This weekend I decided that for the legacy challenge I would want to play a version of Lands slanted towards combo because of the recent uptake in the Creature/Temporal Mastery version of Doomsday so ended up registering a list close to something that @Alli_on_mtgo posted a few weeks ago with 3 main deck Sphere of Resistance and 3 Rishadan Port. There were a few card changes due to the deck being just over my Manatraders limit such as the Shifting Ceratops in the sideboard.

I think that a lot of the card choices are pretty common knowledge at this point but some selections change with the introduction of the main deck Spheres + Ports. The main one is playing Bolt > Punishing Fire + Grove. When you introduce Sphere + Port while still having 4 Saga in the main deck then your mana is a lot more constraint and the difference between 1 and 2 (or 2 and 3 under Sphere) can become a pretty big deal so Lightning Bolt becomes more appealing then Punishing Fire. The selection of tutorable 1 drops for saga are also quite important and I have been happy with having access to all 4 in game 1s with the only thing that could change being the addition of a 2nd map.

Side note that you should be playing 1 or 2 Boseiju in the deck but I was unable to find one after being unable to rent it from manatraders for the event. The addition of Boseiju would also allow you to cut the Return to Nature for a more specific hate card in the sb such as a 3rd choke or a 2nd surgical.

Round 1 – Curses

Round 1 I mulligan to 5 on the play to a hand of Sphere, Ancient Tomb, Depths, Stage, Port. I make turn 1 Sphere and my opponent leads with Saga + Chrome Mox + Chrome Mox + Chalice for 0 and while they are stumbling to cast their spells efficiently I make a turn 3 20/20 and we move to sideboarding. 

I sideboard in the 4th sphere and some naturalize effects for a Maze, Spellbomb, Tabernacle and a Mox (I Generally like cutting 1 Mox vs Karn/Teferi decks and I expected my opponent to have Karn)

Game 2 I mulligan to a hand of Force, Exploration, Mox, Forest, 2x Saga but my opponent had a turn 2 Karn + Coating into turn 3 Curse of Misfortunes which was too taxing and I lost pretty quickly.

Game 3 I keep a 7 of 2x Mox, Ancient Tomb, Depths, Exploration, Loam, Shadowspear and make as many permanents as I can on turn 1 while loaming back my lands. Opponent’s turn 1 was Saga go while my dredge found me a Saga of my own and a stage so I can set up for a turn 3 20/20. My opponent makes a Construct on turn 2 then passes with edict mana up. My 20/20 falls to a Sudden Edict but I am far enough at this point that my loam + Exploration can make a 20/20 every turn and eventually overrun my opponent

1-0

Round 2 – 60 Card D&T

On the draw I keep a hand of Misty, Maze, Tabernacle, Exploration, Loam, Crop, Shadowspear. Opponent mulligans to 6 and leads with Plains + Esper Sentinel, I draw Taiga for turn and decide to let my opponent draw a card from sentinel so that I can deploy Exploration + Tabernacle. Opponent doesn’t pay for Sentinel and instead makes Plains + Stoneforge Mystic to get Lion Sash. I draw Urza’s Saga, play 2 lands and cast Shadowspear. Opponent doesn’t pay for their mystic, casts Sash and passes and quickly gets overpowered by Construct tokens.

I sideboarded in some artifact destruction and unholy heat for some spheres and lands. I mulligan in game 2 to a hand of Mox, Bolt, 2x Saga, Depths, Stage so lead with Mox + Saga after my opponent’s turn 1 of Plains pass. They follow up with Stoneforge for Lion Sash and I draw Exploration to allow me to turbo out my hand by playing the second saga to try and take over the game with constructs. Opponent makes Sash and Wastelands my Saga on 1 counter but my drawstep was Loam so instead of making a construct I fetched up Pyrite Spellbomb for the sash, cast loam and make 2 more Sagas which quickly got out of hand for my opponent.

2-0

Round 3 – Greenpost

On the play I kept a hand of Forest, Taiga, 2x Saga, Wasteland, Exploration, Shadowspear and deployed Forest + Exploration + Saga. My opponent responded with Forest + Needle on Saga which shut down my entire gameplan, this is a spot where the Boseiju would’ve been excellent if I had access to it. The next few turns involve wastlanding my opponent to try and keep them low on mana but I fail to draw relevant cards for many turns and eventually lose to a cast Ulamog.

I sideboard some forces + return to nature for Spheres and keep a mediocre 6 of Saga, Forest, Mox, Force, Exploration, Loam. I forced my opponent’s t1 needle so that I could try to make constructs and win the game quickly but that was shut down by a second needle and I lost pretty quickly to Primeval Titan.

2-1

Round 4 – Mono Red Prison

Game 1 I keep a reasonable hand and die to Turn 1 Blood Moon (another spot where Boseiju means that I am not dead on the spot.)

Sideboard in some Forces + Return to Nature again as well as Unholy Heat and keep a 7 of Yavimaya, Saga, Port, Wasteland, Crop, Bolt, Loam. I lead with Yavimaya so that I can crop for a basic against Blood Moon but had an even better outcome than that.

Game 3 I mulligan to 6 and am given the below 7 cards to pick from after my opponent quickly kept 7. I considered what to put on the bottom for a minute before putting Maze on the bottom with a potential turn 1 Blood Moon in mind but eventually settled on Maze with the assumption that I am likely to draw a non saga land in the first 2 draw steps.

My opponent made a turn 1 moon and I was rewarded by drawing a Taiga. I made Waste + Map and my opponent followed up with T2 Magus. I draw unholy heat, make Taiga and pass. My opponent’s turn 3 was a Goblin Rabblemaster. I EoT Force the Moon and crack my map for depths, untap and make a 20/20 which was good enough.

3-1

Round 5 – UR Delver

Game 1 OTP I mulligan to a quick hand of Mox, Foothills, Saga, Stage, Wasteland, Exploration. I make Mox, Exploration, Saga which my opponent responds with Steam Vents + DRC. I draw Dark Depths, waste them and make a 20/20 and we head to game 2.

I decided to keep Spheres in on the basis of seeing the Steam Vents and assuming they are locked under Choke + Sphere while also bringing in Red Blasts, Endurance and Heat. I keep a 7 of 2x Exploration, Sphere, Wasteland, Forest, Foothills, Endurance, my turn 1 Exploration gets dazed and my opponent replayed their Island and makes Delver. I untap, make the 2nd Exploration and a Sphere. Opponent has little followup pressure and I get to eat a Delver with Endurance before starting to Wasteland their fetches, Loaming back waste and hitting their duals and the game quickly ends

4-1

Round 6 – Elves

I know that my opponent is on Elves so keep a good 7 of Taiga, Saga, Exploratio, Loam, Bolt, 2x Crop. I lead with Taiga + Exploration + Saga to which my opponent leads with Fetch > Forest > GSZ for Dryad Arbor. I untap, crop my saga for a fetch, fetch, loam back my 2 lands and bolt the Dryad. Opponent Bojuka Bogs me and makes an Allosaurus Shepard, I draw Wasteland, kill their Bog, cast Loam and pass with Saga mana open. Opponent makes an Elvish Visionary so I decide to main phase make a construct and then crop my Saga before it sacrifices to go get a Tabernacle + Pyrite Spellbomb and the game quickly ends from the constructs.

Game 2 my opponent mulligans to 5 and puts a Leyline of the Void into play while I keep a 7 of Wasteland, Forest, Taiga, Tabernacle, Yaviyaya, Exploration, Loam. I lead with Exploration + Tabernacle after my opponent’s T1 Forest > Heritage Druid. They played Verdant Catacombs and passed, I drew a 2nd Loam so made 2 lands and passed, EoT they fetched Dryad Arbor. They untapped and made Cradle + Shepard so I copied my Thespian’s Stage into a Dryad Arbor to be able to block if needed because I have enough mana to pay for Tabernacle each turn. I untapped, wasted their Cradle and passed. They sacrificed the Druid and attacked for 1 while my next draw step was Dark Depths which prompted the concession.

5-1

Round 7 (QF) – Jeskai Hullbreacher

I keep a hand of Mox, Sphere, Loam, Tabernacle, Taiga, Depths, Saga OTD and am happy to have my Sphere resolve after my opponent’s t1 Island Ponder but it meets a quick demise at the hands of Prismatic Ending. I make saga and loam back my depths while my opponent makes Karakas + EoT Hullbreacher. I draw exploration and make my 2 land drops holding up Crop. Opponent untapped, casts Brainstorm and then casts Day’s Undoing with Force backup and we move to game 2.

I sideboard in some Chokes, Unholy Head, Red Blasts and a Return to Nature (because I didn’t want to have 0 outs to a sideboard Blood Moon, another spot where Boseiju would’ve been great). I keep a 7 of Mox, Crop, Choke, Stage, Wasteland, Taiga, Misty. I make T1 misty and my opponent makes T1 Island Ponder. I untap and slam a Choke which gets Force of Negationed, the opponent plays Tundra + Prismatic Ending on my Mox so I get to untap, waste their Tundra and make a Sphere. A couple of turns go by of playing lands and my opponent casting a Ponder before I crop rotate for a Saga EoT. I make 2 constructs over the next 2 turns and go fetch up Pyrite Spellbomb to protect against a Hullbreacher while Wastelanding their Volcanic Island. My opponent responds with a Meltdown for x=1 to destroy my constructs + Spellbomb off of their lands of Island, Plains, Mountain. I cast Loam on Saga + 2 lands to start trying to make constructs again and my opponent spends their turn on a Prismatic Ending on my Sphere and a Surgical on my Loam. I draw exploration so am able to develop my lands while holding up a Saga activation and also make a stage into a saga. I make some more constructs while turning my Stage/Saga into a Forest that can make constructs and beatdown my opponent while they never find more lands.

Game 3 I mulligan to a mediocre 6 of Bolt, Forest, Taiga, Waste, Stage, Port with the hope of porting them into a longer game and having a bolt for a Hullbreacher but thankfully I drew T1 Exploration so begin developing my lands. Opponent casts some cantrips and I draw another port so begin the mana denial plan. They continue to draw lands and cast a Snapcaster mage in response to my first Port activation in their next upkeep and flashback a Brainstorm. I have only drawn lands so turn my Stage into a Port EoT to continue the mana denial. Next upkeep they use the mana to cast a Hullbreacher in response to Ports which I use my Bolt on and continue taking small beats from the Snapcaster. My next draw step was Saga which meant I could Port twice and then copy saga with my Stage/Port which allowed my opponent to cast a Teferi which I had the pyroblast for. I start making constructs while continuing to port my opponent who casts a few cantrips. My draw step Sphere was countered by a force of negation while I fetched up a pyrite spellbomb to have some protection against hullbreacher, unfortunately they had Narset which found a Prismatic Ending for one of my constructs. I untapped and turned my stage/saga into a basic with the search trigger on the stack and went to get a Pithing needle on Teferi to keep the pressure up. I attack Narset with my 3/3 construct but snapcaster jumps in the way. I double port my opponent but they still had mana to cast a Day’s Undoing which drew me into a bolt. I untapped, killed the Narset to stop them digging deeper and then double ported holding up a construct activation, my opponent cast a brainstorm and fetched afterwards passing with 7 cards in hand. I made a construct and untapped, went straight to combat with two 4/4 constructs and my opponent at 12. They flashed in a hullbreaker but decided not to block which meant that making another construct meant that my pyrite spellbomb was lethal post combat!.

6-1

Round 8 (SF) – Yorion D&T 

OTD I keep a 7 of Sphere, Exploration, Mox, Wasteland, Blast Zone, Saga, Taiga and am surprised to be met by Plains go, I draw crop and proceed with Taiga, Mox, Exploration, Saga, Sphere. My opponent untaps, wastes my saga and passes, I draw a tabernacle and make 2 lands. They miss their land drop so I crop for a saga and start going to town, a few more missed land drops and we are going to game 2.

I sideboard in some forces, return and heat but have to mulligan to a mediocre 5 that never really gets going and I get buried quickly by Stoneforge Mystic making Batterskull and Lion Sash.

I keep a 7 of Crop, Exploration, Force, Depths, Port, Taiga, Yavimaya and lead with Yavimaya, Exploration and Port. Opponent has Plains pass, I draw bolt, make my other 2 lands and pass. Opponent plays a land and Stoneforge Mystic so I decide to bet it all on no Solitude by Crop Rotating for Stage. That’s all she wrote!

7-1

Round 9 (F) – UR Delver

Finals of the challenge, I’ve been here twice before and lost both times… third time’s the charm?

I’m on the play and keep a 6 of Foothills, Blast Zone, 2x Bolt, Loam, Mox and start by casting loam on my 2 lands. Opponent leads Scaling Tarn > Mountain > Dragon’s Rage Channeller. I dredge over 2 more lands including a saga so I bolt the DRC and get my lands back. My opponent makes Polluted Delta and passes so I decide to draw, make saga and pass to which my opponent double bolts me to set up a large Murktide Regent the following turn. I dredge to try and find an answer to the 5/5 but miss and pass with construct mana open. Opponent finds a Wasteland for my saga to stop me searching and gets in for 5, I continue dredging to try and find an answer to Murktide or a stage to go with my depths but can’t find anything.

Game 2 I keep 2x Saga, Forest, Spellbomb, Crop, Exploration, Loam. My Exploration resolves so I have an explosive start with Loam to blow out my opponent’s T1 wasteland and run away with the game through the pair of sagas + Shadowspear.

Game 3 I keep a hand of Loam, Pyroblast, Mox, 2x Wasteland, Port, Stage. My opponent lead with Volc > DRC so I waste and run out my Mox, they crack a delta and cast ponder which I decide to Pyroblast to be as efficient a possible. I draw and play tabernacle which is met with Fetch for Island + Delver, I make Saga + Loam which gets FoN’d leaving a card on top with DRC. Opponent reveals Ponder to Delver, pays for their creatures attacks me to 14 and passes. I draw and cats exploration, play 2 lands and hold up a construct which holds off the DRC. Opponent didn’t find wasteland which allowed me to make 2 constructs, find Shadowspear and get in for 5 lifelink, opponent can’t find an answer and I remember to pay for my constructs and swing in for the win!

Closing Thoughts

Was very relieved to have finally won a challenge and to do it with my favorite deck at the moment makes it feel even better. The best part was winning a set of Kamigawa so that I could play a Boseiju without buying it! Am still not 100% sold on the main deck Spheres but Port definitely felt very good and feel like it could make a comeback to the deck now but could entirely depend on the build.

Was not previously sold on 4 Saga being the correct number but after this event I can’t see myself not registering 4 again, the card just does so much by creating another axis to attack on much faster than Field of the Dead could.

Went 5-2 in the Sunday challenge and 15-5 in manatraders bringing me to 28-8 over the last 3 days which is not a bad record and I am looking forward to running it back in the Manatraders swiss this weekend! @mattbrown_mtg

On Friday, 2/11/22 I was informed that I was positive for COVID. Two days later, I was 6-1 and locked for top 8 of the Sunday Legacy Challenge. What’s the secret to making this happen? Funny you should ask.

Just play Lands, the deck is absolutely cracked. Here’s a decklist:

On Saturday I woke up at 4am thinking I’d play the Saturday challenge because hey why not, I had the day off because I was sick. But the challenge didn’t start until 5am my time, so I went down for a quick snooze before it started and… woke up at 6am. Not really a bad outcome to be honest – I got to spend the day watching Jarvis play Modern (thanks Anuraag for the great stream!).

On Sunday, the challenge happened at a much more reasonable hour and I even had some time to think about my decklist. So here’s the thinking behind some of the choices:

No Spheres – Sphere of Resistance has been worse and worse for a while and I think I’m finally willing to just let it go. Back in 2020 Freya beat Sneak & Show in the finals of the Leaving a Legacy Open with her (S)Fearless Lands and today I wanted to follow in her footsteps. The thinking here is to just play 4 Depths and a pile of tutors so you can combo faster than your opponent. We do have 4 Endurance, 3 Blasts, and 2 Surgical Extraction, all of which can help against combo, but these cards also have application in fair matchups. The plan worked pretty well in this event, which actually ended up being unfortunately full of combo.

3 Expedition Map – Most people played just one Map until Anthony Rivera won the AZ Legacy Masters with a 3 Map build. While I’m not sure 3 Maps is correct (2 seems like it might be enough), they do provide a ton more selection and they let you chain Sagas into Maps repeatedly. This can be a big game against control, for example. Since it puts the land in hand, Map’s stock also goes up with the printing of this next card…

1 Boseiju – I might have played 2 but I lent one to a friend. The card is very good but it didn’t end up coming up much for me this event. Overall quite excited for it going forward.

1 Field of the Dead, 2 Valakut Exploration in the sideboard – I wanted a hedge against Death & Taxes and the control decks. It turns out all the blue pile players were in Philly, but still. Playing 0 Spheres gave me room to tech for those matchups.

4 Endurance in the sideboard – Is there a matchup where this card isn’t good? Some people are even playing it in the maindeck of Lands, but I was too attached to my Pyrite Spellbomb to cut them for the cow (deer?). I wanted the full four since it functions as both anti-combo and anti-delver tech.

I hadn’t played a ton of Lands until about a week or two before this event. After doing decently well in a couple challenges during the Ragavan era I kind of lost interest in Legacy and mostly just played weird Lands builds at my local stores. But after the ban I slowly started playing more online, and the deck has changed a bit. It seems that these days Valakut Exploration has fallen out of favor, and people are really making Urza’s Saga work as the long-game plan. The deck plays a little differently built like this, but in a good way. We care a good deal less about resolving any particular spells and have a lot of selection with multiple Maps. This means that whatever land-based game plan we want to enact, we can usually find the pieces to do it.

So, armed with this pile of digital assets, and with my head still slightly throbbing from the disease of the decade, I paid my 300 play point fee and registered for the Challenge.

Round 1 – UW Delverblade

I’m always nervous in these events. It’s gotten better since I started playing them more often, but my stomach gets tight and I constantly feel like I need to take a deep breath. That physical tension is the main reason I sometimes don’t play at all, and it’s at its worst right at the start of the event.

Still, no pain no gain, so lets do this. I start off on the draw and keep a 6 with Map, Crop Rotation, Saga, Maze, Grove, and Boseiju. A slow hand but serviceable. I play out Map and my opponent plays some fetchlands. I look them up and I’m in luck – their entire list is online. It’s a UW deck with Delver, Stifle, and a Stoneblade package.

They play Stoneblade, find Kaldra, and start beating down. I muster some meager defense with my constructs, but I can never seem to get my mana together to do anything. When I finally make a hail Mary pass to Marit Lage, Stifle jumps in with the interception and I lose.

Out – 2 Crop Rotation, 1 Expedition Map, 1 Forest, 2 Dark Depths, 1 Karakas, 1 Bojuka Bog, 1 Crucible

In – 3 Endurance, 3 Pyroblast, 2 Valakut Exploration, 1 Pithing Needle

Tempo decks that play Swords to Plowshares suck. Didn’t they get the memo that you shouldn’t give your opponent life when you’re playing tempo? My usual plan against Delver is to just make a 20/20 and kill them, but white Delver builds always cramp my style there. So I shave a few Depths and bring in the Valakut Explorations, planning for a longer game.

Once again I mulligan, and my 6 has Diamond, Endurance, and an assortment of lands including Stage and Wasteland. I lead on a fetchland, but when I crack it on my second turn, they stifle the activation. This, however, gives me the window to waste their newly-fetched Tundra.

Unfortunately, they have a Surgical for my Wasteland, which is extra sad because I just drew Life from the Loam and was looking forward to locking them. Instead, I land an Endurance. From here they spend a lot of resources trying to deal with my green sources – a Meltdown hits my Mox and a Wasteland hits my Taiga. I’m not really in danger of running out though, so I just keep loaming and attacking and they just scoop pretty soon therafter. I’ll take it!

In game 3, I keep my first 7 of the event. I’ve got Crop Rotation, Loam, Blast, Map, and plenty of colored sources. The beautiful thing about Lands is how the whole deck is always at your fingertips. This 7 has two tutors – I could do anything with this.

My opponent leads on a fetchland and I play a Grove. On their next turn, they fetch a Volcanic Island and cast Brainstorm. Then they follow that up with Karakas. To me this means their mana is shaky and they’re brainstorm-locked. So when I draw a Diamond for the turn, I get to play Diamond, pitch a land, rotate my Grove for a Wasteland (holding up Blast for countermagic), waste them, and then play a land and Loam back my Wasteland.

My opponent misses their next land drop, I waste their Karakas, and they scoop. Let’s just say if I ran Alcatraz, Clint Eastwood would never escape. 1-0

Round 2 – Sneak & Show

I look up my opponent (is this shady? It seems no different than just walking around a room during an event but it feels slightly off) and I see that they usually play Sneak & Show. Not fun.

Game 1 I’m on the draw and my 7 has Exploration, Stage, and Karakas. One card off a turn 2 Lage, and with a little insurance as well. I draw Depths for the turn (praise Lage), and they scoop two turns later. Nice!

Out – 1 Crucibe, 3 Punishing Fire, 1 Tabernacle, 1 Shadowspear, 1 Maze of Ith, 1 Bojuka Bog, 2 Life from the Loam

In – 3 Pyroblast, 2 Surgical, 3 Endurance, 2 Force of Vigor

I’m on the draw again and my 7 is a little less exciting, but it does have Exploration, Crop Rotation, Stage, and Yavimaya. That means another turn 2 20/20, though this time it’s weak to countermagic and I do have to draw another mana producing land.

Instead of the land I draw a Mox Diamond, so it takes me a minute to assemble everything since I have to use a Map to find the Depths. But turn 3 Lage is almost as good as turn 2, and my opponent picks ’em up.

Looks like the 4 Depths and pray plan is working out pretty well so far! 2-0

Round 3 – Lands

I keep 6 with Diamond, Loam, Map, Wasteland, Port, and Forest. Not amazing but it can do stuff. My opponent has turn 1 Diamond into Exploration into Saga into Loam. Basically the Lands dream start, and exceptionally good in the mirror.

I Bog their Loam but they keep copying their Sagas with Stages and finding more Sagas with Maps and I can’t waste them fast enough. Eventually robots kill me.

Out – 3 Punishing Fire, 1 Spellbomb, 4 Dark Depths, 1 Tabernacle, 1 Maze of Ith

In – 2 Valakut Exploration, 2 Force of Vigor, 2 Surgical, 4 Endurance

My sideboard is full of graveyard hate and the two Valakut Exploration are exceptionally good in this matchup. I’m feeling pretty confident overall.

I keep a pretty slow 7 with multiple green sources, Loam, and Valakut Exploration, but no acceleration. I get pretty lucky though and draw an Exploration on my second turn. My opponent plays a Retrofitter Foundry and a Sylvan Library, but I’m soon running away with it as Valakut Exploration finds me a second regular Exploration. They don’t have the Force of Vigor they’d need and even though they Boseiju my VE, I’ve got Loam, Map, and multiple Sagas going off on them. They scoop before I make the first construct.

In the third game, my hand has Crucible, Rotation, Endurance, Diamond, Wasteland, Maze, and Blast Zone. This hand has answers to anything the opponent can do and has its own engines as well. Not broken, but solid.

My opponent kindly fixes my mana by playing a Yavimaya, but they also have the perfect mirror start of Exploration plus Loam. Luckily my Endurance puts an end to their Loam and they’re left with 1 card and an assortment of lands in play, none of which really do anything. When they play a Saga to get something going, I have Force of Vigor plus a now-endless stream of Wastelands thanks to Crucible.

They do draw their own Endurance, but they can’t endure the endless stream of robots. Another victory for the deer (cow?). 3-0

Round 4 – Jeskai Hullday / Daybreacher / Narset’s Undoing / whatever

Does this deck have a name yet? Does it deserve one? I leave those questions to those wiser than I. All I know is that it’s a deck that plays Swords to Plowshares and can’t kill me very fast.

In game 1 I keep a 6 with Crop Rotation, Crucible, Diamond, Port, Fetch, and Dark Depths. They lead on a Scalding Tarn, so I lead on Port + Diamond. On their second turn, they play another fetchland, and this one is Arid Mesa (the worst fetchland in all Jeskai decks). On their end step I port their Tarn. They oblige me by fetching a basic Island.

My turn two sees me drawing a Diamond so that I’m able to play a Crucible with mana to spare. They fetch a Tundra with their Mesa in order to clear a Brainstorm. So here’s the board at the end of that turn:

What’s the play? You could just grind out value with the Saga and hold the Crop Rotation for down the road. However, with Crucible in play, it’s valuable to keep your opponent off 3 colors of mana, because then they can’t cast Prismatic Ending to destroy it.

So in their upkeep, I rotate my Port into a Wasteland and tag their Tundra. That means that they will not hit a third color for the turn and Crucible will live to see another day. They respond by casting a Snapcaster for their Brainstorm, which strikes me as a slightly desperate move. My suspicions are confirmed when they pass through their turn without another land drop, and the Brainstorm sits there uncast. At that point the game is essentially over and they scoop.

Out – 1 Crop Rotation, 1 Life from the Loam, 1 Tabernacle, 1 Depths, 1 Shadowspear, 1 Maze of Ith

In – 3 Pyroblast, 1 Field of the Dead, 2 Valakut Exploration

My opener has Exploration, Pyroblast, and Field of the Dead, plus a pile of other lands. Pretty solid. However, I don’t have enough colored mana to play Exploration with Blast to protect it, so it gets countered.

From there, the game moves along slowly, with me porting them and inching up to 7 land names. I also assemble the combo along the way, but I can’t port them entirely off of white so I don’t go for it since I want the land names. Unfortunately, despite several layers of interaction (Pyrite Spellbomb is great) they eventually do their whole Narset + Day’s Undoing thing. Which isn’t really a huge deal since they already had 6 cards and I was on 3.

I’m starting to make zombies and getting close to taking them off white altogether when they land a Blood Moon. I actually have reasonable outs to that with 3 Map and a Boseiju, but then they steal my Mox with Dack. I’m a bit over it at that point so I figure we’ll just go to game 3 and I’ll bring in some Force of Vigors.

My game 3 hand again has Exploration and Pyroblast, but the rest are 5 lands with no real engine. I have a Depths but no Stage, and no other payoffs. However, the matchup is pretty slow so I figure I can just ride it out and hope to draw into something. I’ve got 1 Field, 4 Saga, 4 Stage, 3 Map, and 3 Crop Rotation, after all, and any of them would turn this hand into something reasonable.

Exploration resolves and my deck shows me the love by giving me a Field and a Stage. Soon I’m making zombies like no one’s business and my opponent can’t tap out because I’ll Lage ’em. When Loam joins the party, they pack it up. 4-0

Round 5 – Doomsday

I’m getting worried because I notice the names that are undefeated are almost all combo players. And as luck would have it, I have to play against Doomsday this round. Just the normal turbo kind, not the fancy Murktide kind, but still.

I know what my opponent is on, so I keep a hand that makes a turn 3 20/20. This is a little slow, however, since the doomsday clock ticks to midnight on turn 2. So they resolve Doomsday and have basic Island and basic Swamp in play. From here, the highlight of this game was me spending 5 minutes clicking my Boseiju wondering why I couldn’t tag their basic Island with it. I even restarted my client thinking something must be wrong. Eventually I asked my opponent, “is there any reason I wouldn’t be able to channel Boseiju here?”

“My lands are basics, so, you can’t target me with that,” they say.

Wow I’m dumb. Lage will not answer the prayers of her idiot apostle, and she’s still a turn away when Thassa’s Oracle foretells my demise.

Out – 3 Punishing Fire, 2 Life from the Loam, 2 Maze, 1 Karakas, 1 Tabernacle, 1 Bog, 1 Crucible, 1 Exploration

In – 3 Pyroblast, 4 Endurance, 2 Surgical Extraction, 2 Force of Vigor, 1 Pithing Needle

My opener threatens Lage on turn 3 and has Endurance. Snap keep. You’ve probably noticed that I look at every opener and think about when it makes Lage. With this many Crop Rotations and Maps in the deck, basically every opener can summon the Witch, it’s just a matter of when. A good thing to be aware of, especially in combo matchups.

I do some cute Port stuff, and even play an Urza’s Saga, and on the turn the cast Doomsday, I’m ready to rotate for Depths and summon our Dark Queen. Who’s doom is it now, huh??

Unfortunately, that question remains undecided, since they have a Force of Will for my Crop Rotation. I use the floating mana to copy my Port so now I have two of them. When a Wasteland joins the party, I’m able to keep them to no lands in their main phase. Apparently they weren’t anticipating this and they scoop.

In game 3 I’m on the draw and I have a turn 2 Marit Lage backed up by Endurance. My opponent mulligans to five cards and I start to think I might finally win a match against this godforsaken deck.

Their five-card hand has turn 1 Ritual into Doomsday. They have Force for my Endurance and Marit Lage is a turn too slow. 4-1

Round 6 – Reanimator

It was a bit of a bad beat but well, we never really expected to win. I shake it off and focus in. This round for sure we’ll get paired against Delver and it’ll be a walk in the park.

No such luck. I’m on the draw an my opponent leads on a Chancellor trigger. Which is unfortunate because my hand is actually pretty solid against Reanimator – I’ve got two Crop Rotations. But it’s no use, I can’t cast them in time. They reanimate a Chancellor, which is more or less fine – I’ll have Lage next turn. But then they get a Griselbrand, and then Griselbrand brings his kids from Korlis to visit him. It’s a whole thing. I die wrapped up in Tendrils of Agony.

Out – 3 Punishing Fire, 1 Crucible, 1 Spellbomb, 1 Maze, 1 Blast Zone, 1 Shadowspear, 1 Tabernacle

In – 2 Force of Vigor, 4 Endurance, 2 Surgical Extraction, 1 Pithing Needle

Of all the combo decks, Reanimator is one that I actually feel my sideboard can do decently well against. I’ve got a lot of turn zero interaction, and Lage is still a 20/20 at the end of the day.

I’m on the play and my seven has Crop Rotation plus a Diamond. I keep this knowing that I can beat a Chancellor, but not discard + turn 1 reanimation. My opponent has the discard, so I use the Crop Rotation to get a Karakas. They don’t seem to have anything to reanimate, though, since they cast Faithless Looting and put nothing in their yard.

They continue loot and sometimes destroy my artifacts with Shenanigans, all while I’m slowly assembling my own combo and drawing a Surgical to back me up. I get there first and create Marit Lage, a 20/20 black Avatar creature token with flying and indestructible.

So now it’s game three and I’m on the draw. Showtime! My 7 has Crop Rotation, Exploration, Endurance, Dark Depths, and a bunch of lands, including a green source. That’s turn two Marit Lage with two pieces of interaction for you viewers at home. We keep those.

My opponent mulls to 5 and opens on Faithless Looting, pitching Griselbrand and passing the turn with three cards in hand. I weigh my options.

We could play Taiga into Exploration and hit their Badlands with a Wasteland. This would leave us with only one layer of protection since we won’t have any green mana so we couldn’t cast Endurance and Crop Rotation. But it puts them on 1 land so they’d need exactly Reanimate or else some free mana to do anything exciting.

I take a safer route and just play Taiga and pass. That play lets you beat discard + reanimation, and stopping them from reanimating is probably good enough to buy you the turns it takes to make Lage.

As it happens, they don’t have discard, they just have Exhume. I evoke Endurance, and then Exhume it back. A few turns later we win. 5-1

Round 7 – Reanimator

My breakers are great (my Doomsday loss is the only undefeated player), so 5-2 should make it. But no one likes betting on breakers, so lets do this. Luckily, I know what my opponent is on. I also know they’re a master so… it won’t be easy!

I mull to 5 trying to find a Crop Rotation. They discard it. Listen, it’s Reanimator, no one wins game one, lets all just move on.

Out – 3 Punishing Fire, 1 Crucible, 1 Spellbomb, 1 Maze, 1 Blast Zone, 1 Shadowspear, 1 Tabernacle

In – 2 Force of Vigor, 4 Endurance, 2 Surgical Extraction, 1 Pithing Needle

I start game 2 with a Surgical Extraction and an Exploration, plus Stage, Port, Wasteland, and Taiga. Plenty of mana denial, good outs to find the combo, and some interaction. Solid.

I lead on just Taiga in order to represent Crop Rotation, since they don’t have any lands in play yet for me to kill. They seem to want to take it slow, just playing a fetchland and a petal. Over the next few turns I port their fetch and they sac it. Eventually they go for it but I still have the Surgical so I tag their Griselbrand and summon the Witch on the next turn. Just how we drew it up.

In game 3 hand is weird but pretty strong I think?

We can’t really make mana very well, but we have two forms of free interaction. I keep.

My opponent is on the play and leads on the classic Swamp into Ritual into Entomb into Animate Dead on Griselbrand. I have the Surgical and I see their hand – Faithless Looting, Reanimate, and a fetchland.

On my turn I needle their fetchland (no need to needle Griselbrand any longer). I draw into Ports and Sagas and there is some token defense from my opponent but the game is essentially over. 6-1 and locked for top 8.

Quarterfinals – Reanimator

I’m ecstatic to be in the top 8, but playing against Reanimator again is a bit much. I guess all the blue players are in Philly so the combo kids are running the Challenge.

I know what I’m up against and I mull to 4 to find anything reasonably fast in game 1. They have discard plus turn 1 Griselbrand. Woooo. Hopefully they spent their luck on this and I can take the next two.

Out – 3 Punishing Fire, 1 Crucible, 1 Spellbomb, 1 Maze, 1 Blast Zone, 1 Shadowspear, 1 Tabernacle

In – 2 Force of Vigor, 4 Endurance, 2 Surgical Extraction, 1 Pithing Needle

My game two hand has Endurance and Crop Rotation, plus Depths, lands, and Exploration. Good to go. They loot some creatures away and then cast a discard spell. I respond by getting rid of their graveyard. From there they have Serenity, which is pretty great against my Diamond + Saga, but they aren’t really able to put a lot else together. I make Lage and win.

It’s time for game three and my initial 7 has no interaction. My 6 has Crop Rotation but no green mana. My 5 and my 4 have nothing but lands and Force of Vigors. I finally end up keeping a 3 card hand of Yavimaya, Crop Rotation, Thespian’s Stage, and a vial of my mother’s tears, cried over her son’s brutal defeat in the quarterfinals of the 2/13/22 Legacy Challenge.

I lose. My breakers are still great, so I end up in 5th place. Good enough for me. 6-2.

Final Thoughts

Although the matchups weren’t exactly ideal, we still managed to pull out a decent finish. And while the event was overshadowed (rightly) by the Legacy 10k in Philadelphia, 5th out of 93 people is still a solid showing.

I know I say this all the time, but Lands feels like a great deck to be on right now. We won the 2/12/22 Challenge and had two players in the top 8 of this one. A big part of this of course is that combo continues to be at an all time low. The most common combo deck, Reanimator, is the one that we’ve historically been fine against, and with the right sideboard we can consistently beat them if we want to. Doomsday is played only by a few eccentric masters who sleep under waterfalls, and Storm is basically dead except for Bryant Cook, who will keep winning events with it because he doesn’t just sleep under waterfalls, he is the waterfall.

Despite all the combo in this specific event, I have no regrets playing a list without Spheres, and I actually loved how streamlined the deck felt in my matches. I’d run back the same 75 again in the next event, though maybe I’d find room for the second Boseiju.

Thanks as always to the whole Lands community for being amazing and especially to Tim for lending me the 4th Endurance. Much love to all the legacy players out there and don’t forget to live, laugh, and loam.

The Tournament

Last time that I played in a Showcase Challenge was in June 2021 just after MH2 had been released. This was 8-9 months ago! I have a real itch to get back into these big tournaments, and I have therefore chosen to dedicate Season 2 of Competitive Lands to demonstrate how I prepare for such a tournament. We will cover the following topics in this season:

• How to articulate a Dream and set Goals. 
• How to manage your data. 
• Your testing plan and time management.
• Macro Strategies for common matchups.
• Decklist & Sideboarding.
• Mental Health and Exercise.

The tournament that I am preparing for is the Legacy Showcase Challenge that takes place on the 10th of April 2022. I hope that you will enjoy seeing me prepare. This intro article is also available as a video in case you prefer that medium.

Goals vs Dreams

I define a goal as something that you want achieved and where you have full control of its outcome. I define a dream as something that you want achieved but where you don’t have full control of its outcome. 

For example if someone says “I want to be well prepared for the tournament” then they are expressing a goal because if they put in enough work then they will be well prepared. It is within their own control whether or not they will achieve this goal. But if someone says “I want to Top 8 the tournament” then they are expressing a dream because it’s not fully within their control if they will Top 8 any given tournament. They will in fact need a fair share of luck in order to make a Top 8 even if they are a very good player.

Why do they need to get lucky in order to Top 8? If you look at the best Legacy players online their long term winrate is between 60% and 70%. In order to Top 8 an eight round tournament you need to go 7-1 or 8-0 (some players sneak in at 6-2 but let’s ignore that for now) and you therefore need a winrate of +87.5% for this given tournament. If we assume that you have 65% probability to win every match, and that the outcome of each match is independent of each other, then the probability that you go 7-1 or better is 17% (this is calculated as 8 * (0.65^7 * 0.35) + 0.65^8). Seventeen percent is far from a safe bet and as you can see you will need to get lucky in order to Top 8 a tournament (but if you play in 5-6 tournaments per year then you will on average get one Top 8 every year). 

This does not mean that you should not work hard towards realizing your dream. If you don’t prepare then you will not have a 65% winrate. Your winrate will more likely be close to 50% and now your probability to Top 8 an eight round tournament drops from 17% to 4%. 

My Dream and Goals

I have formulated the following dream and goals for Season 2 of Competitive Lands. 

My dream is to qualify for the Legacy Showcase Qualifier in June. This will be achieved if I Top 8 one of the next two Showcase Challenges or if I go 5-0 in one of the Last Chance Prelims.

In order to maximize my chances to realize this dream I have put up the following goals for myself. I will try to complete these goals before the Showcase Challenge on the 10th of April.

Strategy Goals

First step to get an edge over the field is to have a good estimate of what “the field” will be and then to register 75 cards that are well equipped to beat the expected top decks. It’s also important to know your role(s) against these decks. I have defined the following strategy goals to help me achieve this:

• Estimate the winner’s meta prior to the tournament.
• Have a decklist and sideboard that is tuned for the winner’s meta.
• Know the macro strategy for all big matchups (>5% metashare).

Gameplay Goals

Macro strategy is very important but it’s also important to get the basic gameplay right. Most games of magic are won by the player who makes the fewest mistakes. We make thousands of micro decisions in a tournament and there are plenty of opportunities to make bad plays and mess things up. I have set the following goals to help me  improve my basic gameplay:

• Practice all big matchups (>5% metashare).
• Be conscious about when to play using intuition and when to stop up and think. 
• Do a coaching session with Jarvis Yu where we go over replays of one of my tournaments. I hope to get into a process where I am able to spot and learn from my mistakes and also get some tools to minimize doing bad plays. 

Mental Goals

In the math example that I gave above I did a simplification that you had a 65% winrate in every match. In reality your winrate changes from match to match. Two things that influence this is of course your matchup and your opponent but these factors are out of your control. Another thing that influences your winrate is your mental stamina. I have lost many late round matches against good matchups where I was tired and made bad plays. Likewise I have won many times when I felt fit and where my opponent messed things up. I have defined the following goals to ensure that my mental stamina is on top for the tournament:

• Get regular exercise during Season 2 of Competitive Lands.  I want to run at least once per week.
• Ensure that my tournament weekends are not filled with mentally exhausting activities.
• Don’t “practice” too much. I especially don’t want to be jamming leagues, all night long, up to the event just to get mentally numb. 

Practice Plan

I don’t feel like playing too much before the new Channel Lands are available on MODO as I believe that these (in particular Boseiju, who Endures) will change how we build Lands. I do want to decide rather early what type of Lands deck that I will play and a key driver for this decision will be the control matchup. I will therefore schedule a dedicated testing session vs control already now in February. 

My aim is to be well prepared for the Showcase challenge on the 10th of April. There is also a Showcase challenge on the 6th of March and I will use this as a “practice round”. I don’t expect to be fully prepared for this tournament but I will play in it anyways, and I have also talked to Jarvis about having a coaching session afterwards to review my plays and give me advice on how to notice and correct in-game mistakes. 

I have a busy life with work and family but I will try to dedicate 1-2 nights each week to playing magic. Taking this into account I have created the following  plan for how to prepare for the tournament.

Week (starting with)	Actions
7th of February	Kick-Off.
14th of February	Choose target decks.
21th of February	Matchup-testing: Control.
28th of February	Build a sideboard map.
6th of March	Legacy Showcase Challenge (Practice Round).
7th of March	Coaching with Jarvis to review my play in the Showcase.
14th of March	Review of my deck choice.
21st of March	Legacy Prelim and / or matchup testing.
28th of March	Legacy Prelim and / or matchup testing.
4th of April	Review Sideboard map.
10th of April	Legacy Showcase Challenge (The Tournament)
11th of April	Last Chance Prelims

Final Words

I am super motivated to play in the Showcase circuit again and I hope that you will enjoy seeing me prepare for the Showcase Challenge on the 10th of April. I will do my best to achieve all goals that I have set out in this article, and I believe that this will give me the best chance to get lucky and realize my dream to qualify for the next Showcase Qualifier. 

As always the Competitive Lands project is a combination of articles, YouTube videos and live discussions in Discord. You can use this link to find all places where I post my content. 

Thanks for reading!