This Week in Legacy: 21 Golden Chickens
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 taking a look at this past weekend's Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy 21 event! It's always nice to cover paper events, so if you have a paper event that you would like for me to cover please feel free to reach out via BlueSky or my LinkTree at the bottom of the article. In addition we've got some Challenges to look at from last week.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy 21
This past weekend at The Warp Gate in Columbus, OH was Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy 21! This paper event had a solid 64 players playing Legacy for six rounds and cut to Top 8 for first place winning a Volcanic Island and other great prizes all the way down to 16th place. You can find all of the info on Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy here. Big thanks to both Robert Wilson and Carey Banyas for providing me with information and pictures of this event.
These events are always a ton of fun. I had to miss this one due to a number of complex factors (some minorly health-related),, but I would have loved to have made it. This store is great, and it's always fun seeing people.
You can find all the decklists here and the data sheet here.
Beans was the most played deck and its win rate was very good. Izzet Tempo was also very popular and despite a Top 8 appearance its overall win rate was less than 50%. Cephalid Breakfast and Dimir Tempo looked good as did Oops.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 1st | Andrew Bailey |
| Nadu Cradle Combo | 2nd | Clair Bigelow |
| Izzet Tempo | 3rd | Chris Schiber |
| Oops! All Spells | 4th | John Hata |
| ANT | 5th | Brenton Erman |
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 6th | Kenny Royer |
| Oops! All Spells | 7th | Carey Banyas |
| Dimir Tempo | 8th | Harry Pasku |
This is honestly a pretty reasonable Top 8. Lot of Tempo and Control. At the end of the event it was Andrew Bailey on Beans that won.
This is a really slick deck. I love the addition of Rakshasa's Bargain here. The card is just so good in these shells, it feels ultra unfair at times. Also Unmoored Ego in the sideboard!
In Second Place we had Clair Bigelow on Nadu Cradle Combo.
This is a deck we honestly just haven't seen in a hot minute. It's been mostly absent from MTGO results entirely. My thoughts on Nadu tend to remain the same in that I think these decks can do some things and can have good runs, but its power level is right in line with Legacy gameplay, and the decks are easy to interact with. This list is solid though. I like the sideboard plans of having an Uro.
Legacy Challenge 32 4/23/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Wednesday event. This event had 37 players thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Oops was the most played deck by one copy, and its win rate was pretty good. Izzet/Grixis Tempo looked great here, while Jeskai Control rode the middle line despite a Top 8 appearance.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Oops! All Spells | 1st | _J0SE_ |
| Esper Control | 2nd | harmonywoods |
| Dimir Reanimator | 3rd | Capitano_CL |
| Jeskai Control | 4th | hermanomlg |
| Grixis Tempo | 5th | Peterpan226 |
| Grixis Tempo | 6th | _Shatun_ |
| Coveted Jewel Combo | 7th | TonyScapone |
| Red Stompy | 8th | LucasG1ggs |
Honestly a pretty reasonable Top 8. Good amount of Tempo and Control, Combo and Stompy. At the end of the event it was Oops that won.
That's pretty much what we've come to expect from these decks. The singleton Reanimate is solid, and the Belcher sideboard juke is powerful.
In Second Place we had Esper Control.
This deck is pretty sweet. Really solid-looking control shell. I love the addition of Stock Up here. It's such a powerful card.
Legacy Challenge 32 4/25/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 43 players thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Oops was the most played deck again, and despite a Top 8 appearance, its overall win rate was less than 50%. Grixis and Izzet Tempo looked great, and some "Other Permanent Combo" did insanely well.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 1st | ScreenwriterNY |
| PO (Other Permanent Combo) | 2nd | Chris_McNasty |
| Belcher (Other Permanent Combo) | 3rd | Corbott |
| Dimir Reanimator | 4th | Ryuho090 |
| Izzet Tempo | 5th | kentaro_hokori |
| Oops! All Spells | 6th | _J0SE_ |
| Black Midrange | 7th | Flossed |
| Grixis Tempo | 8th | AdventuresWithTarmo |
Fair amount of Combo here, but also some of Tempo and Midrange. At the end of the event it was Beans that won.
5C Beans is nice to see back. Surprised to not see Rakshasa's Bargain to be honest. This is much more just Beans from another era, which is fun.
In Second Place, we had PO.
Oh heck, Stock Up looking good in an Ancient Tomb shell? You don't say. Seems insanely good in this kind of deck for sure.
Legacy Challenge 32 4/26/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 45 players thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Izzet Tempo was the most popular deck, and its win rate was slightly better than 50%. Grixis Tempo also looked good. Red Stompy and Blue Painter looked poor here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Omni-Tell | 1st | Taddy_99 |
| Death and Taxes - BW (Yorion) | 2nd | yoshiwata |
| Lands | 3rd | Sprouts |
| Izzet Tempo | 4th | kentaro_hokori |
| Grixis Tempo | 5th | ReformedPaolo |
| Sneak and Show | 6th | snoopy-magic |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 7th | Speddixx |
| Izzet Tempo | 8th | i_b_TRUE |
Fair bit of Tempo and Combo, also some D&T. At the end of the event it was Omni that won.
Solid looking Mono Blue list here. Cunning Wish still seems to be the way to go, especially as players are adopting things like Ashen Rider like Red Stompy has in the sideboard to deal with Omniscience.
In Second Place we had D&T.
Very strong list. I believe the Orzhov D&T lists are really the best place to be right now. Phantom Blade is super cool in this deck.
Legacy Challenge 32 4/27/2025 - 1
The fourth Challenge event of the week was the first Sunday event. This event had 36 players thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Oops was the most played deck and it had a strong win rate. Nadu Midrange had a reasonable win rate as well. OTHER PERMANENT COMBO did great again too.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono Black Reanimator | 1st | Roodslay |
| Belcher (Other Permanent Combo) | 2nd | AFX |
| Oops! All Spells | 3rd | genmatsu |
| Oops! All Spells | 4th | MackSmith |
| Esper Control | 5th | _Batutinha_ |
| Nadu Midrange Combo | 6th | einstein9998 |
| Izzet Tempo | 7th | habsburger |
| Oops! All Spells | 8th | fuya |
Lots of Combo in this Top 8. At the end of the event it was Mono Black Reanimator that won.
Cabal Therapy is absolutely one of my favorite cards, so I do love seeing it see play. This list looks quite good for sure.
In Second Place we had Beseech BELCHER.
This deck is wild. It's like Beseech Storm but also plays Belcher. Absolutely wild deck.
Legacy Challenge 32 4/27/2025 - 2
The final Challenge event of the week was the second Sunday event. This event had 59 players thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator was very popular, but its overall win rate was worse than 50%. Izzet Tempo looked great, as did Coveted Jewel and a good spread of all the other decks across the board.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Izzet Tempo | 1st | silviawataru |
| RW Energy | 2nd | oOMegaGenesis |
| Dimir Tempo | 3rd | Antarctica |
| Dimir Reanimtor | 4th | mortr3d |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 5th | B-Carp |
| Coveted Jewel Combo | 6th | karatedom |
| Oops! All Spells | 7th | kaikas |
| Esper Control | 8th | etoustar |
This is a nice looking Top 8. At the end of the event, it was Izzet Tempo that won.
Cori-Steel Cutter is such a crazy good card at times. It's pretty cool. It does make for some awkward play patterns at times but it is cool.
In Second Place we had RW Energy.
Pretty sick to see mostly a Modern deck in Legacy. Arabella, Abandoned Doll is WILD. This deck is something else.
Around the Web
- StrassDaddy has some Cat Maverick. Check it out here.
- Fenruscloud has a video on Infect. Check it out here.
- Kindamtg has a tier list on Legacy Unbans. Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook is willing the Jeskai. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
Mardu Energy is sweet.
Mono White Stompy hasn't shown up in a hot minute.
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!
