This Week in Legacy: Izzet to Win It
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 taking a look at some of the Final Fantasy stuff and how it's impacted Legacy. In addition we've got some data to look at including an RC Qualifier as well as a minor hit from this past weekend from MagicCon Vegas on Edge of Eternities.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
It's a Wizard, Izzet?!
We've had Final Fantasy for a little bit on MTGO now and it is already proving to be interesting. A few of the cards we're seeing already are Vivi Ornitier and Astrologian's Planisphere, as well as Fire Magic.
Both cards seem to work very well with each other, and seems like a fun thing to try in current Legacy, and possibly gets better with some bannings. Vivi does some really powerful things once it gets going, and all the Wizard synergy just continues to make Flame of Anor an even better card.
Astrologian's Planisphere being a creature attached to an Equipment is solid enough, but the fact that the creature gets huge quickly is really sweet. It rewards you for simply playing the game of Magic, and cards like that are always very strong.
As mentioned before too, Flame of Anor is a huge part of these decks, and Planisphere making its Hero a Wizard helps enable Flame of Anor quite a bit. This synergy combined with cards like Tamiyo, Snapcaster Mage, and also Thundertrap Trainer makes for some really sweet decks.
Fire Magic is super flexible, and works really well with Vivi, since Vivi can make the extra mana enough to cast a higher level Firaga version of Fire Magic if need be. This spell being an instant speed possible board wipe is quite something.
It's exciting to see what Final Fantasy is doing within Legacy, and some of these cards are quite cool. Whether that sticks long term or not we will have to see, but it's fun to see how things develop for sure.
Edge of Eternities at MagicCon Vegas
MagicCon Vegas was last weekend and as part of that we got our first look at Edge of Eternities, Magic's first foray into a space/fantasy style hybrid setting. With that we got a look at some new cards, one of which did look quite interesting. I'm talking of course about Tezzeret, Cruel Captain.
There is a LOT going on here on this card. The biggest thing is that the static ability doesn't specify nontoken vs token, so any artifact triggers Tezzeret's ability to gain loyalty. The untap ability can untap things like The One Ring or Grim Monolith or even Mystic Forge. The -3 ability does only get things like Keys, Mox Opal, or Lion's Eye Diamond, but it can also get Chalice of the Void as well. It's not as powerful as it is like it is in Vintage really. It doesn't put it into play though, which is fine.
The -7 is probably not something that would happen much in Legacy, I have a feeling that people would be more using this card for untap shenanigans and searching up cards. I do think people will definitely be trying this card out, and that it might be very interesting to play around with. I don't think it's insanely overpowered, which is great because a three mana colorless Planeswalker could be so much worse on power level.
Still, cool to get a first look at this set!
Legacy RC Qualifier 6/20/2025
This past weekend was also a RC Qualifier! These are premier play events where the top two finalist receive an invitation to an upcoming Regional Championship event. This particular event had 130 players overall, which is somewhat less than what we usually see for these kinds of events (usually there's at least 200 players).
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator was the most played deck of the event and its win rate was also very good. The non-mirror win rate of this deck in this event was 62.28%, which is kind of insane to be the top of the metagame, be a known quantity and still put up those numbers with everyone knowing its a thing to target. Many of the other decks in this cutoff didn't do well at all here. Oops had a middling 42.59% non-mirror win rate, and even Izzet Tempo and Dimir Tempo performed poorly. Lands however, did incredibly well with just five pilots on the deck.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Reanimator | 1st | McWinSauce |
| Saga Storm | 2nd | TonyScapone |
| Lands | 3rd | sebastianpozzo |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 4th | Jumba |
| Lands | 5th | FrankHolmquist |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 6th | s8shock |
| Red Stompy | 7th | kanican |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 8th | Hampuse1 |
There's a lot going on here, and most of this Top 8 is just Combo or Combo adjacent. Kind of wild to see really. At the end of the event it was Dimir Reanimator that won.
This is basically what we've come to expect out of these decks. It really gets you wondering if the issue with these decks is dancing around with Tamiyo or if Wizards really does decide to go for Entomb. Very interesting to consider.
In Second Place we had Saga Storm.
Very powerful looking deck here. Debt to the Deathless is kind of a hilariously cute sideboard hit for Burning Wish, not going to lie.
Legacy Challenge 32 6/18/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Wednesday event. This event had 42 players in it thanks to the MTGO website. There was no data sheet for this event.
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 | kaikas |
| Dimir Tempo | 2nd | Sven745 |
| Izzet Tempo | 3rd | Marcuzinho |
| Dimir Reanimator | 4th | Munchlax446 |
| Red Stompy | 5th | choutin |
| Lands | 6th | Sprouts |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 7th | CrazyMorango |
| Izzet Tempo | 8th | Wizard_2002 |
This is something of a reasonable Top 8. At the end of the event it was Oops that won.
Looks to be something of a more stock build of this deck that we've seen. There's always a little play here or there in a deck like this though, such as builds that utilize Unmask over Pact of Negation, etc.
In Second Place we had Dimir Tempo.
This is also something of a stock list, to be honest. It's not very thrilling, but it is good at what it does.
Legacy Challenge 32 6/20/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday 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 the most popular deck here, and it's win rate was solid enough. Dimir Tempo and Jeskai Control also both looked good, as did Lands.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Necrodominance Combo | 1st | wonderPreaux |
| Selesnya Depths | 2nd | SuperCow12653 |
| Izzet Tempo | 3rd | VendilionMisclique |
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 4th | fredmcfred |
| Dimir Reanimator | 5th | Munchlax446 |
| Dimir Tempo | 6th | Joyfulwaffle |
| Oops! All Spells | 7th | Applepies96 |
| Dimir Reanimator | 8th | Sven745 |
Still a lot of Combo here, but also some Control and Tempo. At the end of the event it was Necrodominance Combo that won.
This version of the Necro deck is pretty interesting. It wants to also possibly get Ancient Cellarspawn into play and use it to kill the opponent by casting stuff like Soul Spike on the opponent (casting for free will deal 7 additional hit points of life to the opponent as well as 4 damage and gaining 4 life). Kind of amusing.
In Second Place we had Selesnya Depths.
Haven't really seen Depths floating about for a while now, so it's cool to see it here. I love the additions of stuff like Keen-Eyed Curator. I think that card is quite fun (plus very cute because raccoon).
Legacy Challenge 32 6/21/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday 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 the top deck of the event, and its non-mirror win rate was 65.85%. Dimir Tempo and some of the other across the board decks here did well, but not nearly as well as Reanimator did.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Reanimator | 1st | Munchlax446 |
| Saga Storm | 2nd | paulierer |
| Izzet Tempo | 3rd | azmyk1231 |
| Dimir Reanimator | 4th | Ailien02 |
| Dimir Reanimator | 5th | _Joseba_ |
| Naya Stompy | 6th | satu2112 |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 7th | _Chamytinho_ |
| Necrodominance Combo | 8th | SanPop |
And indeed a fair amount of Reanimator was present in this Top 8. At the end of the event it was also Dimir Reanimator that won.
Tamiyo really is one of those wildly powerful cards that does some really strong things in this deck. Being able to defend a Tamiyo and force the opponent into decision making that punishes them for spending resources to interact with it, while also having the backup plan of big monster from the graveyard is super rough.
In Second Place we had Saga Storm.
Spoils of the Vault is a sweet card. Haven't seen that one in a hot minute. This list leans more on Beseech the Mirror.
Legacy Challenge 32 6/22/2025 - 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 and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator was again the most popular deck, and it had a very reasonable win rate. Red Stompy also looked good, as did Mystic Forge Combo.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono Black Reanimator | 1st | Roodslay |
| Death and Taxes - BW (Yorion) | 2nd | yoshiwata |
| Lands | 3rd | wizardpasta |
| Dimir Reanimator | 4th | Ryuho090 |
| Dimir Reanimator | 5th | 2plus2isfive |
| Red Stompy | 6th | kanican |
| Dimir Reanimator | 7th | Munchlax446 |
| Oops! All Spells | 8th | SkullClampMTG |
Lot of Reanimator here, mixed in with some Stompy and Lands. At the end of the event it was Mono Black Reanimator that won.
Very straightforward list here, but also JUMBO CACTUAR. This card seems like it would be incredibly silly to recur with Shallow Grave when the opponent is least expecting to be hit by TEN THOUSAND NEEDLES.
In Second Place we had D&T.
This is basically what we've come to expect out of D&T as of late. The Orzhov variants have become the defacto version of the deck, and honestly it's incredibly good. Phelia + Overlord is a superb combination of cards.
Legacy Challenge 32 6/22/2025 - 2
The final Challenge event of the week was the second Sunday event. This event had 63 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 very popular again, and its win rate was good. Izzet Tempo looked great here, as did Dimir Tempo.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Izzet Tempo | 1st | Diem4x |
| Selesnya Depths | 2nd | SuperCow12653 |
| Colorless Cloudpost | 3rd | Chris_McNasty |
| Dimir Reanimator | 4th | 2plus2isfive |
| Red Painter | 5th | wallofspikes |
| Dredge | 6th | MahfuzVanGogh |
| Dimir Tempo | 7th | EmperorOppai |
| Oops! All Spells | 8th | Some_tim3Since |
This is actually a pretty well rounded Top 8. Good amount of different things. At the end of the event it was Izzet Tempo that won.
Cori-Steel Cutter really seems to have completely edged out Delver of Secrets at this juncture. I can see why. It's a very good card and does a lot of powerful things.
In Second Place we had Selesnya Depths.
This same pilot did really well with this same list in the same weekend. Very cool to see Depths is doing well here.
Around the Web
- TonyScapone is doing some Vivi Storm in Legacy. Check it out here.
- Fenruscloud is also playing some Vivi in Jeskai Control. Check it out here.
- The Legacy Archive now has hand cams! Check it out here.
- DasSourKraut has some Tifa Infect action. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
Esper Pride Tempo!
Rakdos DRC Reanimator?
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!
