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This Week in Legacy: Community Events

by Joe Dyer // Aug 19, 2020

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 diving into a few different events that have taken place such as the NRG Legacy event and finally getting our hands on the lists from GenCon Online. In addition, we have two Challenge events from over the weekend and of course, our Spice Corner.

Without further ado, let's dive right into the thick of things!

NRG Series MTGO Open #3 - Legacy

This past weekend was the third of NRG's (Nerd Rage Gaming) Magic Online Open Series events. This was a $1.5K event held through MTGMelee, and had roughly 105 players competing for prizes. One of the great things about this event and all of NRG's Open events is the fact that they partner with Cardhoarder to allow participants to rent decks through their loan program service. This is a great service for people wanting to play Legacy and to be competitive.

NRG is a great boon to the Legacy community and this event sounded like a ton of fun. This event was even streamed which was commentated by several Legacy community greats such as Anuraag Das and Julian Knab. You can find the coverage of this event here.

Now let's dive into a huge Metagame breakdown of every archetype in the event.

The biggest takeaway here is how popular RUG Delver still continues to be as a deck in Legacy. It's continually putting up incredible results and while it seemed like it wasn't performing as well as it normally does, but in this event it most certainly had a solid presence and did well. Outside of RUG, there was plenty of decks like Snowko and especially Elves. There was lots of interesting decks down the event as well. In the long run despite there being a lot of RUG Delver, there really was a lot of diversity in the event which is great to see.

Let's take a look at the Top 8 of the event.

Deck Name	Placing	Player Name
Sneak and Show	1st	Andrew Fiedler
Elves	2nd	Adam Wallace
Snowko	3rd	Patrick Green
RUG Delver	4th	Theodore Jung
RUG Delver	5th	Topher Stitson
Bant Snowko	6th	Pedro Pereira
Death and Taxes	7th	Wataru Yoshimura
Doomsday	8th	Ethan Formichella

This was certainly a super interesting Top 8, with a nice variety of fair and unfair decks. At the end of it however, it was Sneak and Show that took the whole thing down!

This is pretty cut and dry for Sneak and Show decks, as this deck hasn't had many innovations in the past few years. Still, this formula simply works, so there's no reason to mess with the formula.

In Second Place, our good friend Adam Wallace on Elves!

Adam's list is more classic Elves, with cards like Nettle Sentinel that have largely fallen out of favor in other lists adapting new tech such as Once Upon a Time and Allosaurus Shepherd. This is certainly a powerful list however and seems great.

In Third Place we have Snowko.

There are some interesting deck building decisions in here, such as the main deck copies of Shark Typhoon and Back to Basics. This seems like a powerful list however, and has some solid play to it.

In Fourth and Fifth Place we have RUG Delver by two very powerful players.

Both of these lists are pretty close to each other, with Theo playing a main deck Klothys, God of Destiny, and Topher being on three copies of Stifle.

In Sixth Place we have Bant Snowko.

This deck is more slanted towards a Miracles-like build, using cards like Terminus and Entreat the Angels in addition to cards like Uro.

In Seventh place we have Death and Taxes.

D&T is a deck that continually has its ups and downs but solid pilots can be very good with this deck. I especially like the singleton Thalia, Heretic Cathar.

Rounding out the Top 8 we have Doomsday.

I enjoy the usage of Ideas Unbound in this deck as part of the piles you can build with Doomsday. This deck has been essentially resurrected by the power of Thassa's Oracle, which is super cool.

Outside of the Top 8, there were some intriguing decklists that caught my eye. One of these was Soldier Stompy, by Mark Johnson.

Soldiers is a fun Chalice deck that has some interesting play to it, and is one of the only decks in the format that can play Aerial Responder easily.

Also in the event I saw a sweet Bant Ephemerate deck.

This is a cool list, leaning on being able to use Ephemerate for sheer value with cards like Spellseeker. It's also really cool to see Titania, Protector of Argoth in this list.

Finally, we have a sweet Jeskai Control list.

What a super sweet take on RIP/Helm, with both Blood Moon and Shark Typhoon. I especially really enjoy the Hall of Heliod's Generosity here as a way to rebuy a Typhoon.

All in all, this NRG event was great and looked like a lot of fun. Big thanks to NRG for continuing to support the Legacy community!

GenCon Online Legacy

It took a hot minute for the GenCon Legacy Champs events to get posted, but they finally were posted so we can see how the Champs event played out. This event was invite only after 4-0'ing one of the Legacy Prelim events over the weekend of GenCon Online.

We have Top 32 decklists published, so let's take a look at the Metagame breakdown.

As has been the norm for some time, RUG Delver simply continues to be the most represented deck. There is not much surprise to this, as RUG is simply the most powerful of Delver strategies currently and Delver is simply a super popular deck for many players.

Now let's take a look at the Top 8 of this event.

Deck Name	Placing	MTGO Username
RUG Delver	1st	Slow_Brz
Snowko	2nd	MathGuy31415
Eldrazi Aggro	3rd	NHA37
RUG Delver	4th	KingRegal
Elves	5th	Jhollan42
Sneak and Show	6th	PatrickSTJ
Yorion Snowko	7th	KauffJ
RUG Delver	8th	MKEndress

At the end of the event it was indeed RUG Delver that took the whole thing down.

This is a pretty common list to what we've seen out of the deck, so there are no surprise in deckbuilding to be aware of. Most RUG builds have pretty much coalesced onto this sort of build because Hooting Mandrills is exceptionally good in the mirror match.

In Second Place we have Snowko.

It is neat to see Eliminate see more play, and with the amount of Oko in the format it really isn't that surprising to see. This list too is splashing into red for the blast effects but also for Klothys, God of Destiny, which is really strong in mirrors.

In Third Place we have Eldrazi Aggro.

This is a clean, classic take on this kind of list, not utilizing any new stuff like Once Upon a Time. It's hard to say which is actually better because I definitely think both can do well, so it's likely preferential at that point.

Since Fourth Place had RUG Delver, let's move to Fifth Place with Elves.

This is closer to the stock lists popularized by players like Newton Hang, who have used cards like Once Upon a Time in this deck to great effect. Allosaurus Shepherd absolutely seems like the real deal in this deck for sure.

In Sixth Place we have Sneak and Show.

This is just flat out all in on SnT or Sneak on an Emrakul or Griselbrand. No fancy tricks with Omniscience or a Cunning Wish package, just linear combo beats.

In Seventh Place we have Yorion Snowko.

This list is pretty cool and is closer to a Yorion Zenith Snow list, with four copies of Green Sun's Zenith in the main deck. Also instead of typical cards like Abundant Growth seen in these decks which can bounce and draw with Yorion, this deck as Utopia Sprawl which is very interesting.

The Eighth Place list was also RUG Delver, so let's dive into some of the lists down in the Top 32. One of those is Caleb Durward with Turbo Muxus.

Since the GenCon event gave acces to every card to players, this deck took place at a time when Muxus could just be freely used and didn't have supply issues through Treasure Chests. This is thankfully getting a little better, but it's still pretty interesting to see what this deck is capable of. Whether this is truly better than regular old Goblin with Muxus remains to be seen however.

This event had a Top 32 showing by Belcher too!

It's really cool seeing Throne of Eldraine card Irencrag Feat here as a big ritual to power out Belcher with, since it produces exactly enough mana to cast and activate Goblin Charbelcher.

All in all, the GenCon events had some interesting lists through and through. You can find all of the GenCon Legacy events here on MTGGoldfish.

ManaTraders Series - Legacy

Card rental service ManaTraders is consistently running Magic Online Legacy events that are a solid prize payout every month. The current series is Legacy, which runs through the end of this month. You can find out more details on this event series here.

I am somewhat considering participating in this event series myself because it seems like a ton of fun!

Legacy Challenge 8/15

Our first Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Saturday Challenge, so let's dive right into the Top 32 metagame breakdown.

This event represented a big jump in Snowko over the past few weeks of the deck's performance and meta share having been a lot lower than this. This competed directly with RUG Delver, which had the same number of copies as Snow based decks.

Now let's take a look at the Top 8 of this event.

Deck Name	Placing	MTGO Username
G/B Depths	1st	Terano
U/R Delver	2nd	Excel0679
Yorion Stryfo Pile	3rd	LeoFa
Snowko	4th	Graciasportanto
Ninjas	5th	Audio336
RUG Delver	6th	Silviawataru
Goblins	7th	Samus_SSP
Cloudpost	8th	Musasabi

This certainly seemed like an interesting Top 8, given that at the end of the event it was G/B Depths that won the whole thing.

This is more of a controlling "Slow Depths" style variant, being able to lean on CA engines like Dark Confidant and consistency cards like Once Upon a Time. I also really like the copy of Steely Resolve in the sideboard.

In Second Place we have U/R Delver.

Sprite Dragon and Ethereal Forager! I keep seeing the Forager in lists, but I'm never really sure of how good it is. This list is a super clean deck however, and it can definitely protect the Whale very well with its disruptive elements.

In Third Place we have Yorion Stryfo Pile.

I am always in awe of Stryfo Pile decks, because they are always chock full of interesting cards. Since the move to Yorion, it is even more interesting as cards like Cling to Dust and a full four Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath.

In Fourth Place we have Snowko.

This a clean list with only a single color splash into white, with some cool sideboard options like Meddling Mage and even a copy of Mindbreak Trap.

In Fifth Place we have Ninjas.

This is a straight Dimir list with no cute splashes into green, and is super clean and powerful. Ninjas is such a sweet deck, so it's great to see it do well.

In Sixth Place we have RUG Delver.

Silviawataru is a powerful RUG player and they did super well in this event with a list that had no Tarmogoyf in it, interestingly enough. This is otherwise a typical clean RUG list with a lot of disruptive elements.

In Seventh Place we have Goblins.

This is more of a classic build of Goblins, being more of a control variant than the Turbo Muxus variant. Goblins is really strong right now, and it's great to see it continue to do so.

Rounding out the Top 8 we have Mono Green Cloudpost.

This deck is big mana at its core, utilizing the mana advantages from the Post lands and the interaction with Candelabra of Tawnos to make even more mana. Once Upon a Time is very strong in this kind of list, being able to hunt down ramp and creature payoffs.

Now let's take a look at the 2019-2020 cards in this event. As always we're only looking at cards with 8 copies or more with special exceptions made for Companions.

Card Name	Number of Copies
Oko, Thief of Crowns	37
Force of Negation	30
Ice-Fang Coatl	30
Arcum's Astrolabe	28
Dreadhorde Arcanist	27
Veil of Summer	27
Prismatic Vista	22
Plague Engineer	17
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath	16
Once Upon a Time	11
Yorion, Sky Nomad	1

Snow being represented heavily meant that numbers on cards like Arcum's Astrolabe and Ice-Fang Coatl were quite up there. These numbers continue to wax and wane however, as players adjust to the overall metagame. There was only a single Yorion deck in the Top 32, but that single one placed in the Top 8, so that speaks a lot to the strength of Stryfo Pile.

Legacy Challenge 8/16

Our second Challenge of the weekend was the normal Sunday Challenge event, so let's dive right into its Top 32 breakdown.

Now let's take a look at the Top 8 of this event.

Deck Name	Placing	MTGO Username
Snowko	1st	R0ckNati0n
RUG Delver	2nd	BeeNew
RUG Delver	3rd	JPA93
W/B Eldrazi	4th	VipexX
TES	5th	Bryant_Cook
Lands	6th	Phill_Hellmuth
Jeskai Control	7th	TonyScapone
G/B Depths	8th	Wordy333

Nice spread of fair and unfair decks here, with Marit Lage strategies seemingly doing well just like in the first event of the weekend. Is this a return of Depths/Lands strategies? Might be!

At the end of the event however it was Snowko that did win it all.

This is pretty common the variants not splashing into a fifth color, however it is interesting to see Teferi, Time Raveler in the sideboard as opposed to main deck.

Both Second and Third Place were RUG Delver, so let's only look at the Second Place list.

This is pretty much stock RUG Delver at this point with the split of Goyf/Mandrills.

In Fourth Place we have W/B Eldrazi.

Thi deck is an interesting take on Eldrazi, utilizing cards like Plague Engineer and Eliminate alongside Eldrazi Displacer. This makes for a really cool idea, since Eldrazi had typically had to run Dismember to deal with creatures, but Eliminate allows them to take care of both commonly played threats plus planeswalkers.

In Fifth Place we have The EPIC Storm creator Bryant Cook with his signature deck.

It is super cool to see Peer into the Abyss take root in combo variants in the format, as I think the card is very cool and strong.

In Sixth Place we have Lands.

This is a pretty solid classic Punishing Fire variant list, utilizing Elvish Reclaimer, which is a really powerful card.

In Seventh Place we have a Jeskai Control/Delver hybrid list.

This list is super neat, utilizing cards like Accumulated Knowledge as raw card draw, and of course the power of Dreadhorde Arcanist and Young Pyromancer. Pretty cool list all around.

Rounding out the Top 8 we have G/B Depths.

This list is pretty spot on to the list that won the event the day before, a more "Slow Depths"-like list. Again, there's a Steely Resolve in the sideboard! What an interesting piece of tech that is.

Now let's take a look at the 2019-2020 cards in this event.

Card Name	Number of Copies
Oko, Thief of Crowns	39
Dreadhorde Arcanist	28
Veil of Summer	26
Force of Negation	25
Arcum's Astrolabe	20
Ice-Fang Coatl	20
Plague Engineer	20
Prismatic Vista	19
Once Upon a Time	13
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath	13
Yorion, Sky Nomad	3

Astrolabe dipped again here, but not by much. What was interesting was more than one to two copies of Yorion. I suspect Yorion decks are still all very good and they definitely have a fun place in the format. I'd be curious to see how the card goes going forward.

Ban Watch

Since we had Challenge events posted this past weekend, I was able to update the charts on our bannable cards in Legacy. This continues to be an interesting discussion on how these cards see play and the results that they keep posting.

Numbers on these cards continue to be very up and down as Astrolabe especially continues to fluctuate wildly. The numbers of Oko continue to flip-flop between Delver and Non-Delver decks. It is certainly interesting to see how these cards are seeing play. I plan on having another Legacy Round Table discussion at some point after the release of Zendikar Rising to talk about these cards yet again.

Around the Web

Reddit user Johanvl1981 wrote a sweet guide on Esper Vial recently. You can check that out over here.
Everyday Eternal posted a new episode featuring Jeff White on the deck Poke Pile. Check that out here.
Lands Players have a new resource on the deck over at PendrellVale.com!
Into the Maverick Podcast posted a new episode featuring MTGO player Achilles27. Check that out here.

The Spice Corner

W/B Eldrazi and Taxes!

Arclight Phoenix and even Light Up the Stage!

This is a Yorion deck.

Gyruda Bomberman!

What I'm Playing This Week

I'm back to diving into my adoration of Chalice decks with Titan Stompy this week.

Wrapping Up

That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for your continued support of the column and join me next week as we continue our journey into Legacy!

As always you can reach me on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon! In addition you can always reach me on the MTGGoldfish Discord Server or the /r/MTGLegacy Discord Server and Subreddit.

Until next time!