We really enjoyed this format so i wanted to share the tournament report and top8 deck lists. December 4th Drinking Wizard Con at Madness Comics and Games in Denton Texas
Top 4 at No Banlist Modern with Hex Depths
A Tournament Report
When this tournament was first announced, the local community immediately set out to answer one question, what’s the most broken thing you can do? Two of the most common answers were Blazing Shoal Infect and Hypergenesis combo. Meanwhile, I was looking at my Legacy Miracles deck and wondering if I could just play that. After some initial testing, it quickly became clear that Miracles, at least the deck that I had brought to the table, simply wasn’t fast enough for what was happening in our expected metagame.
The Decklist:
//Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
4 Vampire Hexmage
//Combo Help
3 Ancient Stirrings
3 Expedition Map
4 Sylvan Scrying
3 Life from the Loam
//Protection
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Mental Misstep
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Liliana of the Veil
//Lands
4 Dark Depths
4 Thespian’s Stage
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Verdant Catacomb
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Swamp
1 Forest
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Sideboard:
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Pithing Needle
1 Thoughtseize
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Golgari Charm
1 Spellskite
1 Damnation
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Round 1: Nathan on Monowhite Martyr
I certainly didn’t expect any of my opponents in this tournament to play turn 1 plains, Martyr of Sands. I have to admit that I quickly dismissed this deck as noncompetitive, but I hadn’t taken into account the decks ability to exceed 20 life, meaning I had to not only assemble my combo, but attack with Marit Lage multiple times. My opponent manages to reach 41 life by sacrificing Martyr and revealing a hand of all white cards. He was stuck on one land all game however, and even though I had to attack 3 times to close things out, I take the game. In sideboarding, I bring in my removal in Abrupt Decay, Golgari Charms, and Damnation, shaving Ancient Stirrings and a few others.
In our second game, my opponent finds two Ghost Quarters, all the while applying pressure with Ajani’s Pridemate and Serra Ascendants, so that by the time I’m able to make a 20/20, it’s too late.
Game three plays out similarly, with me unable to find my removal spells and him managing to land an Aven Mindcensor, neutering my search effects.
A frustrating start to the day, especially in the form of a deck that we had assumed no one would play and I later learned was playing no banned cards at all. The most painful part of this loss was having to relinquish The Banned Cards Hat. During the player meeting, a drawing was taken to determine who would start with the hat, and anyone who successfully defended the hat won a pack.
Round 2: Shad on Elves
This is the sort of deck I came to the tournament expecting to play against. In game 1, my opening hand contains 2 Mental Missteps, allowing me to stop his draw engines while I assemble a turn 4 20/20. In sideboarding, I bring in my Chalice of the Voids and Golgari Charms, shaving Lilianas and Abrupt Decays.
Game 2 my hand contains Chalice of the Void and tutors. Once I land the Chalice turn 2, the game is essentially over, as my opponent admitted to me he hadn’t expected Chalice and had no access to Abrupt Decay that game.
My mood sharply improves after round 1 as it starts to become clear that the majority of players weren’t prepared to deal with a land based combo deck. Several players had Blood Moons in their deck, but that was about it.
Round 3: Emma on Affinity
I’m nervous going into this match, because testing in testing it appeared that Affinity was simply faster than my deck, and I would need to rely on my removal to prolong the game enough to assemble my combo. In game 1, I keep a sketchy 6 card hand with no colored mana, but if I can draw two other lands, I have the combo. I miss for too long, and get run over by robots. My sideboard gives me Chalice of the Void, Golgari Charm, Abrupt Decay, and Damnation
In game two, my opponent’s hand relies on Cranial Plating, which I have the Abrupt Decay for and her offense falls apart and gives me enough time to find the combo. We spend several turns where she has chump blocks while hoping to draw an Arcbound Ravager to drain the last of my life points with Disciple of the Vault. She doesn’t find one and we go to game 3.
My opening hand contains pieces of the combo as well as Golgari Charm and Abrupt Decay. I later draw another Decay and dismantle my opponent’s board position. Marit Lage then erupted from the ice and closed the match.
2-1
Round 4 Jarrod on Splinter Twin
Jarrod is a very good player, who has beaten me in Legacy more times than I can count and I was unsure of how the Twin matchup would go, so I enter with a fair amount of trepidation. More importantly though, Jarrod took the Banned Card Hat from my round 1 opponent, and this is my chance to reclaim it. In game 1 unfortunately, I was unable to either assemble my combo or disrupt his enough, and he has a Deciever Exarch to tap my Marit Lage on the crucial turn. My followup Thoughtseize shows a hand of nothing relevant, but he had hidden Splinter Twin on top of his deck with Jace, the Mind Sculptor and we go to game 2. I take out Life from the Loam and a Liliana of the Veil in favor of Spellskite, Pithing Needles, Abrupt Decays, and Golgari Charms.
In game 2, we trade resources for several turn until we arrive at a boardstate where I have Dark Confidant on the board with a Dark Depths and four other lands. My Bob trigger reveals Thespian’s Stage, and I draw Abrupt Decay for the turn. Wanting to play around a potential Ghost Quarter, I play the Stage and immediately make a 20/20. On my end step he plays Pestermite to tap my Marit Lage and goes for Splinter Twin on his turn with no mana left to protect it. He was a bit upset to learn that my draw for the turn was the Decay.
In game 3, I make a 20/20 on turn three with Vampire Hexmage and he has no answer to it.
3-1 I agree with my opponent’s evaluation of this match. I played well, but got very lucky as well. I reclaim the Banned Card hat and hope I can draw into the top 8 next round.
Round 5 Richard on Splinter Twin
I get paired down, so we have to play out the match. In game 1, his hand is full of irrelevant removal spells after I land several discard spells and make a Marit Lage. My sideboard plan remains the same as last round.
In this game, I manage to snag his Blood Moon with an early Inquisition, but he lands a Counterbalance. Most of my tutor spells cost 1, so this could have been a real problem, but his blind flips miss and I assembled the combo with a Dark Depths and a Vampire Hexmage.
4-1 Quite a comeback after losing the first round to the rogue deck. The theory that the meta game would be weak to the Dark Depths combo has proven correct.
Top 8 Skred Red
I neglected to write down my opponent’s name for this match unfortunately, but he was playing what appeared to be a standard Skred Red deck of the same variety that took down our local Grand Prix last month. I later learn that he had only added 3 Sensei’s Divining Tops to his deck for additional consistency. His rogue strategy has served him well in the Swiss, but he was soft to the Dark Depths combo unless he could land a Blood Moon, and he didn’t see one in our first game. His Pia and Kirran Nalar allow him to blow with thopter tokens for a turn, but I have the Abrupt Decay for the second token, and we move to game 2. As in most of my matchups today, I take out Life From the Loam in favor of cards that dealt with Blood Moons.
In game 2, my Inquisition shows me a hand with only Molten Rain and Blood Moon for interaction with my combo. I take his Blood Moon and pass. On my second turn, I play another to take his Molten Rain, and on the third turn I play a Vampire Hexmage that I immediately sacrifice to make a 20/20 in case he had Sudden Shocks in his deck. He has nothing to stop the Marit Lage on his turn, and I take the match.
5-1 Final Record. The Top 4 agreed to split the prize pool.
Closing Thoughts:
The deck felt very powerful throughout the day, and I felt that I had all of the tools necessary to win available to me, but I did find that I needed to mulligan more often than I was used to, and would attribute some of my game losses to failing to mulligan more aggressively, such as game 1 against Affinity.
We really enjoyed this format so i wanted to share the tournament report and top8 deck lists. December 4th Drinking Wizard Con at Madness Comics and Games in Denton Texas
Top 4 at No Banlist Modern with Hex Depths
A Tournament Report
When this tournament was first announced, the local community immediately set out to answer one question, what’s the most broken thing you can do? Two of the most common answers were Blazing Shoal Infect and Hypergenesis combo. Meanwhile, I was looking at my Legacy Miracles deck and wondering if I could just play that. After some initial testing, it quickly became clear that Miracles, at least the deck that I had brought to the table, simply wasn’t fast enough for what was happening in our expected metagame.
The Decklist:
//Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
4 Vampire Hexmage
//Combo Help
3 Ancient Stirrings
3 Expedition Map
4 Sylvan Scrying
3 Life from the Loam
//Protection
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Mental Misstep
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Liliana of the Veil
//Lands
4 Dark Depths
4 Thespian’s Stage
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Verdant Catacomb
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Swamp
1 Forest
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Sideboard:
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Pithing Needle
1 Thoughtseize
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Golgari Charm
1 Spellskite
1 Damnation
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Round 1: Nathan on Monowhite Martyr
I certainly didn’t expect any of my opponents in this tournament to play turn 1 plains, Martyr of Sands. I have to admit that I quickly dismissed this deck as noncompetitive, but I hadn’t taken into account the decks ability to exceed 20 life, meaning I had to not only assemble my combo, but attack with Marit Lage multiple times. My opponent manages to reach 41 life by sacrificing Martyr and revealing a hand of all white cards. He was stuck on one land all game however, and even though I had to attack 3 times to close things out, I take the game. In sideboarding, I bring in my removal in Abrupt Decay, Golgari Charms, and Damnation, shaving Ancient Stirrings and a few others.
In our second game, my opponent finds two Ghost Quarters, all the while applying pressure with Ajani’s Pridemate and Serra Ascendants, so that by the time I’m able to make a 20/20, it’s too late.
Game three plays out similarly, with me unable to find my removal spells and him managing to land an Aven Mindcensor, neutering my search effects.
A frustrating start to the day, especially in the form of a deck that we had assumed no one would play and I later learned was playing no banned cards at all. The most painful part of this loss was having to relinquish The Banned Cards Hat. During the player meeting, a drawing was taken to determine who would start with the hat, and anyone who successfully defended the hat won a pack.
Round 2: Shad on Elves
This is the sort of deck I came to the tournament expecting to play against. In game 1, my opening hand contains 2 Mental Missteps, allowing me to stop his draw engines while I assemble a turn 4 20/20. In sideboarding, I bring in my Chalice of the Voids and Golgari Charms, shaving Lilianas and Abrupt Decays.
Game 2 my hand contains Chalice of the Void and tutors. Once I land the Chalice turn 2, the game is essentially over, as my opponent admitted to me he hadn’t expected Chalice and had no access to Abrupt Decay that game.
My mood sharply improves after round 1 as it starts to become clear that the majority of players weren’t prepared to deal with a land based combo deck. Several players had Blood Moons in their deck, but that was about it.
Round 3: Emma on Affinity
I’m nervous going into this match, because testing in testing it appeared that Affinity was simply faster than my deck, and I would need to rely on my removal to prolong the game enough to assemble my combo. In game 1, I keep a sketchy 6 card hand with no colored mana, but if I can draw two other lands, I have the combo. I miss for too long, and get run over by robots. My sideboard gives me Chalice of the Void, Golgari Charm, Abrupt Decay, and Damnation
In game two, my opponent’s hand relies on Cranial Plating, which I have the Abrupt Decay for and her offense falls apart and gives me enough time to find the combo. We spend several turns where she has chump blocks while hoping to draw an Arcbound Ravager to drain the last of my life points with Disciple of the Vault. She doesn’t find one and we go to game 3.
My opening hand contains pieces of the combo as well as Golgari Charm and Abrupt Decay. I later draw another Decay and dismantle my opponent’s board position. Marit Lage then erupted from the ice and closed the match.
2-1
Round 4 Jarrod on Splinter Twin
Jarrod is a very good player, who has beaten me in Legacy more times than I can count and I was unsure of how the Twin matchup would go, so I enter with a fair amount of trepidation. More importantly though, Jarrod took the Banned Card Hat from my round 1 opponent, and this is my chance to reclaim it. In game 1 unfortunately, I was unable to either assemble my combo or disrupt his enough, and he has a Deciever Exarch to tap my Marit Lage on the crucial turn. My followup Thoughtseize shows a hand of nothing relevant, but he had hidden Splinter Twin on top of his deck with Jace, the Mind Sculptor and we go to game 2. I take out Life from the Loam and a Liliana of the Veil in favor of Spellskite, Pithing Needles, Abrupt Decays, and Golgari Charms.
In game 2, we trade resources for several turn until we arrive at a boardstate where I have Dark Confidant on the board with a Dark Depths and four other lands. My Bob trigger reveals Thespian’s Stage, and I draw Abrupt Decay for the turn. Wanting to play around a potential Ghost Quarter, I play the Stage and immediately make a 20/20. On my end step he plays Pestermite to tap my Marit Lage and goes for Splinter Twin on his turn with no mana left to protect it. He was a bit upset to learn that my draw for the turn was the Decay.
In game 3, I make a 20/20 on turn three with Vampire Hexmage and he has no answer to it.
3-1 I agree with my opponent’s evaluation of this match. I played well, but got very lucky as well. I reclaim the Banned Card hat and hope I can draw into the top 8 next round.
Round 5 Richard on Splinter Twin
I get paired down, so we have to play out the match. In game 1, his hand is full of irrelevant removal spells after I land several discard spells and make a Marit Lage. My sideboard plan remains the same as last round.
In this game, I manage to snag his Blood Moon with an early Inquisition, but he lands a Counterbalance. Most of my tutor spells cost 1, so this could have been a real problem, but his blind flips miss and I assembled the combo with a Dark Depths and a Vampire Hexmage.
4-1 Quite a comeback after losing the first round to the rogue deck. The theory that the meta game would be weak to the Dark Depths combo has proven correct.
Top 8 Skred Red
I neglected to write down my opponent’s name for this match unfortunately, but he was playing what appeared to be a standard Skred Red deck of the same variety that took down our local Grand Prix last month. I later learn that he had only added 3 Sensei’s Divining Tops to his deck for additional consistency. His rogue strategy has served him well in the Swiss, but he was soft to the Dark Depths combo unless he could land a Blood Moon, and he didn’t see one in our first game. His Pia and Kirran Nalar allow him to blow with thopter tokens for a turn, but I have the Abrupt Decay for the second token, and we move to game 2. As in most of my matchups today, I take out Life From the Loam in favor of cards that dealt with Blood Moons.
In game 2, my Inquisition shows me a hand with only Molten Rain and Blood Moon for interaction with my combo. I take his Blood Moon and pass. On my second turn, I play another to take his Molten Rain, and on the third turn I play a Vampire Hexmage that I immediately sacrifice to make a 20/20 in case he had Sudden Shocks in his deck. He has nothing to stop the Marit Lage on his turn, and I take the match.
5-1 Final Record. The Top 4 agreed to split the prize pool.
Closing Thoughts:
The deck felt very powerful throughout the day, and I felt that I had all of the tools necessary to win available to me, but I did find that I needed to mulligan more often than I was used to, and would attribute some of my game losses to failing to mulligan more aggressively, such as game 1 against Affinity.
Deck Lists --> http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=21711
Event --> https://www.facebook.com/events/1244361985583945/
Top 4 at No Banlist Modern with Hex Depths
A Tournament Report
When this tournament was first announced, the local community immediately set out to answer one question, what’s the most broken thing you can do? Two of the most common answers were Blazing Shoal Infect and Hypergenesis combo. Meanwhile, I was looking at my Legacy Miracles deck and wondering if I could just play that. After some initial testing, it quickly became clear that Miracles, at least the deck that I had brought to the table, simply wasn’t fast enough for what was happening in our expected metagame.
The Decklist:
//Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
4 Vampire Hexmage
//Combo Help
3 Ancient Stirrings
3 Expedition Map
4 Sylvan Scrying
3 Life from the Loam
//Protection
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Mental Misstep
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Liliana of the Veil
//Lands
4 Dark Depths
4 Thespian’s Stage
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Verdant Catacomb
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Swamp
1 Forest
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Sideboard:
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Pithing Needle
1 Thoughtseize
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Golgari Charm
1 Spellskite
1 Damnation
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Round 1: Nathan on Monowhite Martyr
I certainly didn’t expect any of my opponents in this tournament to play turn 1 plains, Martyr of Sands. I have to admit that I quickly dismissed this deck as noncompetitive, but I hadn’t taken into account the decks ability to exceed 20 life, meaning I had to not only assemble my combo, but attack with Marit Lage multiple times. My opponent manages to reach 41 life by sacrificing Martyr and revealing a hand of all white cards. He was stuck on one land all game however, and even though I had to attack 3 times to close things out, I take the game. In sideboarding, I bring in my removal in Abrupt Decay, Golgari Charms, and Damnation, shaving Ancient Stirrings and a few others.
In our second game, my opponent finds two Ghost Quarters, all the while applying pressure with Ajani’s Pridemate and Serra Ascendants, so that by the time I’m able to make a 20/20, it’s too late.
Game three plays out similarly, with me unable to find my removal spells and him managing to land an Aven Mindcensor, neutering my search effects.
A frustrating start to the day, especially in the form of a deck that we had assumed no one would play and I later learned was playing no banned cards at all. The most painful part of this loss was having to relinquish The Banned Cards Hat. During the player meeting, a drawing was taken to determine who would start with the hat, and anyone who successfully defended the hat won a pack.
Round 2: Shad on Elves
This is the sort of deck I came to the tournament expecting to play against. In game 1, my opening hand contains 2 Mental Missteps, allowing me to stop his draw engines while I assemble a turn 4 20/20. In sideboarding, I bring in my Chalice of the Voids and Golgari Charms, shaving Lilianas and Abrupt Decays.
Game 2 my hand contains Chalice of the Void and tutors. Once I land the Chalice turn 2, the game is essentially over, as my opponent admitted to me he hadn’t expected Chalice and had no access to Abrupt Decay that game.
My mood sharply improves after round 1 as it starts to become clear that the majority of players weren’t prepared to deal with a land based combo deck. Several players had Blood Moons in their deck, but that was about it.
Round 3: Emma on Affinity
I’m nervous going into this match, because testing in testing it appeared that Affinity was simply faster than my deck, and I would need to rely on my removal to prolong the game enough to assemble my combo. In game 1, I keep a sketchy 6 card hand with no colored mana, but if I can draw two other lands, I have the combo. I miss for too long, and get run over by robots. My sideboard gives me Chalice of the Void, Golgari Charm, Abrupt Decay, and Damnation
In game two, my opponent’s hand relies on Cranial Plating, which I have the Abrupt Decay for and her offense falls apart and gives me enough time to find the combo. We spend several turns where she has chump blocks while hoping to draw an Arcbound Ravager to drain the last of my life points with Disciple of the Vault. She doesn’t find one and we go to game 3.
My opening hand contains pieces of the combo as well as Golgari Charm and Abrupt Decay. I later draw another Decay and dismantle my opponent’s board position. Marit Lage then erupted from the ice and closed the match.
2-1
Round 4 Jarrod on Splinter Twin
Jarrod is a very good player, who has beaten me in Legacy more times than I can count and I was unsure of how the Twin matchup would go, so I enter with a fair amount of trepidation. More importantly though, Jarrod took the Banned Card Hat from my round 1 opponent, and this is my chance to reclaim it. In game 1 unfortunately, I was unable to either assemble my combo or disrupt his enough, and he has a Deciever Exarch to tap my Marit Lage on the crucial turn. My followup Thoughtseize shows a hand of nothing relevant, but he had hidden Splinter Twin on top of his deck with Jace, the Mind Sculptor and we go to game 2. I take out Life from the Loam and a Liliana of the Veil in favor of Spellskite, Pithing Needles, Abrupt Decays, and Golgari Charms.
In game 2, we trade resources for several turn until we arrive at a boardstate where I have Dark Confidant on the board with a Dark Depths and four other lands. My Bob trigger reveals Thespian’s Stage, and I draw Abrupt Decay for the turn. Wanting to play around a potential Ghost Quarter, I play the Stage and immediately make a 20/20. On my end step he plays Pestermite to tap my Marit Lage and goes for Splinter Twin on his turn with no mana left to protect it. He was a bit upset to learn that my draw for the turn was the Decay.
In game 3, I make a 20/20 on turn three with Vampire Hexmage and he has no answer to it.
3-1 I agree with my opponent’s evaluation of this match. I played well, but got very lucky as well. I reclaim the Banned Card hat and hope I can draw into the top 8 next round.
Round 5 Richard on Splinter Twin
I get paired down, so we have to play out the match. In game 1, his hand is full of irrelevant removal spells after I land several discard spells and make a Marit Lage. My sideboard plan remains the same as last round.
In this game, I manage to snag his Blood Moon with an early Inquisition, but he lands a Counterbalance. Most of my tutor spells cost 1, so this could have been a real problem, but his blind flips miss and I assembled the combo with a Dark Depths and a Vampire Hexmage.
4-1 Quite a comeback after losing the first round to the rogue deck. The theory that the meta game would be weak to the Dark Depths combo has proven correct.
Top 8 Skred Red
I neglected to write down my opponent’s name for this match unfortunately, but he was playing what appeared to be a standard Skred Red deck of the same variety that took down our local Grand Prix last month. I later learn that he had only added 3 Sensei’s Divining Tops to his deck for additional consistency. His rogue strategy has served him well in the Swiss, but he was soft to the Dark Depths combo unless he could land a Blood Moon, and he didn’t see one in our first game. His Pia and Kirran Nalar allow him to blow with thopter tokens for a turn, but I have the Abrupt Decay for the second token, and we move to game 2. As in most of my matchups today, I take out Life From the Loam in favor of cards that dealt with Blood Moons.
In game 2, my Inquisition shows me a hand with only Molten Rain and Blood Moon for interaction with my combo. I take his Blood Moon and pass. On my second turn, I play another to take his Molten Rain, and on the third turn I play a Vampire Hexmage that I immediately sacrifice to make a 20/20 in case he had Sudden Shocks in his deck. He has nothing to stop the Marit Lage on his turn, and I take the match.
5-1 Final Record. The Top 4 agreed to split the prize pool.
Closing Thoughts:
The deck felt very powerful throughout the day, and I felt that I had all of the tools necessary to win available to me, but I did find that I needed to mulligan more often than I was used to, and would attribute some of my game losses to failing to mulligan more aggressively, such as game 1 against Affinity.
Deck Lists --> http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=21711
Event --> https://www.facebook.com/events/1244361985583945/
Top 4 at No Banlist Modern with Hex Depths
A Tournament Report
When this tournament was first announced, the local community immediately set out to answer one question, what’s the most broken thing you can do? Two of the most common answers were Blazing Shoal Infect and Hypergenesis combo. Meanwhile, I was looking at my Legacy Miracles deck and wondering if I could just play that. After some initial testing, it quickly became clear that Miracles, at least the deck that I had brought to the table, simply wasn’t fast enough for what was happening in our expected metagame.
The Decklist:
//Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
4 Vampire Hexmage
//Combo Help
3 Ancient Stirrings
3 Expedition Map
4 Sylvan Scrying
3 Life from the Loam
//Protection
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Mental Misstep
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Liliana of the Veil
//Lands
4 Dark Depths
4 Thespian’s Stage
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Verdant Catacomb
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Swamp
1 Forest
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Sideboard:
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Pithing Needle
1 Thoughtseize
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Golgari Charm
1 Spellskite
1 Damnation
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Round 1: Nathan on Monowhite Martyr
I certainly didn’t expect any of my opponents in this tournament to play turn 1 plains, Martyr of Sands. I have to admit that I quickly dismissed this deck as noncompetitive, but I hadn’t taken into account the decks ability to exceed 20 life, meaning I had to not only assemble my combo, but attack with Marit Lage multiple times. My opponent manages to reach 41 life by sacrificing Martyr and revealing a hand of all white cards. He was stuck on one land all game however, and even though I had to attack 3 times to close things out, I take the game. In sideboarding, I bring in my removal in Abrupt Decay, Golgari Charms, and Damnation, shaving Ancient Stirrings and a few others.
In our second game, my opponent finds two Ghost Quarters, all the while applying pressure with Ajani’s Pridemate and Serra Ascendants, so that by the time I’m able to make a 20/20, it’s too late.
Game three plays out similarly, with me unable to find my removal spells and him managing to land an Aven Mindcensor, neutering my search effects.
A frustrating start to the day, especially in the form of a deck that we had assumed no one would play and I later learned was playing no banned cards at all. The most painful part of this loss was having to relinquish The Banned Cards Hat. During the player meeting, a drawing was taken to determine who would start with the hat, and anyone who successfully defended the hat won a pack.
Round 2: Shad on Elves
This is the sort of deck I came to the tournament expecting to play against. In game 1, my opening hand contains 2 Mental Missteps, allowing me to stop his draw engines while I assemble a turn 4 20/20. In sideboarding, I bring in my Chalice of the Voids and Golgari Charms, shaving Lilianas and Abrupt Decays.
Game 2 my hand contains Chalice of the Void and tutors. Once I land the Chalice turn 2, the game is essentially over, as my opponent admitted to me he hadn’t expected Chalice and had no access to Abrupt Decay that game.
My mood sharply improves after round 1 as it starts to become clear that the majority of players weren’t prepared to deal with a land based combo deck. Several players had Blood Moons in their deck, but that was about it.
Round 3: Emma on Affinity
I’m nervous going into this match, because testing in testing it appeared that Affinity was simply faster than my deck, and I would need to rely on my removal to prolong the game enough to assemble my combo. In game 1, I keep a sketchy 6 card hand with no colored mana, but if I can draw two other lands, I have the combo. I miss for too long, and get run over by robots. My sideboard gives me Chalice of the Void, Golgari Charm, Abrupt Decay, and Damnation
In game two, my opponent’s hand relies on Cranial Plating, which I have the Abrupt Decay for and her offense falls apart and gives me enough time to find the combo. We spend several turns where she has chump blocks while hoping to draw an Arcbound Ravager to drain the last of my life points with Disciple of the Vault. She doesn’t find one and we go to game 3.
My opening hand contains pieces of the combo as well as Golgari Charm and Abrupt Decay. I later draw another Decay and dismantle my opponent’s board position. Marit Lage then erupted from the ice and closed the match.
2-1
Round 4 Jarrod on Splinter Twin
Jarrod is a very good player, who has beaten me in Legacy more times than I can count and I was unsure of how the Twin matchup would go, so I enter with a fair amount of trepidation. More importantly though, Jarrod took the Banned Card Hat from my round 1 opponent, and this is my chance to reclaim it. In game 1 unfortunately, I was unable to either assemble my combo or disrupt his enough, and he has a Deciever Exarch to tap my Marit Lage on the crucial turn. My followup Thoughtseize shows a hand of nothing relevant, but he had hidden Splinter Twin on top of his deck with Jace, the Mind Sculptor and we go to game 2. I take out Life from the Loam and a Liliana of the Veil in favor of Spellskite, Pithing Needles, Abrupt Decays, and Golgari Charms.
In game 2, we trade resources for several turn until we arrive at a boardstate where I have Dark Confidant on the board with a Dark Depths and four other lands. My Bob trigger reveals Thespian’s Stage, and I draw Abrupt Decay for the turn. Wanting to play around a potential Ghost Quarter, I play the Stage and immediately make a 20/20. On my end step he plays Pestermite to tap my Marit Lage and goes for Splinter Twin on his turn with no mana left to protect it. He was a bit upset to learn that my draw for the turn was the Decay.
In game 3, I make a 20/20 on turn three with Vampire Hexmage and he has no answer to it.
3-1 I agree with my opponent’s evaluation of this match. I played well, but got very lucky as well. I reclaim the Banned Card hat and hope I can draw into the top 8 next round.
Round 5 Richard on Splinter Twin
I get paired down, so we have to play out the match. In game 1, his hand is full of irrelevant removal spells after I land several discard spells and make a Marit Lage. My sideboard plan remains the same as last round.
In this game, I manage to snag his Blood Moon with an early Inquisition, but he lands a Counterbalance. Most of my tutor spells cost 1, so this could have been a real problem, but his blind flips miss and I assembled the combo with a Dark Depths and a Vampire Hexmage.
4-1 Quite a comeback after losing the first round to the rogue deck. The theory that the meta game would be weak to the Dark Depths combo has proven correct.
Top 8 Skred Red
I neglected to write down my opponent’s name for this match unfortunately, but he was playing what appeared to be a standard Skred Red deck of the same variety that took down our local Grand Prix last month. I later learn that he had only added 3 Sensei’s Divining Tops to his deck for additional consistency. His rogue strategy has served him well in the Swiss, but he was soft to the Dark Depths combo unless he could land a Blood Moon, and he didn’t see one in our first game. His Pia and Kirran Nalar allow him to blow with thopter tokens for a turn, but I have the Abrupt Decay for the second token, and we move to game 2. As in most of my matchups today, I take out Life From the Loam in favor of cards that dealt with Blood Moons.
In game 2, my Inquisition shows me a hand with only Molten Rain and Blood Moon for interaction with my combo. I take his Blood Moon and pass. On my second turn, I play another to take his Molten Rain, and on the third turn I play a Vampire Hexmage that I immediately sacrifice to make a 20/20 in case he had Sudden Shocks in his deck. He has nothing to stop the Marit Lage on his turn, and I take the match.
5-1 Final Record. The Top 4 agreed to split the prize pool.
Closing Thoughts:
The deck felt very powerful throughout the day, and I felt that I had all of the tools necessary to win available to me, but I did find that I needed to mulligan more often than I was used to, and would attribute some of my game losses to failing to mulligan more aggressively, such as game 1 against Affinity.