Top 4 with Lands at Geneva Legacy 9 (mkm trial)

Hi folks, today I just top4 (out of 73 players) with Lands at Geneva Legacy 9 (mkm series trial for Hambourg).
It's one of the first "medium scaled" event after the ban of Sensei's Top, and I was expecting lot of diversity among the field.

I wake up at 8pm to let me have the time to prepare myself before I go. I was a bit tired because of my son (16 months) still wake up few times in the night, probably his tooth hurt him too much. But I getting used to. Arriving on time, I just met few friends with whom I playtets one time a week.
We chatted a bit, criticism each other deck and then time start for the first round (7 swiss rounds + top 8).

Here is my decklist and my sideboard plan : https://cl.ly/kFkQ/LEGACY_GARDEN.txt
Note : I didn't complete each MU and there are maybe some mistakes.

Round 1 vs UR Delver (2-1)
So it started with a deck that I most forget about it. I won the game 1 with a quick Marit Lage. Game 2 started very well, I was establishing a very strong field control and completely forget about Price of Progress. Big mistake. Game 3 started as good as game 1 and I Marit Lage turn 4.
Match 1-0


Round 2 vs Aggro Loam (2-1)
My round 2 opponent is a good friend and I knew what he was playing. Game 1 he landed early a Sylvan Library and as he knew also my deck, he started to draw aggressively. But I was also Loaming mad and find quickly my Thespian+Depths combo. Game 2 I kept a poor hand and get overwhelmed by Ooze, Dark Confident and Knight of the Reliquary. Game 3 were a bit wired as my opponent didn't want to Loam+Wasteland-lock me while I didn't have Loam nor Exploration in the first turns. This mistake cost him the game as I naturally drew Life from the Loam and the combo piece few turn later.
Match 2-0

Round 3 vs Show and Tell (2-1)
Game 1, the only cards I saw from my opponent was a Lotus Petal and 2 Island before I was able to swing with Marit Lage. I wasn't sure what deck it was and identified it poorly as a kind of storm deck. So I side-out my Karakas and guess what, I shouldn't. So Game 2 was a very non-interactive game (got Emrakuled). Game 3 was very interesting. At one point, my opponent Show and Tell the 5/5 flying creature that exil a permanent when it comes into play. He targeted my Dark Depths. As I play only 2 Depths, it wasn't a good deal for me. So I opted to wasteland my own Depths, and the realized I got a Crop in hand. I should have cropped into Maze, sacrificing Depths. So I basically lose two lands instead of one. But I managed to finally swing with my old good friend, Marite Lage.
Match 3-0

Round 4 vs Grixis Delver (1-1)
So this is a bit disappointing as I won easily game 1 but hardly lose game 2 (last swing on last additional turns).
As we didn't have time to make a 3th game, this is a draw.
Match 3-0-1

Round 5 vs Eldrazi (2-1)
Eldrazi is a jerk. Really I hate this deck. I somehow survived with Glacial Chasm in play and finished in the last additional turn with a single Marit Lage attack at 2 HP.
Match 4-0-1

Round 6 vs Foodchain (2-0) <<--- YEAHHH First time 2-0ed in this tournament !!
Game 1 was a real pleasure, I was able to Port his lands while dredging into Combo piece. A real pleasure.
Game 2 was almost a "no-need-to-play" as I have literally 9 cards to side that cut completely the combo. So I ended with a big flying monster.
Match 5-0-1

Round 7 : ID into top 8

At the end of Swiss-rounds, I was ranked #2 while my friends with Elves was ranked #1. What a good day !
Top 8 was Eldrazi (the guy from round 5), Omni-Show, Infect, Opposition, BURG Delver, Elves (my friend), Burn and Lands (me).

Quarter final vs Burn (2-1)
Burn is not my favorite MU. I managed to win the first game, and completely get burned in game 2.
Game 3 was very very interesting. My opponent burned me several time, and I didn't really find anything to stop him.
At one point, I have Crop in hand and a Thespian on board, but very low on HP. He then played a Sulfuric Vortex and a Bridge. I Crop into Chasm and tried to establish a Chasm shield but with all the stress and pressure from guy all around looking at your play, I didn't find the way to make the Chasm shield without loosing HP. So I was out of burn spell and just waited my opponent get killed by his own Sulfuric Vortex. That was cool !

Then the Top 4 remaining players just split.

About the deck
I think only one Explosives is enough, and I really want to up the count of Thespian/Depths to a 4/3 split instead of 3/2 split.
Vortex was insane the whole day but still miss few Punishing. Talaria West was a but overkill in this unknown meta, and Chasm was really really insane. It stole me several games !

About the tournament
Very pleasant tournament with free drinks and home-made backeries !

Here is the metagame :

7 Storm
6 Sneak and Show/Omnishow
6 Bug delver
5 Grixis delver
5 Burn
5 UR delver
5 Control 4C
4 Reanimator
3 Eldrazi
3 Food chain
3 Death and taxes
3 Elves
2 Jund
2 Charbelcher
2 Dredge
2 Zombie bombardment
2 Infect
2 Aggroloam
1 Dark Bant
1 Consistance
1 BUG Opposition
1 Moggcatcher blood moon
1 Lands
1 Grixis controle

Thanks for the report and congrats on the performance!

congrats and thanx for the write-up.

would you alter your list to squeeze in the grove/punfire combo?
also, would a one-of sheltered thicket be something you'd include?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by filln

Thanks for the report and congrats on the performance!

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Yeah thank you ! As it was my first "big tournament" Top 8, I was a bit nervous and made some misplay (mainly mistrigger), but overall this was great !

Quote:

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Originally Posted by non-inflammable

congrats and thanx for the write-up.

would you alter your list to squeeze in the grove/punfire combo?
also, would a one-of sheltered thicket be something you'd include?

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Thank you !
Vortex is clearly faster and more versatil than Punishing/Grove, but if you Dredge it away, well it's gone for good.
On this aspect, a recurable way to deal with small creature is really wished. For my next tournament, I will probably play with a Vortex/Barbarian Ring configuration or a split between Vortex, Punishing and Grove.

About Sheltered Thicket, I'm not conviced, 2 Mana to cycle is huge.