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Monday, March 30, 2015

Czech Legacy/Vintage Weekend - Grixis Delver

This weekend there was an eternal format event in Cerny Rytir. I participated in the Legacy tournament. Because of the release of Dragons of Tarkir that Friday I was pretty exhausted and that is why I did not expect a good record. But I wanted to participate and have some fun (that was a success).

I sleeved the following deck (ok with the exception 2 Flooded Strands, I played 4x Delta IRL, had only 2 digital ones when I was taking the screenshot - for those nitpicks that actually saw my decklist). But right before the tournament I decided to cut Forked Bolt and play Pyroblast instead of it main deck. When I played UR Delver at Prague Eternal it was a good decision but nowadays I'm not really sure about it even though that I encountered one non-blue based deck in the tourney (maverick).

When I arrived to Black Knight (Cerny Rytir) it was already past the official start of the tournament (I got stuck in subway because of some maraton event). But the organizer wasn't present so we had to wait for him (he participated in the event). I registered and went to see who came to play in the tournament and was shocked to see the store full of teenagers, children and some older players. I was like what the hell is going on? Pokemon Regionals was held there. Before the tournament started it was really horrible there. The players were loud and running all over the place. I started to regret that I registered for the Legacy tournament (I can't concentrate in such ruckus). But after pairings were posted the players quieted (and concentrated on their own game). But it also seemed for a while that we (legacy players) wouldn't fit in there...In the end there were only 30 players so we managed to squeeze in somehow. There wasn't much free space but we managed.

After trying not to trample anyone around I managed to sit down for the first round. I played against Ondra and his Merfolk. I expected to terribly die to either 'too many lords' or to Chalice of the Void. But none of the scenarios happened. I had enough burn spells to take care of the merfolk game 1 and win. In the second game I tried my best to survive by playing Cabal Therapy but I managed not to discard Echoing Truth that killed me later because it bounced Lord of Atlantis (that I wanted to kill) that unfortunately gives Mutavaults Islandwalk (Lord was replayed a turn later and I couldn't counter it nor kill it). I did not realize that all my lands are islands (played Jund before) and lost the game in this silly way. (I tried saving myself by finding Lightning Bolt to kill it but there was none in the top 4 cards of my library). In that game I did not manage to deal a single point of damage^_^. In game three I did not encounter any Chalice and won (glad I did not encounter too many True-Name Nemesis).

In Round 2 I played against Maverick. I lost the first game not being able to deal with all the threats (Umezawa's Jitte and Sword of Fire and Ice mainly). In the second game I wrecked my opponent's board with Virtue's Ruin and that was more or less it. In the deciding game my opponent started with Noble Hierarch. I was wondering what combination of two cards can possibly kill me and couldn't come up with it so I let the Hierarch stay in play. T2 my opponent played Deathrite Shaman and Umezawa's Jitte. I killed Deathrite Shaman (Forked Bolt) but unfortunately Noble Hierarch still attacks for one and that means none of my creatures would survive in play. I tried looking for another Bolt but none showed up. I had to play a creature from time to time to get rid of Jitte's counters and in the end I had to chump with Tasigur otherwise I would lose the game. The turn later I drew Rakdos Charm but it was too late because both Tasigurs were already dead and Jitte had two counters on it already. I lost the match and was quite sad about it...

Next round I played against a reanimator deck. The player had no idea what he's doing but still drawing Entomb and Exhume was all he needed. I kept aggressive hand without disruption and after my Gitaxian Probe I knew that I'm dead. Brainstorm did not find any counterspell either so I lost the first game. In game two I sided in Rakdos Charm, Grafdigger's Cage and Cabal Therapies but I did not get the chance to play either of the cards because Griselbrand showed up too early on the board once again. His Careful Study found Reanimate and Entomb. I had Rakdos Charm on top of my library, but I was a turn late so I died once again. My opponent was really slow even though all he had to do was play discard, entomb and reanimate and occasional counterspell so I did not manage to get something to eat.

I did not feel like playing any other game and was hungry. Nevertheless I continued in the tournament and ended up facing Cloudpost deck. These games were actually pretty fun and very interesting. I obviously lost the first game because I don't have any information written about it (except one life total). In the second game I tried to deal as much damage as possible before Ugin, Emrakul or any other Eldrazi would show up. I had counterspell for only one Show and Tell but I knew that I could deal with Primeval Titan (he had 2 Show and Tell, Primeval Titan and Ugin in his hand). I couldn't deal with Ugin though. In the end it came down to my opponent playing Ugin. My only card in my hand was Dig Through Time so I played it. The before last card was Force of Will so I countered the spell and killed him a turn later. In game three I got rid of Force of Will, Brainstorm, Sensei's Divining Top and Repeal leaving him with Emrakul and Kozilek. I hoped that this would buy me enough time to kill him. A turn later he played Dryad Militant. I was glad that this card did not hit the table on t1 because that would really be annoying and Cabal Therapies wouldn't be that good (and I sided out Bolts and sided in Price of Progress). Few turns later I managed to play Tasigur. Later I played more creatures and felt pretty safe with 3x Pyroblast, Force of Will and a blue card in my hand (Probe). I won^_^.

In the last round three surprises happened. First my opponent lay down on the table a playmat I painted (that he bought at Prague Eternal). Second - he played Illusions of Grandeur/Donate deck. I expected to win because I run Force of Wills, discard and Pyroblasts but I had no idea how his deck actually looked like (except Intuition, FoWs, Ponders/Preordains/Brainstorms etc). When I saw his opener with Illusions, Fow and Misdirection I wasn't afraid at all. So I played all the creatures and burn spells I could and that was good enough. In the second game I could only swing for 10 but after a quite a counter battle over a Misdirected Lightning Bolt my Monastery Swiftspears became huge and killed my opponent. After this he went through my binder and bought one of the Dark Rituals I painted and even found (bought it/traded it later when I wasn't around) another Dark Ritual to replace it (one in a pretty bad shape, perfect for altering^_~).

Even though this tournament cost me 300CZK and I did not win anything it was nice. I enjoyed it very much even though the Pokemon players were pretty scary at first^_^. The second part of this Series on Sunday was a complete failure for me though. -_-.

In the next local legacy tournament I wanted to try Gurmag Angler instead of Tasigur but I forgot about it and just brought the deck the way it was put together for the Czech Legacy/Vintage Series. Even though I faced Angler in one game I did not regret having Tasigur in my deck. But I saw that 4/5 might not be enough and Karakas is a card that is played (even though not that much). Maverick, Death and Taxes and few other decks run it. And those decks are usually present at the local tournaments here. At first I did not want to play Dig Through Time in three copies but I changed my mind finally. The card is definitely worth it.

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