This Week in Legacy: To the TARDIS!
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 traveling through time as we take a look at the Doctor Who Commander decks and whether there's anything in those decks that could possibly see play in Legacy. In addition to that we've got two Challenges from this past weekend to take a look at.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
The Doctor is In - Doctor Who for Legacy
Yet another supplemental product is upon us with the release of the upcoming Doctor Who Commander decks! These four decks focus on four different aspects of the show (one deck on the Classic Doctors, one deck for 9th/10th/11th Doctors, one deck for 12th/13th Doctors, and one deck for the villains) and each deck has a number of different mechanics and focuses.
There are a lot of new cards in these decks, but for the most part a good majority of them seem to be very pared down and fun for Commander and not as powerful in a format like Legacy. No weird mechanics like Initiative to worry about here and primarily a lot of Planechase stuff too (which makes sense for Doctor Who).
We are going to cover a few cards here that did look interesting, but for the most part this set seems somewhat safe and even the cards we're covering might not actually see play.
Cyber Conversion
Right off to the start with a card that's probably not very good, but it can turn any creature into a 2/2 with no abilities so that's unique a little bit. There are other effects that do similar things, but leaving a 2/2 with no evasion isn't hateful.
Cybermat
The qualifier here of "attacks and isn't blocked" on a creature with Skulk is kind of sweet. I could see this seeing play in various artifact aggro-centric decks that are playing things like Patchwork Automaton etc. because it's cheap for two mana and it has a form of evasion that can sneak through extra damage.
Doomsday Confluence
This card is weird to grok. It does a bunch of different things based on how much you pay for X (and it's XX so double that) but it does do a weird impression of Mind Twist on the third mode (and since you can pick the same mode more than once it's sort of similar) and it's not targeted either. At its floor it's making an opponent sacrifice creatures or making 3/3s. I'm a big fan of versatility and this seems somewhat versatile but it's a little expensive to scale.
Everybody Lives!
Wildly interesting card, but it is true that Angel's Grace exists and that has Split Second. However this does give everything hexproof and indestructible and also gives you hexproof in white, which is interesting enough. Angel's Grace does not do that at least (so for example, this can stop a Tendrils of Agony cold while Angel's Grace only prevents you from losing the game until end of turn and then you lose at being at 0 or less life thanks to the fact that Angel's Grace only reduces damage not loss of life).
I think this is one of those cards where if you're teching against Storm kills this is great, but if you're teching against Thassa's Oracle then Angel's Grace is better.
The Moment
A very unique Ratchet Bomb effect, and even costed just like a Ratchet Bomb. It can save a creature from the Ratchet Bomb effect by phasing it out. Kind of neat. Doubtful it sees play in current Legacy but it is cool.
Reverse the Polarity
A pseudo-Mindbreak Trap effect that has some other utility modes. This is probably not playable at 1UU unfortunately, but the versatility is cool.
River Song
Wildly enough River Song might be interesting? The first effect of drawing from the bottom of your library is wildly crazy with Brainstorm and Ponder and especially Preordain (where you can literally scry the card you want to draw to the bottom to draw it from there).
Her second effect is also kind of cool since it's going to hurt the opponent whenever they fetch or search for whatever reason, and that's kind of neat. 1UR is rough though cost-wise, but it's a cool card.
Sergeant John Benton
Hear me out, I actually think this is the one card I've seen sofar that's very playable, specifically in shells like Maverick. It's weird to consider this because it makes your opponent draw too, but the fact that this splashes so well into those shells (1GW seems so easy there, that's Kotr mana!) and it plays well with a number of cards you already want to play in those decks (like Orcish Bowmasters for example, punishing your opponent for those extra card draws) that it seems like it could be realistically a thing.
The other fun thing to note here is that John has Trample and Haste, which makes for a prime target by Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes. Making this a 5/7 with trample and haste that draws five cards is terrifying, especially if you also have a Bowmasters in play at the same time.
Displaced Dinosaurs
This is the new Meandering Towershell. I don't make the rules.
Legacy Challenge 10/7
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Saturday event. This event had 65 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.
4C Uro decks were the most popular decks here, but their win rate was not so good. Dimir Scam did well as did Lands and Cephalid Breakfast. Jeskai didn't do so good, nor did RUG Delver or Grixis Delver.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Cephalid Breakfast | 1st | L4rss0n |
| Black Saga Storm | 2nd | musasabi |
| Red Stompy | 3rd | Butakov |
| Hammer Time | 4th | CrusherBotBG |
| Bomberman | 5th | kanican |
| Lands | 6th | Faiiith |
| Reanimator | 7th | Magic_Dads71522 |
| 8Cast | 8th | Moniz0801 |
Pretty interesting and varied Top 8 here honestly. At the end of the event it was Cephalid Breakfast that won.
This is a pretty nice list and seems reasonably solid overall. It's got a strong core and a strong backup plan in the Stoneforge Mystic + Urza's Saga game plans. Plus it's got two Shuko so you know it's OP.
In Second Place we had Black Saga Storm.
This variant has moved more into Grixis colors as it gains access to Ponder/Brainstorm sort of like ANT, but has a lot of the hallmarks of the Saga Storm variants. Beseech the Mirror seems quite good here.
Also in the Top 8 we had Hammer Time.
This list is pretty sweet. Haven't seen this deck pop up in a hot minute, so it's nice to see CrusherBotBG back at it and crushing.
Further down the Top 8 we had Bomberman.
We talked about this variant a while back with Agatha's Soul Cauldron. It's super sweet and seems quite strong. Having the ability to turn your creatures into Salvagers or Ballistae seems super strong.
Legacy Challenge 10/8
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the mid-afternoon Sunday event. Despite the issues with data we do know there were 98 players in the event thanks to the efforts of the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the incomplete datasheet here. This event had some technical issues so there was not full data for this event.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Boros Stompy | 1st | varal |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 2nd | L4rss0n |
| Boros Stompy | 3rd | burrarun |
| Cradle Control | 4th | s8shock |
| Izzet Artifacts | 5th | FunkiMunki |
| Sneak and Show | 6th | xfile |
| Grixis Delver | 7th | stu909090 |
| Mono Green Cloudpost | 8th | TrueFuturism |
Another interesting Top 8! Honestly these events this weekend looked really good. At the end of it, it was Boros Stompy that won.
Very straightforward stock list here. Seems very good. Forth Eorlingas! is so good in these decks for sure.
In Second Place we have the winner of the Saturday challenge back at it again on Cephalid Breakfast.
Two Shuko. Too Good.
Also in the Top 8 we had Cradle Control.
Chrome Mox seems like such a cool inclusion in these decks. It's going to function like a Mana creature without having to worry about creature removal, and it can be great at accelerating out certain hands.
Further down the Top 8 we had a sweet Izzet Artifacts build.
Adding Blue to the mix of the Paradox Engine / The One Ring deck seems great because you get Force of Will and Emry. PO is so sweet here.
Around the Web
- Bazaar of Boxes has a video on Grixis Delver. Check it out here.
- Tony Scapone is casting PO in Legacy. Check it out here.
- 90sMTG has Dimir Scam vs 8Blast. Check it out here.
- The Eternal Glory Podcast has an episode on Tempo. Check it out here.
- Eternal Durdles interviews Julian Knab! Check it out here.
- The Legacy Gambit has proclaimed Forth Eorlingas! to be better than Entreat the Angels! Check that out here.
The Spice Corner
You can find this past week's 5-0 deck lists over here. League postings are fixed! Hooray!
Esper Vial is always cool.
This Red Stompy deck is sweet. Ramping into Initiative creatures and aggro things with Name Sticker Goblin and Pyretic Ritual!
Agatha's Soul Cauldron is such a sweet card and building around it here is sweet.
Boros Dreadnought!
Creative Technique with Keruga!
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!
