GP Columbus was my third ever Legacy event, and the first one that wasn't a local Wednesday night event. Given that I knew the format was too complicated for me to learn in the time I had, I was constrained to not play a combo or control deck since I wouldn't be able to pilot it correctly. So I had a friend give me a GoyfSligh list, which would catch unwary opponents with their pants down.

D.D.Dome

The D's also stand for Dome

Creatures 4 Wild Nacatl 4 Goblin Guide 4 Steppe Lynx 4 Tarmogoyf 3 Grim Lavamancer 2 Qasali Pridemage 21 cards Other Spells 4 Chain Lightning 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Rift Bolt 3 Price of Progress 2 Fireblast 2 Magma Jet 16 cards

Lands 4 Wooded Foothills 3 Bloodstained Mire 4 Arid Mesa 3 Taiga 3 Plateau 2 Mountain 1 Forest 20 cards Sideboard 4 Pyroblast 4 Path to Exile 3 Volcanic Fallout 2 Sulfuric Vortex 2 Pyrostatic Pillar 15 cards

D.D.Dome (The D's also stand for Dome.) operates on the concept of fast one drops followed up by burn. Goyf is a concession to other people having Goyfs and this deck needing a way to win the mirror. Pridemage and Lavamancer are utility creatures that dominate certain matchups, Lavamancer being unbeatable against Merfolk for example. The sideboard packs zero graveyard hate as I didn't expect Lands or Dredge to be consistent enough to be seen in the later rounds and I wanted the exact 15 I had to combat the decks I did expect to face. Pyroblast against Warmonk,Force of Will, Counterbalance, and Merfolk. Path against Goyf and Knight of Reliquary, Fallout against Goblins, Merfolk, and Dredge, Vortex against War Monk and Counterbalance, and Pillar against Loam and Storm.

I played in a Grinder on Friday, which wasn't that exciting. I Pyroblasted a Show and Tell to win round 1, then lost to Landstill in round 2, which is probably an unwinnable matchup. I shook it off and went to watch Kurtis win his grinder, concluding that even on zero byes I could day 2 since everyone was terrible.

Woke up bright and early, got some muffins and juice, and was ready to crush.

Round 1:
J Cruz with Dredge
Game 1: He mulligans to 4 on the play while I keep my 6. Since he mulled that far I immediately put him on Dredge and am not very happy to have gotten this pairing. The only spell he casts is a Putrid Imp around turn 4 and doesn't discard anything when I Magma Jet it to keep beating with creatures. He dies to 3 attacks from my guys and a Fireblast.

Sideboard: +3 Volcanic Fallout -3 Price of Progress
Dredge rarely gets above 2 lands in play, so Price is miserable. Fallout deals with Bridge tokens. I learned later to board in Path, but for the first Dredge match my lack of testing showed through.

Game 2: He plays Putrid Imp on 1. I play Goblin Guide and attack, and he declines to block. He discards Ichorid, Bridge, Stinkweed Imp, and Golgari Thug on my end step. He removes Thug to Ichorid and dredges Imp, missing on another Bridge or Therapy but hitting Narcomeba. He attacks for 4 and gets a Zombie. I don't attack again since I will lose the race if he declines to block and Guide trading with Zombie will remove his Bridge. He attacks for 5 next turn with his guys while I trade for token. EOT I bolt him twice. I suspend a Rift Bolt after Chain Lightning his face. He doesn't have a black creature to remove to Ichorid and only attacks me for 3 after Dredging and pumping Imp. I untap and dome him with more burn and he dies.

1-0

Round 2:
S. Sylvester with Monored
Game 1: I keep a hand with Nacatl, Goyf, and 2 bolts on the read he's playing burn. He opens on Mountain and I smile inside. He goes all in on a Kiln Fiend eventually making it a 10/2 and Fireblasting my Pridemage out of the way, and I Lightning Bolt it in combat. After this he has a Mountain in play against my Nacatl and Goyf and I'm at 14.

Sideboard: +4 Path -3 Price of Progress -1 Rift Bolt
Lavamancer stays since it's good against his creatures and demands a burn spell. Pridemage stays to provide an out to random Blood Moons.

Game 2: He doesn't Lavamancer my Goblin Guide when I'm at 18, instead deciding to shoot my face. I draw the Chain for his guy and can safely beat down with my motley crew after he's forced to Fireblast my Goyf.

2-0

Round 3:
M. Servis with Dredge
He drove me to the GP, so we knew each other's lists within a few cards.
Game 1: I mull to 5 and he mulls to 4. He doesn't do anything while I play Nacatl into Goyf and I kill him.

Sideboard: +4 Path +3 Fallout -3 Price -4 Rift Bolt
I chose to leave in Pridemage since he is the LED version of dredge so Pridemage isn't completely dead and can sometimes force him to dump his hand prematurely. Paths come in since they're a way to remove blockers without triggering his Bridge and provide an out to Iona or Blazing Archon.

Game 2: He passes the turn on 1. I play a Nacatl. He discards Grave-Troll on his turn. I attack and play some more guys. His Troll dredges into Gogalri Thug and 5 blanks, and he plays Underground Sea and passes. I attack and pass. His Thug misses on another dredger, so his Coliseum can't go nuts, and he taps it to play a Narcomeba to block. I attack him and burn him out.

3-0

Round 4:
C. Schuett with Survival Zoo 
Game 1: We have dueling Nacatls and they both get bolted after some attacks putting him at 14 and me at 10. He eventually fetches down to 13 with me holding 10 points of burn but I draw a Grim Lavamancer instead of any burn spell and die to his Survival'd up guys with haste due to Anger.

SB: -1 Grim Lavamancer -3 Price +4 Path
Price is miserable when your Zoo opponents play around it.

Game 2: I attack with Goblin Guide on 1 and he reveals a Kird Ape. He plays Savannah, Wild Nacatl on 1 so I know he doesn't have red mana since the Kird Ape would obviously be a better play. I Chain the cat, attack, and play Lynx. He plays Goyf. I pass upon drawing another bolt. He plays Survival and passes without a land drop. I EOT double Bolt him. I draw another bolt on my turn, and have bolt,bolt, Fireblast for exactsies.

Game 3:  He attacks me with Nacatl that I ignore and he kills my Nacatl after it attacks him once. He takes 3 from fetchlands and 14 from burn.

4-0

I was pretty happy starting 4-0 and beating 2 dredge decks with no graveyard hate. I also considered Survival Zoo to be a bad matchup but the guy had no fear and didn't have any lifegain in the board so he was actually in race mode against a deck with 12 bolts.

Round 5:
B Kovacs with Lands 
Game 1: I keep the one land nuts and get Ported for a few turns before being Wasted.

SB: +2 Sulfuric Vortex +2 Pyrostatic Pillar +4 Pryoblast -3 Grim Lavamancer -3 Rift Bolt -2 Goblin Guide
I wanted to leave in all the Magma Jets since they find Price and Vortex, which are important.

Game 2: I Chain him on 1 so my Goyf on 2 is bigger. I have the option of leaving up my Mountain since my Taiga is being Ported to hold up Pyroblast against Intuition, but I decide 2/3 Goyf wasn't fast enough of a clock so I add Goblin Guide too. He has the Intuition and also naturally draws Zuran Orb which is exactly fast enough to beat my Pillar and Price as I fail to draw Pridemage to blow up his Manabond in 4-5 turns.

4-1

Round 6:
J. Terry with CB Top. 
Game 1: He assembles a Moat on 4 and I lack the burn to beat it through Counterbalance lock.

SB: -3 Price -4 Chain Lightning -1 Lightning Bolt +4 Pyroblast +2 Vortex +2 Pillar
Rift Bolt stays in over Chain since it has cmc 3 which is better against Counterbalance.

Game 2: I Pyroblast his Counterbalance and he has to Enlightened Tutor for Circle of Protection: Red to not die to my Vortex and Pillar. I play a Nacatl and hit him down to 5 and he concedes. Even though he could still cast spells by CoP: Red on the Pillar.

Game 3: He plays fetch and I play Steppe Lynx. He EOT Tutors for CB and plays it. I play a Goblin Guide and he blind flips Top, and strands the other Lynx in my hand. I can't break through the CB Top lock and die after my Lynx gets removed. If I was on the play he was dead on 3. Should win more die rolls.

4-2

So now at 4-2 I have to win out. Got some food with a few friends and chilled out for a bit. Refocused and ready to dome people out.

Round 7:
M. Sprague with Goblins 
Game 1: He plays Lackey, go. I play Goblin Guide, go. He misses on land and passes back. I should've just played Chain Lightning on the Lackey instead, since by playing Guide I'm vulnerable to cycled Gempalm Incinerator or Stingscourger. I play a second Guide and attack, revealing land + Stingscourger. I Chain the Lackey post combat. He plays Stingscourger and bounces a Guide. I play Goyf and Nacatl and pass back. His guy dies since he can't pay echo and he concedes.

Sideboard: +3 Fallout -3 Price

Game 2: He has Lackey on 1 which meets a main phase Bolt. The game progresses with him having some more guys and my Nacatl being bigger than all of them. He eventually gets Basilisk Collar(!) Warren Instigator online, and I path his Chieftain, block with Nacatl, and use Pridemage to shoot the Collar.  He has cycled Incinerator to kill the Nacatl. At the end of that turn it's his 2 Warchief and Instigator vs my Steppe Lynx. But he's at 5. I draw Lavamancer and Chain Lightning in my next two turns while he gets to Instigator in a Lackey and play Aether Vial.

5-2

Round 8:
A. Boswell with Merfolk 
Game 1: I play Nacatl on 1 and Lavamancer on 2 playing around Daze and he dies promptly as he missed on FoW from his Standstill so all the cards he drew just died to Lavamancer.

SB: -3 Price -4 Rift Bolt +3 Fallout +4 Pyroblast

Game 2: I get into a position where I know there's a Reejery on top of his library from a Goblin Guide attack. I'm at 13 and have a fetchland that I can use with Lynx to put him to 3. I also have an active Lavamancer so this leaves him dead next turn. I miscalculate the Mutavault as being the correct size by just assuming it would be the same size as the lords, which is obviously wrong. This leads me to not break the fetch to avoid going to 12 and he goes to 5. He plays Reejery and attacks me, leaving back 2 guys. I draw a Pridemage and die.

Game 3: My Lavamancer on 1 is Forced. My Lavamancer on 2 resolves and he loses.

6-2
Yay Grim Lavamancer earning your place in the deck!

Round 9:
R. Castellon with Dredge.
Game 1: He kills me on turn 3.

Sideboard: +4 Path +3 Fallout -3 Price -2 Rift Bolt -2 Pridemage
Lavamancers stay in since they can commit suicide to remove Bridges. Pridemage leaves since he didn't have any targets and it would just be a 2/2.

Game 2: His outlet is a Putrid Imp which doesn't do a whole lot after I bolt my own Goblin Guide in response to the 2 Bridge triggers from him casting Cabal Therapy with Flashback. He sees lethal burn and concedes. This game was awkward since my 2 lands were Forest and Plateau which while fully powering up Nacatl didn't let me cast Fireblast.

Game 3: He plays turn 1 Therapy targeting himself discarding Stinkweed Imp. The rest of his hand is Breakthrough, 2 Chain of Vapor, Bridge. Man, if only those Chains were the cards that he boarded out I might've died. He dredges Imp next turn and hits Troll. His Breakthrough for x=0 dredges Troll, which hits another Bridge and an Ichorid but no other Dredgers. He draws 3 more and discards his hand. From this position I punt by playing Goyf instead of just Pathing his Ichorid next turn. Because of my misplay he's able to Flashback Therapy on me, miss, then Therapy me twice more with his tokens taking Fallout and Bolt. I rip the Chain and kill my Nacatl after attacking to remove his Bridges. I path his Ichorid on his upkeep and he dies after his dredge was not 3 Narcomebas to Dread Return Ancestor's Chosen.

7-2

So I made day 2 after 3-0'ing Dredge with no graveyard hate. Michael was the only opponent that didn't sideboard since he knew I had no hate. The other two had the fear and boarded in Chain of Vapors and Ancient Grudge which diluted their combo enough for me to "combo" them first with guys and burn.

I was pretty happy after getting my first Day Two and had a pretty awesome dinner with fellow GP'ers. Stories plus Day Two report next time!