2024-08-03 GenCon Legacy Secret Lair Showdown Qualifiers (1-1, 0-1)

GenCon Tournament Reports

• August 1 BLB Sealed RCQ/GenQ
  
• August 2 Modern for Original Art
• August 3 Legacy Secret Lair Showdown Qualifiers
• August 4 MH3 Sealed GenCon Championship

Introduction

I've played Legacy a total of once, but I've watched streamers and am familiar with the specific cards. The Secret Lair Showdown being hosted at GenCon was just too good EV to pass up, especially when it looked like < 32 players were registered.

Entry fee was $124, with the minimum payout for top 64 including

• GenCon Lightning Bolt ($40ish)
• Secret Lair Promo Spell Pierce ($55)
• 15 BLB Play Boosters ($45-60)

Going in, it was known that UB Scam/Reanimator was the top dog in the format. Our group managed to assemble 3 Scam decks across about 7 different people (thanks everyone!) but we were not tuned for the excessive archetype presence - 50-70%. You still ran into other stuff, but when over half the field is on Scam you should be playing more Faerie Macabres and Dark Betrayals.

Anyway, here's what I played: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/oGjjScCSl0-fDkfKr8lzCA

https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/122443

https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/122444

12 PM

R1 (Ro128) bye (1-0)

R2 (Ro64) Daniel Miguin on Lands LWW (2-0)

Tabernacle playmat, game 1 I fumble Wasteland on Stage instead of cutting him off G on Yavimaya but was probably losing that game anyways - Exploration, Mox Diamond, Wasteland, DD + Stage, Yavimaya, Life from the Loam etc.

Game 2 I lead a Dauthi Voidwalker and deploy a Harbinger of the Seas after it gets plowed (swordsed?)

Game 3 he knows what's up. We exchange some resources, I Wasteland a Stage oops it's now a Swamp whatever
I play out a Harbinger, he drops Drop of Honey off basic Forest. I Petty Theft it three times, digging and digging, the third one comes off the back of an Entomb-Animate Dead Atraxa.
Afterwards he makes the point that he thought bouncing Drop was a bad play at first but then I kept doing it. I agreed.

Paradigm shifts - Ponder, Brainstorm, fetching, resources

R3 Sam Black repaired into Caleb Durward (WLL)

He's on some deep tech. Fatal Push main, Coffin Purge and Faerie Macabre in the side. He also keeps 2 Entomb + 1 Archon of Cruelty in in the mirror.

Idk, there's not much to say. We exchanged resources, then one of us hit the other in the face a few times and the game was over. He definitely punted a few times in G1 but Caleb played way tighter in the next two.

Funny moment when he mainphased a Brazen Borrower to play around Daze. I Animated Dead his Bowmasters, shoot the Faerie. After I lose game and match, tell him that I topdecked Daze so he played big brain there.

5PM

R1 (Ro64) Jacob Gonzalez on R Painter LL (0-1)

Idk, lose die roll T1 Cauldron off Ancient Tomb, die to two Fables flipping

G2 he just kinda gets a Bridge and combo pieces out and I have nothing.

Good meta call? I had the wrong board notes, but feels like an unfavorable matchup for me.

Thoughts

Legacy is a really intense format. Ponder and Brainstorm are extremely powerful cards where sequencing them and the cards involved can change the course of the game. The interaction of these include:

• Shuffle effects (fetchlands, Ponder, Troll of Khazad-Dum, Entomb)
• Assessing if your opponent has Orcish Bowmasters
• Daze check
• Holding a blue card for FoW
• Hiding cards from Grief
  

Cantrips are more valuable the longer you can hold them since they allow you to sculpt your hand so powerfully.

Legacy also requires some paradigm shifts esp. compared to modern -- adjusting habits for the different interaction. In Modern, fetching EoT is almost always the play but in Legacy you have to worry about Stifle, Daze, Wasteland, and holding a shuffle is powerful with Brainstorm. Some things that I would advise a Modern player trying out a blue deck in Legacy to keep in mind:

• Fetching EoT is not high value. Only real reason is for a surveil land.You can fetch painlessly on main phase no problem.
• Leading with lands to play around Daze.
• I guess the next level is not leading with lands to get a Daze because maybe you win the game if they don't develop mana.
• Keeping one lander cantrip hands can be real.
• Basics are good because Wasteland format.