Top Deck Games – Legacy 1K – Tournament Report.

Tournament Logistics: 24 players. 5 Rounds. Top 8.

Introduction:

I haven’t played competitive REL Legacy since External Extravaganza 5. I am also a L1 judge so I’ve been working a lot of events, and played a very few large events. I was convinced by my friends to come up to the tournament, so I laid out the deck and make some last minute changes. They were the following:

• Took out 3x Dark Confidant, Thrun, and Sylvan Safekeeper, and inserted Leovold, Tireless Tracker, Renegade Railler, and 3rd Stoneforge Mystic and Sword of Light and Shadow for the MD.

• Took out A Tropical island and a 2nd Forest for a 2nd Cavern of Souls and a Horizon Canopy

• Took out Garruk and Bojika Bog and inserted Nissa, Vital Force and Pithing Needle.

I will put all my Sideboard decisions and analysis at the end of the Report, as well as my list. I felt that I would be expecting more Miracles and D&T, and that I prayed to god to not face Storm or LANDS. Sadly, I lost to one of these decks, but onto the day.

Round 1: UG Eldrazi. (Lose 0-2) {0-1}

You heard it right. They were running UG for the two emerge Eldrazi cards (Mockery of Nature and Wretched Gryff). Game 1 they smashed my reality…twice (2 5/5 Haste, Trample is really hard to fight through). Game 2 I was able to deal with the 2 Reality Smasher by double swords. I only have 2 Caverns, a Knight and a Pridemage, while they had a Matter Shaper and Thought Knot Seer. Haven’t I cracked my Horizon Canopy I could have won that game, but I was brought to my end with an Endbringer. I talked to my opponent after and I realized that they play Powerless Eldrazi in vintage, so I didn’t feel as bad losing to them. They played really great, and I hope that one day I get my REVENGE!

Round 2: Colorless Eldrazi (Won 2-1) {1-1}

Game 1 they beat me down with a Smasher till I was able to land a Knight and Sword the TKS to draw a card. However it wasn’t enough, because they played another Reality Smasher and I was dead. Game 2 I landed a Jitte and equipped it to a Pridemage and started to go snipe their creatures, and they conceded. Game 3 I was playing the control deck and try to eliminate as much creatures as I could, then I landed a Knight, followed up with a 2nd Knight and a Light and Shadow next turn. Lights out.

Round 3: Solider Stompy (Won 2-1) {2-1}

Game one my opponent mulled down to three cards, and I was thinking, “Well…They only need Entomb, Swamp, Reanimate Sire of insanity to kill me” But it turn out that it was Chrome Mox, pitching Thalia, Guardian of Thaben, and pass. I quickly kill them with just Ooze +Knight Beats. Game 2 they were able to turn 1 Suppression Field, and I quickly lose to that, along with an unanswered Precinct Captain. Game 3 they drop two Chrome Mox, and 2 Ballyrush banneret, and 1 Cavern. I Wasteland their land and drop a bird. Over the next couple of turns I landed a Knight, Light and Shadow, and Tireless Tracker, to attack to end the game.

Round 4: Mono-Red Sneak Attack (Won 2-0) {3-1}

Game one I play T1 DRS. My opponent turn one was mountain, lotus petal, pass. I made the assumption that I was playing against a Sneak and Show Variant, so I landed Gaddock to hope not get Turn 2 Sneak Attack. Turns out that they had a Turn two sneak attack, and I won that game with gaddock + Scooze beats. Game 2 my opponent performed Mulligan Procedure Error on a mull to 6 they drew 7. They choose to mulligan down to 5. They went Ancient Tomb pass. My hand was: Bayou, Thoughtseize, Fetch, Canonist, Fetch, Rec Sage, Swords: I am not losing this game. My thoughseize shown: Pyromancy, Seething Song, Interno Titan, and Trinisphere. I pick the Titan because that’s the one card that I can’t deal current out of the hand. On Turn three they got a red source and cast trinisphere. Seeing how it hurts them more than me, I didn’t pop it with Sage. I preceded to win that game with Knight beatdown.

Round 5: (Drew 0-3) {3-1-1}

I realized after the tournament Chinese Food isn’t the best food to eat while a tournament, but hey I can’t complain that I top 8 another 1K.

QUATERFINALS: UR Delver (Won 2-1) {4-1-1}

The person I drew with is my opponent. They came off real strong with a T2 flip Delver, swiftswpears, got my life down to 4. But I established with Gaea’s cradling a Light and Shadow and equipping to a Thalia, and start swinging. Eventually I was able to get enough life to not get Price of Progress (I have an activate Wasteland). Game 2 I only had Horizon Canopy as my source of mana after I mulled to 6. And It lost me the game because I couldn’t activate it under scooze to gain the 2 life I needed to get out of Price of Progress range for lethal. If I left it the forest I would have saved 4 LP. Game 3: I had bird, DRS, and Knight, fetch, fetch, wasteland ,forest. Every creature I drop was dealt with by a bolt or chain lightning. I landed a Sylvan Library to help me found a Choke, and choke down their only island. Once Knight was start swinging, it was GG.

SEMIFINALS: Death & Taxes (Won 2-1) {5-1-1}

Game one was over in 4 turns. T1 Bird Go, T2 Stoneforge, get Light and Shadow pass, T3 Knight pass, T4 equipped knight with Light and Shadow and my opponent conceded. Game 2 I wasn’t so lucky because I kept a one land hand, and I didn’t get there. I got land screwed and got Flickerwisp out the game. Game 3 was very similar to game one, except that I was able to Rec sage the Revoker naming Jitte. They conceded.

At this point I’ve never enter the finals of a Legacy tournament in my life, and at this point I was fighting for the trophy. I have enough points for a bye. And this is where I faced a match-up where I totally need a Bojika Bog.

FINALS: RG Combo Lands (Lost 0-2) {5-2-1}

My opponent turn one was Mox pitch Riftstone Portal, Cast Exploration, played Grove and Wasteland, cast Life of the Loam, chose no targets, pass. I played a Fetch and pass. Then they turn two make a 20/20 and pass. I drew no swords and pass. They attacked me and cast two P fires. Game 2 I lead off with a Mother of Runes, and for a while now it did a lot of work. The game was in a little statlemate, because he had the combo ready, but I surgical all the life of the loams. I made a huge misplay and attacked with the team, thinking that it was lethal, but I miscounted by 2, and I was killed with the 20/20 on the swingback.

Conclusion:

I was very happy with my performance for this tournament. I know that I need to improve my technical plays, but overall I finally broke the curse of only losing in the Quarters or Semis. I’ve also notice that throughout the tournament a few players knew what deck I was playing before I sat down. So I find that I’m becoming this Maverick mascot, which I’m fine with it. Regardless, even though my opponents know what I’m playing, it doesn’t help that much in the long run because I change my configuration of the deck every tournament I participate. I will say that Maverick is one of those decks where you really need to know what you’re doing, and rewards experienced pilots well. You really need to know the meta and how to adapt and just grind through the hate.

Next Time:

My next event is the SCG Classic at Baltimore. I would love to see more Maverick players and talk more about optimization the build to deal with problematic matchups

List.

4x Deathrite Shaman

1x Bird of Paradise

3x Mother of Runes

3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

3x Stoneforge Mystic

1x Scavenging Ooze

1x Scryb Ranger

1x Gaddock Teeg

1x Qasli Pridgemage

4x Knight of Reliquary

1x Leovold, Emissary of Trest

1x Tireless Tracker

1x Renegade Railler

1x Dryad Arbor

4x Swords to Plowshares

4x Green Sun’s Zenith

1x Umezawa’s Jitte

1x Sword of Fire and Ice

1x Sword of Light and Shadow

1x Sylvan Library

4x Winswepth Heath

3x Verdant Catacomb

4x Wasteland

2x Savannah

1x Scrubland

1x Bayou

2x Cavern of Souls

1x Horizon Canopy

1x Karakas

1x Gaea’s Cradle

1x Forest

1x Plain

Sideboard:

2x Zealous Persecution

2x Thoughtseize

2x Choke

2x Ethersworn Canonist

2x Abrupt Decay

1x Nissa, Vital Force

1x Maelstrom Pulse

1x Pithing Needle

1x Surgical Extraction

1x Reclamation Sage

SIDEBOARD CHOICES W ANALYSIS

(http://i.imgur.com/fQX4fja.png)

Eldrazi Analysis:

Thalia and Mom are completely bad in this match up. However at least thalia has first strike so when you equipped a sword it can at kill a Thought-Knot Seer. Nissa’s plus one makes a 5/5 that can block a smasher or TKS. I didn’t see any of my sideboard cards for either Eldrazi matches, but I feel that I need to improve this area the most.

Solider Stompy Analysis:

Again, Thalia is bad in this matchup since they will most likely board out their Thalia’s and the lack of spells they have. Leovold and Tracker are not fast enough to beat them down. My thought was I need to remove problematic cards like the captains. Also, Suppression field is the bane of this deck’s existence, so I need more ways to remove it. I didn’t see any of my sideboard cards of either games.

Mono Red Sneak Attack Analysis:

one of the few combo decks that isn’t as scary as more I practice playing against it. Removing all Weapons package and insert combo hate cards is the way to go in this match-up. I did see my sideboard cards and they did help me win the game. Although I should have called a judge when my opponent tried to cast a sudden shock under a Trinisphere. Either way Canonist is the way to go here.

UR Delver Analysis:

Decay for the Blood Moon, Zealous for the True Name Nemesis, and Choke because they are playing Delver. I took out the weapon package because I feel that it’s too slow against a slight aggressive delver variant that runs Price of progress. I did see a sideboard card: Choke, which helps me just tap the only island on the battlefield.

Death and Taxes Analysis:

Thalia and Gaddock come out of this match, since they also have a karakas. I leave leovold in because they run ports and wasteland and Jitte so I can use to draw a card. I shave a DRS because they are running that many fetches so I feel that I need to maximize the cards that I want to see. Zealous Persecution is a card that D&T can’t deal of. Not only it removes all problematic creatures, but it can be used as an anthem pre-combat to do more damage. I felt that Tracker is too slow to set up in this match-up, but I could be wrong.

RG Combo Land Analysis:

Tbh, I still don’t know what I’m doing in this match-up, but I do know that active mom ruins their P Fire plan. Molten Vortex is also a problematic card so this match-up I brought in all the cards that can deal with enchantment or artifacts. Nissa, in theory, is an all star in this match-up because she makes 5/5, and retrieve creatures or artifacts that were destroyed. I was able to cast her, but I will still run her. I remove Thalia because I feel that they can cast the spells since they are running enough lands that produce mana to pay for spell cost under her.

Overall Analysis:

• Bird is staying in the deck.

• MB Leovold isn’t that great. I could see just putting him in the board and just bring him in the matches where he shines, but other than that he’s a 3/3 at best.

• If you are playing Maverick, you need to get your copies of Renegade Railler. This guy is insane. I wasteland the 2nd Eldrazi deck out of the game because of stripping their 3 lands in one turn. I maybe just add a 2nd Railler to the MB instead of leovold. This guy has multiple targets in the deck to get back on the battlefield.

• I’m cutting the Horizon Canopy and the 2nd Cavern of Souls for a 2nd forest and 2nd Bayou.

• I’m still debating on the 3rd Stoneforge and Sword of Light and Shadow. I want to put Dark Confidants back in the deck, but I need to do more testing to see.

• I’m not entirely sold on Tireless Tracker. While he can be Green Sun, it requires to set him up in order to effective get usages out of him. I might take him out.

Thanks for reading this report. If you have any questions, feel free to message me and I’ll do my best to respond. I’ll see y’all at SCG Baltimore Legacy Classic. Ride On.