MKM Series Bologna 2019 - Legacy

Intro

Hey, I am Nicklas Krull from Germany.
This past weekend I played in the Modern and Legacy MKM Series Bologna 2019 main events (or is it CM Series now?), reaching the semi-finals in Modern and taking home the trophy in Legacy.
This tournament report focuses on Legacy only. Top4ing Modern playing Arclight Mentor was pretty sweet, but Legacy is where my heart lies.

Leading up to MKM Bologna I wasn't feeling great about my chances of even ending up in the top half of the field.
The past 7 months or so I was in a bit of a MtG crisis. The banning of my best buddy DRS hit me pretty hard and for some reason I began losing all the time. I still had fun, but honestly I wanted a little more fun out of playing MtG. The kind of fun you only get when you do win more than just a couple games.
I wanted to do well in Bologna. Very well.
Back in the good old days when Top was still legal, wanting to win just meant you picked up Miracles. Nowadays life is so much more complicated...
I tried to figure out what the best deck was, but failed. Nothing seemed broken. Sure, there were better and worse decks, but I had no clue which one would grant me the biggest edge.

After failing to figure out what the best deck was it was pretty obvious to me I should just do what I do best: Play some Esper variant. Esper Stoneblade seemed surprisingly strong to me, but with the number of Delver players dwindling and the tournament being held in Italy - where I always expect lots of ANT, Sneak & Show and Miracles - I didn't feel like sleeving up Stoneforge Mystic.
So what about Miracles splashing black disruption?

My starting point was Underground Sea + Tundra + Accumulated Knowledge.

Initially I thought Mentor + Accumulated Knowledge in an Esper shell would be the way to go, but soon I figured out that I wanted Hymn to Tourach. A split of Preordain, Night's Whisper and Search for Azcanta was a way better option for a deck that mostly does not want to play on it's opponents turn. Accumulated Knowledge + Counterspell is a great synergy. Accumulated Knowledge + Hymn to Tourach on the other hand...
Esper Miracles turned into Esper Mentor.

Esper Mentor is a deck that always existed but never really turned out to be a good choice. I think everyone at some point expected Esper Mentor to become a real thing, but with DRS and Probe getting ban-hammered most of the last few remaining believers gave up on it.
So did I. Until I built this deck. 

Goodies for participating + top4ing Modern with Arclight Mentor
Deck

//Lands
1 Island
1 Swamp
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
2 Scrubland
4 Polluted Delta
3 Marsh Flats
3 Flooded Strand
//Creatures
3 Monastery Mentor
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Baleful Strix
//Planeswalker
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
//Enchantments
2 Search for Azcanta
//Instants & Sorceries  
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Preordain
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Thoughtseize
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Vindicate

//Sideboard
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Flusterstorm
1 Unmoored Ego
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Hydroblast
1 Tsabo's Web
2 Disenchant
1 Meekstone
1 Pithing Needle
1 Plains

Initially Lili was in the SB and I intended to play a second JTMS in the MD, but after replacing the Night's Whisper with another Search for Azcanta and realizing how much I wanted the freed SB slot I stuck with this.

Just a couple words on some SB cards:

Unmoored Ego: 50% Surgical, 50% preemptive land destruction against land-based strategies.

Tsabo's Web: Mostly against Rishadan Port decks and amazingly amazing against Death and Taxes in particular.

Meekstone: I wanted a mass removal against bigger creatures and even considered Settle the Wreckage, because wrathing your own Mentor stinks. Meekstone synergizes in so many great ways with Mentor that I had to include it. Probably the card I would cut from my SB first.

Plains: Hear me out. Plains is really bad with Hymn and Strix. Sure, spot removal requires white, but if you don't know what exactly you're up against you never want the Plains anyway. Plains forces you to fetch awkwardly, oftentimes even making you rely more on specific duals not getting wasted. Against Blood Moon and Back to Basics Plains really shines only in g2+3 anyway.


Tournament

Round 1: Miracles 2-0

g1: I handle 3 Jaces three different ways (discard, counter, attack step), rather use Lili to buy back Snappies than trying to go for the ultimate and grind out every advantage. My opponent conceded with an empty board vs. a board consisting of Lili, Jace, Search for Azcanta and Snapcaster Mages.

-4 Swords to Plowshares
-1 Diabolic Edict
-1 Tundra
-1 Scrubland

+2 Disenchant 
+1 Surgical Extraction
+1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
+1 Flusterstorm
+1 Unmoored Ego
+1 Plains 

I am a huge fan of cutting a land on the draw. Disenchant + Plains is my anti-B2B-tech, but Disenchant is obviously needed against Counterbalance and Search for Azcanta as well. I like bringing in 1 Surgical against Miracles to fight their Accumulated Knowledge, which can totally wreck my Hymn/Value-plan. Surgical is also fine against Snapcaster Mage, Miracle-Triggers and sometimes you run them out of actual threats. 
I don't think removal is necessary. I have my own Mentor.

g2: Double Hymn + Snappy flashback Hymn followed by a Mentor easily overwhelm my opponent.

Round 2: Slow Depths 2-0

g1: My opponent lands a turn 1 Dark Confidant, which makes me believe he is on Aggro Loam. I immediately respond with Swords to Plowshares and follow it up with a Hymn, discard Sylvan Scrying + X. Luckily I land an early Mentor and my opponent can't play around Diabolic Edict + Snapcaster Mage in my hand.

-3 Baleful Strix
-2 Force of Will
-1 Liliana, the Last Hope
-1 Underground Sea
-1 Scrubland

+2 Disenchant
+2 Surgical Extraction
+1 Unmoored Ego
+1 Tsabo's Web
+1 Pithing Needle 
+1 Plains

Again I am cutting a land on the draw. Siding out two black sources and bringing in one Plains seems loose, considering I left in all the Hymns, but I really do need the white basic land and don't often play the turn 2 Hymn otd in this MU anyway (plus he plays Urborg). I like Hymns better than all the other cards in my SB, because the game can turn into a dirty grind post board and there are a good number of spots where a turn 2 or 3 Hymn can be a safe play and devastating. Force of Will is both great and insanely bad in this MU, which is why I feel cutting 2 is the perfect number. I might very well be wrong. 

g2: I discard some of his stuff, land a Needle on Underground Sea (his Thespian's Stage) and manage to surgical away a known Decay from his hand, after he taps a mox - his only green source - to cast a Thoughtseize. He did have an Urborg in play. Two Snapcaster Mages reduce his life totals to zero.

 
Round 3: UR Delver 1-2

g1: We trade some resources early on, but he lands a Young Pyromancer and rides him to victory.

-2 Force of Will
-1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
-2 Search for Azcanta

+2 Zealous Persecution
+1 Hydroblast
+1 Flusterstorm
+1 Plains 

I like the extra land, because I really don't want to have to spend cantrips on finding mana sources. I did see Wastelands game 1.
On the play I like Hymn better than Force of Will. On the draw it's the other way around.

g2: My opponent lands an early Winter Orb. Maybe I should've seen it coming? Luckily I can stick a Mentor and Zealous Persecution clears the way.

-4 Hymn to Tourach
-1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
-2 Search for Azcanta

+2 Zealous Persecution
+2 Disenchant
+1 Hydroblast
+1 Flusterstorm
+1 Plains 

I obviously bring in the Disenchants. I would've brought the Forces back in otd anyway, but knowing his SB plan this feels even more correct.

g3: My opponent pressures me early on with a Grim Lavamancer, Burnspells to my face and some more random creatures. I can handle those, but unfortunately draw my fetchlands in the wrong order: I have a Flooded Strand but I really need black. I draw Marsh Flats the turn I need an extra blue mana for my Snapcaster Mage. The following turn I topdeck the needed white source in the form of Polluted Delta. I wanted to play around Price of Progress, but chose not to in favour of being able to deal with the threats he presented as soon as I could. Price of Progress for 8 kills me.

Props to my opponent for not caring about nonbos and playing Wasteland+PoP, Lavamancer+Winter Orb and Young Pyromancer+Pyrostatic Pillar all in one deck. Though I am not entirely sure he did play the Pillar. I think I saw it when he flipped his SB.

Round 4: Show & Tell 2-1

g1: Hymn + Snapcaster Mage rip apart his hand. Monastery Mentor seals the deal before he can recover.

-2 Baleful Strix
-1 Liliana, the Last Hope
-4 Swords to Plowshares
-1 Tundra

+2 Surgical Extraction
+1 Flusterstorm
+1 Unmoored Ego
+1 Hydroblast
+2 Disenchant
+1 Pithing Needle

While sideboarding I actually did briefly wonder why I had to keep in one Baleful Strix, but for some reason didn't realize my Plains was still in the SB. 

g2: In response to a Blood Moon I crack my Marsh Flats, fail to find a Plains, realize my grave mistake, grab a Swamp and am sad. I even had the island + some cantrips in hand. My opponent has no action going on and he has to eventually discard end of turn. My attempt to surgical his Emrakul fails and I die a few turns later.

-3 Baleful Strix
-1 Liliana, the Last Hope
-4 Swords to Plowshares
-1 Tundra

+2 Surgical Extraction
+1 Flusterstorm
+1 Unmoored Ego
+1 Hydroblast
+2 Disenchant
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Plains 

g3: My opponent keeps a very weak 6 with Blood Moon as his only business, I land a Jace followed up by Mentor and kill him in two swings.  

Round 5: Mono W Eldrazi 2-0

g1: My opponent starts off with an Eldrazi Temple, I Thoughtseize him, revealing two white lands, 2x Thalia, Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Eldrazi Smasher. I pick the Heretic-Thalia... and easily overwhelm my opponent with a turn three Mentor.

This is the one MU where afterwards I didn't write down the way I sideboarded, but I certainly boarded out Search for Azcanta, Preordain, Jace and brought in all the artifacts (Web, Meekstone, Needle, Jitte), Plains and Disenchant. 

g2: My opponent is stuck on two lands and I am not. Didn't feel bad about those non-games, because that's what people sign up for when they register Stompy.dec.

Round 6: Death and Taxes 2-0

g1: I force a Vial and Hymn him twice. At one point he plays a Stoneforge Mystic, reveals a Batterskull, passes the turn with 3 cards in hand, on my turn a Hymn discards Sword of Fire and Ice + Batterskull and the very next turn he shows me his third card was a Jitte. I sword his equipped Stoneforge and he never recovers. Death and Taxes at it's best.

-2 Hymn to Tourach
-2 Force of Will
-2 Search for Azcanta
-1 Monastery Mentor
-1 Scrubland

+1 Umezawa's Jitte
+2 Zealous Persecution
+1 Tsabo's Web
+2 Disenchant
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Plains

I would go up to 21 lands on the play, but on the draw I kind of get the extra land simply by having 8 cards in hand on my very first turn. Not sure I sideboarded correctly, especially considering Mentor is great vs. DnT. While Mentor is great in this MU, he is not needed early on and I rather spend my resources disrupting my opponent. Losing with any Esper shell against Death and Taxes mostly involves an early soft-lock. 
I feel like I win this MU simply by casting one Zealous Persecution. Maybe I am wrong, but that was and is my very simple line of thinking. 

g2: I cast one Zealous Persecution.

Round 7: Mardu Reveler 2-0




Turn 1 I played Thoughtseize, revealing Lightning Bolt, Hymn to Tourach, Thoughtseize, Faithless Looting and Reanimate. My hand at that point was Preordain, Polluted Delta, Snapcaster Mage, Baleful Strix, Monastery Mentor, Ponder. Some people told me Faithless Looting should've been the pick and maybe they are right, but I think they are not.
I had no clue what my opponent was exactly up to. I put him on one of the following:
1. RB Reanimator. Sure, Hymn and Bolt are odd, but I've seen stranger things. This is Legacy.
2. Some super grindy Bedlam Reveler deck.
3. Grixis Pyromancer (most likely featuring Arclight Phoenix).
I thought of the most likely scenario to lose this game. This scenario involved him being some strange Reanimator deck. He had half the combo, protection and could even discard Griselbrand to his own Thoughtseize if I took the Looting. The Bolt meant I couldn't apply much pressure early on with Mentor and he would get enough time to assemble the combo. Option 2 and 3 would fairly quickly be confronted with a near-unwinnable situation, if they didn't rip some great topdecks.
It's true that Looting let's him dig for the lands he needs to even play this game, but if he plays Reanimator he can easily operate with just a single land in play (which he would need in the first place to cast the Looting) and as I mentioned above that's the deck I was - considering our hands - most afraid of to begin with.
I thought it was more likely he was either on Reveler or Grixis Pyromancer, but in that case the Looting would mean another -1 cards in hand and Reanimate would still be a fine pick, because discarding/bolting + reanimating my Mentor would be a really strong move. Both Pyromancer and Reveler want lots of cheap spells to be cast and Mentor is broken in such a shell.
Reanimate seemed like the safest pick. The pick that made it least likely I would lose.
I would like to hear what you think/would've picked and why. 

-4 Hymn to Tourach
-4 Force of Will
-1 Diabolic Edict
-1 Search for Azcanta
-1 Underground Sea

+1 Umezawa's Jitte
+1 Flusterstorm
+1 Unmoored Ego
+1 Disenchant
+2 Zealous Persecution
+1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
+2 Surgical Extraction
+1 Hydroblast
+1 Plains

I boarded in just one Disenchant, because I wasn't even sure he'd want Moon against me, which is the only relevant enchantment or artifact I could think of. With Vindicate and Hydroblast I already have a couple good answers. 

Quarterfinals: Elves 2-0





In a later interview being exhausted caused me to misremember g1 and recall the events incorrectly.

Game 1 was all about creating a board state where Lili dominates.
I think the games were pretty straight-forward and just like the sideboarding need no further explanation.

-3 Baleful Strix
-1 Search for Azcanta
-1 Island

+2 Zealous Persecution
+1 Disenchant
+1 Unmoored Ego
+1 Umezawa's Jitte 

I wasn't sure what I'd name with Unmoored Ego. Before the match I asked some friends, but no one gave a satisfying answer. Obviously it depends on the situation, but I think in the dark you just name Craterhoof Behemoth. Especially now that DRS is no more, an army of Elves is very beatable. The Behemoth is not.

Semifinals: BR Reanimator 2-0

Okay, well, I lied when I said Mono W Eldrazi was the only match where I didn't take any notes afterwards.
In the Top8 I was way too flustered to do any of that. I know on the outside I tend to look very calm and when I am playing a game of MtG I mostly am very much in the zone, but even right before and after a match I am the most nervous person there is.
All I can say is I left in 3 Hymns, because I saw him playing Stronghold Gambit and his approach and play style seemed more cautious and less all-in.

All my opponents all weekend long were nice and pleasant to play against, but the semifinals was especially fun. Neither Top 8 nor Top 4 split prices, but in this match we just had a good time. I didn't even mind too much that spectators accidentally revealed to my opponent what I drew for the turn.
In game 2 I was talking to my opponent about how my hand was not great, but I never mulligan as long as I got more than 0 and less than 6 lands. I told him cantrips, especially Brainstorm, fix everything and even keeping questionable hands is great, because that way my good cards are hiding on top of my deck and opponents can't discard them. He played a turn 1 Therapy, naming Brainstorm, and was surprised to find I kept an okayish hand with 3 lands, some discard, no turn 0 interaction and no cantrips. My opponent said something along the lines of "you got into my head, I thought you had a cantrip-heavy hand" to which I replied by saying "I told you the trick is to hide the good card!", then gestured to my library and said "the Brainstorm is right there on top of my deck".
When I drew for the turn, spectators burst out into laughter.

Finals: ANT 2-1





Everyone in Twitch Chat seemed to agree I had to take the LED in game 1. I believe Infernal Tutor was correct, given my hand and deck list. Someone mentioned how PiF would be pretty bonkers this game, because I didn't take LED, but honestly g1 Past in Flames kills me no matter what. My only interaction is discard and 4 Force of Will.
He did draw Past in Flames and was able to kill through one Force of Will. Even with perfect information I could have only stopped him if he finds neither Tutor/Tendrils nor Discard with his three available cantrips. I believe countering his Cabal Ritual made it most likely he would fizzle.
Once more: I would like to hear what you think/would've picked and why.  

-2 Baleful Strix
-4 Swords to Plowshares
-1 Diabolic Edict
-1 Liliana, the Last Hope

+2 Surgical Extraction
+2 Disenchant 
+2 Zealous Persecution
+1 Flusterstorm  
+1 Unmoored Ego

g3: +2 Baleful Strix, -2 Zealous Persecution

In game 3 I sided out the Zealous Persecution and brought Baleful Strix back in, because the way game 2 played out it didn't seem like he had an Empty the Warren heavy sideboard plan. 
I believe Xantid Swarm is pretty terrible against my deck anyway, but after game 1 I wasn't sure he'd be aware of it. Previous iterations of Esper Mentor oftentimes played Spell Pierce, Counterspell etc.
Against an opponent bringing in multiple Empty the Warrens and Xantid Swarm, Zealous Persecution seemed worth it, especially given that Baleful Strix is very underwhelming in this MU.
But it is a cantrip, does present a clock (it is obviously very slow, but Snappy on it's own takes ~9 turns, coupled with Strix 'only' ~6) and importantly pitches to Force of Will.


೦ Outro

The event was very well run. Everyone involved did a fantastic job. I am a huge fan of the MKM Series, will try to attend as many stops as possible this year and hope to reach the MKM Power 8 again.
Literally everything about the MKM Series has been improving with each and every stop so far, including the stream and the payout structure (something people love to complain about), so I am really looking forward to this season and hope the progress continues.

I am a huge fan of free stuff. Especially the Dragon Shields every participant got for free are sweet.
Surprisingly I actually did really like the Runtime.gg Next Level Meal with Lemon Cheesecake flavor. Sadly I am not sponsored, otherwise I'd say I won the Legacy event only because I had this Next Level Meal and a megabite brownie the night before!

As a Legacy aficionado I am hyped the MKM Series features a Legacy main event at every stop and I really hope the European community shows up in greater numbers in the future to keep this running.
MKM events in Italy are always rather small - I guess because they have lots of great events and don't need the MKM Series -  but only 94 people showing up was still a bit disappointing.

I was in great company all weekend long and lots of fun was had. The real treasure is the friends we make along the way. I wouldn't play Magic without the Gathering. Thanks guys!

I would love to hear constructive criticism, whatever feedback you have to offer and questions regarding my tournament report. Thanks for reading!

Kommentare

  1. First of all, congratz to your amazing run and thanks for the nice tournament report!

    Then I would like to address the two discard choices.

    I think in the first scenario it's pretty hard to argue that Reanimate is not the right choice. It's the only card that actually presents a threat at that point of the game and trying to keep him off of lands by picking Looting over it seems short sighted to me when playing a slow deck yourself that is not very likely to steal a fast win here. The other cards are nothing but answers to whatever you are going to do which seems fine when you are on a control role. If it wasn't for the Reanimate, I'd still value picking Hymn over Looting since you need to consider the longer game where Hymn can be hurtful while Looting can just be flashbacked.

    The second scenario... well the most scary thing to happen here is him using his Tutor to try and kill you obviously. Brainstorm's redundant so I wouldn't want to go for that one especially since one of those will probably still do the trick. So I have to decide between the mana (LED nets best and also enables a hellbent Tutor in case of a land from the top so there's no point in picking Petal or Ritual instead) and the Tutor and since mana is way more redundant here I think I would have gone for the Infernal as well. Brainstorm then needs to find AN, PiF or another Tutor which means a total of about 5 to 6 cards rather than LED or Dark Ritual or maybe even Rain of Filth which is a total of 7 or more cards left in the deck.
    One way or another, there are a bunch of draws that just end the game but taking the Tutor makes it a bit less likely to get killed out of the blue.

    So yeah, I agree with both of your picks.

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    1. Thanks for your response! Bringing up Hymn is a good point.

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  2. Hello! Congrats on the performance.

    Would you make any changes to the list after the tournament?

    Will you continue to explore Esper Mentor as a strategy?

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    1. Hey, thank you.
      I wouldn't make any changes to the MD just yet, despite not being a fan of the edict. Edict and second Search are the two slots I am most unsure about, but Search did overperform and I'd hate to randomly lose to TNN in g1 (maybe I shouldn't be too concerned though).
      The SB on the other hand... I would cut Meekstone and replace it with a card against combo that's also reasonable in aggro/tempo MUs (Spell Snare/Pierce/Fluster etc., maybe even Gerrard's Verdict...). Meekstone seems fine but not necessary and I noticed in various MUs I'd like to have one more versatile card that can replace a bad one.
      That's the only change that seems like a straight upgrade to me, but I also want to experiment with cutting Jitte+Gideon. I would replace them with a Last Hope Lili and try to figure out if I either need another card against Control or Aggro/Tempo in the last slot. It's tough.

      I will definitely continue to explore Esper Mentor, but do love switching decks around, too!

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