I haven’t played much Legacy before this, besides the Gencon event last year and the occasional local tournament. I usually take a pet deck of some variety to those, and after the last one I started trying to make a
control deck. It wasn’t very good, but it was fun to play, I guess. After the whole Flash thing appeared, I realized I had to make good decks and stop working on pet decks (bad decks.) Three weeks before the GP I built and tested UGW Threshold and UWB Fish lists I found on various forums. Since I never trust any results that aren’t my results, I battled both decks against Goblins extensively. Both were doing poorly at best against the red men (all duals all the time for Wastelands to hit, creatures all die to Incinerator, goblins wins every long game due to insane card advantage, etc.) Also, both were losing badly to Flash, despite having a bunch of cards that were supposed to be good against them. Maybe it was that the Flash list I tested against had a maindeck Massacre, maybe it was something else, but I knew I wasn’t happy with Fish or UGW Thresh.
Browsing through forums, I saw that on The Source, there was a thread for UGR Threshold that was stickied as a “deck to beat.” I was surprised as I hadn’t seen much discussion about it anywhere. Anyways, I read some threads about the deck, and was surprised again to see people talking about cards like Wee Dragonauts and Portent and Magma Jet. I took UGW’s frame and switched cards to make the splash red rather than white.
After only a few games of testing I was impressed. One game I started with Wooded Foothills and passed, and my opponent cracked a Bloodstained Mire on his first main phase, only to have it Stifled. From Wooded Foothills. Insane. And, best of all, it was actually beating Goblins! Switching Swords to Plowshares to Lightning Bolt (and the addition of Fire/Ice) was massive, they did the same job without giving the Goblin player extra life. Pyroclasm was really good out of the board against them, and my creatures were far better than Fish’s and the same as UGW’s (but Quirion Dryad was far better than Mystic Enforcer.)
Then I started playing it against Flash decks. Their plan to beat Swords to Plowshares was to use Benevolent Bodyguard to give protection from white. In the first few games I noticed that Lightning Bolt was actually stopping them! They’d save their guy with the Bodyguard, then Kiki-Jiki’s ability wouldn’t resolve. Insane! Sure, I don’t have Meddling Mage, but Flash has Massacre anyways. After winning the first few games against Flash, I really felt like I had stumbled upon the right deck. After further testing, I learned that Flash still beat me at least two thirds of the time in game 1s. I decided that I would have to deal with it. After a few dozen games, I cut the 4th Daze for a Pithing Needle, and made a sideboard. The deck went through very few changes from its initial start, I left it very plain to aim for consistency.
UGR Threshold
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Werebear
4 Quirion Dryad
4 Brainstorm
4 Mental Note
4 Serum Visions
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
3 Daze
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Fire/Ice
1 Pithing Needle
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Forest
Sideboard:
3 Spell Snare
2 Krosan Grip
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Pithing Needle
4 Pyroclasm
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
Happy with my deck choice despite massive amounts of hate being thrown my way by everybody I knew, I entered a Grand Prix Trial on Friday night to attempt to turn my one bye into three byes.
Note: at the time of writing this the GPT has not yet processed in the DCI Rankings and Ratings thing. I won’t be able to put my opponent’s names in because I don’t know what they were, and I can’t get them from the DCI page.
Round 1: BW Pikula deck.
Game 1: His deck does what it does, makes me discard some cards and kills some of my lands. I get back into the game with Brainstorm and eventually land a Quirion Dryad and string some cantrips together. He has no way to remove it as he’s drawn lands for the last three turns.
Game 2: He makes me lose basically everything I have. I manage to get a Mongoose and a Werebear, but at this point he has two Hypnotic Specters and a Nantuko Shade that I can’t beat as I don’t have a Bolt. I attempt to race, but he obtains additional creatures from the top of his library.
Game 3: I start out ahead and stay ahead. A large Dryad attacks several times after Pyroclasm removes two of his men. Not much happened.
Round 2: Nick Eisel playing Red Deck Wins with black.
Game 1: I’m on the play. His first turn is Jackal Pup, which I Daze. He removes a Simian Spirit Guide and pays for Daze. He removes another Spirit Guide and plays a Grim Lavamancer. I do the cantrip thing and set up Threshold before I play my men. A timely Fire removes two of his guys allowing my guys to win the race.
Game 2: I once again Fire his guys and play mine. I start attacking while he burns me. I get him to 1 life, and he has a series of burn spells that are lethal.
Game 3: I have three 1/1s without Threshold beating down. The guys he plays die to my removal, and my 1/1s continue attacking. I’m holding various Bolts and Pyroclasms and Stifles at the end of the game, and he shows me about 8 or 9 lands between his hand and board.
Round 3: UBGW Landstill
Game 1: He mulls to 5, I mull to 6. He counters my first two creatures, and my third one resolves and beats for the full 20 by itself. He has stone nothing, I have almost nothing. Strange game.
Game 2: I run myself out of cards by cantripping into lands, I end up with 6 lands, 2 guys, and 2 Pithing Needles: one on Wasteland (Crucible on board,) and the other on Engineered Explosives. He Fact or Fictions into a Pernicious Deed and blows my stuff up. Crucible easily wins from this point.
Game 3: I lead with a Pithing Needle on Wasteland as my hand contains only two non-basic lands. His mana for the game is a Tundra and 2 Wastelands. He does very little and Werebear goes the distance.
Round 4: UW aggro
Game 1: I come out way ahead with two Quirion Dryads and a Daze on his Serendib Efreet. He plays a Mother of Runes and counters my efforts to destroy it, creating a blocker for one Dryad for each turn. He then plays a Worship. I Force of Will it, he has Force of Will to get it through. I need to obtain two burn spells to remove the Mother of Runes, and before I do, he plays more men. Eventually he plays a Sky Hussar and kills me with it.
Game 2: I play two Dryads again. I attempt to Pyroclasm his guys away, but he has Force of Will to stop it. At that point the Dryads are very large and easily beat his creatures.
Game 3: He has two Mothers of Runes, I have 3 1/1s with no Threshold. I Needle his Mothers, and he plays Explosives for 2 against my Bear. Fortunately, the Explosives for 2 prevents him from playing all of his two drops profitably. He eventually kills my Bear in combat (awesome for me since the EE is still on board) and does not much of anything. I have nothing but 2 1/1 Gooses and can’t add anything to the board. I draw a Bear and play it. He draws a Jitte, plays it and passes (still stuck on 2 lands.) I do nothing and pass. He equips, I trade a Bear for the Mother. He passes. I draw and pass. He equips Jitte to the other Mother and I Krosan Grip it after he attacks. I draw a fetchland and play a spell to get Threshold and start attacking. He plays a Forbidden Watchtower. The turn it untaps I Ice it and win with my monsters.
Round 5: Epic Storm
Game 1: I mulligan to 5 cards. On his second turn, he plays Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual, then a Tomb of Urami that he activates. Awkward, I’m holding Force of Will. Anyways, I also have a Bolt and one red land, so I’ve got outs. I draw a second Bolt and pass. He hits me. I draw a blank and pass. He hits me. I draw a fetchland! How lucky! I double Bolt his Demon Token and my guys attack enough times to win.
Game 2: I mulligan to 6 cards. He leads with a Xantid Swarm, I Force of Will it leaving me with 2 lands, 2 creatures, and a Pyroclasm. He starts going off. He eventually casts a Burning Wish, and laments that he cannot get Ill-Gotten Gains because I have a Force of Will in my graveyard. I didn’t have a blue card in my hand, but he still goes for the safe play. He makes 14 Goblin Tokens, I Pyroclasm them away. Werebear gets in enough times to win as he is unable to build another hand capable of getting anywhere.
Hooray! Three byes! After some sleep and wandering about during the first three rounds, I have to play Magic.
Day 1
Round 4: Robert A. Kochis playing UBGW Landstill
Games 1: He leads with Exploration and plays out a ton of lands, including 2 Factories, but he promptly runs out of cards. After removing one Factory the hard way (attack, try to Bolt it after first pump, he Force of Wills, so combat damage has to suffice,) he topdecks Intuition. He gets Academy Ruins, Crucible of Worlds, and Life from the Loam. I’m unable to get through it and I lose.
Game 2: Pithing Needle stops Factories from blocking and my Gooses attack for a bunch. He is very far behind after Wastelanding two of my lands, I win with my two Gooses.
Game 3: My first three men are Swords’d to death and I’m not able to deploy an attacker until the midgame, where I make a big Dryad. He Dredges Life from the Loam, Dredging Academy Ruins, Engineered Explosives, and Wasteland. Insane. But instead of playing Academy Ruins and Explosives every turn he simply Wastelands me a couple times, in that time my Dryad attacks enough times to win.
Round 5: Stephen M. Boggemes playing Goblins
Game 1: Two gigantic Dryads and a Werebear force him to block. Timely removal and Stifles end the game before his Vials get him to his end game.
Game 2: Two Vials make progress while I build. The game drags on, the board ends up Vial on 5, Vial on 3, five or so goblins against my Goose, Goose, Bear, and Bear. He Vials in 2 Siege Gang Commanders on the next two turns, both of which I Stifle. Still, he has a better board and is threatening lethal. He doesn't attack all in and passes. I draw Pyroclasm and kill many goblins. Skirk Prospector allows him to throw goblins at things, but after the Pyroclasm my fat men easily finish the game.
Round 6: Ian Degraff playing Slivers
Game 1: I have two large Dryads facing down his handful of Muscle/Sinew slivers. Against a board of Sinew Sliver, Muscle Sliver, and Harmonic Sliver, I make a really stupid play, Fire his Harmonic Sliver for 2. It lived, but I got Threshold and I was able to turn the team sideways to win. A very sloppy victory.
Game 2: I keep fetchland Serum Visions, and my first land is Stifled. He plays Crystaline Sliver, I Force of Will, he Force of Wills back. He adds some more Slivers to his team, and once he Stifles my second land I pack it up.
Game 3: He starts out ahead on the board. I attempt to build up a board the whole times, and he's low on cards, but still has a lead in the race. He taps out for an Essence Sliver. Damnit, I boarded Daze out. I draw and Serum Visions, leaving a Bolt on top for the Essense Sliver for the next turn. His next turn is Winged Sliver and Crystaline Sliver. I'm wrecked.
In addition to boarding stupidly, I played stupidly as well. The keep game two was exceptionally greedy, and I suppose I deserve to lose that game in the way I lost it.
Round 7: Tj Noll playing UWB Fish
Game 1: He Plows my first three men and counters two more with Force of Wills. Annoying. I Bolt down Serra Avenger and Fire a Meddling Mage after getting a Dryad into play. I let his Grunt hit me until it dies, and my Dryad gets very large and attacks several times.
Game 2: He leads with Leyline of the Void. Crap, I boarded in the second Needle instead of Krosan Grip. We trade cards until we are both topdecking. He gets a Mage and names Fire (Just Fire. Isn’t he supposed to say Fire/Ice because Meddling Mage says “card?” It probably doesn’t matter.) I am forced to put two Gooses in front of said Mage, and we continue to work off the top. He draws Jotun Grunt. His graveyard is large. Then he draws Jitte, which probably didn't matter, but it did make me die faster.
Game 3: Mother of Runes lives (problems) and my team can't do much. I have Goose and Bear. I Pyroclasm with 6 cards in the graveyard. He saved his Mother of Runes and let Confidant and Meddling Mage perish. I begin attacking.
He draws a Jitte and puts it on Mother. I attack into it. He's got 2 cards in hand. He blocks and gives it protection from green. I Fire it (and him for 1) before damage. His last two cards are Force of Will and something blue. He takes some damage, but Jitte is active. He draws and passes leaving Mother back. I start frantically cantripping digging for Krosan Grip, as I believe his next creature will beat me. I draw the Grip before he draws a creature and I win.
Round 8: Mike P. Hron playing Goblins
Game 1: He makes some Goblins. I cantrip into lands, play my creatures, and draw more lands (frowns.) With a grip of 4 lands, and 4 mana up, he doesn't attack into my board. Instead he builds his board, gets Sharpshooter, and passes turn after turn. Despite me drawing Fire/Ice on one of the last turns, he eventually sent his team in and won.
Game 2: I play Tropical Island and pass. He Wastelands it. I Stifle, untap and play a Dryad. He plays a Vial. I Cantrip once, play Goose, and attack and hold U up. He fetches and I Stifle. I untap, Bolt him, Mental Note to threshold, and attack him to almost zero.
Game 3: I have Goose and Bear against his Vial. I'm forced to Needle Wasteland rather than his Vial as I don’t have any mana in hand and won’t be able to beat a Wasteland. He makes many men, I Pyroclasm them away. I get to keep the Goose, Bear dies to Fanatics and whatnot. He Ringleaders and gets another Ringleader. I attack. He Ringleaders again into only a Ringleader. I keep attacking. The third Ringleader gets him an Incinerator and a Lackey. I Pyroclasm and attack. He cycles the Incinerator, draws, and passes. I attack and burn him out.
Hooray! I get to play in day 2!
round 9: Zohar N. Bhagat playing UWB Landstill
game 1: He Duresses and takes nothing relevant, I beat down with Goose and Bear. He blows up my first set of men with a Wrath of God, followed by Crucible of Worlds with a Wasteland. I get another Goose and Pithing Needle his Factories to try to sneak the Goose through to win. He ends that by Wrathing it away. I resolve a Bolt to his face to knock him to 2 before he Wastelands my Volcanic Island. I draw Fire/Ice and pass. He Fact or Fictions on his main phase and takes Decree of Justice. I topdeck Flooded Strand and throw my Fire/Ice on the table. Upon further inspection, my library does not contain a Volcanic Island. Lame.
Game 2: I have a Bear and a Mongoose early. I Serum Visions and leave a Pithing Needle on top. But, since I'm bad, I send my guys in and Factory eats one. Embarrassing. Not even awkward, just embarrassing. It’s been a long day. Anyways, the attacks continue and I get him down to about ten before he stabilizes with Wrath and gets Crucible online. I Krosan Grip it and the game drags on. I Pithing Needle Decree of Justice (another sketchy play) and the game continues to drag on. He draws Decree and makes two Angels with it.
7-2 after day 1. I felt like both of my losses were my fault and that I can play better. I’m in 41st place going into day 2.
Day Two begins with tax forms delivered to us by the judge staff. Fun.
Day 2
Round 10: James Hammer, playing Slivers.
Game 1: He STPs my first three men and has 4 Muscle/Sinew Slivers and a Crystaline Sliver. Beatings.
Game 2: He promptly Force of Wills my first three plays of the game, two creatures and a Brainstorm. His two Plated Slivers can't quite get it done, as he is out of cards. I get a Dryad into play and make it very large, and it wins fairly quickly.
Game 3: I counter two Crystaline Slivers with Spell Snares while building up my board. He has Muscle Sliver and Plated Sliver and Winged Sliver, after Bolting his Plated Sliver Pyroclasm removes the rest clearing the way for my monsters.
Round 11: Peter L. Akeley playing BGW control
Game 1: He Duresses, then Hymns, then Gerard’s Verdicts, then Hymns again. In response to the last one, I Brainstorm two Dryads on top, Needle his on board Pernicious Deed, and play both dryads. They become 3/3s and attack enough times to win.
Game 2: He makes me discard some cards and plays a Dark Confidant. Strange, I thought this deck had Grave Shell Scarab and a million three drops. Turns out he has a lot of three mana plays, Confidant showed them to me. He plays an Engineered Plague against my Goose. I respond with a Mental Note to get to Threshold, and he still names Mongoose. The Mongoose hits him once, for 2 damage. This is all of the damage I got in the attack step this game, as he added Troll Ascetic right afterwards. Dark Confidant knocks him down to 4. I’m empty handed at this point. He plays a fetchland and uses it and all of his mana to play Dark Confidant and Loxodon Heirarch back up to 7 life. Nimble Mongoose and 2/2 Quirion Dryad face down 2 Dark Confidants, Troll Ascetic and Loxodon Heirarch. I topdeck…. Fire/Ice. I pass the turn back. He reveals Gerard’s Verdict and Vindicate. Fire wins it. How lucky.
Round 12: Samuel P. Stoddard playing Flash
Game 1: He Serum Visions twice and Dazes my dryad. I add a Werebear and he casts LimDul’s Vault. He puts himself to 12 or so from it and starts taking long turns. I have an over abundance of lands this game, a total of 8. The bear drops him to 10 from two non-Thresholded attacks. He plays a Flash. My hand is Bolt, Bolt, Fire/Ice, land, land. Flash resolves. He says, "awkward" and passes the turn. I attack with Bear (still 1/1) and pass it back. He does some stuff, Duresses one of my Bolts away and plays Flash. It resolves. Hulk triggers and gets Karmic Guide and Benevolent Bodyguard. Guide puts Hulk back into play. He passes. I draw Lightning Bolt and pass. He attacks me with Hulk (I go to 8.) End step I Fire his bodyguard (and 1 to him.) It resolves. I fetch 3 times to get threshold and send my guy in. He takes it. I Bolt him twice to win.
Game 2: He LimDul’s Vaults on turn 2. On turns 3 and 4 he plays nothing. On my turn 4 I play Werebear with 2 up. He again plays nothing and passes. I get threshold and attack him down to 10.
He taps Tundra for Orim's Chant. I float a blue, return a Tropical Island and Daze it. He taps his other land, an Underground Sea, for blue and Dazes my Daze, picking up his Sea. I pay 1 for his Daze with the U I floated. He needs 2 mana to play Flash after the Chant, so he has to fight my Daze. He Force of Wills it, I Pyroblast. He Force of Wills again, I Red Elemental Blast. He's out of Force of Wills (thank god) and he pays 1 for my Daze, replays the land, and passes. I hit him with Bear and Bolt him twice.
Round 13: Allen S. Jackson playing RGB Zoo
Game 1: He leads with Taiga Kird Ape. I Bolt it on my first turn. He plays a dual and a Skyshroud Elite. I Force of Will it, then play Quirion Dryad on my turn. I cantrip it up to 2/2 and he Sudden Shocks it, then adds a River Boa to his board. We both stop attacking for a bit, and each turn I cantrip and play another Threshold guy. I end up with 2 Gooses and 2 Bears, and start sending them in. I win in two attacks.
Game 2: I stop his early plays again with Bolt and play some threshold men. He plays a Tormod's Crypt and a Grim Lavamancer. I get to threshold and attack. He Crypts me, I Stifle. I remove Lavamancer and pass. He plays another Tormod’s Crypt, I force of will it. I attack. He burns me for 6 and plays a Dark Confidant. I Pyroclasm it and win.
Round 4: Owen Turtenwald playing goblins
Game 1: I create large monsters and attack into his goblins repeatedly. Some burn wins it before he can stabilize.
Game 2: We trade cards for the first few turns. I end up Pyroclasming his guys away leaving me with 2 Gooses. He rips a Tormod's Crypt and stops me from killing him and wins with a couple of goblins soon after.
Game 3: He starts out ahead and has 2 Ports going. I'm making all of my land drops, up to turn 5. He adds pressure to the board, I have a Goose and a Bear, and a Needle on Port (he can double Port my two red lands for the entire game, I guess. Probably should have Needled something more relevant.) He plays a Matron and gets Tin Street Hooligan and kills my Needle with it. I Pyroclasm, he kills my Bear. I attack some. I Pyroclasm again after he rebuilds a little, which was probably greedy as he has 6 or so in the grip. The Goose takes him to 5 and I pass with a Bolt in hand. He plays three Piledrivers and passes. I draw a second Bolt and win.
Round 15: Gadiel Szleifer playing Flash
Intentional draw. I suppose this is a good way to deal with the Flash matchup.
After the top 8 photo (I’ve been described as looking “drunk” and “like a zombie” by friends. I hate pictures) I sit at the table and shuffle up.
Quarterfinals: Owen Turtenwald playing Goblins
Game 1: His opening involved a Vial, 2 Piledrivers, and 2 Warcheifs, followed by 2 Ringleaders triggering soon after. I struggle to keep up by Stifling an Incinerator trigger that attempted to remove my Werebear. I got to block with it, but it didn’t matter much. Several other bad things happen, I'm not able to do much the entire game.
Game 2: Without a long explanation, I mulligan until my hand is Serum Visions, Force of Will, Stifle, and Pyroclasm. On turn 2 I Force of Will his Piledriver. On turn 3 I play my first permanent and cast Serum Visions. I Pyroclasm three Goblins away, but can’t even begin to imagine how to play through the Goblins he revealed from the first Ringleader. Not much to see here, I pack up my two permanents before allowing the inevitable to take place.
So, Gadiel lost, putting me 3rd among Amatuers and 6th overall. $1650 for my finish, as well as the long-awaited Pro Tour invite I’ve missed out on countless times. A good weekend. Can’t have a report without…
Props:
-Whoever controls luck. The luck was with me the whole time. I only played against Flash once!
-Everybody affiliated with RIW Hobbies, especially Pam, and everybody else from Michigan.
-Everybody from TUS and GWS.
-Mike Jacob, who I "borrowed" (took from him while he was sleeping) Tropical Islands from.
Slops:
-Josh Wludyka, for claiming that he invented UGR Threshold a week before the GP, then demanding that I buy him dinner as a reward for "allowing me to play his creation."
-The Crown Plaza Hotel, for being on the wrong side of the convention center.
-The burger place in the food court, for running out of fish sandwiches.
Thanks for reading.
