Well, as few probably know, Canadian Nats was held in Ottawa this past weekend. As they do every year, a Legacy Championship tournament was held as a side event. First prize was for 2 of each dual, a foil regrowth, foil dci meddling mage, foil dci intuition and foil dci mihsra's factory in addition to 12 packs of italian legends.
That being said, it was certainly a nice prize to shoot for. Seeing as most people at Canadian Nats would be playing in the main event, I was hoping the turnout would be small and easy. I was certainly right about the small part. I think the final tally was about 34 players. Not bad when first place would amount to over 500 dollars of prizes, with second amounting at at least 200. Anyway, I decided I wanted to try my luck with Solidarity. I have NEVER played legacy before, let alone Solidarity. I consider myself a good player, and I am active in T1, and all other constructed and limited formats (save legacy). Hopefully, my play skill could carry me with what I thought to be a powerful deck. I knew the matchups, and I knew how to play each one. I was just afraid I might forget to play around specific cards, etc... Anyway, without further ado, I present you the list I ran:
Solidarity
4 Brainstorm
4 Force Of Will
4 High Tide
4 Impulse
4 Remand
4 Reset
4 Meditate
3 Cunning Wish
3 Turnabout
2 Brain Freeze
2 Flash Of Insight
2 Opt
2 Peek
12 Island
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
Sideboard:
4 Hydroblast
4 Disrupt
2 Brain Freeze
1 Chain Of Vapour
1 Echoing Truth
1 Words of Wisdom
1 Stroke Of Genius
1 Turnabout
Quick notes on the deck. This list is VERY similar to David Gearheart's list from the Feb 2006 Duel for Duals. I removed the maindeck twincast to max out my meditates. In the board, I removed the evac, twincast, and the meditate (as it was now main) and added in 2 brainfreezes and a words of wisdom. The brain freezes were ABSOLUTELY essential. On to my mini-report.
Round 1 vs. RW Angel Stompy
This is a bye. For anyone who knows Legacy even a little, Solidarity SMASHES white cased control/aggro decks. I can wait as long as I wish to go off. The only cards I have to keep an eye out for are Armageddon, Abeyance and Rule of Law. Game 1 goes just as planned. Game 2, I'm an idiot. I keep a 4 land hand with 3 Resets. Just to make matters worse, and show what an awful player I really am, I draw my 4th Reset. Slowly but surely, he beats me down thatnks to a trun 4 Exalted Angel. My fault 100%. Game 3, I smarten up, and mulligan a bad hand. My hand of 6 is better, and I smash him good.
1-0
Round 2 vs. Goblins
Hmm. I think I might be forgetting this one a little bit. I can't remeber if he pulled of a game. This matchup is pretty much a race. Game 1 he has lethal on the stack, but I am able to go off. He made a critical play error, although I forget what it was. He did play a turn 1 lacky though :S
Game 2 he won. I don't know how, but I know he did.
Game 3 sucked. I mulligan to 5...on the play. He's like good, this deck cant go off on turn 4 on the play. Or can it. I play land go, and on turn 2 cast impulse. Turn 3 I think I cast opt. At the end of turn three, my hand is land, reset, high tide with three lands in play. I reminded my opponent, that I really only need three cards to win: Reset, High Tide, and Meditate. I tap my deck, and sure enough, I top deck meditate while staring lethal for next turn. Instead of just entering his attack phase and making me kill him then, he plays fanatic, fanatic and piledriver. I combo off on his declaratio of attack phase, using those 3 free storm spells
I showed him I had it anyway.
P.S. Flash of Insight is RIDICULOUS. I actually used it once to stack my deck. That was fun.
2-0
Round 3 vs. Goblins (Kyle Babin)
Round 3 is against a friend of mine. We wrestle with the option of of drawing, so as not to hurt each other's chances, and with being at the low end of 6 rounds, it was certainly feasible without being afraid of losing on breakers. We end up playing, and I'm glad we do. Game 1 he gets off to a pretty slow goblin start, playing matron as his first action, and cycling a couple gempalms. Needless to say, I go off uncontested.
Game 2 I know he brings in Armageddons. I play carefully around them, and have the force for the one he does play, as he tells me "It kills my lands too, don't counter it". I am able to go off the following turn.
3-0
Round 4 vs. UGW Thresh (Mike Guethro) (Sp?)
About time I face a bad matchup. He plays a turn 2 meddling mage both games. that is the 1 hate card I don't wanna have to deal with. He is able to beat me down before I find both answers to the mage and threats. Fortunately for him, I draw no answers, and he has tons of counter magic. I'm not bitter
I expect it.
3-1
Round 5 vs. UGB Grow (J.P. Brichta)
Another good friend of mine. Me and JP were just testing this matchup earlier, about 30 minutes before the tourney started. I didn't win a single game out of at least 4. Of course, they were pre-board.
Game 1 was quite the game. I knew how I had to play in order to beat thresh. They run just too many counterspells to go off legitmately. So, the plan was to build up a hand full of counter magic and at least 2 brain freezes (with the help of wish). They rarely counter EOT wishes, because they are irrelevant. I get to a point where I play Reset eot, after he cast a mongoose. He forces, I respond with reset, he forces, I force back, and he casts his fourth force (one was remvoed). From that point, I go on massive tilt. I was holding double freeze in hand, with only 2 mana available, and not 4. The freezes would have been lethal.
For games 2 and three, the plan is to side in disrupts and the 2 freezes to go off in a counter war. Let him add to your storm count.
Game 2
I don't remember fully what exactly happened, but I was able to combo off thanks to disrupt.
Game 3
There were about 6 minutes left to play in the round. I'd be happy with a draw against thresh. He definetly would not. He shuffles like a fiend, while I mulligan. He keeps an agressive hannd andd proceeds to go turn 2 dryiad, turn 3 dryiad. He dazes an opt to pump the dryiad, and continues the aggro. On turn 4, I try to go off with reset high tide while he is forced to tap out after playing a couple spells. I'm like, you cant have the force. He shows me force, so I show him dsirupt. OWNED!!! From there, I go off with ease!
4-1
I check the standings, and I can easily draw in, as long as I don't get paired down...
Round 6 - Extended Heartbeat Combo
I sit down, and it's obvious this guy doesn't want to play. However, his record is 3-0-2. A draw just makes him a 4-2. We spend like 10 minutes talking about, searching for the standings (someone threw them out). Alas, we find them in the garbage, and proceed to do some math. I see that my breakers are insane, and realize that I can 100% take a loss. I decide to scoop the guy in, and sure enough, I finish 8th, beating out 9th by 12%. However, I realize what this means, I have to play Mike G again. (UGW threshold).
The Top 8 had the following archetypes:
2x UGW Thresh
2x Goblins
1x BW Pikula
1x UGB Gro
1x Heartbeat Extended Combo
1x Solidarity (me)
Pretty diverse for a 34 person tournament.
Quarterfinals vs. Mike Guethro playing UGW Threshold.
Game 1
Miraculously, I am able to fight through his counter magic, and somehow win game 1. We both know what a huge advantage that is.
Game 2
He drops an early nimble mongoose, followed by meddling mage and rides both of those to victory.
Game 3
This game turned out to be quite exciting, at least the end. He drops down some early beats (via mongooses). I draw some cards, hitting all my drops, and developing a strong hand. At the end of of his fourth or fifth turn, I peek him, to reveal force, force, counter spell aramageddon. People in the crowd can be heard saying, "Well, thats game" not knowing I like what I see. He has 5 lnads in play. Next turn, he attacks, and considers playing armageddon. It seems he goes against his first instinct to hold back, and actually does cast it. I reset in response, he forces, I force back, and essentially, thats the game.
My brother also made t8, and won his first round. Predictably, we were paired in the T4 against each other. We quickly agree on a prize split, and deicde that either way, its better that I play against the winner of the other semis match (BW vs. Goblins). Goblins ends up winning, which is fortunate for me. Goblins is MUCH better for me than BW. However, we discuss a four way split, as the other semis match were two friends, who agreed on the same split. In the end, I ended taking home 5 duals, a foil meddling mage, a foil intuition, and a foil regrowth, while my brother grabbed 5 duals, 13 italian legends packs, and a foil dci regrowth. I also actually received the two byes at Gen Con, but unfortunately, will not be going.
All in all, it was a great tournament, and made me realize how much I LOVE Solidarity.
Peace
Ryan Trepanier
