(Michifus) SCG Open: Baltimore - Legacy Recap

So, fair warning, I'm still incredibly new to the game of Legacy, so my understanding of the game and commentary/assessments on the game may be underdeveloped or even way off, so feel free to leave any commentary or corrections if you see me derping it up.

With 402 players, we were looking at a full nine rounds of Legacy action. Being my second ever Legacy tournament and with a new deck in hand, I was excited to see how the day went, as just about anything was going to be better than the 0-X scrubfest I had at Grand Prix Washington, D.C.

The Deck

Merfolk (a.k.a. Fish Slap)

Creatures

3 x Cosi's Trickster

4 x Cursecatcher

4 x Lord of Atlantis

4 x Master of the Pearl Trident

3 x Phantasmal Image

4 x Silvergill Adept

3 x Merrow Reejerey

4 x True-Name Nemesis

Spells

3 x AEther Vial

4 x Daze

4 x Force of Will

Lands

4 x Cavern of Souls

12 x Island

4 x Mutavault

Sideboard

1 x Grafdigger's Cage

1 x Pithing Needle

2 x Relic of Progenitus

1 x Spell Pierce

4 x Swan Song

1 x Vision Charm

1 x Umezawa's Jitte

1 x Llawan, Cephalid Empress

3 x Submerge

While Burn was a fine deck for starting the format with minimal investment, this seemed like a much better path for starting to build up a "real" Legacy deck, as the investment was pretty reasonable, already owning Mutavaults, Cavern of Souls, and most of the other newer spells and creatures. Force of Will is never a bad purchase, and True-Name Nemesis will probably be a good investment for the long haul.

Plus, there's this:

Ask me a year or so ago when I was getting into the swing of competitive Magic if I would ever shell out for a set of Force of Will and I would have called you crazy, but here we are...

Round 1 - Loss, 0-2 (Black & White)

Not sure what this deck is called, but it ran a ton of hand disruption spells, Dark Confidant, Liliana of the Veil, Stoneforge Mystic (along with Umezawa's Jitte, and Batterskull). With no hand and answers to anything I could topdeck, it was easy pickings for my opponent.

Round 2 - Win, 2-1 (Tendrils Storm)

The board state was looking mighty fine in game one, but he was able to combo off and got there.

Game two saw a spicy no-land-hand keep from my opponent, and he had plenty of combo fuel in there, but stopping that first Dark Ritual kept things in my favor as he never saw another mana source.

Game three also saw me keeping the black sources in check, as he couldn't combo off with no black hands.

Round 3 - Win, 2-1 (Warrens Storm)

With 14 Goblins on board, I was still able to hold them off with my creatures until a Lord of Atlantis brought a lethal swing in for me.

Game two saw Silence and hand disruption pick apart my answers and he was able to overrun me with the gobbos.

In three, True-Name Nemesis and Umezawa's Jitte provided an answer for the Xantid Swarm, which allowed me to punch in to victory.

Round 4 - Win, 2-0 (??????)

This was a very odd round, as the only spells I saw game one were Sensei's Divining Top and Liliana of the Veil and the Top again in game 2. Spinning the top was yielding no results as my opponent couldn't dig for what he needed in either game.

Round 5 - Win,  2-0 (UWR Delver)

Cavern of Souls is ridiculously good to have in game 1, as most of his hand was useless against uncounterable creatures and the ensuing beatdown.

Game 2 saw AEther Vial finally shine, as sneaking in Masters/Lords to blank Lightning Bolt or to get more damage in combat is pretty darn good. Llawan, Cephalid Empress also came in for this game, and ended up removing the flipped Delver, which swung the game hard in my favor.

Round 6 - Loss, 0-2 (BUG Delver)

Good god these were brutal. T1 Deathrite Shaman, T2 double Delver of Secrets, T3 flip = beatdown city. I had no way of stopping the pain train.

Game 2 saw me getting Wasteland'd and not drawing any basics.

Round 7 - Loss, 1-2 (Dark Maverick)

With 4 True-Name Nemesis on board and 1 in hand, the game was mine to win, but I got greedy with an attack and over-extended, allowing my opponent to hit on the backswing and finish with his Deathrite Shaman and Batterskull.

Game 2 saw Pithing Needle shutting down DRS, which slowed down the ramp to good stuff enough for me to get the win. Cosi's Trickster was also a stud here, as it made fetching lands with no DRS value sting that much more.

Game 3 was another land drought game, as I got stuck on an Island and Mutavault  with a handful of UU spells.

Round 8 - Loss, 0-2 (Elves)

Game one saw the Natural Order combo get off and game two saw ol' Stompy getting hardcast when I had a Swan Song in hand. A little more pressure on board would have been good for me to race the combo, but, alas, it was not there.

Round 9 - Drop

We decided to make it back to State at a decent hour, since we were all 4-4 or worse at that point.

Wrapping Up

4-4 wasn't too bad of a finish for a brand new format, and I definitely feel as if I learned a lot. Now that I've played the deck and have seen it in action against some other decks, reading/watching videos about the the deck will make a lot more sense for future improvements, tweaks, and changes.

I'm not really sure if this is good or bad, but I think this weekend saw me getting bitten by the Legacy bug. There's something incredibly fun about playing with some of the most powerful cards in Magic's history and all of the completely crazy interactions, spells, and brews that can populate the format.

As I said in my Standard Recap post, we should be posting a Born of the Gods set review soon this week, so keep an eye out for it.

Don't tilt,

-- Michifus

(Michifus) SCG Open: Baltimore - Standard Recap

This weekend saw three of us making the journey down to Baltimore for the SCG Open for the Standard portion of the tournament on Saturday and Legacy on Sunday. I'll have a followup post for the Legacy portion after this post and Pietart should have his recap up shortly, as well.

For whatever reason, I decided taking pictures was for nerds, so I don't have any photos from the events.

The Deck

Boros Midrange

Creatures

4 x Young Pyromancer

4 x Boros Reckoner

4 x Chandra's Phoenix

2 x Purphoros, God of the Forge

2 x Stormbreath Dragon

Spells

2 x Chained to the Rocks

4 x Lightning Strike

4 x Magma Jet

2 x Mizzium Mortars

2 x Chandra, Pyromaster

2 x Warleader's Helix

2 x Assemble the Legion

1 x Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Lands

1 x Boros Guildgate

11 x Mountain

2 x Mutavault

3 x Plains

4 x Sacred Foundry

4 x Temple of Triumph

Sideboard

2 x Chained to the Rocks

1 x Pithing Needle

2 x Wear // Tear

2 x Glare of Heresy

2 x Last Breath

1 x Mizzium Mortars

2 x Anger of the Gods

2 x Stormbreath Dragon

1 x Elspeth, Sun's Champion

This deck has seen decent success in the past few weeks, and I liked its mix of on-board aggression and relevant answers for most decks in the format. It can usually pull ahead of Monoblack, can shut down Monoblue, and has enough recurring threats to give UW players a headache.

With that said, it was time to play ten rounds of swiss in a pool of 643 players...

Round 1 - Win, 2-0 (Jund)

Both of these were fairly easy games, as I didn't take any damage in game one and was dropped to 12 in game two. 

After getting Thoughtseize cast in game one, the rest of my opponent's disruption blanked, as Duress and Lifebane Zombie failed to hit targets. The triple threat of Young Pyromancer, Chandra's Phoenix, and burn kept the board filled and my threats recurring as Chandra sealed the deal by plinking Lifebane Zombie and keeping Desecration Demon in check.

Game two saw the Pyromancer on board with Purphoros along with plenty of burn in hand. Two Reckoners on board also kept the board completely under my control.

Round 2 - Loss, 0-2 (Boros Devotion)

This deck seems like a bit of a problem for me, since I ended up losing to it twice this tournament. It also seems to be making a bit of a comeback, so it might be worth testing this matchup.

In game one, the Hammer of Purphoros, high devotion, and a Fanatic of Mogis was able to punch in for a big chunk of damage out of nowhere.

Game two was much closer and came down to a lucky topdeck on my end. I was able to swing in for 8 of the 10 needed and drew a... Purphoros. The Magma Jet would have been next, but my opponent's Hammer + golem token took care of Chandra I had that would have drawn me the winning card.

Round 3 - Loss, 0-2 (Boros Devotion)

Again, this game came down to a huge swing in damage thanks to a Fanatic of Mogis being dropped on top of a Boros Reckoner and Hammer of Purphoros. I had used my removal at that point to keep the early-game devotion under control.

Game two saw a Stormbreath Dragon drop when I didn't have an immediate answer for it and then it become monstrous and was well out of reach.

Round 4 - Draw, 1-1-1 (Prophet Bant)

Both of these games were super, super grindy as my damage was being blanked by his Sphinx's Revelations, but he was unable to keep any board pressure due to my removal. Thankfully I had the burn in hand for Prophet of Kruphix and he wasn't holding any creatures to flash in as a response.

Game two saw an Advent of the Wurm, Armada Wurm, Archangel of Thune, and a Primeval Bounty beating me within an inch of my life. I held on as long as I could, but his creatures got out of reach in a hurry.

Game three started with only 7 or so minutes on the clock. We chipped each other down to 10-12, but Stormbreath Dragon was able to hold off the assault and some play errors on my opponent's end kept it to a draw instead of a loss.

Round 5 - Win, 2-0 (Orzhov Midrange)

Mizzium Mortars stole the show by answering the Blood Baron of Vizkopa while two Chained to the Rocks shut down the Pack Rat and "in response" token. From there, the board was mine as I could ride Assemble the Legion to the win.

Game two was looking bad for me, as Blind Obedience and Obzedat, Ghost Council made things a headache for me. Reckoner was a huge board denial though, and Purphoros along with cheap guys hitting regularly won the war of attrition for me.

Round 6 - Win, 2-0 (Orzhov Aggro)

Both of these games were pretty much smooth sailing, as Pyromancer plus burn kept me rolling in blockers for the flimsy creatures that could have been thrown at me, which Boros Reckoner kept the threat of a 2-for-1 real. With the ground stalled, Chandra's Phoenix chipped in damage until the Stormbreath Dragon came in.

Round 7 - Win, 2-0 (Monoblack Devotion)

With one of my Assemble the Legion picked away due to Thoughtseize, I had to keep Desecration Demon under control with Chandra while chipping away with a Reckoner and Chandra's Phoenix. With plenty of burn to keep the Phoenix coming back as Demon food, game one was no problem.

Game two saw Assemble the Legion and Chandra, Pyromaster removed from my hand, but Purphoros, two Phoenix, and a Stormbreath Dragon punished my opponent for getting greedy with an attack of Lifebane Zombie and two Mutavaults.

Round 8 - Loss, 0-2 (Naya Monsters)

Both of these were very close games, coming down to 6-4 life in both before my opponent got the best of me. Xenagos pumping out satyrs along with a Stormbreath Dragon was had to deal with when there was no removal in hand for them.

Round 9 - Win, 2-0 (Opponent no show)

Woot. Time to play some Pokemon.

Round 10 - Win, 2-0 (Monoblack Devotion)

Pithing Needle naming Mutavault held the early game down as I watched his board get more and more clogged with Pack Rats. Boros Reckoner, however is a stud against the rat swarm, guaranteeing a 2-for-1 with every combat. After dropping three Reckoners, the board was stable enough for me to wait for Assemble to Legion to turn things back in my favor.

Game two was much of the same, with Purphoros, Reckoners, and burn holding down the fort until Elspeth showed up to machine gun in six damage with her +1.

Wrapping Up

I finished up 90 of 643, which wasn't too bad, but ultimately disappointing, as I was under-prepared for the Boros Devotion match up and it showed.

That said, I finished the day feeling really good about the deck. It can be quick and brutal when it needs to, or it can ride the grind train and try to win the war of attrition with some hard to answer threats. With no Standard on the horizon for the next few weeks, I might have to shelve this temporarily, but I think it will definitely be making a comeback.

Coming Up

On Tuesday night, we should start working on a set review for Born of the Gods, so keep an eye on the blog for our first podcast!