Now guess what I'd bring to a tourney without a best deck?
Merfolk
Mana (20)12 Island
4 Wasteland
4 Mutavault
Threats (23)
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Merfolk Sovereign
1 Umezawa's Jitte
Disruption (11)
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Spell Pierce
Others (6)
4 Aether Vial
2 Psionic Blast
Sideboard (15)
2 Mind Harness
2 Submerge
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Hydroblast
1 Blue Elemental Blast
4 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Echoing Truth
Merfolk of course! With a fast clock, disruption, and a solid manabase, I think that this is perhaps the best deck in Legacy right now. Wenhao, my teammate, was probably brainwashed by me and chose to pilot the same deck instead of Lands and Dredge. He got close to making top-8 in the end.
Let's stop the blabbering and get straight to the tourney itself.
Round 1 vs Wenhao with Merfolk
Warning: Skip this round if you do not wish to lose the high esteem you have for me (if you had one in the first place). I played like a noob, noob-ier than re-plagas, TheGAME, nabbydian, Warlord, Huadelei, and kyouta, and of course, noob-ier than Maiev.Why??? Why do we have to kill each other in the first round?! This should happen in the finals instead! WHY???
Ok. So, I lost the dice roll.
Game 1
I fanned open a hand with 2 lands, an Aether Vial and the only copy of Jitte I had in my deck. Point: Jitte wins Merfolk mirrors, especially if your opponent doesn't play any. Turn 1 Vial and turn 2 Jitte resolved while he had back to back Silvergill Adepts turns 2 and 3.I got to Vial out and equip my own Silvergill turn 3 while he cast a turn 4 Lord of Atlantis and island-walk me down to 12.
This is where I messed up. On my turn, I Vialed a Reejerey, cast a LoA (FoW-ed) untapping an Island, cast another loa untapping Vial, then Vial-ed in a Merfolk Sovereign. I then crashed in with a 6 power Silvergill and added 2 counters on the Jitte.
Fantastic explosive play isn't it? Not if you realised that my opponent now has 11 unblockable power. With no counters in my hand, I'd be dead if he has any of his 9 remaining lords in hand. Lucky for me he didn't nor did he top deck one and I won.
Ironically, we realised that I would have handed him the game if he chose not to counter my first Lord of Atlantis. With 2 Silvergills and a LoA of his own, my 2 LoA would have put his board at 14 island-walking power. Any top-decked lord will bring it to lethal.
I handed him the game and he handed it back to me with a Force of Will. Guess that we are noob players. Yes, very noob.
Sb: Nothing.
I came in with the intention of meeting him in top-2, so I didn't prepare anything against Merfolk.
Game 2
He drew gas while I had a hand choke full of mana. Oh, and did I mention that other than Jitte, Coralhelm Commander also wins Merfolk mirrors?Game 3
My note indicated that I won a counter war on my turn 2 vial, and Dazed his Silvergill. I couldn't stop his Coralhelm from gaining flight but I did force through a Merrow Reejerey with a Daze on his Daze (dazzling ain't it?). When I landed 2 more folks, even a level 4 Coralhelm could do nothing.W-L-D
1-0-0
First round of the day and we played so badly. Perhaps we both need to warm up before starting the games. I guess we should name our team West-Side Noobs.
Round 2 vs Ryan with Hive Mind
If you've read my previous tourney reports, you'll recognise that Ryan is an avid fan of Show and Tell combo decks. This time round, he's playing a Show and Tell deck with Hive Mind and Emrakul as the 2 win conditions. Read more about his wonderful deck here. I think it's a force to be reckoned with in Legacy. The first game will tell you why.I lost the dice roll again.
Game 1
Did I mention that I scouted the field for more information before and during the tourney? I knew that he's playing his pet combo and kept a great hand against him with a Vial, LoA, Reejerey, FoW and Spell Pierce.Imagine my horror when he beat me.
After 2 Ponders and an Intuition on turn 4, he finally got a copy of Hive Mind into his hand. On turn 5, he laid and tapped an Ancient Tomb, tapped his 4 other Islands for 6 mana and cast Hive Mind.
I tried a Spell Pierce. He countered with Pact of Negation.
I FoW-ed. He countered with another Pact of Negation!
Hive Mind resolves, and he won (almost) instantly with a Pact of the Titan.
How can Merfolk win that?
Sb: + 2 Thorn of Amethyst, - 2 Psionic Blast
I had nothing much against him. At least Thorn is more useful against him than Blast.
Game 2
Another blowout game. I kept a hand filled with creatures and hoped to aggro him though it did not work.Turn 1 and 2 Grim Monoliths puts him at 9 mana. Although I had 2 Silvergills, they did not cantrip me into any counters. Wasteland did little to mana-screw him due to his Monoliths and he ended the game (either turn 4 or 5) at 8 life.
W-L-D
1-1-0
Grim Monolith! I knew that it will be abused sooner or later! Having 6 mana on turn 2 is great in Legacy! Imagine neutralizing 1 Daze AND Spell Pierce by just having 1 artifact on the board that helps you accelerate your combo.
Now, how can Merfolk deal with this? This question haunted me all the way to top-8.
Round 3 vs Yong Xin with Mono-Brown Stax
From records of the previous tourneys, Yong Xin either plays Belcher or Mono-Brown Stax. Some scouting proves that he's piloting the latter.Years of reading Stephen Menendian's Vintage articles taught me that the way to beat Stax is to win the permanent war when Smokestack hits the field. That is why having many lands is critical to winning this matchup, so much so that the Vintage master packs more lands in his sideboard against Stax. The more lands you have, the easier it is to get out of a mana lock of Sphere of Resistance and Trinisphere, and the longer you can survive a Smokestack!
In Legacy, there is a better trump than plain boring lands – Aether Vial. With Vial out, you are immune to whatever Spheres Stax pumps out. With Vial out, you are free to feed all your lands to Smokestack. With Vial out, you can churn out creatures to win the game before you run out of lands to sacrifice.
Game 1
With such importance placed on Aether Vial, imagine my glee when I opened a hand with not 1, but 2 Aether Vials! However, this is not a walkover as I lost the dice roll. Turn 1 Wasteland + Mox Diamond enabled a Sphere of Resistance. Turn 2 Chalice was countered and I finally landed a Vial turn 3 while Yong Xin had a Metalworker.My second Vial accompanied his Smokestack and here's when the fun begins!
Ramp Smokestack to 1 => Sacrifice a land and Vial out a cantripping Silvergill.
Ramp Smokestack to 2 + land a Sphere of Resistance => Sacrifice 2 lands and land a LoA.
Ramp Smokestack to 3(!!!) + a Tangle Wire => Sacrifice everything except Vial at 2.
Ramp Smokestack to 4!!!
Just kidding. =)
With Vial at 2, would you stop the Smokestacking and fight it out Metalworker vs Vial? Apparently, Yong Xin chose to reset the board one turn later and play the first land.
I laid a land and played my third Vial.
Vial Rulz!
After this game, Zhi Ming who has been watching us play pointed out that Yong Xin had made mistakes. My opponent agreed though I was unclear what mistake was made. It was finally revealed after the round ends that ramping to 3 was the first mistake, and choosing to reset the board was the second.
Will Metalworker trump Vial at 2? No one knows for sure. What we do know is that had he drawn a Crucible of Worlds or other non land, he'd have a better game than this.
Sb: + 2 Echoing Truth, - 2 Psionic Blast
With the mana denial, I don't believe I can kill him faster with Psionic Blast. So I hope to slow him more with Echoing Truth.
Game 2
I opened a hand with Wasteland, 2 Silvergill Adepts and some counters. Seeing that my opponent mulliganed, I thought the the Adepts will draw me into more threats and kept the hand. I was lucky when Yong Xin mulliganed all the way down to 4 or 5 and laid a Mishra's Factory. A Wasteland and 3 Silvergill Adepts later, the game's in my bag.W-L-D
2-1-0
My personal opinion is that Stax's greatest enemy is Vial, which is why I advocate packing more answers to Vial in the form of adding both Ratchet Bomb and Powder Keg. I wonder if that would turn the matchup around?
Round 4 vs Raymond with Sneaky Show
The second of the Show and Tell brothers. Some scouting earlier taught me that he was piloting Sneaky Show. He seemed saddened that he had to meet me, so I felt quite confident in this matchup.I finally won the dice roll.
Game 1
Double Vial met Magus of the Moon. No more Mutavault for me! A Coralhelm leveled up to become a 4/4 lord and began to bring the beats while he had only Lotus Petals and a Simian Spirit Guide. No combo pieces = no game.Sb: + 1 Hydroblast, + 1 Blue Elemental Blast, - 2 Psionic Blast
Sneak Attack and Magus of the Moon beatdown. Red cards, anti-red measures.
Game 2
Now this is a weird game. His first 2 attempts at casting Trinisphere were countered by Force of Wills and he had a Magus of the Moon beatdown with 2 Ancient Tomb-Mountain hybrids in play. A Show and Tell fetched by Burning Wish was Spell Pierced and I laid my first 2 creatures in the form of Silvergill Adepts. A few beats later, and Blasting his Magus while he's at 4 seals the deal.W-L-D
3-1-0
When a man gets lucky, a man gets lucky. After the game, he showed me a hand full of monsters.
Round 5 vs Eddy with Merfolk
Why play when you can draw into top-8?W-L-D
3-1-1
While I went around taking photographs of everyone, Wenhao (my teammate) and Albert (cool friendly guy) duked it out, Fish vs New Horizons. With 5 players locked into top-8 and 3 players at tied at 7 points, Wenhao and Albert both had a slim chance to get into Top-8 with 6 points each. Although my teammate had good tiebreakers and could potentially make his first top-8, he lost and was kicked out of contention. Here's a shout out to him: See you in top-8 next tourney!
Top 8 vs Benjamin with Supreme Blue
Firespout with counter backup doesn't seem great for me, but I'd get away with at least a Wasteland even if I'd lost. Thus, I was cool when Benjamin offered a split. But we played it out anyway.I won the dice roll.
Game 1
Even though I resolved a turn 1 Vial, I had few creatures and a 4 power Tarmo got him the game.Sb: + 1 Hydroblast, + 1 Blue Elemental Blast, + 2 Relic of Progenitus, - 4 Daze
Firespout is a killer and in comes 2 Blasts. Throughout the game, the only threats I saw were Tarmogoyf and Mind Harness/Submerge could possibly be dead draws. Relic at least cycles for a card so in it goes. Psionic Blast stays as long drawn out games can be decided by a timely burn spell. Aiming to play the long game, Daze comes out. Note that Counterbalance was usually sided out against Merfolk, which means that the long game plan was viable.
Game 2
I got lucky this game as a turn 2 Grim Lavamancer (dodging Daze?) was Blasted away. Nice sideboard tech! I wonder if Benjamin reads my articles and knows I'm playing Merfolk... Anyway, this game grew to a long-drawn one with him plow-ing my Coralhelm and other fishies while my Cursecatcher equipped with a Jitte on 4 counters knocked Jace, the Mind Sculptor off the board (Tarmo was too small!). Another Jace was killed with a flying Merfolk wielding the Japanese fork and that's it.Sb: + 2 Mind Harness, - 2 Spell Pierce (I think)
Now that Grim Lavamancer is played alongside Tarmo, Mind Harness comes in to deal with it. Psionic Blast stays in to kill the fish-fryer. That's how deadly Grim Lavamancer is!
Game 3
Grim Lavamancer was FoW-ed and I retaliated with an Aether Vial. A Relic ensured that any Tarmos stayed tiny while I plopped 2 LoAs and Coralhelm into play. Though each of them were knocked off by Plows and Firespout, a Reejerey stuck and a late Jace couldn't turn the tide around.W-L-D
4-1-1
Since I won and Benjamin wants a Wasteland, I decided to play on, meeting Ryan in the top-4. I shall have my revenge!
Top-4 vs Raymond with Hive Mind
The aggro plan didn't work so I resolve to keep hands with more disruption.I lost the dice roll
Game 1
Turn 1 Vial from me was followed by a turn 2 Grim Monolith, which was countered by Daze. I figured that this would slow him down barring any Show and Tell tricks. A top-decked Cursecatcher drawn off Silvergill enforced my defense against SnT though the game ended with a turn 4 Hive Mind + Pact.Sb: + 1 Hydroblast + 1 Blue Elemental Blast, + 4 Thorn of Amethyst, - 4 Aether Vial, - 2 Psionic Blast
Again, I had literally nothing much that is relevant against Hive Mind, so I sideboarded everything I could.
Game 2
A Force of Will on my turn 2 Thorn of Amethyst was Dazed and a Defense Grid was pierced. However, I had only a Cursecatcher in play. 5 turns and 5 damage later, he resolved a Hive Mind and I'm dead.W-L-D
4-2-1
That ends my tourney. The shock of losing to a combo deck that can win turn 2 with a solid mono-blue manabase, 7 Force of Wills, and a backup plan of Eldrazi beatdown stumped me. If anyone knows how to beat it, let me know!
Before I end this, let me just give a word of warning: Hive Mind will make top-8 next tourney, so be prepared for it!
Props
No bad blood amongst Legacy players! We're all grown-ups. ;)
The challenge of preparing against Hive Mind next tourney.
Andy for keeping records of European tourneys (share your stuff on my blog!)
Slops
Horrific plays from me and Wenhao in the first game.
Not letting Benjamin play against Ryan in the top-4.
Wenhao and Mike failing to make top-8. Tweet this!
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