Author: Tony Benedetti

Lightning Round with Romario Vidal: The Great Thing About Doomsday is…

Welcome to the first installment of Lightning Round, where we “sit down” with someone from the magic community and ask a few quick questions. Our keynote speaker? Romario Vidal, Legacy streamer and  recent Legacy Super Qualifier finalist piloting the all too fitting for now deck, Doomsday.  

The great thing about Doomsday is…

Romario: No one believes you when you say the card is actually good and can win matches.

 Mana Tutor’s own storm aficionado, Michael Clifford wants to know when you realized dark ritual was better than Chalice of the Void?

Romario: When I started casting Doomsday on turn two followed by “Romariovidal wins the match.”

 What don’t you want to see across the “table” when you’re playing Doomsday?

Romario: decks that play small creatures that tax my mana (I am looking at you Maverick and DnT). I used to hate playing against BR reanimator, but after I added the leylines to my sideboard I feel pretty good about the match up. 

How do you prepare for a tournament like this?

Romario: I played four leagues with similar lists to what I played in the qualifier, as usual if I can do 4-1 or better with a list then that’s the deck I will play in the next important event I play.  I also read and asked some questions on the doomsday discord server, eventually I came up with my final list. Honestly, I wasn’t too worried about playing the tournament. I found out the MOCS (Magic Online Championship Series) points were about to reset sometime soon and I didn’t want to just waste the ones I had accumulated, which was enough to play in two large events. I woke up twenty minutes before the starting time, thought about for a bit if I wanted to commit to playing the whole day, then, the rest is history.

Thanks for joining us for Lightning Round today, where can we find your legacy content?

www.twitch.tv/romariovidal for streaming

@romarioneto3 on twitter

I have also started creating some Legacy content in Portuguese on my youtube channel

Thanks again for joining us, here is the qualifying decklist below.

The Life of Ali

The Ali from Cairo Life Cycle

Ali from Cairo has always been one of my favorite cards. My first tournament winning deck in the nineties featured Ali from Cairo, Diplomatic Immunity a bunch of Counter magic, Disintegrates and Fireballs. I’ve had the idea for these alterations for a few years now, and have been talking to Mark Poole about it at various Magicfests. At Magicfest Reno I came up a bit at the Black Jack tables, so I quickly invested my winnings in what you see here, before I could give it all back to the house. May it be a reminder that there are few things that are permanent in this world, Death, Taxes, and Ali from Cairo. Everyone stay safe out there.

A Lesson In Losing

 This is not a tale of triumph. These are not rounds filled with glory or legendary plays. No, this belongs with the stories that are whispered over fires deep in the woods, and those that are told to the echoless Caverns, where sound is swallowed, never to be heard again.  This tale is not about deck choices, sideboarding, the metagame, nor is it a rant about unjust misfortune. It is a tale of one soul’s journey through the Magic: the Gathering Abyss. This is my tournament report. 

Continue reading “A Lesson In Losing”

Metacognition: the real Magic Meta


“I am not a savant.”

-me, just now.

    As someone who has been spellslinging for a quarter of a century, I can tell you without a shadow of doubt that length of time and gameplay expertise are not directly proportional.  This is not to say that there will not be some relevant correlation of any kind, but merely to say that Magic the Gathering is a versatile game that serves many functions for the people that play it.  The collective “we” play Magic to fulfill various roles in our existence on this planet. Some enjoy the rich fantasy back-drop, immersing themselves in a world filled with heroes and villains. Some enjoy gathering with family and friends, sharing laughter, food and drink, and creating fond memories. Then there are some that have the Fires of Yavimaya in their soul, pushing them to perform at the highest levels of competitive Magic.  Naturally, these are not mutually exclusive, but for the purpose of this musing, I will be focusing on the latter. 

So, I have been playing Magic for over 25 years. Why haven’t I made the Pro Tour, the Players Tour, or ever played in a Mythic Championship?  Is it bad luck? Am I a bad player? Do I play bad decks(mayyyyybe)? Though it is true, I haven’t always had that “fire,” I have always considered myself to be a competitive player.  The hardest step and most important step in becoming successful is correctly assessing your ability. This is easier said than done.

“If you’re incompetent, you can’t know you’re incompetent…The skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is.”

-David Dunning

Some of you may be familiar with the Dunning-Kruger effect.  I was once again reminded of its existence and applicability while reading a fantastic article by 2019 GP Vegas champion Allen Wu.  In his article he states “people who cling to toxic mindsets and faulty frameworks invariably wind up stuck at the MCQ and GP level.” TRUTH.

Essentially, this phenomenon occurs when an individual mistakenly assesses their own cognitive ability as greater than it is.  Be wary of those that are overly certain(I’m certain of this by the way). Okay, but how does this fit into the greater scheme, how does this help me get better at Magic?  For most of my 25 plus years of playing, I decided I was great at Magic. I didn’t need to “study.” I was that person that is in every class who boasts about their grade when they “didn’t even read the material.”  I would show up to tournaments and expect to crush it on my ability alone. I reveled in a couple top 8 pins but never won an event. I was convinced that the players that won were luckier than I was. They opened a better pool than I did. They had easier matchups, all the excuses.  Here is the most difficult part: There ARE players who can win these types of events with little to no preparation. I am not one of those players. This last sentence is difficult to accept. To change the way you think about yourself, and how you fit into the rest of the world is never easy.  Self-perception and self realization are not the same thing. Once I was able to readjust my world view to fit with something closer to the “truth,” only then was I able to move beyond some of those cognitive biases I had about myself and others.  

  I am not the best Magic player in the world.  In fact, there are many, many players who are better.  So, if I accept that I am not naturally the best, I must also accept that to be competitive I will have to work harder to see the results that I want.  The best way to get results? Play a lot of Magic of course! Okay, but here I’m going to go a little further. Is there a way to improve your game outside of playing or reading about Magic (which you should absolutely still do)?  For me, I found that there was.

In addition to playing MTG, I am also an avid poker player, and play Texas Holdem as my game of choice.  In the poker world, you have strengths in your poker game, and then there are your holes. These are the areas in which you are weakest.  It is the same for Magic. Some of the most common holes in a player’s game may be card knowledge, card interactions, or advanced rulings (like layering for instance).  The good news is, these can be remedied by studying the format, the cards and doing independent research. What about the holes in your game that can’t be fixed by a book, an article, or repetitions?  The first step is to identify what those holes are. For me, I have the same hole in Magic and poker… impulse control. I can play great poker for 3-4 hours, but almost invariably there will come a point when I will make a call or raise that I know to be incorrect, but choose to make that play anyway.  Magic and poker are both games of discipline. You need to keep your temperament and urges in check, and make decisions based on the game state. A GP is a marathon, not a sprint. The top performers are the ones that can play very high level Magic over a prolonged period of time. Over the last year I have made several changes to my “game” outside the game that have helped a great deal. These three things are rest, diet and exercise.

I stopped drinking alcohol and ingesting foods with added sugars.  My body is sensitive to sugar and can cause mood swings. These highs and lows are represented in a game of Magic by keeping hands that I shouldn’t, conceding too early, or just making a straight up blunder like tapping the wrong land or not noticing my opponent had not one, but two blockers.  I try and go to bed early before a tournament and take extra precautions to make sure that I’m hydrated throughout the day. Going for walks, or doing cardio increases blood flow to the brain and can cause better in-game decision making. Also, in addition to cutting out items with added sugar, I’m much more conscientious of what food I am consuming and how that will impact my overall function. We all spend hours and hours agonizing over decklists, the meta, and sideboard choices- all to give us that extra perceived edge, or added EV.  Should we not also do that in our day to day decisions? What should I have for breakfast? Two eggs or a pop tart? If you said pop tart, I’m sorry, that’s a misplay.  Thinking about what will help me think best has now become part of my tournament routine and has greatly increased my win percentages as a Magic player. I have prized the last two GPs that I attended (Seattle and Vegas).  Here is the breakdown:

  1. Be honest with yourself about your ability
  2. Identify holes in your game
  3. Eat an egg  
  4. Cash a GP

All of this has left me wondering… If I can use life choices to improve my magic results, could I also use “magic choices” to improve life results?

To be continued…               

BLACK DETH

DETH’S SERVANT

    So, I haven’t been playing a ton of legacy lately as I was spending a good portion of my magic time preparing for the limited portion of GP Vegas.  However, the last time I did I was able to turn a few heads with an even CRAZIER brew of DETH. For those of you that are in “the know”, read on, for those of you that are soon to be in “the know,” this link is for you. I shall attempt to impart a modicum of wisdom here with the hope that you come away from this enlightened, excited, and above all else, ready to play some DETH’s Servant. What is DETH’s Servant? Well, for an in depth conversation about this deck, the card choices, an overview of the matchups, sideboard and a whole lot of laughs, I would first advise you to listen to Leaving a Legacy .  Jerry Mee and Pat Euglow invited me to come on the show to highlight this particular list. I did, and it was awesome. Have you listened to it yet? I’ll wait…

Here is the link again.  I’m not messing around, you’re going to want to check out that podcast.  

Okay, I think it’s safe to assume that by now you’ve checked out the origin story and listened to the podcast.  We’re now prepared to dive into the depths of DETH. Today’s dive will include the changes I made and why, mulligan decisions and general sideboarding strategies. 


THE ADDITIONS

Why did I add a fourth combo?  Well, aside from my bottomless need for attention, there were also a couple of other legitimate reasons.  First and foremost: what I learned in my initial build was that the more combos I added, the better the deck seemed to get. Keeping this in mind, I decided to add yet another combo and see if the trend continued in a linear fashion or started to pass the apex of the theoretical combo parabola.

 X axis = number of combos           

Y axis = deck performance

The first league I played I was able to secure a 5-0.  This continues to suggest that the graph on the bottom is, in fact, the correct one.  So, it follows that, if I could conceivably cram an infinite number of combos into a 60 card deck, I would never lose.  I am currently working on this theorem, and feel I am close to a breakthrough.  

The next reason has to do with decks that tax.  Eldrazi and Taxes, Death and Taxes, Death and Taxes and Taxes (this is when you are actively being audited by your D&T opponent),lands, mono red prison, you get the idea.  Essentially, I wanted a cheaper combo that wouldn’t be as punished by cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or Thorn of Amethyst. I also wanted a viable way to win the game if my opponent resolved a Gaddock Teeg game one with a Wasteland up (which happens more frequently than one might think). Additionally, having another two card combo that can potentially win the game on the spot helps even out the Sneak and Show match up.  Your opponent now has to gamble with Show and Tell if you have even one of the following cards in play: Painter’s Servant, Grindstone, Leyline of the Void, or Helm of Obedience.  

The other addition that I made was Echo of Eons as a one of in the main deck.  My reasoning for this doesn’t amount to much more than these two reasons and in this exact order: I thought it was cool.  Second, I found that in match ups where my opponent thwarted my turn two kill and was grinding me down, I did not have a way to bounce back into the game effectively.  I see my Echo of Eons as the fourth quarter Hail Mary against these long game strategies. However, it is also quite good against any deck that has minimal interaction on your turn.  Does it get stuck in my hand sometimes? Absolutely. This, however, brings me back to the number one reason I decided to run it, which is that it is in fact, very cool. Not much on this Earth beats waiting until your opponent is tapped out, playing your hand, drawing 7, playing another hand and usually just winning on the spot. 

The last change that I made was cutting two duress for two Inquisition of Kozilek.  This was mostly due to a drastic shift in the meta. I was playing against delvers and True Name-Nemesis quite frequently.  I wanted a way to strip early pressure out of my opponent’s hand to allow the deck to draw into its win conditions. The downside to this change is, of course, that inquisition does not hit Force of Will, which is often a primary target. 

MULLIGAN DECISIONS

With any  deck your starting hand and the decisions you make to keep or mull are extremely important.  It is no different here, in fact, I believe it is even more important. It is also a little more complex than most linear decks.  There are hands that are easy to keep, of course. For instance, when you have a turn one kill or a turn two kill, no problem.

This is a turn one kill and an example of those easy keeps I mentioned above.  On the play in game one, my approach is to always jam. You will get blown out by Force of Will from time to time, but you will win way more often.  Sadly, most of the time you will not have a turn one or even turn two kill. Which hands you decide to keep depends greatly on what you are playing against, which makes your game one decisions even more crucial. 

When you play with a linear deck, your deck does a thing, let’s call it X.  When you draw a hand if you think your hand will allow you do X it is a keep, if it does not do X then it is a mulligan.  DETH differs from this in the sense that it is looking to do W,X,Y, or Z. So, when you draw a hand does none of those things it does not mean you should mulligan those hands 100% of the time.  For example, if we think of Leyline/Helm and Painter/Servant, Depths and Stage/Hexmage as two card combos and LED/Ritual/Tutor as a three card combo we can assess our hands in valuations. For instance, here is a sample hand that I kept in the blind against an opponent game one. 

   This hand I can look at as  ⅔ x and ½ y, or ⅔ storm and ½ depths.  What this means is that on my first draw of the game I can draw 12 cards that will complete one of these combos(all copies of LED, Ritual, Stage, Hexmage, and Plunge into Darkness). That is nearly 25%. The disruption can slow down my opponent and help set up my win.  This hand is especially nice because you have a back up plan, go all-in with Depths. It also has potential versatility. If I cast Thoughtseize and I see my opponent is sitting on Wasteland and Knight of the Reliquary I will be looking to complete my storm combo. I may play out my Depths to bait their Wasteland to buy another draw free of pressure and clear the way for my lake of the dead.  As it panned out, this particular opponent was playing UW control and I was able to strip away meaningful cards turn one and two and use Infernal Tutor discarding my hand to LED for Hexmage to attack for 20 on turn 4.

This hand may be an obvious keep as it contains ½ Helm combo, full Depths combo and ⅓ storm combo.  I am only including it here to discuss the power starting with Leyline in play. Not only do we have a good aggressive plan, but beginning the game with Leyline of the Void in play enables much of our deck to function at a much higher efficiency (It is also noteworthy to mention that simply by starting with a Leyline in play you will receive a concession in roughly 4-5 percent of your game ones).  Even if one or both Depths and Stage were swamps, I would likely keep this hand, especially in game one. Leyline of the Void enables our Ill-gotten Gains as well as our Helms and turns them into “your opponent exiles their hand and you get three sweet cards back from your graveyard.”  Even if you get your Helm of Obedience surgically extracted you can still storm off without fear of the FOW once you resolve your first Ill-gotten Gains. As it turned out, this game actually ended on turn three with another 20/20. Let’s look at one more example. 

This is a hand I would ship back.  It only has ⅓ storm. If I knew that I was playing against storm, I would probably keep this, but game one, I would mulligan. 

Hopefully this gives you an idea of how I evaluate hands with DETH.  It is built in such a way (that is without brainstorms, ponders, or any efficient cantrip) to maximize the value of the top card of your deck.  So, if you’re starting hand doesn’t have the win in it, but has varied pieces of your combos, do not despair. As George Michael would tell you, “you gotta have faith.”

SIDEBOARDING

“You must do what you feel is right, of course.” 

  • Obi Wan Kenobi

Sideboarding with DETH can be a tricky endeavor.  There are a few certainties, but many more uncertainties.  For example, against control, I will always bring in Hymn to Tourach. Against elves I will always bring in Toxic Deluge.  Against Mono red Prison I will always bring in Phyrexian Obliterator. Aside from these type of examples the rest of my sideboarding strategy is greatly dependent upon what happened game one and two.  This differs from many sideboard strategies in the sense that I don’t necessarily do the same thing match to match, or even game to game. For instance, if I beat my opponent game one with my Dark Depths combo and they only see cards that could viably be in Turbo Depths, I may lean away from that strategy in game two(especially if they have Wasteland and Karakas), anticipating that my opponent will side heavily into stopping that particular win condition.  If I happen to storm out my opponent game one, I might side out my storm combo completely and lean into my Painter/Grindstone combo with Obliterators for back up. It is a game of cat and mouse. Against control I may side out three or all of my lotus petals on the draw as I want my cards all to impact the game state in a meaningful way, where as I may bring them in on the play in an attempt to win before they can develop their board. My best advice is to think about the game that was just played and consider these factors:

  1. What combo did I win with (if you won)?
  2. What cards did my opponent see (if you lost)?
  3. What combo is my opponent’s deck most vulnerable to?
  4. What strategy are they likely to take against me?  
  5. What do they expect that I will do?

It’s important to remember that as difficult as it can be to sideboard with DETH, it is also difficult to sideboard against.  The benefit of having four distinctive modes to victory is that many of the strategies do not share sideboard cards. Your opponent’s strategy versus storm and Painter/Grindstone, for example, are not going to share many cards.  Make the best decisions you can with the information you gathered during game one and remember that your opponent has some difficult choices to make as well. 

CLOSING REMARKS

  That’s the crash course on DETH’s Servant. If you have any questions or remarks please feel free to ask below in the comment section.  You can also find me on Twitter @traswidden and I am traswidden on twitch.  

DEPTHS TENDRILS HELM (DETH)

Meet DETH 

I am most well known in the magic community for designing this deck. So far, it hasn’t exactly made waves in the legacy format, but there has been a ripple or two. My first two live tournaments I made top 16 (CFB 4k) and split top 4 (Forgotten Path Games 1k) respectively. My List combines 3 well known (or long forgotten) combos all in one insane amalgamation I have named DETH, an acronym that represents the ways it can win while clearly explaining what happens to your opponent when any of those modes are implemented.  I have nurtured it, watched it grow and am proud of the deck it’s become. However, it wasn’t born as the glorious work of art you see today.

It all started in 2018 when I was reading through some old cards and stumbled upon Ill-gotten Gains.  I thought to myself, “wow, this would be pretty sweet with Leyline of the Void.” When I voiced this idea to my dear brother, he agreed, that it would indeed be “sweet” but followed up with a question I was not yet prepared to answer, “yeah, but how do you win?” I toyed around with this idea until I landed on Helm of Obedience.  I then built my deck, which, at the time, consisted of Leylines, Helms, Ill-gotten Gains, a bunch of discard spells, baubles and infernal contracts. I took it to my local legacy weekly tournament and got destroyed. Turns out, my “sweet” idea wasn’t so great in practice. One pithing needle, Disenchant or Assassin’s Trophy (just to name a few) completely locked me out of the game.  

Instead of becoming discouraged (despite the taunting and teasing of my friends) I went back to the drawing board, a Lone Ranger facing terrible odds.  After a few weeks of tweaking the build I had; testing cabal rituals, trying various mana bases and transformative sideboards (which may or may not have included Doom Whisperer), I finally conceded that the deck, as it was, couldn’t hang with the big boys and gals.  By big boys and gals, of course, I am referring to the Tiered decks we all know and love (or hate). Even with the baubles, the discard and the card draw, I just couldn’t assemble my combo fast enough, and sure I stole some matches, however, if I didn’t start with a Leyline in play the game rarely went my way.  

I decided I needed a more efficient way to get the card I needed when I needed it, and decided I would give Infernal Tutor and Lion’s Eye Diamond a trial run.  I cut the baubles and exchanged them for lotus petals, I was going all in. I took it back and started to see instant results, posting my first winning record at my local event. After additional testing I realized I had a very relevant piece of the Iggy-pop shell already in my main board.  So, I figured, I may as well throw a Tendrils of Agony in and see what happened. It was great! It gave the deck another way to win, I could finally play around a Pithing Needle, a Disenchant AND an Assassin’s Trophy. 

As the ancient riddle goes “what is better than two combos?” Three combos!  I jokingly suggested that I should jam the Dark Depths combo into the deck as well.  The response, “why not?” Yes, why not indeed? So, that’s exactly what I did. I then had my triple threat deck, DETH. DEpths Tendrils Helm. I went to work testing various copies of Vampire hexmage, Thesbian’s stage and Dark Depths and ultimately decided to run 3 of each land and 2 hexmage.  

That week, my friend Jay Trojan asked me if I was going to the Legacy 4k at Channel Fireball the following weekend, and told me that he had a deck I could borrow should I want to attend.  I remember deciding that I would go, and that I would be bringing my homebrew. I ended up surprising the field (and myself) that day stealing match after match. I started 3-0 and lost round 4 in 3 games to my friend Isaac Sears who knew and had played against my list.  Then I was 4-1, then 5-1, for the last round I got the CFB feature match and again was paired against a friend who knew my list, Marshall Janakowski. I was bested in 2 games. I finished 5-2 and 15th overall. Channel Fireball brought me into their streaming booth for a brief interview about the deck.  It was then that I decided I would continue to refine the deck and begin streaming it. 

That more or less brings us to today, I am still streaming the deck  at traswidden on Twitch and I am still refining the build and sideboard.  

My Two Cents:  There are a ton of undiscovered competitive decks out there, and a lot of great ideas.  A good idea by itself does not equate to a good deck. With enough time, care and patience some of these ideas can become competitive decks.  I took a ton of learning losses to find the right combination of cards to make this deck competitive. Is it the best deck of all time? Maybe not, but if you ask me, it’s the most fun.

THE COMBOS

Leyline of the Void/ Helm of Obedience.  

This is an old favorite of mine. Leyline of the Void causes your opponent’s cards to be exiled rather than placed in the graveyard, while Helm of Obedience states that you must place X cards into your opponent’s graveyard until a creature is placed there or X is reached.  The result, of course, of having both of these cards on the battlefield together is being able to mill your opponent’s entire library with X being equal to 1. Since a card is never placed in the graveyard, the condition is never satisfied, thus winning you the game on your opponents next draw step due to them being unable to draw a card.  Naturally, getting two cards that take 4 mana into play is no small feat. Being able to start with a Leyline in play is a huge advantage for this particular combo and is generally good against the field. It shuts off reanimator shenanigans, dredge nonsense, snapcaster mage trickeries, as well as Life from the Loam strategies to name a few. The graveyard is a huge resource in legacy and sometimes taking that away is enough.  However, this deck also works proactively to win with Leyline of the Void in addition to thwarting your opponent’s game plan. In addition to running 3 Helm in the main deck, there are also 5 cards that can tutor for it.

Ill-gotten Gains is another all-star when paired with Leyline, it doesn’t immediately win you the game if you resolve it, but often your opponent may concede. Since your opponent can’t place cards in their graveyard, Ill-gotten Gains effectively exiles their hand while allowing you your choice of any 3 cards from your graveyard to come back to your hand. Mind Twist? SOLD. 

Dark Depths/ Thespian’s Stage/Vampire Hexmage

I’m sure many of you are familiar with this combination of cards, being able to make a 20/20 flying, indestructible creature on turn one is pretty great.  Hexmage is also useful on its own as a way to take out planeswalkers or clear counters off of a chalice of the void when you need it. Similarly, Thespian’s stage can copy many of the utility lands your opponents control that the deck can’t afford to play.  Two of my favorite targets : locus lands versus Eldrazi post and Karakas against Death and Taxes, also, every once in a while you can get away copying a Dark Depths controlled by an unsuspecting opponent. 

Tendrils of Agony/ Ill-Gotten Gains

This is the third and final win condition. Storm. This can lead to some tricky lines in actual gameplay, but the math and theory behind it are simple enough.  Cast 10 spells and then cast Tendrils of Agony. In order for this plan to work, you need a six mana loop. The simplest way to achieve this is with 2 mana, 2 Lion’s Eye Diamonds and one Infernal Tutor.  Cast Infernal Tutor with your 2 mana, sacrifice your 2 LEDs with your spell on the stack floating 6 black mana and tutor for Ill-gotten Gains. Cast your Ill-gotten Gains with 4 of your six floating mana targeting LED, LED, and infernal tutor from your graveyard.  Use the last 2 floating black mana to cast Infernal Tutor again sacrificing the LED’s in the same fashion. You can repeat this process until you have cast enough spells to tutor for your Tendrils of Agony and end the game. Similarly, you can run this combo the same way with 3 mana, 1 dark ritual and 1 LED.  Since this loop only nets you 5 mana, you are -1 mana for each loop you do, so in order to get to 10 spells you would need the third land to cast the dark ritual leaving you with exactly 4 mana after casting infernal tutor and sacrificing LED.  

The General Idea

Having three distinctly different win conditions in the deck is difficult for your opponents to navigate, but it can also be challenging to pilot.  Often times, I have discovered that you need to pivot between game plans as your opponents shut one path of victory off. For Instance, Thalia makes it impossible to win by storm, where Karakas makes your Depths combo useless.  The ability to adapt and innovate is crucial. What deck are you playing against? Which combo is most likely to beat them? Which combo are you closest to assembling? There are a lot of moving parts in all magic games, which is what makes the game so great, but it is especially true with DETH. If you’d like to see the deck in action I stream it often under the handle Traswidden.  Next time I will go a little more in depth about the deck’s good, and not so good match ups and general sideboard strategies and answer some of the questions I posed above.