Legacy week #34

Holiday/Christmas week!

I got some cool gifts, of which included the Magic equivalent of scratch-offs- packs. I got several loose Modern Horizon packs... was hoping for a Force of Negation. Instead, I got 3 sets of doubles. Sunbaked Canyon, Tectonic Reformation, and Lightning Skelemental. Well, at least I got the Sunbaked Canyons... right? I couldn't get doubles on Force of Negation, or even Force of Vigor. 

Also got some new sleeves to try out- Ultimate Guard's Katana. Heard good things about them, so wanted to try. Will review in a bit.

Went out to the weekly because of the holidays... there was no traffic. Though the weekly fired with only 6 people including someone visiting from New York looking for some legacy. 

I busted out my Eldrazi stompy, which has been putting in the work. (I need to put the deck list up at some point) I removed the two Null Rods, and put in two Sphere of Resistance. I have never used the Rods for any match-up. Still considering them, but the use cases are edge ones. 

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Round 1 vs Kevin

He was testing out a delver build with Dreadhorde. 

Game 1- Got down a turn one Chalice and locked him out of most of his stuff. Got creatures down and beat face. Non interactive game.

Game 2- He got a Delver turn one, I got a Thorn on mine. He Wasted my Tomb, and I couldn't find more land to launch my armada of Eldrazi stranded in my hand. Non interactive game.

Game 3- The most interactive game. I wound up with a Chalice on 1, and 2 Thorns out at one point. He used Brazen Borrower to buy some time, but my Eldrazi were not to be denied. Even the Looter Scooter was out, being piloted by an Endbringer. When you have to pay 3 for a Ponder, etc, its not going well. Even with a Plague Engineer out, Thought-Knot and Smasher are a heck of a combo.

Round 2 vs Jay

Damn you Oko. You are stupid.

Game 1- He got an Astrolabe first, then I got a Chalice. That effectively locked him out of most of his game. He did try to bounce things and gum up the works, but just didn't work out. My opening hand with 3 Wastelands were pointless vs a basic only deck. (sad trombone) Still, Eldrazi does what Eldrazi wants.

Game 2- I got mana flooded. I had early disruption, then just a metric ton of land. He got an Oko out, and made food. I couldn't find a threat to do anything. I scooped to the slightest breeze.

Game 3- Chalice got forced turn 1, which is fine by me. (Chalice seems pretty darn good right now vs these blue based decks. muahahaha) I picked apart his hand with consecutive Thought-Knot. 

He admitted after the game that Eldrazi is a really tough match-up. I seem to hear that against almost every blue deck, which is a lot recently.

Round 3 vs TK

He was on his Maverick build, which was half proxy. Turns out, cars need working brakes. The only emergency money he had to fix was selling off parts of his deck to pay for repairs. 

We split to both go 2-0-1, but played for fun anyhow.

Game 1- I had a clunky hand, and it showed. He got a very large Knight going, and I had no disruption. 

Game 2- Opening Leyline of the Void helped, followed by disruption and large Eldrazi. 

Game 3- Can't recall exactly how it went, but I Wasted his one white source and a Thought-Knot revealed his hand needed another to turn the corner. (two Swords and a Giver of Runes) All I could was spawn Eldrazi and pray he didn't top deck- he top decked and took over. Damnit. Its how it goes.

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Sleeve review- The sleeves shuffle well. Not too stiff, good feel. Right now, with inner-perfect fits, the deck is "puffy." It can be squeezed to be more compact, but puff back up. I don't know if that is a function of the double sleeving or just the sleeves themselves. Its disappointing.

Other point, I literally put the new sleeves on Christmas and did some shuffling with them. I've noticed face scuffing already. How the heck does that happen after one 3 round even and some practice shuffling?

After these get trashed, and they will, I think all my future sleeves will only be Dragon Shield. 

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From the week before and this week, I wound up with $42 in credit. I cashed in because I didn't know when I would be back for the weekly. I got some perfect fits, some odds and ends, but the big winner for the selection of cards was a nice new Force of Negation. Been wanting one for a while. Sweet.

I think I basically wound up with about $100 worth of stuff for $10 in the past 2 weeks. Gonna take that all the time. Its been a good run of games. 

Legacy week #33

A couple buddies from north of the city made their way down, a VERY long way down, to play in the MTG First weekly. I was able to attend, and it was a very good evening.

Went to the store last night, did well enough... but when I went to pay with credit at the store, I was super pleasantly surprised. I told the guy my info, said I was going to pay with store credit, and his response was, "You have $40 left in credit." I thought I misheard him, and said, "come again?"

Yup- something happened, and I had, somehow, $50 in store credit. I asked him to double check because it seemed like a mistake. He said, nope- you have that much.

So I did well enough for the evening, and was able to get a bunch of cards I was not expecting to.

The cards are for a smattering of things. The cheapest ones are for a possible cloudpost Eldrazi deck. Not saying it is good, but it will be interesting at the very least.
The Sphere of Resistence is a possible additional piece for my Eldrazi Stompy deck. If Thorns are good, and they are, then more taxing effects should be fun. Mud it up. The Displacers are for a white Eldrazi build I am trying to figure out. I will never have the Mox Diamonds which it would REALLY need to hum, but I'm kicking around the idea of Astrolabe instead.

Even after paying for the event, buying these cards, and going 2-1, I still have about $25 in credit. Not too shabby.


On to the results from the evening! I was running my Eldrazi Stompy with Once Upon a Time, which is turning out to be really good.


Round 1 vs 3 color reanimator?

He admitted before we started that he threw the deck together 30 minutes before he came to the weekly.

Game 1- Don't remember a lot, I smashed him with Eldrazi pretty good and I didn't see much from his deck. I honestly wasn't sure what he was doing and didn't put my Leyline of the Void.

Game 2- He got his combo going, and I had WAY too much land. I got crushed.

Game 3- I wasted his early mana source, and he didn't find another for a while. I played it slower to build up the threats and just crushed hopes and dreams. My Thorn won me the match. He couldn't save himself from a horrible death due to the tax. Sweet.


Round 2 vs buddy Dan on Elves

Game 1- Don't recall how this went to be honest, I think I won? Did I go 1-2 or 0-2? If I went 1-2, then I won this game... *shrug*

Game 2- I thought I had a chance, I really did. Got him down to like 4 life. Had threats on the board, but as Elves does, I got Natural Order into Hoof.

Game 3-  Also thought I had a chance. Got a Chalice on board at 1, which locked out most of his Elves... Wastelanded his Cradle but then he found his Scooze. Which allowed him to eat countered creatures, gain life, and stay afloat long enough for me to make a mistake. Which is how I usually lose to Elves.


Round 3 vs Sam on Lands/Field of Dead
Nice guy, he apparently only plays Lands. Came up from Manassas VA to play. Which is a LONG way to travel for a legacy weekly.
We were both 1-1

Game 1- He is on the play, gets Exploration down. He is not entirely sure what I was on when he saw Once Upon A Time, and I dropped a Chalice on 1. I hadn't actually seen the Field of the Dead build of Lands, but I knew I had to just keep the pressure on. Find a Wasteland, and hope to hell he didn't find a second Field. He was able to clear my Mimics with the Grove/P.Fire combo. But I found an Endbringer and that sealed the deal.

Game 2- I removed all my Chalices, and put in Leylines. About the only thing I could think of that made sense in this match up. My opening hand had 2 Leyline, lands, and a Smasher. Felt decent. Drop the Leylines. We both went land-go for 3 turns, I dropped my Smasher, he dropped a Drop of Honey. I topped a second Smasher and just crushed hopes and dreams.
To be honest, I think Smasher was really the only good solution to the Drop problem, and to get 2 is insane. Rather be lucky than good.

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Really cool idea some of the regulars did at the local last night. They did a White Elephant legacy deck exchange. You enter, saying you will partake, then build a viable legacy deck, and you blindly pick a deck (not the one you brought) and play it for the evening. I saw two Sneak and Show decks and a merfolk. No clue what else was brought, but a very cool and fun way to play. Props!


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Bonus goodness, during their annual "Gavmas" podcast (#268)- Leaving a Legacy podcast interviews Gavin Verhey. They asked folks to submit questions either via Twitter or their FB group. I submitted two thinking they would never get asked, but LO-AND-BEHOLD, they did!
Check them out starting at 51:54.

Muahaahahahaha! Everything is coming up Milhouse!

Legacy week #32

Got a chance to run it out to MTG First for the weekly. Wasn't sure what the crowd would be like for two reasons... first, I hadn't been there since Sept 20th, and second, there was a tournament Saturday. Turns out, most of the guys at the weekly were not going Saturday because the entrance fee was $45, and we were functioning adults. I know there was no way I could because I was a functioning adult, and was WAY out of tune with play paper legacy at anything more than a couple friend meetups for Saturday night cards and beer. There were a grand total of 16 players, on the lighter side as of recent. (at least from reports)

I decided I was gonna run out an Eldrazi stompy splashing for Once Upon a Time. (basing it roughly off this MTGO decklist) I got a play set just a couple weeks ago as part of my upgrades recently. Threw in the Elvish Spirit Guides, both for helping power out Once Upon a Time, Eldrazi, or even one of my 'whoa there partner' cards in 4x Chalice of the Void or 3x Thorn of Amethyst.
I had done zero testing on this deck, but mentally I knew where I wanted to go with the deck.

Side note while I was getting the deck all prim and proper, aka no proxies, I discovered I was fluxed by my own 'good' proxies. I do own 3 City of Traitors, but I went to put one away, I realized that one was the proxy. Good thing I have a fool proof plan to keep my proxies separated from the real ones.

Dangit.

Round 1 vs r/u delver/dreahorde arcanist

Game 1 Honestly don't recall what happened, just trounced him with the Smasher and a Mimic. I do recall him getting unlucky in trying flip his delver. I was fine with that.

Game 2 More of the same, too much beats. I was like down to 6, he had finally flipped a delver and he had a dreadhorde cast the previous turn. I dropped a Thorn of Amethyst, which meant- the Lightning Bolt he had just revealed did not kill me. He could not pay the tax twice. I was literally saved by my on-board hate. Sweet.


Round 2 vs Oko and friends

Game 1 I mulled down to 5 cards, which is a BAD way to start. I had a little pressure, but he Elk'd me out of the game. I had slim to no chance and just scooped. It happens.

Game 2 I promptly went- Once, found Temple, dropped Mimic with Eye of Ugin.  Dropped Temple, Thought-Knot Seer. Smush for 4 with Mimic. Topped a second Thought-Knot, ripped another card, smushed for 8. He scooped

Game 3 I totally screwed the pooch. I thought I had an opening hand of Eye of Ugin and Temple, but in reality I had two Eyes. This was AFTER I Once Upon A Time and went past a basic land I could have used and grabbed a Smasher? I thought I was utterly screwed do to my land misplay. Turns out, variance was my friend. He saw something like 12 cards and could not find a third land. I was lucky and dropped another land or two and smushed his face. He entire hand was 3 drops. Oh man. Like I said often- rather be lucky than good.

Interesting note for this match, each game I had an opening hand Once Upon A Time which, honestly, REALLY helped. It allowed me to see some cards I couldn't count on, and find either a sol land or beater. It worked very well.


Round 3 vs g/w pseudo maverick with Depths
Brian Mears is a very good player, and we decided to split and play for fun. Back in the win column for the week. Likely to head back to the store soon to cash out for some cards I need and totally blanked on before leaving. (4 Eldrazi Displacers to run something like this deck)

We played 3 games. Game 1 and 3 my deck decided I either needed all lands or no lands. And I mulliganed and got crushed. The 2nd game things went better and I took it down with Mimics and a Smasher. Thats how Eldrazi does sometimes.


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Last note for the post- I think if I could get any higher priced cards, it might be Grim Monoliths. I think those would allow me to run a hybrid of big Eldrazi and Stompy. Vesuva would be nice, but they would need to be cheaper than $25. We shall see. I've always wanted to have a hybrid Eldrazi deck, but no Candelelabra will ever grace my presence without co-signing for it. (got $500 for a 1 drop?)