UK Magic Players at GP Ghent

[Thomas David Baker]

Matt Light 12-3 going into the final round with a very outside chance of top 8 with a win?

Carrie Oliver 11-3-1 in 33rd.

[Thomas David Baker]

Matt won into 11th.  Carrie lost into 45th.

I heard Nathan won a round, also :)

[James Mills]

I went 7-2 in the Legacy tournament on tournament on Sunday, I could have ID'd into the top 8 in the last round but my opponant made me play and I lost 2-1 :(

 

I would love to write up a primer and little report considering how much I enjoy playing goblins. Not sure if anyone would publish it though.

[Paul Hodgson]

Put it up here in any case Mills, I might write something similar for the pointy eared menace :)

[James Mills]

Yeah, I will probably start writing it tonight while I can still remember my matches.

[Paul Hodgson]

I'm still buzzing about my epic win over counter-top! Beaten to death by a dryad arbor :D

[James Mills]

Yeah man, that tournaments was nuts! Probably in my top 5 most fun tournaments. Although if you spoke to me after round 1 I would have said the opposite!

[Thomas David Baker]

Legacy is an awesome format.  I would like to play it more.  Put up reports/primers!

[Paul Hodgson]

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Having never played legacy before I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed both tournaments. I think if I'd been playing a deck with FoW/daze then I would have had a miserable time though. I'd certainly recommend playing a non-interactive deck if you don't know the format particularly well, that way you can concentrate on executing your own game plan rather than worrying about theirs.

My list was:

4 Fyndhorn Elves

2 Llanowar Elves

4 Wirewood Symbiote

2 Quirion Ranger

3 Birchlore Ranger

4 Heritage Druid

4 Nettle Sentinel

4 Elvish Visionary

3 Priest of Titania

2 Mirror Entity

1 Regal Force

1 Viridian Shaman

1 Craterhoof Behemoth (aka the Crushinator)

4 Glimpse of Nature

4 Green Sun Zenith

1 Crop Rotation

2 Savannah

4 Verdant Catacombs

3 Wooded Foothills

3 Forest

2 Gaea's Cradle

1 Bayou (for SB thoughtsieze, was never relevant)

1 Dryad Arbor

Basic strategy is to land a T1 accelerant, either a mana elf or GSZ for arbor, then you are aiming to set up the birchlore/heritage druid & nettle sentinel combo to start chaining elves. Glimpse keeps the elves coming and it's quite easy to get to a critical mass on T2 or T3.  Once you get that critical mass you can build up your mana until you hit 9 and then GSZ for Craterhoof - typically you'll have 2 guys who you can untap with Quirion Ranger or Symbiote for 3 total attackers with a combined trampling power of 30+

There are some infinite loops available with Mirror Entity via making symbiotes elves, and letting them bounce themselves (untapping Priest of Titania), which can let you draw your deck if needed (GSZ for 0 keeps you from decking).

You can also grind people out with Symbiote & Visionary, this keeps you moving towards your plan a, or can help recover from a sweeper. Don't forget you can use symbiote on your opponent's turn (and therefore get 2 cards from visionary on your turn) and you can also target their creatures, which is important against merfolk as you can kill phantasamal image.

Regal Force is there to help restock if you stall out - drop a cradle, tap for a bunch, GSZ the force into play and carry on your loop. Crop Rotation can also allow you to cradle twice in one turn which can be back breaking.

[Thomas David Baker]

(Hmm ... GP Oakland 2010 Top 8?  I'm so famous.)

Cradle really does make the Elves deck even more ridiculous than it was in Extended.  Interesting that Mirror Entity, Regal Force AND Craterhoof all make it in now.  Regal Force wasn't in the original Extended version even though it was legal, I don't think.

Glimpse has got to be the poster child for a jank rare becoming an amazing card years later.  That that is possible is what Magic is all about, IMHO.

[Paul Hodgson]

I was originally on the emrakul plan, which based on the 2 mirror matches I played is far inferior. Entity does leave you more vulnerable to wastelands, but you really only need 1 or 2 lands in play anyway - and any wastes they use on a savannah means one less to get your cradle of arbor later.

Entity allows you to turn a marginal board state into something ridiculous, and is a fine topdeck. However Emrakul is always a mulligan until you're going to win. Craterhoof basically does the same thing (i.e. win) only you're actually playing 5 because you can zenith for him. Regal force gives you the option to glimpse for value early on, getting 2/3 cards out of your first glimpse is fine, as unless you hit a run of lands you should be in position to generate mana next turn, chain visionaries and then hit GSZ to refill your hand.

2nd favourite match of the weekend was vs reanimator.

He beat me G1 quite quickly iirc, G2 I got an early tormod's crypt that took out a blazing archon, as well as convincing him to needle naming crypt - I GSZ for Scavenging Ooze the next turn and took the game from there.

G3 I had a bunch of elves, some mana, and had been running a mirror entity loop that ran out of gas. He then takes his turn, and plays needle again. He names scavenging ooze, lays a land, and passes. I untap, make all my mans 5/5 and turn them sideways :)

In my counter-top match he had Counterbalance, Top, Jace TMS and effectively infinite mana - and still couldn't beat a morph and a 1/1. G2 he failed to keep a hand with force, and I combo'd T3

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Ah, I miss the days when the format was in its infancy and I could play Rifter and crush all the tribal decks...

[Jason Savage]

If anyone wants to write up reports or deck primers email them to Magic Madhouse have them on the site and get paid!