This Week in Legacy: Creatively Speaking
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 a sweet Legacy list that technically only exists in paper Magic form! In addition to that we've got two Challenges to look at as well as two big events from over the weekend in two separate Legacy 5K events from SCGCon Pittsburgh.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Creative Construction
This week I'm looking at a deck that came to me by the way of Twitter posting from one Brendan Hagan. I always love finding sweet new Legacy decks to play around with, and for once this is a deck that can't be easily played on Magic Online, mainly because one of its key cards doesn't actually exist yet on the client. I'm rather outspoken about Commander cards from newer sets not being made available on MTGO, simply because I feel like even if the card may not see play the option is at least there to try the card to see if it actually is worth it. The most recent of these is actually from the Streets of New Capenna Commander product in Currency Converter (which is being talked up heavily by the Lands players out there).
However, the card we're looking at in this deck is from Commander 2021 which was the Strixhaven Commander product, and that card is Creative Technique.
The power of this card comes mainly from the Demonstrate mechanic, since it makes it sort of difficult to counter this card by choosing to copy it, even if your opponent does get a copy of their own. Because this card casts the card you find with it, the natural thing you'd want to find with this is something that has Cascade. Something... with a lot of Cascade.
Oh right. These are cards that exist. The basis of this deck utilizing this is a Cloudpost-centric deck because not only can Post make it easier to cast Creative Technique (since it a five mana sorcery) but it also can cast at least Apex Devastator if you need to do so.
Behold! Creative Cloudpost.
This deck is incredibly interesting on so many levels. The Post ramp package enabling some insane turns where you Creative Technique into a Devastator and cast four other things (one of which may continue to have Cascade if you hit Maelstrom Wanderer) is really incredibly fun. Another card that this deck is playing that I completely forgot about is Clear the Land.
Kind of like a Mulch effect, but for one more mana you get to just put those lands into play tapped instead of into your hand. Granted, both players get to do this, but the upside of hitting Lands in this 30 land deck are much higher odds than a typical opponent.
All in all this is a really sweet deck and looks like it would be a ton of fun to play. I just wish that the main card existed on Magic Online so that I could record a video with it, because it is the very definition of super spicy and would be super fun to watch do its thing.
Legacy Challenge 4/30
The first Challenge this past weekend was the early morning Sunday event, which had 60 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.
Delver had a pretty solid presence in this event as well as a great win rate, compared to last weekend's performances by the deck. Jeskai Control also did very well, as did Elves.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| UR Delver | 1st | Bryzem1 |
| UR Delver | 2nd | Oceansoul92 |
| Sneak and Show | 3rd | ht991122 |
| Stoneblade | 4th | davy2892 |
| Jeskai Control | 5th | WaToO |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 6th | makuto86 |
| GW Depths | 7th | DNEELEY |
| Colorless Cloudpost | 8th | kanican |
Definitely an intriguing Top 8 with some smattering of Delver based decks (even the Stoneblade deck has some Delvers in it), as well as some combo. At the end of the event it was a UR Delver v UR Delver faceoff in a bid to see who is the best Insectile Aberration. Let's take a look at both lists.
These lists are definitely showing the power level of this shell as we're back to playing additional copies of things like Steam Vents to simply be able to make UR on Turn 1, while also having an additional Island for Mystic Sanctuary (which is absolutely bonkers with Expressive Iteration). You can also see in the differences in deck construction how each player chose to approach the mirror as well as what decks they expected to face (Price of Progress for example being very good versus Lands + 8Mulch).
Also in this Top 8 we had a solid Jeskai Control showing.
I love lists like this, especially when they have stuff like Timeless Dragon, which is just the coolest card. It fixes to make sure you are making land drops, and becomes an uncounterable flying beater late game. Super cool.
Further down the Top 8 we have some Yorion Breakfast!
Breakfast is such a unique deck, as it operates as both a fair deck and a combo deck at the same time and can switch between the two plans rather fluidly. This is the second Top 8 in this past month for this deck by this same pilot, so it's definitely got some chops.
Legacy Challenge 5/1
The second Challenge of the weekend was the mid afternoon Sunday event, which had 85 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.
Delver again had a pretty commanding presence in this event, combined with a solid win rate. Jeskai Control and 4C Control did well in addition, but a lot of the better performing decks were actually below the cutoff here in things like ANT, Humans, and Sneak and Show.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| ANT | 1st | DemonicTutors |
| UR Delver | 2nd | reiderrabbit |
| Humans | 3rd | Reeplcheep |
| Sneak and Show | 4th | JPA93 |
| UR Delver | 5th | JUJUBEAN__2004 |
| Jeskai Control | 6th | dannyground |
| Yorion Zenith | 7th | kauffj |
| Jeskai Control | 8th | Ozymandias17 |
What a super cool Top 8 here. Some Delver sure, but we've got some sweet lists like Humans and even ANT. Oh... especially ANT. DemonicTutors has been killing it in every event they play in, and this marks yet another win for them on ANT!
There's a lot to love about this list. ANT evolving and growing is what the archetype definitely needed, and having cards like Malevolent Hermit in the sideboard is really good right now. It also seems like this list is really taking advantage of the fact that people just aren't playing as much Veil of Summer as they used to. Still, solid finish!
The Second Place finalist was none other than Reid Duke on UR Delver.
Submerge coming back into the picture makes a lot of sense with the amount of Marit Lage decks roaming around in the format now. Great sideboard card versus those decks for sure.
Also in the Top 4 of this event is the Data Project's very own Reeplcheep on BW Humans.
This deck is sick! So much going on here. One of the newer cards for this deck is Night Clubber, which can be a haste -1/-1 effect if need be which is really strong. This deck is so cool, and it's great to see the hard work on it pay off for Reeplcheep.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we have Yorion Zenith.
Omnath, Locus of Creation is such a sick card that I wish saw more play in these decks. It's got a lot of powerful potential and does a lot of strong things with fetch lands that it's just really solid.
SCGCon Legacy 5K 4/29
This past weekend was SCGCon Pittsburgh, which boasted not one, but two separate Legacy 5K events over the course of the weekend. The first event, which took place on Friday, had 118 players in it. It's so great to see so many players out and about playing paper Legacy!
You can find all the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
UR Delver had a strong metagame percentage at close to 15% and a really strong non-mirror win rate of 57.97%, but it was GW Depths as the breakout deck of the weekend that really soared. Lands and Painter did well here, as did some of the Blood Moon Aggro decks.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| GW Depths | 1st | Michael Mapson |
| 4C Control | 2nd | Kevin Brenneman |
| Blood Moon Aggro | 3rd | Gino Bautista |
| Bant Control | 4th | Patrick Green |
| Blood Moon Aggro | 5th | Matthew Tziritas |
| Jeskai Control | 6th | Tyler Andrews |
| 8Cast | 7th | Daniel Zeffert |
| Unknown | 8th | dlansche |
It's worth noting that the finals of this event were actually played out on Sunday because by the time the finals was set to take place, the convention center was actually closing on Friday. However, that did get us this great shot of the winner of the event Michael Mapson on GW Depths! Shout out to Michael because he has been a repeat Round Table contributor on these articles as well as a Data Project Contributor, OH and he has his own Podcast with Billy Mitchell if you didn't know either.
Solid win for GW Depths this weekend, and this list is exceptionally powerful. One of the more interesting additions to this list is the addition of cards like Outland Liberator and Paradox Zone. Again, congrats to Michael for taking down the event!
You can find all the decklists for this event again above by the link to MTGMelee.
SCGCon Legacy 5K 5/1
The second Legacy 5K of this past weekend took place on Sunday, and it had 119 players in it. Such a cool thing to see so many Legacy players out and about!
You can find all the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Delver again had a solid presence here as well as a really strong non-mirror win rate of 60%. Lands also had a good showing, as did Jeskai Control. But oh, below the cutoff? GW Depths which again had an incredible showing.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| GW Depths | 1st | Rodney Bedell |
| Grixis Control | 2nd | Evan Graveno |
| Jeskai Control | 3rd | Brian Cotton |
| UR Delver | 4th | Benjamin Sanders |
| Lands | 5th | Kristopher McCready |
| Doomsday | 6th | Samantha Murphy |
| UR Delver | 7th | Brian Coval |
| UR Delver | 8th | Scarlett Chen |
Really powerful set of players here, from folks like Brian Coval and Samantha Murphy to the one and only Rodney Bedell taking down the event with none other than GW Depths! The icing on top is that his list is the exact same 75 as Michael Mapson's list that won the other 5K!
You know what they say: If it isn't broke, don't fix it! Solid performance by both GW Depths players this weekend and a big congrats to Rodney on taking down the event as well.
Again, you can find all the lists for this event in the above link to MTGMelee.
Around the Web
- Phil Gallagher with some SPICY Manabond tech. Check it out here.
- The EPIC Battle!
The Spice Corner
You can find this past week's 5-0 deck lists over here.
Mono Blue Delver featuring Ledger Shredder!
Doomsday with Bolas's Citadel is some real energy.
Ob Nixilis, the Adversary in a sweet Grixis Tempo shell!
Painter with Once Upon a Time is sweet, but this build also has a splash for Kappa Cannoneer.
TRIBAL WHEELS. HOP IN KID, WE'RE GOING PODRACING!
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 Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon! In addition I'm always around the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the MTGLegacy Discord Server.
Until next time!
