SWaWLQ III – Event Report

Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome to the third iteration of what is now an unstoppable tide of reports for the South West and Wales Legacy Quarterly (SWaWLQ)!

As with each time I will quickly give a little background information: Inspired by a swiftly developing Legacy scene within the Bristol and Cardiff regions of the UK and the amazing reports from the lovely folks who attend the London Legacy Monthly (LLM) events, a small group of us were inspired to give organising a similar event a go. 

Fast forward a number of months with no small amount of helpful advice gleaned from the LLM organisers and us having found a wonderful venue that were willing to host us for free we were able to get the first, second and now third events of what we hope is a successful series underway.

SWaWLQ – III

February 29th 2020

Despite being a thirty two player event, due a slight a slight admin error we had thirty four sign up and thirty three turn up on the day! Given this included having to replace two participants and with a waiting list still after that, it’s amazing to see how popular this event series has become so thank-you to everyone who is showing support to it! As usual the venue opened at midday and, despite some delays with waiting for players, we were well underway before 13:00!

Before we went underway we made a special announcement. The lovely people at Blackstone Gaming donated a custom playmat with a design of our choice to use for the event. We decided we wanted to give it to someone in the community who really exemplifies the community spirit of the local format and supports the local Legacy scene. There were two main nominations that the organising committee agreed on and so Blackstone also provided a second playmat (at cost price!) for the event. As a result we at the organising committee would like to give a big thank-you and ask you to check out www.blackstonegaming.co.uk to see what they are about!

The playmat itself was designed by the lovely Winter Hughes and I. We wanted to emulate something similar to the sweet London Eternal playmats but with something a bit more loyal to the local region. Including the Bristol skyline, Welsh Dragon, Banksy rats and the iconic centrepiece of the Mercadian Masques Brainstorm art, I think it came out quite nicely! 

The two nominees, both called Mark, were put forward by two different people. Mark Humphreys was nominated for providing a very large and well written piece of feedback that helped provide key constructive criticism which has allowed us to implement improvements to our event and all future ones going forwards.  We’re hoping his example will inspire people to reach out to us as an organising committee to let us know what works, what we could do better and what people most enjoy about these events!

If you do wish to get in touch to provide feedback or just get a bit more information about the event you can email us at Southwestlegacymtg@gmail.com. All (constructive) feedback is welcome!

Our second nominee was Dr. Mark Burgess. Mark is a regular sight at the Cardiff Legacy scene despite living all the way down near Swansea! He is always lending out cards, decks and thereby making the format accessible to many, even those who may not be able to buy into it fully, something that aligns with the aims of these events we run!

Neither nominee knew they were getting these but we were happy to join in with a big round of applause as they received them. 

The Tournament Structure

We ran five rounds of Swiss, PubREL with a cut to Top 8. Prizes went to the Top 8 with 1st getting a playset of Eternal Masters Force of Will, 2nd a revised Bayou, 3rd and 4th Fourth a Jace, the Mind Sculptor each and finally a Wooded Foothills and Windswept Heath for fifth to eighth place. As before, playtest cards (proxies) were allowed but it was really nice seeing many people opt to not proxy showing solidarity for potential future, sanctioned events within the area. It was also really nice seeing a lot of people local to the wider South West and Wales area that do not normally get to play paper Legacy join us and even a few folks from London way and further including some old locals returned!

The Meta

As with past events we collected a full breakdown of all decklists to provide you with a holistic idea of the meta. This time around we trialed the use of a digital submission created by the wonderful Stephen Broadhurst and deployed on our lovely new website. Let me tell you now this has already saved hours of interpreting and transcribing decklists to let us get this report out to you much quicker than normal! 

Out of thirty three participants there were twenty five unique archetypes represented (up from 23) which continues to impress me. The highest represented deck only had a total of four pilots. Of the decks presented we had a shift towards a more “blue” biased metagame with 61% of decks being blue based cantrip shells and 39% being non-blue. This was a relatively heavy jump from the 56% to 44% ratio seen at the last two events despite both previous ones having been won by non-blue decks!

Breaking down the meta into the three simplified primary archetypes of Aggro, Combo and Control (based off of MTGTOP8 listings) we can see that we had the usual heavy Aggro dominance diminish with only 41% (Down from 47%) of the meta share whilst Combo and Control took 38% and 21% meta share respectively. Control has re-found its spot in the meta (up from 16%) having been in decline the past few events. It seems the banning of Wrenn and Six, coupled with resilient Snow-based manabases, has allowed control decks to return into the fold.

Some small local events leading up to the weekend and the data coming from online play pointed to two main decks to beat that were expected; UR Delver and Jeskai Breach. However only one of these turned up in force with four pretty stock copies whilst the other had two pilots representing very different brews. The full list of archetypes can be found below:

Archetype	#	Archetype	#	Archetype	#	Archetype	#
4C Breach	1	Dredge	1	Maverick	1	Steel Stompy	1
4C Miracles	2	Elves	1	Meathooks	1	Stryfo Pile	1
5C Niv-Mizzet	1	Grixis Delver	1	Mono Brown St$x	1	TES	3
BG Depths	2	GW Depths	1	Moon Stompy	1	UB Shadow	1
BUG Aluren	2	Infect	1	Nic Fit	1	UR Delver	4
BUG Delver	1	Jeskai Breach	1	RUG Delver	1	UW Miracles	1
Burn	1

Delver

As usual Delver variants were the highest portion of the meta showing up with eight instances split across four archetypes (including UB Shadow). The tempo plan of deploy a threat with disruption is still as formidable as ever despite new cards Veil of Summer and Oko, Thief of Crowns still being represented. I predicted a drop in RUG Delver and an increase in UR variants due to the Wrenn and Six ban and it looks like that prediction came true with most eschewing Green in favour of a more robust manabase and aggressive playstyle.. 

The UR lists all ran three to four copies of Dreadhorde Arcanist showing to favour a more proactive style of play with a higher count of burn spells with only one copy of Stifle across the four lists. The UBx Delver variants favoured more towards the larger creatures of the format with Tarmogoyf and Gurmag Angler providing aggressive beats over more card advantage style engines. No matter what new cards are sent to the chopping block of the ban list, Delver of Secrets still seems to be de facto the “deck to beat” and therefore should be number one on your radar for the next event. 

The Greg Nichols Hall of Fame

(Graveyard decks)

There were three decks that would be counted as Graveyard based decks. Two Underworld Breach combo decks and our primary local Dredge pilot, and past Quarterly Winner, Greg Nichols who I have decided to name this now regular segment after. 

With Breach to be a predicted contender for the highest meta share people really brought out the big guns in terms of graveyard hate. Previous events have shown most to lean predominantly on targeted effects like Surgical Extraction to get the job done but with a potential new threat looming players went for more permanent based options, mostly Leyline of the void. Leyline was the eighth most played card at the event with a staggering 38 copies held in players’ sideboards!

The full hall of fame (graveyard hate) list breaks down as such:

• 38 Copies of Leyline of the Void
• 27 Copies of Surgical Extraction
• 15 Copies of Grafdigger’s Cage
• 10 Copies Tormod’s Crypt
• 7 Copies of Rest in Peace
• 5 Copies of Bojuka Bog
• 5 Copies of Scavenging Ooze
• 4 Copies of Faerie Macabre
• 4 Copies of Containment Priest
• And finally 1 Copy of Ashiok, Dream Render

Despite this veritable arsenal of threats to the strategy, two of the three graveyard decks performed very well with one getting into the top eight and one narrowly missing it at ninth place! It just goes to show no matter what people bring, a skilled pilot can still play around it and bring about a win.

The two Breach decks had quite different builds. One focussed on a heavy tutor package and stuck to Jeskai colours whilst the other ran four colours and had a more cantrip focussed list. The latter was on the (now traditional) Monastery Mentor sideboard plan to help circumnavigate graveyard hate whilst the former had a spicier take on things instead opting to board into the Rest in Peace and Helm of Obedience Combo. I’m sure the sudden appearance of one of the most extreme pieces of graveyard hate in a graveyard based combo deck certainly surprised some people with the main deck Enlightened Tutors being able to find both the Breach and RiP helm pieces. 

The dredge list had one major bit of spice in the form of a single Oko, Thief of Crowns in the sideboard. The infamous Elk Lord makes sense as it allows the player to ignore the graveyard, grind a little better and turn hate pieces such as Grafdigger’s Cage into charming Green 3/3 creatures. Some very nice tech to watch out for there!

Storm

Storm has so far been pretty absent from our quarterly events however that changed this time with three pilots arriving with the Bryant Cook special, TES 9.3. This iteration of storm focuses on the raw power of cards like Veil of Summer and Echo of Eons to try and brute force its way through opposing permission. With Veil so prevalent, decks like ANT that rely on discard based permission such as Duress find it difficult to protect their combo engine and the above list of graveyard hate shows it can be tricky to rely on the normal engine cards like Past in Flames.

It seems however that people were quite prepared for Veil in opposing combo decks with the normal Flusterstorm slots that people often run for storm being replaced with Mindbreak Trap. For those of you unaware, Trap allows you to circumnavigate the “Can’t be Countered” clause of Veil as it exiles the spells it targets and, with the trap cost of zero mana, it means you can play a proactive game plan and tapping out, whilst holding up the permission. Despite the relatively high representation, TES only managed to get a 2-3 record across the board. I can only assume that the meta is not favourable for TES right now or that non-deterministic kills (which the deck relies on) are a bit too risky to try for.

Force of Will was also a big factor with seventy-five copies in the room making it the second highest played card! Trying to go for a quick win off a tutor, especially turn one on the play, is uncontested other than by the “Belcher Police” card of the format and having an average of 2.2 copies across all decks meant that meeting it in an opening hand was highly likely.

Chalice

Another reason why Storm decks may have struggled is the higher presence of Chalice of the Void based strategies. Last event we only had two Chalice decks whereas this time saw that double with four decks running the card main and one deck running it in the side. The decks that ran it ranged from the tried and tested Blood Moon stompy to the more aggressive Arcbound Ravager Steel stompy and even a classic St$x (Stax) list. For those unaware, Stax is a Chalice based prison deck that seeks to ramp out early hate pieces including main deck Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere and Sphere of Resistance. It then locks down the opponent and chips away with small threats such as Mishra’s Factory. The final Chalice deck was something a bit more removed from the proven archetypes of Legacy so we will cover that a bit later on.

Depths

After the success from the last event with GB Depths taking it down, three pilots showed up with decks based around the A+B combo of Dark Depths alongside either Thespian’s Stage or Vampire Hexmage. Two were GB Depths and one was a GW variant (I won’t try and classify them in the normal Slow, Medium, Medium to Well Done, Turbo or Uber Nitro XXX variants as I would only get it wrong). The GW list was almost a Maverick deck including some of the iconic creatures such as Knight of the Reliquary as additional land tutors and threats and eschewed protection from cards like Thoughtseize for creature disruption such as Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. The deck seemed to enjoy mixed success with one copy making it into the top 8 whilst the others had variable performance. 

“The Rest”

I could happily write about every deck played at the event however that would make this, already lengthy report, even more like War and Peace. Needless to say there were many decks, some which would call Rogue, some less so, that enjoyed varying degrees of success at the event which just goes to show that a little net-decking of the Tier 1 variety doesn’t always go a long way.

One quick statistic I would just like to fire off before we get into the top 8 discussion is regarding basic lands. Since the printing of Arcum’s Astrolabe there has been some heated discussion online about the fact that it is now “correct” to run Snow-Covered basic lands even if not running any “Snow” based synergies.  Let’s quickly take a look to see the basic lands of choice across players at the event. 

Land Type:	# of Normal	# of Snow-Covered
Plains	11	5
Island	11	21
Swamp	6	6
Mountain	9	9
Forest	9	11

Interesting numbers despite only 11 copies of Astrolabe across all decks. It looks like many decided to run art they like over the potential to “hide” their true deck type. Does it really make a difference? Most of the time, probably not however I thought it was still an interesting thing to look at.

Results

When the dust had settled after five rounds it saw the following players make it to the top seats. Some were returning top eight contenders whilst others were new faces. 

In seed order the Top 8 were as such:

1. Adam Bowers on BG Depths
2. Matt Hayden on UR Delver
3. David Wilcox on BUG Aluren
4. James Johns on 4C Breach
5. Mark Aylett on BUG Aluren
6. William Garthside on UR Delver
7. Andrew Rouse on Burn
8. David Van Loo on UW Miracles

An interesting setup indeed! The top two spots are a direct mirror of the last event with Adam and Matt “bossing” the Swiss rounds on almost the same decks as last time (Matt was previously on RUG Delver). James and Mark were also returning contenders however had changed up lists (though Mark still played a BUG based deck and James a UWx base combo deck). Also well done to David W (Dave), David VL, Andrew and William as new Quarterly top eight contenders! 

Considering it had two pilots on it BUG Aluren looked like a very strong deck to run with both copies making it into the quarter finals! Two surprises can also be found at the seventh and eighth seed positions with Burn and UW Miracles being present. Burn, although an objectively powerful deck, can often be left behind in larger events due to limited interaction against decks like Storm however it looks like Andrew managed to navigate his way into a well deserved top spot. David VL’s Miracles list was also interesting. Many pilots, including the other two Miracles players at the event, are currently opting to run either a Bant (UWg) or 4C (UWgr) shell with cards like Oko, Thief of Crowns and Pyroblast making tempting reasons for splashing colours however David decided to run a smoother manabase and make use of some classic cards such as Counterbalance, Back to Basics and Entreat the Angels along with new toys like Mystic Sanctuary to play the more traditional draw-go control role Miracles used to hold.

The Top Eight

The quarter finals saw Miracles against Depths, Delver against Burn, Aluren against Delver and Breach against Aluren. 

Adam (1st Seed) against David (8th Seed). 

Adam takes the play leading off with an Elvish Reclaimer. David follows up with a Ponder into a couple of turns of “Draw, Land, Go”. An end of turn Reclaimer activation finds a Thespian’s Stage followed up by an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. A Thoughtseize takes a Swords to Plowshares from David’s hand and the turn is shipped again. A bit of back and forth occurs with a number of discard spells firing across but before the Marit Lage can be made Entreat the Angels is flipped and seals the game for David.

Game 2 sees an early discard spell see a hand of removal coupled with a Snapcaster Mage. Some additional discard combined with a Surgical Extraction and with David being stuck on mana (something rare but unforgiving with Miracles) it meant Adam could sneak a token through unmolested for the kill. 

Game 3 showed a very aggressive combo build up from the Depths side and Miracles failed to find an answer for it. 

GB Depths 2-1 against UW Miracles

Matt (2nd Seed) against Andrew (7th Seed)

All three games had Matt lead with a Daze protected Delver of Secrets. Game 1 the Delver failed to flip across three turns leading the damage output to be too great to deal with. 

Games 2 and 3 game together however with the aggressive Wizard-turned-insect providing enough of a clock that they could outpace the Burn player despite the plethora of damage around.

UR Delver 2-1 against Burn.

Dave (3rd Seed) against William (6th Seed)

Game 1 displayed the power of BUG Aluren to not only function as a combo deck but also as a strong BUG Midrange deck in its own right. Despite some back and forth an Oko, Thief of Crowns from Dave’s side sealed the deal as the Delver player’s threats couldn’t keep up with it. 

Game 2 had Delver do Delver things where the mixture of aggression and disruption prevented Dave from either keeping up or combo-ing out.

Game 3 was looking close however a very well timed Submerge targeting the game winning Cauldron Familiar meant a win for the Delver player. 

UR Delver 2-1 against BUG Aluren.

James (4th Seed) against Mark (5th Seed).

(Editorial note: We were able to get a bit more detail on this matchup as the author played in it. We certainly will be looking to try and improve our recording of top 8 matches going forwards in future events).

James took the play and kept six after mulling a no lander whilst Mark remained on seven. Both players cantripped a little then James cast an Enlightened Tutor at the end of turn three to find Underworld Breach and thus setup for a turn four kill attempt. He went for it meeting no resistance on the stack however an Abrupt Decay is fired off at the Breach in response to a cast Lion’s Eye Diamond. James however shows the strength of the Green splash in his build by responding with a Veil of Summer off of a Lotus Petal which stops the Decay in its tracks. James proceeded to go off manually eventually finding Brain Freeze for the deterministic win.

Mark took the play this time with both players keeping seven cards. He led with a turn one Gilded Goose making a food for his troubles. James played a land, cantripped, played a Lotus Petal and passed the turn. Mark gets aggressive and attempts to cast a turn two Trinisphere! Quite a card for a deck looking to cast a lot of spells for free but it obviously had to be respected as James immediately cast Force of Will pitching a Brainstorm targeting it. James spends his turn cantripping a bit more which is lucky as turn three Mark slams another potential haymaker in the form of Leovold, Emissary of Trest. James untaps and casts a proactive Veil of Summer to which there is no response. He then proceeds to cast Breach and go off. Mid combo he makes sure to Sevinne’s Reclamation a Teferi, Time Raveler in order to bounce Leovold and prevent any additional answers like Mindbreak Trap from being cast. 

4C Breach 2-0 against BUG Aluren.

With that it was down to four players left standing, Congratulations and commiserations to Mark, Dave, David and Andrew for making it to the top eight!

The Semi Finals

With four players remaining we had the epic fight of team UR Delver against team Breach-Depths (which sounds like a sweet deck idea, make it so!). Matt was paired against James whilst William took on Adam. 

Adam and William had a long game 1 culminating in a sneaky attack for exactly lethal from William. It was timely as had Adam been allowed to untap he would have been able to get the win back. 

Game 2 saw a fight over an Elvish Reclaimer with it getting Submerge’d however this wasn’t enough to stop the assembling of the combo and soon enough a 20/20 Avatar was smashing its way into Game 3.

The final game was even grindier than the first. A pair of creatures, one Sylvan Safekeeper and one Plague Engineer naming “human” made good progress on the plan B “tiny creature beatdown” plan that Depths can display. Unfortunately these were soon paired up again not one, but two True-Name Nemesises and, with the Engineer naming the wrong creature type for the situation, the Merfolk Rogues managed to win the race.

UR Delver 2-1 against GB Depths.

Across the room James tries to go for an early combo in the face of a freshly played Dreadhorde Arcanist but he meets Force of Will. He almost takes it showing up with a Force of his own but gets stopped by the combo player’s nightmare of “A second Force of Will”. The Arcanist starts to hit in providing some key card advantage. It looks like James has another chance at the combo being one turn away from tutoring up and playing a second Underworld Breach when two sets of Lightning Bolt plus Arcanist swings take him down out of nowhere with 14 damage!

Game 2 James hits an early Delver with a Grapeshot hoping to face a threat light hand however an Arcanist comes down as a follow up. This was backed up by a Null Rod and then a second Delver of Secrets. The two of them continued to beat down to lethal with James extending the handshake and displaying a hand of Force, Petal, Petal, LED.

UR Delver 2-0 against 4C Breach.

Again a massive well done to Adam (and me I guess though that sounds a tad egotistical?) with the Round 1 opponents meeting again on the Semi-Finalist podium. 

The Finals

And after seven rounds each of playing we had the final bout. A mirror match between UR Delver and UR Delver. Matt and William faced head to head to see who was the Tempo master!

Matt as higher seed had the play. He tries to jam an early Young Pyromancer however it meets a Spell Snare. The game starts to go long and a second Pyromancer meets the same fate later! The game continues and, just like his Semi Final match, Matt manages to rip a Lightning Bolt from the top of his deck for the seven damage finisher of Bolt -> Arcanist -> Bolt. 

Game 2; an early fight leads to a True-Name Nemesis stick from William’s side whilst Matt lands a pair of Arcanists. Despite the card advantage engines going it starts to look bad for the Zombie Wizard pair as the Merfolk keeps up the unrelenting pressure. When all hope is lost the tournament ends abruptly with a sudden Price of Progress taking off the remainder of William’s life total and ending the match and tournament in victory for Matt!

UR Delver 2-0 against UR Delver.

Closing Words

Three down, many more to go! Congratulations to all top eight competitors and a big thank-you to everyone who attended. These events are for the community and to promote the format so anything that you can do to help is always appreciated! The organising committee are once again taking on feedback so please, if you have anything to say, either positive or constructively critical, let us know via Southwestlegacymtg@gmail.com.  You can find more info for them HERE and their sister pub, the Hope and Anchor HERE. If you want to look out for information on future events or similar ones please head over to HERE for event sign ups and information, HERE for the South West and Wales Legacy Group or HERE for more information or on similar events in the UK.

Decklists and additional photos may be found below! (Plus something spicy!)

Until next time (May!).

Photo Gallery

Top 8 decklists may be found below:

Top 8 Lists

1st Place : Matt Hayden

Literally stock UR delver by Matthew Hayden

Creatures (14) 4 Delver of Secrets 3 Young Pyromancer 3 Dreadhorde Arcanist 2 Brazen Borrower 2 True-Name Nemesis Spells (27) 4 Brainstorm 4 Ponder 4 Daze  4 Force of will 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Preordain 2 chain lightning 2 Force of Negation 1 Spell Pierce

Lands (19) 2 Snow-Covered Island 1 Mountain 3 Volcanic Island 4 Scalding tarn 1 Polluted delta 3 Flooded Strand 4 Wasteland 1 Fiery Islet Sideboard (15) 1 Red Elemental Blast 3 Pyroblast 2 Price of Progress 2 Abrade 2 Surgical Extraction 1 Pyrostatic Pillar 1 Null Rod 1 Tormod’s Crypt 1 Magmatic Sinkhole 1 Izzet Staticaster

2nd Place: William Garthside

Izzet Delver by William Garthside

Creatures (13) 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Dreadhorde Arcanist 3 Young Pyromancer 2 True-name Nemesis Spells (28) 4 Ponder 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Chain Lightning 4 Brainstorm 1 Stifle 4 Force of Will 1 Force of Negation 2 Spell Pierce  2 Spell Snare 4 Daze

Lands (19) 4 Volcanic Island 1 Fiery Islet 2 Snow-covered Island 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Wasteland 2 Polluted Delta 2 Flooded Strand Sideboard (15) 1 Force of Negation 1 Null Rod 1 Spell Pierce 2 Submerge 2 Grafdigger’s Cage 2 Surgical Extraction 2 Red Elemental Blast 2 Smash to Smithereens  2 Blue Elemental Blast

3rd/4th Place: Adam Bowers

Depths by Adam Bowers

Creatures (13) 4 vampire hexmage 4 Elvish Reclaimer 4 Dark Confidant 1 Sylvan Safekeeper Spells (16) 4 Crop Rotation 4 Thoughtsiese 3 Inquisition of Kozilek 3 Abrupt Decay 1 Assassin’s Trophy 1 Life from the Loam Planeswalkers (0) Artifacts (3) 3 Mox Diamond Enchantments (1) 1 Sylvan Library

Lands (27) 1 Forest 1 Swamp 2 Bayou 4 Verdant catacombs 2 Nurturing Peatland 4 Dark Depths 4 Thespian’s Stage 2 Wasteland 1 Karakas 1 Sejiri Steppe 1 Bojuka Bog 4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth Sideboard (15) 3 Plague Engineer 2 Leyline of the Void 2 Force of Vigor 2 Veil of Summer 1 Pithing Needle 1 Sylvan Safekeeper 2 Surgical Extraction 1 Assassin’s Trophy 1 Golgari Charm

3rd/4th Place: James Johns

Breachy Mahjong ft. Daisangen by James Johns

Creatures (1) 1 Thassa’s Oracle Spells (30) 4 Brain Freeze 4 Brainstorm 3 Enlightened Tutor 4 Force of Will 1 Grapeshot 4 Ponder 4 Preordain 1 Sevinne’s Reclamation 1 Spell Pierce 2 Thought Scour 2 Veil of Summer Planeswalkers (2) 2 Teferi, Time Raveler Artifacts (8) 4 Lotus Petal 4 Lion’s Eye Diamond Enchantments (4) 4 Underworld Breach

Lands (15) 4 Flooded Strand 4 Scalding Tarn 2 Volcanic Island 2 Tundra 1 Tropical Island 1 Snow-covered Island 1 Snow-covered Mountain Sideboard (15) 1 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade 2 Mindbreak Trap 3 Monastery Mentor 1 Snow-Covered Plains 3 Swords to Plowshares 1 Tormod’s Crypt 1 Veil of Summer 3 Wear // Tear

5th – 8th Place: Dave Wilcox

BUG Aluren by David Wilcox

Creatures (19) 1 Cauldron Familiar 1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest 2 Brazen Borrower 2 Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath 3 Gilded Goose 3 Cavern Harpy 3 Shardless Agent 4 Ice-Fang Coatl Spells (15) 2 Ponder 2 Green Sun’s Zenith 3 Abrupt Decay 4 Brainstorm 4 Force of Will Planeswalkers (2) 2 Oko, Thief of Crowns Enchantments (4) 1 Sylvan Library 3 Aluren

Lands (20) 1 Dryad Arbor 1 Bayou 1 Tropical Island 2 Underground Sea 2 Snow-Covered Forest 2 Snow-Covered Island 2 Snow-Covered Swamp 2 Verdant Catacombs 3 Polluted Delta 4 Misty Rainforest Sideboard (15) 1 Collector Ouphe 1 Scavenging Ooze 1 Back to Basics 1 Ashiok, Dream Render 1 Force of Vigor 2 Grafdigger’s Cage 2 Veil of Summer 2 Carpet of Flowers 2 Plague Engineer 2 Faerie Macabre

5th – 8th Place: Mark Aylett

CAT by Mark Aylett

Creatures (19) 1 Dryad Arbor 1 Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath 2 Brazen Borrower 3 Shardless Agent 1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest 3 Ice-fang Coatl 3 Cavern Harpy 4 Gilded Goose 1 Cauldron Familiar Spells (15) 2 Ponder 4 Brainstorm 3 Abrupt Decay 2 Green Sun’s Zenith 4 Force of Will Planeswalkers (3) 3 Oko, Thief of Crowns Enchantments (3) 3 Aluren

Lands (20) 2 Underground Sea 2 Bayou 2 Tropical Island 1 Verdant Catacombs 4 Polluted Delta 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Snow-Covered Swamp 2 Snow-Covered Island 2 Snow-Covered Forest Sideboard (15) 1 Bitterblossom 1 Umezawa’s Jitte 1 Force of Vigor 2 Plague Engineer 1 Liliana, The Last Hope 1 Collector Ouphe 1 Trinisphere 3 Leyline of the void 2 Veil of summer 1 Sylvan Library 1 Carpet of Flowers

5th – 8th Place: Andrew Rouse

Burn by Andrew Rouse

Creatures (12) 4 Goblin Guide 4 Monastery Swiftspear 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel Spells (28) 4 Chain Lightning 4 Lava Spike 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Price of Progress 4 Rift Bolt 4 Exquisite Firecraft 4 Fireblast

Lands (20) 20 Mountain Sideboard (15) 4 Smash to Smithereens 4 Leyline of the Void 3 Sulfuric Vortex 2 Dead // Gone 1 Alpine Moon 1 Pithing Needle

5th – 8th Place: David Van Loo

UW Miracles by David van Loo

Creatures (3) 3 Snapcaster mage Spells (30) 4 Brainstorm  4 Ponder 4 Swords to plowshares 4 Force of will 4 Accumulated Knowledge  2 Counterspell 2 Spell pierce 2 Councils Judgement 3 Terminus 1 Entreat the angels Planeswalkers (3) 3 Jace the mind sculptor Enchantments (4) 2 Counterbalance 2 Back to basics

Lands (20) 6 Island 3 Plains 4 Flooded strand 4 Prismatic vista 1 Tundra 2 Mystic Sanctuary Sideboard (15) 3 Surgical extraction 2 Flusterstorm 2 Disenchant 2 Timely reinforcements 2 Detention Sphere 1 Palace Jailer 1 Force of negation 1 Supreme Verdict 1 Gideon ally of zendikar

Spice Corner

No event report is complete with a cheeky bit of seasoning and this event’s pick was this pile brought by Charlie Ann Page; Five colour Niv Mizzet. No, Charlie did not bring their favourite EDH deck along, this monstrosity brings a host of disruptive Legacy staples including Force of Will and Chalice of the Void and backs it up with a card advantage engine comprised of Niv-Mizzet Reborn and a load of ridiculous card choices. 

Tidehollow Sculler is a findable equivalent to Thoughtseize that gets around Chalice on one. The full eight Baleful Strix effects are present along with some powerful removal and Planeswalkers, all fetchable by the Dragon himself. The manabase is a mess including artifact lands like Seat of Synod to enable Metalcraft for Mox Opal and almost the full plethora of Dual Lands and Fetchlands. 

What’s great is that this delightful deck put up the same result as all three TES decks! Well done Charlie for bringing such a fun list.

Bringer of the Spice: Charlie Ann Page

5c Niv Mizzet by Charlie Ann Page

Creatures (15) 4 Tidehollow Sculler 4 Baleful Strix 4 Ice-Fang Coatl 3 Niv-Mizzet, Reborn Spells (6) 4 Force of Will 2 Abrupt Decay Planeswalkers (5) 2 Teferi, Time Raveler 3 Oko, Thief of Crowns Artifacts (12) 4 Mox Diamond 4 Mox Opal 4 Chalice of the Void

Lands (22) 1 Flooded Strand 1 Verdant Catacombs 1 Marsh Flats 1 Misty Rainforest 1 Polluted Delta 1 Scalding Tarn 1 Karakas 1 Seat of the Synod 1 Vault of Whispers 1 Prismatic Vista 1 Snow-Covered Forest 1 Snow-Covered Island 1 Snow-Covered Mountain 1 Snow-Covered Plains 1 Snow-Covered Swamp 1 Bayou 1 Tropical Island 1 Tundra 1 Underground Sea 1 Volcanic Island 1 Savannah 1 Scrubland Sideboard (15) 4 Mindbreak Trap 2 Abrupt Decay 2 Force of Negation 4 Leyline of the Void 2 Deafening Clarion 1 Supreme Verdict

Fin.