I guess you could say that the second leg of my trip didn’t go exactly as planned.
After spending a week in Wichita preparing for #SCGDFW, I headed down south with dreams of casting Primeval Titan on turn 2. I felt like the format was
getting closer to what it looked like at the Season Two Invitational where I was able to take Amulet Bloom to a second place finish and then to an 11-4
record the following weekend at Grand Prix Charlotte.
I played all week with the numbers in the deck. I started with Jarvis’ maindeck from States, and while I was impressed with Sleight of Hand, I found some
things that I didn’t really like about the deck.
Creatures (6)
Lands (28)
Spells (26)
- 4 Summer Bloom
- 4 Sleight of Hand
- 4 Serum Visions
- 2 Pact of Negation
- 1 Slaughter Pact
- 4 Summoner's Pact
- 2 Hive Mind
- 4 Amulet of Vigor
- 1 Ancient Stirrings
Sideboard
First off, I felt like the second Temple of Mystery wasn’t really needed. I had heard that some people were using a second copy of Vesuva in that slot, and
after playing a few games with the deck, I definitely think that’s correct. Having access to a second copy of Vesuva is excellent. Not only does it let you
still combo kill if you happen to draw the Vesuva, but it also lends itself to some sweet plays with our utility lands like Khalni Garden, Ghost Quarter,
and Radiant Fountain.
I understand that we want the blue sources now that we are on Sleight of Hand, but having access to a second Vesuva felt more important to me. Plus, I am
advocating for not playing a full four copies of Sleight of Hand.
In the list that Jarvis used, we see that he’s gone up to 28 lands in the maindeck and down to a single copy of Ancient Stirrings to accommodate for
playing a full four Sleight of Hand. I understand his thoughts on that, and while he is correct that having Summer Bloom or Azusa, Lost but Seeking every
game is more important than having an Amulet of Vigor, I think that having access to finding our colorless sideboard cards is often overlooked, and I would
rather lean on those cards a bit more over just playing a bunch of Seal of Primordium.
Sadly for me, #SCGDFW didn’t go very well, as I lost the three rounds following my byes and ended up dropping along with my travel buddy Joe. My original
flight was out of Wichita on Monday afternoon, but I was able to get a flight out of Dallas later that night on a non-stop path back home to Seattle for a
couple bucks and some Alaska Airlines miles, so I took it.
My losses were to Merfolk, Jund, and Merfolk, where I feel like a combination of variance and poor play on my part led to my demise. My opponents all
played well, drew what seemed well, and punished me for my poor play.
I still think that the list I used was good and worth continuing to explore, so let’s check it out.
Creatures (6)
Lands (27)
Spells (27)
I decided to go back down to 27 land in the maindeck and cut a Sleight of Hand so that I could go back up to three copies of Ancient Stirrings. This makes
it easier to find Chromatic Lantern and Spellskite so that I can combat Blood Moon and matchups like G/W Hexproof and Infect.
Amulet Bloom, for the most part, is really going to have 65-70 cards that are always going to be the same, and while the customization is always going to
just be a handful of cards, the most important thing is to have a plan against the popular matchups and execute that plan. That’s going to be much better
than having the “right list” but not having an actual plan.
Now, as we can see from #SCGDFW and GP Porto Alegre, I’m a bit late to the party when I say that the plan I want to be on moving forward involves Wild
Nacatl and Goblin Guide. Zoo and Burn variants are tearing up the place, which generally is pretty good for Amulet Bloom, but I think that adding Wild
Nacatl into the picture has the potential to just do so much damage that if we aren’t putting a Primeval Titan onto the battlefield on turn 2, then we’re
going to be a turn behind and die.
I kind of wish that I had more Modern events coming up so that I could work on decks with Wild Nacatl, but for this week, I will be shifting my focus back
to Legacy in preparation for GP Seattle. I had a lot of fun piloting Shardless Sultai at #SCGSTL, but I don’t think that I’m going to be back on that deck
for Seattle. I would like to avoid as many unintentional draws as I possibly can, and I still think that Shardless Sultai is going to have a target on its
head as public enemy number one.
There are two decks that I’m currently considering for GP Seattle. The first is, well, a bit of an old flame. It’s something that most people expected me
to go right to after the banning of Dig Through Time, and in fact, it was the maindeck that I was recommending to people who had played Omni-Tell to switch
back to.
We even have a list to start with since Will Craddock was able to place in the Top 8 of the Legacy Premier IQ in Dallas last weekend.
Creatures (8)
Lands (19)
Spells (33)
- 4 Brainstorm
- 4 Show and Tell
- 4 Force of Will
- 4 Sneak Attack
- 4 Lotus Petal
- 4 Ponder
- 4 Spell Pierce
- 1 Preordain
- 3 Gitaxian Probe
- 1 Flusterstorm
Sideboard
This is pretty much the same shell that we used back in the day. Sixteen combo pieces, with eight each of monsters and enablers, along with 11-12 cantrips,
Force of Will and some soft countermagic, Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors and Lotus Petal to accelerate, and a couple basics to not be affected by Wasteland
too much and to enable the possibility of Blood Moon in the sideboard.
The main reason that I didn’t go directly to Sneak and Show after the banning was that I was too scared of Containment Priest. I felt like Stoneforge
Mystic decks and Miracles were going to be playing 2-3 copies of the card as a way to combat the anticipated switch back to Sneak and Show and the possible
resurgence of Elves.
Now that we have data on the decks, I’m seeing usually just one copy, and while we don’t really have a clean way to combat the card, we do have Gitaxian
Probe to gain information so that we can play around it as best as possible.
I actually like the use of Leyline of Sanctity that Will had here in the sideboard. This old sideboard plan just gets even better with Shardless Sultai
coming back strong, not to mention that discard itself just gets better in a post-Dig Through Time world. Storm is another deck that has a tough time
beating Leyline of Sanctity in time before we can combo them out.
Defense Grid is a good way to combat Miracles and the Delver decks with lots of soft countermagic. Honestly, I’ve never really been a huge fan of this
gameplan, but I’m definitely interested in trying it out so that I can get a feel for just how good it is.
One thing that is missing from Will’s sideboard that I would have expected to see was Blood Moon. With Shardless Sultai coming up big recently, I would
think that using that as a way to punish their manabase could be beneficial. It’s also a good way to combat Lands, which is still extremely popular even
with The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale being quite the rarity.
I am also a little surprised to see a lack of Through the Breach, which was a nice standby to swap out some Show and Tells for when playing against another
Show and Tell style deck. I also think that Jace, the Mind Sculptor could potentially be pretty awesome somewhere in the 75 as another way to combat decks
that are going to be trying to rip our hand apart.
The other deck is one that I have battled with before and think that it could possibly be very well positioned for Seattle. I was contemplating keeping my
thoughts to myself, but if any of you know me, you know that’s not how I roll.
Yep, that’s right – Painter.
Shardless Sultai, various Delver decks, Lands, and Miracles are all decks that I expect to run across in Seattle, and I think that Painter could be
well-positioned to surprise people.
Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon seem like they are in a good spot right now, in addition to there being a downswing in the number of Emrakul, the Aeon’s
Torn seeing play with the demise of Omni-Tell. I think that a well-tuned Painter list with an experienced pilot behind it could take the GP by storm.
Creatures (15)
- 2 Goblin Welder
- 4 Imperial Recruiter
- 1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
- 2 Simian Spirit Guide
- 1 Magus of the Moon
- 4 Painter's Servant
- 1 Ethersworn Canonist
Lands (19)
Spells (26)
It actually looks like someone did pretty well at #SCGSTL with Imperial Painter already, which gives us a pretty good spot to start out on.
We have our standard Painter’s Servant engine with Grindstone and Imperial Recruiter to find either Painter’s Servant or other various two-or-less power
creatures, but by adding white we also get access to Enlightened Tutor; which when built correctly, turns our deck into a well-oiled machine.
There are a couple things that stick out to me from the maindeck, primarily the Ethersworn Canonist. I can imagine the look on Chris’ opponents face when
he put that onto the battlefield in game 1. Nice Storm deck. I’m not sure that it’s something that I would go along with at the GP, but it’s interesting
nonetheless.
I am also curious at the lack of Lightning Bolt in the 75, since I felt like that was always something we wanted access to, even if just a few. Killing
something like Deathrite Shaman is pretty important against the decks that are weak to our Blood Moon effects.
I also feel like some of the numbers can be tweaked a little, like the second Goblin Welder, the second Ensnaring Bridge, and the third copy of Sensei’s
Divining Top. I imagine that we can likely fit a couple Lightning Bolt in there somewhere, and I also have a sweet card that I want to play as a one-of.
With Lotus Petal/Simian Spirit Guide and Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors putting a Goblin Rabblemaster onto the battlefield on turn 1 isn’t that far-fetched.
Goblin Rabblemaster also has a base power of two, which makes him Recruitable for the Imperial army when needed.
With the combo and semi-lock pieces already in place, then we get to play with a bunch of Pyroblasts in the maindeck, which seems pretty sweet right now to
be honest. Blue spells are everywhere in Legacy, and with Dig Through Time gone, every inch of value has to be eeked out of every spell, and Pyroblasts
will likely be trading for Brainstorms or better, which is real nice.
I’m not sure of all the singletons in the sideboard to go along with the Enlightened Tutors in the maindeck, but Scab-Clan Berserker seems like a sweet
card against Storm, and if we ever expect to run into Burn, I don’t think that they can realistically beat a Circle of Protection: Red, which I think that
I even have an Alpha copy of.
Now I get to spend the week trying to figure out which of these decks I want to actually play this weekend. I might even try to get them together on Magic
Online to stream with, but I have a feeling it’s rough getting Legacy events to fire there.
For those of you who are battling Standard this weekend, I am pretty high on the G/R Eldrazi Ramp decks that have been crushing it all over the place lately. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, and Dragonlord Atarka all in the same
deck? Be still my beating heart!