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As you are all certainly aware, this weekend marks the second time Columbus will play host to a Legacy Grand Prix. The last time, two years ago, Steve Sadin walked away as the champion piloting a ridiculously powerful Flash/Protean Hulk combo deck that just so happened to use Counterbalance as a backup plan. The format has gotten a lot more attention since then as a result of high level tournaments like the StarCityGames Legacy Open series, which means there is far more information out there about what’s good – some might say, too much information.
For me, Grand Prix: Columbus is going to be the second Legacy tournament I’ve ever played. The first was the SCG Los Angeles Open, where I somehow managed to place in the Top 16 playing a Bant deck without Counterbalance, brewed up by Patrick Sullivan. That’s hardly what I’d consider a solid background in the format. Since I told myself that I wouldn’t show up to any events this season unprepared, I’ve been putting myself through something of a crash course in the Legacy format recently. Unfortunately for me, Legacy is an absolutely huge format, so the time I allotted isn’t nearly enough to learn everything there is to know. Since preparing for an event with limited time is a position that all of us find ourselves in sooner or later, I thought I’d share the approach I’ve taken and my thought process behind it.
The first step was familiarizing myself with the most important decks. Thankfully, the deck database and SCG Legacy Open results spreadsheets here at StarCityGames made that process remarkably easy. Jared Sylva’s articles – particularly the one this week – are an absolute goldmine of data for anyone looking for information. It's one thing to theorize that Merfolk and Zoo will be popular because they're cheap decks to build that are straightforward to play, but it's another thing entirely to see data from an entire season's worth of Legacy Opens to back up that hunch.
According to that wonderful font of data, the most popular decks at the Legacy Open events have in fact been Merfolk and Zoo, followed by Reanimator. I think it's a reasonable assumption that those two decks are likely to be even more popular at the Grand Prix. After all, while the Open series has had great attendance, even the biggest have been dwarfed by how enormous Grand Prix tournaments have gotten lately. Grands Prix draw a crowd from much greater distances, and GP: Madrid's record-breaking 2500 players earlier this year shows that even the card availability issues of the Legacy format doesn't keep players away.
That said, those card availability issues are precisely why I think Zoo and Merfolk are likely to be even more heavily represented at the Grand Prix than they were in the Open series. Legacy Open events tend to attract a smaller, more devout audience who regularly play the format and have cards already, while the Grand Prix will draw a much bigger crowd who are interested in playing in such a large event. These players are much less likely to have Legacy cards, which makes budget options like Zoo and Merfolk more attractive.
The budget nature of Zoo combined with the fact that it has been putting up solid results in recent events - even before the banning of Mystical Tutor, which fueled the combo decks that were Zoo's biggest nemesis - makes me think that Wild Nacatl and friends will be the most important deck at the Grand Prix. Finding a few Taigas and such to fill out an old Extended Zoo deck is a lot easier than putting something else together entirely! It is a solid deck that will show up in large numbers, and that meant that it would have to be the focus of my preparation. Basically, Zoo is "level one." With limited time to test, any deck without a strong Zoo matchup is one that I feel I can immediately discard.
| Zoo A Legacy deck, by Matt Elias 1st place at a StarCityGames.com Legacy Open tournament in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States on 2010-06-06 | ||
Creatures 3 Grim Lavamancer 3 Knight of the Reliquary 2 Loam Lion 4 Qasali Pridemage 3 Steppe Lynx 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Wild Nacatl Instants 2 Fireblast 4 Lightning Bolt 3 Path to Exile 3 Price of Progress Sorceries 4 Chain Lightning |
Basic Lands 1 Forest 1 Mountain 1 Plains Lands 2 Arid Mesa 2 Horizon Canopy 3 Plateau 1 Savannah 2 Taiga 4 Windswept Heath 4 Wooded Foothills | 2 Tormod's Crypt 3 Faerie Macabre 1 Wheel of Sun and Moon 2 Krosan Grip 4 Mindbreak Trap 1 Price of Progress 2 Pyroblast |
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Reanimator and Merfolk are both clearly important as well, although I feel the former will have a bigger impact than the latter. Merfolk is just so weak against Zoo on a strategic level that while it may be popular, it will likely be suppressed by the dominant beatdown strategy. Merfolk lost a lot of its allure with the banning of Mystical Tutor. Not only are the combo decks upon which Merfolk preyed likely to be less common, but the aggressive decks like Zoo are no longer kept in check by those same decks. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Merfolk seems like a bad choice for the Grand Prix, since it fails to overcome level one. It’s certainly not a deck I would seriously consider playing.
| Merfolk A Legacy deck, by Alex Bertoncini 2nd place at a StarCityGames.com Legacy Open tournament in St. Louis, Missouri, United States on 2010-06-27 | ||
Artifacts 4 Aether Vial Creatures 4 Coralhelm Commander 4 Cursecatcher 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Merfolk Sovereign 4 Merrow Reejerey 4 Silvergill Adept Instants 4 Daze 4 Force of Will |
Legendary Creatures 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner Basic Snow Lands 13 Snow-Covered Island Lands 1 Mishra's Factory 4 Mutavault 4 Wasteland | 3 Tormod's Crypt 2 Sower of Temptation 2 Back to Basics 3 Blue Elemental Blast 3 Spell Pierce 2 Umezawa's Jitte |
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Reanimator is a different story. Reanimator is a deck that was extremely popular but got hit hard by the Mystical Tutor banning. The biggest question for Reanimator isn’t necessarily even how hard that hit was, but more importantly how hard people think it was. Reanimator and graveyard strategies in general are like the boogeyman of just about any format in which they show up. Your success relies tremendously on how good other people think your deck is, and how much they want to prepare for it. Reanimator can certainly beat the hate, but doing so generally involves being able to anticipate what hate your opponent might play and having a plan to play around it. I don’t know the deck or the format well enough to feel like I can outmaneuver skilled opponents in that sort of dance, so Reanimator is a deck that I’ll be sure to keep in mind in my deck selection (especially my sideboard), but not one that I’m likely to play.
| Reanimator A Legacy deck, by Luis Scott-Vargas 5th place at a StarCityGames.com Legacy Open tournament in Seattle, Washington, United States on 2010-06-13 | ||
Artifact Creatures 1 Inkwell Leviathan 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind Creatures 1 Blazing Archon 1 Terastodon Instants 4 Brainstorm 1 Coffin Purge 4 Daze 1 Echoing Truth 4 Entomb 4 Force of Will 4 Mystical Tutor Legendary Creatures 2 Iona, Shield of Emeria |
Sorceries 4 Careful Study 4 Exhume 4 Reanimate 3 Thoughtseize Basic Lands 1 Island 2 Swamp Lands 4 Misty Rainforest 2 Polluted Delta 4 Underground Sea 4 Verdant Catacombs | 4 Pithing Needle 1 Bloodghast 1 Realm Razer 1 Animate Dead 1 Coffin Purge 1 Diabolic Edict 1 Mindbreak Trap 1 Wipe Away 1 Sadistic Sacrament 1 Show and Tell 1 Thoughtseize 1 Dryad Arbor |
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The last deck that I feel is particularly important to understand in preparation for the GP is Counter-Top, in particular the Counter-Top-Thopter build that has been floating around. The first time I saw it was when AJ Sacher played it at a SCG Legacy Open, but it has been steadily growing in popularity since then. According to Jared’s spreadsheet, it is one of the decks with the best winning percentage among players with winning records, which is certainly indicative of a solid deck rather than simply steamrolling weak competition. It has two of the most potent two-card combinations in modern Magic – Counterbalance and Sensei’s Divining Top alongside Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek – either of which is capable of putting away games on their own. On top of all of that, the deck has Enlightened Tutor to fetch either a missing combo piece or a backbreaking silver bullet like Moat.
| CounterTop A Legacy deck, by Josh Guibault 1st place at a StarCityGames.com Legacy Open tournament in St. Louis, Missouri, United States on 2010-06-27 | ||
Artifacts 1 Crucible Of Worlds 1 Engineered Explosives 1 Pithing Needle 4 Sensei's Divining Top 1 Sword of the Meek 2 Thopter Foundry 1 Tormod's Crypt Enchantments 4 Counterbalance 1 Moat 1 Oblivion Ring Instants 4 Brainstorm 3 Counterspell 4 Enlightened Tutor 4 Force of Will 4 Swords to Plowshares Planeswalkers 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
Artifact Lands 1 Seat of the Synod Basic Lands 6 Island 2 Plains Lands 4 Flooded Strand 1 Misty Rainforest 3 Polluted Delta 1 Scalding Tarn 2 Tundra 1 Underground Sea Legendary Lands 1 Academy Ruins | 1 Engineered Explosives 2 Relic of Progenitus 1 Tormod's Crypt 4 Ethersworn Canonist 1 Back to Basics 1 Circle of Protection: Red 1 Humility 1 Serenity 1 Extirpate 2 Hydroblast |
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This deck seemed like one I could legitimately see myself playing. It has the powerful proactive strategy of assembling its combos, and it plays some of the most flexible answers in the format in the form of countermagic, headlined by Force of Will. It is a very decision-heavy deck, and playing Counterbalance and Top correctly in particular requires a level of format knowledge that can only come from experience. Thankfully, I had allotted some time to actually playing games rather than just thinking about them, and I was able to get a decent number of games with Counter-Top-Thopter under my belt.
Level one was, of course, Zoo, where the deck performed admirably. Both combos are exceptionally powerful in that matchup, particularly in game 1. It’s difficult for Zoo to break through an active Counter/Top setup, and Thopter/Sword can help you recover from even the most precarious life totals, while Moat can win games that no other card could. That’s a matchup in which the deck certainly feels strong.
I felt like I was getting a decent sense for the feel of the deck from the games that I played, but a lot of my decisions were taking me longer than I could realistically expect to take in a tournament under time pressure. I feel like this is a factor many players don’t consider seriously enough. Playing a decision-heavy deck with little practice can obviously lead to making mistakes, but even if you can manage to brute force your way through by figuring everything out as you go, you’re much more likely to end up with unintentional draws because you have to play more carefully than you would with a deck with which you’re familiar. This is especially relevant for a deck like Counter-Top that forces itself into the position of making these decisions every turn .
I looked to other control style decks that I felt might be a smoother play experience for me. One that particularly caught my eye was the U/B/G Standstill/Deed/Jace deck that has been performing well on Magic Online. I liked the deck a lot in theory, and it seemed like a great choice if other players went down the Counter-Top-Thopter direction, since you’re a much more pure Control deck that matches up very well strategically against them.
| Landstill A Legacy deck, by Charles Gordon 13th place at a StarCityGames.com Legacy Open tournament in Seattle, Washington, United States on 2010-06-13 | ||
Enchantments 4 Pernicious Deed 4 Standstill Instants 4 Brainstorm 4 Counterspell 4 Force of Will 2 Ghastly Demise 3 Spell Pierce 3 Spell Snare Planeswalkers 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
Sorceries 4 Innocent Blood Basic Lands 1 Island Lands 4 Flooded Strand 4 Mishra's Factory 4 Polluted Delta 3 Tropical Island 4 Underground Sea 4 Wasteland | 1 Relic of Progenitus 1 Tormod's Crypt 3 Engineered Plague 3 Blue Elemental Blast 3 Extirpate 2 Mindbreak Trap 2 Perish |
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Unfortunately, all those cards that make you good against control don’t really do much against a Wild Nacatl. I found myself feeling really silly staring at Standstills in my hand when my opponent curved out with creatures, and even when I could stabilize and clear the board with a Deed, Price of Progress would end the game. The deck didn’t have any real proactive plan against creature strategies. Whereas the Counter-Top-Thopter deck could assemble either combo to win, the UBG deck was simply hoping to find the right answers and hope to win via attrition. That just isn’t nearly as strong a plan.
So what am I playing? As of the writing of this article, I still don’t know. I do feel like I have a strong enough grasp of the format in general to know that I want to play a deck with the following: a strong proactive game plan, a way to disrupt/interact with combo decks, resilience to sideboard hate that doesn’t require me to be some kind of virtuoso with the deck, and the ability to sneer contemptuously at an opposing Wild Nacatl.
That means I know a great deal of what I’m not playing. I’m not playing Merfolk, I’m not playing Reanimator, and I’m not playing DeedStill. I doubt I’ll play Zoo, because I feel like it’s the deck to beat for this event and I don’t want to run into combo decks that I have no idea how to beat. It’s unlikely that I’ll play Counter-Top-Thopter, because I don’t feel like I have a solid enough grasp of all of the situations that could come up to play the deck optimally and quickly enough to win with it, though it seems like the best of the decks that I’ve played recently.
Right now, my plan is to try to familiarize myself with Counter-Top-Thopter in the time I have prior to the event, and failing that I’m likely going to play some kind of Bant deck yet again. Tarmogoyf and Force of Will go a long way toward filling out what I’m looking for in a Legacy deck. The big question is what makes up the other 52 cards! If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.
| New Horizons A Legacy deck, by Kyle Boddy 1st place at a StarCityGames.com Legacy Open tournament in Seattle, Washington, United States on 2010-06-13 | ||
Artifacts 2 Engineered Explosives Creatures 4 Knight of the Reliquary 4 Tarmogoyf 2 Terravore Instants 4 Brainstorm 4 Daze 4 Force of Will 4 Stifle 4 Swords to Plowshares |
Legendary Creatures 1 Vendilion Clique Sorceries 4 Ponder Basic Lands 1 Forest Lands 3 Horizon Canopy 4 Misty Rainforest 3 Tropical Island 3 Tundra 4 Wasteland 4 Windswept Heath Legendary Lands 1 Karakas | 1 Engineered Explosives 4 Tormod's Crypt 2 Meddling Mage 2 Rhox War Monk 4 Krosan Grip 1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress 1 Vendilion Clique |
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| CounterTop A Legacy deck, by Julien De Los Santos 4th place at a StarCityGames.com Legacy Open tournament in Orlando, Florida, United States on 2010-03-28 | ||
Artifacts 4 Sensei's Divining Top Creatures 2 Jotun Grunt 2 Rhox War Monk 4 Tarmogoyf Enchantments 4 Counterbalance Instants 4 Brainstorm 4 Daze 4 Force of Will 2 Misdirection 4 Swords to Plowshares |
Legendary Creatures 2 Vendilion Clique Planeswalkers 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor Sorceries 3 Ponder Basic Lands 1 Forest 2 Island 1 Plains Lands 4 Flooded Strand 4 Misty Rainforest 3 Tropical Island 3 Tundra 1 Windswept Heath | 3 Pithing Needle 2 Tormod's Crypt 2 Ethersworn Canonist 4 Blue Elemental Blast 2 Hibernation 2 Krosan Grip |
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| Bant A Legacy deck, by Brian Kibler 14th place at a StarCityGames.com Legacy Open tournament in Los Angeles, California, United States on 2010-01-03 | ||
Creatures 4 Meddling Mage 4 Noble Hierarch 4 Qasali Pridemage 3 Rhox War Monk 4 Tarmogoyf 2 Trygon Predator Instants 4 Brainstorm 4 Daze 4 Force of Will 4 Swords to Plowshares Sorceries 4 Ponder |
Basic Lands 1 Forest 1 Island 1 Plains Lands 3 Flooded Strand 3 Misty Rainforest 4 Tropical Island 3 Tundra 3 Windswept Heath | 1 Engineered Explosives 3 Tormod's Crypt 2 Sower of Temptation 1 Blue Elemental Blast 2 Hydroblast 4 Submerge 2 Umezawa's Jitte |
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Until next time…
bmk
