This Week in Legacy: The New Dawn
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 taking a look at the first week with Aetherdrift legal, and especially how good Ketramose, the New Dawn can be in the format. In addition to that we have some Challenges to look at from last week.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Kitty Kat New God, Who Dis?
Aetherdrift has officially sped into Magic Online, and we're now seeing some early results of how some of these new cards are interacting in the format. One of the cards I reviewed in my set review was Ketramose, the New Dawn.
At the time, my brain was trying to wrap around where this effect would go in Legacy, because it's clearly a very powerful card for its mana cost. The thing that I was focusing on was the exile from graveyards, but the card does also specify battlefield as well, and of course right now there is a card in Legacy that is great for this kind of effect in the form of Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd.
Phelia and the stunning array of cards it can blink is quite wild, but since Ketramose does not specify that the card you're exiling doesn't need to necessarily be exiled from your graveyard or battlefield, you can use Phelia to blink your opponent's cards and still get to draw a card off the Ketramose trigger. In addition, effects like Emperor of Bones and Lion Sash are simply just absurd value engines with Ketramose in play, and the fact that Ketramose has menace, lifelink, AND INDESTRUCTIBLE makes it a real beast in combat to prevent it from either connecting or simply gaining more life to feed to its value draw engine.
The biggest aspect of this synergy over time has become the Phelia + Overlord of the Balemurk synergy, where Phelia can blink an Overlord that comes down via its Impending cost and then turn it into a 5/5 where it can continue to attack. This synergy combined with all the drawing this deck does means you're going to be stacked with cards and also blinking powerful effects. Imagine getting to blink a Solitude with Phelia and exile your opponent's creature and then just drawing two cards because of that (one off the Phelia exile, the other off the Solitude exile). It's incredibly powerful.
I'm excited to possibly see where this goes from here. I love things in Legacy that actively promote non-blue decks being given something strong to do in order to compete against the blue decks, and this seems like a really powerful addition to that suite of tools.
Legacy Challenge 32 2/12/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Wednesday event. This event had 39 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Esper Tempo | 1st | Villela |
| Red Stompy | 2nd | _Chamytinho_ |
| Red Painter | 3rd | JustCallMeJick |
| Chain of Smog Combo | 4th | Roodslay |
| Dimir Reanimator | 5th | 2plus2isfive |
| Grixis Tempo | 6th | Marcola |
| Rakdos Reanimator | 7th | Magic_Dads71522 |
| Mardu Energy | 8th | morsaaa |
Quite a bit of combo in the Top 8 here. At the end of the event though, it was Esper Tempo that won.
This is a very straightforward Tempo deck, to be honest. Tamiyo is pulling a lot of weight here, with Barrowgoyf and Murktide being the top-end game ending threats. Seems like a rather strong list.
In Second Place we had Red Stompy.
Eight Moon effects seems quite good versus Legacy as a whole right now, but backing those effects up with really strong game-ending threats like Bombardiers and Pyrogoyf is even better.
Legacy Challenge 32 2/14/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 37 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
A two-way tie of four copies each of Dimir Reanimator and Red Stompy here. Dimir did very well, while Stompy did okay despite a Top 8 finish. The other popular decks included Doomsday, Izzet Tempo, and Oops, while decks like Grixis Tempo and D&T had solid performances.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Nadu Midrange Combo | 1st | GuiBonella |
| Grixis Tempo | 2nd | Raydan |
| Doomsday | 3rd | Eureka22422 |
| Dimir Reanimator | 4th | xDingusKhan |
| Grixis Tempo | 5th | JoyfulWaffle |
| Death and Taxes - BW (Yorion) | 6th | yoshiwata |
| Red Stompy | 7th | SiL3nTGoaT |
| Death and Taxes - BW (Yorion) | 8th | JohnDoe397 |
This is a rather reasonable Top 8. Worth noting that both of the D&T players in the event made Top 8. At the end of the event it was Nadu that won.
Plagon, Lord of the Beach is such an absurdly sick card. Nearly every creature in Nadu has toughness greater than its power (outside of Nomads en-Kor which is a ONE-OF here) so you are more than likely going to draw a bunch of cards off its ETB, but then you can also turn all your big toughness threats into more damage with its activated ability. I am digging this for sure.
In Second Place we had Grixis Tempo.
Pretty straightforward Grixis list. The splashes in these decks are pretty light, given that the only black cards are Bowmasters and Molten Collapse. I can't count Surgical Extraction because it usually costs two life to cast. I think this is the going nature of these decks, and I think it's mainly because it does allow the deck to be slightly better versus Wasteland while also not having to go so deep on another color that you can be cut off when you need it.
Legacy Challenge 32 2/15/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 43 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Doomsday | 1st | m_himukai |
| Red Painter | 2nd | kanican |
| Izzet Tempo | 3rd | kentaro_hokori |
| Red Stompy | 4th | ecobaronen |
| Dimir Reanimator | 5th | Cena |
| Oops! All Spells | 6th | choutin |
| Dimir Tempo | 7th | Oceansoul92 |
| Dimir Reanimator | 8th | Galaxy_Impact |
This Top 8 does have a big combo presence (pretty much only two "non-Combo" decks in the Top 8), with the event being won by Doomsday.
This is a really interesting list. Personal Tutor showing back up again is quite nice. It's a good solid way for this deck to find Doomsday when it needs it, even if it is telegraphing that to the opponent. The biggest thing for me here is the surveil land. Surveil lands are still absolutely amazing and more people should be playing them.
In Second Place we had Red Painter.
Oh ok, this is neat. Instead of going deep on Welder and stuff, you just have Engineer but also big threatening cards like Barrowgoyf and Pyrogoyf. That is kind of sweet.
Legacy Challenge 32 2/16/2025 - 1
The fourth Challenge event of the week was the first Sunday event. This event had 36 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Grixis Tempo | 1st | Venom1 |
| Oops! All Spells | 2nd | Cachorrowo |
| Dimir Tempo | 3rd | DMianete |
| Oops! All Spells | 4th | Faria_Limer |
| Mono Black Reanimator | 5th | Roodslay |
| Red Painter | 6th | Betrix2688 |
| Dimir Tempo | 7th | _INF_ |
| Mono Blue Tempo | 8th | yushi013 |
This one is a bit more Tempo heavy, but still plenty of combo decks to contend with. The event was won by Grixis Tempo.
There's not much to say here, this is a fairly stock list. I would like to see a surveil land though. I think that works quite well with Dragon's Rage Channeler and is worth the [possible opening hand tap land that may occur.
In Second Place we had Oops.
This deck has been putting up a ton of results lately. The newer builds of this deck have so many interesting new cards and the ability to play through various targeted graveyard hate spells is quite cool with stuff like Memory's Journey and Jack-o'-Lantern. The sideboard juke into Belcher is also very strong.
Legacy Challenge 32 2/16/2025 - 2
The final Challenge event of the week was the second Sunday event. This event had 69 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Both Eldrazi and Red Stompy were popular, but Eldrazi's win rate was far below 50%. Red Stompy did a little better but despite Top 8 finish its win rate was still below 50% overall. Dimir Reanimator did very well as did Dimir and Grixis Tempo variants. While popular, Izzet Tempo seems to have tanked hard.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lands | 1st | Sprouts |
| Dimir Reanimator | 2nd | silviawataru |
| Doomsday | 3rd | gr33nashe |
| Oops! All Spells | 4th | Cachorrowo |
| Red Stompy | 5th | Jade-Venus |
| Omni-Tell | 6th | Erik157751 |
| Ketramose Blink | 7th | morsaaa |
| Dimir Tempo | 8th | KirdieKirdie |
Relatively interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Lands that won.
It is fairly nice to see Lands popped up again after a while of just not having a ton of results. This variation is playing one of my newer favorite Pauper cards in Malevolent Rumble, which is an absolutely great piece of tutor technology. Kinda like a Mulch but getting to nab any permanent is great.
In Second Place we had Dimir Reanimator.
The fact that this deck is still very good is something interesting about current Legacy. While it is so much worse than it was with Frog, it's still a really solid deck. I personally believe the big linchpin here is Troll of Khazad-dum because of how easy it makes enabling a Reanimator target that your opponent does have to deal with, which might make it harder for them to deal with the second target like Atraxa or Archon.
Around the Web
- Maxtortion has a video on Oops. Check it out here.
- 90sMTG is always awesome. Go check out a recent video here.
- Fenruscloud is playing some "Temur" Delver. Check it out here.
- StrassDaddy is living the Phelia dream. Check it out here.
- BeExcellent is playing some Aetherspark. Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook is doing The One Ring and Force of Will Storm. Check it out here.
- Eternal Durdles has David Marchesa on Esper Control. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
FOOD CHAIN. Amped Raptor?!!?!
Neat take on The EPIC Gamble with new card Stock Up and Artist's Talent.
WINOTA, JOINER OF FORCES.
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!
