|
Tuesday, August 31st - What up-and-coming deck put a whopping five copies in the Top 16? What combo did the winning deck pack? Check out some of the coolest winning decks in this week's edition of Legacy's Allure.
Tuesday, August 24th - Doug looks at the newest face of Counterbalance, dives into some economical Legacy decks that performed well, and highlights some of the fringe decks that made it to the end of the SCG Denver Legacy Open.
Tuesday, August 17th - This week, Doug looks at some of the hit decks from GenCon and Grand Prix: Columbus to bring you the new lists and classics. Plus, Doug looks at Survival Madness with an eye on evolving the deck, along with a look at the storm combo deck!
Monday, August 9th - This week, Doug reports on taking Legacy's hottest new deck on a test-drive at GenCon. The deck uses Survival of the Fittest to power out free Vengevines on the back of Basking Rootwallas or sends flying Wild Mongrels over to smack around the opponent. Check out the changes he made to the GP: Columbus list and get a round-by-round report on how the event shook out for him. Get the inside scoop on the newest Legacy deck in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, August 3rd - This week, Doug takes us through his day at Grand Prix: Columbus, piloting a teched-out Blue Lands deck. See how he fared during the day with round-by-round reporting and a look into some of the more intricate plays. How did The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale fare against Goblins? Why was Enchantress such a bad matchup? Find out his secret sweeper tech, and get a look at the newest version of Blue Lands in this week's Legacy's Allure! 
Tuesday, July 27th - Lurking under that Mosswort Bridge is the biggest troll you've ever seen, more like a giant cosmic squid! Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, gets summoned with regularity thanks to the Green land and this week, Doug explores the Aeon Bridge deck, crafted to exploit the Bridge. Find out the many combinations in the deck, get tips on playing Aeon Bridge, explore scenarios with the deck, and find out how to best fight it in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, July 20th - This week, Doug looks at several of the most powerful strategies that you will encounter at the Grand Prix and GenCon, with an eye on how to bust through them. Get tips this week on making sure Life from the Loam stays down, preventing Thopter token armies, and not dying ingloriously to Merfolk when you thought you had the game locked up. Get the tip on what two-mana artifact everyone should be playing, and find some silly options along the way in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Monday, July 12th - Endlessly recurring skeletons, powerful Green enchantments on legs, and the best combo hoser we've seen yet? It's all in M11, along with several other cool cards that could find a home in Legacy! This week, Doug looks over the full spoiler for the most likely Eternal candidates, pulling them out for in-depth analysis. Find out why Fauna Shaman resembles a certain Shards of Alara card more than Survival of the Fittest and much more, in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, July 6th - Have you read every article on Legacy, checked and rechecked every forum you know for more tech, and are still left wanting more? Online Legacy is where to turn to, even if you don't have a MTGO account! In this week's article, find out where you can access deck information, understand how the online format differs from the one you are familiar with, and see how to use Online Legacy to improve your chances at Grand Prix: Columbus and other large Legacy events. Get a sense of where StarCityGames.com tournament winners get their newest Landstill and CounterTop Thopters lists, all in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Wednesday, June 30th - This week, Doug looks at the results of the StarCityGames.com Legacy Open Series on its stop in St. Louis, Missouri. Check out why Doug was wrong about Thopter Foundry Control, get a sense on why Aether Vial decks are performing well, and learn about how old hits like Aluren are still playable. As a bonus, see what M11 card has got Doug excited to use with Grim Monolith and get the newest sideboard tech card, all in this week's Legacy's Allure! 
Tuesday, June 22nd - Legacy and Extended saw a big shakeup with the lastest Banned List announcement, and already players are alternately decrying the death of two formats and innovating up new lists to succeed. In this week's article, Doug lends a grounded perspective on what all this realistically means for Legacy players and analyzes each banning and unbanning in depth. See why the Extended change is good for Legacy players and understand what decks are winners and losers in the wake of Mystical Tutor's banning. Find out what to substitute for your Mystical Tutors and how to get the most out of your Grim Monoliths in this week's Legacy's Allure! Thursday, June 17th - This week, Doug combs through his recent testing logs to bring you five games with six of the hottest decks in the format, distilling each game into one tactical play. Get a walkthrough on the decision-making process to decide when to use removal against Zoo, how to accurately name Pithing Needle targets with Reanimator and the skill in baiting an opponent to prematurely use their Tormod's Crypts against Blue Lands. Get a sense of how to make tactical sacrifices and what to anticipate from the opponent in this week's Legacy's Allure! 
Tuesday, June 8th - What's beefier and more filling than a Philly cheesesteak sandwich? Sixteen hot, steamy new Legacy decklists from this weekend's StarCityGames.com Legacy Open in Philadelphia! You don't need to fight over Pat's or Geno's to figure out what decks topped out this weekend. From sleek Zoo to hearty Lands, a variety of decks made the cutoff with lots of new tech and interesting innovations. Check out this week's Legacy's Allure for a full run-down on what to expect for your Legacy summer! 
Monday, May 31st - Doomsday has always been at the fringes of Legacy, setting up precise Storm combo stacks and killing opponents with Tendrils of Agony. It retains standard storm kills with Ill-Gotten Gains and Infernal Tutors, giving it more flexibility. Now, thanks to Doomsday's library thinning effect, players can trigger Shelldock Isle easily to cast a giant spell. What giant spell would be worthwhile to cast in Legacy? What about Emrakul, the Aeons Torn! Check out this week's article to see how to get giant monsters and lethal storm counts in Magic's best format! 
Monday, May 24th - This week, Doug brings an interesting, original and innovative deck running Upheaval alongside some very old and powerful cards. Find out how to exploit the Stronghold classic Horn of Greed and how a Zendikar uncommon is the key to this Blue-Green deck that aims to reset the board two or three times in a game. You'll see how the engine works, get rules information regarding how to utilize parts of the deck effectively, and suggested avenues for developing the deck in the future. Don't miss this chance to read about how to use Upheaval, one of the most powerful cards in Magic, in one of the game's most popular formats! 
Monday, May 17th - One of the format's oldest decks has been quietly putting up great results recently. In this week's article, Doug looks at why Goblins is doing well and how to effectively play the deck against the top decks of the format. Find out why Goblins isn't really an aggro deck and how it can compete with decks like Zoo in a fast, furious format. See why Goblins can contend with Reanimator, the big dog in the room, thanks to good mana denial and an incredible pile of Edict effects. Get the scoop on one of the iconic and still affordable decks in Legacy!
Wednesday, May 12th - One of the fastest and most devastating decks in Legacy, Reanimator morphs into a different animal when faced with a mirror match. With symmetrical cards like Show and Tell or Exhume, it is easy to help an opponent out while executing your game plan. In this article, Doug goes over the common card interactions and illustrates how cards like Entomb change how mirror matches are played out. Find out why you shouldn't side out all those big monsters and why your Show and Tells depend on your Duresses, all in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Monday, May 3rd - The Legacy market for cards is increasingly driven by speculation and overnight price jumps. This week, Doug tells you his system for evaluating potential profitable cards and how you can use it to supplement your Legacy budget. Find out how to get the scoop on up and coming cards and see for yourself whether they're hot or just hype. Packed full of real-life examples of historical card profit opportunities, this article will inform you on how to free-roll your next Legacy deck. 
Monday, April 26th - Want a killer Legacy deck for under a $150? This week, Doug crunches the numbers on Dredge to find out what the most common cards are in the deck. Find out the true differences between the lists that run Lion's Eye Diamond and those that skip it. Get the consensus best number of Dredge enablers and learn how many Dread Returns to pack in your deck. Doug assembles this information into a composite Dredge list based on the successful lists he analyzed, presenting the format's secret budget deck in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, April 20th - Rise of the Eldrazi has provided some truly potent monsters to cheat into play, and this week, Doug reviews the best ways to get use out of these pounders. Find out what black sorcery looks like Time Walk and how levelers will influence aggressive strategies in the format. What decks can best utilize cards like Vengevine? How do we get Emrakul, The Aeons Torn, onto the battlefield for annihilation? Find out in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, April 13th - In the second half of his Deck Tech article on the fascinating Blue Lands strategy in Legacy, Doug looks at how to sideboard against the most popular decks in the format. While he usually brings in the same four or five cards every time, what he takes out for them might surprise you! Finds out when Lands is the aggressor and when it has to slow-roll an opponent. Consider how Rishadan Port slows down Reanimator and why Smokestack beats up on CounterTop decks. Get specific and detailed sideboarding advice, along with mulligan tips and sample hands, in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, April 6th - This week, Doug kicks off the first half of a two-part look at Blue Lands, a recent variant of the 43 Lands archetype that's been demonstrating excellent performance lately. In this article, see how different lands complement each other and learn whether Mindslavering an opponent is a playable strategy in Legacy. Get the lowdown on getting the most out of your tutors and how to craft an effective sideboard in this week's Legacy's Allure! 
Wednesday, March 31st - This week, Doug looks into the card vaults and pulls out five cards that are underutilized or just unloved in Legacy. Get a look at a card that can stop attackers forever, one that will make all of your board sweepers better, and a card that will be a lot better with Rise of Eldrazi! All these and more in an article that promises to get you thinking about new tricks and tips when you're building your next deck. Warning: Contains Spoilers.
Friday, March 26th - With Wizards' change in the Reserved List last week, nearly all discussion on the Reserved List's legitimacy was quashed and it looks like it's set to forever effect Eternal formats. This week, Doug looks at the impact this will have on Legacy and what can be done to soften its blow. Due to the matter of bannings and unbannings has come up in discussion through official channels, Doug also considers the opportune times to change and examine the list so as to have the best impact on the format while not hampering pre-scheduled tournaments. Get this and more in this week's policy-oriented Legacy's Allure! 
Tuesday, March 16th - This past weekend, Indianapolis showed the revival of decks that want to play more than four turns in a game, with a multitude of interesting control decks showing up at the final tables. This week, take a look at the lists that went to bat against Reanimator, Goblins, Merfolk and the other aggressive, fast decks in Legacy and see how they did it with Engineered Explosives, Thopter Foundry, Gatekeeper of Malakir and more! Also, get Doug's pick for the hot metagame deck, a potential ringer because of a weakness in the metagame against a certain Mirrodin artifact. All this and more in this week's Legacy's Allure! 
Wednesday, March 10th - Your opponent, on their first turn, casts a Dark Ritual, followed by a Thoughtseize, Entomb for Iona, Shield of Emeria, and then Reanimate. Welcome to the New Legacy, with the scariest deck of the moment being Reanimator. This week, Doug looks at how Reanimator works and the most effective lines of play for stopping the deck. Find out why you need to combine hate cards and how to get the most out of your limited sideboard space in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Friday, March 5th - This weekend, half a world apart from one another, Legacy players met in Richmond, Virginia and Madrid, Spain to duel in Legacy. Though the format hosts a boggling variety of decks, a miraculous thing happened - almost the same playoffs happened in both events! Check out Doug's analysis of the newest Zoo lists, which made up a full quarter of the field, and get the story on now Natural Order is the crowned king of Threshold decks. See the hottest decks in Legacy in this week's column!
Tuesday, February 23rd - This week, Doug looks at a powerful Blue uncommon from Alliances with lots of text on it... no, not Force of Will, Lim-Dul's Vault! How does the card compare to Vampiric Tutor, a card that's too cool for school in Legacy? How can we exploit the deck stacking ability with a new Worldwake card that's already caused a lot of excitement? Find out that and more in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Monday, February 15th - Zoo is one of the most statistically common decks in Legacy, but it takes on many forms. In this week's column, Doug looks at five different variations and suggests that Zoo is most powerful when it is focused on one of these builds. He considers the core of the deck alongside different interchangeable additions with an eye toward crafting Zoo to beat a certain metagame. Find out the standard and experimental types of Zoo in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, February 9th - With Merfolk being one of the most popular Legacy decks, the mirror match is bound to happen at an event and this week, Doug pulls the cover off of this peculiar match. Find out what cards are great in the mirror, which ones are merely playable and which ones you should cut with abandon! Get a take on how to evaluate opening hands and reminders for the strange combat math that Merfolk Lords create. Get tactical sideboarding advice and more in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, February 2nd - Inspired by the consistent success of both Merfolk and Zoo in Legacy, Doug presents a deck that attempts to tackle both of those decks by treating them as poles of the metagame. Using the powerful Gifts Ungiven and a relatively new win condition, his deck attempts to wallop the common aggro decks while maintaining flexibility in the face of the diversity of the format. Find out how to build a deck that mixes board control with combo kills in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Monday, January 25th - Worldwake has a great number of Legacy-ready cards, from new draw spells to efficient attackers. Go through an abstract analysis of cards to see whether they fit well in Legacy and get a handle on the new manlands and engine cards. With roughly two-thirds of Worldwake spoiled already, the set looks fantastic for Legacy. Check out this week's article for the Legacy hits in the newest set!
Tuesday, January 19th - The Dream Halls deck has been getting a lot of attention recently, and in this article, Doug explains how the deck works and what to watch out for. Is Cruel Ultimatum right for Dream Halls? Can the deck pack a more efficient kill? Find out the various configurations of the Dream Halls deck and get tips for playing with and against the new combination deck. Find this, plus a bonus Mono Blue Dream Halls deck, in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, January 12th - This weekend's tournament in Dallas brought out some old standbys and new decks for Legacy. In this week's article, Doug looks at the ubiquity of Merfolk decks and the curious choices of the two Zoo decks, along with tips for mirror matches and sideboarding strategies. Find out the newest tech and synergies to get the most out of these top decks in this week's Legacy's Allure! 
Tuesday, January 5th - Hot off the heels of a great Enchantress performance at the StarCityGames.com Los Angeles Legacy Open, Doug explores how to build an Enchantress deck to beat an expected metagame. Using Stephen Menendian's innovative deckbuilding process, Doug walks the reader through expected matches and the key cards, culminating in a composite assembled to beat those specific matches. Get critical information on one of Legacy's great under-the-radar decks, all in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, December 29th - Doug takes a swing at an updated Entomb-Protean Hulk deck for Legacy, adopting a rock-solid manabase and one of the format's most annoying cards. He explains the deck's card choices, as well as omitted cards and general strategy. Get a new Hulk list to play around with and inspire your own creations in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, December 22nd - This week, Doug checks out some of the fringe decks in Legacy with an eye toward presenting techy new options for Legacy players. Check out a use of the Sword of the Meek/Thopter Foundry combination and another strong Smallpox list. See a new take on yet another Legends card that can generate a very cool game win and get the latest in Counterbalance technology. All this, plus a fun contest, in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, December 15th - The SCG $5K Legacy Open St. Louis this Sunday resulted in an amazing Top 8, bringing the revival of Aggro Loam and illustrating the consistently strong performances of Zoo and Merfolk. Check out Doug's analysis of the four (!) decks packing Life from the Loam, and what it means for the format. With three pairs of decks in the final showdown, get a rundown on their similarities and differences to give you an edge on tuning the decks when you choose to play them at your next tournament! 
Tuesday, December 8th - With the bounty of tournaments in 2010, including the SCG 10K St. Louis this weekend, Legacy is set to see many cards increase in value or hold steady to already-high prices. This week, Doug outlines several categories of cards with examples to help you understand which cards should be picked up now, which can wait for later and the cards that could jump in price. Get your necessary financial and trading advice for Eternal formats in this week's Legacy's Allure! 
Monday, November 30th - This week, Doug presents an incredible calendar of Legacy events and dates of interest for the coming year. Get information regarding tournament dates, set releases, and Banned List updates. You'll find helpful reminders for good times to make travel arrangements and the best times of the year to get a scoop on new Legacy tech. Read this week's Legacy's Allure now and bookmark it for later!
Monday, November 23rd - This week, Doug looks at one of the most curious cards on the Legacy Banned List: Land Tax. Is the card a remnant from the old days of Extended, or should it rightfully still sit on the Banned List? Looking through the history of Land Tax decks, an analysis of what the card practically does in a game, and the requirements for getting the most out of the enchantment, find out what Doug concludes about the possible impact of an unbanned Land Tax in Legacy, and why this December is the right time to try it out.
Tuesday, November 17th - In this week's article, Doug considers two applications of Entomb in Legacy, the traditional Reanimator style and innovative Protean Hulk lists. How can Entomb power up a Reanimator list beyond getting a fatty to bring back? Get a history lesson about Benzo in old Extended, find out the different possible Hulk combination kills and get suggestions on how to play around graveyard hate in this week's Legacy's Allure! 
Tuesday, November 10th - This week, Doug considers the possibilities of Thopter Foundry, especially in conjunction with Sword of the Meek, its combo partner. How does this two-card combo that summons more flying dorks than the Wicked Witch stack up in Legacy? Is it worth making a dedicated combination deck with them, or can they be added into existing decks? See suggestions for its use alongside one of the best Planeswalkers printed and one of the worst cards of all time. Get lists, play tips and tech for Thopter Foundry in this week's Legacy's Allure! 
Tuesday, November 3rd - This week, Doug takes a look at a UWG tempo deck with the help of a guest. Inside, you'll find a discussion of the deck with sample play-by-play matches, showcasing new twists on the classic Threshold model with a deck that packs recent hits like Noble Hierarch, Vendilion Clique, and Qasali Pridemage. See how this tempo deck stacks up against format-tested ones and see what new Zendikar spell makes an appearance! Don't miss this exploration of the next level in Threshold in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, October 27th - This week, Doug took a statistical adventure based on some lingering questions about the Legacy format and came to several conclusions about the most popular cards at the top tables. Analyzing over a dozen Top 8s from the last two months resulted in several fascinating data trends. How common is Force of Will? Should you build a deck to beat Counterbalance? How many copies of Krosan Grip can a player expect to face down? Find out these answers, and more, in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, October 20th - This week, Doug interviews the third-place finisher at last week's StarCityGames.com $5000 Legacy tournament in Philadelphia. Matthew played Bloodghast Dredge, a new take on a familiar Legacy deck that featured the new Vampire from Zendikar. The interview explores the advantages of this Dredge build over typical lists and discusses Matthew's unorthodox sideboarding techniques. Check out the newest and techiest Dredge in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, October 13th - Doug pores over all sixteen top decks from this past weekend's Legacy event in Philadelphia to highlight why strategies worked and the latest tech from recent sets. See how Bloodghast has changed how Dredge plays out and the new adoption in CounterTop decks that puts them back on the map. Doug considers decks packing lots of cards from Zendikar and M10, like an innovative Vampire Hexmage/Dark Depths combo deck. Check out how your favorite deck performed in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, October 6th - Why spend thirty mana to get Marit Lage out of the icy prison of Dark Depths? We all know elder, ancient evils require mortal sacrifice, and there's no better card to accomplish it with than Vampire Hexmage. This week, Doug looks at several methods of thawing Cthulhu for fun and evil. Further, Doug talks about strategies with Dark Depths that just don't cut it. If you're interested in decks that can put a 20/20 Flying, Indestructible, Legendary monster into play on the first turn, check out this week's article!
Monday, September 28th - This week, Doug considers new cards in Zendikar that scream for decks to be built around them. He also considers cards that recently came off the Legacy Banned List. While not new, these cards can also become the backbone of previously-unplayable decks, making them much stronger for Legacy. Get Doug's take on Magosi, The Waterveil and Vampire Hexmage, as well as Bloodchief Ascension and Dream Halls. Find out if Entomb is the new busted Legacy card, all in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, September 22nd - With several recent high-place finishes at large tournaments, it seems that aggro decks of several flavors are resurgent in Legacy. Doug considers reasons why attacking has never been more popular, and considers three decks that were previously also-rans, but are now in the spotlight. Have new cards or shifts in strategy made these decks more powerful than they were before? Doug thinks it's a combination of both, as he explains in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, September 15th - This week, Doug interviews Ben Wienburg, one of the premier players of one of the fastest-rising decks in Legacy. Hear about Ben's recent tournament experiences with the deck, get his latest build and his insights on sideboarding. Find out what makes the deck tick and what cards he fears most. Will the new fetchland make an impact on Canadian Threshold? Definitely, but not in the way you'd think! Find out inside this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, September 8th - This week, Doug looks at the early Zendikar spoilers. With only forty or so cards spoiled already, the set looks amazing for Legacy! Zendikar is replete with several niche cards that might be very strong in Legacy. Doug presents a new favorite deck of his, an evolution of Landstill that's on the up-and-up. Get the early scoop on the new set in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, September 1st - This week, Doug presents an in-depth review of the Top 8 results of the GenCon Legacy Championships. Compare and contrast the variants that placed, and see what strategies ended up dominating. Is the format really just blue decks and ones that try to hose Islands? Take a look at how different players approached their sideboard to understand what the players actually anticipated and feared and get a sense of where the format is going. Last, the diversity in blue decks, along with fan favorites like Stax and Lands!, is discussed in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Wednesday, August 26th - What's the state of Legacy's relationship with Wizards, and how can it be improved? Doug tackles a state-of-the-format address this week, looking at Legacy coverage, events and reprints that would help the community. With little to no attention from Wizards, Legacy still thrives and supports an active community. How can Wizards make this community grow and especially, how can they make money from Eternal players? Check out Doug's solutions in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, August 18th - This week, Doug looks at some reader-submitted lists and offers cheap suggestions on building a more consistent and powerful Legacy deck. While these decks won't win tournaments, they can hang with the top performers and can yield promising results for interested players. See how Doug improves a Pox list, a Mono-Black Aggro deck, a burn stack and more in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Monday, August 10th - This week, Doug tackles Lands!, one of most quirky, unique decks in Legacy! Packing over forty lands, the deck aims to generate amazing card advantage with Life from the Loam. Get the breakdown on what cards are really worth devoting space to and how to sideboard competently. Inside, find tricks for playing around graveyard hate cards and prioritizing how to use mana every turn. All this, plus a solid Lands! list in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, August 4th - This week, Doug pits two crowd favorite decks against each other to see which one comes out on top! BG Suicide, packing the strongest black disruption cards in the game and giant monsters, faces down with Merfolk, the sneaky blue team with counters and draw spells. Will the black monsters overwhelm the fish? With an eye towards GenCon, Doug analyzes these two inexpensive Legacy decks when they sit down across from each other at the table.
Monday, July 27th - Doug pits the currently-hot Dreadstill up against a Bant CounterTop list with Qasali Pridemages and other hot technologies to see which one reigns supreme. After playing several matches, Doug selected three choice games to illustrate several tactical decisions throughout the matchup. Can Dreadstill effectively lock up Bant's mana? Can the Bant CounterTop deck soft-lock one of the premiere Counterbalance decks? Find out in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, July 21st - With GenCon less than a month away, serious Legacy players should be preparing for what they will be playing in the Legacy World Championships next month. Doug looks at new strategies on the rise, highlighting cards like Vendilion Clique and Natural Order that are becoming much more popular. Get several proven decklists and some new and experimental ones that are worth a look, all in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, July 14th - Goblins, Merfolk, Elves - tribal decks are on the rise again in Legacy, but one family seems to have been left out. Slivers, a historically good tribe, see less and less play every week. Is this a function of other decks being better, the cards losing power over time, or other factors? In this week's article, Doug considers several theories to explain the downturn in Slivers, accounting for both in-game and out-of-game considerations. Check out these explanations in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, July 7th - In less than two weeks, M10 will debut, bringing many new cards into the Legacy cardpool and opening up a lot of room for enterprising deck designers. This week, Doug reviews the set, which has many solid roleplayers in it, and presents new directions for existing and potential Legacy decks with M10. Check out how Doom Blade stacks up to existing removal, and whether Merfolk can ditch its plebes and run only Lords in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, June 30th - Last weekend's incredibly successful Legacy $5k in Boston produced an excellent Top 16, with many old favorites and some new builds coming out to play. This week, Doug takes a look at every list in the T16, comparing similar builds and discussing the advantages of the newest tech across the board. Find out about Planeswalker Landstill and the newest sideboards in from that over-the-border favorite, Canadian Threshold!
Tuesday, June 23rd - Inspired by Olivier Ruel and Sam Stoddard's articles reviewing their stumbling blocks in the game, Doug takes a look this week at the challenges that hold him back from advancing in the game. With both general and Legacy-specific points, Doug tackles issues that many Legacy players face, both pre-game and in-game. Find out how you can enhance your play skills and win more Legacy games in this week's article!
Tuesday, June 16th - The StarCityGames.com $5000 Legacy tournament is this weekend, so Doug discusses the best choices for the Grand Prix-size event! Check out the predicted metagame and what decks are poised to take advantage of it. Get some of the freshest lists from recent large events around the world, as well as an update of the Lorescale Coatl deck that Doug wrote about several weeks ago!
Tuesday, June 9th - The Legacy Banned list includes over sixty cards, the longest banned list of any format in Magic. Doug proposes nearly a dozen cards that could and should come off of the Legacy Banned list. Read why Doug considers unbanning cards that few people will play is a worthwhile endeavor and why some cards that used to have a lot of bite are tame by today's standards. Get the evaluations before the June Banning announcements and weigh in with your opinion as well!
Tuesday, June 2nd - This week, Doug looks at how you can organize your own Legacy event and create a grassroots Legacy community in your area. He takes you from the reasons why you should host an event to the advertising, organizing, and hosting the actual tournament. What kinds of prizes should you give out? What makes for a good tournament venue? How can you create tourney-goers who eagerly await your next event? Get general tips as well as Legacy-specific advice in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, May 26th - After weeks of talking about how Lorescale Coatl might make a big splash in Legacy, Doug finally gets around to making his own Coatl deck. Inside, find out why he abandons "natural" choices like Sensei's Divining Top and instead, dips into Magic history for a different take on aggro-control. How can such a deck beat formidable problems in the format like Swords To Plowshares and Sower of Temptation? Can a player hitch their star to a fragile winged snake and fly it in to victory? Find out inside!
Monday, May 18th - Do you make the most of your testing time? Do you sit around after an event, thinking you should have spent more time solving how your deck handles Blood Moon? Do you feel like your friend wastes your time when you get together to test out new, rogue decks for Legacy? Get the answers inside, in an article that promises to help not only the Legacy regular, but a player in any competitive format. Use your time to test smart, not hard!
Tuesday, May 12th - What cards are getting hotter in the Legacy metagame? How have some cooled down? Doug goes over the impact that Lorescale Coatl will have on the format and what cards might get a second (or first!) life in the maindecks and sideboards of decks all around the format. Check out if Threads of Disloyalty is still as strong as ever or if we should be looking at different enchantments instead. Check out Doug's "stock evaluations" for the newest Legacy tech!
Monday, May 4th - While it's near-impossible to test against every deck in Legacy, deckbuilders can still stress-test their lists against several decks to see how they handle the common opposing strategies they'll run into. See the six decks Doug thinks you need to test against and what your testing results will reveal. Can your new list hang with decks that grind you out in the lategame or slam you from the first turn forward? Is it better suited for the top tables of a big event or the kitchen table with friends? Read this article and then put your newest list through the wringer!
Tuesday, April 28th - This week, Doug considers two new cards from Alara Reborn with the potential to revolutionize the Legacy metagame. He uses the analysis strategies that Patrick Chapin first discussed several weeks ago to debate the playability and impact of some newly-spoiled cards, but that's not all! Doug also shines light on three cards that have been around for years but haven't found a home in Legacy... perhaps until now!
Tuesday, April 21st - Though often ignored by Legacy players, BG Suicide decks are quite powerful and pack some of Legacy's strongest threats and disruption. This week, Doug breaks down nearly two dozen tournament-proven lists and distills out a composite BG Suicide deck that's suitable for any Legacy event. Check out the common sideboard options of the deck, along with commentary on whether common boarded cards should be played at all. Channel your inner Spike with a Dark Ritual and Hypnotic Specter as Doug lays out this recent riff on an ancient archetype!
Tuesday, April 14th - This week, we consider three potentially devastating mana accelerators that see no love in Legacy. Can we find home for these powerhouses in such a strong format? Check out several ideas for putting these bargain cards into decks that could benefit from the extra mana. Also, check out the latest deck to catch Doug's fancy - a wacky Zur deck that looks deceptively playable. Lastly, Doug concludes with great news from SCG in the wake of GP: Chicago!
Tuesday, April 7th - Doug takes a look back at his GP: Chicago Gifts Rock deck and made major adjustments. Did his improvements help his matchups in a small tournament he played last weekend? Does the deck attack an opponent from all angles or suffer from inconsistency and terminal cuteness? How has Extended influenced the build? Find out more about the "other" deck running Sensei's Divining Top and see how it accesses some of the format's most powerful threats and answers in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, March 31st - Merfolk, one of Legacy's newest decks, showed up on the scene in Lorwyn and quickly made an impact in tournaments around the world. Today, Doug complies the results from over two dozen winning Merfolk lists and shows the most common cards, as well as some curious outliers. Take a look at the consistently-built archetype and gather insights about why the deck has become so strong. Doug presents a composite maindeck and sideboard for Merfolk, along with new and controversial additions to the standard list!
Tuesday, March 24th - Aside from the match coverage and player interviews, we don't find out much about how Magic players get to the final tables in a Grand Prix. What may seem like a cunning deck choice may have been luck, while a strange card selection might have been soundly chosen and proven in the field. Today, Doug interviews three Top 8 competitors from Grand Prix: Chicago for their insights about deck choices, practice time and unlikely wins. Join in for interviews with Andrew Probasco, Gabriel Nassif and Brian Six, in this week's Legacy's Allure!
Tuesday, March 17th - Burn, long the ignored and maligned stepchild of Legacy, gets its day in the sun (or in the fire) in this week's Legacy's Allure. How is a Lightning Bolt like a Tendrils of Agony? Both burn and combo rely on getting a critical mass of spells through to win the game. How can we get our lightning storm to work in Legacy? Learn more about the surprising connections between card counts in a Legacy burn deck and why Barbarian Ring might not be strictly better than Mountain. Also, find strategies for beating Counterbalance, the ubiquitous blue enchantment. Are you ready to burn?
Tuesday, March 10th - Hot off the heels of the largest Grand Prix in American history, get a first-hand account of the event! Check out the unconventional list that Doug played and see his proposed changes. Get a perspective on the Top 8 and a look at Legacy for the coming months and a look at possible changes to the banned list. Is Counterbalance simply too good? Find out inside! 
Tuesday, March 3rd - This week, Doug covers four areas of sideboard construction that will elevate your deckbuilding skills and tournament success. Learn about effective sideboard cards, avoiding problems of boarding more cards than you can play, and how to utilize Legacy's deep cardpool to pack the most effective answers to potential problems. Look at examples of proven decks with sideboard improvement suggestions and see some hot new techy lists along the way!
Tuesday, February 24th - This week, Doug tackles the emergent Natural Order combo, using the antique Visions sorcery to Tinker Progenitus into play. How can Legacy players handle this new strategy when the common tools in Legacy can't target the monster? What decks could pack this combination, and what should you watch out for? Get this, along with a pragmatic assessment of preparing for Progenitus at Grand Prix: Chicago, in this week's article.
Wednesday, February 18th - With Grand Prix: Chicago coming up so soon, we've only got a few weeks to cook our decks into tournament winners. Part of the preparation work is understanding what our decks are capable of, but a good deal of it is also understanding what we're up against. In light of this, today we'll be discussing three common Legacy cards and how to play with and against them. 
Wednesday, January 21st - With Grand Prix: Chicago coming up in March, Legacy players will have a huge tournament to prepare for, full of its own challenges and requirements that are distinct from the smaller events that we are used to. Instead of tuning a deck to last five rounds and hopefully a playoff in the Top 8, GP players will have 15+ rounds to do battle in. In this article, we'll identify and explore five key concepts for GP victory.
Friday, December 26th - Doug tackles two matches between Ad Nauseam and UGB Threshold this week with a thorough play-by-play article. Are you curious about how Legacy's premiere combo deck stacks up against its toughest matchup in the format? Can Mystical Tutor and Lion's Eye Diamond defeat Daze and Thoughtseize? How do you successfully sideboard against the opposing deck? Find out all this and more in this week's article.
Wednesday, November 19th - In the month since Doug last wrote about this deck, it's been gaining steam in the metagame and now players are looking at how to optimize the deck. Is Orim's Chant worthwhile? Can we really get away with running zero maindeck win conditions? Take a look at some tournament-proven winning lists and join Doug for a look at deck options, from the sublime to the absurd, in this month's Unlocking Legacy.
Tuesday, October 14th - No doubt, Ad Nauseam is sick. This is no mere Panglossian pronouncement - it has the potential to draw a lot of cards, fuel a storm finish, and it sits in the right mana acceleration colors. The most fundamental question regarding Ad Nauseam is not whether it's good, but how to build the deck correctly. As such, we have to put in some serious thinking about how we want to resolve the draw spell and what we want to do with it. Join Doug and special guests for an exploration of the card.
Friday, September 19th - Is it too soon to talk about Shards of Alara? With a set this exciting, it's hard to hold back until the release date. Join Doug for an exploration of some of the spoiled cards, sure to shake up the Legacy metagame and get Johnny minds thinking hard. Do we have an answer to the Tarmogoyf-dominant format? Also, Doug presents a tournament-tested Landstill deck with special surprise guests sharing their thoughts on the deck. Take a look at the future of Legacy...
Monday, August 18th - Doug examines the first results from the GenCon Legacy championships and discusses the importance of getting in practice over having the objectively best deck. With aggro-control again taking the world championships, we take a look at other aggressive-disruptive strategies and then finish up with one of the craziest decklists in a long line of weirdness. Not to be missed!
Monday, July 21st - Doug gives us a short and sweet Eventide evaluation, considering some new building-block cards that will have a strong impact on the Legacy format. Will the enemy-colored Cairn cycle fill in for our missing enemy-color fetchlands, bringing Rock decks to the forefront? Will Wake Thrasher make those mighty Merfolk playable? All this, plus a breakdown of last month's major Legacy events serve to prepare you for the country's biggest Legacy events in August.
Monday, June 23rd - Legacy has the unique position of supporting decks that combine multiple strategies in the same build. Doug looks at three such decks, from subtle blendings to outright absurd combinations. See what happens when you combine Life from the Loam with Dark Confidant, Imperial Recruiter with Grindstone, and... every single combo in the format in one deck. Do these decks ultimately succeed with hybrid vigor or fall apart from an incoherent strategy? Find out inside!
Monday, May 26th - Do these decks have what it takes to survive? Doug pores over four new Survival of the Fittest builds, evaluating their potential for current play and seeing if they solve the problems that have typically plagued Survival decks. Should you play the straightforward Survival Advantage deck, planning for a consistent stream of Green men? Is the classic Full English Breakfast kill worth revisiting? What would it take to make Slivers playable in Legacy? All this, plus the hottest Survival tech cards in this week's Unlocking Legacy!
Monday, April 28th - Take a look at some of the most powerful combos from Magic's newest set! Doug takes a look at the new staples, compelling combo cards and others that just barely missed the cut for playability. Consider sure-fire hits like Painter's Servant and oddball enablers like Ghastly Discovery. Is Demigod of Revenge playable without support cards to enable its brothers to come and play? Doug tackles these and more in this week's Unlocking Legacy.
Monday, March 31st - This month, Doug highlights a combo deck that's been flying mostly under the radar for a few months. It uses that broken classic engine, Food Chain, with some oddball creatures from Lorwyn and beyond. See how to integrate the Future Sight Pacts into a consistent and powerful combination. Additionally, get an update on the Enchantress deck profiled last month in Unlocking Legacy.
Monday, March 3rd - Learn about a deck that's ripe for beginners, rewarding for experienced gunslingers and endorsed by U.S. National Champion and brainiac Luis Scott-Vargas! Doug takes a look at Enchantress this week, exploring the ins and outs of the deck and presenting an inexpensive introductory deck for players who are new to the format. Learn general strategies and techy plays in this feature of Unlocking Legacy!
Learn new strategies and SAT words this week as Doug covers a mixture of topics in the format, ranging from the paucity of Legacy events to the effect of Morningtide on the Eternal scene. Do Earwig Squad and Bitterblossom have a place in Legacy? Will Maralen of the Mornsong be welcomed into Magic's greatest format? Also, find out what Extended deck could be the next hot thing in Legacy and check out a Morningtide-ready Landstill list!
In the wake of Worlds, we have several new and revitalized decks to pore over. Doug takes a look at Welder Survival, long a deck sitting just beyond the horizon in the metagame, and brought to new attention by Worlds coverage. Find out how it ranks and tests and read Stuart Wright's thoughts on the deck. Also, read about the importance of testing to learn and not to win and what makes a good testing partner!
What's going on over the pond? Doug takes a look at several large-attendance Legacy events in Europe and beyond, highlighting new decks like Doran Aggro and interesting twists on old ones like Faerie Stompy. Join him as he scours results for tech and discusses its adaptability in the American metagame. Then, pull it all together with metagame analysis that spans continents!
When in the course of deckbuilding, sometimes you end up stepping back from your project and asking why you're even trying to make a new deck. Players get all sorts of satisfaction out of Magic, and much of that can come from tinkering with new ideas. Timmy, Johnny and Spike all get a chance to play. I admit that all three kids come play with me when I want to make something new. Do I want to play with ridiculous cards like Mindslaver, Timmy asks? Spike wants me to beat everyone in the room. But I succumb the opiate whispers of Johnny, telling me that together, we can be clever.
In several of his articles, Mark Rosewater has suggested the book "A Whack on the Side of the Head," by Roger van Oech, as a staple for those wishing to be more creative. Naturally, as a writer, deckbuilder, and player, being creative is important for success. One of the most interesting chapters involved playing the fool. Van Oech exhorts us to question everyday things that we take for granted and ask if we can do them other ways. Questioning common routines and ideas can lead to fruitful avenues of creativity.
Today, Doug takes a look at two of the hottest new decks from Gencon and evaluates how they play against each other. Find out whether the Aether Vials in Cephalid Breakfast can create an inevitability that Threshold cannot match, or if the Spell Snares from the other side of the table are simply too much to combo out against! Take part in the forum and discuss whether Doug made the right plays or if his sideboarding plans were incorrect!
In this article, Doug looks at understanding in a post-Tarmogoyf metagame and suggests a deck featuring old favorites as a solution to the Jolly Green Giant. Can Pernicious Deed hang in Legacy or is it too slow? Are there times when selective discard is superior to random discard? As a bonus, see what uncommons are essential for a die-hard Legacy player's collection!
Today, Doug digs through recent tournament results and explores several breakout decks that you'll be seeing at your next Legacy event. Find out what cards are heating up on the tournament scene and which are just hype. Join in for discussion on everyone's favorite 1G creature, hot card stock tips, and musings on the difficulties of metagaming for Legacy events! 
Legacy is home to a surprising number of decks that can kill on the first turn, with Belcher at the forefront in speed and reliability. In contrast, U/W/B Fish has all the tools it needs to shut down combo decks like Belcher and contain their secondary attempts. See how tactics change when the most important decisions happen before either player has a turn! Fresh out of the 883-person event in Columbus, Doug Linn looks back on this weekend's Grand Prix and sifts through the data for tech and commentary. Find out how useful the information from the GP will be and look at the apparent futility of testing Legacy. Trace the historical development of the Flash deck with insider information and see how many pros he name-checks! All this and more in what Doug promises is the last article about Flash he will write.
Countdown to Grand Prix: Columbus! There's a lot of potential in Future Sight, cards that will refine decks and others that might spawn new strategies! From the probability-crunch of Street Wraith to the elegance of Tarmogoyf, see what cards are going to make a splash in Legacy! Also, get Doug's insight into the card everyone should be playing at GP: Columbus. Countdown to Grand Prix Columbus! In this article, Doug takes us over the Atlantic to look at the newest European Legacy tech. From entire decks to single cards, the Europeans have been busy tweaking. Join in for a look at several high-placing decks and their technology. Doug takes a look at the history of Survival of the Fittest decks and highlights why they were successful. He applies these principles to modern Legacy Survival decks and presents the cutting edge in Survival deckbuilding.
Take a look at any Legacy Top 8 and you'll see the Big Three show up over and over again; these decks are Goblins, Threshold, and High Tide. At any event, one must be prepared to play each of these decks several times, and for a new deck to function well, it must beat these decks. Good luck on that. The Big Three are format-defining, and in some ways, distorting. This series will focus on the matchups between these decks in the coming weeks.
Fish has catapulted back into popularity recently, with stronger versions patching the weaknesses of previous Fish decks. Today, we're going to take a look at WTF and Meandeck Fish to see what sorts of metagames they thrive in, why it's been so successful lately, and what can be done to stop it.
The last definition of annoying cards for the day? "Cards that cost me games." Doug Linn denigates the cards that handed him his most humilating losses in tournaments.
That's three definitions, with three days left to provide your own. Do it... And you could win $20! The thing that got me interested in 5C wasn't the big decks; it was drawing all over cards and modifying them to the point of illegibility. It was taking some piece of art and tinkering around with it and then having opponents say, "Wow, that's really cool!" I've learned many techniques on my own for gussying up cards to make them more aesthetically-pleasing, so read on as I share how to create blackout cards, smear art with acetone, and create foil versions of non-foil cards!
5-Color is a format that is polarized into archetypes. There are pure control decks that destroy combo and live in fear of the Armageddons that aggro packs. There are wacky Dream Halls decks that seek to draw their entire decks on turn 4. There's aggro, with nothing in the deck costing more than two mana outside of mana-denial cards like Ruination, Winter Orb, and the aforementioned Armageddon. This is a format that requires 250 cards - there must be more variation than that! The term Metagame, like the terms postmodern and existentialism, gets thrown around a lot by pseudo-intellectuals who don't actually know its meaning. The word metagame means, most simply, the types of decks that are being played in a geographic area. The metagame includes both deck archetypes and individually tuned decks. For example, the metagame for an area might consist of control decks. There might be one prevalent control deck, or a couple of different types, but control decks are being played the most overall. The metagame is what will determine whether your deck succeeds or fails.
My goal in this article is to review all the playable cards in Champions of Kamigawa for Type Four. I must admit, the list is quite long. This is a great sign, as it amps up the power of any deck. Every tower of Type Four will find something good from this set. For those of you who don't know what Type Four is - get on the bandwagon already. Type Four is only the most entertaining Magic format in existence!
We set up camp that night at the home of Josh Reynolds, a Short Bus member, but an obvious Meandeck sympathizer. Much like the people of Cold Mountain, Josh knew that he needed to be in the good graces of the team if he were to survive the ensuing chaos.
I suppose that the title requires a bit of explanation. A week before the usual unlimited-proxy tournament, I was heavily testing combo GAT (Gro-A-Tog), complete with Fastbond and Future Sight. Somewhere during this time, JP started talking about a U/G deck full of Type Two jank and posting ridiculous win records against Slaver. It was just stupid enough to test, and in the interest of writing a great article for you, the reader, I took what was essentially Odyssey Block Madness to a fully powered Type One event.
Steve Menendian sits down at the table and tells me that he has tested the Fish matchup a lot and is shaky about it, though he feels he can pull it out. I didn't have the heart to tell him I wasn't playing Fish, and as Carl von Clausewitz says in his military philosophy, don't stop your opponent when they are making mistakes! He plays a typical strong opening hand with plenty of mana acceleration. Steve drops a fat artifact which gets Annulled and then follows up with Mindslaver later, which hits Mana Drain, accelerating me into a Disk. At this point, Steve has the epiphany that I am not playing the little Blue men, but it's too late...
Part of the success that players have comes not only from the cards in their decks, but how well they know the deck. This finally sunk into me two nights before the tournament, when I made the fateful decision to play my old standby, Ghey Red. The deck is built around mana denial. When your opponent cannot cast anything, feel free to win with Cloud of Faeries, otherwise known as the"Most Humiliating Death in Type One." Supporting Blue's counter power in Force of Will and Daze (a dark horse card if there ever was one) as well as Red's artifact destruction and burn, the deck can buy a lot of time for beatdown. It packs one of the strongest sideboards in T1 and, despite everything it does to wreck, hardly anyone sideboards against it.
There is no room for budget deck builds in a full-proxy metagame, and any deck that cannot stop combo madness quickly just plain fails.
With such a unique (some would say skewed) environment, I quickly ruled out Keeper for its weakness against Long, as well as Spoils Mask, Long, Dragon and Madness as decks that just weren't going to be fun to play with. Knowing I would be facing many workshop decks, and more importantly, Long.dec, I chose to run U/R Fish, a deck holding great versatility in the sideboard and with enough counters to slow combo down. More importantly, it could support Null Rod, which would prove incredible in the troubled times to come.
|
Legacy's Allure - Making The Upheaval Deckby Doug Linn, originally published on 2010-05-24
Monday, May 24th - This week, Doug brings an interesting, original and innovative deck running Upheaval alongside some very old and powerful cards. Find out how to exploit the Stronghold classic Horn of Greed and how a Zendikar uncommon is the key to this Blue-Green deck that aims to reset the board two or three times in a game. You'll see how the engine works, get rules information regarding how to utilize parts of the deck effectively, and suggested avenues for developing the deck in the future. Don't miss this chance to read about how to use Upheaval, one of the most powerful cards in Magic, in one of the game's most popular formats! Feature Article - In Response: Money For Nothingby Kelly Reid, originally published on 2010-05-11
Tuesday, May 11th - I was privileged enough to be able to speak with Doug Linn about his most recent article on Legacy speculation before it went live, and we found a few areas where we disagreed. Considering my main body of work deals with speculating on cards and adding value to your collection by buying, trading and selling in the most informed and efficient way possible, I'm glad to have the opportunity to weigh in on the subject. Legacy's Allure - Digesting the SCG Dallas / Fort Worth Legacy Openby Doug Linn, originally published on 2010-01-12
Tuesday, January 12th - This weekend's tournament in Dallas brought out some old standbys and new decks for Legacy. In this week's article, Doug looks at the ubiquity of Merfolk decks and the curious choices of the two Zoo decks, along with tips for mirror matches and sideboarding strategies. Find out the newest tech and synergies to get the most out of these top decks in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy's Allure - Loaming in St. Louisby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-12-15
Tuesday, December 15th - The SCG $5K Legacy Open St. Louis this Sunday resulted in an amazing Top 8, bringing the revival of Aggro Loam and illustrating the consistently strong performances of Zoo and Merfolk. Check out Doug's analysis of the four (!) decks packing Life from the Loam, and what it means for the format. With three pairs of decks in the final showdown, get a rundown on their similarities and differences to give you an edge on tuning the decks when you choose to play them at your next tournament! Legacy’s Allure - Bloodghast Dredge with Matthew Bartlettby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-10-20
Tuesday, October 20th - This week, Doug interviews the third-place finisher at last week's StarCityGames.com $5000 Legacy tournament in Philadelphia. Matthew played Bloodghast Dredge, a new take on a familiar Legacy deck that featured the new Vampire from Zendikar. The interview explores the advantages of this Dredge build over typical lists and discusses Matthew's unorthodox sideboarding techniques. Check out the newest and techiest Dredge in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy's Allure – The StarCityGames.com Philadelphia $5000 Legacy Open Examinedby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-10-13
Tuesday, October 13th - Doug pores over all sixteen top decks from this past weekend's Legacy event in Philadelphia to highlight why strategies worked and the latest tech from recent sets. See how Bloodghast has changed how Dredge plays out and the new adoption in CounterTop decks that puts them back on the map. Doug considers decks packing lots of cards from Zendikar and M10, like an innovative Vampire Hexmage/Dark Depths combo deck. Check out how your favorite deck performed in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy's Allure - Busting Cthulhu Out of Dark Depthsby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-10-06
Tuesday, October 6th - Why spend thirty mana to get Marit Lage out of the icy prison of Dark Depths? We all know elder, ancient evils require mortal sacrifice, and there's no better card to accomplish it with than Vampire Hexmage. This week, Doug looks at several methods of thawing Cthulhu for fun and evil. Further, Doug talks about strategies with Dark Depths that just don't cut it. If you're interested in decks that can put a 20/20 Flying, Indestructible, Legendary monster into play on the first turn, check out this week's article! Legacy’s Allure – Zendikar and the Banned List Updateby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-09-28
Monday, September 28th - This week, Doug considers new cards in Zendikar that scream for decks to be built around them. He also considers cards that recently came off the Legacy Banned List. While not new, these cards can also become the backbone of previously-unplayable decks, making them much stronger for Legacy. Get Doug's take on Magosi, The Waterveil and Vampire Hexmage, as well as Bloodchief Ascension and Dream Halls. Find out if Entomb is the new busted Legacy card, all in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy's Allure - Unprecedented Aggressionby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-09-22
Tuesday, September 22nd - With several recent high-place finishes at large tournaments, it seems that aggro decks of several flavors are resurgent in Legacy. Doug considers reasons why attacking has never been more popular, and considers three decks that were previously also-rans, but are now in the spotlight. Have new cards or shifts in strategy made these decks more powerful than they were before? Doug thinks it's a combination of both, as he explains in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy's Allure - Canadian Threshold With Ben Wienburgby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-09-15
Tuesday, September 15th - This week, Doug interviews Ben Wienburg, one of the premier players of one of the fastest-rising decks in Legacy. Hear about Ben's recent tournament experiences with the deck, get his latest build and his insights on sideboarding. Find out what makes the deck tick and what cards he fears most. Will the new fetchland make an impact on Canadian Threshold? Definitely, but not in the way you'd think! Find out inside this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy’s Allure - A First Look At Zendikarby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-09-08
Tuesday, September 8th - This week, Doug looks at the early Zendikar spoilers. With only forty or so cards spoiled already, the set looks amazing for Legacy! Zendikar is replete with several niche cards that might be very strong in Legacy. Doug presents a new favorite deck of his, an evolution of Landstill that's on the up-and-up. Get the early scoop on the new set in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy’s Allure - Reviewing GenConby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-09-01
Tuesday, September 1st - This week, Doug presents an in-depth review of the Top 8 results of the GenCon Legacy Championships. Compare and contrast the variants that placed, and see what strategies ended up dominating. Is the format really just blue decks and ones that try to hose Islands? Take a look at how different players approached their sideboard to understand what the players actually anticipated and feared and get a sense of where the format is going. Last, the diversity in blue decks, along with fan favorites like Stax and Lands!, is discussed in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy's Allure - Dear Wizards...by Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-08-26
Wednesday, August 26th - What's the state of Legacy's relationship with Wizards, and how can it be improved? Doug tackles a state-of-the-format address this week, looking at Legacy coverage, events and reprints that would help the community. With little to no attention from Wizards, Legacy still thrives and supports an active community. How can Wizards make this community grow and especially, how can they make money from Eternal players? Check out Doug's solutions in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy's Allure - Building For Legacy On A Budgetby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-08-18
Tuesday, August 18th - This week, Doug looks at some reader-submitted lists and offers cheap suggestions on building a more consistent and powerful Legacy deck. While these decks won't win tournaments, they can hang with the top performers and can yield promising results for interested players. See how Doug improves a Pox list, a Mono-Black Aggro deck, a burn stack and more in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy’s Allure – Solid Land-ingby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-08-10
Monday, August 10th - This week, Doug tackles Lands!, one of most quirky, unique decks in Legacy! Packing over forty lands, the deck aims to generate amazing card advantage with Life from the Loam. Get the breakdown on what cards are really worth devoting space to and how to sideboard competently. Inside, find tricks for playing around graveyard hate cards and prioritizing how to use mana every turn. All this, plus a solid Lands! list in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy’s Allure – Matchup Analysis - BG Suicide versus Merfolkby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-08-04
Tuesday, August 4th - This week, Doug pits two crowd favorite decks against each other to see which one comes out on top! BG Suicide, packing the strongest black disruption cards in the game and giant monsters, faces down with Merfolk, the sneaky blue team with counters and draw spells. Will the black monsters overwhelm the fish? With an eye towards GenCon, Doug analyzes these two inexpensive Legacy decks when they sit down across from each other at the table. Legacy's Allure - Matchup Analysis: Bant CounterTop versus Dreadstillby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-07-27
Monday, July 27th - Doug pits the currently-hot Dreadstill up against a Bant CounterTop list with Qasali Pridemages and other hot technologies to see which one reigns supreme. After playing several matches, Doug selected three choice games to illustrate several tactical decisions throughout the matchup. Can Dreadstill effectively lock up Bant's mana? Can the Bant CounterTop deck soft-lock one of the premiere Counterbalance decks? Find out in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy's Allure - Gearing Up For The World Championshipsby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-07-21
Tuesday, July 21st - With GenCon less than a month away, serious Legacy players should be preparing for what they will be playing in the Legacy World Championships next month. Doug looks at new strategies on the rise, highlighting cards like Vendilion Clique and Natural Order that are becoming much more popular. Get several proven decklists and some new and experimental ones that are worth a look, all in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy’s Allure – The Curious Decline Of Sliversby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-07-14
Tuesday, July 14th - Goblins, Merfolk, Elves - tribal decks are on the rise again in Legacy, but one family seems to have been left out. Slivers, a historically good tribe, see less and less play every week. Is this a function of other decks being better, the cards losing power over time, or other factors? In this week's article, Doug considers several theories to explain the downturn in Slivers, accounting for both in-game and out-of-game considerations. Check out these explanations in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy's Allure - Tapping Into M10by Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-07-07
Tuesday, July 7th - In less than two weeks, M10 will debut, bringing many new cards into the Legacy cardpool and opening up a lot of room for enterprising deck designers. This week, Doug reviews the set, which has many solid roleplayers in it, and presents new directions for existing and potential Legacy decks with M10. Check out how Doom Blade stacks up to existing removal, and whether Merfolk can ditch its plebes and run only Lords in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy’s Allure – Wrapping Up The SCG $5000 Legacy Openby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-06-30
Tuesday, June 30th - Last weekend's incredibly successful Legacy $5k in Boston produced an excellent Top 16, with many old favorites and some new builds coming out to play. This week, Doug takes a look at every list in the T16, comparing similar builds and discussing the advantages of the newest tech across the board. Find out about Planeswalker Landstill and the newest sideboards in from that over-the-border favorite, Canadian Threshold! Legacy’s Allure – A Fearless Legacy Inventoryby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-06-23
Tuesday, June 23rd - Inspired by Olivier Ruel and Sam Stoddard's articles reviewing their stumbling blocks in the game, Doug takes a look this week at the challenges that hold him back from advancing in the game. With both general and Legacy-specific points, Doug tackles issues that many Legacy players face, both pre-game and in-game. Find out how you can enhance your play skills and win more Legacy games in this week's article! Legacy's Allure - Gearing Up for The Boston Legacy $5K!by Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-06-16
Tuesday, June 16th - The StarCityGames.com $5000 Legacy tournament is this weekend, so Doug discusses the best choices for the Grand Prix-size event! Check out the predicted metagame and what decks are poised to take advantage of it. Get some of the freshest lists from recent large events around the world, as well as an update of the Lorescale Coatl deck that Doug wrote about several weeks ago! Legacy's Allure - Cleaning The Legacy Banned Listby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-06-09
Tuesday, June 9th - The Legacy Banned list includes over sixty cards, the longest banned list of any format in Magic. Doug proposes nearly a dozen cards that could and should come off of the Legacy Banned list. Read why Doug considers unbanning cards that few people will play is a worthwhile endeavor and why some cards that used to have a lot of bite are tame by today's standards. Get the evaluations before the June Banning announcements and weigh in with your opinion as well! Legacy's Allure - Hosting a Legacy Tournamentby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-06-02
Tuesday, June 2nd - This week, Doug looks at how you can organize your own Legacy event and create a grassroots Legacy community in your area. He takes you from the reasons why you should host an event to the advertising, organizing, and hosting the actual tournament. What kinds of prizes should you give out? What makes for a good tournament venue? How can you create tourney-goers who eagerly await your next event? Get general tips as well as Legacy-specific advice in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy’s Allure - Ride The Snake: Lorescale Coatl In Actionby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-05-26
Tuesday, May 26th - After weeks of talking about how Lorescale Coatl might make a big splash in Legacy, Doug finally gets around to making his own Coatl deck. Inside, find out why he abandons "natural" choices like Sensei's Divining Top and instead, dips into Magic history for a different take on aggro-control. How can such a deck beat formidable problems in the format like Swords To Plowshares and Sower of Temptation? Can a player hitch their star to a fragile winged snake and fly it in to victory? Find out inside! Legacy's Allure - Test Smart!by Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-05-18
Monday, May 18th - Do you make the most of your testing time? Do you sit around after an event, thinking you should have spent more time solving how your deck handles Blood Moon? Do you feel like your friend wastes your time when you get together to test out new, rogue decks for Legacy? Get the answers inside, in an article that promises to help not only the Legacy regular, but a player in any competitive format. Use your time to test smart, not hard! Legacy's Allure - The Legacy Stock Reportby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-05-12
Tuesday, May 12th - What cards are getting hotter in the Legacy metagame? How have some cooled down? Doug goes over the impact that Lorescale Coatl will have on the format and what cards might get a second (or first!) life in the maindecks and sideboards of decks all around the format. Check out if Threads of Disloyalty is still as strong as ever or if we should be looking at different enchantments instead. Check out Doug's "stock evaluations" for the newest Legacy tech! Legacy's Allure - Gauntlet of Powerby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-05-04
Monday, May 4th - While it's near-impossible to test against every deck in Legacy, deckbuilders can still stress-test their lists against several decks to see how they handle the common opposing strategies they'll run into. See the six decks Doug thinks you need to test against and what your testing results will reveal. Can your new list hang with decks that grind you out in the lategame or slam you from the first turn forward? Is it better suited for the top tables of a big event or the kitchen table with friends? Read this article and then put your newest list through the wringer! Legacy’s Allure - New Hits, Old Favoritesby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-04-28
Tuesday, April 28th - This week, Doug considers two new cards from Alara Reborn with the potential to revolutionize the Legacy metagame. He uses the analysis strategies that Patrick Chapin first discussed several weeks ago to debate the playability and impact of some newly-spoiled cards, but that's not all! Doug also shines light on three cards that have been around for years but haven't found a home in Legacy... perhaps until now! Legacy's Allure - BG Suicide Deconstructedby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-04-21
Tuesday, April 21st - Though often ignored by Legacy players, BG Suicide decks are quite powerful and pack some of Legacy's strongest threats and disruption. This week, Doug breaks down nearly two dozen tournament-proven lists and distills out a composite BG Suicide deck that's suitable for any Legacy event. Check out the common sideboard options of the deck, along with commentary on whether common boarded cards should be played at all. Channel your inner Spike with a Dark Ritual and Hypnotic Specter as Doug lays out this recent riff on an ancient archetype! Legacy’s Allure – The Pile of Misfit Cardsby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-04-14
Tuesday, April 14th - This week, we consider three potentially devastating mana accelerators that see no love in Legacy. Can we find home for these powerhouses in such a strong format? Check out several ideas for putting these bargain cards into decks that could benefit from the extra mana. Also, check out the latest deck to catch Doug's fancy - a wacky Zur deck that looks deceptively playable. Lastly, Doug concludes with great news from SCG in the wake of GP: Chicago! Legacy's Allure - Gifts Rock Revisitedby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-04-07
Tuesday, April 7th - Doug takes a look back at his GP: Chicago Gifts Rock deck and made major adjustments. Did his improvements help his matchups in a small tournament he played last weekend? Does the deck attack an opponent from all angles or suffer from inconsistency and terminal cuteness? How has Extended influenced the build? Find out more about the "other" deck running Sensei's Divining Top and see how it accesses some of the format's most powerful threats and answers in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy's Allure - The Merfolk Breakdownby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-03-31
Tuesday, March 31st - Merfolk, one of Legacy's newest decks, showed up on the scene in Lorwyn and quickly made an impact in tournaments around the world. Today, Doug complies the results from over two dozen winning Merfolk lists and shows the most common cards, as well as some curious outliers. Take a look at the consistently-built archetype and gather insights about why the deck has become so strong. Doug presents a composite maindeck and sideboard for Merfolk, along with new and controversial additions to the standard list! Legacy’s Allure – A View From The Top - Grand Prix Interviewsby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-03-24
Tuesday, March 24th - Aside from the match coverage and player interviews, we don't find out much about how Magic players get to the final tables in a Grand Prix. What may seem like a cunning deck choice may have been luck, while a strange card selection might have been soundly chosen and proven in the field. Today, Doug interviews three Top 8 competitors from Grand Prix: Chicago for their insights about deck choices, practice time and unlikely wins. Join in for interviews with Andrew Probasco, Gabriel Nassif and Brian Six, in this week's Legacy's Allure! Legacy’s Allure – Legacy Burn: Toward a Fiery Conclusionby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-03-17
Tuesday, March 17th - Burn, long the ignored and maligned stepchild of Legacy, gets its day in the sun (or in the fire) in this week's Legacy's Allure. How is a Lightning Bolt like a Tendrils of Agony? Both burn and combo rely on getting a critical mass of spells through to win the game. How can we get our lightning storm to work in Legacy? Learn more about the surprising connections between card counts in a Legacy burn deck and why Barbarian Ring might not be strictly better than Mountain. Also, find strategies for beating Counterbalance, the ubiquitous blue enchantment. Are you ready to burn? Legacy’s Allure – Grand Prix: Chicago Overviewby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-03-10
Tuesday, March 10th - Hot off the heels of the largest Grand Prix in American history, get a first-hand account of the event! Check out the unconventional list that Doug played and see his proposed changes. Get a perspective on the Top 8 and a look at Legacy for the coming months and a look at possible changes to the banned list. Is Counterbalance simply too good? Find out inside! Legacy’s Allure - Common Cards, Uncommon Tacticsby Doug Linn, originally published on 2009-02-18
Wednesday, February 18th - With Grand Prix: Chicago coming up so soon, we've only got a few weeks to cook our decks into tournament winners. Part of the preparation work is understanding what our decks are capable of, but a good deal of it is also understanding what we're up against. In light of this, today we'll be discussing three common Legacy cards and how to play with and against them. Unlocking Legacy - Scepter Landstillby Kevin Binswanger, originally published on 2009-01-15
Thursday, January 15th - Over a year ago, I wrote about a Scepter-Chant deck I had built after following up a hot tip from fellow Legacy writer Doug Linn. Between the time I built the deck and the time I was sufficiently finished with it to publish my list, a little creature called Tarmogoyf came out. At the time, I did not fully appreciate how difficult Tarmogoyf made it for traditional Blue-based control decks to compete. Unlocking Legacy - Les Jeux Sont Faitsby Doug Linn, originally published on 2007-05-24 Fresh out of the 883-person event in Columbus, Doug Linn looks back on this weekend's Grand Prix and sifts through the data for tech and commentary. Find out how useful the information from the GP will be and look at the apparent futility of testing Legacy. Trace the historical development of the Flash deck with insider information and see how many pros he name-checks! All this and more in what Doug promises is the last article about Flash he will write.
In his article on Thursday, Doug Linn displayed two very different Fish decks featuring (among other things) Standstill and Brainstorm, respectively. Which of these two draw engines is better in Fish? What elements of each build dictate which one you choose? What has changed in recent history to unseat Standstill as the perennial choice of 2003-4? The Most Annoying Cards Of My Careerby Doug Linn, originally published on 2005-03-22 The last definition of annoying cards for the day? "Cards that cost me games." Doug Linn denigates the cards that handed him his most humilating losses in tournaments.
That's three definitions, with three days left to provide your own. Do it... And you could win $20! A Slaver For Youby Matthieu Durand, originally published on 2004-10-28 This article presents a new variation on the Mindslaver theme. The deck I'm introducing here can be considered as an hybrid between the standard Drain Slaver deck Kim Kluck created about a year ago and "Turbo Titan", the Sundering Titan based control deck designed by my MeanDeck teammate Doug Linn. It tries to abuse one of the best artifacts from Fifth Dawn, Crucible of Worlds, in a way no one did before: setting up Mindslaver nastiness. Quarterfinals: Rich Herbert vs. Doug Linnby Ted Knutson, originally published on 2004-07-17 Doug Linn is the lone surviving member of Team Meandeck (also known as"Team We're Doing Match Coverage Because We Scrubbed Out") left in the tournament. He piloted his 7/10 Split deck to a 6-1-1 record on the day, drawing in the last round to secure a spot in the top 8 for him and his team. But can he carry his team to a win?
|
Monday, February 18th - I've been very fortunate to meet some truly wonderful people through Magic. Some of those are people I work with on decks, some are people I practice with on Magic Online, and some are people I hang out with at tournaments. Two recent conversations with two such people resulted in some interesting shifts in how I think about Magic, life, and the universe, and this article centers around those conversations.
