After walking past a line of what seemed to be 200 people trying to get into Adultcon, I made my way into the room for the SCG Open. I immediately spotted one of my friends at table 13X rocking Standard in the 0-2 bracket. After watching him pull the ol' 0-3 drops, I signed myself up for the Legacy Challenge. This is what I sleeved up:
ANT
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
2 Chrome Mox
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Infernal Tutor
2 Ad Nauseam
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
4 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Underground Sea
2 Island
2 Swamp
SB
4 Xantid Swarm
1 Tropical Island
4 Doomsday
1 Emkarul
1 Shelldock Isle
1 Wipe Away
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Chain of Vapour
Disclaimer: I did not write down any names, so sorry about that. Also, my notes are not completely thorough, so I might get some stuff wrong.
Round 1
Win the roll against Affinity.
Game 1 I cast Dark Ritual, Duress, LED, LED, Infernal, Ill-Gotten Gains (for LED, LED, Infernal Tutor), cast everything again, grabbed Tendrils.
-3 Thoughtseize
+2 Chain of Vapour
+1 Hurkyl's Recall
Game 2 He mulled once, then played land, Disciple, Ornithopter, Memnite. I cast a Ponder and shipped. He played a Ravager, attacked for 2, then shipped it back over to me. I cast Chain on his Disciple, he sacced three things bringing me to 15, then I went into the Iggy loop and killed him. Not very interactive.
Round 2
I won the roll against Merfolk.
Game 1 I cast a Ponder and ship. He plays Vial and passes back to me. I cast a Brainstorm, fetch, and then end. He Vials in an Adept and played a Lord of Atlantis, he then beats me down to 4 life over a couple of turns while I shape up to this hand: Duress, Cabal Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Infernal Tutor, Dark Ritual, Lion's Eye Diamond, Brainstorm with 4 basics in play. I then cast Duress, see Kira and 2 Daze, then Tutor chain and kill him. He casts 2 Daze on me bringing me to 10 storm at some point.
-1 Preordain
-1 Island
-3 Thoughtseize
+1 Tropical Island
+4 Xantid Swarm
My notes say I attacked for 20 on turn 2. Not much else to say here.
Round 3
I won the roll against Faeries. He was a nice guy, I think he Top 32'd the next day, I hope I see him again soon.
Game 1 I cast an Ad Nauseam after I Thoughtseize and see blanks on turn 2. He doesn't live too much longer.
-1 Preordain
-1 Island
-3 Thoughtseize
+1 Tropical Island
+4 Xantid Swarm
Game 2 I spend some time casting Cantrips and he doesn't put on enough pressure. On turn 3 I stick a Xantid while he tapped out for a Sword. He is then Forced to play Jace to bounce my Swarm. On my turn I cast Duress, see no Force of Will, then proceed to Iggy Loop him and kill him.
Round 4
I win the roll against Dreadstill piloted by one of my friends, so we just prize split and then played for fun.
Game 1 I decide not to Duress him on turn 2. He then drops a Counterbalance. I play a Lotus Petal and LED, they both resolve and he reveals a 1, I cast another LED and Infernal Tutor into Ad Nauseam into just enough to kill him.
No sideboarding
Game 2 He mulled to 5, in his 5 was 2 Force of Will, Counterbalance, Top, 2 lands, and a Goyf. Did not pull that one off.
-1 Preordain
+1 Wipe Away
Game 3 I fetch and Duress him on turn 1 seeing: Stifle, Stifle, Daze, Top, Tropical, Strand, and Pierce. He then cast a turn 2 Counterbalance and proceeded to kill me. On the plus side, he never got to cast his Stifles because I drew runner, runner Basics. He was not too pleased by that :P.
One of the biggest issues I saw with the deck is that I struggled to find business and can almost never beat a Top in play with in the top 3 cards of their deck, that and the fact that I know how to play T.E.S. lead me to sleeving this up for the next day:
T.E.S.
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Scalding Tarn
2 City of Brass
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Burning Wish
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Duress
3 Orim’s Chant
1 Silence
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Shattering Spree
1 Thoughtsieze
1 Wipeaway
1 Krosan Grip
2 Echoing Truth
4 Xantid Swarm
Xantids had been awesome for me in the challenge, and I had seen 0 Counterbalance decks. At 12:00 AM, my sideboard was 14 cards. I decided to throw in the Krosan Grip because with my luck I was going to be paired against Counterbalance Round 1.
Round 1
I win the roll (5 times in a row...) against 4C Counterbalance. This was pretty epic. I'm really sorry that I did not take more notes about this. I seriously just outplayed him and really earned this match, after which, I knew I was going to Top 8.
Game 1 I decided not to Duress him turn 2. He then untaps and casts a Counterbalance. I proceed to cast a Duress to which he reveals a Top. He then cast a Top. On my 4th turn I manage to get down an Empty for 8 tokens. They get in there once before they are Spouted away.
-1 Infernal Tutor
-1 Orim's Chant
+1 Wipe Away
+1 Krosan Grip
Game 2 nothing happens early on except he established the lock. On my 5th turn I drew my 5th land for the Ad Nauseam sitting in my hand. On his upkeep he Tops, looks sour, then proceeds to his draw step. I tell him to stop and cast my Ad Nauseam at 15 life. I reveal a Grip, and the mana to get Tendrils. It gets there.
Game 3 is the exact same as game 2 except I had to cast it all in one turn, but I was at 20. He also whiffed on a 0 for his Counterbalance.
Round 2
I lost the roll against my friend, Brian, playing Lands.
Game 1 I keep a really bad hand knowing this is a good match up. I get punished by turn 1 Zuran Orb with Mana Bond and Loam. I am Forced to go for Diminishing Returns (0-1) and I completely miss while he gets back his Loam and gets to a lot of life. I did get to Tendrils him for 22, but it didn't matter.
-2 Duress
+2 Echoing Truth
Game 2 I choose not to interact with him and kill him with Ad Nauseam o turn 2. Not close.
Game 3 I get a sick read on him with Mindbreak Trap, I think that it is 4 spells and play right into it. He forgets to cast it on my Ad Nauseam, I then Silence him and he flashes me the Trap and tells me he should've cast it on my Ad Nauseam after I had Tendrils-ed him for 22.
Round 3
I won the roll against Frankie (who Top 4'd) playing Dredge.
Game 1 I easily kill him with Ad Nauseam after he mulls to 4. Literally nothing else to say about this, he never got any lands or to 8 cards to discard.
-2 Duress
+2 Echoing Truth
Game 2 is my deck completely shitting on itself. I mull to 5, and I never draw anything good enough, eventually, facing lethal, I'm forced to Diminishing Returns (0-2), as much as I would like to say I got the nuts, the first 7 cards I flipped over to be removed were the nuts, my hand was terrible. He then killed me.
Game 3 He completely rapes my hand with Cabal Therapies after I mulled to 6, on my last possible turn I rip a Burning Wish and I am forced to go for Diminishing Returns. That card is 0-3 for success after I cast it.
Round 4
I lose the roll against Dredge. He was a nice guy with a completely wicked beard.
Game 1 I kill him on my first turn after he passes it back to me. Not very close. I love this deck.
-2 Duress
+2 Echoing Truth
Game 2 was an interesting game. I went for a turn 2 Ad Nauseam. I got Forced!?! He did his dredge thing and got some guys out, disrupting me enough to keep my from going off again, then he killed me. Force in Dredge. I double underlined that in my notes...
Game 3 I went Dark Ritual, LED, LED, Infernal, and got Forced, but because he mulled to 6 and had to cast Force, he couldn't DDD, so we played draw go for 4 turns until I went Dark Ritual, LED, LED, Infernal again. Love this deck!
Round 5
I won the roll again Merfolk.
Game 1 I Silenced him on turn 3, it resolved, so I went for Diminishing Returns (1-3), I ended up casting my 9th spell, Burning Wish, with BBR floating and announcing that I was grabbing Tendrils. He promptly scooped. Jedi mind tricks.
-1 Ponder
-2 Orim's Chant
-1 Infernal Tutor
+4 Xantid Swarm
Game 2 I once again went for the Silence on turn 3, he Pierced it, because I had Duressed him a turn earlier, I knew he didn't have extra countermagic, but I paid for it anyways. Ended up 1 mana short of killing him. Karma.
Game 3 I chant him on turn 2, he doesn't have the Force, I then proceed to cast a series of spells into Ill-Gotten Gains and then cast the same spells again into Tendrils of Agony for 20.
Round 6
I lose the roll again Elves. I knew what he was playing, and when I sat down to play him, he seemed like a completely arrogant player, so I decided I was going to Grapeshot him.
Game 1 he played Forest, Elf. I play land, go. He plays another Elf, no second land. I cast Ad Nauseam, get to 21 storm, cast Burning Wish (22), into Grapeshot (23), I was at 2 life so one of them targeted me, 2 targeted his elves, and 20 went to his face. This was the only game I have ever wanted Eye of Nowhere to bounce his 1 land. Oh well.
-2 Duress
+2 Echoing Truth
Game 2 He mulled to 6 and played Forest, Elf. I Duress him seeing, Pact, Glimpse, Nettle, Quirion Ranger, and Gaea's Craddle and take Glimpse. On my next turn I use Ill-Gotten Gains to kill him.
Round 7
I lose the roll against Merfolk. He is 0-X, and is paired down and doesn't feel comfortable scooping me in, so we play a game.
Game 1 I keep a loose hand, and he just rolls me with fishes after I miscount an attack. He offers me the draw again. I take it.
Round 8
You can read about this here.
This was a completely savage down pair. The DCI reporter used the formula for pairing as if it was a 9 round event. Alex was by far one of the coolest guys I've met at a Legacy event. I spoke to him quite a few times, and I felt bad that I had to play him, but what can you do?
At this point I do not know if I have made Top 8, so I turn on my music, and go and trade with one of my friends for his FBB Volcanic. After that is complete, I turn up Radiohead so that I drown out everything around me. At this time Top 8 gets announced. After a little bit I see everyone around me start clapping and patting me on the back. I got 7th. Looks like Patrick Sullivan was to be my opponent.
Top 8
I was told to go under the camera. I was no excited to do that. I doing the ol' "check if he has Mindbreak Trap on his decklist" check, he didn't. Normally I would say that burn is a complete bye and I don't ever have to worry about it, but this man is a beast with Burn, so that doesn't apply here. You can watch that here.
Top 4
Once again, the coverage reporters write a lot better than me. Enjoy.
-3 Orim's Chant
-1 Infernal Tutor
+4 Xantid Swarm
Game 3 he got the absolute perfect hand. Nothing I can do about that except kill him faster. Didn't happen, so I lost. Watch that one here.
Props
-Top 4 split.
-Ben Perry going X-0 drunk with Belcher.
-Alex Kwan for taking it all down.
-Knight Ware for showing dominance in the Top 8, putting 4 there, and then 2 into Top 4, and then having the winner be from Knight Ware.
-Alex Bertoncini for trading me some Spanish Foil Duresses. Also for being a good sport when I spoke to him later, might see you in Indy man.
-Obligatory Bryant Cook since he made this beast.
Slops
-2/5 with Diminishing Returns.
-God draws.
-Not having time to turn in my dealer credit because of Top 8 :(. SCG is a super nice store though, and I worked it out via e-mail.
Last edited by lorddotm; 03-31-2011 at 01:25 PM.
I almosted pooped loling. HAHARound 6
I lose the roll again Elves. I knew what he was playing, and when I sat down to play him, he seemed like a completely arrogant player, so I decided I was going to Grapeshot him.
Game 1 he played Forest, Elf. I play land, go. He plays another Elf, no second land. I cast Ad Nauseam, get to 21 storm, cast Burning Wish (22), into Grapeshot (23), I was at 2 life so one of them targeted me, 2 targeted his elves, and 20 went to his face. This was the only game I have ever wanted Eye of Nowhere to bounce his 1 land. Oh well.
Grats!!! TES was the deck I started with and still played. Its soo SIIIICCCKKK!!
Plus Grapeshotting is fun.
I lol-ed at the Feature vs Alex Kwan, bad beats in the final game. That really was the nuts. Congrats dude! Any comments on basics vs Chant? Would you have prefered having a stabler manabase, sacrificing the power of Chant? Cheers!
Definitely love Orim's Chant. Diminishing Returns is really good with it.Originally Posted by ivanpei
Honestly .... that sucks man!!! U made it so far only 2 lose to pure luck. Had ur opponent had any of the draws he did in the finals u would have ravaged him .... but, as always, luck rewards the winner of a tournament. U had it locked up had he not drawn a god hand g3 ... oh well, variance is a bitch. Well played sir :)
"I just shot Marvin in the face!"
"Why the fuck'd you do that??"
Nice work Liam, like I told you I'm glad it was going to be either you or me after seeing Dredge and Cephalid Breakfast at the other match. I had bad luck draws all day long and me 2nd turning you was the first in the whole day, sorry they had to drag you under the camera for it. But to be fair you had nuts draw G2 with first turn Xantid then second turn Ad Nauseum setting up the perfect hand with Xantid protection, no interaction from me what-so-ever, it's what our decks do, but the cameras didn't catch you nutting on me, just me to you.
Quick question regarding this scenario from your report:
Round 5
I won the roll again Merfolk.
Game 1 I Silenced him on turn 3, it resolved, so I went for Diminishing Returns (1-3), I ended up casting my 9th spell, Burning Wish, with BBR floating and announcing that I was grabbing Tendrils. He promptly scooped. Jedi mind tricks.
Is it legal to announce grabbing something that you didn't have the mana to actually grab?
Congratulations! Excellent job with an awesome deck. I was actually sitting beside you guys at the end of the legacy side event on Saturday and was really impressed with both of your play. I didn't realize you had made top 8 until today.
@ Jazzykat: You can wish for any sorcery you want, even if you don't have the mana to play it. He didn't say he was casting it, just choosing it with wish.
Very nice performance! Thanks for the report!
I never announced I was casting it, I cast the Burning Wish and he was like okay. I was like I'm grabbing Tendrils and he said you got it and scooped. I never once said I could cast it or that I was casting it, just putting it into my hand. I told him afterwards and he said it was his fault for not playing complete attention.
I'm sorry, but I'm having a really hard time picturing you right now. Were you the one that was playing UBR ANT or the other guy?
Yeah, my opponent was John Harduvel, he's really good. Expect to hear about him next time the Open Series hits LA. Although with 8/8 Top 8 competitors being from California, we might've scared them off.
This I definitively have to do as well once. How nice : D
Congrats on the finish!
Probably the other guy. I wasn't playing in the side event (I scrubbed out of standard 10 minutes too late), but the 3C TES deck beside you was mine. I sat down in time to watch John draw pretty much the most crushing 5 card hand ever against you.
OHHHH I remember you now. Yeah John is a fucking lucksack when it doesn't matter, but if anything is on the line, his decks hate him.
Congratulations Liam. I especially liked the flashiness in your pre-Top8 game when you stuck your hand into the camera.
I approved!
West side
Find me on MTGO as Koby or rukcus -- @MTGKoby on Twitter
* Maverick is dead. Long live Maverick!
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Gots to. Granted I don't think the masses noticed my Spanish artifacts.
Grats and +10 to the jedi mind tricks. When you have no other way to win, staying calm and doing the jedi thing = sign of being composed and pushing yourself across.
Decks that I care about:
Steel Stompy
UWx Landstill
Dreadstalker
DDFT (10% practice)
Mangara on MWS? You must be masochistic. -kiblast
Congrats on the finish! Just a question, how long have you been playing TES? I've only been playing it for 6 months and pride myself on quick decisions, but your ponder speed was nuts.
Grats again, nice to see it back at the top again.
Beastly. You've inspired me to keep plugging away with TES, nice job.
A book about the dark side of Legacy: "Magic: The Addiction" // Conversations with Magic players: "Humans of Magic"
As always, nice job Liam. Glad we did so well. I will get my report up this week but it is currently the length of a short novel and needs a little attention. I have drank almost as much whiskey writing it as I did making top 8.
Excellent work. Pretty lucky draws IMO but that is TES :)
would you mind explaining what you mean by this?
Game 3 I get a sick read on him with Mindbreak Trap, I think that it is 4 spells and play right into it. He forgets to cast it on my Ad Nauseam, I then Silence him and he flashes me the Trap and tells me he should've cast it on my Ad Nauseam after I had Tendrils-ed him for 22.
You thought or did he?
Congrats
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