Haven't tried to do one of these in a long time, but here goes:Originally Posted by Kl'rt
Rd1 - John Eggolt (Dredge) 400th
This is a really lopsided matchup. Think 12 Post -vs- Miracles... but worse. 10 tutors (4 instant speed) and Bojuka Bog main deck plus 4 Vampire Hexmage that happen to remove Bridges at will and shut off Gemstone Mines, discard spells to rip outlets away on the play, then add 4 Extractions in sideboarded games. My opponent was new to legacy and very nice, but there wasn't much he could have done here. There was a humorous sequence in game 1 where he just passed t1 without playing a land after a double mull. I proceeded to Thoughtseize him and see ALL dredgers, forcing me to put a Thug into the yard. Luckily a turn 3 token was good enough.
W(2-0, 1-0)
Rd2 - Dan Gould (Death and Taxes) 447th
This is one of the more difficult matchups for my version. Karakas, Swords, Wasteland, Port, Revoker, Vial into Flickerwisp, and even Mother of Runes and a flyer can cause problems. My opponent kept the old Aether Vial specialgame one (light on land) and couldn't defend against a Thoughtseize taking Swords followed by an early token. Game two I had the land light draw off a mull and my opponent had a decent amount of varied disruption including Port, Revoker to brick a map, Thalia, and Karakas. That was good enough to get there. Game three was pretty unusal. I mulled and couldn't find green mana to go with the Crop Rotation I had that would have won the game. This gave my opponent extra turns let him find a flyer + Mother of Runes. Luckily the turn he played a card I'd never seen in D+T (Horizon Canopy), he didn't have an extra mana available to sacrifice it. This allowed me to use a Thespian Stage to copy the Canopy for Green mana. The following turn was an eot crop rot into the combo and a Sylvan Scrying for Sejiri Steppe to force the Marit Lage token through the MOM/Serra Avanger brick wall.
W(2-1, 2-0)
Rd3 - Danny Jessup (Grixis Delver) 102nd
Grixis Delver is generally a fine matchup. Sometimes they can tempo you out, especially if they see more than one Wasteland. Luckily most delver players fire off Wasteland right away, especially game 1 if they don't know what you are on. Game one I was under no pressure and able to assemble the combo. Game two, two quick Delvers on the play took it down. Game 3 he had double delver again, but on the draw. It was backed up by multiple counters, but that lined up poorly since my draw happened to be the natural three land combo on turn 3. Delvers took turns chumping and Deathrite bought a turn by gaining two life, but that was really all he could do.
W(2-1, 3-0)
Rd4 - Scott Robbins (Merfolk) 39th
This is a pretty good matchup. They are slower, and daze is very easy to play around in this matchup. Using one of the sorcery speed tutors to get Steppe pre combat is a good idea if they have four mana or a vial on 2 up to play around Harbinger of the Tides. Won the roll and turn 2'd him with a Hexmage. Game two an early discard spell grabbed his Back to Basics(over Gilded Drake). I had a Hexmage kill set up on turn three when he ripped Needle. I couldn't pop Hexmage due to the Drake in his hand. This just stalled a turn as I got a Stage and made the token at the end of his 4th turn.
W (2-0, 4-0)
Rd5 - Rich Cali (Miracles) 9th
This matchup is tough, around 50/50 unless its legends/Karakas/Lossett Miracles against which my version is a significant dog. Luckily this was more standard with Mentors. Game one I thoughtseize seeing the coast is clear of answers to a turn 3 ML taking a Ponder. He had two turns to find an answer and didn't get there. Game two a discard spell took a swords, leaving him with another Swords, double force, Terminus, and lands. It took a few turns and throwing a token into a swords, but the density of combo pieces and tutors got through it.
W (2-0, 5-0)
Rd6 - Joe Bernal (U/W Control?) 123rd
I saw top, variety of control cards, Trinket Mage, Explosives, etc... but no Counterbalance or Miracle cards. Game one a discard spell took a swords, leaving another swords, an Explosives, Snapcaster, Trinket Mage, and lands. A token ate a swords at one point, but the second token got there. My memory of this match is very hazy. I think I got blown out in game two (may have been blood moon?) and won game three through double force. I think this is the match where I played a discard spell and saw double Scalding Tarn as his only lands outside of a lone island in play. I Pithing Needled Tarn and watched my opponent immediately draw Brainstorm into Flooded Strand shuffling away both Tarns. Karma for trying to mana screw an opponent?
W (2-1, 6-0)
Rd7 - Steven Hicks (Miracles) 67th
My 2nd run at Miracles started off well as a turn three token gets there in game 1. Game two starts off with me needling his top, but he eventually frees it with Wear/Tear. Karakas from his side also meets a Needle. It gets to the point where I've emptied his hand sans a counterbalance and he just shuffled his deck. He gets one random draw and taps two of his three lands to cast Counterbalance. At this point he only has a random card, so I Crop Rotation for the missing combo piece (Depths) in response to CB. He taps his last land to cast Brainstorm. I have a second Crop Rot in hand for Steppe to play around a possible land + Swords draw off his Brainstorm, then top. His only out is seeing exactly white source + Terminus off his Brainstorm. He gets there. The land was a Arid Mesa, at least causing him to lose his top. The top found its way back to its home two turns later though, shortly thereafter followed by Entreat and we were on to game 3. In game three the first token meets a Swords. I have the combo set up again in one turn (via map) after a discard spell and a crop rot (countered) emptied his hand. He finds Blood Moon and locks me out.
L (1-2, 6-1)
Rd8 - Jonathan Morawski (Lands) 24th
This was a secondary feature match. I was nervous, mulled, and he made quick work of me in game 1. Game two it was his turn to start with less cards. An Inquisition took a Gamble and a relatively quick combo forced game three. That one was picked up in progress here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTdK...ature=youtu.be
The early turns that were missed involved discard spells taking his Crop Rot and Loam, followed by Bojuka Bog removing them from the game. He drew a Gamble to get a second Loam and tried to get that going. Ghost Quarter was in my opener and was just waiting for a green source (he Grip'd my Mox) to Crop Rotation into the win. His Wasteland couldn't play around both Stage and Hexmage. He needed to hit another big piece of disruption that turn to not die (Karakas, Crop, etc). Once he dredged Loam, he was down to Karakas, Chasm, and another Maze. The longer version of the video is up on twitch at around the 8:22:35 mark where they briefly discuss the deck after the match:
http://www.twitch.tv/scglive/v/27879282
The name Sultai Depths, ugh. Obviously not what I put on the decklist.
W (2-1, 7-1)
Rd9 - Daniel Miller (Miracles) 44th
Opponent played turn 1 Top and leveraged it to stay in control of the game throughout. It is very tough to fight through their answers in game 1 when they have the ability to not only dig further for them, but also hide them. Eventually a miracle'd Entreat joined a Mentor to make very short work of my life total. Game 2 an early needle on top slowed the flow of his answers. Without top, he couldn't find an answer to Marit Lage outside of one swords which met a Sejiri Steppe via Crop Rotation. Game 3 developed into a spot where I have the combo (Needing to resolve one of two crops) through any one piece of disruption by casting Duress, but he has Brainstorm, Double Force as his last three cards. I take BS and cast Crop Forcing him to counter with his last two cards. I'm feeling good about it since he has one turn, no hand and I have the combo again when I untap. Blood Moon decided it was time to make an appearance. :( The worst part was that I had a Decay in hand, but using my mana that turn to empty his hand felt like the best line. Tough match to end day 1 with.
L (1-2, 7-2)
Round 10 - Bryan Gottlieb (Punishing Jund) 36th
My opponent had some sweet tech in his deck including running Gambles. They found both Wasteland and Pithing Needle in the match and looked very powerful in his build. He had three Wastelands in game 1 that were played through by tutoring for Stages and then attempting to copy a Wasteland. He responded to each by Wasting in response. Eventually a Marit Lage made it through and his last play of Bloodbraid Elf needed to cascade into a burn spell to win. He missed and I finished at one life after his attack. Game 2 a Dark Confidant followed by another gave him a steady stream of disruption. Needle named Stage and Liliana shut off any potential Hexmage shenanigans and we were on to game 3. Game three I had a turn 3 token off an EOT Crop (if it was available) and had seen his hand off a discard spell, so I thought i had it easy. He drew Ensnaring Bridge, but maybe thought he had a turn or though it would be EOT Decayed and played Liliana instead. Crop took it down.
W (2-1, 8-2)
Round 11 - Ben Glancy (Shardless BUG) 13th
This one stung. Game one started with a mull and keep of 2 stage, Mox, Brainstorm, Thoughtseize, and Crop Rotation on the draw. He thoughtseized me taking the Crop. at this point I was thinking he was on Reanimator. I play Mox, discarding Stage, and Thoughtseize him. He has double Decay. My Mox immediately eats a Decay and I don't recover in time left with Stage as my only land. Mana denial can sometimes work even against a 29 land deck. Game 2 lined up perfectly. Our hands trade off to the point where he is empty and I have three lands in play including a Stage, a crop in hand (to get Depths), and another Stage on top from Brainstorm. For some unknown reason I tank and then decide I want to resolve the crop during his upkeep in case he draws a counter. I literally wanted to slap myself when I realized I shuffled the fourth land needed for the combo away. The extra turns it took to draw that land allowed my opponent back into the game and a Deathrite got him up to 21 to survive just long enough to kill me with Goyf and DRS. It was a straight up punt in a very favorable matchup.
L (0-2, 8-3)
Round 12 - Shaheen Soorani (Esper Blade) 20th
Game one I was unable to fight through Swords and Snapcaster with a baby Jace doing some serious work. Game two a fairly early Marit Lage took it down. Game three my hand had several ways to make a token, but zero disruption. I figured I'd just slog through. Numerous turns and three swords later, the last of which he put in a good amount of work digging hard for, I'm at 80 life. There was only a couple minutes left in the round at this point. While it would have been easy to get a draw from that point, we had discussed avoiding a draw earlier in the match and I told him I wouldn't stall into that if he was in control. He said he would concede if his death was imminent. His board was pretty developed, he was in control, was a very nice opponent, and a draw almost certainly would have eliminated both of us from top 8 contention. It was an easy concession.
L (1-2, 8-4)
Round 13 - Robert Kramisen (Belcher) 80th
I had played pretty loose the previous two rounds, so this match taking under 10 minutes was a huge boon. It gave plenty of time to grab some food and recharge. My opponents draws weren't very good and discard took his only business spell in game one and his only mana source (Chrome Mox) and Burning Wish in game two. I boarded in a set of Needles to name Belcher. That's about it.
W (2-0, 9-4)
Round 14 - Craig Krempels (Storm) 38th
We both knew what the other was on before the match started from prior games and talking briefly earlier in the day. I mulled a no disruption hand into a slowish hand in game 1 and he killed me very easily. I brought in the three Flusterstorms and three Surgicals. Game 2 started with me using a discard spell to take his Brainstorm leaving infinite mana (Rit, Cabal Rit, Petal, LED, lands). Turn three I played a Hexmage and left a mana Confluence up representing Crop Rotation. I had Surgical and Fluster in hand. He ended up getting 7 looks that turn via Ponder and Brainstorm but bricked. He would have needed to find a discard spell for Fluster and a way to win. Game three started with him getting hit with discard spells on the first three turns. He played out some artifact mana and had no hand. There were a couple of turns where he could have won with several draws before Marit Lage made an appearance, but he bricked.
W (2-1, 10-4)
Round 15 - Jon Torres (Merfolk) 27th
Exhausted pretty much sums up how I felt at this point and my opponent had a several hour drive home. Considering there was a huge difference in the quality of my play from day 1 where I felt like I was playing tight and was only losing to tough breaks/variance to day 2 where I was making mistakes, losing focus, and literally threw a game away, it seemed like a good call. If we had played it out, I would have finished 15th with a win and 37th with a loss. Locking in top 32 and getting a head start leaving sounded good to both of us.
ID (0-0-3, 10-4-1)
Overall a very enjoyable tournament.
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