[Report] Top 8 at Mox Tourny in Flint, MI

[Kilz88]

The 24-hour wait for my list, lol. Merry Birthday:

BGW Brew[/B][/U]

Creatures[/B]

4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
3 Nantuko Shade

Aggro[/B]

2 Umezawa's Jitte

Disruption[/B]

4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Vindicate
3 Smallpox
2 Pernicious Deed
4 Wasteland

Mana[/B]

4 Dark Ritual
4 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Swamp
3 Scrubland
3 Bayou

Sideboard[/B]

4 Unmask
3 Engineered Plague
3 Extirpate
3 Loxodon Hierarch
2 Pernicious Deed

There you have it, in all its glory. Notes on a few choices and thoughts about the day:

First off, Smallpox. I was lacking in Sinkhole and almost did not build the deck because of this but I said heck, lets try that one card from Time Spiral. Turns out that there was only one instance in which sinkhole would have been better and about 5 instances in which smallpox won me the game. I love this card in the deck and will be preaching it for quite a while.

Secondly, Umezawa's Jitte. Out of the entire day, this card was never played or equip to anything. Mostly because I never drew it but I think if I would have I would have been a bit upset. I have already taken it out. Right now I am testing Mishra's Factory in its spot but I will have to try a few things. The only time I actually wanted jitte, was in round one, game 3, against fish who had his own equip to an azorious guildmage while tapping my goyf. Ouch.

Thirdly, Pernicious Deed. This card seems to maybe conflict with my deck at times. It also seems to be quite slow and is vunerable to stifle. I would like to replace this in the main as well. It is great in the sideboard and will probably be up'ed to 3. Possible replacements include, Damnation, Diabolic Edict, and Smother.

Finally, as for the board, I would like to up the deeds to 3 by cutting the hierarchs to 2. Also, Extipate was not the greatest thing ever. I did Extirpate fish-guy's tundras, that was funny, although I lost that game anyway.

Now for the fun part, the matches themselves:

Round 1: John w/UWB Fish (No Counterspells?) 1-2

Well, I am terrible at remembering what happened at tournaments but all I remember is he mulled to 6 in game 3 and kept a no land hand with 3 duress. I ritualed into duress and saw the 3 opposing duress and 3 creatures. Took a duress then proceeded to hymn the other 2 away as well. Moral of this story is obviously that he won that game some how and that some how's name is jitte to the face.

Round 2: Greg w/War Tax deck? 2-0

Ummm, We can safely say that this was a bye.

Round 3: Good'ol Dan Murphy (Cancerstix/Umbowta) w/URG ZooGro 2-0

This was quite the difficult match because we were friends and we were both playing quite well. Both games were close but game 2 ended rather excitingly...for me at least. He had 2 lands, a rancor'ed goyf, and a normal goyf while I had a goyf, a shade, and a confidant all untapped, as well a swamp untapped. The goyfs had 5 counters and he attacked with the rancor'ed one. I blocked with shade and my goyf, pumped the shade and he did lethal to the shade. So my shade and his supergoyf die and he passes the turn. I reveal to "bob" a smallpox and a I draw a wasteland. Wow. I resolve small pox, sac my bob, he sacs his last creature and 1 of his 2 lands. I waste the other land and attack twice to win. I was at 4.

Round 4: ERG! Chris (Mastershake) w/Life.dec 2-0

This was very stressful as I did not want to beat my teamate let alone play him in the first place. Turns out all the stress was for nothing seeing how Chris made it into the top 8 in 8th seed anyway but I just top decked swords the whole match and kept him off creatures.

Round 5/Quarterfinals: Jason Gerke w/UGW Thresh I.D and 0-2

We obviously I.D'ed in the 5th but had to play each other there after in the top 8. This match was again against a friend of mine who I play regularly with at Heroquest in Howell. Although he has just recently gotten into legacy and I was actually the one who suggested the deck to him, Lol. Anyway, he definitly deserved this win and the mox cause he was playing very well, he made smart deck choices, and he was working off a limited collection like 3 goyfs, not the right fetchlands, and 1 or 2 stifles. Game one I drew all 4 of my vindicates and no white mana all game. Game 2 was an even more crushing defeat, I was winning with a goyf, a shade, and a confidant on the table and like 5 or 6 lands when suddenly he plays Mystic Enforcer I don't have a swords but next turn did top deck and Engineered Explosives. Savage. He was going to lose 2 turns later because my goyf was a 6/7 and my shade had 6 lands behind him forceing him to block. But oh well, congrats to him and everyone who made the trip. I was very happy with my deck and still am.

Btw, up until the night before at about 3 am, I was planning on playing a burn deck that main decked Jotun Grunt...Ick!

[KrzyMoose]

Good job, KC.

A couple of things:

1. Dark Ritual:  I've been going back and forth with this card.  How did you like it?

2. Creatures: How'd they work out for you?  Did you ever find you wanted a few more?  How much did Dark Confidant help?  Have you considered maindeck Loxodon Hierarch/someother dork instead of the Jitte slot?  I've found that I really want 15 or 16 dudes.

3. Pernicious Deed: I think that in the Flint meta, it's not terribly useful - with all the UG/x around, you're only going to be popping it for 1 or 2, and it's only going to remove one or two threats, as well as whatever you have on the table.  In some other meta, though, I think I'd keep them in.  As far as replacements go, I don't think you want creature kill.  You already have Vindicate, StP and Smallpox (and Fish/UG/x only runs at most 15 creatures).  I'd add something that helps with the combo matchup.

[Kilz88]

Thanks Rich.

Dark Ritual was very strong against other control decks especially counter based ones. Ritual - Duress - Hymn Is an amazing way to start a game against them. Not to mention against combo that goes off on turn 1.

As for more creatures, I do like hierarch in board but not so much in the main because he needs to be in the deck only against someone in which possibly losing 4 life due to confidant wont be a problem. Which brings me to confidant, I loved him. This deck often has a problem with running out of steam and he can easily solve that problem. Plus I am liking the factories more and more, they are great to chip away at them while waiting for a goyf or shade. Not to mention they kill thresholded mongoose.

Lastly, I agree with you on deed in the flint meta but I can't think of anything too amazing to put in that slot besides things like therapy, extirpate in the main, or maybe hippie?

To conclude my changes right now:

- 2 Jitte
+ 2 Factories

- 2 Deed
+ 2 Smother

[Carlos El Salvador]

Smother is the single best card to of been brought to Flint on saturday.

[Caboose]

Smother is the single best card to of been brought to Flint on saturday.

QFT. It was my friend's first Legacy tournament, and he decided to play Hanni Fish. I told him to add Smother to the board, and he said it was the best tech ever. I tried a similar idea in Threads of Disloyalty, and it was awesome as well. Every creature in the format is 2cc or less.