Losing to a Pre-Con in the Finals is always a Sad Day :(

Hello Everyone!

I'm sorry I haven't been posting much recently, but I have not been playing much magic recently, instead focusing a lot more on finishing my pack-to-moat project. I have been making frequent trips to various stores in the area, and more often than not travel time gets in the way of playing time.

Friday I went to On The Stack Games in Norwood, which is a nice store although there isn't much in the form of experienced players there to compete against or trade with. What they do though that I really like is offer a free FNM to those who do not want to be a part of the prize pool. When Bobby and I went down we went for that option because we could only stay for 2 rounds and would have to miss half the event. That option is also fantastic for newer players because they should acknowledge they aren't going to prize, so they can play for free and just have fun. Also, whenever I want to test a crazy brew I can do so risk-free. Unfortunately we were stuck in traffic so long (seriously, who is driving at 5:30 in the afternoon in Boston on a Friday!) that we had to miss FNM back home.

So after going 0-1 bye drop at OTS Games and missing FNM, I realized I haven't been playing much standard at all! I have been playing tons and tons of legacy though, which has been a blast! I have been playing mainly combo Elves, although I have been mixing it up a little with Zombies on the side.

This past sunday, we had a 7-person legacy event fire. The decks was Elves (me), Dredge, ANT, High Tide, Zoo, Esper Delver, and UR Delver. I realized that our local meta is very combo-heavy, which makes me want to consider a hymn deck or a counter-top deck for the future... I lost round 1 to Esper Delver, and then I got the Bye, and then I beat ANT to finish 2-1. Well..... Not quite 2-1. At Toys, if you finish X-1 or better you get prize. However, it was revealed that Evan, the TO, has been counting Byes as losses when it comes to giving out prize. So because we had 7 people, 3 random people would get byes and would therefor automatically start 0-1. The High Tide player also went 2-1 with a bye, and so the 2 of us were completely ripshit about the whole thing. I'm still very frustrated because there is absolutely no control over whether or not you get the bye, especially if you get it round 1, like the High Tide player did. I feel like I want to rant about it, but I trust that if you're reading this you understand that a bye == a win. Getting 3 byes at a GP means you start 3-0, not 0-3....

But anyways, last night I saw there was another Legacy event at a store I had never been to. Ding! Sign me up! The event was at JP Comics and Games in Jamaica Plain, there was a $5 entry, and the prize was all or nothing - 1st place gets a Show and Tell, 2nd gets 2 packs, and 3rd gets a pack. There were 10 players at this event and the decks were (let's see if I can remember them all...): Elves (me), Dredge (Bobby), Esper Stoneblade, Affinity, Junk, Reanimator, Martyr-Proc, Miracles, UR Delver, and I can't remember the 10th one.

Round 1: Esper Stoneblade
I won the die roll with a 12, so I knew it was going to be a good day! I started off with Forest - Llanowar Elves and my opponent, who looks strikingly similar to GerryT, just slumped in his seat and groaned. Nope, I can't read that poker face Gaga. I wasn't going to let that get in the way of my play though, as I have seen this guy at the top tables of every SCG event I have gone to. 3 Swords to Plowshares and a hardcast Force of Will later, he was finally out of permission and I was able to Visionary - Symbiote my way to victory. Game 2, the wheels really came off for me as he was on the play and got me with a fast Umezawa's Jitte when I already had a weak board and so naturally he won. Game 3 was another grinder, but I was able to pull it out. I had never played the stoneblade matchup before and it definitely played out differently than I expected. I thought I was just going to have to beat the Batterskull/Jitte and I would win, but Swords to Plowshares and Snapcaster Mage do very good work causing huge amounts of disruption to my creature-based deck. Still a good matchup, but don't take it so lightly

2-1
1-0

Round 2: Affinity
My opponent had played right next to me during round one but I completely forgot what he was playing. I rolled an 11, so the luck was still on! I led with the typical Fyndhorn Elves, and he dropped 5 power onto the board and Galvanic Blasted my Elf, leaving him with 1 card in hand. On my turn I topdecked a Viridian Shaman. My hand had 2 more lands, Shaman, Symbiote, and basically nothing else that mattered. I played land, Symbiote, and passed. He just swung in for 5, and then on my turn I dropped in the Shaman. I'm sure you can guess what happened over the next few turns as I cast vindicate every turn for the rest of the game until all he had left was a Darksteel Citadel. Game 2 didn't go so well. I didn't have a Shaman or Pridemage, but decided to keep anyways. He had the Cranial Plating and hit me for exactly 10 on the turn before I was probably going to go off. Game 3 played out basically the exact same way as game 1, except I played my Qasali Pridemage before going for the Shaman-Symbiote lock.

2-1
2-0

Round 3: Junk
I lost the die roll, and my opponent played turn 1 Savannah, Noble Hierarch. "Woo Hoo! Maverick!" I exclaimed. I played out same acceleration over the first two turns before I got my first glimpse-chain of the night into Craterhoof Behemoth for some 48 damage. The turn before I killed him, he played a Bayou which made me very skeptical. I just passed it off as Maverick + Thoughtseize. Game 2 though, he mulliganed to 5 and started off with Bayou, Inquisition of Kozelik. That was soon followed up with another Inquisition and a Thoughtseize. I cast Glimpse of Nature on my turn and followed it with 4 creatures to help rebuild up my hand, and he responded with a Dark Confidant. Yeah.... this isn't Maverick. Unfortunately for him though, he drew into 3 more Thoughtseizes and I started applying a good amount of pressure to his life total and he inevitably was not able to Bob out of it.

2-0
3-0

Round 4: Reanimator
I heard there was a reanimator player in the room during round 1 and I immediately said, "Man, I REALLY hope I'm not paired against that guy!" I won the die roll and started with the traditional Llanowar Elves. He just drew and then discarded an Iona at end of turn. I have 0 maindeck ways to beat that card, so I just cast a Glimpse of Nature and tried to see what would happen. It is possible to win turn 2 if you play a turn 1 accelerant and have a Gaea's Cradle, or if you have way too many Nettle Sentinels + Birchlore/Heritage Druid. I had none of those and was only able to ancestral recall and put 4 power onto the board. He just played swamp - reanimate for his turn, naming Green for the Iona. This put his to 11 life while I was at 19. The math worked out in his favor, but I figured there was no point scooping because this was for all the McNuggets! I swung, he blocked and I got him to 8. For his turn, he didn't attack but instead discarded an Elesh Norn before passing back to me. I just swung again, and he blocked again, bringing him to 6, and then on his turn he cast Exhume and I scooped. Game 2 was VERY interesting! I sideboarded in just 2 Scavenging Ooze because I just cut my Faerie Macabre for 3 Dismembers and the second Ooze. I was on the play and led with Forest, Nettle Sentinel. On his turn he just drew and discarded Blazing Archon. I knew he must have a Reanimate in hand if he was willing to do that, so I drew my card and went into the tank. Here was my hand, how do you win?:

Priest of Titania
Nettle Sentinel
Green Sun's Zenith
Crop Rotation
Birchlore Rangers
Savannah

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I should have gotten a slow play warning round about now I was tanking so long...

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Think you got it?

Here's how I did it:
My first line of thinking was swing for 2, play Savannah, play Priest, and then pass. However that line of play doesn't really get me anywhere if he was the turn 2 reanimate, so instead here is what I did:

Cast Birchlore Rangers
Tap Ranger + Sentinel for G
Cast Sentinel
Tap 2 Sentinel for G
Cast Crop Rotation saccing Forest --> Gaea's Cradle
Tap Cradle for GGG cast GSZ X=2 --> Scavenging Ooze
Savannah
Attack for 2

He realized he had 0 ways to win in his deck now, and so he scooped on the spot!

Game 3 I drew my opener and saw I had 2 lands, Fyndhorn Elves, and a Scavenging Ooze so I snap-kept. My opponent was on the play and played a turn 1 Putrid Imp. I played my Fyndhorn Elves and prayed he didn't have it. As it turns out, he did have it, and I lost to the turn 2 Elesh Norn. If only I had 1 more turn I would have cast Ooze with mana to activate and I would have easily won!

1-2
3-1

After that last round, I looked at my opponent's deck and realized I basically just lost to the Graveborn Pre-con. To say the least, I was incredibly frustrated! After the tie breaks were calculated, I finished in 3rd place winning a booster pack... Woo? Bobby finished 3-1 as well losing just to a UR Delver deck and he finished 4th after breaks.

We were both tired, frustrated, and insanely hungry as we had to skip dinner because of traffic. What's a better solution than IHOP!? We picked up some a friend who couldn't play and his Girlfriend and we ate at IHOP until 1am like kings sirs!

Quick review of JP Comics:
They have been around for a while, but have never really done anything with magic before. This was their new TO's first event which was run very efficiently, but they don't have any singles in stock yet. Their new TO explained to me how he is working with the store owner on how to properly integrate his MTG stock (which is very expansive) into the store's stock. Obviously he wants to play and trade with his own cards, but the store has to have a desireable stock too. So I would not recommend going right now, however I may be swinging by after the summer if they host another legacy event, and hopefully by then their stock issues will be resolved. Their TO is an awesome guy, and I expect to see good things coming from their in the future!

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

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack