[Report] Ancient Memory Convention No.24 / Legacy from Tokyo

I posted this thread on TMD, and was asked to do so on MTGTS. Hope you enjoy Legacy from the other side of the world.


AMC is the oldest and biggest Legacy tournament in Japan, it began two years ago in the suburb of Tokyo with 15 guys and now regularly gathers about 40 people once in a month in the otakiest city of the World, Akihabara.

27th May 2007, 24th edition, particulary interesting because the date is just between the regularisation of Future Sight and the possible ban of Flash: a unique chance to run a post-FS version of Hulk Flash. And a lot of people had the same idea at the same time: 50 people, 11 Hulk Flash. My list:

2 Island
1 Swamp
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
4 Flash
3 Protean Hulk
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Mystical Tutor
3 Impulse
1 Peer Through Depths
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Pact of Negation
4 Duress
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Karmic Guide
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Teardrop Kami
1 Bloodrock Cyclops
1 Body Snatcher
3 Chrome Mox
1 Echoing Truth

Side-Board
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Misdirection
3 Massacre
3 Phyrexian Negator
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth

I choosed an instant version kill with Teardrop Kami and the Cyclop, instead of the Bodygard. The combo takes only one more card, so I cut the 4th Protean Hulk, as there's no big deal with 4 green Pacts and 4 Mystutor. 1 Peer Through Depths
for the 4th Impulse, as you always want a Sorcery or a instant. It doesn't find you land, but if you only have one land, Impulse doesn't help you more. I felt the card to be strong in the deck, and should have probably played one more. The rest is pretty self-comprehensive: Leyline + Bounce for the Mirror, Misdirection against Control, Sui and burn.

6 rounds, let's go.

Round 1 : Feary Stompy
1/ My opponent mulls to 5, I kill him easily 2 or 3 turns later with FoW in back-up.
2/ Not enough land to go off quickly, he plays CotV=1 and kills me with 2 Seadrake Dragons.
3/ He plays CotV=1 at his first turn, I tried to play Brainstorm in response, but he FoWes me and let me with a hand composed of 2 Brainstorms and 1 Mystutor... He plays a second CotV=2 and I scoop.
0-1-0

By the way, more than half of the Hulk Flash decks lost on the first round! HF was heavily metagamed...

Round 2 : Hulk Flash (Disciples version)
1/ He kills me on turn 1.
2/ I play Leyline, he has no answer and can't go off, I play Flash and kill him right after.
3/ I kill him quickly with Misdirection and Fow in back-up.
1-1-0

Round 3 : Landstill
1/ I have the combo in hand and try to go off with PoN on hand as he's full-taped, but he had a Daze and a FoW...
2/ I completly scrubb out while trying to play the Negator plan. I will never play one unless I draw like 2/3 of my deck...
1-2-0
Too much counter and too much draw, bad match-up.

Round 4 : Teferi Control (?)
1/ Flash turn 2 or 3 after a Duress.
2/ Flash turn 2 with PoN in back-up, but he Trickbinds the Hulk capacity, I won't come back on the match and he kills me with Teferi...
3/ Bad day for Hulk Flash: First turn, Leyline, CotV=0 and CotV=1 one turn later... Thanks to the God of Top-deck, I draw in a splendid way an Echoing Truth that I play eot with Misdirection on back-up to Flash the next turn.
2-2-0

Round 5 : Hulk Flash (?)
1/ Kill turn 2 with FoW and PoN on back-up.
2/ Turn 4, I play Flash, he counters, bad luck for him, I had one more Flash and one more Hulk in hand with 2 mana.
3-2-0
9 minutes for this round, I didn't even see which version he played.

Round 6 : Hulk Flash (Counterbalance + Kiki)
Yeah, one more HF...
1/ I mull to 5, draw absolutly NO land for more than 10 turns... While he plays Dark Confidant, Top and Counterbalance. He decides to kill me with the COnfidant instead of comboing off, so I wait for the combo and the most possible number of counters, and try to go off on the last attack phase with FoW and 2 PoN but he counters the FoW and shows a land with Couterbalance for my PoN.
2/ His list is the exact copy of Sadin, so I guess he plays the Dryad plan for the 2nd game and I don't side-in the Leyline, praying I got lands this time. I got them and combo-off with FoW on back-up, even if I am about to mixing all the combo because of the Kiki in my hand that I discard to Body Snatcher. Safe.
3/ Same match, I combo off with back-up, gg.
4-2-0

I finished 12th on 50. And the winner is... Hulk Flash! 6-0-0. You can find all the lists of all the previous tournaments on the link below, it's a huge data base, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to Netamaki for his great job:
http://f18.aaa.livedoor.jp/~nameless/AMC/index_e.html

Lists:
http://f18.aaa.livedoor.jp/~nameless...MC_24th_E.html

Regarding Hulk Flash, well, I have to say that this deck was pretty boring to play, as it was pretty boring to play against. I don't think it's the best deck ever, it's very strong but the lack of lands and draw cards is a problem. I wasn't for the ban of the card before playing the deck at this tournament, but the way it warps the metagame, not because it's strong but because it forces everybody to build their deck not to loose to it, is a real problem. So strange to try to win on turn 1 or 2 in Legacy.
Answer this Friday!


EDIT: have a look at the cards break down in the end of the list... Yes... 103 Leyline of the Void! If you don't call that a warped metagame...

That 2nd link is pretty sweet since it includes card totals from the 50 decks. Here is a sample:

112:Island
103:Force of Will
103:Leyline of the Void Houston, we have a problem.
88:Brainstorm
79:Swamp
73:Flooded Strand
58:Duress
57:Swords to Plowshares
56:Polluted Delta
53:Chrome Mox
49:Bloodstained Mire
45:Umezawa's Jitte
44:Flash

After reading 5th Flash report. It gets really, I mean really boring. All the same things all the time. 103 Leylines. You have to be joking, right?!

Peter_Rotten is it going to be included in historical top-8 and count towards legacy metagame? I'm not sure if 50 people warrants it or should it be strictly 50+
Would be nice to see the more diverse legacy picture from all over the world.

Holy lack of duals. Guess that's to be expected in japan, though.

@ Nico: Merci d'avoir partagé ce rapport. Now we all get to see the how stupid Hulk Flash is with Future Sight.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tinefol

is it going to be included in historical top-8 and count towards legacy metagame?

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I say wait until June 1st. If Hulk Flash gets the ax, then no. If it doesn't, then fuck this shit, I don't really care because I'll just start playing more Extended and Standard.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tinefol

Peter_Rotten is it going to be included in historical top-8 and count towards legacy metagame? I'm not sure if 50 people warrants it or should it be strictly 50+
Would be nice to see the more diverse legacy picture from all over the world.

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50 players is the minimum that we've setup for the historical Top8 thread so this tournament does qualify as well as having at least the Top8 decklists (though all of them seem to be available which is even better).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tinefol

Peter_Rotten is it going to be included in historical top-8 and count towards legacy metagame? I'm not sure if 50 people warrants it or should it be strictly 50+
Would be nice to see the more diverse legacy picture from all over the world.

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This should be included in the historical top 8 thread - after all, it did have 50 ppl in attendance. If this tourney influences the LMF will depend on the possible B&R changes on June 1st.

Is it just me, or did anyone else notice there was a serious lack of Lim-Dul's Vault in those Hulk Flash lists? I saw maybe one list that had them.

You don't need Lim-Dul's Vault post-FS, because Mystical Tutor can grab both combo parts (using Summoner's Pact).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Di

Is it just me, or did anyone else notice there was a serious lack of Lim-Dul's Vault in those Hulk Flash lists? I saw maybe one list that had them.

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It's downright frightening when LDV is too slow and not good enough.

Albeit true, you now unfortunately limit yourself to running fewer tutors to find Flash itself. Previously the decks had 8 (4 Mystical + 4 LDV) plus whatever draw, but now they have only 4 and whatever draw they have. Plus, LDV is 10x more busted than Mystical Tutor. Mystical finds a single card, whereas LDV stacks the deck. Summoner's Pact doesn't count, because the card utterly sucks in comparison. There was a reason why most decks cut Worldly Tutor; because it doesn't find Flash. Yet, because it puts Hulk in hand is the reason it sees play.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Di

Albeit true, you now unfortunately limit yourself to running fewer tutors to find Flash itself. Previously the decks had 8 (4 Mystical + 4 LDV) plus whatever draw, but now they have only 4 and whatever draw they have. Plus, LDV is 10x more busted than Mystical Tutor. Mystical finds a single card, whereas LDV stacks the deck. Summoner's Pact doesn't count, because the card utterly sucks in comparison. There was a reason why most decks cut Worldly Tutor; because it doesn't find Flash. Yet, because it puts Hulk in hand is the reason it sees play.

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It also generates a mana via Spirit Guide if you need it to.
Sometimes that extra one mana and X life isn't worth choosing your next five cards instead of one.