My brave companion for this weekend is the esteemable Pop.
Pop is a friend of mine since High School, and remains one of the better
tournament players that I know. He hasn’t played in many competitive REL
events, but he’s certainly got the chops to do well. At a PTQ last weekend, he
played an unfamiliar deck to a 6-2 record. His play style generally veers
towards the Spikey end of the spectrum, generally preferring Sun Titan Nonsense
in standard. This weekend, he’ll be sleeving up a Maverick list, and start by
battling without byes. He’s stated in no uncertain terms that his goal for the
tournament is to end with a better record than me. While a little nervous about
the financial worth of the trip, he has nevertheless been testing day and night
with the crew from Comic Book Depot, in Wantagh NY.
As for me, those of you who read this blog often will
know that I am not a Legacy player. I’ve only really played with Burn before,
and don’t know the format nearly as well as I should. As a result, I turned to
my best deckbuilder – Marshall.
Marshall loves legacy. He loves everything about it. He
loves casting Brainstorms, and attacking with Merfolk, and Lava Spiking people
to their face, and absurd combo decks that none of us would ever play. He hasn’t
(to my knowledge) participated in any large legacy events, but he still has
half a dozen fully updated lists built at all times, with more available if he
cannibalizes other nearby decks. If I'm going to be playing Legacy, this is the man that I want to suggest a deck
for me.
When I talked to Marshall, our first thought was to
simply build Burn and send me with that. It would certainly have been the cheapest
and easiest option, plus it was relatively simple to pilot. I’ve never been a huge fan of mountains, but the deck had
put up good results recently, so I was feeling reasonable about it. Then
Griselbrand rose in Legacy, and combo decks started looking more and more
dangerous. I wasn’t thrilled with burn to start with, despite the power
level, and these changes gently pushed me in the way of something else.
And frankly, brewing is fun! So we set to work. I offered
up a couple of lists to Marshall – mostly White Weenie decks and Death &
Taxes style builds from Legacy tournaments in the last few months. My comfort zone for playing Magic has always been Aggro
decks with some support, so these seemed reasonable. Marshall countered with a
Deadguy Ale build – a white weenie shell, supported by heavy black discard. It
seemed strong, so I told him to brew.
He came back with this.
Yards Pale Ale is a riff off of Deadguy Ale, built by Marshall himself to address certain trends in the overall metagame while still presenting a strong plan A. I’ve played around with this deck on Workstation, just
testing to see how it feels, and let me tell you, the deck has some pretty
incredible disruption behind it. With a strong draw, you can land-lock your
opponent, sculpt his hand, and control the field with the always-powerful
Stoneforge package. I’m not going to go card-by-card, but let’s look at a few
of the aspects of this powerful deck.
AEther Vial
This card allows me to break all the rules. If you cast
it on Turn 1 on the play, it often baits a Force of Will, just because of the
huge amount of pressure that it puts on the game. Giving you multiple free mana
per turn is strong, but in combination with instant-speed, it becomes a heavy
hitter. Opponent tapped out? Seems like a good time to play an
instant-Stoneforge Mystic. He cast Show
and Tell? Good thing I have an instant speed Tidehollow Sculler to stop it. The
amount of power that a single AEther Vial exerts on the game can’t be
overstated.
Disruption
One of the most interesting parts about the deck is that
very few of the creatures are simple beaters. Each of them has significant
roles to play. Thalia provides a way to stop combo decks, while Bone Shredder
is a grade-A answer to Emrakul and Progenitus being show-and-telled into play.
Tidehollow Sculler gives us backup discard spells, and Mangara of Corondor is a
catch all for pesky permanants (which combos with Karakas to be an incredible
repeatable-removal lock.) Dark Confidant draws the additional cards needed to
bury an opponent in Card Advantage, and Stoneforge Mystic provides a kill
condition.
Two cards stand out as notable outliers: Serra Avenger
and Mirran Crusader. With the general uptick in Lingering Souls, having a 3/3
vigilant flyer to drop a Jitte onto is invaluable, and Jitte only gets better
when you add Mirran Crusader to the mix. Black and Green are two very relevant
protection colors – with Goyfs, Knights, and Nimble Mongeese running rampant. Not
to mention that he can swing past any of the non-Iona reanimation targets and
get those last points of damage in.
Stoneforge
Batterskull and Jitte are legacy staples. Both of them
are extremely powerful in their own right, and the ability to cheat one into
play past any countermagic (at any point, with a Vial in play!) is equally
potent. With powerful attackers like Thalia, Serra Avenger and Mirran Crusader,
they become even more terrifying. How is a Maverick Deck supposed to beat a
Mirran Crusader with a Batterskull attached?
Discard
While answers to the rest of the deck exist, the thing
that really pushes the deck over the edge is the discard package. Hymn to
Tourach is insane right now. Discarding two cards at random on turn two takes
even the best hands and makes them suspect. Combined with an early inquisition,
you can very well take whatever game plan they had and eradicate it, putting
them into top-deck mode far earlier than they would like, all while drawing
extra cards off Dark Confidant. Tidehollow Sculler allows you to time-walk them
at this point, while adding to your clock while giving a potent effect (in a
fashion very reminiscent of Snapcaster Mage).
If I were to complain about anything in the deck, it would be the clock. Sometimes, you feel like despite having board presence and cards in hand, a good topdeck could drag them right back into it because you lack the ability to close games out quickly. There is no 10/10 Knight of the Reliquary swinging, or 3/2 flying from turn 1. If you're going to win, you're going to need to grind them out, and that's often a high order.
Our sideboard is a little speculative. I haven’t had time to do significant testing against a full gauntlet of ‘best decks’ but I’m quickly learning the ins and outs of various matchups by grinding on Workstation. (If you use Workstation and you're on tonight, look for Sadrach). Tomorrow, I fly out right after work, and return on Sunday evening. If you’d like to follow my exploits, feel free to follow me on Twitter (@ajrula), where I’ll be posting live results of my own (and Pop’s) rounds - plus any other shenanigans that we get up to in the deep South.
Our sideboard is a little speculative. I haven’t had time to do significant testing against a full gauntlet of ‘best decks’ but I’m quickly learning the ins and outs of various matchups by grinding on Workstation. (If you use Workstation and you're on tonight, look for Sadrach). Tomorrow, I fly out right after work, and return on Sunday evening. If you’d like to follow my exploits, feel free to follow me on Twitter (@ajrula), where I’ll be posting live results of my own (and Pop’s) rounds - plus any other shenanigans that we get up to in the deep South.
To any other players who are going to be at GP Atlanta,
feel free to stop by one of my matches, or message me (Twitter or Reddit)
letting me know who you are, and I’ll swing by one of your tables to say hi.
Best of luck this weekend to all of you, and may all your
topdecks be great.
-Andrew
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