This Week in Legacy: Eldrazi Days
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 Eldrazi adjacent decks in current Legacy since the release of Modern Horizons 3! We're giving a bit of time for Bloomburrow to fully spoil so we'll be doing that set review next week. We've also got a paper event from NRG!
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Tentacle Monsters!
While we are in the midst of Bloomburrow, Modern Horizons 3 has continued to have influence and impact on Legacy overall, and one of the big ways that has occurred is the ability for that set to push archetypes that haven't really been a thing too much in some time, and one of those archetypes is ELDRAZI.
Due largely in part that Eldrazi was one of the overarching themes of MH3, Eldrazi in Legacy received an injection of brand new cards that has since helped the fairly aggressive strategy return to some prominence within the overall metagame. Cards like It That Heralds the End. Sowing Mycospawn, and most especially Glaring Fleshraker have provided these decks new ways to win games and new ways to interact, while also giving some strong new effects like Kozilek's Command and Devourer of Destiny.
We've seen these decks pop up in not only these "Red/Green/Colorless" variants, but also straight "Green/Colorless" as well. It's important to regard Colorless as a true cost here though, as the majority of these decks can struggle without access to the Colorless mana as many of the cards used in the decks require it so much that an effect like Blood Moon or Harbinger of the Seas is problematic if deployed early enough.
The "Green/Colorless" variants themselves also have some variation, such as leaning on the aggressive nature of things or going more into the Cloudpost route and playing Karn and friends.
All in all, it's made Eldrazi a force to be reckoned with yet again in Legacy, which is actually quite a refreshing change of pace in general from the strain of cards like Grief + Reanimate. Be sure to keep an eye on these decks because they do seem pretty well poised to be very good when Grief does go away.
NRG 5K Chicagoland - 7/14/2024
This past weekend as part of the NRG Series in Chicagoland, IL there was a Legacy 5K event ran as part of the weekend. This event had 165 players in it thanks to the data I collected from the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
UB Reanimator was the most popular and best performing deck as mildly expected. Grixis Delver and Cephalid Breakfast both did well here though.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| UB Reanimator | 1st-2nd | Fletcher Johnson |
| UB Reanimator | 1st-2nd | Zoe |
| Red Painter | 3rd | Camari Bolger |
| Bant Control (Non-Yorion) | 4th | Mason Grode |
| Eldrazi | 5th | Christopher Walton |
| Black Midrange | 6th | Reed Anderson |
| Grixis Delver | 7th | Jakob Addis |
| Oops! All Spells | 8th | Daniel Seidl |
Most of the stuff here looks pretty reasonable. The UB Reanimator decks in the finals appears to have split according to MTGMelee.
Overall this looked like it was a fun event. I wish I could get up the NRG series, but it's quite far for me.
Legacy Challenge 32 7/10/2024
The first Challenge of the week was the Wednesday evening 32 player minimum Challenge. There was no data for this event.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| BR Reanimator | 1st | snoopy-magic |
| Mono Black Scam | 2nd | _Batutinha_ |
| Cloudpost | 3rd | ice_nine_BIGFAN |
| UB Reanimator | 4th | _J0SE_ |
| Beanstalk Control | 5th | dganev |
| Dimir Scam | 6th | Lord_Beerus |
| Oops! All Spells | 7th | CaboGrosso |
| UB Reanimator | 8th | Jumba |
Quite a bit of Grief here. At the end of the event it was BR Reanimator that won.
Vexing Bauble seems like a fine place here for a deck that wants to Grief the opponent first and then play Bauble as a way to stop the opponent from interacting on future turns. Ripples of Undeath also seems really cool.
In Second Place we had Mono Black Scam.
Main deck Dark Betrayal is a message that's for sure. Nethergoyf seems really interesting here especially without something like Baubles to add a card type.
Also in this Top 8 we had Beanstalk Control.
This seems like a pretty stock-looking list, but the interesting notion here is that the amount of creatures is much smaller than you typically see with these lists. Four Uro and three Endurance is very intriguing, especially with no Planeswalkers.
Legacy Challenge 32 7/12/2024
The second event of the week was the Friday evening into Saturday morning 32 player minimum event. There was no data for this event.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Eldrazi | 1st | Ayyypeks |
| UB Reanimator | 2nd | Munchlax446 |
| Dimir Tempo | 3rd | GuiBonella |
| Golgari Depths | 4th | DarkDepthsAniki |
| Eldrazi | 5th | nedyahiske |
| Beanstalk Control | 6th | Daking3603 |
| Eldrazi | 7th | maytwer |
| Mono Black Reanimator | 8th | Roodslay |
Pretty interesting Top 8, with a lot of representation by our core topic for the day of Eldrazi. In fact, it won the event.
The power level that is new Eldrazi like It That Heralds the End and Devourer of Destiny really has boosted this deck a bunch. It's incredibly interesting to see this deck back again and looking so incredibly good.
In Second Place we had UB Reanimator.
Even this deck is sideboarding a copy of Dark Betrayal, it's so wild how the presence of this deck is warping everything around it. Almost like something should get banned...
Also in this Top 8 we had a straight Dimir Tempo deck, no Scam.
See I think this deck is pretty reasonable. It seems fun and there's places to interact with it. This is what we likely have once Grief does go away.
Legacy Challenge 32 7/13/2024
The third event of the weekend was the early morning Saturday 32 player minimum event. There was no data for this event.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| UB Reanimator | 1st | JPA93 |
| Beseech Storm | 2nd | Delthar |
| Bomberman | 3rd | kanican |
| Cradle Control | 4th | runkor |
| Dimir Delver | 5th | JakeTMS |
| Selesnya Depths | 6th | Sol-e22558 |
| Dimir Scam | 7th | Ark4n |
| Mono Black Scam | 8th | Venom1 |
Pretty interesting Top 8 here. Lot going on here. At the end of the event it was UB Reanimator that won.
Very stock-looking list at this point. Bowmasters having flown out of this deck is wild, but Psychic Frog is great.
In Second Place we had Beseech Storm.
This a cool list. Vexing Bauble is sweet here even with all the 0s because it prevents interaction on your turn you're going off, which is neat. I love the sideboard jukes too.
Further down the list we had Selesnya Depths.
This is a solid-looking list. I like having the Baubles in the main here as a lock piece, but not predominant. Gaddock Teeg seems quite good right now.
Legacy Challenge 32 7/14/2024
The fourth event of the weekend was the early morning Sunday 32-player minimum event. There was no data for this event.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Red Painter | 1st | Betrix2688 |
| Bomberman | 2nd | Maxtortion |
| UB Reanimator | 3rd | Mmfood |
| Eldrazi | 4th | Ayyypeks |
| Beanstalk Control | 5th | AnziD |
| Cradle Control | 6th | frostyyy_ |
| Cloudpost | 7th | powered_by_VANYA |
| UB Reanimator | 8th | yazin2 |
Kind of a neat Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Red Painter that won.
Including the Agatha's Soul Cauldron + Phyrexian Devourer thing here is really cool honestly. It's so easy to enable and adds a different layer/angle of attack to the deck.
In Second Place we had Bomberman.
Glaring Fleshraker as a way to win with the Bomberman loop is so cool. What a wild thing to do.
Also in this Top 8 we had Cradle Control.
This deck having adopted Springheart Nantuko is kind of sweet. It seems really good in this kind of deck. Wight of the Reliquary has easily replaced Fiend Artisan in these builds, as it has a ton more utility and is far more powerful for what you want to be doing.
Legacy Challenge 64 7/14/2024
The final event of the weekend was the mid afternoon Sunday 64 player minimum event. There was no data for this event.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudpost | 1st | TrueFuturism |
| Dredge | 2nd | MahfuzVanGogh |
| Bant Nadu | 3rd | einstein9998 |
| Grixis Delver | 4th | TrueHero |
| UB Reanimator | 5th | easymoneymarksman |
| Bomberman | 6th | Maxtortion |
| UB Reanimator | 7th | davy2892 |
| Oops! All Spells | 8th | Taddy99 |
This one is also a pretty spicy Top 8. At the end of the event it was Cloudpost that won.
These Cloudpost lists have been really cool to see them evolve. Sowing Mycospawn is such a really powerful card overall.
In Second Place we had Dredge.
A very turbo-esque version of Dredge here. Getting Burning Inquiry online with some Dredgers in the yard is really strong.
Also in this Top 8 we had Bant Nadu.
This list is super cool. Bristly Bill, Spine Sower makes the loops for Nadu super quickly. Consign to Memory in the sideboard is also cool.
Around the Web
- Maxtortion has a video on Bomberman. Check it out here.
- IN RESPONSE has a new episode. Check it out here.
- Everyday Eternal has a new episode as well. Check it out here.
- JamesKisau has a new League video.. Check it out here.
- Eternal Durdles has an interview with Owl Central Games. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
This Beans deck with Phlage is cool.
Dryad!
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!
