If you missed out on Day 1, you can check it out here.
This week let’s cover my matches from Day 2 and talk a little bit about RUG Delver moving forward. I finished Day 1 with a record of 7-2 and 113th out of 157 in the standings, which meant that in order to Top 8, I had to win out. It was a pretty daunting prospect. I missed out on Day 2 at my first two Legacy Grand Prix and was in uncharted territory.
My car, Scott Ruggiero, and his friend Dale all decide to go out for dinner at RAM Restaurant and Brewery, just up the street from Lucas Oil Stadium. We get seated, and I spot Caleb Durward and his crew. Caleb and I talk about goofy tech all the time, and it was no surprise that he was doing well anyways. He finished Day 1 at 8-1 and would go on to Top 8 the event. It was then that I realized there was an unanswered message on Facebook from him Friday morning: “Hey, I got some Mark Sun-level tech, but I can’t show you until the player meeting.” I had completely forgotten about it, and we have this exchange outside:
Caleb: “So yeah, I’m playing a couple of Sulfur Elementals in my sideboard.”
Me: “Wait, are you serious? I’ve thought about it, but was too afraid to add it in. Is it really that good?”
Caleb: “Yeah! Plus, people always forget the +1 part. I had an opponent make some bad blocks earlier with it. I’m also playing Forked Bolt, it’s insane.”
Me: “…”
I make my way back in the restaurant and share the information with the rest of the guys, all while giving Scott a mini-death stare for the previous night, where I got enough negative feedback for [card]Forked Bolt[/card] that I wound up sticking with [card]Chain Lightning[/card] in my list instead. As it turns out, being able to 2-for-1 your Maverick opponent by hitting two mana bugs or a mana bug and [card]Mother of Runes[/card] is pretty good. Oh well. All is forgiven when our waitress comes to take our orders. This place brews its own beers, and while I’m usually an IPA kind of guy, I decide that I’m thirsty for some Guinness-like product, and go for a tall glass of the Total Disorder Porter. Scott and I split a 6-beer sampler, which turned out to be a very good decision for around five bucks. My phone was already dead at this point, but here’s a stock photo I found online:
We all make our way back to Dale’s place, and I get the couch for being the only person in the group to Day 2. Winning does have some privileges, after all. Before I get comfortable, though, the alarm goes off and I’m out the door for the player meeting at 9. I sit down, sign the forms, and re-sleeve my deck just in time for the first pairings of the day…
Day 2
Round 10) Caleb Estrada playing High Tide, Win-Loss-Win
I win the die roll, keeping an unusually heavy countermagic hand with a [card]Delver of Secrets[/card]. Caleb mulligans and keeps a 6-card hand, and the only thing I get to see from him is a [card]Brainstorm[/card] and some lands. When he drops to 7 life he plays a [card]High Tide[/card] from his hand. We have a counterwar over it and I am fortunate enough to have kept a hand that can win, and it happens to be his only one. I attack the next turn and finish him off with [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]. We move to boards, where I discover that I might be a little weak to this matchup, having cut the [card]Red Elemental Blast[/card]s from there a couple of weeks ago and opting to play [card]Tormod’s Crypt[/card] instead of [card]Surgical Extraction[/card]. As a consequence, I have to keep a lot of weaker cards in while relying on only [card]Counterbalance[/card] as additional disruption for my maindeck. Caleb does what [card]High Tide[/card] does in Game 2 and demolishes me through double [card]Force of Will[/card] and two whiffed [card]Time Spiral[/card]s, and I’m back on the play for Game 3. I keep an incredibly aggressive hand with double [card]Delver of Secrets[/card] and flip them both on my third turn, which puts an immediate clock on Caleb. He’s busy casting cantrips and aggressively digging. On the turn where he should be going off, he sighs and passes it back to me. He couldn’t find a [card]High Tide[/card]! He tries to cast [card]Turnabout[/card] targeting me naming creatures, so I go all in on it, taking the match.
Sideboarding: -4 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card], -2 [card]Chain Lightning[/card], -1 [card]Nimble Mongoose[/card], +2 [card]Sensei’s Divining Top[/card], +3 [card]Counterbalance[/card], +2 [card]Krosan Grip[/card]
I board in the [card]Krosan Grip[/card]s here because I am light on ways to disrupt the combo, and so that I can have something to flip for [card]Meditate[/card] and [card]Cunning Wish[/card]. Most importantly, [card]Counterbalance[/card] at 1cc is very hard to go off against, and floating a 3cc to stop [card]Wipe Away[/card] would seal the match.
15-6 Games, 8-2 Matches
Round 11) Ben Wienburg playing UW Stoneblade, Win-Loss-Win
Ben is a friend and we’ve traveled to our fair share of events together, but have rarely played against each other. Canadian Threshold used to be his go-to deck in Legacy, so I know that I need to step it up to get on his level. Some light trolling and subtle jabs to each other’s ego, and we’re off. I’m not sure what Ben’s playing, but I mull to 6 and have to keep a low-pressure hand. [card]Delver of Secrets[/card] eventually joins the board, and a [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] from Ben gives away what he’s playing. I kept a rather poor hand to fight against Stoneblade, but I am able to keep the [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card]s off of the table while I try to cantrip into some answers. We both run pretty low on cards from the attrition, and finally the dust starts to settle. Ben eventually has enough mana to cast a [card]Spell Pierce[/card]-proof [card]Batterskull[/card], which I have no answer for. With my board of two [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]s and a [card]Delver of Secrets[/card], he chump blocks one and goes to 7. [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] comes down searching for a [card]Sword of Feast and Famine[/card] and Ben pays the 5 to equip [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] to the [card]Batterskull[/card], so the next attack I’m forced to trade [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] for his suited up [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card]. He goes to 5 from the attack. He draws for the turn, smiles, plays an eighth land, [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card], and suits it up with [card]Batterskull[/card]. I have one turn to kill him; I just need one burn spell. I draw for the turn, cast [card]Ponder[/card], see another [card]Ponder[/card] and two blanks, draw [card]Ponder[/card], fetch, cast [card]Ponder[/card]… it’s a [card]Chain Lightning[/card]!
I have to mulligan to 5 on the draw for Game 2 and get crushed by a fast [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card], which makes me miss the [card]Red Elemental Blast[/card]s (again) that I had to cut from the sideboard. Luckily, I’m back on the offensive in Game 3 with a double [card]Nimble Mongoose[/card] plus cantrip draw. The cantrip leads into a lot of burn spells, and I reach threshold around my fourth turn and pass things over to Ben where he taps out to play [card]Elspeth, Knight-Errant[/card] and make a token. I untap, [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] the token, attack him for 6, and show him a hand full of burn. He scoops.
Sideboarding: -4 [card]Force of Will[/card], -3 [card]Daze[/card], +2 [card]Sensei’s Divining Top[/card], +3 [card]Counterbalance[/card], +2 [card]Krosan Grip[/card]
17-7 Games, 9-2 Matches
Round 12) Alix Hatfield playing High Tide, Loss-Win-Loss
The pairings go up for this round and I do a double take when I see who I’m paired up against. If you’re wondering, Alix, his brother Jesse, and the rest of the Northern Virginia crew have definitely made their own legacy in this format with their innovations and takes on various decks, including the 75 of RUG Delver that I was shuffling up. Alix goes on to Top 32, an impressive feat with a difficult deck and no byes. I win the die roll and have an early [card]Delver of Secrets[/card], but have card quality issues when all four(!) of my [card]Ponder[/card]s force me to shuffle and I brick on a couple of draws. Alix goes off and I don’t have much to fight back with. Like Round 10, I tank when I go to sideboard, frustrated that I don’t have much business beyond the [card]Counterbalance[/card] package. I manage to steal Game 2 on the back on getting the [card]Counterbalance[/card] combo into play. Alix attempts to go for a hard-cast [card]Time Spiral[/card], resulting in a rather large counter war which ends with a huge [card]Flusterstorm[/card]. It does reset the top three cards for [card]Counterbalance[/card], but drawing with [card]Sensei’s Divining Top[/card] locks out any chance of [card]High Tide[/card] resolving.
Sideboarding: -4 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card], -2 [card]Chain Lightning[/card], -1 [card]Nimble Mongoose[/card], +2 [card]Sensei’s Divining Top[/card], +3 [card]Counterbalance[/card], +2 [card]Krosan Grip[/card]
I look at the clock and notice that there are roughly 15 minutes or so left in the clock. I also notice that there are a lot of people gathered around to watch, so we’re the center of attention at least for now. I take a breath, draw my opening 7 for Game 3, which contains a [card]Nimble Mongoose[/card], [card]Force of Will[/card], [card]Ponder[/card], and Lands. As good as it gets. I cast [card]Nimble Mongoose[/card], then [card]Ponder[/card] on my second turn into… shuffle. Brick. Yikes. Alix misses his third land drop, so I have some time to recover. [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] joins the army, and I draw a [card]Sensei’s Divining Top[/card] on my next turn, cast it, and activate it. Three bricks, but with a fetchland. Alix gets to his third land, casts [card]Brainstorm[/card], and says go. I sense that he’s ready to go for it. I draw, fetch, and see a [card]Daze[/card] in my top 3, and attack Alix down to 5 life. Can I survive? He goes for an end step [card]Cunning Wish[/card], which I have to use Daze on in case it’s a protection spell. Time is called. Alix untaps, plays a fourth land, and casts out [card]High Tide[/card]. I have to let it resolve, and I watch my chances for Top 8 get taken by the permanent waves. Two [card]Time Spiral[/card]s later, I’m sitting on a hand of lands and no business, and Alix shows me the lethal [card]Brain Freeze[/card], causing me to extend the hand. For the record, this is the face of despair against a Hatfield. Huge thanks to Richard Castle for the great picture!
18-9 Games, 9-3 Matches
Round 13) Aaron playing Ad Nauseam, Loss-Win-Loss
I’m a little phased from the last match, a little unhappy that my sideboarding options for this tournament may have cost me a chance to make it to the top. I sit down from Aaron, introduce myself, and he gives me his condolences on my last match. He was also one of the people in the crowd, so he has a good amount of information coming into the match. Awesome. I win the die roll and open with a blind [card]Delver of Secrets[/card] and some burn, not sure what he’s on. He casts [card]Gitaxian Probe[/card], plays an [card]Underground Sea[/card], and strips my only piece of countermagic. As it turns out, he’s on [card]Ad Nauseam[/card]. I die to a [card]Past in Flames[/card] a couple of turns later when I don’t draw any more disruption. This build of [card]Ad Nauseam[/card] is a little more difficult for RUG Delver, since the combination of fast information and [card]Cabal Therapy[/card] plus a more explosive threat base is positioned very well against it. I open with a hand containing more blue cards this time, and I hide a [card]Force of Will[/card] on top of my deck as Aaron’s discard starts attacking my hand. The turn when I sense he will be going off, I [card]Ponder[/card] and put [card]Force of Will[/card] back in my hand. He has four cards and leads with [card]Dark Ritual[/card], which I let resolve, and he follows it up with a [card]Cabal Ritual[/card]. I use my [card]Force of Will[/card] on that, which cuts him off the mana he needs to go off and burns him out.
Sideboarding: -2 [card]Chain Lightning[/card], -3 [card]Nimble Mongoose[/card], +2 [card]Sensei’s Divining Top[/card], +3 [card]Counterbalance[/card]
I leave in the [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]s in case he boarded in [card]Dark Confidant[/card], which is common in [card]Ad Nauseam[/card]. My opener is [card]Counterbalance[/card], [card]Spell Snare[/card], [card]Spell Pierce[/card], [card]Ponder[/card], and lands. I think it’s an okay keep until Aaron discards my [card]Counterbalance[/card]. On turn two, I get hit with a [card]Thoughtseize[/card] on my [card]Spell Snare[/card] and [card]Duress[/card] on my [card]Spell Pierce[/card]. I joke, “Do you have it?”
…[card]Dark Ritual[/card], [card]Cabal Ritual[/card], [card]Lion’s Eye Diamond[/card], [card]Infernal Tutor[/card] for [card]Past in Flames[/card]. Well then.
19-10 Games, 9-4 Matches
Round 14) Lance Hartbarger playing RUG Delver, Win-Loss-Win
So I’m on the edge again! Sitting at 9-4, I’m 90th in the standings going into Round 14 and I hear that I have to win out to Top 64. I sit down at my table for the match and I see a familiar face, someone who was watching my Round 12. Lance is a really nice guy, comes from Virginia, and I spotted him hanging out with the Northern Virginia crew in between rounds. What are the chances he’s on RUG Delver? I win the die roll and keep a strong hand with a [card]Nimble Mongoose[/card], which is virtually indestructible in the mirror match. Lance, on the other hand, kept a [card]Delver of Secrets[/card] heavy hand, and we spend time having an attrition battle over them with my burn and his countermagic. He does whiff a couple of times on his two [card]Delver of Secrets[/card], so I pull this first game out by the skin of my teeth, when a [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] sticks on my end and pulls ahead in the race. During our think tank from the previous night, Justin Uppal recommended to me an alternative boarding plan for the mirror match. Justin proposed taking out the 4 [card]Delver of Secrets[/card] in the mirror match. Why? It’s a lightning rod in the matchup and dies to every burn spell. The cards to play and protect are, in turn, [card]Nimble Mongoose[/card] and [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]. I don’t get a chance to test this theory in Game 2, because Lance gets out a fast Counterbalance and I’m locked out before I can set up any cantrips to find my [card]Krosan Grip[/card], I’m already too far behind.
Sideboarding: -4 [card]Delver of Secrets[/card], -4 [card]Force of Will[/card], -3 [card]Spell Pierce[/card], +2 [card]Sensei’s Divining Top[/card], +3 [card]Counterbalance[/card], +4 [card]Submerge[/card], +2 [card]Krosan Grip[/card]
I get to be on the play in Game 3, and this time I open with a rather aggressive [card]Nimble Mongoose[/card] draw. This leads me to have a threat in play that can’t be easily disrupted, and I get my own [card]Counterbalance[/card] into play. Using [card]Brainstorm[/card] and [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] shenanigans, I lock up the board and find a [card]Sensei’s Divining Top[/card] just in time so that my shrouded [card]Wild Nacatl[/card] gets there. We exchange some thoughts about the matchup afterwards, which leads me to invite Lance to our RUG Delver think tank.
21-11 Games, 10-4 Matches
Round 15) Nick Patnode playing Goblins, Hypothetical Loss-Loss
Just kidding! It’s a repair!
Round 15) Tony Payton playing Punishing Maverick, Win-Win
I’m still shaking off the sweat from seeing my name next to Nick’s from before the repair, as I know that [card]Aether Vial[/card] aggro is not a deck that I want to be playing against. It’s a matchup that I know but am underprepared for in the sideboard. Nick’s a pretty good player from the New York area and I wasn’t surprised to see that he had fought through a sea of [card]Batterskull[/card]s to reach this point. He wins his last match too and finished in Top 64. The repair happens and I see that I’ll be playing against Tony Payton. Prior to this meeting, we were actually paired in the last round of SCG Nashville earlier this year in an off-camera feature match, with the winner making Top 16. At that time, I was playing UB Snapcaster Control and he was on Merfolk. A topdecked [card]Dismember[/card] in Game 1 ripped through my [card]Tombstalker[/card], and in Game 3 I couldn’t get any cards in my graveyard to turn on my double [card]Ghastly Demise[/card] in my hand. Not bitter or anything, right? But I know it’s time for revenge! I haven’t seen Tony play at all during this Grand Prix so I have no idea what he’s on. I win the die roll, and lead off with a [card]Delver of Secrets[/card], to which he answers with a [card]Noble Hierarch[/card]. It’s Maverick, the matchup that I had been waiting for with the new sideboard adjustment, and it comes conveniently in the last round of the Grand Prix. I [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] the [card]Noble Hierarch[/card], stunting his development just enough so that I can add [card]Nimble Mongoose[/card] and [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] to the board. I lose my [card]Insectile Aberration[/card] to a [card]Swords to Plowshares[/card], but wind up keeping his [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] off the board while fighting through a [card]Maze of Ith[/card] (Shroud is quite useful). Before he can stabilize, I burn him out.
Sideboarding: -3 [card]Nimble Mongoose[/card], -4 [card]Force of Will[/card], +4 [card]Submerge[/card], +1 [card]Mind Harness[/card], +2 [card]Krosan Grip[/card]
Now, in every tournament, you draw a god hand where you feel like you couldn’t possibly lose. Here was mine for Game 2, on the draw: [card]Tropical Island[/card], [card]Volcanic Island[/card], [card]Delver of Secrets[/card], [card]Lightning Bolt[/card], [card]Lightning Bolt[/card], [card]Daze[/card] and [card]Submerge[/card]. Keep! Tony leads off with basic Forest, [card]Birds of Paradise[/card]. I draw for the turn, play out my [card]Delver of Secrets[/card], and [card]Submerge[/card] his [card]Birds of Paradise[/card]. He draws for the turn, tanks, and plays [card]Birds of Paradise[/card]. I put him on not having another land and hinging on this to resolve, so I [card]Daze[/card]. His follow-up is [card] Dryad Arbor[/card], go. I untap, blind flip my [card]Delver of Secrets[/card], and [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] the [card]Dryad Arbor[/card]. Tony draws for the turn, tanks, and says “Go” without playing another land. I [card]Ponder[/card] into another [card]Daze[/card], keep the board clear, and ride my [card]Insectile Aberration[/card] to victory.
Final Game Count 23-11, Final Match Count 11-4
I check pairings after all the matches are done, and see that I’m in 48th place, good enough for $200 and my first Pro Point. I’m way too short to make my way through the crowd to watch Top 8, so I stick around the venue to hang out with some Team Mana Deprived guys. I also get the extra bonus of watching Alex Hayne whip Jon Medina at Magic, taking the best of seven games. Get better, bro! Pascal loses his Top 8 match, so with everyone rounded up, we head out to a late dinner at Buffalo Wings and Rings. Despite the terrible service, I would say that the night ended pretty well:
Closing Thoughts
So ends my Grand Prix: Indianapolis report. Although I didn’t finish at the top, this past month of grinding RUG Delver and putting in the work to understand/tweak the deck has left a lasting impression for me. For a while, I thought I had lost my fire to compete in Legacy, but finding a deck that fit so well with my playstyle has reignited the desire to play again. I definitely plan to work more on the deck. Being able to network so easily with guys to bounce ideas off of like Scott Ruggiero, Justin Uppal, and Lance Hartbarger is often something that people take for granted in this community, but I want to thank these guys for facilitating so much discussion and taking this archetype in such a positive direction.
Moving forward, the one thing that stands out at me from the Grand Prix results is the success of [card]Lingering Souls[/card]. I don’t think it’d be any surprise if this card became a staple in more than just one deck, being able to fit very well into Esper Stoneblade and Black-White Stoneblade variants. RUG Delver’s game plan is severely slowed down by this type of card, especially in multiples, so the deck itself will have to evolve. One of the ideas that I would like to explore for the future is the inclusion of [card]Sulfur Elemental[/card], a card that will gain more and more value as [card]Lingering Souls[/card] becomes more popular. It also interacts positively against [card]Mother of Runes[/card], a card that is often problematic for RUG Delver. I would definitely like to change the [card]Tormod’s Crypt[/card]s to [card]Surgical Extraction[/card]s however, as the alternate boarding plan to include them will be able to interact much better. The playstyle of the deck will then be expected to change.
Another potential direction that has been discussed among my peers would be adding the [card]Counterbalance[/card] package to the maindeck. This change would only occur if Esper Stoneblade does not rise to a high popularity, since having a 3cc card to counter [card]Lingering Souls[/card] can be a difficult thing to maintain. That said, I noticed that in my Grand Prix notes, I sided in the five slots for [card]Counterbalance[/card] in 11 of the 14 rounds that I played in, with the exception being the Black-White Stoneblade deck I played in Round 4 and any [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] deck. Having the maindeck [card]Counterbalance[/card] would certainly make those matchups even worse, but would shift Game 1 percentages in the positive directions for the mirror and UW Stoneblade. Having five free slots in the sideboard would also allow the deck to be more flexible, opening possibilities for more diversified sideboard slots like the reintroduction of [card]Red Elemental Blast[/card].
I’m definitely excited to start brewing a bit, though. Legacy is never a stale format, and its interactions and new discoveries like this that will begin the next steps towards format evolution. I’ll be closely watching the metagame in the upcoming weeks and jamming RUG Delver!
Thanks for reading,
–Mark
chbe.sun@gmail.com
Dubbed the Legacy Superstar, Mark Sun has been spending the past year trying to live up to his nickname. His biggest accomplishment to date was a top 8 finish at the 2011 Legacy Championships.