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By: stsung, Ren Stefanek
Jun 21 2016 9:14pm
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This past weekend the first series of MKM Series 2016 was held in Frankfurt. I came there to play Vintage events but I also wanted to try Shardless BUG and use the Legacy tournaments as a training ground for the upcoming Legacy GP in Prague. Because my experience with the deck is not big and only comes from Magic Online I wanted to find out if I can actually pilot the paper version of the deck for 9 rounds while facing real life opponents.   

On Friday I played URw Delver in the Vintage event. My brain got used to playing the tempo deck and I did not need to worry much about cards like Wasteland, Daze or Stifle. Even though there were way more Wastelands in players' 75 cards than one would expect (even a Doomsday player sided these in often). I alone wished that my Dack Fayden cards would have been Wastelands. After my loss in the top 8 we left the site and decided to play a bit of Legacy.

Games against two different Show and Tell decks weren't much of a help for me because there wasn't much interaction. We both had rather clear lines of play. I either had my discard or counterspells or I simply died. My brain did not get the chance to switch fully to Legacy and I knew this would be a problem during Round 1 the next day. I hoped to play against something fair in round 1 so I could 'wake up'. I regretted not taking my notebook with me and went to sleep which was probably a wiser decision anyway since sleep is one of the things a player needs in order to stay focused.

When I entered the site in the afternoon I was flabbergasted by the sheer number of Modern players - we later found that the exact number was 617. I expected many players since already 500 of them were preregistered. I feared that our Legacy event wouldn't even fire because of that. There was simply no space for a 100+ event.

At the registration there was a sign that Legacy players should wait for an announcement so we waited in a line for quite some time. At least we knew that the event wouldn't be cancelled. Meanwhile I caught up with some Modern players and wanted to know how their tournament was going. After asking them what their record was I got answers like 'I lost' or 'I won' which seemed strange to me. One of the players who understood my puzzlement told me that they were playing Round 1. I expected them to be in Round 3 by now so I prepared myself for a very long wait (at least I could eat something before the tournament).

Sometime later there were rumors that we would be moved somewhere else and judges and other people started to move towards the entry/exit area. We were waiting in line and chatting about stuff. We met a very nice girl - Gaby - who came there to play in her first Legacy event so she was asking us some questions about organized play and whether she would need a decklist or not so we told her that it was the right time to start actually writing her decklist. We talked about Magic in our areas and then after what seemed to be ages the line started moving.

Eventually pairings were posted. We were told that we are playing in two rooms and that the starting numbers are actually different. After figuring out which of the numbers written on a piece of paper pretending to be our table numbers was correct we sat down and waited for an announcement. We did not learn much from the announcement. Our decklists were collected and after that we could start our first match.

I played the exact Shardless BUG list I have on Magic Online. While thinking about playing a Legacy League I was tempted to add more basic lands and cut Wasteland. Fortunately (maybe I was just a coward) I entered the League without changing my deck in the end and went 5-0. I did not need any other basic and I liked my 4 Wastelands. I was actually in few scenarios in which a Basic Forest on the table would mean a loss for me. The reason why I chose to play Shardless BUG is because it is ok-good against Delver decks and Eldrazi is an easy matchup. I expected these two decks to be the most played decks at big events. Followed by Miracles, BUG and ANT. After seeing the metagame breakdown I wasn't far from the truth. There were 60 Delver decks followed by 37 Eldrazi decks (out of 432 players, MKM states 409 decklists though?). What I found interesting after checking the data is that in both Vintage and Legacy events there was relatively high number of hatebear decks (either mono white or GWx) - 28 or so in Legacy.

There was one more thing I feared. Since my experience with playing the deck comes from Online I wasn't sure if I could deal with my triggers and such. Not that there would be many of them. There were other things as well. Seeing P/T of Tarmogoyf is something I got used to. And of course I totally messed up playing Toxic Deluge IRL that was supposed to kill Tarmogoyf. I had more problems with following what my opponent did and if the play is legal or not. There were few things that shouldn't have happened but neither me or my opponent realized that when it was happening. Due to this I had way more information to process and it was rather exhausting.

In round 1 I faced Grixis Delver which satisfied my condition of a fair legacy deck and a good match up for me. My opponent started with a fetchland and Delver of Secrets. I tried to wake up my brain to figure out what should I do with the creature and Wasteland that could follow next turn. Even though I was well aware that my Disfigure could get Daze'ed and my land Wasteland'ed I just ran headfirst into this scenario. It was difficult for me to switch from Vintage to Legacy environment and I was punished hard for that. After this awesome misplay I destroyed one Delver out of two and tried to race back with my Tarmogoyf that I managed to play before my green source was destroyed. My hand consisted of Abrupt Decay that could deal with Delver of Secrets but I fetched for UB and GB land instead of fetching Tropical Island and Bayou (I had Underground Sea in my hand). The game wasn't lost yet though. I still had the possibility to draw a green source or Deathrite Shaman which could save me. This scenario did not happen though and all I could do was blame myself for not fetching Tropical Island. The second game was not any better or rather I could have won but I messed up losing an important card in the process that could have won me the game. My opponent knew that and actually seemed to be ok with me taking the play back but I just let it go and hoped that this would be enough of a wakeup call so I wouldn't screw up this badly in the following rounds.

After our result slip was signed my opponent asked me about what cards he should have sided in. I told him that being the aggressor and winning early is the way to beat Shardless BUG and wished him good luck in following rounds.

In round 2 I played against Lands. I played against some Lands online so I wasn't really afraid of the match up. The match did not go according to how I envisioned it though. Game 1 I played Deathrite Shaman hoping it would deal with annoying lands (their recursion). My opponent played Gamble tutoring Punishing Fire that I managed to discard fortunately. I used Wasteland on my opponent's Grove of the Burnwillows and he tried to get the Punishing Fire back so I let Deathrite Shaman transform the Fire into loss of 2 life for my opponent. This mistake put my opponent on tilt a bit but otherwise he continued drawing something and passing the turn. For the rest of the game I did not draw any other creature whatsoever so I tried to ping my opponent to death which was rather slow (I had to discard my own cards in order to do so). Unfortunately for me my opponent managed to draw Dark Depths. Then he played Crop Rotation that I couldn't counter. He fetched for Thespian's Stage and killed me the following turn with Marit Lage. In the following game I had Wasteland and Deathrite Shaman already in my opener and I drew another Deathrite Shaman. My first Deathrite Shaman was targeted with Punishing Fire so I Force'ed the Fire hoping to remove the card from the game next turn. I drew the second Shaman, played Wasteland, destroyed the tapped Grove of the Burnwillows and removed the Fire from the game. Next my opponent played Life from the Loam getting back a fetchland I did not really care about. Next turn I played Deathrite Shaman, removed Loam from the game. All this practically left my opponent powerless. I won the game soon later. In the deciding game I kept a hand with Life from the Loam, Underground Sea, Tarmogoyf, Force of Will and Ancestral Vision. I did not want to mulligan again. I just hoped 'luck' would provide me with a green source and I would be fine. My opponent played Mox Diamond that I countered and he passed the turn. I drew Wasteland and played it. My opponent played a nonbasic land so I destroyed it. Our sources were equal so it seemed ok. I did not want him to play Gamble or Crop Rotation. My next draw was also Wasteland so I played it. My opponent played Tranquil Thicket as his next land - he was obviously top decking lands and was quite desperate. I destroyed the land and then we stared at each other trying to find a land (my opponent needed a red source and I needed a green one). I was the first one to draw my wished for source. I played Tarmogoyf and started swinging for 3. I hoped my green source would stay in play but it was destroyed. I had to wait for another green source to appear so I could play Life from the Loam and screw my opponent. I drew the source, played Loam got my Bayou and Wastelands back and continued attacking my opponent's mana base (or rather kept him from any source). Achievement unlocked, I beat a Lands player with lands.

Round 3 did not look good at all for me. Whenever my opponent starts with Veteran Explorer and Cabal Therapy it does not usually end well for me if I am on Shardless BUG. Any Nic Fit like deck is pretty bad matchup. I tried to play some creatures and keep some in my hand and attack or try to remove some creatures from the graveyard but after my board was wiped via Pernicious Deed 3 times I knew I couldn't win or even come close to something that could be considered a good game. My opponent was actually piloting BUG Pod. During one of the games he played Meren of Clan Nel Toth. It wasn't such a nightmare as Recurring Nightmare yet but it meant I would just terribly die soon. I asked him if I could take a picture before scooping.

I think that describing how the following game went is not necessary. I got crushed without being able to do anything. I really needed Deathrite Shaman or graveyard hate. But all the cards I needed were also Abrupt Decay targets or could be destroyed with Pernicious Deed or Engineered Explosives. My board was wiped several times, I couldn't deal with the creature recursion. I managed to play 3 Deathrite Shamans but I did not get to use any of them as they ended up either Disfigured or Abrupt Decayed. This was my second loss meaning I wouldn't get any prizes but I wanted to continue playing and get as much experience as I could.

For the following round I had to move to the 'losers' room with the higher numbers tables. I expected an unlucky opponent or someone not being that good so I wasn't sure how much of a game my following match would be. My opponent started with Bloodstained Mire into Volcanic Island and played Brainstorm. It seemed I would have to face Storm or some desperate Grixis Delver player which seemed unlikely since he kept his first hand (I just hoped for that).

When Lotus Petal appeared on the table I knew that I really faced Storm and that I won't be able to do anything since I had no Force of Will in my hand. He played a few spells and Empty the Warrens. I was looking at my hand with Deathrite Shaman and Shardless Agent and tried to calculate the damage I would take taking into account the fact that I could gain some life. I came to the conclusion that the goblins wouldn't be able to kill me since there was already a creature in the graveyard that I could eat and gain 2 life. The math worked out in my favor so I continued in the game. Two turns later I even drew Maelstrom Pulse making it way easier for me (seemingly I did not need the card but Tendrils could still kill me) and then I dealt the remaining damage with my creatures. My opponent could have waited for a Dark Ritual to kill me with lethal Tendrils of Agony but fortunately for me this did not happen. In the next game I sided in 10 cards that could help me against Storm and hoped for some discard to show up. It did. I had Hymn to Tourach and Thoughtseize in my opener and I even top decked a second Hymn. I played the first Hymn to Tourach and Thoughtseize stripping my opponent of more or less everything. My opponent had LED and Lotus Petal but couldn't win unless he would have drawn few relevant cards and a Tutor.

After I won against the ANT player I moved once again to the bigger room. My opponent looked tired and he admitted that he's too old for all that waiting and bad organization of the event. I wasn't particularly pleased with the organization of the Vintage event nor the event I was enrolled in but I did not want that to spoil my mood. When I came to the site earlier that day I was really afraid the event would be cancelled so I was glad we could actually participate in the tournament even with a few hours delay. But the wait was long and I encountered several people that had to drop because they needed to get home.

After our short chat we started playing. My opponent played a fetchland getting Volcanic Island and played Lightning Bolt targeting Deathrite Shaman that I played on my turn. I expected him to run either Patriot aggro or some UWR Stoneblade. I haven't seen any Delver but Stoneforge Mystic soon hit the table and found GP Promo Batterskull that was easily recognizable from the rest of the cards. I dealt with Mystic so I wouldn't need to face Batterskull next turn. In the meantime for some reason blue cards decided to amass in my hand including 3 Force of Will. All the spells I needed to deal with ended up countered, my opponent shaking his head in disbelief (I was honestly feeling for him since Shardless BUG players hardly have blue cards in their hands). In the second game I dealt with a few Mystics. My die roll decided that one of the randomly discarded cards was Batterskull. I knew that my opponent has True-Name Nemesis and (Blood Moon) in his hand but I couldn't deal with both. For a while I at least tried avoiding the Blood Moon fate with the help of my Wastelands destroying Volcanic Islands. My opponent played True-Name Nemesis off his Tundra and two Islands. I couldn't counter it so it started attacking me a turn later. I managed to discard my opponent's hand containing Swords to Plowshares and Blood Moon but it did not really help me deal with TNN already in play. My opponent then top decked Sword of Fire and Ice and killed me a turn earlier so I did not get my last chance to draw Liliana of the Veil. In the deciding game I simply had everything and I did not expect to lose the game. I got all the answers I needed and my opponent just couldn't keep up. Meanwhile I managed to find Tarmogoyf and actually dealt those 20 damage with it (that does not usually happen since it is primary STP target. In game 1 my 3 Tarmogoyf were removed from the game by that card. My opponent also played Snapcaster Mages so I knew that my creatures wouldn't probably deal much damage).

Round 6 was my lucky round. I played against Elves. I don't really have much experience playing against this deck with Shardless BUG. I won by pure luck or variance as you wish. My opponent started with few creatures - Nettle Sentinel, Deathrite Shaman and Quirion Ranger. I knew that the Deathrite Shaman and Nettle Sentinel would deal some damage but first I needed to deal with cards in my opponent's hand. Playing against someone in top deck mode seemed better to me. He had 3 cards in his hand. I played Hymn to Tourach hoping to discard something relevant. My die roll decided that the discarded cards would be Bayou and Natural Order. Since I had no counterspell in hand I was happy to see Natural Order discarded. My opponent either top decked an elf or Glimpse of Nature then. He played the Glimpse followed by the elf but he passed the turn obviously not drawing another creature. I got rid of Deathrite Shaman and later the other two creatures and beat him later with creatures of my own.

Next game I had Grafdigger's Cage, Abrupt Decay, Golgari Charm and Disfigure in my hand so I felt pretty safe. My opponent was not really happy because I killed all his elves he played. I even destroyed the lone Birchlore Rangers so it wouldn't get sacrificed to a possible Natural Order. Glad I decided to do it because my opponent showed me his hand revealing the Order. Tarmogoyf did the rest. Last round awaited us all and I wondered what I would play against. There were some Show and Tells in my vicinity and I wasn't looking forward to playing against that.

In round 7 I knew that no matter if I win I won't be in top 16 since I lost the first round but I still wanted to win for the sake of a good feeling. The player I played against was sitting next to me in one of the previous rounds so I tried to remember what he played. He played t1 Aether Vial which was enough for me to remember that I saw him play Bant Slivers. How such deck could be so high was something many people would probably ask. It was my own thought as well. I used to play UWb Counter slivers years ago and I thought the deck's glory was past and that was my opinion for a long time. But I was still willing to defend the viability of the deck by accepting a bet that I would 3-1 or 4-0 a daily with it. I thought that it was one of my most stupid Magic bets ever but I build Bant Slivers and tried. 3 slivers that can pump my creatures and Galerider Sliver seemed to be good enough to deal with the most played decks - Miracles and all kinds of Delver decks. I put 4 Chalice of the Void in the deck because I had no idea what I would be doing against Storm. Show and Tell seemed even (at least in theory). By some luck I won the tournament but I admitted then that I wouldn't bring the deck to a big tournament nonetheless. This was a good experience though because I saw the deck actually work and I even won against Merfolk (not playing a single Island) that are considered a better choice. After remembering this experience I decided not to underestimate the Sliver deck nor its pilot.

I Decay'ed the first Vial just to stare at another Aether Vial the following turn. Then my opponent played/put in play some creatures. I managed to deal with them because there was no Crystalline Sliver that would ruin my plans (meaning that my only viable removal was Liliana of the Veil). I managed to resolve Jace, the Mind Sculptor which helped me win the game later. In game 2 though I had to face Muscle Sliver, Sinew Sliver, Crystalline Sliver and Galerider Sliver. I had to race back. Racing 4 relatively big creatures with 1 Tarmogoyf did not seem good though. I drew Liliana of the Veil which allowed me to get rid of one of the creatures helping the math (since the worst creature was one of the pumping slivers). I also drew 2 Wastelands in a row that came right on time because my opponent had 2 Mutavaults in play. It was very close game but I managed to deal those 20 damage first thanks to Wasteland and Liliana. Even without Shardless Agent -> Tarmogoyf I would have certainly died to these little slick creatures.

Looking back at the tournament I have to admit that Tarmogoyf did a great job. I did not expect to win so many games because of Tarmogoyf. As for my triggers I managed to do well more or less but there were few things I messed up. I miscalculated Tarmogoyf losing a match and I did not realize that my opponent can't use Engineered Explosives while I had Null Rod in play even though I find myself in that situation quite often (on the other side of Null Rod though).

I waited for the results to see where my really bad tiebreakers would send me. I placed 24th having the worst tie breakers. Obviously my opponent's weren't doing that well. We left the site soon after that because it was already past midnight. I felt I could still possibly keep playing Magic without totally screwing up. I wasn't so sure about the next day's 10 round event though.

After three days of playing paper Magic all day and being in a place full of people I felt exhausted and I am still pretty tired while typing this report (I even had problems understanding my own notes). I was able to play ok on the last day to my surprise. My losses were against BUG Pod, Reanimator and the mirror. I somehow managed to beat a rather vast spectrum of decks. During some games I needed to be 'lucky', in other games it was my opponent being the lucky one. But the need of 2 wins in order to decide the winner balanced that variance quite a lot. This deck after sideboard becomes way better anyway. I lost two matches I couldn't have possibly won. I could have won the mirror match but I obviously can't concentrate for the full 50 minutes + additional turns. The deck is solid and certainly a fine choice for the upcoming GP so I will try my luck with it. I should see how this deck fares against Dredge and Burn and come up with a plan against UR Delver since I suspect many people coming with 'budget' decks.

MKM Series in Frankfurt was a really great event. This time it had a really big attendance and felt more like a GP. I spent wonderful time there, won some euros, played a lot, talked to other players and simply had fun. From time to time an in person tournament is a good thing.

Thank you for reading.