The Long & Winding Road – Attacking in Legacy, Part 2: Winning an SCG Open is Awesome!

I played Blue/White in the Philly StarCityGames.com Standard Open on Saturday, June 5th. The main deck seemed very good, but the sideboard was only average and I didn’t have much experience with the mirror or sideboard games.

Replace the word “much” with “any” in my previous statement and you have a more accurate sentence.

I dropped after 5 rounds at 2-1-2. I started 1-0-2 after two mirror matches and one against Super Friends. I then played Jund twice and lost game three in round five to take a match loss and get knocked out of contention.

I’m really struggling to successfully integrate back into the Standard format. It’s starting to take a mental toll, even though I know a lot of it has to do with the near-zero time I’ve invested into the format. The best Standard players can leapfrog from deck to deck and have an inherent understanding of the format which carries them to success. I’m way behind the curve on this, after a year of playing Vintage.

This is a skill-set, perhaps not understood, that gets downplayed by Eternal players who might suggest Standard is a simple or easy format. It isn’t. Watching the players who stay ahead of the curve in that format consistently, like a surfer riding a wave, is a thing of beauty that you can only really appreciate when you’ve been immersed in that style of format at some point in your life.

I tried to stay mentally loose and positive on Saturday, because I was nervous and tight in DC. At the SCG Open, I engaged all of my opponents in honest, pleasant, human interaction, to the extent they allowed me to do so. I’m happy to report that they all seemed willing to banter back and forth, and that made my rounds enjoyable, even though the actual games were grueling and my results were poor.

In fact, I considered skipping Sunday. GP: DC had been similarly brutal from a results standpoint. Maybe it was time for a break. Maybe I wasn’t cut out for these larger events anymore.

On the way out of the tournament room, at the last second, I stopped and bought sleeves so I could have Zoo ready for Sunday if I decided to play. Apparently when I pulled my money out of my pocket, my wallet popped out and landed on the floor somewhere.

As I’m walking out with my sleeves, some guy comes running up and gives me my wallet. Like, seriously has to follow me while yelling and screaming, because my mind is in a fog.

Guy, whoever you are: thank you. I probably would not have come on Sunday if I didn’t have a wallet. Thanks for reminding me, and now whoever is reading this, that not every player at large tournaments is a jerk or a thief.

Saturday night I got a (relatively) good night’s sleep, after putting my deck in new sleeves. I woke up, walked my dogs, my fiancée wished me luck, and I drove into Philly. I always park at a garage just off the 15th street exit on 676. It’s about a five-block walk to the convention center, but you can park all day in an actual garage for $11 on weekends.

A few weeks ago I went with Diane to BJ’s, and I was excited to see they had big 30-count boxes of those little, individual-size boxes of Kellogg’s cereal. When I was a kid, I used to go camping with my family in the Poconos, and one of the things I liked was that we’d always bring a mix of those little cereal boxes. Me and my brother would take them out the first morning and figure out who was getting which ones and what day we would eat them.

It sounds dumb, I know, but it was cool to me then; at home, we usually didn’t get the sugary cereals, and whatever we got was always a big box, so day after day would be the same. Just one of those random memories.

On my way to the Legacy Open, I ate a little box of Fruit Loops. I now have a second positive mental association with these small cereals.

I also did a final mental checklist on my deck:

I’ve actually written about Zoo a few times recently; I did an examination of the archetype, here. At the time, I was playing mostly Vintage and had been itching to play a beat-down deck. I gave Zoo a shot in a local tournament in March, which I recapped here. That Zoo deck had a lot of features in common with the one I played in the SCG Open, but was closer to the European decks from the Grand Prix in its use of Gaddock Teeg and less burn spells.

I should probably thank Max McCall, Gerry Thompson, and other players/writers who have correctly pointed out the game-breaking power of decks like Reanimator and ANT compared to a deck like Zoo. Make no mistake: even with ten cards dedicated to those decks in my sideboard, those match-ups are bad to really bad depending on player skill and how many sideboard cards decide to show up in any given game. I think I’m a little more comfortable playing against ANT because I have Fireblast and nine aggressive one-drops supported by Mindbreak Trap in the board (which many people will not play around, expecting mostly hate bears), and that deck is so hard to play optimally, but I’d still rather dodge both match-ups completely.

Lands is also a rough match-up, one which I have to beat using Price of Progress and Graveyard hate to try to disrupt the Loam engine (which is actually hard to do if the Lands player is competent and has time to set up). Sadly, Lands is also very much a “hot” deck at the moment.

So if Lands, Reanimator, and ANT are all bad match-ups, what the heck was I doing playing Zoo in this tournament?

First, Zoo is consistent. Very consistent. It doesn’t have to mulligan often, and punishes opponents who keep loose hands. In a long tournament, these are valuable attributes.

Second, Zoo was the potential benefactor of a preemptive metagame shift. What do I mean by this? If the decks with “hype” leading up to the tournament were Reanimator (and this deck was definitely in the lead hype position, despite so-so results at the last large Jupiter Games tournament), ANT (coming off a breakout SCG Open performance), and Lands (which continues to evolve and produce results), it seemed highly likely that the metagame would shift against these decks, and that it would actually do so quickly, unlike in years past.

For Reanimator, that meant dedicated Graveyard hate, probably in blue decks, and a heavier than normal presence of Goblins. For ANT, and probably for Lands as well, it meant a shift to Counter-Top decks and Merfolk. Important to notice here is the fact that Merfolk and Goblins are relatively cheap answers to the metagame. Similarly, cost is an issue when talking about Reanimator and Lands, so despite the results, there’s something of a cap to its metagame penetration at the moment, at least in my opinion.

The other “hot” deck coming into this tournament was New Horizons, which again was putting up great results at the large Jupiter Games Legacy tournaments. I played in the Grand Prix Trial at GP: DC, and New Horizons was all over the place in that tournament, so I knew I should expect it at the Philly event.

So, what is the metagame I was expecting?

Reanimator: Present, but hopefully suppressed by dedicated hate from prepared Counter-Top players.

ANT: Hopefully not that popular, and again probably knocked out early by the presence of Counter-Top, Merfolk, and New Horizons.

Lands: Highly likely to have a few players in contention as the skill level of players on this deck tends to be very high; still, also likely to be a match-up one can dodge until the late rounds.

Merfolk: Highly likely to be present, especially in early rounds; while some Merfolk players are prepared with white or green splashes, this is still a hugely favorable match-up for Zoo.

Goblins: Also likely to be present given cost, historical popularity, and theoretical strength in the Reanimator and Counter-Top match-ups. While many Goblins players suggest otherwise, in my experience this match-up is also highly favorable for Zoo (although less so than Merfolk).

Counter-Top: A prepared Counter-Top deck that dodged or prepared for Merfolk would seem like a great metagame solution given the decks that were hyped heading into the Open. The Zoo vs. Counter-Top match-up can have wildly varying results depending on which Counter-Top is involved; again, many Counter-Top players will claim a favorable Zoo match-up. Historically, however, CB-Top decks have actively game-planned for Zoo. The question, then, is whether or not CB-Top decks would instead focus on beating Merfolk, ANT, Reanimator, and Lands at the expense of the Zoo match-up. I believed that they would. I also didn’t think I had a CB-Top deck that I knew well enough to compete effectively in this tournament.

New Horizons: Not a freebie match-up but definitely winnable, especially if players were short on Zoo cards in the board or hadn’t tested the match-up.

Zoo: I was willing to gamble that Zoo would not be that popular given the internet backlash against “fair” Legacy decks; locally, Zoo hasn’t been that popular in the AU Legacy events I’ve played, but it was both popular and successful at the last Jupiter Games tournament.

To summarize: I expected my bad match-ups to be pushed out of the field as the tournament went on, with the exception of Lands, and hoped that I could dodge bad match-ups early and Zoo mirrors late; I would go light on Merfolk, Goblins, and Counter-Top sideboard cards to dedicate myself against my bad match-ups post-board, and I would ignore the mirror completely hoping that people would be scared off Zoo based on what they read on the internet.

While I won’t know for sure how much of this I got right until we see the metagame analysis, as of this writing, it certainly feels like I was on-target. I was leaning toward Zoo for some time headed into the event, and posted 74 / 75 of my deck-list (with the one card off being only a change in the type of Graveyard hate), at the bottom of this article.

The main changes from the March tournament to this one were to ramp up the aggression by adding another aggressive one-drop, putting Fireblast back into the deck, and cutting cards like Sylvan Library, Gaddock Teeg, and Jitte from the main in favor of pure aggression. I wanted my opponents, especially Counter-Top opponents, to underestimate the speed and reach of my deck based on their testing against Zoo without Steppe Lynx and Price of Progress. In short, I made a better version of the deck I suggested way back in my older article on Zoo in Legacy.

Third, I was comfortable playing Zoo and confident I could play it close to optimally. This was going to be a long tournament if I was in contention, and playing a deck that was less mentally taxing, and one where I was less likely to agonize over misplays, would play to my strengths. When you misplay with Zoo (such as when I almost punted game 2 in the finals by playing around Daze at the wrong time), you can still win. When you misplay with ANT or Reanimator, often the result is an immediate loss. I also just really enjoy playing this deck, and that enjoyment helps keep me mentally focused on the game itself

Fourth, and finally, I was somewhat motivated to prove that Zoo was still a viable archetype even in the face of broken / unfair competitors, and that Legacy does engage in the type of self-policing metagame activity that lets the fair and unfair decks share the spotlight. In a nutshell, that’s why I object to the idea that attacking is miserable as a blanket statement. Sometimes, attacking is exceptionally miserable, but other times it is the completely right call, and therefore, awesome.

(As an aside: this is the same type of activity that I believe could exist in Vintage if it were given a chance.)

The week of the tournament, some of my teammates and I were brainstorming how to pick up percentage points in my bad match-ups and came up with this craziness:

4 Leyline of the Void
4 Mindbreak Trap
2 Serum Powder
1 Price of Progress
2 Pyroblast
2 Krosan Grip

The idea there is that against Lands, you can Serum Powder into Price of Progress and hopefully steal the match that way. Against ANT, you increase your chance of finding Mindbreak Trap, and against Dredge / Reanimator, you can find Leyline to give yourself the option of racing. I had no chance to test this, however, and I think the high variance factor makes it somewhat less appealing.

Ultimately, the decision to jettison this sideboard in favor of a more traditional and tested version didn’t matter.

The only cards I used in my sideboard on the day were Krosan Grip, Pyroblast, and Price of Progress.

For those who are curious, the deck isn’t actually miserable. If you read through my recent Legacy articles, you’ll be in on the “joke” (such as it is). In fact, this take on Zoo is a fun and consistent beat-down machine. The deck has a lot of reach, much of which comes from Price of Progress, which I’ve been attempting to “hype” for some time; really, the only match-ups were its truly bad are random mono-colored decks and Merfolk. One of the best reasons for playing Zoo is its strength against random.dec, so you hopefully don’t need Price of Progress there, and your Merfolk match-up is quite strong.

One time I lost a game against Merfolk, but that was only because I was sitting in the wrong seat when the round started, and a judge told me I therefore lost a game, so I believed him. Otherwise, I’ve never lost a game to Merfolk with Zoo in Legacy. Not saying the match-up is a 100% win, but it is very, very favorable.

You may have questions on specific cards, both included and excluded. I’ll take a preemptive stab at this:

Price of Progress: I won this tournament on the back of this card. I lost count of how many games I stole by having this in my deck. Definitely games 1 and 3 of the quarterfinals, game 3 of my feature match, game 2 against Asher in the only round I lost, and on and on. This is a card that lets you play mind games, for those interested in such things.

Sylvan Library: There are only a few times I missed this card, mostly the mirror matches and against New Horizons. Obviously it is very good with Knight of the Reliquary and Steppe Lynx. Still, I’m not trying to build around Lynx, or even Knight. Sylvan is best in the match-ups that I’m either already winning, or the mirror, which I’m hoping to avoid. I wouldn’t consider this card an auto-include, but there are definitely times that I would play it.

Steppe Lynx: Lynx is a burn spell, in cat form. You’re hopefully paying W for 4 damage. That’s a tremendous return on your investment. The fact that you sometimes go beyond that is just gravy. Lynx is part of the reason this deck is faster than expected, and has a tendency to beat Counter-Top decks. Lynx’s ability to be a 4/5 for several consecutive turns is just huge; he can power past an early Goyf where a Loam Lion / Kird Ape cannot. Swinging in for 5 damage on turn two after playing a Pridemage feels pretty insane, considering you still have a 3/3 for G and five burn spells capable of dealing four or more damage. Did I lose at least one game because I had Lynx instead of Kird Ape / Loam Lion? Yes. Did I win more games because I had Lynx? I believe so. Again, it depends on what you’re trying to beat. Lynx is brutal against Counter-Top and speeds your goldfish against combo. It isn’t as good when your opponent also has creatures.

Lightning Helix: Outside of when Zoo is everywhere, I don’t think you want or need this card.

Gaddock Teeg: People look at this guy as anti-Storm, but he’s also very much anti-NO Bant. He shuts off Force, Explosives, and Natural Order. That’s a big deal. Not having him against those decks was potentially a problem, but unless NO Bant is purposefully game-planning for Zoo, I have to give the edge to Zoo, Teeg or no Teeg. I didn’t miss Teeg on the day.

Jitte: This card was really popular in the SCG Open, or seemed to be; my round two opponent, Tom playing NO Bant, had it in his main-deck, as did my round eight opponent; Merfolk and Zoo players used it against me as well. It’s never comfortable to play with creatures and have to worry about an opponent’s Jitte without packing your own. I had to get lucky a few times to steal games where Jitte was involved. Using Krosan Grip against Merfolk and the mirror is kind of not where you want to be, but as I said in my last Legacy article, sometimes you have to take your deck somewhere uncomfortable to get your match-ups were you want them to be. If Zoo is more popular for a while, you’ll want to play Jitte.

Horizon Canopy: A lot of people that play Steppe Lynx go with max fetch lands, but I’m against that idea partially because I’m using Price of Progress. I also like to have a “draw” spell I can tutor out with Knight. Horizon Canopy also actually gives you another way to play Lynx on turn one without burning a fetch, or to play a Nacatl without opening yourself up to Stifle if your opponent led with a blue land or fetch.

Knight of the Reliquary vs. Burning Tree Shaman: They’re both pretty awesome. I have no opinion here outside of the fact that Steppe Lynx should probably be replaced with Kird Ape / Loam Lion if you’re not including Knight of the Reliquary, and that Sylvan Library is slightly worse without Knight as well. I didn’t play Shaman because I never tested it, not because I definitively believe Knight is better. Just being honest here.

As far as strategic suggestions, I’m not really sure what I can offer; try to play around Daze, be mindful of Steppe Lynx and Price of Progress when going through your land progressions, don’t expose Goyf and Knight of the Reliquary to unnecessary removal, and don’t needlessly fuel up Goyf unless you’ve already established Goyf superiority.

That last point is really important as you can sometimes just bash away with a smaller guy past a 1 / 2 or 2 / 3 Goyf, as long as you’re not needlessly throwing spells into your Graveyard. Force your open to react to what you’ve done, then burn them out.

So, that’s the deck.

Here’s the tournament.

Round 1 — Win 2-0 vs. Merfolk (1-0)

Not sure what to say here except this was a great way to start out the day. Sean was definitely unhappy to see that I was playing Zoo. The first game I led out with creatures, burned out his lords, and won pretty easily. My standard Merfolk sideboard strategy was to take out 3 Price of Progress for 2 Pyroblast and 1 Krosan Grip (for Jitte, Vial, or Enchantments like Threads of Disloyalty or Mind Harness).

In game two, Sean led out with an Island. I played a Horizon Canopy and a Wild Nacatl. Sean’s second turn was a Wasteland and a Standstill. Curious. Three turns later, Sean had to break his own Standstill. In fairness, this is a really tough match-up to win from the Merfolk side.

Round 2 — Win 2-0 vs. NO Bant (2-0)

I’d been chatting with Tom before the tournament and in-between rounds, and he’d commented that he thought his Zoo match-up was pretty good. We put that to the test immediately. I won the die roll, and Tom agonized over his seven before keeping. I came out firing but Tom was stuck on just a Tundra and his deck refused to yield any more land. After the match he told me his hand contained a Noble Hierarch, Rhox War Monk, and Jitte.

Against NO Bant, if I’d revealed Price of Progress, I would take out a mix of those and Chain Lightning. Ordinarily Chain Lighting comes out completely but against NO Bant you sometimes need the extra removal to prevent against a quick Natural Order. In this instance I took out all 4 Chain Lightning, for 2 Pyroblast and 2 Krosan Grip. For game two, we both went to six; I had no one-drop by my six was good, and I drew a Wild Nacatl on turn 2. That let me accidentally play around Daze the whole game, which blanked some of the strength of Tom’s hand. We traded one-for-ones while my Nacatl kept getting in there, and I was able to burn Tom out pretty quickly.

Round 3 — Win 2-1 vs. New Horizons (3-0)

I lost the die roll and we both took a mulligan. I kept a hand with two lands. Chris kept a hand with Stifle and Wasteland, and I drew no more lands. He then got Knight of the Reliquary out and active, and so we went on to game two.

I wasn’t really sure how to sideboard this match, having never played it before. I took out a Fireblast and two Chain Lightning for 2 Pyroblast and a Krosan Grip. I don’t recall all that much on either game, except that I did my best to play around Daze and to avoid getting blown out by Engineered Explosives. I won game two on 16 life, and game three on 18 life.

Round 4 — Lose 0-2 vs. Zoo (3-1)

For some reason I assumed Asher would be playing something with blue, and kept a hand that was fast; unfortunately he was on Zoo and kept a hand that was full of Goyf. I lost. I then did my best “hey look I’m sideboarding relevant cards” impression.

Game two was pretty close, with us just trading burn and Paths on each other’s creatures. When the dust settled, I was sitting with a Price of Progress in hand while Asher had a Grim Lavamancer in play. Asher hit a run of fetch lands, while my life ticked down by two a turn. 17. 15. 13. 11. Finally Asher’s life ticked down to 10 and I played Price of Progress to end the game.

In game three, Asher drew more Wild Nacatls and Goyfs than I did, and out-muscled me out of the game.

Round 5 — Win 2-0 vs. Zoo (4-1)

It appeared there was a lot more Zoo in this tournament than I’d expected. Round after round I saw Zoo all over the place, including a lot of mirror matches. The top tables seemed to be crowded with Zoo players, so to some extent the tournament appeared to be progressing as I’d hoped, although a lot more people were on the same plan that I anticipated.

I don’t recall much about game one other than I played first and won on 17 life. I did the same pretend-to-sideboard dance that I did last round. I keep a seven card hand with only one land, but three Goyfs and a Path to Exile, and on turn two I draw a second land. Those Goyfs win me the game pretty easily.

Round 6 — Win 2-1 vs. Landstill (5-1)

This was a feature match; the coverage is here.

There’s one piece that’s missing that probably represents my favorite play of the entire day.

In game one, as behind as I was, I could have won the game using Price of Progress provided that Lewis didn’t have Force of Will, Daze, or Counterspell in his grip full of cards.

Unlikely.

Still, I was considering taking a shot at it, as stranger things have happened. Ultimately, I decided to play a Tarmogoyf instead; if Lewis used Swords to kill the Goyf, I’d buy an extra turn. If he let it live, I’d potentially buy an extra turn with a blocker. If he countered the Goyf with Force or Daze, I wouldn’t have won with Price of Progress anyway. I played the Goyf, and he Forced it, so I lost. Crucially, though, I hadn’t shown that I had Price of Progress in my deck.

Game two I won pretty easily, although at the end of the game I was only one or two turns away from his engines going online and taking over the game; his last turn had Ghastly Demise being stamped on a Scepter.

For game three, I boarded in a fourth Price of Progress. I hadn’t played one yet this match and I was hoping it would be my trump card at some point. Again, the game started to slip away when Lewis played his fourth Mishra’s Factory, which meant he had a fast clock, and that I would have a hard time punching through for any significant damage on the ground. I’d been sculpting the game around Price, but couldn’t find either a second copy or a Pyroblast to make it resolve. When Lewis played Jace on his last turn, he had out a Swamp, an Island, a Tundra, an Underground Sea, and 3 Mishra’s Factories. To play Jace, he tapped all four colored lands and left up just the three Factories. I basically had to go for it with the Price and hope for the best. The fact that Lewis used Fateseal on me and not Brainstorm suggested to me that he felt safe, and wanted to protect Jace; the question was whether he felt safe because he had Force of Will, or that he felt safe because he couldn’t think of any combination of cards on my end that would deal enough damage to win the game. Obviously, Price of Progress plus Chain Lightning was enough to win with him on 11 life.

Round 7 — Win 2-1 vs. NO Bant (6-1)

Cary wins the die roll, but I get a couple of creatures to stick before he gets anything going on his side, and that’s that. So far, very smooth sailing against my Counter-Top opponents. I sideboard the same as above.

Game two, Cary takes a mulligan and I’m feeling pretty good until a 10/10 with Protection from everything shows up and races me. This is a game that sticks out where Steppe Lynx was not good, as I had a few turns to win this game by drawing any land, but instead had two worthless 0/1 Cats.

Game three, I’m finally on the play, sneak Cats into play before Cary has any action set up, and win from 17 life.

Round 8 — Win 2-1 vs. U/W Tempo (7-1)

Sam absolutely crushed me in game one. I was light on lands and kept trying to kill his Weathered Wayfarer, but he wouldn’t let me; eventually I caved and tried to get some action going. Instead he tutored up Wastelands to drop me back to one land, and then played two Serra Avengers and a Jitte.

Game two was similarly lopsided. I was on the play this time, and established creatures and then used burn to sweep away his creatures. I won on 24 life.

The third game was also a beating; Sam had to mulligan and his hand was light on land. I resolved a Lavamancer and then three Wild Nacatls and that was that. My breakers were very strong this round as my only loss was Asher and he was undefeated. This win put me into the top 8.

Round 9 — ID with Jim G. Orr (7-1-1)

The ID gave me a chance to scout. There were multiple Lands decks with a shot of making top 8, along with an ANT, but there were also definitely a number of blue decks coming in based on the IDs. I buy a new pack of sleeves, sort out the deck, re-sleeve, and submit it to the judges.

I grab some dinner, chat with the group of my friends that stayed, and do some obligatory Facebook updating. Then it’s time for pictures, paperwork, and on to the top 8 match. I end up being third after the Swiss.

Quarterfinals — Win 2-1 vs. Zoo (8-1-1)

Most of what you need to know is in the coverage. Here’s a little more.

First, I played poorly in this round, easily the worst round I’d played all day. It probably had something to do with making top 8 and feeling excited and satisfied about that, which isn’t where you want to be as far as mindset.

My hand was really loose in game one; a ton of burn and a Wild Nacatl but no green mana, and I was on the play. I literally did nothing for the first few turns outside of watching Stephen’s life total closely. The fact that he had Jitte main was a huge problem, obviously. I probably should have lost this game. On the last turn, I was at 13 life, and Stephen was at 9. He used a fetch to go to 8, and then equipped Jitte and chose to attack with all of his creatures, including Knight of the Reliquary. As soon that happened, I was able to deal 8 with Fireblast plus Price of Progress. If the Knight was still untapped, I’d have lost.

Game two, I was over-confident due to Stephen’s double-mulligan, and then misplayed badly with a Chain Lightning that would have won me the game if I had sent it at Stephen post-combat instead of at his Wild Nacatl pre-combat; I miscounted on the math.

Game three was a pretty epic game. Stephen’s equipment package made my life miserable as I had to play around Collar and then Jitte. This game went very long as the board was clogged and we kept killing each other’s creatures. Eventually Stephen had a huge Knight of the Reliquary with a Jitte with 6 counters. I attacked into him for damage to force him to use counters, then used Price of Progress to get rid of some more… and locked up the game with the third and final Path to Exile I’d drawn. While that was pretty fortunate, I also only drew one Pridemage and neither Krosan Grip, any of which would’ve won me the game much earlier. In fact I’d drawn so few Pridemages in the match that my opponent didn’t think I even had four in my deck.

Semi-Finals — Win 2-0 vs. Bant Counter-Top (9-1-1)

Pretty much everything you need for this is, again, in the coverage. These were very fast games. I won the first game on 20 life and the second on 21 life. Jesse’s hands didn’t seem particularly strong in either game, but sometimes that happens in a deck with so much manipulation; it isn’t as if he didn’t play well, his deck just refused to give him much to work with.

I was extra excited later when I found out that Jesse had actually one-upped Menendian after board and was rocking the full-on EIGHT PLOW! How unlikely that I was able to ride a single Tarmogoyf in this game for so much damage. Sometimes I guess it’s just your day.

Finals — Win 2-0 vs. NO Bant (10-1-1)

A couple things on this round, which was covered here.

In the second game, I could have and should have cast Tarmogoyf the turn before Jim played Natural Order, but didn’t because I was playing around Daze. This is terrible, because if Jim plays Daze, he can’t play Natural Order. If his two cards are Force plus blue card, then he doesn’t have Natural Order so I’m probably winning anyway.

The last turn of the final game, Jim was at 11. He’d just played his third Rhox War Monk of the game. I untapped with five lands in play, two of which were Horizon Canopies, with one land in my Graveyard, a 4/5 Goyf, and a 3/3 Wild Nacatl. I drew Path to Exile for the turn. I played the Path, it resolved. I used the Canopies to draw two cards, which were a fetch and Lightning Bolt. That made the Knight a 5/5, so my attack was for 12 damage, but it could’ve been 16. Maybe this takes a little drama away, or maybe it’s my fault for not running the “still had all THESE!”, but it made for a cool story in the coverage when they said it was exactly lethal. Path was obviously a good draw, but I had three draws that turn and a Fireblast or Pyroblast would have accomplished the same end result. Still, another example of drawing the outs I needed, when I needed them. If you suggested I drew hot all day, I wouldn’t deny it.

So, to recap in brief:

Rd 1 — Win 2-0 (Merfolk)
Rd 2 — Win 2-0 (NO Bant)
Rd 3 — Win 2-1 (New Horizons)
Rd 4 — Lose 1-2 (Zoo)
Rd 5 — Win 2-0 (Zoo)
Rd 6 — Win 2-1 (Landstill)
Rd 7 — Win 2-1 (NO Bant)
Rd 8 — Win 2-1 (U/W Tempo)
Rd 9 — ID
Top 8 — Win 2-1 (Zoo)
Top 4 — Win 2-0 (Bant CB-Top)
Finals — Win 2-0 (NO Bant)

My final record was 10-1-1 matches, 21-7 games. I was 2-1, 5-3 in the mirror and 4-0, 8-1 against Counterbalance decks. I didn’t touch 10 of my sideboard cards, and never had to play Lands, Reanimator, ANT, or Belcher.

Pretty fortunate, I know.

Still, all I can do is beat the people on the other side of the table. You can’t begrudge me for that, can you?

That’s mostly what I’ve got for this week. I don’t normally do this but since I just won a freaking SCG Open, let’s rock it:

Props:

Nick Coss, Craig Berry, Brad Granberry, and everyone else that hung out until the end.

Everyone who offered up the positive comments on Facebook, the Mana Drain, and by text — unexpected and completely awesome. Thank you.

All the guys on D3G and at AU that I’ve tested with the past few months, especially Chas, Durkin, Steve, Jeff, Brad, Nick, Mykie, Wolsky, and Glackin.

The Hives, especially Tyrannosaurus Hives. In the early rounds, with time to kill, I kept myself pumped with this album. It has been and remains one of my favorites to get myself amped.

The guy that gave me my wallet when I dropped it and would have left it there. Seriously, you are the man.

Attacking, for being so very awesome. Legacy, for being awesome in general. The Legacy community for being supportive of my work on this here website.

StarCityGames.com for filling the tournament circuit gap with these events. They’re extremely well-run, and the addition of the invitational and detailed tournament data kicks them up to the next level.

Slops:

There are no slops, not today at least. My opponents were all very cool, none misconstrued my positive energy during the day for mind-games, the venue was terrific (lots of space, cool temperature), and I won the tournament.

As always, thank you for reading.

Matt Elias
[email protected]
Voltron00x on SCG, TMD, and The Source