Vince is Bad at Legacy

This past Sunday I played in a Legacy Magic tournament at Mighty Titans Hobbies and Games in Landing, New Jersey.  It was the store's first Legacy tournament ever.  Because there was no established metagame, I expected a lot of "fair" decks to show up, such as RUG Delver, Maverick, Deathblade, Goblins, etc.  This in mind, I sleeved up an old-school mono black list known as The Gate.

The Gate

Creatures 3 Abyssal Persecutor 4 Dark Confidant 4 Gatekeeper of Malakir 4 Vampire Nighthawk Spells 2 Go for the Throat 2 Umezawa’s Jitte 1 Sword of Fire and Ice 3 Cabal Therapy 4 Hymn to Tourach 4 Innocent Blood 3 Duress 3 Bitterblossom 2 Liliana of the Veil 1 Darkblast

Lands 17 Swamp 2 Wasteland 1 Bojuka Bog Sideboard 2 Dread of Night 2 Manriki Gusari 2 Thorn of Amethyst 1 Engineered Plague 2 Nihil Spellbomb 1 Perish 1 Darkblast 1 Dystopia 3 Surgical Extraction

The plan is simple: blow up the board with all your removal and grind out card advantage with Dark Confidant, Umezawa's Jitte, and Bitterblossom.  As you can see my sideboard was prepared for enemy equipment and combo, The Gate's two biggest weaknesses.

Round One - Jeff playing U/W CounterTop with Helm/Rest In Peace

Game 1- I keep a greedy one-lander with some one-drop action, and don't see another swamp until he lands Jace, The Mind Sculptor.  Did I mention this deck sucks against planeswalkers?

Game 2 - A bit more competitive, I lead with hand disruption in the form of Cabal Therapy and Hymn to Tourach, but I run out of gas, Jeff gets the Counter-Top combo online, and I'm dead in the water.  0-1


Round Two - John playing Belcher

Game 1 - I dick around with discard spells; he goes off on turn two.

Game 2 - I mull to four, desperately trying to find my Thorn of Amethyst, which is my only action against his combo.  I don't find it, and this match ends in approximately 5 minutes.  At least I had time to hunt through the sweet bargain bins! 0-2

Round Three - Dan playing Sneak & Show

Dan is a friend of mine and of Loaded Dice Cast...but that didn't mean I was't ready to stomp his unfair combo shenanigans!

Game 1 - The Gate actually has a chance against Sneak & Show because it can blow up Emrakul and Griselbrand with sacrifice effects.  However, that never happened in this game, and the flying spaghetti monster was too much to handle.

Game 2 - Once again, I can't find my combo hate and Dan crushes me with Emrakul.  0-3

Round Four - John playing Melira-Pod

Game 1 - That's right, Melira-Pod, the modern deck.  Which actually matches up quite well against my sacrifice effects.  Reallllllly well.  However, I think I nut-drew this one, and my opponent mana flooded, as I rolled with a bunch of Bitterblossom tokens to victory.

Game 2 - He starts playing Kitchen Finks and Murderous Redcaps to wither the beatdown, and I can't catch up.  He ends up going infinite with Melira in play and a sac outlet.

Game 3 - Same deal.  I can't compete with the persist guys.  He combos off in the face of a resolved Liliana of the Veil, and I'm toast.  0-4

All in all, I had a great time at this event.  All my opponents were friendly, the field was competitive, and the whole group just seemed welcoming.  I think the 10 proxy limit is incredibly smart.  It opens up the format to players who otherwise couldn't afford dual lands and fetches and Force of Wills.  It tempts Modern players (see:Round 4) to port their decks over to Legacy, which I think is awesome for the diversity of the format.

As you can see, I never had the "fair deck" match-up I expected.  So I'll chalk my miserable performance up to a bad deck choice.  Against combo, The Gate simply can't interact with the stack.  Mighty Titans is hosting another Legacy event on August 4, and I'll be there with bells on.  Well, maybe not bells.  I'll be there with these on!