This Week in Legacy: Examining the Legacy Banlist
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of This Week in Legacy! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're going to be diving hard into the current Legacy banlist and some history lessons in that regard. Should be very interesting for sure. We've also got some Challenges to discuss, but data was spotty this week so we may not have the full info on them.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
The Legacy Ban List - A Look in 2023
It's no surprise we've been talking about the banned list as of late, because of the rise of decks like Initiative and the continued presence of cards like Expressive Iteration and Murktide Regent. Last week I listed out some options for handling Initiative, but some commentary on the fact that we didn't cover unbanning of existing cards prompted me to do another article on this. I did one of these a while back, but did get some feedback on how I grouped these. Instead of a bunch of overall groupings, I'm going to cover some groupings that are obvious to group together and then go through individual cards to discuss the ins and outs of why the card is banned, and what possible chance it has in being unbanned. For the purposes of this we are not going to discuss any of the truly obvious stuff like ante cards, dexterity cards, and subgame cards.
Before we get started though, we do have to pose the question: Would an unban actually change the current format enough to upset the current balance via a shakeup without being too powerful? I believe the answer to this question for any of these cards that we may say "Maybe" or "Yes" to is a hard no. I don't think any of the safe cards on the ban list to remove would impact the format in such a fashion that it would cause a real shakeup to the current format.
Let's get started!
The Power 9
Possibility of Unban: Literally never.
It's pretty clear from the get go that if there were ever any cards that would sit on the Legacy banlist for forever, it is the Power 9. There is no opportunity chance that any of these cards ever being released as any of these as a four-of is just so incredibly game breaking. Just not even remotely possible that any of these ever get unbanned.
Fast Mana Options
Possibility of Unban: Never.
Outside of the Power 9 there are a few fast mana options that would not be healthy for the format at all if they existed as four-ofs, namely Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, and Sol Ring. It's pretty clear from looking at other formats like Vintage and EDH how powerful these cards are even as one-ofs, but as four-ofs would be absolutely disgusting in many ways. Definitely not.
Powerful Lands
Possibility of Unban: Never
This category not only includes Workshop and Bazaar (two powerful lands that form the backbone of two of Vintage's major pillars) but also cards like Tolarian Academy and Strip Mine. Given how powerful artifact based strategies are, we can definitely rule out the possibility of ever seeing Workshop or Academy, and Strip Mine plus Wasteland would be incredibly powerful. Bazaar crunches out decks that would otherwise use mana for things, and also allows the power of free spells to be used well (stuff like Force of Will/Force of Negation and Hollow One / Vengevine) that it could never possibly come off the ban list ever.
Now that we've got some of the big groupings out of the way, let's dive into some individual cards.
Arcum's Astrolabe
Possibility of Unban: Probably never.
Astrolabe is a fairly recent banning, since it took place in 2021 alongside Oko and Dreadhorde Arcanist. While initially seeming to be fairish in Jeskai decks, the quick realization of the way that Astrolabe homogenized decks and insulated them against common safety vavles in the format like Wasteland was very apparent, and many players were simply tired of seeing these decks because of how same-y they looked.
There is also the argument of the fact that the color pie should at least matter somewhat, and that Astrolabe made the opportunity cost of playing 4-5 colors far too low. Regardless, I don't see this ever returning to Legacy as its definitely too fresh in people's minds.
Balance
Possibility of Unban: Probably shouldn't.
Anyone who's been on the casting or receiving side of a Balance is going to definitely realize how strong that card is. It's one of those cards that really gives incentive to spewing out mana and then using it to aggressively force your opponent to discard most of their hand, or the flexible aspect of using it as a two mana board wipe. The mana cost combined with the sheer power level of the card is just not thrilling and would probably be extremely busted.
Channel
Possibility of Unban: Maybe?
Channel is one of those cards that does some incredibly weirdly broken things and while it's definitely a sorcery speed GG spell that could potentially be too slow, the kind of effects that Channel allows to exist is just incredibly powerful that having a Combo deck with Force backup that spits out an Emrakul on Turn 1 is not much more thrilling than the existence of Show and Tell and doesn't really add anything to the current format that isn't already in existence. To be fair, Show and Tell existing is definitely a fair comparison here, so it's possible that Channel could exist in that space. There is a super hilarious combo with Lich's Mirror which is amusing as heck and could potentially do some amusing stuff.
It currently isn't playable really in any format and there are a ton of printings for the card, so I'm willing to edge on the side of "Maybe".
Demonic Consultation
Possibility of Unban: Never ever ever
I'm just going to remind people that Thassa's Oracle exists, and we do have decks like Thought Lash in the format that already abuse an effect exiling cards in response to the Oracle trigger. Imagine a Doomsday build with this as a backup. Big nope.
Deathrite Shaman
Possibility of Unban: Maybe?
While we can definitely argue that DRS did similar things to Arcum's Astrolabe in homogenization of decks and making 4-5 color piles much easier, the tension of DRS and other cards in the format does present an interesting conundrum. How busted is Uro if DRS exists? How strong is Murktide Regent if you can prevent it from coming down with too many counters? What is the drawback here if an opponent does land a Murktide and you can only exile instants/sorceries from their graveyard, which grows their Murktide? How good is Dragon's Rage Channeler if you can remove a card to shut off Delirium mid-combat? There's a number of relevant graveyard centric strategies in the current format, and we have much better removal now in the form of cards like Prismatic Ending.
I used to feel very strongly about DRS being gone for good, but I can potentially see a world where it could be unbanned in a format like this. There is just so much going on right now in the format and I think it's definitely a weird possibility to look at this one.
Demonic Tutor
Possibility of Unban: Never.
Hard pass. Two mana find any card? Definitely not.
Dig Through Time
Possibility of Unban: Probably never.
I think as long as fetch lands exist in the format, this is probably a big nope. This also doesn't totally compete with Murktide Regent since you can cast a Regent and then cast Dig after some turns and reap benefits off of it. This is too fresh still in the Legacy format's eyes that this era of Legacy was not pleasant and Dig was very strong. Pioneer seems to be the place where Wizards wants cards like this to exist, without fetch lands to make it broken.
Dreadhorde Arcanist
Possibility of Unban: Probably not.
This is another one that is exceptionally fresh, having been banned in the same breath as Oko and Astrolabe. I expect that the mere existence of cards like Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes definitely means that pumping an Arcanist and rebuying stuff like Expressive Iteration could just be incredibly powerful. It synergizes well with Murktide and is easy to protect. Yes, there's a lot more removal for it and more people are playing Hydroblast that it could be dealt with, but I don't think that's enough to free this card.
Earthcraft
Possibility of Unban: Yes, outside of RL issues
I think this card is arguably fine. The Enchantress aspect of it isn't going to change much to the format at the moment, and it definitely wouldn't be competitively viable. There's little reason to have this on the banlist other than the fact that it is a Reserved List card. I don't think this is a good reason to actually keep it on the list, but it could definitely be a reason that Wizards might not want to unban it. Still, I find this one to be just fine.
Fastbond
Possibility of Unban: Never
This wouldn't really juice up Lands at all, but it would create combo decks like Hedron Crab.deck or Retreat to Hagra that would be incredibly busted. Definitely hard pass here.
Flash
Possibility of Unban: Never
Flash did some pretty busted stuff, and we all know how this one turned out from GP Flash. Very powerful card and works with a lot of really busted stuff. Definite not.
Frantic Search
Possibility of Unban: Yes
I think Frantic Search could definitely be unbanned. So much of the spell based combo is in a weird place right now and the primary usage of this card would be in High Tide decks. I don't see this card making a big enough impact to shake up the format, but there's definitely no reason to remain on the banned list at this juncture.
Gitaxian Probe
Possibility of Unban: Hard no.
Phyrexian mana spells like this are too efficient and too powerful for Legacy. Big nope.
Goblin Recruiter
Possibility of Unban: Probably shouldn't
I used to be more unironically inclined that unbanning Goblin Recruiter wouldn't actually be that bad. Recruiter has a weird history with Legacy because it was one of those cards on the initial banlist for Legacy after having been banned in Extended due to its power level with combo decks like Food Chain (not for time reasons as is often misreported as being the case).
Nowadays though, we have a very compact win condition in the form of Conspicuous Snoop and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to consider, as well as simply stacking the deck for the most efficient Muxus pile. Turning Goblins into a homogenized combo deck doesn't sound interesting in any way, so I'm content to leave Recruiter right where it is.
Gush
Possibility of Unban: Probably never.
This card should probably never be unbanned. Free instant spells that work well with Mystic Sanctuary in the format seems pretty gross as a four-of. Definitely not interested in this one.
Hermit Druid
Possibility of Unban: Maybe?
This is a weird one. It's sort of a bit like an Oops! All Spells type of card that probably would just add another combo deck to the format overall, but the card itself is relatively slow in having to untap and survive removal. The fact too that this could go in decks that just don't go all in like Oops does gives me pause since all the deck needs is to have lands that are all nonbasic.
Imperial Seal
Possibility of Unban: Maybe
I honestly feel like this card is likely fine. The only major decks that could use this would be decks like Doomsday and any sort of non-blue Chain of Smog decks, as well as maybe Storm as a way to find things like Ad Nauseam. The fact that this doesn't really do much that's incredibly back-breaking and doesn't really look like it improves much else in the current format, in addition to being relatively slow at sorcery speed.
Library of Alexandria
Possibility of Unban: Likely not but could maybe be okay
Library is a weird card because in the current format it definitely seems like it would just be so incredibly slow that it would likely be unplayable between Delver and Initiative being top dogs. Even without Initiative around I think the format would be likely too fast for Library to be too good at all, and with as many pitch spells that exist it would be pretty hard to actually enable. Draw go control hasn't existed in some time in Legacy, so I feel like this would probably be fine. The caveat here is that this is also Reserved List, but an unban wouldn't likely dent this already insanely expensive card's price point in paper, and we have much more of a Magic Online focused format now.
Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Possibility of Unban: Interesting thought experiment, but Modern ban says unlikely
At one point I did think and entertain the notion that we could trial unban this card in Legacy since the rules on Companion have been changed, as there would be an interesting tension of playing this card over a card like Murktide Regent, but I actually think this card even in its nerfed form would overtake specific archetypes in Legacy and be unshakable in its position. The big telling point here is how this card existed in Modern where a number of the same cards currently seeing play in Legacy are also seeing play and Lurrus was incredibly dominant there.
The banning of Lurrus in Modern and Pioneer sealed the idea that Lurrus could possibly see the light of day in Legacy ever again, in my opinion.
Mana Drain
Possibility of Unban: Maybe
Mana Drain is also a bit of a weird one. As we noted with Library, Draw Go style control decks just simply don't exist anymore, and what a deck would do with a large amount of colorless mana in a format where a good majority of the spells cost 1-3. In that vein, Mana Drain is probably an okay unban. UU is rather restrictive in current Legacy with as much Wasteland that exists, and it's weird to consider what deck would want this. The big one however I could see is some sort of blue Karn shell as countering something like a Murktide into a Karn + Lattice seems amusing enough.
I think this one rides the line a little bit and could potentially be bad down the line, but for now, the format feels just two slow for its existence.
Memory Jar
Possibility of Unban: Probably never
Jar is a really powerful card and I think it does some goofy things with 4 Narset and 4 Hullbreacher in the current format, and also having a weldable effect like this is pretty silly. Pass.
Mental Misstep
Possibility of Unban: HAH NOPE
Never unban this card. Pretty much never ever. This is not a well designed Magic card at all.
Mind Twist
Possibility of Unban: Maybe?
I think this card doesn't add much at all to the current format as it stands, and while it probably ends up seeing little to no play, there is a definite subsection of diehard fans of the card and probably would come up more often than not at that point. While it's probably safe, it's definitely got some problematic play patterns to it and I don't see them having any incentive to do so.
Mind's Desire
Possibility of Unban: Maybe
I could be utterly convinced that this card is probably fine in current Legacy. Storm is already relying more on cards like Galvanic Relay which seems infinitely easier to cast (2R just seems way easier than 4UU) that it may not even actually play the card without a reliable way to cast it. There's no denying that the card is powerful, it definitely is, but it could just fall short of current options that are already legal in the format due to its cost.
Mystical Tutor
Possibility of Unban: Nope
I don't think this card would add anything of real positivity to the format, and would likely see 1000% of play in Doomsday. This is just 9001 times better than Personal Tutor is due to its instant speed nature that setting up these kinds of consistent combo decks would be too unhealth for the format overall.
Necropotence
Possibility of Unban: You've read Dark Ritual, right?
Yeah no. This card is definitely incredibly strong. Even if there is a bunch of things that deal with it, the fact that you can simply draw a bunch of cards and load your hand up for whatever you need to win the game is pretty busted. This is too good with Dark Ritual for sure and is a solid backup win con for Doomsday.
Oath of Druids
Possibility of Unban: Probably not.
Oath is good because it allows the deck playing Oath to jam its Oath targets into the deck as minimally as possible, allowing the deck to open itself up to other strong control cards. Unlike Show and Tell, which has to have its targets in hand to be good, Oath just allows a higher flexibility in deckbuilding overall. This makes the deck very powerful because it's always going to have some measure of interaction to protect its combo. Big nope here.
Oko, Thief of Crowns
Possibility of Unban: Probably never
Oko invalidated a huge swath of things in the Legacy format, and the card is simply just too recent to really consider. It's just a very powerful card, one of the more recently utterly broken things and I don't even think with Initiative around that Oko would not be as strong as it was when it left the format. It would take a lot to really convince me that we could unban this card.
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Possibility of Unban: Not likely
Legacy's newest banning is that darn Monkey. I don't think it's likely that Ragavan ever gets unbanned, mainly because players just absolutely hated its play patterns and just everything about the card. I don't see this one happening anytime soon.
Sensei's Divining Top
Possibility of Unban: Probably not now that Urza's Saga exists.
At one point I did definitely consider that we may have banned the wrong card out of Miracles and that it was likely that Counterbalance should have probably gone, but the advent and existence of Urza's Saga definitely makes me reconsider how strong Top would be in the current format, and I think it's probably fine that this stays on the banned list. I don't think the time / logistics arguments ever really held much water, but I don't think it adds much of a net positive to the format to consider.
Skullclamp
Possibility of Unban: Oh right, Saga exists.
Yeah I don't think this is something we want in the format with the existence of Urza's Saga to go fetch it. Definitely too good.
Survival of the Fittest
Possibility of Unban: Maybe, outside of RL issues
I think Survival would arguably be a fine unban in the current era of Legacy where the card would actually just be fair and not too insane. It might even be too slow. There's a lot of things that deal with it, and it's excessively mana hungry and the kind of decks it promotes aren't doing super well as is right now. I don't think it would create a juice that would change the format at all, but it would be a reasonable option.
The biggest issue here is the fact that it's RL, which should not be a factor in these things, but likely is by Wizards. I would be fine with this one though.
Time Vault
Possibility of Unban: Nope
Big nope. With Saga and Karn existing as 4 ofs in this format, having Karn being able to fetch one in the sb and Saga being able to fetch the keys for this makes it too good for me. Also just see Goblin Welder and Goblin Engineer. Definite big old nope.
Tinker
Possibility of Unban: NOPE
Four Tinker in a format like Legacy where payoff cards like Bolas's Citadel exists and cheap artifacts like Mishra's Bauble would just be absolutely absurd. This is a card that arguably is potentially one of the most broken on this list outside of Power. It's that good.
Treasure Cruise
Possibility of Unban: Nah
Pioneer exists for this card, much like it does for Dig Through Time. If there were no fetch lands, I could see this being fine, but there's so much cheap stuff that casting Cruise is so trivial.
Underworld Breach
Possibility of Unban: Never
The mere month or so of Breach's existence proved that it was one of the most resilient and powerful combo decks we've ever seen in the format. I don't see this one ever coming back.
Vampiric Tutor
Possibility of Unban: Never
If Mystical Tutor is not fine, an instant speed version of Imperial Seal definitely isn't. Seal is fine enough because of the fact that it's sorcery speed, but Vampiric being instant speed is huge. I don't see this coming off the list any time soon.
Wheel of Fortune
Possibility of Unban: Never
Just an absolutely better version of stuff like Day's Undoing in shells with Narset/Hullbreacher and that is just likely not okay. Also really absurd with any major combo deck and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.
Windfall
Possibility of Unban: Don't see it
Yet another wheel effect that interacts with Narset + Hullbreacher, but also pitches to force and is way better than Day's Undoing because it makes decks that play cheap cards to dump its hand way better (stuff like Baubles and etc) as its super easy to dump your hand, cast a Windfall and draw up to the same as your opponent.
Wrenn and Six
Possibility of Unban: Not likely
I don't think Wrenn and Six is a likely ban at all, given how strong it is with Wasteland effects and the effect it has on games in general. Especially now that Expressive Iteration and Mystic Sanctuary exists, I think we would see a world where even Wasteland on your own Sanctuary to rebuy it to get back EI is a valid play. Just too incredibly strong.
Yawgmoth's Bargain
Possibility of Unban: Maybe
I could actually see a Bargain unban. The card is clunky to cast (six mana is a lot) and is hated on by a large swath of the format, and the cards that cheat it into play are pretty bad right now (Academy Rector) that I think it would just not do much. Of course, this doesn't fix the format's problems but it is not a problem itself.
Yawgmoth's Will
Possibility of Unban: If Breach isn't legal...
This is a hard pass. If Breach isn't allowed to be legal, this shouldn't be either.
Zirda, the Dawnwaker
Possibility of Unban: Maybe
My initial estimation of Zirda after the Companion mechanic was changed that the kinds of decks Zirda went in could definitely work around the extra three mana cost and still be pretty broken. However, Legacy is just much faster as a format now, and there is an interesting consideration here that makes Zirda interesting is that it cannot be the companion of a deck that is playing Urza's Saga since Saga itself has no actual activated abilities (all of the abilities it grants are the results of triggered abilities). The kinds of decks that Zirda would work in don't really exist in the current format like they looked (Bomberman is again fringe, etc.) and the fact that you can't play it with Saga means that the Fox could just be set free. However, Companions leave a nasty taste in some player's mouths and I don't think they would do it based on that alone.
The End of the Road
Okay, well that's it. All of the Legacy banned list as it currently exists. It's a lot to take in, but people wanted a deeper dive on this topic so I think we just had no choice here but to really dig into the format's banned list in this fashion.
I do not currently believe there is a single unban that would actively shake up the current Legacy format as it exists right now, at least without actively breaking the format in half and then having to potentially be rebanned, so I don't think this is a true option to handle Initiative/Delver dominance.
Legacy Challenge 1/7
The first Challenge this past weekend was the early morning Saturday event. This event had 64 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the incomplete data sheet here. There were a lot of issues for this event technical-wise and we didn't even get good screenshots of rounds, so if you can help us out with that please let us know. This basically means we don't have any fancy graphs to show.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| 4C Uro Control | 1st | aManatease |
| Reanimator | 2nd | _INF_ |
| White Stompy | 3rd | kokoko098 |
| 4C Uro Control | 4th | trunks132 |
| White Stompy | 5th | xfile |
| Elves | 6th | Schiaveto |
| UR Delver | 7th | kentaro_hokori |
| White Stompy | 8th | IslandMountain |
Quite a bit of the White Stompy deck here. At the end of the event though it was the 4C Uro deck that won it all.
The additions of Dress Down and Terminus definitely have proven to be very powerful over the White Initiative decks. This is definitely quite stock to what many players have been on for a bit now.
The Second Place finalist was on Reanimator.
Definitely an interesting list here. We have the Show and Tell sideboard juke, but there's also Magus and Dauthi Voidwalker. Very interesting indeed.
Legacy Challenge 1/8
The second Challenge of the weekend was the mid afternoon Sunday event. This event had 120 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Delver and White Stompy are pretty neck and neck here with White Stompy having one up on the other deck. Delver did pretty middling here, while White Stompy had a pretty insane win rate. 4C Uro decks also did very well here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| White Stompy | 1st | McWinSauce |
| White Stompy | 2nd | Promidnightz |
| Naya Stompy | 3rd | Ozymandias17 |
| White Stompy | 4th | Butakov |
| Sneak and Show | 5th | wingzeronfc |
| White Stompy | 6th | HanktheObese |
| Reanimator | 7th | canepis16 |
| UR Delver | 8th | Xwhale |
Definitely a ton of White based Stompy decks here in this Top 8, with the entire Top 4 dominated by White Plume Adventurer and friends. At the end of it all, it was a mirror that was split in the finals by two Initiative decks.
The biggest difference here is that the First Place deck here has Once Upon a Time and Archon of Emeria over cards like Thalia and Elite Spellbinder. Also we've got main deck Swords to Plowshares in the First Place list. Both of these lists definitely show how flexible and powerful the core Initiative shell really is and how much flex spots really exist in the base strategy.
Around the Web
- Bryant Cook combos with some Elves. Check it out here.
- Tony Scapone did some hot runs with a black Turbo ANT build. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
You can find this past week's 5-0 deck lists over here.
Scam? Scam.
Haven't seen Rector Fit in a hot minute, so this is pretty sweet. Garruk, Apex Predator!
This is kind of a sweet Painter deck for sure.
Mono Black INITIATIVE. I feel this only gets better when Ravenloft Adventurer comes to MTGO.
What I Played Last Week
Oh hey, I put out a video last week. Thanks to All Access, we had a blast jamming Battle of Wits on an impromptu stream. Check out the video and the decklist below!
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for continuing to support the column and join us next week as we continue our journey into Legacy!
As always you can reach me at all my associated links via my Link Tree! In addition I'm always around the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the MTGLegacy Discord Server.
Until next time!
