Sneak and Show goes to a 1K, and the weekly

I went to my weekly legacy, packing S&S with my adjustments for Enchantress. (Veil of Summer, thank you very much)  

[Editor's note- I am going to try to start using MoxField as my deck listing site of choice. We will see how that goes moving forward]

 It was  a solid showing of players, I believe we had 22 people for the weekly. Darn tooting good for a regular.

I did fairly well!

Rd 1- Vs Enchantress player

I originally wasn't supposed to play him, but they had some last minute additions and had to re-pair at the last minute. Once I saw the guy's name pop up, I was SO ready to just make his day a living hell. And I did. I don't recall the rounds, but it was two short games. I didn't care what happened the rest of the night, I felt WAY better after trouncing the weird combo deck that got me before. Revenge!

Rd 2- Vs. Old School 12 Post

When I say old school, I mean Candelabra of Tawnos old school. Props for playing the deck, but yozzers.
I am relying on texts to a friend to sort out what I did here.. Seems I did a turn 2 S&T into Omniscience into Emrakul. Game 2 was MUCH tighter, I had one turn to get the combo off because he had 3 Canelabras out, and ready to take over, but I found victory through Griselbrand. I think.

Rd 3- Vs. Delver (Paul Lynch)

Paul is a stud at Delver. Just the bees knees. First thing first, we split the final round so we both landed with $25 credit no matter the outcome. He just wanted to play, and crushed me in three consecutive games. I didn't even pose a threat. Sigh. 

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THE 1K

Then I got clearance from the home office to head out to the 1k at LevelUpMd. (same as the weekly, but they are totally worth sending out good vibes) With help from my buddy Andy lending me a couple cards, I could run my paper legal S&S. I could have run Titan Post, but I felt AWFUL at borrowing a Tabernacle. Good god, I would have been a wreck all day trying to shuffle a 3K card.
This is the list I wound up running.

Funny thing is, other buddy Rob decided to join in last minute, and caused them to make it RIGHT at the start time. Of course. Nor did they have Companion accounts. (new WoTC fanciness for pairings) I had a deck B I could play, but thankfully I didn't have to deploy that one. [though not that it mattered]

There were 30 people total, and some fairly heavy local hitters in attendance. Turns out Jarvis Yu was on 8 mulch and was wrecking people's day due to it. 

My tourament went a little something like this:  (I took notes!)

Rd 1 Vs- Izzet Delver

Game 1 He got out 2 early delvers flipped, and as my notes say- I had nothing.

Game 2 I got out TWO Carpets, and proceeded to just wreck face with an Archon. 

Game 3 He DRC'd, and I proceed to draw all my B parts of my A+B combo. (all the creatures, no cheating) 

Rd 2 Vs- Jeski Delver

Game 1 I got a turn 2 S&T into Emmy. I won so fast, I had no clue what he was on. Just saw a Tundra.

Game 2 He Delver'd me hard. Again, I got all creatures, no cheating.

Game 3 I got a turn 2 Defense Grid down to seal my cheating Archon out, and crushed him with it. 

Rd 3 Vs- G/B Helm

This was my buddy Rob, and I honestly didn't know the match-up. Combine the fact that he had a horsehoe the size of Nevada in his back pocket, and he just sent me to the X-2 "sandwich" bracket. (only playing because you like to with no chance at cashing out)

Rd 4 Vs- Dredge

I should have just dropped, but I lost 2 quick games and just dropped from the touarment, I like the smallest of sliver in game 1 to win, but completely wiffed finding that out. It is basically an unwinnable game as I have no graveyard hate to speak of other than 2 Fairies which never got used. Oh well. 

I will say this- if they do a 1K every two months for $25...  I'm down for that. Though next time, I am likely not playing S&S. Though it also depends on what I can borrow of the REALLY expensive cards from friends. 

Another week of legacy

 After my dressing down at the hands of Enchantress last week, I decided to modify my S&S deck to reflect more along the lines of this build. I thought maybe the Archon would be an interesting addition to the Griselbrand and Emrakul beat sticks. (and dancing around Karakas a bit)

I took a note from the player, dropped in a single Tropical to help power out Veils from the sideboard. Mostly because I was so cheesed at the Enchantress deck. For the record, I never cast one. I did, however, cast a couple Pyroclasm. That felt good. Oh, and one VERY timely Fury off a Sneak Attack. 

Round 1 vs Burn.

Game 1- Wait- did he just play a Swiftspear?! Did he just suspend a Rift Bolt?! I just died to a Price of Progress. Ouch.

Game 2- Opening hand had one land, City of Traitors. Nope. Second 7 had one mana source, Petal. Nope, down to five. I produced a grand total of one spell of meaning that game- a Sneak Attack and never found anything to help with it. 

As I said- "not the way I wanted to start the evening."

Round 2 vs Delver from 6 months ago minus Monkey

Game 1- Won out as I found a Griselbrand. And he just crushed face. Take that Delver player!

Sided in 11 cards. 11.

Game 2- Lost due to finding NOTHING and a Hullbreacher. I tried, but just found plenty of land.

Game 3- Won on the back of my one of Malevolent Hermit. Somewhat stupid play- I had the Hermit out, but he had two threats. I decided to Pyroclasm to wipe the board. Figuring I could recast the Hermit, locking his counter spells out of the game. Turns out- that was the right play. I proceeded to drop a Sneak Attack, then a Griselbrand. I drew 7, found my Fury, and decided in my second main to activate Sneak with Fury, and wipe his board of 3 X/1 creatures. Muahahahahaha.... Oh, next turn I sneaked in Emrukal and thats that.

Round 3 vs current/good Delver

Game 1- I won the role, Island, Ponder. Good. Turn 2- City of Traitors, Show and Tell -> FoW his FoN -> Griselbrand, he scooped. Sometimes thats what S&S does.

Sided in 11 cards again, seemed good.

Game 2- I know I lost due to finding more land than action. It was a bit more back and forth, but I just drew too much air.

Game 3- We counted after the game and he had countered 4 of my action spells- 1 S&T, 3 Sneak Attack... however, not the 5th! Muahahahaha.... I got Griselbrand into play yet again, and turned the tide. Had gotten down to 6 life at one point, but had plenty of lands to support my army of counterspells I had drawn off Griselbrand. He was drawing air with an empty board. Kinda frustrating from his side, VERY satisfying on mine.

After beating Delver twice, I took some of that winning cheddar and picked up the stores last copy of Tower of the Magistrate. Was sold on the ability to knock germ tokens off equipment and give 20/20s protection from artifacts so that 8-cast can shove it.

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I made a mistake via an on-line auction.

A boo-boo, a somewhat annoying miscalculation on an auction. Not a $1000 error like my wife thought, but rather something I need to offset by selling a few things. 

My magic collection is an attempt to be not negative in terms of sunk cost. I am sure it is in some aspects, but honestly its just a hobby and I get REALLY nervous with some of the prices thrown around. So if you know anyone looking for a set of Commander 2019 still sealed, I got a deal!

Legacy weekly with Titan Post!

 I decided after pulling the Boseiju, it was time to use Titan Post to effect. I used on-line streamer- into_play's list. Marched over to Level up to challenge mighty wizards! I believe we had at least 16 players this week, showing strong come back for the scene!
The only downside to all of this was, my brain was fried from work. Example- normally I am done for the night of playing 2-3 rounds and my brain won't shut down for awhile. This particular night, I came home, and within 20 minutes I was asleep. Just fried.

Round one was vs Alex, who I met a couple years ago and he extremely fun to play. Nothing but good banter and friendly chatter. The funniest part was- he was playing Titan Post as well! We laughed, and almost giggled about the stupid nature of the match-up. I completely shot myself in the foot by playing a Needle and naming Eye of Ugin. If I hadn't done that, I could have won about 5 turns earlier because I was out racing him with Titans and such. 

We literally had no side board cards for the second game, and the only reason I won that one- I had an Emrakal in my opening hand and he didn't. 

Key point about this match-up: Cloudpost counts ALL Locus in play, just not yours. There was one point in game one where we were tapping for 8 mana off one Clouldpost. 

Round two was vs Enchantress. Yes, enchantress. I was NOT prepared for this match up. At all. Sooooo, I lost. Brilliantly to a Tendrils of Agony. 

Game 2, see game 1. 

Argothian Enchantress- go F yourself.
Note to self- next week, bring something that can kill them on site. (mission accomplished)

Round three was vs Jeskai Control

Game 1- I won, but it was on the back of my Glacial Chasm to be honest. I was able to Boseiju away a Back to Basics, crank up Eye of Ugin, find Ulamog, and even bounce my Emrukal to replay. He was laughing because he forgot about the Boseiju that I got with my Map. 

Game 2- I won, but have very little memory about. What I recall was top decking the Bosejiu and calling it a night. I also recall Green Sunning for a Rec Sage and knocking out his back to basics. 

He was a very nice opponent. I missed about 3 triggers that he was very helpful with. I had to explain how fried my brain was from the week. 

Others decks of observation-

• At least 2 Kappa decks
• Saw a third Cloud Post deck, but not entirely sure the flavor
• One guy I hadn't seen in about 2 years due to Covid was back playing the most recent Doomsday pile with Murktides and Strix. (oh, and a Malevolent Hermit) He had told me before the event that he had been jamming on MTGO, and getting a lot more reps that way. Huzzah for him
  

Draft and acquisitions

 I decided to skip the weekly legacy. Just lost that itch for a week. I went to my local draft spot- Gamer Corps in Ellicott City. 

My trade for basic Neon lands came in that day, so I felt it was a sign to go for sure. I restocked the trade binder for the first time in two years, and headed out. 

Felt good to crack some packs and pass them. 

So much so, that pack 1, pick 1 I won the entire draft. (see image to the right) Alt art, boarderless Bosejiu.  And the fabulous point, I wanted a copy of this for my Titan Post deck in Legacy. WINNING!

Oh man, so much good stuff. 

My deck was blue/green, and basically had to dance a lot to win. The removal cards didn't flow my way in black and red. It happens. And because of the size of the draft pods, there were 10 people at the table pulling cards. So I stuck to my lane and got ok-ish cards over all. I wound up going 1-2 overall. Not disappointed with results, but happy with the draft results. (I think that makes sense)

One notable thing was this AWESOME table mat made up from the cool full art lands from this set. It was pretty darn cool.

Someone told me it was a $300 item you could buy from WoTC directly if you were a store. Yikes. Not sure it is $300 cool to me... but still nice to see. 

Oh, and I traded a few things for things I did need. From what I can recall I picked up another Surgical and a couple Silence.

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Mail day!

I spent a little time looking at the uncommon colorless artifacts from this set, and two peaked my interest to spend some cash on as investments.

Patchwork Automation
and
Containment Construct

Both seemed to have interesting play patterns and possible uses in different formats. They also fit my speculation requirements, so I picked two stacks of each kind for the drawer. Lets see how they do in the future and can help me find better cards later.

The Kappa Cannoneer and Malevolent Hermit are for other decks. I've got an 8-cast deck begging for the Kappa, and I think the Hermit might be used for S&S. We shall see.

Week off

 I decided to take the week off from Legacy. Reasons are as follows:

• Having a bad run
• No deck appeals to me right now
• Hard time sleeping after doing poorly, aka brain won't shut down
• Had an itch to draft Neon Dynasty. 

I also attempted to attend a monthly Legacy event at a local store- MD Game Haven, on Sunday. Actually, only my good buddy Andy showed up and we just jammed a bunch of games.

The owner Jake swung by and chatted with us for a bit as Andy knew him well. Jake was telling us about a collection he was slowly buying off this guy. All really nice cards, power, duals, etc. After we just marvel at the prices, he wanders off but comes back with this:

 

Damn.

Just damn.

I like the touch of the "ROOKIE CARD" holders. Jake laughed when I mentioned, and said that was his doing. (for the record, the far left card is signed)

Thing is- guy bought a bunch of collections in the late 90s and had just been sitting on the cards since then. Only reason he didn't have Mox was that his car needed a transmission years ago and that was his rainy day fund. Now- just play money.