The 2015 Legacy Series Masters Field
Nine months. Six Classic Events. Two Championships. Countless Spotlight Events (actually it’s countable but play along with me here). It all came down to Saturday, September 5th at Play or Draw. Twenty players earned their qualification through countless Legacy matches. They had to sweat the topdecked Brainstorms, the turn one kills, the Vial at 2 tapping at end of turn…the culmination of this year’s Legacy events had all come to this. If the Arizona Legacy scene is the ocean, then these players are the sharks. There are no fish here – they all earned this qualification.
Since this was guaranteed to be a small field with the list of players known, that made metagaming so much more interesting. Legacy is largely known as a format where you play what you know. In this case though, that can be so much more punishing, especially if you are playing a deck that has exploitable weaknesses. For example, Tony Murata and Alex Tamblyn are known for playing 12Post and Tin Fins, respectively, in the Legacy Series, so what’s to stop people from packing Back to Basics, Blood Moon, Surgical Extraction, or Grafdigger’s Cage in their sideboard? How would such a small field affect sideboarding choices, or even deck choices?
It did, and people were either handsomely rewarded or punished for their choices.
Zach McKeown, Nathan Cardinell, Tony Murata, Matthew Beverly, and Kyle Henriksen all stuck to their guns and played decks that they have played before in the Legacy Series and were rewarded with a Top 8 berth:
Zach Mckeown took Shardless BUG to a Top 8 finish.
Nathan Cardinell piloted Lands – a deck he had previously won a Classic with – but with some interesting sideboard cards to battle the anticipated metagame. You’ll know it when you see it.
Tony Murata brought his trusty 12Post to Legacy Series Masters. While not a complete surprise to many players, the two maindeck Krosan Grips were added to fight the OmniTell menace.
Matthew Beverly armed himself with UWR Stoneblade at Legacy Series Masters.
Kyle Henriksen brought Miracles to the event, with baby Jace in the sideboard!
Phimus Pan, Sam Wolloch, and Gary Wong all played decks that they hadn’t played before in the Legacy Series. While they may have experience with these decks, they were also metagame choices for the field, and were also rewarded with a Top 8 berth:
Phimus Pan metagamed the tournament with Merfolk. A recent Merfolk decklist that made Top 8 at Eternal Weekend sported 4 maindeck Chalice of the Voids – a solid choice in the metagame infested with cards that cost 1 mana, and also conveniently protect its lords from the common removal spells: Swords to Plowshares, Pyroblast, and Lightning Bolt.
Sam Wolloch made the same conclusions as Phimus. As the only two Merfolk players in the room, they were both rewarded with a Top 8 berth.
Finally, Gary Wong brought Grixis Pyromancer. While this style of deck is popular in other Legacy scenes, it hadn’t made a big splash in Arizona yet. Grixis Pyromancer churns through its deck using cheap cantrips and also disrupts their opponents with endless (and value-laden) Cabal Therapies as it generates countless Elemental tokens to swing for the win.
Other interesting decks included PJ Melies’ BUG Death’s Shadow deck:
In an experienced field, will anyone really be playing Burn? In fact, there were more Watery Graves in this tournament than there were Goblin Guides. There were more Ugins in this tournament than there were Eidolon of the Great Revel. So, Death’s Shadow doesn’t seem like a bad idea!
Alex Tamblyn turned the tables from his usual Tin Fins and piloted MUD at Legacy Series Masters. A good call, as any hate sideboarded for Tin Fins would not work against MUD!
Nohea brought the hit reality TV show: “The Real Housewives of Argothia” to Legacy Series Masters!
In the end, after six grueling rounds and a stacked Top 8, Kyle Henriksen walked away the 2015 Legacy Series Master!
Congratulations to Kyle Henriksen, and also to everyone qualified for Masters for coming out on this epic day! It’s been a blast running these events and we have been glad to see everyone that came out to play some Legacy.
Jason and Jeff Abong