[Report] Ancient Memory Convention No.24 / Legacy from Tokyo

AMC is the oldest and biggest Legacy tournament in Japan, it began two years ago in the suburb of Tokyo with 15 guys and now regularly gathers about 40 people once in a month in the otakiest city of the World, Akihabara.

27th May 2007, 24th edition, particulary interesting because the date is just between the regularisation of Future Sight and the possible ban of Flash: a unique chance to run a post-FS version of Hulk Flash. And a lot of people had the same idea at the same time: 50 people, 11 Hulk Flash. My list:

2 Island
1 Swamp
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
4 Flash
3 Protean Hulk
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Mystical Tutor
3 Impulse
1 Peer Through Depths
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Pact of Negation
4 Duress
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Karmic Guide
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Teardrop Kami
1 Bloodrock Cyclops
1 Body Snatcher
3 Chrome Mox
1 Echoing Truth

Side-Board
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Misdirection
3 Massacre
3 Phyrexian Negator
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth

I choosed an instant version kill with Teardrop Kami and the Cyclop, instead of the Bodygard. The combo takes only one more card, so I cut the 4th Protean Hulk, as there's no big deal with 4 green Pacts and 4 Mystutor. 1 Peer Through Depths
for the 4th Impulse, as you always want a Sorcery or a instant. It doesn't find you land, but if you only have one land, Impulse doesn't help you more. I felt the card to be strong in the deck, and should have probably played one more. The rest is pretty self-comprehensive: Leyline + Bounce for the Mirror, Misdirection against Control, Sui and burn.

6 rounds, let's go.

Round {1}

: Feary Stompy
1/ My opponent mulls to 5, I kill him easily 2 or 3 turns later with FoW in back-up.
2/ Not enough land to go off quickly, he plays CotV=1 and kills me with 2 Seadrake Dragons.
3/ He plays CotV=1 at his first turn, I tried to play Brainstorm in response, but he FoWes me and let me with a hand composed of 2 Brainstorms and 1 Mystutor... He plays a second CotV=2 and I scoop.
0-1-0

By the way, more than half of the Hulk Flash decks lost on the first round! HF was heavily metagamed...

Round {2}

: Hulk Flash (Disciples version)
1/ He kills me on turn 1.
2/ I play Leyline, he has no answer and can't go off, I play Flash and kill him right after.
3/ I kill him quickly with Misdirection and Fow in back-up.
1-1-0

Round {3}

: Landstill
1/ I have the combo in hand and try to go off with PoN on hand as he's full-taped, but he had a Daze and a FoW...
2/ I completly scrubb out while trying to play the Negator plan. I will never play one unless I draw like 2/3 of my deck...
1-2-0
Too much counter and too much draw, bad match-up.

Round {4}

: Teferi Control (?)
1/ Flash turn 2 or 3 after a Duress.
2/ Flash turn 2 with PoN in back-up, but he Trickbinds the Hulk capacity, I won't come back on the match and he kills me with Teferi...
3/ Bad day for Hulk Flash: First turn, Leyline, CotV=0 and CotV=1 one turn later... Thanks to the God of Top-deck, I draw in a splendid way an Echoing Truth that I play eot with Misdirection on back-up to Flash the next turn.
2-2-0

Round {5}

: Hulk Flash (?)
1/ Kill turn 2 with FoW and PoN on back-up.
2/ Turn 4, I play Flash, he counters, bad luck for him, I had one more Flash and one more Hulk in hand with 2 mana.
3-2-0
9 minutes for this round, I didn't even see which version he played.

Round {6}

: Hulk Flash (Counterbalance + Kiki)
Yeah, one more HF...
1/ I mull to 5, draw absolutly NO land for more than 10 turns... While he plays Dark Confidant, Top and Counterbalance. He decides to kill me with the COnfidant instead of comboing off, so I wait for the combo and the most possible number of counters, and try to go off on the last attack phase with FoW and 2 PoN but he counters the FoW and shows a land with Couterbalance for my PoN.
2/ His list is the exact copy of Sadin, so I guess he plays the Dryad plan for the 2nd game and I don't side-in the Leyline, praying I got lands this time. I got them and combo-off with FoW on back-up, even if I am about to mixing all the combo because of the Kiki in my hand that I discard to Body Snatcher. Safe.
3/ Same match, I combo off with back-up, gg.
4-2-0

I finished 12th on 50. And the winner is... Hulk Flash! 6-0-0. You can find all the lists of all the previous tournaments on the link below, it's a huge data base, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to Netamaki for his great job:
http://f18.aaa.livedoor.jp/~nameless/AMC/index_e.html

Lists:
http://f18.aaa.livedoor.jp/~nameless/AMC/AMC_24th_E.html

Regarding Hulk Flash, well, I have to say that this deck was pretty boring to play, as it was pretty boring to play against. I don't think it's the best deck ever, it's very strong but the lack of lands and draw cards is a problem. I wasn't for the ban of the card before playing the deck at this tournament, but the way it warps the metagame, not because it's strong but because it forces everybody to build their deck not to loose to it, is a real problem. So strange to try to win on turn 1 or 2 in Legacy.
Answer this Friday!

EDIT: have a look at the cards break down in the end of the list... Yes... 103 Leyline of the Void! If you don't call that a warped metagame...