This Week in Legacy: Checking In on Legacy for April 2026
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of This Week in Legacy! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week I am back at it! I had a weird two weeks off, primarily due in part to being really sick (pretty sure I had the flu, it sucked) the first week and then being out of town for Spring Break the following week. We're gonna touch base on how Legacy is looking at the moment, as well as a look at the BnR announcement from last week. In addition, we've got our weekly recap and some Challenge data from last week.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Banned & Restricted Announcement 3/23/2026 - No Changes to Legacy
While I was out of town, we had a Banned & Restricted announcement on 3/23, and while I am a week late to the party I do think it's important to mention it. You can find the BnR update here. Let's see what they had to say about Legacy this go-around.
While I would like a little bit more here, I do think this does a pretty good job of calling out some pretty firm aspects of where Legacy has been at lately. It is exceedingly true that Dimir Tempo has taken a hit and it is largely because players are finding holes in the strategy and learning how to beat it. Even just calling out D&T here is important because decks like D&T often have strong matchups versus Tempo strategies (it's pretty common that D&T and Delver is a classic matchup where the skill of the D&T pilot really determines how things go, and usually in D&T's favor) but also I like that this acknowledges something that has been occurring in Legacy for some time: the rise of Energy as a common archetype in the format.
Boros and Mardu Energy have certainly become very important parts of Legacy. They are fueled largely by the same core cards of Guide of Souls, Ocelot Pride, and generally things like Amped Raptor and Hexing Squelcher/Voice of Victory. I think it's great to see a non-blue actual aggro deck be a firm part of Legacy as a format, and Energy really allows this to exist.
I also think it's nice to see that Wizards recognizes that Oops' metagame share and win rates have diminished as well, on average week to week the deck is showing that it sometimes has a good week, but mostly is fair to middling to even poor performance. I don't think there's any real reason to touch this deck at the moment, as the data just doesn't give good justification for it.
As far as whether Legacy has gotten more fair or not, I tend to mostly disagree with this. I think we've seen a lot more combo in the format, despite the fact that Tempo is still the quote unquote "top dog" of the format, there is a lot of various combo decks that have proven to be very good. Sneak and Show, Omni-Tell, and even decks like The EPIC Storm are all performing quite well, and are prevalent in events. That being said, Swords to Plowshares is called out here as a big sign of fair gameplay, and I will concede that is true, that Plow is showing up a lot more than it was prior. I think a big portion of that is folks gravitating towards the Phelia/Quantum Riddler style tempo decks because of how powerful those two are, and the fact that those decks get some good tools to fight combo post-board.
Regardless, I agree with making no changes at this time. Legacy seems like it's fluctuating still back and forth, and a more rock/paper/scissors style gameplay is continuing to prevail, and that's not a bad place to be. New cards have created new decks and bolstered decks that were not prevalent before, and the format does not appear to even be remotely solved.
Legacy Metagame Review April 2026
It's been a little bit since we did a full metagame review, so I figured it was a good idea to do so. This covers from the Entomb ban in November all the way to up to this past week's events, with a total number of 6,433 entries overall. This is an estimated amount of almost 35,000 matches of Legacy, which is super sweet to see. You can find the aggregate sheet here. You can also find the current H2H data on Tableau here.
Let's start by looking at some graphical data.
From a macro archetype standpoint, Tempo is still the big top strategy of Legacy, but right below it is Spell Combo and I'm not super surprised about this.
Still, Dimir Tempo continues to be the most popular single deck in Legacy, boasting a 52.7% non-mirror win rate. It's a pretty reasonable place for a deck like this to be, as it doesn't feel incredibly overpowering or broken. It's pretty clear that while Dimir is popular, it's not the best deck in the format and has holes in it that players are finding in individual events.
Izzet is also incredibly popular, but not nearly as popular as Dimir is, but still enough to be the second most played deck since the bans. As a strategy, it's only boasting around a 49.8% non-mirror win rate, which isn't great. Both Tempo decks continue to be okay decks to play if you have the skills to play them, but they're not destroying the format by any means, and I very rarely see players complaining too much about Tamiyo even. I still think Tamiyo is probably long term a card that could be banned, but right now it seems like things are well in line with Legacy power level.
Oops has remained fairly popular, but it does continue to drop off and isn't really gaining as much ground week to week as decks like Dimir do. Dimir is over 800 copies since the ban, while Oops is just a little over 400. Its non-mirror win rate is also currently around 53%, putting it right in a range that's extremely reasonable for Legacy power level and standards.
I know players have a lot of strong feelings about this deck, but the data just doesn't seem to suggest making a change to it right now. If Oops ever encroaches that 55%+ win rate over time and also sticks in popularity over that time to be one of the most popular decks, I think we'd have a lot more to consider, but it's just not doing that. The deck is popular largely because of its price point for a lot of players, but the rest of the format is figuring out how to beat it and what decks work best against it.
Eldrazi has definitely become one of the more predominant Ancient Tomb/Stompy strategies. The deck had fallen off quite a bit after Sowing Mycospawn was banned, but players have managed to figure out the deck's current construction and it sits at around 51.5% non-mirror. Again, this is pretty much right in line with Legacy power level.
This deck seems to be a lot more popular than Red Stompy is at the moment, and I think a lot of that has to do with the raw power level of Eldrazi's aggressive gameplay vs Red Stompy trying to be more controlling.
Sneak and Show also is fairly popular over this time frame, sitting at around a 52% non-mirror win rate which again does not seem too bad. Realistically, much of the current decks in the format are in this range of win rates, and nothing seems like it is firmly overpowering.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the current state of Legacy. Yes, people are still going to wax poetic on Tamiyo and Oops, but I don't think the data suggests any real action for those things yet. There's a wildly good variety in the format at the moment. Decks like Energy variants, Lands, etc. are all appealing things to play, and Tempo doesn't seem like it's crushing the format for once, and in fact feels like players are finding paths to beat Tempo up because of its popularity. I don't think there will ever be a Legacy format where Tempo isn't wildly popular, but having it be popular AND also be attackable is realistically a great place.
Weekly MTGO Recap
We had a fair number of events this past week, including multiple Legacy Last Chance events for feeding into the Showcase Qualifier at the end of the season here. This added number of events accounted for around 446 entries in events over the whole week. You can find the weekly recap data sheet here.
Here's the full list of events plus their associated links.
| Event Name | Top 32 Link | Data Sheet Link | Number of Players |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legacy Last Chance 3/23 | Top 32 | Data Sheet | 49 |
| Legacy Last Chance 3/24 | Top 32 | Data Sheet | 63 |
| Legacy Last Chance 3/24 | Top 32 | Data Sheet | 39 |
| Legacy Last Chance 3/25 | Top 32 | Data Sheet | 42 |
| Legacy Challenge 32 3/25 | Top 32 | Data Sheet | 45 |
| Legacy Challenge 32 3/27 | Top 32 | Data Sheet | 43 |
| Legacy Challenge 32 3/28 | Top 32 | Data Sheet | 50 |
| Legacy Challenge 32 3/29 - 1 | Top 32 | Data Sheet | 46 |
| Legacy Challenge 32 3/29 - 2 | Top 32 | Data Sheet | 69 |
Quite a lot of events, so let's look at the graphical data for the week.
Overall Legacy seems pretty fine this week. Dimir Tempo is still the most played deck, and its win rate is pretty reasonable overall. Oops had a pretty okay week here, with a 52.3% non-mirror win rate. This past week also had quite a bit of the Tron deck showing up and it looked quite good. Riddler Tempo variants performed the best out of everything. Decks like Izzet, The EPIC Storm, and Affinity all underperformed.
This looks pretty good for a weekly snapshot of the format, in my opinion.
Legacy Challenge 32 3/25/2026
The first Challenge event we are covering was the Wednesday event. This event had 45 players thanks to the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Tempo was the most played deck of the event, and its win rate was pretty good. Lands also looked great here, as did Doomsday and some fair Land-based decks. Oops sat just above the 50% mark.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| The EPIC Gamble | 1st | TonyScapone |
| Doomsday | 2nd | rgbandre |
| Dimir Tempo | 3rd | stu909090 |
| Oops! All Spells | 4th | AFX |
| Oops! All Spells | 5th | choutin |
| Lands | 6th | CCdsmash |
| Dimir Tempo | 7th | Bonfigs |
| Lands | 8th | ResponsiblyStupid |
Oops and Dimir both had strong representation in this Top 8, but at the end of the event it was TonyScapone being TonyScapone (one of the best combo gamers in the format, I feel) that won.
This list is incredibly sick. Runehorn Hellkite is one heck of a card, and also being able to use Moonsilver Key to nab a Monolith, LED, or even the singleton Coveted Jewel is super cool. The wishboard is insane, and it just looks like a really fun deck.
In Second Place we had Doomsday.
The Tamiyo game plan definitely makes good sense for this deck. You have to really respect Tamiyo as a card while respecting Doomsday as a game plan. It definitely puts a player in a spot of needing to deal with a potential Tamiyo flip that could also result in Doomsday being put on the stack.
Also in this Top 8 we had some Lands action.
Walk-In Closet // Forgotten Cellar is a pretty sweet card in this deck. Being a Crucible of Worlds that's also potentially a Yawgmoth's Will is really sweet. The fact that it's an Enchantment is pretty important, largely because it gets around removal that would be common for this sort of thing (like artifact removal for Crucible).
Outside of the Top 8 we had some Reanimator.
Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers is an absurdly interesting card. You get to just attack with it having haste and get another threat from your library into play attacking as well. It's absolutely wild.
Legacy Challenge 32 3/27/2026
The second Challenge event we are covering was the Friday event. This event had 43 players thanks to the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Both Oops and Sneak were the most played decks, and they both sat just above the 50% mark of win rate. Eldrazi did very well here, as did Mystic Forge. Both Dimir and Izzet Tempo did very poorly.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Colorless Painter | 1st | XanaZero |
| Azorius Riddler Tempo | 2nd | Mortaa |
| Sneak and Show | 3rd | unworldlyorigin |
| Mardu Energy | 4th | Willthepill |
| Oops! All Spells | 5th | _Chamytinho_ |
| The EPIC Storm | 6th | Vash963 |
| Eldrazi | 7th | manohito |
| Lands | 8th | musasabi |
Quite a bit of Combo here. At the end of the event it was Colorless Painter that won.
Pretty sweet take on Painter here. While a lot of folks are heavily into the Sewer-Cam versions of the deck, I think the Colorless/White slant is pretty good. Cards like Karn, the Great Creator and Tezzeret, Cruel Captain are incredibly powerful and allow the deck all sorts of ways to tutor up the Painter combo while also being powerful cards in their own right that can sometimes just end the game. Combine this with stuff like The One Ring and you have a very strong set of haymakers.
In Second Place we had the Riddler Tempo build.
I've seen quite a lot of this deck lately, and I'm not surprised. Quantum Riddler and Phelia are both incredibly strong together, and especially when you toss in Stifle / Consign to Memory into the mix. It gives the deck a bunch of cool ways to interact with the opponent's plays (blink one of their things with Phelia and then Stifle the return trigger is sweet) while also allowing you to counter your Warp trigger.
Also in this Top 8 we had The EPIC Storm.
I think one of the best things for this deck in general was Hexing Squelcher. It's really proven that it's an extremely powerful protection threat that gives TES a lot of leverage against fair tempo and control decks. Playing three of these main deck is huge, because having multiples of it in play is bonkers.
Outside of the Top 8 we had Esper Control.
I think more people should be thinking about Esper Control in this metagame. Having access to Plow while also having stuff like Bowmasters and especially Barrowgoyf out of the sideboard is pretty solid stuff. Also, I absolutely love the main deck Pest Control here. That card deserves a lot more gameplay.
Legacy Challenge 32 3/29/2026 - 1
The final Challenge event we are covering was the first Sunday event. This event had 46 players thanks to the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Tempo was the most played deck here but its overall win rate wasn't very good. Boros Energy had the best win rate of the bunch. Oops sat right on the middle of the line.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| "Boros" Energy | 1st | Unlif3 |
| Dimir Reanimator | 2nd | doctor-x |
| Hogaak | 3rd | byzantinepundit |
| Oops! All Spells | 4th | Nanovo |
| Azorius Riddler Tempo | 5th | duke12 |
| Tron | 6th | Jumba |
| Oops! All Spells | 7th | Asa_Akira |
| Oops! All Spells | 8th | fuya |
Lot of Oops in the Top 8, but the event was won by a sweet take on Boros Energy, splashing some blue in.
The blue splash is pretty minimal really, as it's just for Daze and Lavinia, but heck that's pretty sweet. I can dig it for sure. Daze in general seems pretty sweet in a deck like this where you can use it to protect your early game plan. Lavinia also seems great against a lot of decks right now.
In Second Place we had Dimir Reanimator.
Deceit is pretty sweet. Even if you can't reanimate it to get its effects, it still does some really cool things. Being able to bounce something or Thoughtseize something is really strong.
Also in this Top 8 we had actual factual Hogaak.
Holy cow, ACTUAL FACTUAL old school Hogaak. I have not seen this deck played in literally FOREVER. There's literally zero things here that are newer than MH3. It's very much the same old school list of days gone by. I love it.
Further down the Top 8 we had Tron.
This deck has also gained a lot of popularity lately. You are really just going big mana without the Cloudposts and it's great because Planar Nexus really ties things together in that regard. Also... Extinguisher Battleship?!?!?! Pretty daggone cool.
Around the Web
- Rodrigo has a video on Sewer-Cam Combo. Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook is making some trouble with Raph & Mikey. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
Sewer-Cam with some DRC?
More Sewer action, this one with some Affinity too.
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!
