This Week in Legacy: Warp Speed!
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 taking a look at some sweet tech in Legacy via Mono White Energy! In addition we've got some Challenge results from last week to peek at.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Warping Into Legacy
While we're waiting for Legally Distinct Spider-People to release, I thought it would be fun to take a look at a deck that specifically only came about due to the release of Edge of Eternities. One of the mechanics in that set, the Warp mechanic initially looked very powerful but in some cases not impactful enough, but actually playing with the mechanic a little can prove to show that it is something that can be quite strong.
This mechanic is aided by the fact that one of the defining cores of Legacy's aggressive strategies at the moment is the Energy core, bolstered by Guide of Souls and Ocelot Pride.
These two cards form the core of a cadre of decks from Boros Energy to Mardu Energy (both of which have had strong results in the past few months). But this deck not only gets to play this core, but also new Warp cards Haliya, Guided by Light and Starfield Shepherd.
What really makes both of these cards work is their Warp costs being so cheap. Haliya acts as another Guide of Souls that can also draw extra cards, and Starfield Shepherd can tutor either Pride, Guide, or Mother of Runes to hand whenever you need it. Of course, this is Legacy, so we're also getting to abuse a core of cards that can also include things like Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd and Ephemerate to hopefully ignore the Warp trigger.
In fact, one really cool thing you can do with Haliya if you really have to Warp her out, is you can cast her via Warp then Ocelot Pride, gain two life and then move to End Step. Order the triggers so that you get the cat token before Haliya's end step trigger and the Warp trigger, gain another life and then draw a card before Haliya warps out.
It is surprising just a bit to see a deck playing a lot of X/1s as many people will extoll about how much Orcish Bowmasters hurts these kinds of decks, but realistically Bowmasters has been sitting at below 26% or so roughly play rate, at just about 3ish copies. This is pretty low, to be honest, and it means that people are definitely taking advantage of that and honestly it's great to see. Outside of the Haliya trigger this particular deck doesn't draw a lot of cards, and it can kill rather quickly. In addition, Mother of Runes is pretty nuts on Turn 1 at the moment.
I love this deck quite a bit. I've played a few games with it, and I definitely got to do the thing of Ephemerate on a Haliya with an Ocelot Pride in play. It's a really strong and interesting deck, and it gets to abuse so many of the blink effects that have become popular in Legacy as of late. Flashing in Phelia and warping in a Shepherd or Haliya to just blink it with Phelia (growing Phelia at the same time).
It's great to see new decks arise out of set releases, and especially cool to see something like a new mechanic impact a format in a small but very cool way.
Legacy Challenge 32 9/10/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Wednesday event. This event had 49 players thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator was the most played deck of the event, but it had only a slightly over 50% win rate. Mystic Forge and Red Stompy both looked pretty good here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Jeskai Control | 1st | jankyb |
| Death and Taxes - BW (Yorion) | 2nd | SuperCow12653 |
| Red Stompy | 3rd | jade-venus |
| Dimir Reanimator | 4th | Hououin_Kyouma |
| Dimir Tempo | 5th | luvadepedreiro |
| Izzet Tempo | 6th | TheGenz |
| Dimir Reanimator | 7th | cicciogire |
| Red Stompy | 8th | TheWitchKling |
Very interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event, it was Jeskai Control that won.
I haven't seen a Jace, the Mind Sculptor in a real hot minute in Legacy. Kind of sweet. I also just really like Thundertrap Trainer.
In Second Place, we had D&T.
This is pretty much what we've come to expect out of current D&T lists. I think the combo of Phelia and other cards is just too strong and presents such a powerful thing to be doing in these lists. It's hard to deal with once it gets off the ground too.
Legacy Challenge 32 9/12/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 44 players thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator again had a vey strong presence, but its overall win rate was less than 50% despite a Top 8 appearance. Izzet Tempo and Red Stompy both looked super solid here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Eldrazi | 1st | Bawer |
| Izzet Tempo | 2nd | habsburger |
| Red Stompy | 3rd | GzusReturned |
| Red Stompy | 4th | TheGrimLavamancer |
| Dimir Tempo | 5th | _Shatun_ |
| Oops! All Spells | 6th | ryugha |
| Dimir Reanimator | 7th | otakkun |
| Dimir Tempo | 8th | igknighted08 |
A spread of Tempo, Stompy, and Combo. At the end of the event, it was Eldrazi that won.
Pretty interesting list here. No Rings, but a lot of aggressive plays. Sire of Seven Deaths is pretty sick.
In Second Place, we had Izzet Tempo.
A Life from the Loam in the sideboard here is hot. Also, Maddening Hex?! Wild.
Legacy Challenge 32 9/13/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 45 players thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator was again the most played deck, and its win rate rode the line of 50%. Dimir Tempo looked great here, as did Cephalid Breakfast and Lands.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Cephalid Breakfast | 1st | grindstone-cowby |
| Selesnya Depths | 2nd | Sol-e22558 |
| Grixis Control | 3rd | Ark4n |
| Dimir Reanimator | 4th | Munchlax446 |
| Dimir Tempo | 5th | Bezerra_da_Silva |
| Lands | 6th | FrankHolmquist |
| Izzet Tempo | 7th | Oceansoul92 |
| 8Cast | 8th | ItsSwiftyTime |
Fairly diverse Top 8. At the end of the event, it was Cephalid Breakfast that won.
Agatha's Soul Cauldron in the sideboard here is pretty clever. Being able to exile something like a Nomad in response to a Surgical Extraction is groovy.
In Second Place, we had Selesnya Depths.
Oh this is cool. Icetill Explorer seems pretty interesting as both an Exploration and a Crucible of Worlds that also enables itself with its Mill trigger.
Legacy Challenge 32 9/14/2025 - 1
The fourth Challenge event of the week was the first Sunday event. This event had 44 players thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator was again very popular, and had a fairly reasonable win rate. The real outliers here were Red Stompy and Mono Black Reanimator.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono Black Reanimator | 1st | Roodslay |
| Mono Black Reanimator | 2nd | Magic_Dads71522 |
| Red Stompy | 3rd | Will_Split |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 4th | triplesleeved |
| Red Stompy | 5th | -Fish |
| Dimir Reanimator | 6th | Maxtortion |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 7th | musasabi |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 8th | kanican |
Quite a bit of Mystic Forge here, but the end of the event was the only two Mono Black Reanimator players in the event.
These decks are relatively the same overall, although the Second Place list with a main deck Show and Tell is kind of sweet. The juke into Chain of Smog combo is also really cool.
Legacy Challenge 32 9/14/2025 - 2
The final Challenge event of the week was the second Sunday event. This event had 60 players thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator was again the most played deck, and it had a just over 50% win rate. Eldrazi looked super good here, as did Jeskai Control.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Jeskai Control | 1st | jankyb |
| Izzet Tempo | 2nd | i_b_TRUE |
| Eldrazi | 3rd | ferrarix |
| Red Stompy | 4th | Oderus Urungus |
| Eldrazi | 5th | lampalot |
| Dimir Reanimator | 6th | duckduckmongoose |
| Eldrazi | 7th | LucasG1ggs |
| Dimir Reanimator | 8th | Erik157751 |
Quite a lot of Eldrazi in this Top 8, but the end of the event was won by Jeskai Control.
This same player won the first Challenge of the week, so that's pretty cool. Ruination and Back to Basics in the sideboard is superb.
In Second Place, we had Izzet Tempo.
Pretty straightforward list here. Double Stifle is super sweet.
Around the Web
- Eternal Weekend registration is open! Go register if you are going!
- Throwing Hands, or is it Lands?
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
Rakdos Aggro is sweet.
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!
