Congrats :) Was possibly going to play this deck for the GPT this weekend, but everyone will be expecting it... Thanks, Matt ;)
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Congrats :) Was possibly going to play this deck for the GPT this weekend, but everyone will be expecting it... Thanks, Matt ;)
I always thought that was something SCG made people on the feature match cameras do so viewers could easily tell how big 'goyfs were?Quote:
Originally Posted by Viridia
Correct. They want it on the table, but not on my Goyfs :P
-Matt
That's ridiculous. Players should be responsible for verifying public information without the need for it to be handed to them. I thought SCG had some handy technical video editors, they can always put up an overlay for the viewers. GGsLive used to do this.Quote:
Originally Posted by sdematt
It's okay that they want a Die there to see how big the Goyfs are, but aparently people really want them put on top of the Goyf rather then 2 cm next to it :P
They TOLD me to put the Goyf counter up, they didn't ask. I never use dice for Gyof and always check when damage is being dealt, since it can change so often. That's why you see me be pretty awful with the dice; I never use it.
-Matt
Pretty lame that they force you to do it for the camera.Quote:
Originally Posted by sdematt
Congrats Matt!
What card can I use on MTGO in place of "Virtue's Ruin", as it isn't in print on MTGO.
Either a 3rd Deed, or a Golgari Charm/Zealous Persecution.Quote:
Originally Posted by worsel
-Matt
They probably want the die/dice up on camera representing the goyf for the audience more than any other reason, or so I'm guessing. Also happy turkey day in the states, and happy thanks giving a month & a half late for those up north in Canada. >^,^<
How good is golgari charm? I didn't see it in your list...maybe I am blind?Quote:
Originally Posted by sdematt
You didn't, but it's pretty good. I'd only use it if you didn't have a Virtue's Ruin. Perish mucks you in the nuts (you don't want to run it), and Virtue's Ruin kills all the tricky creatures you care about (Mom, Thalia, Linvala, Knight, Qasali). Another Deed is also good, but the Zealous Persecution is better at taking out small dudes and pumping yours, while Golgari Charm has flexibility in mucking a bunch of small dudes, killing Omniscience with Burning Wish on the stack, or regenerating all your creatures in response to a Supreme Verdict.
I like Ruin though, since it absolutely hoses Maverick. My friend was running BUG Control with Charm and Virtue's Ruin, along with Deeds, and he just screwed over his Maverick matches like no one's business.
I'll be going over my cards choices in an upcoming article on a major website I was asked to write for. Hooray me?
-Matt
Congrats on that, I'd love to write an article for something like starcity or tcg or whatever else, though everyone already knows how high tide works so it's not likely I'd be asked unless I did something weird with the deck ha ha.
Cool man. Keep us posted of the release date and website.Quote:
Originally Posted by sdematt
Yeah, I keep checking in for your tournament report and see nothing! :P
I'm actually buying the pieces to build true Rock now to get a more consistent deck (formerly nic fit, using your list as a blueprint), so hopefully I'll be able to chime into discussions soon with more firsthand knowledge on the deck.
Just looking for some opinions.
I was playing jund and realized that I don't really card about the red cards that much. And maybe white cards would be better.
Things I want to cut (I realize these are some sacred cows).
Swords to Plowshares
Tops (gonna play 2 libraries)
Knights
Things from Jund I really like (/want to add):
Liliana
Lingering Souls
Umezawa's Jittes
Bringing my list to:
3 Deathrite
5 Goyf Knight (not sure on the split right now, thinking 3/2)
4 Bob
1 ooze
3 Liliana
3 Lingering Souls
2 Sylvan Library
2 Jitte
3 Decay
2 Pulse
3 Thoughtsieze
3 IoK
3 GSZ
1 Chrome mox
22 Lands (3 wasteland, 0 Maze of ith).
I know this a lot more mana then many decks play but my curve is higher and I have always hated 21 land rock/maverick decks.
SB:
Basically Matt's
Questions:
a) Is there somewhere StP is a lot better then Jitte? Some matchup I am not thinking about.
b) Is top uncuttable? I loved Jitte + Sylvan in jund. But maybe 1 top and 1 sylvan is better?
c) How good is knight right now? With so many 3's I think I only want two. I expect more Deathrites (this card is bananas) so thats another reason to limit knights in my mind.
d) What matchups do wastelands excel in? I haven't played a ton of legacy since the summer, but that card was impressing me less and less then. Combo decks weren't really vulnerable to mana screw. RUG could mana screw you as much they get screwed (and they can't win if we just cast our spells). Didn't do a ton against Miracles/Stoneforge.
-cheers
I don't run Top myself. With Souls in the deck, you'll miss that 1 mana a lot. Library is much better in this deck. I'm no longer so sure about knight+toolbox myself. I'm considering cutting some from my builds for the local meta because of the lack of nonbasics and the relative irrelevance of the toolbox around here. KOTR is still huge, however, and I don't have other beaters besides Ooze, so I'm pretty much forced to keep some around. In your build, it looks like hitting acceleration on turn 1 and playing something amazing on turn 2 is very important, so maybe it's a good idea to run the full set of Deathrites.
My issue is that you're cutting the most solid creature removal in the format for equips that hit midgame and removal spells that are color-hungry. I am a reformed maverick player and a dedicated Death & Taxes pilot and it's hard for me to justify playing white and not swords. Similarly, knight is a definite 4-of in my eyes. A 5/5 for 3 that color corrects? Yes please.Quote:
Originally Posted by toor
Since I'm a maverick player originally, my list lacks goyf and thoutseize currently, though the latter will be acquired soon. I'm also running a single zenith as a 5th copy of knight or as a means of finding gaddock teeg or ooze. I'm currently debating the libraries or tops; seems good either way.
The tournament report is in the reports section, but I'll just paste it in here:
Hey all.
I'm here to regale you all with the tale of SCG Seattle, and what began as a regular weekend and ended with me narrowly missing first place at the Seattle Legacy Open.
For those that don't know me, I'm a Junk player from Vancouver, British Columbia.
Details can be found on the StarCityGames Website under "Coverage."
And now, on to the Tournament report.
--------
On Saturday, I decided that in case it was going to snow, I would bolt the winter tires onto my car. While the car was running outside the garage, the fan belt shredded apart, possibly causing me to reconsider my journey to the land of Amurica. I persisted and replaced the belt, attached the new tires, and began to sleeve up my cards out of perfect fits and into new sleeves. I picked up my partner in crime at the train station and we settled back home, trying to brew some tech for his BUG Control sideboard. We got to bed at 12AM, and had to be up at 530AM to make the event.
530AM rolls around and we stumble out of bed. We grab our stuff and get on the road and head to the altar of Canadian salvation: Tim Hortons. We grab breakfast and get back on the road and head for the border. The wait it roughly 20 minutes, and the border guard easily grants access to the riches of America once he sees we're big nerds heading to play Magical cards. The drive to Lynnwood takes about 1 hour 40 minutes. I see a guy in our playgroup. Jacob Thiessen, takes first in the Standard event. I know I have to take down the Legacy event to bring all the glory back to Canadia.
We register our decks. Here's what I registered:
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=50931
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
1 Windswept Heath
1 Maze of Ith
1 Karakas
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Wasteland
3 Bayou
2 Scrubland
1 Savannah
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Plains
4 Dark confidant
3 Tarmogoyf
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Deathrite Shaman
3 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Sylvan Library
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Garruk Relentless
--SIDEBOARD--
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
1 Virtue's Ruin
3 Hymn to Tourach
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Garruk Relentless
2 Pernicious Deed
3 Surgical Extraction
After everything is sleeved, we move to Round 1.
Round 1: JJ with Reanimator
JJ rolls high and goes first, He derdles around a bit with Brainstorms, and I Thoughtseize. I see he's on Reanimator, so I take his Reanimation spell. I drop to 15, and he topdecks good things and gets a Griselbrand in play with an Animate Dead. I Abrupt Decay the Animate Dead, he drops to 13 to draw 7. I get him to 8, but he drops Sphinx of the Steel Wind, and I don't have the removal for it in time. He dies at 4 life.
In: +3 Surgical Extraction,
Out: -2 Pulse, -1 Deathrite Shaman
In game 2, I'm able to gain the upper hand by stripping his hand apart, and then I land a Scavenging Ooze via Green Sun's Zenith. He can't Reanimate anything, and with Island Swamp up, he sets EE to 2 with my Sylvan and Ooze on board. I Sylvan into Abrupt Decay, take out his EE, then murder his graveyard. He scoops.
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...gnamarchon.jpg
Turns out, this guy's a beating, but hooray for Maze of Ith
Game 3 was more tricky. I see his hand is full of big dudes, but only a bit of action. I take his Thoughtseize that he drew so he couldn't take my good things. I land a Knight, and he manages to get Griselbrand. I get Karakas, but then Blazing Archon also joins the party. I fetch up Maze of Ith to stall, then grab Deathrite Shaman. Shaman takes him from 13 to zero.
2-1
Round 2: Bill with Elves
Bill's a nice guy who's been playing Legacy for about a year, and brought the deck he could afford. So, I pegged him on Affinity, Elves, Burn, or something like that. Unfortunately, a loose bit a of shuffling revealed a Llanowar Elf, meaning, well, he was on Elves.
Game one, he's on the play and drops an absolute ton of guys in the perfect Glimpse draw, but no kill. I had Thoughtseized away the Overrun Elf, but he drew the Glimpse. Obviously. I scoop.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/images/..._of_Nature.jpg
I'm not a huge fan of this card, to be honest.
In: +2 Pernicious Deed, +2 Surgical Extraction
Out: -1 Garruk Relentless, -3 Deathrite Shaman
This game, I'm on the play and Inquisition, and he craps his hand of one drops all over the board off of one land. I fill up the board with Knight and Tarmogoyf, then cast Deed to wipe away his board (and mine), leaving my 6/6 Knight in play. I take him out in 3 hits.
Game three, Bill's on the play and has a slower hand, but solid. I fetch and Thoughtseize, taking Glimpse. He beats me down with Nettle Sentinel with casting Llanowar, Fyndhorn, and a bunch of other stuff. He gets the Overrun guy out, I Abrupt Decay. He gets Archdruid, I Swords. I play Sylvan Library and try to start digging for Deed, since I won't have much time now. I'm at 10 after some big beats, and he's at 9. I've got two Knight of the Reliquary, one Dryad Arbor, and one Tarmogoyf, and a hand of nothing relevant. He has Emrakul in hand from Fierce Empath. At this point, he has 9 power worth of creatures, and I've got lethal on him for sure. I Sylvan into the Deed, cast it, and proceed to crush him. He was one turn from going off since he had a summoning sick Priest of Titania :P
4-2
Round 3: Ismael with Affinity
I go and sit down at Table 9, but as it turns out, both pairing on either side of us had feature matches, so we got to stretch a bit. We roll, and he wins. He's up first. He's only been playing Legacy since a few weeks ago, but he's played Standard.I put him on Delver or something using the attack step. He starts talking about Gangnam Style and calling my a poser, and then during the match, insults my Russian cards and asks why I would want Russian cards. I'm pretty sure he might have been trying to tilt me, but you see, that won't happen.
Turn one, He drops Seat of the Synod, Mox Opal, Memnite, Signal Pest, Signal Pest and then passes. Excellent, I love Affinity.
http://img.aegen.nl/AP/Pernicious%20Deed.jpg
"Say hello to my little friend" could be an appropriate line for Deed against Affinity
I drop Deathrite Shaman on the first turn and pass. He drops me to 14. The poison land (Inkmoth Nexus?) joins the party as well. I draw Sylvan Library, play it, and leave my Shaman up to muck Memnite. I swords Memnite, and drop to 11. I draw into Abrupt Decay, and take out Signal Pest #1. He drops Frogmite, I draw into more removal to keep him off anything. I land Knight, and Inkmoths me for 4 poison total before I wasteland. I go to 4, at which point he tries to Galvanic Blast me for lethal. I use Deathrite Shaman to go up to 6, then down to 2. I crack a fetch going to 1, and cast Inquisition, Tarmogoyf. Knight swings for 10. He drops to 14, he draws Frogmite. I remove it, then gain more like, ending the game at 7 while crushing with Knight. Phew.
In: +2 Deed, +1 Ulvenwald Tracker
Out: -3 Thoughtseize
This game is much more of a slow start since we're going a bit back and forth. He draws 3 Galvanic Blasts to muck my creatures, and then uses Relic to nuke my Graveyard and kill my Knight. Not good. I drop another Knight, and swing on the next turn with no mana open. He drops Blood Moon AND Blasts my Knight. I have Deed in hand, but I was sandbagging it for later when I really needed to screw him over. I have Sylvan online, but I proceed to draw NOTHING and die from Frogmite beats.
Game three, I got on the play and attempt to crush the garbage out of him. I drop Deathrite, Sylvan, Knight, Swords, Decay. He has Master of Etheriums, Frogmites, and even Ravager and Cranial Plating join the Party, all falling to the will of a very Abrupt Decay or go Farming. I start beating in with Knight after Wastelanding once, and he starts to build some board presence. Cranial Plating actually starts to become big, so I grab Maze of Ith at some point to make sure I don't get totally mucked (I fetched out all my basics as well). Later on, he has 3 Frogmite, Cranial Plating, and 3 Inkmoth Nexus. That COULD be a problem, but I don't think so. I attack in and he blocks, and then I drop Ulvenwald Tracker and Deathrite Shaman. Time is starting to run out, and he says we should draw, and he'd prefer that to a loss. So, I have to take out my Tracker and Deathrite after they'd done some work to clear out the board, which would leave him with only Blinkmoth and Frogmite. I attack after Deed and he blocks, losing Frogmite, but leaving a last Frogmite. I draw Abrupt Decay during turns, and then try to Abrupt Decay the Frogmite. Judge gives me a warning, and I apologize. I saw removal and slammed it. So, I just STP'd it instead, then used my second Knight to tutor Wasteland for the Inkmoth he decided to turn into a blocker. He dies on Turn 4 of turns.
6-3
Round 4: Martin (4th Place) with 4C Aluren
So, we roll and I'm up first. I play Deathrite Shaman and pass, he plays Misty Rainforest. I drop something irrelevant, He Brainstorms. The issue? He doesn't tap mana, he doesn't show me the Brainstorm, and I allow it, not realizing Brainstorm hadn't entered play. The judge is walking by and we call the Judge (he calls it on himself pretty immediately, I'm still a bit shocked as to what's going on). Judge asks me what's going on, and we both explain what happened accidentally. Martin gets a Game Loss unfortunately, and I don't get to see his hand ever. Sadness.
In: +2 Gaddock Teeg
Out: -1 Garruk Relentless, -1 Dark Confidant
Game 2, I still don't really know what's he is playing, but Teeg is good against Blue decks, so I ran with it. I Thoughtseize and I see Aluren. Oh no. I haven't play against Aluren since my friend played it YEARS ago, and it wasn't the Imperial Recruiter version. I'm trying to remember the combo itself. I take Aluren out of his hand, and then pummel him with more discard. I get him to 5 before he's able to get an Intuition for Imperial Recruiters while having other pieces to assemble his combo. Strix is in his yard, but he has Stronghold out. I try to get him with Ooze, but Ooze never lands. At 5 life, he starts to chain Recuiters. I make the mistake thinking he's on his last Recruiter, but turns out, he wasn't. I Abrupt Decay'd the Recruiter with the trigger on the stack, but he got #4. I should have Decayed his Eternal Witness, but I was mistaken in where his combo was, and hadn't seen it to completion.
http://bidwicket.com/Item/C/Collecti...Recruiter.JPEG
Stupid Imperial Recruiter
In: +3 Surgical Extraction, + 3 Hymn to Tourach
Out: -3 Deathrite Shaman, -2 Maelstrom Pulse, -1 Maze of Ith
In Game 3, he ends up ripping apart my hand with Cabal Therapies, and takes my 3 STP in hand. Ouch. I get him to (again), but he managed to topdeck Intuition and win. Obviously! Oh well. I think I tell him I'll get my revenge, and we part ways.
7-5
Round 5: Nate with Maverick
So, I have no idea what it's on, but I won the die roll, and I kept a hand containing Inquisition, Swords, Tarmogoyf, Sylvan Library, and two Fetchlands. Yep, seems good. I Inquisition off of a Swamp, and I see 2 STP, 1 SFM, and 4 Lands. Ouch. I take SFM, and pass. He derdles for a while and I drop Sylvan Library. He can't really do anything, so I get to drop Deathrite Shaman and Goyf. Goyf goes farming, I gain 4. I draw deep with Sylvan then drop Dark Confidant, who also farms. I drop Knight. He farms. Deathrite shaman is slowly working his Magic at some point. He sticks a Scavenging Ooze when he's at 6 lands or something and sucks up all my stuff, and I Plow. He plays Knight off Cavern, I plow. He plays another Knight, I plow some more. So far, 6 STP's run across the table, it was pretty sweet. Meanwhile, Sylvan digs into Knight, which gets up to an 8/8 thanks to some Wastelands from Nate. I derdle around with more creatures, then just start chunking into his life total. He manages to cling on for a while, but I just have too much and he scoops.
I had no idea what he was boarding in for me, since this matchup is very much in my favour. This is the matchup I wanted Golgari Charm.
In: +2 Pernicious Deed, +1 Virtue's Ruin, +1 Garruk Relentless, +1 Ulvenwald Tracker
Out: -3 Thoughtseize, -2 Inquisition of Kozilek
Nate takes the play, which I'm not sure is where you want to be in a Maverick mirror, but whatever. I guess he feared the discard I no longer had. Again, I fetch up Black and Green and go for Deathrite Shaman into Sylvan Library. Qasali takes out Library the turn after he drops Hierarch. Qasali swings and blows out Sylvan, and I draw a Karakas. I drop Knight, which earns a Plow. He drops Knight, welcome to Abrupt Decay land. He plays Elspeth, hello Maelstrom Pulse. He does something else, I Swords. Eventually, I've got Tarmgoyf, Knight, Ooze, Karakas, Forest, Swamp against his new Linvala while I'm tapped out. Crud. Well, this is going to suck. I draw, but no removal. I attack with Knight, which was bigger than Linvala to get in there, and Goyf also turned sideways. After Linvala, Nate drops Crucible of Worlds and no Wastelands in the bin thanks to my keen Ooze skills. He drops Knight and swings in the air for 4. Again, I don't have removal for either Knight or Linvala. So, I draw Abrupt Decay and muck his Crucible, because otherwise, I'm dying pretty horribly. His Knight is not bigger than mine, and I don't have enough Green for a worthwhile bounce with Karakas, then Ooze him out. I decide to wait out the Linvala attack and hopefully he can't get there with Knight. I forgot to mention I had Deeded on one previous to Crucible to knock out his Noble Hierarchs, so his only lands were Forest, Forest, Cavern of Souls - Human. Linvala now attacks, but I bounce her. He can't risk his mana, but he does and Wastelands me off Karakas. I have Maelstrom Pulse, but no lands. Scryb Ranger joins in, a fetchland gets played, and a Swords eats my Knight. Bah. Tapped Knight is bad. Oh well. Next turn he Wastelands me again, and lifts a and to get more land to recast Linvala, and passes. I rip Bayou and Maelstrom Pulse his Knight. I pass. I drops Jitte, equips, swings with Linvala. The two counters blow out my Ooze, but Goyf is still rocking and rolling.
http://img.aegen.nl/PT/Virtue%27s%20Ruin.jpg
this would have been good to see.
I start attacking after slowly reassembling my manabase, and get the basic Plains. I draw into Sylvan, and get into removal. He swings in, gains some life, you know. I land Knight, grab Maze, then go into Derdle mode. Jitte has counters, but it doesn't matter. I get removal and rumble in for exactsies after using Dryad Arbor as the surprise buttsex EOT off the Fetch. Hooray! My last card sitting in my hand the whole time: the last Inquisition of Kozilek. Ugh.
9-5
Round 6: Ricky with Merfolk
Ricky apparently lost his first round, and needs this to win and in. I asked if his opponent that he lost to was doing well, but he dropped. Since he shuffled a bit poorly, I saw Reejerey. I didn't know this was still a deck. I lose the die roll and have to mull once.
Game one starts with a Deathrite Shaman. Ricky has 1 Wasteland 2 Mutavault, and a Vial. I don't have the Decay for Vial, and he just drops 4 Lords over several turns while countering all the spells I own. I go from 20-19-17-15-12-11-6-2-0. He's at 19.
In: +2 Pernicious Deed, 1 Ulvenwald Tracker, 1 Garruk Relentless
Out: -2 Maelstrom Pulse, -2 Thoughtseize
Taking out Thoughtseize on the play is questionable for sure, but the life matters. Plus, this is going to be a long game, and drawing it later is going to suck. I go first (with a Thoughtseize!) and grab a Lord. He runs out Cursecatcher, I run Goyf. Next turn, I try to GSZ for Goyf #2, but he Submerges my first goyf so I don't really get anywhere. He drops a Lord and passes. I land Knight at 4/4, he lets it resolves. He gets more Lords and swings. I get to about 13 and have Knights, but not much else. I play out Dark Confidants as blockers, but end up keeping them just to get cards. I resolved 2 STP and my 2 Decay to wipe out his board. He starts to creep back with more Lords, and I'm low in life and can't push back. He decides to let Confidant kill me, but I lose 6 life off a total of 6 Bob flips (1 was Garruk, 1 was GSZ, one was Inquisition, rest were lands). I GSZ for Shaman and slowly start boosting my life total to 6. He applies pressure, so I muck my Confidants. I get to 2, but still hang on. Tracker joins the party, and that's all she wrote.
http://s3.gatheringmagic.com/uploads...an_library.jpg
The cause of many judge call headaches
Game 3 I'm on the draw. He lands Vial, and I drop Deathrite Shaman. He counters some stuff, I drop Sylvan. Sylvan digs hard into Goyf and Knight, some get countered, I swords some of his stuff in reply. I get a Knight down and start chunking for 5, he gets me down to 9 when Deathrite starts coming back. Abrupt Decay murders Reejerey, again, changing his math. I drop Goyf to wall up, and then I screw up on Sylvan and dig 4, but only see cards 1,2, and 4. Judge gets called, and he had a problem with my shortcut, and it seems like Ricky is complaining about the shortcut as well. He never had responses to the Sylvan triggers, so it just seemed like a big waste of time. Whatever. I draw more creatures and removal, and crush the Fishies into the ground.
11-6
Round 7: Corbett Gray with Sneak and Show
I played 3 seats down from Corbett in Round 2, so I know he's on some sort of Show and Tell deck; I figured he was on Omni. Perfect. I keep a nice hand of Thoughtseize, Sylvan, Knight, Land, Land, and good stuff. He mulls to 5, unfortunately, with me on the play. I Thoughtseize, and he scoops.
In: +2 Gaddock Teeg, +3 Hymn to tourach, +3 Surgical Extraction
Out: -4 Swords to Plowshares, -3 Abrupt Decay, -1 Garruk Relentless
Game 2 he goes first and has the literal nut draw after Brainstorming back the goods in response to my Inquisiton into his mind. I cast Knight on turn 3, but he has the hard Sneak Attack with Petal to Spaghetti me to 5 life with zero permanents. I draw and play dryad Arbor, but he has the second Emrakul. I scoop.
Game 3, I got on the play and start cooking. I Inquisition, seeing Force, Preordain, Show and Tell, Intuition, Island, Misty, Emrakul. I take Preordain. He plays Island, go. I Hymn, killing Misty and Intuition. He plays Misty and passes. I Hymn again and take SnT and Misty. He groans. He drops another Misty and passes. I Inquisition after seeing one with Top, and he only has Force/Emrakul. I drop Gaddock Teeg, then Surgical Extraction his Show and Tell. Then, he can't do anything. He can't cast Sneak, he doesn't have Show and Tell, and there was no Cunning or Burning Wish. I sat there and beat him down from 19 with Gaddock Teeg and Dryad Arbor. He was a bit upset by my lucksacks, and I am too.
13-8
Round 8: Bryan with Bant
As it turns out, Bryan is a friend of Max McCall, so nice to see another fellow Sourcer. Bryan and I are both 6-1 (or he's close), but his breakers are awful, and mine aren't the greatest. I ask a few people if we can draw in, some say yes, others say no. It looks like if we draw, it's way more likely I'm going to get in, but he wouldn't (I was 5th at the time). So, we decide to play it out and if it goes to time, we'll draw.
Bryan gets to work and goes first, dropping Noble Hierarch. I Thoughtseize on my turn off a Bayou, taking Knight. He cracks a Misty and runs out a Qasali Pridemage. I draw and play Top off a Wasteland. At this point I'm a bit manascrewed. I pass, he Wastelands my Bayou, and I Top to see no lands for three turns. GREAT. He drops Knight the turn after and plays another Wasteland. I pack it up.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers...0154&type=card
This guy's pretty good...
In: +2 Pernicious Deed, +1 Garruk Relentless, +1 Virtue's Ruin, +1 Ulvenwald Tracker, +1 Gaddock Teeg (in case he's running Jace)
Out: -3 Thoughtseize, -3 Inquisition of Kozilek
Game 2 I decide to run first, dropping a Deathrite Shaman. He drops Noble and passes. I Swords and drop Confidant. He runs GSZ for Noble #2, I have Abrupt Decay (and Wasteland?) to muck him over a bit. I'm pretty sure this is the game where he stabilizes at 16 and we start doing Knight things. He gets a large Knight on the table, and at that point,I only have Dark Confidant and Dryad Arbor. Luckily for me, Top finds me a Garruk Relentless and a GSZ. Nice. Garruk pops a Scryb Ranger or something to flip, and I use Confidant as a blocker. Next turn, I run out Knight and GSZ. He allows it, but I got find Ulvenwald Tracker for the tricks. Max, watching from the side, just rolls his eyes, and so does Bryan. If he doesn't remove Tracker this turn, he knows he loses. Turns out, he loses. I make his Knight fight a very rapid Wolf, and the game ends very quickly after that.
Game 3 Bryan decides to play. He gets a sizable army of Nobles up, along with Qasali and Sylvan Safekeeper. Bah. I have Sylvan Library, but he pops it once he gets the mana. I'm holding Abrupt Decay and STP, and I'm contemplating just making him sac all his lands to block my removal, but I hold instead. I have outs. He starts beating in and dropping Knights, whereas I have Top, Dryad Arbor, Knight, Goyf, and a bunch of mana to his 3 Noble Hierarch, Qasali Pridemage, Sylvan Safekeeper, 2 Knight of the Reliquary, etc. He gets on the Wasteland plan and starts beating in. I draw Pernicious Deed, but can only bust for 2 since I have my own Knight and no more mana. I have to do it. I Deed the board, spinning Top in response, he Qasali's, I get a bit sad. I draw the other card (which is now another piece of removal). I pass, and he rumbles in after more Wastelands (his Knights are 8's or 10's and mine's 2 less). I get Bogged as well at some point, and I go to 5. After the Wastelands though, I'm at an 8/8 Knight. I EOT STP one Knight, and Abrupt Decay the other. He's at 24. I rumble for 8. He draws, passes. I rumble for 8. He draws, and plays nothing relevant. I rumble for eight, and he's shocked he lost. Remember, I wanted to draw.
http://media.wizards.com/images/magi...f6yxumpzjr.jpg
Dear Wizards, thanks for printing something good that's not blue. Sincerely, non-blue players...
15-9
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Now the Top 8 is announced. With 21 Points, I end up being Top Seed in the Top 8, meaning I get to play first. Being the discard deck, this is huge. They take my deck for the Top 8 check, but there's some confusion over how many Garruk Relentless I'm running (since I only have one regular and one Checklist card). But, it all gets figured out. However, they made me resleeve my Beta duals, since they didn't want to take the chance to muck them up :cool:
Here's the Top 8 information:
http://starcitygames.com/events/cove..._profiles.html
So, we take our photos, I have a Latte; things are looking up for Matt. I find out we can split top 8, and I'm on that. We ended up splitting the Top 8 for $750 each. Now, was this the wisest choice? Maybe not, but I think everyone had a fun day, and was just interested in playing for glory. I mean, now that I know I came 2nd, I would have opted more for Top 4 Split, but I'm totally fine with the money I earned.
My matches for the finals were either on camera, or written about by Reuben. I'll post the links.
Quarterfinals:
http://starcitygames.com/events/cove...rterfinal.html
http://www.wizards.com/mtg/images/da.../td83_jace.jpg
Raid didn't even get to cast his Jace. That sucked :(
Raid was a good kid. I was joking around with him before the game, but he seemed super tense. I asked him some choices about his decklist and how long he's played Legacy, but he didn't want to talk too much. I pegged him for being very new to Legacy, and I recognized the list as a pretty stock Esper Stoneblade list. I noticed two things: No Counterbalance, no Entreat, no Terminus, no Wasteland. In theory, this should be a cakewalk, and with Abrupt Decay, boy, it was. Raid was a good guy though, it was nice to meet him!
Sideboarding:
In: +3 Hymn to tourach, +2 Gaddock Teeg
Out: -4 Swords to Plowshares, -1 Garruk Relentless
17-9
Semifinals:
In the Semi-Finals, I played against Martin once again, but this time, I had to exact my revenge. He drew somewhat poorly, and I drew cards that I needed.
Sideboarding:
In: +3 Hymn to tourach, + 3 Surgical Extraction, +2 Gaddock Teeg
Out: -2 Maelstrom Pulse, -1 Maze of Ith, -1 Dark Confidant, -3 Deathrite Shaman?, -1 Random
19-9
Finals:
http://starcitygames.com/events/cove...als_felin.html
The finals, as I saw, was now between two Sourcers, myself and Feline! I was happy to see another Sourcer, but not the happiest to see High Tide. I would have preferred RUG Delver, considering he was also VERY new to Legacy. I had to mull both games, and I only saw mediocre hands. They were fine, but Feline ripped VERY well and I just didn't. I couldn't mull too far because then you end up with hand without a combination of pressure and discard; you end up getting one or the other, which is not where you want to be as a non-blue deck against Combo.
http://media.wizards.com/images/magi...td186_high.jpg
We'll meet again, High Tide, we'll meet again...
If I had had hands like against Corbett, then I think I could have gotten there. But, I'm not even mad. Feline played a good game and knew her stuff. She played the fastest High Tide match I'd ever seen someone play, and could count at a reasonable pace.
Congrats again!
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So, I wanted to say thanks to the people here on the Source and that are a part of Surrey Legacy Group for the testing, ideas, etc. All of my opponents were pretty great (excluding some dickish moves from some, but I beat them, so it didn't matter). The coverage was great, judges were great, and the staff was excellent. I had a great time!
Props:
Coming 2nd, more cash for Beta duals.
Abrupt Decay, Sylvan Library, Deathrite Shaman
New Sleeves!
Slops:
Missing the win in Aluren in Round 4.
Not winning against High Tide.
Getting held up at the border.
Regards,
-Matt
By cutting Knights, you're essentially cutting acceleration and a Planeswalker, in addition to a finisher.
a) STP is better in the, "I need real removal" matchup. The one where they play creatures you need to kill. I'm sorry if I'm being a bit facetious, but STP is very good at removing creatures without a condition, whereas Jitte is slow and pings small things. That's fine against Goblins, but you still need STP to back you up. It's the reason why it's an automatic 4-of in white decks.Quote:
a) Is there somewhere StP is a lot better then Jitte? Some matchup I am not thinking about.
b) Is top uncuttable? I loved Jitte + Sylvan in jund. But maybe 1 top and 1 sylvan is better?
c) How good is knight right now? With so many 3's I think I only want two. I expect more Deathrites (this card is bananas) so thats another reason to limit knights in my mind.
d) What matchups do wastelands excel in? I haven't played a ton of legacy since the summer, but that card was impressing me less and less then. Combo decks weren't really vulnerable to mana screw. RUG could mana screw you as much they get screwed (and they can't win if we just cast our spells). Didn't do a ton against Miracles/Stoneforge.
b) Top is cuttable if you needed to. I found Sylvan did more work on Sunday, but this wasn't to say Top was ever bad.
c) Knight's very good. You can mana fix, Wasteland, Karakas, and then beat down later. It's a planeswalker that destroys lands that turns into a creature and attacks later on. I'd rather have Knight and just kill their Deathrite than play less Knight. Plus, you can always use your Deathrite to muck the land they target so they don't get the mana.
d) Wastelands excel in matchups where they have lots of nonbasics, you need to kill a specialty land, or they are colour or mana hungry. You use it mostly against Maverick, but also if players get greedy or to pump your Knights. It kills Mutavault, dual lands, Maze of Ith, Mishra's Factory, Rishadan Port, etc. You COULD play without them, but you'd be losing a bit of edge. Sometimes, players get greedy and fetch all nonbasics, then you can set them back 2-3 turns with Wasteland tutoring off Knight.
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I think where you may be having issues is that you're trying to make a Lingering Souls deck out of this deck by cutting everything that makes Junk a deck. If you want to be all in on tokens, don't screw around with Knights at all, run SFM, Dark Confidant, and such and run a straight up BW Tokens deck, which is pretty good at the moment.
-Matt