This Week in Legacy: The Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy Open
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of This Week in Legacy! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week I am finally back from my vacation! I came back to a real system shock of cold temps here in my native state of Ohio, but I'm back and ready to dip into some Legacy! The big hitter this week is the Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy Open 1 that took place over this past weekend in Columbus, OH. We've also got some info on some other paper tournaments, a look at The Brother's War, both Challenges from this past weekend and of course, a Spice Corner.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy Open 1
This past weekend was the culmination of several months in the making in a full on Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy Open event. This event was held in Columbus, OH at the convention space provided by Brewdog, a Scottish based brewery with their US headquarters in Canal Winchester, OH along with a full on convention area and attached hotel (seriously this venue is amazing).
The tournament organizer of this event is one Robert Wilson, a member of the Legacy community who has continually pushed the envelope with his Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy series. We've discussed these events a lot on this column, as they're very near to me and always very fun to attend. This event had a cap of 128 players, and in the end it looked like the event ended up with 79 overall. Pretty reasonable turnout here for sure. I was unable to attend this event due to my vacation (I was literally flying back from Los Angeles the day of the event), but Rob Wilson was kind enough to provide us not only with all the lists for the event via MTGMelee but also a lot of sweet pictures of the venue and of the event itself. The event's entry included a lunch break by way of a taco bar in the convention space, which is just absolutely phenomenal.
That Taco Bar!
This venue is absolutely one of the best looking venues for an event this year hands down. Now let's showcase some of the awesomeness of the event itself.
The Feature Match Area!
You can find out all sorts of great information on Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy over on their Twitter. This event was also streamed so you can find the VOD for the entire event here.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Delver is generally always popular enough in these kinds of events, but it had a below average win rate here. The big performers here were GW Depths (a very popular deck overall in the BCDL metagames) and Painter (another reasonably popular deck in the BCDL metagames). There was also a good number of Goblins players in this event.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| Painter | 1st | Dan Becker |
| Doomsday | 2nd | Oliver Voegli |
| 4C Control | 3rd | Brian Coval |
| Red Stompy | 4th | Matthew Strand |
| Death and Taxes | 5th | Ian Hoffman |
| 8Cast | 6th | Jesse Campbell |
| Elves | 7th | Riley Curran |
| GW Depths | 8th | Dan Neeley |
This is a very solid and interesting Top 8. Delver usually never does quite so well in regards to Top 8s in the BCDL metagames as many GW Depths players are preying on those decks alongside decks like Red Stompy. At the end of the event it was Dan Becker on Painter that won it all.
This list is incredibly powerful, very spot on to the lists that have been heavily promoted by Callum Smith over the past few months. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is just such a powerful card in these decks.
The Second Place spot went to Oliver Voegli on Doomsday.
Super Turbo Doomsday is never going to be truly bad. What's great about the deck in this kind of metagame is the fact that the top tables features very little Delver overall, which is a poorer matchup for Doomsday. This makes the chances of Doomsday being great that much better. Of course, Painter is the nightmare matchup for Doomsday, so there is that.
All in all this looked like an incredibly sick event. I'm sad I could not attend, but I look forward to more of these in the future. Big thanks to Rob Wilson for providing us a bunch of information on this event!
Bazaar of Boxes Series 5
This past weekend was also the Bazaar of Boxes Series 5 tournament, an event series which has very recently become a part of the European Legacy Masters tournament series as the Dutch chapter of that series. This event was the first one to feature a qualifier for the ELM which is being held at 4Seasons Bologna on December 3rd. More information on the qualified team from Bazaar of Boxes for the ELM can be found here.
You can find the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here. You can also learn more about the Bazaar of Boxes series on their Twitter.
Delver was popular while also having a strong winrate. Lands however was one of the best performing decks in the event overall.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| Lands | 1st | Yannick Neleman |
| Depths Combo | 2nd | Steven Glasbeek |
| UR Delver | 3rd | Bart Van Etten |
| UR Delver | 4th | David Lambregs |
| 4C Cascade | 5th | Mark Ehrhart |
| Red Stompy | 6th | Jip Prinsen |
| Omni-Tell | 7th | Bram Otto |
| Ninjas | 8th | Michael Dirkx |
A good amount of Delver/Tempo decks but also some solid options like Ninjas, Omni-Tell, and even a 4C Cascade pile. At the end of the event however, it was Lands that took it all down.
This is a super solid looking list. Endurance in these decks is a very powerful tool, and Minsc & Boo out of the sideboard is incredibly strong.
The Second Place finalist was on Depths Combo.
Good old Rainbow Depths! The big draw of this deck is the fact that it has no duals so it can cast all of its spells with rainbow lands like Gemstone Mine. This gives the deck access to cards like Stifle and Flusterstorm, which is super cool. This is a true Tom Hepp special right here.
The Brother's War Set Review
Spoiler season has ended but the war between Urza and Mishra is eternal. As such, we've got a new set to talk about as there's certainly a few interesting cards from both the main Brother's War set as well as the Commander set. This set also has some Transformers cards inserted into packs, but those don't look super playable at all.
The biggest mechanic in this set is Prototype, which is an alternate cost for big artifacts. You can cast a card for its Prototype cost and it affects its mana value, cost, and even it's power/toughness and color. There is also the returning mechanic of Meld on three separate Meld pairs, one of which we will discuss below.
Let's get to it!
Calamity's Wake
A Silence effect that also exiles graveyards is sort of interesting enough. This could see play as a sideboard option somewhere. It's definitely interesting.
Loran of the Third Path
This card is incredibly powerful overall, especially in a shell that is already playing Aether Vial, Karakas, and Recruiter of the Guard. Just being able to tutor for this makes it good enough but being able to repeatedly use the effect with a Karakas in play makes this very strong. The activated ability is actually somewhat cute if you can activate it and your opponent has for example, resolved a Thassa's Oracle with no cards left in their library, but more likely that effect is not seeing play (although it's kind of silly with a Spirit of the Labyrinth in play as well).
This card is good.
Siege Veteran
This is sort of like a Luminarch Aspirant effect, but the big difference here is that while Aspirant is a Cleric, this is a Soldier, and we've seen a slight resurgence of Soldier Stompy based decks with Valiant Veteran in them, that an Aspirant like effect that's easy to cast off Ancient Tomb + white source seems great given the creature type synergy. It also converts any of your dead Soldiers into replacements, which is kind of cool.
Phyrexian Fleshgorger
This card seems actually just very good in a lot of different ways to me. The fact that you can Reanimate this into a 7/5 Menace/Lifelinker with Ward - Pay 7 life is really silly to me, while also just being a castable 3/3 off Dark Ritual. Cloudpost decks could jam this as well, maybe in a sweet Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth based Post build (Mono Black Post sounds kind of sweet not going to lie). I like this card a lot and it seems super fun.
Arcane Proxy
This card has some interesting aspects to it. It's clear that most Legacy decks are not ever casting this for its main casting cost, so we have to evaluate this on the basis of its Prototype cost. The big thing here is that Arcane Proxy is exiling the card and casting from exile, so it gets around cards like Grafdigger's Cage while Snapcaster Mage does not. It's also super interesting with Expressive Iteration. This could see play, but it could just as easily not see play.
Mishra's Research Desk
This ticks a lot of boxes of being findable off Urza's Saga, having a super relevant effect (impulse draw) that lets you play cards until the end of your next turn, and it's an artifact so it can be exchanged with Goblin Welder and Goblin Engineer. In addition it can be Unearthed if you absolutely have to but that doesn't seem like it will see much usage. Seems like a sweet fun card for Painter for sure.
Titania, Voice of Gaea / Argoth, Sanctum of Nature
In order to talk about Titania we do have to discuss both halves of the card as it is a Meld pairing. Titania by herself seems somewhat reasonable enough in decks playing Life from the Loam where the effect of gaining life off Dredging is pretty reasonable. Those kinds of decks also just have the ability to play a one-of Argoth and find the card when it needs to. Being a 3/4 with reach for three is reasonable enough in matchups where you are able to block Delvers/DRCs but being Legendary kind of stinks. The land itself is sort of just a flavor text green source, as activating the Bear mode is costly and not very good.
However, flipping Titania into her melded pair (which is asking a lot trust me) is very absurdly powerful as most of these decks playing the card will have a number of lands in play via Exploration effects or lands in the graveyard because of Loam, so Titania will end up being quite large and having Vigilance, Reach, Trample, AND Haste is very strong. The upside of making lands into 4/4s is very small here, because you're unlikely to be using it. If you're flipping Titania you are probably ending the game in a turn or two with her or another option like Depths.
Haywire Mite
Another card that can be found off Urza's Saga is a Naturalize effect that only hits noncreature artifacts or enchantments, but instead of destroying them it exiles them instead. You also gain 2 life on the sacrifice here, so there's a lot of good to be found here. I like this card a lot and I suspect it will see some play.
Third Path Iconoclast
A cool Young Pyromancer-like effect that functions off any noncreature spell, this is pretty cool. The UR cost is not super cost restrictive in the deck playing five UR sources, and it works really well with stuff like Ledger Shredder into Mishra's Bauble. This seems fine.
The Stone Brain
This card is kind of cool for the Ancient Tomb decks of the format. Since this is Wishable off Karn, the Great Creator this is definitely interesting enough. Karn can even fetch it from exile. However, four mana to Lobotomy spread over two turns is probably not that great. However, Tomb decks could want this.
Rootpath Purifier
I have a feeling the effect of this card is simply too unique that it will either see a reasonable amount of play or it will see no play (but I doubt this outcome). However, the sheer power of this card in a sort of Gruul Prison Midrange pile is kind of sweet, given that it and Blood Moon can be in play at the same time and it only affects your opponents lands. It also turns cards like Fabled Passage and Prismatic Vista into being able to fetch any land which is sort of wild.
There's very likely some build for this card. The effect is just so super unique.
Urza's Workshop
Unfortunately, Tron is just not a super playable deck in Legacy, and I don't think this makes it any better. Cloudpost does a much better job as a sort of Tron-like deck in the format, so I don't actually see this card seeing play. It has too many hurdles that make it hard to play with, including the requirement for Metalcraft. If anyone does anything with this card I would be very surprised.
Legacy Challenge 11/12
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Saturday event, which had 66 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find the data sheet here. Due to an issue with Wizards' website, we do not have decklists for this event because they were not published.
Delver was super popular while having a strong winrate overall. All the other decks in the top cutoff here did not do as well, with Elves being second popular but having a really poor winrate.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Doomsday | 1st | Enrichetta |
| Doomsday | 2nd | _INF_ |
| Oops! All Spells | 3rd | faultedform |
| Riddlesmith Combo | 4th | Killabee |
| RUG Delver | 5th | JPA93 |
| 4C Control | 6th | Ozymandias17 |
| Reanimator | 7th | Eonwe7 |
| GW Depths | 8th | Dein_Fruend_der_Baum |
All I have to say about this Top 8 is wow the insanity of so much combo.
Legacy Challenge 11/13
We did have another challenge for this weekend, which was the Sunday event that had 69 players in it. However, due to unforeseen technical issues with both the data sheet and the Wizards website not publishing the decklists, we have nothing to say on this event. You can however, find the incomplete data sheet here if you think you can help us with it.
Around the Web
- Bryant Cook and TonyScapone are on Belcher! Check it out here.
- Phil Gallagher is on the Initiative Stompy train. Check it out here.
- A new Everyday Eternal has appeared! Check it out here.
- 4C Control vs UR Delver featuring Comet! Check it out here.
- CrusherBotBG posted a video on a 4-0 Prelim with Hammer Time. Check it out here.
- Eternal Durdles posted an episode with Sahar Mirhadi talking about European Legacy Masters. Check it out here.
- The Eternal Glory Podcast has an episode on Bans. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
You can find this past week's 5-0 deck lists over here.
Mono White Prison is some sweet sweet stuff.
Legacy Staple Leyline Binding.
Red/Green Valakut is something.
Our final one is a paper only shell and deserves the picture treatment. It's a sweet Jeskai Miracles deck featuring new 40K card Triumph of Saint Katherine by our good friend Maxtortion.
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!
