Legacy Open and Looking Forward

This weekend was the Legacy Open in Worcester. Legacy is not my best format. I've played in Legacy in tournaments something like six or seven times in my life. I've been working on the same list for most of those tournaments, basically just a deck that's got Dark Confidant, Tarmogoyf, and Deathrite Shaman along with whatever else. I won't spell out the list I played, but basically it was Green/Black midrange with a little white for Stoneforge Mystic and Swords to Plowshares. I also added a small Green Sun's Zenith package to try and speed up the deck a little bit.

One of the advantages I try to exploit with this deck, or this style of deck, is its ability to use basic lands and not get roasted by Delver's mana denial plans. We have a pretty strong late game with Bobs and Goyfs and Stoneforges if we can get there.

I went 5-4 in the Open. My losses coming to Czech Control with Punishing Fire, Lands, Grixis Delver, and Turbo Depths. The loss to the Czech deck was not surprising to me, and Lands I think is a fine matchup but you can lose easily to their fast starts, and Turbo Depths just had two god draws. The Grixis loss was a little disconcerting to me though, and I lost a lot to it in the light amount of testing I did before the tournament as well.

I think that moving forward, I am going to cut the white splash. I think it's unnecessary. Basic lands are so powerful and the Legacy card pool is so vast that there are lots of answers to any problem you might be having in any color. I am losing more to my mana than I am winning because Stoneforge and Swords to Plowshares are such upgrades over whatever else I'd play if I stayed in two colors. Legacy is a strange place. People are trying to exploit your decks' inconsistencies, even the intrinsic inconsistencies of Magic's rules, and making your deck more consistent makes it more powerful, in this weird opposite day way as opposed to the other formats of Magic.

At my next Legacy event, I think I'll play something like this:

4 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Tireless Tracker

2 Fatal Push
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Dismember
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Green Sun's Zenith

4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
1 Polluted Delta
4 Swamp
2 Forest
2 Bayou
1 Scrubland
4 Wasteland
3 Windswept Heath

Sideboard
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Phyrexian Arena
2 Bitterblossom
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Golgari Charm
2 Gerrard's Verdict
1 Toxic Deluge

Not exactly sure about the sideboard of course, but I think this is where I'd want to be at my next tournament. The white sideboard options are pretty good, but the deck is set up so you never need white mana against decks that have Wasteland, Stifle, or Blood Moon.

The next day I wasn't feeling great, so I didn't play in the Modern Classic. Instead I played in a much more casual Modern Challenge with my untuned Bloodbraid Jund deck. I loved it. I played two matches that were against fringe decks to start off the day that were pretty easy. I then played against a Jund mirror, which is a delight. Bitterblossom stole the show. I ID'd the last round.

Despite talking about how much I thought Dark Confidant was better in the post-Bloodbraid Elf world, I'm back on the Bitterblossom plan. I just keep looking at these Grixis lists and thinking "There's no way I can beat that" and playing Jund mirrors where I Bolt and Push and Kolaghan's Command three Dark Confidants and win with a horde of Faeries. They simply cannot beat it.

My sideboard is a mess. I really dislike Fulminator Mage in Jund sideboards, it just doesn't mesh with the strategy. But that leaves a gaping hole in the board and makes the board look completely different than most lists I've seen online, most notably Reid's from the MOCS. I'm still in love with Blightning, since it get so good with Bloodbraid Elf.

4 Tarmogoyf
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Tireless Tracker

3 Bitterblossom
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Fatal Push
2 Dreadbore
3 Kolaghan's Command
3 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek

4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
2 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Mountain
3 Raging Ravine
3 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Blooming Marsh

Sideboard
2 Crumble to Dust
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Blightning
2 Shadow Guildmage
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Duress
1 Jund Charm
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Thragtusk
1 Obstinate Baloth

If they had never printed Verdant Catacombs I'd probably have taken up competitive Mario Kart by now.

The 1-of lifegain fatties are all on a probationary research period. Ideally, they are all good against the Jace decks, Burn, and the mirror. Obstinate Baloth is amazing in the mirror, great against Burn, but poor against UW control. Huntmaster is solid but not amazing against everything. Kitchen Finks is at its best against Burn but only okay against Control and the mirror, and double green on turn 3 can be tricky. Thragtusk is... optimistic. Am I really crazy enough to register 4 Huntmaster of the Fells in my sideboard?

Blood Moon might be a thing again. If Red/Green Eldrazi continues to do well, and Bogles continues to be annoying and vulnerable to it, then maybe I should throw it back in the deck.

Anyways, I'm gonna stop writing before I fall into some existential Huntmaster of the Fells spiral and they find me ten years from now running through the Northwest Territories on all fours. Until next time.