James Hsu

This is a guest tournament report written by my good friend Jeremy Edwards. Jeremy is based in Seattle, Washington and no stranger to quality tournament reports, having written a pair of them earlier here. He chooses to NOT be on social media, so I’m posting it here with his permission.

Some context — the Pacific Northwest community lost an amazing human being last year in Jordan Aisaka. Jordan’s brother Dan ran the Jordan Memorial Tournament in his honor.

–James

On July 15, 2023, Northwest Legacy players gathered by the dozens at Mox Boarding House in Bellevue to honor the memory of their longtime peer Jordan Aisaka, who died of a brain aneurysm last October. The tournament was a grand affair: the largest Legacy event the store had held since the pandemic. Live coverage was back. Commentators were back. Enthusiasm was high. It felt like a return to how things should be.

Jordan’s parents and extended family were there, and his brother, Daniel Aisaka, played Jordan’s white-bordered Jeskai Tokens deck in the event, which I thought was an amazing gesture. On a number of occasions, Jordan had spoken fondly of their early days of competitive Magic, and I sensed that what he wanted, but never specifically said outright, was to be able to play a tournament alongside his brother one day. 

The event swiftly raised $6,500 for the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, and donations are continuing to be accepted.

Before I get into the play-by-play of my personal tournament journey, I want to underscore how much I enjoyed the stream, which is up on YouTube now (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7tEABb747g), avoiding the inevitable Twitch VOD expiration situation. If you want to see the chat, here’s the Twitch vid, available for however long it lasts (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1872730479). 

So many good moments!

Approximate timestamps: 

Tournament preamble 

00:14:20: Mike Yoon and Mike Kiesel share some Jordan memories. 

00:17:20: Intro from Lyla Ross of Gamers Engaged, the charitable arm that Card Kingdom runs. 

00:18:30: Jordan’s older brother, Daniel Aisaka, gives a speech. 

00:24:15: A video message from the Brain Aneurysm Foundation. 

00:33:30: A brief word about the playtest/proxies aspect of the event. 

Round 1 

00:41:00: Jonathan Jackson (UR Delver) vs. Josh Monks (Jeskai Landstill) 

01:07:24: Daniel Aisaka (Jeskai Tokens) vs. Miles Wallio (Elves) 

Round 2 

01:41:35: Daniel Aisaka (Jeskai Tokens) vs. Luke Black (Reanimator) 

02:13:00: Tony Drovetto (Esper Control with red splash) vs. Lauren Mulligan (Lands) 

Round 3 

03:00:00: Curran Delahanty (GB Fiend Artisan) vs. Chase Hansen (Stryfo Pile) 

03:39:00: Me (Cephalid Breakfast) vs. Richard Chembars III (Lands) 

Round 4 

03:55:00: Greg Mitchell and Matt Sokolowsky share some Jordan memories. 

04:03:10: Glenn Jones (Grixis Delver) vs. Tony Drovetto (Esper Control with red splash) 

Round 5 

05:11:17: Jake McCune and Connor Folse step in to commentate. 

05:12:30: Kelvin Wallace (Jeskai Tokens) vs. Joe Chlebowski (8-Cast with Urza and Thopter-Sword) 

Round 6 

06:16:40: Robin Hartshorn (Grixis Delver) vs. Luke Brandes (Bauble Burn) 

Round 7 

07:11:00: Matt Sokolowsky and Mike Yoon step in to commentate. 

07:18:50: Heather Zeis (GB Fiend Artisan) vs. Chase Hansen (Stryfo Pile) 

07:59:00: Kelvin Wallace stops by the booth. 

Quarterfinals 

08:17:20: Patrick Daly and Mike Yoon in the booth. 

08:17:40: Kelvin Wallace (Jeskai Tokens) vs. Chase Hansen (Stryfo Pile) 

09:04:00: Patrick honors a donation challenge from chat to sing some Soundgarden. 

Semifinals 

09:11:30: Patrick Daly swaps out for Jake McCune. 

09:12:00: Chase Hansen (Stryfo Pile) vs. Josh Monks (Jeskai Landstill) 

Finals 

09:43:30: Jake McCune swaps out for Josh Monks. 

09:46:30: Chase Hansen (Stryfo Pile) vs. Alex Staver (Lands) 

The deck I chose for the event was one I have been favoring for much of the last nine months: Cephalid Breakfast. I used to tinker with Cephalid Breakfast when it was a fringe deck, so I have some background experience to draw from. Through a chance conversation, I became aware of a card that would inspire me to brew with the deck again. Sometime last year, Sean Catanese and I were chatting before the Ballard Legacy weekly, and I wondered whose card order contained jankier cards, since I had just bought a small stack of forgotten draft commons for the Battle Box format. On Sean’s list was the card Step Through. Although Modern Horizons 2 had been released several months before then, this was my first introduction to the card. I quickly put together in my head that Step Through was an uncounterable instant-speed tutor for Cephalid Illusionist and Urza’s Saga was an uncounterable tutor for Shuko. Notably, Thassa’s Oracle is a wizard too. 

Another piece of prior knowledge and influence came from an All Spells primer by Nathan Lipetz. What impressed me most from the primer and from subsequent games against All Spells in testing was the craftiness of Memory’s Journey. It contributed so much at the cost of only one slot. I wanted to play it in my build of Cephalid Breakfast, but I knew my list was blue-white and probably needed to play black. I played one tournament without black and found myself frequently drawing Cabal Therapy, which was a one-of at the time. I experimented with Thoughtseize, Pact of Negation, and Teferi, Time Raveler. I thought back to when I started playing Legacy in 2009 and how combo decks often played rainbow lands to open up sideboard possibilities. I realized that I could pretty consistently have green mana available if I ran a playset of City of Brass and one Tropical Island to fetch for. This became the eccentric mana backbone of my version of the deck and was one of the reasons why I didn’t find Daze to be worth a slot. When Initiative Stompy was running tables, I adapted by playing Cavern of Souls. The increase in non-Island lands made Daze even less viable. Daze is generally very good in decks that compress the timeline, and it was in the last iteration of Breach that I played before Underworld Breach got the banhammer in March 2020, just a week before the COVID-19 shutdowns. Daze is a card I would be interested in for a list without City of Brass. 

This is the list I ran in the event. It’s been slowly evolving since last year. I have been following the parallel evolution of other people’s lists, but I prefer my combo approach to the deck. 

4 Brainstorm 

4 Force of Will 

1 Thassa’s Oracle 

1 Dread Return 

4 Narcomoeba 

2 Cabal Therapy 

4 Cephalid Illusionist 

4 Nomads en-Kor 

4 Step Through 

4 Shuko 

1 Shadowspear 

1 Ponder 

2 Prismatic Ending 

1 Orim’s Chant 

1 Silence 

4 Flooded Strand 

1 Polluted Delta 

1 Scalding Tarn 

1 Island 

1 Plains 

3 Tundra 

1 Tropical Island 

2 Underground Sea 

4 City of Brass 

4 Urza’s Saga 

Sideboard: 

1 Memory’s Journey 

2 Brazen Borrower 

1 Flusterstorm 

2 Force of Negation 

2 Swords to Plowshares 

1 Mindbreak Trap 

4 Leyline of the Void 

2 Lotus Petal 

Round 1 

Last time I played Leo Zoeckler, it was at a Premodern meetup a year ago. He hasn’t been involved in regular Legacy tournaments since before the pandemic, but he evidently kept his Legacy cards. In honor of Jordan, we flipped a WOTC coin that Jordan had always liked. This coin came from the Wizards Game Center in the University District of Seattle circa 1997, where I likely rescued it from the arcade floor. If you haven’t seen it before, here’s one that someone’s selling on eBay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-1997-Wizard-of-the-Coast-Game-Center-Arcade-Token-WOTC-Magic-MTG-Counter-/143722299483). I won the coin flip. 

Leo mulliganed to six. His start of Wasteland into Aether Vial, followed by Rishadan Port into Aether Vial, made me think he was on Death & Taxes, but his Turn 3 play of Cavern of Souls, naming “Goblin,” revealed that he was repping the little green guys today. My keep of double Prismatic Ending lined up perfectly with this start, and it was Turn 4 before Leo played a creature — a sharpied card, Moria Marauder — which was able to dig him to another sharpied card, Rundvelt Hordemaster. He apologized about his handwriting — which I found readable, so no apology needed — and he brought up Gatherer on his phone so we could ensure we weren’t missing anything between his scribbles and the official text. (In the player meeting before the tournament, the head judge had encouraged Gatherer use because of the possibility of a high number of sharpied cards in the room.) This Goblins build looked like it could snowball quickly, but I drew what I needed on Turn 5 and was able to combo. 

Despite crafting a sideboard map covering 25 matchups, I didn’t have Goblins on my list, so I made my decisions on the fly. I boarded in 2 Brazen Borrowers as a Leyline of the Void answer, 2 Swords to Plowshares to answer a Turn 1 Goblin Lackey, and 2 Lotus Petals to turn on the jets. I boarded out the playset of Force of Will because they seemed poor against a tribal deck with Cavern of Souls, and I think I trimmed on cantrips. I mulliganed into a six-card hand that was land-light but fast. It was soft to Leyline, which was a concern, but I had no guarantee that Leo would be on Leylines or would feel he had to mull low to find it, so I kept. No Turn Zero Leyline. Leo again started with Aether Vial on Turn 1, followed by a Wasteland Turn 2 on my City of Brass. But my Turn 1 was Shuko, and I had a Lotus Petal to go with the other land in my hand, so I comboed on Turn 2. Leo told me afterward that he had Twinshot Sniper in hand but couldn’t Wasteland me and keep mana up for it. 

The first of four or five door prizes — Secret Lairs donated by WOTC — were raffled off, and many people were thoroughly enjoying catching up with friends or acquaintances they hadn’t seen in years. 

I ran into Joey Frantz before Round 2, and he offered to share scouting notes. I agreed but didn’t know how much I would be able to contribute to the cause. The tournament was uniquely difficult to scout, for reasons I’ll go into later when I touch on the particulars of the tournament software. Joey didn’t have my Round 2 opponent, Marshall Lake. 

Round 2 

I had a vague recollection that Marshall is from Portland, but I didn’t know what he might be on. He won the die roll and took two mulligans. He opened with a Turn 1 Urza’s Saga, and I thought it might be a mirror match. I had a Saga hand of my own. His Turn 2 play dispelled that notion: Ancient Tomb, Grim Monolith, Mox Opal, Lion’s Eye Diamond, and The One Ring. Cue the “That escalated quickly” meme. 

My own Saga was going to go off after Marshall’s. I had a Shuko and Nomads en-Kor, so I wasn’t worried about Pithing Needle, but I gauged that I had only about two turns before I could get comboed out by Mystic Forge or locked down by a Karn, the Great Creator. Marshall’s Saga tutored in a Manifold Key, and he cast a Karn, which grabbed a Tormod’s Crypt. His Turn 4 was Mystic Forge, and he revealed some other tidbits as he comboed out. I saw he was on an Echo of Eons build with Mesmeric Orb, Defense Grids, and Aether Flux Reservoir. The last one was why he was tracking storm count. Kaboom. 

As we were sideboarding, Dan Nguyen approached us about getting on camera for a backup feature match, and I dissuaded him due to the large number of sharpied cards in Marshall’s deck. Most players did not extensively make use of the 37-proxy limit, but a couple did. Having done commentary myself in the past, I knew this would not lend itself to a good commentating experience or a good viewing experience. Marshall then secured us a time extension from a judge (four minutes). 

I boarded in Force of Negation and the Borrowers. I mulled to five. Marshall started with a Leyline and had Dismember for my Nomads, with another seemingly strong and fast start, but there was no whammy this time. He went to the well, flashing back an Echo of Eons on Turn 4, and I was able to win shortly afterward with a Borrower to bounce the Leyline and then combo out. 

Game 3: I mulled to six. I Forced Marshall’s Grim Monolith, hoping to slow him down, and he pulled the LED-Echo ripcord. We eventually entered a game of lock pieces. He had resolved a Karn and fetched a Tormod’s Crypt with it. He had a Defense Grid in play, but I had enough mana to pay for it. The Nomad I ran out got Dismembered, and he had put a small Walking Ballista on the battlefield but was at low life. He had been playing at a methodical but reasonable pace over the course of the round, but his deck required a lot of tapping, untapping, mana tracking, and storm tracking. Judge Noah had asked him to track his mana on paper to make it easier to follow. We appeared to be the last match still going, and two judges were at the table. Marshall tanked on something and maybe 30 seconds later Head Judge Richard prompted him to make a decision. I’m guessing, based on the presence of his extensive proxies, that Marshall was not yet proficient with this deck. He was obviously a capable player, but he displayed a lot of difficulty in tracking mana and storm. Over the course of our time extension plus the last five turns, it felt like 20 minutes elapsed. This involved the other three Echo of Eons being cast while two Defense Grids were in play, so I was really just a spectator on his turns. In two instances, I had a hand that could win through all the hoops if the turn was passed back to me. Unfortunately, the final Echo left me without a good line to win. This meant I should play for the draw, so I made my creatures Walking Ballista fodder to force it to shrink and tried to stave off death. It nearly worked, but Marshall had just enough life and mana to deal the final 6 damage to me on Turn 5, leaving himself at 2 life from Ancient Tomb. 

Round 3 

I faced Richard Chembars III. I remembered his face but wasn’t sure where he was from. Possibly the Renton or Normandy Park areas. I kept a fast hand and was on the play. He mulled to five. I saw Exploration, Karakas, Boseiju, Rishadan Port, and Wasteland, so he was obviously on Lands. My life pad indicates I Forced something this game before I comboed him. Maybe a Crop Rotation. 

I think I boarded out Shadowspear for Memory’s Journey. It felt like the air conditioning had been turned off before Round 3, and 90 degrees outside plus 80 people in the tournament area meant it was starting to get hot. This game was a grind. Richard had started with Mox Diamond and a Life from the Loam to get back a fetchland. I didn’t have the combo yet, and when I did, Richard had Blast Zone with one counter on it and Punishing Fire mana up with a Grove of the Burnwillows to recur it. I made an attempt at pressuring him with Shuko-strapped Constructs, but when he could double Punishing Fire away the Constructs, the game was largely decided. I played on for the possibility of drawing a Silence or an Orim’s Chant, but neither showed up. I noted that Richard had Sphere of Resistance in postboard, which has been a popular Lands plan of late. 

Game 3 we were moved on camera as the backup match, and it was swift.

Round 4 

This round was against Lauren Mulligan, who I seem to face often in big events. I knew she’d be on Lands again. Lands is pretty favorable preboard as long as I can get my mana set. I won the die roll and comboed on Turn 3 or Turn 4. 

Lauren got a lot of mileage from Sphere of Resistance in Game 2, and I stumbled on lands, which led to my undoing. I wanted Brazen Borrower to have another answer to Spheres. 

I think I boarded in the Borrowers for Game 3. This time I had a fast hand with protection, while Lauren mulled to six. I Forced her attempt at a Turn 1 Soul-Guide Lantern and went for it on Turn 2, which paid off with the win. 

Between Round 3 and Round 5, I asked a few employees what was up with the air conditioning and was told they’ll work on it. At one point, the vents near the ceiling seemed to be blowing out warm air instead of cool air, and I was concerned that the heat was on by mistake. 

Round 5 

I was paired against Luke Brandes, the usual judge for the Thursday night Legacy weekly in Bellevue. He has been running 8-Cast with Painter’s Servant and Grindstone for several months, so I made my mulligan decisions with this in mind. Luke won the die roll. I kept a reasonable five-card hand that could Force something if needed. Luke started with Goblin Guide, and my hand started to look pretty bad. I didn’t have another blue card besides Brainstorm, and I decided to use my Brainstorm to clear more cards with Goblin Guide and save the Force of Will to defend my combo against a likely Lightning Bolt, but I was never able to put together the combo … or much of anything, really. Luke followed with a Monastery Swiftspear and a Mishra’s Bauble and a Lava Spike, then an Urza’s Bauble the next turn. Even though the Goblin Guide was giving me lands off the top, there seemed to be nothing but lands to draw. I had five in hand at the end of the game. I drew Urza’s Saga right before I took lethal. 

Burn was another deck I didn’t have on my sideboard map. I brought in the Borrowers and Memory’s Journey, and I think the Lotus Petals as well. Luke started with Dragon’s Rage Channeler off a Barbarian Ring and played a Mishra’s Bauble. I expected to play this game with a Saga plan. I had a Saga ticking up on Turn 3, but I drew or Brainstormed into the combo, and when Luke tapped out, I went for it and he had no resistance or graveyard hate in hand. 

Prior to Luke’s tenure with 8-Cast, he had always played Burn, and I knew he generally played a lot of copies of Smash to Smithereens, so I didn’t have full confidence in the Saga plan. I decided I wanted two Swords to Plowshares on the draw to decrease the odds of me getting raced by something like double Swiftspears buffed up with Bauble triggers, and I boarded the Borrowers back out. It seemed like Luke either had no graveyard hate or maybe was playing Faerie Macabres. 

Game 3 Luke began with a Leyline of the Void, and I regretted swapping out the Borrowers, although I do have ways to win through a Leyline. He was obviously on a one-lander but had pressure from a Goblin Guide and a Dragon’s Rage Channeler. He milled a Lightning Bolt with a Channeler surveil trigger on Turn 2, so I assumed he had a Bolt in hand already and was reserving it to break up my combo if I could answer or evade the Leyline. I used a Step Through to tutor up Thassa’s Oracle, intending to combo through Leyline in a few turns, and I got a Saga out. I had two Petals in play, which I had wanted to conceal, but I didn’t want to risk the chance of Luke having Eidolon of the Great Revel in his deck. I assumed Eidolon would conflict with the Bauble plan, but the cost would be game-losing if my assumption was wrong. 

On the pivotal turn, I had the option of using Cabal Therapy to try to strip Luke’s hand or use my mana to make a 3/3 Construct (retaining both Petals). I could do both if I sacrificed a Petal, but then I probably would be one mana short of comboing next turn. I could combo through the Leyline if I got another turn, so that was my plan. I was mildly concerned about dying to the Goblin Guide and the 1/1 DRC plus whatever burn Luke had in hand (I assumed Price of Progress), so I made a Construct in combat. Unfortunately, Luke had hit his second land that turn, and he had a Searing Blaze in hand. My Construct was a 3/3 (I lacked a Shuko this game), so it got cleared out, and I took damage to the face and wasn’t able to block anything. The cherry on top was that the Searing Blaze surveiled the fourth card type into the graveyard to grow the DRC, so it was exactsies and I didn’t get another turn. Luke’s odds were about 40 percent to hit: He could grow DRC with a creature, a sorcery, or his last copy of Leyline of the Void (he had drawn two). All in all, this was a very interesting game that I thought I was going to pull out, but things didn’t break my way. A Plow, a Shuko, a Force — really, lots of things would have flipped that game and match. 

At this point, I was fairly certain I was out of Top 8 contention, but I could notch up Top 16 if I won out. Standings went up, and some eyebrows were raised. Because this was an unsanctioned event, the tournament was not using WOTC software. There was an interesting quirk in the software that resulted in table numbers that were larger than the number of participants in the event, so each round the head judge would tell us to subtract a new, ever-larger number from our table assignment to determine the actual table number. This, along with randomized seatings each round and no records next to people’s names, made scouting quite difficult. Additionally, the system filed byes in a separate column and appeared to treat first-round byes differently than in WOTC’s system. For example, Matt Anderson had a Round 1 bye, but after Round 5, when he was 5-0, he was ranked lower than Floyd Combs, a 5-0 who had not received a bye. Personally, I think it’s only logical that an undefeated player who received no free wins should be ranked higher than one who did, but we’ve come to expect certain aspects of tournament standings to be upheld everywhere, so this was curious. 

Round 6 

Wesley Yang. Now, this is not a name I wanted to see. I face Wesley quite often in the Bellevue weekly, and he always runs the same deck: Moon Stompy. I’ve won the matchup once, but it’s usually a blowout, as you might expect for a battle between a four-color deck with Urza’s Saga and a deck with eight Blood Moon effects and the means to regularly play them on Turn 1. Wesley won the die roll, and I mulled to six to find a Force of Will. He led with Ancient Tomb and Chrome Mox into a Goblin Rabblemaster. I didn’t have a removal spell, so I needed to Force it. He had another Rabblemaster attempt the next turn and a channel of Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance the turn after. This type of start is beatable with my combo, but my cantrips betrayed me and I wasn’t able to find the other piece of the combo in time. 

The matchup gets worse after sideboarding because Wesley usually boards in Leylines, Unlicensed Hearse, and some combination of Pyroblast and Torpor Orb. My general boarding plan is to cut the Chant effects and most of the cantrips in order to bring in 2 Borrowers, 2 Swords to Plowshares, 2 Force of Negation, and 2 Petals. 

I mulled to six; he mulled to five. He led with Turn 1 Chalice, which I allowed to resolve because it’s not the biggest obstacle. I can play around it to an extent. Chalice would also turn off any Pyroblasts he had. I Forced his Turn 2 Magus of the Moon, but his Turn 3 Blood Moon stuck. I had a Lotus Petal, a Prismatic Ending, and a Borrower, so my plan was to bounce one lock piece on his end step and Ending the other if I couldn’t play through it. A Turn 4 Torpor Orb made that impractical, but I drew another Prismatic Ending, so there was still hope. I had a couple draw steps before Wesley found pressure, in the form of a Rabblemaster, but his follow-up the next turn was Magus of the Moon, which effectively ended the game. My draws after that were irrelevant. 

Round 7 

For the last round, I faced Sam Jabloner, the usual judge for the Ballard weekly. Sam has been enamored with the format for a while and had been building toward Death & Taxes with Yorion, so I knew he’d be on that. This is usually a pretty interesting matchup if Death & Taxes can avoid a fast and protected combo. I won the die roll. In Game 1, Sam was able to break up the combo with Solitude and Swords to Plowshares, and we played a protracted game where I hardcast a Force of Will to stop a Loran of the Third Path from coming down a second time (Sam had bounced Loran with Karakas) and hardcast a Force on a Yorion (there was a Recruiter of the Guard and a Karakas on the battlefield). Sam saw three Swords to Plowshares and was able to get an Umezawa’s Jitte active, and I eventually lost the ground war. 

Sam mulled to six in Game 2 and had a Turn 2 Spirit of the Labyrinth, which he would have in all three games. This time I comboed quickly and had Force of Will protection. 

Game 3 I expected to win in similar fashion from the texture of my hand, but Sam had double Solitude and two white cards to pitch to win the fight. His Port, Waste, Waste follow-up left me without usable mana, but I had hit a Narcomoeba off the nine cards milled, and the little jellyfish held off the Spirit of the Labyrinth for numerous turns. I baited a Wasteland with a Tundra and two turns later deployed an Urza’s Saga. I had a second Saga after that. This eventually outclassed Sam’s board of Mother of Runes, Recruiter of the Guard, and Stoneforge Mystic, which had grabbed a Jitte (so I assumed Kaldra Compleat was already in hand). Crucially, I was able to use Silence on upkeep to cut off Sam’s last potential draw, and if the game had gone another turn, I would have been able to repeat with Orim’s Chant. 

Sam is a thoughtful player and a great student of the game, so we had a spirited recounting of key points in the match. 

Can you believe I played seven rounds and faced zero blue decks? That might be a first. I guess I should have played Charbelcher. :p 

A 4-3 finish wasn’t really what I wanted, but I felt I played well and lost two very close matches, so the 4-3 could easily have been 6-1 or 5-1-1. 

The eventual tournament winner, Alex Staver, took down Chase Hansen in the finals. Some might recall Jordan besting Alex in an epic quarterfinals match in that same room in May 2017, which eventually led to me facing Jordan in the finals and scooping him into the first Legacy Preservation Series Invitational. The backstory is that Jordan had been concerned he wouldn’t make it in on weekly points because of sporadic attendance due to work and there were only a couple of 1Ks left in the season. We both ardently wanted to qualify, but I knew he wanted to make it in even more than I did. I was in a better situation on cumulative 1K points, so I made sure he was covered. This decision has always felt right to me, and I think of it fondly now.

Top 8 lists are up for viewing on mtgtop8.com:

https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=46056&f=LE