Legionnaire Night 4: MTG Literally Underground

After weeks of anticipation, Legionnaire Night 4 was held on Friday, December 3 in the basement of my humble abode. Our ranks have grown by two members this calendar year, adding Jim Demko, who you might remember from such blog comments as these, and Greg Heier, who you probably don't remember from this video but is a longtime friend from the Columbus area. Also in attendance was Greg Carlino, an even longer-time friend who also happens to be one of the first two people I ever played Magic with back in 1994. Here's to new Legionnaires!

To recap where these events stand to this point, Legionnaire Night 1 (aka "Ice Age Night") is documented here. Legionnaire Nights 2 and 3 were held at the homes of Bill and Jim Casale, with each brother having epically failed to chronicle the evenings they hosted. At least Jimmy can claim having been on the cusp of fatherhood as his excuse. And Billy does make a good Food Network host.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but better still is a picture that contains a thousand words. Here's the tournament flyer invitees received in the mail:

(Front)

(Back)

As the goal of the event was to emulate December of 1994, I enacted a rule that no discussion could take place over mediums not readily available at that time. So "snail mail" and phone calls were allowed, along with "electronic E-Mail," but text, mobile platforms and the like were strictly off limits. While I did have to go on a Discord message purge once or twice, the overall effect had participants calling "Basement Level Games" for tournament questions and discussion. I even received messages like this on my answering machine:

Pretty baller. And Jimmy C. certainly didn't bail on this commitment:

The night of the event, attendees started arriving an hour or two beforehand, and those who did conducted trades toward their various sets and sampled Jim Demko's latest homebrew, a lovely spiced Christmas Ale weighing in at a solid 12% ABV. Meanwhile, Billy C. and Khade duked it out in a best of three blue-on-blue casual duel that became far too gruesome to document.

Reenactment

Finally, when everyone was on hand, Basement Level Games opened its doors, and our hot tub time machine turned up its jets.

Main stage

Prize wall

Singles case

Door prizes

Contemporary tuneage

Partied out area

Players were assigned a random number to fill out the bracket, and the single-elimination portion of the evening commenced, with Jimmy C. and his Wanderlust/Thallid deck winning the first round bye. My weapon of choice:

Round 1

Opponent: Jim Demko

Legionnaire status: Elder Statesman, best beard

Deck: W/R Damage Control

Normally plays: B/G Demonic Hordes, G/U Combat Wombat

Result: I don't think either of us expected to open the event with one player at 44 life (Jim, thanks to an early Ivory Tower) and both players with Circles of Protection in play (he packed COP: Red to prevent Earthquake and Inferno damage), but that's exactly where we found ourselves. Pretty sure everyone else had both wrapped up their matches and unwrapped a half-dozen Reese's Peanut Butter Trees before we finished game 1; by the time all was said and done, my Conversion shut Jim off red both games and while he managed a bit of Reverse Damage and Eye for an Eye trickery, Karma eventually ate his life away in chunks. 2-0.

Round 2

Opponent: Greg Heier (aka Khade)

Legionnaire status: Mad scientist

Deck: Mono-black Spirits of the Night

Normally plays: Mono-blue Mindbender

Result: I went into the event knowing that any mono-black decks would probably take serious collateral damage from my four Karmas, and there ended up being two in the gauntlet. Greg had Bog Wraiths, Nightmares, and other terrifying implements of darkness, but in the end board wipes, counters, and taking one damage per turn for each land you control is a lot to overcome. 2-0.

Round 3

Opponent: Sean Duffy

Legionnaire status: OG Four Horsemen

Deck: U/R Counterburn and Friends

Normally plays: Ancestral Recall

Result: The finals! Sean's deck was a pretty strong dose of kryptonite for my game plan: a multicolor deck that shared one of my colors, counterspells, direct damage, colorless damage in the form of Juggernauts, and an efficient curve thanks to Dwarven Soldiers, Hurloon Minotaur, and Serendib Efreet. I'd been running cold most of the night in terms of opening hand potency, but managed to nab games 2 and 4 with early COP: Red and COP: Blue before congratulating Sean on his first black-bordered Legionnaire trophy. Though he did miss a perfect opportunity to yell "I'm going to Disney World!" in epic fashion (Sean and his wife were actually leaving for Disney the next day), he still managed to battle through each of the other three original AL members in grueling succession to secure the win. Nicely done! 2-3.

Match record: 2-1

Game record: 6-3

With the main tournament in the books, it was time to put it all out on the table (literally) in a seven-player free-for-all chaos match! This was as old school as it gets, with politicking, board wipes, heavy levels of salt, and mentions of "eel testicles" all present in abundance. My deck got off to a slow start, but I was able to convince everyone but the black decks that I wasn't too great a threat long enough to live through several turns. I did have to agree to Hack my first Karma as a negotiating tactic to stop taking damage from Mindstab Thrulls and Frozen Shades, and Jimmy's little green army drew the short end of the bargain before I was eliminated. Sean, ineligible to receive the Carrion Ants prize from having already won first place, used his spells to keep others in line while everyone else was trying to figure out which Jim or Greg was being referred to out of our full playset. In the end, Master Demko emerged from the chaos to claim the coveted Ants!

To he who has all the power...

The final order of the night was determining the creative winner, and the decision based on a blind vote was... me! I graciously accepted my second Legionnaire prize card, having previously climbed the black-border summit of Legionnaire Night 2, prevailing against host Bill Casale on Mirage Night.

Brothers in arms

A very honorable mention also goes out to Jim D. for supplying a custom set of Akron Legionnaire card sleeves, which were raffled off during the event by my and Greg C.'s daughters. I really can't say enough about the awesomeness of this group and its membership's mutual love for the game, and each other. Until next time!