Legacy week #31

After a week away, I was able to head back out to the weekly. This time, no sol lands. Pulling out my only fully paper legal Legacy deck- death and taxes.

I went with what is pretty stock for the current meta. I took what xjcloud ran in a recent mtgo league and made one change- I didn't have a fourth Giver of Runes. (step-mom!) So I subbed in a Thalia, Heretic Cathar. Thought maybe that might slow down some of the W6 decks, or the Depths decks a smidge. I am sure there were about a dozen other options I could have put in, but that one felt good.

Pulled up to the store and noticed there were a few more empty spots than normal. Walked in, and realized quickly that we were at most, 7 people. At least half of the regulars were not there, which was quickly determined was due to legacy in Atlanta this weekend. While it might have been nice to go, no way I could go.

It was nice just to have a small group which basically chatted the entire time. We were serious about our play, but having fun. Always the best way to go. Funny note- my second match held up the entire round. First, and likely only, time that has happened.


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Round 1 vs Burn

Relatively new player to legacy, and this is the go to deck for that. He was nice, and curious about matchups, decks, and generally trying to figure out the format.

Game 1- Bit of a blur, but I believe I won due to a galaxy brained Swords my own Thalia equipped with SoFI to keep me from dying. Shocker, I know, that I was able to win game 1 vs burn.

Game 2- Trying to recall how it went down, but I believe even with a Chalice out on 1, he killed me with two Skewer the Critics.

Game 3- I took down when he nuked his own lands for a desperate Fireblast on my Batterskull.

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Round 2 vs an extremely shiny Wrenn and Six four color control with Punishing Fire.

Game 1- I almost had it game 1. I really did. However, my deck didn't let me have more than 3 lands to operate on. There was a turn where I thought I had a chance: on his end step, Vial'd in my Flickerwisp, target W6. Go to my turn, I had a Vial, but had to uptick to 4 in order to play my Jailer to remove his Knight. Attacked his W6 with Flickerwisp, got the monarch, and proceeded to beat face some. Then he turned the corner, and my plans fell apart. This was all with pretty much 3 lands, and my vial on 4 screwed me. *sigh*

Game 2- I was patient, and was able to get an early Rest in Peace, and the grind started. He took 8 from his own Sylvan Library to attempt to answer some of my threats. He plopped down a Tabernacle and tided up my mana a bit. But my lands hit the table, I was able to Recruit a Crusader, and start applying pressure. He got two Liles out to remove my threats. However, I completely brain farted and forgot about Port and Maze. It was fairly late in the game and I could have ended it about 3 turns earlier. Oh bother. 

Game 3- He attacked in with a Knight while I had a Thalia out, forced me to pop my Crypt and his Knight died. I got my Rest in Peace out, and just found all my answers with a Vial to help cheat on mana. He couldn't find enablers and I just rolled. 

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Round 3 vs Ford on Eldrazi Karn?

We were both 2-0 and decided to split and play for fun.

Game 1- Almost get there, but lack of pressure via creatures doomed me. I knew to remove his non-Tomb based lands. Was my only hope that he would help kill himself, didn't happen. I died.

Game 2- MANA, so much mana. Died.


Went home fairly happy with how the evening progressed. Happy to know my deck could perform, and that I saw some lines. Happy to be able to play a full paper legal deck for a change.

how do you chose?

Hi, my name is Phil, and I have a problem with picking a deck to play.

       I get easily distracted between various cool things. New decks show up all the time, and some number of them seem interesting to me, and a few of them are something I wouldn’t mind trying out. Here are my current limiting factors:

• I only play paper decks
• Limited budget to slowly build out decks to make them paper legal
• NUMEROUS proxies to help enable my deck building non-focus, not limiting but rather enabling my choices
• Time to play paper magic, usually once a week at a local store. Maybe once every other months with friends

      I read about decks, I listen to podcasts to understand things, watch legacy play videos, I play when I can… and yet, I cannot focus. I cannot convince myself to just buckle down and play one deck, to master it, to tweak it, to really just work out it out.

       Yes, I know I could play on-line. However my other limitations really bite me in the butt- money and time. I’ve got elementary aged kids, and thus I have limited time and money to throw at my current hobby of choice. I’d rather go someplace and play than just sit at home scraping out some time to play a couple rounds if possible. I can’t do both, no chance.

       Since I got back in to play, my first focus was on Death and Taxes. I liked the tool box approach it had. It wasn’t super swingy, and was just resilient. It remains my only fully paper-legal deck I fully own outright. I’ve even got a large pile of ‘for consideration’ cards which seems to grow every time I turn around. It’s nice to always have that go to deck, and to stay on top of the tech. However, I just don’t play it enough.

       I also like Sneak and Show, which is a problem. I like doing Timmy things- big stupid things. It is something I don’t have to have a galaxy brain to play, and it can win from literally no-where. I am short the biggest pieces, 2 Volcanic Islands and the Scalding Tarns. Something like $1,000 in cards currently. I have everything else paper legal at this time. It’s a swingy deck. Often I say, “live by the combo, die by the combo.”

       And recently I got in to Eldrazi stompy. My recent deck of choice because of Chalice and Thorns. I never said they were amazing or soul crushing, just that they were well placed. They still seem to be. I like causing havoc with stupid cards. However the problems are plenty with this deck, without a turn one play it has an almost impossible time coming from behind. I am two Cavern of Souls from a completely paper legal deck. Feels good.

      What is missing in all of this? A real blue deck, one that makes you actually think. I play magic, generally, so I don’t have to think TOOO much. I do enough of that at work.

So I have the question of- do I just play one deck for the forseeable future, master it, ride it out and learn. Or do I just find interesting decks I like and be a wishy washy “hot deck of the month” fan-boi?

Pardon me, I have to go scour for value in order to build up my library of possible. Damn you collectible cards.

     Note to self- if the next set is a good draft set, I may take a break from regular Legacy play and get my draft on for a bit. Stop paying attention to Legacy as much, and just focus on limited for a while to take a short break. Not stop playing all together, or looking for deals... just draft instead of Legacy. Then again, I didn't try for Core 2020 at all... but really enjoyed War of the Spark draft tremendously.. 

Tournament for fetches, a report

I ran my eldrazi stompy list. Which had been doing fairly we over the past few weeks, but the variance of my winning finally caught up with me. I made a couple errors, and it bit me.


Round 1 vs Goblins

He was running late, and I might have even picked up a game win if he was 5 more minutes. However he showed within 30 seconds of being told that. He was completely flustered, but one of the best goblins players in the area. Entire deck was foiled out where it could be. Including Masterpiece Vials.


Game 1- I just flooded the board, and he had no answers to 2 Smashers

Game 2- Got lite mana and he overwhelmed me.

Game 3- A back and forth, and the end showed me at 9 life and him at , and him able to swing for 4 a turn. I needed one of my 4 answers, Smasher or Walking Ballista. I flipped the top card, Smasher and extended my hand.



Round 2 vs White Eldrazi

We had been talking before the round, and explained some of our decks. Good local player. He was usually on D&T, so we talked recent variants. Hawks, and Avengers with Force of Virtue.

Game 1- Did have it, a Displacer got him out of a tough spot.

Game 2- He wasted a critical Temple, and I couldn't catch up. I had the right cards in hand, but couldn't cast to get even.

Displacer for the win!

[note- I watched him play the next round vs G/B depths with David Long at the helm. I caught game 3, and on the back of a single Eldrazi Displacer, take down the round. Locking up the top seed. There was a critical turn where Long fetched a waste up, removed the only Temple he had up, and Chris top decked another Temple which saved his Displacer activation.]



Round 3 vs Burn

My first ever deck check! Everything was hunky dory.

Game 1- Wiped the board when a Thorn hit the table.

Game 2- Had no early ability to stop his burn, and I got burned out.

Game 3- I was a COMPLETE idiot and did not aggressively mulligan to my hate. Turns out, a simple Chalice on 1 would have won me the match, but NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo, I brain farted HARD and that was that.



Round 4 vs Grixis

Both games I mulliganed, why? 5 lands, then no lands. Really bad matchup for me.

Game 1- Don't even recall, just everything kinda went sideways. Hymns suck.

Game 2- Lands didn't bother showing up. He didn't Waste me out of existence, I just didn't draw them.It was embarrassing.



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I need to get off the sol land merry-go-round for a bit. Between Sneak and Show, and now Eldrazi Stompy... I haven't had a "stable" land base in, AGES.
I do have D&T to fall on if need be, but that is my back up to understanding the meta. For this coming week I am going to run out this B.A.E build that was talked about on LaL podcast.
When I proxy, I proxy HARD:

Homemade foil tokens.

Cheap white core proxies.