All Around the World

Posted on December 2, 2016

Whew! What a week. I'm almost done my two-day-long travel ordeal to return from Tokyo just in time to play in the Atlanta Invitational. As with most tournaments, GP Chiba had its fair share of ups and downs, as well as some lessons learned and retrospective tweaks I'd make with my trusty Delver deck. To start, the list I played:

4-Color Delver ? Legacy| Ben Friedman

Sorceries (4)
4 Ponder

To start, we've got two pretty interesting changes that stick out like a sore thumb. The first is the Leovold, Emissary of Trests that snuck in to the main deck and sideboard. What's the deal with Leovold? Well, first off, it's a beating against basically every Brainstorm deck. It's going to demand a removal spell and then draw a card against Shardless, Delver mirrors, and Stoneblade decks of various stripes. I don't hate that, and if you can protect it, or land it against an opponent who already exhausted their removal, you can shut down their Brainstorms, Ponders, Ancestral Visions, etc. Against Miracles, it requires a Terminus to answer it cleanly (just like True-Name Nemesis!) and does a hell of a job at ruining Brainstorms, Ponders, Sensei's Divining Top activations, and Jace Brainstorms. Twice over the weekend, I had opponents mess up by using Jace's 0 ability or trying to cast an Ancestral Vision when I had a Leovold out. Twice more, I had an opponent mess up when we both had a Leovold out! They tried to remove my Leovold on their turn, so I got to draw an extra card, but then after my card draw resolved, I tried to kill their Leovold (with their kill spell still on the stack) and they didn't realize that my Leovold would stop them from drawing off of theirs! Since it was their turn, they'd already drawn a card during their draw step, so my Leovold stopped them from getting that extra draw. Timing is everything, and when opponents are learning the intricacies of new cards, it can expose them to huge blunders.

That, and I landed a Leovold against Enchantress. That was pretty sweet, since it shut off their whole deck.

Against Storm or Sneak and Show, Leovold also shines (if you can get it down in time) because it makes opposing discard and cantrips look very weak. If your opponent completely goes off and aims a lethal Tendrils of Agony at your face, Leovold will also give you a card draw for each copy of the Tendrils, giving you lots of chances to draw a Flusterstorm and mess up the remaining copies. (I cut Flusterstorm because I found that it wasn't doing what I wanted it to against combo, but that's another story.)

Okay, so Leovold is kind of a nice piece of technology, but the mana base. The mana base, for Pete's sake! Badlands? The quality of the land is written directly in the upper-left hand corner of the card! Well, inability to cast Daze aside, there is a lot to be said for the ability to cast both Abrupt Decay and Lightning Bolt off of just two lands, not to mention cutting the number of lands that can't cast Deathrite Shaman on turn one to just a single Volcanic Island. Getting a third Green source into the deck is important, as well, since you don't want to be cut off of your spells by a Wasteland-heavy draw. You can still be cut off Red, but most opponents will be more tempted to Wasteland an opening Tropical Island than to wait to hit a Badlands (that they don't even know is in your deck).

The alternative mana base plays three Underground Sea and a single Taiga, which might just be better. Still, you can cast a Ponder into a Deathrite Shaman off of Sea-Taiga, and you can cast both Decay and Bolt off of these two, but you can't cast Ponder and then use your Deathrite to hit your opponent with this specific configuration. There are obviously benefits and drawbacks in terms of specific scenarios that would make you prefer one or the other mana base, but the possible change I'm considering to my spell suite makes me want to play the Underground-heavy mana base with a Taiga. We'll contemplate the post-tournament changes after the tournament report, though!

Okay, so our adventure starts, like most great adventures, with targeted advertising on Facebook. I was informed of a flash sale on airfare to Tokyo, and for $400 roundtrip, I thought I'd be crazy not to go! I thought I'd make a vacation of the trip, and with such Magic luminaries as Jake Mondello and Michael Segal planning on joining the squad, the stage was set for a legendary voyage.

And what a voyage it was! Immediately, we were hit with a surprise overnight delay on our layover in Beijing, where we were treated to a surreal evening at the Golden Phoenix hotel. I say surreal because I have never been somewhere with a perpetual coat of hazy smog, and I'd heard stories about the pollution in the city, but it was a bit spooky driving through the clouds en route to our hotel. The hotel had its fair share of eccentricities, too, including a "gym" that amounted to a single bench and dumbbell set alongside a motivational workout poster entirely in Chinese. It was like being in a movie; things seemed not quite right, but it was difficult to put a finger on exactly what was wrong with them. We felt lucky to get out easily the next morning, and by that afternoon we were safely in Tokyo.

The first weekend, we were at loose ends and wondering what to do. Well, we were in a new city, so what else was there to do? We went directly to the vaunted Hareruya Tournament Center, and lo and behold, there was a 300-player Legacy tournament starting just as we arrived! Of course, we couldn't let an opportunity for some Magic-influenced international diplomacy go to waste, and we were keen on being the "God of Legacy", so Saturday became a Magic day. After starting off 5-0, the wheels fell off when I took losses to U/R Delver and Colorless Eldrazi, and I ended up outside the Top 8. Ah well, there would be another opportunity to show the world my baby at the Grand Prix itself. At least I got a feature match, which I'm sure is floating around the internet somewhere, but I don't know how to access the Hareruya stream archives. (Not to mention, I wouldn't be able to understand the commentary anyway!)

The week passed in a blur of visits to historical sites, clubs, restaurants, parks, and the crazy shopping districts that make up the surreal appeal of Tokyo. All the while, Jake was talking about how great Tarmogoyf was in his version of the deck as a "just kill them" card, and Mike was excitedly discussing how he was making 20/20s on turn one with B/G Turbo-Depths. I started thinking, how great would a whole pile of Diabolic Edicts be? The card is great against Marit Lage, Reality Smasher, Tarmogoyf, Mother of Runes, and True-Name Nemesis. It seemed like a perfectly clean answer to a whole swath of the format, while being a serviceable removal spell in a pinch. Since you have a high density of other removal spells compared to other Delver decks, the Bolts and Decays clear the way for Edict to eat the biggest opposing creature. During the GP, I used Edict to great effect against Oblivion Sowers and Reality Smashers alike, although I didn't board it in against Shardless BUG (since the Shardless Agents and Baleful Strixes give them too many expendable bodies to sacrifice).

After realizing that Edict was the best hedge against a huge portion of close matchups, I decided that I wanted to draw it so often against Marit Lage decks that it warranted the third copy over a Dismember, Murderous Cut, or Go for the Throat. The Sylvan Library got cut because it wasn't doing enough in the mirror matches, as you need to pay eight life before you even get a single extra card out of it, and it was only slightly better than the sideboard Leovold against Miracles, because the pressure and disruption of Leovold actually pushes your opponent to act. With those changes locked in at about 11PM the night before, it was time to battle!

The GP itself started off with a tough matchup in the 4-Color Delver mirror. In the mirror match, assuming one player doesn't mulligan to oblivion or get mana screwed, the games come down to True-Name Nemesis, pinning the opponent on cards or a specific color (via Wasteland) or just good old-fashioned beats with a quick Angler or Delvers. There are a lot of angles, but with my sideboard plan of Jittes and Edicts, I felt prepared to handle all but the manascrew games. Lo and behold, my opponent mulliganned twice in Game 1 and I resolved Painful Truths on a no-pressure board in Game 2. Check one for the good guys!

Things took a turn for the worse in round four when my opponent led with none other than Squadron Hawk on turn two. I knew right then and there that I was probably going to lose this match, because my deck was built to outgrind opposing Delver and Shardless matches, but nothing outgrinds Caw-Blade with Brainstorm. My opponent drew a grand total of six extra cards off of Squadron Hawks + Brainstorms, and eventually won with Batterskull. Even in Game 2, when I resolved a backbreaking Kolaghan's Command to eat my opponent's Batterskull and bring back a Snapcaster Mage, there was nothing I could do about the follow-up Jace, the Mind Sculptor. It immediately ticked up to five and then started Brainstorming hard. Not even Kolaghan's-Snapcaster loops can realistically break that up, especially considering that my opponent matched me with Snapcaster Mages of his own. Well played, and not really a matchup that I prepared for. Perhaps if I'd played more True-Name Nemesis in my deck to cheese out a win . . .

I beat Miracles and Enchantress in the following rounds, using Leovold in one game to great effect. In the other, I snuck a win through a Solitary Confinement by top-decking an Abrupt Decay on the last possible turn before my opponent went off completely. My Miracles opponent even walked into my Leovold with a Jace Brainstorm, which marks the first time I got a win because my opponent punted after misreading my English Leovold. (In all fairness, I don't know if my opponent misread it, or just messed up, but he definitely took a long look at the card when I cast it, so I want to believe that it was just the language barrier working in my direction for once. Always call a judge for the Oracle text if you're unsure, folks!)

After a win against Shardless in the seventh round, I was 6-1 and riding high. Unfortunately, that all came crashing down with a crushing loss to classic Grixis Delver, where I got hit with a backbreaking turn four of Painful Truths into Gitaxian Probe into Cabal Therapy for both of my Snapcaster Mages. And to think, I came all this way just to lose to a good matchup! I was pretty sure that I messed up there by burning a Brainstorm in the hope of peeling a Daze to counter the Painful Truths, but I think in retrospect that it was the correct play. A Daze would have been the perfect card to keep me ahead in the game, and I was still absolutely fine against the Painful Truths itself, but the hit on the Snapcaster Mages is what really broke my back. If anything, I should have possibly Brainstormed differently, keeping a Snapcaster Mage on top and preventing my opponent from doubling up via the Therapy. Ah well, you live and you learn.

I won the next round against Storm, where Thoughtseize in Game 2 proved decisive, sniping my opponent's Brainstorm and leaving him a little short on fuel needed to actually go off. It was that match that started me thinking, maybe Thoughtseize was just better than Spell Pierce against combo decks . . .

Day two started off with a win against Eldrazi, a win against Shardless, and the feeling that I was finally ready to hit that elusive 13-2 finish to earn a flight to Dublin. Unfortunately, some well-placed Hymn to Tourach by my second Shardless opponent put the kibosh on that plan, and left me scrabbling for three wins to pick up the spare of competitive Magic, the 12-3 GP finish. And scrabble I did. I won my third match in a row against Shardless BUG (marking my fourth match against the deck on the weekend) and beat Deathblade and Eldrazi in nailbiting three-game matches in the final rounds. In the final game, I led off with a Deathrite Shaman, and when my opponent confidently played Ancient Tomb-Chalice of the Void on turn one, I looked down at my True-Name Nemesis in hand and knew that the race would be mine. Six damage from Tomb, twelve damage from True-Name Nemesis, and a single Deathrite activation for the final two meant that I snuck the win right out from under my opponent's tentacled army. The best Invisible Stalker in Legacy strikes again!

After some much-needed post-tournament sleep, I sat down and considered the following: I only won against Eldrazi because of the power of True-Name Nemesis. I lost to Delver and Shardless because I got too cagey and didn't present a threat, thus losing to discard spells in the midgame. I beat an unusual matchup on the back of Leovold, but I probably would have won without it, as I still had Diabolic Edicts to cover Argothian Enchantress, and counterspells in reserve to counter opposing Enchantress's Presence.

What does this mean? Well, as much as I love Snapcaster Mage, I think that True-Name just does more for 3 mana against close matchups like Eldrazi and Death and Taxes. It's the premier threat against Miracles and Shardless, as well, so I'm curious how much free win equity I can gain by just trying to stick a Nemesis on turn two off of a Deathrite Shaman. After all, only a few decks in the format can ignore it completely. For the majority of the format, it's just my best card against their deck.

I also was underwhelmed with Spell Pierce, and I'd like to move to cut it from the main deck in favor of two main deck Thoughtseizes. With a greater emphasis on Black comes a need to max out on Underground Sea (I think), and thus the Sea/Taiga mana base seems more appealing than the Trop/Badlands mana base. The only failure here is an inability to cast a Brainstorm or Ponder on turn two, then fetch my non-Blue dual land and cast Thoughtseize, so it remains to be seen which sequences come up more often, and therefore which lands I need. Regardless, the deck I'm going to try going forward looks like:

Updated 4-Color Delver ? Legacy | Ben Friedman

Sorceries (6)
2 Thoughtseize
4 Ponder

The sideboard Thoughtseize and Spell Pierce slots are certainly not set in stone right now, but I do want a high density of cheap interaction postboard against decks like Storm and Sneak and Show. It just so happens that my preferred cheap interaction right now is discard based, rather than stack based.

Speaking of decks set in stone, I have my lists confirmed for the upcoming Invitational. I'm going to keep it short and sweet, because I'm more than a little jetlagged as I write this, but I'm going to play Bant Eldrazi and R/G Aetherworks Marvel in the tournament. Because people have been asking, here are my lists: