This Week in Legacy: The Temptation of the Ring
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 are going to Middle-Earth with a look at the new Lord of the Rings set and how it might impact the Legacy format. In addition to that we've got several events to cover including a Legacy Super Qualifier from over the weekend. It's also worth noting that this past weekend was 4Seasons Bologna too, but we will not have full data on that one for a bit so we'll cover that next week.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
The Ring May Tempt You - Lord of the Rings for Legacy
While we are still in the midst of spoiler season, it's a good time to start poking at some of the cards from Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth and how any of those cards may impact the Legacy format. We already have discussed a few of these cards before today, as well as "The Ring Tempts You" mechanic. We're going to take a look at the rest of what might be playable in Legacy.
Boromir, Warden of the Tower
This card gives me a lot of vibes of Lavinia, Azorius Renegade in that it cuts off a lot of spells like Force of Will and evoke Elementals as well as stuff like Lion's Eye Diamond. Lavinia's castability is a little rough at times with UW being the limiter, but 2W is interesting because of the presence of Ancient Tomb. In addition, this can protect against board wipes or damage based removal if need be.
Council's Deliberation
This is somewhat interesting in that it has an extra effect from the graveyard later on. The big limiter here is that you have to scry, but that means maybe playing cards like Preordain more to enable the extra draw. It's a weird card but it could have some play to it.
Stern Scolding
I don't particularly like this card. It doesn't counter a lot of things really, and a lot of the things it does counter can be hit by stuff like Minor Misstep (and even that card sees very minor play).
Orcish Bowmasters
Okay well this is absolutely a card. I would not be shocked to see some form of deck either built around this card or utilizing this card in some fashion. The fact that it deals damage to any target is what really makes it strong. This can absolutely stop a Glimpse of Nature chain cold by just leveraging the damage at their creatures and forcing them to stop their draws. It deals 4 damage and you get a 4/4 in response to a Brainstorm (one trigger for ETB, three triggers from draws), and it's just a really solid punisher card at a very aggressive mana cost.
I am absolutely 100% looking forward to some insane brew of Killabee's that plays this card alongside Echo of Eons and Runehorn Hellkite though for sure. Outside of The One Ring this might be one of the best cards in the set.
Cast into the Fire
The fact that the modes on this are so good is pretty interesting enough for me. Being able to axe two small creatures or exile an artifact is something that can be extremely relevant, since this can exile things like Kaldra Compleat and The One Ring. I doubt it's so good that it sees a ton of play but I can definitely see sideboard play for this.
Moria Marauder
This reminds me a lot of Rundvelt Hordemaster, except you can play any card with it. However, it's much more reliant on things like combat damage, where Hordemaster is able to be enabled by Skirk Prospector. This might not be that great overall because of that.
Delighted Halfling
Yes, well this card exists. The fact that this card is functionally Cavern of Souls mana for Legendary spells is kind of nutty. I don't know if this will be insane because most of the Bant decks don't want to play a mana dork (but some do play Noble Hierarch) that doesn't really do much unless its casting Uro or Teferi, Time Raveler. At least you can use Hierarch for actual spells.
There's a world where this is possibly the most insane thing or it's absolutely bad. Probably zero middle ground in between here.
Great Hall of the Citadel
There have certainly been decks where people have played Interplanar Beacon in Stompy decks to power out various Planeswalkers. While it has slightly different wording, this is basically another copy of Interplanar Beacon and that alone is enough to make me interested in it.
Bill the Pony
As has been predicted, Bill the Pony will crush Legacy under his mighty hooves!
Legacy Super Qualifier 6/2
This past Friday was a genuine Legacy Super Qualifier event! These events give out qualifications to a Pro Tour event, making them basically RCQs on MTGO. This event was held as part of the ongoing All Access period on MTGO. This event had a strong 201 players overall on it, thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Reanimator was the most popular deck in the event by a lot, and while it had a less than 50% win rate, it still has a lot of power in the current format. 8Cast did slightly worse despite having a top finish, while Lands did very well. UR Delver had a strong performance as well.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Yorion Zenith | 1st | MentalMisstep |
| Jeskai Control | 2nd | MCScards |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 3rd | Cherryxman |
| 8Cast | 4th | ItsSwiftyTime |
| 4C Uro Control | 5th | Rudabega |
| Boros Stompy | 6th | burrarun |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 7th | Hampuse1 |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 8th | Solidsnake408 |
Kind of a wild Top 8 here for sure. At the end of the event it was a split finals between Yorion Zenith and Jeskai Control. Let's take a look at the Yorion Zenith list.
This list is pretty cool. Nissa, Resurgent Animist is certainly an incredibly interesting card in these kinds of decks, especially with cards like Omnath and Endurance floating about.
The official Second Place finalist was Jeskai Control.
Very few frills here. Shark Typhoon as a strong win condition and some really strong control elements. I like the look of this a lot for Jeskai right now.
Also in this Top 8 we had Mystic Forge Combo.
Very interesting to see this deck not only putting up one copy but two copies into the Top 8. Not much of this deck has really changed over time other than having gotten cards like Otawara, Soaring City.
At the bottom half of the Top 8 we had Boros Stompy.
Stronger red splash here with Fable and Caves of Chaos Adventurer. Not a lot of frills or spice going on here, just good clean aggressive prison!
Legacy Challenge 6/3
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Saturday event. This event had 58 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
No single deck had a lead in popularity here, but two of the top decks were tempo/Daze shells. 8Cast however had a strong performance, as did RUG Delver and Death's Shadow. Sneak and Show also did very well. Reanimator suffered here a lot, which is interesting to see.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Red Stompy | 1st | Testacular |
| Red Painter | 2nd | CloutgoatRanger |
| 8Cast | 3rd | CoolUser |
| RUG Delver | 4th | Lord_Beerus |
| Death's Shadow | 5th | ecobaronen |
| Bomberman | 6th | kanican |
| Sneak and Show | 7th | JPA93 |
| 8Cast | 8th | moatzu |
Lot of Ancient Tomb here in this Top 8 for sure. At the end of the event it was our good friend Testacular not on Elves but on Red Stompy!
I am really loving the addition of Cursed Mirror here as a piece of tech. Being able to copy any creature is really strong, even for a turn, at 2R. The Emrakul in the sideboard is definitely showing the respect for Painter, and trust me... it paid off.
Because well... Second Place was our good friend Callum Smith on Red Painter!
I love love love the main deck Portal to Phyrexia here. Seems incredibly strong. The inclusion of two Karn is interesting as well, but it makes sense with the current climate of decks like 8Cast and even Reanimator (getting Tormod's Crypt with Karn is decent).
Also in this Top 8 we had RUG Delver.
Very light green splash overall for really just threats like Goyf and M&B. Looks like a really solid no frills list for sure.
Further down the Top 8 we had Bomberman!
I always love seeing kanican do well with Bomberman. It's certainly a real thrill.
Legacy Challenge 6/4
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the mid afternoon Sunday event. This event had 87 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Some wildly interesting decks in the most popular category here including Mystic Forge Combo. This event looked pretty all over the place really. Legacy has certainly been a rollercoaster for sure.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Yorion Zenith | 1st | Trohck |
| Doomsday | 2nd | wonderPreaux |
| Death and Taxes | 3rd | l337erhosen |
| UR Delver | 4th | JUJUBEAN__2004 |
| Jeskai Control | 5th | Shadowz2005 |
| Esper Vial | 6th | Carroz |
| Red Stompy | 7th | AFX |
| RUG Delver | 8th | ejk |
Lot less Ancient Tomb this go around and a lot more blue decks. At the end of the event it was Trohck on a deck they are calling YES (Yorion Ephemerate Spellseeker).
This list is pretty cool. It utilizes Ephemerate alongside cards like Eternal Witness to loop ETB effects. Trohck even wrote a guide for the deck, which you can find here. Very cool innovation for sure!
In Second Place we had Doomsday.
Looks like quite a stock list for sure here. The Subtlety in the sideboard are interesting for sure, but I can see the reasoning behind wanting to cripple the Stompy decks that rely on things like Archon of Emeria etc.
Also in this Top 8 we had Death and Taxes.
Has been a truly long while since I've seen not only 60 card DnT but also cards like Serra Avenger! Wild list, very old school DnT.
At the bottom half of the Top 8 we had Esper Vial.
There's a lot of really sweet synergy in this list. It's got a lot of really powerful things it can do. I especially enjoy the massively 1-of's sideboard that reflect just how much of a toolbox deck this deck really is.
Around the Web
- PunishingWaterfalls has a new video on a Challenge Top 16. Check it out here.
- TURN ONE WIN
- Eternal Durdles is talking Lord of the Rings. Check it out here.
- 90sMTG has Humans vs 8Cast! Check it out here.
- The Eternal Glory Podcast has a new episode out. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
You can find this past week's 5-0 deck lists over here.
Solid Aggro Artifact list right here.
Zoo featuring Invasion of Gobakhan!
Very neat Loam-Control list with Wrenn and Realmbreaker!
This Esper list is something else.
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!
