Lino Burgold
About Lino Burgold
Lino is the 2009 Rookie of the Year from Germany and he has a number of high-profile finishes under his belt:
- Level 6 Pro Players Club member
- Winner Grand Prix Hanover
- Two Grand Prix Top 8
- 32 Lifetime Pro Points
A Report From GP Madrid
The day I landed in Madrid,
I feared it was a mistake coming here. How can leaving the Californian sun and
ocean not be a mistake? The answer is (obviously): To play (even more) Magic!
Well, maybe, but playing
Legacy only slightly resembles playing actual Magic. Arriving at my hotel,
crying tears of joy would be a bit exaggerated. It was cold, dirty, narrow,
without internet, and then it wasn’t even that
cheap. Somehow, I never wanted to live in America more than at this moment…
After falling asleep that
night, I woke up late the next day, which was weird, as I should be jetlagged…I
was happy that didn’t happen.
Arriving at the site,
registering seemed almost impossible, as hundreds of people queued up in a
weird spiral-kind of way, so besides not being able to reach the beginning of
the queue, it would take a lot of time anyway. Additionally, we weren’t
allowed to play at the tables, which is just lame. Anyway, I still needed to
find a handful of cards, but it seemed like the standard answer of all the people
who actually play this format is “I obviously got a playset of it, but I
obviously don’t have it with me”. I mean, I understand you can’t have every
single legal Magic card with you in this format, but it seems like they don’t
bring anything at all with them.
However, investing some
time, I found my Intuitions and actually got to register… As I was leaving, I
was told that 1400 people had preregistered so far, more than there were chairs
available at the moment…that sounds like…an adventure! ;)
Day 1
Without much sleep – yeah, jet lag caught up with me – we went to the site, on time at 9AM, we realized that
the whole thing might… take some additional time. At the player seating (which was delayed quite
a bit as well), 4 people had two chairs (and space for just those two chairs).
After the meeting, it still took several hours for the byes to pass, and it was
about 5PM when we started playing. In the meantime, I tried to sleep
on the chairs.
This deck forms part of my feature article:
Our Rookie of the Year is back from GP Madrid. He analyzes his performance at the biggest tournament in Magic history and tells you what lessons he
learned. In addition Lino explains his deck choice and presents an updated version!
| Colors |
|---|
| Artifact | 2 |
|---|
| Black | 4 |
|---|
| Blue | 22 |
|---|
| Gold | 13 |
|---|
| Land | 18 |
|---|
| Red | 1 |
|---|
| Converted Mana Cost |
|---|
| 0 | 2 |
|---|
| 1 | 11 |
|---|
| 2 | 3 |
|---|
| 3 | 7 |
|---|
| 5 | 8 |
|---|
| 7 | 3 |
|---|
| 8 | 4 |
|---|
| 10 | 4 |
|---|
| Type |
|---|
| Artifact | 2 |
|---|
| Basic Land | 7 |
|---|
| Creature | 5 |
|---|
| Enchantment | 4 |
|---|
| Instant | 14 |
|---|
| Land | 11 |
|---|
| Sorcery | 17 |
|---|
Legacy is a funny format,
and you can really play almost anything as long as you are prepared for Combo, Tarmogoyf, and Wastelands – that’s about it. With that in mind, I just picked
up a cool list, tuned it a bit, tested it even less, and took it into battle.
The funny thing about
Legacy players I noticed, is that they are a lot more casual than the usual
player I expect to meet at a PTQ or even at the weekly draft I do at home. This
means they are a lot more narrow-minded about the game in general. They often
don’t read your cards, don’t understand your cards, or don’t care about what
you are really doing… In fact, in the twelve rounds I played, not a single
opponent actually used my Dream Halls even once…sure, most of the time they
couldn’t, but often, even if they could, they just didn’t. I understand Legacy
is a lot more complex considering all those old and weird cards in the format,
but if you are playing the format, you might as well be prepared?
I wasn’t exactly sure I had
made the correct deck choice before the tournament, but then again, in a metagame
this random, you can never be absolutely sure.
In my first round, I played
against a woman piloting 2-land Goblin Charbelcher (maybe even zero land Goblin Charbelcher). Besides completely fizzling to a Force of Will because she played
her cards in the wrong order and wanting to respond to my counter with a Chrome Mox (???), she also failed to play Pyroblast after I resolved my Dream Halls…It
didn’t matter anymore at that point.
After that, I played
against a mono-red burn deck, and, ironically, that isn’t a particularly good
matchup even though I am playing combo. The thing is that there are no
fast aggressive decks in the format besides other combo decks, so going off as
soon as possible isn’t that important, and my deck doesn’t. Luckily, I win the
die roll and win 2-1 in three pretty tight games that always were about a bolt
or two away from a loss.
My next opponent was
playing UW tempo, and, because of some rather bad calls from his side, I
actually won a game with Progenitus for the first and almost last time. I
played Show and Tell, and, instead of letting it resolve, putting Ethersworn Canonist into play, he vialed it onto the battlefield in response. Because of
that, I chose to go for Progenitus instead of the Dream Halls. He put a Jotun Grunt on the battlefield, then proceeded to not pay its upkeep and lose the
race.
In the seventh round, I
actually got to play against my first real opponent, an ANT player. I managed
to go off before him in a pretty long draw-go – the second game was actually
pretty funny, as he chanted me in response to my Dream Halls, and I was expecting
to die on the next turn even though I had a counter…but he could just do some
stuff and tendrils me for 10 damage, and I actually had to win with the one
singleton Progenitus I keep after boarding, as you usually just never win this
matchup by beating down with a big Hdyra…
In round eight, I had a
feature match against Zoo, which was a lot closer than the coverage might make
you think, and was probably lost mostly due to my bad plays…he had Sylvan Library on the table as well as two Qasali Pridemages and a Grim Lavamancer,
while I was on 13 life. I gambled and tried to survive another turn, but was
burned out before I saw my next upkeep. If I would have gone for the Cruel Ultimatum in my hand, I couldn’t go off with the Dream Halls, but it would have
bought me a lot of time. Game one was pretty ridiculous as well, as he raced my
turn three Progenitus on the play. Then again, that unserviceable hydra hasn’t
won me more than one or two games the whole tournament.
In my last match of Day 1,
I played against Aggro Loam, and he just goldfishes me game one, playing Tarmogoyfs as early as turn one and following it up with a Devastating Dreams I
can’t counter.
Game two, I show off another
brilliant play, tutoring for the missing Dream Halls at the end of his turn
with Intuition, and then – with Force of Will, Conflux, Cruel Ultimatum, and
another blue card in hand, I opt to play Conflux first on a board with
potentially lethal Tarmogoyfs on the table. He reveals a Krosan Grip and I
am simply dead. Playing Cruel Ultimatum first would – once again – give me a
lot more time in this situation. I didn’t even think of that at that moment and
died a horrible death.
Even though I started 7-0,
I wasn’t too confident in me getting a good finish in this event anyway…I
wanted to complete day one at 8-1 though, as 7-2 is pretty bad considering the 8
rounds yet to come the next day. Then again, I didn’t face a single Bant deck
the whole day, one of my better matchups…
Day 2
The next day, I was told
that opponent scores from day one had been erased…well, even though I had three
byes, considering my opponents, I just couldn’t get myself to bear a grudge on
that.
I lost my first round to a
decent Zoo player showing me all the good cards (Gaddock Teeg, Qasali Pridemage) as soon as game 1…I began to realize that this was quite a bad
matchup for me, even with the Deathmarks. A fast clock combined with decent
disruption is often enough to stop my combo deck dead in its tracks.
During the second round, I
was paired against another Zoo player, but one that opted not to compete…he
never put a permanent onto the table whenever I played Show and Tell, didn’t
use my Dream Halls, and I was able to stop one or the other hate creature he
played. After the match, he showed me the about ten cards he boarded in against
me (like Gaddock Teeg, Ethersworn Canonist, and Pyroblasts)…at this point I started
to cast Intuition only on all my three German Show and Tells, instead of the
first three I found (I had an English one as well). Even though no one has even
asked me once what it does, “I put a permanent card onto the battlefield” is a
perfectly legitimate answer for that question. The same works for Dream Halls –
I am not required to point out that it is a symmetric effect. Of course, this
would be absolutely irrelevant in every other tournament in every other format,
as everyone would know the cards or call a judge if they don’t know the oracle
text, but in Legacy, this seems to be quite relevant…
I lost my third match to
some kind of GWb Junk deck. It really looked just like the Standard list of it,
but with a better mana base and some funny cards…he can’t really win game one
against combo, but game two he tears me apart with discard. Game three is
actually pretty tight as he puts me under pressure with Knight of the Reliquary, but
I am able to cast double Ultimatum on my next turn, as well as at least a Progenitus, but I am probably winning then anyway. On my end step, however, he
plays Enlightened Tutor, finding Runed Halo. He ponders for a moment, and then
chooses Cruel Ultimatum for it. Runed Halo is usually not a very impressive
card against my combo deck, as any Lim-Dul’s Vault or Conflux tutors me my
boarded bounce spells anyway. With two Ultimatums stuck in my hand, it’s the nuts
though. I am just able to cast my Progenitus, but really, how could this lame
Hydra even win a single game in this format? ;) (It can, against the right
opponents, but in about half of the matchups, it almost never works)
In my next match, I play
against the best ANT player in the whole room… I play first, and opt not to cast
my Thoughtseize on the first turn, as I would need to commit to a nonbasic land
as well as investing a colored card, and I was only one colored card short of
going off on turn two. He proceeds to cast a Dark Ritual, then a Duress, taking
my Force of Will…then playing another Dark Ritual, then a Lion's Eye Diamond
…then brains for about two minutes…then starts cursing how stupid he is, then
passes the turn. I think he is stuck with the Ad Nauseam in his hand, as he
wouldn’t have been able to cast that with his four mana remaining. Therefore, I
go for the Thoughtseize during my turn, and he reveals me a hand with double Infernal Tutor. Whatever you were thinking, sir, but this would have been
enough to kill me. I finish him off during the next two turns.
The second game was pretty
funny as well…I was always just one mana source short of going off, but he was
just draw-going as well. Then, in my end step, he casts a Mystical Tutor. I
have Dispel in my hand and begin to brain: He either has the kill already in
hand and tutors for disruption, in which case I should counter, as I am dead
anyway and might be able to buy some time countering the tutor. If he has
disruption and needs the kill, I need to counter as well, as I am dead if I
don’t, but live if I do. I choose to counter it (he tells me later that he
wanted to search for Angel's Grace to really, really kill me). As it turned out, he just passes his next turn
without any action, and I finally go off during the next turn. Once again, he
would have been able to cast Ad Nauseam, but…didn’t.
Then, in my fifth match of
the day, I meet my first Bant opponent. Finally a matchup that can be won by putting
a Progenitus into play! The first game is always pretty easy in this matchup,
as he doesn’t have much disruption and loses to almost everything I do,
including that dreaded Hydra. Indeed, I just cast a Show and Tell on turn
three, put it into play, and swing twice for the win. The second game was
probably the most intense I played during the whole tournament, and we were
almost out of time, as I already did some combo attempts, resulting in a
resolved Cruel Ultimatum, but a destroyed Dream Halls…I was able to Intuition
one last time for some remaining parts (my graveyard had long since surpassed
my library) and resolve a Progenitus. But since he is playing Noble Hierarchs,
I guess he is playing Natural Order as well. Since he is frantically shuffling and
looking with his Sensei's Divining Top all the time, I get a bit nervous about
him finding it…he has just a Noble Hierarch and the Top on the battlefield, and
both of us have plenty of land…I cast an Intuition during my main phase, but my
deck is already that grinded that the best pile I can find is Deathmark, Echoing Truth, Brainstorm – I couldn’t even tutor for Force of Will, as my hand
was just full of Thoughtseizes. Echoing Truth doesn’t even stop him from
casting Natural Order. Nonetheless, he gives me the Brainstorm, and I actually
find a Force of Will along with a blue card on the top of my deck, but since he
fails to muster anything relevant, it doesn't matter and Progenitus takes the
game once more.
In my last match, I play
against some kind of UGR deck, but it isn’t Canadian Threshold either, as it
plays stuff like Standstill, Counterbalance, and Mishra’s Factories. He is
always able to resolve a fast Standstill on a favorable board, and I never
really can fight through all his counters in game one (Spell Pierces, Daze and Force of Will). In game two, I am stuck on my lands, and, eventually, break his Standstill with a Meditate at the end of his turn, which he counters. During
his next turn, he casts another Standstill, which I respond to with another Meditate. Well, there were actually enough Mishra’s Factories on the table to
kill me during that extra turn…Yeah, well done, Lino – you rock. I mean, I’m
still not playing as bad as in Hanover (yeah, not paying Pacts in an already
won game at an undefeated 10-0 is still pretty unsurpassable), but I'm getting
there!
Well, having a record of
10-6, I drop, as I am out of contention for Top64, and I am truly not in the
mood to play another round of this format.
Usually, I don’t really
like giving match reviews like that, but I think for Legacy, it is adequate.
The games are pretty complicated, and it usually comes down to a single card or
a single mistake.
Thoughts On The Format
Legacy cards are awfully
swingy, changing everything within a turn, which gives the format quite a weird
feeling to play. As for the format itself, I figured out three things:
- It is a lot more fun to play
than I thought it would be.
- It is even more open than I
thought it would be. You can really play anything. It doesn’t matter
whether it is Dream Halls, Counterrebels, Reanimator, Slivers, or Jund. As long
as you prepare yourself for some Bant decks, some Progenitus, some Wastelands
and some fast combo decks, you are able to compete. I don’t know if that is for
the better, but it sure is different than in other formats!
- And, last but not least,
you gain an immense edge by play skill, a lot more than everywhere else. Why?
Well, just for the same reason people like Kai Budde were so dominating at
their time. They were prepared when everyone else wasn’t. If you play Standard
at a PTQ, almost everyone you play against has a good grasp on the game, knows
what he plays, knows what you play, and has tested etc. However, the average
Legacy player seems to be still a step behind the Constructed player. Of
course, there is no noticeable difference between good Legacy players and good
Constructed players. But there is a huge
difference between bad – or average – Legacy players and bad or average Constructed players. Therefore, skill rewards you a lot more in Legacy than
everywhere else, as you lose against “worse” players a lot less than in
Constructed. This is not inherent to the format, i.e. I am not trying to say we
should have Legacy at bigger Magic events, as that dynamic would completely
change once it reaches the Pro Tour, but at the moment, that’s how it is…
I didn’t look forward to
the format Legacy, and I don’t want to play it more frequently, but I am not as
afraid of it as I was before…I am happy to play it once a year or something.
Updating Dream Halls
I leave you with my updated Dream Halls list:
This deck forms part of my feature article:
Our Rookie of the Year is back from GP Madrid. He analyzes his performance at the biggest tournament in Magic history and tells you what lessons he
learned. In addition Lino explains his deck choice and presents an updated version!
| Colors |
|---|
| Blue | 30 |
|---|
| Gold | 9 |
|---|
| Land | 20 |
|---|
| Red | 1 |
|---|
| Converted Mana Cost |
|---|
| 1 | 8 |
|---|
| 2 | 3 |
|---|
| 3 | 11 |
|---|
| 5 | 8 |
|---|
| 7 | 3 |
|---|
| 8 | 4 |
|---|
| 10 | 3 |
|---|
| Type |
|---|
| Basic Land | 11 |
|---|
| Creature | 6 |
|---|
| Enchantment | 4 |
|---|
| Instant | 16 |
|---|
| Land | 9 |
|---|
| Sorcery | 14 |
|---|
It is a lot more geared
towards controlling, being mono-blue. It lacks the Lotus Petal and instead
plays more lands. Really, this deck has a lot mana sources for this format
(twenty plus four Ponder and four Brainstorm as well as Impulse). If you just
play Island after Island, you avoid a lot of trouble with many tempo oriented
decks. This deck also includes Vendilion Clique, which solves the problem of
nasty Iona, Shield of Emerias jumping out of a Show and Tell or equally
terrifying stuff. Also, they always work as removal in game one against
Pridemages or Gaddock Teeg, at least if your opponent doesn’t want to spend
another burn spell.
Also, the combo itself was
slightly softened, losing a Progenitus after already losing a Conflux during my
last update. Instead, a Meditate was added, which usually is a lot more
powerful even within the combo than the Progenitus, and often also very useful
beforehand.
Sincerely,
Lino
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To quote the article....
Even though no one has even asked me once what it does, “I put a permanent card onto the battlefield” is a perfectly legitimate answer for that question. The same works for Dream Halls – I am not required to point out that it is a symmetric effect.
I'm not sure you're right on the first part. If your opponent asks what a card does and you omit information then it seems like you are "Giving the whole story" while just mentioning the part that is advantageous to you. To quote the IPG...
Cheating — Fraud
Definition
A person intentionally and knowingly violates or misrepresents rules, procedures, personal information, or any other relevant tournament information.
Thankfully it didn't come up in this tournament... but I would want to check with a judge at the event to make sure this response is acceptable before giving this answer...
In the case of the Dream Halls, your opponent is free to read the text (assuming they are able to read English). If they fail to notice that they can also use it then this is a different matter as all the information has been made available to them.
Okay... I decided to "check with the Head Judge" and he pointed me in the right direction. The important point in the above example is that, by stating something that is inherently true, no rule violation has occurred. It is all players' responsibility to know what cards do and, when they are faced with a situation such as above, to ask a judge for the Oracle text. Apologies for my previous, inaccurate post!
It almost makes me want to get some German Magma Jets so I can say "It lets me Scry 2!" while burning my opponent's face off ;)
I must say it suprises me to hear that legacy players are, on average, less serious than standard players. I rarely play legacy but it would seem that with all the possibilities available in the format, players would have to have vast card knowledge or at least be in the habit of reading cards they don't recognize. I wonder if that sort of lazy play style is the norm or just an isolated incident.
"In the seventh round, I actually got to play against my first real opponent"
Ouch! Haha, this article is a nice lesson that merely beating your opponents is not enough if you really want to get the point across that you're great.
Yeah, that caught my eye, too. Seems like it would be the same as me playing Path To Exile, my opponent asking what it does, and me saying "It removes your creature from the game."
Even if for some reason you aren't required to tell them, it seems like a shady way to play the game.
I know what I'm doing the next Legacy Tournament I'm attending.
My opponent, "What does that card do?".
Me, "It wins me the game.".
I could even make up a fake card because if they are blindly going to accept your answer then do you seriously think they would pick out details on a card? I would have to sideboard them out against serious players though.
It has got to be completely illegal to respond with: It lets me put a creature into play. If you didn't want to tell him what the card did exactly, you could tell him to ask for the Oracle Text, but you are definitely misrepresenting what the card does.
If they don't ask, no problem.
"Ouch! Haha, this article is a nice lesson that merely beating your opponents is not enough if you really want to get the point across that you're great."
Well, that wasn't my point, really. It is just that...in every other tournament, I usually have to fight in some way or the other, even when an opponent may be mediocre. But sometimes your opponents just refuse to fight you (like that ANT player...).
@telling your opponent what your card does: Well, I agree it is pretty fishy that this is the current guideline, but thats how it is. This obviously means that you can never, ever just ask your opponent what the card does (on any tournament with a high enough REL), which is pretty lame, but, just like #2 says: I am not lying to my opponent in any punishable way. I am not saying something, but there is only a few things I have to answer fully AND truthfully in a competitive tournament (like amount of cards in my hands, mana in pool, life total, stuff like that). When they ask what a card does, you can just answer, "yeah, it does X and Y" as long as that part is true. You can also say "Crusade gives all my (white) creatures +1/+1". You obviously have to play accordingly to the rules, and have to maintain the game state, i.e. if it becomes relevant that an opponent's creature is bigger than he thought it is, you have to interfere. If you don't, it is cheating - but only from that point on.
I am usually not a kind of person that (ab)uses the rules like that to my advantage, but a card like Show and Tell just screams for it - I guess it is just a too great opportunity to miss. But nevermind - no one asked me in Madrid, this is like 0% relevant in any format except legacy, and I'm not going to play that from now on for a long time ;)
In any case you would be surprised at how many people try to get away with simple things like this to win games. A lot of people get ahead because they know what cards do and win because they know simple rules like this.
So I don't see this as shady in way, what Gindy did was since he assumed what was happening when something wasn't.
Great post Lino. Also the real opponent I would take as since their are a lot of people at such an event like this you have take into account how many don't know all the rules or how even to play the game correctly. They hear their is a grand prix so they enter to have fun.
I might have some insight on the question of "why some legacy players are less serious" because I am one of them! For me, and probably for the goofy players Lino played in this tournament, I play legacy simply because I have the cards. I've had them for a loooong time, and they are scattered amongst many casual kitchen table multi-player decks. I think there are a number of older players like me that have the cards in their casual collection, but don't have much (or any) real tournament experience. I don't have the money to keep up with current tier 1 standard decks (although I do my best) so I play legacy because, as noted, as long as you have a certain core set of cards (forces, a smattering of duals and fetches, etc.) you can pretty much play what you like and have fun.
I hope that makes sense!
I agree with anon above me here. Those of us who place legacy have been playing for so long we often just have tons of the cards and say why not? I don't play legacy competive, not since I did t1 back in fourth, but I have a ton of cards, and not the cash to get the power 9, etc to play vintage. Fully half of my decks I have for casual kitchen table play are legacy and I probably could take a few to my local legacy stuff but I don't because I just like playing with them. Heck, in a few months all my alara stuff rotates out but I still like using some of the cards. I also don't want to spends the huge bucks for power 9 cards and the standard 53 same card vintage decks with the last 7 being your combo.
There's a small number of dedicated legacy players in my city but despite loving their format, they're universally weak technical players. In this case being dedicated to a format means more about card selection and playing decks/combos/cards they like than it does mastering the format. I think in Legacy it seems a lot harder... like you say in the article: fight bant, fight wasteland, fight combo...
Oh, on the topic of not knowing cards, I had an opponent go off with high tide/reset in my upkeep using foreign cards... grr... it wasn't until I saw an english copy (the 2nd one he played) of reset that I checked for the oracle text... too late! lesson learned.
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