This Week in Legacy: The Oops Conundrum
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 talking a little bit about Oops and how much of an effect that deck is having on Legacy at the moment. In addition, we've got some Challenge data to look at. There was also a Legacy Super Qualifier last weekend, but we only have results and no data for that one.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
The Oops Effect
It's no surprise lately that there's been a lot of chatter around the deck Oops! All Spells in Legacy. This deck has a lot to talk about because it's most certainly a good deck in Legacy that is ruffling a lot of feathers. For starters, Oops is currently the most played deck in the Legacy Challenge metagame at 8.4% or 108 copies since the bans at the end of March. With that, the deck currently has a non-mirror win rate of 55%. This is realistically a pretty incredible number for a deck that is ostensibly at the top of the metagame. It's functionally the best deck in the current Legacy format by far. The format is extremely warped by this deck's existence, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better.
One thing I've heard discussed a lot in spaces such as the Pauper Format Panel's published information on Pauper bannings is on the notion of Game 1 decks. Oops is a Game 1 deck. It really, really really wants to win Game 1 and its game plan is so good that I'm willing to bet that the number of Game 1 wins it does have is pretty high versus the rest of the format. Why is this? Well, Oops on its face does seem like a non-interactive face shredding Turn 1 combo deck, and in a lot of ways that's true, but in a lot of ways... the deck does have a ton of ways to interact with the opponent which is what allows it to do its thing Game 1 more often than not.
Consider that your average Tempo strategy in Legacy may keep maybe a Force of Will or a Daze in their opening hand, hoping that is enough to delay their opponent's initial turns. For simplicity sake, let's say they only have a Force of Will. Their opponent plays a Turn 1 MDFC land and a Turn 1 Balustrade Spy. This is a point where you absolutely need to deploy that Force of Will, because if you don't you will lose the game. However, say the Oops opponent has a Pact of Negation in hand. That Turn 1 piece of interaction wasn't good enough suddenly to stop the opponent because they also had an interaction piece. The chances of likely keeping a hand with multiple interaction pieces in the blind in Game 1 are pretty rare. It doesn't happen all that often. Furthermore, even if the opponent chooses to let their spell get countered by the Force, they may have a way to play something like Reanimate as a follow-up and get it back anyways. These Game 1 scenarios are a big part of what makes this deck strong, but it's also how the deck can succeed through multiple points of interaction as well.
This is where effects like Memory's Journey and stuff like Jack-o'-Lantern come into play. Suppose you are waiting to get your opponent after Spy or Informer have resolved. In that case, there's a fair chance you're still losing because the opponent could have the ability to stuff Oracle back into their library to simply try again next turn (and their library is now just the three cards they put in). Now the onus is on you to find another piece of interaction to stop that upcoming Thoracle.
Furthermore, even just letting Spy/Informer resolve there is a firm possibility you won't have any interaction to play, because of effects like Poxwalkers and Cabal Therapy. The deck's main construction is simply geared so much towards punishing decks that keep weak hands or don't have enough interaction to stop them.
Warping your play patterns or your deck construction to have more interaction isn't a good thing here, though. It's really the opposite, because this is warping to an extreme level, especially given how much this deck sees play.
Post-board is where these games with Oops get interesting. Yes, this is an all-in graveyard combo deck, but sometimes sideboarding for that isn't always going to work. If you have for example Leyline of the Void as your graveyard hate of choice, and you're relying solely on that to try to win the game, the opponent may sidestep that and put a Goblin Charbelcher into play. They might even have a Belcher main deck to trip you up in Game 1 so their Game 2 they can perform their regular game plan with some forethought that you didn't bring in any graveyard interaction. Attempting to interact with the graveyard with effects like Surgical Extraction or Faerie Macabre becomes difficult if your opponent has Journey to shuffle Oracle back in. Planning for a sideboard juke can be equally difficult as there are several differing versions of jukes that exist in the deck.
That all being said, it isn't always incredibly easy to prepare for this deck in post board games either because of many of these factors. Oops did use to be a deck that was regularly known as a "Force check" deck, and I think that is still true to state about it, but it's much more powerful than that in 2025. In general, I dislike thinking that we will end up having to ban yet another card or cards from Legacy at the end of June, but the possibility of needing to do so to curb Oops as a deck is unfortunately very real. The deck does seem to continue to keep getting better and the decks that aim to try to stop it are finding it difficult to adapt outside of really warping their deck construction to do so.
We've discussed before what possibilities could exist for dealing with this deck. A ban of either Balustrade Spy or Undercity Informer would likely completely dismantle the deck, although it would be interesting to see if putting in Destroy the Evidence (the ONLY other effect in the game that does what Spy/Informer does) at five mana would be good enough to keep the deck around but really slow it down. I suspect that would not be the case, personally, but a five mana sorcery does open the deck up to Force of Negation actually interacting with one half of its combo pieces.
The real question just becomes one of whether or not Legacy would simply just be better off without a deck like this in the format entirely. In a lot of ways Legacy has been a place where these kinds of weird and transgressive decks get to live, and if the idea is to actually power down Oops then the ban list update realistically is not going to be either Spy or Informer. It would have to be something else.
The biggest offenders that have really pushed the deck have been the MDFC lands from both Zendikar Rising and Modern Horizons 3. It does feel a little silly seeing something like Fell the Profane and Boggart Trawler on a ban list, but if the goal is to scale back the deck a bit, scaling back its more consistent mana is the thing that makes the most sense. If anything, this feels like the most realistic option to scale the deck back, because having consistent mana has been key to the deck's success. However, this is a lot of cards to possibly ban because there's a bunch of these MDFC cards out there. I've also heard some rumblings from folks wondering if its possible to change how these cards are referred to in the deck (i.e. making them appear as a land as well), but I don't think that is a feasible option that Wizards would be willing to explore simply for Legacy.
It also may make sense to go after effects that allow the deck to sidestep interaction or hate. Memory's Journey and Jack-o'-Lantern both seem equally silly to be on the banlist, but if that's what is required to keep the deck around, then so be it. Of these, Memory's Journey makes the most sense because of its instant speed interaction versus hate that can also be cast from the graveyard. Without Journey, there's not a huge reason to play Jack-o'-Lantern (which is used primarily to filter green for Journey). Removing something like this would scale the deck back
As much as I dislike the overall existence of Thassa's Oracle, I don't think it is the right ban to depower this deck down. It has a ton of splash damage, but it isn't the reason this deck is so much more consistent than it once was. Oracle is a boring bit of a win condition, but it's not really the broken piece of Oops as a deck.
I do believe that any action that Wizards will take will be to attempt to scale back the deck's power level and not kill it outright. This may lead to some weird cards on the Legacy banlist, but if their overall goal is to make the deck less consistent while still allowing people to play something that looks like it, that might mean we'll see an interesting amount of cards on the list. Personally, I don't really have a decisive opinion on Oops still getting to be a deck in the format or not. I personally like fun combo decks, but Oops does ride that line of being too good. I can see reasons both ways for scaling the deck back versus just getting rid of it outright.
What are your thoughts on Oops as a deck? Should it be removed from Legacy entirely? Just depowered? Let me know in the comments below.
Legacy Super Qualifier 5/10/2025
We had a Legacy Super Qualifier over the weekend! Super Qualifiers are Premier Play events where the Top 4 of the event receive an invite to an upcoming Regional Championship. They're sort of like large RCQs on MTGO. We didn't have data for this one but we do know there was 204 players, which is some solid Legacy action!
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Tempo | 1st | NathanLipetz |
| Oops! All Spells | 2nd | Danielpena397 |
| Izzet Tempo | 3rd | bolov0 |
| Beanstalk Control (Yorion) | 4th | McWinSauce |
| Dimir Tempo | 5th | Ale_Mtg |
| Dimir Reanimator | 6th | Pernobyl |
| PO | 7th | TonyScapone |
| Omni-Tell | 8th | Taddy_99 |
There's a good amount of Combo here in this Top 8 (4/8 of the Top 8 is a Combo deck), with some Tempo and Control. At the end of the event it was Dimir Tempo that won.
Much lower to the ground than what other Tempo strategies are doing, such as Izzet Tempo. Barrowgoyf and Kaito are really strong threats though, so it's not super surprising to see the cap out at four (and even then Kaito is usually a three because of the Ninjutsu ability).
In Second Place we had Oops.
We discussed this deck quite a bit earlier, but it's extremely telling for one deck at least to not only make it to the Top 8 of a 204 player event, but to make it to the finals? Pretty powerful.
Legacy Challenge 32 5/7/2025
The first regular Challenge event of the week was the Wednesday event. This event had 50 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Oops was the most played deck of the event, and it had a good win rate to boot. Izzet Tempo rode the line, while Dimir Tempo looked great. Dimir Reanimator and Jeskai Control here both looked very poor.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Tempo | 1st | _INF_ |
| Oops! All Spells | 2nd | DrPP |
| Izzet Tempo | 3rd | O_danielakos |
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 4th | KingCapivara |
| Red Stompy | 5th | WadeB |
| Grixis Tempo | 6th | MadHatter1442 |
| Dimir Tempo | 7th | albertoSD |
| Oops! All Spells | 8th | maytwer |
A lot of Tempo in this Top 8. At the end of the event, it was Dimir Tempo that won.
Definitely continuing to look like a solid and attractive option for Legacy at the moment. Disruptor Flute is a solid card in the sideboard.
In Second Place, we had Oops.
Charbelcher in the main is powerful. Making the opponent think they're against Charbelcher game one, only to Oops them game two is a real thing.
Legacy Challenge 32 5/9/2025
The second regular Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 50 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Tempo was the most played deck and it rode the middle of the road in win rate. Oops looked good, as did Dimir Reanimator and Red Stompy.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Jeskai Wizards | 1st | jibeta |
| Red Stompy | 2nd | GoblinElder |
| Dimir Tempo | 3rd | Suzukiii |
| Dimir Reanimator | 4th | Ozymandias17 |
| Oops! All Spells | 5th | TadalaDe20 |
| Death and Taxes - BW (Yorion) | 6th | JohnDoe397 |
| Oops! All Spells | 7th | TheGrimLavamancer |
| Black Midrange | 8th | lain5893 |
This is a pretty solid Top 8. At the end of the event it was Jeskai Wizards that won.
I love me some Thundertrap Trainer. This deck is really cool. Getting to utilize the modal power of Flame of Anor is super solid.
In Second Place we had Red Stompy.
Extremely clean and straightforward list here. Ashen Rider as a nod to Show and Tell decks is a very real thing, but it does seem like Sneak and Show and friends are dipping back to where this may not be necessary.
Legacy Challenge 32 5/10/2025
The first third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 36 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Several decks were at the top spot here. Oops and Izzet both looked good, as did Cradle Control and Sneak and Show.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Doomsday | 1st | nevilshute |
| Cradle Control | 2nd | LarthPursenas |
| Oops! All Spells | 3rd | EiJunCHUN |
| Izzet Tempo | 4th | Rhysiner |
| Jeskai Control | 5th | habsburger |
| Red Stompy | 6th | GodOfSlaughter |
| Nadu Midrange Combo | 7th | pagan20 |
| Izzet Tempo | 8th | Oceansoul92 |
This is a fairly reasonable Top 8. There's some Combo but also Tempo and Control. The winner of the event was Doomsday.
Tempo Doomsday is neat. Also Jace, Wielder of Mysteries as an alternate win con to Oracle is sweet.
In Second Place we had Cradle Control.
In this deck, Scythecat Cub is one heck of a beater. That card goes very hard and gets big very fast. It's cool that this deck has found another strong threat to keep it relevant.
Legacy Challenge 32 5/11/2025 - 1
The fourth regular Challenge event of the week was the first Sunday event. This event had 42 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Izzet Tempo was the most played deck, but it's win rate wasn't too good. Oops looked really good, as did Dimir Reanimator and Dimir Tempo.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Reanimator | 1st | Prim3Time |
| Grixis Control | 2nd | pokemoki |
| Death and Taxes - BW (Yorion) | 3rd | yoshiwata |
| Nadu Midrange Combo | 4th | einstein9998 |
| Dimir Tempo | 5th | _INF_ |
| Oops! All Spells | 6th | John_Cabral |
| Oops! All Spells | 7th | JTlemmon |
| Cradle Control | 8th | Infernum_Doge |
Lot of Combo here but also some Control and Tempo. At the end of the event it was Dimir Reanimator that won.
This feels like what we've come to expect out of this deck now. There's a lot I think that would have to go away to make this kind of shell at the bare minimum not so good in Legacy.
In Second Place we had Grixis Control.
Whew. I love me some Dack Fayden and Hullbreacher action. Super sick. This is a really fun looking list.
Legacy Challenge 32 5/11/2025 - 2
The final regular Challenge event of the week was the second Sunday event. This event had 53 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Izzet Tempo was the most played deck, and it looked pretty good. Mystic Forge and Oops both looked great, as did Black Midrange piles. Dimir Tempo and Reanimator both looked just okay, despite Reanimator having a Top 8 appearance.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Black Midrange | 1st | lain5893 |
| Dimir Reanimator | 2nd | Funnyman31399 |
| Oops! All Spells | 3rd | helvetti |
| Creative Technique | 4th | Uzbek |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 5th | Peppe |
| Izzet Tempo | 6th | Oceansoul92 |
| RW Energy | 7th | jamiewvh |
| Saga Storm | 8th | TonyScapone |
Fair amount of Combo here as well. At the end of the event, it was Black Midrange that won.
Very aggressive-looking list here. Topping out at Barrowgoyf is very powerful especially when you can Dark Ritual things out. Very cool deck.
In Second Place we had Dimir Reanimator.
Very similar list to another list that popped up in the finals this past week. Not much else to say about this list really.
Around the Web
- Reddit user Matthew631998 has a big primer on Stiflenought. Check it out here.
- GreenSunsZenith has an article on Opening Hand Sequencing with Naya Depths. Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook is playing some TES. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
UGIN.
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!
