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The Four Horsemen Of Legacy

SCG Legacy Open: Columbus Top 8 competitor Todd Anderson dissects the four horsement of Legacy right now so you can learn to play with them as well as against them. Prepare to play Legacy at SCG Open Series: Worcester.

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of playing Hypergenesis in Legacy (thanks to Gerry Thompson for a sicko list), a deck that I haven’t really had a chance to play since it was in Extended quite some time ago. Luckily, the version back then didn’t have access to Force of Will, making the combo a little worse off against decks featuring soft countermagic like Spell Pierce, but I digress.

I had more fun playing Hypergenesis than I’ve had playing Legacy…pretty much ever. I got to do some absolutely broken things and put a ton of absurd creatures into play that my opponents just couldn’t beat. Utilizing some of the new cards from Planechase, Shardless Agent and Maelstrom Wanderer, the deck’s mana base became spectacular, cutting an entire color from the deck and making you much less vulnerable to cards like Wasteland.

While I ended up making Top 8, I ran into what some consider the worst matchup imaginable: MUD. With four Chalice of the Void in his maindeck not to mention Trinisphere, it was very easy for him to shut down a huge part of my combo. Additionally, his Kuldotha Forgemasters were absolutely devastating when I cast Hypergenesis or Show and Tell, allowing him to Tutor for whatever answer he needed for my monsters. I didn’t end up with the trophy, but the deck is very good and I’m looking forward to playing it again soon!

So what made the deck so good? Sneak and Show has been doing something along these lines for quite some time in the hands of a Mr. David McDarby. What’s with the sudden resurgence of Show and Tell, and why is it up to $50? Well, that’s an easy one…

#GriselBanned

Putting this guy into play was something else. I felt invincible. Untouchable. Griselbrand just felt completely broken alongside both of the good “pitch” blue spells in Legacy. I’m sure it was just miserable for my opponents to play against. Griselbrand’s ability is fairly similar to Yawgmoth’s Bargain, but Griselbrand is infinitely easier to cheat into play. Can you guess which one is actually banned? I can only imagine what someone could do with a Griselbrand in a deck with more free spells.

While some decks are able to match or beat your deck when a Hypergenesis resolves, those matchups are few and far between. I rarely lost a “race” when I cast Hypergenesis, but that probably has a lot to do with the fact that Griselbrand exists. His lifelink ability is almost as important as his other abilities, because it allows you to attack and then draw seven more cards or just beat every other fair deck in a racing situation. I haven’t seen a creature hit play on the other side of the field that I hated more than Griselbrand, because his presence signifies the end of the game even though it might take a few turns to reach that point. I’ve never felt like that was truer with any other creature in play, including Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

Going forward, I think Griselbrand will be the best creature to cheat into play from any deck that doesn’t mind drawing fourteen cards. While I’m not entirely certain he’s ban worthy, I feel like Wizards will give us at least a few more months to play with him before they give him the axe. After all, he hasn’t really dominated an entire Top 8 yet, and most fair decks have enough disruption to keep Show and Tell decks in check, at least for the most part. While Show and Tell is very powerful, the tools are there for us to slow them down and ultimately pick them apart.

But enough about my exploits, as you didn’t really come here to listen to me ramble about how much I like fatties. Not that I don’t, but there is a time and a place. Today’s topic: The Four Horsemen of Legacy. These four are what I consider to be the strongest cards to build your deck around at the moment. To be fair, there are a ton of cards in Legacy that are awesome, but these are the most powerful, consistent, and dominant strategies currently influencing Legacy. We’re going to go over them in detail, and hopefully give you some insight as how to combat them.

Legacy is a fairly diverse format full of powerful cards and engines alike. Each archetype contains certain cards that are very important to the overall gameplan, and without those cards they would cease to exist (or be far weaker). Within each of these archetypes you can find countless pieces to the puzzle as well as ways to facilitate whatever bonkers combo or board state you’re trying to set up. Today we’re going to talk more about cards that define archetypes, rather than cards that go into a lot of different archetypes. Important ones left off the list: Wasteland, Brainstorm, Dual Lands, etc.

First up, the Big Baddie in Legacy right now:

#1: Show and Tell

While Show and Tell has been around for ages putting monsters like Progenitus and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn into play, it hasn’t really come to a head until now. Show and Tell is at an all-time high as far as price is concerned, and its popularity grows with each successful showing. From Hive Mind to Dream Halls, there are plenty of awesome things to do with this Urza’s Block sorcery. So what is the best thing to do?

I would argue, as above, that Griselbrand is the best thing you can be cheating into play. After all, Yawgmoth’s Bargain is banned, but Griselbrand is the next best thing! While drawing cards only in increments of seven can be a “drawback” of sorts, the fact that he acts as a win condition on his own that draws seven or so cards a turn is just unreal.

Additionally, he can easily race Progenitus thanks to lifelink. You can occasionally Show and Tell a Griselbrand into play then use free mana from Spirit Guides or Lotus Petals to cast another Show and Tell or cascade spell to hit Hypergenesis, allowing you to gain complete dominance of the board while also filling your hand full of Force of Will and Misdirection.

While you can fight Show and Tell on occasion after it resolves, I feel as if the strongest course of action is to try to keep it from ever resolving. While this may be a bit difficult to do thanks to their permission spells, there are a few ways. Counterspells are always welcome but don’t always do much. Since they are so conditional and expected, they are fairly easy to play around assuming that you aren’t under much pressure.

The biggest threats to decks like Show and Tell are aggressive, disruptive creatures.

Thalia is currently the best answer for aggro decks against combo, since she can combine with Wasteland to shut down their early dig spells and mana production. Additionally, she hinders their ability to cascade, forcing them to pay an extra mana for both the original spell as well as the Hypergenesis (assuming the spell is Violent Outburst). Unfortunately, Ethersworn Canonist is no longer a solid answer to cascade since Shardless Agent was specifically designed to be an artifact creature.

As long as the baddie coming into play is Emrakul, Knight of the Reliquary is an acceptable play from their Show and Tell as it will allow you to search up your Karakas and bounce their creature back to their hand. Unfortunately, if their creature is Griselbrand you will likely need to be able to deal with a Sneak Attack or something worse on the next turn, since they are going to be drawing seven cards and generally a Force of Will to shut down whatever you’re going to do over the next few turns.

While Show and Tell is powerful, decks like RUG Delver are generally solid against them. When combined with some pressure, their disruption package featuring Wasteland, Spell Pierce, Daze, and Stifle can be devastating to any combo deck. Force of Will in their corner helps eliminate the ones coming out of the Show and Tell decks, but I have seen plenty of people play this matchup incorrectly. You won’t beat Show and Tell if you don’t put pressure on them. Do everything you can to apply maximum pressure while also maintaining your disruption. Without pressure, you give them plenty of time to draw enough mana sources to play around your soft counters.

For reference:



Next up is my favorite card in Legacy at the moment:

#2: Green Sun’s Zenith

While Green Sun’s Zenith isn’t overpowered (in my opinion), it does give the green decks a little spice. Sure, it allows the green mages to pack a singleton copy of Gaddock Teeg and the like, but isn’t that a good thing? Combo decks are everywhere in Legacy, so I don’t think that giving them five copies of Gaddock Teeg without hurting the rest of their deck is overly relevant.

While it is a powerful Tutor, there aren’t too many “broken” green creatures outside of Elf Combo. Most people use Green Sun’s Zenith as just extra copies of their best creatures as well as the occasional Llanowar Elves (with Dryad Arbor). The fact that Green Sun’s Zenith can get any green creature in Magic’s history is pretty sweet, since that means you can find hidden gems after searching through Gatherer for a little while.

Green Sun’s Zenith was banned in Modern for a few reasons, but really just because it kept green decks from diversifying. Wild Nacatl had the same problem, as every aggro deck had to have a very good reason to not feature the fearsome kitty. While they are very powerful spells, neither did anything other than be the best at what they do. Both are strong cards, but I honestly hate the fact that they had to ban either.

The problem with Green Sun’s Zenith in Legacy is that it isn’t easy to “hate out.” Since you’re not really a combo deck, decks like Maverick tend to feature a lot of large or utility creatures that can dominate the board if left untouched for long enough. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does usually means that Maverick is going to dominate every other fair deck on the market. When this type of decks has access to one of the most powerful “hate bears” of all time in Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, the deck actually becomes good. Without these “hate bears,” I don’t think Maverick could ever hope to compete with combo decks like Storm, Show and Tell, or…anything really.

The best way to hate out the Green Sun’s Zenith deck is to figure out what makes them tick. If Knight of the Reliquary and company are in tow, then Cursed Totem is a great start. A few RUG Delver lists have featured this sideboard card since it shuts down almost their entire deck, including Dryad Arbor! Additionally, Submerge and mass removal like Terminus and Perish are great ways to combat this strategy.

While there isn’t a ton of ways to attack Green Sun’s Zenith decks, a combination of removal and an inevitable game plan or win condition sounds like a good start. Some combo decks can just win on turn 1 or 2. I suggest doing so before they can cast Thalia.

For reference:


#3: Lion’s Eye Diamond

I feel like this card should be in more decks. The power level is there, but the trick is being able to use the mana after you discard your hand. At the moment the two most popular decks that play LED are Dredge and Storm, both of which can/need to empty their hands in order to win.

While Storm hasn’t made much of an impact as of late, Dredge seems to be…dredging up a storm. Gerry Thompson piloted a pretty sweet list last week in which he decided that he didn’t even need a “good” target for Dread Return! I suppose twelve Zombies and a 16/16 Golgari Grave-Troll are good enough, along with the fact that he’s ripped your hand apart with Cabal Therapy!

Since Dredge is one of the decks I hate most in Legacy I tend to go a little overboard on graveyard hate, but I don’t even know if that is unreasonable at the moment. Dredge made the finals in back-to-back SCG Legacy Opens during the previous month, and Gerry almost made the Top 8 of the one in Columbus last weekend. The deck is very good in the hands of a skilled pilot, and one piece of graveyard disruption is rarely enough.

The best way to fight Dredge is to have a better combo than them. This generally means that Show and Tell with a bit of acceleration can race a bunch of Zombies as long as the Dredge deck doesn’t nut-draw you. As I read Gerry’s article from earlier this week about Dredge I learned a good bit, and you guys should check it out here to learn more. Basically, the story goes like this:

Tempo: Tormod’s Crypt
Control: Leyline of the Void / Grafdigger’s Cage
Combo: Leyline of the Void / Grafdigger’s Cage
Aggro: Scavenging Ooze + something else

These are the cards you should sideboard if you are playing these archetypes. Tormod’s Crypt just buys you time, so you need a clock to back it up. Leyline forces them to interact with you, so a combo deck can buy enough time to go off. Generally speaking you shouldn’t play Leyline if you aren’t playing black, but that isn’t necessarily true. It really just depends on what you’re playing.

While Leyline of the Void is more powerful than Grafdigger’s Cage, both are awesome in their own way. You can use Ponder and Brainstorm to hit Grafdigger’s Cage, while Leyline of the Void needs to be your opening hand. The problem is that Dredge can deal with both of them with a single Chain of Vapor or Nature’s Claim.

Dredge is a monster that few people enjoy playing with and even fewer enjoy playing against. Regardless, you need to be prepared. Lion’s Eye Diamond along with Faithless Looting makes it much more powerful than it ever was before, and you need to be prepared to face it these days.

For reference:


Next up, we have one of the best creatures in Standard!

#4: Delver of Secrets

With Delver dominating in Standard as well as Legacy, perhaps it is time to admit that it might be, could be, probably is a little too good. While I don’t think that Delver of Secrets is unbeatable, it gives the tempo decks an incredibly powerful creature to play on turn 1. This gives them the ability to dig and hold up counterspells for the rest of the game. Even if you are able to deal with Delver of Secrets, you will often have to face off against Nimble Mongoose and Tarmogoyf.

Tempo decks featuring cheap disruption tend to prey on combo decks, which makes a lot of sense. Combo decks are rampant in Legacy, giving competent Delver pilots a lot of easy targets and a lot of free wins. I think that Stifle will see a resurgence in the coming months since one of the ways people are beating Delver is by fetching up basic lands. Since Wasteland is such a huge part of Delver, the ability to blank it completely gives the opposition some breathing room. Drew Levin decided to cut Stifle from the deck a few months back during the SCG Invitational, and everyone else followed suit. While it was probably correct at the time, I think Stifle should come back to the deck. 

Alongside efficient removal and cheap disruption, Delver can easily defeat any deck in the format with its nut-draw. However, that can be said about nearly every deck in the format. Legacy is full of powerful combos and interactions that are just really hard to combat if you aren’t prepared for them. While Delver of Secrets is probably one of the fairest decks in the format, it still wins quite often.

The best way to fight Delver is to remove all of their creatures. While this sounds simple, it isn’t always that easy. If you play around Daze, you will rarely be able to play around Spell Pierce. If you play around both, you will often have your spell countered with Force of Will. The trick is deciding which one is more devastating and which is more likely given their decisions and the current situation.

The deck is also incredibly mana-light, which means that an opposing Wasteland deck can catch them off guard. If you can answer their first threat and put them behind on mana, then you should be in great shape. Life from the Loam and Crucible of Worlds are both amazing against RUG Delver because their main plan of attack is to hit your mana. If you can get around that and start dealing with their threats, then it should be pretty easy from there on out.

Overall I think Legacy is incredibly diverse and healthy, which Wizards strives for in every format. With so many decks popping up lately, it is hard to justify giving any card the banhammer. With so many useful tools at their disposal, every deck in Legacy can change in some way to help fight against their opponent’s strategy.

One of the coolest things I’ve discovered about Legacy players is that they rarely change decks. Generally speaking, they just take whatever deck they’ve played forever and tweak it to combat specific archetypes that are more popular. I love this phenomenon and find myself doing the same thing from time to time, branching out to a new deck whenever I just can’t figure out how to make my old deck work anymore or just feel like going nuts for a little while. Hypergenesis was pretty awesome, but I’m not sure it is the right call for the SCG Invitational coming up.

I will be playtesting vigorously over the next two weeks for the SCG Invitational in Indianapolis. With so many awesome decks in Legacy to choose from, it should be a lot of fun! Even though Standard is a bit Delver-heavy, not all is lost. Two different archetypes made the finals of the SCG Standard Open in Columbus, and neither featured Delver of Secrets! Perhaps they won’t #BanVaporSnag after all.

Thanks for reading.

Todd Anderson

strong sad on Magic Online

@strong_sad on Twitter; follow me!