Liver of the Storm I.

(Title stolen from my favorite poster and reporter, Lenmaer. I hope this is ok, dude.)


Since this is my first post on this site (although I am a passionate reader of this page), I would like to introduce myself to the community. I have been a Legacy enthusiast for a couple of years and I would call myself a good player. That does not mean that I am flawless or some kind of a poser. I would like to share with you a report from a Legacy tournament I participated in and of course I would be glad to hear what you guys and girls think about it. So let’s get it on. My local tournaments consist of mostly 10 till 20 people playing in a small, shady room in the back of a bar because we can’t afford a better location…(tribute to the liver). Nonetheless, we are a bunch of experienced players. At this day, I was picked up by a friend with his new Moto Guzzi V7 (jezzz… what a sound) and he took me to the location. That was a hell of a ride, feeling the vibrating motor under my butt and hugging my friend’s body of steel. After a little drink at the bar we got to business and then played Magic. (The day couldn’t start better :P) So, what is important now? Yeah, you’re right, the deck. Let’s have a look:

TES Visions
Mainboard:

4 Gemstone Mine
2 City of Brass
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
3 Polluted Delta

3 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Burning Wish
4 Infernal Tutor
3 Brainstorm
1 Serum Visions
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Silence
3 Duress
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Ad Nauseam

Sideboard:
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Chain of Vapor
2 Xantid Swarm
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Grapeshot
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Past in Flames
1 Diminishing Returns

This is predominantly a net decked list which plays only 3 Brainstorms (bad with just 3 fetchlands) in favor of one Serum Visions which I think is pretty underrated at the moment. It draws a card and then becomes a Magma Jet. To sum this up, Serum Visions is a mix of a cantrip and a burn spell which can remove hate bears. If you guys have any questions about the list just feel free to write a comment and we can discuss my choices. The main reason I played TES is my financial state. I wanted to pilot a budged deck which is strong enough to win games fast so I can pry about the other decks at the tournament. In my honest opinion ANT is much better but unfortunately USeas and other stuff is too expensive for me right now. By the way, look what arrived just in time:

LEDS.jpg



Round 1 – Sneak Show
Game 1
I win the dice roll and state that I would like to begin. Since he is fine with this decision I pick up these 7 cards.

1 Underground Sea
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ponder
1 Dark Ritual
1 Lotus Petal
1 Burning Wish
1 Silence

Would you keep this hand?
I feel very uncomfortable with this starting seven since. Keep in mind that I don’t know what he is playing but nevertheless I keep. I start off with a nice Sea into Ponder revealing me 2 lands and a Brainstorm. I shuffle and draw Lotus Petal which falls on the table as I am unable to keep the card in my hand thus my opponent knows that I am on combo. Damn it, bro. Throughout the game I don’t see the correct line of play that would ride me to victory. He wins with Emmi per Show and Tell.
Boarding time:
-2 Probes, +2 Swarm (should be fair enough)
Game 2
Let’s have a peek at my starting seven.

2 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Xantid Swarm
1 Chrome Mox
2 Lion’s Eye Diamond

Would you keep this hand?
Well, this is a pure snap keep as it was one in the previous game. I see Swarm but unfortunately no land but hey it’s TES so you don’t need shitty lands to win a simple game of Magic. I grin and my opponent takes a mulligan. I start with an easy “go” without playing anything. I am not sure if this is a mistake but I feel pretty comfortable that it is the right decision here. He durdles around with cantrips in the following turns and I am able to find some lands and go off of Silence (1) > some crappy Rituals (2,3,4) and Burning Wish (5) with LED support (6) into some green dudes out of the board. I then pass the turn and he, lucky as he is, topdecks the card that he needs and wins via Annihilator trigger. Jeezzz what a luck.

0-2
Dice rolls won: 1


Round 2 – Burn

Game 1

I totally own him on the dice roll and go first.

Let’s peek and opt:

1 Volcanic Island
1 Ponder
1 Lotus Petal
1 Burning Wish
1 Infernal Tutor
1 Rite of Flame
1 Polluted Delta

Would you keep this hand?
Hard to say since I don’t know what my greedy-looking opponent is playing. At this point I decide to take a mulligan into a faster hand.

1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
3 Chrome Mox
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond

Would you keep this hand?

Well, at least some fast mana and some cantripping action in sight. Let’s start the bashing.
I lead with Chrome Mox > imprint nothing. He slams Goblin Guide on the table, literally slams it, and attacks for 2 revealing another Lion’s Eye Diamond. Not exactly what is needed now. Damn it, bro, again. I really struggle against Burn strategies because they are so fast and all I can do is trying to win faster which is very hard even if my deck is tuned like some Nascar bolide. Goshhh. He eventually takes home the win after some spells to my face.

Boarding action: none

Game 2

I draw these precious cards:

1 Underground Sea
1 Gemstone Mine
1 Brainstorm
1 Burning Wish
2 Rite of Flame
1 Dark Ritual

I start with USea into Brainstorm lock. GG.

0-4
Dice rolls won: 2

At this point of the tournament I am feeling very fit and optimistic although I lost to easy decks. Nonetheless I have the will to finally step ahead and dominate my Meta with TES. The judge prints out the pairings for round 3: Bye. I was confused because I didn’t know a person with that strange name so I asked some fellaaas and they told me to sit down and goldfish a bit. Nice idea. Maybe I can learn some new tech due to that. Sooo:

Round 3 – Bye

Game 1
Well, my opponent is unable to roll the dice (what a retard) thus I go first. I shuffle my decks and peek at this starting hand.

1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Underground Sea
2 Dark Ritual
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Ponder

Would you keep this hand?

I see an easy turn one kill you too? I start with Petal (1), LED (2), Underground Sea, Dark Ritual (3), Dark Ritual (4), Ad Nauseam (5) in response crack LED for BBB. Party time.

nerd_party.jpg

Empty the Warrens (16)
Infernal Tutor (14)
Burning Wish (12)
City of Brass
Gemstone Mine
Chrome Mox
Lotus Petal
Burning Wish (10)
Serum Visions (9)
Silence (8)
Silence (7)
Infernal Tutor (5)
Infernal Tutor (3)
Brainstorm (2)
Gosshhh I just need LED. What are you doing to me, deck?
Ponder (1)
Burning Wish > loss

I thought that TES is able to and for the kill on turn one with BBB floating but maybe I am not that experienced as I thought.

Boarding action: none, I don’t know what he is playing. At this point I try to convince my enemy to intentionally draw which he does. Strange enough that the judge gave me a win for this round but hey no one cared. 

1-5-1
Dice rolls won: 3

Round 4 – UGB Homebrew

Game 1

I win the dice rolls and decide to let my opp dude start to play because throughout the tournament I was very unlucky with the pairings and the outcome of the games where I played first.

2 Gemstone Mine
1 City of Brass
1 Serum Visions
1 Burning Wish
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Silence

Would you keep this hand?

I ask if is score is 1-2 and he says that some guy dropped in favour of real life and in consequence he has to play the last round of the tournament while having 0-3. He lost all of his rounds? Should be easy to win against him! Conclusion is conclusion and sometimes wrong but sometimes true. He goes USea > Thoughtseize picking my Wish. I draw an Infernal Tutor for the round, land a Mine and pass. He plays Bayou, Hymn me and hits Infernal and Visions = lucky guy. I start thinking about going off in the next couple of turns but he has Shaman/Delver clock and I figure it out that it is a better decision to concede at this point and to not give my opponent some extra information about my deck.

Boarding action:
-3 Brainstorm
+3 Abrupt Decay, jey
I want to destroy his Delvers and in order to do so I need some mighty cc2 removal although it is hard to support sometimes against Wasteland decks.

Game 2

Spread it out, dude.

2 Abrupt Decay
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Gemstone Mine
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Serum Visions

Would you keep this hand?
It is awesome, I have starting mana, a win condition and some library manipulation. I go first and play Visions via Mine drawing an amazing Rite of Flame (EtW gets better and better) and scrying some random shitty cards away. (Sorry, dude but you are gonna to be dead soon.) He lands a Delver and I peek at my Decays waiting to deal with this guy. On my turn I use the Petal and a Mine counter to destroy his greedy scientist and pass the turn. He then deploys pressure personalized by another Delver of Secrets and Deathrite Shaman. I pass the turn due to being one mana short from the unprotected kill. In the end I don’t want to lose too many words on this game because I acted like a farmer giving the easy win away.

1-7-1
Dice rolls won: 4

Some impressions:
I hope that you have enjoyed my short report. Special thanks go to my Legacy crew that supplied me with the cards I needed in order to play TES. I really like the one off Visions because Brainstorm tends to lock this deck and Vision does not. I think I will play some more TES in the future because as you could read in my report it is pretty consistent in winning die rolls which is an important factor in Legacy.
I would like to hear some feed-back and maybe if you wish I can provide you with further TES reports from the liver. But till then: Keep on storming!!!