Axion Mega Legacy February 2023: Second Place Report

Or how to do well at a big tournament by getting really lucky.

On the 18th February 2023 I came 2nd in the Axion Mega Legacy event in the Great Hall at the University of Birmingham. This is part of an event series run by Axion Now called The Gathering — basically their answer to GPs. This is my writeup of the event.

Introductions

Hi, my name is Alex, and I'm EternalRant in the Discord. I've been playing Magic since 2016 (ignoring some dabbling with it when I was a teenager back in the late 90s), and Legacy since 2018. I picked up Doomsday in late 2021, and have been playing it almost exclusively ever since. I live in London and there's a thriving Legacy scene there, with Tuesday Night Legacy happening weekly, and the monthly London Legacy Monthly. This means I get to play in paper regularly, but I don't play online at all.

Before the Tournament

For one reason or another I haven't played Legacy since October 2022. In fact, I think the last time I played was at the last Mega Legacy tournament. I'm feeling very rusty going into this tournament. I'm also knackered from work and home improvements, and if I hadn't had the ticket and hotel room booked I might have cancelled altogether. I'm glad I didn't!

My List

Recently I've been trying to be more methodical about my list. I'm making incremental changes based on my personal evaluation of what's working rather than jumping on whatever list did well recently. (Doishy's editor comments, "I agree with this style of thinking!").

Since I haven't played a lot recently, I pretty much pick up the last build I played. This is a Turbo list based on Maxtortion's Challenge winning list from late 2022. I know there's some newfangled initiative decks running around so I swapped a couple of sideboard cards around and I'm ready to go.

Here's the list I ended up playing link:

This list is pretty stock overall.

• I'm playing Deep Analysis as I like having a way to just go for it on very low resources.
• I'm not playing Daze. I don't like it as a 1-of because I never manage to think of piles where it will be useful, and I prefer discard anyway.
• I'm not playing Ideas Unbound or Pact of Negation. IU is rarely relevant in my opinion, and Pact goes hand in hand with IU in my head.
• There are 2 Opposition Agents in the board, because I can't think of a better plan against Painter.
• I've got a Doishy-inspired 2nd basic Island in the board, for decks that attack your mana. (Doishy's editor comments, "I also agree with this style of thinking!")

The Matches

Round 1 vs James on Mono Black Helm

I sit down for round 1 and draw a perfect opening hand with a turn 1 kill plus a Force of Will... only for the judges to tell us there's been a problem and they need to re-pair the round.

Game 1

My actual round 1 opponent presents me with his attraction deck to cut, and all I can think is 'have I been away from Legacy this long?!'. It turns out this is mainly a distraction. I'm on the draw and keep my 7 including Doomsday, Dark Ritual plus Thoughtseize and Force of Will + card. My opponent leads with Ancient Tomb into Chrome Mox (exiling a card) and passes. I cast Thoughtseize and he casts Opposition Agent in response which I force. I see a Karn, The Great Creator and a Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. I figure I can't race the Sheoldred so I take it leaving my opponent with Karn, hoping I can win on my next turn. Unfortunately my opponent topdecks a Dark Ritual, so on turn 2 goes Swamp, Ritual, Karn, then wish for and play Torpor Orb. I have no way of removing it in the maindeck, and I can't be bothered to try for Street Wraith beats, so I concede.

Game 2

I keep a hand with some cantrips, a DR and Duress. I lead with Duress and see a hand with 1 land, a bunch of 3 and 4 mana spells (including Opposition Agent) plus a DR. I take the Ritual and hope to strand his spells in his hand. He goes land-go on turn 1. Turn 2 I cantrip into DD, and can win next turn. He misses his 2nd land drop so I'm feeling good about things. I cast DD turn 3. It turns out he's topdecked another Dark Ritual, so he responds to DD with Ritual into Opp Agent, and it's lights out.

Match 0-2
Games 0-2
Matches 0-1

Round 2 vs Daimon on Bant Stoneblade

Game 1

We spend the first couple of turns cantripping, then he casts Stoneforge Mystic. I have DD and FoW, but can't win in one turn. I let Stoneforge resolve on the basis that I can cast DD, pass, take one Kaldra Compleat hit, and win the following turn. He finds Batterskull. On my turn I resolve DD, and build a pile with cyclers, TO and Cavern of Souls. He puts in Batterskull on is turn. Then I just cantrip/cycle into TO and Cavern and win.

Game 2

Game 2 is pretty much the same story, except this time he only has an Ice-Fang Coatl pressuring me. I resolve DD with FoW backup, build the same pile, and win comfortably.

Match 2-0
Games 2-2
Matches 1-1

Round 3 vs Phil on Mono Red Painter

Phil and I have a few mutual friends, so we've met before, and I think we're in the same hotel. Unfortunately that doesn't help me to know what he's playing!

Game 1

Phil is on the play, and leads off on Urza's Saga into Goblin Engineer (using Simian Spirit Guide) putting Painter's Servant into the graveyard. On my first turn I Personal Tutor for DD. His turn 2 is land go. On my turn I resolve DD. If he has any sol land (or land plus SSG or Lotus Petal) I'm dead next turn, so I build a Brainstorm/Lion's Eye Diamond pile, and go for it. Thankfully he doesn't have a Pyroblast and I win.

Game 2

Game 2 is similar. Phil leads with mountain into Goblin Welder. I play land, cantrip and manage to assemble DD plus Dark Ritual. He then plays Urza's Saga and casts Goblin Engineer, getting Painter into the graveyard. On my turn I resolve DD, then think for a bit. I can either use the Brainstorm in hand to go for the win this turn, or I can pass the turn and Brainstorm/cycle into TO and Cavern. Each line loses to different things, but I figure if I go for it this turn I only lose to Pyroblast + SSG, or Mindbreak Trap. I go for it, he doesn't have anything, and I win. We chat afterwards and it turns out he had Grindstone and Pyroblast in hand. I'm pretty sure I lose if on turn 2 he had played Grindstone and held up blast. But I'll take wins where I can!

Match 2-0
Games 4-2
Matches 2-1

Round 4 vs Jake on Death and Taxes

Game 1

My opponent starts with Plains into Aether Vial. I lead off with Underground Sea into Dark Ritual into DD. I build the Death and Taxes special pile of [Fetch, Fetch, TO, Land, Land]. He doesn't draw any relevant interaction or pressure, and I win 2 turns later (with the help of a cantrip).

Game 2

In game 2 I draw a hand consisting of DD, DR, Petal and no lands. I've seen enough of Doishy's videos to know this is a snap keep. (Doishy's editor comments, "<3") (Opponent goes Plains, Aether Vial. I cast DD and build the DnT special again and pass back. My opponent plays a Rishadan Port. I draw and play a fetch. My opponent then plays a Wasteland and does the trick where he ports my fetch, then Wastelands it. I figure that's fine, all it does it delay me by a turn. I draw my 2nd fetch and play it. He plays another Wasteland, and does the same trick. Now one of my lands is stuck under port and I don't have the mana to cast TO. I wondered if I had made a mistake with my pile. But on reflection, it only loses to that draw, which is pretty unlikely all things considered.

Game 3

This is pretty much the same as game 1, except I'm on the play so it's even more one-sided.

Match 2-1
Games 6-3
Matches 3-1

Round 5 vs Jordan on Mono Red Stompy

Game 1

I'm on the draw. My opponent mulligans to 6 and casts a turn 1 Blood Moon, which I have to let resolve. It's OK though because I have Petal, Dark Ritual and DD in hand. I'm a total luck sack and I draw a swamp for turn. My opponent only has 2 cards in hand so I bet it's not Pyroblast + SSG. I go for the win immediately and get there.

Game 2

On the draw, I force a turn one Chalice of the Void. I PT for DD on turn 1. My opponent then hard casts an SSG, and I'm feeling pretty good about things. On turn 2 I cast DD off Cabal Ritual and build an LED pile (though can't go off this turn). My opponent does nothing on turn 3 and tells me "if you can kill me I can't stop you". I duress just to make sure (it's competitive REL after all!), and win that turn.

Match 2-0
Games 8-3
Matches 4-1

Round 6 vs Stanley on Grixis Control

I've made it to the main stage. I take this photo thinking it'll be the only time I get there!

The top tables view

Game 1

I keep a hand that casts a turn 3 DD, but has a good amount of interaction. I Thoughtseize on turn 2, and my opponent has nothing relevant. I DD next turn and build a pile with cyclers, TO, Cavern and a Duress. I fire the duress off with one card left in library (to flush out any Dress Downs that are lurking) and cast TO for the win the turn after.

Game 2

This game is wild. I keep a hand with Sheoldred, Cabal Ritual and two discard spells. On turn 2 I cast a Duress and see he's running Rise // Fall. I figure this game is going to be all about Sheoldred so Rise // Fall is a problem. I take a Brainstorm, then cast a Thoughtseize and take the Rise // Fall. He plays a Baleful Strix on turn 3, and I slam Sheoldred with Cabal Ritual. We then have about 5 very tense turns as he cantrips to find an answer, and I cantrip to find protection, though all I can find is mana. We're both discarding each other along the way to boot. Eventually I find FoW (which I can hard cast by this point) and I feel a lot safer. After several turns, Sheoldred's trigger finishes the job. I never thought I'd win a game with Doomsday and end up with 40 life.

Match 2-0
Games 10-3
Matches 5-1

Round 7 vs Decision on Whether to ID

I didn't play any magic this round but it had one of the most interesting choices in the tournament — whether to ID.

I'm 5-1 but thanks to the round 1 loss my breakers are poor and I'm in 8th place. 9th place is also on 5- 1, and 10th place is on 4-1-1 but has even worse breakers than me. This means I can't ID in to the top 8, but my opponent can.

Normally the decision would be easy — play the match and try to win to secure your place in the top 8. But the prize structure at the tournament is weird. There's a 9th -12th place playoff with prizes almost as good as in the top 8. If I ID I'll lock up at least 9th place and make it to the 9th-12th playoff. If I play my match and win, I go into the top 8. But if I play my match and lose, there are a ton of people on 4-2 with better breakers than me, so I'll drop way down the standings and miss out on the 9th — 12th playoffs.

In the end I decide to ID, and go for a walk round the University campus. As the round comes to an end I'm talking to friends about how their day has gone when the standings are updated. My companion app has stopped updating, so I can't see what happened, but thankfully my friend Simone shows me his, and I've scraped into the top 8. Let's go!

Here are the top 8 decklists.

Quarter Finals vs Kieran on Cephalid Breakfast

I've played Kieran a couple of times before. He's really friendly and always seems super positive. An all round good bloke.

Game 1

The last time we played Kieran was on Esper Vial, so when he leads off with Tundra into Underground Sea that's what I put him on. I cast an early DD, he forces, I force back, then DD resolves. I could try to win this turn, and I'm terrified that if I don't, Kieran is going to slam Meddling Mage and lock out TO. And I figure that if he had another counter he would have countered DD. I go for it, and he doesn't have anything to stop me.

Game 2

We spend the first few turns cantripping. Then Kieran plays Cephalid Illusionist, and I see he's not on Esper Vial after all. And here I am with all my graveyard hate in my sideboard.

On the next turn I have 4 lands in play and my hand is DD, Duress, Brainstorm, FoW, PT. I think I mess up here. I get fixated on the fact that Duress does not answer Nomads-en-Kor, but forget I have a FoW to answer Nomads, and Duress does answer countermagic from my opponent. I should just Duress, see what's up, and go from there.

Instead, I cast DD, my opponent forces, and I force back. He then cracks a fetch for an Island, pauses, and passes representing Flusterstorm. I figure that this is a bluff; if he had Flusterstorm he would have just flustered DD, right? I build an LED pile. I start executing the kill: I cast Brainstorm, cast LED, cycle SW and crack LED, draw Consider, cast Consider, and then Kieran flusters my Consider. He did have it after all!

I'm not out of it yet though. My pile is Duress, SW, TO. On his turn Kieran doesn't kill me, but instead Surgical Extractions my SW in the graveyard and takes the one in my library. I draw Duress and pass (playing around countermagic, thinking that Breakfast probably doesn't run Dress Down). I still don't die on my opponent's next turn. So I finally draw TO with an empty pile, cast Duress, and Kieran concedes.

Match 2-0
Games 12-3
Matches 6-1

Semi-Finals vs Ryan on 5c Yorion Pile

These games are all pretty complex and I don't remember them too well.

Game 1

This game is fairly straightforward. Ryan plays a Collector Ouphe fairly early but has no other pressure. I resolve a DD, but I've got plenty of time. I build a pile with cyclers, TO and Cavern and win the following turn.

Game 2

It's a slow start to the game, but by the time I resolve DD my opponent only has an Ice-Fang Coatl on the board. I build a pile of Subtlety, SW, TO, Cavern, TO and pass. This pile ends up being too slow. I force a Green Sun's Zenith for 3 out of fear, and I snag an Endurance with the Subtlety, but then my opponent resolves a Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes, and it's lights out.

Game 3

This game is pretty grindy. I keep an interactive hand but without DD. We both have slow, cautious starts. I Thoughtseize my opponent, take an Endurance, and see a Surgical Extraction. He Surgicals away my Brainstorms and we settle in for a long game. I flood out — getting 4 USeas and a fetch in play by turn 5. I cast DD with FoW, PT, fetch in hand and looking at an empty board. It resolves.

I build a pile of Sheoldred, TO, Cavern, TO, Island. Sheoldred won't have time to close the game out, unless my opponent resolves Endurance, but if they don't endurance I'll win with TO. I pass back to my opponent who doesn't do anything relevant. I resolve Sheoldred the following turn, and my opponent end steps an Endurance. They do something on their turn (I forget what) but tap out of Ice-Fang mana. On my turn I draw TO, get in with Sheoldred, and pass. My opponent cracks back with Endurance, leaving mana up. I draw and play Cavern. I fetch, and cast TO through Cavern (with a library of TO and DD). My opponent blasts the TO on the battlefield. I decide to force the blast (not sure if that was right, but I didn't want to lose this game the same way I lost game 2) and my opponent scoops.

Match 2-1
Games 14-4
Matches 7-1

Finals vs Sahar on Mono White Initiative

Time for the finals. Sahar and I are friends from the LGS where we play in London. It's a big moment for both of us, and I glad to be sharing it with her. I make her play on the main stage so I can get a photo of us.

Two very cool people, Alex and @saharmirhadi

Game 1

Sahar is on the play. I keep a hand that casts a turn 1 DD, but has no turn 0 interaction. Sahar plays a turn 1 Elite Spellbinder and snags my DD. I cantrip trying to find another one, which I do. On turn 2 she plays an Archon of Emeria. I look at the Dark Ritual and fetchland in my hand and my heart sinks a bit. I'm getting chunked for 5 a turn, and I can't assemble the mana to cast DD fast enough.

Game 2

I keep a hand with DD, Petal, Land, FoW, Subtlety, Brainstorm and Street Wraith. I lead with SW cycle (into something irrelevant — Edge maybe?), into land, Petal. On her turn 1 Sahar goes Sol Land into Chalice on 1, and I have to decide whether to counter. My thinking is that I need to cast the Brainstorm to maximize my chance of casting the DD, so I choose to counter Chalice. Sahar then plays Petal, Petal, Thalia. I elect not to cast my Brainstorm as it would mean cashing in my Petal and putting me further away from casting DD. Sahar then plays an Elite Spellbinder and takes the DD anyway. I'm again getting hit for 5 a turn, and I'm dead a few turns later.

We hug it out, and I go to collect my prize which is a very nice Revised Underground Sea, that will go very nice in the cEDH deck I keep not getting round to building.

Match 0-2
Games 14-6
Matches 7-2

Reflection

One of the things I love about Doomsday is that you have plenty of opportunities to reflect and learn for the future. So here are my thoughts:

• Overall I think I got pretty lucky. I dodged the two best decks in the format until the Finals, and then Initiative absolutely crushed me. But I'll take it!
• I was happy with how I executed the games. I didn't make many obvious errors like missed triggers or playing into onboard / face up interaction.
• My mulligan decisions were way better than in the past. I've finally realised you should only keep a 7 or 6 card hand if it has a clear path to winning the game. Lands and spells is not good enough.
• I was pretty happy with my decision making before resolving Doomsday. I think I was timing my discard well, and made good choices with the cards to hit with discard.
• I built a lot of win right now piles this tournament. This was really because I was feeling rusty and failed to think through the possible piles in time. But it worked out for me, so I might do this more often.
• I hate losing after resolving Doomsday and that only happened twice this tournament. One of those was the loss to DnT where they had to have perfect draws to stop me winning. But I think I built a bad pile in game 2 of the semis. I don't play well against Endurance, and need to practice that more.

Thoughts on the List

The maindeck felt pretty smooth overall. The only card I'm not sure about is Deep Analysis. I didn't use it all weekend, and at the last tournament I played I lost all the games I used it. I'm probably going to cut it.

I'm less happy with the sideboard.

• The basic Island isn't dong enough work for my liking. There aren't many situations where it's the only option, as you can often use a lotus petal instead. (Doishy's editor comments, "In this I disagree!")
• I hate Subtlety as a card but it's probably a necessary evil with the Initiative being so prevalent. I need more help vs Initiative, but I really don't want to play more Subtlety.
• I brought in Chain of Vapor loads over the weekend and I never found a spot where I wanted it. I find it's generally a weak card, and I like my sideboard cards to be more impactful. I'm thinking of changing the Deep Analysis in the main for a Thoughtseize. Then in the sideboard go down 1 Duress, 1 CoV and 1 Island, and add 2 removal spells (Fatal Push / Slaughter Pact / Snuff Out) and 1 Hurkyl's Recall.

Sign-Off

Thanks to everyone who made it this far, I hope you enjoyed the writeup. And remember, Always Be Casting Doomsday!

Doishy's editor sign-off: Thanks so much to Alex for submitting this report to publish! Remember anyone is able to submit content to the Wiki and we'd love to see more from the community! Congrats again to Alex!

For more content, please check out our resources page which includes a list of community streamers. If you would like to submit content to the Wiki, feel free to reach to us in the Doomsday Discord.