[Report] Top 2 TMLO 3 TWICE!

So, I guess I should write up a crappy tournament report. I don’t take much in the way of notes though I do know what was in my opponents hand just about every game.
Friday: I have the entire VA crew staying at my place for the night to save on hotel costs. They begin arriving around 5. From that point there is a lot of ordering of pizza and drinking. Eventually everyone gets to sleep, thankfully my room has a fan that was able to drown out the snoring and whatnot from the other room.
Saturday: We start off early and hit a butt ton of traffic getting out of Brooklyn. I hate driving in the city. After about 2 hours of “interesting” conversations concerning foot fetishes, scat play, and golden showers we arrived at the tournament site.
This is the list I decided to run.
4 Birds or Paradise
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Burning Wish
4 Eternal Witness
4 Thoughtseize
3 Cabal Therapy
2 Magus of the Moon
1 Squee
1 Genesis
1 Anger
1 FTK
1 Shriekmaw
1 Big Game Hunter
1 Rofellos
1 Tin Street
1 Stomphowler
1 Spike Feeder
5 Forest
4 Bayou
4 Taiga
4 Foothill
4 Heath

SB
4 Plague
1 Sharpshooter
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Therapy
1 Hull Breach
1 Seeds of Innocence
1 Primal Command
1 Chainer's Edict
1 Tsunami
1 Boom/Bust
1 Rough/Tumble
1 Regrowth

Rd 1 Aneil – Loam Tog

Game 1
He leads off with a delta, I therapy and name Brainstorm revealing Counterspell x 2, Intuition, Sea, Factory, Strand. I can’t get through the double counterspells before he intuitions for Loam, gets his engine going and beats me with a crazy tog.
Game 2
I thoughtseize out a Force leaving him with a hand of Deed, Loam, C-Spell, AK, Mana Leak, Barren Moor. He starts drawing some land but, I take out his mana leak with either therapy, another thoughtseize, or by running either survival or goyf out into it. That allows me to resolve Magus without a problem.
Game 3
He mulligans to 4 and leads off with a Leyline. I thoughtseize out a Wish leaving Deed, loam, and AK in his hand. I attack a lot and kill him pretty much without a problem

Rd 2 Dennis – Slivers!
Game 1
I mess up on my first turn thoughtseize which revealed vial x 2, Land x 2, Cystalline Sliver, Ponder. I take the sliver instead of a vial even though my hand has Tin street and Magus. So I don’t lock him out of the game turn 3 and instead have to use survival to slowly crush him. Fun play of this game: swinging in to a sinew sliver with a witness to have him vial out a muscle sliver and kill my witness with a 3/3 sinew. I survival a squee for a shriekmaw and evoke it out to kill the muscle sliver leaving him with a empty board except for a vial and an empty hand to my survival – squee.
Game 2
I thoughtseize revealing winged slivers x2, STP, muscle sliver, strand, tundra. I take muscle sliver since I have a slow hand that he could ran in the air plus I have sharpshooter in hand. Turn 2 I drop goyf to eat a STP so that the sharpshooter can own the board until he draws a pump sliver. Instead I top deck Magus and lock him out of mana.

Rd 3 ??? Garruk Still
Game 1
I apparently didn’t cast a discard spell since I have no idea what was in his hand. As such I can’t remember the game. He did mulligan and I only took a point of damage. I imagine that at some point Magus resolved possibly after a survival resolved.
Game 2
Again no disruption and this time my life total went down a lot. I recall being beaten about the face with factories, and monasteries. I had a slow hand and he was able to take advantage of that with Standstills into more standstills.

Game 3
I honestly have no idea what happened hear. I thoughtseize out a Garruk I think at one point to make goyf big. His had at the time was trop and possible crucible (my notes aren’t legiable at this point so he could have anything but there appears to be a distinct Cru) He scoops at 15 life so I imagine a bunch of goyfs and probably a Magus made him give it up.

Rd 4 Rich – Zoo
Game 1
I mulligan to 5 and I can’t pull it out before he domes me for the last few points. I was very close in this game despite the mulligans.
Game 2
I mess up twice this game. He was mana screwed for a while with only a plateau. Unfortunately my manabase this game is entirely fetchland so I manage to do about 4 damage to myself to help him along. I burning wish for boom/bust and do the trick with the fetch land. He of course draws taiga making his only creature (kird ape) the biggest thing on the board plus allowed him to cast rancor. I had two wishes in hand at this point and I should have just gone for edict with the first one to stop the potential damage from ape so I could stall the game till I could wish for primal command and start gaining 7 a turn. Later I get survival out and shriekmaw the angry ape. I am at 7 and he has 3 cards in hand (1 of them rancor) instead of using survival to get feeder to block his isamuru and gain like I genesis back shriekmaw and kill the hound. He draws chain lightning and casts one of the two fireblasts in his hand. I should have figured he hand at least one blast in hand and played according I still would have lost the turn after I think but that is still at least a turn if not more.

Rd 5 John – Landstill
Game 1
I thoughtseize turn 1 revealing island, strand, c-spell, disk, stifle, decree, and another card that can’t be determined. I take stifle since my next landdrop is a fetch and survival loves mana, plus I have the therapy in hand to take the c-spell next turn.
At some point he drops disk but I tin street it away. A large tarmogoyf takes it home.
Game 2
I thoughtseize turn 1 revealing crypt, ruins, plains, stp , still, force, wrath. I get rid of standstill, then I seize again the next turn and grab STP, I actually thoughtseize quite a bit this game as I drop a magus early locking up most of his deck. He does have a plains so I am worried about both swords and decree. Magus hurts me quite a bit as well in this game since I had no green for Survival and creatures. Eventually I get enough birds in play to start casting creatures and the Sharpshooter I drop makes it so his decree can’t chumpblock.

Rd 6 Damon- Get Bent!
I D

Top 8
Jeff Aluren
Game 1
I make him discard his relevant spells and I believe a Magus makes it so he can’t cast Aluren pretty much ever.
Game 2
I keep a hand that is slow because I am stupid. I lose before I get to really do anything, but I make him go through it so he can play with his 100 dollar cards or however much recruiters are. His set were Japanese I believe. I get killed with a Japanese Ghitu Slinger as well. I bet the German version of Slinger is cooler.
Game 3
I thoughtseize turn 1 showing taiga, volc, bayou, etched oracle, raven familiar. I take familiar. I seize again and he Brainstorms, I remove something that is scribbled out. I later hit a force with a therapy. I drop witness getting back thoughtseize, which is a mistake since I am mana screwed and have another witness in hand. I can’t cast the seize this turn so I can just grab it next turn. Further I am stupid and don’t flashback the therapy before he can cast the oracle. I figure I will lose at this point and I deserve to because that was pretty stupid. But he drops aluren, I have a crappy hand. But being able to cast them all for free is great. I drop witness getting the land back, sharpshooter, and I think something else. I then topdeck the burning wish and now with my 4 mana I burning wish for hull breach and destroy both the aluren and the oracle with him tapped out. I think I am in love with Hull breach. He can’t recover from that so I eventually win.

Top 4
Survival
Game 1
I thoughtseize a hand of goyf, savannah, hierach x 2, ESG, heath, forest. I grab goyf, turn 2 he double ESGs out a hierach, I am able to therapy out the other one and he doesn’t really do much of anything besides that. He doesn’t even get to connect with the hiearch.

Game 2
He leads off with Leyline of the Void. I seize him showing forest x 2, genesis, STP, ESG, I take STP, I draw really badly for a really long time and he has genesis in the yard, witness out, and STP to get back. Things are looking grim. I have a goyf out I don’t want swing into witness and kill it because then he just Genesis it back and gets a STP for the goyf. He drops survival, well crap! I draw burning wish. WOOT! I wish for Primal Command, I don’t attack with goyf because I am stupid. So I command the survival back on top of his deck and then shuffle his graveyard into his library. Ok, time to attack with my goyf, my 0/1 goyf, hmm… That is what second main phases are for.
At least we are in top decking mode. Too bad he still draws better than I do.
Game 3
I don’t really know how I win this. I therapy survival out revealing forest, waste, vial, STPx2, witness, plains. STPs get hit on the rebound I believe. He wastes a land which was crappy, but also hurt him. I have the FTK for a morphed angel but he eventually draws survival. I draw wish and grab hull breach hitting the vial and the survival. In response he vials out a witness grabbing the first survival. He replays it, crap. I draw wish and wish for regrowth on the hull breach, hitting the survival and another vial. He survivals up a witness. He drops witness getting back survival but he doesn’t have the mana to cast it. I draw thoughtseize and make him discard it. In a turn or two I draw Survival and win. My deck loves me and I love my deck. Especially Hull Breach.

Top 2
Damon – Get Bent!
We split and go check into the hotel room and grab food.


More later...

You sir, are an animal. Congrats on the two big wins. What goodies did you bring home for all your hard work?

Part 2
The Hotel is a bit run down but the rooms are decent. I do have an unfortunate discovery when we get there. I had been traveling all this week for work so on Friday I just threw some clothes in a bag for the weekend. Apparently, that did not include underwear. Frown town. So, off I go in the middle of Conneticut looking for a place that is open at 11 that sells underwear. 7-11 no underwear but there is a Wal-Mart some where down the road. I see a K-Mart, maybe the 7-11 guy was confused. Nope, closed. Wait, Walgreens is open. Walgreens only sees women’s underwear. Umm… not that desperate. 15 minutes of driving later I see that walmart. It closes at 11. But there are workers out waiting for rides I guess. They say that the Stop and Shop across the street is still open. But does a grocery store sell underwear? YES THEY DO! I roll back into the hotel around 11:40 having wasted way too much time driving around.
The Syracuse guys are already drunk so I join them making a way too strong 7 & 7. Nightmare and I Winston Draft 2 sets of TSP block. Holy crap is Winston hard. Drinking while doing it probably doesn’t help. I draw a green/red deck, but Nightmare takes it in three games with a enduring renewal keeping stonecloaker, Serra Avenger, and Sinew Sliver around forever. Enduring Renewal worked a lot better for him that game than it had game 2 when he dropped it with an empty board and only a Unblinking Bleb in hand. Later we draft 6 packs of Lorywn and I crush him as he didn’t draft enough playables to build anything decent.

Sunday:
I spend some time trying to decide what to play today, thinking about playing enchantress but I end up sticking with Survival. I do drop a Plague for a Magus of the Moon in the board.
Round 1
Jesse – Landstill
Game 1
My opponent mulls and I Therapy seeing, STP, Brainstorm x 2, still, fact, forest. He draws the land and is able to use brainstorm when I flash back the therapy, I still hit Fact or Fiction. He doesn’t do much during the game and I am able to beat him with Magus and other stuff.
Game 2
My hand is amazing. Thoughtseize x 2, Cabal therapy, Heath, land, Tarmogoyf, Feeder. My opponent mulls to 4, making my hand the nuts. He plays a land and I drop heath for
Bayou and thoughtseize seeing Academy Ruins, EE, Force. I take EE and pass. I then look at my hand and can’t figure out what I drew. My opponent top decks brainstorm and I have to stop him while I count up my cards and call a judge. I didn’t draw for my turn because I was so excited by my hand. The judge comes over and doesn’t let me draw since so much has happened since I was suppose to (I didn’t expect to draw at that point anyway so it was all good.) My next thoughtseize too force, and I just kinda rolled him. He was able to get some EE recursion to kill goyf but that wasn’t really relevant.

Round 2 – Nick Affinity
Game 1
I mulligan a slow land lite hand into a hand with birds, lands, and burning wish. Seeds of Innocence clears his board.
I call a judge at this point to ask about Magus and artifact interaction. I get the answer that I thought I was going to get and Magus doesn’t take away there artifactness.
Game 2
I mulligan a no land hand into a hand with lots of lands and Burning wish. I do thoughtseize turn 1 hitting ravager, leaving plating and mite in his mulliganed hand. I again Burning Wish for Seeds of Innocence. Both games I win with my opponent at above 20 life.

Round 3 – Aneil Fish
Game 1
This is going to take awhile. He mulligans but leads off with a duress hitting a thoughtseize. I draw a thoughtseize and take Brainstorm leaving STPx2, Tundra, Scrub, Force. I thoughtseize again taking Force. He beats down with Grunt. I am totally mana screwed. . I eventually get a survival down, when exactly I am not too sure. He draws a Confidant at one point. I flashback the therapy and hit the STPs, leaving his hand just a scrubland. He draws a fetch off of confidant. Drops the fetch and beats in. next turn confidant reveals force he drops a tricketmage and passes. At the end of turn I survival up a shriekmaw. He only has two cards in hand. A force of Will that was revealed off of confidant and a scrubland that he hasn’t played yet. So in my turn I evoke out the shriekmaw and he forces pitching force. I call a judge and the judge spends the next 10+ minutes trying to find his scrubland. It is eventually found somewhere in his lap area. We get a time extension and the shriekmaw is countered. And I lose. Apparently it isn’t a misrepresentation of game state to say that you only have 2 cards in hand even though you have 3 cards in hand but only 2 of them are physically in your hand. Later my friends joke about how sick that would make Hellbent.
Game 2
I mulligan but I spank him good. I pretty much use Survival to destroy everything he does. He remembers the games from yesterday so plays around Magus by fetching basics whenever possible.
Game 3
My hand is slow off of a mulligan and doesn’t pick up speed. I thoughtseize his opening hand of Force, tundra, strand, mage, strand, crypt. At some point he has a needle, a diving top, and a jitte on the board and nothing else. I have a survival, a bird, and that is it. I pray to the magic gods for Burning wish into Seeds. I draw bayou. This happens for several turns. Eventually he gets a grunt, but I am able to chump block until time is up.

Round 4 – Bane – Angel Staz
Game 1
He mulligans and I thoughtseize an Oblivion Ring out of his hand leaving Stack X 2, Tomb and Tabernacle. I drop Magus of the moon and with Tabernacle no longer doing anything I am able to beat in. At one point he blows up all the lands with geddon in hope of allowing stacks to save him, but it doesn’t work out.
Game 2
He leads off with a crucible and follows it up eventually with a smokestack. I am able to ran the stack by dropping permanents. I drop magus and a anger the next turn which I sac to the smokestack. I therapy geddon and miss but see magus of the tabernacle. I have to sacrifice my Magus to flash it back. I continue to race stacks via multiple witnesses but eventually I realize I won’t win the race and the stacks are pretty much doing nothing to him (crucible plus flagstones) I drop him to 3 before losing my board. I did hold back so land so when the stacks go away I am able to drop land bird. Next turn I drop a feeder. I swing in for 2 and then he drops a Magus of the Tabernacle. A 2 / 6 isn’t good for me. But I make the good play and pay for the upkeep of the bird and move a counter on to it with my remaining mana. The next turn I beat in for the win.

Round 5
Krieger – Breakfast
Game 1:
I cast a lot of disruption. A lot. I can’t even tell you what exactly was in his opening hand because I have so many card names written down. It was something like Strand, BStorm, Goyf x 2, force, Vial, ponder. I think I grabbed either vial of force so that I could get rid of the other one and cast a Magus of the moon to lock him up.
Game 2
Jesse Mulligans to 5 but leads off with land vial. I therapy illusionist and he has strand delta and nomads. He top decks a goyf . I tin street the vial and drop goyfs to match up with the ones he drops. I get greedy and sit back on a Magus until he cracks a fetch so that he can’t search for a basic (he doesn’t run basics), He had just draw tutor and would have won if I had waited one more turn.

Round 6
Chris Coppolla – Threshold
I D

Top 8
Watcher – Goyf Sligh
Game 1
I get a very good hand against sligh: Bird, Witness, Rofellos, Land, Land, Wish, Land.
My plan: drop creatures he is likely to burn, cast wish, cast primal command, win.
The game goes according to play. My first turn Bird is fanaticed.
My Rofellos goes the same way. I witness back Rofellos and cast him. I believe witness blocks for a turn and Rofellos is allowed to tap for mana. I proceed to cast Primal Command gaining 7 and grabbing witness. I do it again the next turn. And then I drop all the goyfs in my hand.
Game 2
I keep a hand I should have pitched. 4 lands, bird, survival, sharpshooter. He has turn 2 needle for survival, I lose.
Game 3
I mulligan. I thoughtseize him turn 1 revealing rift bolt x 2, chain lightning, Lightning bolt, taiga, foothill, grip. I take lightning bolt. I thoughtseize again and therapy. I drop creatures I suspect he will kill and work it so I can drop a goyf that is a 3 / 4. He soon gets a brother and I beat in for the win.

Top 4
Aneil – Fish
Rematch time
Game 1:
I thoughtseize revealing scrub, tundra, tundra, grunt, grunt, stifle, force. I take force. I also resolve Magus of the Moon. I take damage for two thoughtseizes and that is it. , but he is too far behind and having my lands become forests again is pretty helpful.

Game 2:
I mulligan and he duress out my survival. I thoughtseize back and take needle leaving a crypt, EE, grunt. He draws lots of artifacts this game. Tops, Explosives, Jitte. I get out a Magus at one point. He is able to pull out of the Magus lock with a Trinket mage off of an Island and a Jitte He drops Grunt. I fuck up and don’t grab an FTK for the grunt off of survival. I am worried that if I do that I won’t have any creature kill left in the deck since my shriekmaw is in the yard and there is a crypt out. So instead I stomphowler the jitte. He gets excited untaps drops jitte and equips. He didn’t pay the upkeep on Grunt. Time for the judge to get called. He gets a warning and the grunt is put in the yard. I was a bit surprised that it was only a warning at this point since he had skipped the upkeep on grunt Rd 6 against wastedlife. Without a creature for the new jitte to equip to I am able to pull it out despite my own mistakes (Not getting FTK and putting squee in the yard to get him to pop crypt instead of genesis, I really needed the constant free search of squee and the lose of genesis wouldn’t have been so bad)

Top 2
Machinus
Split.

So I make a lot of money this weekend and had a lot of fun.

I might do props/slops later.

Congrads on the win both days of the Mana Leak Open III. You are simply awesome at Legacy. It seems like very big event there you are at another Top 8 going for the win.

Nice Job and hopefully we will see you up in Syracuse this weekend.

That's fucking hilarious. I was in the hotel room taking a leak and I look at the trash can and see a plastic underwear bag. And I think to myself, "Jesus, why the hell would someone need a new bag of underwear on a trip?" Grats on being > Legacy.

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Originally Posted by Getsickanddie

You sir, are an animal. Congrats on the two big wins. What goodies did you bring home for all your hard work?

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I got several playsets of Jacksons.
All English, non of that foil or Foreign BS.
Most with the new frame.

I prefer the old frame myself.

Amazing performance Brian. I look forward to more explanation of this deck.

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Originally Posted by Ewokslayer

I got several playsets of Jacksons.

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Jacksons?

And what is with all the mistakes? Are they just hindsights? Looks to me that you need to find someone in Brooklyn you can playtest with. Gratz man on the awesome finishes.

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Originally Posted by Happy Gilmore

Jacksons?

And what is with all the mistakes? Are they just hindsights? Looks to me that you need to find someone in Brooklyn you can playtest with. Gratz man on the awesome finishes.

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As in Andrew Jackson's AKA $20 bill's.

Nice report. Well done! :)

Congratulations on both victories!

How often was Thoughtseize instead of Duress relevant? It's obviously better in this deck, but I'm curious how often you nabbed creatures. I see you getting EE, Force, O-Ring, and lots of other stuff that Duress could have handled.

I grabbed, Slivers, Jotun Grunts, and goyfs a fair number of times as well. I didn't really find the life lose from Thoughtseize significant, though I was very worried about it in my Zoo and Goyfsligh matches.

Congratulations on the great finishes. After playing against you at the GP I would expect nothing less. Magus of the Moon has been amazing for me when I've tested him.

One question I have is whether you were worried about your combo match-up? It doesn't look very bad with access to so many discard spells but I am curious how you approached those match-ups.

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Originally Posted by IndyTerminator

Congratulations on the great finishes. After playing against you at the GP I would expect nothing less. Magus of the Moon has been amazing for me when I've tested him.

One question I have is whether you were worried about your combo match-up? It doesn't look very bad with access to so many discard spells but I am curious how you approached those match-ups.

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The combo matchup is very tricky and I am not too comfortable with it at all, though my record against it at the last 4 tournaments isn't too bad, with all the matches I lost being very close.
(Won against Alluren twice, Spanish Inquistion, and Cephalid Breakfast, Lost to Epic Storm, CRET Belcher twice(same deck once in swiss and once in finals)

The matchup against Alluren is pretty good because of the heavy discard and the Magus. Similarly that is the route of victory against breakfast, but breakfast is both faster than Alluren and can go goyf beats against you if keep a hand that is too disruption based and not enough Aggro.

The Epic Storm is very close despite their speed. They have a lot of chant effects that they can use to stall but don't actually do anything. Early discard is key. Depending on their hand Magus could also lock them out of mana acceleration or search.

CRET Belcher. Hope for the early discard or that they have to use Goblin tokens and you can race to Burning Wish or post board to plague or sharpshooter.

Ichorid. I haven't tested them matchup but I am pretty sure anytime I sit down against it I will have to be pretty damn luckly to walk away with a win.
The discard can be devasting against LED or breakthrough but otherwise isn't doing much (though a flashback can clear bridges). Post board you can use loaming shaman if you are luckly or E plague to slow them down. Honestly the best thing for you in this matchup is the fact that Ichorid has internal issues it has to deal with.

Awesome job Brian. Maybe Survival will get some respect again. Are there any changes you would make to the deck after two wins? Anything you were unimpressed with?

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Originally Posted by Di

Awesome job Brian. Maybe Survival will get some respect again. Are there any changes you would make to the deck after two wins? Anything you were unimpressed with?

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In the last several major tournaments I have been unimpressed with E-Plague. That is probably because I haven't faced Goblins and boarding them in against Breakfast isn't easy since you don't want to remove too many creatures and loss to goyf beats.

Big Game Hunter was rather unimpressive most of the time this weekend but did have marginal value and was good in my previous two tournaments.

Hull Breach was a stand out Wish target this weekend, while in previous tournaments I have not wished for it at all.

I was suprised how often my answer to a problem was Primal Command as well.

I am surprised with presence of Primal Command in your list. Could you kindly explain us the various ways you intend to use it? It is very mana hungry ... Moreover you said, that you could start gaining 7 life per turn with it at one point. How did you intend to do that ? By tutoring witness each turn? That would be 8 mana per turn which, even with my limited knowledge, I know is a lot . Probably you had some other trick in mind?

edit: oops, almost forgot - Congratulations on your achievements. I really like your list, as it has a lot in common with good old traditional Survi, unlike some fancy and wierd lists that pop up recently ...

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Originally Posted by crow_mw

I am surprised with presence of Primal Command in your list. Could you kindly explain us the various ways you intend to use it? It is very mana hungry ... Moreover you said, that you could start gaining 7 life per turn with it at one point. How did you intend to do that ? By tutoring witness each turn? That would be 8 mana per turn which, even with my limited knowledge, I know is a lot . Probably you had some other trick in mind?

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No other trick, Using witness to get back Command and gaining 7 life each time beats burn, assuming you can get to the 5 mana mark to cast the command. Even if it is only 7 life every other turn that is alot for most of those decks to overcome. Not to mention you are putting a blocker on the board to further stop the lose of life.
Yes it is mana intensive, but that is what the birds and Rofellos is for. If they burn out the mana creatures to slow down this plan that works for you as well since it is one less burn spell going at you.
Primal command can also be used to stall the game if you have an advantage on the board(again assuming a lot of mana) by putting a permenant on top of your opponents library and grabbing a witness to do it again.

I also found Primal Command helpful in the mirror as it gets rid of Survival in a non-Witnessable way as well as getting rid of their Genesis/Squee/Anger all in one card.

Nice Report. This deck is freaking awesome. I just took down an 84 person swiss tournament with this.

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Originally Posted by ForceofWill

Nice Report. This deck is freaking awesome. I just took down an 84 person swiss tournament with this.

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Where the heck was there an 84 person tournament? Apparently Legacy isn't dying :tongue: