This Week in Legacy: Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy 11
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 all about the most recent Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy event held over the past weekend. In addition to that we've got some Challenge data from this past weekend as well. However I will note that it's important to view all the events today through a fairly historical lens in regards to specific decklists, because Wizards decided to drop a surprise Banned & Restricted Announcement on us this week, so we do have to talk about that as well.
This past weekend was also the 4Seasons event in Italy, but it generally takes us a bit to get all the data from those events so we're going to talk about those next week.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy 11
This past weekend was yet another of our good friend Robert Wilson's Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy series! BCDL 11 took place at The Warp Gate in Westerville, Ohio. This event was sold out at 64 players, but in reality, it was 60 players as there were four no-shows to the event.
This event was streamed and the coverage will be posted to the BCDL YouTube Channel.
I was able to attend this event, so before we talk about the overall event, let's talk about my personal experience with the event. Somewhat early on after registering for the event, I had mostly settled on playing Rakdos Painter because I wanted to play around with Chaos Defiler and Painter is one of the best shells for that card. I sort of settled on a list, and then had to readjust some focus on Vintage for a bit for a different event. And then my day job kind of got incredibly super busy and I just never actually found any good time to prepare for the event... and then it was this past weekend. At some point in this timeline I did actually consider switching decks to something like Peter van der Ham's Esper Attractions deck but I didn't have the time to actually put it together.
Suffice to say, I definitely don't think my preparation for the event was necessarily good because, well, there wasn't any. I haven't had a really solid opportunity to just sit and play Legacy consistently as of late on MTGO, and the deck I was playing included cards that didn't exist on MTGO yet (Defiler).
At the end of the event, I ended up 2-4 overall with the following matchup spread:
- R1 vs GW Depths (2-0 W)
- R2 vs RUG Delver (0-2 L)
- R3 vs a Spoils of the Vault/DDay pile (2-0 W)
- R4 vs Red Stompy (1-2 L)
- R5 vs Cephalid Breakfast (1-2 L)
- R6 vs Reanimator (1-2 L)
It was definitely a bit of a strange event overall, and I played against some very interesting decks (the Doomsday pile was absolutely wild and RUG Delver with actual Tarmogoyf was just not on my list of things to play against) and had some rough matchups (Reanimator is rough and Atraxa just absolutely stomped me, so is Red Stompy I felt) and some sweet games (the games vs Cephalid Breakfast were just absolutely super interesting).
All in all, I felt I tried to play my best despite the lack of prep, and came away with some interesting stories. One such that I do have to relate is my Game 2 vs Reanimator in Round 6. I managed to put T1 Painter in play and was able to put a Grindstone in play but one mana short of activating it. My opponent reanimated an Atraxa, Grand Unifier and drew SEVEN cards off of it that included a Serra's Emissary they were able to reanimate that same turn and name Artifact with Emissary. I definitely did not draw an out to this and died very quickly.
The Event Itself
Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy events are always pretty great honestly. Besides the titular chicken dip, the prizing and the awesome positive presence that is Robert Wilson is really what makes BCDL an experience. As noted, the event itself had 64 players, but only 60 active players due to some no-shows.
The First Place prize for this event was an Underground Sea with Second Place receiving a Tundra. Prizes paid out from there down to Top 16. Let's take a look at some shots from the event.
The Legendary Dip! Plus the Feature Match table!
The Warp Gate
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
BCDL events have always traditionally had little Delver, but in this case the event did have nine Delver decks across UR and Grixis variants, which is actually a rather lot for BCDL. At the top end was Reanimator and White Stompy, with Reanimator having a fairly poor result overall but White Stompy did very well (56.41 % non-mirror win rate). UR Delver did very well as did Grixis Delver, and also Painter did very well (which is pretty traditional at BCDL considering Painter has won multiple of these events).
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| Painter | 1st | John Hata |
| White Stompy | 2nd | Robert Hayes |
| White Stompy | 3rd | Jacob Cook |
| Painter | 4th | Dan Becker |
| UR Delver | 5th | Tyler Klein |
| Black Stompy | 6th | Teknomahge |
| 8Cast | 7th | Joshua Wedell |
| Grixis Delver | 8th | Robert Wilson |
Quite a few Ancient Tomb in the Top 8 here across different Stompy decks. At the end of the event though it was another victory for Red Painter by John Hata!
This list is pretty good and pretty spot on to Callum Smith's lists for Painter. Phyrexian Dragon Engine is such a strong and sick threat. If left unchecked it deals a lot of damage quickly, but its ability to recur from the graveyard to also draw three cards is very strong as a Welder/Engineer target. Solid finish by Painter!
In Second Place we've got White Stompy.
Two copies of Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines! This list is sick. Splits across the various hate bear effects in the main deck and no Chalice, just landing on having better removal in four main deck Swords to Plowshares. This is definitely a super strong list.
Further down the Top 8 we had a showing by the Mono Black Stompy deck.
Yes! Ravenloft Adventurer has entered the chat here. Having an Initiative creature plus the exile effect is very strong here. Main deck copies of Snuff Out are definitely expected since it is just very good in the deck playing lots of Swamps. I love this deck. It's quite strong and does a lot of things.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we've got our good friend Robert Wilson himself on Grixis Delver.
Some fun things about this list is the presence of Mercurial Spelldancer, but also two main deck copies of Minor Misstep. Rob said throughout the day that he felt rather impressed by Misstep. I am definitely curious to see where that card goes long-term.
In terms of sheer spice throughout the event, the all-time spice award has to go to this list by Matthew Early featuring Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward.
This list is nuts and I love it. I love everything about it. Reanimator with Fable of the Mirror-Breaker?! Yeah, this is amazing.
Banned and Restricted Announcement 3/6/2023
Wow so... Wizards definitely decided it was time to hit Legacy with some banned and restricted announcement and hit Legacy they did. You can find the full announcement over here.
The two cards now effectively banned from the Legacy format are:
That's right. Both EI and White Plume are now officially banned from Legacy. This has been an outcome I've come to possibly expect for a while now, and it's one that I'm actually on board with to see. Hitting only White Plume Adventurer here would have been a fairly poor option because it does nothing to sort out the other top deck of the format and Iteration has long-standing been one of those cards that people have finally seen how strong it is and how banworthy it was that it needed to be one of the cards in this BnR to go.
Wizards gave us some pretty strong understanding in this BnR, acknowledging that both of these decks combined were a huge presence of the Legacy metagame (their numbers say 30% in some circles, we were seeing 40% in our Challenge data just since January) and that both decks had a strong win rate (something we were seeing in our data collection as well) versus the rest of the field. While these two decks were holding each other in check, they were both stymieing metagame development and things were getting stale, which is a complaint I was hearing from a lot of Legacy players.
All in all, I'm interested to see where the format goes from here. I suspect there will be a lot of shifts and Delver will probably still be pretty good (if not still one of the best decks in the format) simply because the deck gets to adopt more low to the ground technology like Mercurial Spelldancer and also Minor Misstep. We may see a bigger shift in Control/Midrange decks because of losing Iteration, but Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes still is pretty good. The bigger shift is in the Stompy space since we can see more areas for Non-White Stompy decks to find their place again. Red Stompy prison decks still have Caves of Chaos Adventurer and once the rest of Baldur's Gate is on MTGO we can have Ravenloft Adventurer in the Black Stompy (Sheoldred/Karn/Helm) decks as well.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One also gave a lot of decks some new toys, so it will be very sweet to see where the format ends up, but for now there is a definite breath of fresh air and the Great Work can begin anew.
Legacy Challenge 3/4
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Saturday event. This event had 50 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 datasheet here.
UR Delver was very popular here and it had a solid win rate as well. White Stompy was next but its win rate suffered a lot. Grixis Delver variants did well, as did Reanimator.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Hammer Time | 1st | CrusherBotBG |
| UR Delver | 2nd | TrueFuturism |
| Bomberman | 3rd | kanican |
| Death and Taxes | 4th | IsolatedSystem |
| Grixis Delver | 5th | wooop_orc |
| Riddlesmith Combo | 6th | Killabee |
| Grixis Delver | 7th | Oceansoul92 |
| UR Delver | 8th | RyanWu |
Quite a bit of Delver in this Top 8 here, but there are some other interesting decks too. At the end of the event, coming hot off the heels of us talking about it last week was CrusherBotBG on Hammer Time.
This deck is just actually really strong when you're able to lean on more powerful cards like Mox Opal and Swords to Plowshares. I'm surprised it took long to really catch on, but I'm definitely seeing this deck more and more as of late.
In Second Place we've got UR Delver.
Fairly stock-looking list overall these days. I do enjoy the pair of Fury in the sideboard. Having both free removal and a late game creature is very good.
Also in this Top 8 we had kanican on Bomberman.
I think Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is just the best card for this deck. It's wild how good it is here. Being able to copy Elite Spellbinder or Salvagers is cool, but also the fact that it helps filter cards you want in the graveyard to the graveyard. Definitely solid.
Near the bottom of the Top 8 we've got Riddlesmith.
Continuing to see more cards like Vindictive Flamestoker and The Mycosynth Gardens here, and they both continue to look very good in this shell. Super solid deck for sure.
Legacy Challenge 3/5
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the Sunday event. This event had exactly 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 data sheet here.
UR Delver was the top deck in terms of metagame popularity but it didn't do too well win-rate-wise. Reanimator and White Stompy both did very well, as did Cephalid Breakfast and Painter.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Reanimator | 1st | duke12 |
| Doomsday | 2nd | _INF_ |
| Riddlesmith Combo | 3rd | CCdsmash |
| Bant Stoneblade | 4th | Bahra |
| White Stompy | 5th | Elbegast |
| Reanimator | 6th | Magic_Dads71522 |
| UR Delver | 7th | Ozymandias17 |
| Doomsday | 8th | wonderPreaux |
Definitely a varied Top 8 here. Lot of interesting decks. At the end of the event though, it was Reanimator that won it all.
Even as a one-of Atraxa just looks very good in these decks. It's a very powerful card and the fact that it pitches to multiple Forces and Grief is really strong.
In Second Place we've got Doomsday.
This list is pretty cool. A main deck copy of Grief is utterly interesting, and so is the main deck copy of Misdirection. Also, Subtlety in the sideboard for the Initiative matchup and also Jack-o'-Lantern!!! Very fun list.
Further down this Top 8 we had Bant Stoneblade.
Bahra being back to Legacy warms my heart, honestly. His lists are always super cool. This list is no exception. White Plume Adventurer and Uro, as well as Stifle? Very sweet.
Around the Web
- GreenSunsZenith.com has a new article on Naya Depths with ArneMTG. Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook is reanimating Atraxa! Check it out here.
- When in doubt, Jund em out!
The Spice Corner
You can find this past week's 5-0 deck lists over here.
RUG Stiflenought featuring The Mycosynth Gardens!
I mean, this is just what happens when you smash together two different archetypes into one. Initiative Show and Tell?
ONCE MORE THROUGH THE BREACH!
Atraxa seems very good at combining archetypes into one unholy thing. Show and Tell Reanimator?
Thought Lash combo is sweet, but Mirror of Fate?!?! Wild.
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!
