Monday 15 October 2012

Quest for the Golden Parmo: Part 2



By Chris Mander

Now onto the sideboard, a difficult decision when new to the format. I had a pile of roughly 30 possible cards to narrow down, a difficult task with a somewhat unknown meta and a lack of knowledge of the format. After lengthy questioning of my much more knowledgeable teammates I narrowed it down to this:

1 Sword of Light and Shadow: Protection from Swords to Plowshares, this was mainly to bring in vs creature matchup’s like Maverick, or to give my creatures protection from Dispatch.

1 Leonin Bola: It doesn’t look like much, a card that was pretty good in limited, but not really made an impact elsewhere, but as I learnt a couple of weeks previous against Hypergenesis, this card can do some serious work against all in type strategies.

2 Tormod’s Crypt: I’ll be honest, these are a no brainer in most sideboards, abuse of the graveyard is prevalent in Legacy, even if I didn’t really know when I should be siding them in.

3 Ethersworn Cannonist: Insurance vs combo, slows down swarm type decks, doesn’t die to dread of night (That card, as I was soon to learn, is just horrible for me.)

3 Jotun Grunt: Dodges lightning bolt, shrinks Goyf, removes Snapcaster targets and can get in the red zone.

2 Judge’s Familiar:  Slows combo, stacks with Thalia, and can do a pretty good job as a sword carrier.

1 Leyline of Sanctity: I knew combo and Burn were present at the tournament, if I’d have owned 2 I’d have put 2 in.

1 Fiend Hunter: Gets stuff out the way, fairly good on the defence, and can do fun things with a Flickerwisp

1 Phyrexian Revoker: See part 1, so many uses.

I was fairly happy with the board, although I think I’d like to try a tutor board, but not having time to obtain the narrow hate cards I’d have liked, I went with what I had, and into round 1, and mono red burn.

Round 1: Burn

G1: Ouch, my lifepad tells the tale of this game, the numbers dropping faster than Felix Baumgartner, I was dead before I could make any sort of impact. Creatures ate shocks, and despite managing Mangara taking a mountain into exile nothing could stop the lava spike to the face.

Out went Mangara, too slow for this one I feel, in came Leyline of Sanctity, and 2 Judge’s Familiar.

G2 :Mulligan for 1 card is not a thing (Trademark, Alex Gershaw), but somehow I managed it. I hit the Leyline on my second mulligan, and forced my way through the burn with a Flickerwisp with Jitte and a Batterskull.

I brought in 3 Jotun Grunts, as they seemed able to dodge most removal.

G3: This was extremely close, a grindy game with the burn dropping me to 1, before I managed to hardcast Leyline (yes, I know, very lucky to draw into it). Smash to Smithereens was a thorn in my side, but managed to keep a Jitte for an attack and saved myself with its lifegain ability. Drawing 3 Jotun Grunts in a row got me there, smashing their way in.
(2-1)

Round 2: RUG Delver

G1: Muligan to 5, and I never really got going, his Wasteland on my Karakas turn 2, followed up by a Force of Will on my Aether vial left me in a pretty deep hole. Delver beatdown followed, and I scooped holding nothing of note.
Game 1 was so fast my opponent didn’t know what I was playing. In came the Jotun Grunts and Judges Familiar, I can’t quite recall what got evicted.

G2: I always felt like I was behind in this game, pretty soon I was staring down 2 Goyf’s, a Mongoose with threshold and a flipped delver, with my board being 3 Mother of Runes. A timely stifle on my Wasteland, and a Fire on 2 of my pro green mother of runes finished me off. Very much outplayed.
(0-2)

Round 3: W/B Stoneblade

G1: My opponent began to destroy my hand, but had no answer for 2 Serra Avenger’s dropped in 2 turns. When the Sword of Fire and Ice hit the table there was nothing a few lingering souls could do against the angelic onslaught.

G2: The reverse of game 1, my opponent dropped Dark Confident, Stoneforge Mystic and fetched up a Jitte, I had no answer for the beatdown, dying quickly with very little on the table, and no damage done to my opponent.

G3: Here my notes get sketchy, I must have been a bit engrossed in the action to take any, but if I recall rightly this game involved an early Revoker naming Liliana (It was in his hand), followed by a Serra Avenger carrying a Sword of Fire and Ice. My opponent didn’t recover, and the Sword trigger brought the game home.
(2-1)

Round 4: Show and Reanimate?

G1: I mull to 5, and drop a Revoker, naming Griselbrand, this quickly met a reanimated Angel of Despair, killing my revoker. The next line reads Iona, so I guess you can all see how this game went from here, unable to cast most of my deck isn’t really a good position to be in.

G2: I dropped a few weenies, including a Stoneforge Mystic, which fetched my trump card in this match, the Leonin Bola. I managed to keep a Griselbrand tapped down, and began the beats with a Flickerwisp, the game ending pretty soon after that.

G3: A non-event really, my opponent had to drop to 5 cards, and didn’t draw any gas, the game was quickly over with my fliers beating in.
(2-1)

So I’d made it into a top 8 cut, finishing 3rd out of 18, to be honest I was not expecting to get near the top 8, but my luck seemed to be holding. My next game was against affinity, a matchup recently a final at SCG, and one Tezzeret won, thanks to the Dread of Night. My notes here become sketchier, and so these parts might be a bit brief.

Quarter Final: Affinity

G1: This game revolved around a Revoker naming Cranial Plating, a card of which my opponent held 2 in hand. I was staring down 3 Etched Champions, but a Flickerwisp saved the day carrying the Sword of Fire and Ice, burning away the defences, and smacking Tezzeret around on its path to victory.

G2: T1 Dread of Night by my opponent is pretty much an auto scoop when my hand is lands, Flickerwisp, and a Mother of Runes.
G3: Inkmoth Nexus with a Cranial Plating is a scary sight, and my error of forgetting it could be equipped at instant speed led me to take 7 poison damage pretty quickly. My board of Flickerwisp and two Avengers just got me there; the angels’ last act was to throw themselves in the path of the Nexus, allowing the Flickerwisp to end the game.

(2-1)






Semi Final: Storm

I’ll be honest here, I had no idea what I was doing in this match, and won game 1 through a play error by my opponent, who didn’t account for his mana correctly. Game 2 and three he stormed off, tendrils corrupting me, and removing me from the tournament.

Conclusion

Death and taxes is a legitimate deck, with a decent chance against most decks. I feel it’s a deck which improves with the pilot, and I’m sure I will get better as my knowledge of the format becomes broader. I wish I managed to dodge the storm deck until the final, as I fancied myself vs Maverick, a much more favourable matchup for my deck. I was often too quick to become the aggressor, something I’ll work on as this deck does well going long.

My card of the day was the Leonin Bola, it really did some work and I like its versatility, now all I need it wizards to print more utility equipment! I think I will probably change to a tutor board next tournament, and play 2 Judge Familiars main deck at the expense of a revoker or two. The card seems well placed at the moment.

It was nice to have the Team Leeds lads together, and a feeling of community is growing again. We all had a fantastic time with the Boro’ lads and the meal following the tournament was worth the trip alone, the Golden Parmo attained. If you are interested in joining the format, or just want to know more feel free to email me at MangaraLock@gmail.com.










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