This Week in Legacy: Pre Eternal Weekend Metagame Check-In
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 poking into some data on what the Legacy metagame looks like before Eternal Weekend NA this week! We've also got some Challenges to discuss.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Legacy Prior to NA Eternal Weekend
NA Eternal Weekend is THIS WEEKEND! That's right! The biggest event for Legacy of the year is nearly here. So let's look at where Legacy is sitting at before this event. The data we're using here is the Legacy Data Collection Project aggregate results (located here). One thing to note about this is that there are some small gaps in the data, but bigger events like the AnziD event and the Showcase Challenge from last weekend provide a wide array of things to consider.
So, let's look at some graphical data!
Quite a bit to parse here, but let's talk about what this means.
#1 - Psychic Frog is all over the format
The little Frogger that could is definitely all over the current Legacy format. You're hard-pressed to find a deck not playing that is a fair tempo/control deck at the moment. The card has very much homogenized the deck construction quite a bit. Between both UB Reanimator and Dimir Tempo decks playing the card are showing a little bit at an approximately close to 30% of the current metagame, which is pretty staggering. Not only that, both of these decks are also VERY good. They both have incredibly positive win rates overall despite having a lot of targets on their back. Dimir Tempo has risen in popularity and a lot of more people have pulled back from UB Reanimator in favor of the Tempo deck, and I think a lot of this points to the fact that people are also sort of bored of the Reanimator shell as they already were bored of it right before the Grief ban.
I am still a little torn on what might happen this December after Eternal Weekends are over with a possible banning. Frog is certainly strong, but there's some possible world where it stays and we get no changes because the Reanimator shell is dethroned a little.
#2 - The top decks doing well are almost all Ancient Tomb decks
There's a big number of decks outside of the blue decks playing Psychic Frog, and pretty much almost all of those decks are Ancient Tomb decks in some fashion. Two of those decks are predominantly mono red decks, between both Red Painter and Red Stompy as well as Eldrazi and Mystic Forge. Decks are fighting the decks playing four Wasteland with Ancient Tomb because the Tomb threats are so insanely good now that it's worth it to put yourself in front of Wasteland like that. Eldrazi has skyrocketed to be a perfect deck in the format, while being good against other decks in the format too but kept somewhat in check by the Blood Moon or Painter's Servant Stompy variants.
Mystic Forge is another deck that is running on pure gas and I would definitely recommend it for an event, because its power level was bolstered by the printing of Vexing Bauble in a huge number of ways. That being said, the deck is rough to play in paper with a lot to keep track of. The best Stompy deck I would suggest for a paper event would be Red Stompy, simply because the straightforward and aggressive nature of the shell is easier to pilot and can pick up a bunch of free wins versus various decks.
#3 - Nadu is NADU
While many people have thought that Nadu in Cephalid Breakfast was legitimate, it appears that's generally not the case right now as time has gone on in the format. Instead, Nadu inside the Bant/4C midrange shell, getting to play cards like Green Sun's Zenith and Delighted Halfling is a super powerful place to be. The biggest aspect this deck has going for it on MTGO is that it's not actually all that difficult to play as people think it is. There really is no loop or need to get your deck empty to get to Thassa's Oracle in this variant, because in Legacy there's virtually no need to do so. Having more cards than your opponent is really a big way to win the game. It's a little easier to get to than trying to cycle to a loop or Oracle kill. If you can answer all of your opponent's cards in order, the game will be over regardless of how you win it, and with cards like Bristly Bill, Spine Sower the clock on the game is accelerated quickly.
#4 - Sneak and Show is BACK BABY
While it's not above the cutoff on the graph at only 41 copies, it is important to note how powerful Sneak and Show is right now. And yes, it's an Ancient Tomb deck that also plays blue so it has that going for it, but Sneak and Show's biggest benefit has been in approaching the year 2024 with new cards and integrating those things into its shell. Cards like Vexing Bauble and Yggdrasil, Rebirth Engine have slotted into Sneak and Show quite well and it's insane how good the deck is made with these additions. As we'll see later on in the article in the Challenges, this is a dark horse but it's certainly got some fiery hooves and wings, and I would not keep my eye off the deck because there's a fair chance it just wins Eternal Weekend.
#5 - Doomsday is Great
Oh did we mention Doomsday? Yeah that deck is incredibly powerful right now, and wouldn't you have guessed a good chunk of that is that the predominant variant of the deck is a Tempo build with Psychic Frog and Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student. Doomsday currently has a really strong win rate and if you know how best to pilot it, it's a great deck to consider for EW.
Is Legacy Fine?
The ongoing sentiment I've heard here or there now though is whether or not Legacy looks "fine" and that maybe nothing gets banned in December. As I said before, I'm torn on this. On one hand, there's certainly a bunch of different decks that exist, but a good majority of them that are pushing on the Frog decks in general are all Ancient Tomb decks, and the biggest primary issue is that control decks are functionally not doing well at all. Beans decks are very low in win rate, and while Jeskai has had its moments, I think Metamorphosis Fanatic really hurt that deck in general.
I think that while Legacy on the surface appears to be okay enough and the format still has some fun moments to it, I do think that it's more than likely we will see a change to the format in December. What that change may be, I'm not sure, because Wizards has certainly kept us on our toes over these things in the past.
Legacy Challenge 32 11/13
The first Challenge event was the Wednesday event. According to the MTGO website this event had 50 players in it. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Tempo | 1st | Ale_Mtg |
| Eldrazi | 2nd | Oscar_Franco |
| Dimir Tempo | 3rd | duckduckmongoose |
| ANT | 4th | hugofreitas1 |
| Dimir Tempo | 5th | mei0024 |
| Dimir Tempo | 6th | PredatorLLM |
| The EPIC Storm | 7th | Entropy263 |
| Oops! All Spells | 8th | _J0SE_ |
Quite a bit of Dimir Tempo in this Top 8. At the end of the event, it won it all.
It is still very interesting that cards like Shoot the Sheriff see play here, but they make a ton of sense in the deck by being able to destroy most of the creatures in the format which is pretty stellar.
In Second Place we had Eldrazi.
Going to see this deck a lot in the Challenges this weekend. This is hot pick for EW this weekend for sure, and I would keep an eye on this deck because it is very good.
Legacy Challenge 32 11/15
The second Challenge event was the Friday event. According to the MTGO website this event had 56 players in it. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Doomsday | 1st | fishduggery |
| Dimir Tempo | 2nd | Ozymandias17 |
| Red Stompy | 3rd | PunishingWaterfalls |
| UB Reanimator | 4th | mortr3d |
| Oops! All Spells | 5th | Cachorrowo |
| UB Reanimator | 6th | Butakov |
| Dimir Delver | 7th | ecobaronen |
| Nadu Combo | 8th | jibeta |
Pretty solid spread of decks, but looking in between the lines reveals a bunch of Frog decks, even the winner on Doomsday.
General barometer checks that showcase when a combo deck starts having a fair plan usually means that fair plan is so insanely good that it's worth having, and I think Frog/Tamiyo are very much that for Doomsday. The added power of Barrowgoyf out of the sideboard really improves this deck post-board.
In Second Place we had Dimir Tempo.
Ghost Vacuum is a card that sits very well in many decks in the format at the moment, and it seems quite good in the sideboard here. I also love the main deck Emperor of Bones. That card is exceptional and does a lot of really cool things.
Legacy Challenge 32 11/16
The third Challenge event was the Saturday event. This event had 60 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Tempo was the most popular deck of the event, and it's win rate was very good. Eldrazi also did very well, while there was only three UB Reanimator below the cutoff on the graph, but it's win rate was also pretty reasonable despite not being as popular.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Eldrazi | 1st | MayhemDJ |
| Red Painter | 2nd | fj_rodman |
| Dredge | 3rd | MahfuzVanGogh |
| Dimir Tempo | 4th | darius89 |
| Doomsday | 5th | clan |
| Elves | 6th | Verze |
| Dimir Tempo | 7th | _INF_ |
| Maverick | 8th | DNEELEY |
Fairly varied Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Eldrazi that won.
Interesting side note that It That Heralds the End doesn't actually reduce any costs on Sowing Mycospawn because Kicker doesn't change the mana value of the spell! Good tip to understand before trying to play this deck in paper for sure.
In Second Place we had Red Painter.
I feel like Vexing Bauble had a truly opposite effect on the combo decks of the format and instead reinforced their ability to play the card to protect their combo. We've seen this a lot with Sneak and Show, but Painter is definitely all in on that idea as well. Being able to fetch it with Saga really helps as well.
Legacy Challenge 32 11/17 - 1
The fourth Challenge event was the morning Sunday event. This event had 47 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
UB Reanimator was again very popular here, but it's win rate was medium at best. Dimir Tempo/Red Stompy both were pretty medium too despite a big win by the latter. Sneak and Show had some numbers here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Red Stompy | 1st | Mogged |
| Elves | 2nd | zhinonono |
| Dimir Tempo | 3rd | Just_Roll |
| Death and Taxes (Yorion) | 4th | yoshiwata |
| Dimir Tempo | 5th | _Shatun_ |
| Red Painter | 6th | kanican |
| UB Reanimator | 7th | OSCA66 |
| Nadu Combo | 8th | SHAKELION |
Very fun looking Top 8. At the end of the event it was Red Stompy that won.
Pyrogoyf is I think one of the best threats that Red Stompy has gotten in a long time, and has certainly cemented the deck's position in the current format and how the deck will be built ever going forward. It's hard pressed to ever see a more prison-like variant of this deck ever return because of how powerful these cards are.
In Second Place we had Elves.
Nadu has also had a huge impact on these Elves lists, removing old school sacred cows like Glimpse of Nature because of how utterly busted Nadu is, and with both GSZ and Chord of Calling it's not too difficult to find one and get it into play.
Legacy Challenge 32 11/17 - 2
The final regular Challenge event was the afternoon Sunday event. This event had 50 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Red Stompy was very popular here, and it's win rate was reasonable, but it was Eldrazi that really outperformed its small sample size. Doomsday also did super well while Dimir Tempo was popular but didn't do so hot.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Eldrazi | 1st | Sisyfos_happy |
| Doomsday | 2nd | swwampyswamp |
| Nadu Combo | 3rd | hughmann |
| UB Reanimator | 4th | hermanomlg |
| Red Stompy | 5th | Mogged |
| Red Stompy | 6th | _Batutinha_ |
| Oops! All Spells | 7th | choutin |
| Jeskai Control | 8th | Ellison |
Very reasonable Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Eldrazi that won.
Another solid thing to remember on this deck is that Painter's Servant shuts down your Eldrazi specific lands like Eye of Ugin and Eldrazi Temple because it gives everything a color and they cease being colorless spells in your hand. Given how popular Painter is, this is solid advice to try to get rid of Painter as soon as possible.
In Second Place we had Doomsday.
This is certainly a much more all-in streamlined variant of Doomsday, and the big thing here is four main deck Vexing Bauble. Being able to pop a Bauble into play and go off T2 with Doomsday seems quite strong.
Legacy Showcase Challenge 11/17
This past weekend was also a Legacy Showcase Challenge event! These events are Premier Play events and require Qualification Points (QPs) to enter. The Top 8 of this event gets invited to the Showcase Qualifier at the end of the season. This event had 351 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Tempo was the most popular deck of the event by quite a bit and its win rate was super good. UB Reanimator looked great too, and Red Stompy didn't too hot. Eldrazi and Mystic Forge had solid above average win rates, and Doomsday certainly looked great for its relatively small sample size.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Sneak and Show | 1st | Jade-Venus |
| Eldrazi | 2nd | lampalot |
| UB Reanimator | 3rd | FreeEducation |
| Eldrazi | 4th | lazerbeam |
| Doomsday | 5th | wonderPreaux |
| Oops! All Spells | 6th | Cachorrowo |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 7th | acydcytryk |
| Doomsday | 8th | Manahandler |
Incredibly interesting Top 8 here. The winner of the event was SNEAK AND SHOW.
Yggdrasil, Rebirth Engine is a reader of a card, but the fact that you can set it up with Brainstorm so that it exiles a good creature on your end step, then untap and make a functional Sneak Attack version of that creature that ALSO STICKS AROUND is kind of gross. The other big aspect here is that Vexing Bauble makes this deck able to combo off with immunity, which is also really powerful. This deck is a dark horse and could possibly look great at EW this weekend.
In Second Place we had Eldrazi.
While we noted earlier that It That Heralds the End doesn't reduce Kicker, it DOES reduce the Evoke cost of Nulldrifter which is a thing that can be leveraged to be able to draw two cards for a single U. The End also doesn't reduce the colorless mana costs in Devourer of Destiny, but that's hardly an issue when you cast it for three-four mana.
Around the Web
- MahfuzVanGogh has a video on his Third Place run in a Challenge. Check it out here.
- Have a video on Naya Depths! Check it out here.
- Fenruscloud is crushing Frog Decks? Their secret? Right here.
- TonyScapone is playing a Yorion Coveted Jewel deck? Yeah, that's right here.
- Maxtortion has a video on Sneak and Show. Check it out here.
- IN RESPONSE has a new episode on prepping for EU Eternal Weekend. Check it out here.
- Eternal Glory Podcast also has an episode on Eternal Weekend prep. Check it out here.
- StrassDaddy has a video on Maverick! Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
THERE ARE NO WORDS.
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!
