Tournament Report: Buncha Duals 4 with Punishing Jund

Buncha Duals is a long running tournament series held by Die Hard Games in Lincoln, RI, where prizes come in the form of duals and other Legacy goodies. This event was the last Buncha Duals, as the owner of DHG is now all out of duals.

I decided to roll with Jund for this event. I've been a bit down on Aggro Loam since SCG Providence and wanted to mix it up, and the deck honestly felt really strong outside of the Omni-Tell matchup. The 75 I registered was:

Punishing Jund, 6/15
Creature Spells (16) 4x Deathrite Shaman 4x Dark Confidant 4x Tarmogoyf 1x Scavenging Ooze 3x Bloodbraid Elf	Noncreature Spells (21) 4x Thoughtseize 2x Lightning Bolt 4x Abrupt Decay 3x Hymn to Tourach 3x Punishing Fire 4x Liliana of the Veil 1x Sylvan Library
Lands (23) 4x Verdant Catacombs 3x Marsh Flats 2x Wooded Foothills 3x Badlands 2x Bayou 1x Forest 1x Swamp 4x Grove of the Burnwillows 3x Wasteland	SB: 2x Duress SB: 2x Golgari Charm SB: 2x Grafdigger's Cage SB: 2x Pyroblast SB: 2x Surgical Extraction SB: 1x Krosan Grip SB: 1x Life from the Loam SB: 1x Nihil Spellbomb SB: 1x Phyrexian Revoker SB: 1x Toxic Deluge

There were >90 people so it was a 7-round tournament. I'm pretty tired and have bad notes so I can only give brief details of each match.

Round 1: MUD (2-0)
This is a matchup I run into a lot and am fairly comfortable with. I made some really loose plays, including completely misunderstanding how Coercive Portal works, but managed to pull out the win thanks to the BGx goodstuff.

Round 2: UR Delver (2-0)
Close and interactive games here but I won out. This matchup is actually a lot harder than one might think due to their heavier burn element compared to other Delver decks.

Round 3: UG 12-Post (2-0)
I'd never played against this deck with Jund before, but it seems quite favorable. The discard spells were just really good. I was hoping for some Loam action game 2 but didn't draw it. Props to my opponent's beautiful foiled deck.

Round 4: Omni-Tell (0-2)
I was kind of hoping to dodge this one but that was obviously wishful thinking. At 3-0 the top tables were swarmed with Omni-Tell players.

Round 5: A.N.T. (2-0)
Got there with loads of discard again, plus help from Surgical in game 2.

Round 6: Omni-Tell (0-2)
This matchup is seriously bad. I might need to try Slaughter Games in my board.

Round 7: Affinity Stompy (1-2)
This was a bit of a wacky deck, with stuff like Chalice, Chrome Mox, Stoneforge Mystic, and Myr Enforcer (who is actually really hard to deal with!) The games were interactive and close but I lost out in the end. I was pretty tired and wasn't really playing optimally at this point.

Final Record: 4-3, out of prizes
Not the best finish overall, but not one I'm unhappy with. As I suspected coming in, the deck is quite strong outside of the Omni-Tell matchup, which I'm not sure is fixable. The second Omni-Tell player I lost to was actually a guy from my store, who ended up making Top 8 which was nice. This was the last big event on my calendar before Eternal Weekend in August, my deck choice for which is still undecided. I think it would be really cool to play Punishing Maverick, which I'll probably sleeve up and test for a bit. First, I have to decide on a list though!

Modern Musings

Watching GP Charlotte coverage this weekend got me thinking about Modern again. Looking back, I started getting into Modern late in 2012 with an Affinity deck ($9 Mox Opals!) but never finished it. I began building GW Hatebears at the end of 2013 and had it finished about a month before the new bannings and unbannings. Hatebears felt kind of bad since it was trying to be Maverick in a format without Wasteland, Stoneforge Mystic, and Green Sun's Zenith, so I moved into a new deck after another 2 months: Scapeshift. I love ramping and doing stuff with lands, and it plays what is possibly the sweetest Blue card, Cryptic Command, so it seemed like a very natural choice.

I tried to play a lot of Modern last Spring and Summer leading into the PTQ season and GP Worcester but I ended up being too busy to go to any PTQs and by Fall I was just playing Legacy instead, despite having the option to play Modern locally twice a week. Since then my Modern deck has remained virtually untouched. A lot of players have strong feelings about Modern; I'm honestly still not sure where I stand on it. The essence of Modern is simple and appealing. People want to build a deck that they can play a long time from a larger cardpool and with strategic depth that Standard Magic simply can't offer. While this experience best describes Legacy, the Reserved List and other factors have made the entry costs of that format quite prohibitive, and thus Modern has to provide a microcosm of that experience to both the Pro Tour and a wider audience. Unfortunately Modern can still be quite an expensive format, especially when Wizards has shown a willingness to ban entire decks out of existence. While the incessant bannings make Modern seem unhealthy, they have shaped it into a format that can offer something different from others. Due to the paucity of individually powerful cards in the format due to bannings, decks built around synergy and redundancy have arisen, which has certainly caused complaints about the over-effectiveness of sideboard cards and BGx decks that can efficiently disrupt synergies. But the nature of the format has allowed unique and quintessentially Modern decks to arise such as Twin, Amulet, Boggles, Living End, Tron, Ad Nauseam combo, and Pod. While some of the bannings seem absurd, they may be necessary to ensure Modern doesn't simply become a worse version of Legacy, but something different instead.

While it isn't for everyone, at the end of the day Modern is here to stay. It has become a very popular format and will only continue to grow as it inevitably gets cheaper with the reprinting of staples. However, in the wake of the MM2 release and accompanying financial upheaval, it remains unclear when prices reach a level where this growth can finally and completely be realized. 

Deck Tech: 4C Aggro Loam

           

Introduction
This deck is an almost exact copy of this list which took down the 500 player 2014 Bazaar of Moxen tournament in the hands of Niklas Kronberger. While previous 4C Loam decks focused on playing Burning Wish and Devastating Dreams, Kronberger utilized a more aggressive Black component and Liliana of the Veil, which is an excellent card in a Loam shell. Since bringing this strategy to the forefront with his big win, Kronberger's version has now become the standard for the archetype.

This iteration of 4C Loam is a midrange deck that could be described as a mash-up of Jund, Maverick, and Lands. Generally, it plays out like a Rock deck with removal backed up by large threats. However, it sacrifices some interaction to play Chalice of the Void, which can be cast on the first turn with a Mox Diamond and is very powerful against certain strategies. The combination of Punishing Grove and a strong Wasteland plan against fair decks and Chalice and hatebears against combo decks gives the deck impressive breadth. The deck is tied together by a number of card advantage and selection engines. Its weaknesses are heavy reliance on the graveyard and variance.


The List

Lands (26)
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Windswept Heath
2x Bayou
2x Scrubland
2x Taiga
1x Savannah
1x Forest
4x Wasteland
1x Karakas
1x Dryad Arbor
2x Grove of the Burnwillows
1x Maze of Ith
2x Barren Moor
2x Tranquil Thicket

Noncreature Spells (23)

4x Mox Diamond

4x Chalice of the Void

2x Green Sun's Zenith

3x Life from the Loam

1x Sylvan Library

3x Abrupt Decay

3x Punishing Fire

3x Liliana of the Veil

Creature Spells (11)
4x Dark Confidant
1x Tarmogoyf
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Scavenging Ooze
4x Knight of the Reliquary

Sideboard (15)
SB 4x Leyline of the Void
SB 3x Ethersworn Canonist
SB 1x Gaddock Teeg
SB 1x Relclamation Sage
SB 1x Phyrexian Revoker
SB 1x Thrun, the Last Troll
SB 1x Krosan Grip
SB 2x Golgari Charm
SB 1x Toxic Deluge


Maindeck Card Breakdown

Mox Diamond - A crucial component of the deck providing acceleration and putting lands in the graveyard for Knights. Lands pitched can also be bought back later with Loam.

Chalice of the Void - Most commonly played on 1, could be played on 0 against Storm and Belcher decks. Effective against a variety of fair and unfair decks.

Green Sun's Zenith - Relevant at all stages of the game, can be another turn 1 play tutoring a Dryad Arbor and provides more copies of threats later.

Life from the Loam - The namesake card, can buy back lands like Wastelands and cycle lands, and feed your Knights or clear the top of your library through dredging. Not as integral to this deck as it is in Lands, and more often than not taking a regular draw step rather than dredging is correct. Can be boarded out in many combo matchups.

Sylvan Library - Powerful card advantage engine that can be a little difficult for some decks to answer. One of the best cards to have in any grindy matchup.

Abrupt Decay - Unmatched in efficiency and versatility.

Punishing Fire - While very powerful against creature decks in conjunction with Grove of the Burnwillows, can be boarded out against many decks.

Liliana of the Veil - The biggest payoff of this version of the Loam deck, Liliana is a good fit for the archetype since you don't mind putting many of your cards in the graveyard, such as Punishing Fire, Loam, lands, or extra Chalices and Moxes.

Dark Confidant - Card advantage that is often "free" due to the quantity of zeros in the deck, and is necessary to increase velocity in a deck that can be prone to variance.

Tarmogoyf - Efficient large creature, functions as the 5th copy of Knight in a sense. Can be a 7/8 based on card types in this deck alone.

Gaddock Teeg - Weak body but effective against a variety of decks including Miracles, Elves, Storm, and Sneak & Show. Having access to GSZ means there are effectively three copies against such decks but only one against others where he is ineffective like Delver and Death & Taxes.

Scavenging Ooze - Provides both graveyard hate and lifegain.

Knight of the Reliquary - A huge threat with many powerful synergies in the deck, and the main win condition. Can be enlarged by Moxes, cycle lands, Wastelands, discarding lands to Liliana, and Loam dredges. Tutor ability can be used for Karakas against Reanimator/Show & Tell decks or Grove of the Burnwillows to assemble Punishing Grove against creature decks.

Lands - 4 Cycle Lands, 4 Wastelands, 1 Karakas, 1 Dryad Arbor, 1 Maze of Ith, and 2 Groves is the core utility land package supplemented by fetches and dual lands.


Sideboard Card Breakdown

Leyline of the Void - Arguably the most powerful graveyard hate card available, this card is played primarily due to the difficulty of supporting either 1CC or symmetrical hate cards such as Grafdigger's Cage or Rest in Peace.

Ethersworn Canonist - Useful tool against critical mass combo decks such as Storm, Elves, and Burn, with peripheral applications against other decks such as Omnitell and Manaless Dredge.

Gaddock Teeg - Discussed above, you often want the second copy in matchups where he is powerful.

Reclamation Sage - The choice of this card over Qasali Pridemage is primarily due to having a different interaction with Show & Tell due to being a triggered ability.

Phyrexian Revoker - Pithing Needle's 2CC big brother, a versatile hate card against a number of strategies including 12-Post, Death & Taxes, Miracles, MUD, Painter, Sneak & Show, and Miracles. Remember that this card can name LED against Storm decks as well.

Thrun, the Last Troll - Resilient threat primarily for Miracles but can come in against Delver or Blue midrange decks as well if desired.

Krosan Grip - Can handle different threats and some more effectively than Abrupt Decay, including Aether Vial, Sensei's Divining Top, Batterskull, and Sneak Attack. Remember that Counterbalance can counter this card since Split Second allows triggered abilities to happen.

Golgari Charm - Versatile answer to both small creature decks like Elves and Death & Taxes, Empty the Warrens swarms out of Storm decks, and things like Sneak Attack and Rest in Peace. The regeneration mode can sometimes be a blowout as well.

Toxic Deluge - Arguably the best "big" sweeper in Legacy, can clean up any board providing you can afford pay the life.


Conclusion

While much of the Loam shell is difficult to modify due to its interlocking and synergistic nature, there is some room to customize the deck with utility lands, Green Sun's Zenith targets, and tweaking numbers on support cards. This is an interesting and different deck that can be very unfair, but like many decks without Brainstorm is prone to "losing to itself". If you wish to learn more about the deck, check out the discussion in the Aggro Loam thread on The Source. If you think you're ready to take the plunge, remember to always proxy and play games with the deck against varied and popular matchups before buying the cards you need!

Tournament Report: SCG 5k Premier IQ, Providence

I registered this 75:

4C Loam

Lands (26)
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Windswept Heath
3x Bayou
2x Scrubland
1x Taiga
1x Savannah
1x Forest
4x Wasteland
1x Karakas
1x Dryad Arbor
2x Grove of the Burnwillows
1x Treetop Village
2x Barren Moor
2x Tranquil Thicket

Noncreature Spells (23)

4x Mox Diamond

4x Chalice of the Void

2x Green Sun's Zenith

3x Life from the Loam

1x Sylvan Library

3x Abrupt Decay

3x Punishing Fire

3x Liliana of the Veil

Creature Spells (11)
4x Dark Confidant
1x Tarmogoyf
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Scavenging Ooze
4x Knight of the Reliquary

Sideboard (15)
SB 4x Leyline of the Void
SB 3x Ethersworn Canonist
SB 1x Gaddock Teeg
SB 1x Relclamation Sage
SB 1x Phyrexian Revoker
SB 1x Thrun, the Last Troll
SB 1x Krosan Grip
SB 2x Golgari Charm
SB 1x Toxic Deluge

To my surprise, there were almost 200 people so it was an eight round tournament. I was only expecting there to be six based on the usual turn out for these types of events.

Round 1: Elves (0-2)
Kept a reasonable looking hand game 1. He played his whole hand on his second turn and I conceded shortly thereafter to conceal information.

-3 Loam, -1 Treetop, -1 Ooze, -2 ?
+3 Canonist, +1 G. Teeg, +2 G-Charm, +1 Deluge

Game 2 I had a 7 with turn 2 Chalice and Canonist. He got out a Nettle Sentinel before I could Chalice him, and next turn I played Canonist. He played Visionary his next turn. I was sandbagging a Liliana and decided to deploy a Knight first to have a blocker for his Sentinel since I thought the game would go long and Liliana would be better sticking around. Unfortunately, next turn he simply cast NO sacrificing a Dryad Arbor, and his Sentinel, Visionary, and Hoof actually presented lethal damage unless I chump-blocked with a Knight (I attacked with Canonist the previous turn) and went to 2. At this point I had Decay and Liliana in hand so I could survive another turn by killing a creature and chumping the Hoof with Canonist. I stupidly played Liliana and edicted the Visionary instead of Decaying the Sentinel, leaving me exactly dead. I'm not sure what my outs were there, but I definitely squandered another draw step. In hindsight, it looks like I handled this game very poorly overall. I should have prioritized simply trading cards after I stuck Chalice instead of playing creatures, which would have delayed the NO aspect of his deck rather than having Gimpse handled redundantly by both Chalice and Canonist.

Round 2: Storm (0-2)
Kept turn 1 Bob turn 2 Liliana. Unfortunately I was dead on his second turn. He flipped his deck with Ad Nauseam so at least I got to see he was on A.N.T..

-3 Loam, -3 P-Fire, -3 Decay,
+4 Leyline, +3 Canonist, +1 G. Teeg, +2 G-Charm

I kept a 6 with just Leyline game 2 and didn't get there. He had a pretty quick kill once again. I can't lie, seeing a beautiful foiled/signed/foreign Storm deck flipped off AdNaus is beautiful.

Round 3: Omni-Tell (0-2)
I had turn 1 Chalice on 1 on the play, which he Forced pitching Intuition. I put him on some kind of Show and Tell deck. On his 2nd turn he cast Show and Tell, put Omniscience into play, cast Dig Through Time, cast Cunning Wish-->Eladamri's Call, and cast Emrakul.

-3 Loam, -3 P-Fire, -1 Ooze
+3 Canonist, +1 G.Teeg, +1 Rec. Sage, +1 K-Grip, +1 Revoker

I didn't know if Revoker did anything but I brought it in anyway. Ooze might have been better because of Dig, but I figured he was generally casting it without paying its mana cost. I decided to take drastic action and mulligan aggressively to either Canonist or Rec. Sage. I ended up with a 4 of Chalice, Bob, and 2 lands. I managed to resolve Chalice, but was dead to similar shenanigans a turn later. After getting Annihilated I took another draw step and then conceded, joking that it wasn't Karakas, but then realized Karakas does nothing against Omniscience except give him infinite turns. This deck is super gross.

At this point I had played around 30 minutes of Magic total and lost every single game. I couldn't even be salty or tilted, just amused at the absurdity of Legacy. I had ample time to go and convert a pile of junk cards into a Containment Priest, eat, use the bathroom, and scout around. The meta was far less fair than the last big local Legacy tournament I went to in Worcester shortly after Bob Huang's win with UR Delver. There were many Lands, Post/MUD, Sneak/Omni, and Miracles decks in the room, with Delver and Blade looking less represented than usual. Of course, being a Legacy torunament in New England, almost everything was in the room including Moggcatcher Stompy and Zombardment. To my extreme surprise, I even saw someone else playing 4C Loam! turns out he is an active poster I have chatted with on The Source who plays a lot of the same decks as me. Its a small world sometimes, particularly in the Legacy community.

Round 4: Reanimator (2-0)
I had turn 1 Chalice in my opener which I hoped was good against whatever he was playing. Turned out to be pretty good-he discarded a Tidespout Tyrant to hand size. I was able to resolve two Knights but he found an Exhume for his Tyrant. However, he conceded, probably being unable to cast spells to bounce my Knights with one unblocked being lethal.

-3 Loam, -3 P-Fire, -1 G. Teeg
+4 Leyline, +2 Canonist, +1 Toxic Deluge

Game 2 I mulliganed to Leyline. I kind of drew dead from there but managed to land a Chalice on 1 and cobble together a clock of Arbor + Treetop to finish the job.

Round 5: Burn (1-2)
My car buddy! We had been joking around about getting paired since we were both doing poorly. This is a very poor matchup for me but I managed to snag game 1 by aggressively mulliganing to Chalice. We were kind of messing around and playing loose, I forgot a Chalice trigger on a Lavamancer and he forgot an Eidolon trigger.

-3 Loam
+3 Canonist

Games 2 and 3 I got wrecked.

Round 6: Shardless (0-2)
I have seen this player before on Shardless and kept a hand appropriate for the matchup. Surely enough he started with a suspended Ancestral Vision. He Thoughtseized my Knight and Decayed my Library and Chalice on 0 to snag his Vision. I drew a Liliana but had only one Black source.

-1 G. Teeg, -1 Chalice
+1 Thrun, +1 Deluge

I kept a hand with no removal but pressure in the form of two Knights which I could start deploying on my 2nd turn. I got totally blown out by Maelstrom Pulse and he Thoughtseized my Thrun. I proceeded to draw multiple Lilianas but had only a single Black source.

Round 7: Bye

Round 8: Team America
I saw this player earlier and knew he what he was on. As we shuffled and presented out decks to be cut we got distracted by something and then realized we didn't know which deck was which since we had the same sleeves. We called a judge who decided to resolve this odd issue by taking us each aside and asking for a description of our deck and then examining each deck. Anyway, Game 1 he flipped two Delvers I couldn't answer.

-1 G. Teeg, -1 Chalice
+1 Thrun, +1 Deluge

Games 2 and 3 he was a bit slow out of the gates and I was able to answer his board and then Loam lock him. This is a very poor matchup for me in my experience thus far so I was pleasantly surprised, and able to end the tournament on a semi-high note at least.

Final Record: 3-5

So, the tournament ended in tears for my LGS's contingent. One guy had started 4-0, with Goblins no less, but ended 4-3-1. Another guy on Miracles had 3 no shows throughout the day and was able to end 5-3. We joked that he might make Top32 and cash, but he ended up in the 40's. My buddy playing Burn was 3-5 as well I believe, though he might have had a bye too. We went out for some drinks in downtown Providence after, lamented our bad beats and the even worse service at the joint, and then headed back to Boston. All and all, we still managed to have a good time. At the end of the day, having fun is important than anything else in Magic.

"Teaching" Decks

A friend in one of my classes expressed some interest in learning to play Magic, so as an exercise I decided to make three 40-card "teaching decks" out of cards in my bulk box. I ended up with a Mono-Red Aggro Deck, a GW Midrange deck, and a UB Control deck. I was restricted to what cards I had available, so none of the decks are quite basic enough for teaching a new player. However, I hope they could be somewhat effective at exhibiting different strategies and mechanics.

Me and my roommate played a few games with the decks and made some tweaks to them, but again the card pool is quite restrictive as I only have a single fat pack full of cards not in/for decks that is more biased towards some strategies than others. I think they might be horribly unbalanced but oh well.

Mono-Red Aggro:
2x Monastery Swiftspear
1x Rakdos Cackler
3x Valley Dasher
3x Goblin Shortcutter
1x Dragon Hatchling
1x War-Name Aspirant
1x Keldon Marauders
3x Bloodfire Expert

2x Shock
1x Burst Lightning
1x Lightning Strike
2x Madcap Skills
1x Act of Treason
2x Hordeling Outburst

16x Mountain

GW Midrange:

4x Elvish Mystic
1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
4x Centaur Healer
2x Wayfaring Temple
1x Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
1x Soul of the Harvest
1x Mikaeus the Lunarch

4x Call of the Conclave
2x Farseek
2x Selesnya Charm
1x Unflinching Courage

2x Selesnya Guildgate
7x Plains
8x Forest

UB Control:
3x Augur of Bolas
1x Archaeomancer
1x Talrand, Sky Summoner
1x Sphinx of Uthunn

2x Ponder
3x Terror
2x Essence Scatter
2x Agony Warp
1x Ultimate Price
1x Disperse
1x Distress
2x Consult the Necrosages
2x Dissolve
1x Domestication

1x Dimir Guildgate
1x Evolving Wilds
6x Swamp
9x Island

Local Legacy: 4/6

Only 2 weeks left until the IQ. At this point in my playing the only big matchups that feel extremely unfavorable are Team America and Elves. Today I played the same list as last week. We had 12 people show up tonight so it was 4 rounds again!

The Meta was:
2x Miracles
1x 4C Loam
1x Junkblade
1x Death & Taxes
1x Goblins
1x Merfolk
1x Burn
1x Team America
1x RUG Delver
1x Reanimator
1x MUD

Round 1: Reanimator (2-1)
I know this player is usually on Reanimator. I made a kinda sketchy keep Game 1 of T1 Zenith->Arbor T2 Knight in a hope to get there with Karakas somehow, but I knew my chances of winning weren't great anyway. Didn't get there.

-1 G. Teeg, -2 Loam, -3 Punishing Fire
+4 Leyline, +2 Canonist, +1 Revoker

Games 2 and 3 I mulled to Leyline which got there. This player doesn't play Show & Tell and leans on Decay for permanent hate so Leyline is pretty good against him.

Round 2; Team America (1-2)
Don't really remember game 1 but I clearly was short on answers since he had 3 Tarmogoyfs when I died.

-1 Chalice, -1 G. Teeg
+1 Deluge, +1 Thrun

Game 2 I managed to trade 1-for-1 then landed a Deluge to wipe his board. We both went into topdeck mode and I drew out of it first with a Tarmogoyf he couldn't answer. Game 3 I kept a sketchy 6 with Chalice and Liliana. Didn't draw into enough removal to answer his stuff. Overall this is a pretty worrisome matchup from my side and one that is hard to fix. I asked one of the players there who is familiar with both decks about it, and the only additional suggestion he could make was maybe bring in some G-Charm. That seems ok against builds with Bob and I'll try it in future.

Round 3: Burn (1-2)
Ahh, the Nightmare Matchup. Every Legacy deck has it. For Miracles its 12-Post, for D&T its Elves. For 4C Loam it might be Burn. Its a similar matchup to Elves in that you need to cobble some kind of lock together while keeping their board clear/irrelevant, but is even harder to interact with. Chalice on 1 seems amazing against Burn until you realize they still have Rift Bolt, Price, Eidolon, Fireblast, and Vortex. You're kind of hedged against Price with Moxes, but on the other hand they are awful against Eidolon. Game 1 was over quick.

-3 Loam
+3 Canonist

You can't actually afford to take out Bob in this matchup since you need to draw a bunch of specific cards. Game 2 we were both on 5 cards. I lived the dream of answering his board then sticking Chalice on 1 and Teeg. That basically put him on Price, which I was insulated from, and Vortex. He got Vortex but I was able to kill him first. First game I've won against Burn with a Loam deck! Got wrecked again game 3 though. Its kind of sobering to have your $3,000 deck get trounced by a Burn deck. To add insult to injury, he was an inexperienced player on a WIP build with no fetches, no Blazes, and only 2 Goblin Guides. Every deck I play in Legacy loses to Burn, so I'm pretty used to this by now and was a good sport since he was a cool guy. I know this kind of thing drives some Legacy players up the wall but its just part of the format, and maybe one that contributes to its greatness.

Round 4: RUG Delver (2-1)
I saw this player was on RUG earlier and drew a God hand on the play with Chalice and removal.

-1 G. Teeg, -1 Loam, -1 Treetop Village
+1 Deluge, +1 Thrun, +1 G-Charm

Game 2 I kept a hand of P-Fire, Deluge, and lands. I decided to go for P-Fire on my second turn for his Delver but it got Dazed. I had to use the Deluge to kill his flipped Delver after he Forced my Library. He drew another Delver but I had Decay into Ooze. Ooze is a house in this match-up and I felt favored at a healthy 8 life and both of us low on cards. I knew he had a Bolt from his Delver flip so I planned on leaving up GG for the rest of the game to eat his 2 Delvers and basically kill him with a 2/2. He somewhat surprisingly went for Bolt on the Ooze. I figured he had Stifle or something but I went to eat a Delver anyway. In response, he cast Surgical targeting his Delver...welp, he got me. We both went into topdeck mode. I found a Bob which unfortunately took me to 2 hitting a Knight. He drew a Bolt to kill me! Game 3 I had a God hand again with Thrun action to back up my Chalice. Thrun is a good man.

Final Record: 2-2

I already had 2 losses but he was live for prizes still so I conceded at the conclusion of the last match. Good night and good games overall even if I didn't perform the best.

Local Legacy: 3/30

Unfortunately there was no Legacy last Monday due to the store being wiped out from Prerelease weekend (curse you, Standard players!). I was able to get some games of Legacy in during the week with friends but was definitely craving more when I showed up tonight. I played the same 4C Loam list from when I last played with the minor change of -1 Stirring Wildwood +1 Treetop Village. I've felt for a while now that the marginal benefits of White mana production and the extra point of toughness don't justify the Wildwood in Legacy (being out of Bolt range is fantastic in Modern though). Part of the reason I clung to it so long is that I have a $wag artist-signed Japanese copy, but I think my ego will survive it. I also changed the basic Forest in the deck from this impossible to fetch Masques foil to a more ergonomic white-bordered one.

Turnout was more than usual with a whopping 10 players, so we had 4 rounds. The meta was:
1x Casual Mono-Red: a kid showed up with this deck, happens from time to time.
1x 4C Loam
1x Miracles
1x Punishing Jund
1x BUG Delver
1x T.E.S.
1x Goblins
1x Sneak & Show
1x Reanimator
1x MUD

Round 1: T.E.S (0-2)
Didn't know this player so kept a "lands and spells" type hand in the dark. By his second turn he was clearly on Storm. I happened to have G. Teeg in my opener but he had double Therapy to bin it. He made a bunch of Goblins shortly thereafter and I was ded.

At this point, alarms should have been going off in my head at maindeck Empty and to a lesser degree fetching nonbasics in the face of Wastelands he knew about, but seeing Bayou made me decide he was on A.N.T. for some reason.
-3 P-Fire, -3 Decay, -3 Loam, +4 Leyline, +3 Canonist, +2 G-Charm, +1 G. Teeg

Game 2 I decided to keep a hand with Leyline, Wasteland, and Liliana, still laboring under the delusion that he was on A.N.T.. He Duressed my Liliana and quickly Emptied out some Goblins again. I had a few turns to draw G-Charm, but didn't. Lesson learned.

Round 2: MUD (1-2)
Game 1 on the play I had Wasteland, removal for Metalworker, and dudes.

-4 Chalice, +1 Revoker, +1 K-Grip, +1 Rec. Sage, +1 Deluge

Game 2 I kept 7 with good spells but only 1 land and 1 Mox. He played a Lightning Greaves which I elected to ignore, and on his second turn played Lodestone Golem and started beating me. I didn't draw much mana and Lodestone managed to lock me out of casting relevant spells and killed me.
Game 3 I seemed favored but let him untap with Metalworker while sandbagging a Revoker for his Ratchet Bomb instead. My reasoning was that I had a Library in play and the Bomb would have killed the Revoker on Metalworker when popped on 2, and he had only 1 or 2 cards in hand. At any rate, he untapped and slammed Platinum Emperion. I happened to draw Deluge and cast it but had no answer to his Forgemaster the next turn. He was able to untap with Forgemaster and activate it to get a Wurmcoil. That card is the scariest card in his deck for me. I had Bob and Library so I had sweet card selection and started cobbling together a plan playing big Knights to trade, but he drew a second Wurmcoil. At that point I was just trying to force a draw by chump blocking his army in turns, but he drew a Lodestone Golem which threw a wrench in my now Bob, Library, and Loam shenanigans. I forgot about the tax on turn 4 and did something wrong that couldn't make enough chump blockers to live.

Round 3: Bye
Booooo!

Round 4: Miracles (1-1)
I had a fine hand but never hit BB for Liliana and he removed my other threats with Plow/Terminus. A fast Entreat closed things for him.

-1 P-Fire, -1 Decay, -1 Ooze, -1 Mox, -2 Loam
+1 K-Grip, +1 Rec. Sage, +1 Thrun, +1 Canonist, +1 Revoker, +1 G. Teeg

Game 2 I had the unique turn 1 Liliana off 2 Moxes. That put a lot of pressure on him and I drew further gas. We were the last people there and were tired, so we decided to call it quits for the night after.

Final Record: 1-2-1 I guess. A bit of a disappointing night overall, but had some good games. With the SCG 5K IQ less than 3 weeks out, I just want to get in as many games with the deck as possible.