This Week in Legacy — SCG Columbus Legacy Classic WRITTEN BY Joseph Dyer

Howdy folks! This is Joe again, with another healthy dose of Legacy content! This week, I'm going to be giving a bit of a personal tournament report about my time at the StarCityGames Columbus Legacy Classic on 1/7/2018!

Suffice to say, right off the bat, I had a strong start to this event (eight rounds of Legacy, whew!) at 3–1 going into round five, and then unfortunately the rails fell off to bring me to a 3–5 finish overall, putting me in 83rd out of 155 after breakers.

Here's the list that I registered for the event.

Scapewish — Joseph Dyer | SCG Columbus Legacy Classic 1/7/2018

Creatures (13)

1 Carnage Tyrant

1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer

1 Primeval Titan

1 Regisaur Alpha

2 Sakura-Tribe Elder

1 Thragtusk

2 Tireless Tracker

4 Veteran Explorer

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Nissa, Vital Force

Instants/Sorceries (17)

2 Abrupt Decay

4 Burning Wish

3 Cabal Therapy

4 Green Sun's Zenith

2 Scapeshift

2 Thoughtseize

Enchantments (5)

3 Pernicious Deed

2 Sylvan Library

Lands (24)

4 Badlands

1 Bayou

3 Forest

2 Mountain

1 Overgrown Tomb

2 Swamp

4 Taiga

2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

3 Verdant Catacombs

2 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard (15)

1 Cabal Therapy

1 Innocent Blood

2 Lightning Bolt

1 Lost Legacy

1 Maelstrom Pulse

1 Pulse of Murasa

2 Pyroclasm

1 Scapeshift

2 Slaughter Games

1 Toxic Deluge

All in all, I felt pretty happy with the list going into the event. Going forward, there are a few shifts (see what I did there) that I want to make to it, but nothing crazy and sweeping.

Let's get on to the actual meat of the report, shall we?

Game-by-Game Breakdown

Round 1 vs Elves (Loss 0–2)

Game 1

I sit down and make the normal small talk chatter with my opponent. I mull to six on the draw and keep. He plays a Turn one Green Sun's Zenith for a Dryad Arbor and I immediately jump to that he's on Maverick. Nope, turns out it's my worst and most hated of match-ups: Elves. He quickly makes a Quirion Ranger and I wish for a Pyroclasm to keep things under control.

While keeping things under wraps and digging hard with a Sylvan Library for any amount of action—finding a Thoughtseize that keeps me alive for one more turn by getting rid of a Natural Order—I finally find a Pernicious Deed but it's too late. He's able to out-mana me and drops double Craterhoof Behemoth in the same turn.

Sideboarding — Generally since this is a combo match-up, I bring in Surgical Extraction and Slaughter Games to try and remove their win conditions. I bring out big dumb beaters like Regisaur and Carnage Tyrant.

Game 2

I mull to six again, keep a two-land hand and draw the complete wrong half of my deck. I get killed by none other than Wren's Run Packmaster into Craterhoof Behemoth.

Getting the day started off right, I mull over what I did and didn't do during this match-up. This is also the same match-up where I accidentally fumbled a few cards over in a draw step and had to call a Judge on myself due to the fact that they flipped up. No big deal though, Elves generally has way too much velocity on me and I've never had a good game against them.

Round 2 vs Grixis Delver (Win 2–0)

Game 1

My opponent and I sit down and again make some small talk, and again I mull to six. I play a Veteran Explorer and he Forces it, pitching a Daze. Okay, this is Grixis Delver. Typically, no deck in the format wants to Force of Will a Veteran Explorer other than Grixis Delver, since they run zero basic lands, they get no benefit from the trigger, and mana development can get way out of hand for them.

Long story short, this game ends with me landing a Carnage Tyrant after controlling his board with Pernicious Deed and then going to town with an implacable death lizard.

Sideboarding — I like to keep my Delver match-ups super minimal in sideboarding in Jund builds. The deck already has so many tools and overloading of threats that overboarding can get you thrown off your game plan. I bring out the Thoughtseizes and a Nissa for Lightning Bolts and Toxic Deluge.

Game 2

There's a lot of back and forth here, but I manage to stabilize my manabase pretty well and get him on a six-land Scapeshift with a Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle already in play.

Now at 1–1, feeling a little bit better about the day and hitting my stride with the deck. Moving on to round three!

Round 3 vs Food Chain (Win 2–0)

My Round three opponent ends up being none other than this guy right here! Not only is he a Discord user (under the name idontknowhattoputhere), but he's also ex-Dayton, so it was great to get to finally meet him and put a face to his name. Solid conversation and solid games all around here.

Game 1

Already somewhat knowing what he's on, I maintain a pretty offensive hand on the draw and quickly Abrupt Decay the first Food Chain I see. Eventually, I am able to push enough through to be able to play an eight-land Scapeshift for the win.

Sideboarding — Food Chain's match-up is still primarily a combo match-up, since the combo just kills you. If you can force them off the combo, then they have to play fair Magic and that is something that Nic Fit ends up being better at. I bring out stuff like Primeval Titan, Nissas, etc. for Slaughter Games, Surgical Extraction, and my additional Cabal Therapy.

Game 2

I keep a spicy hand with Abrupt Decay and Slaughter Games. He makes a turn two Food Chain and I Decay it. He passes the following turn and I Surgical Extraction the Food Chain, taking another from his hand and getting rid of it for good. On the fair magic plan now, I manage to establish two separate Slaughter Games, getting rid of Walking Ballista and Leovold, Emissary of Trest, and leaving him with only Deathrite Shaman and Misthollow Griffin as ways to win.

I very nearly almost die to this, surprisingly enough. I go to three life, and finally find a Scapeshift to win off of.

After having a solid and awesome match, I go off and I meet up with another Discordian, fellow author Nathan Richey! Nate came to the event to buy and trade with the vendors, and it was great getting to hang out with him a little bit in between rounds.

Round 4 vs B/R Reanimator (Win 2–1)

Game 1

I mull to six and keep somewhat of a sketchy hand that would have been great against any other deck. My opponent makes a turn 1 Griselbrand. I die.

Sideboarding — Pretty easy here: Board out big threats for interaction. Surgical Extraction, Slaughter Games, Lost Legacy, and Pulse of Murasa are all key here.

Game 2

I keep an easy seven with a Surgical Extraction in hand and a Cabal Therapy. My opening Therapy reveals a hand of: Exhume, Griselbrand, Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal, Unmask, Animate Dead, Faithless Looting. My opponent goes all-in on turn one by casting Unmask on himself after dumping his Faithless Looting to his Chrome Mox. I respond with a Surgical Extraction. I kill him with Veteran Explorer and Thragtusk beats, while he tries to stabilize and reanimate another fatty (this time Iona, Shield of Emeria) which I promptly Pulse of Murasa back to his hand.

Game 3

On the play, my opponent uses Animate Dead to get back a Chancellor of the Annex on turn one. I take four damage and then I Abrupt Decay the Animate Dead to put him off the card entirely. Pulse of Murasa also makes for great work here again, and eventually I keep him off his plan long enough that I find a Scapeshift and kill him.

Feeling pretty good thus far, sitting at 3–1. And then, well... The rest of the event happened.

Round 5 vs Sneak and Show (Lose 0–2)

Game 1

I keep a hand with a Veteran Explorer opener. My opponent makes a turn two Omniscience off a Show and Tell and I die to an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Sideboarding — Again, combo match-up, so boarding out ineffective stuff for combo hate.

Game 2

I try for a Cabal Therapy to hit Show and Tell and miss. My opponent makes a Sneak Attack and hits me for 15 with Emrakul. I have lands in hand to rebuild, my opponent sneaks in a Griselbrand next turn for lethal.

Well, that was demoralizing. Moving on, after getting some food...

Round 6 vs BUG Control (Lose 1–2)

Game 1

Game one ends up being pretty interactive. Lot of things happen during this game, and I manage to establish a pretty strong board state through his Jace, the Mind Sculptor. I manage to get both Nissa, Vital Force and Nissa, Vastwood Seer in play, and ultimate Nissa, Vital Force. I draw a million cards and get both the big dinos in play for lethal.

Sideboarding — Since this was straight BUG Control, board plan typically tends to be cards like Maelstrom Pulse, etc.

Game 2

This game ended up pretty tense with a lot of back and forth on both sides. We both established decent game plans and we went back and forth a lot on life total. Not only that, because of the grindy nature of game one, we were looking pretty pressed for time. This kind of hurt me I feel because I started to play quicker than I normally have been trying to with this deck.

This game also happens to be the same game I receive my second Judge call of the day, which resulted in a Warning for Communication Policy. I always tell my opponents what my cards do. I generally play a decent number of foreign cards, but I am generally always honest about this. However, I did forget about one small thing: With the Communication Policy update from Ixalan, any time there's a trigger that your opponent has an optional effect, you have to ask your opponent if they are going to perform that effect. This is seen primarily in Modern with Path to Exile where you have to remind your opponent that they can search for a land.

So, long story short, I forgot to remind my opponent that they could search for basics off Veteran Explorer's trigger because it falls under the same scenario. The Judge was called by my opponent's friend who was watching our match. Unfortunately, the game had already progressed far enough that rewinding the game was impossible. As is the penalty, I received a Warning for it.

Such is life. We all make mistakes in this game, and I'm certainly not perfect. There are a lot of arguments to this ruling, as a number of people consider this to be a poor rule for competitive REL, but that's neither here nor there. The rules are the rules, and Judges are there to be super helpful, and I really appreciated how the Judge handled the situation.

I go on to lose the game, by the way.

Game 3

Now super pressed for time, even with a five-minute time extension due to the judge call, pressure starts building up on me and has wrecked my mental state just enough to the point that I end up losing the game.

I chat a bit with a few of my friends about the situation, get their input on it, and then head to Round seven. Now sitting at X–3, I'm feeling pretty upset about how things are now going.

Round 7 vs Lands (Lose 0–2)

Game 1

I make a Veteran Explorer, he makes a 20/20 flier. Do the math.

Sideboarding — Sideboarding for Lands generally ends up being things like Surgical Extraction among other hate effects.

Game 2

I keep the sketchiest hand all day, losing to myself really here. I die to a 20/20 officially, but unofficially, I die to myself.

Final round of the day, I decided to just play it out and try and salvage a 4–4 record. Alas, it was not meant to be.

Round 8 vs Jeskai Stoneblade (Lose 1–2)

Game 1

A lot happens in this game, and I manage to keep up with him fairly well enough, but he manages to get to 31 life, and when I cast Scapeshift he manages to find a counter for it.

Sideboarding — Stoneblade decks can be difficult, but generally bringing in things in that kill threats like Maelstrom Pulse is very good for dealing with their Planeswalkers.

Game 2

I barely budge in life total the whole game after ripping his hand apart, while I manage to establish a Carnage Tyrant to kill him with.

Game 3

Again, this game ends up being fairly back and forth, but he manages to keep me completely off balance, and he has a Force of Will for the Scapeshift that would have ended the game immediately.

Post Tournament Thoughts

In the long run, I had a great time regardless in this event. While dealing with Judge calls especially is nerve-wracking, I'm not really upset with my performance and definitely have begun to really understand what variance is and when it isn't variance and I'm just being awful at playing the game. (Happens a lot sometimes to even the best of us!)

Going forward, I think I would like to end up trying a 1/1 split of Tireless Tracker and Eternal Witness in the list. I felt a little overwhelmed not having Eternal Witness available, and there were certainly some games where she would have been able to let me grind more. These are things I'm going to have to test in the list as I start prepping for the Cincy Open in March.

I also would love to give a super shoutout to the biggest and best part of the event, my first event truly using the Android/iPhone app TopDecked to do things for the event for me. One of the biggest pieces of this event was TopDecked can generate decklists for you, so my decklist was already nicely pre-printed from TopDecked with my name, DCI #, and full list.

Another great thing that TopDecked does is push notifications for pairings. The only time I had to actually hit StarCity's website for pairings the entire day was during Round five for a repairing. Other than that, I was able to just use TopDecked the entire day to get my pairings.

If you are any sort of player who goes to competitive REL events, I would heavily recommend looking into TopDecked. The app is phenomenal and definitely worth supporting.

Wrapping Up

That's all the time we have this week. I wish that this report had been a little more exciting and I'd have made at least Top 32/16, but alas, these things do happen in the world of competitive Magic. We take the good finishes with the bad finishes, and learn from every experience and just keep moving forward.

Until next time, folks!