This Week in Legacy: Kaladesh, Bazaar of Moxen, Legacy Challenge, and White Stompy
Hello everyone! Welcome to another edition of This Week in Legacy! This week we’ll have a look at a few of the new spoilers from Kaladesh, outline the interesting decks that saw play in the recent Legacy Challenge and Bazaar of Moxen, and have a look at the White Stompy deck that I’ve been brewing!
Some More Kaladesh Spoilers
There’s a few more interesting cards recently spoiled from Kaladesh that could potentially see play within Legacy.
The Gearhulk cycle looks very exciting in a similar fashion to the original Titans. Both Cataclysmic and Noxious Gearhulk look potentially playable as large fatties within Nic Fit, or even some new reanimation targets in Reanimator or Dredge. The life buffer that Noxious provides could certainly be beneficial. Torrential Gearhulk also looks full of potential. Being a giant Snapcaster Mage is pretty exciting, especially since the instant is cast for free. Perhaps there’s some potentially broken instants this guy can flashback?
As a potential sideboard card against Eldrazi or MUD, Ceremonious Rejection seems pretty exciting, especially with its ability to counter Chalice of the Void. Countering the actual Eldrazi may be difficult due to Cavern of Souls, however, so I wouldn’t rely on it too much for that. That being said, Delver decks can Wasteland those away and counter the beefers, so perhaps it has some merit. It’s a bit niche, however.
The new Nissa, like most Nissas before her, seems very powerful in the green ramp shells of Nic Fit, but I could also see her as a sideboard in Lands. Primeval Titan and Nissa, Worldwaker have seen themselves within Lands sideboard as alternative win conditions, and although Tireless Tracker has proven himself to be the best one so far, having a diversity of options isn’t that bad. Her minus ability is also somewhat synergistic if your Loam has met Surgical Extraction and there's a key piece in your graveyard.
This guy is somewhat interesting. Protectable by Karakas immediately makes one think of Death & Taxes, and his ability is disruptive against non-creatures in a similar fashion to most of the deck. He certainly makes trying to Storm into Tendrils of Agony look very awkward. However, his 2/3 body makes Recruiter of the Guard unable to tutor for him, and I certainly don’t think Kambal is powerful enough to warrant being more than a silver bullet. Maybe some Deadguy Ale style deck (Deadguy Ale being the colloquial name for a Black White midrange deck) could utilize him?
Legacy Challenge Breakdown
Another Legacy Challenge has gone past, with another somewhat interesting metagame to look at.
silviawataru has been crushing a fair bit Online with 4c Delver and came and conquered with a pretty streamlined list.
The Library and Painful Truths in the main make quite a statement. This list really wants to be able to grind against Miracles and other control decks. His sideboard also features an interesting card: basic Island?! I guess against the Blood Moons of the world this is pretty valuable.
echecetmat35 also found himself Top 16'ing with 4c Delver, featuring Jace, Vryn's Prodigy as a three-of!
I am quite a fan of baby Jace in these midrangey 4c shells, especially since he can flashback Abrupt Decay and Lightning Bolt. The Kolaghan's Command in the sideboard also makes me incredibly happy.
The other interesting deck to find in the Top 8 was a classic MUD list. No Eldrazi here!
The core of Metalworker, Lodestone, Forgemaster, Chalice and Trinisphere are all here, though I do love the decreasing of the curve to accommodate Phyrexian Revokers, which are sometimes omitted or reduced to a silver bullet in many lists.
Probably the most surprising thing about this Legacy Challenge was the lack of format staples, Grixis Delver, Storm, and Eldrazi Stompy. The fact that the 4c lists featured much more than Grixis Delver really excites me, as I’ve been a big fan of these lists for quite some time. In a metagame flush with Miracles and Eldrazi, this deck is probably the best Delver variant. I’d build it something like this:
I get worried about how weak these lists can be to combo at times (especially with a durdly card like Jace, Vryn's Prodigy) so having some number of Stifles quite suites me. It also gives the deck a lot of game against Miracles, with the Stifles, Decays, and Library doing good work.
The Bizarre Results from the Bazaar of Moxen!
The Bazaar of Moxen gives us some really, real strange lists to look at once more.
To start with, BUG Opposition is looking like a real deck, not the gimmick it initially seemed after its previous placing at a BoM event, Top 8'ing once again! Again, you can find Seth’s Instant Deck Tech of Pierre Canalli’s list for some detailed insight.
Certainly an oddball, the main update we can see from the previous list are Gitaxian Probes being trimmed for Baleful Strix, which seems reasonable against the fair decks of the format.
Nonetheless, this deck aims to capitalize on mana dorks to accelerate out cantrip creatures (Elvish Visionary, Coiling Oracle, etc), which inevitably find the namesake card of the deck, Opposition. Opposition turns all these idiot creatures into lock pieces, tapping down creatures and lands alike, while the Opposition player can continue to develop their board and eventually kill with Gaea's Cradle + Craterhoof or get some Garruk Wildspeaker action going. I find it hard to imagine this deck succeeding against most combo decks, and Miracles seems like a rough matchup. However, I’d imagine most other fair decks having a fair bit of difficulty against the deck, with Opposition locking them out of the game.
Speaking of gimmicks, Dredge found its way into the Top 8 too.
Rollan incorporated both four Forces and four Chancellors in his main deck, which is a very powerful disruption suite game one to ensure that Manaless Dredge does its thing. I’m very fond of Manaless versions, and I hope that Rollan’s placing finally shows the deck has more than enough strength now with Amalgam to push through the perceived weaknesses it previously had.
The other cool list we see is BR Reanimator.
This list incorporates a lot of technology previously unseen in many versions prior. Insolate Neonate is a Hapless Researcher in red (sort of) that provides a lot of smoothing this deck previously did not have, save for Faithless Looting. Simian Spirit Guide also makes an appearance as more acceleration in the deck, not only for powering out reanimation spells, but also for powering out the sideboard plan of Sneak Attack and Blood Moon!
The other piece of technology was a card I was hyped up on:
Collective Brutality has finally shown itself as an excellent disruption choice within these shells. I look forward to it seeing more and more play in lists going forward.
Lastly, we finally see an updated Death & Taxes Top 8 a major tournament!
Aubert has cut down on superfluous four-ofs (Stoneforge, Revoker and, just as Thomas Enevoldsen recently did, Mom) and also notably played two Prelates in his main, showing it is more than just a silver bullet. Notably though, I think the biggest statement we see is the presence of these dorks:
Serra Avenger, no matter how mediocre she looks, continues to find a place in Death & Taxes as effectively remedying the bulging curve at three mana and fighting the fair matchups of the world like a champion. The only thing I’m surprised of is that Aubert did not opt for Mirran Crusader in the seventy-five, but otherwise I’m a big fan of his choices.
What I’m Playing This Week
This week I’d like to highlight the deck that I have been tinkering around with for the past few days. And no, it has not been Death & Taxes! With D&T currently having a pretty large target on its head and its core still being figured out, I’ve been slamming Thalia in a much more straightforward fashion.
If you can recall, from a few weeks ago…
This White Stompy deck has continued to impress me with not only the sheer explosiveness of the deck, but also the general consistency the deck has offered, despite the high-variance Stompy shell it initially appears. Let’s go through a breakdown of what this deck has to offer:
Like many Stompy decks before it, this deck aims slam Chalice on turn one and lock out many Legacy decks from casting a large proportion of their spells.
Thalias – a lot of them – are the other “lock” pieces of the deck. Unlike Blood Moon and other locks of Stompy decks past, these are “soft” lock pieces, but attached to bodies they can close the game out while the opponent struggles to play Magic. This deck aims to be not only an excellent shell for turn one Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, but can also power out turn one Thalia, Heretic Cathar. For many opponents (particularly those only utilizing nonbasics) this will mean many time walks in the turns ahead—while they get bashed in the face by a 3/2 first striker. Heretic Cathar also paves the way for the big Eldrazi beefers of the deck to punch through damage.
Thought-Knot Seer is the other core creature that disrupts, as early as turn two, and is the primary reason for including Eldrazi Temple in the deck. This guy needs no introduction. He’s a huge beefer and cripples whatever your opponent is doing.
Eldrazi Displacer I feel is another core piece of this deck, and although he looks pretty durdly, the manabase of the deck is setup to abuse him quite well, and he really puts a wrench in fair opponent’s plans. There’s also a few bits of synergy he has, especially when we look towards our flex slots.
The rest of the list I feel are flex slots within the deck.
- Phyrexian Revoker I love, as a D&T player, and becomes very impressive in Sol Land decks as another turn one play to accompany Chalice of the Void. He’s generally disruptive within the format, attacks and fills out the lower part of our curve. I like running four, but I can see the numbers dropping. Also, Revoker as pseudo-Sinkhole when naming Deathrite Shaman makes me very happy (especially when cast on the draw off a Sol Land)
- Lodestone Golem is great as another “lock” piece to cripple our opponent. Dying to Bolt sucks though, and he can also end up accidentally taxing your own plays. If run, Blade Splicer is another consideration, as first striking Golems are quite powerful.
- Reality Smasher. Good ol’ Smasheroony, unlike Eldrazi we only run a few Temples so trimming him down from the typical staple four-of is likely. He’s not disruptive, but he’s an excellent trampling beater to close out the game.
- Sanctum Prelate. Another excellent choice, but may stretch the mana base somewhat. Is much better if running Mox Diamond for a more consistent coloured source (rather than the pure tempo boost that Petal provides). This deck has access to the explosive play of turn one Chalice on one into turn two Prelate on two. That’s pretty awesome.
- Stoneforge Mystic and her relevant equipment are something that can be included, though I am less of a fan. She favors a more grindy, midrange plan, which is viable, but in most mono-white lists I favor closing the game out as fast as possible with big beaters like Smasher.
The deck gets a scant few removal options (Dismember, Warping Wail and Spatial Contortion) and can also run some equipment to take advantage of the deck’s threat density.
From my previous iteration, I’ve become less and less enamored with Lodestone Golem, finding his tax to be often unnecessary and sometimes affecting us (see: losing a game due to being unable to cast a Displacer). With that in mind, I’ve updated the deck as follows:
The main changes are the trimming of the Golem package, adding Smasher and adding Prelate. Prelate is eminently more castable with the sixteen white sources, and City of Traitors was often proving itself somewhat of a liability at times. Mox Diamond has also got the nod as a sturdier mana source to cast Prelate, and could lead to some fun with Crucible of Worlds. Keeping this list fast and brutal seems very nice.
However, Phil Gallagher wrote an excellent piece on his trials recently with the deck… And the incorporation of an all-star from years past.
Flametongue Kavu looks bizarre, but actually fills a role in the deck I perfectly understand. The deck is prone to running out of steam and having difficulty with gummed-up board states. Many matches where a Baleful Strix held my team at bay occurred recently, and Kavu would shoot down those idiots nicely. It certainly makes the mana base a bit ropey though, and once we go down this track we’re prone to the same mana-base hate as Eldrazi, though that hasn’t stopped that deck from being a powerful machine.
I mentioned that Smasher is a powerful endgame threat, but sometimes, as a singular threat, it can be bricked, and having some avenue to generate card advantage in the late game would be nice. Luckily, white decks have been given just that.
If you remember my 12 Rabble list, it functioned with four Imperial Recruiters, leveraging the mana that Sol Lands generate to make these somewhat slow, clunky cards have less of a downside. Recruiter of the Guard works similarly, fetching up the aforementioned Flametongue Kavu, as well as having incredibly synergy with Eldrazi Displacer to generate a powerful advantage. There’s a few other silver-bullets I’d also appreciate in this deck, namely, a huge bomb that can be blinked for value.
Pia and Kiran Nalaar fits this deck way too perfectly. Although RR looks restrictive, between Caverns, Battlefield Forge, Plateaus, and Diamonds, it should be just as reasonable to cast as Prelate. We already run Karakas to defend Thalia. Not to mention we have Revokers, Chalices, and Diamonds that we can fling at our opponent.
We can round out the rest of the deck with a few other silver bullets that are also generally synergistic. Eldrazi Obligator is an exciting one that can be Recruitered, and really puts the finger to an Emrakul staring across from you or gets that Tarmogoyf out of the way for you to lethal the opponent.
So here’s what I will be trying out very soon. Suddenly, our mono-white Stompy deck keeps its powerful prison pieces but finally has an endgame grind plan to beat the fair decks of the format
Of course, we sacrifice a fair bit to have these red cards. Our mana base is suddenly atrociously prone to Wasteland and Blood Moon. We also sacrifice the speed of Smasher and friends for a more consistent, but slower, end game plan. Nonetheless, I’d be pretty keen to jam this list in the near future.
There’s another Human that also has been well-known for his ability to assist in grinding out opponents.
Dark Confidant on turn one via Mox Diamond has been well-proven as a powerful combination that 4c Loam has used to much success, and perhaps we can do so too. Bob calls into consideration our curve though… Flipping Thought-Knot Seer is certainly a lot of damage for us and Reality Smasher out of the question. We’re also running Ancient Tombs, so that damage can rack up too. Adding some main deck lifegain (with Stoneforge) might be pretty helpful in this shell. Greatness at any cost, right?
Anyway, at least for now the lists I’m most confidant in is the mono-white ones. Rhey feel very tried-and-tested as powerful contenders with their placings on Magic Online. However, if you’re looking for a few different avenues to take the deck, particularly if you want to grind into the late game, I’d try out the red and black splash versions. I, so far, have been quite impressed.
Conclusion
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this week’s foray into Kaladesh, the interesting lists that popped up recently, as well as a little bit of my self-indulgence talking about White Stompy.
Per usual, feedback is much appreciated, especially if you’d love me to highlight an interesting deck.
‘Til then!
Sean Brown
Email: sean_brown156@hotmail.com
Reddit: ChemicalBurns156
Twitter: @Sean_Brown156
And catch me on The Salt Mine: An Australian Legacy Podcast, for more banter about Legacy!
The Spice Corner
This is another very interesting way to abuse Collective Brutality—in a BUG Lands-ish deck, abusing Loam, Intuition and the Dark Depths combo.
