Ride the Lightning

Ice Age Night

September 13, 2019
Matt's basement, Hudson, OH
Players: 4
Rounds: 3 (+Multiplayer Madness, +Finals)
Mutilated ankles: 1

Three years later (present day)...

...

I was out for blood.

At Legionnaire Night V (Iron Chef), I'd packed a five-color, graveyard-recursion themed concoction christened "One with Genesis" in hopes of synergizing my way through four grueling rounds of wit and attrition to take home one of two coveted Akron Legionnaire prize cards, our fifth such event. I even poured much time and effort into creating a Google Slides presentation to showcase my deck's intricate inner workings to the rest of the participants.

I fell short. Annihilated by the field, routed in the creative vote... even despite my savvy visual presentation chops.

In the days following the event, group discussions unfolded about what Legionnaire Night decks should and shouldn't be. Degrees of interaction, levels of casual, the presence of infinite combos, playing to win vs. fun at all costs. The consensus: bring your 'A' game. The host decides the format, and should use format-specific restrictions to foster the desired play environment. Shoot for first place or aim for creative gold, but make no mistake that others will do the same. And this is no band of mediocre deck designers; we're Anaba Spirit Crafters in human form.

The bar had been set, the gauntlet thrown down. And Legionnaire Night 6 was in my sights.

LN6: 90s Legacy Singleton Superblock

October 22, 20221999
Khade's house, Dublin, OH
Players: 5
Rounds: 4 (+Finals)
At stake: Everything

Our host's chosen format:

As the day of reckoning grew nigh and the rest of the world worried about Y2K, I found that the key to my future was rooted in my past. In the end, you can't escape who you are.

Source

Source

There was much work to be done.

The Fall

It should unequivocally be stated that Jim Casale is a masterful deckbuilder and opponent. This was the matchup I most feared, not only for of my opponent's MtG prowess, but also his penchant for playing green/red stompy, the archetype I felt had the best chance of trampling my small creature horde. So it was only appropriate that our mettle would be tested early. And Jimmy did not disappoint.

We exchanged blows, splitting the first two games and each showing the force of our constructions. The likes of Foratog, Crazed Armodon and Yavimaya Wurm were not to be taken lightly, nor was Jimmy's inclusion of a single red card, Pandemonium, to help fulfill his personal creative charter of playing at least one card from every set in the format. In game three, I had him in a vise, having deployed nearly all my deck's fliers: Angelic Page, Mesa Pegasus, Thunder Spirit, and Serra Angel. He was dead on board, down to his final draw.

"Hurricane for four."

My heart sank.

It was, he admitted, the only out to the present situation that he had in his deck, and he found it in the nick of time. My army eliminated, he rode his ground creatures to victory. I was defeated.

The Bye

Through random determination, I had the bye. I was in a daze, the previous match having been swiped from my grasp at the last possible moment, and my worst fear for the afternoon realized. And I had all the time in the world to think about it.

Ousted to the living room to avoid seeing the other decks, I paced the floor and tried to figure out what went wrong, replaying the scenario in my head, attempting to understand what I might have done differently during the third game. Hold back the Serra in case he has a sweeper in a singleton format? I needed the defense she provided, had to apply the pressure. Sometimes you make the right play but still don't come out on top. Especially against an opponent like Jimmy.

I dug deep. I'd run the table in Magic tournaments after faltering in the early rounds before. I could do it again.

There would just be no margin for error.

The Grind

Back at the tables after an hour of self-reflection and Doritos, I paired against @old_school_unlimited and another green monstrosity. Jim's deck could play creatures, draw cards, stomp hard, and continually fog the battlefield with Constant Mists. And I loved it. Jim, ever the curmudgeon when it comes to foils, played them in droves, packing them into a shiny, tinfoil-wrapped deck box and donning aviators to protect his eyes from the glare. This was inception-level throwback MtG.

This time, the white deck stood to the challenge. My singleton build played three "anthem" effects (Crusade, Glorious Anthem, and Angelic Voices), four shadow creatures, Empyrial Armor, Masticore, and Army of Allah, and when combinations of these cards were brought to bear, the onslaught was punishing to fight through.

Our games were interactive and fulfilling, and in the following round I matched up against Sean's black/white Pestilence/Urza's Armor deck, a throwback to his earliest indulgences in the game which I both recognized and appreciated. Unfortunately for Sean, the LN6 meta was strong, and his deck struggled to survive my white weenie barrage. In two rounds, I'd worked my way back up the standings and was positioned with a play-in for the finals.

But to get there, I'd have to go through Khade.

Greg's deck was also mono-white, but after the top few staples our decks diverged dramatically, with Greg playing a prisony tap-down game, complimented by key artifacts like Winter and Static Orbs and Meekstone. Our first game was a battle, and over the course of many turns I failed to break down his defenses, anchored by Orim's Prayer. He had the right answers and threats at the right times, and the drawn-out loss left me demoralized. I wondered aloud whether we had time for a second game. Might as well give it a try. Just play fast.

Soltari Priest. Empyrial Armor, swing for five. Next turn, attack for six. No answer? On to game three.

We both pulled out all the stops, but our culminating duel felt more like a football game with countless mistakes and penalties on either side, where at the end one team is declared the winner but both teams feel like they lost. Greg and I missed Soul Warden triggers. Greg forgot about my Mishra's Factory. I failed to realize that Puppet Strings could untap as well as tap creatures... not one, not two, but three times throughout the match. We might have missed a point of power on one of Greg's creatures from my Crusade... a Crusade that many might not have played against a mono-white deck pressing both board and life advantages, except that it was my only possible out. Play to win.

I swung across with my army, losing my Paladin en-Vec to a "surprise" blocker untapped by Puppet Strings. Greg struck me down to two life on his turn (one if we'd forgotten about Crusade a couple turns earlier?). I untapped and swung back, but didn't have enough. Until I did. Army of Allah took him down to two. Aeolipile, having come into play tapped the previous turn due to Kismet, took him to zero with my last remaining mana.

"Wait, Aeolipile can hit players too?" Yep.

On a side note, Greg's deck won the vote for most creative in our first ever split-decision, ultimately deliberated by the three players whose decks were not in the running. Congratulations Greg, it was a fantastic deck.

The Finals

In the waning afternoon hours, as the fog of war began to set in, my mind fleeted back to the inaugural Legionnaire Night, when my black/white Ice Age block deck "Insidious Catapult" eviscerated the initial gauntlet only to be bested in the finals by Trade Caravans and Kjeldoran Outposts. That day, more than three years prior, Jimmy enacted vengeance on me to claim the top prize. Today, Jimmy beat me in round one, and I had a chance to even the score. On.

First game, I aggressively kept a one-land opener on the play. A highly risky move, but my hand had Mother of Runes and I'd tested enough to know that my odds of drawing into a solid curve were not so unfavorable. Mom and Benalish Hero held his early assault at bay for four turns until I managed to find a second Plains, and I used my first opportunity with two mana to Disenchant a freshly-cast Pandemonium instead of deploying my White Knight, a decision that might have saved my tournament run. As I found more land and crafted a board, a combination of protection and evasion whittled away life points until I was one win away from my ultimate goal.

Game two was a haze, as frustration set in resulting from mulligans on both sides. As we recovered, I felt myself pushing toward the finish line, with an evasive Thunder Spirit leading the charge. But Jimmy has never been a fighter who doesn't punch back, and responded with a crippling Ifh-Biff Efreet, one of my most hated cards that always seems to upend me in Jimmy's hands. This time was no different. My Thunder Spirit was dispatched in short order, and my actual spirit began to spiral soon after.

Reeling from the appearance of the boogeyman Ifh-Biff, I stared down my last chance to prove my worth in this rivalry. Victory would equalize our black-bordered Legionnaire counts and reciprocate the carnage wrought by Jimmy's soldier and kelp tokens during Ice Age Night. Defeat would mean a runaway in the standings for my opponent.

Jimmy tossed his first hand away quickly while I wavered on five lands, a creature, and an anthem. We both reshuffled, and Jimmy started with five cards while I held a lackluster six. We churned lands into creatures and spells, piecing together sparse boards and vying for any advantage. My timely Mishra's Factory was decimated by Ice Storm, but two Plains later I managed to cast Serra Angel, the gut shot from round one blown out of existence by Hurricane, returned to seek her retribution. This time, the answer didn't arrive, and Serra and her acolytes crested the final battlement to bring the tide of war to its end.

Victory.

Though the white deck prevailed at LN6, the rivalry is far from over. The elves, wurms, beasts and fungi may be driven back to the forests whence they came, but they surely will return, and in greater numbers and force than the world has ever seen.

And we will be ready.