This Week in Legacy: The Cards We Need on MTGO - Part II
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 talking about cards that are not yet present on Magic Online that exist in paper Legacy and what impact those cards have. In addition to that we've got some Challenge data as well as a Legacy Qualifier from over the weekend!
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
More Cards We Need on MTGO
The last time I did one of these articles was right before we got Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes on Magic Online, and there's been a number of cards since then that are worth mentioning, so I'm going to go over each of them by the set they are in because that makes much more sense and talk about their impact on the format possibly.
Now I would like to preface this by saying that 2022 was obviously a huge year of transition for Magic Online with the advent of Daybreak Games having taken over the management of the client. I think Daybreak is doing an absolutely excellent job with the management of the client, and most of these cards are mainly huge backlog things where they are cards that were either put out during the transition or pushed to the backlog for other reasons by Wizards before the transition. It is worth noting that since Dominaria United, Daybreak has been managing to get the full Commander decks for the Standard sets out on MTGO the week of release and most recently was able to put all of Dominaria Remastered on the client as well. It's clear that Daybreak is able to keep up with current product lineups, but the backlog is pretty nutty. So kudos to Daybreak for continuing to try to deliver these cards to us. Many of these sets we have some idea of when they are coming based on communication from Daybreak themselves.
Commander 2021
Going back to some of the oldest current cards missing on MTGO that may have an impact we go back to Commander 2021. This is the Commander product that came with Strixhaven. A number of these cards have been filtered into MTGO over time but there's still a few of these that are missing that could be interesting to see.
Keen Duelist
This can be an interesting build around card that would be interesting to see what it would do. You do have to make it to the next upkeep with it still in play but you can absolutely abuse it with Brainstorm and big cards like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.
Creative Technique
This is a very interesting card that can be very powerful in a fringe strategy that abuses this card with cards that have Cascade like Apex Devastator and Maelstrom Wanderer. While this is a fringe deck at best, it does some very powerful on rate Legacy things that would be super interesting to have around.
Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate
One of the sets that arguably had the worst release of 2022 in general was Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate due in part that only a portion of the set was available when it first came to MTGO. This was largely because much of the set was being coded during the transition from Wizards to Daybreak and it also introduced a number of new mechanics like Initiative and Backgrounds. While a good majority of the Legacy playable cards have made it onto MTGO as part of the backlog, there are still a good amount of cards that need to make it to MTGO.
Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward
This is a powerful card and can be readily abused by looping it with Animate Dead, much like Worldgorger Dragon can. However the powerful thing about this card is that you can pick how much you want to loop it, and you can stop the loop at any time. Also if you get hit by removal with this, you don't even have to exile anything with it due to the fact that you can just pick zero cards with it. I think this would be a great addition to the current format.
Most of the Adventurer Cycle
Provided nothing is happening with Initiative in general in the format, it makes sense to get the rest of the Adventurer cycle on the client. Out of these cards, Ravenloft Adventurer is probably the most powerful since it's a similar effect to Dauthi Voidwalker except for strictly creatures that also takes the Initiative. Being castable off Dark Ritual is nice. Undermountain Adventurer is also powerful as a GSZ-able effect.
Of these, Tomb of Horrors is easily the worst at six mana but having options is nice.
Sailors' Bane
Yet another cost reductive effect stapled to a 7/7 creature that also works well with Murktide Regent and also super goofy stuff like Serum Powder. I would like to see how this impacts the Delver decks in trying to figure out what the best build is which is usually an interesting time for those decks when they have a lot of different options. This probably gets way weaker without Regent and Expressive Iteration around as well.
Warhammer 40,000 Commander
One of the 2022 products where none of the set is on MTGO as of yet. This set has been recorded as being worked on by Daybreak and the biggest hurdle here is the fact that they have to release all these cards as full decks due to contractual requirements with Games Workshop. We know these cards are coming, but let's look at the really impactful stuff we're already seeing in paper Legacy.
Triumph of Saint Katherine
This is one of the bigger cards out of this set, so much so that it is helped revitalize UW/Jeskai Miracles decks in paper as a powerful threat that can easily race a good number of threats in the current format. The recursion aspect of it is very strong and the card has proven its capability in paper Legacy over and over again.
Poxwalkers
This one is an interesting card, and while the decks that want this kind of effect are not well off in the format right now, it would be nice to have this card to help those decks out. We haven't seen too much of it in paper events but I think those decks would appreciate the card online.
Let the Galaxy Burn
This is a weird one but it does see play in the Creative Technique decks that we talked about earlier as a six mana value Cascade spell that also acts as a weird Pyroclasm effect. If we get Technique on the client eventually then having this would continue to make that deck worth trying out.
Chaos Defiler
Other than Triumph of Saint Katherine, this is the other card that I think is definitely seeing a lot of play in paper, primarily in Painter decks. Being a Weldable effect that is a Vindicate that gets around protection, targeting, and being repeatable on ETB and dying is absolutely incredibly strong. I definitely look forward to seeing this card on MTGO.
Mawloc
This is a powerful effect and we've seen a good number of paper decklists adopt this card. Everything that uses Green Sun's Zenith is definitely looking at this card since it's a searchable effect that can deal two to a low end threat like a non-flipped Delver or a non-active DRC. Being able to scale this card from hand is powerful too as you can draw a card off of it as well.
Unfinity
One of the other big supplemental releases of the year, Unfinity did put a lot of different mechanics such as Stickers and Attractions into eternal formats. We do know this set's specific cards are in the works but a good number of those do use those sub systems so that is a push on the backlog.
Attractions / Stickers
The biggest things in this set are Stickers/Attractions that have the most amount of work behind them. We've seen some Attraction based decks in paper Legacy like Peter van der Ham's Stellar Funland deck and also seen the Goblin as a Seething Song-like effect in Goblins. These are definitely the most difficult things and I suspect we may see those ones last in the list of Unfinity cards.
Embiggen
This card is yet another tool for Infect as it gives a pretty big bonus for one green mana. Adding another tool in the toolbox for a deck that has gotten a ton of tools recently due to Phyrexia: All Will Be One is pretty nice.
Pair o' Dice Lost
This card has definitely seen a lot of play in Storm based builds, most notably in ANT as a Past in Flames type of card. At its base this card gets some one mana value cards and a bunch of zero mana cards and lands. It's a very powerful effect and I do think it would see a lot of play.
Comet, Stellar Pup
Comet is a good pup and a powerful card. This has definitely seen a lot of play in some paper lists as a Control / Midrange Planeswalker that has some powerful plays on high variance but it is a strong card overall.
Also, good pup.
Legacy Qualifier 2/4
This past weekend was a Legacy Qualifier event, which is basically fancy for a PTQ. This event is a high level premier event, and it required Qualification Points to enter. This event had 139 players in it, thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find the Top 16 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Both White Stompy and UR Delver were both at the top of the heap in this event, but UR Delver had stronger performance and White Stompy had below the 50% line. The new Grixis Delver variants (which are mainly splashing in Snuff Out and/or Reanimate) also were up there, different enough to count separately here. Wildly enough, four copies of Hammer Time that did quite well in this event too.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| 4C Uro Control | 1st | jacetmsst |
| UR Delver | 2nd | Xwhale |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 3rd | AlessioC |
| UR Delver | 4th | Martin_Dominguez |
| White Stompy | 5th | HanktheObese |
| Doomsday | 6th | m_himukai |
| UR Delver | 7th | Urgg |
| Lands | 8th | alli |
Definitely an interesting Top 8 here. Lot of UR Delver here as well as a good amount of other decks. At the end of the event it was 4C Uro Control that took it all down.
Quite an interesting list here. No other Planeswalkers here except Minsc & Boo and stuff like Leyline Binding, which definitely can be enabled well with the manabase of this deck.
In Second Place we have UR Delver.
This is a very stock looking list for sure. Very powerful and proactive. The two Fury in the sideboard are pretty great honestly. I am definitely digging that here.
Also in this Top 8 we had a showing by Cephalid Breakfast.
This is a super solid looking list. No frills and some strong deckbuilding. Step Through is a super interasting card because it's just not ever getting cast, it's mainly used for the Wizardcycling ability here.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we have our good friend alli on Lands.
I like this list a lot. Very powerful and strong in game 1 by trying to put a 20/20 into play quickly. The sideboard copies of Steely Resolve are very strong too which can prevent Marit Lage from being hit by removal spells.
Legacy Challenge 2/4
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Saturday event. This event had 49 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.
UR Delver was at the top here and had a middle of the line win rate at 50%, while Painter and Reanimator also did quite well. However it was Reanimator that had a stellar performance here overall.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Reanimator | 1st | duke12 |
| Red Stompy | 2nd | OnlyLandsDotCom |
| UR Delver | 3rd | kiyoaggro |
| White Stompy | 4th | Promidnightz |
| UR Delver | 5th | JPA93 |
| White Stompy | 6th | Add1ct3d |
| Yorion Zenith | 7th | yPrincipe |
| White Stompy | 8th | Oceansoul92 |
Super wild Top 8 here. Lot of Ancient Tomb decks here which is pretty insane. At the end of the event it was Reanimator that won it all.
Archon of Cruelty is such a powerful card for sure. I like the sideboard Show and Tell plan as well. I also like the Snuff Out in the sideboard too which can be solid free removal versus the White Stompy decks.
In Second Place we've got Red Stompy.
There is a built in combo here with Fable of the Mirror-Breaker flipping and then casting Zealous Conscripts that is just pure EDH level nonsense. Also, there's a Stormbreath Dragon in the sideboard. Absolutely insane.
Near the bottom of the Top 8 we have Yorion Zenith.
Definitely a wild list. Omnath! I love seeing Omnath in lists because I think that card is absolutely nutty.
Legacy Challenge 2/5
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the mid afternoon Sunday event. This event had 69 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 some technical issues that prevented full data collection from this event, so if you think you can help us out here that would be great. This basically means that we don't have fancy graphs for this event. I can say based on the data we have in there that White Stompy was the most represented deck but it's win rate was sub 50%. Both the UR Delver and Grixis Delver variants did very well in the event though.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Reanimator | 1st | XxShuicunexX |
| Elves | 2nd | Testacular |
| Grixis Delver | 3rd | JUJUBEAN__2004 |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 4th | HJ_Kaiser |
| UR Delver | 5th | kauffj |
| Black Saga Storm | 6th | TonyScapone |
| The EPIC Storm | 7th | coe205 |
| White Stompy | 8th | HeyNongMan |
Another wild Top 8 here. Lot of solidly interesting decks here and again a win by Reanimator.
We are seeing more of the stuff like Serra's Emissary, Snuff Out, and other things that address the Mono White matchup. Very powerful interaction here.
In Second Place we've got our good friend Testacular on Elves.
Fiend Artisan is such a powerful card and wow on main deck copies of Snuff Out is just incredibly powerful. Also sideboard copies of Vendetta is super cool. Crazy list!
At the bottom of the Top 8 we have TonyScapone on Black Saga Storm.
This deck is so cool. Saga is very powerful here as a back up plan to the Storm game plan and it just gets all the powerful mana rocks the deck already wants to fetch. Definitely a super cool list.
Around the Web
- A pretty cool tournament report from SCG NJ from the pov of a cEDH player taking on Legacy! Check it out here.
- Phil Gallagher is playing some Mono Black Control! Check it out here.
- The Bazaar of Boxes Series 6 ELM Qualifier is now on YouTube! Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
You can find this past week's 5-0 deck lists over here.
Simic 8Cast is sweet, especially when you can grok that the green splash hits both Haywire Mite and Choke out of the sideboard (and then you realize the list only plays one Island).
On this day we are all just Junders!
8Mulch!
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!
