Legacy Dutch-Tournament report.
I’ve played 4C Landstill for about 5 months now. After a few weeks playing with this deck I thought I’d found all tactics and skillinvolved tricks and everything but I was wrong... I recently think I now know all tricks involved 4C Landstill. I can auto-pilot this deck. (I don’t auto-pilot at tournaments).
Anyway, I was going to a 30man Legacy-Tournament, so I envited a friend the day before to play some magic and test our decks. He arrived at my place at 8 o’clock and we first (2 hours) played some Loam vs Thresh and listened to music and have a drink. After that we started playing with our decks which we would be going to use in the tournament tomorrow. We ended up playing magic ‘till 6 in the morning. After 3(!) hours of sleep and a quick breakfast and some energydrinks we went to Utrecht. We met up in Arnhem with a friend of mine and we arrived at 11.15am. The organisotor didn’t have a computer, so from round1 I do all the maths involving pairings. (I’ve played competative chess for 8 years and study Mathematics for 3 years so I know how to create fair pairings in ‘only’ 10 minutes).
By the way, I played 4C Landstill with the following list which I really believe to be the best available maybe possible with some changes in the sideboard which I will explain later.
4c Landstill:
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
3 Fact or Fiction
3 Stifle
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Perncious Deed
2 Diabolic Edict
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Disenchant
1 Krosan Grip
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
1 Island
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Mishra’s Factory
3 Nantuko Monastery
3 Wasteland
SB:
4 Hydroblast
4 Engineered Plague
4 Meddling Mage
3 Duress
The 1-1 Grip/Disenchant looks random and it surely is. I can’t deceide which one is better and I do want to play 2 of those. The color mana doesn’t matter during all games yesterday. So was the extra mana Grip costs or the fact Grip couldn’t be countered. I only felt a bit more safe when I had Grip in hand against Mono Blue, even when I had 2 backupcounters ready. It does matter against CouterTop. I used every sideboard card during the tournament so this sideboard is certainly good. But one could meta-game. If you play against a lot of Combo, then you should certainly play this sideboard because you are going to side all 15(!) cards in. But if you play against a lot Loam decks, then you should play 4 Leyline of the Void which are very good against decks like Loam and Ichorid.
Now follows a briefly report
Round 1 versus Fast Belcher
I knew my opponent played Fast Belcher with at least 4 Red Elemental Blasts.
I kept the Island + Stifle + Force + 4 random cards in hand. I Force a key-connecting spell and win easily.
After thoroughly testing the other day we agreed the best to side against Empty the Warrens based combo is to side in all your 15 cards. Hydroblast hardcounters mostly about 8~12 cards like Burning Wish, Rite of Flame and/or Desperate Ritual while pichable to Force and ofcourse better than Diabolic Edict. Furthermore, Plague kills all goblins so Empty the Warrens at any number later than turn1~2 is way too dangerous for the combo player. Meaning the combo player must kill you with their alternate win-condition which is obviously slower and less consistent/dangerous for you. Be it Belcher or Tendrils. Duress and Meddling Mage are obviously good against Combo. I side out: 2 Diabolic Edict, 2 Crucible of Worlds, 1 Disenchant, 1 Krosan Grip, 1 Swords to Plowshares, 2 Standstill, 3 Pernicious Deed, 1 Fact or Fiction, 1 Nantuko Monastery and 1 Mishra’s Factory.
Postboard you have 5 cards against EtW. Leave 3 Stp against Tomb of Urami and Xantid Swarm which is too good if not dealt with. One could say I have a transformational sideboard because postboard, 4c Landstill is now Hate.dec against any combo.
Game2 was easy because I started with Duress, then Meddling Mage and so on...
Round2 against Mono Blue Control.
I’ve tested Mono Blue thorougly so I know exactly how to play against it. This was a very bad list, which played a random 1cc creature to deal with Goblin Lackey and Gilded Drake + Unsummon-effects. Game1 I didn’t play a single spell, because I kept a 3 Mishra’s Factory hand and did nothing but beating. Dangerous in the face of Back to Basics, but I had Krosan Grip backup (no green mana though).
Game2 endures a bit longer. He plays Pithing Neelde on Pernicious Deed, then plays Morphling. I Disenchant Pneelde and blow Deed for 5 and win thereafter. Opponent couldn’t find B2B, but he didn’t play any drawers or handfixer. I said the flavor text of Back to Basics (A ruler wears a crown, while the rest wear hats, but which one would you rather have when it's raining) when he drawed his last card to answer but he didn't understand
. This could’ve been a difficult matchup though...
Round3 against Madness.
I got a small bit overconfident. And exhaustion takes a grip. And I got distracted by my teammate at the other side of the table. So I made a big playmistake game1 which lost me the first game. Game2 he goes crazy with 2 force back up so I lose my first games and the round. (Stupid madness...)
Round4 against Elves.
Played against a friend, so I again know his entire decklist. I knew Winter Orb and Caller of the Claw are his only threads preboard besides elves ofcourse. I win game 1 and 2 (with Plague) pretty easily. This is no auto-win, his decklist is good.
Round5 against some Loam deck.
Intentional Draw to make sure we both enter T8 (nobody had 12 points by now). We play two game, primarily because I wanted to know what exactly did he play and how good he was. He played pretty smooth, and I got to know his sideboard which was my primary objective. He did wonder why I didn’t side mine... (lost these games though.)
T8 against 35land stax like deck.
This guy should’ve finished me about ten times but he was soo incompetent, the entire match I wondered how he ever made T8. I later heard a story he drawed Tabernacle just after the opponent EtW’ed for 22 and more things. It did took me than 60 minutes to finish him though. He just didn’t think about scooping.
It was now 8 o’clock and I got pretty tired, so I drank another energydrink and traded some cards and prepared for the next match.
T4 against WGB disruption deck (picula like?).
I liked the opponents deck. He played cards like Vindicate, Tarmogoyf, Hymn, Dark Confidant, Stp, Sinkhole, Dark Ritual, Hypnotic Specter and Thoughtseize. (hint: I won)
While the other match endured soo long, this one plays so fast and smootly. We both know our decks very well, and we both don’t do anything stupid.
Game1. He disrupts some, I Stifle a Wasteland and at about turn 5 he plays a second Dark Confidant + Tarmogoyf in one turn. Next turn, I play Deed and activate for 2. Then he plays Tarmo nr2 in his turn and I play Nantuko Monastery. His Tarmo was 5/6 so I don’t block ‘cause I have Monastery nr2 in hand. I drop to 5 life, play my second Monastery and having enough mana to bring to life both. He attacks, I block, he plays Stp, I force and before I choose to pick a blue card, he scoopes.
Game2 is a classic example who begins does matter, ‘cause if I had started I would’ve certainly won this match. I had in hand: Counterspell, Fact, Crucible and a card and 3 land. I opens with something like ThoughtseizeCruci, then Wasteland, Vindicate, Sinkhole and thoughtseizeFact. And I just keep playing another land; I so love playing 24 lands . I do get colorscrewed and we both end up topdeckmode. He drawes his thread first, I don’t get the white mana for Stp, and he wins. I did learn he played Pithing Needle just in the end.
Game3. I knew I could certainly win, but I also oversee the possibility he just disrupted me too badly. It goes like this, I force a turn1 Specter, Waste his second land leaving him with only one hand. He then draws no extra land for 5 turns which were just enough for me to ensure my win. I had drawn just the cards I needed (like Deed, Edict, Stp, Counterspell, Land etc). About everything was fine. I waste his nother land and counter the thread he played with Dark Ritual. By the time he gots his second land, I have an active Monastery and he scoops soon after.
So I win T8 and T4. And so had my teammate from Nijmegen (we are soon creating a Legacy Team Nijmegen with 5 man) with TES. So I don’t have to fight that other Loam deck. We Intentional Draw and split pot at 9pm, though I had surely the better odds against TES (we playtested at least 6 hours the other day/night). Especially postboard.
Top8 was Mono Blue, fast Belcher, Picula, BWG Loam, Madness, random Loam, TES and 4C Landstill.
It was a succesfull tournament where we, Kris and Matteus, made T8 and finish equally 1st, binging the prizes back to Nijmegen.
Hope you enjoy my writings, Kris.
