Saturday, August 15
I’d been waiting for this tournament for two weeks.
The real reason I came to GenCon.
Legacy Champs!
Legacy is my favorite format in Magic. The format is always pleasantly wide open, people play a lot of bad decks which leads to free wins (Threshold, I’m looking at you!), and there are a bunch of off-the-wall decks to play that are also actually quite good.
As I reported a few articles ago, I won a Legacy tournament at Grand Prix: Boston with Land.com. Land.com is one of the most fun decks I have ever played in my 10+ years of Magic, and I could not wait to sleeve it up and play it again. I modified my list slightly from the list I won with in Boston:
Lands (42)
- 1 Forest
- 2 Wooded Foothills
- 4 Treetop Village
- 4 Wasteland
- 4 Mishra's Factory
- 1 Tropical Island
- 3 Taiga
- 1 Savannah
- 1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
- 1 Barbarian Ring
- 3 Windswept Heath
- 4 Maze of Ith
- 4 Tranquil Thicket
- 1 Glacial Chasm
- 4 Rishadan Port
- 1 Nomad Stadium
- 1 Riftstone Portal
- 1 Nantuko Monastery
- 1 Academy Ruins
Spells (18)
Worm Harvest was not good for me in Boston. I found out that you want all of your lands on the battlefield and not in your graveyard. That was one of the first cards I was happy to cut from the deck.
I decided upon two main deck Engineered Explosives as a way to get myself out of trouble game 1 against Counterbalance deck, as well as having an out to any random problem that may have come up. With a main deck Academy Ruins, I felt this was a pretty reasonable idea, but the situation never came up (as you will see soon enough).
Speaking of the Academy Ruins, I decided I wanted one of those based on one experience. When playing against Zoo in Boston, I Dredged both of my Zuran Orbs. It really upset me, as it was impossible to lose if I ever drew one of them. I wanted a way to correct that problem, so I found one in Academy Ruins. Being able to activate Academy Ruins only off my one main deck Tropical Island was definitely greedy, but, once again, the situation actually never came up.
Nomad Stadium was used as a way to lock up games that were on the verge of spiraling out of control. It was useful in the one game that I got to activate it, and I was happy I had it in this tournament.
Sideboard-wise, everything should look pretty standard outside of Nevinyrral’s Disk. I heard a lot of talk about people wanting to play Dragon Stompy since all of the good players (Gerry Thompson, Steve Sadin, Owen Turtenwald, myself) were going to be playing Land.com. With those rumblings, I wanted a way to deal with the soft locks that Dragon Stompy can put you in. Nevinyrral’s Disk can actually get you out of all those locks. A cute thing to keep in mind is that Magus of the Moon/Blood Moon making all of your lands into Mountains allows you to easily Gamble for Nevinyrral’s Disk. Once again, this situation never came up…
So what happened?
I went 1-2.
Round 1, I played against Merfolk. I consider Merfolk, like Threshold, to be another bad Legacy deck. In a format full of Force of Will, Wasteland, Brainstorm with fetchlands, Counterbalance plus Sensei’s Divining Top, Exploration, Armageddon, City of Traitors, Ancient Tomb, Tarmogoyf, Price of Progress, and Goblin Lackey, you’re telling me the best things you can do is cast these two idiots?
It’s not like I have anything against Wake Thrasher. It won me a state championship. But Cursecatcher is laughable garbage.
Anyway, this match went as expected. Merfolk doesn’t really put on a fast enough clock against 43 land, and it does not have enough counterspells to continuously counter Life from the Loam. Standstill helps to keep their hand full, but it’s not like they are drawing any good cards off Standstill.
Look out! Here come more Cursecatchers and other creatures that cannot beat a Maze of Ith!
Once you resolve a Life from the Loam, it is pretty difficult to lose. It normally takes three tries to resolve one, as the first two will probably be countered by a Force of Will and/or Spell Snare. However, once resolution is complete, it is almost impossible to lose. That is exactly what happened both games.
1-0
Round 2, I was up against Tim Hunt playing Counterbalance. I have seen Tim at numerous Legacy tournaments, and he is always hanging around the top tables. He always seems to be playing Counterbalance with a Black splash and, unfortunately for me, he knows how to play it well. So well, in fact, that I lost game 1 on turn 1.
How you ask?
Me: Cast Exploration?
Tim: Force of Will removing Counterbalance.
Me: Great…
For those of you who don’t understand, it’s pretty clear that Tim has another Counterbalance in his hand. When he plays Sensei’s Divining Top on turn 1, I know the writing is on the wall. I decide to play the game out to see how Tim will play the game and see exactly how good he is. Sadly, he did everything right. He cast his Tarmogoyf on the correct turn, instead of continuing to float it on the top of his library to counter my Life from the Loam; he always made sure Dark Confidant didn’t kill him; and he Stifled the correct activated abilities. I tried a few times to trick him with some man land attacks, as I was trying to get him down to two while sandbagging my Barbarian Ring, but it was not to be.
Game 2 was much of the same. He led off with a turn 0 Leyline of the Void which I was not expecting. I had a Krosan Grip in hand, but I’d much rather blow those on Counterbalance than Leyline of the Void. I eventually got locked up and could never break free.
I never drew disruption (Wasteland, Rishadan Port) against Tim, but I don’t think it would have mattered. He drew well and did not make mistakes. That will lead to a good track record down the line, and in Tim’s case, a Top 8 birth.
1-1
Round 3, I am up against a Bant type deck. I’m not sure if this is even a deck in Legacy, but he had your standard Blue cards (Brainstorm, Daze, Force of Will) and some pretty bad Green creatures (Rhox War Monk, Noble Hierarch). Game 1, I have to keep Riftstone Portal, Wasteland, Rishadan Port, Exploration, and two Life from the Loams. I kept because I was on the draw, had a hand with Life from the Loam (you never mulligan those), and have a lot of Green sources in my deck. Worst case scenario, I would have to Wasteland my own Riftstone Portal to get going.
Clearly, the worst case scenario happened.
I was struggling to get back in the game and, on the crucial turn, I needed to Gamble and have him not hit Glacial Chasm or Manabond in a five-card hand. He hit the Glacial Chasm and that was it.
Game 2 was more of the same. My draw was really awkward, and I never really got going. Worse yet, my opponent had drawn two Relics of Progentius. That card is pretty tough to beat, and I was unable to get through it.
1-2
And just like that, my tournament was over. I think a few things led to my poor performance in this tournament. For starters, I think I made my deck list too cute. I should have just stuck to my Boston deck list, except cutting the Worm’s Harvest for something and calling it a day. The Tropical Island/Academy Ruins interaction was far too cute and probably quite unnecessary. The other factor was that my draws were pretty awkward/bad all day. Even in my victory against Merfolk, I was struggling to get an overwhelming board position set up due to how bad my dredging was and how poorly my manabase was constructed.
I was a little upset with how that tournament went, but there was still a PTQ to play in. I had to sign up late due to my last round of Legacy taking longer than I would have liked. Signing up late garnered a loss but I was perfectly okay with that. The tournament was free after all (state champion, DING!), and I have run off seven victories in a row with Kithkin in the past. I was up for the challenge!
Round 2 versus Cascade/Planeswalkers
I lost in three short, uneventful games.
And there goes my PTQ.
At this point, I had to go clear my head. This weekend was not going as expected at all. None of the tournaments I played in were shark-infested, and yet I could not buy a match. I was having a good time hanging out with friends like The Rainmaker and Ben Seck, but I wanted to win some freaking matches!
It was an hour later that Tommy Kolowith saved my life.
TK: Just won another 8-man win a box tournament.
Me: What’s the format?
TK: Whatever Constructed format you want. They are pretty soft.
Me: Eh, mize. Nothing else to do.
I played in two of these Saturday evening, and split them both. They were, indeed, pretty soft tournaments, and I smashed through some players playing Kithkin. I was actually having some fun playing against the people in the 8-man queues, not because I was winning, but because these people just love Magic. They didn’t really care if they won or lost. They just came to game. I remember when I used to love Magic that much!
During one of these 8-mans, I played against a gentleman piloting an interesting Swans deck. His deck had the super combo of Swans + Intimidation Bolt. I won the match fairly easily, but it’s always fun playing against something innovative. I doubt the deck has a future in a world full of Five-Color, but it sure was pretty cool to watch.
Sunday, August 16
With nothing of note on the schedule, I was allowed the opportunity to sleep in. After my eternal slumber, I headed to the site with one thing on my mind; win another 8-man Win a Box tournament. These things were beginning to pay for my trip and restore my confidence in my spell-slinging ability. As my queue was about to fire, an announcement was made over the loud speaker:
“We need three players to fire a Standard iPod tournament!”
I immediately decide to switch tournaments, as an iPod is worth much more than a box of M10. The tournament began with nine players, and I somehow acquire the bye. The tournament itself had to be painful to run.
Nine players. Four rounds. Top two players win an iPod Nano. The TO certainly wasn’t going to make a lot off this one!
Round 2 began and I was paired down against someone from Ohio. He asked if I was from Strongsville, and I was taken aback. When people ask me where I am from, I always tell them Cleveland because it is much easier for people to relate to a bigger city than a suburb. When asked if I still lived in Strongsville, I immediately knew that my opponent was from a surrounding city. It was pretty cool.
The match itself was pretty anti-climatic. I was on the play game 1 and 3, and it’s pretty difficult for Kithkin to lose on the play against Faeries if they have anything resembling a good draw. He had a good draw game 2 and was on the play, so clearly he got that one.
Next to me this round was a lady who clearly loved to play Magic. She was against an experienced Faeries player who was extremely gracious when other players would be a jerk. She was very inexperienced, and her whole deck was made of M10 cards, but she came to game, and bless her heart for doing so.
However, I would not talk about this lady for no reason. You see, after her loss in round 2, someone stole her belongings. And it absolutely pissed me off. I already hate people who go to tournaments and steal other people’s belongings, but this lady was an easy target and there is just no reason for it. She was so destroyed when she found out all of her stuff was missing. The worst part about the whole situation was that she didn’t even care about getting her cards back. All she wanted back was the dicebag her friend made for her, as it held some sentimental value.
It was at this point that I felt pretty bad about playing in this tournament. I was playing in the tournament because I was flat broke and needed to make some money to break even on the weekend and start to get my rent paid. However, I was in a tournament for an IPod against people who, not to brag, just were not up to my caliber in playing Magic. I’m not trying to be arrogant. It’s just the truth. What am I doing sharking this tournament? I actually felt kind of bad beating people who didn’t really care if they won or not. They were more interested in watching me play and just having a good time. It felt really strange having eight people not care in the least how they did, and me actually needing to win this tournament pretty badly. The bag being stolen just put the situation into reality that much more.
Round 3, I got paired down (again) against an opponent who was pretty new to Magic, so I decided to turn off my normal play for keeps attitude and let him have a lot of take backs. It was the least I could do. Sometimes, you have to be aware of your surroundings.
In the last round, I was able to draw with my opponent and we each took home an IPod. It was nice to win, but it sure as hell didn’t feel right. Maybe if there were some other sharks in the tournament, I wouldn’t have felt so bad. In any event, I just got $90 closer to rent, but I would give it all back just to beat the crap out of the jackass who stole that lady’s stuff. Have a little dignity.
As for that Sanity Grinding primer I promised last week, you can just go ahead and scrap that. The deck is really bad, and can only defeat Five-Color Control. I found this out the hard way on Magic Online. Even Time Sieve, a matchup that I thought would be great due to the fact that we are both Howling Mine decks, was a horrible matchup. Good luck beating an Ethersworn Canonist. It is close to impossible.
The only way I would ever play Sanity Grinding in a tournament again was if I was guaranteed to play against Five-Color Control every round. And even then, I’d rather just play Kithkin, beat the Five-Color Control opponents, and then have them wonder what went wrong since it is such a good matchup for them. The look of confusion on their face is priceless every time!
Last week I spoke of this play:
“Naming Boil with Cursed Scroll against a Blue deck when Boil is not in your 75.”
Let me give you the back story on this.
Friday night, AJ Sacher, Nick Becvar, Steve Sadin, Ben Seck, “The Rainmaker” Pat Sullivan and I went out to dinner at PF Changs. As most know, when you have dinner at a Magic tournament, stories of all types are shared. Since the crowd was of such different age groups (Becvar and AJ are younger gamers, Sadin and I are grinders, Seck and The Rainmaker are washed up) the stories varied quite a bit. We heard about Ben winning the only tournament Grand Prix in Africa (GP: Cape Cod), and how he might be the only player to ever play a Magic tournament on every feasible continent (PT: Antarctica anyone!).
We began chatting about the next years Pro Tour locations and how outstanding they were. The Rainmaker snuck in how he wanted to qualify for Pro Tour: San Diego, since it is where he lives now, but that his game is not up to snuff. I decided to call him out and get an explanation:
Me: What do you mean, “your game is not up to snuff?”
TR: Back in my day, grumble grumble, I used to have to get through the hardest PTQs in all the land. Where facing Gerad and Osyp was just another day at the office. There was once a PTQ where I drove hung over, beat Gerad in the top 8, Osyp in the top 4, and then made my finals opponent accept $100 of the $500 prize pool just so that he would walk away with something. This was back when you won $500 for winning a PTQ. He graciously accepted or he would have walked away with nothing.
Me: I knew the east coast PTQs were pretty tough. Gabe Walls must have taught you a thing or two about “splitting” the $500 of PTQs. He used to do that back in the day.
TR: Yeah, that’s pretty classic GWalls. I was so on my game that day. I was playing the Red deck against some dude playing Mono-Blue Control. I activated Cursed Scroll with four cards in my hand and named Boil. It missed showing him, Incinerate and I simply cast Incinerate and moved on. The rest of the game, he was hesitant to do anything so that he could keep mana up to counter my Boil and lost due to it.
Me: Wait, I don’t get it.
TR: I didn’t have Boil in my deck at that tournament. Like I said. On my game.
It was after that story that I had gained a lot more respect for The Rainmaker. I was already a huge fan of The Rainmaker, and we spent a lot of time together this weekend and developed a better friendship, but that really made realize how good he was at Magic. The next day I also had a revelation:
I will never be that good at Magic.
It’s sad to think that way, but I never think of outside-the-box plays like that. I wish I did, but my mind doesn’t function that way, and I’m not sure it ever will. That play, to me, is just mind-blowing. It changes the way the opponent has to play the game and it costs you, the Red player, absolutely nothing. Those are the kind of plays that win tournaments. Not cascading better than your opponent. But when I think more and more about that play, and how good you had to be back in the day to succeed, I had another revelation:
I will never have to be that good at Magic.
Nowadays, the cards play themselves. There are so few game-punishing decisions in Magic now. And I think that sucks. You should get punished for messing up. Now, because the cards are so good, you can just get bailed out by the strength of your cards. I don’t like beating a dead horse (actually I do), but I think cascade is to blame for this.
But in reality, when was the last time you saw a play in a tournament with such high reward with such little cost? These plays were commonplace back in the day. Don’t believe me? Go read some Magic history. There is proof in the annals.
So, the question I present to you is this:
When will the players start playing this game again, and not just play the cards?