“Hey Adam, let's go to that Jupiter event.”
“Hmmm, Stifle is good again, right?”
“Yeah, just don't play Nimble Mongoose.”
“OK, do you have a Snapcaster I can borrow?”
“No.”
Viva Canada
Creatures:
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Snapcaster Mage
Instants/Sorceries:
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
4 Daze
4 Spell Snare
1 Fire/Ice
2 Dismember
4 Ponder
*Non-Basic Land:
4 Tropical Island
4 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
Sideboard:
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Nature’s Claim
2 Submerge
2 Pyroclasm
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Spell Pierce
Round 1 – Merfolk:
He's casting Aether Vials. I'm siding in Red Blasts/Pyroclasms. How is this still a deck?
2-0
Round 2 – Esper Reanimator
Saucy brew, splashing white for Swords to Plowshares and Unburial Rites. He seems a little inexperienced with the deck, and my suspicions are confirmed when he attempts to cast reanimate on his Elesh Norn while at 4 life. And here I thought only my teammates did that sort of thing. I told him he probably shouldn't do that, and I win a turn or so later.
2-1
Round 3 – Adam Barnello with UWr removal.dec
He's a pretty cool guy, and doesn’t afraid of anything. Plus, have you SEEN THAT BEARD?
Game 1 I get him to 3 life and after seven cards or so can't find a bolt for the life of me. Made a mistake casting Fire on his V. Clique while he had an untapped Karakas. Whoops.
Game 2 made me yearn for the good old days when Nimble Mongoose was still a respectable thing to cast. Needless to say, some creatures die to removal. This kind of matchup makes me want Price of Progress in the sideboard.
0-2
Round 4 – Belcher
Slightly tilted, I keep a crap hand with double waste, double fetch, Fow, Snare, and Bolt. I felt like playing some control after that last game, and ended up getting my wish. He wins the die roll, starts off with Gitaxian Probe, and after he sees my hand looks a little dejected. I've gotta say pal, you've got some balls taking Belcher to a tourney in this kinda metagame. Anyway, byes are nice too.
2-0
Round 5 – UWR back with more basics.dec
Game 1 was kinda epic, cause I was able to flash back Force of Will with Snapcaster mage, twice(!)
Needless to say, if I have the mana to do this, I'm not going to win the game. Oh hai Elspeth. Game 2 I cast some dudes, turn them sideways, blah blah blah. Game 3 he goes fetch>island>brainstorm. I EoT Surgical Extraction his Brainstorm. He forces pitching Jace. GG?
2-1
Round 6 – UR Tempo AKA Don't You Wish Your Goyf Was Hot Like Mine?
I win game one, he wins game two – thresh mirrors are boring(awesome). We ID cause I wanna see this deck in the 8, as I'm fairly confident that Goyf and Pyroclasm > everything in his deck. Plus I don't wanna risk a top 8 birth to him drawing Waste Stifle Stifle.
1-1-1
Round 7 – Sneak and Show
I get paired down against my teammate, who has no chance of top 8ing. He scoops my in like a real gentleman. If you have no idea how this matchup looks, they can steal g1 pretty often. Then you side in blasts and pierces and they die with spaghetti in their hands.
2-0
Top 8!
Quarters – B/W Shit yo pants
He's running cabal therapies, which get much better after you've seen your opponents decklist. I'm like, whatevs, hatas gonna hate. Game 1 I get the tripple Delver with a Ponder. Honestly that felt like I was cheating with 9 damage in the air. Game 2 it is his turn to have 3 Hymns. Honestly that felt like he was cheating with me having no cards in hand. Game 3 was a back and forth – Spell Snare is an MVP in this kind of matchup. Anyway Brainstorm is better than every card in his deck so you know the rest.
2-1
Semis – UR Tempo – The Rematch!
This should have been on the stream buuuuut I was correct in thinking that Goyf helps break this mirror. Nothing fantastic here folks. Stifle/Daze/Waste – is this 2007?
2-0
Finals – Bryant Cook with TES
The legend himself! I thought he'd be taller.
So I ask myself, “Self, should you mulligan into a hand with Force of Will?” And I'm all like, “Naw, that card sucks.” So he obviously beats me game one. Game 2 I double waste him, but it looks like he's switched to 43 lands while sideboarding. I keep attacking right into his City of Brass, and when he tries to Chant me, I double bolt him at 6 life. Game 3 was kind of that classic Thresh vs Combo matchup, where I have a bunch of relevant counters and keep turning a dork sideways. He casts Ad Naus with 1 card in hand, and since he Duressed me a few turns earilier I figure it's a Blast for my Fow. So I Spell Pierce it trying to bait it. He cracks LED to pay, discarding....Pyroblast! Ok, Force your Ad Naus?
2-1
Things I've learned:
I play better magic on 4 hours of sleep. I thought I'd get nervous and choke, but when you're exhausted you just don't give a damn. Legacy is a game a matchups, probably now more than ever. Goblins and BW were in the Top8 – obviously we need to ban brainstorm. I never Snapcaster'd a Brainstorm, which I thought I'd do at least once. Huh.
Props:
Carson for putting us up for the night.
Jupiter for being awesome.
All of my opponents for being really swell dudes.
New Jersey gas prices.
Slops:
Tolls.
New Jersey Gas Stations.
Forgetting to bring Price of Progress.
Beard Envy.
Only posts when drunk.
Whoever told you Nimble Mongoose is bad was a liar. Makes the UW matchup infinitely better for you. I don't really understand why you brought in surgical extraction against UWR, or why you surgical-ed his brainstorms for that matter. Also, why the one of Nature's Claim in your board over a 2nd grudge and why the single tormod's crypt?
Mongoose isn't as good in a world that had a lot more Goyfs, Jin, and Combo than it used to.Originally Posted by JonBarber
That, and Delver gives a faster clock, sometimes you just can't put 7 cards into the GY as fast as reanimator can bin JG or as fast as the Tide.
In the hindsight of this report, based on what happened, Surgicaling Brainstorm was apparently something equivalent to the shit. Alternatively, hitting one of their counters, (Daze, Pierce, FoW, Snare) can give you that extra little bit of edge (Possibly taking a counter out of their hand, and getting a look at what they have) that a deck like tempo needs to push through those last few points of damage with bolts or extra creatures.
"Swiggety Swagtusk, Here comes the Thragtusk!""The last top 8 slot went to the winner of that Death and Taxes mirror, or as I like to call it, the White Supremacy Mirror.
In response to "What's the best replacement for Force of Will?"
You don't cut delver for mongoose, you play them alongside each other. Snapcaster isn't very good vs goyf either and is a slower clock. A deck like this rarely has an issue getting threshold. And using surgical extraction for "value" is actually terrible. You don't affect the board state and you're now down a card. You actually lose tempo and it doesn't help "push through last few points of damage".
"Round 6 – UR Tempo AKA Don't You Wish Your Goyf Was Hot Like Mine?"
- Nearly spitted a mouthfull of water allover my PC, priceless.
Nice report, congratz
In response...Hypothek!
Nice report, some little laughs here and there, like your sense of humor and writing :D
Anyway, what in the world???
"Game 3 he goes fetch>island>brainstorm. I EoT Surgical Extraction his Brainstorm. He forces pitching Jace. GG?"
He does realize that Brainstorm is one of the best cards in Legacy but only if you get to cast it right? Too caught up with the notion that it's the best card in Legacy? It's ultimately still a powerful cantrip, nice pitching the best counter and the best win-condition. Now he loses both FoW and Jace which win him the game later on.
I guess the only explanation is he kept a 1-land hand and was forced to Brainstorm turn 1 to find the 2nd land drop (which was the top 2), having the shuffle from Extraction may have royally screwed him over, but at that point, getting a random shuffle and drawing a random land/spell is probably better than losing 2 important cards that early in the game fighting over an extraction, not even over a threat or a counter...
Decks that I care about:
Steel Stompy
UWx Landstill
Dreadstalker
DDFT (10% practice)
Mangara on MWS? You must be masochistic. -kiblast
To address some questions:
I'd be on the pro-mongoose side of the camp if people stopped using batterskull. That's about it, really. UW decks know they can't spot-remove a goose, so if they don't counter it, they just spend their time looking for Batterskull. I do have some found memories of out little green friend, but shroud ain't what it used to be no more. See Goin Aggro's post for additional reading :)
As for the sideboard, it was a mixture of wanting to diversify my options, and a lack of a desire to purchase more cards.
Finally, in regards to the turn 0 extraction on his brainstorm, I'd ask you to consider why someone might crack their fetch for an island, and then cast brainstorm on the first mainphase of the game. Metalwalker mostly fleshed this out for me, but other than being land-light, some options include having one or two more brainstorms in hand, being retarded, or opening a hand with both SFM and and equipment or two.
I knew he wasn't retarded, since I just played two games with the guy; the SFM idea isn't very likely as well. So I figured it was option 1 or 2, and in either case Extraction on a brainstorm of a mana screwed opponent OR getting a few cards out of his hand seems amazing. THIS is why he cast Force of Will - because in either case, seeing his hand, chucking his brainstorms, and/or shuffling his library would have cost him the game. It just so happenes that pitching FoW on turn 1 is similar to mulling to 5. If that's not generating tempo (on turn zero, no less), than I don't know what is.
As it turns out, I got the read correct, as his only lands were Island, and two riptides. The correct land to fetch in that scenario would be Tundra, because the best answer to wasteland is NOT to play basics, but actually to play more non-basics.
Only posts when drunk.
Jon wasn't actually asking about the play. He's asking why you even bothered to bring Surgical Extraction in.
Pleasure to meet you, and happy to be your only loss on the day! That was the only time I used Karakas the whole event!
Always happy to give someone value, Adam. :P
So, I boarded in the surgicals in that matchup because of the random blowout factor. Like, if a bomb is on the stack, I can target something and get a look of their hand before I start a counter-war. That way I know how to win it. Also, those kinds of decks usually run about 2-3 different sorts of threats: SFM, Jace, maybe Clique. Hitting one of those gives me anywhere from 15-20% in the game. Plus with snapcaster, its bananas.
Extirpate is a shitty card. But a FREE extirpate, that I can cast again with snapcaster, is sort of awesome. It's like long-game insurance.
Only posts when drunk.
Congrats and Nice report!
I would also like to know. I don't bring in Extractions against Tempo whatsoever (and even in the mirror). There's too many useful cards to keep in than trying to run the daggers with the Extirpate strategy.
West side
Find me on MTGO as Koby or rukcus -- @MTGKoby on Twitter
* Maverick is dead. Long live Maverick!
My Legacy stream
My MTG Blog - Work in progress
Goblins made top four. Huh? Who knew that they're still good. Me. I wish Bryant wasn't so lucky against me. I didn't stick around to see who won. I would've loved to play you in the finals. Congratulations anyway.
You know Gitaxian Probe draws you a card
....and... is a sorcery!
So try to get it into the stack
I totally see the merit in using Surgical Extraction in less obvious matchups than just "graveyard mechanic.dec". Pulling the other cards out is certainly the hard part, but the card is good. "Not affecting the board" is a relevant, but narrow argument against it. Sometimes the late game happens, and sometimes you can just blow someone out with a timely Extraction target. Clearly it worked for Adam at least once.
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