3rd Place @ SCG Columbus with Lands

I apologize for the delayed post of the report. Star City apparently tells people to write articles, and then does not use them... Article is as follows:

"You're playing Standard? But there is no lands! What on earth could you be playing!"

I told quite a few people over the weekend I was playing 4 Thespian Stage, 4 Hellion Crucible, and 52 Mountains, which was just a joke that nobody found funny (so apparently it wasn't a joke afterall...)

Anyways, welcome to my tournament report of SCG Columbus: Legacy Edition. My name's Bobby Kovacs, and I am one of the 3 Lands players in the world. Married, Baby, House, Job, work a lot, yadda yadda. Still slingin' the cardboard makin' the opponents bored. Still dredgin' the loam makin' all the people run home. I did fairly bad in the SCG Columbus: Standard Open, but I knew it wouldn't be too promising not knowing the format at all. I ended at 6-4 with UWR Control, which was overall a good day for me in standard. I came to play some Legacy!

I played Lands at an open series in Cincinnati a few months back and got very frustrated with the deck when I went 3-4-1, probably my worst SCG record to date. I was losing to every Deathrite Shaman that got played against me. I talked to Caleb Durwurd about it, and he said to take a break from Lands for a tournament or so... So I took his advice and played Punishing Lands instead, which utilizes the Punishing Fire/Grove of the Burnwillows Combo and I took 3rd Place! Let's get down to the report!

Round 1 - Zach Hirshell - OmniTell

Game 1
I win the dice roll and start out with a strong hand, with a Life from the Loam, Manabond, and a Tolaria West. I begin to activate Rishadan Port targeting his basic lands his land, followed by transmuting the Tolaria West to another Port, followed by a Ghost Quarter. I recur the Ghost Quarter until he cannot find any basic lands, and he scoops up his cards as we head to game two.

Game 2
I keep a hand of Wasteland, Rishadan Port, Mox Diamond, Maze of Ith, Chalice of the Void, Chalice of the Void, Dark Confidant. He leads off with a Preordain, putting both cards on the bottom of the deck. I draw The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, and cast my Mox Diamond... and he cast a Daze... (it was funny, wasn't in Jon Johnson?). I began kicking myself for not playing a land beforehand, and my all in amazing hand turned into a complete pile of garbage. It takes him a few turns before he drops Jace the Mind Sculptor, and I still do not have any mana that produces any color, and I scoop up my cards and head for game 3.

Game 3
I start off strong with a Chalice of the Void for one on turn one, which goes directly into my graveyard with a Force of Will. I have the loam engine running with Dark Confidant in play, but I cannot find a Trinisphere for the life of me. I cast an Intuition, which joins my Chalice in the graveyard with another Force. He draws a Burning Wish and searches up Show and Tell, and I realize he only has 3 cards in hand. I ponder for a minute (not the blue sorcery), and think, "welp, here is to hoping he can't kill me." He casts a Show and Tell, and I windmill slam a card face down. I flip Ensnaring Bridge.. He flips Omniscience... so much for that plan... looks like I'm dead... He thinks for a minute about what to do, and while he casts Emrakul, the Aeon's Torn, he mumbles under his breath how much he hates Ensnaring Bridge! Looks like I may still have a fighting chance. He takes an extra turn, casts Brainstorm, and I start chanting the , "Big Money - No Whammies" line . He finds nothing, so I know I have 2 turns before he draws anything of relevance. I can't attack into an Emrakul... I can't find a Tolaria West to get Creeping Tar Pit, I sided out the Punishing Fires, and that is when I dredge a Barbarian Ring and a Glacial Chasm. He is at 11. with 2 Life from the Loams in hand, I retrieve the lands, and play both of them. I then begin to shoot him with Barbarian ring twice a turn, while cycling Tranquil Thicket for that extra shot. He ends up drawing the win, but no way to interact with Glacial Chasm. Well played Barbarian Ring... well played.

1-0 (2-1-0)

Round 2 - Bill Piwarski - Jund

Game 1
I win the die roll and elect to play first. My hand is 3 Wastelands, Tolaria West, Intuition, Zuran Orb, Maze of Ith. After having so much luck last round, my intuition (zing!) tells me that I can make something of this hand. I drop Tolaria West, and pass. Bayou casts Thoughtseize, and my Intuition went right out the window.. and into the graveyard. I draw a Tropical Island, and Wasteland his Bayou. Then he plays a Badlands and passes, which I draw an exploration, excel into a second Wasteland, and hit his land. Then he drops a Taiga, which also gets wasted, as I draw the Life from the Loam. I get back three Wastelands, and with 46 minutes left in the round, we move to game 2.

Game 2
He keeps a hand and casts Inquisition of Kozilek on me, taking my Exploration. I now have no acceleration. I draw into Ghost Quarter, and Ghost Quarter his Swamp. He fails to find... I said to him, "How are you not playing a basic Forest!?" He then plays a Forest from his hand, looking about as happy as a penguin in a microwave... Two turns later he drops a Dark Confidant, and I take a couple turns trying to wreck his mana base with a Wasteland and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. I drop to 11 from Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant. I cast my Ensnaring Bridge with Loam in my hand, and I shut his creatures off from attacking. I begin to pillage (all the puns) his land base with Ghost Quarter. Once he realizes that he cannot do anything ever again for the rest of the game he extends his hand, and we go our separate ways.

2-0-0 (4-1-0)

Round 3 - Ryan Johnsen - Punishing Maverick

Game 1
"I hate this deck!" My opponent is not thrilled at all to be playing against Lands. He has a Life from the Loam, a Noble Hierarch, and a Punishing Fire... with no Grove of the Burnwillows. He cast Green Sun Zenith to fetch a Scavenging Ooze, with no mana left. I blow it up with Engineered Explosives and he doesn't really see anything else until I have the game almost locked out.

Game 2
He leads off with fetching into a basic Plains to cast Mother of Runes. My deck, being as uneventful as possible, just plays a land. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben joins the Mom, as my life total begins to fall. Dark Confidant comes down to begin the card advantage, but only after Thalia, Guardian of Thraben takes me down to 12. After he Wasteland's my Maze of Ith, I find a second one with Confidant, and begin to attack his mana base. Bob finds me Cursed Totem, which makes it in play, then he finds me a Crucible of Worlds. Now I'm at 7. I cast Punishing Fire to kill my Dark Confidant, because I don't feel comfortable going to less than 7 with Punishing Fires in his deck. I end up with double Exploration, Crucible of Worlds, Ghost Quar.. "Good game. I'll scoop to Ghost Quarter."

3-0-0 (6-1-0)

Round 4 - Chris Day - Aluren

Game 1
What is this guy playing? I start out strong with a pair of Rishadan Ports, but all I am seeing are Preordain, Brainstorm, and Islands. If this is that Dream Halls/Omniscience Deck, I'm going to need a miracle (no pun intended) to win. I recall playing him previously somewhere and decided in my head he was on a version of storm. I Tolaria West for a Zuran Orb, and begin to feel pretty good knowing that when he casts Tendrils of Agony, he will need close to 20 spells to kill me. He casts Brainstorm, and then fetches for a basic... Forest...

Sidebar
I would like to reiterate (keeping it going) a main topic from my first article about playing 2 or three turns ahead of the game (Link). There's plenty of decisions in the decision tree. You have to climb that tree, ripping through it limb by limb to get to the right branch. I just fell out of the tree. Thank you...

Game 1 cont'd
"Coiling Oracle - Go" Is this guy really playing what I think he's playing? I begin to tap his green sources, and Tolaria West for my Ghost Quarter. I hit his Forest, he snags another one, and with the second Ghost Quarter activation, we move on to the next game.

Game 2
Astonished by what he's playing, I sideboard in all the combo hate. I stumble a little when he casts Thoughtseize on my Chalice of the Void, but I feel I have enough Wastes to keep him stalled. He plays a fifth land, and cracks a fetch, and then all of a sudden, I realized that this is not Aluren at all.. This is a Natural Order/Progenitus deck... He gets Progenitus, and after siding my Ensnaring Bridge out, I just lose.

Game 3
The Coiling Oracle really stuck out to me, so I was torn between which branch to climb... so I just cut the tree down. I sideboard in Trinisphere for the Aluren combo (if it exists), and Bridges for the Progenitus. He plays a Viridian Shaman to blow up Trinisphere, a Coiling Oracle, and a Dream Stalker, and begins to swing to kill me. I find Tabernacle, and after wasting a lot of his lands, the guys all die. He drops an Imperial Recruiter, to find another Recruiter. He still has forests, but I have Ports at this point. We are headed for time in the round, and I begin to play very fast. I make mistakes, forget to draw a card, miss an opportunity (bazing!) to get a Punishing Fire back to kill him, things that aren't too big of a deal... I have Dark Confidant, Creeping Tar Pit, and Punishing Fire, but I can only take my opponent to 2 by turn 4 of time, and he draws a card. He has no green sources left in his deck, so there is no possible way he could have done anything relevant for the rest of the game. He gives me the win. Chris Day - I said it during the match, and I'll say it again - Thank you, and I totally called it!

4-0-0 (8-2-0)

Round 5 - Mark Sun - Jund Goblins

Game 1
My hand consists of 5 lands (2 Grove of the Burnwillows), and 2 Intuitions. I keep it in hopes that his hand is not as aggressive as a normal goblin deck would be. He drops a Deathrite Shaman on turn 1, and I draw a Punishing Fire. He casts Goblin Warchief, and gets in there for 2. I have no choice but to burn the Shaman. He proceeds to cast Goblin Matron, into a Goblin Piledriver, swinging me down to 10 life. I play another land, and burn his Warchief to avoid the haste creatures for the next turn. He swings with the Piledriver and the Matron, taking me to 6. I draw a Mox Diamond, and now I have enough lands to burn both the other creatures. Mark begins to flood on mana, drawing few to no creatures, and after I fire off one Intuition for 3 Explorations, and another Intuition for Life from the Loam, Tolaria West, and Wasteland, the transmuted West for the Zuran Orb sent us into game 2.

Game 2
I mulligan to six cards, and keep a hand of Mox Diamond, Punishing Fire, Exploration, Wasteland, Misty Rainforest, and Ghost Quarter. He plays an AEther Vial on turn 1, and passes the turn. I draw a Life from the Loam, and drop my whole hand, except the Punishing Fire. He ups Vial to 1, and plays a land, and passes. I dredge Loam, hitting some lands. I Wasteland his land, then cast loam to get it back. He puts Deathrite Shaman into play at the end of turn, but I burn the little guy before he can make his debut. Mark casts another Vial, and passes the turn. I dredge into a Grove, which I immediately put in play to get back Punishing Fire, and Ghost Quarter Mark's Badlands. "I fail to find" is what came out of his mouth before he returned to his turn and ticked the vials up. He began to get a Ringleader, a Krenko, a Matron out, but my "state of the art" Karakas sent Krenko, Mob Boss back to where he came from. Before I find any type of hard lock, I dredge into an Academy Ruins, and Mark scoops up his cards to that, with Ensnaring Bridge in the graveyard.

Now you owe me 2 Mark...
5-0-0 (10-2-0)

Round 6 - Adam Kosier - Shardless BUG

Game 1
I do not remember a lot from the first game. I know he came on with a Dark Confidant, but it got a Punishing Fire to the face. I think I locked him out of lands.

Game 2
I mulligan to 6, and keep a very solid hand with 2 Tranquil Thickets and a Loam. He plays a Deathrite Shaman, and passes. I cast a Mox, discard a land Thicket, cast Exploration, and play 2 lands. He Wastelands a land, and plays a Confidant. I draw a card, and then I attempt to cast Loam, targeting the Thicket. He knows this will not end well, so he Forces the Loam. He plays a Tarmogoyf, and before I go to my turn, he activates Shaman, targeting the Life from the Loam. "Whoa Whoa Whoa, cycle this Thicket!" I get very excited about, since this means I get to keep some card advantage going. I dredge into a Wasteland and a Barbarian Ring. I do not have threshold though... So I cast Loam, target the Waste, Thicket, and Ring. I Play Barbarian Ring, then a Wasteland, then I discard Thicket to a Mox Diamond, and Wasteland a Tropical Island of mine to obtain Threshold, and torch the Deathrite Shaman right out of the game. At this point he has a Tarmogoyf and Confidant out, but Ensnaring Bridge keeps them from doing much of anything. I get Tabernacle in play, then begin to waste his lands. He eventually just scoops the cards up and congratulates me.

6-0-0 (12-2-0

Round 7 - Tom Genzman - UWR Delver

Game 1
Not very happy playing against this deck, just because of the insane amount of Stifles, Geist of Saint Trafts, and Snapcaster Mages... but when I draw my opening 7 with 1 land in it, I mulligan to 6 and could not ask for a better hand. I have, Punishing Fire, Grove of the Burnwillows, Mox Diamond, Exploration, Wasteland, and Life from the Loam. I quickly lock him out of lands, so he never can cast any relevant spell until I have the game locked.

Game 2
This game went the exact same way as game 1 did, except he surgically extracts Punishing Fire. I have Ports, Wastes, and we play a bit of Draw Go, and the Creeping Tar Pit just kills him.

7-0-0 (14-2-0)

Double draw-in with Jesse Liu and Todd Anderson to lock 3rd place going into the top 8

I was very excited that I top 8'd this tournament, since it had almost been a year since my last SCG top 8, in which case I won a trophy. I was ready to add another trophy to my collection.

I didn't take very good notes in my top eight match against Bryan Hockey. He was a very nice guy, and I mentioned to him about 3 times before we played the top 8 how excited I was that he didn't have Geist of Saint Traft in his deck or sideboard. I win game 1 with a Punishing Fire killing everything he plays after he takes about half my life. Game two he surgically extracts the Punishing Fire, and something else, but I end up getting Zuran Orb with a Tolaria West while I'm at 7, and at that point he will not be able to kill me with damage, so the search for the Jace the Mind Sculptor begins. It's a whole lot of draw go at this point, but I end up dredging an Academy Ruins, and he scoops to that once it hits play. He knew it was not a good matchup from the beginning, but he tried a lot harder than a lot of my opponents did, so I have nothing but respect for him. He was a very nice player, and I'm glad I got the opportunity to meet Bryan.

Round 11 - Tom Genzman - UWR Delver

The coverage for this game can be found here. Spoiler alert for those not interested in reading about the match: I lost... I had no business in my opening hand, and I didn't really draw into any (or acceleration for that matter). My deck had treated me so good, I thought I could pull it off. And after I mulligan in game 2, I just hoped he didn't keep a hand with Surgical Extraction. He did, and my luck finally ran out for the weekend. Tom Genzman may look like he has a mediocre hand in the picture on the website, but he stifled (bazing! last one - I promise) my trip to the top of SCG Columbus, and I walked out with my dreams devastated (......!).

I had a great weekend seeing all the players, which is most of the reason I keep coming back for more. The deck treated me very well this weekend. Punishing Fire helps fight a lot of the new archetypes that are emerging, while helping out the old ones as well. Although I do miss running Raven's Crime, it is not a card that is needed in today's metagame. Enlightened Tutor is debatable, but the fire just helps you auto-win against Esper Death blade. Oblivion Stone underperformed this weekend, which I am not surprised about, since Punishing Fire deals with a lot of the creatures and planeswalkers. All of the "Silver Bullets" in the deck (Engineered Explosives, Ensnaring Bridge, Zuran Orb, Crucible of Worlds) were outstanding, even without multiples in the main board due to dredging Life from the Loam, and casting Intuition.

Well that about wraps my tournament report for SCG Columbus. To all my fellow Lands players out there, just stick with it. You may get knocked down time and time again, but the reward with this deck is phenomenal. Just keep durdling, making people rage quit, and dredgin' that loam.

...And to all the people that don't, here is what you do:
1. Buy yourself a Tabernacle.
2. Play some real Magic.

It's that simple. I hope you enjoyed this story/nonsense. I will see you in Somerset, NJ at the SCG Open Series featuring the Invitational! Feel free to ask any questions. Thanks for reading!

An entertaining piece and I'm confused why this wasn't published. Bravo!

I've watched some of your matches and I have really gotten the itch to sleeve this up myself. I am familiar with some of these interactions being a loam/pox player and nothing feels better than landing a tabernacle against a horde. However, similar to ichorid, the intimidating aspect of this deck is the learning curve and vague and subtle decision tree to mull over.

Where is the best place for me to start learning the intricacies of the deck and structure my line of play to maximize my life resource and establish control? For example; what should be the first thing I Toloria West for if I have an exploration, manabond, or just land in play? or do I save the tolaria and just draw? As for Intuition, I often get the loam, grove, and fire to start with to fend off grunts, but should I be more aggressive with intution against the blue decks and cast it at first chance(while playing around daze)? The intuition package gets more powerful with the Dark Depths kill and recurring loam action, but what are some other intuition packages that can buy time or turn the tide?

Congrats for your good position and for the great report but i think that you should tell us (land players) the side in/out.
if you remember ofcourse...
Thanks

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Originally Posted by snorlaxcom

An entertaining piece and I'm confused why this wasn't published. Bravo!

I've watched some of your matches and I have really gotten the itch to sleeve this up myself. I am familiar with some of these interactions being a loam/pox player and nothing feels better than landing a tabernacle against a horde. However, similar to ichorid, the intimidating aspect of this deck is the learning curve and vague and subtle decision tree to mull over.

Where is the best place for me to start learning the intricacies of the deck and structure my line of play to maximize my life resource and establish control? For example; what should be the first thing I Toloria West for if I have an exploration, manabond, or just land in play? or do I save the tolaria and just draw? As for Intuition, I often get the loam, grove, and fire to start with to fend off grunts, but should I be more aggressive with intution against the blue decks and cast it at first chance(while playing around daze)? The intuition package gets more powerful with the Dark Depths kill and recurring loam action, but what are some other intuition packages that can buy time or turn the tide?

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Watching the deck stream, or irl is a good start. You can pick it up and play against a deck, such as StoneBlade, and play 50-100 games, and you will probably lose the first 5-10, and begin to develop a strategy, and what you need to lock them out. Tolaria west targets vary. I can directly tell you what to get, since its a case by case scenario. If you aren't dying, and not in fear of losing, then save it. Intuition can be about 10-1000 different scenarios, which is all dependent on the board state. Academy ruins and an artifact is common. Getting multiple ports and mazes is common. Triple explorations is also common, as well as groves.

Side boarding, I side out intuitions in about 85% of matches. Also the Manabond, an irrelevant artifact if necessary. Bog comes out, and I will try to get the matches in here later.

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Originally Posted by OneBigSquirrelGod

Side boarding, I side out intuitions in about 85% of matches. Also the Manabond, an irrelevant artifact if necessary. Bog comes out, and I will try to get the matches in here later.

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How about those matches?

SCG had my friend write an article about his Top2 finish at a Legacy GP but ended up not publishing it after the editor forgot about it. They still paid him, good move.

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I didn't take very good notes in my top eight match against Bryan Hockey. He was a very nice guy, and I mentioned to him about 3 times before we played the top 8 how excited I was that he didn't have Geist of Saint Traft in his deck or sideboard. I win game 1 with a Punishing Fire killing everything he plays after he takes about half my life. Game two he surgically extracts the Punishing Fire, and something else, but I end up getting Zuran Orb with a Tolaria West while I'm at 7, and at that point he will not be able to kill me with damage, so the search for the Jace the Mind Sculptor begins. It's a whole lot of draw go at this point, but I end up dredging an Academy Ruins, and he scoops to that once it hits play. He knew it was not a good matchup from the beginning, but he tried a lot harder than a lot of my opponents did, so I have nothing but respect for him. He was a very nice player, and I'm glad I got the opportunity to meet Bryan.

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All day I kept telling people "I'm going to win this thing as long as I don't play against a good Punishing Fire player or that Chalice of the Void deck." When I looked at your list before the match I actually wondered if someone was playing a joke on me. I had expected you to side out Barbarian Ring, and when you didn't I panicked a bit. I think I maybe could have won game 2, but probably not 3.

Your list is by far the best lands list I've seen since they started playing blue, something I previously regaded as a Bad Move.

(Maybe it was the Bog I didn't expect, I can't remember...)