18th at Legacy Worlds: A Cinderella, Come-From-Behind, Rags-To-Riches Story

I rolled into Indianapolis Thursday night, since I had to work during the day. Unfortunately, this meant that I missed the Legacy Prelims. From what I hear, though, this may have been a blessing in disguise. Computer problems resulted in a late night of Magic for many players, while I was sleeping peacefully in my crappy hotel room. In any case, I showed up bright and early Friday morning ready to go.

BC Spanish Inquisition:

4 Land Grant
2 Bayou
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
4 Phyrexian Walker
4 Shield Sphere
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Infernal Contract
3 Cruel Bargain
2 Tendrils of Agony
2 Ill-Gotten Gains
2 Empty the Warrens
1 Goblin Charbelcher

Sideboard:
4 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Tomb of Urami
3 Naturalize

Round 1: Chris Dube w/ UGR Dryad Threshold
Game 1 I keep a hand with lots of mana and acceleration, but no business. It takes me 5 or 6 turns to mise into something, but I eventually drop EtW for 18 Goblin tokens. I attack once putting Chris at 4 life, then he topdecks his lonely Engineered Explosives and nukes my team. (0-0, 0-1)
Game 2 I rip apart his hand with discard spells before eventually dropping EtW for 10 or 12 guys. Once again, he somehow topdecks the EE in his deck and kills my tokens dead. Monsters make short work of me. (0-1, 0-2)

Chris feels a little guilty about his insane topdecking after the match, but that sort of thing happens once in a while. I’m not one to complain about luck.

Round 2: Andres Gomez w/ Hunted Horror-Brand Combo
Game 1 I EtW for 10 dudes. On his turn he Mystical Tutors for Pyroclasm. My gobbos get in there for 10 before burning. A short time later, the Belcher comes out to finish the job. (0-1, 1-2)
Game 2 is a pretty long one. We rip each other’s hands apart with discard, but I eventually Draw 4 twice, storm up to 11 and play EtW, which promptly gets Stifled (another nice topdeck). He eventually gets a monster to stick, and I’m at 5 life, so there’s that. (0-1, 1-3)
Game 3 is more of the same. He plays turn 1 Cabal Therapy, blindly naming Infernal Contract. DING! He takes my only business spell. Eventually, I think he has 3 Dark Confidants online, I never stabilize, and big monsters eat me. (0-2, 1-4)

I liked Andres’s deck. It plays pretty cool creatures, and plenty of disruption too. I’m not sure how effective it would be against Goblins or other fast aggro, but it’s interesting. I’m glad he did well.

At this point I’m out of it, but I decide to play a little while longer since the Vintage Prelims don’t start for several hours. I rarely get to play competitive Legacy, so it should be good practice.

Round 3: Matt Hazard w/ Trinket Naught
Game 1 I go for a first turn Cruel Bargain, but it gets FOWed. Both of us then sit there for 10 turns or so trying to find combo pieces. He finds his first and Naught beats. (0-2, 1-5)
Game 2 I go first and get my Land Grant FOWed (ouch). On his first or second turn he gets Dreadnaught in there (ouch again). Naught gets me once, but then I Draw 4 into a Naturalize and take it out. We sit there for several turns before I get Belcher to stick and char him. (0-2, 2-5)
Game 3 he Dazes my Chrome Mox to start the game (ouch yet again). I rebuild fast, Duress the Stifle out of his hand and combo out with Tendrils. (1-2, 3-5)

Round 4: Josh Meckes w/ Tog
Game 1 I’m on the play and I combo out first turn with Tendrils. (1-2, 4-5)
Game 2 is painfully long. He goes through 3 FOW and at least 2 Counterspell, and he has 9 lands on the board. At one point I Tendrils for 8 and EtW for 10 on the same turn, leaving him at 7 life, but he plays EE for 0 to wipe my team. I’m at 28 from Tendrils, but he gets a Scepter with AK on it and 3 AK’s in the yard, so he’s drawing 5 a turn to my 1. Tog hits and wins. (1-2, 4-6)
Game 3 I Duress twice first turn taking Brainstorm and Echoing Truth. Turn 2 I summon Urami and he wins (stressfully) in 4 turns. (2-2, 5-6)

At this point I’m thinking “four rounds and not anything close to an easy matchup yet”. Stifles and FOWs everywhere. Painful, I tell you.

Round 5: Ben Szwabowski w/ Elves
Game 1 I play an early EtW for several guys, but he stabilizes at 2 life due to his tremendous creature generating ability. He plays an Elvish Champion, buffing his guys and giving them Forrestwalk, but accidentally passes the turn without attacking for lethal, and I Tendrils him for a couple the next turn. (2-2, 6-6)
Game 2 I mull to 5 and go all in on a Belcher with both my lands still in the deck. He’s at 19, and Belcher hits a land on the 18th card. From there it’s a life race between Belcher and his multiple Wellwishers. They win. (2-2, 6-7)
Game 3 I’m on the play, but I pass with no plays. Turn 2 I drop EtW for 16 dudes and they go the distance. (3-2, 7-7)

Round 6: Mark Trogdon w/ Burn
Game 1 I’m on the play and I get a first turn kill with Tendrils. (3-2, 8-7)
Game 2 I still don’t really know what Mark is playing (I don’t pay enough attention to Legacy, obviously). I Draw 4 twice, putting myself at 5, and he plays Chain Lightning, Fireblast to kill me. (3-2, 8-8)
Game 3 I keep a questionable hand. It takes me several turns to get what I need, meanwhile I’m getting hit for 3 per turn. When I’m at 8 life, it’s obvious that if I don’t do something he’s got me next turn, so I try to combo out and juuuuuust get there with Tendrils. (4-2, 9-8)

At this point I finally decide to start taking the tournament seriously again. I could actually make the Top 16, perhaps.

Round 7: Joe Alane w/ Truffle Shuffle
Game 1 I get an easy turn 1 kill hand on the draw (2 LED, Inf. Tutor, Mana, Dark Rit). He doesn’t play a discard spell, so that’s what happens. (4-2, 10-8)
Game 2 he accidentally keeps his hand of 6 when he meant to mulligan. I Therapy him and see his hand of 5x land, Negator. I flashback to take his Negator. A couple turns later I get Belcher on board and win. (5-2, 11-8)

Round 8: Evan Smith w/ RGB Sligh
Before the match he asks me for a draw, but I’m on a hot streak and I have my eye on the Top 16, so I refuse the draw.
Game 1 I’m on the draw and I get a first turn kill with Tendrils. (5-2, 12-8)
Game 2 I get a second or third turn kill with Tendrils. (6-2, 13-8)

So I won out after starting 0-2. I have to say, it was a hell of a comeback. Unfortunately, my tiebreakers were obviously horrendous after starting 0-2, so I ended up in 18th. Last year I was 5-3 and ended up in 28th, so I guess next year I should go 7-1 and end up in 8th. Let’s hope so.