[Report] TML open TOP 8

When I first heard there was going to be a legacy event that was going to be run by Waterbury's Ray Robilard I knew I just had to play. I had plans to play Iggy-pop (#1 reason for this? I'm 3 cards shy of foiling the whole deck) but made a last-minute shift to threshold 2 days earlier. I was given this list from Ashok (method):

Blue/Green/Red Threshold

4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
3 Daze

4 Brainstorm
4 Portent
4 Serum Visions
4 Predict

3 Pithing Needle
4 Lightning Bolt

4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Werebear
2 Fledgling Dragon

3 Island
1 Forest
3 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Flooded Strand

SB:
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Fire // Ice
3 Pyroclasm
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Naturalize
1 Fledgling Dragon

I tinkered and reformated your list a little. - Bardo, OCD

The original list had -1 Counterspell, +1 Volcanic Island, but a last-minute suggestion from PT-apprentice Chad Kastel upped the counter suite and dropped the land to a no-more-than-necessary 16.

So my pimped-out Iggy deck went to PT-regular Osyp for piloting and a second copy of this list went to Chad.

On the the swiss!

My appologies to my opponents for not taking down any of your names.

Round 1: Madness

Both games I was able to keep him off anything bigger than a Wild Mongrel (he tried dropping some arrogants but they were countered). Bolts made Rootwallas short-lived. Fledgling Dragon was insane in this matchup as it trumps all of this guys.

1-0

Round 2: UWb fish-type weenie

I took game 1 mostly because Thresh is ridiculous, and bolts kill EVERY guy in his deck. Bears got STP'd quickly as did Fledgies but Mongeese went all the way. He got a Bob and Jitte to stick on game 2 and Meddling Maged my Mongeese. Pithing needle shut off his Jitte (but gave him some life) and then I showed him the pyroclasm.

2-0

Round 3: Faerie Stompy, stax, 5/3, thing that top 4'd

This match was ridiculous. I could have sworn that he had some way of knowing exactly what was in my hand (i'm in no way saying he was looking at my cards). I go turn 1 island, go. He plays flooded strand, break for island, pithing needle. I brainstorm and let it resolve. He thinks and goes "oh I don't know, flooded strand." Guess what my only other mana source was. Luckily I BS'd 2 volcanics on top for my 2 bolts in hand...but that doesn't help my mongeese. I drop my volcanic and pass. He plays City of Traitors and lays down chalice @1. Here's my hand:

mongoose
mongoose
bolt
bolt
flooded strand
fledgling dragon

i bolt in response, knowing i have no real plays coming up i decide to just take a beating and see his deck. juggies, sea guys, sword of fire/ice...it was painful. Game 2: I kept a hand consisting of 1 fetch, 1 goose, 1 bear, 3 brainstorms, and a bolt figuring i can brainstorm my way into a second land. He forced my goose and i never saw that land. I scoop mostly out of frustration with the intent to recollect myself and be off-tilt by the next round.

2-1

Round 4: Burning Tog

Game 1 was over in 2 turns. Not because either deck went broken but because I'm an idiot. He lays down a turn-2 nightscape familiar which i seriouisly consider bolting before he can untap for regenerate. while i'm considering this play i play my serum visions, see a land and a force, send the land to the bottom and want the force on top. My opponent and I have a polite conversation that goes something like this:

him: "you put that card in your hand"
me: "no i'm supposed to scry it to the top"
him: "i know but you put the serum visions card in your hand"
me: "no...it goes to the yard when it resolves"
him: "no no...you scryed one to the bottom and the other to your hand"
me: "really?"
him: "judge!"
me: "no....really?"

So the judge comes over, counts up everything, notices there's an extra card and gives me the appropriate game loss. Oops. So now i'm even more on tilt because i can't afford another loss if i planned on top 8'ing. Game 2 i quickly get 7 cards in yard and drop a big bear. He shows me a flametongue kavu and immediately procees to smash my stupid face in. i rip fire/ice to kill the kavu and draw into mongeese and a dragon while he can't find an answer. game 3 he gets in several 1-point tog swings while filling his yard. my first dragon gets countered leaving me in topdeck mode. He swings, forcing me to chump my last goose leaving me totally vulnerable next turn. What would finkel do in this position? Rip pithing needle like a champ? That's what i did. And the rip after that? Fledgling Dragon. I got lucky.

3-1

Round 5: Angel Stompy w/blue

This was another deck i was considering. My list had black for confidant, engineered plague, vindicate, and other good stuff. Game 1 i drew all of my counter magic and kept him off threats. He had STP's at all the right times but again, that doesn't stop geese from going all the way. Game 2 he pulls out the tech on me. He drops a parallax tide, removes all the counters to leave me landless, and on his upkeep he sacs it and stifles the leaves-play trigger. He then morphs exalted, puts a sword of fire/ice in her hands, and procees to smash my stupid face in. Game 3 i get lucky again when he keeps a hand that has lots of good cards...none of which are land.

4-1

Round 6: UGWb Threshold

More luck for me. The game was going relatively evenly for a few turns until he dropped confidant. He was at 15 when bobby came to play. Over the course of dropping his guys and STP'ing all of mine he flipped up 2 force of wills, another bob, and a stp to bob...bringing him to 2. My last creature was chumped and he had meddling mage on my bolts to stop my from picking off his attackers so i was totally out of options with lethal on board. Come on bob!........counterspell! WOO! Game 2 came down to my drawing better than he did...including a crypt followed by pyroclasm.

5-1

Round 7: ID

we look at the standings and realize that we were at the top of the 15-point bracket and that would almost guarantee us 7th and 8th place after the swiss.

5-1-1

holy crap i top 8'd

Top 8: Goblins

My first glimpse of goblins all day. This guy was 1st seed going in and apparently had an impressive record all day. Game 1 he smashed my stupid face in. I forget how well i was doing but he eventually just overwhelmed my blockers and i didn't have enough bolts. Game 2 was close but a suite of bolts, fire/ices, and pyroclasms say this matchup is in my favor. He tries to keep me off thresh with phyrexian furnace but it's way too slow. Game 3 was the closest game i had all day. I'm able to burn off his early guys, needle his crypt, counter his big threats (i dazed his seige-gang in games 2 and 3), and lay down some bear/goose muscle. he draws a ringleader, flips 3 land and a ringleader, next turn he ringleaders into 3 more guys...good ones. it doesn't really matter which ones because goblins are all the same when they're sideways and smacking you. he swings with enough to make it necessary for me to block and drops the rest of his hand to keep blockers and make sure that if i don't attack he has enought o get by the next turn. He has lethal up, only land in hand, and about 7 gobos on board. What would finkel so in this position? Rip pyroclasm like a champ? no...not today. Island is strictly worse than pyroclasm in this position.

As much as i'd like to think I honestly earned my way to top 8 i know a lot of it was luck. whether it was ripping needle, or bobbing my opponent to death there were clearly some games that i didnt' deserve to win. The deck is still insanely powerful and is a deffinite recommendation for any legacy tournament. The only matchup i can think of that it has less than 50% against is the thresh mirror...and then only if they're running white.

This is the best part of any report:

PROPS:
- Ray Robilard. Thank you for waterbury. Thank you for TML open. Thank you for giving us an Eternal community.
- Roland Chang. In the process of building a deck for myself, building a deck for chad, build a deck for osyp, and lending cards to ashok i ran out of pithing needles. thanks for the loan.
- Gaming Etc. The store's setup is nothing short of great for these events. The owner was a nice guy and gave me a sweet deal on dreamblade boosters for prize.
- That kid's mom for being HOT
- Ashok for the decklist
- Chad for the last-minute land/counterspell switch
- Osyp for giving ashok a new nickname
- The magic gods for giving me ridiculous luck.
- The judging staff for making judges look good.

SLOPS:
- Osyp for being the only person in our carpool to not win prize
- That kid's hot mom for not giving me her number
- The magic gods for not giving me pyroclasm for the win
- The friday's waiter for sucking

SHOUTS:
- the carpool: ashok, chad, osyp
- the people borrowing my cards: chad, ashok, osyp, roland
- the people letting me borrow cards: seth levy, roland
- the people i test with to make me better at playing this game: team 0-2 drop (joe davis, aj grasso, matt parisi, bernie parisi, seth levy)
- the people i discuss the game with to make me a better judge: most of 0-2 drop (joe, bernie, seth)

thanks for reading
--jason portizo
team 0-2 drop: scrubbing out so you don't have to