1st - 2016/2017 Brazilian National Legacy Championship

On January 28 and 29 took place in São Paulo the Brazilian National Championship of Legacy, the main and most traditional legacy brazilian tournament. Although it is an old event (six or seven years), this was the first time i attended: there were 123 players, 12 rounds, with a cut to top 8 and a total of approximately $ 3,500.00 of awards, as well as side events, artists presence, youtubers etc. - having been, in the end, defeated by me, playing Miracles. :) I went to São Paulo with Bye 1 (in the National, the byes are cumulative to three) and also participated in a trial on Friday to gain worth another bye, where i got it \o/.

I'm from the south of the country (900 km away) and never got to visit São Paulo, so I booked the ticket to arrive on Friday morning, to visit sights like Paulista Avenue and Modern Art Museum of São Paulo ... But due to the rain, we had to spend the day hiding, drinking coffee and adjusting the last details of the decks to await the trial, which would occur at night. The visit will have to wait for a next one :P

http://i.imgur.com/xxt1PrS.jpg

Already speaking of the choice of deck, I started to assemble and follow the Miracles from the end of 2014 (with the proliferation of 4 ponder Miracles by Philipp Schonegger and Angelo Cadei). I started playing with the deck more or less at the time of Gp Kyoto 2015, with Kazuya Muramaki's list (second place in the tournament), with 4 Mentor and daze (later improved by Claudio Bonanni at GP Lille 2015).
With the banning of DTT, this last version fell into disuse, returning to the less aggressive / more control of Miracles, be it 4 ponder or Legends (Joe Losset). Since then, I have always played using as a kill condition at least 2 monastery mentor, 1 entreat the angels and 2 jace, the mind sculptor.

Well, past the Miracles's recent history lesson, the deck i used at the event was as follows:

http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=14686&d=288251&f=LE
3 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Island
1 Arid Mesa
2 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
2 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island

3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Monastery Mentor

4 Counterbalance
1 Counterspell
1 Council's Judgment
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Force of Will
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Ponder
1 Predict
1 Entreat the Angels
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
3 Terminus

Sideboard
1 Containment Priest
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Wear (Wear/Tear)
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Flusterstorm
2 Blood Moon
1 Kozilek's Return

http://i.imgur.com/nydYJVA.jpg
High resolution photo here.

From this list, some peculiarities:
- I used instead of two counterspell, a split of a counterspell and a predict: each one has its advantages and they act in similar matches (they are not good against delver; they play against shardless, against mirror, against combo).
- I started to use only 3 ponder, fearing great amount of chalice of the void (Eldrazi, 4c Loam).
- For that very reason, i use a split of one council's judgment and one engineered main deck (like Angelo Cadei and others).
- I increased the amount of Monastery Mentor from 2 to 3, without removing the entreat the angels: I see that this option makes it easier for Miracles to act proactively by pressing the opponent. If the mentor is not immediately answered, the victory is almost certain. Not enough, the Jet Li still blocks the creatures of the opponent.
- I reduced the number of terminus from 4 to 3: it was a "risky" move and i thought it was possible because of the amount of removals (explosive, council's) and also because the mentors can also serve to block. Maybe i'll go up to 4 again, removing the predict, which was not of great use (didn't face shardless or mirror).
- Split of 2 vendilion, 2 flusterstorm and 2 blood moon on the sideboard: i figured they would be running fewer combos (mainly because storm is low) and more BUGs (i faced several). The downside is that this change worsens the matchup against sneak and show or omnitell.
- And the Secret Deck Tech..:

http://i.imgur.com/K4Hs3F1.jpg
Majin boo!! That did not turn me into chocolate!! haha

Without further delays, there is an account of each game:


:: Friday (27/1) - Trial at Bazaar of Baghdad Store (Win a Bye) - 4-0-0. 21 players.

- Round 1 - Infect (Felipe Pereira): 2 to 1. Partial: 1-0-0 (2-1)
Game 1: Keep with cb + top on draw; he starts with tropical and noble (infect or bug leovold). Unfortunately it was infect and i'm warped early.
Game 2: Several cards enter after the first game, leaving the match even. The function of the deck is to kill all creatures that enter the battlefield. I control and mentor kill him.
Game 3: Same as Game 2, but beating with Vendilion (essential in the match).
- SB: -1 cj -1 cs -4 fow -2 jace -1 predict -1 entreat -1 polluted delta -1 counterbalance // +3 Vendilion +2 wear / tear +2 pyro +1 reb +1 Kozilek's return +2 Fluster +1 blood moon.

- Round 2 - Affinity Tezzeret (André): 2 to 1. Partial: 2-0-0 (4-2)
- SB: -4 counterbalance -1 predict -1 delta / +1 Kozilek's return +2 wear / tear +3 Vendilion.

- Round 3 - Duke Leovold (Rafael): 2 to 1. Partial: 3-0-0 (6-3)
- SB: -4 counterbalance -4 fow -1 predict -1 cs // +2 pyro +1 reb +2 fluster +1 blood moon +3 vendilion +1 wear / loar

- Round 4 - Esper Stoneblade (Rodrigo Marajá): 2 to 0. Total: 4-0-0 (8-3).
- SB: -4 fow -1 entreat -1 delta -1 swords to plowshares -1 terminus // +3 vendilion +2 wear / tear +1 blood moon +2 fluster

http://i.imgur.com/DPxqoLg.jpg
Miracles players!

:: Saturday (28/1) - Day 1 of the National Legacy - 123 players. 8 rounds: 2 byes + 4-1-1 - 6-1-1. The Nacional started very late, about 2 and a half hours. Fortunately, because of the byes, I had time to have a leisurely lunch before the matchs.

- Round 1 - Bye. Partial: 1-0-0 (0-0)

- Round 2 - Bye. Partial: 2-0-0 (0-0)

- Round 3 - BUG Delver (Carlos Tiberio): 2 to 1. Partial: 3-0-0 (2-1). His version used Bob, but no stifle. He also used Leovold.
- SB: -4 fow -4 counterbalance -1 predict -1 counterspell // +2 vendilion +2 blood moon +2 Pyroblast +1 REB +1 kozilek's return +1 flusterstorm (no vi hymn) +1 wear / loar

- Round 4 - BR Reanimator (Donato): 2 to 0. Partial: 4-0-0 (4-1). Feature Match: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/118000402 (from 13 minutes)
Game 1: Keep on play with top + counterbalance. Top, go. He would combo turn 1, but he realized he had forgotten the sideboard on the deck. 1-0.
Game 2: Keep with fow and counterbalance. He kept a slow hand with 2 seizes, which took out both the fow and the balance, but I had plenty of time to come back with vendilion, snap and counterspell. I leave him to resolve Griselbrand with reanimate (i knew he had animate dead on ), and cast terminus from the top.
- SB: Sideboarded wrongly. Since game 1 was very fast and there was a lot of cards to go out, i thought it might be blue, and sided pyroblast too.

- Round 5 - Sneak and Show (Leandro Gurther): 0 to 2. Partial: 4-1-0 (4-3). He is the Champion of the last year.
Game 1: He started. I knew what he was playing, but i only keept with force of will, without pressure. He combo soon, with backup.
Game 2: many cards enter on this matchup and the game changes a lot, and becomes very even. At one point, it was quite interesting: I had already countered a show and tell and was with a snapcaster beatdown (i had one wear/tear in hand). I had used a lot of cantrip, but I could not find the counterbalance, just the top. In one moment, he cast show and tell - and it worked out (i had no counter): I put vendilion face down and he reveals sneak attack: he had an emrakul in hand, but he chose to put the sneak because he thought I was holding the terminus on top - as he was all tapped, i managed to take Emrakul out of his hand with the vendilion and use the wear / tear to destroy the sneak attack. I pressed him until he came to one life with 7 power on battlefield (2 snap 1 vendilion), but he managed to solve another show and tell, putting griselbrand on table, which unfortunately ended up winning the match.
- SB: -3 terminus -1 plains - 4 swords to plowshares -1 engineered explosives -1 entreat the angels -2 monastery mentor // +2 fluster +2 pyroblast +1 reb +2 vendilion +2 surgical extraction +1 containment priest +2 wear // loom

- Round 6 - RUG Delver (Fred): 2 to 1. Partial: 5-1-0 (6-4).
This is a hard matchup. I lost the first game and beat the others, with 2 and 5 of life. In the last game, he would have won if he had pitch for fow (he had bolt and delver, and i.. 5 life). He attacked and i casted Kozilek's return, which he could not counter. The mentor survived and killed on next turn.
- His version was interesting because he was not going with nimble mongoose nor tarmogoyf, but with TNNs and Hooting Mandrills (who tramples TNN). Very cool, but I think that version takes disadvantage again Miracles when compared to the standard Canadian threshold.
- His deck: 3 Volcanic 2 Tropical 8 Fetch U 4 Waste 2 Islands 4 Delver 3 Young Pyromancer 3 Nemesis 2 Hooting Mandrils 4 FOW 4 Daze 4 Stifle 4 Ray 4 Brain 4 Ponder 1 Forked bolt 2 Gitaxian Probe 2 Pierce
Side: 1 Sulfur Elemental 1 EE 1 Pyroblast 1 Pierce 1 Submerge 1 Cage 1 Dismember 2 Ancient Grudge 2 Surgical 2 Needle 2 Rough / Tumble.
- SB: -4 fow -1 predict -1 counterspell -1 council's judgment // +2 flusterstorm +2 pyroblast +1 reb +1 wear / tear +1 kozilek's return

- Round 7 - 4c Loam (Aloísio): 2 to 1. Partial: 6-1-0 (8-5).
I did not know against what I would play. It started and I soon realized: mana, mox diamond, loam. I lost the first match, wastelocked.
I have enough experience in this matchup, because it is a well known deck where i live. I know we should aggressively attack the 4c ​​Loam mana base, which is weak, destroying the mox diamond whenever possible. And that's how I won the other two games, managing to solve blood moon and extract the mox diamond.
- SB: -4 counterbalance -2 swords to plowshares -1 counterspell -1 predict // +2 wear / tear +2 surgical extraction +2 blood moon +2 vendilion click

- Round 8 - Lands (Diogo Mignon): 1 to 1. Partial: 6-1-1 (9-6).
Game 1: The first match is very complicated - we have to close the countertop soon, with 2 on top, and withstand the initial pressure of combo. It started without loam, but with combo. I had only a plains, but i did not find fetch. He gave gamble to look for rishadan port, tapped my plains and comboed.
Game 2: there are matches between miracles and lands that the game simply locks for both sides, and this was one of those. I cast 4 surgical extractions: loam, punishing fire, tireless tracker and thespian stage. I managed to close the game with monastery mentor, but there was little time left for the last match.
Game 3: he does tireless, which i counter. I came back with blood moon, to tie the game (he did tireless to try to risk too or would have played later ...).
- SB: -3 terminus -2 monastery mentor -1 council's judgment // +2 wear / tear +2 blood moon +2 surgical extraction

I passed 5th for day 2. \ o / - (Top 32 go to day2).

http://i.imgur.com/v7hoWYT.jpg
Final match coverage


:: Sunday (29/1) - Day 2 of the National Legacy - 4 rounds (8-2-2) + Top 8 (3-0-0).

- Round 9 - BUG Delver (Vitor): 1 to 1. Partial: 6-1-2 (10-7). Version without planeswalker, but with md delver, goyf, leovold, TNN, library and maelstrom pulse.
- I won Game 1 and he won Game 2, but we ended up drawing. I do not remember much about this game.
- SB: -4 counterbalance -4 fow -1 counterspell -1 predict // +2 blood moon +2 vendilion +2 pyroblast +1 reb +2 fluster +1 kozilek's return

- Round 10 - Duke Leolvold (João): 2 to 0. Partial: 7-1-2 (12-7). I faced the same deck as the Gp Louisville. I trained quite a lot at cockatrice. I won both with mentor.
- SB: -4 fow -4 cb -1 cs -1 predict // +2 blood moon +2 vendilion +2 wear / tear +2 pyro +1 reb +1 fluster

- Round 11 - BUG Delver (Marcelo Coutinho): 0 to 2. Partial: 7-2-2 (12-9). This game was complicated, because I lost by mistake on Game 1 and i thought that this would cost me the top 8. His deck was very interesting: md is the same as Brad Nelson used in gp louisville and that has done some results on Mol (4 hymn, 1 tombstalker etc). The side he enters with jace, needle, library, which makes the match even more difficult.
Game 1: I put the cards incorrectly on top, revealing a cost 2 when he played a delver - to make matters worse, he casted a shaman just after, which i could fetch to find cmc 1, but i was so upset that i left the same 2 on top and let the shaman resolves.
Game 2: jace + liliana from him. I did not anticipate that the curve of his deck would rise. Match difficult for miracles.
- SB: -4 counterbalance -4 fow -1 counterspell -1 predict // +2 vendilion +2 blood moon +2 fluster +2 pyro +1 reb +1 kozilek's return

- Round 12 - 4c Stoneblade (Daniel Caixeta): 2 to 0. Total: 8-2-2 (14-9).
- SB: -4 fow -1 swords to plowshares -1 volcanic island // +2 wear / tear +2 vendilion click +2 blood moon


I knew i had a chance to qualify, but it was difficult. In the end, I came in eighth place! Yeahh!! :)

http://i.imgur.com/4Yf1jz7.jpg


The top eight matches were by far the most difficult, either by the level of the opponents, or by the fatigue of the event, which was quite long. All matches are available on the "Mohicans's Legacy" twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/legacydosmoicanos), so i will not go into further details.

Top 8 (quarter) - Sneak and Show (Leandro Gurther - São Paulo): 2 to 1. Partial: 1-0 (2-1). Rematch! Feature match.
Game 1: He wins with Sneak attack. I could have mulligan more aggressively to try countertop, since the first game is very unfavorable for me.
Game 2: This was the championship game. This first match is with the videos cut in the twitch (soon it will be on youtube). The game's apex can be watched here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/118291124 - He used jace (brainstorm) and cantrip on his turn to cast show and tell, with two cards in his hand; i was hellbent. I looked at the top and saw: brainstorm, vendilion and counterspell. I could: (1) try to counter; (2) try to cast vendilion in response. However, in case he had a counter, i would lose, so I went through the alternative (3): let him solve and put vendilion into play, eventually cleaning his hand, and to seek eventual exit on my turn. He reveals Emrakul i took a Fow out of his hand with vendilion (which he could have used on hardcast); with the vendilion's draw he bought a ponder, which sought another ponder and that later left him with another card in hand, with 4 land. I went to my turn, casted top, looked top three and found a council's judgment (!), to get rid of his emrakul and be able to beat with vendilion and tie the match. The card in his hand? A fow (with 4 lands =P!) :)
Game 3: very strong hand. I won with Surgical and Snap + Surgical. Available at twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/118294961.
- SB: -3 terminus -1 plains - 4 swords to plowshares -1 engineered explosives -1 entreat the angels -2 monastery mentor // +2 fluster +2 pyroblast +1 reb +2 vendilion +2 surgical extraction +1 containment priest +2 wear // loom

Top 8 (Semi) - BUG Delver (Marcelo Coutinho - Brasilia): 2 to 1. Partial: 2-0 (4-2). Rematch. Feature match. Https://www.twitch.tv/videos/118302046 (from 7 minutes)
Game 1: Win quickly with Mentor.
Game 2: In this match i did not sideboarded wear / tear because he would only play with one enchantment and one artifact (needle and sylvan library) ... It would be a shame if these were not exactly the first two cards he played hehehehe. I've never had a chance in this game.
Game 3: Sided in 1 wear / tear for the last game. I think I just won that game because Liliana left him hellbent and i topdecked Jace, The Trophy Sculptor. Me and Marcelo did some mistakes, but I think it was more due to tiredness. A serious error of mine was after I cast entreat the angels for 2: I was with 3 cards in hand (misty rainforest, snapcaster mage and blood moon) and put fetch on play, knowing he had a hymn to tourach in hand .. I should have left the fetch in my hand to get a chance to stay with snap or blood ... Fortunately, that mistake did not cost me the game.. :]
- SB: I changed the plan of the last game (round 11). -4 counterbalance -4 fow -1 counterspell -1 predict // +1 wear / tear +2 fluster +2 vendilion +2 blood moon +2 pyro +1 reb

http://i.imgur.com/uMvIXoj.jpg
Me and Mauro (final match) and Guma Noob (MTG youtuber and friend) on center

Top 8 (FINAL) - Grixis Delver (Mauro Edi - Rio de Janeiro): 3 to 2. Total: 3-0 (7-4). Video: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/118302046 (from 1h and 39m)!
- I won the first, lost the second and the third, and won the fourth and fifth. Games 1 and 2 was without sb. The games were pretty tight. I had to play around stifle. I will not go into detail, as matches are available on Twitch.
- This type of match is especially difficult because Miracles have difficulty to gain life and suffers greatly the initial pressure, mainly with stifle fucking the base of mana (or countering the miracles trigger of terminus).
- SB: -4 fow -1 council's judgment -1 predict -1 counterspell // +1 blood moon +1 kozilek's return +2 pyroblast +1 reb +2 flusterstorm

http://i.imgur.com/BrhUshS.jpg
The short shorts is also a secret tech.. or not.

Total of the weekend: 13-2-2 (29-16) - 80,4% :)

Top 8 Decks: http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=14686&d=288251&f=LE

Props:
- Legacy Community, formed in large part by great people who travels to see each other and play the best format of the game.
- Effort of the organization of the championship which, outside the delay in the two days.
- Streaming, artists etc!
- Have booked the return trip for 01:00 from Sunday morning to Monday. :) The tournament only ended at 9pm Sunday, so i could play without worrying about my flight.
- The absence of Null Rod on sideboards \o/.
- Transfer of prize money as soon as the championship is over.

Slops:
- Delay in the tournament (all problems at the same time with the pairing program).
- One friend (Davi) from Miracles team who betrayed us and played with Grixis Delver ¬¬ hahah

Thank you all. Very happy for the title of National Legacy Champion and looking forward to defend the title in the next! ;)

And sorry by my crappy english hahah.

Video of event coverage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjYPFitwtZs

http://i.imgur.com/4mthygm.jpg
Cheers!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stefanogs

Sideboard
1 Containment Priest
2 Vendilion Clique
3 criaturas
2 Wear (Wear/Tear)
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Flusterstorm
2 Blood Moon
1 Kozilek's Return

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What's
3 criaturas in your SB? Your SB looks like 18 cards.

That looks like Traditional Chinese Fetch, but the resolution of photo is too low. If they are, they look pretty cool. If they are Simplified Chinese, you should trade them away to Modern players. Don't like the singleton FNM Counterspell and the DCI Predict. You gotta run all FNM or just more foils if you want to take that route.

The 4 Win-cons (3 Mentor + 1 EtA) with 3 Terminus seems a bit odd.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by twndomn

What's
3 criaturas in your SB? Your SB looks like 18 cards.

That looks like Traditional Chinese Fetch, but the resolution of photo is too low. If they are, they look pretty cool. If they are Simplified Chinese, you should trade them away to Modern players. Don't like the singleton FNM Counterspell and the DCI Predict. You gotta run all FNM or just more foils if you want to take that route.

The 4 Win-cons (3 Mentor + 1 EtA) with 3 Terminus seems a bit odd.

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- "3 criaturas" is "3 creatures" in english.. I forgot to remove this from the list. Edited :)

- High resolution photo here. I'm playing with the following foils: monastery mentor, terminus (changed after this photo to edition foil), predict (edition foil - what you mean by DCI Predict?), counterspell (fnm - i would like beta, but they are way too expensive), jace (ftv - changed to eternal masters foil after this photo) and kozilek's return.

- Why i should trade away my chinese fetchs? :s After this photo i changed the polluted deltas and the flooded strands for Onslaught ones.

- Even Cadei when start using monastery mentor on MD for the first time removed one entreat and one terminus to make room for two mentors, thinking about its proactive/defensive role. Even so, Terminus is such a strong card that i think maybe is a mistake to run less than 4 (or maybe run the fourth on sb).

what was your reasoning to side out predict?
Great report! Congrats!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mackan

what was your reasoning to side out predict?
Great report! Congrats!

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I side out predict every time that one card of the sideboard is more effective :p .. So, i think that predict will shine vs shardless, mirror, death and taxes, lands, eldrazi, jund or other not-so-fast matchups - and even against Ant, TES or Sneak and Show.

On the other hand, against delver, burn or infect... It's just too slow, because we don't care about card quantity but with card quality (powerful responses and board presence).

Do you think the same?

Amazing report, loving all the pictures you took! It's so great to see the format we love flourishing in a country so far away from my home. Loving the global Magic community! :smile:

Curious, how come you had to play 12 rounds with 123 players? Usually that would be 7-8 rounds, depending on the number of Byes. If a lot of people have Byes, maybe even 9 rounds but that would already be very unrealistic. Did you just decide to play 12 rounds for the fun of playing? I like that :)

Nice.

One of the things I've noticed in reports like these over the years is that the players' reports outside of North America always tend to have a bevy of pictures included. I think it's fascinating and quite honestly awesome to see other parts of the world - very interesting. You honestly very rarely see a report from the US with pictures included.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Michael Keller

Nice.

One of the things I've noticed in reports like these over the years is that the players' reports outside of North America always tend to have a bevy of pictures included. I think it's fascinating and quite honestly awesome to see other parts of the world - very interesting. You honestly very rarely see a report from the US with pictures included.

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Well, it's harder to fit more than one or two Americans in the same sized picture.....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Parcher

Well, it's harder to fit more than one or two Americans in the same sized picture.....

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Pure gold.


ontopic: good report

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Julian23

Amazing report, loving all the pictures you took! It's so great to see the format we love flourishing in a country so far away from my home. Loving the global Magic community! :smile:

Curious, how come you had to play 12 rounds with 123 players? Usually that would be 7-8 rounds, depending on the number of Byes. If a lot of people have Byes, maybe even 9 rounds but that would already be very unrealistic. Did you just decide to play 12 rounds for the fun of playing? I like that :)

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Yep, more rounds for the fun (and less lucky?). Maybe we do this because we will never do an legacy gp :p