A huge thank you to Peter for putting this tournament report together. If you aren’t already a listener of the In Response Legacy podcast I highly recommend you follow their episodes 🎙️
Preparations:
I am mostly known as a Painter pilot in the Legacy hemisphere. However, to combat my dissatisfaction with the deck in spring 2024, I tried to find myself a deck that has a similar engine and even similar play patterns (but one that has different strength in the current meta).
After some scouting I found myself engaged to my new Welder and Engineer pairing in the form of Elvish Reclaimer and Knight of the Reliquary.
I scouted some lists and I found one I was comfortable to try out. Hooking myself up with a MTGO loan account and some free time I played the list to some varying success online.
After switching around some cards, talking to various people online I ended on a list, where I felt comfortable going into paper. Two weeks prior to 4 Seasons I even got my first 4-0 at my FNM since January which felt amazing.
A few days before the event I quickly hooked up with Douges and we finalized the list.
So with the deck out of the way to be a problem, there are only 3 things to consider for the event: Rest, Food, Hydration.
Rest:
As I was one of the commentators / hosts for the European Legacy Masters I found myself at 11:30pm in the hotel and directly went to sleep. I was pretty happy with this decision, since a few of the local boys went all out in the hotel lobby till 5 in the morning which is not good if you want to perform well over a 9-round tournament.
Food:
There are two things you really need to consider while playing. You need enough sugar and enough fats to charge your brain for the whole day. My personal food of choice are any variation of apple sauce from brands like “GOGO Squeez”. In addition to that I also take some nuts to eat, like in the form of a trail mix.
Hydration:
Always have additional bottles of water in your backpack, since you can’t know when you go to extras and do not have time to wait in line.
With all my hurdles out of the way it is time to play some Legacy!
My Green-White Depths 75
Round 1 (OTD): 4C Yorion Control
As I looked at pairings for R1 I was shocked immediately. I was paired against Niklas Holtmann, a great Legacy Control player from Germany. I thought:” Hard matchup, but I will do my best”. But the matchup was even harder than I thought it would.
In Game 1 I had to mulligan to 6 and kept a land light but playable hand. I got hit by Wasteland on turn 3 and after Loaming it back I conceded to keep my precious time for the post-board games.
In Game 2 one of my Veil of Summers blew out a Force of Will on my Safekeeper and this little guy kept my Marit Lage safe to go for the win 2 turns later.
In game 3 we went pretty even for a long time, I made some advances on the board and he answered those in the following turns, but after resolving a Beanstalk and 3 Leyline Binding it was over for me.
I lost 1-2 in Round 1.
Round 2 (OTP): UG Omni-Tell
In game 1 I did not see much of my opponent, besides him casting Cunning Wish, which was a tell for Omni-Tell. I also saw a Tropical which meant he was on UG. Game 1 was won by a turn 4 Marit Lage with hasty boots.
In game two I kept a slow-ish hand with Karakas, 2 Wastelands and a Mox Diamond. I wasted him on turn 1 and casted a GSZ for a Dryad Arbor. I wasted again on turn 2 and my follow-up Loam was countered by an evoked Endurance. Afterwards I quickly assembled my combo to win the match.
2-0 the round
1-1 the tournament
Round 3 (OTP): UB Shadow
Game 1 was back and forth with me getting on the board and him removing some pieces while keeping up pressure with Necrogoyfs. After a few turns I found myself in the position to make a main phase Marit Lage to play around Wasteland, which I did. My opponent showed me a card in his next turn, which I was very familiar with, as it won me my pre-release. The card was nothing other than Mockingbird.
Him getting now his own 20/20 indestructible flying Marit Lage could have been a problem, but with Urza’s Saga ticking up to 3 I got myself a Shadowspear to equip to my token and swing. After blocks I activated the secret flavour text of the card to destroy the opposing ‘Marit Lage’
Game 2 was back and forth, both of us killing each others creatures but him getting in some chips with Psychic Frog to stay ahead in cards. At 8 mana and a Saga again ticking over to 3, I top-decked myself a GSZ. With the Saga I got myself Lavaspur Boots and went GSZ for X=3 and fetched a Knight. I equipped the Knight, got myself the dark depths in addition to the stage on board, made myself the token, re-equipped the boots to the token and swung for lethal.
2-0 the round
2-1 the tournament
Round 4 (OTD): Mono R Painter
Game 1 was pretty easy on my end.
I removed their turn 1 Welder with Swords to Plowshares and assembled a lethal swing on turn 4.
In Game 2 a turn 2 Collector Ouphe locked him out of his precious treasures from the Fable goblin token. I pretty much controlled the board, kept his Ensnaring Bridge off the board with an Endurance and won after some removal to keep his board clean.
2-0 the round
3-1 the tournament
A quick reminder of the next Green Sun’s Summit featuring 7 Legacy co-hosts! Make sure you’re following twitch.tv/dougesontwitch for a weekend of Legacy action!
Round 5 (OTP): GW Lands
Game 1 was playing slowly on my side while keeping interaction up and keeping everything from his side in check. He went first for a Marit Lage, but I bounced his token with my karakas and with Lavaspur Boots equipped my token swung for lethal.
In Game 2 I kept a hand with 2 Wastelands to clear his board, but after wasting one of his lands he fired off a Surgical Extraction to clear them from the deck. After Endurance-nuking his graveyard to stop the Loam + Wasteland recursion I developed some creatures on the board and won via small creature beatdown.
2-0 the round
4-1 the tournament
Round 6 (OTD): Eldrazi
Game 1 was not even close. Command X=0 kills my Dryad and draws him a card. Turn 2 he Wastelands me and I never came back.
Game 2 was the most interesting game of the round. It went back and forth, but the key point was me denying him access to any form of coloured mana. Wasting his Caverns and having some pressure up in the form of a 3/4 Reclaimer. A 17/17 knight won the match in the end, thanks to the pseudo vigilance which Maze of Ith provides.
Game 3 was a repeat of game 1. They have a strong hand to cast an early Mycospawns and it was over from there.
1-2 the round
4-2 the tournament
Round 7 (OTD): UB Rescaminator
Game 1 was such a sweet game to play. We traded some resources back and forth, but crucially he had more creatures then I to provide defence for his Tamiyo to tick up. In the end there was a single Frog on his field while ulting his Tamiyo which lead to another form of a flying Marit Lage style attack for his game 1 win.
Game 2 was influenced by a quick Entomb into Archon of Cruelty where a quick Swords to Plowshares saved me the game. He got in with some small Frog beats, but I developed more creatures and won via beatdown.
For game 3 there were only 4 minutes left to play, which resulted in a draw for both of us.
1-1-1 the round
4-2-1 the tournament
Round 8 (OTP): UB Rescaminator
Game 1 was von by my opponent when he dazed my evoked Endurance after his turn 2 Reanimate on Atraxa.
In Game 2 I resolved a turn 1 Soul-Guide Lantern and had his graveyard in check. On turn 3 after him letting me resolve my Vexing Bauble I really felt in charge of the game. Loam + Wasteland kept his lands down and Endurance beats won in the end.
Game 3 was a special one. My hand was Surveil land, 2 Flagstones, Crop Rotation, Soul-Guide Lantern, Elvish Reclaimer, Knight of the Reliquary. I drew no untapped to play on turn 1, since I wanted to have a Crop Rotation quickly up. With lantern on turn 2 I was left with only a few out to his Harbinger of the Seas, that he resolved on now on turn 3. With Crop Rotation and Flagstones I was only able to get the basic plains, as the Crop Rotation was answered by a daze.
In the end I lost this game.
1-2 the round
4-3-1 the tournament
Round 9 (OTP): Yorion DnT
I can tell you that this matchup seems impossible, but I still overcame the obstacle. A key piece in this matchup was Shadowspear. They have so many flyers and removal that your life total is in constant pressure.
Unfortunately I could not play to Marit Lage since he kept his Karakas on the field open for the whole game. But nevertheless I played out some creatures and made some construct-tokens. Shortly before winning the game, my opponent got into tutoring up a Canoptek Scarab Swarm. At least I got to exile my own graveyard with my Bojuka Bog, otherwise It would be pretty much game over.
For Game 2 there wasn’t much time left, but Ghost Quarter and White Orchid Phantom put quite a stress on my manabase. But at least with Echoing Deeps in the deck I had access to any of my basics that were destroyed. In the end I developed 3 mana to cast my Ramunap Excavator and from there had every land I could dream for.
2-0 the round
5-3-1 the tournament.
Learnings:
In the current meta there can’t be really too much removal. Especially against UB Rescaminator you have to keep an eye on each axis on the deck.
You need to clear out Frogs and Tamiyo, keep an eye at the graveyard and need basics to respect Harbinger of the Seas.
A card I feel that is really well positioned right now is Life from the Loam. In a few matchups I really wished for a second copy. On the other hand, with so much tempo in the format Sylvan Library was often boarded out, since the life loss would have been too much of a downside.
As an Urza’s Saga gamer, I really liked the two copies in the deck and will keep them in (especially since both targets did some heavy lifting in the tournament).
Roll assessment is also something you need to recalculate with the deck every single turn, but most importantly you need to have a plan for each of the meta matchups upfront. Against Eldrazi I am still unsure, if playing control and trying to waste them out is the correct plan, but I feel playing on a fair axis is unplayable against them.
With now moving my focus to Eternal Weekend in Prague, I will make a few changes to the deck.
New Version:
Changes:
Maindeck:
-1 Ramunap Excavator
-1 Sylvan Library
+1 Outland Liberator
+1 Life from the Loam
Sideboard:
-2 Doorkeeper Thrull
-1 Outland Liberator
+1 Ramunap Excavator
+1 Dismember
+1 Endurance
A huge shout out to my Patrons to round out this report as a thank you for supporting this platform!
