This Week in Legacy: Five Decks for Legacy Eternal Weekend 2025
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 talking about NA Eternal Weekend 2025 and five decks that you should consider. In addition we've got some more weekly H2H data to look at from the Legacy Data Collection as well as Challenges from last week plus a Showcase Challenge.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Five Decks for NA Eternal Weekend 2025
Eternal Weekend 2025 in Pittsburgh is THIS weekend! At the time of this writing, the event currently has around 685 pre-registered players, which does bring it down hard from last year's event where there was nearly 1200 players, but you never know what can happen in the last few days. One huge change for Legacy Champs in NA this year is the structure of the event. The event is now a full 15 round event with cut to Top 8, split between Day 1 to Day 2. Day 1 is 9 Swiss rounds on Saturday, and those players with a record of 6-3 or better advance to Day 2 on Sunday, where 6 Swiss rounds are played with Top 8 immediately following Round 15.
This structure is much more in line with old Grand Prix events, making it a much more interesting event overall.
With that said, let's talk about five decks to consider for Eternal Weekend.
#1 - Dimir Reanimator / Tamiyo Decks
Realistically, if you're playing blue this weekend, and you're not playing a deck with Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student in it... you're probably doing this thing wrong. Reanimator is the #1 deck for a really good reason, and it's going to be prevalent across the event in so many ways, and Tamiyo plays heavily into that. Dimir Tempo can somewhat fall under here because they're also playing Tamiyo, and I do expect Tempo to have a strong showing as well, but Dimir Reanimator has a really powerful game against a lot of the format (as we've seen in our H2H data) that it's overall an excellent choice of a deck if you're really looking to win.
The big thing about Reanimator is that it does require a lot of format knowledge to understand when to sideboard juke, when to drop your Reanimation package, when to go light on that, and how to navigate pivoting between Tempo and Graveyard combo. For the most part, the graveyard combo piece is hard to deal with while also dealing with the tempo elements, and that's really where the primary strength of this deck lies.
Tamiyo is a card that requires a lot of effort to deal with, and even then sometimes that effort is wasted if the opponent can flip it in response to removal of some sort. It is a really strong card, and playing any deck that's playing Tamiyo is likely to be good.
#2 - Mystic Forge Combo
I do think this deck is powerful, and it did win last year, and even without Vexing Bauble, Tezzeret, Cruel Captain is an extremely powerful card. Being able to fetch up Portable Hole for Null Rod is quite good.
What has helped this deck a bunch is the fact that Null Rod is no longer the lights out that it should be versus an Artifact deck. If you have Null Rod and a win condition or some major pressure, then that is a lot better in closing the game off. It's worth noting too, that Dimir Reanimator has a slightly positive win rate versus this deck, so the sheer presence of Dimir might be rough on this deck.
I definitely wouldn't put this deck out, it can definitely surprise people, and if one person can run hot with it... it might be that deck yet again.
# 3 - Eldrazi
Red Eldrazi has been doing very well for itself lately, and is certainly an Ancient Tomb deck worth respecting. It has a lot of powerful things it can do, and it can close games out in a very quick fashion. It is crazy to consider, but the way this deck has been going lately, I almost would not be surprised if it won the entire event.
Now this deck does have some issues, like dealing with cards such as Blood Moon and friends out of Red Stompy. The overall setup of this kind of tournament does mean you could dodge all the Blood Moon decks for sure. Any deck that can also kneecap this deck quickly has a good time versus it. With Dimir Reanimator having a not so good matchup against Eldrazi, it's definitely a huge consideration for a deck.
#4 - Nadu
Nadu decks in general are all over the place, but they are very powerful, and they do tend to see a bit more play in paper events than MTGO because of the clicking involved. However, Nadu's bigger issue is that its best shell is likely Breakfast, which has been playing Tamiyo too. The midrange variant of this deck however is very interesting and does some strong things, but it does them rather slowly overall.
The curse of this deck could be picking up lots of draws or lots of matches dragging into time. It makes this deck feel attractive, and there are certainly a ton of people who are very good players playing around with it at the paper level to make this worth investigating.
#5 - Energy Shells
The "Energy" decks which enter around Guide of Souls and Ocelot Pride, are all decks that have a really powerful place in current Legacy and attack the metagame in a very interesting way. I don't think it's just the fact that many of these decks are accessible from the Modern core of these decks, but it's that the variations of this deck are indeed very good, despite the presence of stuff like Orcish Bowmasters.
In fact, Bowmasters seeing a lot less play lately is nothing but good for these decks, to the point that we're seeing variations with new effects from Edge of Eternities like the Warp mechanic and Mardu variants playing stuff like Goblin Bombardment to defeat the opponent.
I'd very much not be super surprised to see either a Mono White or Mardu variant of this in the Top 8 of Legacy Champs. The decks are indeed that good, and I think there's a good shot for the shell to do well.
Wrapping Up
What are you playing at Eternal Weekend 2025? Sound off in the comments below and let us know what your predictions are for the winner of the event!
H2H Data for Week of 10/6/2025
Since we're still looking at data on a weekly basis, let's look at this week's updated H2H data. This is sourced from the Legacy Data Collection's crowdsourced data, fed through into PowerBI (still working out a place to host this).
Let's see what's going on with the most played decks in the format!
For the most part, it doesn't really feel like much has changed here. Reanimator still seems pretty good against the format overall, and it is definitely the central deck around which everything else is revolving around.
Legacy Challenge 32 10/1/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Wednesday event. This event had 45 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 Reanimator was heavily played in this event, and its win rate was very good overall. Red Stompy sat in the 50% middle of the lane. Izzet Tempo looked good here, too.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Reanimator | 1st | JUJUBEAN__2004 |
| Dimir Reanimator | 2nd | Nammersquats |
| Izzet Tempo | 3rd | O_danielakos |
| Red Stompy | 4th | choutin |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 5th | Martin_Dominguez |
| Dimir Reanimator | 6th | karatedom |
| Dimir Reanimator | 7th | Munchlax446 |
| Dimir Reanimator | 8th | Skpchino |
5/8 of the Top 8 was Dimir Reanimator. The finals was Reanimator v Reanimator.
The major differences here are largely minute in scope and mostly consist of differences in sideboards, but not a ton of differences. Inquisition of Kozilek is interesting to see, as is Barrowgoyf.
Legacy Challenge 32 10/3/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 45 players in it, thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here. There is no data sheet for this event.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono Black Reanimator | 1st | Roodslay |
| Izzet Tempo | 2nd | azmyk1231 |
| Red Stompy | 3rd | choutin |
| Rakdos Aggro | 4th | UrzaEnjoyer |
| Sneak and Show | 5th | snoopy-magic |
| Omni-Tell | 6th | jmanpro27 |
| Naya Stompy | 7th | kozz27 |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 8th | musasabi |
Kind of a neat Top 8 here. Wish we had data on this one. The end of the event was won by Mono Black Reanimator.
Pretty straightforward and powerful list here. The sideboard juke is gravy.
In Second Place we had Izzet Tempo.
I think the main deck Soul-Guide Lantern here is pretty good. Having some form of graveyard hate main deck seems to be great right now anyways, but Soul-Guide can trigger Cutter and DRC, which is really good, and it's never bad because it can always cycle for a card.
Legacy Challenge 32 10/4/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 43 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 Reanimator was heavily played over the other decks, and it had a middling win rate but had three Top 8 appearances. Grixis Control looked super good here, as did Cephalid Breakfast.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Grixis Control | 1st | Ark4n |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 2nd | Jujkata |
| Dimir Reanimator | 3rd | Munchlax446 |
| Doomsday | 4th | wakame |
| Merfolk | 5th | Corzalan |
| Dimir Reanimator | 6th | VsTheWorld |
| Dimir Reanimator | 7th | felix619 |
| Temur Cascade | 8th | Byvci |
Fair bit of Reanimator, but some other unique decks for sure. At the end of the event it was Grixis Control that won.
I like this build over the Jeskai version of Wizards, primarily because you get access to Thoughtseize which is a very strong card in Legacy right now. Tyrant's Scorn is a sweet little card too.
In Second Place we had Cephalid Breakfast.
This looks pretty much like what we expect Breakfast to look like these days. The sideboard copy of Teferi, Time Raveler is sweet for when you really need that effect.
Legacy Challenge 32 10/5/2025 - 1
The fourth Challenge event of the week was the first Sunday event. This event had 44 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 Reanimator was again well played, with two Top 8s and a middle of the road win rate. Eldrazi looked good here, as did Dimir Tempo and Mystic Forge.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Tempo | 1st | _INF_ |
| Red Stompy | 2nd | Filho_do_MOL |
| Eldrazi | 3rd | Thomas_Serra |
| Grixis Control | 4th | bless_von |
| Gruul Stompy | 5th | Marghar |
| Dimir Reanimator | 6th | lia2022 |
| Jeskai Control | 7th | Lord_Beerus |
| Dimir Reanimator | 8th | HJ_Kaiser |
Pretty interesting Top 8. At the end of the event it was Dimir Tempo that won.
This is fairly stock for Dimir Tempo. I love Bitter Triumph in these lists because of how flexible it is overall.
In Second Place we had Red Stompy.
Very solid and clean looking Stompy list here. I think this deck is okay, but I do think it isn't nearly as good as it seems on paper. The rules change to Sagas was certainly huge to it though.
Legacy Challenge 32 10/5/2025 - 2
The final Challenge event of the week was the second Sunday event. This event had 38 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 Reanimator and Eldrazi tied for most played, and both had good win rates. Izzet Tempo looked great, as did Grixis Control.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Izzet Tempo | 1st | DMianete |
| Izzet Tempo | 2nd | silviawataru |
| Red Stompy | 3rd | AFX |
| Eldrazi | 4th | urzatheplaneswalker |
| Eldrazi | 5th | lampalot |
| Dimir Reanimator | 6th | Erik157751 |
| Eldrazi | 7th | VitorCarvalho01 |
| Dimir Reanimator | 8th | duckduckmongoose |
Fair bit of three decks here, at the end of the event it was an Izzet v Izzet fight.
Both of these lists are pretty similar with very differences outside of minor sideboard slot differences.
Legacy Showcase Challenge 10/5/2025
This weekend also boasted a Legacy Showcase Challenge. This event is a Premier Play event that requires Qualification Points (QPs) to enter to play. The Top 8 of the event gets an invitation to the Showcase Qualifier event at the end of the Premier Play Season. This event had 217 players in it, which is pretty reasonable.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator was played by a huge margin over the next played deck of Red Stompy, and its over around 60% non mirror win rate, which is pretty good. While it didn't win the event, it put at least two into the Top 8. Everything else above the cutoff either sat above or below the 50% mark.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Eldrazi | 1st | Bullz0Eye |
| Mardu Energy | 2nd | MayoDominaria |
| Dimir Reanimator | 3rd | JUJUBEAN__2004 |
| Dimir Reanimator | 4th | WingedHussar |
| Izzet Tempo | 5th | O_danielakos |
| Red Stompy | 6th | Mortaa |
| Dimir Tempo | 7th | Gabri091 |
| Other Control | 8th | morsaaa |
Pretty interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Eldrazi that won.
This deck is hyper aggressive and can demolish its opponent rather quickly if not capped at the knees. If you can cut off their early game, the deck can struggle hard.
In Second Place we had Mardu Energy.
This deck has some real gas to it, and it can kill opponents super quickly. If your opponent even gets to resolve Ocelot Pride and keeps it for multiple turns it is likely the game is over.
Around the Web
- Eternal Glory Podcast has a new episode on Eternal Weekend. Check it out here.
- How to beat the One Ring with Legacy Storm
- Fenruscloud is playing some Jeskai Wizards. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
Painter with a Steel Wrecking Ball/Temple Trap in the sideboard.
Spider-Punk/Kraza, the Swarm as One showing up in a few spell based combo decks is super cool.
MERFOLK
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!
