attack with counter backup and swing with Emrakul for the win.
Game 2: I board in Echoing Truth, Wipe Away, and Through the Breach. He gets Karakas early, like on turn 2. I get a Sneak Attack in play. I only had R available, so I quote the OP, “……with only R you have to wait until your opponent's end of turn. Then you activate Sneak Attack, putting Emrakul into play and enter your turn. You give your opponent priority at the end of your main phase.” I did this.
“ If he bounces Emrakul then,” (he didn’t) “you regain priority, use your second R / or the untapped R from EOT again to put Emrakul back into play. If your opponent bounces him in response to the Annihilator trigger” (this is what he did) “he doesn't lose life, but you can just kill him on the following turn, because his board will be wiped and you get to keep Emrakul in hand.” This is what happened. Actually, I wiped his board and he was still alive after the next turn, but then he got hit for 15 and then 7 from a Griselbrand.
---------------------------------
FINALS vs Dark Maverick played by Corey Armstrong:
This is a great matchup for me, but Cory wants to go home early and is happy with 2nd place, which also earned an Invitation to the Open Series. He conceded, but I’m sorry he did. I went there to play magic! Still, I’m really happy because that put me in first place!
I ended up winning the event and left with a limited edition IQ playmat, an SCG Top 8 Pin, $186 in store credit (top 8 split) and an Invitation to one of the next 4 Opens.
It was a blast!
Dave
edited to correct Corey surname and deck name.
First off, here is what our San Diego meta told me: Expect to see a lot of UW, D&T, and Elves. A lot. I knew that we would have 3 or 4 UWr Miracles, at least 2 D&T, and at least 3 Elves! I also expected 2 or 3 Merfolk, 2 or 3 Red Deck Wins, and at least 2 Goblins decks. Beyond those, there were going to be at least 2 ANT decks and a bunch of UB Control, not to mention 2 or 3 Patriot Delver and a few BUG builds. I figured 60 percent of the decks, or more, would be sporting blue.
I’ve been playing a lot of Reanimator and Tin Fins lately -- along with a couple of other players down here -- and a lot of people in our area have been bringing uber graveyard hate. I agreed with my friend Joey Valente that a graveyard based deck was a bad idea. In fact, I didn’t think we’d see more than 1 Reanimator build and 1 Dredge.
As it turns out, this was pretty spot-on.
I almost put UWr Miracle Control together, but really wanted to use my Sneak Attacks...they were gathering dust. I started testing Sneak Show a couple of weeks ago, and in playing and testing I found the most frustrating matchups were against Elves and UWr Miracles. I wanted something built into my main deck to beat those. In our weekly tournament last week, I cast Show and Tell, plopped down Griselbrand, and my UWr opponent dropped a Detention Sphere. I was unreasonably annoyed.
While reviewing Reanimator builds and S&T decks for the past 6 months on MTGtop8, I saw one Reanimator build that had Empyrial Archangel in it. Then I found a S&T list that ran a main deck Elesh Norn. I found both of those ideas interesting.
Normally, I would have sideboarded a copy of Ashen Rider, and until the night before the tournament I was going to put it in the maindeck, but then I thought… “ok, how is Empyrial Archangel better than Ashen Rider?” I think just about everyone would agree that it's not better...but it did exactly what I wanted it to do…come down and be untargetable. In fact, everything that runs Oblivion Ring and Detention Sphere also runs Swords to Plowshares, so Ashen Rider could survive Detention Sphere/Oblivion Ring, but then it would get STP’d. I chose the Archangel specifically to put into play with a Show and Tell against UW Miracle decks. As a bonus, it also turns off burn decks for up to 3 turns (redirects damage) and can buy me one or two critical turns of life against aggro, all the while beating in the air for 5.
Elesh Norn was added to the main with the same type of reasoning. With an expectation of multiple D&T, Elves, Goblins, Merfolk, TNN, Deathrite Shaman, Stoneforge Mystic, etc., Elesh Norn was a great way to maindeck a board wiper while providing a vigilant blocker that put the opponent on a 5 turn clock. Even if it only came down with Sneak Attack it would board wipe D&T, Goblins, and Elves (not so much Merfolk, but as it turned out it DID wipe Merfolk for me) and perhaps block. In fact, this won the match for me against Goblins (details below) and was a great boost in game three vs. Merfolk.
My original build (2 weeks ago) included 2 Jace the Mind Sculptor (based on Kelvin Young’s build below), which I really liked, but I thought we might see a lot of non-basic lands and I wanted Blood Moon in the board. Getting 2 blue for Jace, or for Wipe Away, just seems too hard under a Moon…so I dropped the Jaces and went with maindeck Archangel for one slot, and a Red Elemental Blast for the other slot. The REB turned out to be a great choice. Even though it’s dead against some decks, having it in the main was a great choice for this particular tournament and it also helped win the Merfolk matchup in round 2. I used the REB against UWr Miracles too, and had it handy during the Semi Finals vs UW Miracles (the one with Humility main).
I based my “Jace build” on this one by Kelvin Young, who took 6th(?) at the SCG Open in Los Angeles on March 23rd 2014 out of 374 players:
// Deck file for Magic Workstation created with mtgtop8 .com
// NAME : Sneak Show
// CREATOR : Kelvin Young
// FORMAT : Legacy
1 [UNH] Mountain
2 [EX] City of Traitors
3 [TE] Ancient Tomb
3 [UNH] Island
3 [ON] Polluted Delta
3 [R] Volcanic Island
4 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
4 [ROE] Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 [AVR] Griselbrand
2 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 [TE] Lotus Petal
4 [US] Sneak Attack
1 [MM] Misdirection
3 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
4 [CMD] Brainstorm
4 [AL] Force of Will
3 [NPH] Gitaxian Probe
4 [M12] Ponder
4 [US] Show and Tell
SB: 1 [4E] Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 [5E] Pyroblast
SB: 1 [TE] Intuition
SB: 2 [CMD] Flusterstorm
SB: 2 [DS] Echoing Truth
SB: 4 [M11] Leyline of Sanctity
SB: 2 [M13] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 [MM] Misdirection
Again, I thought the Jaces were great -- but I wanted Blood Moons in the board. After playing the list once in a local tournament (5th place out of 18 :rolleyes:) I researched and re-built. I found this list with Elesh Norn in the main, played by Tim Dutton at the SCG Open in Seattle on March 16th 2014 and piloted to a 12th place finish out of 321 players:
// Deck file for Magic Workstation created with mtgtop8 .com
// NAME : Sneak Show
// CREATOR : Tim Dutton
// FORMAT : Legacy
1 [EX] City of Traitors
1 [UNH] Mountain
3 [UNH] Island
3 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
3 [R] Volcanic Island
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
4 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
1 [NPH] Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4 [ROE] Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 [AVR] Griselbrand
4 [TE] Lotus Petal
4 [US] Sneak Attack
1 [TE] Intuition
1 [SC] Stifle
2 [NE] Daze
2 [MM] Misdirection
2 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
4 [CMD] Brainstorm
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [M12] Ponder
4 [US] Show and Tell
SB: 1 [TSP] Wipe Away
SB: 2 [CHK] Through the Breach
SB: 2 [5E] Pyroblast
SB: 4 [M11] Leyline of Sanctity
SB: 3 [9E] Blood Moon
SB: 1 [THS] Ashen Rider
SB: 1 [M13] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 [DKA] Grafdigger's Cage
I really liked his sideboard and main deck, and almost went with this exact build. However, I didn’t like having only 2 Daze in the main -- I’m of the opinion that if you’re going to play Daze, play 4. I also didn’t like the singleton Stifle or the 4 Ancient Tombs/1 City of Traitors (vs 3 Tombs and 2 City of Traitors), although a Stifle is good vs both Storm and Miracle triggers, specifically Terminus. I am testing the Stifle now and may replace the mainboard Flusterstorm with it.
So, based on my expectations and reasoning, I chose to play the following list:
Lands:
2 city of traitors
1 mountain
3 island
3 flooded strand
3 volcanic island
3 ancient tomb
4 scalding tarn
Creatures:
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Griselbrand
1 Empyrial Archangel
Artifacts:
4 Lotus Petal
Spells:
1 Flusterstorm
4 Sneak Attack
2 Gitaxian Probe
1 Misdirection
2 Spell Pierce
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
4 Force of Will
1 Red Elemental Blast
SB:
1 Wipe Away
1 Through the Breach
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Blood Moon
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Pyroclasm
1 Echoing Truth
1 Flusterstorm
I didn’t miss Intuition and I didn’t miss Jace. I was only sorry to see Flusterstorm (in the main) once. I never did have to play against the one Tin Fins deck that showed up, nor did I have to play against the two ANT decks that were there. At least I was prepared…
I may change the 3 Flooded Strand to 1 Flooded Strand, 1 Polluted Delta, and 1 Misty Rainforest...just to further protect against Surgical Extraction. Every little bit helps.
I was happy with 2 Gitaxian Probes and thought it was a good number, especially when playing with 3 Ancient Tombs and 7 fetchlands. I pulled them in a couple of matches due to the life loss against Merfolk and Goblins, boarding in 2 Pyroclasm in their place for both of those matchups.
I want to make room for a second sideboard Through the Breach. The card won a match for me under Pithing Needle and I want to make sure I have it available. One is not enough, and I got lucky.
THE TOURNAMENT
ROUND 1 vs Jesse Guerrero with Old School Black Discard (2-1)
He won the die roll.
Game 1: My opening hand is Island, Fetchland, Show and Tell, Griselbrand, Lotus Petal, Lotus Petal, and Sneak Attack. I’m very happy. He drops Swamp, Dark Ritual, Duress, Hymn to Tourach. LOL. Welcome to Legacy. I lose my two Lotus Petals and my Show and Tell. I play Island and say go. He drops Swamp and Hymn to Tourach. I’m left with a Sneak Attack. I draw something stupid and pass the turn. He plays a Swamp and a Hypnotic Spector, and then 2 things with Exalted, and I’m taking four per turn from a Hypnotic Spector. I die.
Game 2: I board in 4 Leyline of Sanctity and 2 Pyroclasm. I have Leyline in my opening hand and play it. It shuts him down and I win this easily.
Game 3: I mull to 5 and get the Leyline. It shuts him down and I win easily.
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ROUND 2 vs Mike Duran playing Merfolk (2-1)
Apparently, I’m not going to win any die rolls today.
Game 1: I manage to win a counter war, get a Sneak Attack in play, then a Griselbrand. I drop to one life drawing for a lotus petal and Emrakul, find them both, and swing for 22.
Game 2: He gets a great hand with threats and counters. He wins the counter war and takes me down quickly with his dudes.
Game 3: Another counter war. He has a Pithing Needle on Sneak Attack, but I’m able to Wipe Away, then Elesh Norn and Emrakul swing for the win.
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ROUND 3 vs Kurt Calbus playing Goblins: (2-1)
Okay, I won the die roll!
Game 1: My opening hand can’t possibly be better. Island, Lotus Petal, City of Traitors, Show and Tell, Elesh Norn, Brainstorm, Force of Will. First turn Elesh Norn basically shuts him down, but he plays it out trying to find some kind of answer. Not sure what he was looking for in a Goblin deck…maybe he was running the dude that bounces a creature to it's owner's hand...but finally I take him down and he never got anything on the board.
Game 2: He gets a great opening. I do cast a Show and Tell revealing Emrakul, and think I have the game won, but he reveals Angel of Despair and my Emrakul gets shuffled back into my library. I die on turn 3 to an Angel of Despair leading a horde of enraged Goblins. I'm going to have to be more careful in game three....
Game 3: I kept a good hand with Sneak Attack, Sol Lands, Lotus petal, and THREE Griselbrands. I’m really happy. And then I can’t draw a red source. He gets a bunch of Goblins out. I finally get Sneak Attack live and drop a Griselbrand. He has lethal on the table, and I’m at 8. I need a Mountain and an Emrakul to win. I draw 7 and go to 1. I have one Island open. I find a bunch of fetchlands (useless at one life!) and a Ponder. Ponder won’t be enough since I need to find two cards. I’m forced to swing, putting me back to 8. I use the life and draw seven more. I find my Emrakul and Mountain, but playing an Emrakul during my End Step will not win the game for me because he has 4 Goblins out and I’m at one life. I Ponder. He has no response. I see Island, Ponder, Elesh Norn (!). I draw the Elesh Norn. I check with the head judge to make sure my understanding of the end step is correct and my play is legal, and then cast Elesh Norn via Sneak Attack during end step. His board wipes except for the 3/3 dude who is now a 1/1, and I have a blocker during his turn. He does nothing and passes. My Elesh dies, but I have an Emrakul in hand along with an Empyrial Archangel and a Griselbrand, and I activate Sneak Attack 3 times to put them all into play for the win. Why all 3? Because it looked cool and I wanted to make sure I ground him to powder.
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ROUND 4 vs Cody Guy playing UWr Miracles: (0-2)
Game 1: I have the win on the board and I PUNT. I had cast Sneak Attack using all my red mana, leaving Ancient Tomb untapped and Emrakul in my hand. Stupid. I lose because of this. Just STUPID. No other excuses.
Game 2: Really intense game! Very close, but he shuts me down with Pithing Needle on Sneak Attack and Meddling Mage on Show & Tell. I Echoing Truth the Neelde and swing with Emrakul, but I’m a turn late and he survives, killing me with the mage.
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ROUND 5 vs Darren Roberts playing “MegaTron” (2-1)
Darren’s deck is awesome. It’s resilient, fast, and has main deck hate in the form of Pithing Needles, Phyrexian Revokers, and Surgical Extractions. He runs maindeck Emrakul, Kozilek Butcher of Truth, Ulamog the Infinite Gyre, Sundering Titan[cards] x 3, [cards]Phyrexian Metamorph x 3. I know I can’t cast a Show and Tell because I’ll die. It's 12-Post on steroids because he runs the Post lands and Urza lands proteted from Wasteland by the Pithing Needles and Revokers.
Game 1: I get a fabulous opening hand but I’m on the draw, which always scares me. However, Force of Will slows him for a turn and I get an active Sneak Attack for Emrakul followed by Griselbrand and I win it.
Game 2: He opens with Pithing Needle on Sneak Attack. I’ve removed all S&T’s at this point and boarded in 3x Blood Moon and 1 Through the Breach. I Blood Moon on turn 2, but he manages to get an Oblivion Stone in play. He saves his Pithing Needle, wipes the rest of the non-land board, and then casts one of his three Karn Liberated. Over the next two turns I get no business spells, and I lose 2 lands to Karn exile. Then he locks me with Lodestone Golem followed by a devastating Sundering Titan. I die horribly.
Game 3: I get a great hand and manage to get Sneak Attack in play early. He needles it before I can activate it, but I rip Through the Breach and cast it for Emrakul, wiping his board. Next turn I rip Griselbrand off the top and swing for 7 to win.
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ROUND 6 vs Jonathan “Nemo” Salem (ID)
I’m in 6th place and he’s 3rd or 4th. We ID and I make Top 8 in 8th place.
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TOP 8
A rather bizarre top 8. I’m paired against Cody Guy, the UWr Miracles player I lost to during the Swiss rounds when I punted. He isn’t going to be able to make it to any of the Invitational Opens, and he’s happy with the top 8 split, so he concedes to me. In the meantime, Nemo loses his match, and the winner (Benjamin Brueseke) plays His BUG deck against the winner (by concession) of Dark Maverick (played by Corey Armstrong) vs Elves match (the Elves player conceded because he was leaving with Cody, the UWr Miracles player). The winner of the Dark Maverick vs BUG match will go to the finals.
At the next table is Wes Calbus (UW miracles with Humility main) playing against Kane Lee on Sneak and Show. I will have to play the winner in the Semi Finals. Wes (UW Miracles) has Humility and Thopter Foundry in the main and in both games against Kane, Wes gets Humility into play. It was a sick thing to watch as a 1/1 token beat down on the S&T player until he died. Twice. In the second game I noticed that Kane’s Blood Moons hurt him far more than they did Wes due to the number of basic lands Wes had in his deck. Also, Kane didn't pull an Island the entire game, and only pulled 2 Lotus Petals when it was far too late. Note to self, don’t put Blood Moons in against Wes.
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SEMI FINALS vs Wes Calbus playing UW Miracle Control (2-0)
Game 1: I resolve an early Sneak Attack with counter backup and swing with Emrakul for the win.
Game 2: I board in Echoing Truth, Wipe Away, and Through the Breach. He gets Karakas early, like on turn 2. I get a Sneak Attack in play. I only had R available, so I quote the OP, “……with only R you have to wait until your opponent's end of turn. Then you activate Sneak Attack, putting Emrakul into play and enter your turn. You give your opponent priority at the end of your main phase.” I did this.
“ If he bounces Emrakul then,” (he didn’t) “you regain priority, use your second R / or the untapped R from EOT again to put Emrakul back into play. If your opponent bounces him in response to the Annihilator trigger” (this is what he did) “he doesn't lose life, but you can just kill him on the following turn, because his board will be wiped and you get to keep Emrakul in hand.” This is what happened. Actually, I wiped his board and he was still alive after the next turn, but then he got hit for 15 and then 7 from a Griselbrand.
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FINALS vs Dark Maverick played by Corey Armstrong:
This is a great matchup for me, but Cory wants to go home early and is happy with 2nd place, which also earned an Invitation to the Open Series. He conceded, but I’m sorry he did. I went there to play magic! Still, I’m really happy because that put me in first place!
I ended up winning the event and left with a limited edition IQ playmat, an SCG Top 8 Pin, $186 in store credit (top 8 split) and an Invitation to one of the next 4 Opens.
It was a blast!
Dave
edited to correct Corey surname and deck name.