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Main » Articles » Modern & Legacy at GP Las Vegas

Modern & Legacy at GP Las Vegas

Ben Friedman
Posted on June 23, 2017
 Reddit

Delver of Secrets
What a week! Grand Prix: Las Vegas was absolutely massive, and it would not shock me to see ChannelFireball run one of these gargantuan tournaments every single year for the foreseeable future. There was something for everyone there, from the oldest tournament veteran to the adorable six-year-old girl who won her round one Modern feature match (with Dad there to help shuffle the cards, of course!) Personally, I played in both the Legacy and Modern Grand Prix events, to the tune of a 7-4 (drop) record with Sultai Delver and a 12-3 record with Eldrazi Tron (which, in a 3,500 player event, was good for 72nd place!) Before diving into the decklists, how they became the preferred weapons for the weekend, and how to improve them going forward, it should be said that when a 12-3 record goes from 20th down to 80th place or so, there is a potential problem brewing at the GP level. The community has known about this for some time, and very few solutions elegantly tackle the issue. However, with massive GPs being unable to equitably reward strong finishes, the combination of unfortunate tiebreakers, low prize payouts, and high entry fees can turn off some of the most invested players in the game. In a perfect world, there would be better round turnaround time to allow an extra round or two in the truly massive events, prize payouts more in line with the entry fees collected at the tournament, and a way to address tiebreaker disparities between the three-bye Gold and Platinum players and the rest. It’s a great set of problems for Magic to have, this overabundance of interested competitors, but that does not mean we should stop looking to improve and solve those issues. The wonderful thing is that Wizards’ Organized Play department is habitually willing to try new solutions as new issues arise with Magic, so we can (luckily) expect to see iterative improvement over time in this and other issues with competitive Magic.

Enough polemicizing, though. Let’s talk Legacy! To prepare for this event, I spent hours and hours in previous weeks tooling around on Magic Online with brews from Blood Moon Grixis to Bant Infect, Death and Taxes to Deathblade, and everything in between. To quote one of my opponents on MTGO (after the third or fourth time playing them with a different Legacy deck that week), “My man, you have got range.” Of course, I ended up on one of the most basic, stock decks of the format after repeatedly finding vulnerabilities with all my brews. Sultai Delver offers a ton of free win equity with the Delver of Secrets—Daze—Wasteland draws, the double Hymn to Tourach draws, and the Deathrite Shaman—Liliana of the Veil draws. It’s less likely to get mana-screwed with a full twenty lands, and can transform into a lovely Sultai Midrange deck post-sideboard with Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Snapcaster Mage, and more removal. The biggest weaknesses of the deck are Lands, Elves, and turbo-Blood Moon decks, but both Lands and Elves are eminently beatable. The vulnerability to Moon, unfortunately, is not particularly fixable, and the deck relies heavily on a relative lack of those type of all-in decks in the metagame.

Let’s get down to brass tacks, and talk about the list I played:

Sultai Delver ? Legacy | Ben Friedman

Tombstalker
There are a few flexible slots in the list, starting with the choice of maindeck removal, where the third Fatal Push could become a third Abrupt Decay or a third Liliana of the Veil. The remainder of the maindeck is fairly set in stone, with Tarmogoyf coming in as a Gurmag Angler-esque threat that works way better in multiples (though it is weak to Fatal Push). The single Tombstalker is stellar at winning around opposing True-Name Nemesis, and as a solitary delve threat in a deck already accustomed to making bb mana, it’s the best of the bunch. In theory, this deck is favored against the semi-mirror, Grixis Delver, which is the most popular deck in the format, but like any semi-mirror, it’s going to be a close matchup no matter how you slice it.

Personally, the tournament started out well, until I ran into a Blood Moon—Thopter Foundry—Sword of the Meek control deck. A well-timed Blood Moon won Game 2, and the Thopter-Sword combo put away Game 3. Part of the advantage of rogue decks is that opponents will have to play around cards they are unaccustomed to playing against, and that is exactly what happened to me in round five. A similar situation occurred in round eight, where I lost to a U/W Stoneblade deck with the right answers to all the threats in this deck. In between, I defeated Storm, Grixis Delver, Colorless Eldrazi, Turbo-Reanimator and Deathblade, which led me into the second day with a 7-2 record. Unfortunately, a series of poor plays against Storm and Deathblade to start Day Two led me to an early exit from the tournament, to lick my wounds, brew some more Legacy decks, and prepare to battle some Modern.

The big news from the tournament was the adoption of Drop of Honey in Jody Keith and Jarvis Yu’s Lands decks, which led to a brief run on the card in the microcosm of the tournament’s vendors and card market. Of course, stalwarts like Grixis Delver, Death and Taxes, Lands, Sneak and Show, and Four-Color Pile all succeeded to varying degrees, which means that Legacy is still as ripe for savvy brewing as ever.

With regard to sideboarding for Sultai Delver, here are the general plans:

Grixis Delver:

The Dead Weight and Engineered Explosives are great cards in the matchup as cheap removal spells for Delver and Deathrite Shaman that also buff Tarmogoyfs to be larger than opposing Gurmag Anglers. Golgari Charm is a great answer to True-Name Nemesis and Young Pyromancer alike, and Hymn to Tourach is surprisingly pretty underwhelming as a tempo-negative play that also runs right into opposing Dazes.

Death and Taxes:

On the Play:

On the Draw:

It is definitely acceptable to board in a few Thoughtseizes, as well as to cut a Delver or two on the draw. Just something to keep in mind.

Storm:

It’s definitely possible to keep in the Lilianas, but Engineered Explosives and Golgari Charm are great hedges against opposing early Empty the Warrens. Liliana’s uptick frequently does very little to actually pressure the Storm opponent’s hand, and a well-timed Golgari Charm can answer Goblins and Carpet of Flowers alike.

Lands:

Liliana of the Veil is pretty bad at hosing opposing Marit Lage tokens (as the opponent can just end-step make the token!), while Golgari Charm does good work against Exploration and Molten Vortex. Either one is okay, but not great. Thoughtseize is a definite consideration over both, especially on the play.

Reanimator:

Elves:

You can keep in more Hymn to Tourach and cut a few Dazes if so inclined. Diabolic Edict is an okay card to board in as well, though it’s weak against Elvish Visionary.

Deathblade:

This one is super flexible, Engineered Explosives may be better than Abrupt Decay depending on their list. It’s also possible to board in Null Rod if you are very afraid of Equipment winning the game, but generally it is not high-impact enough to warrant the inclusion. It’s possible to board in Dead Weight as well if the opponent is on the Noble Hierarch plan, in which case it’s reasonable to cut another creature, generally Tarmogoyf.

New Miracles:

Surgical Extraction is typically pretty bad against control decks, but in this case it can cripple their entire engine (Brainstorm/Predict/Snapcaster Mage) so it is worth it to have a few. Sometimes you get to Thoughtseize + Surgical and nab a couple cards from their hand as well!

Sneak and Show:

Beyond that, the decks are so flexible and customizable that it’s very difficult to put together a general sideboard guide, and you’re going to be best served shooting from the hip. Part of the beauty of Legacy is that there are so many decks that you gain massively from experience with your own archetype, knowing when and where there are cards that generally don’t get cut, but are cuttable under the right circumstances. Delver of Secrets himself is a prime example of this, where by transforming into a control deck you can safely cut some Delvers, though in a cut-and-dry sideboard guide you usually won’t find anyone recommending them as a first cut in any matchup.

Modern

Back to the land of Modern, though, there were two decks on my mind. The first, of course, is ol’ reliable, Dredge. Dredge is tremendously powerful, but with recent success for the deck came the risk of increased hate. Though there are ways around it, Rest in Peace is still a tremendous beating, and I was inclined to attempt to play a different deck, one that doesn’t fold to any single hate card. I still had all the Eldrazi from previous Modern incursions with Bant Eldrazi, so it was time to see if Eldrazi Tron had the legs that Todd Stevens always claimed that it did. The list I ended up on was tuned for the mirror match and for Dredge (and I ended up playing against the mirror twice during the tournament, so mise!)

Here’s that list:

Eldrazi Tron ? Modern | Ben Friedman

With Eldrazi Tron, you have a massive edge against the midrange pile decks that comprise a large portion of the Modern metagame, and enough hate cards to beat whatever decks you choose to target on a given weekend. Unfortunately, there are a ton of clunky draws and dis-synergistic cards in the deck, such that I will likely not be picking up this particular strategy again, but it did provide for a fun and interesting experience in the tournament.

My losses at this tournament came at the hands of Grixis Death's Shadow, bg midrange, and Vizier Company. More remarkable, though, were wins against a wide range of archetypes, including two mirror matches, Grixis Death's Shadow, Bant Humans, Merfolk, wg Tron, Abzan Traverse, rg Valakut, Faeries, and Abzan Midrange. The deck has legs, for sure, and it remains on my short list of the six current best decks in Modern.

That list, incidentally, is (in no particular order) as follows:

  • Dredge

  • Affinity

  • Eldrazi Tron

  • Living End

  • Vizier Company (Bant or Abzan)

  • Death's Shadow (Grixis or Four-Color)

For now, though, it’s back to experimenting with Dredge. Next up on the list are Greater Gargadon, Start // Finish, Burning Inquiry, Goblin Lore, Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded, Seismic Assault, Molten Vortex, and both Lilianas. Let’s see what spicy little numbers we can come up with, and try to gain an edge for the upcoming SCG Invitational. For now, though, it’s off to Grand Prix Cleveland, where the team of myself, Joe Demestrio and Christian Calcano looks to beat some of the best Team Limited squads of all time. Wish us luck!

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TAGS articles, strategy, metagame, constructed, legacy, modern, decklist, ben friedman

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