Is This Heaven?

No, it's the Gamer's Lounge, Sandusky, Ohio.

The story of this tournament is that it didn’t go particularly well for me. I picked up where I left off last weekend by losing another two matches to go 0-6 in my last six. In round three, I got the bye as a reward. I’ll just give my thoughts on the decks and cards used instead of the insane play-by-play.

In round one, I played against JR Goldmanberg and IGGy Pop, who pretty much completely out Magic’d me. Honestly, Fish should have a pretty good game against IGGy, especially game two when I can bring in Stifles, but JR proved why Orim’s Chant is such a strong combo protector. He Chanted at the beginning of his turn, drawing a Force of Will. Then he played Ill-Gotten Gains past my depleted counters, Chanted again to shut off the Stifle I pulled from my graveyard, and proceeded to win the game.

IGGy and its players have gotten a lot better just in the few months I’ve played Legacy. There was a time when that combo was a walk for any control deck I would choose to play, as Meddling Mages, Forces of Will, Daze, Stifle, and whatever else were all good against it, and the players weren’t good enough to play around anything.

Not so anymore. Now, not only are you still somewhat likely to get comboed out early, before you can set up a defense, but it’s also just as likely that the combo player will take the time and the effort to win around whatever you might do.

I was going to give some tips on how to Meddling Mage against IGGy, but I’m not even sure if it’s worth it anymore. It used to be that you could Mage tutors early and acceleration mid game, but it’s so hard to tell because Meddling Dark Ritual means they just get Cabal Rituals or Lion’s Eye Diamonds instead. Likewise Meddling Mystical Tutor or Infernal Tutor means they’ll just use Intuition. Even Meddling Tendrils just lets them Empty the Warrens.

Honestly, despite the prospective speed of Hulk Flash, IGGy Pop still seems like the best combo deck in Legacy at the moment. Especially as it maindecks Leyline of the Void so well.

Round two I played against one of my favorite opponents, Mark Trogdon. He destroyed me with Trog’s Goblin Raiders in two games. Mostly, I was just happy to have Cabal Therapied him successfully for Goblin Grenade.

Goblins is a stupid deck, but it sure was weird to see only two copies of it all weekend.

Hulk Flash seems to have temporarily unseated it as king of the format, as Goblins can do very little to stop Hulkamania. Oddly enough if everyone fears the Hulkster and metagames against it at the Grand Prix, Goblins would be a tremendous choice to play.

As I said, round three I got the bye. Hooray for free wins; boo for not playing Magic.

In round four, I played against Nick’s Hastily Thrown Together Protean Pile and demolished him. Then I unthinkingly scooped him into second place on my own volition so I could get a free pack of Future Sight. As a result, JR Goldmanbergstein ended up in third place, out of prize range. I still feel bad about that, so hopefully JR didn’t take it too hard and I can make it up to him in the future.

Anyway, out of four tournament games and five exhibition games against Hulk Flash, I’m pretty sure I’ve lost one.

That deck just seems to get crushed by any sort of early hate. I mean, I understand that it takes a little luck to get playable hate early enough, but still. I’ve had little trouble surviving until turn two to play a Meddling Mage with Force of Will or at least Daze backup, and Stifle can just be embarrassing as it causes them to lose two of their combo cards instead of just one. Hulk can end up with some really ugly hands (see below) and get itself into some really stupid situations after, say, having all of its Protean Hulks Extirpated.

Still, it is the fastest, easiest combo deck to play pretty much ever, even without the Pacts from Future Sight. Got Flash? Got Hulk? Got some sort of protection? Got two mana? You win the game.

So that was the end of the tournament. An actual 1-2 record that showed up on the scoresheet as 1-3, and the matches considered victories weren’t even the same ones.

For being so patient, here are some pictures.

Jerry, Eric, Mark, and Anthony catch up pre-tournament and try to decide the fate of the format in light of Hulk Flash. Nick, at the counter, collects cards for Hulk Flash.

Jerry has a bad Hulk Flash hand. So much green!

Nick has a much better Hulk Flash hand, especially with one more blue card, which there might be behind the Flash.

Players getting ready for round three.

Eric will swing six Hulk-fueled damage into the red zone next turn if JR's IGGy Pop list doesn't win in the meantime.

Mark's goblin horde tries to get through Anthony and his Psychatog control plan.

Survival player Nam stares down Andrew's mono-red onslaught of fire.

After the tournament, seven of us headed to Diana’s for some severe post-tournament feastiality. I had a gigantic chicken-salad sandwich known as the “Chicken Whoopee.” Let me tell you, it was darn good. Plus, it was big enough to save half for later.

Somehow the meal just wasn’t the same, though, without Justin there to tell his story about a boy, a turd, and a toilet-paper mitten.

After dinner I headed back to the Gamer’s Lounge for some drafting, which I won because my opponents passed me six Gathan Raiders.

Gathan Raider
3RR
Creature – Human Warrior
Morph – Discard a card.
Hellbent – Gathan Raider gets +2/+2 as long as you have no cards in hand.
3/3

What a freakin' house.

It was the easiest draft ever. At one point I played four Raiders in a row, with hellbent of course.

I also drafted and played four Edges of Autumn (which was awesome) and a Tarmogoyf for my deck, and I got a Pact of Negation and a Graven Cairns to pay for everything. Not too shabby at all. After the tournament, I traded some foils and rares to a kid for a Street Wraith and a Bridge from Below and gave him all of the commons and draft leavings I had.

Though I would have loved to get more Magic into this already Magic-filled day, I was far too tired to do so. Besides, I had a busy day ahead of me.

Best end it here. Tune in tomorrow to see the real domination of the dojo.