This Week in Legacy: Badgering
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 chatting all about Badgermole Cub and how much it has impacted certain archetypes sofar. In addition we've got some news on an upcoming paper Buffalo Chicken Dip event, and data from last week's events.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Badger Badger Badger Mushroom Mushroom
It's only been a week or so since Avatar: The Last Airbender became available on MTGO, and one thing is very clear sofar. One of the very clear winners of the early metagame additions has definitely been Badgermole Cub.
This card has proven that it is a real powerhouse in Legacy, specifically in shells like Cradle Control and Maverick based shells. The big reason? Earthbending is kind of sick. The biggest aspect of Earthbending in general is that the land itself gets to come back when its exiled or dies, albeit tapped, but it's specifically great with effects like Wasteland and cards like Wight of the Reliquary.
Wight lets you sacrifice the land that you earthbent, which then returns the land right to play tapped, but then you still get to search for another land off its ability and put it into play tapped as well. I can only imagine a possible shell outside of Wight where you are able to sacrifice something like Flagstones of Trokair and get three lands out of the deal, while being able to have the Flagstones for its ability later on. This is not only a big amount of ramp, but then the Cub's other ability is a huge bit of ramp too. Making all creatures add an additional green is fantastic, and the best part about it is that it works in multiples with each copy of Badgermole Cub in play.
Sofar we've seen this card primarily in Cradle Control as a four-of.
The mana advantage given here gives this deck a lot of ways to push out its bigger threats, like being able to hard cast a Craterhoof Behemoth in very short order, or even being able to search for it with Green Sun's Zenith. However, I can absolutely see people trying this out with cards like Elvish Reclaimer or even Knight of the Reliquary. It would be crazy too if you can blink Badgermole Cub too in order to keep re-earthbending lands like Wasteland to continue the Wasteland business.
I've also seen a pretty wild Sultai Tempo deck with this too.
This is definitely one of the big cards to keep an eye on from this set, so definitely be aware that this card exists and what it can do.
Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy 23 - Ohio
Coming soon on December 20th, 2023 at The Warp Gate in Columbus, OH is yet another Buffalo Chicken Dip event! This event's registration has gone super fast and there's a wait list now, but I keep hearing that maybe the cap will be raised for it from 64 players to a higher cap. All of the details of the event can be found here.
This should be a super fun event, and I'm actually able to make it to this one! So if you're planning on coming please stop and say hi! (Now I just need to figure out what deck to play!)
Legacy Challenge 32 11/19/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Wednesday event. This event had 50 players in it 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 played deck here and it had a pretty reasonable win rate. Omni-Tell had a strong performance here, while Oops had a less than 50% win rate.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Beanstalk Control (Yorion) | 1st | Capitano_CL |
| Red Stompy | 2nd | misfits_skulls |
| Lands | 3rd | Cle0h |
| Omni-Tell | 4th | FynnOfBlood |
| Izzet Tempo | 5th | AdventuresWithTarmo |
| Blue Cloudpost | 6th | _Batutinha_ |
| Goblins (Vial) | 7th | WadeB |
| Izzet Tempo | 8th | DMianete |
Oh this is a pretty varied Top 8. At the end of the event it was Yorion Omni-Tell that won.
Yorion Omni is pretty wild. Also, Unite the Coalition! Pretty crazy deck to be Beans + Omni as well. I've seen this quite a bit, so it seems like its gaining some popularity.
In Second Place we had Red Stompy.
Very straightforward build. I love the Karn angle though, because it lets you boost your Constructs while fetching sideboard stuff and controlling your opponent. Very interesting too to only see two copies of Blood Moon with the full four Magus.
Legacy Challenge 32 11/21/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 49 players in it 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 played deck of the event and despite a Top 8 it didn't really have a great win rate. Grixis Control did very well with two pilots on it, and so did Eldrazi.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Grixis Control | 1st | HJ_Kaiser |
| Doomsday | 2nd | yamayama |
| Eldrazi | 3rd | KoolooLimpah |
| Omni-Tell | 4th | Shuichi_Saito |
| Izzet Tempo | 5th | Srogers90 |
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 6th | Jesusmtg |
| Jeskai Control | 7th | jankyb |
| Dimir Tempo | 8th | EmperorOppai |
Fair bit of Tempo decks, but at the end of the event it was Grixis Control that won.
Getting both Bowmasters and Flame of Anor is quite cool, because in a pinch you can grow your Bowmasters by pointing the card draw at your opponent. You can also do this with Doomsday and no cards in their library versus Oracle.
In Second Place we had Doomsday.
Tempo Doomsday is pretty sweet. Having the package of Tamiyo and even a single main deck Murktide is enough to make you wonder if they're just straight Dimir Tempo and then you can ritual out a Doomsday and win the game on a dime.
Legacy Challenge 32 11/22/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 44 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Izzet Tempo was again the most played deck and despite two Top 8s it had a less than 50% win rate. Eldrazi looked great, as did Lands and Dimir Reanimator.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lands | 1st | samus_ssp |
| Eldrazi | 2nd | ACoolGuy1988 |
| Other Tempo | 3rd | habsburger |
| Izzet Tempo | 4th | kentaro_hokori |
| Eldrazi | 5th | Schmeckles |
| Izzet Tempo | 6th | piao |
| Blue Cloudpost | 7th | Peppembr |
| Dimir Reanimator | 8th | albertoSD |
Lot of Tempo going on here, but the event ended up being won by Lands!
Very straightforward Lands list here. I think this is pretty good looking. Sideboard Reclaimer is pretty cool too.
In Second Place we had Eldrazi.
Interesting list. The main deck Wastescape Battlemage is definitely stretching the mana a lot because you're primarily using Lotus Petal for the Kicker costs.
Legacy Challenge 32 11/23/2025 - 1
The fourth Challenge event of the week was the first Sunday event. This event had 37 players in it 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 played deck and it had a strong win rate here, but Dimir Tempo proved to be the better tempo list in this event. Eldrazi tanked hard and Oops rode the line of 50%.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono Black Reanimator | 1st | Roodslay |
| Death and Taxes - BW (Yorion) | 2nd | yoshiwata |
| Dimir Tempo | 3rd | Ryuho090 |
| Dimir Tempo | 4th | EmperorOppai |
| Dimir Tempo | 5th | ciciogire |
| Izzet Tempo | 6th | Izzet Tempo |
| Other Control | 7th | DominiqueTutor |
| Cradle Control | 8th | wubwgn22 |
Lot of Dimir Tempo here, but the event was won by Mono Black Reanimator.
Colossal Grave-Reaver is such a freaking wild card that exists. Just being able to shove a creature into play with self-mill is pretty sweet.
In Second Place we had D&T.
Heck yeah, Meteor Sword! It's so sick to see this card in these shells. It's extremely powerful with all of the stuff you want to play it with. Outside of Stoneforge you got blink shenanigans with Phelia and Yorion, which is groovy.
Legacy Challenge 32 11/23/2025 - 2
The final Challenge event of the week was the second Sunday event. This event had 72 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Izzet Tempo remained the most popular deck, with an above average win rate. Cradle Control looked great here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Cradle Control | 1st | El-Bebbos |
| Boros Energy | 2nd | Paxxu |
| Red Painter | 3rd | SocorristaEnParo |
| Sneak and Show | 4th | JoostdB |
| Doomsday | 5th | gr33nashe |
| Izzet Tempo | 6th | silviawataru |
| Dimir Tempo | 7th | ReformedPaolo |
| Izzet Tempo | 8th | Antarctica |
Fair bit of Tempo in the bottom half, but the event was won by Cradle Control.
Badgermole Cub is putting in great work in this shell as we talked about earlier. It seems tailor made for a deck that wants to sac stuff to Wight of the Reliquary too (earthbend a land, sac to Wight, get it back immediately tapped and get another land).
In Second Place we had Boros Energy.
This list is pretty sweet. Amped Raptor and even Staff of the Storyteller! Quite cool.
Around the Web
- BeExcellent has some Aluren action. Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook is playing Yorion Creative Technique. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
KATARA.
WAN SHI TONG
ALLIES.
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!
