Dies to Removal

I think you guys are nuts for playing rift with eidolon.

Not sure of that's an insult or a compliment


Live dangerously and play both

YOLO SWAGGINS LIVES ON THE EDGE

The only time I have both Eidolon and a full rack of Rift in my deck are matchups like Miracles and Storm where you life total is nearly irrelevant. In fights like that, you are either alive or dead so there is little difference between being at 16 and at 14.

In Legacy Burn, your life total is definitely a resource. Rarely is it an ever an issue since you're usually ahead in the damage race. In games where it is an issue, then you're probably losing anyway.

Another day, another daily event disaster.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... dDZRfxwFsu

I have discovered the most critical advise for playing this deck tonight: Before you sit down across from an Elves player, demand dinner and a movie first!

I think you guys are nuts for playing rift with eidolon.

Not sure of that's an insult or a compliment


Live dangerously and play both

Take 6 to deal 4? No thanks lol.

It's the price of progress

I think you guys are nuts for playing rift with eidolon.

Not sure of that's an insult or a compliment


Live dangerously and play both

Take 6 to deal 4? No thanks lol.

You should stop worrying about your life total and instead worry about how you're gonna bring your opponent's life total to zero.

Oftentimes it's not simply taking 6 to deal 4 - it's take 6 and deal 6 since you can attack with the guy too.

Guess it's meta dependant, but the last legacy tournament I played in, that would not have turned out well.

My confidence is truly shattered. I would seriously be considering cancelling my trip with these results if I had not browbeat a couple people into coming with me.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... QJ7vce7GT_
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 2eRsFOaNff
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... X87TRDxeWY

These will probably be the last few that I do for a while. I need to analyze all the games and figure out what is going on. Besides, next to nobody is watching them anyway.

Just take some advice from Taylor Swiftspear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM

My confidence is truly shattered. I would seriously be considering cancelling my trip with these results if I had not browbeat a couple people into coming with me.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... QJ7vce7GT_
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 2eRsFOaNff
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... X87TRDxeWY

These will probably be the last few that I do for a while. I need to analyze all the games and figure out what is going on. Besides, next to nobody is watching them anyway.

Just go and have fun with it

Remember, you play Magic because you enjoy it

Dragon Stompy made top16 and top 8 in the 2 last scg opens. Actually it is "goblin stompy" , a list that uses as main threats goblin rabblemaster and moggcatcher. Rabblemaster is the best red 3 drop ever and i am impressed how good the card can be even in legacy.
Moggcatcher gives the deck more resiliency, since you run some toolbox goblins like tuktuk scrapper (kill artifacts), goblin settler (blow up lands), stingscourger (anti emrakul card), as well as 2-3 siege gang-commanders that are the main creature fetched with moggcatcher to end the game quickly, and one kiki-jiki to repeat all the mentioned effects.
The dream scenario with this deck is being on the play and casting turn one trinisphere, turn 2 moggcatcher, turn 3 fetch goblin settler and destroy a land, turn 4 fetch kiki-jiki and keep blowing lands. Opponent never gets to do anything unless he has a force for your trinisphere... you basically need a perfect hand to do this but it happened to me a couple times and opponents were angry as hell.
I think the deck is quite well positioned right now (chalice kills u/r delver, blood moon is nuts against almost everything else) but it suffers from the relative inconsistency of any stompy deck. If you want to have fun though it is without any doubt the right choice.

I recommend it as well. It looks like an awesome deck, and if people actually played Legacy in my area it'd probably be my go-to deck.

I am currently compiling statistics from my recorded dailies while I am bored at work. I will post a comprehensive set when done.

Ok, I am obviously not as good at this as Ham is, so it took a little longer to compile. I have compiled the results from the last 5 DEs (the 5 after the deck change). Results are as follows:

Guide vs Swiftspear vs Eidolon This shows that Guide does about one extra point of damage per cast, but at the cost of giving your opponent approximately one land per cast. It ate about the same amount of removal as the Swiftspear. Eidolon lags behind on damage/cast but doesn't get removed quite as much.

Obvious Information Unsurprisingly, I won a bit more on the play than on the draw in both games and matches.

Land distribution This seems to imply that we want 3ish lands total. Keeping one land hands on the play are very risky, but fine on the draw. Keeping 4 lands is rough in general but even worse on the draw. This seems pretty obvious but it is good to have the information out there.

Matchups I find it interesting how Miracles, usually considered a rough matchup, went so well for me. That might be because I didn't face any "RiP + Energy Field" nonsense this time around. The rest is pretty obvious. Storm is miserable, Jitte and Batterskull are the banes of our existence, Elves is rough but winnable if they don't T3 Natural Order you.

Now that I have the spreadsheets in place, I can much more easily input data as I obtain it during events and keep these numbers up to date. Also noted: charts are a pain in the ass to do on the forums.

I briefly looked through some of your matches. Tough break on the back to back Storm matchup.

Can you post your most recent list if it's changed?

I am still running the list I posted in Post #834. I am thinking of going from a 3/3 split to 4 Guides/2 Swiftspears since the extra damage per card might be more useful even if it gives them a land. I am still on the fence about that.

I've played around with both Goblin Guide and Swiftspear in Modern and Goblin Guide does consistently more damage and is better in multiples when I've gotten normal draws (a creature, some land, a few spells).

There are some cases where you get the nut draw (double Swift into 2 land and nothing but 1 mana spells off the top), but Swift struggles to hit as hard if you're doing something other than goldfishing.

Here's your list.

[deck]
Creatures
3 Goblin Guide
3 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel

Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Price of Progress
4 Fireblast
2 Flame Rift
3 Searing Blaze
2 Sulfuric Vortex

Lands
10 Mountain
3 Arid Mesa
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Smash to Smithereens
3 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Searing Blaze
2 Flame Rift
1 Sulfuric Vortex
[/deck]

Maybe something like this would be better?

[deck]
Creatures (10)
4 Goblin Guide
2 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel

Spells (31)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Price of Progress
4 Flame Rift
3 Searing Blaze
4 Fireblast

Lands (19)
10 Mountain
3 Arid Mesa
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard (15)
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Smash to Smithereens
3 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Searing Blaze
3 Sulfuric Vortex
[/deck]

Seems the problems you've been having have revolved around your goldfish not being consistent enough. This aims to address that.

It is possible that swapping the 2 Vortex for the last 2 Rifts might be useful. I am concerned about the damage race with Delver in those instances but it is certainly worth looking into. I have run into several cases where I have a Vortex in hand but only 2 lands in play. I really will miss them G1 against DRS and Stoneforge though.

I would add 1 more land to your list. You need to hit land drops for searing blaze, and post board is tough to get away with 19 lands when you are playing both bridge and vortex. Especially bridge becomes useless if you can't cast your spells quickly enough.

Another 1-2 finish tonight. Watch the start of Round 1 Game 1 for epic schadenfreude.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... pn-HYgV6my

I love it, I beat the pros whenever I face them but die to everyone else.

You're misplaying. A LOT.

I wouldn't be too discouraged with your finishes. The deck is perfectly viable, you just have to start playing better. Not activating fetches before Suppresion Field resolves, playing your Mountain before your fetchland against a deck you know is running the card in game three, and attempting to kill a Thalia with a Karakas on the field are all HUGE mistakes that you cannot afford to make if you're serious about winning an event.

I was joking more about the "Mull to 4 Spikes and a Land. Oops, Chalice on 1 on the play." with regard to my comment about hilarity.

Round 1 was a disaster. I know that. For some reason I just couldn't focus and definitely deserved to lose for it. I rarely face Suppression Field so that went right over my head. If I am making mistakes elsewhere please point them out. I put these up so that people, including myself, can learn. I am getting 4 views on average and nobody saying a word.

For some reason, at the worst possible time, I have lost my touch. I used to be practically unstoppable with this deck and now am playing like I just picked up the game. I have two days to figure it out. I just hope that I can.

Well the lead with Mountain in game three on the draw immediately threw a red flag to me. You know he's running Suppression Field, so why would you leave the fetch in your hand?

Using Chain Lightning on the Thalia was just fine. By forcing him to bounce it with Karakas, you've effectively done four damage vs the three from Chain Lightning since he takes two from the Eidolon on the swing and another two by replaying his Thalia, so that was actually the correct play (and you didn't even realize it!).

While making the right play for the wrong reason is better than simply misplaying, that doesn't excuse the second time I did it when there was a better target staring right at me. As I said, Suppression Field never even hit my radar even though it was right on the field. I was still on "Save fetch for Blaze" mode. That is part of what I am talking about with losing my touch. Shit like that never used to get past me. I won't say that I saw everything. Nobody ever sees everything, but I am missing so much more all of a sudden. It's like half of my brain is shut down.

I haven't watched any videos, but it seems you're just on a cold streak. You're making mistakes, and sometimes even acknowledging it, but you let it happen because you convince yourself you won't get punished for it or that you'll win anyway or something. My best advice is to just lighten up. It's only Magic, and it's only practice. Yeah, it has an impact on your performance in the tournament, but since you can't just say "I'm going to win this game" and make it true just because you said it, the best thing you can do is drop the negative attitude. Sure, you might want to be completely miserable and in the zone at the GP, but if you practice with a light heart, you'll be surprised at how effectively this can help your skills come back.

Maybe this isn't relevant to you at all, but reading your last comment, I was reminded of a few of my own cold streaks in Pokemon Showdown, and thought I'd just share my thoughts relating to that.

Blaklanner, you need to rest up and relax.

You've put way too much pressure on yourself about doing well in GP Jersey that it's probably even affecting your MTGO games.

Patrick Sullivan on Burn

Figure one of you would like this

His 60 is exactly what I slapped together a month ago!

I am very surprised at his lack of graveyard hate. Perhaps it is because our Dredge matchup is pretty miserable either way but I can't help but think it will be out in force this weekend. I am not sure if I agree with 8 Searing effects in the 75 either but I liked having Blood when I was fetchless. I think I like the two Swiftspear over Lavamancer but it is very hard to argue with his logic. I will massage the numbers a bit more and post a revised 75.

8 blaze effects + 2 grim means you dominate creature combat, which is likely going to be a lot of the tournamen

You make a good point. I am just making the final touches to the list now. I am having several conundrums, especially after reading that (excellent) article and comparing to my list.

I have added the 20th land as my result searches found about half of the successful burn decks running 20 and I recall hearing myself saying "I need a land here" a bit more often than I would like. Moving the Rifts out of the main, this leaves one slot free in the main deck.

Swiftspear vs Lavamancer: Lavamancer is easier to remove before it does damage but it can wreak havoc in the creature fights. Swiftspear is better vs control or combo and can often swing through a lot of other creatures. The other question is 2 vs 3. I have that empty spot but is it better served with an 11th creature or the 4th Searing Blaze that currently sits in my sideboard?

The sideboard has me wracking my brain the most. Do we just cut the graveyard hate? Our matchups against Dredge and Reanimator aren't great. Does 3 Crypts/Relics really help enough to be worth adding? This would likely give me room for 3 Searing Blood. I don't want to cut the 2 Mindbreak Traps I have left and would feel a bit vulnerable if the 3rd Vortex (2 in the main) were cut. Right now, my sideboard is at 20 cards: 3 Crypt, 4 Rift, 3 Smash, 1 Blaze, 3 Blood, 3 Bridge, 1 Vortex, 2 Trap.

Right now I am trying to predict the metagame and get firmly in my head that the paper and MTGO metas are probably rather different. I have one more daily before I start packing.

That list looks very good. But hey, it's PSully. You should probably think about that list Blaklanner. Also advise not playing magic tomorrow of Friday if the GP is Saturday.

I won't be playing tomorrow. Any that I play on Friday will be on site. The daily I mention is the one tonight at 1930.

I've found it beneficial to not play for a few days before a big event. Just my $0.02.

I figured I will be playing in last chance trials on Friday to try and get myself some byes.

You are right about being rested enough for it. I might also just end up spending hours in line to get my Mountain signed by John Avon.

Stop overanalyzing it, dude. Seriously.

You. Are. A. Good. Magic. Player.

Play what you like, what you know, and have fun. Play your deck with some goddamn authority. Stop trying to predict the damn metagame. EVERYTHING will be out in force. This is going to be in the top 10 biggest GP's of all time and people will be bringing any and all decks to the table. Why? Because Legacy (like Modern) rewards players who have grinded the fuck out of their decks. This means that people who have been playing Pox, Dredge, Lands, Delver, S&S, Storm, and whatever else will be there. You can't fight them all.

I know you want to win; not just for yourself, but for all of us here. But take it from me, I'd be more happy for you if you went there, did your thing, and came back with some lessons and hard truths. And most of all, I want to hear that you had some fun.