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