This Week in Legacy: Here There Be Dragons, 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're starting our journey into Tarkir: Dragonstorm and what cards from that set could see play in Legacy. This is a Part 1 of that set review since the set is still in the middle of spoiler season. We've also got a look at BCDL 20 and some MTGO events. It is worth noting that for the time being the replay functions on Magic Online are currently disabled, and yes that affects our ability to collect any data on Challenge events unfortunately.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Tarkir 2.0
We're finally heading back to the plane of Tarkir in Tarkir: Dragonstorm coming soon! The last time we visited Tarkir, it was during the Khans/Dragons block, and this block had a huge impact on Legacy overall (including cards like Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time which are now banned). Does Tarkir: Dragonstorm have the same impact? I'm not sure but we'll see if we can find out! This set is still currently being spoiled, so we're hoping to find some Legacy playables. This also includes some of the Commander stuff if there is any of that.
Clarion Conqueror
Stompy prison threats at 2W have a lot to live up to. Cards like Archon of Emeria are generally quite good. This though? A Null Rod/Cursed Totem stapled to a 3/3 flier for 2W is already some solid stats. Being able to also hit Planeswalkers, which tend to be very bad for Stompy decks is incredibly good. I have to imagine people try this out somewhere. It seems quite strong.
Tempest Technique
I doubt this is good being in white, but it's certainly a sweet effect and very goofy. Storm spells usually are interesting when they're permanents, as we'll see later in our review.
Voice of Victory
I have to imagine this is not insanely good, because the effect is generally an effect you want in combo decks. I think this is way better likely in a format like cEDH, but Legacy doesn't have a bunch of combo decks that want a two mana creature to protect their game plan.
Unending Whisper
I have definitely seen at least one argument that this card is very good. I don't think it is. One mana for one card is pretty on rate, and it's just a card draw not any sort of card quality changes which is usually what you want out of it. The fact that it's a Sorcery makes this rougher in my opinion, and you need to tap a creature for Harmonize (and hope you have one big enough, but if you have a big enough creature for this why are you casting this instead of having it up as a blocker, etc.), which is rough. Think Twice exists and isn't good. This isn't good either.
Winternight Stories
This seems kind of goofy in a deck that plays LED. Blue Dredge has existed for a bit, so dredging three times then pitching a Dredger seems neat, but there's plenty of creatures that could be in play that could Harmonize it.
Afterlife from the Loam
This is the worst riff on another card name. It doesn't even do anything with Life from the Loam! Obviously this card is not good in Legacy.
Stormscale Scion
I mean, I've seen worse played in Storm decks or Ruby Storm. Seems fine enough in that kind of deck. Those decks have played Aeve, Progenitor Ooze, and this thing is red which has rituals existing for it already. Also, Stormscale? Clever, Wizards.
Will of the Jeskai
I have to wonder at what point in design this card's name was "Jeskai's Will". The effect is neat though, you can either wheel to five cards or Past in Flames (but not both because we're playing Legacy, not Commander).
Heritage Reclamation
Occasionally Wilt sees play in certain decks. This is a little better than Wilt since you can just fail case exile a card and draw a card.
Surrak, Elusive Hunter
This and your opponent's Orcish Bowmasters is super funny. Dubious Challenge, anyone?
Auroral Procession
Regrowth doesn't really see play in Legacy, but this is Regrowth that also pitches to both green and blue Forces and is an Instant. Honestly kind of sweet.
Glacierwood Siege
Having a Crucible of Worlds stapled to a blue card is kind of neat. I don't think we've had this effect on a blue card. The other aspect of this card is that you can just turn into a mill deck (and if you have multiples of these they're not totally dead). Honestly this is kind of cool.
Rakshasa's Bargain
I think this card is really neat, and very specifically in BUG/4C Beans decks (once those decks actually come back to life in Legacy). I think you will definitely want this there since it triggers Up the Beanstalk. The color requirements make it difficult to justify in other decks, even if it is an Instant. There's a firm comparison to Stock Up, but Stock Up is very good in the decks that want it, and this isn't.
Mox Jasper
It's a Mox. I don't think it's very good anywhere in Legacy, but it's a Mox.
Ugin, Eye of the Storms
I think there was a time when a big seven mana Planeswalker in colorless was a playable Legacy card. I don't think Legacy is at that point anymore. Ugin is great, but I don't think it will see much play anywhere unfortunately.
Teval, Arbiter of Virtue
Wizards did so much to make the spell that has the words "Spells you control have delve" be absolutely unplayable in Legacy. I'm here for it.
Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy 20
This past weekend down in Houston, TX down at Dragon's Lair Comics and Fantasy was yet another Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy event! Much thanks to Robert Wilson of BCDL for sending us all the great info about this event so that we can cover it. This event had what looked like around 40 players overall in it, which is rather solid.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
The most popular decks of the event were primarily Dimir Tempo, Dimir Reanimator, and Red Stompy. Of these, Dimir Reanimator did exceedingly well, while Red Stompy also did well, and Dimir Tempo did less than 50% win rate. Below the cutoff are definitely some performing decks in 1-2 copies.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Reanimator | 1st | Jeff White |
| Red Stompy | 2nd | John Le |
| Dimir Reanimator | 3rd | Quncy Huhn |
| Ocelot Pride Aggro | 4th | Colin Logan |
| Esper Stoneblade | 5th | Brian Espionoza |
| Lands | 6th | Nick Patniyot |
| Stiflenought | 7th | Grayson Shadwick |
| Sneak and Show | 8th | Derek Blanchard |
A number of the decks here in the Top 8 were in 1-2 copies total just below the cutoff. There's some fun stuff here including an Ocelot Pride deck. At the end of the event though it was Jeff White (better known as pokemoki) who won on Dimir Reanimator.
This is definitely a very powerful deck, as we have seen in many event results as of late. The sideboard has some neat stuff in it, like a copy of Snuff Out and some copies of Engineered Explosives.
In Second Place we had John Le with Red Stompy.
Laelia, the Blade Reforged is a pretty sick threat for these decks. It's definitely a really interesting card to play around with, especially when it seems like Karakas is just not around all that much right now.
Legacy Qualifier 3/21/2025
There was a Legacy Qualifier last week on Friday. Qualifiers are QP only events (40 QPs to be exact) wherein the top two finalists of the event receive an invitation to an upcoming Regional Championship event. This particular event had 128 players in it thanks to the MTGO site, which is pretty reasonable!
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Painter | 1st | XanaZero |
| Blue Painter | 2nd | HouseOfManaMTG |
| Red Stompy | 3rd | SiL3nTGoaT |
| Eldrazi | 4th | _Batutinha_ |
| Izzet Tempo | 5th | Titut |
| Dimir Reanimator | 6th | Chichichi |
| Sneak and Show | 7th | SireOfMana |
| Dimir Reanimator | 8th | PierrePoilievre2025 |
Reasonable amount of Stompy and Reanimator. At the end of the event it was two Blue Painter decks that were in the finals. Let's take a look at the winner.
It's no surprise that Stock Up revived a different color variation of Painter. When you're trying to find some specific cards, it's really good at doing that, and casting it is so easy with Sol lands. This is just a really solid looking list overall.
Let's look at the Second Place list.
You know what's better than casting Stock Up? Recurring Stock Up with Tamiyo. Yeah that seems pretty good. Just cast more Stock Ups than your opponents. EZ PZ.
Legacy Challenge 32 3/19/2025
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. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Oops! All Spells | 1st | choutin |
| Death and Taxes - BW (Yorion) | 2nd | 416FrowningTable |
| Oops! All Spells | 3rd | Harry1232 |
| Dimir Tempo | 4th | cicciogire |
| Dimir Tempo | 5th | hermanomlg |
| Eldrazi | 6th | Selfeisek |
| Sneak and Show | 7th | JPA93 |
| Red Stompy | 8th | KoolooLimpah |
Fair amount of Oops and Dimir Tempo. At the end of the event it was indeed Oops that won.
One very interesting thing that could be approached here is whether or not Wizards would ban either of the main creatures (Spy or Informer) to hamper this deck. There is Destroy the Evidence that exists that could be played but it is like five mana and that would definitely slow the deck down a bunch. In that event there's a reasonable argument to be made for either Spy or Informer. Each one has its ups and downs. Informer can be interacted with via Pithing Needle effects while Spy via Consign to Memory or Stifle. If they do have to play Destroy the Evidence then that spell is opened up to Force of Negation.
It's certainly an interesting conundrum.
In Second Place we had D&T.
I think the Orzhov D&T lists have fully coalesced into a very powerful stock list. Overlord of the Balemurk and Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd are just incredibly good cards that are worth playing.
Legacy Challenge 32 3/21/2025
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. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Death and Taxes - BW (Yorion) | 1st | SuperCow12653 |
| Stiflenought | 2nd | Hammafist |
| Eldrazi | 3rd | Selfeisek |
| Blue Painter | 4th | PunishingWaterfalls |
| Dimir Reanimator | 5th | Dockhack |
| Dimir Reanimator | 6th | Ryuho090 |
| Necrodominance Combo | 7th | iKhada |
| Izzet Tempo | 8th | O_danielakos |
Again a bit of Combo here, but also some Tempo and Stompy. At the end of the event it was D&T that won.
Having a main deck Containment Priest these days honestly makes sense especially with all the Reanimator continuing to float about. Catching them in Game one seems like a strong play.
In Second Place we had Stiflenought.
This is a solid looking list. I love how clean it is. The red splash for Pyroblast is pretty cool too.
Legacy Challenge 32 3/22/2025
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. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Painter | 1st | musasabi |
| Lands | 2nd | Sprouts |
| Doomsday | 3rd | clan |
| Dimir Tempo | 4th | Ark4n |
| Eldrazi | 5th | _Chamytinho_ |
| Dimir Tempo | 6th | _INF_ |
| Eldrazi | 7th | choutin |
| Red Painter | 8th | wallofspikes |
Fairly diverse Top 8 here. Some Combo, some Tempo, Stompy, etc. At the end of the event it was Blue Painter that won.
Definitely seeing a lot of this list this weekend, and I have to imagine this is a big winner in general for any post ban decks. Stock Up is just so good of a card.
In Second Place we had Lands.
It is always nice to see Lands come back about. It's a deck I really enjoy the play style of, and it's a lot of fun. Updated Lands with stuff like Malevolent Rumble is superb. Rumble is such a solid card given that there's so many permanents in the deck that hitting with it is pretty high chance.
Legacy Challenge 32 3/23/2025 - 1
The fourth Challenge event of the week was the first Sunday event. This event had 35 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Reanimator | 1st | Ryuho090 |
| Blue Painter | 2nd | FarmerLGG |
| Oops! All Spells | 3rd | choutin |
| Death and Taxes - BW (Yorion) | 4th | yoshiwata |
| Blue Painter | 5th | kanican |
| Blue Painter | 6th | izzy-wilde |
| Dimir Tempo | 7th | cicciogire |
| Eldrazi | 8th | Thebigempty92 |
Lot of Blue Painter in this Top 8. At the end of the event though it was Dimir Reanimator that won.
The Filigree Sylex in the sideboard is sweet, and it makes sense given the amount of decks like Blue Painter that have been popping up, especially used in conjunction with Engineered Explosives to diversify against Needle effects.
In Second Place we had Blue Painter yet again.
I think this deck is probably good, y'all. In reality, it's definitely very good. I don't know if a combo deck like this being good is a good think or not, because we've been in and out of them, but yeah.
Legacy Challenge 32 3/23/2025 - 2
The final Challenge event of the week was the second Sunday event. This event had 66 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Painter | 1st | oOMegaGenesis |
| Eldrazi | 2nd | Buwen |
| Red Stompy | 3rd | SuperCow12653 |
| LED Dredge | 4th | THE_DADDY |
| Esper Stoneblade | 5th | harmonywoods |
| Cradle Control | 6th | oosunq |
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 7th | Galaxy_Impact |
| Oops! All Spells | 8th | HyuugaHeir |
Interesting and diverse Top 8. At the end of the event though, here comes Blue Painter with the steel chair!
In all seriousness, I think people will probably need to get used to seeing this deck around. It's definitely looking like it is the current best shell for Stock Up in Legacy.
In Second Place we had Eldrazi.
Very straightforward build for this list here. I like the main deck Wastescape Battlemage here.
Around the Web
- The Eternal Glory Podcast has a new episode about adjusting to change. Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook is playing Mono Green Dreadnought. Check it out here.
- Eternal Durdles is just trying to serve people some Breakfast. Check it out here.
- Fenruscloud is playing some Sneak and Show. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
Jeskai Wizards!
Simic Depths is a neat concept.
Jeskai Energy is also sweet.
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!
