Ypsi Legacy for a Black Lotus

Another Magic blog. Non-magicians should probs skip it.

I spent the week deciding whether I should head to Saint Joe for the weekend or stick around town with little to do besides maybe hit a local legacy tournament. The tournament had a Black Lotus as first place with prizes dropping off quickly from there. 

1st Black Lotus ($1000)

2nd Underground Sea ($200)

3-4 Force of Will ($80)

5-8 Misty Rainforest ($50)

There was an entry fee of $40 bucks too so trying to make top 4 out 44 people to actually make a profit seemed like a low expected value. I was definitely leaning hard towards making my way towards the joe for the weekend and I called up some bros.

Kevin - "Yeah I'm going to be busy Friday night so I can't do FNM"

Eric - "There's not really anything happening this weekend. Come next weekend."

Welp alright, with Ian out of town I had to do something to keep my sanity and a good legacy tournament was pretty much it.

I ran storm. Goblins seemed as bad as always and I didn't feel like assembling RUG. Plus I had goldfished about 50 games over the past two weeks preparing for another tournament that I didn't go to. 

Main 16

4 Dark Ritual

4 Cabal Ritual

4 Lotus Petal

4 Lion's Eye Diamond

31

4 Brainstorm

4 Ponder

3 Preordain

4 Gitaxian Probe

38

4 Duress

3 Cabal Therapy

45

4 Infernal Tutor

1 Ad Nauseum

1 Past in Flames

1 Tendrils of Agony

60

2 Island

1 Swamp

2 Underground Sea

1 Volcanic Island

2 Gemstone Mine

4 Polluted Delta

3 Scalding Tarn

Sideboard

3 Chain of Vapor

3 Abrupt Decay

3 Massacre

3 Carpet of Flowers

1 Tropical Island

1 Karakas

1 Cabal Therapy

For anyone reading not familiar with the deck, basically you try to cast ten spells in a turn and kill them with Tendrils of Agony. It's all fast mana, card searching and a bit of discard for combo protection. Nothing too out of the ordinary in the list. I upped the number of Massacre in the sideboard since mono-white hate bears has been putting up good results recently and is pretty cheap to make.

Sorry if some rounds are a bit brief, I didn't take notes on this one.

Round 1

Sneak and show

Not much to say on this one. He didn't ever get his combo off after I stripped his hand with Gitaxian Probe into Cabal Therapy. 

1-0

Round 2 

Omnitell

Lost this one pretty quickly. I had a hard trouble assembling all the pieces I needed to go off. By the time I did he had double Force of Will and there really wasn't anything I could do. He didn't combo when he had the Dream Halls/Enter the Infinite kill with me without any cards in my hand. I asked him afterwards and he said it was risky to go for that. I suppose that's fine… but I had no cards in my hand and he'd win on the spot. Regardless, he drew whatever he wanted to draw and finished me off.

1-1

Round 3

Tin Fins

This is kind of a scary matchup since he's generally quicker than I am. I opened game one with a duress on his Shallow Grave while he had Griselbrand in the graveyard and from there his draws kind of floundered. He never drew another copy and I sculpted my hand to something that could go off. Game 2 I get a cabal therapy for two Entomb and he never really recovered.

2-1

Round 4

Reanimator

More Griselbrand. Game 1 he manages to stick Greasy onto the battlefield and I'm essentially forced to go off even though the odds are good he drew a Force of Will somewhere in 7 cards he just drew… but he doesn't have it and I play my ten spells. Game 2 he does a lot of nothing after I play some discard, he plays a Pithing Needle naming Lion's Eye Diamond… but Needle doesn't stop mana abilities and I go off with 3 LEDs.

3-1

Round 5 

Elves

This is a win and in for me since I could draw the next round. My opponent is undefeated at this point so that makes my tiebreakers all the better if I win. Game 1 He plays Llanowar Elves and passes. I duress him on my turn. He has a hand full of elves and I'm ready to off on the next turn knowing he can't stop me. On his turn 2 he draws and play Glimpse of Nature and proceeds to go off. 

Glimpse of Nature

Nettle Sentinel

Birchlore Rangers

Elves! Elves! Elves!

Natural Order for Craterhoof Behemoth

Attack for 25

Not really anything I could do about that.

Game 2 he still doesn't know what I'm on so he boards wrong and I get an easy combo after a discard spell.

Game 3 he now has all his combo hate in. I'm going off without knowing what's in his hand since I assume his disruption will be permanent based.

dark ritual

cabal ritual

cabal ritual

Lion's Eye Diamond

Infernal Tutor

Now here as soon I as I play the tutor he responds with Mindbreak Trap without giving me a chance to crack my Lion's Eye Diamond in response. I exile the tutor and he laments his mistake. I only have two lands in hand at the moment but they look to be useful as he leads his next turn with Thorn of Amethyst. Over the next coupled turns I play out my lands and play some cantrips clawing back into the game and end up drawing and casting Ad Nauseam with the previously uncracked Lion's Eye Diamond giving me my only black mana . I immediately flip over the one chain of vapor I boarded in and a bunch of rituals and tutors. I bounce the Thorn and combo out.

4-1

Round 6

Intentional Draw vs zoo

4-1-1

Top 8 

Round 1

Elves

Yup, rematch. Less interesting matches though. Game 1 I Gitaxian probe my opponent and he has two natural orders, a regal force, and craterhoof behemoth in his hand. Not great draws. My opponent jokes that his top copy is probably the one-of Progenitus. He draws and immediately shows me a Progenitus. That is pretty ridiculous and I combo off. Game 2 he doesn't have much going on and I win.

Round 2

Zoo

You don't see too much zoo in legacy any more and of lot of that is because of decks like mine. The game 1 match-up is just too good… of course I lose game 1 immediately. He just has way too much pressure and I fizzle during a desperation combo attempt. Game 2 He lands a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and has a medium amount of pressure going but I cast Chain of Vapor on his Thalia end of turn and have window to combo out. Game 3 I cabal therapy a thalia out of his hand and he doesn't have anything to stop me from there.

Round 3 

Infect

Cool to see a brew in the finals. Game 1 I have a mediocre hand, his turn two involves Inkmoth Nexus and two copies of Invigorate for nine poison damage and I can't go off or stop the swing next turn. Game 2 I play some discard to slow him down and have enough time to combo without resistance. Game 3 I make him discard a Berserk and a Spell Pierce. He gets 4 poison on me. I'm left with a bunch of lotus petals and a LED in hand with him with an actual clock. I draw and cantrip into… Ad Nauseam! I cast it with two lotus petals up and 6 storm. Naturally I flip 3 dark rituals and a tendrils in the first 6 cards and finish the job.

1st! I can walk away with a Black Lotus or $1000 bucks cash. I take the money… I can't justify the cardboard. Sweet tournament, all good players but managed to play tight and walk away with two months rent.