A few weeks ago, a friend of mine, hollaathim Josh Taylor, told me he posted a blog for me to read.  I read it, he mentioned that he drafts with pros/former pros and included my name.  I felt that I needed to justify that statement because I was never a pro and wrote a response to his blog and commented on his thoughts and made fun of him where I could.  For some reason, my account set up did not work and I basically forgot about the article.  If anyone feels the need to read up on SSS drafts and my comments on it, let me know and I’ll post.  Maybe I’ll post anyway since that has the majority of background information – just incase someone wants to know more about me…

I occasionally play at a local store called The Portal.  They’ve been running some interesting tournaments where they have been giving out some decent cards as top prize.  I saw they posted a Legacy tournament for a Mox.  I never really intended to play since I basically own no cards of value and figured it would be tough for someone to loan me an $800 Legacy deck.  About 3 days before the tournament, my friend asks me to house sit for him while he is on vacation.  He bribes me with food and beer to try and make me water his plants and feed the various reptiles he owns while he’s away for 10 days or so.  While the beer was a necessity for this to happen, this friend also happens to have a rather large old school collection that I plan on pilfering while I sit in his house and drink his beer.  He seems reluctant to give me permission to use his cards but eventually gives me the OK.  I’m all the sudden thinking about playing some Legacy. 

The last time I played Legacy was GP Philadelphia when Jon Sonne won with Goblins.  I played an Iggy Pop deck of my own creation but borrowed the cards from the same friend I am house sitting for now.  I believe I went 5-0, 0-3 and missed day 2.  I did play a few Legacy games around Worlds helping Sonne prepare for the Legacy portion, but the format didn’t change too much.  I followed the GP coverage of the Legacy tournament Steve Sadin won with that Flash deck, but the format was way different now then it was for that tournament.  To get the rundown of the current state of the format I exchange a few emails with another local player, Knuckles Sterner.  The reason he’s called Knuckles is his knuckles are really big.  His hands and knuckles are so big I’m sure he’ll remind you of ****knocker from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.  Knuckles and I email each other a few times a day while we are both at work.  The majority of the emails revolve around his Mama, but occasionally we get into less important topics such as Brett Favre, Silva, QQing, wild monkeys invading my office building, Fedor, school, work, MMA in general, religion, thanakits, the economy, tailors, Batman, people with dark sun tans, gas prices, food prices, tourettes and even MTG.  I could go on and on with the topics, but I’m starting to realize that maybe I should email less while I’m at work.  I would love to post some of the emails, but some things said by Knuckles are not fit for the work environment so I delete them as I read them. 

Knucklehead eventually emails me something to the fact that the format is Goblins, Threshold and Combo.  I sign up for a Combo Deck knowing that my card source has a copy of Iggy Pop sitting around.  On Saturday, the day before the tournament, Knuckles calls me to play some Legacy games.  We test Goblins, Threshold, and some Combo decks like Sutured Ghoul and Iggy Pop.  Testing goes below average, but at least we get some games in with the decks we plan on playing, him Threshold, me Iggy.

After we’re done, I head to my friends for some house sitting.  I start putting cards together for Iggy and realize that he has none of the cards.  He must have put the deck somewhere else and I’m all the sudden out of a deck.  I find an old school version of Landstill, complete with Nev’s Disk, Decree of Justice, Wrath of God and more old cards.  I start scouring the internet for some Landstill Lists and run across a few, some with Enlightened Tutor, some with Phyrexian Dreadnaught.  I’m not a huge fan of either of the lists and start to make my hybrid version.  By Sunday morning I finish my hybrid version of Dreadstill and head over to The Portal. 

I show up about an hour early, which turns out to be two and a half hours early and talk about my deck with fellow old schoolers Matt and D-Rod.  They both laugh at my deck and I basically agree with them.  We talk about not playing and going golfing instead, but it’s really, really hot out, so we pass on that idea.  Sometime during the wait I come up with some Tops and Counterbalances and tweak my deck to this final version, which all the sudden doesn’t seem so laughable.

Dreadstill
Maindeck

Rd 1 Matt - Threshold

Matt and I were probably the two best players in the area at some point and there was some sort of rivalry between us.  We are both far less competitive, at least Magic-wise, and we get along pretty well when we run into each other these days.  I’m not sure the last time I saw Matt play Magic, but it has definitely been some amount of years.  Nonetheless, this was not an ideal Round 1 pairing. 

I don’t like to get into too much detail of actual game play, but I’ll give you the basic rundown of the games and maybe some important plays so you can get a feel for the matchup.

Game 1

We get a little bit of game play going.  I Stifle some Sac lands and Wasteland some duals to keep him slightly land light.  I believe I get the Counterbalance/Top combo going, which appears to be almost a lock in this match up and my Factories beat on. 

Game 2

Game 2 is pretty anti climatic.  I remember my hand being very good.  Matt plays Underground Sea and Top turn 1.  On my turn 1, I Wasteland Matt’s Sea and Matt passes his turn 2 without a land drop.  Seeing as my hand was basically all gas, well as much as Landstill gasses, the game is pretty easy from there on.   He misses more drops, probably discards and is just never in the game. 

Rd 2 Sean B/G Discard

Sean’s another local guy who I’ve played in the past.  We don’t have much of a personal relationship but he seems like a nice enough guy. 

G1

Sean opens with the Dark Ritual, Duress, Hymn opening.  My hand was pretty good, as I know it contained 2 Forces, so he Duress’s one Force, and I use Force #2 to counter the Hymn because I can’t afford to lose my lands.  From there Sean can only draw Mishra’s Factories and can’t cast anything in his hand.  He is beating me down but I get Counterbalance/Top going and he never gets to cast another spell since his whole deck costs less than 3. 

Game 2

I don’t remember game 2 all that well, but I can go over some of the bigger plays.  I’m sure it starts out with me discarding some stuff and working my Top overtime.  He sticks a Hippie and a Shade on me.  I manage to shuffle myself into a Powder Keg.  With 0 counters on Keg, Sean plays another Shade – most likely a big mistake as it turns out.  I remember I Stifle one point of damage from a Shade during this point, probably because the Hippie was just going to take it from me, but it makes me look like a master as I win the game on 1 life.  I get my Keg to 2 and blow up two shades and Top into a Swords to stay at 1 life.  Sean draws a blank, if he had held onto Shade #2, he could have played it here and won.  My next play is a Counterbalance to go with my Top and I lock Sean out of the game at 1 life. 

Rd 3 Shirley Landstill

Shirley seems like a nice kid.  Shirley is young, 17-19, knows everything, says only nice things about people... Shirley is the guy at the party who talks your ear off because no one else wants to listen to him.  Shirley tells you everything you already know and when he says something you don’t know it doesn’t make sense.  Shirley is the reason we all play Magic.  He complains how unlucky he is when he loses and acts like he’s the best player when he wins.  Yet I still like Shirley and hope he makes a Pro Tour. 

G1

I figure ahead of time this might be a pretty bad match-up for me.  He has more counters, more threats, more land.  The game fires off with me hitting an early Landstill but I have a pretty bad hand.  Both of us miss lots of land drops and do some discarding as we jockey around this Landstill.  I start outlanding him and he decides to break the Landstill.  I’m pretty sure he broke the Landstill with a main phase Brainstorm.  This is basically the worst way he could break it.  When players both have 7 cards, you should just wait till the EOT step and cast an instant.  That way the player draws his 3 cards and then has to discard 3 cards during the discard step or else tap too much mana to cast instants.  You may improve card quality for your opponent but at least you don’t give him 3 extra cards too.  After I draw my 3 cards, I cast a bunch of stuff EOT and stick a Counterbalance and basically run the combo for the rest of the game. 

G2

This game is pretty awkward as we’re both stuck on land again.  He draws more land than me and has been doing some damage with a Tarmogoyf.  I probably took way too much damage from it.  I eventually kill it, but he draws more man lands and finishes me off with them.

G3

We don’t have much time to finish this game.  Again I’m stuck on land but I’m putting up a fighting chance.  I don’t remember the details here, but I basically do nothing and he isn’t doing too much.  He sticks a Goyf too late and can’t finish me off in time.  The match ends in a draw. 

R4 Knuckles with Threshold

The tournament is only 4 rounds and a cut to top 8 since we only have 23 or 25 players.  I’m pretty sure I can just scoop Knuckles in, but our resident genius can’t figure this out so we start playing.

G1

I think this game I Stifle most of his Sac Lands and Wasteland some more lands.  I eventually get the Top/Counterbalance going and he loses.

G2

Knuckles gets the Top/Counterbalance combo this game and takes his time beating me.

G3

Knuckles has some big dumb hands so it takes a long time to shuffle, by a long time, I mean he probably shuffled for 21 minutes of our 50 minute round.  Not only does he take forever shuffling his own deck, but he takes forever while shuffling mine.  This doesn’t bother me in this instance because I’m sure I am in with a draw, so he is only hurting himself.  As it turns out, he can probably also get in with a draw, although I’m not sure either of us are aware of it.  Either way, we play the game and I stick an early Counterbalance/Top.  We both agree I probably win this game.  He said he would concede but since I’m in with a draw in doesn’t matter.  It turns out he is also in with a draw so we’re both happy. 

Top 8

Quarterfinals

Forgot the name – Playing a dedicated U/R Dreadnaught/Stifle combo deck

I figure this seems like a fairly favorable match-up before the round starts.  If I havent’t played the match-up before, I try to theorize which cards would be most important.  For the match- up I predict Top/Counterbalance and Swords will be the most important cards.

G1

I remember him Brainstorming early this game and me not being positive he put enough cards back.  He throws his hand down on the table face up and seems very frustrated.  I try not to look at his cards and he picks them back.  Although he is frustrated, he still lands a fairly early Dreadnaught.  I have 2 Swords in my hand.  We have a fight over the first one that he wins, but my second one puts him to 32 life and leaves him out of gas.  I then land a Counterbalance/Top and my Factories go the distance.  Top/Counterbalance and Swords were the most important cards. 

G2

I made a pretty big mistake this game.  I have Top going early, but he just keeps Wastelanding my lands.  I played all my Tundras with an Enlightened Tutor in my hand to shuffle my library.  Instead I’m stuck with just a Volcanic Island and never draw out.  He finishes me off with the Dreadnaught.

G3

He asks me before the game starts if I just win with Factories.  I tell him I’m not sure as I was yet to kill someone with the Dreadnaught (which he isn’t aware I am playing).  He keeps a 1 land Brainstorm.  His land happens to be a Volcanic Island which I Wasteland and he doesn’t draw more lands for awhile.  My position is pretty sick and I finally kill him with the Dreadnaught/Stifle combo followed by 2 attacks. 

Top 4

Knuckles with Threshold

One time Knuckles punched his twin brother in the face and they both woke up with black eyes…strange.  We both wish each other good luck and we both don’t mean it. 

G1

He mulligans, I do a little dance and he gets Turn 2 Counterbalance Turn 3 Top…Karma. I vaguely fight with him for awhile but I just can’t get through the combo. 

G2

We both mulligan this game.  I’m definitely in bad shape and Knuckles knows it.  We do battle but I’m pretty sure I’m losing.  He’s got board advantage and hand advantage.  I draw a Dreadnaught, the only one in my deck because I side them out in the match up, and Stifle it.  He looks very calm about it, but then gets a little sweat going.  He starts spinning the Top, but doesn’t look too happy.  Two swings later, we go to G 3.  I was shocked to win this one. 

G3

This is one of the best games of Magic I have played in awhile.  I got a little lucky but I still am very happy about the way I played this game.  He spends his first 2 turns playing Ponders and Tops or something similar.  On his EOT turn 1 Enlighten Tutor for Counterbalance.  I cast it and he Dazes it, something I didn’t necessarily want to happen, but much better than him Dazing the Standstill I have in my hand to go with my 2 Factories and no Gas.  He lands a Confidant which gets Swordsed and followed by my Standstill.  He doesn’t want to break it and starts taking a lot of damage from my two Factories.  When he does break it, I follow up with Trinket Mage and then a Dreadnaught.  This nearly locks him out of the game as he won’t be able to deal with everything.  He kills the Dreadnaught but dies to my Mage and Factories.

Finals Kevin Mono Red Burn

First off, I really like Kevin, but he always seems to be up to something.  Before the round started, Kevin and Shirley failed to report the winner of their match when there were many witnesses saying Kevin won...  There was not much of a second place prize so I offered Kevin a 60/40 split in my favor.  We played 4 games between rounds and I won all 4 so I felt this was more than a fair offer.  After a lot of deliberation, Kevin declined so we started to battle. 

G1

I keep a really lousy hand this game but I had a Brainstorm and was on the draw.  I draw into Dreadnaught which sets up a turn 2 Dreadnaught Stifle.  I wasn’t aware Kevin was playing main deck Pyroblast and he Blasts the Stifle, but luckily I drew into Force of Will.  Kevin keeps burning my dome and gets me to 8 facing lethal on his turn with just 1 card in hand.  He attacks with a Mogg Fanatic, Chain Lightnings me, then immediately Incinerates me and sacs his Fanatic.  Things get a little crazy here and I’m still not sure how I feel about it.  Kevin plays real fast and I don’t, but sometimes I find myself trying to keep up with him.  I marked my life down from 7 to 1 and looked at my life total and said, “Dead(?)”.  Bear in mind, I don’t believe Kevin has put any of the cards he played in his graveyard, especially the Mogg Fanatic.  My life total is still at 1 on my paper and I have not scooped up any of my cards.  Something doesn’t feel right here.  I check my life total again and go to look at my graveyard and Kevin starts to scoop up his cards.  I say, “Wait…I’ll Stifle the Fanatic” and then the players rooting for Kevin go completely crazy.  I won’t go into everything they said here because a lot was said by a lot of people.  I think Kevin realizes that this is not going to be ruled in his favor as he believes that we should replay the first game.  Ultimately it is the judges decision and after maybe 15 minutes and some searching on the internet, the judge rules in my favor and gives me a warning.  This was a level one event and I feel slightly sorry for Kevin here, but in my mind, I did not feel as though I gave up on the game.  This is my version of the situation, but I feel it’s pretty close to accurate.  Things go pretty fast sometimes so maybe I’m wrong.  I’d still love to hear what others feel about the situation. 

G2

This game was pretty much a blowout, but a few interesting plays happen here.  Kevin Burns me, I Pyroblast a turn 2 Flame Rift and play a Standstill on my turn 2.  Kevin chooses to break this right away.  After the game, Matt asked me if I thought this was a good play.  In this situation it may not have been the best since my hand wasn’t very good and I drew some nice cards off of the Standstill.  I thought that Kevin would break it since when he didn’t in some of our test games, it didn’t end very well for him as it usually gave me enough time to set up Counterbalance/Top.  I go for Dreadnaught/Stifle and Kevin has 1 red open.  He plays Pyroblast and never taps his mana.  I stare at him for awhile as I had a few options in my hand and eventually he taps his land and then I realize I can Daze it.  This is just the way Kevin plays.  He takes about as many shortcuts as allowable and appears to have ADD.  Take your time against these players and think about all your options.  Anyway I win the game easily from here and then win a really nice conditioned Mox Sapphire. 

Wrapping it up

I would definitely recommend this deck for a Legacy tournament, but I am not positive it’s great or even optimally built.  I did not test the deck much and only have a limited amount of games to go by.  Regardless, the deck seemed awesome.  The debatable cards are 1 Dreadnaught, Trickbind, and Tormod’s Crypt.  I could see adding a 23^rd land, a Counterbalance, and a Crucible or Worlds to Tutor for.    I would also add at least 1 Polluted Delta but I could not get them for the tournament.  I was never thrilled about the Powder Kegs out of the board, but they were surprisingly useful.  I would also focus on improving control match-ups after sideboard and test against the combo decks, mostly the ghoul deck, dredge and TEPS. 

Thanks for staying until the end.  Let me know if you want more blogging and your thoughts on Game 1 of the Finals. 

Tags: Magic Legacy Tournament Winner

Related to: Magic: the Gathering

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