If you play nothing at all, that is how they timewalk you for free. If you get Dazed, they at least had to bounce a land to do it, which is less than a timewalk.
If I'm afraid of Daze and I have Mom and Vial in hand, I play the Vial first. A turn 2 Mom is better than a turn 2 Vial, I think, but a turn 1 Vial is better than a turn 1 Mom. My reasoning is that you want both cards to be performing at full capacity on turn 3. Getting Mom Dazed on turn 1 and then resolving a Vial on turn 2 gives you a much less significant board state than the other way round, your opponent will be much more able to race you in that position.
Thanks, that logic was very well worded and gives me good perspective. I've been very paranoid about my Vial getting countered, but I have to balance that against getting timewalked and this helps.
Any thoughts about my list? I need to develop my sb strat as well. I love sofi in the main, but I know lots of people go serra avenger instead of mangara and some people's mana base is a little different. Would love to see a debate on those differences by proponents of each.
I added in the 4 familiar in the board since vialing that on turn 2 or being able to play on turn one feels like I have a slightly better chance against some of the unfair decks, but I may be hurting other matchups..though know idea how much b/c I haven't tested many post board matches much.
A single Judge's Familiar is generally easy for combo decks to play around. I prefer to pack stronger hate in additional Ethersworn Canonists and Rest in Peaces. RiP in particular has utility in several other matchups, which makes it a better use of SB space. It is true that it does not help against turn 0 or turn 1 kills, but only Mindbreak Trap can effectively defend against that.
A single Judge's Familiar is generally easy for combo decks to play around. I prefer to pack stronger hate in additional Ethersworn Canonists and Rest in Peaces. RiP in particular has utility in several other matchups, which makes it a better use of SB space. It is true that it does not help against turn 0 or turn 1 kills, but only Mindbreak Trap can effectively defend against that.
Thanks. Well, I've got those cards in there including tutors to try and find them. Going up in numbers of those cards instead of other cards makes me wonder if instead it would make more sense just to go up to a 3rd tutor.
Could use additional discussion. Does anyone have thoughts on how they'd sideboard for each matchup based on this build? I know, I'm asking a lot. :-\
Edit: and to be clear the familiars I'd be bringing in in addition to those cards (canonist, rip)
Wow, I've got my work cut out for me. Am I missing anything or have anything on the list that I shouldn't even worry about?
Edit...oh yeah, I should figure out mirror match. I haven't even tested that once.
For DC?
I would focus on Delver Tempo RUG/UWR decks, True-Name BUG, and UWx Stoneblade. There is a good chance those decks will make up 30%+ of the field. Combo historically is ~15% of large events, under that one should expect ANT, Reanimator and Show and Tell to be the most highly represented. Some percentage of the field will be Tribal decks - Elves, Merfolk, Goblins. Some percentage will be non-U midrange - mirrors, Jund and Maverick. Some percentage will be niche/Tier 2/pet strategies - MUD, Affinity, Burn, 12 Post, Pox, Loam, High Tide what have you.
The MD is pretty well set up to address Blue matches. For large events I always look to my sideboard to have maximum overlap. Cards like Ethersworn Canonist where it addresses Storm, High Tide, Elves and can even come in against something like Snapcaster out of Ty Thomas' UW Blade deck.
Rest in Peace addresses all of the Goyf decks - Shardless w/ Drite and Goyf; RUG with Goyf and Nimble; Jund with Goyf, Drite and PFire. Anything where you're getting 8+ cards out of the deck turned off with 1 permanent is a great tax. Rest in Peace is also essential against Reanimator and the fringe Dredge deck that might show up.
Always, always 1x Pithing Needle, great application against Sneak and Show, and Miracles. It can easily be a piece of hate to address Elves, Belcher, MUD, 43 Lands, even 12 Post.
Against the mirror, Maverick and opposing UWx Blade strategies I feel one needs a Disenchant effect. This can be represented in Leonin Relic-Warder, actual Disenchant or Manriki-Gusari depending on taste. Each has fringe application elsewhere, Warder and Disenchant being good against MUD, UB Tezz, Enchantress, RIP/Helm Miracles, etc.
I would start with a core similar to:
2 Rest in Peace
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Pithing Needle
1-2 Oblivion Ring
1-2 'Disenchant' effect (Leonin Relic-Warder, Disenchant, Manriki-Gusari)
1-2 additional GY hate (Grafdigger's Cage, Relic of Progenitus, 3rd RIP)
0-2 Enlightened Tutor
This gives about half the board to be customizable. Some want Cataclysm to address the big mana and Planeswalker decks. Some want Wilt-Leaf Liege to address discard. Some want Spellskite to tax heavily spot-removal based strategies. Some want additional Storm hate in Mindbreak Trap. Some want an extra Sword of x and y for a specific color combo they anticipate or a 2nd Jitte to have an upside in the mirror, Elves and Maverick matches. Many SBs have adopted the 5th piece of removal in Sunlance or Dismember.
We run four needles already. Why should a fifth one be in the board?
I like the 5th effect against Miracles and Elves in particular.
Not being answered with their Terminus is highly valuable. The deck packs a lot of activated abilites between Sensei's Divining Top, Jace, the Mind Sculptor and not uncommonly Engineered Explosives from the Sideboard. Elves - where it can name Drite, Quirion Ranger or Wirewood Symbiote, it again gives us early interaction, blanking Deathrite is as good as STP/Sunlancing it here so it provides the 6th removal spell where it's needed most. It's also noteworthy that it splash damages a collection of decks that are all among our worst match ups - Belcher it gives us turn 1 interaction that otherwise we're forced to use something like Mindbreak Trap; providing another card to attack Candelabra of Tawnos against 12 Post and High Tide. It has the different ability where it can attack land's non-mana abilities namely against Maze of Ith out of 43ish Lands, where it can also shut down Engineered Explosives if Maze is otherwise neutralized.
I realize it's a redundant effect, but there are several matches where I'd prefer my odds to be 5/60 than 4/60 for having a Needle effect and in some of the cases mentioned it being a 1cc non-Creature is a perk rather than a liability.
I haven't posted in awhile as I've been pretty busy being a first year teacher, but I just wanted to say good luck to everyone (myself included!) at GP:DC this weekend. I've been checking here pretty much every day to keep up on the meta, and I wanted to say thanks to everyone for keeping this thread up and writing reports.
Any last minute sideboard advice and such is always appreciated.
Thanks. Well, I've got those cards in there including tutors to try and find them. Going up in numbers of those cards instead of other cards makes me wonder if instead it would make more sense just to go up to a 3rd tutor.
Could use additional discussion. Does anyone have thoughts on how they'd sideboard for each matchup based on this build?
Ah, the perennial questions. Whether to E-tutor, and how to sideboard. The truth is that there are no easy answers here. Even in mono white, there are so many sideboard options that whittling them down is a truly daunting task.
I prefer to take a step back from the situation and try to think about it more broadly. Legacy control is a difficult animal. DnT in particular requires tight play and an intimate knowledge of the opponent's deck to function properly. The above poster is absolutely not alone in asking about sideboarding just ahead of the GP. My opinion is that without preparing with this deck for a long time, results will be elusive. The point at which the discussion of sideboard cards and techniques is fruitful is well below the level of DnT proficiency, and in my opinion (no one is going to want to hear this) confusion regarding how to put together a good 15 sideboard cards is a sign that a player might be setting themselves up for a pretty tough day.
Personally, my development with the deck (not that it's complete) has gone something like this.
[Deck just got built] What an amazing deck! I'm winning so much. (This happens with every new deck I play.)
[The initial rush is over] OMG, I'm terrible at Magic, I don't even know what went wrong!
[Much later] E-tutors help so much. I sure wish I didn't play so badly.
[Much much later] Blast, these 2-3 identifiable errors cost me the game.
[Much much much later] No point in complaining about a mana flood, after all.
[At Long Last] It's too bad my opponent made that one tiny mistake that cost him/her everything. Oh well.
E-tutors helped me win a lot of fairly swingy games where one silver bullet could overcome several inaccuracies, but even by the middle stages (each is about a month long) I could build a passable sideboard. I started with Thomas E's GP-winning board, and it did absolutely nothing for me. The board wasn't wrong (it was brilliant), it was the player.
I don't want to be a wet blanket (well, maybe I secretly do) but it seems to me that the deck's recent successes are having a two-fold effect. First, a lot more players are picking it up. Second, a lot of people are practicing and planning for this matchup. They're bringing the hate. DnT is not very forgiving for new pilots in the first place, and now the new pilots have to face much more major challenges than I did when I was fresh to the deck. I hope I'm wrong, but I predict that a lot of learning experiences are right around the corner.
1. So would you just play the vial into a potential daze? That doesn't seem right to me, but I always don't want them to get to timewalk me for free.
2. Any thoughts about the deck list?
I would cut the Judge's Familiars and Serenity, run a minimum of 2x Mindbreak Trap, 2x Oblivion Ring, and 2x Canonist (all cards that you want to naturally draw in the relevant matchups), and put a Cataclysm and a Linvala in the SB. Both cards are auto-wins if boarded/played correctly and it is well worth the slots to have access to them.
Here's the thing, you want to rely on playskill and deck knowledge to win most matchups. D&T is capable of winning a lot of matchups in Legacy with its maindeck alone, if you know what you're doing. An E-Tutor SB is built specifically to cater to this, by having a virtual 3x copies of whatever SB card you actually need to win an otherwise difficult matchup. So you should be depending on your knowledge of the format and ability to use the deck correctly to win most games. The SB is built to supplement the maindeck in very minor ways rather than replace the irrelevant cards(which is what a lot of Legacy decks try to do) because so few cards in the maindeck are actually irrelevant against the field (this is one of the primary strengths of the deck). So if you're asking about SB strategies for more than a dozen decks at once, what that means to me is that you haven't put in the practice yet to just beat most of those decks with your maindeck alone, which you should be able to do. Just jam games. Play more games, and more games, and more games, until you know what works and what doesn't, and then you won't need help on SB strategies because you'll know what you need.
This might not be the most helpful response but I think it's what a lot of people (not just you) need to hear.
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Thanks to Gabgabdevo for the awesome sig image!
I'm always looking for foil Madcap Skills and Ghitu Fire-Eater, [trade thread link forthcoming]
Well, True Name Nemesis is probably here to stay. I doubt there will be as many Sulfur Elementals and Dread of Nights, but Golgari Charm, Zealous Persecution, and Toxic Deluge will probably be showing up a lot now as a side effect of TNN. OK, and maybe the fact that DnT and Elves are especially popular now as well. Trim x/1s as much as you can while still keeping the deck intact.
Hey guy's according to PVDR we should all dump our cards and find another deck to play because and I quote: "this deck is a combination of highly unplayable cards that would probably not see any play in Block Constructed if they were legal."
I'm going to laugh so hard if D&T sweeps the whole event again.
Sometimes I think that Pro's who only turn up to Legacy events once a year don't really understand that Legacy more than any other form of magic is about Meta and the more degenerate the decks the better a deck that stops you being degenerate is going to be.
It's drivel written by someone who knows nothing of Legacy, though, so be warned--or, alternatively, skip to Thomas Enevoldsen's awesome retort at the bottom. Cheers!
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"Don't mess with me, lady. I've been drinking with skeletons."
Played in a small local tourney tonight in prep for Providence. I tried out the Bird Wizard and SoFI in place of Mangara. I swapped out some Crusaders for some Avengers.
I'm still torn. Every time I had the Bird Wizard in hand I wishing it was something else. A Relic-Warder, a Mangara, etc. The usefulness is undeniable, but it just didn't happen at all tonight.
I'm still leaning towards putting Mangara back in though. It is a "catch-all" albeit a slow one. It kills their equipment, PWs, and almost forgotten their lands. He overlaps a lot of the things we want to do with his deck.
Also, granted I only played a few games but I didn't see much of a difference between Crusaders and Avengers - both did some work for me.
I'm running 1 Mangara main and 1 in the board. It makes sense that I certainly don't want 3 of him in the main deck, but I don't want to cut him entirely. He is just SO GOOD when he has time to shine. Has anyone else relegated him to the board but not cut him entirely?
I'm running 1 Mangara main and 1 in the board. It makes sense that I certainly don't want 3 of him in the main deck, but I don't want to cut him entirely. He is just SO GOOD when he has time to shine. Has anyone else relegated him to the board but not cut him entirely?
He's main deck or not at all, imo; the slots are just too few and the hate is needed where it is. I'm fiddling with numbers in my list (mostly between one and two) since he's kinda terrible until you've set up the environment for him to shine. I think the era of 3-4 mangara lists may (for now) be a thing of the past.
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"Don't mess with me, lady. I've been drinking with skeletons."
I think with every consideration in Legacy, I'm down to two for the foreseeable future, but it's exactly because of every consideration in Legacy why I still play him.
It's drivel written by someone who knows nothing of Legacy, though, so be warned--or, alternatively, skip to Thomas Enevoldsen's awesome retort at the bottom. Cheers!
Loved it! TE's kindly retort made me laugh too. I don't really know how I think about the ongoing demeaning of our deck. On one hand, I like the braggadocio of others, it has been a life long tactic of mine to allow people to think they are in some way better than I. It allows me to wrong foot them and the shock is delicious.
On the other hand, having played the deck for a year and been about the only player in Melbourne Australia that has 4 Karakas, I feel this is my deck. I even have t-shirts made up! And the slurs make me a bit mad...
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Legacy
Death and Taxes
UG Infect
Strawberry Shortcake Imperial Painter
There's still a lot of ignorance when it comes to this archetype and the power level it houses (he said the cards pretty much suck in general), but that ignorance is the reflection of a person who truly doesn't understand the power level of the deck when approaching the legacy scene, but it's words from just one mammal who might be sitting on the short bus (the whole article has swamp like holes throughout it)...I wouldn't place to much stock in just one persons opinion (an opinion that reflects he doesn't "like" the deck to start with).
Pros are going to hate on this archetype if they aren't flopping it, its the one deck you don't want to face on the competitive scene (I would take on anything else before facing this archetype from a seasoned mage if I had a choice, and most seasoned mage's can't play this deck to start with based of its complexities it carries)...and that's why it burns the roof down in larger events from player's that have a concept on "how" to pilot it.
Loved it! TE's kindly retort made me laugh too. I don't really know how I think about the ongoing demeaning of our deck. On one hand, I like the braggadocio of others, it has been a life long tactic of mine to allow people to think they are in some way better than I. It allows me to wrong foot them and the shock is delicious.
On the other hand, having played the deck for a year and been about the only player in Melbourne Australia that has 4 Karakas, I feel this is my deck. I even have t-shirts made up! And the slurs make me a bit mad...
While not a one-sided super beatdown like Nash's SCG Portland win over Miracles, I'm still shocked how little credit DnT got from the commentators. If you watch the match, all they talk about is how the Miracles is going to get out of this jam, assuming what the Top is going to find him to clear the board and win, what lines of play the Miracles player has that should make mincemeat of Thomas. Yet it didn't didn't happen out that way. They almost never spoke of what lines of play DnT had to win, beyond saying that he needed a Cataclysm, simply foregoing every other mentionable in the deck. I say this dismissive attitude is probably waning overall, but I'll still welcome being the "underdog" for pretty much every matchup by those types of players, the ones who think Legacy is about pure card-for-card power and nothing else.
Game 2 of that matchup was really priceless. The commentators keep on describing how much of a dog Thomas is. They don't even recognize that TE's 1st turn Aether Vial, followed by Port, Wasteland, Thalia, is threatening. They announce that TE won't be able to deal with Entreat tokens, and TE Momwalks through them.
The icing on the cake is when the Miracles player pays 5 mana for an Elspeth, drawing the Phyrexian Revoker out of an Aether Vial. At the end of the match, they proclaim, "Sometimes you make the right play and still lose." Sorry, guys... Elspeth was not the right play there. Even not tapping the mana would have been better.
You're right StT, they really just didn't have anything productive to say at all about DnT, even to the point of believing Miracles to be favored against the deck. I believe TE wrote somewhere that he was glad to get into the draw bracket in GP Strasbourg, knowing he'd face a lot of Miracles decks. We're favored against them, but it has to be done right. TE really shows us how to do it in that video.
On the other hand, I can't really fault the commentators for talking about the lines they were more familiar with. It would have been eminently painful to suffer their inadequate attempts to discuss a deck they didn't know well enough. Other sports don't have this problem. I wonder how many people would watch football if it were presented like this.
Thanks, that logic was very well worded and gives me good perspective. I've been very paranoid about my Vial getting countered, but I have to balance that against getting timewalked and this helps.
Any thoughts about my list? I need to develop my sb strat as well. I love sofi in the main, but I know lots of people go serra avenger instead of mangara and some people's mana base is a little different. Would love to see a debate on those differences by proponents of each.
I added in the 4 familiar in the board since vialing that on turn 2 or being able to play on turn one feels like I have a slightly better chance against some of the unfair decks, but I may be hurting other matchups..though know idea how much b/c I haven't tested many post board matches much.
Thanks. Well, I've got those cards in there including tutors to try and find them. Going up in numbers of those cards instead of other cards makes me wonder if instead it would make more sense just to go up to a 3rd tutor.
Could use additional discussion. Does anyone have thoughts on how they'd sideboard for each matchup based on this build? I know, I'm asking a lot. :-\
Edit: and to be clear the familiars I'd be bringing in in addition to those cards (canonist, rip)
a) you have more draws where you naturally draw the hate card, so you don't have to two-for-one yourself by spending a card tutoring for it as often
b) there is the possibility of replacing the hate card if it gets dealt with
c) e-tutor is slow and a pretty frustrating topdeck after the first few turns, so it makes your draws a little faster
d) drawing multiples of e-tutor sucks if you have only one good target for it
Here is the inherent problem with this card: it's really only good if in your opening grip. As a topdeck, it is horrendous.
Stoneblade
Storm
Delver
Merfolk
Shardless
Miracles
Elves
Maverick
Show and tell
Jund
Mud
Affinity
Goblins
4 color loam
Pox
12 post
high tide
Wow, I've got my work cut out for me. Am I missing anything or have anything on the list that I shouldn't even worry about?
Edit...oh yeah, I should figure out mirror match. I haven't even tested that once.
For DC?
I would focus on Delver Tempo RUG/UWR decks, True-Name BUG, and UWx Stoneblade. There is a good chance those decks will make up 30%+ of the field. Combo historically is ~15% of large events, under that one should expect ANT, Reanimator and Show and Tell to be the most highly represented. Some percentage of the field will be Tribal decks - Elves, Merfolk, Goblins. Some percentage will be non-U midrange - mirrors, Jund and Maverick. Some percentage will be niche/Tier 2/pet strategies - MUD, Affinity, Burn, 12 Post, Pox, Loam, High Tide what have you.
The MD is pretty well set up to address Blue matches. For large events I always look to my sideboard to have maximum overlap. Cards like Ethersworn Canonist where it addresses Storm, High Tide, Elves and can even come in against something like Snapcaster out of Ty Thomas' UW Blade deck.
Rest in Peace addresses all of the Goyf decks - Shardless w/ Drite and Goyf; RUG with Goyf and Nimble; Jund with Goyf, Drite and PFire. Anything where you're getting 8+ cards out of the deck turned off with 1 permanent is a great tax. Rest in Peace is also essential against Reanimator and the fringe Dredge deck that might show up.
Always, always 1x Pithing Needle, great application against Sneak and Show, and Miracles. It can easily be a piece of hate to address Elves, Belcher, MUD, 43 Lands, even 12 Post.
Against the mirror, Maverick and opposing UWx Blade strategies I feel one needs a Disenchant effect. This can be represented in Leonin Relic-Warder, actual Disenchant or Manriki-Gusari depending on taste. Each has fringe application elsewhere, Warder and Disenchant being good against MUD, UB Tezz, Enchantress, RIP/Helm Miracles, etc.
I would start with a core similar to:
2 Rest in Peace
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Pithing Needle
1-2 Oblivion Ring
1-2 'Disenchant' effect (Leonin Relic-Warder, Disenchant, Manriki-Gusari)
1-2 additional GY hate (Grafdigger's Cage, Relic of Progenitus, 3rd RIP)
0-2 Enlightened Tutor
This gives about half the board to be customizable. Some want Cataclysm to address the big mana and Planeswalker decks. Some want Wilt-Leaf Liege to address discard. Some want Spellskite to tax heavily spot-removal based strategies. Some want additional Storm hate in Mindbreak Trap. Some want an extra Sword of x and y for a specific color combo they anticipate or a 2nd Jitte to have an upside in the mirror, Elves and Maverick matches. Many SBs have adopted the 5th piece of removal in Sunlance or Dismember.
Hope this helps.
I like the 5th effect against Miracles and Elves in particular.
Not being answered with their Terminus is highly valuable. The deck packs a lot of activated abilites between Sensei's Divining Top, Jace, the Mind Sculptor and not uncommonly Engineered Explosives from the Sideboard. Elves - where it can name Drite, Quirion Ranger or Wirewood Symbiote, it again gives us early interaction, blanking Deathrite is as good as STP/Sunlancing it here so it provides the 6th removal spell where it's needed most. It's also noteworthy that it splash damages a collection of decks that are all among our worst match ups - Belcher it gives us turn 1 interaction that otherwise we're forced to use something like Mindbreak Trap; providing another card to attack Candelabra of Tawnos against 12 Post and High Tide. It has the different ability where it can attack land's non-mana abilities namely against Maze of Ith out of 43ish Lands, where it can also shut down Engineered Explosives if Maze is otherwise neutralized.
I realize it's a redundant effect, but there are several matches where I'd prefer my odds to be 5/60 than 4/60 for having a Needle effect and in some of the cases mentioned it being a 1cc non-Creature is a perk rather than a liability.
Any last minute sideboard advice and such is always appreciated.
Ah, the perennial questions. Whether to E-tutor, and how to sideboard. The truth is that there are no easy answers here. Even in mono white, there are so many sideboard options that whittling them down is a truly daunting task.
I prefer to take a step back from the situation and try to think about it more broadly. Legacy control is a difficult animal. DnT in particular requires tight play and an intimate knowledge of the opponent's deck to function properly. The above poster is absolutely not alone in asking about sideboarding just ahead of the GP. My opinion is that without preparing with this deck for a long time, results will be elusive. The point at which the discussion of sideboard cards and techniques is fruitful is well below the level of DnT proficiency, and in my opinion (no one is going to want to hear this) confusion regarding how to put together a good 15 sideboard cards is a sign that a player might be setting themselves up for a pretty tough day.
Personally, my development with the deck (not that it's complete) has gone something like this.
E-tutors helped me win a lot of fairly swingy games where one silver bullet could overcome several inaccuracies, but even by the middle stages (each is about a month long) I could build a passable sideboard. I started with Thomas E's GP-winning board, and it did absolutely nothing for me. The board wasn't wrong (it was brilliant), it was the player.
I don't want to be a wet blanket (well, maybe I secretly do) but it seems to me that the deck's recent successes are having a two-fold effect. First, a lot more players are picking it up. Second, a lot of people are practicing and planning for this matchup. They're bringing the hate. DnT is not very forgiving for new pilots in the first place, and now the new pilots have to face much more major challenges than I did when I was fresh to the deck. I hope I'm wrong, but I predict that a lot of learning experiences are right around the corner.
Good luck guys, you're going to need it.
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730
I would cut the Judge's Familiars and Serenity, run a minimum of 2x Mindbreak Trap, 2x Oblivion Ring, and 2x Canonist (all cards that you want to naturally draw in the relevant matchups), and put a Cataclysm and a Linvala in the SB. Both cards are auto-wins if boarded/played correctly and it is well worth the slots to have access to them.
Here's the thing, you want to rely on playskill and deck knowledge to win most matchups. D&T is capable of winning a lot of matchups in Legacy with its maindeck alone, if you know what you're doing. An E-Tutor SB is built specifically to cater to this, by having a virtual 3x copies of whatever SB card you actually need to win an otherwise difficult matchup. So you should be depending on your knowledge of the format and ability to use the deck correctly to win most games. The SB is built to supplement the maindeck in very minor ways rather than replace the irrelevant cards(which is what a lot of Legacy decks try to do) because so few cards in the maindeck are actually irrelevant against the field (this is one of the primary strengths of the deck). So if you're asking about SB strategies for more than a dozen decks at once, what that means to me is that you haven't put in the practice yet to just beat most of those decks with your maindeck alone, which you should be able to do. Just jam games. Play more games, and more games, and more games, until you know what works and what doesn't, and then you won't need help on SB strategies because you'll know what you need.
This might not be the most helpful response but I think it's what a lot of people (not just you) need to hear.
Thanks to Gabgabdevo for the awesome sig image!
I'm always looking for foil Madcap Skills and Ghitu Fire-Eater, [trade thread link forthcoming]
Article link for those who are interested: http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/pvs-playhouse-legacy/
It's drivel written by someone who knows nothing of Legacy, though, so be warned--or, alternatively, skip to Thomas Enevoldsen's awesome retort at the bottom. Cheers!
Currently playing:
Legacy
WW Death and Taxes(Rest in Peace)EDH
RR Krenko, Mob Boss
WW Thalia, Heretic Cathar
I'm still torn. Every time I had the Bird Wizard in hand I wishing it was something else. A Relic-Warder, a Mangara, etc. The usefulness is undeniable, but it just didn't happen at all tonight.
I'm still leaning towards putting Mangara back in though. It is a "catch-all" albeit a slow one. It kills their equipment, PWs, and almost forgotten their lands. He overlaps a lot of the things we want to do with his deck.
Also, granted I only played a few games but I didn't see much of a difference between Crusaders and Avengers - both did some work for me.
He's main deck or not at all, imo; the slots are just too few and the hate is needed where it is. I'm fiddling with numbers in my list (mostly between one and two) since he's kinda terrible until you've set up the environment for him to shine. I think the era of 3-4 mangara lists may (for now) be a thing of the past.
Currently playing:
Legacy
WW Death and Taxes(Rest in Peace)EDH
RR Krenko, Mob Boss
WW Thalia, Heretic Cathar
Loved it! TE's kindly retort made me laugh too. I don't really know how I think about the ongoing demeaning of our deck. On one hand, I like the braggadocio of others, it has been a life long tactic of mine to allow people to think they are in some way better than I. It allows me to wrong foot them and the shock is delicious.
On the other hand, having played the deck for a year and been about the only player in Melbourne Australia that has 4 Karakas, I feel this is my deck. I even have t-shirts made up! And the slurs make me a bit mad...
Death and Taxes
UG Infect
Strawberry Shortcake Imperial Painter
EDH
Angus Mackenzie - Enduring Enchantments
Adun Oakenshield - Jund F'ing Good Stuff, "Money Vault"
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails - Captain Crunch
Pros are going to hate on this archetype if they aren't flopping it, its the one deck you don't want to face on the competitive scene (I would take on anything else before facing this archetype from a seasoned mage if I had a choice, and most seasoned mage's can't play this deck to start with based of its complexities it carries)...and that's why it burns the roof down in larger events from player's that have a concept on "how" to pilot it.
S.M.
cataclysm in boards- worth it now?
What should it come in against- fair or unfair decks?
I am a pox legacy man, but am death and taxes as first love in modern- now have all the cards for its legacy cousin.
many thanks, apologies if this has been covered before.
I just got around to watching Enevoldsen's BoM match against Miracles, previously posted by Vote4Johnny:
http://www.twitch.tv/lotusnoirtv/b/476240912
02:51 = Enevoldsen vs UWr Miracles
While not a one-sided super beatdown like Nash's SCG Portland win over Miracles, I'm still shocked how little credit DnT got from the commentators. If you watch the match, all they talk about is how the Miracles is going to get out of this jam, assuming what the Top is going to find him to clear the board and win, what lines of play the Miracles player has that should make mincemeat of Thomas. Yet it didn't didn't happen out that way. They almost never spoke of what lines of play DnT had to win, beyond saying that he needed a Cataclysm, simply foregoing every other mentionable in the deck. I say this dismissive attitude is probably waning overall, but I'll still welcome being the "underdog" for pretty much every matchup by those types of players, the ones who think Legacy is about pure card-for-card power and nothing else.
The icing on the cake is when the Miracles player pays 5 mana for an Elspeth, drawing the Phyrexian Revoker out of an Aether Vial. At the end of the match, they proclaim, "Sometimes you make the right play and still lose." Sorry, guys... Elspeth was not the right play there. Even not tapping the mana would have been better.
You're right StT, they really just didn't have anything productive to say at all about DnT, even to the point of believing Miracles to be favored against the deck. I believe TE wrote somewhere that he was glad to get into the draw bracket in GP Strasbourg, knowing he'd face a lot of Miracles decks. We're favored against them, but it has to be done right. TE really shows us how to do it in that video.
On the other hand, I can't really fault the commentators for talking about the lines they were more familiar with. It would have been eminently painful to suffer their inadequate attempts to discuss a deck they didn't know well enough. Other sports don't have this problem. I wonder how many people would watch football if it were presented like this.
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730