After finding some missing cards, I decided to play in the Legacy challenge and put my theory to the test. I went 3-1. I defeated The Epic Storm, some Belcher variant and Deadguy Ale. I lost a match to RUG Tempo.
The second game of my match against RUG presented an interesting decision. I have 4 lands in play, including Tundra and an Underground Sea. My hand is Jace, Perish and Counterspell. My opponent also has three lands and 3 cards in hand. He has four cards in his graveyard, his board consists of two Nimble Mongoose. He currently has one untapped Volcanic Island and a fetch land. I’m on a healthy 12 life. Do I cast the Perish? Do I cast the Jace? If I cast the Jace, what do I do with it?
My concern was running my Perish into an opposing Spell Pierce. Since he was on the draw I assumed that he had boarded out his Dazes, so that should not be a concern. I decided to catch Jace, if it drew out a Spell Pierce then I could resolve Perish next turn. If it resolved and I got to brainstorm it seems likely I could find another land and back up my next play with Counterspell.
This proved to be a mistake, my opponent Red Elemental Blasted my Jace, than cast Brainstorm at the end of my turn. He then untaps and plays two Lightning Bolts, getting threshold and killing me exactly.
Despite what happened I think my line was probably correct, I would be interested in your thoughts in the comments section.
First Round- Zoo
I sit down at the table, and introduce myself to my opponent. I make some lame joke that’s he’s probably playing Burn. He opens on basic Mountain, go. I think maybe he’s actually playing Burn, but having no one drop is kind-of strange. I play out a Sensei’s Divining Top and pass. The next turn he lays down a Savannah and plays some dork, I think it was a Tarmogoyf (I’m not positive though). I spin my Top find a land and Swords it. He follows up with a basic Forest and a Wild Nacatl. I Snapcaster-Swords it away. I start to bash in, he plays a Strangleroot Geist. He attacks. I play Lingering Souls. He follows up with a second Geist. He attacks with both, I trade half my Lingering Souls for half of his Geists. Next turn I land the Counterbalance and flashback Lingering Souls. He attacks again; I trade my Snapcaster and tokens for the remainder of his Geists. I play draw-go, countering numerous spells with the Balance, while holding Snapcaster and Lingering Souls on top of my library each turn.
At one point he plays a Bolt, I flip my Top. He tries to play a 2 drop, I spin my Top. Except I don’t have a Top, it’s on top of my library. We call a Judge and I’m given a warning for looking at extra cards (although I already had perfect knowledge). I draw my Top, play it and continue playing draw-spin-go, I’m looking for a win condition, preferably a Jace, since I don’t want to play the three drop or two drop I’m holding on top of my library. All the basic lands make me think that he’s a Zoo variant with Price of Progress, and I currently had 5 non-basics on board. We play draw-go, for about ten turns, I have the game completely locked up. I have double Balance, double Top in play. My hand consists of 2 Swords, Counterspell, Spell Snare, two Force of Will and a Wrath of God. At the end of his turn I activated Sensei’s Divining Top. He pauses me, gesturing that he wants to do something. I ask any responses?, he says no. I begin rearranging the top 3 cards, he states “while the cards are in your hand, bolt you.”
I inform him that he doesn’t have priority right now. He seems to think that I have to flip the fourth card down, I say that’s not how it works and call a Judge. I explain the situation and the Judge informs my opponent that he does not have priority. My opponent says something along the lines of “I know”. The Judge pulls my opponent away to talk to him privately. I literally sit at the table for twenty-five minutes until the head judges comes and asks me about the game state. I repeat what happened, and tell the Judge that I didn’t understand what my opponent was trying to do. Another Judge comes five minutes later and tells me that my opponent has been disqualified, I think this is really strange. Apparently my opponent had admitted that he knew that he didn’t have priority and was attempting to confuse the game state in order to get me to commit some illegal action (this is all hearsay from another judge), like flipping the fourth card down.
Personally I don’t think my opponent was trying to cheat, I think he just didn’t understand the rules, which led to him saying something that the judges interpreted as being nefarious or illegal. I don’t think it really impacted the result of our match however; I was in pretty complete control at the time the game ended. It was an auspicious start to the tournament, the disqualification also destroyed my tiebreakers, I essential received the minimum OMW % for the round. Personally I think disqualifications should be treated like byes for the opponent, it seems a little odd to be punished for someone trying to cheat against you. There was a clean break between Top 8 and Top 16 so it did no affect my ability to make top 8 although in a larger tournament it might have.
Round 2: Aggro Loam
I sit down for my next match about 1 minute after the rounded started. I was late because the judging staff asked for a statement to qualify my opponent’s disqualification. Luckily my opponent was an extremely chill guy, the Judge explained why I was late and we shuffle up quickly and begin. My opponent wins the die roll. I keep a hand with Brainstorm, Counterbalance, Jace, Snapcaster and 3 Land. We each lay a land, he cycles a land at the end of my turn and the Jig is up, I put him on Aggro Loam.
Aggro Loam is a match I generally do not want to see when playing Counterbalance. It’s far from unwinnable, but they tend to play a lot of versatile three-cost removal that can disrupt your lock ie; Maelstrom Pulse, Vindicate, Pernicious Deed etc. The versions with Punishing Fire are doubly annoying because it becomes hard to keep Jace on the table without the Counterbalance lock to back it up. Did I mention they play Chalice of the Void? That card is the ultimate beating, completely invalidating about half the spells in your deck.
My opponent promptly untaps plays a Taiga and slams Chalice of the Void for one. I brainstorm in response, but fail to find a Force. I spend about thirty seconds thinking as I’m resolving my Brainstorm. I wasn’t deciding which cards to put back, or in what order, but whether I should scoop and go on to game two. My opponent had only seen basic Island and a Brainstorm out of my deck. If I had been in his shoes I would assumed my opponent was on Storm or High Tide, perhaps in Game 2 I could get him to mis-sideboard and get an easy win. I considered my hand and crafted a game-plan, a series of plays that might yield victory out of this quagmire. I carefully placed my cards back on top so that after I drew Snapcaster Mage would be on Top. I confidently stated “Resolves”. On my next turn I play Tundra and windmill slam Counterbalance onto the table. He follows his Chalice up with a Dark Confidant. I “luckily” blind flip a Snapcaster Mage. On the next turn he plays some powerful three drop, I think it was Knight of the Reliquary, which I Counterspell. I play my fourth land and play Magic’s best Planeswalker, using his Brainstorm ability. He attempts a Life from the Loam, which once again is “luckily” countered by Counterbalance. Next turn I draw into another Snapcaster Mage, which I use to Counterspell a Seismic Assault. Snapcaster starts attacking, joined the following turn by some Lingering Souls. Despite brainstorming repeatedly with Jace, my hand is filled with dead Swords to Plowshares, Tops and Spell Snares, luckily my opponent’s play is being stifled by my own pseudo Chalice on two. At one point he looks through his sideboard, I instantly inform him that Burning Wish won’t save him, by his reaction I knew I had hit the mark. A few turns later Snapcaster and some spirits finish him off.
I board into my Extirpate, Perish, Nihil Spellbomb and the Engineered Explosives, Jotun Grunt and Disenchant. I needed answers to Chalice, Choke and his Loam Engine. I took out some Lingering Souls, some Forces, a Dismember, and Vedalken Shackles. Shackles seems good, but it’s both expensive and sometimes Knights and Terravores are just too large to steal, Dismember suffered from the same problem. Lingering Souls really doesn’t do much in this match. Some of his creatures trample, and it’s likely he plays Maelstrom Pulse and/or Pernicious Deed.
Game 2 plays out exactly like Game 1. I get Chaliced on turn 2, once again failing to find Force with Brainstorm. His hand has some serious awkward mana; his only colored source was a Mox Diamond. He has two colorless land in play as well. I land Jotun Grunt which eats his Graveyard as I counter a Loam. I get the beats going with Lingering Souls. Jace lands and starts brainstorming. He plays Terravore, with 2 lands in his Graveyard. My Jotun Grunt has three age counters on it and there are insufficient cards in graveyards to pay that upkeep. I want to remove his two lands and then fail to pay the remainder, I call a Judge to ask if it’s legal, apparently it’s not. Cumulative Upkeep is all or nothing. It doesn’t matter though?. I bounce his Teravore with Jace and continue to clock him with Souls. I counter any removal he plays, at one point he wished for Devastating Dreams. He never attempts to play it though; he dies under a horde of spirits before he can.
At this point I’m pretty pumped. I just won two games against a hard matchup, while being under Chalice the whole time. Jace really was my saving grace both games; as Patrick Chapin would say “Jace the Mind Sculptor, better than all”.
Round 3: The Epic Storm
This match is kind-of a blur. I played a match against Storm the previous day, and a few matches in between rounds against my friend playing Doomsday, the specifics of these matches all kind of run together in my head, so details are going to be poor.
I have also played the Counterbalance side of various Ad Naueseum and Doomsdays deck, conservatively about 500 times. If I could play this match every round I would.
What I do remember well is grabbing a Rockstar Energy Drink or as I like to call it “Breakfast”, pounding it and then heading to the bathroom. I get back about two minutes after pairings are called. I go to my prescribed table, I have no opponent. I tell a Judge who informs me that I have a feature match. I missed the announcement while emptying my bladder. Luckily it was not under the camera, for two reasons:
- I was late
- It was a massacre
Storm players have grown bold, facing a field of decks that they can win games against; this isn’t one of those matchups. I win the die roll, and play Turn 1 Top, into Turn 2 Counterbalance. My opponent makes some comment about who plays Counterbalance. I win the game by eventually beating him down with Snapcaster Mages.
I sideboard in my Enlightened Tutors, Flusterstorm, Extirpuate, Hydroblast and My Engineered Explosives. This match-up is all about finding Counterbalance-Top quickly, hopefully getting around Duress, Enlightened Tutor serves this role. One method Storm decks have of beating you is to attempt to Empty the Warrens on turn 1 for like 8-10 Goblins. Engineered Explosives is a good answer, plus occasionally you get to catch their Chrome Moxes or Lion’s Eye Diamonds. Some people lead with their Diamonds, Engineered Explosives can make them pay for that. I took out Vedalken Shackles, Wrath of God, Dismember and Diabolic Edict, 1 Swords and Karakas. I left in most of my Swords to Plowshares. It’s generally a mistake to board out all of your Swords against Ad Nauseum, some versions run Xantid Swarm, others run Dark Confidant, I have even seen Phyrexian Negator or Obliterator out of these decks.
Game two played out much the same as Game 1. I achieved a quick lock. I think he tried to go for the play eight or nine spells and cast Tendrils from his hand plan. I just used Counterbalance to stop the cantrips, and avoided playing any spells of my own. If you have Counterbalance and are above 16 life, it’s virtually impossible to die to this plan, unless you start countering spells with spells of your own.
One point on general strategy, hold your valuable cards on top of your library with Sensei’s Divining Top. Duress and Thoughtseize are poor protection against this strategy; I often just float a Force of Will on top. The other thing is be mindful of that Ad Nauseam is an instant. If your only defense is Spell Pierce don’t tap out on your opponent’s end step to Top.
At this point I’m 3-0 and feeling pretty jazzed about my chances. I felt pretty lucky about my match-ups. Zoo and Storm are practically byes. My luck was about to change.
Round 4: Hive Mind- Jason Broach
Jason introduces himself, he seems like a nice enough chap. He wins the die roll and opens up on basic island into a Ponder. I play out a Sensei’s Divining Top. He plays a second basic island, I just assume he’s playing High Tide, and mentally place myself at 4-0. I slam down Counterbalance. On my third end-step he goes for Intuition, which I counter with Counterbalance, revealing a Lingering Souls. I finally figure out he’s playing a Show and Tell deck. I hold Lingering Souls on top, knowing that all the spells that actually matter cost three mana in this match-up. I find a second Lingering Souls, so I cast the first one and start attacking. He plays a Grim Monolith while I’m tapped out. I literally curse out loud, staring down at a Spell Snare in my hand. I just hope he doesn’t have the balls to actually cast his Hive Mind. I attack and pass. He runs a Show and Tell into my Counterbalance, I reveal Lingering Souls again. Seemingly out of other options my opponent casts Hive Mind, I cast Counterspell, which meets a Pact of Negation, which I subsequently Counterbalance away. He follows up with a Force for my Counterspell, I tell him F6 and he shows me a Red Pact, I scoop up my cards.
I’m pretty annoyed with myself at this point, the turning point was letting Grim Monolith resolve, I think I should have played around that possibility, I had the game locked up. Then I proceed to make a serious error in my sideboarding.
I board out my Swords, Dismember, I bring in Flusterstorm, Extirpate, Nihil Spellbomb. I should have brought in my Perish.
I land a turn one Sensei’s Divining Top, straight into a turn two Counterbalance. He casts Show and Tell on turn 3. I flip a land off Counterbalance, then Force his Show and Tell, he Forces back, I flip my Top, and draw the land. He places Progenitus into play, while I place the Underground Sea I just drew off Top. I play my Top, Brainstorm, Fetch and Top, looking for my one Diabolic Edict. I should have been running to three outs, with the two Perishes in my deck, but I’m bad. I fail to find the Edict. I lose the game 2 turns later after seeing about 12 cards. I should have known he would be on Progenitus. I play Jace, making Emrakul pretty bad. Perish also Counterbalances critical spells including Intuition and Show and Tell.
I feel as though I punted this match away. Hive Mind is a very tough matchup, but I definitely could have played and sideboarded better. I resolved myself to tighten up in the next round.
To be continued…
Copywriter
MJL
I didn’t mean to bite your head off. That wasn’t my intended tone. I was just stating that I had explicitly written about how there should be a glacial fortress in my deck, and how I thought it was an error that there wasn’t.
I tested the basic plains, and found that it caused more mulligans and awkward mana draws than it resolved. The draws where Wasteland really messes you up is when you draw a basic-off color and a tundra or underground. You cant resolve anything on turn 2, and than they waste your non-basic this leaves you two lands away from casting the majority of your spells. I just found that fetching basic plains causes more mana problems than it resolves.