Originally Posted by
Svyelunite
Quick recap of SCG Atlanta 5k IQ. (I'm Zachary Koch btw)
R1 - Merfolk
Both games were very fast hands with lots of pump spells and inkmoths/blighted agents. This matchup is pretty rough for the poor fish men because they're slower and can't disrupt us very well.
R2 - Manaless Dredge (1-0)
My opponent revealed to me that this is his first Legacy tournament. I feel good :)
G1: I won the die roll and didn't know what he was on so I mistakenly chose to play. My hand had a decent goldfish of glistener, hierarch, 2 lands, invigorate, daze, spell pierce. It didn't matter though because I didn't see any more pump spells and my opponent hit a bridge, cabal therapy, and jellyfish with his first 2 dredges (cycle street wraith and nat draw) He had plenty of blockers to set up and eventually overrun me.
G2: I kept a questionable hand of Inkmoth, Pendlehaven, Daze, RiP, Glistener Elf, Berserk, Ponder. Naturally, I don't draw a land or hierarch for 4 turns and assume I'm totally out of the game. My opponent misplays however and decides not to dread return the Chancellor of the Annex in his graveyard giving me one last draw step. I hit Savannah (finally!) and combo kill him in one hit.
G3: Turn 2 kill, on the play because obviously my opponent chooses to draw. Kind of anticlimactic for my opponent but that's how infect is sometimes.
R3 - Imperial Painter (2-0)
G1: This game basically boiled down to me being stupid and not Dazing his turn 2 Ensnaring Bridge (off of Spirit Guide). I thought I could kill him before he got empty handed and I wanted to have a counter in case he tried to blood moon me. He drew another Spirit Guide the following turn and was amazingly able to completely dump his hand. I milled a few turns later to the combo.
G2: Keep 7 of 2x Fetch, Noble, Pithing Needle, 3x Git Probe. Fire off all 3 probes to see his hand of Arid Mesa, SDT, City of Traitors, Pyroblast, Blood moon, Magus of the Moon, Grindstone. I draw Fetch, Brainstorm, Wasteland. This was a bad situation because if I cast Noble I can assure I'll have colored mana, but all of my lands are useless, and I have a lot of them. If I cast BS I can potentially find counter magic to fight the Blood Moon, but he has magus also so it seems unlikely I can fight both. I decide to make the ultra-risky/super high reward play of pithing Needle naming Arid Mesa. He plays his City and Top/Spin. I waste his City and play the Noble (draw was Blighted Agent). He draws, plays a Mountain and passes. I can't cast Agent because I have no way to fight the Pyroblast so I play my land and pass. He spins his top, in response I get to resolve my BS and find a Force+Second Blighted Agent. He draws, plays a different fetch land, and passes. My turn yields an Invigorate and once again I am resigned to passing without a play. I don't think I can jam the Agent in this situation because I have to use my Force to make it resolve and he can get Blood Moon. He spins, draws, draws with Top, plays a mountain and a Lotus Petal, casts Bloom Moon. I force, he uses the Petal to Pyroblast my Force and I'm now on 2 mountains and a Noble Hierarch. I draw a Berserk. Cast Blighted Agent and Pass. His turn he casts Magus of the Moon and passes back. I attack for 6 with a hard cast invigorate and cross my fingers. His draw finds nothing and I'm able to attack, trigger the hierarch, and berserk for the kill.
G3: My opponent mulligans to 5 and keeps his scry. I don't remember my hand exactly, but I know it was good enough to keep 7. Basically, he drew too many 3 drops and no City of Traitors or Ancient Tomb and I killed him before he could get set up.
R4 - Punishing Jund (3-0)
G1: My opponent is on the play. I knew what he was on from seeing him play earlier so I mulled my opener hoping to find an Inkmoth and pump spells. 6 is keepable, although no Inkmoth. He leads with DRS. I play Hierarch and cross my fingers because I don't have another land. He of course jams a turn 2 lili and the game is over before it starts.
G2: T2 kill with Daze backup. Sometimes this deck is so incredibly unfair.
G3: I keep a hand of StP, 2x Glistener, Hierarch, Berserk, Trop, Fetch. He leads with Badlands, Thoughtseize, taking one of my Glistener Elves. I draw Invigorate. It's worth noting that he took the Elf here because it leads me to believe he either doesn't have much removal, and/or his hand has too many high cost spells and he's hoping to scare me into playing the Hierarch and get himself an extra turn. I jam the Elf anyway and hope he doesn't have an abrupt decay. He plays a Verdant Catacombs and Lightning Bolts my Elf. I use Invigorate to save it. He fetches a Bayou and passes. I think fetching there was a mistake because by not having Red mana, I can rule out another bolt (he probably would have used it if he had it anyway, but this assures me he doesn't). Also, by not casting a spell, he is bluffing removal (and playing around Stifle), but I think he attempted to sell it too hard. I rip an Invigorate, like a pro ;), and combo kill him. His remaining hand was Sylvan Library, BBE, K. Command, and Lands. We discussed the bolt/fetch scenario and he agrees it was probably wrong to fetch around Stifle.
R5- Mentor Miracles (4-0)
G1: Opponent mulligans to 6 and bottoms the scry. I won the die roll and kept 7. As the games usually do, it became a long drawn out affair where I drew lots of Inkmoths and he slowly died to not finding enough Plows/Terminus.
G2: I kept a hand with only 1 infect creature. He STPs it on his turn, and I am left with only a Hierarch. Fortunately, his hand was pretty bad and I got a Pithing Needle on Top to keep it that way. I drew 2 more Hierarchs and bludgeoned him to death the hard way. He attempted to hard cast 2 Terminus but I had Spell Pierce and Force of Will for them. Hierarchs got there backed up by a Become Immense.
R6- Infect (5-0)
I was the lowest seed of the 5-0's so I got paired down was unable to double ID into top 8.
G1: I won the die roll and kept my 6. It had pump spells, creatures and a Brainstorm. I don't remember much of the specifics of the game, but I know at one point my opponent attacked with his Glistener Elf, I blocked with mine, he invigorated and went to damage. This is relevant because it told me that my opponent was unfamiliar with the mirror. A combination of Hierarch + Inkmoth beats eventually won the game for me.
G2: I boarded in the 4th Vines, 3x Plows, 2x K Grips, Flusterstorm and Teferi's Response, and took out both Berserks, an Invigorate, 3x FoW, 2x Daze. This matchup is a very attrition heavy game and I wanted to be the one with all the good Counterspells and Removal. Also, Teferi's Response is good if they try to Wasteland/Vines your Inkmoth (especially if they Crop Rotation for it). Anyway, I drew very well and was able to stick a Blighted Agent with a Hierarch and 5 turns later is was over. I talked with my opponent afterward and saw that he was not running the white version. I think in the mirror, the white cards can make a huge difference because having StP is so much better than the Crop Rotation package and Submerge.
R7- ID with Caleb Scherer (6-0-1)
Onto top 8!
Quarterfinals: Rematch vs. Miracles from R5.
G1: On the play I kept a decent hand with Hierarch, Elf and an Inkmoth. My opponent kept a hand that had was I assume was 2 StP and a Snapcaster Mage. I couldn't keep an Infect creature alive and my opponent got the Counterbalance/Top lock out to stall me until JTMS could lock it up.
G2: Opponent mulligans to 6. I also mulligan to 6. My scry reveals a Wasteland which I decide to keep. I lead on Inkmoth Nexus and pass the turn. My opponent correctly decides to lead on a basic Plains and passes back. I draw the Wasteland and cast a Blighted Agent. My opponent plays a Tundra and Plows my agent. The rest of the game played out with me drawing Inkmoths and playing defensively with Vines of Vastwood. At one point my opponent cast a Blood Moon, but I had a Krosan Grip and mana available so I floated and destroyed it after it resolved. Crop Rotation found Pendlehaven to prevent Izzet Staticaster from destroying me, and I won by inches.
G3: I kept a fast hand with 2x Invigorate, Vines, Glistener Elf, Fetch, Ponder, Brainstorm. I debated opening on Ponder but went with Glistener Elf as this could easily be a turn 2 kill on the draw if my opponent doesn't have StP. He of course does and I am forced to Ponder turn 2 to find a land. The rest of the game I tried desperately with a Brainstorm and Crop Rotation to find more creatures, but drew terribly and basically ended up with 5 pump spells in hand and no creatures or anti-hate cards (Needle or K. Grip) to get out from under the Top Lock. Possible I should have mulliganed this hand, but a land off the top on either the first or 2nd turn would have made it a much different game. Overall I drew pretty poorly, but maybe I could have mulliganed or played differently to play my best around it.
Final record (6-1-1) 5th place. Infect is awesome.
