If I told you over the last two weeks that was 13-13-1. You’d probably cringe. Well that’s what I’m telling you, so cringe away.
Last time we checked on my PWPs I needed 276 for my second GP bye. It’s been two weeks and I am stumbling in my attempt to make my goals. I’m at 659 right now… A mere 94 away from my goal. THERE’S ONLY A WEEK LEFT! I am scheduled for Friday morning, Monday Night and Tuesday Night, then another Friday Morning. That’s, at best … Uh let me do some math here… Like 45-50 pts at best. So lets put me at 700 after Friday. I could take off work and play in a PTQ. That depends on my ride/work situation. I damn sure better make those pwps if I take off on a Saturday. This means I need to play Standard. Which means I need a tier one deck.
Before I focus on all that, Let me talk about SCG Somerset. I seriously disappointed myself there. 1-4 in the main event. Then three consecutive 0-1s in side drafts. Like a punch to the gut!
Here’s a quick white knuckle ride through my day.
6am I wake up after about three hours of shut eye. Take the L to the Q to Lexington. Meet Brook, Jason Chan, and Chase and ride down to Somerset NJ. Deck reg then the waiting game…
Here’s what I played
Legacy Fish
| Creatures (22) 4 Cursecatcher 4 Silvergil Adept 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Merrow Reejerey 4 Lord of The Pearl Trident 2 Phantasmal Image Spells (18) 4 Force of Will 3 Daze 2 Spell Pierce 2 Dismember 3 Standstill 4 Æther Vial Land (20) 12 Island 4 Wasteland 4 Mutavault |
Round 1 RUG Delver
One of the great things about playing Merfolk is that the games go fast. Really fast. My first game was over before most other players decided on their mulligans.
Turn One: Island, Cursecatcher, GO. He plays a Delver
Turn Two: I swing for one, play Standstill and Mutavault. Lets Race! He plays Wasteland, and I’m kicking myself in the face. Rookie move Zac.
Game two he just bolts and double Delvers me. It was over before it started. I wish James luck and get Chicken Fingers.
Round 2 UB Tezzeret (Brendan)
It’s Brendan’s first Legacy tourney! I’m pretty excited for this match. Brendan jokes about getting out those first game jitters. I start to feel a little better and we both keep our full seven. Game one is mine off of Force of Will in the right spot to keep Jace off my lawn. And his Dual Islands turn out to be his demise, I swing though without much worry. Game two he gets Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek online. But it’s too late and I’m boasting like 24 damage a turn in Mer people. Brendan almost had me with a Meekstone but I had the Force of Will and he didn’t have back up.
Round 3 BUG (Alex)
This one was fast! He broke two Standstills by casting Shardless Agent into Ancestral Visions. As Nell Carter once said, “Gimme a Break!”
Round 4 Doomsday (Carlos)
After a Daze that ended game one. I drew Zero islands for the rest of our match. Carlos was just as stunned as I was. It’s hard to cast spells without lands. That’s advice I won’t even charge for.
Round 5 RUG (Brendan)
By now I was in that numb place that tilt puts you. I didn’t even feel like I could win a game, let alone a match. Brendan put me out of my misery.
I dropped…Actually I didn’t drop. I signed up for the next draft and hoped whoever got me in the next round needed the points. Really you should rarely drop from a larger magic event. Give that free win to someone, and let them eat on their break.
I hate you, Delver of Secrets. You are a total jerk! I drop the tourney and play in three drafts hoping to get some fast points and open some playables.
0-1 on Monoblack.
0-1 on R/B sac.
0-1 on U/W skies.
Okay, it’s clearly not my day. But I opened some cards I wanted and I’m only spending $10 a draft so that’s okay, I guess.
I have to say that all my opponents were great folks. One of my best matches of the day was against a beardy guy that got a killer UW deck and Time Ebbed the crap outta me. Meanwhile I was Act of Treasoning his guys and saucing them to Altar’s Reap. Every single card mattered in all three games. Pretty excellent!
On to Monday. I was feeling upset about Legacy. Haunted by Delvers all night as well as just feeling like a total putz thanks to play mistakes, I was pretty sure I’d just go to Montasy and borrow Orlando’s Bug Tempo deck. Paul normally joins me on Monday to test Standard but he was busy this week. After a little back and forth I decided I’d give Legacy another go.
Round One (Garret)
I’m not sure what Garret played exactly, he had Tundras and Volcanic Islands and Jace. But I just cast Æther Vial on turn one of both games and sent his life total to the deep, deep depths. He was jovial about it. Garret normally does play Islands so this was an experiment for him.
In between rounds Li and I faced off with his Modern RUG brew and my Gifts deck. I took two out of the three games we played. The one game he got me was on the back of the beat down of his patented eight-Tarmagoyf tech. Seriously, though my fears about Scavenging Ooze have been put aside, you just have to play around the bugger. I run enough removal to get them out of the way. But also give Li’s deck a look. I feel like post-board, things get a little dicey for me.
Round 2 Esper Stoneblade w/Shocks (Lirek)
It was another fast one. Cursecatcher into Standstill and Æther Vial into Standstill pretty much sum up these games. Not a ton to say there. I had the Force of Will to stop his answers and Drawing three cards with no foreseeable drawback is just gross.
Round 3 (Mike Herbig)
Not quite positive what Herbig was on thanks to terrible note taking, but once again variance was on my side. Everything that was going wrong for me the day before went right today. He plays Islands and I play a massive amount of Merfolk. End of story.
Round 4 (Sam Chan)
Sam is on some kinda White Weenie build, probably Death and Taxes. Game one, I forget that Cursecatchers can counter Swords to Plowshares, and I deserve a game loss for that. Game two, I play Æther Vial, then he does the same…Then I slam my Standstill and pray for mojo. Nope—his Serra Avengers fly…my Merfolk do not plainswalk. Sam takes it.
3-1 on the day. Pretty sweet!
Tuesday Night I lent out some of my cards from my UWR Control deck to Robert Pompa for his UWR Twin deck and like the Launchpad McQuack you know I am, I took Gifts for another spin.
Unburial Gifts
| (0) |
Land
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Plains
3 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Island
1 Marsh Flats
1 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Arid Mesa
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Swamp
1 Academy Ruins
1 Watery Grave
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Tectonic Edge
Creatures
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Eternal Witness
1 Sun Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Spells
2 Path to Exile
4 Gifts Ungiven
1 Go for the Throat
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Raven’s Crime
1 Unburial Rites
3 Lingering Souls
1 Damnation
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Life from the Loam
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Crime//Punishment
3 Mana Leak
1 Batterskull
1 Dismember
1 Maelstrom Pulse
Sideboard
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Doom Blade
1 Pithing Needle
1 Disenchant
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Celestial Purge
2 Timely Reinforcments
1 Darkblast
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Terastadon[\d]
I’m taking a risk this week and playing 62 cards to see what I’m taking out in place of Crime// Punishment and Snapcaster Mage. Punishment is just too good in a meta of two-drops to not play. And Crime can often knuckle sandwich an opponent that’s not ready for it. Li thinks I should remove my Explosives, but I haven’t been get a lot of mileage out of my Kitchen Finks or my Sun Titan. The former holds the grind in the early game though. Sun Titan is part of a package I rarely use. These days I’m more apt to destroy a hand with Loam and Crime and let my Spirits finish off my opponents.
Round 1 RG Tron (Lee)
I should have scooped a little earlier in game one, but between getting Tron online and casting Platinum Angel and then Karn, Lee took game one without much of a fight.
-2 Abrupt Decay
-2 Kitchen Finks
-1 Go for the Throat
-2 Mana Leak
+1 Terastadon
+1 Surgical Extraction
+1 Doom Blade
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Fracturing Gust
+1 Disenchant
+1 Baneslayer Angel
There’s a lot of stuff in my deck that’s actively bad vs Tron. I often have trouble finding more cards to bring in.
Game two I was about to drop a Pithing Needle after Karn and then Gifts for Surgical Extraction, Eternal Witness, Snapcaster Mage, and Ghost Quarter, with Loam in hand. Surgical and Snapcaster hit my yard. I removed his Towers from the game and began my climb back to dominance from one life.
Lee took a while to see the writing on the wall. He wouldn’t concede until he was at zero life. I like Lee personally, he’s a really nice dude, and normally a pleasure to play against, but I knew this match strongly favors me post board, he was taking a lot of time to think about his moves. Time was ticking away. Of course we went to time as soon as we hit game three. I firmly believe with an earlier scoop in game one and a little bit faster play by my opponent that I could have taken that match.
Round 2 Kiki-Pod (Shawn McKeown AGAIN!?)
Goddammit! Three weeks in a row I face Shawn’s Kiki-Pod nightmare. Hey DCI, what the heck? For real though, each time Shawn has been able to get me because I’m just not aware of what Kiki pod is capable of. I’ve studying the deck more and this time I’m determined to not lose to a play mistake. Game one I mull to a strong five without the disruption I need and I get midranged into the the earth.
-3 Mana Leak
+1 Doom Blade
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Supreme Verdict
Game two I take with a turn four Elesh Norn off Deathrite Shaman and Gifts. Shawn’s no dummy, he scoops and moves quickly to game three.
Once again midrange guys bust in my face. There’s not a lot I could do. Voice of Resurgence and Kitchen Finks laugh at my one shot removal. Always a solid set of games versus Shawn. I almost wanna play him in round two next week, it’s become a sort of tradition.
Round Three American Twin (Robert Pompa)
Game one, I draw so much targeted removal there’s little Rob can do versus my long game as Spirit Tokens whittle his life to zero.
-2 Kitchen Finks
-1 Batter Skull
+1 Doom blade
+1 Celestial Purge
+1 Pithing Needle
Game two, I toss out Pithing Needle on Kiki Jiki, and hold onto removal. My turn three I make a HUGE error and tap out and Rob prays for a fourth land but bricks. The rest of the game I start to take over until he Rest in Peaces my beautiful graveyard. Creeping Tar Pit and Lingering Souls race his Celestial Colonnade. In the end Im able to take it. Not thanks to my Pithing Needle which I should have saved for much later.
Round 4 Melira-Pod (Richard Tan)
I lock Richard out with Liliana and removal in game one. He mulled to five and took a land light land with mana dorks. I killed the dorks and began progressing my board. He scooped once I was far enough a head.
Game two he busted my face with Voice and Kitchen Finks/Murderous Redcap. No combo nessesary. Gavony Township even saved his guys from Elesh Norn. Like it didn’t even matter.
Game three I was able to get Liliana on turn two and he was once again light on land. Liliana edicted his mana dork and cast Engineered Explosives for two to remove his host of two drops. I eventually cast Elesh Norn off of Rites. “I can’t come back from this.” He scooped. I feel like ever since the legend rule changed I have a really good chance against Melira.
This puts me at 659 points for the season. I have a week left. Who’s got a ride to Saddlebrook for that PTQ on August 10?
Zac Clark, Durdle Magus