This Week in Legacy: The Chicago Hustle
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 going over my weekend in Chicago for Magic Con Chicago! In addition to that we'll be looking at any cards from Universes Beyond: Fallout that could impact Legacy. We've also got two Challenges from this past weekend!
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Magic Con Chicago - Legacy Action!
This past weekend I made my way up to Chicago for Magic Con Chicago! This weekend was incredible. Lots of fun was had getting to hang out and meet with many different folks, especially those in the Legacy community. As part of my weekend there, I did get a chance to play some Legacy! Thanks to two very good friends of mine (Zak Toth and Jon Sauline) I was able to have a deck ready to go at the event, and I played in the Legacy Cup event on Friday. This event was a seven round Swiss event with a cut to Top 8 that played out on Sunday.
To that end, I played Boros Initiative for this event.
I cannot even begin to overstate how much of the information that Sahar Mirhadi puts out on this deck was so very, very, VERY helpful to being able to play this deck in the event overall. That being said, Initiative is a mess of a deck to play in paper. There's a ton of things to remember and keep track of on board and many of them happen at the same time. Monarch, Initiative, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker (I did find myself in a position where I missed at least 2-3 Fable Chapter 3 triggers), and all the tokens it makes (Goblin Shaman, Knight, etc.)
I had a lot of fun, but it's definitely a lot to think about for those looking to maybe pick up a deck like this in paper. I ended up 4-3 in the event overall out of 104 players.
My wins in the event were versus Grixis Delver x2, Reanimator, and Painter while I lost to two 4C Control decks (one of them running Leyline of the Guildpact) and Reanimator. It was a super fun event overall and I had a great amount of fun and every opponent I played against was really pleasant.
The event itself had sort of a weird conclusion to it. Several of the Top 8 didn't make it to the Top 8 on Sunday, so it was functionally played out as a Top 4. The winner of the event overall was our good friend Brian Coval. There weren't digital decklists of the event unfortunately because the decklists were collected on paper (a thing I tend to really dislike about events in general), but I do know that Brian was on BUG Beanstalk Control.
This was a super fun weekend overall though, and I definitely would love to do this all again at a different Magic Con in the future.
An Interesting Discussion on Stickers
An interesting topic came up over the weekend in regard to the number of Legacy events held at Magic Con Chicago and most notably the number of Goblins players there. One of the newer decks breaking into the format at the moment is a deck that played Coveted Jewel as a combo piece. These decks often play Phyrexian Metamorph. This is where things get weird.
Because of Metamorph's ability to copy any creature on the battlefield, it can copy the Sticker Goblin when playing out of Goblins. However, for this to even work in the first place the player playing Metamorph has to have a Sticker deck, and not only that, it only makes sense to have the same optimized Sticker deck that the Goblins players have to maximize the chance of making 6 mana with the copy of Sticker Goblin.
Unfortunately, this does mean that at a competitive event, if you have registered a Sticker deck, you must actually present that Sticker deck to EVERY opponent you play against (as it is part of your registered decklist) and choose the three random stickers PER GAME, regardless of whether your opponent is playing Goblins or not. This does lead to a lot of awkward conversations about the nature of bluffing + slow play warnings (as some players will suggest that it's correct to present a sticker deck and Attractions deck at events despite not having any cards to deal with it which can lead to slow play determinations) and the nature of information (opponent believing the sticker player is on Goblins and mulligan'ing accordingly) where there is a very clear competitive advantage to the Jewel deck doing so.
What I think this leads to overall is a lot of awkward feelbads from all sides, as it makes it rough for players and for judges called to answer questions in these situations. In addition, this also sort of widens the separation of MTGO and paper Legacy some more given that this is unnecessary on Magic Online.
I very much believe that there should be some changes to either the Sticker rules in Constructed (make it so you only have to do the randomization the first time it's relevant in a game, and if it isn't you don't have to do it at all) or simply get rid of these cards in Constructed 1v1 gameplay. They are impacting tournament integrity at this juncture and that's very unfortunate but something should happen.
Release of Warhammer 40K on MTGO
If you've been living under a rock, the Warhammer 40K Commander decks were all release on Magic Online! Unfortunately, they are not going to be in Treasure Chests or anything like that, so the only way to get them is to buy them from the store, and that only lasts until April 5th. So if you need your Triumph of Saint Katherines, then you'll unfortunately need to buy four copies of the deck for a playset. It's rather unfortunate, but a lot of this has to do with the legal issues that stemmed out of this and how they were allowed to release it, so don't level any hate at Daybreak over this.
Universes Beyond: Fallout Set Review
Another Universes Beyond set of Commander decks is upon us. I don't know yet whether this one will be on MTGO or not, as we aren't sure if this follows the same issues that plagued Warhammer 40K and Doctor Who. There are however, some interesting cards to discuss here from this set, so let's take a walk through the Wasteland.
Bottle-Cap Blast
Someone mentioned this for decks like Izzet variants of 8Cast or just Izzet based artifact decks in general. An instant that can be reduced to R for 5 damage is already interesting but if you then use it to kill a creature any excess is converted to Treasure tokens? That seems very reasonable in general.
Inventory Management
If Hammer could afford the red splash (and usually it can't) this would be a rather sweet card in that deck as a sort of alternate means to get a Hammer onto a creature outside of Sigarda's Aid. Having split second makes this cool to do that with.
Pip-Boy 3000
It's a card that costs 1 mana, so of course we have to talk about it. This card does a lot of very swiss-army type things (as a Pip-Boy should), and all of it is contingent on the creature attacking. I think this could be fun in a deck that plays Saga. Being able to up-convert your Construct tokens in P/T is good, the looting is good, and even untapping two lands is good. It's a cool card, and I hope to see how it goes.
Pre-War Formalwear
This is probably the most playable of Legacy cards in this set alone, simply because of the effect of getting Unearth off of Stoneforge Mystic is insanely good. Being able to bring back something like a Flickerwisp to blink this out and do it again on end step on your opponent's turn is rather absurd. This is a card I definitely see D&T looking into.
Rampaging Yao Guai
I think what makes this card cool is the ability to clear a bunch of zero drops for only three mana or off a Green Sun's Zenith. It is a very unique card overall and seems quite strong at the job it's intended to do. It also hits both artifacts and enchantments, so hitting Saga is huge.
Radstorm
Bryant Cook, please play this. You're my only hope.
Survivor's Med Kit
Another 1 mana artifact that does some things, but those things aren't nearly as good, so I think this one is pretty safe.
V.A.T.S.
This card is interesting because it clears out a lot of creatures like Constructs and stuff for a reasonable cost. Having split second is also very interesting. I don't know if this sees play, but it has potential.
Legacy Challenge 2/24
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Saturday event. This event had 62 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
Goblins was the most played deck of the event, but it' actual win rate was not so great. Grixis Delver also didn't do too hot either. Reanimator did very well, as did Lands.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lands | 1st | Granham |
| Dredge | 2nd | MahfuzVanGogh |
| Reanimator | 3rd | fuya |
| Stiflenought | 4th | ajdadd420 |
| Reanimator | 5th | snoopy-magic |
| Boros Stompy | 6th | Zweiner |
| Red Painter | 7th | kanican |
| Hogaak | 8th | fedjkeee |
What a wild-looking Top 8 here. Only one actual Blue deck here in the Top 8. At the end of the event, it was Lands that won.
I still really love these four Sphere Lands decks. I'm playing one of these at some point.
In Second Place we had Dredge.
Duskana, the Rage Mother seems like such a cool card here. I also really like Otherworldly Gaze finding its way into Legacy Dredge. Card is quite powerful.
Also in this Top 8, the lone "Blue" deck is Stiflenought.
Doorkeeper Thrull is a pretty sweet card here. I like how clean this deck looks for sure.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had Painter.
Our first appearance of Chaos Defiler on Magic Online since the release of Warhammer! Loving the power of this list here for sure.
Legacy Challenge 2/25
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the mid-afternoon Sunday event. This event had 85 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
Reanimator was the most popular deck and despite a top finish it didn't do too well overall. Lands did very well as did RUG Delver and Boros Stompy. Goblins didn't do too hot here either.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Scam | 1st | unluckymonkey |
| Lands | 2nd | Granham |
| RUG Delver | 3rd | M_4 |
| Reanimator | 4th | Sven745 |
| RUG Delver | 5th | duke12 |
| Death and Taxes (Yorion) | 6th | misteriggins |
| Lands | 7th | Etriol |
| Grixis Delver | 8th | Oceansoul92 |
Really interesting Top 8. Quite a bit of Delver overall, but it was Dimir Scam who won at the end.
Four copies of Hymn to Tourach in this deck in 2024?! Wow. That's wild. Have not legitimately seen a Hymn in forever.
In Second Place we had Lands.
This is the same list and pilot who won the Saturday Challenge. Very strong overall.
Also in the Top 8 we had RUG Delver.
Zero actual Delvers and actual copies of Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath are pretty cool. Going a bit bigger than normal offhand. Also Klothys, God of Destiny in the sideboard here is not a card I've seen for a long while.
Further down the Top 8 we had Death and Taxes.
The sideboard splash into green with Gaddock Teeg is quite cool. I love The Battle of Bywater as a sideboard card for this deck. It seems so incredibly good.
Around the Web
- Bryant Cook has TES with Surveil Lands. Check it out here.
- Miracles needs Case of the Filched Falcon! Check out Eternal Durdles here.
- StrassDaddy has a new video on Naya Maverick. Check it out here.
- DougesOnTwitch has a video on GW Depths. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
This deck is wild.
Don't see Food Chain all that often. Pretty cool.
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!
