Originally I was planning on skipping Grand Prix: Philly and instead spending time working on the Extended format for Grand Prix: Charlotte in December. This all changed when I realized I’d be qualified for Pro Tour: Honolulu on rating. With this in mind, I made the decision to sit on my Constructed rating altogether, skipping FNMs, the Los Angeles LCQ and ultimately Grand Prix: Charlotte.
“No Constructed Magic until February?” I thought to myself. Just then I came to the realization that Grand Prix: Philadelphia was technically not a Constructed tournament, but it affected Eternal ratings. Immediately I started making phone calls, checking class syllibi and by the end of the week, my flight was booked.
Now then… What the hell is good in Legacy?
It didn’t take much forum stalking to figure out the top tier decks: Goblins, Landstill and Solidarity. Checking a few online apprentice leagues, I was able to run into over a handful of interesting decks – Gamekeeper/Salvagers, Old-School Full English Breakfast, and Life.
Life
By Derek of Magic-League
3 Chrome Mox
4 Aether Vial
4 Eladamri’s Call
4 Worthy Cause
1 Animal Boneyard
4 Living Wish
1 Eternal Witness
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Warrior en-Kor
3 Task Force
4 Daru Spiritualist
1 Genesis
4 Shaman en-Kor
4 Nomads en-Kor
3 Starlit Sanctum
1 Forest
4 Savannah
4 Windswept Heath
1 Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author]
3 Plains
4 City of Brass
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
The basic idea is here, but where is Diamond Valley? What is up with Mox and Vial? How does this thing beat Combo?
Recalling some of my older failed experiments, I thought of an old Life list I had around three years ago that used Meddling Mage to try to shut out Pernicious Deed. Though Deed wouldn’t be much of a problem in this format, Mage seemed like the perfect tool to help defend against combo – and it isn’t that shabby against other archetypes either.
Life – First Attempt
By Keith McLaughlin
4 Aether Vial
3 Nomads en-Kor
4 Shaman en-Kor
3 Daru Spiritualist
4 Task Force
4 Meddling Mage
1 Dosan the Falling Leaf
3 Gaea’s Blessing
4 Living Wish
4 Eladamri’s Call
4 Worthy Cause
4 Starlit Sanctum
1 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
4 Savannah
2 Plains
1 Forest
1 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
4 Rishadan Port
Sideboard:
1 Nomads en-Kor
1 Daru Spiritualist
1 Flooded Strand
1 True Believer
1 Diamond Valley
1 Genesis
1 Dosan the Falling Leaf
For those unfamiliar with the combo, take one card from each of the following groups:
A: {Nomads en-Kor, Shaman en-Kor}
B: {Daru Spiritualist, Task Force}
C: {Worthy Cause, Starlit Sanctum, Diamond Valley}
Now with [A] and [B] in play, using [A] target [B] an arbitrarily large number of times, then sacrifice [B] to [C]. Of course, Starlit Sanctum doesn’t work with Task Force, but otherwise any other combination from the three groups works. To make things even better, Aether Vial allows your [A] and [B] spells to be uncounterable while Diamond Valley and Starlit Sanctum from [C] are already uncounterable.
It took me about two goldfishes to realize how terrible that mana base was. Drawing two Rishadan Ports and a Starlit Sanctum every game is certainly not tech in a three color deck. After fixing the issue, a local friend, Jack Hutchings, and I got to work testing some of the more relevant matchups.
We started with what would obviously be the most important opponent, Goblins. At first we were trading games, going infinite on turn 4 on the play, followed by getting killed turn 4 on the draw. As we got better at knowing when to raw-dog combo pieces into possible Wastelands, Gempalm Incinerators and Mogg Fanatics, however, we began winning well over 80% of the games… Sounds like a keeper!
Next up: Solidarity. Now let me start this one off with a disclaimer: Our Solidarity list came from MTGtheSource.com, and boy did it suck. I don’t think it won a single game in ten. Gaea’s Blessing alone was rough enough, but Dosan, Meddling Mage on Cunning Wish and Living Wish for True Believer turned the matchup into a total beating. Counting this deck out so hastily wound up coming back to haunt us.
Our last important matchup, Landstill, turned out not being as bad as we originally suspected. The matchup turned out being very long and tedious, attempting test-spell after test-spell, and eventually going infinite – but lacking a solid win condition that could hold up against Swords to Plowshares, without cluttering up the deck with potentially dead spells (Test of Endurance) most games would go down to decking. Of course, with the help of Gaea’s Blessing, and opposing Fact or Fictions, we’d never be the ones decking – still, that put us in a position where we’d need to go infinite in both games one and game two to prevent a time-limit draw. In the games we played, we were able to combo-out nearly 55-60% of the time, and adding more basic lands would further aid the matchup as to avoid getting Wastelanded out. Though Landstill continued to be a worrisome matchup in our minds, it wasn’t enough to sway our opinion on the deck.
One thing that could possibly sway our opinion, however, was the publicity of the Flame Fusillade–Time Vault. The idea that a single archetype could flush over two weeks of testing (though very sporadic) down the drain was quite a letdown. At first we tried to keep the maindeck completely intact, while sideboarding a Glacial Chasm to Wish up after gaining infinite. This wouldn’t help us against Smokestack but it would give us an out against the pure combo versions – that is if we ever had enough time to pull off such a trick. Things became stagnant from there up until the Duel for Duals tournament hosted by Star City Games, where we found a grand total of zero Flame Vault decks being played. We still didn’t want to completely lose to the deck, but we certainly didn’t care as much as we initially had – settling for a trio of Pithing Needles in the main.
Arriving at the event site, I had been able convince one other player, our friend and host, Doug Azzano from the Philadelphia area to run our Life deck. Our next major hurdle would be actually getting enough cards to build three copies of this pile. We were able to get a single Diamond and eight Savannahs from Faddy Josh of Florida, but we were on our own finding two more Diamond Valleys and more. That is until Doug and Alex Lieberman asked why we weren’t playing the other three copies of Valley in the main. My answer: “Because I never thought about it.” Now we needed ten Diamond Valleys…
Diamond Valleys are Expensive.dec – Final Version
By Keith McLaughlin
4 Aether Vial
3 Nomads en-Kor
4 Shaman en-Kor
3 Daru Spiritualist
3 Task Force
4 Meddling Mage
3 Pithing Needle
2 Gaea’s Blessing
4 Living Wish
4 Eladamri’s Call
1 Worthy Cause
3 Diamond Valley
4 Starlit Sanctum
4 Savannah
3 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
4 Plains
1 Forest
1 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
Sideboard:
3 Xantid Swarm
1 Flooded Strand
1 Diamond Valley
1 Gaea’s Blessing
1 Genesis
1 Nomads en-Kor
1 Daru Spiritualist
1 Task Force
1 Eternal Witness
1 True Believer
1 Kataki, War’s Wage
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Kami of Ancient Law
Some other potential sideboard cards that we decided against were Gilded Drake, Darksteel Colossus, Serra Avatar, Glacial Chasm, Crimson Acolyte, Dosan the Falling Leaf, Trinket Mage, Academy Rector, Test of Endurance and About Face.
Rounds 1-3
Bye
I originally thought I only had two byes, as I had a tournament which had not yet been processed by the date the ratings were published. I filed an appeal but figured it wouldn’t get changed as I’ve had only bad experiences with appeals in the past. Much to my surprise and joy, when checking the seatings for the players meeting, there it was, right next to my name “3B,” that is, three byes. Needless to say, I owned that n00b.
Round 4
Zachary Wilson
Three-Deuce
Zach won the die roll and came out the gates with various duals, Mogg Fanatics, Grim Lavamancers, Watchwolves and other random dudes. Unfortunately the Fanatics, along with Lightning Bolt and Swords to Plowshares were enough to keep my combo off the board long enough for me to succumb to random dude army.
In game two Zach got ahead early, before dropping a bombshell, Sulfuric Vortex. A few Task Forces and a Pithing Needle on Grim Lavamancer were able to keep me alive long enough to find Eladamri’s Call for a boarded in Kami of Ancient Law, and a turn later, Diamond Valley put me above a googolplex life (10^(10^100), that is), and my pitiful nomad army picked up the win.
Zach led off game three with yet another Grim Lavamancer, then a Pithing Needle to stop the two Aether Vials I had drawn. He didn’t have an answer for my turn 3 Task Force, nor my turn 4 Nomads en-Kor and Living Wish for Diamond Valley.
4-0
Checking up with Jack and Doug prior to round four, I found that Jack had already dropped, finishing 1-2-1, his only win to Flame-Vault. Doug on the other hand had a solid 4-0 record.
Round 5
Noah Long
U/R/W Landstill
Noah was playing Landstill with Red for spells like Lightning Bolt, and possibly Fire/Ice, though I’m not positive on the latter. Noah won the roll, and dropped a Standstill after playing Force of Will on my turn 1 Aether Vial. Noah wound up getting way ahead of me in cards and damage, dropping me to five life, but eventually the fact that Landstill only runs eight counterspells showed and I was able to slip the combo through, drawing a concession.
In game two, Noah again had Force of Will for Aether Vial followed by Standstill (They always have it!). This time, however, I was unable to run him out of counterspells before dying to an army of manlands, and we were off to game three with under two minutes to play.
As one would suspect, game three was pretty uneventful. I was able to set up infinite life early, but it didn’t really matter, as time was called at around turn 4.
4-0-1
Round 6
Mark Schmit
Goblins
Mark kicked things off with a turn 1 Lackey, to which I respond with “Goblins in the draw bracket!” As one could imagine, I’m quite ecstatic to be in the matchup, and my deck certainly didn’t fail me, delivering turn 1 Pithing Needle, turn 2 Nomad and Daru Spiritualist, and turn 3 infinite life.
Game two was fairly anti-climatic with Mark throwing back his first two hands, keeping double Rishadan Port and an Aether Vial. I kept a hand with Pithing Needle, and Mark wasn’t able to pull a colored mana source until far too late.
5-0-1
Round 7
Chris McDaniel (Star Wars Kid)
Solidarity
On the play, I tried a turn 1 Aether Vial, which was met with Force of Will. My Living Wish resolved and fetched up True Believer, which I played on the next turn. Without a Meddling Mage to stop Cunning Wish, however, Chris was easily able to go off a few turns later at eight life, playing all four High Tides, three Resets, and a Twincasting a Cunning Wish, all culminating in several Brain Freezes (an initial Brain Freeze, then two more in response to each Gaea’s Blessing trigger), and a huge Stroke of Genius.
Game two I’m able to sneak a quick Pithing Needle into play naming Polluted Delta, pinning Chris with two dead cards. A Meddling Mage on Cunning Wish and other random beaters follow suit, and I’m able to take game two with very little difficulty.
In game three, I’m once again able to pin down a Polluted Delta, followed by a Meddling Mage, True Believer, some random Clerics and even Genesis. Down on lands, Chris is forced to generate some mana from a Reset to play Meditate and Flash on Insight, but I’m only able to put Chris to three life, before he comboed out.
5-1-1
At this point, both Doug and I need a single win to make Day 2. We find ourselves seated next to one another, both facing Goblin decks.
Round 8
John Glass
Goblins w/White
After throwing back my first two hands, things were looking really bad when John started with a turn 1 Lackey. I played a Plains and Aether Vial and passed. John played Wasteland, attacked with Lackey, putting out Matron (fetching Goblin Warchief), and passed turn. I played a Pithing Needle on Wasteland, and a Savannah then passed back. Warchief came out putting me to fourteen and Lackey put a Sharpshooter into play. A Living Wish found me a Nomads en-Kor, before I used Aether Vial to play Shaman en-Kor to set up infinite blocking – or so I thought. John dropped Umezawa’s Jitte into play, hooked up a random guy, and gave my Shaman -2/-2. Mogg Fanatic killed off my Nomad, and a turn later, John dropped my life total to zero.
On the play, John, once again, had turn 1 Lackey, but with a turn 1 Nomads-en Kor, turn 2 Meddling Mage, and turn 3 Nomads and Daru Spiritualist, John was unable to deal a single point of damage, before my life total became arbitrarily large.
In game three, John was only able to muster a turn 1 Mogg Fanatic, allowing me to breathe a huge sigh of relief. A Warchief followed suit, but a Pithing Needle on Gempalm Incinerator allowed a Daru Spiritualist to sneak into play, followed by Shaman en-Kor and a turn later, a Starlit Sanctum put me on two googolplex life. Not wanting to just give up the win, and visibly disappointed, John assembled a huge force of chump blockers and even Swords his own Piledriver for an addition seventeen life, but with the help of Genesis, my infinite toughness men eventually got through for the win.
6-1-1 25th Place
Doug, unable to win his match against Goblins due to several Pithing Needles, double mulligans and mana screw, fell to 6-2-1, finishing in 100th Place. This left me as the only player representing our deck in Day 2.
Day Two
Round 9
Marshall Arthurs
Goblins
Yet another Goblin player in the draw bracket, my third in four rounds – how lucky. Marshall started with a turn 1 Goblin Lackey (as usual), but only had a Goblin Matron to cheat into play (fetching Warchief) and an Aether Vial to follow up. Meanwhile, I was building up counters on an Aether Vial of my own and a Meddling Mage. When Marshall swung in with a Piledriver, Warchief, two Goblin Matrons and Goblin Lackey, my Vial spit out a chump blocking Shaman en-Kor, which redirected all of its damage to my also chump blocking Meddling Mage. I untapped, Vialed out a Task Force, Living Wished for Diamond Valley and gained three googolplex life. As in previous rounds, my opponent waited around for a short while, trying to figure out my win condition, but conceded in slight disgust when realizing all I had was Gaea’s Blessing.
In game two, Marshall kicked off with an Aether Vial, and had Mogg Fanatic to take out my first Nomads en-Kor. A Goblin Matron found Goblin Warchief, but I played my second Nomad and a Daru Spiritualist against a tapped out Marshall, and a Worthy Cause later, Marshall scooped up.
7-1-1 15th Place
Round 10
Andrew Watts
Rabid Wombat
Andrew won the roll, and started with a turn 1 Plains. I immediately thought “White Weenie” as there were several players running that archetype in Day 2. A cycled Rune of Protection: Red on my first end step wiped the stupid grin off my face. Swords to Plowshares knocked out my Meddling Mage on Humility, and a turn 4 Humility, followed by Decree of Justice sent me packing.
On the play, in game two, I knew I only had to gain infinite life before Humility hits, as Gaea’s Blessing would force Andrew to deck. “This shouldn’t be too hard,” I thought to myself. I then looked at my opening seven, which then became six, then five. A Pithing Needle on Eternal Dragon got Andrew to hiccup on land for a turn, but Swords to Plowshares stopped me for long enough for Andrew to plant a Humility.
7-2-1 28th Place
Round 11
Chris
Goblins w/ White
Chris started with a mulligan, before using Lackey to put Matron into play. On third turn, I’m able to Vial out a Daru Spiritualist and Living Wish for Nomads en-Kor to set up infinite blocking. On the ensuing turn I dropped a Starlit Sanctum into play and attempted to gain two googolplex life.
“You should probably gain a more manageable number, since you are required to keep track of your life,” said Chris.
Up until this point, I had always been keeping my life total in scientific notation, along with a running total of all subsequent damage and such (i.e. “10^10^100” on the first line and “-2” and “-5” on the following lines, and so on.) The fact that Chris actually cared what my exact life total was brought about a lot of suspicion, and I immediately called the judge to make sure Chris wasn’t going to try to stall me out. The only solutions to the amount of life I had would involve switching/resetting life totals, or infinite damage. In each case, my exact life total would be irrelevant. (And for the record, my “more manageable life total” was two followed by 27 zeroes (to which I satisfied Chris by keeping track of the last three digits of my life).
After about five turns of Chris adding up Piledriver and Goblin King damage (for a sum total of 196 damage), I reminded him that attempting to use the time limit to his advantage is against the rules and could get him disqualified. Chris merely shrugged, but with a judge watching the match from right over his shoulder the pressure was on, and he conceded after about two more useless attacks.
“Thanks judge. I think we will be okay for the time being,” I told the judge.
“No, I think I’ll stick around and watch,” replied the judge, visibly suspicious of Chris’s motives.
Game two was a bit more interesting, as Chris’s turn 1 Lackey brought out a Matron, followed by Warchief and a Ringleader flipping Matron, Warchief and Siege-Gang. An early Pithing Needle stopped any possible Gempalm Incinerator from ruining my day, but with Chris leaving a Plateau untapped every turn since turn 2, I knew I had to play around Swords. On turn 4 with three lands untapped, an Aether Vial on two and a Diamond Valley in hand, I played a Nomads en-Kor. I tapped Aether Vial, and Chris played Swords to Plowshares on my Nomad. Vial resolved, and I put a Shaman en-Kor into play, followed by a Daru Spiritualist and Diamond Valley allowed me to gain an arbitrarily large amount of life.
“Do I need to keep track of my life, judge?”
“For this game, you don’t need to keep track unless your opponent can demonstrate why it might matter.”
I set my life total to three googolplex plus three, and Chris conceded a few turns later.
“So why was I keeping track of my life in game one?”
“I had an answer,” Chris replied.
“What was it?”
Chris then showed me a Swords to Plowshares, to which both the judge and I rolled our eyes.
8-2-1 11th Place
Round 12
Erich Kunz
White Weenie
A turn 1 Mother of Runes and turn 2 Soltari Priest put a big smile on my face. I slapped down a Pithing Needle on Umezawa’s Jitte, and after Erich tapped out to play a Sword of Fire and Ice, I went infinite. Infinite life or not, Erich wanted to continue to play. He unmorphed a couple Exalted Angels and amassed a life total far exceeding what I could hope to deal in damage. Playing as fast as possible, and recurring Gaea’s Blessings, I was able to deck Erich with about twenty minutes left in the round.
Game two was much like the first, in that Erich had some meaningless creatures early, and with a Meddling Mage blocking Swords to Plowshares, I was able to go infinite before hitting a single digit life total. Still not conceding, Erich and I played until the time limit, and I wound up winning the match
1-0-1.
“Sorry man, I just needed to make sure I get the draw so I can get amateur prize,” Erich stated after the match.
“Uh, you didn’t get the draw. You lost 1-0-1,” explained Doug who was watching our match.
“What a waste of time,” I thought to myself. “I could’ve been paying infinite for crappy convention center food.”
9-2-1 12th Place
At this point, I was most likely a lock for Top 32. A win would put me in the Top 16, and two wins be a lock for Top 8 – making Legacy Goblin players worldwide tremble in fear.
Round 13
Paul E. Jordan
Psychatog
As all good control players should (and do), Paul had a Force of Will for my turn 1 Aether Vial on the draw. I’m able to land an army of two Daru Spiritualists and a Task Force, but my first two attempts at a targeting creature are both Mana Leaked, and a Force of Will and Counterspell stop me from resolving a Living Wish. By this time, I’ve gotten Paul to eleven life and he was down to a single card in hand. Hoping I could peel an Eladamri’s Call, Living Wish, Nomad or Shaman, I continued to beat in, but was only drawing lands. Down to five life, Paul finally played a Psychatog, and a Gifts Ungiven fetched out Wonder giving him game one.
Game two looked very promising for me, with an opening hand of Aether Vial, Living Wish, Daru Spiritualist, Xantid Swarm and Nomads en-Kor but only a single land. I fetched out a Forest, and my Vial resolved. I used Vial to put out Xantid Swarm, but without a second land, I simply passed turn. Just then, Paul grabbed the Grand Prix trophy from display and beat me to a bloody pulp. Well, either that, or tapped two mana and played Powder Keg – same effect, essentially.
I continued stuck on a single land, before drawing a single Savannah around turn six, which was met with Wasteland. My next land was a Diamond Valley, which doesn’t tap for mana, and soon Psychatog ended my hopes of a Top 8 berth.
9-3-1 22nd Place
Round 14
Sean Colgan
U/R/B Aggro
Sean was running an interesting mix of creatures including Grim Lavamancer, Dark Confidant, Cloud of Faeries, along with Daze, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lava Spike, Standstill and Mishra’s Factories. He had just dropped his last two matches, and was noticeably upset.
Sean won the roll, and started off with a Lavamancer, which was met with a Pithing Needle. Next a Cloud of Faeries hit play followed by a Standstill. I broke the Standstill with Living Wish, but Sean had a Daze. Jitte came online for Sean, and a turn later, a flurry of burn sent us to game two.
“You’re playing Aluren aren’t you!” Exclaimed a clueless Sean.
I simply shrugged.
As we shuffled for game two, I saw a couple Arcane Laboratories in Sean’s deck and couldn’t help but smirk. After all, I had been playing matches directly next to Sean for about five rounds of this tournament, how could he possibly have not remembered what I was running?
Game two didn’t start off much better than game one, with a Lavamancer, Dark Confidant and Umezawa’s Jitte hitting play early. I played a turn 3 Task Force into Daze, but to much relief, it resolved. Sean had no way to getting the Force off the table, and a turn later I went infinite and Sean conceded.
In game three, Sean, once again had Grim Lavamancer. I came back with a Pithing Needle on Grim Lavamancer and Sean followed up with Dark Confidant. I played Meddling Mage on Umezawa’s Jitte, and passed. Dark Confidant flipped a Lightning Bolt, and Sean killed the Mage before beating me down to sixteen and adding a Mishra’s Factory. On my third turn, holding two Task Forces, I was very annoyed to find myself stuck on two lands. I played Living Wish for Flooded Strand, played it and passed turn. Sean’s men came across for six, dropping me to ten. On my turn I raw-dogged a Task Force into a potential Daze, and crossed my fingers.
“Okay,” Sean responded.
“Phew…”
Task Force stood in the way of Bob Maher, and on my next turn, a Nomads en-Kor and Worthy Cause gave Sean his third straight loss.
10-3-1 15th Place
Top 16 is certainly a satisfactory finish, and the fact that I did it with such a bizarre deck choice is added gravy. Of course, after playing such a long tournament, I inevitably found problems with my list – some expected, some unexpected. It is just a shame that there are no more North American Legacy Grand Prix tournaments in which to try a revised list.
For those attending the GP in France, or those who just like to play the format, here are my discrepancies:
First, although you really don’t need a win condition in the maindeck, because no one is going to force you to deck them game one (since you’ll wind up with the win with under ten minutes left in the round). Unfortunately, this is not the case in games two and three – something that bit me in the ass in round five. The problem I had before is that there are no worthwhile Living Wish targets that will consistently seal the deal, and anything else would eat up far too many sideboard slots to be reliably easy to find. Well, almost anything. After the tournament, Doug and I realized it would’ve been optimal to have a single Academy Rector as a Living Wish target, and one copy of Test of Endurance in the sideboard – for post-boarded games.
Second, in testing, our Solidarity matchup was very good, but that was mostly because the list we were playing against was bad. I still think the matchup is very much winnable, especially if you aren’t playing someone who knows their deck inside and out. In most cases though, there is no need for the second Gaea’s Blessing. Good players will be able to go-off and play around multiple copies just as easily as playing around one. Bad players, on the other hand, will just throw three stacked Brain Freezes at you, and lose regardless. Additionally, only a single copy of Gaea’s Blessing is needed to keep your library replenished. After playing the first copy, Living Wish for Genesis and Eternal Witness (Genesis is almost always the first thing I get after going infinite anyhow) and recur Witness with Diamond Valley or Worthy Cause.
Finally, Meddling Mage is solid disruption against nearly every archetype, but there have been moments where I’ve felt Cabal Therapy would be better. To further make the case for Cabal Therapy, it is a solid way to make sure Humility doesn’t hit play on turn four. This is especially important since Pasquale Ruggiero’s Top 8 list played three copies of the card. On the other hand, Meddling Mage is better in game one of the Solidarity match, where a Mage on Cunning Wish is usually “GG,” and Mage is easier to cast due to Aether Vial. Pasquale made Top 8, however, and Solidarity didn’t, so for the time being, I’m going with Cabal Therapy.
Here is the deck as I’d play it in Grand Prix: Lille in December.
Diamonds are a Nomad’s Best Friend.dec
Creatures (14)
Lands (25)
Spells (21)
Good luck to all those playing in the Grand Prix, and have fun picking up a play set of Diamond Valleys!
Until next time,
Keith McLaughlin
[email protected]
P.S. Congrats to fellow Omeganet player, Ben Goodman, for his Top 8 finish with ThreshGo.