2nd Place with RG Lands at Kick Engines, Manila 2/11/2018

Hi guys. Eternal player from the Cebu, Philippines here. I was in Manila last weekend, and I found out there was a Legacy major scheduled on Sunday! Large Legacy tournaments literally never happen in my city. There are probably less than 15 people with real Legacy decks, and most of them don't play anymore. I brought two decks just in case I got to join, and I ultimately picked Lands over Elves for no real reason. When my wife decided she'd meet her friends on Sunday, I was off to the tournament!

This was my list:

http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=18456&d=314674&f=LE

Lands (37)

1 Glacial Chasm
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Karakas
2 Maze of Ith
1 Mishra's Factory
2 Rishadan Port
1 Sheltered Thicket
2 Taiga
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
4 Thespian's Stage
2 Tranquil Thicket
1 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Bojuka Bog
4 Dark Depths
1 Forest
2 Ghost Quarter

Spells (24)
4 Crop Rotation
4 Exploration
4 Gamble
4 Life from the Loam
1 Molten Vortex
4 Mox Diamond
3 Punishing Fire

Sideboard (15)
1 Song of the Dryads
4 Sphere of Resistance
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Ancient Tomb
3 Krosan Grip

I keep forgetting these things start a little late, even when they say stuff like "1 PM SHARP!". I got there too early, but at least I had lots of time to have lunch and hang around.

Round 1: Spanish Inquisition

Before the tournament even started, I already heard that my opponent always plays T1 kill decks. I was hoping for RG Belcher or All Spells, but I was ready to lose if it were some other deck.

G1 I mulled HARD for a Crop Rotation but I die T1 to multiple Infernal Contracts into Tendrils.

G2 I mulliganed a T2 Marit Lage hand for the first time in my life. No one plays turn 1 combo at my locals anymore! I kept an Extraction + Rotation Hand. He played Contract, then IT, crack LED for another Contract, then passed. I played my land, mox, and pass. He cast LED but I extracted his IT with LED on the stack. He had one in hand, so this bricked him for a bit. A few turns later I think he Contracts two more times into a PIF, and I Crop Rotated for Bog in response. He had only 1 life at this point. In the next few turns he managed to cast a belcher and activate, but I had another Rotation for Chasm. On my turn I brought back P. Fire and hit him for exactly 2.

G3 He mulled to 5 and just played a mox and a land t1. I had land, Rotate, Tomb, Sphere, and another Sphere on T2. Unfortunately, our G2 was so long that we ran out of time and drew. This was a better outcome than the usual loss for this rare matchup, so I was alright with that.

1-1-1 in Games
0-0-1 in Matches
‎
Round 2: Grixis delver

G1 He somehow got FOUR DELVERS into play, but I took control with Pfire, Tab, and Maze, then Marit Lage appeared.

G2 This game was a grind. He got his Pithing Needle on Stage vs my fast Marit hand. I didn't have an answer so I was forced to deal with his board. I managed to survive, including a wild turn where I rotated for a Tab, and then had three Wastelands in play to deal with TNN. I "stabilized" at 4 life with the Needle still in there. He had no creatures and his out was bolt twice off the one red mana source remaining, but I couldn't find the last Wasteland or Gq. I believe my loam was extracted early here. I got double bolted.

G3 He had Deathrite, Pithing, Tnn, and I died to a double bolt play in the last 5 turns. I kept a Marit Lage hand because time was running out.

1-2 in Games
0-1-1 in Matches

Round 3: Maverick

G1 I don't remember most of it, but I pfired everything and wasted everything. I couldn't find Port or GQ so when she drew basics and fetches, the game started to drag on. I made several Marit Lages but she dealt with it every time, and brought out Ramunap Excavator to make it even harder. I finally ended up locking her out of the game and winning at around 40 minutes. Yikes.

G2 I had a fast pfire + grove and she couldn't set up her board, but she also had so many lands that I was forced to keep Wastelanding instead of setting up my combo. We couldnt finish this game.

1-0-1 in Games
1-1-1 in Matches

Round 4: Death and Taxes

G1 Another very long game. I got a turn 3 Barbarian Ring active to answer most of his stuff, but I couldn't advance my own board without Exploration. Took me a while to find one, and even then I was forced to use my extra land drops on Barb Ring to deal with a board state that was growing. He was able to answer Marit Lage a few times before I closed the game. I gave Marit Lage Vigilance in this game after he blocked with a Flickerwisp. How often do you need to do that?

G2 Also a grind. I kept a Mox hand with no removal that would be great if my opponent didn't have early Revoker and pretty clunky otherwise. He had it, so I ended up having to grind like crazy. I stabilized against 2 Revoker 1 Thalia after he plowed a Marit Lage and I resolved some Trackers to block. They were 13/12 by the last turn and I took my third draw game of the day.

At this point, I had to ask my opponent and another person if they thought I was playing too slowly. Thankfully, they didn't think so. The games just ended up durdly, but I'm sure I can improve on my speed.

1-0-1 in Games
‎2-1-1 in Matches

Round 5: ANT

G1 My opponent probed, fetched and Island with Delta, and Pondered. I felt so bad to be paired against Storm combo again, but at least I kept a decent hand for the matchup this time. 3 land, 2 Mox, and 2 Rotation would give me a T2 Marit Lage on the play if I drew a land. On his second turn, he Preordained, and then Duressed me. I made Marit Lage with Duress on the stack and won!

G2 He played a Fetch on his T1. I had land, Mox, Thorn, and he responded with Brainstorm. I think he bricked on his cantrips after that, and I ended the game with Marit Lage to make top 8!

2-0 in Games
‎3-1-1 in Matches

Top 8: ANT

G1 I knew he's on Storm combo of some kind, so I kept my 5 card hand of land, mox, land, rotation, loam. He casts Duress, so I Rotation for a Stage just to maximize my outs of drawing into the combo if he bricks. He had to discard Loam with the Duress. He went off next turn with PIF.

G2 I had a Turn 1 Land, Rotation, Sphere at 5 cards I think. He cantripped a lot while I basically just tried to draw into my combo. He Decayed my Sphere at the end of one turn, and just passes after drawing! I made Marit Lage and killed him! Later, I found out that he had a Rituals - IT - PIF line but he topdecked Decay and had no more targets for it, so he couldn't go hell bent! Crazy bad luck for him, but I'll take it!

G3 I had a very solid hand. Lands, Tomb, mox, thorn, and Tracker. He mulled to 5 or 6, Probed twice, saw the Thorn, and cast a cantrip to find the Therapy which he cast off Petal. I lost my only disruption, but my T1 Tracker (!!) could still race him. He was very low on cards and he took 5 damage from his own stuff. I drew 4-5 cards off Tracker, but none of them were disruptive. My opponent didn't have any gas, however, and I got my first ever Turn 3 kill with Lands that didn't involve Marit Lage.

2-1 in Games
4-1-1 in Matches

Top 4: Grixis Delver

G1 He played a fetch and passed. I had the nuts. T1 Land, Mox, Exploration, Stage, Loam. He played a Wasteland and passed. I played Depths and a topdecked Wasteland to force him to pop his Wasteland. I won on my next turn.

G2 He mulled to 5. I don't remember what he played, but I know I had land + mox + grove and Sylvan Safekeeper turn 2 or 3, and then later Wasteland targeting his Wasteland, with Crop Rotation in hand to assemble the combo.

2-0 in Games
5-1-1 in Matches

Finals: UWR Stoneblade

G1 I was exhausted at this point, having already had 4 rounds go to time. I felt AWFUL that I had to play another grindy matchup in the finals. Stoneblade is particularly awkward for Lands. All of Lands' gameplans are mediocre against a deck with 4-5 Basics, TNN, and Snap+Plow. This game was extremely long. He resolved a TNN after a few turns of what was essentially just Draw go from both of us after a FOW on my Exploration. I defaulted to trying to loam for GQ to Tabernacle it away, completely forgetting that my opponent could just run out of Swords to Plowshares eventually. I dredged away all my Explorations, didnt find a GQ, and lost the game to two TNNs with a Jitte. One TNN dealt over 50 damage by itself. Misassigned my beatdown role here and got punished!

G2 I mulled to 5 with no green mana. I had to keep because it was close enough to a Marit Lage that I couldn't mull it. Of course, my opponent had Pithing Needle. I still got to play a Tracker, but it was killed by Blessed Alliance and I lost soon after to a Blood Moon and some creatures. I was never really in the game. I found out later that he had maindeck Blood Moons and 6 basics. Yikes!

0-2 in Games
5-2-1 in Matches

I'm stoked that I finished in 2nd place! I'm very, very happy with this run. I was lucky enough to have been in Manila when they had a major scheduled, and I'm glad I made it count! I was also VERY lucky with some of those hands, and being able to go undefeated against Storm combo was huge. I had a great time at Kick Engines, as always!

A few notes:

- I didn't play Manabond. I was expecting lots of Deathrites, and it's difficult to play around those with Manabond. I've found it very clumsy to use Manabond with the Cycling lands.

- I had Mishra's Factory maindeck because Marit Lage decks are common in the area. The last time I played Lands here, I encountered a Jund deck with maindeck Edict! I almost tilted.

- Port/GQ Split. I thought 2 GQ was enough for most games, so I gave the other slots to Port. Maybe that was a mistake! Port did next to nothing all day, and having GQ over the Port could have won me at least one game in the finals!

- I think I'm playing too safely and pushing the control role too hard. I tend to sit on my control advantage when I have it, and just wait until I am 100% safe to combo. This is likely what's causing my matches to go to time. When my opponent has even one Wasteland, I never really try to combo even when I have Loam and Exploration. I think I should recognize when I can bait the Wasteland and just do it again instead of trying to find my own Wasteland to beat his.