JANUARY 2018: LEGACY, I am back!

Legacy, a format where I used to play twice a month, if not every week, from 2005 to 2014. That figure dwindled a bit to once a month from 2014 to 2016. And by 2017, I did not participate even a single sanctioned game. After my last appearance in the format (Grand Prix Chiba on November 2016), I had no intention yet of returning but was cut short because legacy really finds its way to me.

Sometime around mid-2017, Wizards announced that GP Kyoto will see a trio format. Together with two buddies, we formed a team in which I am the group's modern player. Fortunately, one of my them won a PPTQ which feeds to RPTQ Taiwan. The said Regional Qualifier is just a week ahead of GP Kyoto's schedule. This puts him out as the third player. It took us two months before finding a new third member, JB. Since he will be our modern guy, Ricardo and I adjusted from our original designated formats (legacy and modern) to standard and legacy respectively. 

Wait, legacy?! Now that my big gun (The Epic Storm) is gone, how will I win against those tier one legacy decks? Aside from a godsend luck, I'll have to come up with a deck that can withstand and win against them. Looking at the current legacy meta, out of whatever left in my legacy pool, it seems that burn is a good pick. I told Ricardo about my deck but he had other plan. He knew that if I’ll be on a storm, our chance of having a good record is better than me on burn. So a week into 2018, he lends me their legacy storm deck, AnT. I checked my calendar for legacy events and found these: every Saturday night at Kick Engines, Madcap gaming (14th), FQ (20th), and Kick Engines (28th).   

On 7 January 2018, while patiently waiting for Pinoy Planeswalker’s Finale to start, I had the chance to test the deck against Naldo’s BR reanimator.  After a quick shuffling and cutting; at last, after a year and three months of absence, I get to see a familiar seven: Lotus Petal, fetch, fetch, Past in Flames, Dark Ritual, Gitaxian Probe, and Ponder. I won the roll and started the game paying two life points for Gitaxian Probe. I saw bunch of Black-Red Reanimator cards. Probe gifted me Brainstorm. Dropped fetch land, into a Revised Underground Sea, tapped it for blue into Brainstorm and saw these three: Lion's Eye Diamond, Dark Ritual, and Lotus Petal. Sweet! Returned Ponder and the second fetch land. Dropped the LED and petals into ritual, into PIF. Then my teammate started laughing and taunting, "Noob! Noob!" That's when I realized that I do not have an Infernal Tutor. I guess this is how legacy welcomes me back, with a misplay. We played a total of eight play test games. Lost all but one. MAN! This shows how bad and rusty I am. With less than three months into GP Kyoto, surely I’ll have to exert a ton of effort to get back in my legacy competitive mode. Madcap Gaming had scheduled a legacy tournament a week after the Finale. This is a perfect opportunity for me to get back in that competitiveness. It was only the night before Madcap’s legacy scheduled tournament that I get to hold, check, and tweak the deck's seventy-five. Here’s what I end-up playing.

ANT

4 Ponder, 4 Brainstorm, 4 Gitaxian Probe, 2 Pre-Ordain
3 Duress, 3 Cabal Therapy
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond, 4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual, 4 Cabal Ritual
4 Infernal Tutor, 2 Burning Wish, 1 Ad Nauseam

1 Past in Flames, 1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Polluted Delta, 4 Misty Rainforest

1 Underground Sea, 1 Volcanic Island, 1 Bayou, 1 Badlands, 1 Tropical Island,

1 Swamp, 1 Island   

Sideboard
1 Tendrils of Agony, 1 Empty the Warrens, 1 Grapeshot

1 Dark Petition, 1 Past in Flames

1 Massacre, 1 Telamin Performance

2 Abrupt Decays, 2 Hurkyl’s Recall, 2 Flusterstorm, 1 Wipeaway, 1 Chain of Vapor

I decided to include two Burning Wishes in the main because I am more comfortable getting answers (and win condition) off the sideboard than just fetching from the sixty. And besides, I am a TES player by heart. 

14 January 2018

Madcap Gaming

San Pedro, Laguna

The event had five rounds and cut to top four to help determine who will bring home the fetch land as its prizes. Here are my match ups.

RD1: Bye 2-0
RD2: BUG Leo 0-2
RD3: Aggro Loam 2-0
RD4: Grix YP Delver 2-1

RD5: Grix Death Shadow’s (id)
S: Grix Death Shadow’s 2-0
F: BUG Leo 2-0

I never expected to win the whole event. All I wanted was a playground where I can sharpen my legacy storming skills again. Here are some situations I still recall from the event.

• Especially during game ones, having two Underground Seas by turn two is better than having a Tropical Island and an Underground Sea.

• Always remember to fetch those god damn basic lands first.

• Burning Wish was great. I won a game wherein he Surgical Extraction-ed my Infernal Tutor. Luckily, a Burning Wish was one of the cards that got revealed off an Ad Nauseam.

• During our last game in the quarters, I was down to 4 and he was still at 12 life points. In my hands were a Dark Ritual, a Cabal Ritual, and a PIF. On my table I had 4 lands (UR, RB, UB, and an Island); and my graveyard had the following: 3 fetches, 2 Gitaxian Probe, 2 Flusterstorms. Passing the turn is not an option because (for sure) I am dead to his Deathrite Shaman’s ping. So I tapped the RB dual for the rituals. Then tapped the UR dual for Past in Flame to which he responded with DRS’ ping (eating a Flusterstorm) bringing me down to 2. PIF successfully resolves. Now I have 6 black mana. I tapped the Amonkhet Island for the first probe: Cabal Ritual. Not the card that I am wishing for but I’ll take it. Cast it to up my black mana to 9. Turned Underground Sea sideways for the last Gitaxian Probe - brings it to the middle of the table and asked him if it will resolve. He gave me a thumbs up. I took a deep breath as I was slowly peeking at the drawn card. A black card with one generic and a skull in its casting cost. DAMN. Cabal Ritual?! Please don’t a Cabal Ritual. I continue pulling it slowly until the art of the tutor becomes clear to me. Gently brings it down to the table and then went berserk for a second or two. Feels good to be back in legacy. Tutor for Tendrils of Agony for the win.

• Ah legacy you’re so sweet! Thank you for giving the best welcome: a trip to the finals (versus BUG Leo). But it will be sweeter if I will cap this return with a win. Throughout game one, it was an uphill battle because of his wall of counter plus disrupt spells. Fortunately, he ran out of defensive cards. Past in Flames ignited the engine which ended in a tutor-wish-tendrils chain. Game two, however, was not that exciting because he only had one land.

Despite winning the event, I still have a lot of unanswered ANT questions. I hope to gain more ANT experience on my next legacy outing. Thanks for reading folks!

-Paeng 4983 

 

JANUARY 2018: MONO BLUE MERFOLK

GREETINGS! Before anything else, I wish you all a prosperous 2018!

I have been swimming in the deep waters of modern with mono blue's school of fish since November 2016. Let me share my thoughts about the deck. To start, my results:

Burn 3-0  (6-2)

UW Aggro 2-0  (4-0)

Tron 2-0   (4-1)

Eldrazi Tron 1-0   (2-0)

Goblin Whack 1-0   (2-0)

Grix DS  1-0   (2-0)

Scry red 1-0   (2-0)

BR agro 1-0   (2-1)

Ponza 1-0   (2-1)

Ad Nauseam  2-1   (5 -3)

Death Shadow BGx 1-1   (3-2)

UR Storm 1-1   (2-3)

Merfolk  0-1   (1-2)

Living End 0-1   (0-2)

Scapeshift  0-1   (0-2)

RW Prison  0-1   (0-2)

UW control 0-2   (0-4)

Elves 0-3   (1-6)     

Total: 17-12  (38-31)

I never thought I would see burn as the topmost winnable match up. Honestly; when I was in the process of acquiring this, I assumed that burn is one of its worst match up. In all eight games against burn, all I can remember was that I only fire my counter spells when my life total was within the range of just two Lightning Bolt spells.  The combination of lord effect plus Spreading Seas was (I think) the main reason why I won against these archetype UW Aggro, Tron, Eldrazi Tron, Goblin Whack, Grix DS, Scry Red, Br Aggro, Ponza, Ad Nauseam, Jund DS, and UR Storm.  And finally, the last group wherein I am still winless against any of them so far: Merfolk, Living End, Scapeshift, RW Prison, UW Control and Elves. Among them, I abhor Elves most because of Shaman of the Pack. Scapeshift and Living End comes next respectively.

Removals

Initially, I dislike the idea of losing four life points. But after testing Vapor Snag and Echoing Truth in its slot; killing, instead of just bouncing, is a better call.

Counter spells

Unlike its legacy counterpart, most, if not all, modern merfolk’s counter spells are coming off its fifteen. Here are the common sideboard counter spells that a modern merfolk deck uses: Dispel, Disdainful Stroke, Negate, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, and Unified Will. Among them, Negate and Dispel are my favorite.

Cavern of Souls

I think team mono blue really does not need a set this because of the following reason:

• The very obvious reason: it cannot help you cast non-merfolk creature spells. 
• You don't want to be in a situation wherein you cannot cast those sideboard cards simply because you have two of this in play. 
• Maybe it's just me, but versus decks that has counter spells,  during games two/ three, I think they tend to lessen the number of their counter spells and bring-in more removals.
• Chalice of the Void, same reason as above.  

I cannot make a comment for UG version because I haven't tried it yet. 

Kopala, Warden of Waves 

vs. Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

Kira. No doubt about it. Aside from Kopala being a merfolk, the only advantage of kopala over Kira is that it can somehow protect your Phantasmal Image even if the latter has that sacrifice trigger ability. 

I'll end my first post for 2018 with a tournament report and my eternal calendar for January.

Pinoy Planeswalker Finale Modern (Season 2)

7 January 2018

Madcap Gaming

San Pedro, Laguna

3 Dismember

4 Spreading Seas

4 Aether Vial

 

1 Phantasmal Image

2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

3 Master of Waves

4 Silvergill Adept

4 Curesecatcher

4 Harbinger of the Tides

4 Merrow Reejerey

4 Lord of Atlantis

4 Master of the Pearl Trident    

15 Island

4 Mutavault

Sideboard

1 Echoing Truth

3 Relic of Progenitus

3 Ceremonious Rejection

3 Negate

3 Gut Shot

2 Dispel             

A little over 50 persons showed up. Six rounds then cut to top eight. Despite seeing like eight affinity decks, somehow I managed to dodge them all.

Bye 2-0

UR Thing in the Ice and Klin Fiend Aggro 2-1

Reanimator Goryo 2-0

Ad Nauseam 1-2

Coco Spirits 2-1

UR Storm 1-2

UR Klin TiTi

Game one: Thing in the Ice acting as Wrath of God kept my creatures at bay. Two attacking the 7/8 flying horror creature game him the win eventually.

Game two: He ran out of gas plus my folks are on islandwalks. I win.

Game three: A well timed Dismember killing his Klin Fiend saves the day for team mono blue!

2-0  (4-1)

Reanimator Goryo

Game one: He mostly drew bricks. I win. 

Game two: He had six lands while on my side: three islands, a Mutavault and an Aether Vial (three counters). Our life total were: him 15 me: 20. He brings onto the table Through the Breach then tapped 5 mana. I read the red instant arcane card and instantly Emrakul, the Aeons Torn comes into my mind. I checked my hand: 1 Merrow Reejerey, 1 Phantasmal Image, and 1 Harbinger of the Tides. I responded to his red spell with vial's activation. He allowed it. I bring down reejerey. I allowed his TTB, he brings down a macho 15/15. I immediately stopped him from tapping his 15/15 and said, "before combat, still in main phase..." (tapped all of my four lands), then brings Harbinger down onto the table from my hand. I put Reejerey on top of Harbinger (then point to his 15/15) to show its trigger ability. He momentarily read Reejerey's text, then nods. Big mama became tapped and when Harbinger resolved, I let him know of his trigger ability (again pointing to big mama). He read Harbinger before confidently bringing it back to his hand. I untap, draw for the turn (second Harbinger). Desperately swing Reejerey and Harbinger to bring him down to ten life points before shipping back the turn. He binned his 15/15 through Faithless Looting; put in the stack big mama's trigger ability (shuffle graveyard to library) then casted Goryo's Vengeance pointing to big mama. I paused for a minute and check if everything is in order. Looks like it is, I let his black arcane spell to resolve. Then proceed to shuffle his graveyard into his library. And when he was about to attack, I stopped him again to cast my second Harbinger. I win the round in my last turn.    

3-0  (6-1)

Ad Nauseam 
Game one: I lost this one. It's like next to impossible to beat Ad Naus with team mono blue without counters (with the exception of Cursecatcher) in the main deck. 
Game two: I bounced his Phyrexian Unlife with Echoing Truth and he had no Pact of Negation or any form of protection for it. I swing for lethal in my turn. 
Game three: The turning point of the game was when I tried countering his Bontu's Last Reckoning with Dispel. I was so focus on trying to get that four and zero record, plus seeing all his lands sideways, that I did not even bothered to check my own cards. I apologized to the defending champ that I really got excited when I saw he's tapped out. I lost this one because of that sweeper. 

3-1  (7-3)

Bant Coco Spirits 

Game one: I out tempo him with Dismember, Reejerey, Harbinger plus lord effects. 
Game two: Collected Company reinforced his troop. Also, he fetched non island shock lands making my islandwalk buddies useless. 
Game three: He kept a strong defensive hand. Unfortunately for him, Kira was there to lead the folks to victory. 

4-1  (9-4)  

UR Storm 
Game one: He went off unmolested. 
Game two: At one point, he went all-in in which Gifts Ungiven was the last spell. Negate gainsaid it. He never get to recover after that. I swim for the win forcing a rubber match. 
Game three: I drew three counter spells throughout the game but not were enough to stop him. 

4-2  (10-6)

Notes

• I was not able to feel the effectiveness of Gut Shot because I did not faced any Affinity or Elves.
• I think Negate and Dispel are enough to cover whatever meta you'll be in.
• I'll probably retain the Dismembers in the main. Killing is better than just bouncing.
• And lastly, will give my sideboard a tweak in my next outing.    

January 2018
14 - Legacy at Madcap (San Pedro, Laguna)
20 - Regran Modern Open (Quezon City)
20 - Legacy at FQ (Mandaluyong City)
21 - 93/94 at Kick Engines (Cubao Expo)
27 - Modern 20k at Gatecrasher (Anonas, Quezon City)
28 - Pauper 15k at Gatecrasher (Anonas, Quezon City)
28 - Legacy at kick Engines (Cubao Expo)

Thank you for reading folks!
 
-Paeng4983
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