Legacy

Counterbalance: Why Top Should Be Banned in Legacy – 1st

JRich

Hello, my name is Justin Richardson from Montreal and this is my tournament report for the P9 Legacy tournament that happened at Face a Face on Saturday June 12th where I won a Time Walk.  I was going to write a report about the Toronto PTQ 2 weeks ago where I lost in the top 4, but Davies Clarke wrote a Regionals report about Jund and I didn’t want to make you people read another article about how broken Sensei’s Divining Top is in Legacy.

My deck choice began at the weekly Tuesday Legacy tournament at Face a Face where I knew I did not want to play Merfolk, which I had been playing for the last 2 months to some decent results, but lately had been doing really badly with.  I knew I wanted to play a control deck with Firespouts, but I originally built a UW Landstill deck which was really slow and not very good so on Thursday when I went back to the store to play Standard, I switched to the following:

Supreme Blue

4 Tarmogoyf
4 Rhox War Monk
2 Vendillion Clique
3 Counterbalance
4 Sensei’s Divining Top
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Firespout
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Forest
1 Plains
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Flooded Strand

SB
1 Counterbalance
1 Vendillion Clique
1 Firespout
3 Spell Pierce
1 Path to Exile
3 Krosan Grip
2 Sower of Temptation
3 Relic of Progenitus

I thought about the format those 2 days in between and figured out that Standstill was badly positioned in the metagame right now and that’s why I was doing bad with Merfolk and realized that I wanted to play a deck with Firespout in it, so I found the best one that did.

33 players showed up, a low turnout for Legacy, especially with such sick prizes going out.

Round 1: Zoo with Tredene B. Cadieux

I played this opponent in the 1st round of the last big Legacy event and he crushed my fishes.  This time, I was better prepared.  Game 1, he was on the play and played a Steppe Lynx.  I played a dual and he played a fetch to bash me for 4.  I played a Counterbalance and then a Rhox War Monk that got Path to Exiled.  He bashed me while my Counterbalance could only reveal lands.

Sideboarding:

+1 Firespout +1 Path to Exile +1 Counterbalance

-2 Vendillion Clique -1 Daze

Game 2, he plays 2 guys and I fetch a Volcanic that he didn’t see Game 1 to Firespout them.  He plays some more guys and I kill them with Swords to Plowshares and Engineered Explosives.  We start playing draw-go for a while before he finally finds a Grim Lavamancer that deals a lot of damage to me, but I eventually kill it and find a Jace that goes all the way.

Game 3, I go Top+Counterbalance against his slow draw.  I play Rhox War Monk and 2 Goyfs and manage to win in extra turns.

1-0

Round 2: Feature Match – David Schnayer with Painter Combo

Game 1, I Daze his Dark Confidant and get an early Counterbalance + Top.  He plays a Meekstone which means I have to find an Explosives or a Jace.  The game starts going really long as I can’t find a win condition but I have him in my soft lock.  I draw a Jace, he Explosives my Counterbalance, then Red Blasts my Jace.  I play my 2nd Counterbalance, then draw my other Jace a few turns later.  He eventually scoops.

Sideboarding:

+1 Couterbalance +3 Spell Pierce +3 Krosan Grip +1 Vendillion Clique

-4 Rhox War Monk -2 Firespoout -2 Daze

Game 2, he plays Ancient Tomb and Top.  My hand is kind of slow.  I play a turn 2 Counterbalance.  I draw blanks the whole game.  I put up little resistance except for an Explosives that kills his Grindstone, but he Trinkets for another and kills me in short order.  He makes a few mistakes, letting me get extra tries to blind Counterbalance his Grindstones after he Trinket Maged for them and saw blanks on top of my deck.

Game 3, I play an early Counterbalance again as we are both running low on gas.  I blind flip a Top with Counterbalance.  I get way ahead, Vendillion Clique his only relevant spell and then kill him with the Clique and a Goyf.

2-0

Round 3: Luc Boucher with Bant

Game 1, he is on the play and gets an early Qasali Pridemage while I have a Top in play.  He Spellstutters my Swords and then Forces 2 irrelevant spells.  I Firespout his board, then resolve Counterbalance and win the game easily.

Sideboarding:

+1 Path to Exile +2 Sower of Temptation +1 Counterbalance

-4 Daze

 

Game 2, he mulls to 6.  I mull to 6.  He double Wastelands me and smashes me with a Rancor on a Goyf.

Game 3, I get turn 1 Top, turn 2 Counterbalance.  He tries to put up a fight, but Top finds me everything I need to answer his threats.  I find a War Monk to start the beatdown.  I then find Jace to lock up the game.

3-0

 

Round 4: Sebastien Cameron with GW Aggro

Game 1, I have a Top in play and he doesn’t have much.  He plays a Stoneforge Mystic and I decide to let it resolve because I will just Force of Will whatever he gets which turns out to be a Sword of Fire and Ice.  I Vendillion Clique him and see he doesn’t have a 3rd land so I don’t take the Sword.  He uses Stoneforge to put the equipment in play and I die to the Sword because I’m an idiot and have 3 Force of Wills in my hand.

Sideboarding:

+1 Path to Exile +2 Sower of Temptation +1 Firespout +2 Krosan Grip

-4 Daze – 2 Vendillion Clique

Game 2, my hand has lots of removal.  I Force of Will his 2 Aether Vials, so I am low on cards.  He gets a Goyf with a Jitte, but I get a Top and Swords his Goyf when it attacks.  He plays a Mother of Runes and equips her with Jitte.  I Top end-of-turn getting myself a Krosan Grip for the Jitte.  He attacks, I kill the Jitte and take 1.  He plays a Flickerwisp.  I untap, Firespout his board and he draws nothing for the rest of the game as I proceed to kill him with 2 War Monks.

Game 3, I keep a 1 lander with a bunch of removal and 2 Brainstorms.  I only see 1 other land the whole game and die to his random guy + Jitte + Wasteland.

I am so bad for forgetting Stoneforge Mystic’s other ability.

3-1

Round 5: Joey Smith with Belcher

Game 1, he is on the play.  I mulligan because I don’t have a Force of Will.  My 6 card hand is decent i fhe doesn’t try and go off turn 1.  Turn 1, he makes 14 Goblins.  I don’t draw my Explosives.

Sideboarding:

+3 Krosan Grip +1 Firespout +1 Counterbalance +3 Spell Pierce

-4 Rhox War Monk -4 Swords to Plowshares

 

Game 2, I keep a nuts 1 lander with Top, Force of Will, Firespou and Spell Pierce.  I find my 2nd land, then play the worst Goyf ever as a 1/2.  He makes Goblins a few turns later and I show him the Firespout with lands in play to cast it.

Game 3, same as game 1.

3-2

 

Round 6: Jason Breault with Elves

Game 1, I keep a deecnt hand with a Top.  I play badly the first few turns, not countering some spells, but on turn 4, I rip a Firespout.  A few turns later, he has a Wren’s Run Packmaster that I don’t have a good answer for, so I bounce it with Jace.  He replays the Packmaster.  I bounce it again, but this time, I found a Force of Will to counter it on the way back.  He plays an Aluren that I let resolve.  Then, he plays some Elves with a Heritage Druid and replays the Packmaster, but I Force it.  I Explosives his board, leaving him with an Elvish Visionary and myself with a Jace and a Top on top of my deck.  I Ultimate him Jace.  With his Aluren in play, I flash in War Monks to seal the victory.

Sideboarding:

+1 Firespout +1 Counterbalance +1 Path to Exile +2 Sower of Temptation

-1 Vendillion Clique -4 Daze

Game 2, he has a slow start with just a Priest of Titania in play.  I draw a Vendillion Clique and take his Staff of Domination, so I don’t die.  I get a naked Counterbalance, but I have 2 Brainstorms to counter his next few spells and take control of the game with Counterbalance and my removal.  Jace and a Tarmogoyf finish him off.

4-2

Sal announces the top 8 and I’m against my 4th round opponent as I got 8th on tie-breakers.  Team Face a Face put 3 members in top 8, another awesome showing.

 

Top 8: Sebastien Cameron with GW Aggro

Game 1 is all me.  I Explosived 2 Vials away before he can get any guys in play.  I kill all his guys and Jace goes all the way.  He could have stalled me for a while.  He had Mother of Runes and a Qasali.  He could have attacked my Jace past my War Monk that was on defense, but just scooped when Jace got to 13.

Sideboarding:

+1 Path to Exile +2 Sower of Temptation +1 Firespout +2 Krosan Grip

-4 Daze -2 Vendillion Clique

Game 2 was more of the same.  I Forced his Vial, had Top + Counterbalance and he wasn’t really in the game with my good draw and his mediocre one.

5-2

Top 4: Dave Soued with New Horizons

Game 1, I have an early Top and no one really gets ahead because I am topping into blanks.  We trade Forces and Swords on some guys.  I get a Counterbalance online.  He taps all 6 of his lands to play an Explosives to try and get rid of my Counterbalance.  I Daze the Explosives and then get Jace online.  He plays another Explosives next turn, but it doesn’t matter as Jace goes all the way.

Sideboarding:

+1 Counterbalance +2 Spell Pierce +2 Sower of Temptation +1 Path to Exile

-4 Daze -2 Firespout

Game 2, we both have slow draws, but I pull ahead with my Top advantage.  He plays a pre-emptive Explosives at 2 and then a Terravore.  I haven’t been fetching to shuffle fresh cards for my Top.  I think my Tundra is a Tropical Island for some reason and end up playing an Explosives for 2 instead of 3.  I take some hits from the small Terravore, but I eventually Swords it.  He plays a Knight and I bounce it with Jace and play a Counterbalance.  He Explosives it away and then replays the Knight.  I bounce it again and say “Go”.  He replays it again and says “Go”.  I Top into a Swords and kill the Knight.  He Grips my Explosives and plays a Goyf.  I Sower it and Fateseal him with Jace.  He plays an Explosives at 2 to kill both Goyfs and finishes his turn by playing a Knight.  I bounce my Swoer with Jace and steal his Knight.  He attempts to Path my Sower, but I counter it and win the game in a few more turns.

6-2

Finals: Ian Sauve with NO Bant without CounterTop

My opponent doesn’t want to split as he thinks a Moat is good enough for 2nd prize so we play.  Game 1, I get an early Counterbalace vs. his slow start and counter 5 spells with Counterbalance + 3 Brainstorms.  I Vendillion Clique him and see 2 Natural Order and a Progenitus.  I end up killing him with the Clique, a Goyf and a Rhox War Monk.

Sideboarding:

+3 Spell Pierce +2 Sower of Temptation +1 Path to Exile

-4 Daze -2 Firespout

Game 2, I have Counterbalance + Top online by turn 3.  He has a slow draw and my better cards take control of the game as I counter everything relevant and leave a 3 CC card on top for his Krosan Grip.  Eventually, I play a Goyf and Sower his guy to win the tournament and a Time Walk.

7-2

I sell the Time Walk to Sal for cheap for lending me the deck and we go eat Sushi to celebrate.  Please Wizards, ban Top.  When you have one and your opponent doesn’t, it is so hard to lose.  Ponder every turn is pretty broken.  Another Montreal tournament won by Team Face a Face and that’s the end of the report.

Justin R

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