This year at GenCon, I decided to give the Legacy Championships a shot. Alright, I guess it was more that just “a shot.” But how many players would have ever considered playing U/G Madness competitively in Legacy today? Just one. Out of 190 participants, I ran the rogue deck that had been dismissed for a long time as a sub-par deck choice. But then I surprised the metagame and shocked the community when I took it all down with Madness.
So why Madness? Why not Goblins, Threshold, or even Solidarity? Simply put, I wanted to play something that I knew the ins and outs of. Even though I had not picked up the deck since failing to do well with it at Grand Prix: Philly last year, I wanted to give it one more try. The day before at the Prelims of Legacy, I tried my hand at playing Goblins for the first time, only to be crushed in two consecutive matches, by the mirror match and Solidarity. That embarrassing performance almost made me want to never play Legacy again.
Fortunately, my friend Mike Herbig had most of the Madness components in the cards he brought. I borrowed from him since my Vintage decks, Legacy decks, and a significant portion of my collection had been recently stolen in the weeks leading up to GenCon. Originally, I was supposed to let him borrow cards from me, not the other way around. The prize I received for winning this championship somewhat helps me rebound from my loss of over $15,000 worth of cards. Without the help and support of the Eternal community of players, I probably would not have even been able to compete in this awesome tournament. So my guess is that it was all that good karma on my side that helped me dodge playing against Goblins once the entire day!
Without much further ado, I proudly present to all of you disbelievers out there:
I know this is supposed to be a tournament report and all, but why not give all of you readers a treat and include a mini-primer as well? In all honesty, I did not take good notes at all for this tournament, so at least the mini-primer will give me something to write about.
Card Choices
The Madness Core:
Basking Rootwalla, Wild Mongrel, Arrogant Wurm, Aquamoeba, Circular Logic. These cards are the basic components of any Madness deck and should not be excluded, ever.
The Five Two-ofs:
That number must be wrong, right? Nope. Many of you would probably insist upon the addition of a third or maybe a fourth of some of these cards. However, through hours and hours of playing and testing this deck, these cards were only useful in some situations and best if they only showed up half of the time the other core cards did. Then of course, there's Umezawa's Jitte. This card alone takes my creatures and turns them into all-stars. Remember it's legendary though, so it limits itself and it would be horrible to see multiples in my hand at any given time. Extra copies would simply clutter up my hand or be my topdecks at the most inopportune times.
Force of Will:
Once again, FoW is the glue that holds together yet another format.
Brainstorm:
Working along with eight fetches to shuffle away unnecessary cards in my hand, this is a much better card to draw cards and find answers with than its alternative, Careful Study. The deck does not rely upon and is not Threshold.
The Manabase:
This part of the deck is what I love most about my build. It does not need to rely on the mana versatility of dual lands to function, so basic lands are fine. Having the eight fetches ensures that my deck will thin out land, producing better topdecks. On the other hand, Wastelands pose a problem to plenty of decks that have weak manabases. Over the course of any match, I could Waste away on upwards of four lands and still have enough mana to function. Thanks to the extremely low mana curve of this deck, Madness can function well on three basic lands.
The Sideboard:
Arcane Laboratory – Brought in against Combo.
Blue Elemental Blast – Brought in against Goblins or Burn.
Chalice of the Void – Brought in against Combo or Burn.
Hail Storm – Brought in against Goblins.
Pithing Needle – Brought in against Goblins, some Combo, and Scepter decks.
Tormod's Crypt – Brought in against Combo and Threshold.
Mission Statement (if it had one):
Disrupt the weak manabases, counter all significant threats, maximize all resources, and kill with an army of lizards, dogs, wurms, and amoebas.
Card Choice Evaluation:
I thought that for the most part, the deck did what I wanted it to do. It consistently pumped out undercosted creatures and spells by abusing the eight discarding madness outlets, a perfect number. If I had mana problems, it could only come from getting too greedy and going for a non-basic land or poor mulliganing. With eight fetches in the build to shuffle away cards via Brainstorm, I saw plenty of useful spells each game. Everything pretty much worked like clockwork that day, so I did not feel like it lacked much.
One thing I'd like to eventually find space for is Genesis to combat mass removal spells, so I'm not left with an empty hand and no creatures in play in the late game. With that addition, it may shift the focus more towards the graveyard and that is something I did not want to deal with. The deck does not need its graveyard to function, one weakness I thought Threshold decks are struggling with.
Outside of my own card choices, I have considered, tested, and now avoided the following cards: Careful Study, Intuition, Merfolk Looter or Waterfront Bouncer, and Roar of the Wurm. Brainstorm is strictly much more useful for the control aspect of this deck. Whereas, if this deck were purely an aggro deck, Careful Study could be run in that slot because then it would not care about the net loss of one card in hand.
Intuition could find flashback cards in the late game, but with all of the graveyard hate now, I avoid it. The clock running on your opponent must be quick and efficient, and throwing Intuition into the mix would clog things up. At three mana, I'd rather plop down an Arrogant Wurm to put more pressure on my opponent than play a setup card that would take an additional turn to use it effectively.
The other two madness outlets are simply way too slow in this format. Merfolk Looter is decent in the Control matchup; however, it is not necessary whatsoever. Since each take a whole turn before they can activate, that's one more turn I'd have to wait before I could counter a spell with Circular Logic or plop down a 4/4 fatty.
Lastly, Roar of the Wurm has always seen better days played in aggro decks. Obviously, it would be great to have a 6/6 Wurm beating my opponent's face in, but it's still just a creature. On top of that, an Engineered Explosives or Pernicious Deed set at zero could easily take out the creature token. Furthermore, if it gets bounced back to my hand, it's removed from the game. The card just is to “fat” to fit in this cheap deck, not to mention it'd be the hardest thing to cast in the deck.
So that's my build. Now, onto the report! I apologize for the general and basic content, but it wasn't really until after the fifth round of Swiss that I started to think I had a chance at winning this the tournament. It wasn't easy, but I rode it out through the last round and finished first overall in the Swiss.
Round 1 versus High Tide (splashing White for Orim's Chant)
He won the die roll, but it was pretty one-sided. In the first game, I remember he fetched out a Tundra and I promptly destroyed it with Wasteland. Also, in one of the games, I remember him trying to fetch for two lands in the same turn. In response, I cracked my own fetch and played Stifle on one of his fetches. He responded by using up his Force of Will, pitching Meditate. After that, he tried building up even more threats, but by that time, I had a full grip of counters and my critters finished him off in a timely manner. He never had the chance to combo out.
Matches: 1-0
Games: 2-0
Round 2 versus Survival Salvagers Combo
I won the die roll and kept solid hands, with Wastelands destroying his manabase early on in each game and leaving him crippled. He spent both games essentially trying to draw into lands and creatures to block with. Although he did play some Lion's Eye Diamonds, I never really understood what his deck was all about until after we finished the match. At one point, he tried to cast an Auriok Salvager with the LED in play, but I Dazed it in response and he slumped his shoulders. Even with infinite mana, I didn't have the slightest clue how he could kill me. I figured that some fun card like Orzhov Guildmage could do the trick.
Matches: 2-0
Games: 4-0
Round 3 versus Matt Abold w/ Removal.dec (a.k.a. Thunderbluff 2.0)
If I remember this correctly, he brought out every trick in the book. He had Wrath of God, Vindicate, Pernicious Deed, Swords to Plowshares, Duress, and Hymn to Tourach. With that much removal and disruption, he just sat back and wiped the board clean whenever he felt like it. I tried to play as conservatively as possible, rationing out the number of attacking creatures, but one after another they fell to removal spells. In game 1, I managed to get him down to 1 life, but then he stabilized. I drew nothing for a few turns in a row and his Gigapede went all… the... way! I figured at any point in this match, a simple Wasteland could have slowed down his removal spells.
In game 2 I brought in my Needles and Chalices. Without any idea of what to set the Chalice at, I held it off and eventually set it at 1 after laying down the Needle, naming Pernicious Deed. He removed my Needle with Vindicate and cleared the board with Deed. At this point, I felt I had no control whatsoever. I brought him down to two life, but I ran out of gas before I could finish him off. Mid-game, he resolved a Haunting Echoes against me, tearing my deck to shreds. I told myself that this would probably be my bad beat of the day, so I took it like a man and sure enough, I guessed right.
Matches: 2-1
Games: 4-2
Round 4 versus ???.dec
I cannot remember this match at all. My life totals tell me I gained some life, most likely due to my Wild Mongrel getting Swords to Ploughshared. My mind probably went on auto-pilot with my deck, trying to erase last round's loss from my memory. I apparently bashed in for the kill both games pretty quickly. GG.
Matches: 3-1
Games: 6-2
Round 5 versus Phil Schmitt of GWS w/ Suicide Black splashing Red
Phil and I are both Vintage players and we had an amazing time playing this one out. It went to three games, but I spent half of the time hoping Phil would just die to his own Dark Confidant. I think Bob did more damage to him than any of my creatures. During one of the games, Phil used his amazing Jedi-mind-tricking skills to take out one of my Wild Mongrels with his Nantuko Shade. The match turned out to be too close for comfort, so I knew that if I won this match, I'd have to seriously buckle down, cut the crap, and limit my play errors. Thankfully, I won in three games and continued my quest for the championship.
Matches: 4-1
Games: 8-3
Round 6 versus Jeremy McDougal w/ Aluren Combo
I have played against Jeremy before in a Vintage side-event at a StarCityGames P9 Chicago tournament. He seemed like a competent player from his previous Vintage deck choice, so I mentally prepared for a tough match. Throughout the first game, I brought out the big beats and never saw what his deck did. Through my own intuition, the creatures he chump blocked with looked slightly familiar to an Aluren deck I had once tested, but I was not 100% sure.
In game 2, I struggled to do much of anything. After he resolved Aluren, Jeremy took my deck to town. His deck seemed to malfunction a little bit after his life total shot down from 20 to 7 all by himself, but then he revealed the infinite combo. I scooped up that game quickly and shuffled for the third game.
In game 3, I managed to catch his Aluren with my Daze and he never had a chance to recover before my beatsticks stormed the field.
Matches: 5-1
Games: 10-4
Round 7 versus Zohar (a.k.a. powergamer1003 on mtgthesource) w/ Red Death
Zohar, Mike Herbig, Kyle Paster, and I stayed up until the wee hours of GenCon to do what? A four-man draft, of course! I didn't know him prior to GenCon, but I figured he knew a thing or two about Magic after drafting with him. Half-awake, I even managed to beat him in a match during that draft the morning of the Legacy Championships.
In game 1, I kept probably the best hand I had seen all day. He led with double Dark Ritual plus Hymn and Nantuko Shade, which I responded with back-to-back Force of Wills. With only three cards (Basking Rootwalla, Umezawa's Jitte, and a Forest) left, I managed to topdeck exactly what I needed to win with an equipped lizard. I destroyed one of his lands early on and he did not see any land until it was too late.
In game 2, I laid down a quick Jitte again and attached it to a Wild Mongrel this time. He had plenty of mana for this game, but he only had Phyrexian Negator to beat with. Later in the game before I rolled him over with Mongrel, he blocked my creature with Negator and shot Negator with his own Lightning Bolt so he could keep a board. Usually Negator's not a great choice against an aggro deck, but he mentioned that he had very few options against me so he kept it in.
Matches: 6-1
Games: 12-4
Round 8 versus Chris Gregory w/ Roman Candles
After sitting around for the first five minutes of the round discussing tiebreakers and the possibility of drawing into top 8, we decided it'd be best to just play it out before we were both disqualified for not starting on time. My tiebreakers at this point really sucked, sitting close to a 48%. I knew that I probably could not afford to intentionally draw, so I focused in on clean match play after we began.
The match went to three games and we both fought with everything we had. His deck featured Moat and a buttload of removal spells, similar to Matt Abold's deck. However, Chris's deck played much differently. Once again, I had to carefully weigh the strength of particular cards he played to determine if I should counter or not. His board-clearing removal cards were a pain to deal with, but with smart and conservative play, I fought through and dealt lethal damage before he could recover.
Matches: 7-1
Games: 14-5
I thought the entire Swiss part of the tournament challenged me harder than my top 8 matches. There were many situations in which I had to make some really tough decisions, including letting some spells resolve without throwing the match away. All of my opponents played functional, competitive decks. Even though they may not be considered at the top of the metagame, I had plenty of difficulty piloting Madness to victory.
Top 8
Quarterfinals versus Jason Mayes w/ Threshold
My opponent looked really pissed off, but I figured he was trying to maintain a straight face while playing against… U/G Madness! I heard murmurs of surprise and dissent when people watching nearby whispered their opinions about my deck.
On the play, I played a fetchland and passed. He definitely did not expect my Stifle on his fetchland, and it hurt him badly. Jason didn't see a land for another two or three turns, giving me just enough time to gain board control with my critters beating his face in.
I remember only having two Tormod's Crypts to board in against him, so I did just that, taking out a Rootwalla and an Arrogant Wurm. The Crypts did their job and stripped Jason of threshold when he really needed it. I eventually put out a creature, attached Jitte to it and swung in for the kill.
Matches: 8-1
Games: 16-5
Semifinals versus Nick Trudeau w/ BHWC 4C Landstill
I knew that this match could be the last, but I wanted to at least play in the finals of this tournament. From testing almost a year ago, I remembered that Landstill had one weakness that I could exploit. Its manabase carried a heavy amount of non-basic lands. Therefore it needed Crucible of Worlds to continually generate and pull more mana from within the deck. I was also well aware that Nick ran four maindeck Stifles. In an earlier round in the Swiss, I watched him abuse that card.
With this information, I found holes in his defense; avoided getting my lands destroyed by his Wastelands by fetching for basic lands, and luckily found a way to beat him in some counter wars. The first game went fast, but with the help of Jitte, I managed to attach it to one creature and take the game quickly. In game 2, it went back and forth for awhile, but eventually my creatures were too much for him to handle. This match ended quickly, and now I had to wait and hope for a matchup against the Gamekeeper Salvagers Combo deck. If he had lost to the Goblin deck, there's a decent chance that I would not be writing this report right now.
Matches: 9-1
Games: 18-5
Finals versus Thomas Lee w/ Gamekeeper Salvagers
After Thomas politely asked for a split on the dual land prize, I lightly turned him down on the offer. I'm sure that Ted Knutson will provide you all with incredible insight on how I made mistake after mistake in this match in his upcoming article about this championship tournament. I know I made a few, but not enough to throw away the Championship Match.
My teammate and longtime friend Mike Bomholt, creator of Iggy Pop who also made top 8 at this event, used to play the Gamekeeper deck before he settled on his own homegrown deck. Thanks to him, I knew exactly how to beat Gamekeeper Salvagers. My main concern about this match was my mental fatigue. In the last match, I had made a few play mistakes in hindsight, so it shook me up a little.
After winning the first game by never allowing him to resolve a Gamekeeper or Salvagers, I confidently went into the second game with spirits as high as ever. But then I made a huge play error! Instead of hardcasting Daze with two untapped lands in play, I got over-eager and bounced up a land to my hand to cast the Daze to counter his Gamekeeper. On my turn, I dropped my second land into play, cast Aquamoeba, and passed the turn without mana up to counter anything. I had two Circular Logics in hand and could not cast them for another turn. On Thomas's turn, he resolved an Auriok Salvagers and I knew I screwed up big time. Obviously, I lost that game after countering his LED twice with those two stranded Circular Logics.
In game 3, I felt like I had something to prove. I did not want to be remembered for losing the Legacy Championships to play errors. I wanted it all, the glory, the prizes, and to go home at the end of the day and say that I won with a completely rogue deck. This time, I needed a little luck on my side and that's exactly what I got. I never saw a Pithing Needle or Tormod's Crypt in these games post-board, but all I needed was enough counter-magic.
This game lasted awhile and eventually after Thomas correctly named Force of Will with his Cabal Therapy, he left me with just a land in my hand. I had beaters on the table ready to swing in, but they still needed a couple more turns before lethal damage could be dealt. So it was down my last draw and I needed a counterspell of some sort fast. RRRRRRRIP! (Insert Poker Face) There sat in my hand the most beautiful Circular Logic I had ever drawn. Like a good player, I held in my excitement and carefully remembered to attack for more damage. I then passed the turn, he tried to cast a Gamekeeper, and I flipped over a Circular Logic, paid through Madness of course.
GAME OVER!
Overall Record
Matches: 10-1
Games: 20-6
So that's that. I am absolutely thrilled to have won both the Vintage Championships (last year) and now this year's Legacy Championships. At Steak n' Shake after the tournament, I called up everyone I knew to spread the good news. Not only did this win excite me, it also helped me recover from my stolen cards weeks before GenCon. I even got to be the reigning Eternal Champion for about 24 hours. I just really wanted to bounce back hard from that unfortunate situation and to kick it off by winning a Championship is all I could ever ask for.
Now for the Plops and Srops:
Props
* U/G Madness for not crapping out on me and being consistent
* Everyone for their generous donations to help Jacob Orlove and I recover some losses.
* Mike Herbig for lending me cards so I could throw down some deck to play with
* Team Miami University for countless hours of testing
* My Meandeck teammates for their endless support
* Rob Leidle for his last minute suggestion/tech: Hail Storm (even though I didn't use it once all day)
* All of the Combo or Goblins Hate decks that took them out of contention
* All of the guys at GenCon rooting for me
* Good ol' Karma!
Slops
* Everyone that wrote off Madness as a horrible deck
* No trophy to take home
* Losing $36 at the World Series of GenCon Poker Tournament
* Dealer hall prices were completely jacked up from last year
* Not getting anything signed/altered
Thank you everyone for an awesome time at GenCon!
Roland Chang
(Changster on TMD)
| 
