SCG Providence!

Hello everyone!
This past weekend I traveled down to Providence RI to play in the Star City games open event. Leading up to it, I was incredibly excited to play both Standard AND Legacy as the last 2 times the series came to Boston (which was actually in Boxboro, not Boston), I wasn't able to play the legacy event. Obviously it's nearly impossible to justify commuting to the event from home when it was about 90-100 minutes each way, so I had to find some guys to get a hotel room with. I formed a group of 4 with the legacy players, and I was looking forward to the weekend. Then within 2 days everyone either dropped out or said they only want to play in legacy and they would just be driving down for Sunday. So all of a sudden I had no one to go with and the event was in 10 days! Thankfully though I was able to find 2 other gents that were looking for a roommate, so we made arrangements for a hotel that was only a 15 minute drive from the event. 2 Days before the event, Ed wants to join, so we take him in. 10 minutes before we're about to leave, John decides he can't go. Geez! I feel like I'm juggling people up and down here! Ultimately though, we had 3 people go down for the hotel, so it was the same price as previously anticipated, just a different crew.
Finally we get to the hotel, and you know it's a classy place when I am standing right next to the sign that says "21+ ID required to rent room" and I pass over my under 21 ID to the lady behind the desk and she glances at it, nods, and gives me the key. Yeah....
So anyways, finally we get to the event saturday morning, and I am pretty excited about my standard list:

4x Diregraf Ghoul
4x Gravecrawler
2x Fume Spitter
2x Porcelain Legionnaire
2x Highborn Ghoul
4x Geralf's Messenger
2x Phyrexian Metamorph
2x Phyrexian Obliterator
2x Falkenrath Aristocrat

4x Pillar or Flame
2x Tragic Slip
3x Go for the Throat
2x Geth's Verdict
2x Brimstone Volley

4x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Draonskull Summit
15x Swamp

Sideboard:
2x Bonfire of the Damned
3x Manic Vandel
2x Skinrender
3x Nihil Spellbomb
3x Act of Treason
2x Cemetery Reaper

I worked with some of the local players on this list a few days before the event, and one thing that is very different from my previous versions is that this list doesn't have any Cemetery Reapers in the main deck. I wound up really missing them all day, and I boarded them in almost every matchup. Having a lord for your team is already really good by itself, and the fact that it can build its own army is just gravy!

To say the least, I didn't exactly do very well this past weekend. I went 0-3 drop losing to GW Wolf Run, BW Tokens, and UB Creatureless Control. I have no idea what happened honestly as I felt I played optimally but for whatever reason what I was doing simply wasn't powerful enough. Maybe it was the deck, maybe I really was playing like a chump, but for whatever reason I fell to a quick 0-3 drop.

I was a little annoyed, but you have to get some bad beats in from time to time. So I went around trading until I learned of the Legacy challenge which was a 4 round swiss legacy event which only cost $5 to get into because I played in the Standard event. So I figured I might as well take the nearly free event as a chance to practice my Elves for Sunday. Aaaand.... I went 1-3. Wow, this is not looking to be a good weekend! I lost my notes on this event, but I remember my win and two of my losses.

My win was in round 2 vs BUG Control. He didn't have much pressure at all on me, in fact his main win condition is Jace, TMS, which basically means I have all the time in the world to assemble Wirewood Symbiote + Elvish Visionary and severely outdraw and out attrition him. I wasn't able to combo either game, but instead I provided a steady stream of pressure backed up with a Pendelhaven to play around things like Snapcaster Mage to slowly nug him for the game. Game 2 was VERY interesting as he cast Massacre on me twice (Savannah is a plains) and Pernicious Deed once, but each time he did, I responded by assembling Voltron (Symbiote + Visionary) again and quickly rebuilding back up my forces. The last turn of the match was interesting. I had a judge watching the whole time, sitting next to me, as our game was one of the last being played. I had made an attack last turn that hit him for 1, but I don't believe he recorded it so I hadd him at 2 and he had himself at 3. His only blocker was a Mishra's Factory and I had 2 1/1s in play + Pendelhaven. I attacked with both my creatures and he did the usual animate - block - pump himself play, so I pumped the unblocked one and reached out my hand. He looked at me confused ad stated he was going to 1, but I had him at 0. A very long "argument" broke out where I explained multiple turns of attacks and he seemed to misremember one of them. He accused me of changing life totals outside of the actual moves of the game at which point I just pointed at the judge next to me and gave the "really?" look. After another play through of what happened over the last 5 turns, the judge ruled I had won. What was the tipping point? According to the new IPG rules (and by new I mean a half-dozen weeks old) every time a life total changes both players must verbally declare what the new life totals are to help prevent these confusing events. I was declaring new life totals and he wasn't. Thankfully I was able to keep it cool and play with a level head or else we may have had a very embarrassing mess on our hands!

Both the losses I can remember happened vs combo decks, which is my worst matchup. The first was to TES, which is the much faster version of Storm. Usually this version loses to its own inconsistency more than the opponent actually doing anything. He got a turn 2 on the play win game 1, but game 2 he was stumbling. I was able to build meager force and attack him down to 12. He looked at his hand, then back at me, shrugged and said, "Hey, let's have come fun!" at which point he cast 3 rituals before casting Burning Wish for Dimishing Returns. In my new grip I had the only interactive spell possible which was Chord of Calling. Untapped I had a Gaea's Cradle with 3 dudes in play, a Forest, and a Wirewood Symbiote. Here is where I really punted: in response o the first spell he cast (LED) I cast Chord X=3 for Thalia.... I did in fact SB in Teeg, and I did in fact completely forget about it. Pu-pu-pu-punt!

My other loss came to High Tide. It's pretty obvious what your opponent is on when he goes turn 1 Island, Candelabra of Tawnos, go. As far as I knew, High Tide needed 4 islands to go off, although 3 was occasionally doable. So I waited to pull the trigger on the combo until he had 3 islands in play and he didn't have to right cards to answer my threats so I won. Games 2 and 3 were different. I set my game up such that I would win when he had 3 islands in play to maximize the odds of my combo killing him. However both times on turn 3 he went High Tide, Turn About, Time Spiral....etc...etc...etc...mill your whole deck. To say the least, it was VERY frustrating!

So I wasn't feeling too good about my chances for Legacy on Sunday, but I didn't have any other decks that were full unproxied so I stuck with Elves. Here was the list I registered for Sunday:

4x Nettle Sentinel
2x Fyndhorn Elf
3x Llanowar Elves
4x Heritage Druid
3x Birchlore Ranger
4x Wirewood Symbiote
4x Elvish Visionary
2x Priest of Titania
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Mirror Entity
1x Regal Force
1x Craterhoof Behemotoh

4x Green Sun's Zenith
2x Chord of Calling
1x Crop Rotation
4x Glimpse of Nature

4x Forest
2x Savannah
1x Bayou
1x Misty Rainforest
2x Verdant Catacombs
3x Windswept Heath
2x Gaea's Cradle
1x Pendelhaven
1x Dryad Arbor

Sideboard:
1x Elvish Archdruid
1x Umezawa's Jitte
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3x Thoughtseize
1x Gaddok Teeg
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Viridian Shaman
4x Faerie Macabre


Here's a quick rundown of how my day went:

Round 1: Goblins
I always undervalue any opponent I play against, and I committed myself to not do that this time. I started on Forest - Llanowar Elves, and he went Scalding Tarn, go. I put him on delver at first and played out my next turn setting up the combo but then he cracked fetch for Taiga, played a mountain, and dropped in a mini-Gather the Townsfolk in the form of Mogg War Marshal. I realized that I was under absolutely no pressure at all, so I just laid back for another turn before attacking for 104 trample damage on turn 4. Game 2 he showed me the only card that could deal with my deck: Goblin Sharpshooter. And it did its job VERY effectively. For game 3 I brought in 2 Thoughtseize to deal with said Sharpshooter and I was able to snag one right after he grabbed it with a Goblin Matron and I was able to go undisrupted from there on out.

2-1
1-0

Round 2: UR Delver
This was very frustrating for me. Both games I was 1 turn short of killing him - I had all the pieces on board. However both times Chain Lightning ended the game just 1 turn too early.

0-2
1-1

Round 3: UR Delver
This was basically a carbon copy of last round, although I believe I may have thrown one game when I miscounted my mana. I can't remember the exact board, so I will never never know if I did have the kill or not, but I had everything set up for the Mirror Entity - Nettle Sentinel - Heritage Druid - Wirewood Symbiote infinite mana - infinite damage combo next turn both games but I got killed just 1 turn too early! I think UR Delver is my worst matchup because they are 1 turn too fast for me. I think I may add Gut Shot to my sideboard to kill the Delver and buy myself enough time to kill him first.

0-2
1-2

Round 4: UR Delver
I played against UR delver this round, but I was convinced I was against mono-red for the first few turns. His first two turns were: T1 Mountain, Grim Lavamancer, go. T2 Chain Lightning you, miss land drop, go. As it turns out I was just against a terrible player. I usually don't like making fun of someone for being bad, but this was one of his turns: untap with Volcanic Island, Mountain, Grim Lavamancer. "Upkeep, Brainstorm..... Grim Lavamancer your Nettle Sentinel, go." Me: "Move to draw step?" Yeah...

2-0
2-2

Round 5: Not Quite Maverick
Finally! Something besides UR Delver! Her list seemed a little different, and afterwards we were talking after she told me she specifically called the deck "Not Quite Maverick". It didn't have cards like Mother of Runes or Linvala, Keeper of Silence that make the matchup much more difficult for me. As it was, I faced very little disruption and was able to have a relatively easy round.

2-0
3-2

Round 6: Burn
My last round took a very long time to play out, and when we finished I didn't actually look at the slip before I signed it and the judge standing by us took it away. As it turns out it was accidently listed as her winning 2-0 instead of me. I thought something was strange when I was seated at table 80 and my opponent was X-3, so I quickly ran over, saw I had 6 points on the pairings sheet, and told the judges. Ultimately I just switched opponents with my round 5 opponent and I sat down ready to jam!
Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a game as I just took some Lava Spikes to the face and died before I really do much of anything interesting. I brought in Thalias among other things, and while I think they would have bought me a couple turns, I never got them and promtly lost in 15 minutes... Woo!

0-2
3-3

Round 7: RUG Delver
This match went to 3 games, although I can't remember which ones I won and lost. The final life totals on the 3 games were: 1-14, 2-11, 8-11 so in all of them I was behind on the race, but I had to have pulled it out in 2. All I remember is that in a sideboarded game I cast a turn 2 Scavenging Ooze and it absolutely dominated the matchup as it made his Nimble Mongooses and Tarmogoyfs completely useless! When your opponent can't safely attack his Tarmogoyf into your Llanowar Elves, you know you have yourself well set up. RUG is a million times easier than UR because they are about a full turn slower and far more reliant on their animals, which we are always advantaged in.

2-1
4-3

Round 8: Storm
I was so used to playing against fair decks all day that I forgot that there are fast combo decks in the format! He went turn 1 Underground Sea, Ponder and I had no idea what to put him on! If I hadn't just played vs 6 creature decks in 7 rounds I probably would have been able to figure it out better. Regardless, he wasn't able to assemble anything game 1, and I was able to score a win. I was able to figure out what he was on by the time we went to sideboard though when he Infernal Tutored revealing LED the turn before I got him, so I brought in my anti-combo package. Game 2 was very interesting! He went for a quick small storm because of his mulligan, so he dropped 12 Goblins onto the battlefield. My board was just a Nettle Sentinel and a Forest. On my turn I cast a second Sentinel and a Wirewood Symbiote off a Pendelhaven. I did the math out and after counting for a Llanowar Elves in my hand if he attacked every turn and I blocked with 3 guys a turn, he would deal 9, then 6, then 3, and then 0 damage off his goblins which would leave me at 2. So after his first attack which I had to trade off my Symbiote I was able to get in for 4 damage a turn before casting a green spell and effectively fiving my Sentinels vigilence. The score was 11-8 when he attacked with his 9 guys and I blocked to bring myself to 5 when he cast Branstorm and drew into Cabal Ritual + Tendrils of Agony to get me for the last damage before I could have potentially killed him. Regardless, game 3 a lot of my disruption went to good use to slow down his game plan enough to allow me to beat in before he could assemble much. Despite my opponent playing red he was not playing Burning Wish, so you can imagine I was thoroughly surprised when he cast Infest in the post-board games. I personally think Burning Wish is too good to not play, and Infest just makes your Ad Nauseums worse (although I never actually did see a Ad Nauseum cast...)

2-1
5-3

Round 9: UR Delver
And here we go! Final round! Before the round started I was in 70th place, so a win would allow me to win $50 whereas a loss would get me nothing on the whole weekend. When I sit down I realize I am against a guy I have seen at some other regional events and it is someone I highly respect as a player. So the pressure was really on to see if I could earn a cash finish fr my first ever major legacy event. I joked that he was probably just going to play Volcanic, Delver because that's what everyone has been doing all day, so he casually shrugged said "ok!" and did exactly that. Our game was a very grindy one and I was having a tough time sticking too many threats. The game was pretty tight with him just having a 1/1 Delver in play and I had a meager board and both of us were at 17 when all of a sudden his Delver flipped and he cast 2 Goblin Guides??!! So BAM I jump down to 10. So to return the favor, I just went for a glimpse chain to at least try and draw enough cards to muster a resistance. As it turns out muster a resistance really means attack for 30 with Craterhoof Behemoth because it's the only creature that didn't have summoning sickness by the time you finished comboing. Game 2 I got destroyed pretty quickly. He led off with a Goblin Guide and I started eating damage very quickly which was soon backed up with a Delver and a miracled Thunderous Wrath. Game 3, the final match of the whole weekend that would make or break my day, was finally here. I was very tired and kept a terrible hand of 5 lands and 2 dudes (although if I remember correctly it was Symbiote + Visionary). However, because I am simply a champion, I drew all the cards I needed right off the top and was once again able to combo kill him when I had no non-summon sick creatures when I cast my Craterhoof and poked for 30.

2-1
6-3

Woo Hoo! I finished in 44th place, which was really great for my first ever Legacy Open! The deck was really solid, though a lot of my learning came over the course of my matches as little things started coming up (like actually respecting Priest of Titania as a card), and I feel very comfortable with the deck now. I look forward to SCG Worcester, although by the time that rolls around I may be on a different deck - maybe Dream Halls? However, even if I play elves again I really won't mind because more practice always leads to better results.

I had an absolute blast at SCG Providence! If you don't usually go to major events I absolutely recommend going to any and all that you can! There are tons of people to trade with (just watch out for sharks!), tons of magic to be played (both the main event and side events), tons of people to meet and talk to, and dealers that have almost everything you could want! One my favorite things about the dealers is selling off bulk, which are the rares and foils that you really can't move and will never really be playable (things like Cyclops Gladiator) and you can sell them for $0.10 a piece. I had enough bulk stocked up that I was able to get $58 cash or $70 store credit for. I wound up turning my huge piles of bulk (though there were a lot of $0.25 cards, I didn't have 580 bulk cards!) into a Lion's Eye Diamond, Bloodstained Mire, and a Japanese Avacyn Restored pack (for drafting). I can't wait, but in 4 weeks SCG is coming back to New England for SCG Worcester, so I will certainly be going to that!

That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack