URABAHN
09-03-2007, 10:06 AM
During the 1st Evar Source Unhinged Draft at GP Columbus, I asked myself why I was more focused on the “fun” event than the real event. I made a promise to myself to play more Magic and be better prepared for big events. The first real test was the
Fuddruckers Tournament in Annandale
3 Mishra’s Factory
4 Tundra
3 Nantuko Monastery
4 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
3 Flooded Strand
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Crime//Punishment
4 Force of Will
4 Pernicious Deed
3 Stifle
4 Counterspell
3 Fact or Fiction
4 Standstill
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Diabolic Edict
Sideboard
4 Meddling Mage
4 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Extirpate
Round 1 vs. Andrew Walter playing R/g Goblins - LOST
I threw caution to the wind and didn’t bother to put Engineered Plague in the sideboard because I didn’t expect to see Goblins. I think you can figure out how well I did in Game 1 and 2.
Round 2 vs. BYE – WON
Round 3 vs. Mr. Nightmare playing The EPIC Landstill – WON
Landstill mirrors don’t usually get to Game 2; I was in a dicey situation against some manlands and not enough removal in my hand. At a critical point in Game 1, I play Pernicious Deed, which resolves, and play Standstill, which resolves. During my End of Turn step, Nightmare cycles Decree for lethal damage when combined with the manlands. During his turn he animates his manlands and swings for lethal, so I activate Deed for 0 before damage goes on the stack. He breaks Standstill with Stifle and I draw 2 Counterspells off the Ancestral. I counter Stifle, he FoWs, and I counter again. Mr. Nightmare doesn’t play Crucible of Worlds so Deed kills his manlands dead.
In Game 2, we run out of time.
Round 4 vs. Sean Park (Reanimated) playing U/G/r Thresh – WON
Every time I wish for a Gro matchup in a tournament, I lose, good thing I didn’t ask to play Thresh this time. Game 1 is an absolute beating for me because Sean has the most awesome hand vs. Landstill. I play Standstill on Turn 2, he dazes it, and plays Tarmogoyf on his turn. I play Edict targeting him, he FoWs and plays another creature on his turn. I play Swords targeting Tarmogoyf, he plays Counterspell and beats the hell out of me over the next few turns. In case you’re wondering, I found no Counterspells or FoWs during Game 1.
Game 2 and 3 went the way it’s supposed to, he tries to Daze Standstill, I fight over it with FoW and it sticks, I draw lots of removal, counterspells, and more draw spells and win the match.
Round 5 vs. Will Walsh playing Smart Goblins - DRAW
No 1st Turn Lackey, no Wastelands, and no Vial allow me to slowly establish control in Game 1, which ends with 8 or 13 minutes left in the Round depending on who we asked. In Game 2, Will gets a saucy start and my back is pretty much against the wall looking at Piledriver, Matron, Ringleader, and maybe another green man. On my 4th Turn, I play Pernicious Deed. On his turn, he plays Disenchant targeting Deed. I have no FoW and get stomped. I think we cut and presented just in time to hear time called in the Round, so we don’t get to play Game 3. Landstill draws with Goblins? What kinda format is this?
Round 6 vs. Scott Scheurer (overlord95), Retired – LOST
A win and I’m in Top 8! I beat the mirror earlier, would I be so lucky this time? Nope. Scott seemed to be a step ahead of me the entire match. Swords his manland, counter. Edict his manland, counter. Swords my Monastery, it resolves. There’s not much more to say, I drew lots of lands, some removal, but no counterspells to stop his counterspells.
Final Record 3-2-1, CONTACT!
I felt like I played well enough to win, which is a huge difference in how I felt at GP Columbus. I was focused, I only made 2 minor mistakes the entire day, the most memorable was Game 2 vs. Andrew Walter when I played Deed and passed priority when he had a Lackey and Vial in play and got Krosan Gripped. There was no good reason to pass priority and I would learn from this mistake at GenCon.
GenCon Prelims
I “raw dogged” Permanent Waves and got my ass handed to me (1-3 drop). It’s an interesting deck with lots of potential, but I’m not skilled enough to pick up something new and expect to do well. Game 1 went to me plenty of times, but then I’d proceed to lose the next 2. Ouch. By the way, slops to Pastimes for the 2 hour delay between Round 3 and 4. I heard they did the same thing at Indiana Regionals. Next year, I think I’ll pass on Prelims because I’d rather have a nice dinner, get some rest, and play well at the World Championships.
GenCon Legacy World Championships
Mad Zur and Obfuscate Freely keep winning despite procrastination and last minute preparation. In sharing a room with them, I found myself in the same boat the morning before the tournament. I was struggling with the sideboard choices because I felt the sideboard from the Annandale tournament wouldn’t be right considering the metagame. I looked to T is for TOOL, Machinus, Mad Zur, and Obfuscately Freely for help. We all agreed that I needed an answer for Goblins, because more people would be playing it than two weeks ago. Everybody and their mother were playing Wasteland the night before, so I cut Extirpate for Teferi’s Response. I’ve never been happy with Extirpate except when I draw it against Ichorid. I like it against Gro, but it’s more of an “I win more” card. I never liked it against Landstill because you still need to kill the manlands they have in play. The guys convinced me that I wouldn’t need Blue Elemental Blast because there would be few players, if any, playing Blood Moon and it’s only marginally useful against Burn. I decided on 3x Krosan Grip for pesky Pithing Needles, Counterbalances, and maybe even the Landstill mirror. Engineered Explosives was a decent last minute addition because I needed something useful to take the last spot in my board. With ten minutes to spare, I race to the TCG Hall and sign up for Legacy Champs. I was in such a hurry I forgot to put in my contacts--I was nearly blind the whole tournament!
3 Mishra’s Factory
4 Tundra
3 Nantuko Monastery
4 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
3 Flooded Strand
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Crime//Punishment
4 Force of Will
4 Pernicious Deed
3 Stifle
4 Counterspell
3 Fact or Fiction
4 Standstill
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Diabolic Edict
Sideboard
4 Meddling Mage
3 Teferi’s Response
4 Engineered Plague
3 Krosan Grip
1 Engineered Explosives
Round 1 vs. White Weenie – WIN
My opponent plays Plains, Taps for a White mana, and plays Glittering Lynx. Yeah, you read that right, Glittering Lynx. It’s two games of destroying his men, destroying his AEther Vials, destroying his equipment, drawing lots of cards, and winning with manlands. At one point he plays Karakas with an AEther vial on the table and I call a judge to ask for the converted mana cost of Mangara of Corondor, thinking he’s maybe playing Death and Taxes. After the match he tells me he plays Karakas in case he wants to bounce his Jitte. Yup, he thought Karakas bounced any Legendary permanent. If this match was any indication, the early rounds of this tournament would be a stark contrast from the sophisticated metagame at the Fuddruckers tournament. I sided out Standstill for Krosan Grip and Engineered Explosives, because Vial makes Standstill a very bad card.
Round 2 vs. Black discard and LD – WIN
My opponent’s creature base consisted of Hypnotic Specters and Dark Confidants. It was like Deadguy Ale without White. I remember playing Standstill Turn 2, he plays Hymn to Tourach, cracking Standstill, and I FoW in response. I Swords a Hypnotic Specter here and there, and beat in with manlands eventually reducing his life total to 0. Remember what I said about the number of Wasteland the night before and what I put in the board, Game 2 would prove to be very interesting. -3 Stifles, +3 Teferi’s Response. My opponent plays Turn 3 Icequake and I respond with Teferi’s Response. He looks at the card, looks at Obfuscate Freely behind me (he wandered over during his 2nd Round Bye), and says “This is the most random sideboard card ever!” Ob. Freely kinda shrugs and says “Yup.” So I keep my land, he loses his Icequake, and I trade Teferi’s Response for two cards. Good times. I play a land for my turn and pass. My opponent plays Wasteland, activates it targeting my Tropical Island, and says “I hope you don’t have a--” at which point I play another Teferi’s Response and can hardly keep myself from laughing. Don’t get me wrong, I was laughing at the guy, I was laughing at how unbelievably lucky I was. So I get to keep my Tropical Island, he loses a Wasteland, and I trade Teferi’s Response for two more cards. Good times. It doesn’t take long to establish control after that and the manlands go the distance.
Round 3 vs. R/g Goblins -- WIN
Speaking how unbelievably lucky I was last game, that was nothing compared to this Round. My opponent opens with Turn 1 Lackey, which I FoW. Next turn he plays AEther Vial, which I FoW. Next turn he plays Goblin Warchief, which I Edict. I play a Standstill or two, draw lots of cards, kill lots of Goblins, and go into the really late game because I’m just as happy going 1-0 then potentially losing against one of my worst matchups. Eventually he scoops. -4 Standstill, +4 Engineered Plague. His opening hand is even less spectacular than before (Mountain, Mogg Fanatic). Over my next 3 Turns, I play Fetch, Fetch, Mishra’s Factory, and crack both Fetchlands to play Engineered Plague. It would prove to be enough as the manlands hold down the fort and provide enough offense to rack up the “W”. Afterwards, I found out my opponent sided out Vial because he didn't think they'd be any good against Landstill!
Round 4 vs. Drew Idoux playing Stifle/Dreadnought – WIN
“How in the world did Stifle/Dreadnought go 3-0 in this tournament?” That thought kept running through my mind during our match. Taking nothing away from Drew, who placed 16th, I was just stunned that Stifle/Dreadnought made it this far. I imagine it’s an absolute house against Goblins and other aggro strategies, but 3-0? In Game 1, I find plenty of removal for his Phyrexian Dreadnoughts, establish control and chip away at his life total with the manlands. -3 Stifle (I’m not about to Stifle his Dreadnaught for him!), +3 Krosan Grip. In Game 2, I keep a Counter-less hand with a mana curve that started at 3. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best hand to keep, I simply wasn’t prepared for how fast Stifle Dreadnaught can be. Drew plays another Island, Lotus Petal, Dreadnaught, and Stifles the coming into play effect. I have no response and the Dreadnaught bashes my face for the next two turns. Game 3 plays out similar to Game 1, except for the surprise Back to Basics he brought in from the board, which I was lucky enough to have a FoW for.
Round 5 vs. Lam Phan playing Red Thresh – WIN
There’s no shortage of excellent Thresh players in my area, so I feel pretty good about this match, even though he’s playing Wasteland and Stifle. Lam plays the deck pretty aggressively, which can backfire because it makes my board sweepers a 2-for or 3-for, but it also puts me on a clock to find those sweepers or other removal in a hurry. Game 1 goes about as well as I can hope for, Turn 2 Standstill, Draw 3 cards, kill animals, beat down with manlands. -3 Stifle, +3 Krosan Grip (for Counterbalance, though I suppose Stifle can be somewhat effective against Counterbalance). Remember last round when I keep a hand with a mana curve that starts at 3? Yeah, I didn’t learn my fucking lesson and Lam puts my back against the wall and kills me before I can even try to catch up with Deed or E.E.
I nearly throw away Game 3 when I resolve Fact or Fiction on the board staring at a Nimble Mongoose. The rest of the cards in my hand are not land and my FoF goes something like Land, Land, Monastery (I do not have threshold yet), Deed, Swords. Lam puts Deed and Swords in one pile, Lands in the other. I take the lands because I’m not sure when I’m going to find my next land drop. In retrospect, it was a colossal mistake to take the lands because I had no removal spells! Next turn he plays Tarmogoyf and I’m wishing I took Deed and Swords. On my turn, I draw Pernicious Deed, but I’m worried about Countermagic and Stifle. I play it anyway, it resolves, I activate Deed for 2, and IT RESOLVES. He doesn’t play another creature (Mongoose) until a few turns later, but by then I’ve double monastery in play which take turns swinging for 4 First Strike damage.
I’m not trying to brag, but boarding in against Thresh is something like the millions of ways to skin a cat. Extirpate is good if you get one of their creatures in the yard, which is bound to happen sooner or later. Stifle stops their fetches (and Wastelands, if they’re playing it). Krosan Grip is an uncounterable solution to Pithing Needle, an excellent answer to Counterbalance, and Sensei’s Diving Top, sometimes. No matter what flavor of control you’re playing, to beat Thresh all you gotta do is put their 8-14 guys in the ‘yard. If you’re playing Control in Legacy, you’re probably playing at least a dozen creature removal spells. Make Wrath, Wing Shards or Deed at least 1-for-1 and put their men in the ‘yard. I imagine Wasteland makes the matchup more positive for Gro, but it’s still very favorable for you. As I overheard Owen Turtenwald explain to his Thresh opponent in Round 3, Wasteland’s not good in Threshold. It doesn’t cast any of your cantrips and it doesn’t provide green mana.
Round 6 vs. Ernest Turck playing Ichorid – LOSS
Have you heard about this new deck? This deck made freakin’ Top 8 at GenCon Legacy World Championships (all forthcoming sarcasm aside, Ernest was a gentlemen and excellent player). I played against this new hotness in Round 6 as you can see from the Round 6 matchup! If I don’t talk about Ichorid I’m afraid someone on The Source will become very upset!
I win Game 1 because my opponent doesn’t find any dredge guys until Turn 6 or 8 and all he has is a Swamp in play. The game plays out for a considerable chunk of the round and eventually I win. -4 Standstill, -1 Crime//Punishment, +4 Engineered Plague, +1 Engineered Explosives. In Game 2 he goes absolutely busted! He drops LED, discards a bunch of cards (his whole hand) including Deep Analysis and replaces his draws with Dredge, Dredging up more Dredge guys, Ichorids, and Bridge from Below. Ernest plays Breakthrough on his next turn, it resolves, and then he replaces his Draws with Dredge, Dredging up more Dredge guys, Ichorids, and Bridge from Below! DO YOU SEE A PATTERN HERE? THOSE ICHORIDS ARE BEATING MY FACE IN AND CREATING ZOMBIE TOKENS! I have never seen this before and I think Machinus should have given this deck more than table scraps in his tournament report. I’ll try to succeed where he failed! I die after the Ichorids and Zombie Tokens beat my face in. Man, this must be an awful matchup for Landstill, because Standstill isn’t very good in this matchup! My sideboard isn’t equipped for this opponent!
Game 3 plays out just long enough that we go to time. During the 2nd turn, Ernest plays Dread Return targeting Flame-Kin Zealot and swings just enough guys that I go 2 life. I have a lone Brainstorm in hand and I’m looking for a board sweeper so I crack a fetch and go to 1 Life. I draw a Land for the turn, and Brainstorm into nothing that will save me. GAME OVER, MAN! It’s possible that I made a mistake earlier with Pernicious Deed, a manland, and Bridge from Below. The Bridge trigger won’t put a Zombie token into play if Bridge isn’t there when the trigger resolves. Unfortunately, because your opponent controls Bridge from Below, your opponent can stack the triggered effect however they like. You'd need two sweepers, one to kill off your creature (animated manland), and another one to deal with all the freshly made Zombie tokens.
Round 7 vs. Daniel Pische playing White Thresh – WIN
When I’m playing Landstill and I’m playing against Thresh, I want to see Tundra on that side of the table. Of all the flavors of Thresh I want to play against, it has got to be White. I’ll take Jotun Grunt or Meddling Mage in the maindeck everyday over Lightning Bolt because a couple of swings from Tarmogoyf + the 3 or 4 Lightning Bolts the Thresh player will find because the game goes on so long will probably kill you. With that being said, here’s how the match played out. Daniel wins the die roll in Game 1 and goes first. He plays Tropical Island and Serum Visions on Turn 1, Counterbalance on Turn 2, to which I have no answer. I play Standstill on Turn 2 and he flips up Portent for the Counterbalance trigger. He has no further effects and Standstill resolves. Good times. Daniel breaks Standstill, I draw a bunch of cards, kill the 8-14 guys he plays, draw more cards, yeah, it’s a beating. Even after I establish control, it takes me quite sometime to kill him and I wonder why he doesn’t scoop. -3 Stifle, +3 Krosan Grip.
Daniel plays 1st Turn Mongoose and a Brainstorm, Fetch on his 2nd turn. On my 2nd turn, I play Mishra’s Factory and Standstill, and we fight over it, but it resolves. He breaks the Standstill, I draw a bunch of cards, kill the 10-14 guys he plays, draw more cards, yup, it’s a beating. At one point, I play one of the 3 Krosan Grip in my hand targeting Mishra’s Factory to avoid Swords to Plowshares so I can return it after combat with Crucible of Worlds. Later in the game, I allow Jotun Grunt to stay in play for 3 turns because I have a Monastery on defense. After that I resolve Pernicious Deed and before I pass priority, my opponent plays Krosan Grip. I ask him if this is in response to Deed or when it’s in play, to which he confirms the latter. I explain to him I haven’t passed priority back to him yet so I’m going to sack Deed for 2 which would destroy his Grunt and Mongoose. Things proceeded as normal after that.
After I win and we both sign the slip, I’m thinking of Top 8 action.
Round 8 vs. Marty Birthelmer playing BHWC Landstill – LOSS (oh, no!)
The Top 3 seeds intentionally draw with their opponent which means there are 8 people competing for the last 5 spots in Top 8. I’m the 7th seed and I paired against the 8th seed, and our tiebreakers aren’t the greatest. Marty doesn’t feel good about his chances to draw into Top 8 so he declines my offer to draw. He knows what I’m playing, I don’t know what he’s playing, and before the match he says it’s a bad matchup for him. Strange. He wins the die roll, plays Tundra and passes. I play Tundra and pass. He plays Underground Sea and passes the Turn. Maybe I should’ve suspected Landstill mirror at this point, but hindsight is always 20/20 and my hand did have a Monastery, Mishra’s and Standstill, which I play on my turn with my own Underground Sea and Tundra. Next turn he plays Monastery and it’s a race to Threshold with a Standstill on the table. Marty finds an additional Monastery and gets to threshold faster than I do and cracks in with Monastery. I break Standstill with Swords to Plowshares, it gets Countered, I play Diabolic Edict, it gets Countered, I Counter back, and he Counters back. I scoop a couple of turns later. -4 Standstill, -1 Engineered Explosives, -1 Crime and Punishment, +3 Krosan Grip, +3 Teferi’s Response. E.E. and Crime//Punishment won’t do me any good against manlands, Teferi’s Response will help keep my manlands in play.
In retrospect, I don’t know if this was the right way to board, but then again, I didn’t know he was going to board in Meddling Mage. I FoW his Crucible of Worlds on his 3rd turn pitching Teferi’s Response and FoW sticks. A bit later, he plays Meddling Mage naming Pernicious Deed, and I have one in my hand, but Brainstorm and Fetch it away. Mage and Mishra’s start the process of chipping away at my life total and I try to defend myself as best I can with my own Mishra’s Factory and the removal in my hand. The Swords to Plowshares I play targeting Marty’s Factory is countered, as is a second Swords to Plowshares. I try to block Mage with Mishra’s Factory, Marty plays Swords to Plowshares, I respond with Teferi’s Response, which he counters. Just like the match against overlord95 (Retired), Marty seemed to be one step ahead of me the entire match. I draw more lands that don’t matter and my hopes of making Top 8 are dashed. I spoke with Marty about 4-color Landstill after the match. Turns out, he was planning to play Solidarity, but then switched to BHWC right before the tournament. Good choice! He told me Wasteland gives him mana issues (not having the right color), but he likes wastelock as a kinda win condition. I told him that’s the trade-off with 4-color Landstill, do you want to win some games with wastelock, or do you want to have a more stable mana base?
I congratulated him on his Top 8 win and watched him lose to U/G/r Thresh in the Quarterfinals because Marty couldn’t find another black source of mana after Dave Caplan Wastes an Underground Sea. Marty had 2 Innocent Blood in his hand, how sad! According to the list on the WotC website, Dave Caplan only ran 8 creatures. I wonder how different the match would’ve been if Marty actually got to play removal spells. In Game 2 Marty has trouble finding colored sources of mana, he has Tropical Island, Wasteland, Monastery, and Monastery in play when Dave’s creatures eat his face.
To the Victor Goes the Spoils
For placing 12th, I won a pack of P3K, Italian Revised, Italian Legends, and 2 drafts sets of Time Spiral. I didn’t get anything amazing from the first 3 packs or the draft sets for that matter. Thanks to all my homies in the VA for helping me with Landstill and making me a better player! I’m playing great right now and it’s mostly because of you all.
Fuddruckers Tournament in Annandale
3 Mishra’s Factory
4 Tundra
3 Nantuko Monastery
4 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
3 Flooded Strand
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Crime//Punishment
4 Force of Will
4 Pernicious Deed
3 Stifle
4 Counterspell
3 Fact or Fiction
4 Standstill
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Diabolic Edict
Sideboard
4 Meddling Mage
4 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Extirpate
Round 1 vs. Andrew Walter playing R/g Goblins - LOST
I threw caution to the wind and didn’t bother to put Engineered Plague in the sideboard because I didn’t expect to see Goblins. I think you can figure out how well I did in Game 1 and 2.
Round 2 vs. BYE – WON
Round 3 vs. Mr. Nightmare playing The EPIC Landstill – WON
Landstill mirrors don’t usually get to Game 2; I was in a dicey situation against some manlands and not enough removal in my hand. At a critical point in Game 1, I play Pernicious Deed, which resolves, and play Standstill, which resolves. During my End of Turn step, Nightmare cycles Decree for lethal damage when combined with the manlands. During his turn he animates his manlands and swings for lethal, so I activate Deed for 0 before damage goes on the stack. He breaks Standstill with Stifle and I draw 2 Counterspells off the Ancestral. I counter Stifle, he FoWs, and I counter again. Mr. Nightmare doesn’t play Crucible of Worlds so Deed kills his manlands dead.
In Game 2, we run out of time.
Round 4 vs. Sean Park (Reanimated) playing U/G/r Thresh – WON
Every time I wish for a Gro matchup in a tournament, I lose, good thing I didn’t ask to play Thresh this time. Game 1 is an absolute beating for me because Sean has the most awesome hand vs. Landstill. I play Standstill on Turn 2, he dazes it, and plays Tarmogoyf on his turn. I play Edict targeting him, he FoWs and plays another creature on his turn. I play Swords targeting Tarmogoyf, he plays Counterspell and beats the hell out of me over the next few turns. In case you’re wondering, I found no Counterspells or FoWs during Game 1.
Game 2 and 3 went the way it’s supposed to, he tries to Daze Standstill, I fight over it with FoW and it sticks, I draw lots of removal, counterspells, and more draw spells and win the match.
Round 5 vs. Will Walsh playing Smart Goblins - DRAW
No 1st Turn Lackey, no Wastelands, and no Vial allow me to slowly establish control in Game 1, which ends with 8 or 13 minutes left in the Round depending on who we asked. In Game 2, Will gets a saucy start and my back is pretty much against the wall looking at Piledriver, Matron, Ringleader, and maybe another green man. On my 4th Turn, I play Pernicious Deed. On his turn, he plays Disenchant targeting Deed. I have no FoW and get stomped. I think we cut and presented just in time to hear time called in the Round, so we don’t get to play Game 3. Landstill draws with Goblins? What kinda format is this?
Round 6 vs. Scott Scheurer (overlord95), Retired – LOST
A win and I’m in Top 8! I beat the mirror earlier, would I be so lucky this time? Nope. Scott seemed to be a step ahead of me the entire match. Swords his manland, counter. Edict his manland, counter. Swords my Monastery, it resolves. There’s not much more to say, I drew lots of lands, some removal, but no counterspells to stop his counterspells.
Final Record 3-2-1, CONTACT!
I felt like I played well enough to win, which is a huge difference in how I felt at GP Columbus. I was focused, I only made 2 minor mistakes the entire day, the most memorable was Game 2 vs. Andrew Walter when I played Deed and passed priority when he had a Lackey and Vial in play and got Krosan Gripped. There was no good reason to pass priority and I would learn from this mistake at GenCon.
GenCon Prelims
I “raw dogged” Permanent Waves and got my ass handed to me (1-3 drop). It’s an interesting deck with lots of potential, but I’m not skilled enough to pick up something new and expect to do well. Game 1 went to me plenty of times, but then I’d proceed to lose the next 2. Ouch. By the way, slops to Pastimes for the 2 hour delay between Round 3 and 4. I heard they did the same thing at Indiana Regionals. Next year, I think I’ll pass on Prelims because I’d rather have a nice dinner, get some rest, and play well at the World Championships.
GenCon Legacy World Championships
Mad Zur and Obfuscate Freely keep winning despite procrastination and last minute preparation. In sharing a room with them, I found myself in the same boat the morning before the tournament. I was struggling with the sideboard choices because I felt the sideboard from the Annandale tournament wouldn’t be right considering the metagame. I looked to T is for TOOL, Machinus, Mad Zur, and Obfuscately Freely for help. We all agreed that I needed an answer for Goblins, because more people would be playing it than two weeks ago. Everybody and their mother were playing Wasteland the night before, so I cut Extirpate for Teferi’s Response. I’ve never been happy with Extirpate except when I draw it against Ichorid. I like it against Gro, but it’s more of an “I win more” card. I never liked it against Landstill because you still need to kill the manlands they have in play. The guys convinced me that I wouldn’t need Blue Elemental Blast because there would be few players, if any, playing Blood Moon and it’s only marginally useful against Burn. I decided on 3x Krosan Grip for pesky Pithing Needles, Counterbalances, and maybe even the Landstill mirror. Engineered Explosives was a decent last minute addition because I needed something useful to take the last spot in my board. With ten minutes to spare, I race to the TCG Hall and sign up for Legacy Champs. I was in such a hurry I forgot to put in my contacts--I was nearly blind the whole tournament!
3 Mishra’s Factory
4 Tundra
3 Nantuko Monastery
4 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
3 Flooded Strand
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Crime//Punishment
4 Force of Will
4 Pernicious Deed
3 Stifle
4 Counterspell
3 Fact or Fiction
4 Standstill
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Diabolic Edict
Sideboard
4 Meddling Mage
3 Teferi’s Response
4 Engineered Plague
3 Krosan Grip
1 Engineered Explosives
Round 1 vs. White Weenie – WIN
My opponent plays Plains, Taps for a White mana, and plays Glittering Lynx. Yeah, you read that right, Glittering Lynx. It’s two games of destroying his men, destroying his AEther Vials, destroying his equipment, drawing lots of cards, and winning with manlands. At one point he plays Karakas with an AEther vial on the table and I call a judge to ask for the converted mana cost of Mangara of Corondor, thinking he’s maybe playing Death and Taxes. After the match he tells me he plays Karakas in case he wants to bounce his Jitte. Yup, he thought Karakas bounced any Legendary permanent. If this match was any indication, the early rounds of this tournament would be a stark contrast from the sophisticated metagame at the Fuddruckers tournament. I sided out Standstill for Krosan Grip and Engineered Explosives, because Vial makes Standstill a very bad card.
Round 2 vs. Black discard and LD – WIN
My opponent’s creature base consisted of Hypnotic Specters and Dark Confidants. It was like Deadguy Ale without White. I remember playing Standstill Turn 2, he plays Hymn to Tourach, cracking Standstill, and I FoW in response. I Swords a Hypnotic Specter here and there, and beat in with manlands eventually reducing his life total to 0. Remember what I said about the number of Wasteland the night before and what I put in the board, Game 2 would prove to be very interesting. -3 Stifles, +3 Teferi’s Response. My opponent plays Turn 3 Icequake and I respond with Teferi’s Response. He looks at the card, looks at Obfuscate Freely behind me (he wandered over during his 2nd Round Bye), and says “This is the most random sideboard card ever!” Ob. Freely kinda shrugs and says “Yup.” So I keep my land, he loses his Icequake, and I trade Teferi’s Response for two cards. Good times. I play a land for my turn and pass. My opponent plays Wasteland, activates it targeting my Tropical Island, and says “I hope you don’t have a--” at which point I play another Teferi’s Response and can hardly keep myself from laughing. Don’t get me wrong, I was laughing at the guy, I was laughing at how unbelievably lucky I was. So I get to keep my Tropical Island, he loses a Wasteland, and I trade Teferi’s Response for two more cards. Good times. It doesn’t take long to establish control after that and the manlands go the distance.
Round 3 vs. R/g Goblins -- WIN
Speaking how unbelievably lucky I was last game, that was nothing compared to this Round. My opponent opens with Turn 1 Lackey, which I FoW. Next turn he plays AEther Vial, which I FoW. Next turn he plays Goblin Warchief, which I Edict. I play a Standstill or two, draw lots of cards, kill lots of Goblins, and go into the really late game because I’m just as happy going 1-0 then potentially losing against one of my worst matchups. Eventually he scoops. -4 Standstill, +4 Engineered Plague. His opening hand is even less spectacular than before (Mountain, Mogg Fanatic). Over my next 3 Turns, I play Fetch, Fetch, Mishra’s Factory, and crack both Fetchlands to play Engineered Plague. It would prove to be enough as the manlands hold down the fort and provide enough offense to rack up the “W”. Afterwards, I found out my opponent sided out Vial because he didn't think they'd be any good against Landstill!
Round 4 vs. Drew Idoux playing Stifle/Dreadnought – WIN
“How in the world did Stifle/Dreadnought go 3-0 in this tournament?” That thought kept running through my mind during our match. Taking nothing away from Drew, who placed 16th, I was just stunned that Stifle/Dreadnought made it this far. I imagine it’s an absolute house against Goblins and other aggro strategies, but 3-0? In Game 1, I find plenty of removal for his Phyrexian Dreadnoughts, establish control and chip away at his life total with the manlands. -3 Stifle (I’m not about to Stifle his Dreadnaught for him!), +3 Krosan Grip. In Game 2, I keep a Counter-less hand with a mana curve that started at 3. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best hand to keep, I simply wasn’t prepared for how fast Stifle Dreadnaught can be. Drew plays another Island, Lotus Petal, Dreadnaught, and Stifles the coming into play effect. I have no response and the Dreadnaught bashes my face for the next two turns. Game 3 plays out similar to Game 1, except for the surprise Back to Basics he brought in from the board, which I was lucky enough to have a FoW for.
Round 5 vs. Lam Phan playing Red Thresh – WIN
There’s no shortage of excellent Thresh players in my area, so I feel pretty good about this match, even though he’s playing Wasteland and Stifle. Lam plays the deck pretty aggressively, which can backfire because it makes my board sweepers a 2-for or 3-for, but it also puts me on a clock to find those sweepers or other removal in a hurry. Game 1 goes about as well as I can hope for, Turn 2 Standstill, Draw 3 cards, kill animals, beat down with manlands. -3 Stifle, +3 Krosan Grip (for Counterbalance, though I suppose Stifle can be somewhat effective against Counterbalance). Remember last round when I keep a hand with a mana curve that starts at 3? Yeah, I didn’t learn my fucking lesson and Lam puts my back against the wall and kills me before I can even try to catch up with Deed or E.E.
I nearly throw away Game 3 when I resolve Fact or Fiction on the board staring at a Nimble Mongoose. The rest of the cards in my hand are not land and my FoF goes something like Land, Land, Monastery (I do not have threshold yet), Deed, Swords. Lam puts Deed and Swords in one pile, Lands in the other. I take the lands because I’m not sure when I’m going to find my next land drop. In retrospect, it was a colossal mistake to take the lands because I had no removal spells! Next turn he plays Tarmogoyf and I’m wishing I took Deed and Swords. On my turn, I draw Pernicious Deed, but I’m worried about Countermagic and Stifle. I play it anyway, it resolves, I activate Deed for 2, and IT RESOLVES. He doesn’t play another creature (Mongoose) until a few turns later, but by then I’ve double monastery in play which take turns swinging for 4 First Strike damage.
I’m not trying to brag, but boarding in against Thresh is something like the millions of ways to skin a cat. Extirpate is good if you get one of their creatures in the yard, which is bound to happen sooner or later. Stifle stops their fetches (and Wastelands, if they’re playing it). Krosan Grip is an uncounterable solution to Pithing Needle, an excellent answer to Counterbalance, and Sensei’s Diving Top, sometimes. No matter what flavor of control you’re playing, to beat Thresh all you gotta do is put their 8-14 guys in the ‘yard. If you’re playing Control in Legacy, you’re probably playing at least a dozen creature removal spells. Make Wrath, Wing Shards or Deed at least 1-for-1 and put their men in the ‘yard. I imagine Wasteland makes the matchup more positive for Gro, but it’s still very favorable for you. As I overheard Owen Turtenwald explain to his Thresh opponent in Round 3, Wasteland’s not good in Threshold. It doesn’t cast any of your cantrips and it doesn’t provide green mana.
Round 6 vs. Ernest Turck playing Ichorid – LOSS
Have you heard about this new deck? This deck made freakin’ Top 8 at GenCon Legacy World Championships (all forthcoming sarcasm aside, Ernest was a gentlemen and excellent player). I played against this new hotness in Round 6 as you can see from the Round 6 matchup! If I don’t talk about Ichorid I’m afraid someone on The Source will become very upset!
I win Game 1 because my opponent doesn’t find any dredge guys until Turn 6 or 8 and all he has is a Swamp in play. The game plays out for a considerable chunk of the round and eventually I win. -4 Standstill, -1 Crime//Punishment, +4 Engineered Plague, +1 Engineered Explosives. In Game 2 he goes absolutely busted! He drops LED, discards a bunch of cards (his whole hand) including Deep Analysis and replaces his draws with Dredge, Dredging up more Dredge guys, Ichorids, and Bridge from Below. Ernest plays Breakthrough on his next turn, it resolves, and then he replaces his Draws with Dredge, Dredging up more Dredge guys, Ichorids, and Bridge from Below! DO YOU SEE A PATTERN HERE? THOSE ICHORIDS ARE BEATING MY FACE IN AND CREATING ZOMBIE TOKENS! I have never seen this before and I think Machinus should have given this deck more than table scraps in his tournament report. I’ll try to succeed where he failed! I die after the Ichorids and Zombie Tokens beat my face in. Man, this must be an awful matchup for Landstill, because Standstill isn’t very good in this matchup! My sideboard isn’t equipped for this opponent!
Game 3 plays out just long enough that we go to time. During the 2nd turn, Ernest plays Dread Return targeting Flame-Kin Zealot and swings just enough guys that I go 2 life. I have a lone Brainstorm in hand and I’m looking for a board sweeper so I crack a fetch and go to 1 Life. I draw a Land for the turn, and Brainstorm into nothing that will save me. GAME OVER, MAN! It’s possible that I made a mistake earlier with Pernicious Deed, a manland, and Bridge from Below. The Bridge trigger won’t put a Zombie token into play if Bridge isn’t there when the trigger resolves. Unfortunately, because your opponent controls Bridge from Below, your opponent can stack the triggered effect however they like. You'd need two sweepers, one to kill off your creature (animated manland), and another one to deal with all the freshly made Zombie tokens.
Round 7 vs. Daniel Pische playing White Thresh – WIN
When I’m playing Landstill and I’m playing against Thresh, I want to see Tundra on that side of the table. Of all the flavors of Thresh I want to play against, it has got to be White. I’ll take Jotun Grunt or Meddling Mage in the maindeck everyday over Lightning Bolt because a couple of swings from Tarmogoyf + the 3 or 4 Lightning Bolts the Thresh player will find because the game goes on so long will probably kill you. With that being said, here’s how the match played out. Daniel wins the die roll in Game 1 and goes first. He plays Tropical Island and Serum Visions on Turn 1, Counterbalance on Turn 2, to which I have no answer. I play Standstill on Turn 2 and he flips up Portent for the Counterbalance trigger. He has no further effects and Standstill resolves. Good times. Daniel breaks Standstill, I draw a bunch of cards, kill the 8-14 guys he plays, draw more cards, yeah, it’s a beating. Even after I establish control, it takes me quite sometime to kill him and I wonder why he doesn’t scoop. -3 Stifle, +3 Krosan Grip.
Daniel plays 1st Turn Mongoose and a Brainstorm, Fetch on his 2nd turn. On my 2nd turn, I play Mishra’s Factory and Standstill, and we fight over it, but it resolves. He breaks the Standstill, I draw a bunch of cards, kill the 10-14 guys he plays, draw more cards, yup, it’s a beating. At one point, I play one of the 3 Krosan Grip in my hand targeting Mishra’s Factory to avoid Swords to Plowshares so I can return it after combat with Crucible of Worlds. Later in the game, I allow Jotun Grunt to stay in play for 3 turns because I have a Monastery on defense. After that I resolve Pernicious Deed and before I pass priority, my opponent plays Krosan Grip. I ask him if this is in response to Deed or when it’s in play, to which he confirms the latter. I explain to him I haven’t passed priority back to him yet so I’m going to sack Deed for 2 which would destroy his Grunt and Mongoose. Things proceeded as normal after that.
After I win and we both sign the slip, I’m thinking of Top 8 action.
Round 8 vs. Marty Birthelmer playing BHWC Landstill – LOSS (oh, no!)
The Top 3 seeds intentionally draw with their opponent which means there are 8 people competing for the last 5 spots in Top 8. I’m the 7th seed and I paired against the 8th seed, and our tiebreakers aren’t the greatest. Marty doesn’t feel good about his chances to draw into Top 8 so he declines my offer to draw. He knows what I’m playing, I don’t know what he’s playing, and before the match he says it’s a bad matchup for him. Strange. He wins the die roll, plays Tundra and passes. I play Tundra and pass. He plays Underground Sea and passes the Turn. Maybe I should’ve suspected Landstill mirror at this point, but hindsight is always 20/20 and my hand did have a Monastery, Mishra’s and Standstill, which I play on my turn with my own Underground Sea and Tundra. Next turn he plays Monastery and it’s a race to Threshold with a Standstill on the table. Marty finds an additional Monastery and gets to threshold faster than I do and cracks in with Monastery. I break Standstill with Swords to Plowshares, it gets Countered, I play Diabolic Edict, it gets Countered, I Counter back, and he Counters back. I scoop a couple of turns later. -4 Standstill, -1 Engineered Explosives, -1 Crime and Punishment, +3 Krosan Grip, +3 Teferi’s Response. E.E. and Crime//Punishment won’t do me any good against manlands, Teferi’s Response will help keep my manlands in play.
In retrospect, I don’t know if this was the right way to board, but then again, I didn’t know he was going to board in Meddling Mage. I FoW his Crucible of Worlds on his 3rd turn pitching Teferi’s Response and FoW sticks. A bit later, he plays Meddling Mage naming Pernicious Deed, and I have one in my hand, but Brainstorm and Fetch it away. Mage and Mishra’s start the process of chipping away at my life total and I try to defend myself as best I can with my own Mishra’s Factory and the removal in my hand. The Swords to Plowshares I play targeting Marty’s Factory is countered, as is a second Swords to Plowshares. I try to block Mage with Mishra’s Factory, Marty plays Swords to Plowshares, I respond with Teferi’s Response, which he counters. Just like the match against overlord95 (Retired), Marty seemed to be one step ahead of me the entire match. I draw more lands that don’t matter and my hopes of making Top 8 are dashed. I spoke with Marty about 4-color Landstill after the match. Turns out, he was planning to play Solidarity, but then switched to BHWC right before the tournament. Good choice! He told me Wasteland gives him mana issues (not having the right color), but he likes wastelock as a kinda win condition. I told him that’s the trade-off with 4-color Landstill, do you want to win some games with wastelock, or do you want to have a more stable mana base?
I congratulated him on his Top 8 win and watched him lose to U/G/r Thresh in the Quarterfinals because Marty couldn’t find another black source of mana after Dave Caplan Wastes an Underground Sea. Marty had 2 Innocent Blood in his hand, how sad! According to the list on the WotC website, Dave Caplan only ran 8 creatures. I wonder how different the match would’ve been if Marty actually got to play removal spells. In Game 2 Marty has trouble finding colored sources of mana, he has Tropical Island, Wasteland, Monastery, and Monastery in play when Dave’s creatures eat his face.
To the Victor Goes the Spoils
For placing 12th, I won a pack of P3K, Italian Revised, Italian Legends, and 2 drafts sets of Time Spiral. I didn’t get anything amazing from the first 3 packs or the draft sets for that matter. Thanks to all my homies in the VA for helping me with Landstill and making me a better player! I’m playing great right now and it’s mostly because of you all.