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Legacy GPT *1st* Iowa City
by Shawn Dewey | posted at 2011-04-13 13:05:00
tagged: MTG, Magic, Magic the Gathering, Legacy, Tournament Report, Grand Prix Trial, GPT, Landstill, Shawn Dewey
Hello everyone, my name is Shawn Dewey. I live in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and I've been playing Magic since around the release of Guildpact. I began playing competitively during Time Spiral. Legacy is the format I play almost exclusively, with a little Commander and Pauper on MTGO sprinkled in. Between college, work, and other activities I don't have much time for playing other formats, but I have played when there was a particular deck I liked, such as Boros Bushwhacker from a few years ago.
Leading up to the Grand Prix Trial at Critical Hit games in Iowa City; I had a pretty good idea on what I was playing. They had their monthly tournament the week before, where I played New Horizons. It ended up being a poor choice for that metagame, and I didn't do well. However, I got a great look at what the metagame would look like the next week.
I knew I wanted to play Landstill, which has been a pet deck for me. I've been playing the deck almost exclusively since I started playing Legacy, way before the popularity of the format exploded because of the SCG Open series, back when Wastelands could be had for less than 10 dollars and blue duals were hovering around 30 dollars four or so years ago. I usually played UWx variants with Wrath of God and Humility, but the Iowa City field was begging for the power of Pernicious Deed. Out of 20 decks last week, there were three Affinity decks, one Thopters deck, two B/W Death and Taxes, and several other decks where you basically won if you ever got to untap with Pernicious Deed on the board. The manabase of four color is a little greedy, but I felt comfortable with the one I came up with. I also felt confident being able to play around Wastelands by using fetches properly. Blood Moon is annoying, but Saturday night I audibled into a Cunning Wish build, which gives access to Dismantling Blow and Elemental Blast
Some of the numbers may seem random, but this isn't the case. Four Pernicious Deeds are nice, but they are extremely clunky in multiples, and Engineered Explosives is a lot better against decks such as Zoo. The removal of a fourth Standstill is a concession to the Aether Vial decks; with four I found I drew them too often against Goblins, Merfolk, and Death and Taxes strategies. Decree of Justice may seem slow, but it allows you to finish a match within a reasonable amount of time if you play at a good pace, and it is a complete blowout against any non-Merfolk blue decks. A Scrubland is in instead of a third Sea to enable BG and WW off a limited amount of lands, which comes up often when playing against Wastelands and mana disruption.
The most common target out of the Wish board is Enlightened Tutor, allowing you to set up Crucible lock, find Humility against Goblins or other aggro decks, or snag Deed. Dismantling Blow is played over Krosan Grip for several reasons: you can cast it if Blood Moon is out, and it's able to break stalemates in situations against attrition-based matchups like BW Death and Taxes and Counterbalance, whereas Grip is only trading a card for a card. Counterbalance decks are playing more and more three-drops lately, but if you resolve Wish, odds are they don't have a three floating; they should have countered it if they could in case you played Return to Dust or Fracturing Gust as a Wishable Disenchant target. Ethersworn Canonist is an attempt to be able to beat storm combo, which is usually the deck's worst matchup if the combo player knows what he or she is doing.
It's 7:30 on Sunday morning. I can't fall back asleep. Headache, ugh. Why did I stay out until 2:00 the last three nights? Why did I spend so much money at the clubs? I pound a liter of water, then half of another and attempt to fall asleep; I didn't have to get up for another two and a half hours. Unable to fall back asleep, I write up a sideboard plan and I rummage for the cards my friends needed to borrow. After showering, I get my stuff together and leave without eating; I wasn't feeling THAT well yet. The car ride was rather uneventful, but it did include some hilarious stories, one of which described a convoluted board state in EDH and how someone was forced to return Phage, the Untouchable to play with a Debtor's Knell.
Here's what our team played:
Me – Four color WishStill
Weston – UG Cloudpost
Mitch – The Epic Storm
Karl – LEDless Dredge
Andy – BW Death and Taxes
Only twenty people showed up to the GPT, which was disappointing. However, there was a PTQ/MMS weekend in Chicago, which drew several people away.
Pairings go up for round one and I had to play my friend Karl, who was playing Dredge. Cccrraapp. "At least I audibled into the Wish version," I told myself.
Game one was pretty lopsided, which is how this matchup goes unless you hit a miracle Ravenous Trap and have some sort of pressure to apply. He dredges a bunch and Overruns me with hasted brain-eaters.
-3 Standstill (horrendous in this matchup)
-2 Spell Snare (same)
-2 Decree of Justice (too slow)
-1 Crucible of Worlds (doesn't do anything here)
+2 Canonist (shuts off their ability for multiple Therapies in a turn, jumps in front of Ichorids to remove Bridges)
+1 Relic of Progenitus (obviously)
+1 Enlightened Tutor (finds Deed/ Humility/Relic)
+2 Spell Pierce (helpful against an early Therapy, Breakthroughs, or Careful Studies or their protection spells such as Chain of Vapors, Ancient Grudge, and Nature's Claim)
+1 Path (keeps them off of flashback Therapies and Dread Return)
+1 Extirpate (if I am casting Wish, it's going to be going for Ravenous Trap)
I keep my opening seven for game two, which contained Spell Pierce, Relic, some lands, and another spell. I hold onto the Relic until turn two, if I cast it the first turn I can't protect it from Nature's Claim and I can't Spell Pierce a Careful Study or Breakthrough if he plays one on his own first turn. I eventually blow the Relic, and keep his discard outlets off the board. I am able to Ravenous Trap, buying a ton of time. I Extirpate a dredger, and see he's brought in Ancient Grudge, Nature's Claim, and Chain of Vapor. I eventually get there with 2/2's.
Game three is similar to the second. I Trap him, and the board stalls out. Eventually he goes crazy with Breakthrough, but he's unable to generate enough tokens to have a hasty alpha strike with Dread Return. He dredged his entire library, and it turned out that he boarded out some Bridge from Belows, which would have given him the game.
1-0, 2-1 in games
Round two I get paired against Andy, who was one of my friends who rode down in my car. He played B/W Death and Taxes.
Game one was pretty simple. He had a Jotun Grunt in play and cast a Dark Confidant. I have Path, but I don't want to use it since he was color screwed. I cast Brainstorm as a response, which finds a Deed, which I untap and cast with four lands in play, then kill his two guys after Bob draws him a card. I establish Jace plus Crucible and Humility at 12 life before he conceded.
+2 Spell Pierce (countering his early assault of Thoughtseize, Duress, Hymn, equipment, and Vial is crucial)
-1 Cunning Wish (it's nice being able to fetch Tutor, but it's a little slow)
-1 Decree of Justice (With Crucible and Jace, you have plenty of inevitability)
Game two he has some early discard, Aether Vial, and an equipment. He Vials in Tidehollow Sculler, and I'm unable to wipe the board before he kills me.
Game three starts off well for me: he doesn't have a Vial and I'm able to Pierce a discard spell. I resolve Jace, Crucible, and Humility, and lock him out after going to 1 life.
2-0, 4-2 in games
Chris, who is playing some sort of UW control deck with Kitchen Finks and Wurmcoil Engine, is my round three opponent.
Game one was elementary: I play a Crucible turn three with Wasteland in my hand, and it resolves. I destroy his manabase and cast a Jace. I allow Finks to get me to 5 before killing it with a Humility because of the persist counter on it. I am very unsure as to what he is playing, and my hand is Force, Brainstorm, Counterspell, blue card, removal, a counter, and Wish. I feel very comfortable about the board state, so I Extirpate him to see what's in his deck. Thrumming through it, I notice he has creature-lands of his own, a single Decree of Justice, and Teferi. (!!) I write Decree and Teferi in huge letters on my notepad, reminding myself to play around them game two. Eventually he concedes to my Jace, Humility, and Crucible of Worlds.
+2 Spell Pierce
-1 Spell Snare (I only saw Counterspell as his only two-cost)
-1 Path to Exile (I'm not sure on this, I may have taken out both Snares)
Game two I played my Standstill carefully since I knew he had Teferi, Decree, and creature-lands. I resolve a Deed, and he casts Oblivion Ring. I let it resolve, and play a Jace. He attempts to O. Ring it, but I have the Counterspell. He cast Runed Halo, naming Jace. This was fine with me; I was Brainstorming with Jace anyway. I eventually cycle Decree and kill him with a Horde of Soldiers.
3-0, 6-2 in games
Round four I get paired against Shane, who was playing Thopters without Counterbalance. He offered the ID but I declined; I wanted to be able to potentially help a teammate.
I keep a hand of two fetches, a Brainstorm, Force, and two other lands. He is stuck on three mana for several turns and casts a Top, which I counter. Eventually he resolves a Blood Moon, and I use the two fetches from my opening hand to find my two basics. I cycle Decree for six and begin attacking. Eventually I kill Blood Moon with Dismantling Blow, which couldn't be countered since he had an Ethersworn Canonist in play and he cast a Brainstorm. He casts Ensnaring Bridge with no other cards in hand, and I show him the Explosives to force the scoop.
+2 Spell Pierce
+1 Relic
-1 Humility
Game two was unfortunate; I mulliganed to four because my opening seven was bad, and five and six had no lands. I still almost pulled it out, but some 5/5's from Tezzeret killed me.
The third game was interesting: I was able to wipe his board, then Relic away multiple Thopter Foundries, a Sword, and some other cards. He had a Sword and a Foundry in his yard, along with a Needle. He played a Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, but I was able to kill it with a Mishra's Factory. I had Jace at this point and six Soldier Tokens and decided to Extirpate the Needle, figuring the only way I could lose was if he Needled Jace or a Deed. I also figured he didn't play four Foundries, so I wasn't concerned about that. It turned out he did, and was able to stall the game into a draw.
3-0-1, 7-3-1 in games.
Round four was an intentional draw. I can't remember what his name was, but he said he was playing Affinity. My friends Karl and Andy were in contention, and Karl defeated Goblins and Andy beat Team America after flipping a zero with a Dark Confidant when he was at two.
The Top 8 included Combo Elves, Affinity, Dredge, Sligh, Goblins, Thopters, 4c Wishstill, B/W Death and Taxes, and I was the first seed getting paired against Andy once again.
Quarterfinals
The first game was very long. I resolved two Standstills in the first three turns of the game. I blew up a Deed, wiping his board. Crucible of Worlds became active, and I had around 12 lands in play. I eventually stick a Jace, and Humility, which gets hit by a Vindicate. I Extirpate a Stoneforge Mystic, since his best chance of winning when he's topdecking against me is to resolve one of those, and hold on to win.
Game two I Force a Vial. He has multiple discard spells but I have a Brainstorm, which turns my hand into two Deed and lands, forcing him to take one with a Duress. I blow up a Deed killing some guys and an equipment. I have five lands in play at this point, and draw another. I don't play it, hoping to draw out a Hymn to Tourach instead of giving him the opportunity to Hymn away spells later. It happens, and I lose the lands. I rip a Standstill the next turn, and play it. Skill game/sarcasm. He casts another Hymn, but the Standstill draws me three lands. I eventually hit a Jace and win at 16 life.
4-0-1, 9-3-1 in games.
Semifinals
In the semis I get paired against Karl. Game one I mulligan to four, hoping to find a Cunning Wish or some sort of hand that could pull out game one. I have the Trap turn three, and resolve a Jace. Nice mulligan to four. Sadly, I am overwhelmed by hasty Zombies. I made a play mistake and died a turn earlier than I should have, but I knew the top of my library, so I was going to lose anyway.
(Same sideboarding as before)
I don't remember much of game two, but I did Relic him. He blew his hand on a Breakthrough late in the game when things were looking bad for him, and I was able to trump it. I won this game at 20 life.
Game three went really long. I was able to remove a dredger and some other cards with a Relic and another. I resolve Wish into Rav Trap and remove his yard again. He strips my hand of some cards with Therapy, including a Deed. I killed Imps, Narcomoebas, and Ichorids over and over again, keeping him off of Dread Return or from flashing back Therapy. I resolved a Humility, but it was hit by a Nature's Claim sending me back to 20 life. I topdeck a Jace with a Counterspell and Extirpate in my hand, and begin Brainstorming with it. I begin to sculpt my hand, and get him down to the point where any of his lands kill him except for Gemstone Mine. My hand of Force, Counterspell, Cunning Wish, Enlightened Tutor, Extirpate, and two other spells guarantees he can't win.
5-0-1, 11-4-1 in games.
Finals
My finals opponent was the Affinity player. He asked if we wanted to split the packs, with him giving me the byes. I agreed, after a little thought. This matchup is insanely good, almost impossible to lose, but it was getting late. We still needed to get something to eat, I still felt sick from the previous night's activities, and we had an hour and a half car ride to get back home. I rip open my prize packs (which included a foil Sword of Feast of Famine) and we headed home.
As for the list, I am probably changing the Relic into a Nihil Spellbomb. The extra mana makes a huge difference against Dredge. Spellbomb allows you to cast Pierces, Swords, and Brainstorms while still being able to remove their yard in the early turns. The Path in the board could be turned into a Diabolic Edict, which answers annoying cards like Emrakul or Progenitus. Most of the time when you want to Wish for Path your opponent will only have one guy anyway, and Wishing into Tutor into Humility or Deed is usually better if that is not the case. Peacekeeper is a card I've had good success with, and I would probably squeeze it back into my board. It's not very good in the Iowa City meta, so I decided against running it.
All in all, the long weekend was a lot of fun. I hope to attend Providence if I can scrape together the money for a flight. If it was tomorrow, I'd definitely play the same list with an altered sideboard for the metagame. If you have any questions on the list or matchup specific questions, please ask!
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