Winter Derby 2.0: 5 color legends

"Anytime you can get Action Legends together, it's going to be a classic"--Chuck Norris

"Legends die hard. They survive as truth rarely does"--Helen Hayes

"Like any other world, Dominia has it's legends."--Legends Magazine Ad

It all started rather stupidly, when I did a poll on a certain facebook group asking what deck I should play in the Winter Derby. Among them included mono-red control, suicide white, and green/black burn. While most of the decks I had solid plans for, one I didn't was 5 color legends. A deck I figured would get a few votes, and that's it. It got triple the votes then anything else, and despite my best efforts, I couldn't keep myself from building it.

So where do I start, I guess with the building of it. 

Every card currently in the deck was put there for a reason.

For removal, a lone disc, a balance, 4 STP, and 4 Disenchant. I actually wasn't that worried about creature removal, since if I got any hitter on the board, he was going to stick. I made it a priority anything costing more than 3 had to have at least 4 toughness, with an ideal of 5. This killed Hazezon Tamar a Falconer from the deck.. And while Rasputin technically has 1, his ability to prevent damage was a must.

I utilized Untamed Wilds as my fetch card, perfect fixing, along with Stone. I'm not sure if City was a good choice, since it often was just as detrimental to me as to anyone else.

MVP's

"Suck it Sol'kanar"--Stangg

 Believe it or not, out of all the creatures I ran, Stangg packed the most punch. Thanks to Adventurer's Guildhouse, they even formed a band into a impressive 6/8. More then a few players overly relying on bolts also realized the 4 tougness would be hard to go over. My favorite play involving him is when I played against Sean Duffy's w/u Control. Sitting on a Serra Angel, he cast balance, hoping for me to in turn lose both of my creature's to Stangg's death trigger. Forgetting my Karakas, I bounced my Stangg (almost just bounced the token, since I had two cards in hand to his 5), causing him to sacrifice his Serra. I still lost the game some many turns later.

 This card had more of a psychological effect than anything else. Besides for the story above, removal became a lot more of an issue, as a free bounce meant I could counter any spot removal that targeted my creatures. While no story outside the top one comes out in my mind, I do remember saving at least one or two chump blockers (mainly Kei Takashi) with this.

Fun fact: my first Legend Legends

Bartel was invaluable in the game. Swinging hard, blocking harder. Any game I managed to get him out was a game I was (with once) able to swing my way. Strong enough to resist Psionic Blast, able to trade with Juggernaut and Juzam, and swinging a lofty 6 damage made him all too respectable. It doesn't hurt he's immune to Terror.

Jeff A Menges makes it well

His recursion ability is amazing. I only put him in the deck for the sake of his art. However, he proved his value in any game he didn't die the turn he came into play. It saved me from recieving lethal from a angry Serra Angel by recurring Xira at EOT. Well until I drew an Elder Dragon.

The 4th edition colors are better. Deal with it.

This card is terribly underrated. It has good art, it fixes any basic you might need. It can even be played turn two. All and all, I recommend this card for anyone too poor for duals. Plus, it's deck thinning, which I heard is nice, and it can combo well with Sylvan Library.

The Sideboard

The two cards here that made a big difference is Energy Flux and Ayesha Tanaka. In fact, even if I hinted at artifacts, I usually threw her in, and it worked, occasionally. For the artifact heavy deck, I also included Energy Flux, but we all know that. Sword was originally in the deck, and felt it could work well against control, but I didn't side it in a single game. Spirit Link was for the Djinn/Efreeti player, but not once did I draw it against any of them. Hurricane was extra skies hate. Last year, I kept encountering The Abyss, so I figured Ashnod could help. I didn't encounter a single abyss this year. Finally, I wanted my time worn Arcades in the deck, but didn't know where, so I put him in the sidelines. I didn't play him once sadly.

Idk how to rotate once it's here, sorry.

 

Building mistakes

Perhaps I was a bit to loyal to the theme. Perhaps I should have stuck with the burn deck instead of building this at the 11th hour. One mistake that was made was I forgot to include mindtwist in the deck or board. Regardless, I went against a wide variety of decks, including blue/red burn (the match lasted less than 10 minutes), red/blue control (Shivan dragon hurts). I played against two green decks running a play set of Ice Storm, (the second one, a green/black deck utilized a Nether Void as well), while I encountered a red green deck running Stone rains as well. The frail mana base of the deck made this enough of a speed bump to cause me to bottom out. Burn and control were easily my most difficult match ups. I sadly didn't find my factories until after the event as well, which hurt even more.

The aspect of the colors also came at a drawback, my last opponent actually Elemental Blast my Sol'kanar with one mana open, because he was red. While this is the only time it became a major deterrent, it was something I hadn't originally expected.

However, the good. Against any midrange deck, or weenie deck I did well. I took Dave Bard to a third game against his mono-white burn, as well as both green decks I mentioned above. I beat a blue/black Djinn beat down (the Spirit Link in the board helped as well).

I also beat the one combo deck I encountered, which was a power artifact build. I'm not sure if I would do well against others, since I didn't encounter any this year.

Finally, the fan-fare, everyone who encountered the deck, complimented it as well. Talking about how original or interesting it was. I wish I wrote some down so I could quote them, but you know what you said.

I also learned I should type what happens after it does, I intended to do a deck by deck analysis, but I can't remember half of what happened.

To everyone in the event, thanks!