Who in their right mind would plan a GP in Denver in the middle of winter? But when I found out the format was going to be Legacy, I knew I wanted to go. A Grand Prix that’s close by and Legacy is pretty tough to pass up. With Wizards passing on Legacy for Modern, I figured that the chance of a Legacy Grand Prix on the West Coast was going to diminish, so I wanted to make sure I hit up at least one Legacy GP.

Preparation for the GP started as soon as the SCG LA Invitational was over. After two disappointing performances that weekend with RUG Delver (just out of the money again for the Invitational and 4-3 drop in the Open), I wasn’t so sure that I wanted to be on RUG Delver for the Grand Prix. After playing the deck for the good part of a year, I kind of wanted to play something else for a change.

The first weekend of testing was devoted to different flavors of Deathrite Shaman.dec. The first deck I tested was basically RUG Delver + Deathrite Shaman. If you take out the Stifles and Spell Pierces out of RUG and replace them with Deathrite Shaman and Abrupt Decay, that’s basically the deck. I also tested a 4-color Zoo deck that included Deathrite Shamans and Dark Confidant. Both decks were pretty sweet, but also very untested, so the idea of taking either of these decks for a Grand Prix was pretty daunting.

So…it was back to RUG Delver. Anyone who knows me knows I advocate playing the deck you know the best rather than just metagaming, so I guess it wasn’t a surprise. I was comfortable with the deck and could play it far better than the other decks I considered. However, I didn’t like the list I took to Los Angeles. After much talk on Twitter, testing, and just generally thinking about the different variants in RUG, this is what I settled on:

Some explanations:

2 Forked Bolt & 1 Grim Lavamancer – Deathrite Shaman was the hyped card coming into the event, so RUG definitely needed a way to deal with Deathrite Shaman. Shaman blocks a tiny Nimble Mongoose easily and also keeps the Mongooses small, so I knew there were two ways to deal with Deathrite Shaman: burn it away or put more cards into the graveyard than it could take away (Thought Scour). I settled for the extra burn over the Thought Scour since I felt that permanently getting rid of Deathrite Shaman was better than just making Nimble Mongoose bigger.

7 fetchlands / 7 duals configuration – I needed a way to cast my 3-drops from my sideboard reliably (the Krosan Grips, Sulfuric Vortex, and Vendilion Clique) and the best way to insure that without increasing the land count was to swap a fetchland for a dual land. I added the Volcanic Island over the Tropical Island because it was more important to hit the double red for Sulfuric Vortex and hit the red I need for the Grim Lavamancer.

1 Spell Snare sideboard – I think Spell Snare is a very solid card right now, but I didn’t think it warranted a third slot maindeck. Spell Snare is pretty dead against some decks (like Show and Tell) but also pretty good against others (mirror match and BUG mainly), so having access to the third in the sideboard was pretty sweet.

Onto the GP Denver it was!

Jeff and I went to the event site on Friday to register and play in a couple grinders to try to get three byes. Jeff had one bye, and I had two byes, but I figured it was good testing, and maybe I could win a couple of packs. For the grinders, we made sure to enter different grinders, because only one of us could get the byes and for the other that didn’t, it really isn’t worth it at that point. Unfortunately Jeff lost in the Top 8 of his grinder, but I ended up winning mine!

Round 1 – Esper Stoneblade

I topdeck a Delver after losing the die roll and play it. I accidentally run it into a Snapcaster Mage. We draw go for a couple of turns but he has a Vendilion Clique on my draw step. He takes the Forked Bolt and I draw into a Ponder, which I used to draw into a Grim Lavamancer and Nimble Mongoose. I play both of my Lavamancers and Mongoose and I Force of Will an Engineered Explosives for 1 to save them. The Mongoose starts beating down. He plays a Lingering Souls but I have the on-board trick of 6 cards in my graveyard and a fetchland so he double blocks and loses both of his guys. The Mongoose goes all the way.

For game two, I have some counterspells and Sulfur Elemental in my opener. He Duresses me turn one and takes my Stifle. He goes for a Lingering Souls on turn 3 and I let them hit me, intending to use the Sulfur Elemental at his end step. He goes for a Snapcaster Mage second main phase so I Spell Snare that. I instead go for the Elemental the next turn, and he Swords it. I play a Tarmogoyf and Nimble Mongoose the next turn. He plays a Batterskull and I topdeck a Krosan Grip. He has an Academy Ruins to bring it back but since he has to use the mana on his turn so he can’t cast the Batterskull, and I take the win.

1-0

Round 2 – Pox

I Spell Snare his Anvil of Bogardan and then land a Mongoose and soon, double Delver. They start hitting for 9 a turn and take the game. In game 2, I get flooded and he draws a Liliana and controls the game. In game three I have a turn 1 Mongoose and I have double Force for a couple of his spells. He Wastelands me but I have a Delver in play too. He plays a Chains of Mephistopheles and I consider Forcing it, but since I don’t have any lands to draw cards anyway, I decide to save the Force for something else. I don’t play a land for the rest of the game but the Mongoose and Delver get there.

2-0

Round 3 – Miracles

I Wasteland and Stifle this guy so he never gets more than 3 or 4 land over the course of the game. I’m drawing a ton of blanks, but eventually I get through his wall of Swords to Plowshares and land a Tarmogoyf (He’s a 7/8!). I have double Spell Pierce for his double Jace and I take game 1.

He plays a Relic of Progenitus turn 1 while I have a Mongoose but it doesn’t do much as I counter his Counterbalance and other spells so the Delver of Secrets and Nimble Mongoose manage to kill him before he can control the game.

3-0

Round 4 – Sneakshow

I mull to 6 and have a turn 1 Ponder. I play Tarmogoyf the next turn. He has Intuition which I Force, but he Misdirects to grab Show and Tell. The next turn he goes for a Show and Tell but I have Spell Pierce, Daze, Daze to stop it and Tarmogoyf and Delver get there.

Game 2 shows me a hand of Volcanic Island, Delver of Secrets, Force of Will, Ponder, Spell Pierce, and Daze, and Spell Pierce. I manage to land a Delver turn 1 and stop all of his spells to take the game pretty quickly.

4-0

The finals was Andrejs Prost (on UW Miracles) and me. Since he already has three byes, he scoops the byes to me and he gets the packs. I’m not entirely sure that it was completely beneficial for me since I basically just paid $20 for an additional bye, but whatever, I was pretty happy with having three byes.

The actual GP: Denver Report

So only 700 players showed up, so the cut would be to Top 64 with only 8 rounds in Day 1. After I heard about this, I was pretty stoked about winning the grinder. I had expected 9 rounds on Day 1 so I was settling in for a long day, but with only eight rounds, I would only have to go 3-2 on Day 1.

Rounds 1-3: Byes.

3-0

Round 4 – BUG

I win game one with double Nimble Mongoose. He doesn’t have a green mana source but attempts Liliana twice after Hymning out a Tarmogoyf and a Wasteland. Luckily he didn’t Hymn out the Spell Pierces, which stop Liliana from resolving twice.

In games two and three, I’m not so lucky. A Liliana beats me pretty easily in game two since I really only have one creature out, and an unchecked Dark Confidant go all the way.

3-1

Round 5 – Storm

I put this guy on Storm because he’s sitting next to a friend and his friend jokes about my opponent using Grapeshot to kill his opponents. I mulligan a 3 creature, 1 burn spell, 3 land hand into a more manageable hand, but unfortunately, he has the Duress to take my Spell Pierce, then Empties the Warrens for 8 on turn two and I can’t do anything.

Game two has me with a turn one Delver of Secrets and a few turns later, it flips, I have some taxing counterspells that forces him to Burning Wish for Diminishing Returns with UB floating. It whiffs and I take the game after he sees that the Diminishing Returns has given me double Spell Snare and Stifle.

Game three is another very close game. He Infernal Tutors for a Lion’s Eye Diamond. I Daze his Dark Ritual when he just has a Volcanic Island to cut him off red mana, so he passes the turn. The next turn, he Burning Wishes for a Past in Flames, then the turn after that, he casts 3 Lion’s Eye Diamonds, and a Past in Flames to storm me out when he’s at 1 life.

3-2

3-2 after three byes was pretty frustrating. At this point, Day 2ing wasn’t even on my mind. I just wanted to actually win a match in a Grand Prix.

Round 6 – Sneak and Show

Lotus Petal, Lotus Petal, Volcanic Island, Show and Tell Emrakul. Did I mention I lost the die roll? Winning a match in a Grand Prix seemed like a lost cause at this point.

The next two games were a complete reversal. I was granted with my favorite hands against Show and Tell decks – land, Delver of Secrets, and five counterspells/cantrips. He doesn’t draw many cantrips so my counterspells were able to win the war each time he went for Show and Tell or Sneak Attack.

4-3

Round 7 – BUG

I have double Delver of Secrets and a Grim Lavmancer for game one. He Abrupt Decays one Delver of Secrets, but the Grim Lavamancer takes care of his Deathrite Shaman. He scoops once he gets to 7 life and has no answer to the duo.

In game two, I have a one lander that gets Wastelanded. I start to draw/discard, but he doesn’t have a clock either, so I begin to pull back into the game with a couple of Ponders, but he soon gets the Wasteland/Loam lock and I can’t come back from that.

I lead out with a Delver of Secrets, he leads out with a Deathrite Shaman. I Ponder into a Forked Bolt, kill the Shaman, then start getting in with the Delver. He Abrupt Decays it, but I Wasteland him to cut him off of black mana. He draws into the fetchland, gets a black mana, then plays Dark Confidant and Deathrite Shaman in the same turn. I end of turn Vendilion Clique him to reveal a Liliana, Vendilion Clique, and a Spell Pierce. I Clique the Spell Pierce down to the bottom of the library, then I untap and cast Rough // Tumble on my turn, wiping his board. I play a Delver of Secrets and while he does play his Vendilion Clique, my Wasteland on his black source stops him from casting Liliana and I take the game.

5-2

Round 8 – BUG

He leads off with a couple of Ponders to fix his draw. Then he Abrupt Decays my Delver of Secrets, Grim Lavmancer, and Tarmogoyf. Fortunately, it took a couple of turns for him to do so, so at this point he’s at a pretty low life total. I Brainstorm into a Nimble Mongoose and Tarmogoyf (which combined would be lethal), making sure to keep a Force of Will and Ponder in my hand for anything he would decide to play. He plays a Tarmogoyf, so I Force, and we’re onto game two.

In game two, I Lightning Bolt his turn one Deathrite Shaman then play a Nimble Mongoose. The Nimble Mongoose starts getting in for some damage and again, he is Pondering. He soon plays a Tarmogoyf. I pass a couple of turns, but when he fetches, I Submerge his Tarmogoyf in response. However, he has another Tarmogoyf to follow up to block my Nimble Mongoose. Then he Life from the Loams, attempting to bring back Wasteland, and two fetches, but I have an Envelop to stop it for a turn. Then I Submerge his Tarmogoyf to start getting in with damage. The Submerge acts as a damage source (since my Mongoose can deal damage), but it was also crucial in stalling the Wasteland/Life from the Loam lock. He plays the Tarmogoyf again to no one’s surprise. I topdeck a Spell Snare which may seem like a poor topdeck…but when you consider I have the third Submerge, it gets a lot better! I Submerge the Tarmogoyf, get in for more damage, then Snare the Tarmogoyf. I get him down to five life when he plays a Delver of Secrets. I play a Forked Bolt, targeting the Delver and him, but he has a Blue Elemental Blast to stop it. I swing in with the Nimble Mongoose, and he chooses to take the damage to go down to 2. He flips the Delver of Secrets with an Abrupt Decay, but he Dredges the Abrupt Decay away with Life from the Loam, and starts to Wasteland me out. Fortunately, a Ponder reveals a Lightning Bolt, which I use to make Day 2.

6-2

So I followed up an 0-2 start with a 3-0 finish!

Round 9 – RUG Delver

I play a Volcanic Island and Ponder on turn one. He plays a Volcanic Island and passes. I Wasteland him during his upkeep, and he Stifles. I Spell Pierce. When he Forces, I take that to mean that he doesn’t have another land, so I Force back. It resolves but unfortunately he draws into a land, Nimble Mongoose. I play a Delver of Secrets to try and race but when he resolves the second Mongoose, it’s game over.

I keep a hand with a Delver, couple Bolts and a couple of Submerges. I play the Delver and it flips, and it deals some damage before he removes it. All he’s doing is playing land and passing. I draw into a Nimble Mongoose and play it, and that goes all of the way. Turns out his hand was just full of removal. So was mine—I had triple Submerge by the end of the game with zero targets throughout the game.

In game three, I have double Mongoose, Delver, and Tarmogoyf in my hand throughout the first couple of turns, but I am sure to hold up Spell Snare for a Tarmogoyf. I just play out my three one mana guys, but he deals with the Delver. He doesn’t cast Tarmogoyf for awhile, but when he plays Life from the Loam, I Spell Snare it to stall for a bit while my double Mongoose attack him.

Soon, the final board position is him casting a Tarmogoyf while I have Tarmogoyf, Nimble Mongoose, and Nimble Mongoose. I’m at 19 and he’s at 9. I have a Force of Will in my hand (but I would have to pitch Submerge) and since I only have one mana open, I let it resolve to play around Spell Pierce. After it resolves he Submerges my Tarmogoyf. I untap, cast Submerge on his Tarmogoyf, attack, then cast Tarmogoyf. He extends the hand.

7-2

Round 10 –BUG

I play a turn one Delver of Secrets. His first turn is to Wasteland me. I flip Delver of Secrets and attack, then I play a fetchland. He plays a fetch and fetches, so I Stifle it. Now he’s super behind, and he isn’t happy when I play a Nimble Mongoose. Now he fetches for a basic Swamp and plays Deathrite Shaman. I Bolt it, then since I have six cards in my graveyard (and a spare Wasteland in my hand), I activate Wasteland, targeting itself, to get threshold and start hitting him for six each turn. He doesn’t recover.

Game two begins with him playing a turn one Deathrite Shaman but I have a Lightning Bolt, then I follow with a Nimble Mongoose. He simply draws and passes for a couple turns as I start hitting him with Mongoose. Once I get to three mana, I Vendilion Clique him and he attempts to Abrupt Decay but I Submerge my Clique in response. The Clique reveals four land. I start beating with the threshold Mongoose, then I cast Clique again on his draw step, revealing a Jace. I probably should have left it, but I choose to take it. He draws a Deathrite Shaman off of it, but I have a Forked Bolt for it. Vendilion Clique and Mongoose finish the job.

8-2

Round 11 – Esper Stoneblade

I have a turn one Delver and Spell Snare for his Stoneforge Mystic, but he has a Force of Will. I have a Force of Will too, but no blue card, so Stoneforge Mystic resolves and pwns me with Batterskull.

I keep an awfully reactive hand in Game 2 and unfortunately Inquisition into Snapcaster Inquisition tears my hand apart and I can’t do much when he lands a Jace, multiple Spirits and a Batterskull. I manage to Krosan Grip a Batterskull but cannot find the Sulfur Elemental to deal with the tokens.

8-3

Round 12 – Death and Taxes

He wins the die roll and leads with Plains, pass. I play a Delver of Secrets and pass. He plays an Umezawa’s Jitte on turn two. He plays a Thalia, and I Daze it. I play a Grim Lavamancer. He plays Phyrexian Revoker but I Daze it to tap his Wasteland (to protect my green mana), then I Bolt it. I use the green mana I saved to play a Nimble Mongoose. My three creatures get there.

In game two, he has double Thalia (the first one was Forked Bolted), but the second one sticks which affects my ability to severely function. I have double Delver. He Paths the first one, but he soon plays a Serra Avenger and starts beating me (I try to race because I have double Tarmogoyf to make him lose his Avenger eventually to either Delver or Goyf. He’s at 6 when he plays Jotun Grunt. Unfortunately, I lose the race when he rips a Path to Exile to stop my only blocker.

In game three, I have a Nimble Mongoose he has a turn one Mom but I Bolt it. He plays a second. I Force pitching Stifle, and he misses his second land drop. He is forced to draw/discard for several turns as the Mongoose beats down for one a turn. Eventually he draws into another land but it’s a Wasteland. He plays Thalia, I Daze, then Waste him. He draws a basic Plains then plays another Thalia, which I counter. I finally have threshold, hit him, then play a Tarmogoyf. He draws into a Horizon Canopy and plays a Revoker. I play a Rough // Tumble to finish the job.

9-3

Round 13 – Sneak Show

I make a crucial mistake game one. He goes for Sneak Attack and I Spell Pierce while he has blue and Lotus Petal up. He Spell Pierces back, then I Force the Sneak Attack (pitching Spell Snare) while I have double Daze in my hand. I should have double Dazed as he had a ton of time to draw out of the Daze and Show and Tell into Griselbrand. He doesn’t have enough life to draw seven cards, but he uses that time to stall my Delver and Mongoose to draw into Sneak Attack/Emrakul.

In game two, he waits long enough to dodge my taxing mana and manages to cast Sneak Attack. Anticipating an Emrakul, I Daze the Sneak Attack to save a land. I’m at 2 and draw into 3 Brainstorms but none draw me into a land. Eventually he draws into Show and Tell/Emrakul with Force backup. I can only Force once because I’m at 2 so he kills me.

9-4

At this point, standings are posted and I’m in 65th place.

Round 14 – Burn

Burn is a bit of a scary matchup because RUG really has no source of lifegain, Delver never lives, and no basics makes playing around Price of Progress very tough. The only way to stop burn is to 1 for 1 them until your Tarmogoyf can finish the job, but Price of Progress can be a bit of a beating whether or not it’s cast. Ugh. I have a turn one Delver, pass. He plays turn one Goblin Guide. I Force, pitching Brainstorm. Delver of Secrets flips, and hits him for three. He untaps and attempts to Chain Lightning it. I Spell Pierce. Then I play a Nimble Mongoose and soon, a Tarmogoyf. In the meanwhile, he hits me with a Lava Spike, Chain Lightning, and Flame Rift, putting me to 5 life. When I attack for lethal, he attempts to Fireblast my Delver. I let it go, let him go down to 3, then Bolt him FTW.

In game two, he leads off with a Rift Bolt. I play a land, pass, then Envelop the Rift Bolt. He Lava Spikes me then passes. I play a Tarmogoyf and pass. He plays some more burn spells at my face. I play a Nimble Mongoose and a Grim Lavamancer. He gets me all the way down to 5. He untaps and tries to Searing Blaze my Lavamancer for one damage (which would put me into Fireblast range), so I Spell Snare like I’ve never Spell Snared before. I bring him down to 8 with my attacks, then he untaps, and plays a Vexing Shusher. I breathe a huge sigh of relief when he taps out to play just that. I Bolt the Shusher on my turn to grow the Tarmogoyf and Mongoose for 7 power total while he is at 8. Luckily the Lavamancer is the last point of damage.

10-4

After awhile the standings are posted and I find out I ended up in 46th place. Starting off 0-2 was certainly not a good way to start off the weekend, but I’m glad I was able to bounce back from the start.

Props:

My friend Michael for letting us crash at his place for the weekend

My opponents. Playing in the win-and-in bracket for basically the entire time day one I felt would have brought out the worst in some. Of course, it is very disappointing to get knocked out of Day 2 contention, but at least I didn’t encounter some of the attitudes I did at SCG: LA.

The two concession coupons we received at the beginning of Day 2. No paying $4 for a Red Bull!

3-1 against BUG decks on the weekend. I hadn’t actually tested the matchup after the changes I made but before the changes, I hadn’t won against a BUG deck at all so I was pretty happy with this result.

Slops:

My brother getting knocked out of Day 2 contention :(

A GP in Denver in the middle of winter. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was gonna be, but still…

I’m glad I did well at GP: Denver for a variety of reasons, but mainly because I plan on hanging up the RUG. I’ve had a good run with RUG Delver, and I will always have a soft spot for it, but I think it’s time to move on. I’ve been itching to try out a ton of other decks so right now is the perfect time to do so.

Regrettably, I won’t be able to attend SCG: San Diego or SCG: Las Vegas in the coming weeks and months, but to those that do, good luck! Anyone who wants a sweet brew for Legacy for SCG: Las Vegas, let me know, because that’s what I’ll be doing in Legacy for the next couple months!

Jason

@mtgtwin1 on Twitter