Bahra
01-25-2015, 04:44 PM
On the 24th of January the event "Eternal Clash 2015" took place in Flensburg. I took first place and this my report.
Disclaimer: I took no notes so this is all from memory, feel free to correct me some of my information is off and you were actually there/played against me
Introduction:
I left my apartment at 6:20 in the morning after having overslept and therefor missing my breakfast, I caught the bus to the train station where I met up with Mads Sørensen. I quickly grabbed some breakfast and coffee before taking the train from Aarhus to Skanderborg to meet Felix Munch who had the car we were driving in. It was snowing heavily so the drive there was miserable and we were very delayed. Luckily, we left early enough that we still had plenty of time and we even stopped by the discount stores near the border to do some shopping before we continued to the site. We reached the site at 10:30 and finalized our registration along with writing our deck lists. There was a lot of Danes there, and most of them I knew so a significant part of the field was made up of players where I knew which decks they were on.
As people were writing their deck lists, we scouted as much as we could and basically reached the same conclusion that you would expect at any legacy tournament post Treasure Cruise ban/pre Treasure Cruise print, the field was incredibly varied and basically everything was represented there. From Affinity and Pox, to Elves and Miracles it was there.
This was the deck list I registered:
Lands (23):
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Horizon Canopy
3x Karakas
4x Flagstones of Trokair
6x Plains
4x Rishadan Port
4x Wasteland
Creatures (26):
4x Flickerwisp
4x Mother of Runes
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Phyrexian Revoker
2x Mangara of Corondor
2x Mirran Crusader
2x Serra Avenger
Non-creature spells (11):
4x Æther vial
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Batterskull
Sideboard:
2x Cataclysm
2x Council's Judgement
2x Enlightened tutor
2x Rest in Peace
1x Pithing Needle
1x Ratchet Bomb
2x Ethersworn Canonist
2x Wilt-Leaf Liege
1x Containment Priest
The tournament started with 69 players registered, it was 7 rounds of swiss with cut to top 8 and here is how my rounds went:
Round 1: Affinity 2-0
My opponent was maybe not the most experienced in Legacy. I do not say this because he misplayed, but because of his unwillingness to scoop in very very bad spots. I got Jitte active early in both games and that was lights out.
I am always happy to face these decks/players in the early rounds since I expect the early rounds to be easy, and allow me to warm up to the later rounds.
Generally I think you should scoop when you reach a point where you just cannot win anymore. There's no reason to waste more time in the round, and since Legacy games can go very long and get very complex, you should save more time so you will be able to play out those games.
Round 2: UR Delver 2-1
My opponent replaced the Treasure Cruises with Preordains, and the deck was still blazing fast and capable of doing powerful things, but with the absence of Treasure Cruise, I could grind him out and finish him with equipment on any creature.
In the first game a Thalia is attempting to race a Delver of Secrets and when I'm at 6 life I draw a Mirran Crusader that I then vial in at the end step, to kill my opponent while I'm at 3. The next game a Young Pyromancer is active for too long and after a flurry of Lightning Bolts I die.
In the third game we trade creatures for removal spells early on and eventually I untap with a Thalia and a Stoneforge Mystic that fetched Batterskull. I attempt to play around Smash to Smithereens, but eventually I have to go for it with only 4 lands in play, and as it turns out, he did not board in his Smash to Smithereens. Batterskull wins the game.
Round 3: BUG Delver 2-1
Game 1 I deal with a Delver and a Tombstalker but the second Tombstalker was too strong and I die. The next 2 games play out differently and Mirran Crusader and Stoneforge Mystic brings it home.
Round 4: Dark Maverick 1-1 draw
In the first game he goes Deathrite into Knight of the Reliquary, I go Vial into Revoker on Knight, into Revoker on Deathrite Shaman. He plays another Knight and a Sylvan Library and starts to beat down with 4/4 knights. My opponent plays very slow and I have to tell him a couple of times to speed up, he also attempts to cast spells cheaper than their cost through a Thalia. I tell him but don't call a judge. I am racing him in the air with a Flickerwisp but on one crucial turn he draws Stoneforge Mystic and he has 5 lands. He fetches Umezawa's Jitte and plays it (this was after we traded Thalia's in combat) with his Deathrite Shaman and his 5th land, he equips Jitte to a Knight and connects. He passes the turn after Killing the Revoker naming Knight of the Reliquary. On the next turn I realize that my opponent used his Deathrite Shaman to produce mana, despite the fact that it was named with my Phyrexian Revoker. At this point I'm pretty pissed because of my opponent's slow playing, plus breaking rules constantly and finally making the game winning play through a GRV. I call the judge and he determines that too much time has passed and we both receive a warning for failure to maintain the game state (if I recall correctly), the ruling I am fine with but losing to my opponent cheating has me furious. I ask the judge to watch the rest of the match because my opponent's play is so sloppy and slow, and because he's possibly intentionally breaking rules. After two more turns I scoop the game to the active Jitte and look at the clock, 40 minutes has passed and we're only about to sideboard for game 2!
I quickly sideboard and present my deck, my opponent of course needs to pile shuffle so he eats 2 more minutes of the clock. Keep in mind that my opponent also won his last round 1-0 due to all his slow playing and I let the judge know this.
Finally we begin the next game with 7 min. left on the clock and I play as fast as I possibly can. During this game the judge is watching constantly and my opponent has picked up the pace a little. My opponent first mistake is made on turn 2 when he uses his Deathrite Shaman to pay for a spell without exiling a land (which is highly beneficial to him since he plays Knight of the Reliquary), I don't know what the correct ruling is on this but I can only assume it was the one given, so he receives no warning but of course has to exile his land after I tell him. On the next turn I play nothing and just pass the turn with a vial I am ticking up, my plan is to play a Mirran Crusader that I can protect with a Flickerwisp. On the following turn I play the Mirran Crusader and pass the turn. My opponent then Abrupt Decays the Mirran Crusader and of course gets a warning for that. He complains to the judge that I am doing everything I can to stress him out. Then he mindlessly tries to main phase Swords to Plowshares my Mirran Crusader and I save it with Flickerwisp. Now time has been called and the time extension we received has expired. On turn 4 of extra turns my opponent taps out for something irrelevant, he's on 7 life. I end of turn put in Stoneforge Mystic (with my 2nd vial) and get Sword of Fire and Ice, I then untap and put it on my Flickerwisp to make it 1-1 in the 5th of extra turns.
I am glad I at least got the draw, but I should've won 2-0 and I am furious that my opponent is still undefeated only because he broke the rules and slow played.
Round 5: Death and Taxes 2-0
My opponent tells me he knows me from watching SCG coverage and we have what I thought was a pleasant match.
Game 1 I get a quick active Jitte and that's the game. Game 2 His board is 2 Mother of Runes, 2x Stoneforge Mystic, Batterskull and he has a Jitte in hand. My board is Ratchet Bomb on 2 and Aether Vial on 2. After taking a few hits and getting ported I Council's Judgement the Batterskull. Then I crack the Ratchet Bomb, vial in Serra Avenger and play and equip my Jitte that I had in the opener. His board is then completely dealt with and he didn't come back from that.
Round 6: RG Lands 2-1
I am paired against another Dane, but I don't know what he's on. So I ask him "Do you know what I am playing?", he answers "Yes I do" so I tell him "Would you mind telling me what you're playing then? To make it fair". He tells me that he would rather not, so I ask him "So you want to play unfair?" and he tells me "I will take any advantage I can get". Which is ok, I can't do anything about that and it's fine. I have in a similar spot told my opponent what I was playing but of course you have no obligation to do that.
In the first game he keeps a hand with no colored sources and dies to Mangara + Karakas before he can draw out of it. In the next game he wastelands me out (I draw no basics or Flagstones) and kills me with a 20/20.
In the 3rd game I keep a hand with Cataclysm, Pithing Needle, Stoneforge Mystic, Rest in Peace and 3 lands. Great hand. I play out the Pithing Needle (on Thespian's Stage) and the Rest in Peace. My Stoneforge Mystic gets hit by Punishing Fire and after trading lands a couple of times I eventually draw more creatures and he keeps using Punishing Fire to deal with my threats, but they are 1 time use only. Eventually he draws a Krosan Grip and kills my Rest in Peace, but I've been holding back another one, and I play it on the following turn. I have a Thalia that has been attacking him for a while, and eventually I draw a 4th mana source, so I activate my Æther Vial to remove Thalia and then I can cast Cataclysm and that is the game.
In this round my round 4 opponent is playing against my friend and travel companion Mads Sørensen and Mads is aware of all the sloppy play this player is doing, so on the first game rule violation he calls the judge and because of the warnings he accumulated in my match, he immediately is handed the game loss, and Mads goes on to win the match.
On the standings after round 6, Felix, Mads and I are 2nd, 3rd and 4th so we can all draw into top 8 and we are pretty happy with that.
So after the 7 rounds I end up with a record of 5-0-2 that is good for 4th place.
Round 7: ID with Infect
Top 8
Quarter Finals: BUG Delver 2-1
In the first game I am on the play and I have Mother of Runes. I play it and he leads with Deathrite Shaman. I have a Phyrexian Revoker and I draw an Æther Vial. I think a while if he has Liliana of the Veil + fetch and decide that it's worth going for the Vial. He has turn 2 Liliana and I am destroyed. Eventually the Æther Vial lets me dig out of it by letting me play all my creatures at his end step to avoid the edict effect of Liliana, and Batterskull gets there in the end.
The next game I mulligan to 5, but it's a solid 5. I end up with active Mother of Runes and a Mirran Crusader but he has Delver + Vendilion Clique and kills me in the air.
In the decider I play an early Stoneforge Mystic and get Batterskull, he Thoughtseizes it away. I draw Sword of Fire and Ice and just passes with a Stoneforge on an empty board. My opponent doesn't catch up on it and plays a Deathrite Shaman before another Thoughtseize. I put in the Sword and he is tapped out. Now I start attacking with the sword while Wastelanding him and he never gets Abrupt Decay mana before he is dead to the sword. He let me know after the match that he actually had a Disfigure for the Stoneforge had he realized what was going on.
We split the top 4 prizes to the best of our abilities but still play it out to decide the few € difference on the cards.
Semi Finals: Death and Taxes 2-0
In game 1 I beat him down with a Flickerwisp for many turns while we just stare at each other on the ground with both having active Mother of Runes + Phyrexian Revoker.
Game 2 he is the one with the Flyer and we both have active Mother of Runes, eventually I draw Council's Judgement and get rid of his Serra Avenger before playing a Flickerwisp to start clocking him. I play a Phyrexian Revoker and consider naming his Æther Vial, he says "OK" to my Revoker but then says "Wait! Can I use it?" pointing to his Æther Vial, I tell him that obviously he cannot. But I still decide to name Umezawa's Jitte even though he clearly doesn't have it, I decided that it would be too risky if he drew Stoneforge or Jitte and on his next turn his draw step is Jitte and he slams it down and everyone laughs about it. He then dies to my Flickerwisp.
We had to get home at some point and it was getting late, so we decided to do a prize split in the finals so that the 2nd place got slightly better prizes to
encourage someone to concede. After we agree on the split, I ask my opponent if he wants to concede and he does.
Finals: Opponent concedes (RUG Delver)
Overall I was very happy with the event. It ran smooth and everyone in my car reached the top 8 so the trip was a great success.
Thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: I took no notes so this is all from memory, feel free to correct me some of my information is off and you were actually there/played against me
Introduction:
I left my apartment at 6:20 in the morning after having overslept and therefor missing my breakfast, I caught the bus to the train station where I met up with Mads Sørensen. I quickly grabbed some breakfast and coffee before taking the train from Aarhus to Skanderborg to meet Felix Munch who had the car we were driving in. It was snowing heavily so the drive there was miserable and we were very delayed. Luckily, we left early enough that we still had plenty of time and we even stopped by the discount stores near the border to do some shopping before we continued to the site. We reached the site at 10:30 and finalized our registration along with writing our deck lists. There was a lot of Danes there, and most of them I knew so a significant part of the field was made up of players where I knew which decks they were on.
As people were writing their deck lists, we scouted as much as we could and basically reached the same conclusion that you would expect at any legacy tournament post Treasure Cruise ban/pre Treasure Cruise print, the field was incredibly varied and basically everything was represented there. From Affinity and Pox, to Elves and Miracles it was there.
This was the deck list I registered:
Lands (23):
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Horizon Canopy
3x Karakas
4x Flagstones of Trokair
6x Plains
4x Rishadan Port
4x Wasteland
Creatures (26):
4x Flickerwisp
4x Mother of Runes
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Phyrexian Revoker
2x Mangara of Corondor
2x Mirran Crusader
2x Serra Avenger
Non-creature spells (11):
4x Æther vial
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Batterskull
Sideboard:
2x Cataclysm
2x Council's Judgement
2x Enlightened tutor
2x Rest in Peace
1x Pithing Needle
1x Ratchet Bomb
2x Ethersworn Canonist
2x Wilt-Leaf Liege
1x Containment Priest
The tournament started with 69 players registered, it was 7 rounds of swiss with cut to top 8 and here is how my rounds went:
Round 1: Affinity 2-0
My opponent was maybe not the most experienced in Legacy. I do not say this because he misplayed, but because of his unwillingness to scoop in very very bad spots. I got Jitte active early in both games and that was lights out.
I am always happy to face these decks/players in the early rounds since I expect the early rounds to be easy, and allow me to warm up to the later rounds.
Generally I think you should scoop when you reach a point where you just cannot win anymore. There's no reason to waste more time in the round, and since Legacy games can go very long and get very complex, you should save more time so you will be able to play out those games.
Round 2: UR Delver 2-1
My opponent replaced the Treasure Cruises with Preordains, and the deck was still blazing fast and capable of doing powerful things, but with the absence of Treasure Cruise, I could grind him out and finish him with equipment on any creature.
In the first game a Thalia is attempting to race a Delver of Secrets and when I'm at 6 life I draw a Mirran Crusader that I then vial in at the end step, to kill my opponent while I'm at 3. The next game a Young Pyromancer is active for too long and after a flurry of Lightning Bolts I die.
In the third game we trade creatures for removal spells early on and eventually I untap with a Thalia and a Stoneforge Mystic that fetched Batterskull. I attempt to play around Smash to Smithereens, but eventually I have to go for it with only 4 lands in play, and as it turns out, he did not board in his Smash to Smithereens. Batterskull wins the game.
Round 3: BUG Delver 2-1
Game 1 I deal with a Delver and a Tombstalker but the second Tombstalker was too strong and I die. The next 2 games play out differently and Mirran Crusader and Stoneforge Mystic brings it home.
Round 4: Dark Maverick 1-1 draw
In the first game he goes Deathrite into Knight of the Reliquary, I go Vial into Revoker on Knight, into Revoker on Deathrite Shaman. He plays another Knight and a Sylvan Library and starts to beat down with 4/4 knights. My opponent plays very slow and I have to tell him a couple of times to speed up, he also attempts to cast spells cheaper than their cost through a Thalia. I tell him but don't call a judge. I am racing him in the air with a Flickerwisp but on one crucial turn he draws Stoneforge Mystic and he has 5 lands. He fetches Umezawa's Jitte and plays it (this was after we traded Thalia's in combat) with his Deathrite Shaman and his 5th land, he equips Jitte to a Knight and connects. He passes the turn after Killing the Revoker naming Knight of the Reliquary. On the next turn I realize that my opponent used his Deathrite Shaman to produce mana, despite the fact that it was named with my Phyrexian Revoker. At this point I'm pretty pissed because of my opponent's slow playing, plus breaking rules constantly and finally making the game winning play through a GRV. I call the judge and he determines that too much time has passed and we both receive a warning for failure to maintain the game state (if I recall correctly), the ruling I am fine with but losing to my opponent cheating has me furious. I ask the judge to watch the rest of the match because my opponent's play is so sloppy and slow, and because he's possibly intentionally breaking rules. After two more turns I scoop the game to the active Jitte and look at the clock, 40 minutes has passed and we're only about to sideboard for game 2!
I quickly sideboard and present my deck, my opponent of course needs to pile shuffle so he eats 2 more minutes of the clock. Keep in mind that my opponent also won his last round 1-0 due to all his slow playing and I let the judge know this.
Finally we begin the next game with 7 min. left on the clock and I play as fast as I possibly can. During this game the judge is watching constantly and my opponent has picked up the pace a little. My opponent first mistake is made on turn 2 when he uses his Deathrite Shaman to pay for a spell without exiling a land (which is highly beneficial to him since he plays Knight of the Reliquary), I don't know what the correct ruling is on this but I can only assume it was the one given, so he receives no warning but of course has to exile his land after I tell him. On the next turn I play nothing and just pass the turn with a vial I am ticking up, my plan is to play a Mirran Crusader that I can protect with a Flickerwisp. On the following turn I play the Mirran Crusader and pass the turn. My opponent then Abrupt Decays the Mirran Crusader and of course gets a warning for that. He complains to the judge that I am doing everything I can to stress him out. Then he mindlessly tries to main phase Swords to Plowshares my Mirran Crusader and I save it with Flickerwisp. Now time has been called and the time extension we received has expired. On turn 4 of extra turns my opponent taps out for something irrelevant, he's on 7 life. I end of turn put in Stoneforge Mystic (with my 2nd vial) and get Sword of Fire and Ice, I then untap and put it on my Flickerwisp to make it 1-1 in the 5th of extra turns.
I am glad I at least got the draw, but I should've won 2-0 and I am furious that my opponent is still undefeated only because he broke the rules and slow played.
Round 5: Death and Taxes 2-0
My opponent tells me he knows me from watching SCG coverage and we have what I thought was a pleasant match.
Game 1 I get a quick active Jitte and that's the game. Game 2 His board is 2 Mother of Runes, 2x Stoneforge Mystic, Batterskull and he has a Jitte in hand. My board is Ratchet Bomb on 2 and Aether Vial on 2. After taking a few hits and getting ported I Council's Judgement the Batterskull. Then I crack the Ratchet Bomb, vial in Serra Avenger and play and equip my Jitte that I had in the opener. His board is then completely dealt with and he didn't come back from that.
Round 6: RG Lands 2-1
I am paired against another Dane, but I don't know what he's on. So I ask him "Do you know what I am playing?", he answers "Yes I do" so I tell him "Would you mind telling me what you're playing then? To make it fair". He tells me that he would rather not, so I ask him "So you want to play unfair?" and he tells me "I will take any advantage I can get". Which is ok, I can't do anything about that and it's fine. I have in a similar spot told my opponent what I was playing but of course you have no obligation to do that.
In the first game he keeps a hand with no colored sources and dies to Mangara + Karakas before he can draw out of it. In the next game he wastelands me out (I draw no basics or Flagstones) and kills me with a 20/20.
In the 3rd game I keep a hand with Cataclysm, Pithing Needle, Stoneforge Mystic, Rest in Peace and 3 lands. Great hand. I play out the Pithing Needle (on Thespian's Stage) and the Rest in Peace. My Stoneforge Mystic gets hit by Punishing Fire and after trading lands a couple of times I eventually draw more creatures and he keeps using Punishing Fire to deal with my threats, but they are 1 time use only. Eventually he draws a Krosan Grip and kills my Rest in Peace, but I've been holding back another one, and I play it on the following turn. I have a Thalia that has been attacking him for a while, and eventually I draw a 4th mana source, so I activate my Æther Vial to remove Thalia and then I can cast Cataclysm and that is the game.
In this round my round 4 opponent is playing against my friend and travel companion Mads Sørensen and Mads is aware of all the sloppy play this player is doing, so on the first game rule violation he calls the judge and because of the warnings he accumulated in my match, he immediately is handed the game loss, and Mads goes on to win the match.
On the standings after round 6, Felix, Mads and I are 2nd, 3rd and 4th so we can all draw into top 8 and we are pretty happy with that.
So after the 7 rounds I end up with a record of 5-0-2 that is good for 4th place.
Round 7: ID with Infect
Top 8
Quarter Finals: BUG Delver 2-1
In the first game I am on the play and I have Mother of Runes. I play it and he leads with Deathrite Shaman. I have a Phyrexian Revoker and I draw an Æther Vial. I think a while if he has Liliana of the Veil + fetch and decide that it's worth going for the Vial. He has turn 2 Liliana and I am destroyed. Eventually the Æther Vial lets me dig out of it by letting me play all my creatures at his end step to avoid the edict effect of Liliana, and Batterskull gets there in the end.
The next game I mulligan to 5, but it's a solid 5. I end up with active Mother of Runes and a Mirran Crusader but he has Delver + Vendilion Clique and kills me in the air.
In the decider I play an early Stoneforge Mystic and get Batterskull, he Thoughtseizes it away. I draw Sword of Fire and Ice and just passes with a Stoneforge on an empty board. My opponent doesn't catch up on it and plays a Deathrite Shaman before another Thoughtseize. I put in the Sword and he is tapped out. Now I start attacking with the sword while Wastelanding him and he never gets Abrupt Decay mana before he is dead to the sword. He let me know after the match that he actually had a Disfigure for the Stoneforge had he realized what was going on.
We split the top 4 prizes to the best of our abilities but still play it out to decide the few € difference on the cards.
Semi Finals: Death and Taxes 2-0
In game 1 I beat him down with a Flickerwisp for many turns while we just stare at each other on the ground with both having active Mother of Runes + Phyrexian Revoker.
Game 2 he is the one with the Flyer and we both have active Mother of Runes, eventually I draw Council's Judgement and get rid of his Serra Avenger before playing a Flickerwisp to start clocking him. I play a Phyrexian Revoker and consider naming his Æther Vial, he says "OK" to my Revoker but then says "Wait! Can I use it?" pointing to his Æther Vial, I tell him that obviously he cannot. But I still decide to name Umezawa's Jitte even though he clearly doesn't have it, I decided that it would be too risky if he drew Stoneforge or Jitte and on his next turn his draw step is Jitte and he slams it down and everyone laughs about it. He then dies to my Flickerwisp.
We had to get home at some point and it was getting late, so we decided to do a prize split in the finals so that the 2nd place got slightly better prizes to
encourage someone to concede. After we agree on the split, I ask my opponent if he wants to concede and he does.
Finals: Opponent concedes (RUG Delver)
Overall I was very happy with the event. It ran smooth and everyone in my car reached the top 8 so the trip was a great success.
Thanks for reading!