As expected?

Well looking at our predictions and what happened looks like U/R aggro was the dominating force. With a showing of 6 people playing the archetype in a room of 35. It did come out on top. With the meta not changing much you can expect this to keep happening. 

Suprise?

A deck that saw more play this time was 12 post. There were 3 different builds of it but that is the highest we have seen it here.  With all of them having an advantage in some situations looks like there is no clear winner on which version to run. 

Winners Area!

After six rounds of swiss and top 8 we have your July Champ Marc Ruacho. I asked Marc a couple of questions and here are the responses. 

Why did you choose the Deck?

I’ve played Magic for a long time now and spent a lot of time with different archetypes and strategies. I eventually reached the point in which I could decisively say my preferred way to play is low to the ground Tempo strategies. Within Legacy I’ve always had a connection to Delver shells and the playstyle they provide has always been a large point of enjoyment within the format despite how the card Delver of Secrets has a love/hate relationship with me when it comes to flipping. Some lists have shifted to “Delverless” Delver which I was considering prior to the event but landed on ol’ faithful with my playset of Bug Boys especially since the deck has been putting up great results for me. If I weren’t on a Delver shell however I would love to hop onto the Jeskai Control deck that’s been running around the format.
 
What did you sideboard against?
I am very lucky to be fairly ingrained in the AZ Legacy community which means I can tend to know what I’ll expect when I go to a Tournament. The AZ community has a decent amount of Delver and as of late Control decks(meaning a whole lotta Blue cards running around) which I made sure to bring sideboard options for but luckily UR Delver is such a strong deck that it can push back against most any matchup.
 
What matchups did you want to avoid?
I was hoping to avoid Lands, Control, and Maverick which are all matchups I find a bit more difficult than others. Lands looping Wasteland against my deck with a single Basic Island is always daunting. Maverick never tends to have much of a showing within the AZ community outside the hands of our very own Jesse Adams but I have gotten a decent chunk of losses to the strategy where I’m happy to avoid it. Lastly, I wanted to avoid Control more than any other matchup because I feel like they are one of the premier options for fighting Delver decks. A combination of cheap removal and hard to answer Planeswalkers can make the matchup a nightmare, especially when they untap turn after turn with their Teferi.
 
How did you prepare for the event?
Funnily enough, for this particular Tournament there was basically zero prep. I live pretty close to Gamer’s Guild and decided I’d come to the Tournament basically 30 minutes before it started. I built a list, sleeved it all up, then grabbed a protein bar and headed out. Obviously now I am pretty happy I ended up going.
 
Group playtest or online?
I’m a fan of playtesting both in paper and online with others present. I feel like an underutilized resource for testing is feedback and thoughts from others which you just can’t get without testing buddies. Although when on MTGO playing through leagues with friends I have had my closest calls losing to the timer because we got too deep into a discussion on what the correct play was.
 
Any pregame rituals?

Of course with this Tournament I did not perform any rituals but generally I love to get breakfast/brunch with friends who are also going to the Tournament beforehand. There’s nothing like a couple quick Mimosas before X hours of Magic!

 
What is your favorite Magic Card and why is it Island?
Despite Blue being my favorite color to play in Magic, my favorite cards happen to not be Blue AND one of which I have no plans of playing in Legacy anytime soon. My favorite is a tough split between the cards Death’s Shadow and Thoughtseize(Big surprise I’m sure for anyone who knows me). Modern Death’s Shadow was actually a big catalyst that led me to Legacy Delver as, more-so at the time than the current iterations, they filled the same role to their respective formats. Despite finding it a few years into my Magic career Death’s Shadow was one of my first loves along with Thoughtseize and I am gonna play those two in Modern till the day I die most likely. Wouldn’t dare sleeve up Shadow’s in Legacy unless I plan to dodge everything running Swords to Plowshares so they’ll stay comfortable in my Modern deck.
 
Any extra comments? Shout-outs?
Big shoutout to my boy Nolan for convincing me to go to the Tournament last minute but also not because he moved away so he’s dead to me. Additional shoutouts to all my Opponents for being great through the day and literally the billion Homies I’ve got in the Magic community that make this game worth playing. 

By admin