Please hold while we load your cart...
Legacy has advanced significantly since my last comprehensive analysis of the format. Many players all over the world are innovating, and the most competitive decks are becoming quite diverse. Legacy has slowly worked its way out of a cycle of player inexperience and netdecking, and now creative deck construction is becoming more common. The format is currently in a positive state of growth, and its recent evolution is a good indicator that future large events will lead to further advances. In this article, I will analyze the formats latest developments, and make some predictions about the metagame at this weekend's Mana Leak Open 2.
Since this tournament will be larger and more competitive than previous private tournaments, I expect to see some deviations from typical field compositions as well as an influx of new technology. In the past several months, Legacy tournaments have displayed some clear trends regarding archetype popularity and diversity. Many different decks are becoming consistently viable, and players are beginning to adopt them to take advantage of unprepared environments.
I. COMBO
One of the most anticipated and important changes to occur in recent months is the rise of both the diversity and popularity of combo decks. This change has been coming for a long time, but the process has been much slower than I thought it would be, both for players to adopt new decks, and for the archetypes to become sufficiently tuned.
There are now quite a few decks in Legacy that exploit combo synergies. The most successful of these have been those that abuse the storm win conditions, which are stronger than the rest and of which there are now three – Brain Freeze, Tendrils of Agony, and the newcomer to Eternal magic, Empty the Warrens.
While the decks based on High Tide (Solidarity) and Ill-Gotten Gains have been around for some time, they are more popular now due to consistent success and more discussion and analysis of them by experienced players. I recommend that all players be ready to face these decks this weekend, as they have the speed, versatility, and protection to enable their pilots to go off past any unprepared decks.
However, there is a third storm deck that may show up as well. It combines some aspects of previous combo decks, and has some that are completely new: it runs a five-color manabase, which gives it access to the best combo cards in the format; it uses a wishboard and can use either Tendrils of Agony or Empty the Warrens as the kill; and it uses more mana accelerants than any other deck, with 40% of the deck as nonland mana sources. These features make the deck less vulnerable to permission than Ill-Gotten Gains, but much faster than High Tide. Of course, there are disadvantages. It has less consistent opening hands due to the large amount of conditional accelerants, and requires a lot of practice to play optimally. It is also very vulnerable to Wasteland and cards that disrupt the artifact acceleration, unlike the two previous storm decks. These downsides are considerable, but given the element of surprise they may not be a problem.
| Burning Wish Combo Featured by Bryant Cook on 2007-03-04 (Legacy) | ||
Artifacts 4 Chrome Mox 4 Lion's Eye Diamond 4 Lotus Petal Creatures 4 Xantid Swarm |
Instants 4 Brainstorm 4 Cabal Ritual 4 Dark Ritual 4 Plunge Into Darkness Sorceries 4 Burning Wish 1 Diminishing Returns 1 Empty the Warrens 1 Ill-Gotten Gains 4 Infernal Tutor 4 Rite of Flame 2 Tendrils of Agony Lands 4 City of Brass 4 Gemstone Mine 2 Undiscovered Paradise Legendary Lands 1 Tomb of Urami | 4 Dark Confidant 1 Diminishing Returns 1 Duress 1 Earthquake 3 Empty the Warrens 1 Ill-Gotten Gains 2 Shattering Spree 1 Tendrils of Agony 1 Tranquility |
 |
 | |
| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
Burning Wish Combo, also called “The Epic Storm” was recently taken to a 54-player tournament in Geneso, NY, and a 21-player tournament in Jacksonville, IL. In NY, it placed multiple players in the Top 16, and one in the Top 4 in IL. This is a quick adoption for a deck that is only three months old, which in Legacy is not very long in terms of format development.
As I have already mentioned, the deck is complicated, but it has strategies for a variety of matchups. Xantid Swarm, Burning Wish, and storm itself give the deck options against blue disruption, while Ill-Gotten Gains and the speed of the deck allow it to race Aggro. An introduction to the deck can be found here.
I expect these three decks to comprise a significant fraction of the field. I recommend that players be completely prepared to face storm combo at the tournament this weekend.
II. AGGRO-CONTROL
I am sure that many other players have noticed the increasing popularity of combo decks. One way to guarantee a strong performance against combo decks is to play one of the format's many Aggro-Control decks. The most popular of these, Threshold, has a good matchup against all of these decks, but I won't discuss it here since there already exists plenty of discussion on how to play Threshold.
Another deck which has had very consistent top eight finishes in the past several months is B/R Suicide, or “Red Death,” which has managed to achieve a solid game against both Aggro and Combo with its combination of heavy disruption and efficient threats. Such a feat is rare among Legacy decks, and after multiple successful finishes B/R Suicide is likely to have a strong showing: This deck most recently made fifth place in Geneso, NY:
| B/R Suicide Featured by Anwar Ahmad on 2007-03-04 (Legacy) | ||
Creatures 4 Hypnotic Specter 4 Nantuko Shade 4 Phyrexian Negator 3 Rotting Giant 1 Wretched Anurid Instants 4 Dark Ritual 4 Lightning Bolt Sorceries 3 Chain Lightning 4 Duress 4 Hymn to Tourach 4 Sinkhole |
Basic Lands 7 Swamp Lands 3 Badlands 3 Bloodstained Mire 4 Polluted Delta 4 Wasteland | 4 Dystopia 4 Engineered Plague 1 Darkblast 3 Umezawa's Jitte 3 Cabal Therapy |
 |
 | |
| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
B/R suicide takes advantage of some of the strongest disruption in the format. Hymn to Tourach is excellent against all decks, and in many circumstances Sinkhole can control the tempo game in combination with Dark Ritual and Wasteland. After disrupting the opponent with these cards, Phyrexian Negator and the burn spells can end the game very quickly. You can read the deck creator's introduction here.
Another deck that has had success in Europe, but has been seen only rarely in the United States, is W/G/r Aggro-Loam. This deck uses potent Green creatures, strong removal, and lots of card advantage. There are many strong synergies within the deck that can create strong board positions against all of the top decks in the format. The reason this deck works so well is that almost all of the cards support each other. This deck won the Dutch Legacy championship as well as a side event at Worlds 2006:
| W/G/r Aggro-Loam Featured by Hugo van Dijke on 2007-03-04 (Legacy) | ||
Creatures 3 Eternal Witness 1 Genesis 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Terravore 4 Werebear 4 Wild Mongrel Enchantments 3 Solitary Confinement Instants 4 Swords to Plowshares |
Sorceries 2 Armageddon 3 Burning Wish 3 Life from the Loam Basic Lands 2 Forest 1 Plains Lands 1 Nantuko Monastery 3 Savannah 2 Secluded Steppe 2 Taiga 4 Tranquil Thicket 3 Wasteland 4 Windswept Heath 3 Wooded Foothills | 3 Null Rod 2 Krosan Grip 4 Orim's Chant 1 Hull Breach 1 Life from the Loam 1 Nostalgic Dreams 1 Pyroclasm 1 Ravages of War 1 Wrath of God |
 |
 | |
| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
While I don't think many players have prepared this deck, it has posted impressive results against the traditional top tier. “Terrageddon,” as it is also called, can be tweaked for a strong anti-combo game, since it already runs maindeck Armageddon (with Burning Wish to get more) and Solitary Confinement. The designer talks more about the deck here.
There is another Aggro-Control deck that has made occasional Top 8 appearances in several different forms. W/u Aggro-Control, sometimes called “Angel Stompy,” relies on efficient creatures, strong equipment, and a variable suite of disruption to enable the deck to fight combo. Most recently, a deck of this form made third place in Geneso, NY:
| W/u/b Aggro-Control Featured by Philip Stolze on 2007-03-04 (Legacy) | ||
Artifacts 2 Chrome Mox 2 Sword of Fire and Ice Creatures 2 Dark Confidant 4 Exalted Angel 4 Knight of the Holy Nimbus 4 Meddling Mage 4 Silver Knight Instants 4 Brainstorm 4 Swords to Plowshares Legendary Artifacts 3 Umezawa's Jitte |
Legendary Creatures 1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda Sorceries 4 Duress 2 Serum Visions Basic Lands 2 Plains Lands 2 Ancient Tomb 3 Flooded Strand 4 Scrubland 4 Tundra 4 Windswept Heath Legendary Lands 1 Flagstones of Trokair | 3 Pithing Needle 3 Jotun Grunt 2 Okiba-Gang Shinobi 2 Armageddon 2 Perish 3 Tivadar's Crusade |
 |
 | |
| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
The strategy here is pretty simple – accelerate out solid creatures and equip them. The deck has some draw for mana fixing and consistency, and cheap disruption to slow the game down enough for the equipment to start working.
III. CONTROL
There are other decks, not heavily played in Legacy, that have a big advantage in a combo-heavy metagame: control decks. One of these is Landstill, which has struggled since the creation of Legacy. However, the deck has been rebuilt several times, and has achieved a few Top 8 finishes in the past two and a half years. The deck was most recently successful at the Geneso tournament, where it made seventh place:
| U/B Landstill Featured by Scott Scheurer on 2007-03-04 (Legacy) | ||
Artifacts 2 Crucible Of Worlds 3 Engineered Explosives Enchantments 4 Standstill Instants 4 Brainstorm 4 Counterspell 3 Fact or Fiction 4 Force of Will 4 Ghastly Demise 3 Stifle Sorceries 3 Decree of Pain 2 Haunting Echoes |
World Enchantments 1 The Abyss Basic Lands 4 Island 2 Swamp Lands 1 Bloodstained Mire 1 Flooded Strand 4 Mishra's Factory 4 Polluted Delta 4 Underground Sea 4 Wasteland | 4 Dandan 4 Flesh Reaver 3 Tsabo's Decree 4 Duress |
 |
 | |
| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
IV. AGGRO
In Legacy, Goblins almost completely comprises this archetype, and the developments of other Aggro decks have had little impact on the format. Goblins does experience small developments occasionally, but currently the archetype is splintered between three splashes and a mono-Red version, all of which have had comparable success and have had only minor variation over the past year. However, the rise of combo has even influenced this now-classic deck, causing players to give up other deck strengths so that they can run unsynergistic and historically irrelevant hand disruption to avoid an atrocious combo matchup.
V. FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
The increase in the popularity of combo is going to bring some balance to competitive metagames, and allow deckbuilders a lot of new room for the development of Aggro-Control and Control decks. The innovation that has accumulated over the past six months will take some time to become established, but it has already started to have a visible effect.
Overall, the format is healthy and growing. More importantly though, Legacy players are beginning to exert more control over innovation and the evolution of technology, and as always this is good for the format. New synergies are being found and new decks being built around them regularly. The confused reactions to the slow development rate of Legacy (which manifested themselves as paranoid calls for banning) have largely subsided, and I have a lot of confidence that the coming months will be very constructive preparation for GP: Columbus.
However, before that, as I have repeatedly mentioned, there is a rare Legacy event happening in just two days! This weekend, Ray Robilliard will be hosting the first ever Waterbury for Legacy – except of course that it will be in Stratford instead. This will be the biggest ever privately organized Legacy tournament in the United States. I am hoping that many of the players that have shown interest in the format recently will test their decks in a competitive tournament. Ray is one of the most trusted and experienced TO's in the Eternal community, and this is an event that is guaranteed to be fun. I recommend that anyone who can attend this tournament do so, as the prize structure, vendors, location, side events, concessions, and of course the tournament itself are all going to be the best around!
Chris Coppola
Machinus @ various websites and email servers
