3-0-1 Legacy

Yesterday, I made my way to a new shop that has a very good Legacy payout.
It seems like they figured out that they would do 4 rounds, and an additional match if tied for 1st place.
The payout is very good versus the entry.
For $10, top gets Delta/Wasteland, second gets Mire, third/forth is a True-Name/commander deck or something along that line.

I took my deck which is about 2 cards off my online list (lacking a third Underground Sea and a Misty Rainforest) and tried to find 2x blue elemental blast / trading post but could not find either.
(I suspect trading post can be used vs Jund since they don't have a way to kill it)
I stuck to the Nylea's Bow that I had in my 15th slot.

I learnt from this tournament that I have the option to play 1-0 and drag out a draw in order to win.
It's something that I have long forgotten so it's a good lesson learnt before the 7 Sept tournament.
Online, we're just trying to close on the clock. In real life, drawing is a tournament option (as much as I loathe it).

I won Shardless BUG, UWR delver, Miracles (1-1, but I was let up with a split) and we did a 4 way split among the 3 3-0s and my 3rd round opponent who was paired with one of the 3-0s. We all drew to lock in the top 3 spots. I wanted Wasteland so I ended up having to fork out $50 for our split since we counted $160 - $40 each and valued Wasteland at $90.

Preparing for 7 Sept

Over the past week, I did not manage to get into even one VMA constructed qualifier that fired.
It only needed 17 people to go off but people are aggressively boycotting the format.
I cannot fathom the reason. Even Classic had people in the past for something with such a alluring payout.
I was quite down over the weekend, having played in the VMA limited champs and getting blown out in 4 games over 2 players to Parallex Wave. It was 3am and I just gave up at 2-2. I would probably not make it even if I won all the way from there and some packs would not make up for the lack of sleep.
Then it came upon me that I would have this late night issue over the next few weeks (not anymore) and I was quite demoralized by it. The events I was looking forward to were going to be very taxing for me.
IF I had qualified for the VMA constructed champs, I would have had to stay up and probably end up skipping a 10km run I am scheduled for.
Also, if I make it into the Legacy MOCS, it means staying through the night and continuing into the day for the IRL Legacy tournament which I expect to be about 7 rounds. I expect the MOCS to be about 8-9 rounds. I am not sure I am able to handle that physically. Part of me wants to just skip the MOCS as it is much less taxing to play in a normal timing than at 11pm till maybe 7am?

In any case, I am still practicing my 4c control deck and trying to find a way to shore up my worst matchup, burn. I am considering having 2x Blue Elemental Blast in the SB for it. I've been thinking and nothing clicks. I did play Shardless BUG a few days back with double Chill in the SB but I understand that the fundamental difference is that BUG is able to close the game whereas mine is much slower. I need to think of which is the second card to make space for the second BEB/Hydroblast.

I have lost quite a few games to burn and it goes against my wanting of having a game vs everything. I just can't stomach auto-losing to anything but that would mean respecting it more. 2 is as much I can go and is the minimal amount of respect required.

Last night I lost to Burn and Storm, won D&T and Miracles. Gonna try playing at a high EV tournament tonight at a new shop. I hope that 2x blue elemental blast is going to be the right way to go and that I would have to adjust how it interacts with the other matchups (storm? miracles? jund? etc)

Legacy IRL

Last night was MTGO downtime. So I went to a real life shop to keep myself prepared for real life tournaments. Unlike online, there is so many things that needs to be done like shuffling, maintaining of sleeves, keeping track of life, graveyard, board state, hand size, opponent's state, your own state, rulings, missed triggers etc.

I collected my preordered Jace pop figure at a toy shop after registering and went for dinner.

Round 1 vs Shardless bug
Game 1, I lose to being out volumed to cascade with a Volrath's Stronghold in play preventing me from wanting to kill the Shardless Agent.
Game 2, an early loam lock wins the game.
Game 3, I get stuck for more than 10 turns (Ancestral Vision suspended and resolved twice) without my 3rd land. I keep getting Deathrite Shaman which died each time.

0-1

Round 2 vs D&T
Game 1, my opponent has no vial so we go into a very slow game and I come out with Jace Liliana.
Game 2 was not too different. Just very mid-game plays without anything too shocking that I could not handle. (Unlike that Cataclysm from the day prior)

1-1

Round 3 vs burn

Game 1, I lose to double Goblin Guide (1 would have been ok).
Game 2, I stabilize at 5 life Jace and Liliana and Brainstorm on an Isochron Scepter, voraciously digging for counters and answer and I get there with True Name Nemesis.
Game 3, I almost come back but have to make a choice as to how I want to deal with Grim Lavamancer as I had lands, counterspell and force of will. I drew an abrupt decay next turn -_-". I got to 4 life with a Deathrite Shaman but he drew Fireblast.

1-2

Round 4 vs BUG Delver

Game 1, I resolve Jace and go to town.
Game 2, we get into a very long game with everything dying and being discarded.
I eventually get True Name Nemesis (which he has no outs against), dealt with his flipped delver and faced a 1/1 delver. I just turned sideways every turn and won with Deathrite adding to the clock.

2-2

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 20 (16 QP)

Yesterday, I had my final attempt to qualify for the VMA limited championship (would not be possible anymore).

I was elated to open a foil Force of Will but my pool was not impressive.

In the end, I came up with a BW deck that beats with shadow guys and fliers. After submission I considered a weaker but more mid-game build with blue green. 

Round 1 was easy. I outraced with shadow creatures.

1-0

I saw that his deck had many small guys so I swapped into UG which had fatter dudes. He had Skullclamp but was mana screwed.

2-0

I killed my opponent with his own Kezzerdrix by wiping the board with Famine. =)

3-0

I was glad to go 3-0 but I lost round 4 with a hand full of lands. Zzz

3-1

In the final round, I faced a BW deck similar to mine. He had the new Desolation Angel in game 1 but I had done enough damage to just Famine for the win.
Game 2, my shadow creatures applied pressure and his fliers could not keep up. He had Death Grasp for my griffin but I had Death Grasp at him to add more clock. 

4-1

With this, I qualify for the MOCS qualifiers and the VMA limited championship. Step one of my world domination plan is complete!

In the last round of the qualifier, I joined a Legacy DE.

Round 1, I faced dredge.
I almost win game 1 on the back of Deathrite Shaman and Snapcaster Mage blocking zombie tokens but I lacked the removal required to survive the few zombies.

Game 2, Deathrite Shaman plus Surgical Extraction controlled the pace of the game until another Deathrite Shaman joined the fun.
Game 3, I kept a hand that had some chance with counters and removals but my opponent had quad cabal therapy to just nice hit my answers out of my hand.

0-1

Round 2, I faced Reanimator.
I lost game 1 when my opponent reanimated Iona naming black. I did not find Jace or Far/Away.

Game 2, I had Deathrite Shaman to mess the board but he used Show and Tell to put Inkwell Leviathan down. He attacked into Jace so I had enough life to Toxic Deluge for 11 to kill my own Deathrite Shaman and the Leciathan. I came back with Jace and Liliana, plus Deathrite and Creeping Tar Pit.

Game 3, he Exhumed and I had surgical extraction for Grave Titan and he got an Elesh Norn. Since it wasn't much of a clock, I Intuitioned for Dark Depths combo and he could not do much from there.

1-1

Round 3, I face Death and Taxes. I won game 1 with him having no Vials out and getting into a dominating position with planeswalkers.
I swiftly lose game 2 to not having any lands.
Game 3, I was almost dead after a Cataclysm but I managed to draw lands at just the right points in time to survive and make a comeback.

2-1

Round 4, I had a bye. Whee~ Free win and everything!

So this week I end up with +3 QPs (all from last night) and I'm set up for the MOCS qualifier and the VMA limited champs. Hopefully I would manage to do well in the VMA limited champs (go top2 and get the foily playset) and get a shot at getting 35 QPs to enter the MOCS tournament straight. =/

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 19 (13 QP)

Yesterday, I got into the VMA limited champs qualifier again.



I had a very decent deck, highlights being double Flametongue Kavu, double Man-o'-war and double Ophidian.




Unfortunately, in round 3, the memory leak caught me and made me lose a significant chunk of time, especially when the game did not load once I got back in, forcing me to restart and go through the 5 minutes of horror. I ended up needing about 5 more minutes to comfortably take the game.
In round 4, I faced a very aggressive GW deck and lost to it and I was out for the count.
The deck was pretty much as good as it comes but I guess it is too much to ask for to have a smooth path to run a good deck into. =/






I joined a Legacy DE after that.
Round 1 vs storm
My starting hand had a Force of Will plus some removals. Force of Will was taken away and my opponent went off. Unfortunately I did not have another counter magic to stop him. I did try to make it look like I might have drawn one.
Game 2, I got into an odd situation when my sided Dark Confidant was put under a Standstill and I took big chunks of life totals. I ended up at 1 life and cracked my own Standstill to cast Jace to keep me from dying.
With his newfound cards, he cast Empty the Warrens and Flusterstorm did not do anything in the face of extra mana. I could not find a sweeper.

0-1

Round 2 vs Merfolk
Merfolk is any blue deck's bane. I had a decent opening but could not get double black for Liliana and I was blown away by Phantasmal Images copying True-Name Nemesis.
Game 2, I managed to stick an Isochron Scepter with Far/Away. Unfortuantely, sacrificing one creature a turn was not enough without additional removals.

0-2 drop



Overall, I found that Dimir Charm was useful enough to have over Darkblast, finally being able to kill a Mutavault. It would have been good against Infernal Tutor as well (if I had drawn it). I think I would keep it in.

I think that I have a feel for the matchup numbers now.
Jund - 55 (I have punishing fire too)
Miracles - 70 (abrupt decay advantage and I'm a better control deck)
RUG - 50 (they have more wasteland nonsense than bug)
BUG - 60 (punishing fire, wasteland loam)
Storm - 55 (depends on how much hate I draw)
Elves - 45 (if i get enough removals and stop glimpse/natural order)
Burn - 30
UR burn - 25 (they can do it slower)
Painter - 45 (pyroblast is naturally gd vs blue)
D&T - 60 (punishing fire)
Omnitell - 60 (easier to hate on than storm)
Reanimator - 50 (can be very rough)
Sneak and Show - 55 (sneak attack is harder to stop than dream halls)

I think I wanna work on my sideboard to give myself a little more edge.
I should be ready for MOCS and the big irl Legacy tournament once I replan my sideboard.
I need 2 more QPs!!!! GAH.. I did not get any this week!!!

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 18 (13 QP)

Thursday - Played in a VMA Limited champs qualifier, 1-2 drop.
Played Legacy 0-2 drop.
Round 1 vs Burn
Round 2 vs something I can't remember
Friday - Nil
Saturday - Nil
Sunday - Played Tweaker's Oath list in the morning but ran into 2x BUG.
I lose a game where my Misdirection fails to do its job because v4's blown up cards need not necessarily refer to the card in choice.
Played in a VMA limited champs qualifier, 0-2 drop to a mulligan button bug.



Played Legacy 1-2
Round 1 vs BUG (lose)



Round 2 vs Miracles (win)



Round 3 vs Painter (losing to time out - was winning already)

For Vintage, I figured out an answer to blue decks by playing Tweaker's Oath deck.
I shall use and reveal this secret tech next week when I run it in the VMA constructed qualifiers.

In Legacy, I swapped out the maindeck Darkblast for a Dimir Charm.
Dimir Charm's drawback is its colored cost but overall, it kills what Darkblast kills and can be used against Miracles. I used to like Izzet Charm but its Spell Pierce mode was not particularly useful against Miracles.
Dimir Charm is almost the same thing (without the looting mode) and can be used vs Storm's Infernal Tutor/Burning Wish, Show and Tell, Miracles and is an additional removal for non-Goyf creatures.
I'm not sure how it would go but I will try it for now to make the deck more balanced (but more at risk to mana issues).

I want a life gain card but I can't really think of a good card to use. The ones I am thinking of are: Bow of Nylea (may have problems casting), Umezawa's Jitte and plain old Zuran Orb.

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 13 (13 QP)

Last night, I came out with nothing from a Legacy (0-2) and a Vintage DE (1-2).
At this point I am rather worried about the outcome of my Vintage deck as I am not performing at all and the Vintage Championship constructed qualifiers are 2 weeks away.
For my legacy deck, I feel that I am about 95% at where I want to be in terms of deck construction. The deck fares well against the more popular decks and has game against the less popular ones (meaning not outright blown out of the water).

Legacy:
Round 1 vs Dredge
Game 1, my opponent does not get the key cards in the graveyard so I manage to beatdown with Vendillion Clique.
Game 2, I try to stabilize but I get destroyed by Ichorids.
Game 3, I use Surgical Extraction on Narcomoeba but Ichorid + Bridge from Below means trouble and he goes for the Zealot kill.

0-1

Round 2 vs UR burn
This is a bad matchup as I do not always have the answers and I cannot answer his burn well, not to mention the counter magic from the other end that can mess with my development. I can probably only win on Marit Lage.
Game 1, I get hit a few times by a flipped Delver of Secrets, and get burned out of the game.
Game 2, I stabilize at a 14 life but he resolves a 10 point Price of Progress and cleans up.

0-2

Vintage:
Round 1 vs Oath
Game 1, an Abrupt Decay keeps the game in check and I search/replay Abrupt Decays for the win.
Game 2, my opponent has a Jace in play and I have a Spirit token. I am far behind on resources and I scoop.
Game 3, Abrupt Decay does wonders and keeps the game in check.

1-0

Round 2 vs Bant creatures
Game 1, I won with Fastbond + Gushes + Yawgmoth's Will playing Time Walk and Tinker.
Game 2, I get beaten by a lack of mana after my Blightsteel Colossus gets Swords to Plowshares-ed and I have only 1 Underground Sea and double Gush in hand. Trygon Predator comes down to eat my mox and I'm pretty much screwed.
Game 3, I get Gushbond going but am not far. I have a bunch of lands and a Force of Will which I can lay to cast but I choose not to to have more life for the Gushbond Engine. Unfortunately, my opponent drops True-Name Nemesis and knocks me down. I have Time Vault + Voltaic key but need an answer to the Stony Silence in play but I fail to find it. I probably should have dropped all my lands and kept counter mana up.

1-1

Round 3 vs Blue with Abrupt Decay and Deathrite and Dark Confidant
Game 1, I got Gush bond going and I get far ahead.
Game 2, I tutor for Library of Alexandria to try to take the long game but it was not a good plan. He gets Jace in play and I can't really come back into the game.
Game 3, my key spells get countered and I can't really get into the game while my opponent resolves Ancestral Recall twice.

1-2

Overall, I still like Gushbond as an engine but I am running many fair cards in hopes of beating Workshops (which I am not encountering) and I lose to blue decks holding these fair cards. Ultimately the format seems really centered on Ancestral Recall which is incredibly hard to beat. Classic was never this "single card centric" and I could easily play decks that build up advantage to go into the mid game. Perhaps I should do a Countertop and mess these blue decks up. =/

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 12 (13 QP)

Last night, I did 2x Legacy DE, going 4-0 in both.

There is a video record of it here. (Not sure how long these videos are held)

Round 1 vs storm.
Game 1, I get stormed out without much effort.

Game 2, I manage to control the board and beat down. I kill a random Young Pyromancer along the way (while he held on to rituals).

Game 3, is as below. I can't tell how the game got to that state but looking at my hand with a boatload of countermagic, I do not think I would have lost that. Seeing that Dark Confidant is in the graveyard, I probably used Cabal Therapy flashback to knock out cards and used Surgical Extraction on Infernal Tutor.

Round 2, I faced RUG.

Game 1, by the time I went down to 6, I had True-Name Nemesis in play with Punishing Fire to clean up creatures. If he had double Lightning Bolt I would have lose there but he did not. I had an active Liliana sitting there ready to mess the game up.

Game 2, Punishing Fire sets the pace of the game and I sit comfortably with a growing hand with many answers. I casually play the squid and have Brainstorm to protect it. I let it clock up and beats him down to 6. He uses Gitaxian Probe and sees that I am not sandbagging lands but a full suite of business spells and promptly scoops. Not as if he could deal with megasquid anyway.

2-0

Round 3, I face the horrific Cloudpost deck.
Game 1, I try my best to disrupt his progression but he gets further ahead via Primeval Titan. After awhile, he gets Eye of Ugin and I scoop.

Game 2, I go aggro on my opponent with Deathrite Shaman and Vendillion Clique.
I disrupt him enough to have Mindbreak Trap and Snapcaster Mage to recast it and that is the safest every route I can take as Mindbreak Trap does not actually counter anything.

Game 3, my opponent keeps a hand with green cards, colorless lands but no green mana. (Thankfully)
I resolve Liliana and Jace (fateseal mode) and I draw into Intuition to get my loam lock and try very hard to knock off lands. There was an instance where I targeted a Vesuva (according to the client) but it somehow changed into a Thespian Stage. I climb to Jace's ultimate and am open for a turn but he does not have an answer and scoops.

3-0

Round 4, I face the Food Chain Misthollow Griffin deck.

Game 1, I Engineered Explosives an early Food Chain and I his creatures and I have Far/Away when he has Consecrated Sphinx (PHEW). I got the game there.

Game 2, I managed to get an early Isochron Scepter with Counterspell on it. It gets Pithing Needled.
I managed to assemble the Dark Depths combo have been tempo-ing his Misthollow Griffin with Jace's bounce. He scoops there when he figured that he had no outs.
(Thankfully I did not have to face any Force of Will-ed Misthollow Griffins from his side)

4-0

I was quite happy to be 4-0 (finally) and decided to join in the next DE anyway.

Round 1, I faced BUG.

Game 1, I kept a double Force of Will hand and I did not have much pressure. I managed to slowly control the game with Maelstrom pulse on double Deathrite Shaman while leaving Liliana in play. (I had Creeping Tar Pit).
I resolved Jace and I managed to be ahead with Life from the Loam (plus Wasteland).

Game 2, we fight at the very early game and I get hit by disruption while a Tarmogoyf joins the fun alongside Deathrite Shaman and a flipped Delver of Secrets.

Without a way to deal with his multiple threats, easily succumb to his board.

Game 3, we have a close game, trading left and right but I get Squid into play and I draw land for Jace, the mind sculptor. I manage to use Jace's Brainstorm twice before he uses Liliana to make me sacrifice it. Out from the megasquid spewed a horde of isopods all backed up by counter magic.

1-0

Round 2, I face a Enlightened Tutor deck (for the lack of a proper name).

Game 1, my opponent gets the Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek combo early and manages to stop my attempts to stop him.

Game 2, the game comes down to me resolving Keranos and me saving it from a Detention Sphere. I think I won this game on Jace's ultimate.

Game 3, my opponent passes the turn twice and I see that his hand is a Serra's Sanctum and make him discard his Land Tax (which I believe was his way to come back into the game). Resolved Jace and simply went all the way.

2-0

Round 3 vs Miracles.

Game 1, I lose to a bunch of Angel tokens and do not have an out.

Game 2, I attack his white lands and he is stuck on just Islands facing a Bob, Deathrite Shaman and Jace. He scoops there.

Game 3, I keep a slow hand and the game goes slow. We fight over resolving Keranos and I get mine. My opponent scoops without bringing it

3-0

Round 4, I face Storm.

Game 1, I have a very slow hand of Force of Will, double Jace, 1x Liliana and 1x Intuition.
The game progresses slowly and I try to keep the game but I fail to find an answer for the goblin tokens that eventually spill down.

Game 2, I have board of creatures, he has some tokens, I get Golgari Charm which kills my guys too but I have double Deathrite Shaman to clean up.

Game 3, my opponent has a very mana-lite hand. I let him keep his discard spells while I try to advance my board since I am sure that he is not going off anytime soon. I get Jace into play and thankfully I get to start using it. I start building up my hand and disrupt his plays. I would not lose with a hand filled with countermagic but he times out anyway.

4-0

With my double 4-0 finishes, I am comfortably set to get into the qualifiers needing only 2 more QPs. I do not expect to be able to clock 35 QPs to get into the main event but we'll have to see how things go.

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 11 (7 QP)

Last night I got into a Vintage DE. I changed the deck a little, removing Edric and adding Gush.

I threw in 2x Extirpate into the sideboard, replacing a Yixlid Jailer and removed a Mental Misstep.

Round 1, I face Wizards.

I lose game 1 when my hand runs out of steam. I try to hang around as long as I can to figure out what my opponent is playing, thinking that it is a Esper wizards deck.
Game 2, my opponent uses Black Lotus to summon a Magus of the Future.
I can't beat that at all.

0-1

Round 2, I faced a BUG deck.

The games were all very close (as I had very bad hands) and we were basically playing off the top of the deck once everything we played got hit by Abrupt Decay. Fortunately, game 2 I had Darkblast to deal with the opposing Dark Confidant and I had that advantage throughout the game.
Game 3, we attacked each other's mana and I resolved and manage to draw a few cards off Dark Confidant. My opponent's got hit by Darkblast which essentially means he would never ever get to come back on a Dark Confidant.

Round 3, I faced a Bant deck.

I lose game 2 as I have only 1 mana out after getting heavily bombarded by Wastelands.
Game 2, I manage to get out a Trygon Predator which eats his 3/1 enchantment creature (very funny to see) and I manage to win via a creature beatdown.

Game 3, my opponent gets a turn 2 True-Name Nemesis. Unfortunately, this deck is not designed to be able to handle that and I have zero outs, not to mention that I cannot even race it.

1-2 drop

A fruitless day, especially when I failed to join the Legacy DE as the client went down a few minutes prior to the event starting time. =/

I'm not sure if I should make changes to this deck from Legacy standpoint to make the deck more resilient to general threats or just to focus on the key matchups in Vintage. I will have to think about the directions for this deck. 

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 10 (7 QP)

This morning, I woke up at 6.30am and managed to get into the Vintage DE, spotting a mesh of the 2 BUG lists I saw on eternalcentral.com.

Round 1, I face Pyrogush, losing game 1.

Game 2, Wasteland forcing him to Gush pushes him into an uncomfortable position as I establish a board position. Darkblast helps to makes things very manageable.

Game 3 is as below. He opts to kill Deathrite Shaman over my Dark Confidant (hoping to race me) but I think that ultimately backfired with me getting enough pressure to come on top.

1-0

Round 2, my opponent does not show up.
2-0

Round 3, I lead off with Dark Confidant and I end up facing an Oath of Druids on the other side. Thank goodness I had Abrupt Decay in hand. He does not draw much and 2 damage goes all the way.
Game 2 comes down to me protecting my hand with Mental Misstep while he does not have any visible plays. The spirit tokens he gives me pressures him all the way from 20, joined by a friendly spirit token and a Snapcaster Mage eventually.
3-0

Round 4, I face a weird dredge build and I scoop game 1 when he has the second Bazaar of Baghdad after I Wasteland his first. Game 2, he tries to Thespian Stage plus Dark Depths but I protected a tutor for Wasteland and had Jace in hand.
Game 3, I keep a subpar hand that has Yixlid Jailer with Force of Will backup, hoping that it would go the distance but he has his own Force of Will and the game spirals out of control from there.
3-1

So I looked up what he was playing and identified his deck's weakness or rather what I should do to attack his deck. From what I see, I only have to resolve double Extirpate/Surgical Extraction on his Ichorid and Narcomoeba and he will have no game left from his maindeck. If I manage to extirpate Dark Depths for his transformational sideboard, that itself should be good. It's much easier said than done but at least I know what I can do against it. Not gonna lose to him a second time.

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 9 (6 QP)

Last night, I rushed back for the 10pm Legacy DE but it failed to get the numbers.

This morning I woke up at 6.30am to try catch the Vintage DE but it did not fire too.

An hour later, I managed to get into a Legacy DE.
Unfortunately, my deck somehow did not load properly and I ended up with a 14 card sideboard for the whole tournament.(Kinda like what would happen in real life)
I wanted to try Dark Confidant in the Garruk./Xenagos/Grave Titan slot.

Round 1 vs Esper Stoneblade.

My draws are pretty weak and I get mauled two games but I loamlock the opponent in game 1.

0-1

Round 2 vs Miracles.
I do not recall much of the following 3 rounds since they were all miracles. This round ended prematurely with a Liliana being protected from a Council's Judgement. Sure my Loam + Wasteland would make it tough but I don't think there isn't a chance for my opponent to make a comeback.

1-1

Round 3 vs Miracles.
This version runs Stoneforge Mystic.
2-1

Round 4 vs Miracles.
Game 3, I go with a Thoughtseize opening to find my opponent with Entreat the Angels, Batterskull and 4 lands. I was confident to win this especially against such a poor hand.
I tried to be slightly more aggressive but my hand hardly allowed and I wanted to use Deathrite Shaman slowly and not drop all of them down, My opponent scoops after I land Jace.

3-1

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 8 (5 QP)

Last night, the 7pm Legacy DE failed to fire and I got into the Vintage DE at 8pm and double evented the Legacy DE at 10pm. I ended up going 2-2 in Vintage, 3-1 in Legacy. I need to quickly figure out a good Vintage build as I have not been making the money for some time and it does not help that the payout sux.

Vintage DE:

Round 1, I face a Bob deck.

I'm not sure if I won a game but the 2 games I lost came down to Voltaic Key and Time Vault and me not being able to do anything. Game 2, he had a low life count and Dark Confidant out but he had Snapcaster Mage for Vampiric Tutor into Lightning Bolt. Game 3 I did not have enough to fight its resolution.

0-1

Round 2 was against a BUG deck with Mystic Remora.
Wasteland and Standstill went a long way in this matchup. I do not recall much other than that but Remora isn't very strong against a deck that runs under Standstill.

1-1

Round 3 was against Oath of Druids.
Surprisingly I won game 1 on the back of Mishra's Factories facing an active Oath of Druids.
Game 2 was more stable as I managed to keep Oath off. I use spirit tokens and factories to beat down.
We fight over Time Vault but it does not really matter as I have Engineered Explosives for 2 in play.

2-1

Round 4 vs Dredge.
My maindeck does not have any outs vs dredge so I scoop game 1.
Game 2, he has double Ingot Chewer (1 of which I have Force of Will) but I can't stop #2 and he went all the way.

2-2

For the legacy portion, round 1 I faced Zoo.
I won game 1 on the back of Wasteland plus Life from the Loam, locking him out.
Game 2, I deal with the creatures on the board but I get hit by 3 damage burn spells.

Game 3, I control most of the game quite well but I get hit by a 12 point price of progress.

0-1

Round 2, I face BUG with Hymn to Tourachs, Tarmogoyfs, Thoughtseize, Abrupt Decay.
I don't recall much of the game because I was toggling between the Vintage and the Legacy DE and playing on an autopilot mode. In any case this matchup can be closed up easily with Marit Lage since it's uncounterable and they do not run Far/Away like I do.

Round 3, I face Omnitell.

I lose game 1 with a hand with creature kill spells. I side in my boatload of hate.
Game 2, I have 2 Intuition and I get one countered, and resolve the second, getting a plethora of discard spells which ultimately go a long way.
Game 3 was in a similar fashion and I had the natural Dark Depths + Thespian Stage to end the game.

Round 4, I face UWr Counterbalance (with MD REB?!?!? (what a bad move -_-"))
It is a good matchup but it usually takes a lot of time to play out.

Game 1, my get into a very advantageous position but I do not have counters.
I end up using Marit Lage and I managed to use Jace's Brainstorm ability to find Counterspell.
When I attack, he Tops for Entreat the Angel but I stop it.

Game 2 is as below. I get out 2 of my "good vs UW" cards but they meet Council's Judgment plus Snapcaster flashback. Otherwise, I would have gotten very far.
In any case, I manage to stick Isochron Scepter down with Counterspell on it. I mess up some Intuition picks (MTGO v4 problem) and I end up having to do it again with Snapcaster Mage to find my Marit Lage kill. In any case, I end up with just about 5s left on the clock as I beat for 23 points.

3-1

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 6 (4 QP)

Last night, I decided to go into the DE not playing my usual deck. It's not going to work if I can't have its core components bugged.

So I took a storm deck I put together and went into it. Surprisingly, there were people queuing and we fired the event.

Round 1 vs Storm.
Game 1, we spend the first few turns setting up and disrupting each other. My opponent doesn't have the means to go off so I do.

Game 2, I sided in 2x Surgical Extractions and my opponent tried going off but he knows that I have one in hand via Gitaxian Probe. He manages to Ad Nauseum (forgetting to use his LED) into Past in Flames but he lacks the mana and his only way to go off on that turn is if he uses LED and dumps Past in Flames into the graveyard so he Duresses (I hid my Tendrils of Agony on top) and I kill him with a small Tendrils.

Round 2, I faced elves.
I go into the game knowing that the key card in this matchup will be Natural Order. (Since it will get the RG guy who shoots for 6 per noncreature spell).
Game 1, I do the math and kill my opponent without much problem. He had Cabal Therapy but I had Brainstorm.
Game 2, I just couldn't get the numbers I needed to win so I counted and recounted and ultimately decided to Duress since I would die to a Natural order. Unfortunately for my opponent, he did have it and he tried to bring my life down but I had more than sufficient mana to go off with a Past in Flames and not rely on Ad Nauseum.

Round 3, I face Miracles.
For my first game, I try to go off but whiff after losing all my life to Ad Nausuem.
Game 2, I manage to Abrupt Decay Counterbalance and use discard to clear the way for the win.
Game 3, Abrupt Decay clears the way and I go off with an Ad Nauseum but I have one mana short of chaining 1 more storm. My opponent had a counter magic to survive being hit by the last copy. I realized that I did have that extra mana. Anyway, I manage to draw mana to go off with Past in Flames next turn without having to break my LED. I should win from there since I could flashback Past in Flames if I needed to.

Round 4, I face UWR Delver.
Game 1, I go slow and have nothing but double Duress. I play my Tropical Island and play out lands while trying to gain information, setting it up as though I am playing a BUG deck.
Game 2, I reveal myself and see with Gitaxian Probe that he has a weak hand against me. I set up and use Infernal Tutor on Dark Ritual and go off slowly with Burning Wish for Ill-gotten gains and reusing the Infernal Tutor for the game.
Game 3, throughout the game my opponent has a fury of business spells of double Spell Pierce, Force of Will, Counterspell, Snapcaster Mage, Ethersworn canonist and manages to beat down with Delvers.
He has just one more business spell than what I can handle (and I need 1 more mana). Rest in Peace comes down to seal the deal (against my Past in Flames) and I do not have life to Ad Nausuem. I do so anyway as there is a minimal chance that I can come back at 3 life if I draw Infernal Tutor, Lotus Petal, LED, LED, Lotus Petal and nothing else. Of course, I do not.

After the DE ended, another was starting so I got into it, running Miracles as I do not think that Storm is a very good deck to play late at night. I can do control and grindy plays so I should fare better with Miracles at 10pm.

Round 1, I face the mirror. =/
Game 1 I won in a rather grindy showdown but I get stuck without lands and a Jace on the other side in game 2.
Game 3, I come go in on Keranos and have Engineered Explosives to kill the Angel tokens who killed my Jace. It's quite tough for my opponent to come back against 2 cards a turn or just free bolts.

Round 2, I face the mirror again.
However, my opponent scoops very prematurely into the games after getting hit by early Spell Pierces.
Game 1 I have counterbalance. Game 2 we have a small counter war and he scoops after losing the war.
I end up 2-0 in a very short time span. Weird but I take free wins.

Round 3, I face the Carrion Feeder + the 2/1 zombie for 1 that you can cast from the graveyard if a zombie is in play.
Game 1, I spell pierce a Faithless Looting (afraid that it would be reanimator) and he casts the 2/1 zombie. I drop Snapcaster Mage to beat him and get an early Entreat the Angels for x=2. I beatdown for a quick win.
Game 2, I struggle against Carrion Feeder, the 2/1 zombie and Bloodghast. I eventually stabilize the game when I spin Sensei's Divining Top into a very strong setup and I get 3 Angel tokens down to block his team.
He makes feeder big and trades one of them and I go into beatdown while topdecking Swords to Plowshares to make the game further in my favor.

Round 4, I face RUG Delver.
I lose game 1 to a Nimble Mongoose that goes all the way plus a bolt while I keep trying to find Terminus.
Game 2, it goes along the same lines and I struggle to get back into the game while being light on lands.
Unfortunately things did not go too well for me.

With my double 3-1 results, I get +2 QPs for a total of 4 this week. I suppose just doing 4 every week and getting the minimum 15 QPs is good enough for someone who only gets to play minimally.

Anyway, if you want to watch the legacy DEs, I stream them at http://www.twitch.tv/tarmotog.
I'll post when I do so on twitter https://twitter.com/wnatog.