This Week in Legacy: The Fluff and Teeth
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 talking all about Bloomburrow and what cards might see play in Legacy! In addition to that we've got some Challenges from last week to look at and some further discussion on the state of the Legacy Data Collection Project.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Bloomburrow and Legacy!
We are journeying to the whimsical plane of Bloomburrow this go around and ready to see if there's anything in this set that looks Legacy playable. There's a bunch of mechanics in this set, as each of the focal creature types of the set (everything from Mice to Otters) have some form of mechanic associated with their creature type that promotes playing those things. Mice for example, have Valiant, a fixed form of Heroic, while things like Squirrels have Forage (a new mechanic that utilizes cards in graveyards or Food tokens).
Overall I think this set doesn't have many things specifically for Legacy. We will also be looking at the Commander products for anything, but we only found a few cards worth checking out. If you think we missed anything glaring, please let me know!
Sunspine Lynx
I kinda wish this card had Flash, just a little bit. If it had Flash, this would be super cool as souped up Price of Progress stapled to a life gain prevention/damage can't be prevented 5/4 body. That all in of itself is really good, but Flash would make it so much better.
Still, I'm kinda curious if this does sit anywhere. Having a creature that can dome a 4C Control deck or Delver with damage and then just be a 5/4 is great.
Kitsa, Otterball Elite
I don't think this is super good, but something that copies spells on a body that's a 1/3 for 2 is not unreasonable.
Ygra. Eater of All
Five mana is a lot for this big kitty, but the effect it has on a game is very neat, and it does create a combo loop with Cauldron Familiar which is goofy (since they're both Foods you can just loop between two) but ultimately this may fall into the too cute category (even though he's kind of scary).
Take Out the Trash
New name for any card requiring you to name a card name and you don't actually need to name anything relevant!
Legacy Data Collection Project Update
Earlier this month we got the notification from Daybreak Games about the changes in how Challenge data and League data was going to be published. Since that announcement, I had run a poll in the Legacy Data Collection Project Discord about whether people believed the project should be continued.
While the results of the poll were overwhelmingly in favor of continuing the project, the actual support of said project to collect said data has been sadly... nonexistent. I'm going to very much call out the elephant in the room here. People do want data. They want to be able to see win rates and all of this information about different decks. But at the same time, it's very clear that they want it... without having to do anything for it.
Previous to the change at the beginning of this month, I was doing all of the data work week in and week out of pulling all the events and getting them entered, mainly because we had all of the information via the API. Now that we are back to the old way of having to do things, by either getting self-reported player data or watching replays, the actual level of support of getting this information simply has not materialized. To me, despite the results of the poll, this sends the message that the project has outlived its usefulness and should be shelved until the possibility of going back to more data is possible (something I would continue to encourage people who want to see this to provide feedback directly to Wizards of the Coast on). I don't know if I'm wrong or not here, but the only way this project works is if people help support it with their time unfortunately.
I would absolutely spend all the time in the world if I had it in every Challenge to get all of this information. I don't have that time to spend, unfortunately. And I get it, time is valuable for everyone these days, so it is unfortunate that this is the case, but with the way data is presented to us now, there really is only one way to get everything. And it is a lot harder to do this when there are now FIVE challenges a week.
I'm more than willing to give the project a bit more time for people to decide to maybe help. But if a month later and nothing materializes? Then I will be shutting down the project for good and refunding those who chose to support the project via Patreon in the last two months. At that point I will be primarily focusing on other works besides my articles, and if someone wants to take over to try to make it work, I will work with that person to transition that responsibility.
Legacy Challenge 32 7/17
The first Challenge event of the week was the Wednesday event. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| UB Reanimator | 1st | SilversRayleigh |
| Eldrazi | 2nd | Zolgia108 |
| UB Reanimator | 3rd | dganev |
| Eldrazi | 4th | DethFrmAbove |
| Eldrazi | 5th | selesneal |
| Beanstalk Control (Yorion) | 6th | McWinSauce |
| Red Stompy | 7th | _Shatun_ |
| Grixis Delver | 8th | hermanomlg |
As we will see throughout these events, Eldrazi was a huge factor in these past week's events. At the end of the event it was UB Reanimator that won though.
Tamiyo seems like an interesting inclusion to this deck. Tyrant's Scorn is also a really cool card.
In Second Place we had Eldrazi.
Very strong and straightforward list here. Kozilek's Command is a super powerful card.
Further down the Top 8 we had Beanstalk Control.
This list is neat. Phlage seems like a cool card here that I feel is a lot better than it looked on paper.
Legacy Challenge 32 7/19
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday night/Saturday morning event. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Bant Nadu Elves | 1st | SHAKELION |
| Eldrazi | 2nd | Ayyypeks |
| Eldrazi | 3rd | selesneal |
| Red Painter | 4th | SDBobPlissken |
| UB Reanimator | 5th | Ozymandias17 |
| UB Reanimator | 6th | Munchlax446 |
| Oops! All Spells | 7th | medvedev |
| Grixis Tempo | 8th | LAURI_PROTOUR |
Very interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Bant Nadu Elves that won.
This deck is super cool. Nadu as an Elves combo card is really wild, but it's also Springheart Nantuko that is really super cool in this deck. Being able to make copies of various things in the deck seems so very good.
In Second Place we had Eldrazi.
Eldrazi Repurposer is a sweet card. Being able to make multiple tokens is always good.
Also in this Top 8 we had Red Painter.
Red/White Painter is always pretty cool to see. Not too many new things here besides a single Vexing Bauble which is pretty neat.
Legacy Challenge 32 7/20
The third Challenge event of the week was the early morning Saturday event. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Grixis Delver | 1st | _INF_ |
| Eldrazi | 2nd | choutin |
| Cloudpost | 3rd | TrueFuturism |
| UB Reanimator | 4th | RyanWu |
| Azorius Vial | 5th | Carroz |
| Eldrazi | 6th | musasabi |
| Eldrazi | 7th | wiky |
| Eldrazi | 8th | unagieel |
Quite a bit of Eldrazi in this Top 8 for sure. However at the end of the event it was Grixis Delver that won.
It's so wild how prior to MH3 that Orcish Bowmasters was the backbone of this deck, but now it's Psychic Frog. This card continues to push very hard on the format because it's so good versus things like Bowmasters in general (very hard to kill it with Bowmasters when it can just grow out of reach). Consign to Memory also seems super good right now as a flexible answer to Eldrazi.
In Second Place we had Eldrazi.
Noxious Revival is a cute include into this deck. Rebuy Kozilek's Command to lethal an opponent with Glaring Fleshraker? Seems sweet.
Further down this Top 8 we had Azorius Vial.
Not quite Esper Vial because there's no main deck black cards here (and Faerie Macabre doesn't count as a black spell you actually cast). The big thing here is Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd, which seems so incredibly strong for rebuying a bunch of your ETBs while also being able to reset Murktides and other things.
Legacy Challenge 32 7/21
The fourth Challenge event of the week was the 32 player Sunday event. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Bant Nadu | 1st | ResponsiblyStupid |
| BUG Control | 2nd | iKhada |
| Gruul Stompy | 3rd | motown4 |
| Red Painter | 4th | kanican |
| Eldrazi | 5th | Venom1 |
| UB Reanimator | 6th | 2plus2isfive |
| Red Painter | 7th | _INF_ |
| Red Painter | 8th | Betrix2688 |
Painter had a solid foothold in this Top 8, but at the end of the event it was Bant Nadu that won.
This list contains functionally no Thassa's Oracle so it's primary win condition is probably looping Boseiju and Otawara with Endurance which is super silly to accomplish with clicking on MTGO.
In Second Place we had BUG Control.
Frog, Tamiyo, and even Bowmasters! This list looks pretty fun. Very interesting stuff here.
Further down the Top 8 we had Gruul Stompy.
Chandra's Incinerator?! Wow. This list is something.
Legacy Challenge 64 7/21
The final Challenge event of the week was the 64 player Sunday event. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Eldrazi | 1st | blademagician |
| Eldrazi | 2nd | Zolgia108 |
| Eldrazi | 3rd | secr3tm0de |
| Cloudpost | 4th | Long-Arch00 |
| UB Reanimator | 5th | Matt_Chow |
| Red Stompy | 6th | Sil3ntGoaT |
| Death and Taxes (Yorion) | 7th | Cheiffireball |
| Dredge | 8th | MahfuzVanGogh |
Eldrazi had a field day with the Top 4 here, with the first list being the RG variant.
Eldrazi Linebreaker is such an insanely powerful card. It can come down super early and very much suddenly just blows up the game by ending it super fast. This is aggro at its finest. One thing to note here is this variant doesn't play main deck Chalice.
In Second Place we had the more Green non Red variant of Eldrazi.
Gaea's Cradle is a sweet inclusion here. Wastescape Battlemage has also proven to be absolutely great in sideboard games where it can destroy things like Blood Moon or bounce things like Harbinger of the Seas.
At the bottom of this Top 8 we had Dredge.
Very straightforward and clean Dredge list here. Poxwalkers looking really good here.
Legacy Showcase Qualifier 7/21
We also had a Showcase Qualifier this weekend for the end of the current Premier Play season! This event is the feeder event to the MOCS and Regional Championship and is comprised of people who made Top 8 in Showcase Challenges and won Last Chance events. There was 30 players in this event.
You can find the decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| UB Reanimator | 1st | MentalMisstep |
| Death and Taxes (Yorion) | 2nd | xJCloud |
| UB Reanimator | 3rd | pickled6 |
| Bant Nadu Elves | 4th | L4rss0n |
| Eldrazi | 5th | acydcytryk |
| Grixis Delver | 6th | wiky |
| UB Reanimator | 7th | Anonymous |
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 8th | Nammersquats |
Pretty varied Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was UB Reanimator that won.
Very solid looking stock list for this deck. This continues to be the boogeyman of the format, but it is interesting seeing how people are shifting into things like Eldrazi.
In Second Place we had John Ryan Hamilton on D&T.
This is a solid looking list. Emperor of Bones is a super sweet card overall here, and Phantom Blade as a hit off Stoneforge Mystic seems incredibly sweet.
Also in this Top 8 we had Bant Nadu Elves.
We looked at this a bit earlier and the deck just continues to look very powerful and fun to play. I may have to try this one out at some point.
Around the Web
- Maxtortion has a video on Eldrazi Aggro with sideboard guide. Check it out here.
- The Legacy Gambit also has a video on Eldrazi. Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook is playing some Nadu Combo Elves. Check it out here.
- MahfuzVanGogh has some Dredge content for us! Check it out here.
- StrassDaddy is playing around with KUDO. Check it out here.
My Videos for the Week
I was super busy the past few weeks getting ready for a convention, so I hadn't had much time to record content for YouTube. I did two streams this past week and played Legacy! Here's both videos from this past week.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
Cloudpost with Candelabra?
Jeskai Control implementing some sweet Stiflenought tech in Dress Down and Doorkeeper Thrull is 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!
