[Report] Be Quick Or Be Dead - 2007 Legacy Championship *3rd*

My notes consist only of life totals and first names, and my memory is spotty, so some details have been lost and some information may be inaccurate.

Timeline

February 2007: My brother and I add Counterbalance and Sensei’s Divining Top to UGR *****, which proves to be awesome in the mirror, against combo, and against control. ***** is probably the best deck in the format at this point (if it wasn’t already, which it might have been), so it remains our deck of choice for some time.

May 2007: Everyone takes a break from Legacy and plays Flash.

June 2007: Flash is banned, Legacy comes back, and Future Sight begins to affect the format. ***** is the best deck again, especially with Tarmogoyf.

July 2007: I (along with lots of other people because it’s actually really obvious) realize that Narcomoeba + Dread Return lets you build a deck that wins the game for free if you can mill your library. I (along with lots of other people because it’s still obvious) then realize that we already have a very efficient way to mill your library in the Cephalid Breakfast combo. I wonder if this is possibly better than *****.

August 2007: The Virginia Legacy players develop a pretty good list of Breakfast and take half the top eight of a 51 person tournament in Annandale. In the following week or two, it is decided that I (Jesse Hatfield), my brother (Alix Hatfield/Obfuscate Freely), Allen Sorenson (URABAHN), Mike Turpyn (T is for TOOL), and Chris Coppola (Machinus) will be attending the Legacy Championship. At this point Alix and I think (as we did for the Annandale tourney) that Breakfast is probably slightly better than *****, but we worry that if it does well in the preliminary event, it will see hate in the Championship. We decide, then, plan to play something other than Breakfast in the prelims, and (except for Allen who will play Landstill) Breakfast in the main event. Alix, Chris, and I arrive at the hotel room we're sharing with Allen and his wife at around three in the morning and make it to the prelims just in time.

Part 1- Prelims

UGR Threshold
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Nimble Mongoose
2x Fledgling Dragon

4x Brainstorm
4x Portent
4x Predict
2x Sensei’s Divining Top
2x Serum Visions

4x Force of Will
4x Daze
2x Counterspell

4x Lightning Bolt
3x Pithing Needle

4x Tropical Island
4x Volcanic Island
3x Wooded Foothills
2x Polluted Delta
2x Flooded Strand
1x Island
1x Forest

Sideboard
4x Pyroclasm
4x Counterbalance
2x Control Magic
2x Krosan Grip
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Sensei’s Divining Top

There are a few slight changes to our previous list. We added the fourth Daze at the expense of a Counterspell, partially at Chris’ insistence and partially because the format has sped up a bit and Daze helps force through an early Counterbalance. We also added the fourth Tropical Island because a second basic Island seemed unnecessary. A Control Magic was cut for a Counterbalance in the board because Counterbalance is more versatile and probably better in the mirror anyway. Alix and I run this list, and Chris runs a similar one with Werebear in place of Mongoose.

Round 1: Kris, UB Hunted Horror

He leads with Underground Sea and Aether Vial and follows them up with Dark Confidant, so I'm not really sure what Kris is playing until he puts a Hunted Horror into play and deals with the tokens somehow (Stifle, I think). I have a Dragon, but I’m unable to stabilize with it before dying.

I board in Control Magic and artifact removal to deal with Vial, Despotic Scepter and Dreadnought if he has it (I think he did, but I don’t even remember for sure) along with Counterbalance. I get Counterbalance/Top going in game two, and when he plays a Hunted Horror, I steal it. He manages to get a Gilded Drake through the Counterbalance and takes his Horror back. I follow it up with a second Control Magic and attack with my new 3/3 flyer. The game ends in a few swings of Horror.

In game three, I mulligan to four before I find lands, but am able to hold him off for a little while. I probably would have lost this game eventually, but time is called and we draw. I’m not really happy to be in the Landstill bracket so early on, but it’s better than a loss.

0-0-1

Round 2: Jason Jaco (JACO), Counterbalance Fish

We quickly deal with each other’s threats and are both reduced to topdecking. However, Jason has a Sensei’s Divining Top in play, giving him a bit of an edge. He resolves a Jitte later on, but fortunately for me, I’m able to keep the few creatures he draws off the table. A few Tarmogoyfs later, I actually manage to do lethal damage. I never find a Top of my own during this game, so the fact that I was able to draw more relevant cards than him is probably fairly lucky.

I board in my own Counterbalances for game two and one gets Duressed out of my hand early. Unfortunately I don’t remember much about the rest of this game. It was probably a lot like the first one, but not as interesting. I’ll just assume that the reason I won was because Tarmogoyf is very good.

1-0-1

Round 3: Jake, Goblins

I don’t remember all the details of game one, but he gets a slow start and I go beatdown early. He reveals Price of Progress with a Ringleader at some point, which is a bit of a surprise. He mulligans a couple of times in game two and his three PoPs are not very good without creatures to deal some of the damage. The two that resolve deal eight and six damage, and I win the game at three life. In the three matches I play against Goblins in this tournament, my life never drops by more than one at a time except for those PoPs.

2-0-1

At this point, there’s some sort of computer error, which delays the tournament by a significant amount. This is very unfortunate for those of us intending to do well in the prelims and also get some sleep before the main event. We sit around and complain to each other for a while, Chris calls Anwar to complain to him, and the next round finally goes up.

Round 4: Josh, UGR Threshold

I don’t remember very much about this match at all except that he’s playing Isochron Scepter and I believe Accumulated Knowledge. All I know is that I’m able to go on the offensive in game one and he can’t do much about it. From life totals, I probably hit him with a Mongoose, then a Mongoose and a Tarmogoyf, then both again, finishing him off with a Lightning Bolt. Game two could have been won the same way, or possibly with a Dragon.

3-0-1

Round 5: ?, Train Wreck

For some reason I forgot to write down this opponent’s name. I apologize.

Game one is a typical game of Threshold vs. board control: I play a creature, he removes it, we repeat this cycle, and I occasionally stop his attempts to gain massive card advantage (which in this case means countering a Staff of Domination). Chainer’s Edict helps him deal with my guys, but Top and the fact that his deck is full of lands help me draw more relevant spells than him. This game takes a while, though, and I am constantly afraid of him stabilizing and the match ending either 0-1 or 1-1. On the final turn, he taps all his lands and generates double digits of black mana, and I start thinking about what he could be doing that’s completely devastating and uncounterable before I realize he’s scooping.

Game two was similar but did not take nearly as long. I think I may have found Counterbalance in this game, which is always great in this sort of matchup. Permanent sources of card advantage that protect themselves are very good against control.

4-0-1

Round 6: David Caplan (goobafish), UGR Threshold

I keep a suspect hand in game one with one land and lead with a Top. Dave Wastelands it and then when I draw a second land, he Wastes it too and Top fails to find a third. By the time I manage to get a land in play, the game is essentially over. Dave draws a couple Wastes again in game two, but they are not very relevant as I have several lands. He does, however, get an advantage on the board early on and start dealing me damage. I make some poor blocks and lose the game soon afterwards.

4-1-1

Round 7: Cole, Goblins

Again, I’m able to play the beatdown and by the time he gets creatures in play, they’re forced to hold back. I stop his Sharpshooter with a Needle to prevent situations that could kill either Tarmogoyf or me. Game two was similar in that I was able to stop him from assembling a large amount of Goblins while attacking with my own creatures.

5-1-1

Quarterfinals: Ray Robillard (Iamfishman), UR Landstill

At this point it’s extremely late and the judges joke that while rounds are untimed, it would be fine if we would finish in about half an hour. Unfortunately we’re unable to help them (and ourselves) out. It even takes a long time to determine that Ray will play first, as we draw at Rock-Paper-Scissors (using, of course, Rock Lobster, Paper Tiger, and Scissors Lizard) four times before he gets the two out of three. That’s Landstill for you.

I play an early Top and he plays an early Standstill, so we spend a lot of turns playing lands and passing as I manipulate my draws and he builds up his hand. Eventually I decide to break it with a Brainstorm at the end of his turn, which he counters before discarding a card or two. I play some creatures, he plays some answers, and we both play some draw. Eventually, after both of our hands have gotten somewhat smaller, he sticks a Crucible and I stick a Fledgling Dragon, which takes him to two life. I play a Pithing Needle to stop his attempt to stabilize with recurring Faerie Conclave, and the game finally ends.

Game two is much shorter, as I am able to get a threat on the board that Ray has a hard time answering. He finds a Crucible, but he doesn’t have any manlands to keep him alive. Eventually he resolves a Nevinyrral’s Disk, but I topdeck Ancient Grudge to kill both it and the Crucible, allowing my creatures to finish the game quickly.

Semifinals: Mike Turpyn (T is for TOOL), Goblins

Much like the last round, it takes several die rolls to determine that Mike will go first. He gets a slow start anyway and I start attacking with a Mongoose that eventually goes all the way. In game two, I execute a similar plan aided by Pyroclasm and Mike not drawing very many good cards.

Finals: Alix Hatfield (Obfuscate Freely), UGR Threshold

It’s very good that Alix and I are able to meet in the finals, but not good that one of us will have sacrificed the ability to get a decent amount of sleep for a few draft sets and no byes. It doesn’t really matter very much to us who wins the match, but determining the outcome randomly is illegal, so we decide to lose just a little more time that could be spent sleeping and play it out.

All I remember about the match, though, is that I lose game one to some assortment of green creatures and win game two in a similar manner. We both take a mulligan in game three before choosing to draw the game, and I stumble on mana in game four and lose the match.

In summary, Threshold is a very good deck. With Pyroclasm and Tarmogoyf, Goblins is a very good matchup. With Counterbalance, we have an edge against the mirror and a strong way to seal the game against control decks. However, we decide to stick to the plan and switch to Cephalid Breakfast for the main event.

Part 2 - Championship

Cephalid Breakfast
4x Cephalid Illusionist
4x Nomads en-Kor
1x Shaman en-Kor

4x Tarmogoyf
3x Narcomoeba
1x Dread Return
1x Sutured Ghoul
1x Dragon Breath

4x Brainstorm
4x Portent
4x Worldly Tutor
2x Eladamri’s Call

4x Force of Will
4x Aether Vial
2x Cabal Therapy

4x Polluted Delta
4x Flooded Strand
4x Tundra
3x Tropical Island
2x Underground Sea

Sideboard
4x Duress
4x Abeyance
3x Dark Confidant
2x Echoing Truth
1x Stern Proctor
1x Crippling Fatigue

This is a bit different from our previous list as well. Tarmogoyf is the new Phyrexian Dreadnought, since it protects the en-Kor and can either block or beat down. (Thanks to Illisius for suggesting it.) We cut the Proctor to the board because we didn’t expect much permanent-based hate in game one. We also switched the Grips to Truths and fit Confidant in there at the expense of Stifle and Ray of Revelation. Ray would be good if there was some enchantment that stopped the Ghoul portion of the combo but not the milling portion. The most played example of that is Solitary Confinement, and that isn’t very played at all, so we cut Ray. Stifle is great but it never really gets boarded in except against combo, where we already have Force of Will, Duress, Abeyance and a fast goldfish, so it isn’t necessary.

Alix, Mike, and I (the Top 3 at the prelims) gather in our hotel lobby to build three Cephalid Breakfast decks (we were not able to do this ahead of time because most of the cards were in Threshold). At about seven in the morning, I get to sleep. Two hours later, I wake up and get ready to play in the 2007 Legacy Championship.

Round 1: Tommy, Life From the Loam

I don’t know all the details of his deck such as what colors he was playing or how he abuses Loam, though I do remember seeing Scroll Rack. Game one is fairly boring as he draws some cards, I Therapy him to reveal that none of them are relevant, and I win the game.

This is probably a good point to explain the combo we were running at the Championship.

Step 1: Assemble a board state including Cephalid Illusionist and either en-Kor.
Step 2: Target the Illusionist with the en-Kor until as many of the cards in the following steps are necessary have been put into your graveyard.
Step 3: Put some number of Narcomoeba into play by resolving its triggered ability.
Step 4: Flashback Cabal Therapy if appropriate, first removing relevant spells from your opponent’s hand, then removing Dragon Breath, Sutured Ghoul, or Dread Return from yours.
Step 5: Flashback Dread Return targeting Sutured Ghoul.
Step 6: Remove a suitable number of creatures from your graveyard to make a large Ghoul.
Step 7: Call a judge to confirm that Tarmogoyf is still large in the graveyard.
Optional step 7a: Appeal the ruling if incorrect, or your opponent appeals the ruling if he is not satisfied (I never had to execute this step).
Step 8: Dragon Breath comes into play enchanting Sutured Ghoul.
Step 9: Attack with Sutured Ghoul.

Game two involves mana denial and him beating me down with Exalted Angel. The only relevant disruption I see him play is Pithing Needle, which names Polluted Delta in this game to keep me off of mana. I don’t remember game three very well, but he didn’t disrupt me and I won.

1-0

Round 2: Kevin, Belcher

Kevin wins the die roll and makes a lot of Goblins on turn one, so I board in ten cards that disrupt his deck and slow him down with discard long enough to win game two. I play more discard in game three, and even though he plays Empty the Warrens before I play my combo, the Goblin tokens can’t outrace the nineteen power Ghoul (I boarded a Tarmogoyf out in this matchup, which was probably a mistake).

2-0

Round 3: Frank, UGR Threshold

He wins game one with some big guys while I fail to assemble the combo, probably partially as a result of his countermagic. I stick a Vial in game two, though, and eventually dial it up to two and block a Mongoose with an instant-speed 3/4 Tarmogoyf. That Tarmogoyf goes on to win the game, and Frank boards in Control Magic.

Game three is much closer than the first two. I get a Nomads in play, which he Needles before I get the Illusionist in play. I believe we both have Tarmogoyfs, but he eventually gains board advantage and starts attacking. He plays a second Needle, and thinks for quite a while before naming Nomads again. I take my turn, Vial in Shaman en-Kor, and win the game. At the end of the game he is holding four mana spells with less than four lands in play.

3-0

Round 4: Noah Swartz, Goblins

I recognize Noah from the Championship two years ago, where he made top four with Goblins. It turns out he’s playing the same deck today.

I’m able to win games one and two without too much difficulty, as the Goblin matchup is much improved with Tarmogoyf. With no other creatures in play, Mogg Fanatic disrupts the combo by killing the first piece you play in response to the second piece. With another creature in play, however, you can play the en-Kor first, allowing you to redirect damage from a Fanatic, Gempalm Incinerator, or Pyrokinesis to the extra creature. If that creature is a Tarmogoyf, they’ll have a very hard time killing it and it can usually soak up multiple removal spells.

The only problem is that while I’m winning game two, my lack of sleep catches up to me and I don’t put any Narcomoebas in play, preventing me from actually casting Dread Return. Instead I have a pair of 1/1s and no library, so we move to game three. I further misplay and go off at least a turn after I could have, opening myself up to Gempalm in the process. Fortunately, he doesn’t have it and I get away with my mistakes relatively unscathed.

4-0

Round 5: Alix Hatfield (Obfuscate Freely), Cephalid Breakfast

We were hoping not to get paired again this week, but it’s time for another mirror match, this time with a different deck.

Game one involves Alix casting a Therapy and seeing Eladamri’s Call and a Therapy of my own while I have a combo piece in play. I play the Call at the end of his turn to find the second piece, Therapy out his Force of Will, and win the game. If he had countered the Call, I probably would have lost.

I don’t remember all the details of game two, but he outdraws me by quite a lot with the help of Dark Confidant and is able to assemble the combo before I can. I win game three partially as a result of him not drawing business spells and partially as a result of him not drawing all of his colors.

Round 6: Alex Groh, Iggy Pop

Alex gets a very slow draw in game one and is forced to play multiple Mystical Tutors before committing to an Infernal Tutor, which I counter shortly before winning the game. Game two is much quicker as I Duress a pair of Dark Rituals in the first two turns. My plan was to win on turn three, but I realize that I made a mistake by leaving both Orim’s Chant and Massacre in his hand, since he can buy a turn with the Chant and then kill my creatures on his main phase. Instead, I Therapy the Chant and win on turn four.

Round 7: Ryan Trepanier, 42 Land
Round 8: Ernest Turck, Ichorid

6-0-2

I draw into top eight, hoping to see Mike and Allen there, who are both in contention at this point. I then proceed to wander around the con and find something terrible to eat so I don’t have to play the top eight hungry. Later, it turns out Allen lost the Landstill mirror and Mike won his match, but ended up ninth. Maybe I shouldn’t have drawn. :<

Quarterfinals: Ernest Turck, Ichorid

I win the die roll and open with a Nomads. He opens with a Lion’s Eye Diamond, which I Force of Will. Then I play a Cephalid Illusionist and win the game. It’s possible that letting the LED resolve and countering his next spell might have been the correct play. In any case, this is by far the best draw I’ve had all day.

I board in my bounce expecting Leyline of the Void, which he starts with in game two. He doesn’t really have any gas, though, so I have the time to put the combo in play and tutor up Stern Proctor to win the game. However, I forget to Therapy the Dragon Breath out of my hand and am forced to pass the turn with a 24/28 Ghoul. This turns out to be enough to win the game on the following turn.

Semifinals: Ryan Trepanier (rureddy32), 42 Land

When we initially built this deck, we decided to run the Karmic Guide, Kiki-Jiki, Sky Hussar kill (Dread Return the Guide, bring back Kiki, copy Guide, bring back Hussar, untap Kiki, make an arbitrarily large number of Hussars – thanks to iOWN, who suggested it here on The Source). This requires one less slot than the Sutured Ghoul kill (Ghoul, Dragon Breath, and two big creatures) we were thinking of at the time. However, it is vulnerable to Pithing Needle on Kiki-Jiki, so we switched to the Ghoul anyway. The only thing, we reasoned, that stops the Ghoul kill and not the Kiki kill is Maze of Ith, and no one really plays that.

But apparently they do. That’s unfortunate. Ghoul was still the correct choice, of course, as I ran into multiple Needles in the Swiss and it has synergy with Tarmogoyf. However, it is a problem in this matchup.

I mull to six and get a couple Vials in play but he is able to destroy all my lands with recurring Wasteland. I don’t have the combo to Vial it in, and he soon gets Maze and Barbarian Ring into play, both of which disrupt me. At some point I draw into a Tarmogoyf and put it in play, but the game is already over and he plays a Tabernacle to kill it shortly before starting to attack me.

Game two is actually very similar as I mull to five and keep a one-land hand. I get Vial in play again, but I still don’t have the combo and he does get his disruption in play. I now have Abeyance in my deck to deal with Maze and Ring, but it’s irrelevant because I have no lands. After several turns of draw, discard, pass, I lose to manlands.

I have to wait around for the finals to finish before we can draft prizes, and end up with Tropical Island and Windswept Heath. (Underground Sea was probably worth a bit more but I was considering holding on to it and I play a lot more Trops than Seas.) I might be in the minority here, but I think these prizes would have been great if they weren’t almost all lands. Even Tropical Island + Nimble Mongoose would have been really cool. It’s fine, though, because I’m later able to sell the big lands for $500 to the guy that bought all of them, which pays for my trip.

Props:

• John Cherwinka, for buying the oversized cards.
• David Caplan, for pointing him out to me.
• Everyone who went from Virginia/Kentucky/North Carolina, for making the trip awesome.
• Allen and Gina, for sharing their hotel room.
• The judges, who turned out to be a key part of the combo, for always giving me the correct ruling and putting up with being called almost every round for the same thing.
• Pretty much everyone I talked to, for being friendly and making the trip awesome. This includes my opponents, the judges, people from the Source, people I recognized from other events, and a lot of Vintage players.
• Tarmogoyf

Slops:

• Eleven lands and Goblin Warchief, for not being very cool. Seriously, why wasn’t it Goblin Lackey?
• Judges that gave incorrect rulings on the Ghoul/Tarmogoyf interaction (I heard of this, but didn’t experience it myself).
• Whatever was responsible for the delay in the prelims.
• West Virginia, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the route we took through them on the way home, for reasons such as time, motion sickness, and going several hours without gas stations or other signs of civilization.
• Wasteland

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mad Zur

West Virginia, the Blue Ridge Mountains

---

COUNTRY ROADS!
TAKE ME HOME!
TO THE PLACE!
I BELOOOOOOONG!

Good Jorb guy! See you soon?

Grats on the finish Jesse.

How many ppl were at that Prelim?

Between 78-83...not sure what the "official" count was.

Quote:

---

# John Cherwinka, for buying the oversized cards.
# David Caplan, for pointing him out to me.

---

No problem,
Hey Jesse can you pm me what you got for them?

Thanks

David

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by goobafish

No problem,
Hey Jesse can you pm me what you got for them?

Thanks

David

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mad Zur

It’s fine, though, because I’m later able to sell the big lands for $500 to the guy that bought all of them, which pays for my trip.

---

Congrats on the win Jesse. If anyone deserved to win it was a Hatfield. Too bad you guys got paired in both the events like that.

Awesome 25$ over what I told you to ask :P.

Congratz on the win. The breakfast list is also looking very sexy if you ask me. I will be picking the deck up some time in the future.

Grats Jesse, looking forward to seeing you guys saturday if you aren't still tired then.

Awesome Report and congrats on both days.

73 people was the final count for the Prelims. I'll have to ask Jesse and Alix's mother, but I'm pretty sure they're cyborgs as well. Cranking out Top 8 wins by showing up at the last minute and only getting 2+ hours of sleep?

Liquid Metal