This Week in Legacy: Tips and Tricks for the 2024 Legacy Gamer
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 diving into a bunch of interesting tips, tricks, and format interactions specific to Legacy and especially how they apply to 2024 Legacy! In addition to that we've got some paper events to discuss, as well as Challenges.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Tips and Tricks for the 2024 Legacy Gamer
It's been a while since we did a Tips and Tricks article. I put out a post on Twitter recently asking about what some of the more unknown interactions more people should know about. I got some great responses!
We're going to be going over some of the more interesting 2024 Legacy interactions, so let's get to it!
Painter's Servant + Eldrazi Lands
This one came up twice, but it's definitely an extremely relevant interaction to current Legacy and it's the interaction between Painter's Servant and the Eldrazi lands. This is interesting because both Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin directly specify the world "colorless" on them. Because Painter's Servant makes everything a color in addition to what it already is, all of the colorless spells / creatures (including those that are Devoid) gain a color, making them completely ineligible for the cost reduction or mana advantage provided by these two lands.
So for example, with a Painter in play, a Thought-Knot Seer costs 3C with an Eye of Ugin in play, instead of 1C, and you can't tap two Eldrazi Temple to cast it. In addition, you can't use Eye of Ugin to search for a colorless creature card, because Painter affects everything not in play as well.
With Eldrazi being a player in the metagame at the moment, this is a really good current interaction to think about.
Daze + Wasteland
This is not exactly a 2024 interaction since these cards have existed for some time, but the advice is incredibly relevant. This relates to scenarios where you are needing to cast a spell and you have a fetch land up, but may possibly run the risk of being hit by a Daze. The line here is to use Wasteland on the fetch land in response to the spell, which will naturally trigger the opponent to crack the fetch in response. Then you deploy the Daze in response to the fetch activation and your opponent has no ability to pay for the Daze.
To really play around this kind of scenario, it's likely better to just fetch first and then deploy your spell, rather than run the risk of being down a spell and a land at the same time. This is a pretty specific situation but it's important to recognize when you are in that situation.
Quirion Ranger/Scryb Ranger and Wasteland Protection
This seems pretty straightforward, but it's worth noting that this is a thing you can do with these cards. If your opponent is attempting to Wasteland one of your Forest-type Duals, you can protect it by bouncing it with either Quirion Ranger or Scryb Ranger. It doesn't matter what you untap with these, just that returning the Forest is part of the cost to activate so it will be gone from the battlefield before Wasteland resolves.
It's also worth noting that with Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth in play, you can do this with any land in play, not just your Duals!
Thespian's Stage + Urza's Saga
This is still a fairly relevant set of interactions in 2024 as Lands players are still playing these cards and doing these copy interactions between the two. The biggest and most important thing about this interaction is what happens when Thespian's Stage becomes a copy of an Urza's Saga. By default, just becoming a copy of the Land doesn't give it any lore counters. Lore counters are placed when the Saga enters or on your first main phase. Making a stage a copy doesn't trigger this. When this happens, you have an Urza's Saga with no counters and the ability to also become a copy of another land.
Here's where things get very unique. The Thespian's Stage that's now an Urza's Saga will gain lore counters like normal per the rules of Sagas. On the final lore counter (Chapter III), you can use Stage's ability to make a copy of another land and turn the Stage into something else in play (we'll talk about the difference between nonbasics vs basics here). What this does most importantly is that it removes the Enchantment type and the Saga sub type from the land entirely. Because the rules for Sagas only apply to permanents with the Saga sub type, you will get to search for an artifact with mana cost 0 or 1, and then your Stage-Saga will still be there, as it will be a land that has whatever ability that other land had while also having the ability to tap for C, and the ability to make Constructs. It will also have three lore counters on it, but that won't be relevant unless the Stage becomes the copy of a Saga again.
Saga rules state that if the Saga has a number of lore counters on it equal to the highest chapter number and that there is no Saga trigger on the stack, the Saga is placed into the graveyard as a state-based action. Because Stage removes the sub type, you no longer have to play by those rules, and you can keep making constructs to your heart's content with your Stage-Saga. If the Stage-Saga ever copied a Saga though, it would immediately go to the graveyard because there are still Lore counters there.
This interaction gets even better if you make your Stage-Saga become the copy of a basic land (for example, a Forest which sees play in many builds playing these two cards). Your Basic Stage-Saga will retain the abilities it gained from the Lore counters but it will be a basic land with the type of Forest. What makes this such a big deal is that this allows you to keep your Stage-Saga through effects like Blood Moon or Harbinger of the Seas and also allows it to be Wasteland-proof.
Preventing Life Loss from The One Ring
This also seems pretty straightforward, but if you play a deck that plays Stifle and The One Ring, you can use Stifle on the trigger in upkeep to prevent the life loss that turn. Maybe you need to have one turn without the life loss so as to not lose the game, or you just need to draw into a second Ring. Still, this is a thing you can do!
Ephemerate + Harbinger of the Seas + Dark Depths
Admittedly I haven't seen anyone trying this out in Legacy, but the theory behind it is sweet enough to share and it involves a new Modern Horizons 3 card in the form of Harbinger of the Seas. Thanks to rules changes a while back for cards like Blood Moon and other similar effects (Humility etc), when you have an effect like Blood Moon or Harbinger of the Seas in play, and then play a Dark Depths, that Depths comes into play as either a Mountain or Island (depending on which one) with zero Ice counters on it, as the ability for it to enter with those counters has been stripped away by the Moon or Harbinger. In the past this has led to some amusing decks playing Moon and Depths and figuring out a way to drop the Moon from play to immediately get a Depths with zero Ice counters, getting a 20/20.
In Harbinger's instance however (and also for Magus of the Moon, there is a clever loophole here that can allow you to get a 20/20 while at the same time continuing to lock down your opponent's lands in play with Harbinger. That card is Ephemerate!
This gets a little weird for sure. Dark Depths has what is called a "state" trigger. They're pretty rare, but the relevant rules to look at are 603.2a, 603.3, and 603.8 in the Comprehensive Rules. These govern things that occur when triggered abilities happen. 603.8 specifically calls out state triggers, as they are triggers that occur when the game state is "true" or not. Triggered abilities can trigger in the middle of an effect resolving, but they don't actually go on the stack until the next time a player would receive priority. This is very relevant to this situation.
State triggers are constantly watching the game state for when its condition is true. For most of these, this condition is "Is the game state true, and is there a trigger already on the stack?" If the answer to the first part is yes, and the second part is no, it will trigger. This is why if you try to Stifle a Dark Depths trigger, it will just immediately re-trigger.
In the case of casting Ephemerate on a Harbinger of the Seas, there is a moment during resolution where the Harbinger is not on the battlefield, and Dark Depths stops being an Island typed land. At that moment, Depths' state trigger is true and it will trigger, but not be placed on the stack yet as nobody has priority. Once Ephemerate is finished resolving and the Harbinger is back on the battlefield, and Ephemerate is in exile (due to Rebound typically), players receive priority and the state trigger for Depths goes on the stack. At that point, the trigger resolves and you then sacrifice it and get a 20/20 Marit Lage.
Amusingly enough in this example... I mentioned using Stifle on the trigger and how that typically works. This is actually the one corner case where you can Stifle a Dark Depths trigger and it won't re-trigger. This is because after Ephemerate is resolved and Harbinger is back in play, Dark Depths is again a Legendary Snow Land - Island with no other abilities, so it no longer has the state trigger to recheck. This means if you Stifle at this juncture, they won't get a 20/20 and the land won't be sacrificed, and the ability will not re-trigger.
This one was cool and shoutout to Jenn the Judge for posting this one recently, as it got me really thinking on it.
Bazaar of Boxes Series 12
Bazaar of Boxes Series 12 took place this past weekend at the Koning Willem II Stadion in Tilburg, the Netherlands. This venue looks absolutely insane, as it was a literal soccer stadium! Michel de Jong provided some sick pictures for us.
At the final hour, 97 players showed up to compete in some Legacy, in addition for a seat at the European Legacy Masters tournament later this year. Big thanks to Michel for continually supporting the column and being an awesome TO by providing us all the information we need for these write-ups. This event was also streamed and you can find the VOD below.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
UB Reanimator was very popular here and it's overall win rate was very good. Both Lands and Cloudpost rode the middle, while Stiflenought had a slightly above average win rate.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| UB Reanimator | 1st | RemiDierickx |
| UB Reanimator | 2nd | Tobias Garthe |
| Gruul Stompy | 3rd | Ruben Smeets |
| BR Reanimator | 4th | Stephan Mons |
| UB Reanimator | 5th | rasmus meijer |
| Beseech Storm | 6th | Jens Platz |
| Mono Green Cloudpost | 7th | Leonnepon |
| Elves | 8th | Yannick Neleman |
Lot of Reanimator here, and in fact the finals was two UB Reanimator decks against each other.
Two slightly different builds here, but only different in some md flex spots. The Second Place list has some Bowmasters main deck which is not super common since Psychic Frog became a thing, whereas the winning list has stuff like two main deck Brazen Borrower and Fatal Push.
Also in this Top 8 we had Gruul Stompy.
This deck looks super sweet and fun as heck. Initiative decks in general have had a pretty tough time lately, but this list looks incredibly cool.
Big thanks to Michel again for all the info on this event! It looked like a lot of fun.
Legacy Challenge 32 7/31
The first Challenge of the week last 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 1st | Navas |
| Grixis Delver | 2nd | HouseOfManaMTG |
| UB Reanimator | 3rd | Folero |
| Grixis Delver | 4th | hermanomlg |
| UB Reanimator | 5th | 2plus2isfive |
| Red Painter | 6th | YES_i_accept_SPLIT_ |
| BUG Tempo | 7th | dganev |
| UB Reanimator | 8th | Capitano_CL |
Quite a bit of UB Reanimator in the Top 8 here, but spread out. The event was won by Beans!
Psychic Frog seems a bit at odds with Beans until you realize that they both are just two mana draw card effects and they both feed each other. Seems like a great way to leverage your card draw into an early game, and Frog + Murktide is gross.
In Second Place we had Grixis Delver.
Speaking of the Frog, both it and Nethergoyf are slowly becoming stock for these lists, pushing the titular Delver out of its own deck (as is often the case when we have a strong effect like this on a creature at a similar mana value). Dark Betrayal in the sideboard here showcasing how much these decks want to be able to get rid of a Troll or Grief for cheap.
Legacy Challenge 32 8/2
The next Challenge was the Friday evening/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 |
|---|---|---|
| Red Painter | 1st | hrvr |
| Red Stompy | 2nd | SiL3ntGoaT |
| Grixis Delver | 3rd | LAURI_PROTOUR |
| Mono Green Cloudpost | 4th | CCdsmash |
| UB Reanimator | 5th | Ozymandias17 |
| Grixis Delver | 6th | Flossed |
| UB Reanimator | 7th | Munchlax446 |
| Bant Nadu | 8th | jibeta |
Pretty interesting Top 8 overall here. At the end of the event it was Red Painter that won.
More on the end of multiple Vexing Bauble and main deck Unlicensed Hearse here than the typical Soul Cauldron shenanigans we've seen implemented into Painter. Seems correct given the current state of the format.
In Second Place we had Red Stompy.
The addition of another set of MDFC lands is neat, but Sundering Eruption also being a land destruction effect that negates non-fliers from blocking is super strong. Pyrogoyf also looks really cool here. One big thing to note is zero Chalice of the Void and main deck Vexing Bauble.
Legacy Challenge 32 8/3
The third Challenge 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mono Green Cloudpost | 1st | Eldhrimr |
| UB Reanimator | 2nd | bjarnearne |
| Death's Shadow | 3rd | adorno666 |
| UB Reanimator | 4th | Jaraoh |
| Red Painter | 5th | CloutgoatRanger |
| Dimir Tempo | 6th | Ark4n |
| Eldrazi | 7th | musasabi |
| Death and Taxes (Yorion) | 8th | yoshiwata |
Interesting Top 8 here. Some bits of different strategies overall. At the end of the event it was Mono Green Cloudpost that won.
I really do like this deck and I've found it to be very interesting. Being able to play Urza's Tower in Legacy is a very amusing and fun thing for sure.
In Second Place we had UB Reanimator.
Fairly stock looking list here overall. I do like the split of main deck Borrowers and Fatal Push. Push in general seems quite good right now with all the Frogs hopping about.
Legacy Challenge 32 8/4
The fourth Challenge event was the 32 player Sunday event. This event had 42 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.
UB Reanimator was the most popular deck, and it's win rate was quite good. Eldrazi and Grixis Delver also looked very good, while Cradle Control and Golgari Depths did less than medium.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Esper Tempo | 1st | PunishingWaterfalls |
| Grixis Delver | 2nd | MestariMatt |
| Eldrazi | 3rd | choutin |
| Red Painter | 4th | kanican |
| UB Reanimator | 5th | Capitano_CL |
| Doomsday | 6th | clan |
| UB Reanimator | 7th | Venom1 |
| UB Reanimator | 8th | 2plus2isfive |
Bit of UB Reanimator at the bottom end of the Top 8, but it was Esper Tempo that climbed the ranks to win.
Oh this is pretty slick. Ocelot Pride has some sick gameplay with a lot of the cards in this list, which makes for some really unique gameplay. This seems like a super fun deck to try out.
In Second Place we had Grixis Delver.
Pretty solid looking list here. A lot of the sideboard options here make a ton of sense for things going on in the format at the moment.
Legacy Challenge 64 8/4
The final Challenge event of the weekend was the mid afternoon 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Red Painter | 1st | powered_by_VANYA |
| White Stompy | 2nd | Oppa |
| The EPIC Gamble | 3rd | TonyScapone |
| UB Reanimator | 4th | Messi_10 |
| Eldrazi | 5th | Paul-Blart-Mall-Cop |
| Eldrazi | 6th | musasabi |
| UB Reanimator | 7th | Ozymandias17 |
| Oops! All Spells | 8th | Taddy99 |
Fairly interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Red Painter that won.
Soul Cauldron shenanigans! I love this angle of the deck. It makes for some really interesting gameplay and some quick ways to close games out.
In Second Place we had White Stompy.
This is another super sweet deck. Again, Ocelot Pride and Guide of Souls looking super good here. I am digging this.
Around the Web
- PunishingWaterfalls has a video on their Esper "Pride" Tempo list. Check it out here.
- IN RESPONSE has a new episode. Check it out here.
- The Legacy Gambit has a video on Bomberman. Check it out here.
- StrassDaddy has a video on Mardu Control. Check it out here.
- Eternal Durdles has a Bloomburrow Set Review. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
Mono Blue Delver is neat.
Ruby Storm with Ral is neat.
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!
