Christian Valenti

A long day of Legacy play was down to three final rounds: the Top 8. For Christian Valenti, that meant hoping his Charbelcher deck would continue giving him the blessed hands he'd been having all day long. His opponent was playing Goblins, the archetype that won the preceding StarCityGames.com Legacy Open in Orlando, which had been played then by David Sharfman but was piloted by Mark Brislin in Atlanta.

Mark started with Goblin Lackey, but his powerful 1/1 was little match for Christian's super fast combo. Valenti cast Land Grant for a Bayou, then used a Simian Spirit Guide and Elvish Spirit Guide to cast Goblin Charbelcher with the fourth mana provided by Chrome Mox all on the first turn. Mark Brislin had approximately one turn to live, and needed to disrupt his opponent somehow. He cast Goblin Matron for free after attacking with Goblin Lackey, and fetched up Goblin Warchief. His land for the turn? Wasteland! That put Christian to one mana source, his Chrome Mox, and meant he needed two more mana sources in order to activate his Belcher; the plucky beatdown player had bought himself some breathing room.

Brislin tried to start beating down with Goblin Warchief alongside his Goblin Lackey and Goblin Matron, but Christian ripped a Spirit Guide to get two mana, then cast Manamorphose. The filtering instant drew him the single remaining land in his deck, Taiga, and he had exactly enough to activate the Belcher and deal lethal to Brislin; the Goblins player had put up a valiant effort, but it wasn't enough.

Mark Brislin

Christian Valenti 1, Mark Brislin 0

Brislin kicked the second game off with a mulligan, but so did his opponent, and they were both down to six cards. Valenti was happy there, but Mark's Goblin deck needed to drop to five. He was able to keep that hand, and opened on Auntie's Hovel into Goblin Lackey. Christian exploded on his first turn, casting Land Grant for Taiga, used that to cast Tinder Wall, the Wall to cast Rite of Flame, the Rite to cast Desperate Ritual, and dropping a Lion's Eye Diamond he didn't even need to use. The coup de grace? An Empty the Warrens for 12 Goblin tokens and it wasn't looking long for the tournament world for poor Mark Brislin.

Pyrokinesis for Mark helped buy him some time, taking out four of his opponent's Goblin tokens and leaving him with just eight. Goblin Lackey, then Goblin Piledriver helped with blocking duties, and a second Pyrokinesis actually put Christian's Goblin token count too low to be lethal. With only two tokens left and Mark on 2 life with a blocker, Christian needed another win condition in order to finish Brislin off. He found it, as a lucky Goblin Charbelcher was waiting on the top of his deck and Christian had enough to finish things off.

Christian Valenti 2, Mark Brislin 0