Meddling Around in Other Formats

The story of last weekend’s Meandeck Legacy tournament actually starts more than a week ago. Last Sunday, after the Meandeck Vintage tournament, I was pretty psyched about Magic in general and about Belcher in particular. I really wanted to play some more cards.

My choices were either to go to RIW in Michigan for Vintage or to stay in Columbus and play Legacy. I asked my cousin Geoff if he wanted to go to Michigan and throw cards around, saying that I’d go if he did. Unfortunately he was out (wedding preparations, sheesh). Though disappointed I wouldn’t be playing Vintage, I was at least happy to be saving $5 in entry, three hours driving, and gas money.

Plus, I could eat at Thurman’s. Bonus!

So I tried to figure out what I could play in Legacy. Nam Tran suggested Easter Tendrils, and I thought warmly of my first experiences with my beloved Egg Deck. Unfortunately, after spending all of Monday night building and testing, I could not make it work because I couldn’t refill my hand if my engine stalled. I realize now that the card I was looking for was not Night’s Whispers or Accumulated Knowledge, it was Meditate, so testing might begin anew.

With a day of testing essentially wasted, I scoured the Internet for a suitably fun-looking deck that I could put together without too much trouble or expense. I stumbled on this, Bryan Ramsaroop’s fifth-placing Gro deck from day two of the October Duel for Duals:

3x Jotun Grunt
4x Quirion Dryad
4x Watchwolf

4x Brainstorm
2x Counterspell
4x Daze
4x Force of Will
3x Predict
4x Swords to Plowshares
3x Umezawa’s Jitte
4x Portent
4x Serum Visions

1x Forest
2x Island
1x Plains
4x Flooded Strand
3x Tropical Island
3x Tundra
3x Windswept Heath

I already owned most of those cards—by which I mean I owned Dryads, Forces, and the manabase—so I started tinkering.

And I changed 15 cards.

4x Quirion Dryad
4x Meddling Mage
4x Hapless Researcher
3x Jotun Grunt
2x Ninja of the Deep Hours

4x Force of Will
4x Daze
4x Brainstorm
4x Portent
4x Swords to Plowshares
3x Remand
2x Umezawa’s Jitte
1x Sword of Fire and Ice

4x Windswept Heath
3x Flooded Strand
3x Tundra
3x Tropical Island
2x Island
1x Plains
1x Forest

It looks completely different, a little more aggro with slightly less card drawing, except that Ninjas are sort of both. Portent is a new, quirky favorite that can be like a double or triple Time Walk in the right situation. Remand is still a great card that cantrips and is another Time Walk-like effect. And Hapless Researcher was my own proud addition (it was almost Coiling Oracle) as a cantrip, Ninja, Jitte wielder, and Goblin Lackey answer. Sword of Fire and Ice got included as Jitte number three because I own SoFI and not Jitte number three.

Not too bad. I goldfished it a few times on Tuesday and was happy with how it played out. I was a bit skeptical about taking Meddling Mages into a format I knew next to nothing about, but I figured Portent and Remand could help a little with knowing what to name.

Anyway, now that I felt pretty good about it, I immediately put it aside and started building and testing Legacy Belcher. For the next four days. I struggled mightily with Belcher, adding and removing cards and colors, trying out different strategies. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it work; I didn’t have enough Burning or Living Wishes, and Burning Wish at least seems to be a key to having strong mulligans with the deck.

On Saturday night, after spending a day losing in Two-Headed Giant and goldfishing Belcher six seven-card hands in a row and not seeing a win condition (of which I had eight) until mulliganing twice, I decided I had to put it away. It was terrible. I was incredibly frustrated and discouraged with Magic in general.

My options were to play Gro or not go.

I was still unsure of my Sunday plans when I went to bed on Saturday, but I set my alarm early enough to play if I still wanted to because my girlfriend, Elizabeth, said I should play. Me and my untested deck in a format completely foreign to me.

I talked to Elizabeth again Sunday morning and she encouraged me because she’s incredibly supportive and wonderful. She told me to go and have fun.

I talked to Nam Tran (who IM’d me to tell me he would not be attending because he was being wussy), and he was also incredibly supportive and wonderful. He said that good players can top-4 with untested decks. Then he helped me with the sideboard:

3x Kataki, War’s Wage
3x Disenchant
3x Silver Knight
2x Blue Elemental Blast
4x Stifle

I looked all over my room to find that fourth Silver Knight for the Goblins matchup but couldn’t find it. Though I was now excited enough about playing, that stupid Knight almost kept me from going.

Man, how emo do I sound right now? It will get better, I promise.

Anyway, if you want a preview, my sideboard was awesome except for Kataki, whom I never used thanks to never facing Affinity or Legacy Stax. If I’d known, I would have dug through everything again to find Silver Knight number four and used two Chills in place of the legendary spirits.

With 20 minutes of registration time to spare and already three pages into the report, I was out the door.

At the Soldiery, I registered my deck and chatting with Mark Trogdon and Jerry Yang, who had made the drive down from Cleveland. It looked like a pretty good crowd, many of whom I didn’t recognize from Vintage, though there were regulars a few like Doug Linn and Paul Mastriano, and of course it was Stephen Menendian who was organizing the thing. We had 18 people when pairings went up for round one. There was even a small contingent from Michigan who made the trek down.

Five rounds and a cut to top 8—not too shabby.

Round 1 – Guy Whose Name I Forgot to Write Down – Land.Dec

I got the feeling that this was both of our first Legacy tournaments because he seemed really unfamiliar with his deck, which is unique enough to not necessarily be intuitive. He was friendly enough, though, so I feel like it was a good learning environment for both of us. Plus, I didn’t know his deck any better than he did.

Game one was a blowout, unfortunately. I was on the play and went Island, Portent (seeing Taiga, Mishra’s Factory, Roar of the Wurm, and putting them back in that order top to bottom), go. He attempted a Manabond on first turn, but I Dazed it. After that I got Hapless Researcher (who was really a Ninja in disguise) and Swords’d two of his Factories when he tried to block. The Ninja draws found me Meddling Mage for Life from the Loam to shut down his engine, and the two of them plus Hapless Researcher and Jotun Grunt put him away.

The second game took a while. I Forced his first turn Manabond again, but he played Exploration on the next turn to get Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and Maze of Ith into play and slow down my aggro. Then we stalled for a while as both of us misplayed. He was Porting my lands every turn (one of my two Tropical Islands, when my lone Tundra would have been a much better target), and I was not using it to float mana for the Tabernacle upkeep costs so was left with less mana than necessary. Then he would attack with his man-lands, I would block, and he would neglect to save them with the Maze. Fortunately I had successive Jotun Grunts to keep his Nantuko Monasteries off of threshold, and when one Grunt died, another would take its place.

And that’s pretty much where it ended: a draw.

It was a pretty poor game on both sides of the table, but the truth of it is that if he had played better, he would have won game two, probably fairly quickly. If I had played better, we still would have drawn. As it was, with my game-one win, I took home the double-yu for the match.

Matches – 1-0-0
Games – 1-0-1

Round 2 – Sam – Mono Black with Nezumi Shortfangs

Sam was one of three Mono Black decks in the tournament. I usually worry about MBC because it can take you by surprise like a bad case of the trots, but careful play around his Racks kept me alive. Plus, I got to see Nezumi Shortfang in action, which is a card I’ve been thinking about trying in UB Fish. It was underwhelming, unfortunately.

In game one, we traded weenie beats for a few turns as he got in for 11 with Ravenous Rats and I got in for 17 with a Dryad that got ninjutsued out with one counter on, the selfsame Ninja (which met Diabolic Edict a turn later), and a Hapless Researcher that got in for a total of six. With two life of my own left, I finished him off. Quite a battler—the plucky Little Researcher that Could.

I did not sideboard in Disenchants for game two because I figured The Rack wasn’t a huge threat that I could either counter or play around.

We both started game two with fetchlands, and I Forced his Dark Ritual after Sam bragged that he could empty his opening hand, and I wanted to have a hand of my own for at least one turn. I got some beats in groups of four for two turns, so that was probably Jotun Grunt, but he got double Rack on the board and cleaned me out of cards for the win. Like I said, mono black can sneak up on you.

So much for countering or playing around The Rack.

I brought in Disenchants.

My second turn Meddling Mage shut off Hymn to Tourach, but I decided the Mage should die thanks to a Diabolic Edict after six points of damage. Hapless Researcher got in for another four points, but the old man turned out to be a Ninja in disguise. Researcher got replayed to protect against any more Edicts, and Jotun Grunt and Ninja finished the job pretty easily despite the Rack on the board.

Yeah, Ninja helps a lot with The Rack.

Matches – 2-0-0
Games – 3-1-1

That finish put me at table one. Woo hoo!

Round 3 – Seth – Boros Legacy

Seth was the competent pilot of a saucy little deck that almost went on to win the tournament. It certainly kicked me in the nuts.

In game one, I hit him with Portent and see Isamaru, Plateau, and Goblin Legionnaire and knew I was in trouble. I had him shuffle because the Mountain he played is Summer Magic and I didn’t want to mangle it or anything similar. My hand wasn’t too good color-wise and I was trying to draw like mad to get the creatures I needed to stay alive in the face of a completely different Isamaru and Legionnaire, and a Blood Knight (he can’t be Swords’d!). I drew three Quirion Dryads in a row but no green sources, so I died. Rather quickly too.

Game two was even worse because I started off with a lovely mulligan to four while he got Isamaru, Fanatic, and Legionnaire in that order and killed me in four turns. Awful. Really, really awful. I think he ended the game at 22 life because of a Lightning Helix too.

I knew red-based aggro was going to be a tough matchup for me, but I had no idea it was going to be like that. Nice deck though. Like I said, it almost won.

Matches – 2-1-0
Games – 3-3-1

Round 4 – Mike Bomholt – IGGy Pop

Mike was pretty cool. He was concentrated and quiet during the match, but afterwards we talked about the games a little bit. It was good to meet him, especially since he created the deck he was playing.

I mulled to six while he played Leyline of the Void and soon had my hand RFG’d with Ill-Gotten Gains. I drew like a madman, though, and soon had a Meddling Mage on the board chanting Dark Ritual. Soon Jotun Grunt joined the party and the two of them went to town hating his deck and beating his head for the win. After the match Mike said that the Meddling Mage had kept him from emptying his hand to use Infernal Tutor. That’s like a free second Meddling Mage.

Obviously I sideboarded in the Stifles and my matchup went from being good to omigod. I took out two Swords to Plowshares and two Jittes because I didn’t know if IGGy could side in some nasty creature.

I got Meddling Mage on Dark Ritual even earlier this game (it worked last game, why not?) and knocked him down to six with that and a Grunt before Stifling his Empty the Warrens. He double blocked my Mage with Goblin Tokens but was unable to put anything together with his regained source of black mana. I was holding Remand in case things got too out of hand anyway.

“That’s some deck,” I said, and meant it.

After the match, he asked why I was using the Grunt on my graveyard first, and I said, “I don’t know. It would have made a lot more sense to do yours. I didn’t realize how close you were to threshold that last time.”

“Plus,” he added, “You were hurting yourself if I played Ill-Gotten Gains.”

“Oh yeah!”

So yeah, yet another example of things I don’t think about when I’m playing Magic.

Matches – 3-1-0
Games – 5-3-1

My record at this point is good enough to draw into the top 8. Had I played, it would have been against a mono-black Pox deck.

So it was my first Legacy tournament, with an untested deck, and I was already in the top 8. How exciting!

Top 8 – Stephen Menendian – IGGy Pop

With the success I had last round against IGGy Pop and the playtesting Steve and I have done for Vintage, he was not nearly as intimidating as our first meeting months ago. Still he’s a tough competitor, so this round was certainly no walk in the park.

Game one saw him mulligan to six and both of us digging for a second land. I played Brainstorm and Portent (though it should have been the other way around) and he Brainstormed twice. I found a Tundra after another few draws and played Meddling Mage naming Cabal Ritual. He found more mana and started trying to construct a win by Infernal Tutoring for Lion’s Eye Diamond (revealing the one in his hand). He played one LED and Tutored for another, holding that one and the first one in his hand for a total of three. Next turn I played another Meddling Mage for everyone’s favorite Black Lotus knockoff. I got Jotun Grunt on board for an attack too, and Steve extended the hand. That was a mauling, but I was fortunate to get my second land in time.

I sideboarded like before, only this time I switch Swords to Plowshares straight up for Stifles. Actually, I brought in Disenchants too, worried about Leyline and Ill-Gotten Gains synergy stripping my hand again.

I kept a handful of control, but he Mystical Tutored on his first turn for Duress and started ripping it apart. He got a Force and one of two Stifles, but a Brainstorm hid a Daze and a Force on top of my library. The Daze hit an Intuition that he Mystical Tutored for on his upkeep, and I Disenchanted a Lion’s Eye Diamond. I still had pretty good protection, no? The beats commenced with Quirion Dryad, which attacked for two, three, and four twice to get Steve down to six and force him into trying something. He played Lotus Petal, LED, LED, Ill-Gotten Gains and sacrificed the Diamonds in response. I Force of Willed pitching Stifle and that’s all she wrote.

Steve was keeping pretty close track of my hand thanks to those Duresses, but the Force he never saw.

Top 4 – Chris – Vial Goblins

Orange sleeves, you know what that means. He’s a Goblin player. No, I don’t know if there’s an actual correlation, but someone mentioned it earlier at the tournament and I thought it was funny. Still, this was one matchup I was hoping to avoid. For one thing, Goblins is insanely good with lots of synergy and a strange amount of red card advantage. For another, there is far too much combat math for my taste.

In game one he dropped a first turn Aether Vial and I didn’t have a Force. Then he drops another one. That could pretty much be considered the end, but I somehow managed to get him down to six life between a couple of Ninjas and a Jotun Grunt. Still, that’s wasn’t enough, and when the Grunt died from lack of graveyard, he ran me over in three turns, having played three Ringleaders for plenty of gas.

I brought in Disenchants for the Vials, and Silver Knights and Blue Blasts for the Goblins. I took out four Force of Wills and probably some card drawing.

Game two saw us both break fetchlands; he made a Goblin Lackey, I sent a Blue Elemental Blast at its head. I think I made a Hapless Researcher and commenced the beats while he waited for mana. Silver Knight hit play just as he found his fourth land for Goblin Ringleader and the goblins started piling onto the board. Fortunately protection from red went all the way while a 4/4 Dryad and a Jotun Grunt held down the fort. I took one damage all game, from a fetchland.

Game three was like trying to stop a flood with a piece of PVC pipe and a hammer. I was sort of able to divert some goblins, but it didn’t really do anything. He made a Vial, added a counter, and played Goblin Lackey when I Disenchanted the Vial. Hapless Researcher held off the lackey until I was able to make a Ninja and replay the Researcher. Goblin Warchief got Swords’d before an attack phase, and Silver Knight showed up to play, but it was too little too late. My creatures died before I could find more, and Goblin Tinker killed the Jitte wielded by my Knight. Then a horde of goblins ran me down because that’s what goblins do.

During game three, there was some confusion about how ninjutsu works, and I read up on it and discovered it was played correctly.

Here’s what happened: I attacked with Silver Knight and two Hapless Researcher. Both Researchers were blocked, so with damage on the stack, I sacrificed each of them to draw and discard in turn with one card in hand. One of the cards I picked up was Ninja of the Deep Hours. So, with damage still on the stack (or afterward, it didn’t matter—ninjutsu can be played on an unblocked attacker until the end of the attack phase) I ninjustued my Knight.

The question was whether the Knight was still an attacker. The answer is that he was until the end of the attack phase. So as far as I can tell, things were resolved correctly.

Actually, there were a lot of rules hassles (mostly caused by me) in that round. This kom’batt phase is a difficult thing for a Vintage player. Usually my biggest problem is either how do I block these 1/1 goblin tokens or how do I take the damage from this 11/11 trampling artifact guy.

Anyway, I hope Chris has no hard feelings about the way things ended. I wasn’t purposely trying to lawyer my way into or out of anything; I’m just not that good at Magic.

Matches – 3-2-1
Games – 6-5-1

So that would normally have been the end of my day, but since the prize was cash and we had 18 people, third and fourth place had to play it out to see who got $20 and who got $2.50.

Awesome.

3rd Place Match – Kyle – UGW Thresh

Lucky for me, my opponent was reasonable and, though he didn’t want to split straight-up because he (probably rightly) felt he had a good matchup, he offered to split at $15 and $7.50. So that was cool.

Lucky for him, I didn’t care and wanted Thurman’s since now it was pretty much paid for. So I played terribly and got stomped by UGW Threshold in two games. I have no notes other than that I tried to Swords one of his creatures, and it got Forced, so he took two damage in the first game.

Matches – 3-3-1
Games – 6-7-1

Awesome. Let’s go to Thurman’s.

All right, all right, fine, we’ll wait for the finals. My goblins opponent, Chris, had just enough damage in game three to push through on Boros and take home the cash prize of $120. Good for him. He was a nice guy and played really well.

Now can we go?

It ended up being five of us at Thurman’s: Menendian, Trogdon, Yang, Paul Mastriano, and myself, and even though we waited almost half an hour for a table, it was amazing. It was the first actual Thurmanburger I’d had in a while, and the table talk was all about Trogdecks and the future of the game. Both are hot prospects.

Plus, Jerry Yang ordered “THE THURMANATOR”

(Paul took a picture, but for some reason it won't come out of my email. If someone has it, can they please share?)

This thing was seriously a foot tall. It had two (2) twelve ounce patties (a pound and a half of ground beef), plus ham, plus cheese, plus all of the Thurmanburger toppings, plus some random other toppings, all nestled in a bed of piping-hot fries. All for only $15.

Apparently the Thurmanator was created in honor of the Arnold Shwarzenegger Physical Fitness and Bodybuilding Convention, which was held recently in Columbus as it is every year. Why Arnold would support a massive arterial blockage such as the Thurmanator is beyond me, but it was awe inspiring nonetheless.

When the waiter brought it out, he showed it to us and said, “I’ll be right back; I’m going to show the rest of the bar.” Then he paraded it up and down the bar for everyone’s delight and amazement.

There was applause.

Good play, Jerry. Well done.

A magnificent end to a magnificent day.

I dedicate this tournament success to my girlfriend, Elizabeth, without whose encouragement to play, I would not have been awake on time on Sunday.