How Chris Romeo Broke Legacy!

Q. What do the Rev. Billy Graham and the Steelers have in common?
A. Both can make 65,000 people stand up and scream “Jesus Christ!”

Crossroads holds a weekly Standard “casual” tourney, and since my knowledge of that format is limited to what Chris Romeo tells me, and I don’t own any ties that are stylish enough for a “formal” event, I figured Berto and I should experience firsthand this mysterious artist formerly known as “Type 2.”

All we needed were decks. I purchased each of the Ravnica precons a while back, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that they were not only fun to play, but actually threatened to become semi-competitive with a few alterations. Wizards was nice enough to suggest alterations (net deck!) in the enclosed “how to play this deck” pamphlet, which is only once-removed from “think about how you would build this deck.”

Meanwhile, Romeo wrote about his Mono-Green Beatdown/comes-into-play-behemoth, which intrigued me to no end. On a slightly relevant note, I was tooling around the DCI database, bumping uglies with the best and rest — okay, I was Randomly Stalking JackieTM – when I came across a player named “Chis Romeo” from Boston.

Whether or not this is the same “Chis” that writes about decks for the poverty-stricken is of no actual, nor factual, importance. However, this “Chis” person sports a rating of 1600 in both Constructed and Limited and has played four sanctioned matches in each format. How you can play four matches and come out with a 1600 (twice) is beyond me. I strongly suggest Wizards investigates this matter, with emphasis on searching for fraudulent tournament reports. Anyway…

I proxied up Romeo’s deck.

Wait…

I proxied up Romeo’s deck.

Er…

I proxied up Romeo’s deck.

Chris writes about decks so frugal that Wizards should insert a random Romeo Deck Of The Week instead of the much more expensive Pro Player cards in each tournament pack. Considering that the average cost of a typical Romeo deck is, oh, about nine cents, they should include two to dramatically lower their overhead.

You can find Chris Romeo decks in Cracker Jack boxes, twenty-five cent bubble gum machines in Wal-Mart foyers, and most banks give you one when you open a savings account with a five-dollar initial deposit… and yet:

I proxied up Romeo’s deck.

Seriously.

You may live to be infinite, and I guarantee you will never again read the following:

“I proxied up Chris’s deck.”

People in prison don’t have to proxy Romeo decks.
The homeless don’t have to proxy Romeo decks.
The guys on the space station don’t have to proxy Romeo decks.

It was fun to play, despite my complete inability to beat anything with it, including my own so very bad decks, because I’m so very bad at Magic. As a point of reference, this is Berto’s latest pet deck that he used to trounce me into oblivion:

Rizzo’d Up Selesnya Precon:
4 Selesnya Evangel
4 Watchwolf
4 Transluminant
4 Veteran Armorer
3 Selesnya Guildmage
4 Fists of Ironwood
4 Devouring Light
3 Glare of Subdual
1 Sandsower
1 Loxodon Hierarch
4 Scatter the Seeds
2 Chord of Calling
5 Plains
5 Forest
4 Brushland
3 Temple Garden
3 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
2 Selesnya Sanctuary

Factoid:
The Unhinged card “Richard Garfield, Ph.D.” was named after Mark Rosewater!
(Source: “Marcus” Renton, WA)

While the card selection may be far from optimal, it’s still somewhat competitive…against my other crappy decks.

Back to Chis: fat guys with comes-into-play abilities seem to be no match for small guys who multiply like Bebe Kids. On the other hand, I did learn to fall head-over-heels in love with Gleancrawler, enough so that, after numerous tweaks, all of which sucked, and may or may not have involved an unsuccessful attempt to break Flickerform (Friggerform!), I came up with:

Untitled Deck
1 Bile Urchin
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Farseek
1 Life from the Loam
1 Golgari Thug
4 Phyrexian Arena
3 Putrefy
2 Bottle Gnomes
1 Shambling Shell
4 Grave Pact
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Savra, Queen of the Golgari
3 Dimir House Guard
1 Golgari Rotwurm
1 Grave-Shell Scarab
1 Kagemaro, First to Suffer
1 Gleancrawler
6 Swamp
6 Forest
4 Llanowar Wastes
3 Watery Grave
3 Overgrown Tomb
1 Island
1 Miren, the Moaning Well

It looks bad, but it’s much worse than that. In my defense, I did want to use the cards I traded for at the Pro Tour Qualifier, which I still have yet to discuss in a tedious and particularly un-enthralling article entitled “The Trades I Made At The PTQ, Volume I.” Ah, that’ll put the “yum!” back in “Premium!”

Once board control is established — around turn fifty — saccing Gnomes for life, Elder for a land, Scarab for a card, and Kagemaro because I can, with Grave Pact in play, is a stack-happy event that will draw a crowd and at least two judges. But it’s bad.

Taking into account that the casual tourney most likely will not permit proxies – especially for cards suggested by Chris Romeo omg lol shame on you Rizzo, I jumped ship and decided to go with this:

(Note: I am one of Chris Romeo biggest fans, so pls stop being mad at me for teasing him, thx. This is what men do: hurt the ones they love when they can’t love the ones they’re with.)

Rizzo’d Up Boros Precon:
4 Savannah Lions
2 Goblin Cohort
4 Shock
4 Boros Guildmage
4 Veteran Armorer
4 Lightning Helix
4 Boros Swiftblade
4 Skyknight Legionnaire
3 Char
3 Viashino Sandstalker
1 Sunforger
8 Mountain
8 Plains
4 Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion

What can I say: it’s Boros, but not Limited Boros, which either wins by turn six or has its ass manhandled, backhanded and handed back. This is Constructed, baby, where turn 1 “Shock you for two” isn’t merely a play based on theory, it can actually happen!

Some things that may not be readily apparent or tend to give you pause:

Goblin Cohort was merely filler for my yet-to-acquire Hearth Kami. While I still intend to pay two bucks for all the Kami I can eat, the lil’ fella turned out to be, well, a 2/2 for one. The situations where I was forced to cast a main phase creature that had no relevance to the attack were few and far between. With seven haste creatures, and Guildmage to arm them all for bear if need be, the drawback was negligible.

Veteran Armoror is a 2/2 for two with an ability that isn’t necessarily useless in a format that 1) houses Darkblast, 2) hordes of 1/1 tokens, and 3) offers potential mirror-ish matches from here ‘til tuesday. Even if I’m 3x wrong, he’s still 4x 2/2 for 2 w/+0/+1.

Psst, Johnny… Pyroclasm.
Yeah, but he gives all my 2/2s… Oh.
Cheap sunglasses + blinding flash of the obvious = frigginrizzo’s life

The singleton ‘forger makes the cut because a Swiftblade swing for ten into an empty board on turn four is about ridiculous. Likewise, a gummed-up battlefield stalemate can turn that frown upside down with “end of your turn, find burn, point it at you.” In a deck like this, it’s no Freakin’ Book – it’s Reader’s Digest: lots of words, but condensed, easy to understand, and fine company in a hammock on a lazy summer afternoon.

You can’t question the Sandstalker, can you? He hits too hard, fast and unexpected, at least the first time, which often enough ends up being the last time for your opponent.

Still, it’s Boros, and faces the same problems as it does in the forty-card versions.
Then again, it does have Red mana.

Needless to say, “serve, dome, shuffle, punk” is what normally occurs when Boros meets Selesnya, especially when my Selesnya opponent only owns one Loxodon Hierarch and I am so fabulous at Magic. Don’t mention that everyone else includes 4x Hierarch, thank you.

After I finish beating Berto to a pulp and he runs to his room crying his eyes out and promising to blame me in the therapy he will require for the rest of his life, Abs and I often enjoy a game of “What the hell is the name of this here Magic card.”

Since she’s six, she oftentimes has creative interpretations of said card names, particularly when I flash the card and give her less than one second to figure it out. All things being equal, I’m thirty-six and still don’t know how to pronounce “Jitte,” so I’d say the girl done herself a might proud. An example:

I flashed a 1/2 for 1ub with two neato abilities, and she responded with:

Pissyhog

Ordinarily, she would be reprimanded for potty mouth…but that wasn’t “ordinarily.”

Issues
Elementary
Salad Wurm
Fraggle

If you can guess what set the above cards are from, then you understand my daughter better than I, though in fairness, I am a bad father. You probably won’t get it, but I’ll give you Morse Code time to think followed by a dead-nuts give-away-the-store:

..-.-.-..–

—.-.-.—

-…-.-.-

Factoid:
Australian Aborigines use Pro Player cards as currency!
(Source: G.Szleifer and blisterguy (beep))

dot

dash

didit

…

Dead giveaway: Jupiter Older Dude

Ravnica is also a wonderful tool for teaching children how to read words created and/or modified by nerds for nerds. Speaking of, step back and test your badself:

Woodworth Computer
Bellflower Spinach
Sands of Underneath
Bruce Sufbridge
Ethan Ushden
Special Snacklight
Tournament
Gulgirly Rootwurm
Sesame Seed-ey Angel

With the Bruce, Gulgirly and Sesame Seed guilds firmly entrenched in the Type 2 environment, I can’t wait to see what Guildpact hath wrought.

Me: Hey, when’s the next Constructed event?
Cory Abrams: Uh…

Me: Hey, when’s the next Constructed event?
Mike Emmert: Er…

Me: Hey, Constructed, ever freakin’ hear of it?
Chet Norton: Um… a liberal.

Factoid:
Islands actually tap for Red mana!
(Source: D. Paskins)

I just realized that both Isamaru and Leonin Skyhunter exist in the Standard environment. ‘Member what I said about Goblin Cohort…Well, never mind.

The Day Of Reckoning

Berto and I get to Crossroads, his Selsenya and my Boros needing… erm… a little improvement. Thus, I traded hard. For “hard” please read: whatever you think I might have done to acquire the following cards thirty minutes before the start of the tourney:

3 Hierarchs
2 Sacred Foundry
Temple Garden
Glare of Subdual
Selesnya Guildmage
4 Leonin Skyhunter
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda

Picture me, bad trader boy, scrounging up the aforementioned and ramming them into our decks like OMC never heard of Rammstein. Got the picture? Good.

Now, picture an alternate world, a macabre, chilling world in which “macabre” and “chilling” sorta don’t really mean the same thing; a world in which Brenden informs me, fourteen minutes before pairings go up, that the tournament format is… Legacy.

lol

Legacy.
Not Standard.
Legacy, in which two Rizzo’d up Ravnica precons are most assuredly not competitive.

However.

I, being good at Magic and fantastic at life, had the intestinal fortitude and vehicular foresight to bring along Ichorid and Berto’s Goblin deck, thinking that perhaps someone would want to play a little Extended here or there.

Now I know how smart I was to take out all the real dual lands and Ashen Ghouls from my Ichorid Legacy deck so that it would be Extended legal.

This is the deck I played:

Things that may not be readily apparent or that tend to give you pause:

Fourteen lands!
Alan Comer is in the Hall Of Fame.
Ask him about 14 lands, which in his mind is most likely 4 too many.

Golgari Thug and Life From the Loam? Loam because the deck can’t just randomly lose to a turn 1 Wasteland, and Thug serves two purposes: eight dredge cards is not nearly enough, and twelve other Black creatures for Ichy to eat is insufficient. This is also why Akuta made the cut; he, the Thugs, and the Loam took the place of a land and the four Ashen Ghouls, who were either Ichies five-thru-eight, or Black bodies on which to dine heartily.

By the way, I had no sideboard. Lol at me for trying to win at life.

This is what Berto played:

4 Goblin Lackey
3? Gigantic Frog
1 Boros Recruit WTF?
4 Goblin Patrol
4 Cursed Scroll
3 Goblin Piker
3 Goblin Bully
3 Goblin King
2 Goblin Marshal
1 Goblin Matron
1 Siege-Gang Commander signed by Nick Camire!
1 Goblin Ringleader
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Shock
3 Incinerate
2 Goblin Grenade
2 Fireblast
12 Mountain
3 Wasteland
2 Barbarian Ring

Wow, does that deck look bad and random and randomly bad. I know Berto or I sometimes throw stuff in or take stuff out without really thinking too much about it (or telling each other), but as I sorted his deck and typed that list I couldn’t help but think WTF that deck is bad! If I knew it was that bad, I never would have let my own flesh and blood play it in a sanctioned tournament – his first tournament no less. At least he doesn’t have a sideboard either.

Before the tourney, Brenden promised someone a huge payday if they played his Cephalid deck. Tyler elected to grab the goodies and played a deck with cards so obscure that rather than pick them up and read them (more than once), I merely asked “can it remove stuff from the yard,” or “can it remove stuff from the yard?” The answer to both questions was “well, nope, and I guess I’ll take that billion damage from your flying Ichorids, may I have another?”

1-0 one mulligan

Props: Sotto and Flores for discovering that flying creatures > ground-pounders.

After my match, I wandered over to Berto’s table. At the start of the third game, III goes first and plays Lackey, with plenty of free-spell goblins in hand. His opponent drops land and passes. Berto swings, drops Piker and casts Fanatic. The bad guy draws, drops Selesnya Sanctuary into play, picks one up and says “done.”

I remind him that he has eight cards in hand and would you kindly chuck one, pls/thx.

The board:

Two Mountains, Fanatic, Lackey, Piker

vs.

Selesnya Sanctuary

Berto draws… Wasteland.

Omg this is vicious hide your children rated xxx for profane violence. In fact, I’ll censor it so Craig doesn’t have to– “Craig?” That doesn’t even sound right. Lemme try again, this time in fluent British:

Jolly good mate loo boot ring up bumbershoot chap fish-n-chips double-decker buses rain Hugh Grant Queen Mum colour flavour velour sour Sherlock Freakin’ Holmes. [Bumbershoot? — Craig.]

Rizzos II and III sittin’ pretty, undefeated with decks not quite ready for primetime.

Mark brought his Affinity to the table for round 2 and proceeded to “cast” double Frogmite and Myr Enforcer by turn 2 after playing first. He quickly added Disciple of the Vault, which I thought was banned from every format in life.

In game 2, I dropped a turn 2 ‘Tog and went much-more-than-lethal on turn 3, maybe turn 4, with the aid of two Deep Analysis. Flores may be right when he suggests this deck might be okay.

The third game was insanity on both ends, with permanents being thrown down like they were damn near free, when come to think of it, they were exactly free. Both our hands are empty by turn 4: I have Infestation, a boatload of tokens and ‘Tog; he has Ornithopter, double Enforcer, a Worker or two and draws… Cranial Plating.

This is ordinarily bad for me, but not so bad when he suits up ‘Thopter and serves. I’m at thirteen, so I imagine he thought he could put on the pressure, or maybe he didn’t see the Wonder in my yard. Kibler and his thumbs take one for the team and trades with the 103/2.

Two Ichies come back, I dredge myself silly, flashback a little and dredge some more, realizing that, well, since he can’t block my stuff, why not just kill him?

2-0 two mulligans

Berto lost to Matt Hill with ‘Tings, who thought Constant Mists was a nice addition to the four Moment’s Peace in the main. He prevented so much damage that he gets to start his next match with sixty-seven life. Glad I get to play him.

I crush dreams in game one after shredding the piss out of his hand: two Mists, Balancing Act and a Brushopper or two go yard, which in his deck, is like, not where he wants all his cards to end up. Cards in hand = soooooo 2004.

I only did fourteen damage to myself; I am completely stoked that I took out the Underground Seas, Bayous, and Tropical Islands. Sac a fetch land to get Grave to flashback Analysis equals ow.

Matt drops turn 2 and 3 Phyrexian Furnace in game 2.

Matt drops turn 2, 4 and 5 Phyrexian Furnace in game 3.

I imagine there is a player who can play around multiple Furnaces and four Constant Mists and four Moment’s Peace and Obliterate and Balancing Act and come out with a victory. That player is not me.

But I’m still kewl: in the third game, I have Infestation with two tokens, four cards in hand (dated technology) and eleven lands in my yard. Across the table sits Terravore and an opponent with flashback Peace mana available. I’m at eleven with four cards in my library. At times like these, one must ask the question: WWJD – What Would the Japanese Do?

Sepuku.

Like I was straight outta Kamigawa, I flashback Analysis, go to eight and fall on my sword like Richard Chamberlain absolutely didn’t do in “Shogun,” but might have in “The Thorn Birds.” Terravore smashed face, and I went down like O-Ren, sans the bad hair day and anime childhood flashback.

2-1 three mulligans

Berto beat a chyk! He gets to be 1-0 lifetime versus chyx, while I sport a 2-4-1 lifetime record versus the fairer sex.

Round 4: John Rizzo, Jr. vs. John Rizzo III vs. what are the odds?

We both mulligan in the first game, but I get to be Johnny Land Baron, while Berto gets to keep tapping his Barbarian Ring to play stuff, which is what he gets when I make him play the crappy deck.

On the lighter side, I did get to do nine damage to myself, which is considerably less than the amount I did to him. “Do unto others,” they say, just do unto them much more.

The second game consists of an actual game. When I say “actual” I mean that I cast creatures; three Stinkweed Imps and ‘Tog to be exact. Berto got the turn one Lackey, but only brought in dorks. He also couldn’t draw burn to save his life, which ended up at zero after I found some Ichies, Akuta and Wonder to nasty up the playing area.

Father: 3-1 only four mulligans with an Extended deck that had fourteen lands.
Son: 2-2 with a really bad Legacy deck.

Holy Pikula:

1 Rizzo, John 9 58.3333 70.0000 54.4444
2 Hill, Matt 9 58.3333 70.0000 54.4444

Matt lost to the Affinity guy I beat, and I got to win because DCI Reporter likes me best. Three packs Free draft for the good guy!

frigginrizzo: ←the good guy.

Berto finished seventh, and I’d say he did pretty damned skippy for being nine and playing in his first tourney with a crappy deck that we hadn’t even looked at in weeks.

While Ted may get to proclaim Friggorid as the best deck in Extended, I get to stand atop a mountain and do him one better:

Friggorid won a sanctioned Legacy tourney!
With twelve players!
One of whom was nine!
I saw Phytohydra in play!
Thus, we must conclude…

Friggorid is the best deck in Legacy!

Dear “Chis,”

Take a bow.

Love,
Proxy Boy

While I rule at Drafts, Berto has never had the pleasure. It’s not like Ravnica is hard to draft or anything. So of course, we drafted.

My first pick was Hour of Reckoning.
My second pick was Firemane Angel.
My third though 45th picks were everything under the sun.

I soon thought I could get Selesnya with a lil’ Red splash, but when it dried up or never materialized, I went for Boros. When it too dried up or never materialized, I went for Dimir. When it never freakin’ appeared, other than a tenth pick (!) Vedalken Entrancer, I went back to Selesnya.

I do remember opening a Glare of Subdual in the third pack. Hey, I’m back to Selesnya; no matter that it dried up before it never even bothered to materialize.

Highlights of the worst deck ever drafted:

Hex
Firemane Angel
Selesnya Evangel
Hour of Reckoning
Glare of Subdual
Sewerdreg
Moroii
Vindictive Mob
Vedalken Entrancer
A laughable manabase

Some of the above cards are good, but not in the same deck, even if you do have two Signets, two bouncies and three Civic Wayfinder. Rich Hoaen is full of sh**, man! And has too many vowels in a row, man!

I had Hour of Reckoning in hand, when I noticed it takes three White to cast. Lol at my two Plains, a Signet, karoo (tarroo tarroo!) and Terrarion as the only ways in my deck to cast it.

I also became aware that the only way I could make Red for Firemane was even worse. Apparently, I didn’t even include even one stinkin’ Mountain. I told my opponents that I am very bad at Magic. None of them argued one bit.

Berto’s Draft was slightly less impressive than mine, although I will go out on a limb and offer in his defense that triple-Ravnica isn’t the most newb-friendly format ever.

Before we drafted, I offered a few tips, which is akin to Terrell Owens lecturing on how to win friends and influence people. His deck ended up rather, well… It looked like someone opened three packs, took out all the good cards and said “think how frigginrizzo would build this deck.”

It wasn’t that bad — he did have Helldozer, Glass Golem, and Glimpse the Unthinkable to go with the coin flip wall guy, Flight of Fancy, Fangtail, the 3/2 wall guy, the 1/1 Islandwalker, Carrion Howler, and some other stuff that usually goes into the cheerleader pile, but not this time. I gave him a hand in building the pile, but he needed Bill Cosby to resurrect Hands Across America. After looking over the result, I glanced around and tried to place blame.

“That’s not Terrell’s fault.”
-Drew Rosenhaus

Yeah, it probably is.

I know my Draft got dorked big time by the guy on my right that came in first and who, for the entire first pack, kept saying how many colors he was in, and the guy on my left, Mikey Mac, who came in second and didn’t say much other than how good his deck was.

I took it from both ends, but Berto was lucky and only got rammed on one side.

Round 1 saw Mikey Mac drop turn 2 or 3 Vinelasher in both games. This match also saw his Faith’s Fetters on my Moroii. Ow lol comma ow once more. Not to be deterred, I finagled Imp/Strands, my own invention by the way, which is highly sexy against, like, anything other than Sandsower and many creatures.

I wish I could say the match was merely a slaughter, but the fact that I managed to get him all the way up to twenty-four in game 2 speaks volumes for the senseless depravity that is my Draft skills.

I wandered over to Berto’s table, where he had split the first two games, and was just starting game three. His opponent dropped Roofstalker; Berto made Moloch and Gharial, which makes for exciting combat phases to be sure.

When egg cast the coin flip wall guy with two cards in hand, it met Perplex. I’m looking at his Fangtail and Dimir Infiltrator in hand and thinking “please say ‘sure,’ cast those guys and win.” He dumped his hand, and the wall guy came in as a 5/2 with haste. But he cast him in his post combat main phase.

These are both plays that I would make, hence: old block and chip need only apply.

Later it the game, with his opponent still serving with only Roofie, though he made Tidewater Minion and Halycon Glaze, the spitting image drew Flight of Fancy. His choices to enchant are Gharial, Moloch and the 2/5 wall, who was Peeled and recast with a bad coin flip (as opposed to a good “coin flip”).

Speaking of: while we’re drafting, Brenden and most of the table are discussing the “leaked” Guildpact cards, when someone mentions the coin flip Time Walk card. Berto immediately says “Stitch in Time,” which makes everyone in the place stop cold and look at him. If you get your kid a subscription to Beckett Magic for Christmas, you can also have E.F. Hutton moments like these.

Despite enchanting Gharial, and his other misplays, the other Other Jonny Magic almost won. But almost only counts in things where almost actually matters to anyone, such as:

Chyk: Did you make it out in time?
Dood: Almost.

I got to play Andrea (a chyk!) in round 2; naturally, I prepared to lose and run my record to 2-5-1 lifetime vs. the penis-impaired.

I won game one because I am awesome at Magic and can draft like it’s 1963 and there’s a little “skirmish” somewhere in Asia that may or may not need “peace keepers.”

Andrea drafted six drakes — hat tricks for both Tattered and Snapping – counters, and creature kill. I had cards that cost 4WWW, 4BB, 3WWR, GW, 3BB, 3U, and even 5 (Golems 4 life!), some of which I could cast if I had four Black Lotus in my deck.

I did a total of zero damage to her in games 2 and 3, although I did manage to get the Entrancer/Snitches combo (for one whole turn) and mill her Clutch away. Go me!

Factoid:
The card “Obliterate” gives Blue mages fits!
(Source: Mike Emmert, Sabattus, ME)

When you’re bad at Magic and don’t want to 0-3 a Draft, you have to hope. You have to hope to play a deck that is worse than yours. You have to hope to play against your kid.

In game one, Berto gets Flight of Fancy on Helldozer. Luckily for me, the next turn I dropped Strands on my Snitches. He ate some of my lands, but not my Sewerdreg.

Good thing he put Clinging Darkness on my Stinkweed Imp, which, when you think of it, might be a decent play — he won’t be doing any combat damage, and if you want him to do just that, let him die and take a little off the top, five to be exact. Or maybe zero combat damage is still “combat damage,” just zero of it. See that judge, go ask him.

I got Glimpsed in game 2, lost a whole bunch of stuff that even Bill Dance couldn’t cast, and proceeded to make billions of Green men. The next The Mauler got out Leashling. He blocked my Stranded Golem (so sexy) and put a card on top of his library, which is what it says to do if you’re not a real big fan of the draw phase. I advised him to not do that again, unless there is a life lesson to be learned from déjà vu all over again just to do Andie McDowell before you leave Punxsutawney.

Nevertheless, my tremendous play skill and Draft wisdom were enough to both overcome a rookie drafter, and destroy my child’s self-esteem.

1-2 in the worst Draft I ever had in my lifetime but wait…
3-1 in Legacy
4-3 on the day

Wee, I am a winner! Again!

Running total for those keeping score at home:

17-11-2

Berto managed to acquire about a hundred bucks worth of cards by trading from his binder, which must have involved some Trump-like negotiations without the multiple bankruptcies and trophy wives, since it contained about twelve cents worth of actual good cards.

The good news is that he snagged a Gleancrawler – combined with my copy this gives us two, which means I am one card closer to actually building a Complete Chris Romeo Deck without proxies.

I do plan to make Berto’s deck a little more competitive and put the Ashen Ghouls back beside Ichorid.

In addition, the Boros and Selesnya decks listed above are oh-so-much better now that a hundred bucks were thrown into each, even if Goblin Cohort is simply a creature waiting to be broken by someone with a deep and true artistic vision. I am not that someone.

But I bet Chis is.

John Friggin’ Rizzo