This Week in Legacy: Showcase Time!
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of This Week in Legacy! This week we have more than a few events to look at, one of which is the second Season Three Legacy Showcase Challenge. In addition we have the other Challenge from this past weekend as well as a breakdown of the Fall Revised Legacy Open event held by Team Lotus Box and Anuraag Das in conjunction with Dice City Games. We also have some follow-up to do on Commander Legends, and of course our Spice Corner.
Also, I had some great feedback on the new way we're doing decklists for events, and the feedback was resoundingly positive so we're going to keep doing that!
Commander, Revisited
Before we get into the meat of our article on the Legacy Showcase Challenge event, let's do a little revisiting of Commander Legends and see what we missed since last week. There wasn't a ton of things spoiled in the final week of spoiler season that we really missed thankfully, as this set seems to have already hit most of our big Legacy centric cards in the first week and a half, but I did feel obligated to look at the red Court, so that we can look at the rest of that cycle.
Court of Ire
As with the other Court cards a lot of how to evaluate this rests on how easy it is to cast and retain the Monarch through the next turn. Upon first glance, Court of Ire seems like it's pretty strong. It deals seven damage if you're still the Monarch to any target. On the surface, this seems like one heck of a clock. However, at five mana, the cost to get this into play is relatively steep and the only deck that could reasonably cheat on the mana for it is Mono Red Prison. At this point, the card is competing strongly with persistent damage sources like Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Chandra, Awakened Inferno. The biggest downside of this card is oddly enough the fact that it makes you the Monarch. A lot of these kinds of decks want to have this kind of card as an unanswerable damage source and then sit behind a card like Ensnaring Bridge to protect themselves. Because you're always drawing a card off the Monarch trigger, this inherently weakens Ensnaring Bridge by a lot, and considering that one of the more popular creatures in the format is a 1/1 flying flash sometimes deathtouch (Ice-Fang Coatl) it isn't hard to envision a scenario where Coatl flashed in response to the Monarch trigger will simply just end up taking away the Monarch. While you do still get to do two damage if you're not the Monarch, these decks are simply often not ever going to steal the Monarch back easily if it does get taken from them, and giving a deck that has Coatl already more cards leads to them simply having snowball level amount of answers.
I think this is likely the weakest of the Court cycle by a big margin, and while I'm sure some people will test it as a new toy for the archetype, I feel that cards like Chandra, Awakened Inferno are better for the additional one mana of investment because it can't be countered.
Archelos, Lagoon Mystic
Hey guys, am I late to the party?
In all seriousness though, Stasis and this seems like a sweet sweet thing that I want someone to try out and report back what it does.
Legacy Showcase Challenge 11/8
This past weekend was the second of the Showcase Challenges for the Legacy format. These events are premier level events and cost Qualification Points (QPs) to enter, namely 40 QPs. These events feed into the Showcase Qualifier event at the end of the season with everyone who makes Top 8 of the Showcase Challenge receiving an invitation to the Showcase Qualifier. These events often end up being filled with the best of the best players on Magic Online, and are routinely well attended. Let's take a look at the Top 32 Metagame breakdown!
RUG Delver was all over this event, taking up 9 spots out of the Top 32, which is fairly immense. However, we also saw a lot of individual deck pilots do well, so the event wasn't utterly dominated by Delver either. In fact, the rest of this event looks pretty solid and interesting.
Now let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Elves | 1st | Lampalot |
| RUG Delver | 2nd | Kurohiren |
| Slivers | 3rd | DanielNunes |
| Lands | 4th | Qwupf |
| Karn Echo | 5th | Yamakiller |
| RUG Delver | 6th | Gul_Dukat |
| The EPIC Storm | 7th | Vivarus |
| Hogaak | 8th | Nammersquats |
This Top 8 is WILD. While there are some usual suspects, there are also some really solidly cool decks as well, giving us quite a bit to talk about. I'd like to congratulate every one of these players because they all have an invite to the Season Three Showcase Qualifier event at the end of the season!
At the end of the event, it was none other than Michael Bonde (aka Lampalot, yes THAT Lampalot with the dancing gif) taking it all down on Elves!
A very clean and powerful list, the popularity of this archetype as of late cannot be overstated. Elves have continually pushed into a Tier 1 status and rightfully so. The sheer power of Allosaurus Shepherd in this deck is absolutely incredible. It's worth noting that Michael pulled this list from our good friend Callum Smith (WhiteFaces) who got the list from MTGO user Testacular who has been continually grinding with Elves on a consistent basis. It's great to see the little green men win!
The Second Place finalist was RUG Delver!
The only major thing I want to point out about this list is the fact that there's a Torpor Orb in the sideboard, which seems relatively abusable vs decks like Doomsday (turning off Thassa's Oracle entirely is exceptionally powerful). The flex spots in this list hinge on the two Mandrills in the main, as opposed to the typical Goyf/Mandrills split that we see in them. RUG Delver's popularity combined with its continued power level in the overall metagame is certainly concerning, but every week waxes and wanes with this deck, and these premier-level events tend to attract players on the deck.
We definitely have to talk about the Third Place list in the Top 4 however, and that's the most consistently grinding tribal player on Magic Online in DanielNunes on Slivers.
This list is incredibly cool and well-refined as Daniel is the most consistent Slivers player out there right now. Modern Horizons really did quite a bit for this deck, giving it powerful threats like Cloudshredder Sliver but the biggest thing was the introduction of Unsettled Mariner in the same set. While Crystalline Sliver does a bang-up job, having an effect that is equally as powerful preventing targeted removal is also super strong. This is the deck that will make you look up how Flanking works.
Also in the Top 4 we have a showing by Lands.
I like the sleekness of this list. Valakut Exploration has really pushed this archetype quite a bit, and it's also interesting just how much less Punishing Fire is in these lists. Given that the card isn't incredibly great right now, it makes a lot of sense and opens the lands in the deck up a little bit in regards to not having to play a full four Grove of the Burnwillows. Grasping Dunes is incredible tech in this deck, being able to outright kill things like Ice-Fang Coatl but also being able to nerf Dreadhorde Arcanist by reducing its power to zero. Make no mistake, this is a solid deck and worth looking deeper at.
Further down the Top 8 of this event we have Alex Mcinley (aka Vivarus) on The EPIC Storm.
Alex is certainly a very accomplished pilot on this deck, which has continually gone through many iterations as The EPIC Storm community actively develops the archetype. The biggest thing this year for this deck has been the reinvention into a four-of Veil of Summer deck but also the addition of Peer into the Abyss. I think the biggest thing that has hurt this archetype has been the advent of more decks playing multiple Force of Negation and Daze, but the crew of The EPIC Storm continues to soldier on and build to beating those decks, and they do it well.
Outside of the Top 8 we saw some cool lists, and one caught my eye in the form of a Colorless Cloudpost variant.
This deck is clean and powerful with a lot of heavy hitters like Ulamog and Karn. Once this deck gets going and gets its engine online it becomes incredibly hard to stop because every top deck is potentially a game ending threat.
The Showcase Challenge certainly was very interesting and I feel that it was a good outing for Legacy, despite the fact that RUG Delver was everywhere. It's great to see Legacy being played on this kind of stage, and I am totally looking forward to the Showcase Qualifier at the end of the season.
Fall Revised Legacy Open 11/8
This past weekend was yet another tournament ran by the combined minds of Anuraag Das, Team Lotus Box, and Dice City Games. The Fall Revised Legacy Open was 2K prize level event, with plenty of donated prizes by community members such as Tom Hepp (who personally donated 500 Magic Online Event Tickets to the prize pool) and a special Antiquities Autumn Mishra's Factory being sent to the winner of the event.
That being said, the event drew in 89 players who came to throw down some Legacy. The entire event was run through the site MTGMelee, and you can locate the tournament page here. Since MTGMelee posts every decklist for the event, we were able to get a full picture of the entire 89 player metagame.
Snow had a big presence throughout the tournament as was expected, but it was surprisingly Sky Noodle Taxes (aka Yorion Death and Taxes) that had an incredibly solid metagame share here. Oddly enough the other big format predator at the moment in RUG Delver had a very minimal metagame share overall, and the entire event seemed fairly diverse, with plenty of wild and crazy decks floating around it. Even the Top 8 of the event seemed pretty solid.
Let's take a look at that Top 8 now!
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| Snowko | 1st | Marc Eric Vogt |
| Karn Echo | 2nd | Greg Dyer |
| Elves | 3rd | Curran Delahanty |
| Yorion DnT | 4th | John Ryan Hamilton |
| Death's Shadow | 5th | Brenden McCarley |
| Hogaak | 6th | Tariq Patel |
| Hogaak | 7th | Markus Thibeau |
| Snowko | 8th | Patrick Green |
This is a really solid Top 8, with plenty of represented archetypes and quite a few traditional non-blue decks as well. At the end of the event however, it was none other than the GP Bologna 2019 Legacy Champion Marc Eric Vogt who took down the entire thing on Snowko Miracles.
Marc's list hinges closer to a more Miracles heavy variant of Snowko, utilizing cards like Terminus as well as Shark Typhoon. Furthermore, this variant is only splashing into red for the effects of cards like Pyroblast and Izzet Staticaster, and not black for the normal things we usually see in Snowko variants. One super interesting thing here is both the main deck Archmage's Charm (which is a really cool card) and also two copies of Mystic Sanctuary in the main as well to recur effects like Terminus. Also, a very clear nod to how blue heavy Legacy can be right now, is the main deck inclusion of a single copy of Carpet of Flowers which is a very powerful mirror-breaking tool.
The Second Place finalist was none other than Greg Dyer on Karn Echo.
Karn Echo is a very streamline deck, with a lot of angles of attack. Many games can be won off the back of a quick Karn, or off the combination of Sai and Urza, Lord High Artificer, or off just casting Echo of Eons with a Narset in play. This deck is pretty poised to receive some new options from Commander Legends mainly in the form of Hullbreacher, so this is definitely a deck to keep an eye on throughout the next few months. It has long been on a list of sleeper decks in the format that are obviously quite powerful, but don't quite have a lot of people playing them.
Another deck to talk about in this Top 8 that saw a lot of play in this event overall is the Fourth Place list in Yorion Death and Taxes. Affectionately referred to as Sky Noodle Taxes, this was none other than our good friend John Ryan Hamilton (xJCloud) who made this Top 4 run.
The biggest takeaway from this list is the fact that it boasts a full four copies each of both Skyclave Apparition and Spirit of the Labyrinth. Both of these cards are powerful metagame enablers for Death and Taxes shells right now, allowing the deck the ability to attack various cards like Oko and also to be able to shut off cards like Uro and Coatl in drawing cards. Also having a singleton copy of Walking Ballista in the main seems relatively good, as the card has the ability to pick off random cards like Coatl and the like.
This shell was so popular this weekend that it had eight players on the archetype and on this specific variant. Proof positive that the Sky Noodle has got what it takes to make DnT good.
This event also had two Hogaak decks in the Top 8, one of which was a repeat Top 8 performer on the deck in Tariq Patel in Sixth Place.
Hogaak has been ever-present in the current metagame, popping up more and more as the deck gains in popularity and also consistently posts some solid finishes. Tariq is super consistent with this deck as well, and it's easy to see why. The interesting tech in the sideboard of this particular list lies in Reverent Silence, a card typically only seen in Reanimator sideboards. But, as the format consistently shifts towards the usage of Leyline of the Void to try to combat decks like Oops! All Spells then super free spells like Reverent Silence can be very powerful alongside the normal anti-hate in Force of Vigor.
Hogaak continues to cement itself as one of the current mainstays of the Legacy format, and is ever proving its worth with these kinds of finishes.
Outside of the Top 8 there were a few really spicy lists (outside of the MINOTAURS which you'll see in our Spice Corner) that stood out. One belonged to our good friend Marcus Ewaldh who played a really sweet Kaheera Jeskai Standstill list.
I talked only just last week about the possible return of Moat into Legacy decks, and of course Marcus has got me covered on the awesomeness of Moat. This list is super cool, however, and I love the Kaheera angle as just having a creature that can come into play and attack Planeswalkers if need be. Super cool list overall.
Another list that caught my eye was an interesting Nic Fit list that hinged on the usage of Sea Gate Stormcaller.
Sea Gate Stormcaller is a really sweet card and this list seeks to abuse it hard, with the addition of cards like Village Rites and Diabolic Intent. This is a really cool list, and looks like a lot of fun. Also, there's a main deck Emrakul, the Promised End. EMRAKUL!
Event Wrap Up
This event overall seemed like a really fun event, and it's great to see the Legacy community out there continuing to hold great events that are pulling in players. Thanks a bunch to Anuraag, Team Lotus Box, and Dice City Games for holding this event!
Legacy Challenge 11/7
We had one other Challenge event this week, the early morning Sunday event. Let's take a look at how this event broke down!
This event certainly had a lot of the RUG Delver menace that has been all over the format as of late. The rest of the event's Top 32 however looked pretty solid and diverse overall with some really cool decks.
Now let's look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| RUG Delver | 1st | Kohei1202 |
| RUG Stifle | 2nd | Andre4Marini |
| Snowko | 3rd | D00mSwitch |
| Elves | 4th | GabrielGrubervaz |
| U/R Delver | 5th | Excel0679 |
| Elves | 6th | Twin_MTG |
| RUG Delver | 7th | Andreas_Muller |
| Bant Stoneblade | 8th | Munnannex |
The Top 8 was interesting, given that it had a lot of Delver and a lot of Elves in it. Elves as a deck have continually pushed the envelope of what it's capable of, and the deck has an incredible amount of play behind it. At the end of it all however, it was indeed RUG Delver that won the day.
This a pretty reasonably stock variant of RUG Delver, leaning on the strength of double Goyf and double Mandrills as the key green creatures in the deck's mirror matchups. It's interesting seeing the return of cards like Aether Gust in the sideboard, but it's incredibly reasonable counterplay against decks like Hogaak and also against opposing Uro/Oko soup piles. Soul-Guide Lantern is also pretty cool to see as well.
Our Second Place finalist of this event was RUG Stifle (aka Poke Pile).
This deck has a lot of power behind its tempo/midrange style play, functioning as a tempo deck in the early game and transitioning into more of a midrange deck in the mid to late game. This deck honestly mostly reminds of the RUG Xerox deck in Vintage with a lot of cantrip functionality to feed Dreadhorde Arcanist but with the ability to leverage cards like Uro as well. The Cindervines in the sideboard here is pretty sweet too, as a way of putting pressure on decks that want to cast a lot of spells.
We mentioned Elves earlier and we did indeed have an Elves pilot in Fourth Place. Let's take a look.
I was just talking last week or so about the Elvish Reclaimer versions seeing less play, and then here we have one Top 8 this event. Seems pretty sweet and poetic overall. I think there's just a hard preference on what build you like and what you want to focus on doing with the deck, and both builds have their pros and cons to that. The Reclaimer build is a little more focused on utilizing Reclaimer as a mana accelerant in order to power out the combo, where the 4x Nettle Sentinel variants with 4x Allosaurus Shepherd are just capitalizing on the fast combo and having Shepherd as a backup win condition.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had an interesting list in Bant Stoneblade.
Our good old buddy True-Name Nemesis hasn't really had a huge presence in Legacy as of late, but it's a solid card to include in these Stoneforge based lists. It's great however to see Skyclave Apparition improve this archetype as well, giving the deck an answer to opposing threats like other Oko's and Uro's. Unfortunately, this deck can't flash this card into play like the Aether Vial decks can, but it has its perks. Main deck Stifle too is also pretty wild to see.
Outside of the Top 8 had some pretty interesting things, including this deck running The Abyss.
Wild deck overall. It's kind of amusing that once Karn + Lattice is in play that The Abyss doesn't do anything at that point. I would love to see like... a The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale somewhere in the list as well, but beggars can't be choosers when it comes to this kind of sweet spice. I mean after all there is an Ashiok, Nightmare Muse in this deck.
Further down the Top 32 we have a showing by the Bomberman deck with Gyruda, Doom of Depths as the Companion.
Gyruda offers an interesting dynamic to the Bomberman decks, being able to reanimate an Auriok Salvagers or Urza, Lord High Artificer to combo off with (provided it mills one of them). Kanican has been doing pretty well with this deck over the past few months on MTGO, and it's a very cool deck overall.
Ban Watch
Two more Challenges (one a Showcase) gives us another set of data to work with on our Ban Chart. Let's take a look now.
Numbers continue to be all over the place, but Oko seems to be consistently in the same place with an average number of 34 copies over the course of the past three months. Astrolabe on the other hand has had on average 24 copies over the past three months. There's a lot to be said still about the current format and one of the biggest things is how much people really dislike the trifecta of Oko/Astrolabe/Uro. With Eternal Weekend behind us, it's surprising that we haven't seen any further action to be made on the format, but I'm also not surprised really. I don't expect there to be much to change at this point unless something drastically shifts the current balance of power again (like another Underworld Breach or Lurrus). However, that wouldn't really be great, because then we'd lose the ongoing momentum that we've built with the Snowko and RUG Delver dynamic and the trends we are able to see with that.
Look for our next Round Table to take place sometime in December, as a bit of an End-Of-Year Round Table event. If you're interested as a Legacy content creator in being a part of this, please feel free to reach out!
Around the Web
- 90sMTG tests out some Commander Legends cards this week, so check that out here!
- Sweet video on an Esper Sea Gate Stormcaller list, check that out here.
- A good friend of mine Doishy (who has persistently asked me to try out Doomsday) posted their Eternal Weekend replay followup. Check that out here.
- The GOAT Tom Hepp shares some Rainbow Depths Combo content on YouTube, which you can check out here.
The Spice Corner
Divining Witch + Thassa's Oracle. Name a better classic duo!
Grixis Arclight Phoenix that sideboards into... Doomsday?!
W/G Titan Stompy featuring Yasharn, Implacable Earth!
A really sweet Loam list featuring Brushfire Elemental and Nissa of Shadowed Boughs. Having played against the Brushfire Elemental list, I have seen just how strong that card is.
Didgeridoo, Didgeridon't.
What I'm Playing This Week
I'm on that Karn Echo life this week, also playing a bit of Oops! All Spells, but excited about being able to try new cards (specifically Hullbreacher) in Karn Echo soon.
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 on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon! In addition I'm always around the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the /r/MTGLegacy Discord Server and subreddit.
Until next time!
