This Week in Legacy: Finalest Fantasy, Part 1
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 are beginning to look at the first week of set review for Universes Beyond: Final Fantasy, a new Standard legal set coming soon to Magic, and what this might mean for Legacy. In addition to that we've got some Challenges from last week to look at.
Before we get started I do want to point out an incorrect statement in last week's article, concerning Game One jukes like Charbelcher in Oops. My brain fog forgot that Belcher does reveal the deck, so the opponent will indeed get to see that you're also on the Oops plan. These things happen, but I don't have the ability to go back and fix that, so this is an official retraction. That article did get a lot of great discussion though, so I always appreciate any and all feedback that is constructive.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
It's the FINAL FANTASY
Our first ever Universes Beyond Standard Legal set is incoming in a few weeks here and it's for Final Fantasy. Now, I don't really have a huge amount of insight into whether these cards are on flavor or not. I have very little amount of exposure to Final Fantasy as a game series overall (mainly, I've currently only ever played through the original NES game and FF7 Remake, but it has spurred me to want to look at other games). I am mainly curious how this set will impact Legacy, as most often UB sets have had some impacts on Legacy in some way (with some having even larger impacts than some like Lord of the Rings).
This is going to be a two part series, because the set is still being spoiled, so I'm looking forward to seeing what could be good here. There's no particular order here, to be honest.
Black Mage's Rod
This card has some text to it. Job select is basically a Living Weapon style mechanic that makes a 1/1 colorless Hero when the Equipment ETBs and then attaches the Equipment to it. This coming with a creature is really strong, but then turning that creature into a sort of Prowess-esque damage dealer is really interesting. What makes this effect nice is that even if the creature is killed, you can just re-equip this for 3 to another creature to keep going with the damage. That extra damage adds up, and OH it makes the creature a WIZARD which is relevant for effects like Flame of Anor.
Cloud, Midgar Mercenary
I do think this is somewhat interesting as a redundant Stoneforge Mystic type effect that searches up an Equipment. Cloud is neat, but being a 2/1 is rough and the second ability is only good if the Equipment is attached to Cloud. This makes effects like Pre-War Formalwear or Phantom Blade not so good. This would be great in a world where Umezawa's Jitte was a really strong Equipment... or a Swords, but those days are long past us it seems. If those effects do ever get to shine again though, Cloud can really push those cards.
Fire Magic
Modular effects are always pretty interesting. I don't think this is insane, but we've seen worlds where decks have played End the Festivities and this is basically that at Instant speed with the ability to scale. That alone kind of makes me go "Okay, sure."
Suplex
If this was an Instant I think I'd be much more excited about it. But at that point it would be like basically a better Abrade in every way. Making things exile is neat.
Absolute Virtue
Every set has one of these big dumb creatures that people will inevitably ask, "Does this go in Reanimator?" The answer here is still no. It doesn't give itself Protection, it's Legendary, and can be easily dealt with. Hard pass.
Cecil, Dark Knight
This card is an odd duck. Yes it's a 2/3 with Deathtouch for one mana which is some solid looking stats. It's a weird wanting to be like Death's Shadow style of effect where you can flip it (but then it doesn't play well with Shadow when it flips because of Lifelink). I think flipping this is honestly probably pretty rough to do quickly, and it being Legendary makes Karakas a downside. Not having any other real evasive qualities other than Deathtouch is pretty bad for me, and losing that on the flip side is rough (which from what I know of this game, makes sense if he's becoming a Paladin).
Vivi Ornitier
Oh, it's another creature that really wants to be played alongside the aforementioned Black Mage's Rod. Getting to add some free mana by casting a bunch of noncreature spells and making Vivi huge is pretty interesting. It is nice that you can add it at Instant speed even if you can only do it on your turn. This might be an exciting card to see what it does.
Valkyrie Aerial Unit
A 5/4 flier for possibly UU is already something of an interesting stat block. The fact that this actually does something on ETB is nice, since Surveil isn't nothing. Could this see play in some artifact-centric aggro decks? I don't know, because UU is already pretty rough for those decks since they're often playing Ancient Tomb and other colorless lands.
Traveling Chocobo
Please tell me there's a Bird Stompy list being brewed right now. I NEED IT.
Legacy Challenge 32 5/14/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Wednesday event. This event had 36 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Oops was the most played deck of the event, but its overall win rate was pretty poor. Dimir Tempo had a slightly less than 50% win rate, but it had a Top 8 appearance. The real outlier here was Paradoxical Outcome, as we will see in the Top 8. It's a small data point for sure, but wow.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Paradoxical Outcome | 1st | TonyScapone |
| Paradoxical Outcome | 2nd | boytriton |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 3rd | TheGrimLavamancer |
| Selesnya Depths | 4th | SuperCow12653 |
| Izzet Tempo | 5th | novaschin22 |
| Oops! All Spells | 6th | renatoaraujo |
| Death and Taxes - RW (Yorion) | 7th | McWinSauce |
| Dimir Tempo | 8th | Dimir Tempo |
This is something of an interesting Top 8. There's some Depths, a fair bit of Combo, but also some Tempo and D&T. The end of the event though, was functionally the same deck in the finals, and that deck was Paradoxical Outcome.
The primary differences here are mainly in the sideboard slots, as the main deck is basically the same. The biggest aspect of this deck is just how good cards like Stock Up are. These blue Ancient Tomb decks really like Stock Up in general, but also being able to float some mana and PO is really good.
Legacy Challenge 32 5/16/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 42 players in it, thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Tempo was the most played deck of this event, and the win rate looked quite good. Red Stompy and Beanstalk decks also looked very good, as did Dimir Reanimator.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 1st | musasabi |
| Lands | 2nd | knotoast |
| Dimir Tempo | 3rd | _Batutinha_ |
| Dimir Reanimator | 4th | Ozymandias17 |
| Dimir Tempo | 5th | elpariah |
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 6th | Sharkym02 |
| Izzet Tempo | 7th | PekkaChu |
| Dimir Reanimator | 8th | ecobaronen |
This is a lot less Combo than we have seen ongoing in events. At the end of the event it was Beans that won.
5C Beans making a splash here. It's an interesting list, but the manabase is super greedy for sure. It has to be to enable stuff like Leyline Binding, but I like the fact that you can get Loam out of this for value.
In Second Place we had Lands.
Seed of Hope is a really sweet card, especially alongside Malevolent Rumble. All these cards allowing Lands to just dig through their deck is super cool. Also having access to stuff like Disruptor Flute main deck is really neat. Lands is a deck I really enjoy and have played a fair amount of in the past, so it's great to see it doing well.
Legacy Challenge 32 5/17/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 46 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
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, but it's overall win rate was below 50%. Dimir Reanimator looked quite good, as did Oops and Beans. Blue Painter and Cephalid Breakfast both looked rather poor here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lands | 1st | Sprouts |
| Dimir Reanimator | 2nd | ecobaronen |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 3rd | Jumba |
| Grixis Tempo | 4th | Eureka22422 |
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 5th | wiky |
| Oops! All Spells | 6th | Some_tim3Since |
| Dimir Reanimator | 7th | Wipfo |
| Sneak and Show | 8th | snoopy-magic |
Another pretty interesting Top 8. At the end of the event it was Lands that won.
I like this list a lot too. Once Upon a Time is a really solid card in a deck playing 30 lands, but just having that raw search is great. I think the best upgrade for this deck in a while has just been Malevolent Rumble though. That card is so good in so many ways.
In Second Place we had Dimir Reanimator.
Definitely a strong list here. It's kind of interesting that these decks can have the Tempo game plan still alongside the big monster threat game plan, and it still works really well.
Legacy Challenge 32 5/18/2025 - 1
The fourth Challenge event of the week was the first Sunday event. This event had 37 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Both Dimir Tempo and Reanimator were the most played decks, with both decks having something a poor win rate, while Dimir Tempo had two Top 8 appearances. D&T looked great here as did Blue Painter.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Death and Taxes- BW (Yorion) | 1st | yoshiwata |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 2nd | Selfeisek |
| Blue Painter | 3rd | izzy-wilde |
| Saga Storm | 4th | TonyScapone |
| Dimir Tempo | 5th | _INF_ |
| Creative Technique | 6th | KoolooLimpah |
| Doomsday | 7th | m_himukai |
| Dimir Tempo | 8th | Munchlax446 |
This is a super neat Top 8. At the end of the event it was D&T that won.
I like the current BW D&T lists. The Phelia + Balemurk setup is so interesting and the decks always feel like they're loads of fun to play.
In Second Place we had Mystic Forge Combo.
This deck has been on the lower end of representation but it's still showcasing that it's a strong deck, even without Vexing Bauble. There's still a lot of power in this pile of mana and untap effects with Glaring Fleshraker, and it can still do very strong things.
Legacy Challenge 32 5/18/2025 - 2
The final Challenge event of the week was the second Sunday event. This event had 50 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Oops was the most played deck here, but its win rate was less than 50%. Dimir Tempo also didn't too hot, but it did have a Top 8 appearance. Sneak and Show did very well here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Grixis Tempo | 1st | Eureka22422 |
| Mono Black Reanimator | 2nd | Erik157751 |
| Sneak and Show | 3rd | JPA93 |
| Dimir Tempo | 4th | ecobaronen |
| Grixis Control | 5th | jankyb |
| Dimir Reanimator | 6th | 2plus2isfive |
| Blue Painter | 7th | Shuichi_Saito |
| Izzet Tempo | 8th | PekkaChu |
Good spread of Control, Tempo, and Combo here. At the end of the event it was Grixis Tempo that won.
The primary "Grixis" aspect of this deck is just splashes for main deck Molten Collapse and sideboard cards like Meltdown or Pyroblast. Kaito has continually looked to be one of the strongest Planeswalkers in current Legacy, and it's really cool that he is so good.
In Second Place we had Mono Black Reanimator.
Very straighforward list here. The Chain of Smog sideboard plan is very strong. Getting to play Shallow Grave is also super good.
Around the Web
- TonyScapone is playing Necrodominance and Beseech. Check it out here.
- IN RESPONSE has a new episode. Check it out here.
- The Eternal Glory Podcast also has a new episode. Check it out here.
- MahfuzVanGogh has a Dredge video! Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
More Ocelot Pride!
Oh this deck is groovy. Winota and Urza? SWEET.
LORD OF THE BEACH.
Runehorn Hellkite is always a sweet card.
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!
