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I'm writing this on my laptop while riding in the back seat of Patrick Chapin's car, on a road trip to GenCon in Indianapolis from Patrick's apartment in Milwaukee. Also in the car are Brad Nelson and Tom Ross, with whom I've spent the past few days since Grand Prix: Columbus, testing Standard and Extended and generally hanging out and having good times. The fun is sure to continue, since we have The Best Four Days in Gaming (TM) awaiting us at our destination!
My performance at Grand Prix: Columbus was disappointing. I said last week that I was looking to play with Force of Will, Tarmogoyf, and 52 other cards, and that's exactly what I did. I went 2-2-2 in played matches with Counterbalance, playing a deck that was only a few cards off from the lists used by Matt Sperling and Tom Martell to great success in the tournament.
Heres's my list:
| Counter Top Featured by Brian Kibler on 2010-08-08 (Legacy) | ||
Artifacts 4 Sensei's Divining Top Creatures 4 Tarmogoyf Enchantments 4 Counterbalance Instants 4 Brainstorm 2 Counterspell 4 Force of Will 2 Predict 2 Spell Snare 4 Swords to Plowshares |
Legendary Creatures 2 Vendilion Clique Planeswalkers 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor Sorceries 3 Firespout Basic Lands 1 Forest 2 Island 1 Mountain Lands 2 Flooded Strand 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Scalding Tarn 3 Tropical Island 3 Tundra 2 Volcanic Island | 3 Relic of Progenitus 2 Meddling Mage 2 Hydroblast 3 Krosan Grip 2 Pyroblast 2 Red Elemental Blast 1 Firespout |
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| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
I feel like I played reasonably well, though I missed some interactions that players more experienced with the cards certainly would not have, and I made one fairly serious blunder. There are so many interactions that don't necessarily work how you expect, because of new cards playing strangely with old ones or just a lack of familiarity with certain effects.
Legacy is a funny format like that. I actually had to point out to eventual Semi-finalist Jason Ford in a random playtest game during my byes that his Pernicious Deed wouldn't kill my Jace, the Mind Sculptor - and he was playing a deck with both of them! Tom Martell attacked with his Tarmogoyf in the finals rather than holding it back because he didn't realize Lord of Atlantis does not itself have Islandwalk, and Brad Nelson didn't think to break Standstill during Saito's end step to force him to discard most of the cards he drew. And those are people who all made the Top 8 of the tournament!
My own mistakes mostly revolved around a lack of familiarity with some of the cards. I had never played with Sensei's Divining Top in a tournament before, and wasn't well versed in the various tricks it can do. In one instance, I had a Top in play and I was facing down a pair of lethal creatures. I looked at the top three cards of my library and found a Tarmogoyf, a Predict, and an irrelevant card. I figured that even if I flipped the Top and drew the Predict, I could only Predict away my Top and draw the two cards I already knew, which wasn't enough to save me. It wasn't until afterwards that someone mentioned that I could have then spun the Top and responded by flipping it so that I could arrange for Top to be the second card down in my library, letting me Predict off the irrelevant card and draw the Tarmogoyf and Top again, letting me see deeper with the Top when I played it again.
With a deck as complex as Counter Top, subtle details like that can be the difference between winning and losing. In that particular instance, my opponent was out of cards, and if I had found an answer to his creatures among the top cards of my library, there's a good chance I would have won that game. Ultimately I ended up winning the match, so that mistake didn't cost me, but it's just an example of how complex the Legacy format can be. I had thought that going in with trusty old Tarmogoyfs and Force of Wills would lead to me being properly prepared, but I definitely needed more than the few dozen games I played before the tournament to familiarize myself with the real ins and outs of the deck.
Perhaps my biggest misplay of the tournament actually involved a card I have played before, but not often - Vendilion Clique. I was playing against a Lands opponent who had pretty much his entire engine going, with a pair of Life from the Loam in the graveyard along with Tolaria West, Academy Ruins, and Engineered Explosives to make it extremely difficult for me to stop his Life from the Loam with Counterbalance. I had a Vendilion Clique and a Tropical Island in my hand, along with Counterbalance and Top in play.
I couldn't effectively use Clique to deny him of a Loam because he could just dredge the other one with the draw, and if I Clique away his Explosives all he has to do is use Tolaria West to find them again. The top of my deck had nothing relevant, so I decided to play my Clique and target myself to try to dig a bit deeper to find a Jace, which seemed like my only way to win the game.
Unfortunately, when I tried to Clique myself and put the Tropical Island back, my opponent informed me that Clique can only choose a non-land card, which had completely slipped my mind. So I'm stuck with a Clique in play that's doing absolutely nothing thanks to his Maze of Ith, and to make matters worse, the next action card I find is another Clique, so I can't even play the second one without killing both of them. Oops. I ended up losing that game and winning the next as the clock ran out, giving me my second draw and effectively knocking me out of the tournament. It's not clear if I could have won anyway, but it was a silly blunder and one that I would not have made if I was more familiar with all the cards I was playing.
While I doubt my experience will lead me to become a full time student of the Legacy format, I certainly intend to try to play the format more often, so I'm not so unprepared when next year's Legacy GPs roll around or if I'm able to make it out to another StarCityGames.com Open Series event. I had a lot of fun playing the format both times I've given it a shot so far. I may take a shot at the Legacy Championship this weekend at GenCon if my schedule permits.
As far as GenCon is concerned, by the time you're reading this it will already have begun, so it won't do me any good to encourage you to make your way out to it. That said, if you didn't make it this year, I strongly suggest you look into making the trip in 2011. GenCon is an awesome event, with all kinds of gaming across every genre. Even if Magic is all you're interested in, there's a huge number of major events to enjoy, including the Block, Legacy, and Vintage Championships, all of which have fantastic prizes and are a great chance to play some of the formats that are underrepresented in major events against tough competition. I know such luminaries as David Williams and Matt Sperling are coming just for the Vintage championships, and if my road trip crew is any indication, they won't be the only top players who are vying for the great prizes here in Indianapolis.
I personally plan on trying to play in every event that doesn't conflict with my responsibilities in the exhibit hall, where Ascension - the board game I helped develop with fellow pro tour standouts Justin Gary, Rob Dougherty, and John Fiorillo - will be on sale for the first time! For those of you who have heard me mention the game and haven't had a chance to check it out yourself, I'll be doing a live demo online from GenCon with the crew from ggslive.com which will also be posted as a video for those who miss out. GGslive will also be covering all of the major events at GenCon, and they do a great job, so be sure to check them out.
For Block Constructed, which I'm sure none of you care about, I'm strongly tempted to play my PT: San Juan deck once again, if for no other reason than that I thought it was good there and wished I had a chance to play more rounds than my unfortunate exit after an 0-3 draft allowed. Maybe I just like burning people out with Ob Nixilis too much for my own good. If I do play, it'll be something like this:
| Ob Nixilis Ramp Featured by Brian Kibler on 2010-08-08 (Zendikar/Rise Block Constructed) | ||
Creatures 2 Avenger of Zendikar 3 Lotus Cobra 4 Oracle of Mul Daya 1 Rampaging Baloths 2 Sphinx of Lost Truths Instants 1 Harrow 1 Smother 4 Vendetta Legendary Creatures 3 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen |
Planeswalkers 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor Sorceries 4 Explore 3 Growth Spasm Basic Lands 5 Forest 3 Island 4 Swamp Lands 4 Creeping Tar Pit 2 Halimar Depths 2 Khalni Garden 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Verdant Catacombs | 1 Rampaging Baloths 3 Vampire Hexmage 2 Vapor Snare 2 Deprive 2 Harrow 2 Nature's Claim 1 Smother 2 Marsh Casualties |
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| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
I haven't played a game of Block since San Juan, so I don't really know how the format has shifted, but I had a grand old time killing people on turn 5 at the pro tour and want to try it again. We'll see how that goes
As for Standard - I played a good amount with Tom, Brad, and Chapin over the past few days, so I may play in the Midwest Masters grinders if time permits. It seems like the format is really based around Fauna Shaman decks, Jace decks, Primeval Titan decks, and Jund. I've been trying to brew up an Esper deck, because a deck with cheap removal plus cheap countermagic seems well positioned against that field, but I haven't quite found anything to my liking just yet. Grixis is appealing as well, but has the big dark cloud of Vengevine hanging over its head. We shall see...
Anyway, car ride's over. If you make it to GenCon, be sure to come say hi. I'll either be at the Ascension booth in the Exhibit Hall or in the TCG Hall all weekend!
Until next time...
bmk
