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Eight. Different. Decks. Top 8. Can we say it again? Well, we have been for three months in a row now. The AZMagicPlayers.com 2014 Legacy Series stopped by Desert Sky Games this past Saturday for the March Event, where 38 players showed up to do battle in six rounds of Swiss. Once the dust had settled, Phimus Pan with his BUG deck emerged the winner, nearly locking up the FTV 20 that will be given out at the conclusion of the April Event. The Top 8 was:

1. Phimus Pan – BUG
2. Robert Greene – Tin Fins
3/4. Jay Webb – Merfolk
3/4. Gary Wong – DeathBlade
5-8. Christopher Worman – BUG Delver
5-8. Mike Griffin – UWr Miracles
5-8. Tony Murata – Reanimator
5-8. Alex Tamblyn – BW Stoneblade

Let’s take a look at the 1st Place Deck, BUG:

At first, I was confused. At the previous two events, Phimus brought a BUG Delver deck, finishing in the finals of the first event (they split, essentially making the March Event his second win in three months), and in the Top 16 of the February Event. So when I saw his decklist, I immediately saw Deathrite Shaman and Brainstorm and thought, well, it’s BUG Delver again. Then I took another look.

Nope, not BUG Delver.

Not even Tarmogoyf. What gives? Well, for one, it’s not really an aggro deck – while Tarmogoyf certainly shined historically in Bant CounterTop decks in the past, these days control decks are looking for cards with a little more value than just a dumb beater – True-Name Nemesis and Baleful Strix do just that. Also, Rest in Peace doesn’t cripple this deck nearly as hard as a BUG Delver deck with Tombstalkers.

Now, how about that 2nd Place Deck?

For those who just saw this and had to read Children of Korlis, don’t worry – Robert’s opponents had to do plenty of reading too. This ultra fast Storm/Reanimator hybrid is likely the best Griselbrand deck out there, because if there’s something better than paying 7 life and drawing 7 cards, it’s gaining all of the life back to run it back…over….and over again.

Metagame Breakdown & Analysis

*: Indicates if a deck of the respective archetype made the Top 8 of this event.

• Death and Taxes – 3
• OmniTell – 3
• Shardless BUG – 2
• DeathBlade – 2*
• Elves – 2
• Goblins – 2
• Imperial Painter – 2
• Jund Depths – 2
• Zoo – 2
• BUG – 2*
• BUG Delver – 1*
• Burn – 1
• BW Stoneblade – 1*
• Esper Stoneblade – 1
• Goblin Stompy – 1
• Infect – 1
• Junk Depths – 1
• Manaless Dredge – 1
• Merfolk – 1*
• Reanimator – 1*
• Scapeshift Nic Fit – 1
• Spanish Inquisition – 1
• Tin Fins – 1*
• UG Enchantress – 1
• UWR Delver – 1
• UWr Miracles – 1*

For the third event in a row, Death and Taxes is the most represented deck. However, this time it failed to put a pilot in the Top 8. Perhaps the hate was too strong for it this time around – I did see a couple Massacres floating around, which just does not bode well for the mono X/1 & X/2.dec.

It was awesome to see a ton of archetypes that I haven’t really seen in any sort of capacity in the past year or so. Zoo made a couple of appearances, as did Spanish Inquisition. One deck utilized Moggcatcher in a Stompy Shell to power out Kiki-Jikis, Siege-Gang Commanders, and Goblin Settlers. Sweet stuff.

The Points Race

Here are the Top 10 players in the Points Race. Remember, the Points Leader at the end of the April Event will win an FTV: 20!

• Phimus Pan: 20
• Trevor Carr: 14
• Kyle Henriksen: 12
• Robert Greene: 11
• Mike Griffin: 11
• Kai Ruan: 9
• Matt Czuzak: 9
• William Leach: 8
• Jay Webb: 7
• Zach McKeown: 7

Phimus’ two finals appearances have put him clearly ahead of anyone else. If he just simply attends the April Event at ManaWerx, Trevor would have to finish in the Finals and Kyle would have to win the event to get the FTV: 20, while Robert or Mike would have to win the event just to tie. Surely, anything is possible, but this is definitely a tall order, because Phimus has to fail to Top 8 in order for any of that to actually happen.

Well, that’s all for now. Be sure to join us at the next event at ManaWerx, on April 12th at noon! $15 entry, and the winner gets a Volcanic Island, while the runner-up gets a Savannah. Not too shabby, if I say so myself.

Here are the rest of the standings – let us know if your point total isn’t correct!

• Phimus Pan 20
• Trevor Carr 14
• Kyle Henriksen 12
• Robert Greene 11
• Mike Griffin 11
• Kai Ruan 9
• Matt Czuzak 9
• William Leach 8
• Jay Webb 7
• Zach McKeown 7
• Gary Wong 6
• Brent England 6
• Mike Evans 6
• Scott Alter 6
• Jake Kempfer 6
• Alex Tamblyn 5
• Chris Worman 5
• Tony Murata 5
• Charles Kraver 5
• Tyler Libraro 5
• Dan Ford 3
• David Godfrey 3
• Joe Veth 3
• Joey Keep 3
• Myc Fromm 3
• Nathan Cardinell 3
• Nohea Slocum 3
• Anthony Rivera 3
• Karin Rivera 3
• Nick Gil 3
• Eric Lambert 2
• Jacob Brinkerhoff 2
• James Gorz 2
• Phil Guevara 2
• Billy Gogol 2
• Christian Nickerson 2
• Devin Jones 2
• James Smith 2
• Matthew Goslar 2
• Michael Reppenhagen 2
• Paul Ma 2
• Bunnie Hadsall 1
• Carmen Torzon 1
• Daniel Sharpy 1
• David Szattowski 1
• Jeremy Locker 1
• Mike Anderson 1
• Mike Hadley 1
• Nick Stokes 1
• Phillip Shulsky 1
• Troy Fisher 1
• Troy Peters 1
• Aaron Diedrich 1
• Aaron Nahm 1
• Alex Burley 1
• Andrew Caponera 1
• Angelo Cavaletto 1
• Austin Mathis 1
• Ben Chamberlain 1
• Bryan Rockenbach 1
• Bryce Wilson 1
• Colin Stapczynski 1
• Corey Walton 1
• David White 1
• Donald Everett 1
• Dylan Vickers 1
• James Baker 1
• James Hansen 1
• Jeff Everett 1
• Jeremy Credo 1
• Kyle Fader 1
• Mat Baharich 1
• Matthew Shaffer 1
• Nathan Speck 1
• Paul Cuillier 1
• PJ Melies 1
• Samantha Burns 1
• Sarah Kuczyk 1
• Truett Kueck 1