Another 31 people arrived at the Clerkenwell Craft Beer Pub for the second London Legacy Monthly (affectionately dubbed GP Clerkenwell by our finalist Joe). Unfortunately we had a last minute drop out or two so we are still waiting for the magic 32 players and so 6 rounds, hopefully we will make it next time!

As we increased the entry fee a little we managed to put up some even better prizes! Tropical Island FWB for first, Badlands for second, Karakas and Beta Dark Ritual, Karakas and Show and tell stuff for third and fourth, and Wastelands for fifth to eighth.

The metagame broke down like this

Deck No. Players Deck No. Players Grixis Delver 4 Death and Taxes 4 Miracles 2 BR Reanimator 2 Dark Threshold 2 UR Delver 2 BG Depths 2 Dredge 1 Burn 1 Maverick 1 Aggro Loam 1 Lands 1 4 C Delver 1 Sneak and Show 1 Punishing Maverick 1 Shardless 1 Big Red Sneak 1 Eldrazi Post 1 Storm - ANT 1 Bant Deathblade 1

Death and Taxes continues to be the most played deck at our events but this month the various Delver strategies came out of the woodwork and made up nearly a third of the room! Classic powerhouse Grixis Delver was the most played but UR Delver and Dark Threshold both had two players. Dark Threshold is a deck that has recently appeared with the release of Fatal Push. This card has made classic Delver cards like Tarmogoyf a lot worse and so the deck takes a slightly different path by running its own Pushes and trying to control the game until Nimble Mongoose or other un-pushable creatures can get there. The lists we saw in Clerkenwell only had Mongoose as the Push resistant cards but other players have been taking things a lot further with experiments involving Hooting Mandrills and True-Name Nemesis. For example this deck running four Mongoose and Mandrills.

Last months love of Leovold, Emissary of Trest seems to have burnt out as quickly as it flared up with only Shardless and Dark Bant on that kind of plan. They were however joined by old Midrange staples Aggro Loam and Maverick of two flavours, classic, and one splashing red for Punishing Fire, to further sew up the creature match-ups.

Combo wise we had the usual wide range of strategies with nine players trying to win fast. Again, a higher proportion of the meta than one might expect. BR Reanimator continues to filter through to the UK scene proper with one of the pilots making the Semi finals. Much to my happiness two people also opted for some Turbo Depths. This deck is still slightly under the radar for some players, even after winning last years US Eternal Weekend, and well worth investigating. Especially if you like a resilient combo deck that attacks along a different line to most others. It also has lots of interesting sideboard options and play. A quick mention should go to Michael Baalham who had Steely Resolve in the board. This card can play out a lot like Not of this World by countering everything that could possibly deal with Marit Lage. The rest of the combo decks were either making big guys early, Sneak and Show and Mono Red Sneak, casting lots of spells, Storm and Burn or doing Dredge stuff.

Miracles yet again didn’t live up to the hype surrounding it, although online expert FGC managed to make the Top8. Perhaps Londoners just don’t like spinning Sensei’s Divining Top? With Lands making it only three true control players this Month it’s no surprise the Top8 was mostly Delver variants.

Thinking about next month Elves looks like a good option. It has great match-up against Delver and can have some very very fast combo hands. If your board is tuned to beat Combo you should have some luck if you dodge the one or two Miracles players in the room.

After five rounds (this time the beer of choice was Mary Jane, a nice light IPA, not too hoppy) we got a Top8. It was pretty clear cut until the last spot which had 10 people on 9 points vying for a chance at the Tropical Island. Roland Swingler was the lucky man with James Platten just missing out by a couple of % on the tie breakers. Congratulations also go to Chris Bull for making his first Top8!

Our Top8 was, in order of finish in the Swiss.

1st – Aston Ramsden Death and Taxes 8th – Roland Swingler Storm 2nd – Francis Cowper Miracles 7th – Tom Brown Dark Thresh 3rd – Jamie Hardie Death and Taxes 6th – Lauri Achte BR Reanimator 4th – Joe Baddeley Grixis Delver 5th – Chris Bull 4C Delver

Aston beat Roland, Francis fell to Tom’s Stifles in a reverse of the swiss round and both Lauri and Joe triumphed. In the Semifinals both the Delver decks won, with Joe’s Grixis build taking down last months Semifinalist Aston on Death and Taxes and Tom and his Nimble Mongoosees (that is the plural, I checked) took down last months finalist deck BR Reanimator, piloted by Lauri this time. The Finals were a drawn out affair as Delver mirrors often are, but after three close games the shroud creatures won and Tom Brown became our second champion, playing Dark Threshold!

Decklists!

Tom Brown – 1st

Dark Thresh

Joe Baddeley – 2nd

Grixis Delver

Lauri Achte – 3rd/4th

BR Reanimator

Aston Ramsden – 3rd/4th

Death and Taxes

Francis Cowper – 5th – 8th

Miracles

Jamie Hardie – 5th – 8th

Death and Taxes

Chris Bull – 5th – 8th

4C Delver

Roland Swingler – 5th – 8th

ANT

Thank you to everyone who made the February London Legacy Monthly such a great success. Callum Smith and Tom Brown who organised it with me, and Tom Cadden for providing a great venue. I look forward to seeing you all at the next one in March!

Thomas Kellock

P.S.

There is no bonus decklist this month because you all played boring decks. Please rectify this in March or I shall be forced to play Stax.

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