GP Louisville - Report
Hello everyone! As I mentioned I'd be writing my report at some point this week, and I apologize for the delay. Work kept me too tired to write it up until now.
I went into this event with two weeks notification as a Christmas gift from the family, so as much as I was grateful I also was improperly prepared. I never managed to nail out the final pieces of my deck list and ended up going with what I was most comfortable with.
The list I ended up taking:
MB
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Mountain
1 Taiga
1 Plateau
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
4 AEther Vial
4 Goblin Lackey
1 Skirk Prospector
4 Goblin Piledriver
2 Mogg War Marshal
1 Tin Street Hooligan
1 Stingscourger
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Warchief
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
2 Gempalm Incinerator
2 Tarfire
2 Pyrokinesis
SB
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Containment Priest
2 Pithing Needle
1 Wear // Tear
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Pyrokinesis
1 Tin Street Hooligan
I still hadn't figured out a few things.
Firstly I wanted my Pyrokinesis's in the board. It's not that the card is a bad maindeck card, it's that I want access to 8 or 9 straight kill spells post board against Infect and Elves. That came back to hurt me in the event itself.
Secondly I didn't have enough time to figure out where to fit Blood Moon into my board. My small amount of testing I did get done told me that the 2nd Krenko in the board was sufficient in handling decks that Blood Moon usually shines in, but that's not especially optimum. I eventually kept it the way it was due to the fear of Reanimator that everyone seems to have. I left those Surgical Extractions in at this time. In retrospect, I think I was playing scared and didn't truly need them. A second Stingscourger plus my normal game plan would have helped me far more for less SB slots.
Thirdly I wanted some form of Storm Hate, be it Mindbreak Trap, Grafdigger's Cage, or whatever, but as the deck is only 4% of the meta I ended up deciding that I could throw that match if it came down to me not finding space.
Disaster struck about 3 days before the event. I caught the Flu. I was feeling good enough to leave for the event, but I was not exactly in the best mindset.
The day before the event.
We had arrived a day early and had time to play for some buys. I did not win any on that day, but I did play against some fun stuff. I played against Jund, ANT, Infect, Food Chain, Big Red (Mono Red Sneak Attack), Esper Stoneblade, Eldrazi, and Shardless. I got lucky agains Storm and had an amazing match against Shardless, but ultimatley this little side adventure should have told me that Blood Moon was a priority. It was good against 6 of my 8 opponents. I read that info but did not act upon it. I even remember talking to some car-mates about it. I blame my sickness for incomplete critical thinking, and I blame me for not keeping my body in good enough shape.
GP Matches
Match 1 - Ethan on Oops All Spells
Game 1
My opponent won the die roll and chose to be on the draw. I kept a hand that could clock in 4 turns and had a Tarfire thinking I was against Manaless. This should have in theory let me race and plausibly break bridges by shocking my own Goblin Lackey if need be.
He led the game with Gitaxian Probe, Gitaxian Probe, Street Wraith and passed turn. Something's up. This isn't a typical line or keep from a dredge player. I jam my Lackey and just kind of beat him up while he does literally nothing.
Sideboarding
+3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, +2 Relic of Progenitus, +2 Surgical Extraction, +2 Containment Priest, +1 Pyrokinesis
-3 Goblin Ringleader, -2 Tarfire, -2 Mogg War Marshal, -1 Goblin Pileddriver, -1 ?
I hedged here, I wasn't entirely convinced he was on Manaless and boarded as if he were one of the other fast decks that wasn't literally Belcher, while still maxing out my Grave Hate. I don't remember the last card I boarded out, my notes even show "-1 ?" sitting there. I might have run with 61 at that point. Go me.
Game 2
My opponent chooses Play and goes off on turn 1 revealing that he is truly on Oops all spells.
Game 3
This is very similar to game 1, but it's two Street Wraith and 1 Gitaxian Probe. I just kind of beat him up.
Summary
He was on a budget build without LEDs. He lost to his own inconsistency both games, with Thalia helping along game 3.
Match 2 - Alan on Infect
Game 1
I win the die roll, mulligan, and play an AEther Vial. He responds by simply putting down a fetch and passing. I tick the Vial and play a Goblin Piledriver. His turn comes up and he cracks the fetch, lays a second Tropical Island and jams Blighted Agent. I die on the following turn to Invigorate + Berserk. I hate losing in this fashion. I had the ground clogged up and Wasteland in hand. I had all of my avenues covered but the scariest, hardest to interact one.
Sideboarding
+3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, +1 Pyrokinesis, +1 Tin Street Hooligan
-3 Goblin Ringleader, -1 Stingscourger, -1 Krenko, Mob Boss
I think I messed this up, more proof I wasn't playing properly all day. I didn't board in my Pithing Needles due to old habits that didn't change. In lists I have with 9 kill spells post board I don't think it's required, and I got used to that. Additionally I boarded out Stingscourger, which is interaction in this match-up. Don't do Influenza kids.
Game 2
On the play I have AEther Vial, Rishadan Port, and Pyrokinsis. I win this game in an expected fashion.
Game 3
I mulligan twice to a mediocre 5, but it, like my first hand, can beat anything but Blighted Agent into Invigorate + Berserk. I lose to that on turn 4.
Summary
In addition the poor sideboarding I also sequenced pretty poorly in these games. Didn't play around Daze, and noticed it directly afterwords, fetched at strange times, etc. At this point I was pretty mad at myself due to a few factors. I had a pretty bad Headache that started that morning. I could see myself making mistakes directly after making them, which is the fastest way to make myself tilt. I feel like I was playing as if I had only been playing Legacy for a Year. I think I would have lost that match anyway looking back, but I could have played it better. I took another 250MG of Acetaminophen and moved on.
Match 3 - Tom on Sneak & Show slight hybrid
Game 1
He wins the die roll and we both keep our 7. Tom Scalding Tarns into an Island, and Preordains both cards down and passes. I play a fetch and pass. Tom Preordains again and bottoms both, and passes without laying a land. I start to use Rishadan Port on his upkeep. He doesn't lay another land for quite some time, and at some point in this game he discarded an Omniscience to hand size. He then mentions out loud that "If I hadn't discarded my only out I think I could do this." This leads me to believe he only has 1 Omniscience. He never finds a second land until the turn before he dies. He reveals 3 Ponders in his hand with a sad smile and moves to board.
Sideboarding
I assume he's on Sneak and Show with 1 Omniscience as another win con to fight through D&T.
+3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, +2Containment Priest, +2 Pithing Needle, +1 Wear // Tear , +1 Tin Street Hooligan
-3 Goblin Ringleader, -2 Pyrokinesis, -2 Tarfire, -1 Gempalm Incinerator, -1 Goblin Sharpshooter,
Game 2
We play a typical game of Show & Tell into Stingscourger, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to lock it and win.
Summary
I feel good about this match-up, especially the hybrid version he attempted to play with. It was just Sneak & Show but with some Cunning Wishes. Since he did not commit to either plan I as not as worried the entire match. Kozilek's Return costs 6 between the tutor and itself, where as a naturally drawn Pyroclasm hurts way more.
Match 4 - Gary on Elves
Game 1
He wins the die roll, we both mulligan and bottom our cards. He jams 2 Nettle Sentinal and I surprise him with a Pyrokinesis from a board of 2 Rishadan Ports, and AEther Vial. Unfortunately the game drags on long enough for him to recover and I die with a Tarfire in hand due to never having red mana. It happens.
Sideboarding
+2 Containment Priest, +2 Pithing Needle, +1 Pyrokinesis
-2 Goblin Pildriver, -2 Mogg War Marshal, -1 Stingscourger
Here is me being used to my old build with more kill spells again. I can't cut Stingscourger in this match with this few kill spells, and I improperly board out all of my Mogg War Marshal, which can shut off my Gempalm Incinerators.
Game 2
I mulligan to an lower end 6 with 4 lands (1 Rishadan Port, Wasteland), with Goblin Piledriver and Pyrokinesis, scrying an AEther Vial up top. He just kind of plays Gerruk Relentless and I am powerless to stop it. I prevent him from going off, but ultimatley the sub-par hand mixed with my poor draws got me dead. I'm not entirely sure if this keep was correct. It was a lower end 6, but surely that's better than a random 5. I actually put this loss on drawing 4 lands in my 7 draw steps that game, helped along with my topping of AEther Vial. I actually died to Garruk Relentless's ultimate.
Summary
Elves is a fine match-up, but I really am missing those extra kill spells today.
Additionally my Headache has not gotten better, and I probably should have dropped at this point as I got a cold chill, meaning my Fever came back. Being stupid me, I kept going with a liter of Green Tea.
Match 5 - Damon on Elves
Game 1
I keep a good 7 and he wins the die roll. I lost on turn 4 to a Craterhoof Behemoth through my Pyrokinesis and Tarfire. I think I had the tools to win this match, as he only did normal elves things, but I just don't remember much about this match other than thinking I shouldn't have died and that it was my fault.
Sideboarding
+2 Containment Priest, +2 Pithing Needle, +1 Pyrokinesis
-2 Goblin Pildriver, -2 Mogg War Marshal, -1 Stingscourger
With my autopilit I referred to my notes from the previous match and boarded the same, improper way. Man, I deserve these losses.
Game 2
I mulligan once and he twice. I beat him up with good ol' fashion Goblin Lackey beats with Pyrokinesis helping along. He never really stood up this game. Probably that mul to 5.
Game 3
No mulligans. We play a really long game that I eventaully took with superior board presence due to my card draw. This was all Gempalm Incinerator with Goblin Sharpshooter to finish it off.
Summary
Same deal. Elves is a fine match-up, but I really am missing those extra kill spells. Notably I wasn't playing any better, my hand just paired up properly. I still feel like my sequencing is way off.
Match 6 - Wesley on Storm (ANT)
Game 1
We both keep and he wins the die roll. I die on turn 2 with a Goblin Lackey in play to Tendrils of Agony. Noteably he is on ANT not TES.
Sideboarding
+3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, +2 Surgical Extraction, +2 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Wear // Tear, +1 Tin Street Hooligan, +1 Krenko, Mob Boss
-3 Goblin Ringleader, -2 Tarfire, -2 Pyrokinesis, -1 Gempalm Incinerator, -1 Stingscourger, -1 Mogg War marshal
Game 2
I jammed a Relic of Progenitus on T1 and a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben on T2 and won from there.
Game 3
I mulligan and keep a hand with a Relic of Progenitus, Surgical Extraction, and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. He cantrips and passes. I jam the Relic of Progenitus and pass it back. He goes off on T2 again. I attempt to snipe Dark Ritual in the middle of his sequence but he had enough floating mana to play the one he had in hand. I die to Tendrils of Agony again.
Summary
His hands were pretty fast, a tad faster than average, but not out of scope of what's to be expected. I lost due to my SB not respecting storm. I had all of the tools my deck can actually give me for those matches, so I can't complain there.
Match 7 - Cameron on Miracles
Game 1
I win the die roll and we keep our 7s. I find out pretty quickly my opponent is on Miracles, which is rough as my hand doens't have Goblin Matron or Goblin Ringleader. My AEther Vial was countered on T1 and I never had a Cavern of Souls. So this game grinds rather hard. At some point he removes my Stinscourger (that I had paid the echo on) with a Snapcaster Mage on Swords to Plowshares. This caused an event I will likely not see again in Legacy. For fear of being beaten down by the 2/1 as my hand was hot garbage, I paid 6 mana for a Pyrokinesis to kill it. He of course hard cast Force of Will. The battle of Alliance set cards did not end there for the same thing ocurred again on the following turn. I paid 6 mana for a Pyrokinesis and he once again Force of Willed back for 5 mana. Too efficient for me. I top deck a Tarfire and kill the 2/1, but die to a Jace, the Mind Scultpor that lands the following turn.
Sideboarding
I'm pretty bummed that I lost the grind to Miracles. I have a greater understanding as to why the deck is good though. Imagine this, some decks simply can't draw 8 extra cards in a game. I hurts to think about, I know.
+2 Pithing Needle, +1 Wear // Tear
-2 Tarfire, -1 Stingscourger
I will board in Thalia, Guardian of Thraben if I didn't already have 3 cards to bring in. I value Goblin Ringleader in this match far more than I value Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Game 2
We keep our 7s and the game slowly starts up. I have a hand tailor made for defeating Miracles, Multiple Goblin Matrons and Goblin Ringleaders with a Pithing Needle naming Sensei's Divining Top. Then the most amazing set of things happened. I died.
End of my turn 5 he Kozilek's Return killing a 1/1 and a 2/2, he jams a Jace, the Mind Sculptor on his turn. I follow up with Goblin Matron for Goblin Ringleader and a Goblin Piledriver passing turn with a 1/1 and a 1/2 in play. He Terminus. I recommit and bother Jace for 2. He Terminus. I recommit yet again, and get Swords to Plowshared on the 2/2. I Recommit yet again and see another 2 STP's, one from Snapcaster Mage. Jace, the Mind Sculptor is brainstorming as fast as he can here. I jam 2 more threats, yet again, Mogg War Marshal and Goblin Piledriver, and get Terminus again. He takes his turn and jams Wear on my Pithing Needle naming Sensei's Divining Top and goes off with Monastery Mentor and the two Dreidels. I interact and get rid of the Mentor, but he managed to get 3 tokens out of it. I jam a Goblin Warchief and another Goblin Piledriver, unable to attack. He Entreats the Angels for 5 on his turn, and ships it back. It's the first time I've ever conceded a fair match up with 2 Goblin Matrons in hand and a Warchief in play at the start of my turn.
That game ended and I literally went "WOW!" and he responded with "I KNOW!"
Summary
Those were both very unusual games, but at least I got those stories out of it. I don't think I could have done much more, sometimes you both run hot, but they hotter. Sweet game.
Match 8 - Don on Turbo Depths
Game 1
We both keep our 7s and he is on the play. He leads with Dark Depths. Fearing Pithing Needle, as there has been some Turbo Depths running around the room I immediately Wasteland his Dark Depths, as hands that run it out often have Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth into Vampire Hexmage. He drops a new Dark Depths, two Lotus Petals and a Vampire Hexmage on his follow up turn. I wasn't that far off, I die on the following turn.
In retrospect I could have waited, as he had already committed the threat, I could wait for the needle and respond to it. In all cases, his hand was very good.
Sideboarding
+3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, +2 Surgical Extraction, +2 Relic of Progenitus, +2 Pithing Needle, +1 Wear // Tear, +1 Krenko, Mob Boss
-3 Goblin Ringleader, -2 Mogg War Marshal, -2 Tarfire, -2 Pyrokinesis, -1 Gempalm Incinerator
Game 2
We keep our 7s. I lead on AEther Vial. He drops just a Thespian's Stage. I tick Vial to 1 and Vial in a Skirk Prospector, which I sac for mana to cast Goblin Matron searching up Stingscourger. He drops some Lotus Petal and Dark Depths, representing the combo, passing turn. I tick Vial to 2 and pass turn, attempting to Port him on his upkeep, to force him to go off. He makes a 20/20 and I attempt to Stingscourger with AEther Vial. He casts Not of This World and hits me for 20 after drawing a card for turn.
Summary
I interacted on each event in a relevant fashion, probably a bit too early in game 1, and lost anyway. Not really sure what to say here. Pithing Needle would have been very good had I drawn it.
On the bright side I don't feel nearly as sick now that it doesn't matter.
Match 9 - Meriwether on Infect
Game 1
We keep our 7s, and she is on the play. She quickly reveals she is on infect with a Tropical Island for Noble Hierarch. I suppose this could be bant, but in both cases I am bolting that bird, or in this case, Tarfire-ing. She eventually gets an Inkmoth Nexus online and hits me for 5 poison off of a kicked Vines of Vastwood. I start using multiple Rishadan Port in a fashion that would make Richard Garfield cry, and won the game from there with some normal beats. Love me some port.
Sideboarding
+3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, +2 Pithing Needle, +1 Pyrokinesis
-3 Goblin Ringleader, -1 Krenko, Mob Boss, -1 Goblin Piledriver, -1 Stingscourger
It seems I pulled my head out of my ass and boarded a bit better. still cutting that Stingscourger seems loose though. I'm glad I note this stuff down at least. Still I think that is a force of habit, AKA me on autopilot again.
Game 2
Very similar to game 1, but with Multiple Pyrokinesis. [cards]Rishadan Port[cards] is very, very good.
Summary
My hand paired up very well this time round, and I believe it will tend to do that on the average against infect, especially if there are 6 mainboard kill spells, 1 Stingscourger, 1 Goblin Sharpshooter AND 3 Pyrokinesis in the board as I usually play.
GP Louisville Matches Summary
So I went 4/5. I played like shit and got rewarded as such. My deck wasn't tuned and ultimately all of these factors resulted in my record. I was sick most of this event and watched myself play poorly in what felt like slow motion. That said, this event was a blast, and I had a ton of fun. Noteably I didn't play against Reanimator OR D&T, which is confusing. I know they were there. The Show & Tell player in our car played against D&T Rounds 1 - 4 and again in like round 7, he admirably won 2 of the matches. I saw Reanimator out and about, but never played against it.
The day after the event.
I played some more side events the day after as well with a slightly different board. I found the side events pull out players who like sweet stuff, and sweet stuff tends to die to Naturalize.
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Containment Priest
2 Pithing Needle
2 Wear // Tear
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Pyrokinesis
This time round I played against Abzan Nic Fit, Sneak & Show, Soldier Stompy, and Grixis Delver.
The Soldier Stompy player, Sean, seemed so happy that I recognized what deck he was on off of the turn 1 Suppression Field. It seemed whoever won the die roll would win the match, too much momentum. There was an upset though. I died that day to a 28/28 Selfless Squire on the crackback from my alpha strike. I was NOT playing around that, I was playing around multiple STPs though, which is why I didn't have any blockers.
Overall Summary
10/10 Would play a Legacy GP again. I think we can work on my list a bit here. If someone put a gun to my head and said run the event back, I'd do the below list.
MB
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Mountain
1 Taiga
1 Plateau
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
4 AEther Vial
4 Goblin Lackey
1 Skirk Prospector
3 Goblin Piledriver
2 Mogg War Marshal
2 Tin Street Hooligan
1 Stingscourger
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Warchief
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
2 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Tarfire
SB
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Pyrokinesis
2 Containment Priest
2 Blood Mooon
2 Pithing Needle
I'm not sure this is exactly optimum either, but it does what I want. I really do like having as many Piledriver's as possible though. Also I really like how good Tarfire is at doing it's thing. 1 mana removal is at a premium in Legacy, even if it's shock.
Thanks for reading, hope you learned from my mistakes!
