This Week in Legacy: Yee-Haw!
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 checking in on the set Outlaws of Thunder Junction for any cards that could be Legacy related. We've also got some news on a third party initiative related to the Legacy Data Collection Project, as well as multiple Challenges from over the weekend in addition to the Showcase Qualifier.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Outlaws of Thunder Junction for Legacy
We've got a new Standard set right around the corner with Outlaws of Thunder Junction. This set is bringing together the worst of the worst, and it has some new mechanics such as Plot, Crimes, and Spree. Plotting is sort of like Foretell, where you pay a cost up front and exile the card at sorcery speed and then get to cast the spell on a later turn at sorcery speed without paying its mana cost.
Committing a crime is a terminology referring to whenever you are targeting an opponent or anything they control/own (this could be cards in play, spells on the stack, etc.). Spree is a new form of modal spell that lets you pay additional costs to get certain effects, but you can do it for any of the options (it makes sense when you see the cards for sure).
There are a few cards worth looking at for Legacy for this set, so let's take a look. This won't get everything as we're still waiting to see all the Commander cards, but we'll catch up on those next week. If you think I've missed anything from the main set, please let me know in the comments!
Assimilation Aegis
We continue to get more interesting Equipment here or there, and this one has a cost of being in two colors, which is not usually an issue since Stoneforge Mystic exists, but generally you want your Equipment to be castable outside of that just in case. This limits the playability of this to more Azorius based Stoneblade decks or possibly some form of Esper Vial. It's a cool effect though, being a Banishing Light effect that also makes a creature a copy.
Aven Interrupter
This card is pretty sweet. Being able to exile a spell on the stack and make it cost two more down the line is interesting. Ideally you're delaying the fact that they get to cast it for free + 2 (which they will often have) by tacking on additional prison pieces to prevent the spell later on. However, this being able to hit a big payoff card (imagine hitting Beseech the Mirror on their crucial turn where they don't have another permanent to sacrifice to later on) is interesting.
Final Showdown
I'm including this card because I think it's pretty important to address that this card is not Dress Down in white. The effect that makes creatures lose all abilities is a one shot effect on the creatures in play, and doesn't affect creatures that come later on, or affect creatures on the stack waiting to resolve. While this can kill constructs from Urza's Saga in white, which can be relevant, I think most assuredly not being able to do the Phyrexian Dreadnought thing is huge and a point against it. The other modes are inconsquential at this point because they will never matter in Legacy, and the fact that Spree doesn't change the mana value of the spell (it stays mana value one regardless of how much you tack on) means that cards like Chalice can hit this one easily.
Geralf, the Fleshwright
I actually think this card is kind of sweet. In decks that want to cast a lot of zero mana value spells (such as your Echo of Eons piles with Lion's Eye Diamond) this card can be very close to Monastery Mentor but in blue. That kind of effect can be quite good. I would not be surprised to see people try this one out.
High Noon
This card costing one more than Deafening Silence and that card doing the same thing most of the time is a bit rough for this effect. This is yet another kind of effect like this, and while the 5 damage aspect is neat, I don't know if this goes anywhere.
Jace, Reawakened
I don't believe this card is all that great. Not being able to cast it until Turn 4 is a pretty huge downside for the kind of broken shenanigans this could ensure. That being said, I hope someone makes the Leyline of Anticipation deck out of this (you hear me ThrabenU and BoshNRoll?) and Turn 2's Jace with it.
Kaervek, the Punisher
This card seems somewhat interesting in the monoblack shells because you often commit a bunch of crimes in those decks between cards like Grief, Thoughtseize, etc. Being able to copy a Grief from the graveyard seems kind of cool. Will be interested to see where this goes.
Return the Favor
This card does some funky stuff. Being able to hit a wide array of abilities/spells to get your own copy of it, while also being able to redirect another spell is flexible as heck. This might be a sideboard card, but it's a neat one.
Satoru, the Infiltrator
There's a lot of different ways that this card does stuff, namely decks like Ninjas where Ninjutsu is a thing as well as decks playing zero mana value spells like Ornithopter, but I think this card is genuinely at its best in the blue Force of Will versions of Dredge. As those are often slower builds, being able to speed up a dredge when you need to is intriguing, since you can turn Narcomoeba, Ichorid, Poxwalkers, and Prized Amalgam into additional Dredges. The fact that this pitches to both Forces and Grief is also a solid floor.
Tinybones, the Pickpocket
I don't know that this is all that good, but these mono black midrange shells keep getting more and more cards that there could be a version of that deck that wants this effect. Make your opponent discard and cast their Brainstorm or their Delver of Secrets, etc. It's probably not good, but at least he's cute.
Lord of Legacy - New Website Devoted to Data
Our good friend Albert Lindbloom (alli of Lands fame) has been quite busy lately! He's been piecing together a website app taking the data that we have been collecting on the Legacy Data Collection Project and has created a website initiative that showcases much of this information in a bit of a prettier looking setup.
You can find the Lord of Legacy website link right here.
This is a really cool initiative, and I hope to work more closely with Albert on this going forward!
Dice City Games - Rumble Against Cancer May 11
The awesome folks over at Dice City Games is doing an awesome event on May 11 with their Legacy Rumble Against Cancer event. A bonafide $7K event with a lunch buffet, charity, and coverage! This is awesome for sure to see. You can find the Twitter post for this here.
Legacy Challenge 32 3/30
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the Saturday 32-player minimum event. This event had 56 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
RUG Delver and UB Reanimator were the most popular decks, with both doing pretty well. UB Reanimator did very well indeed here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| RUG Delver | 1st | jiaohongchen |
| Naya Depths | 2nd | ZeusDesTodes |
| Goblins (Turbo Muxus) | 3rd | DoubleStrike2 |
| Grixis Delver | 4th | ThomasH |
| RUG Delver | 5th | kentaro_hokori |
| UB Reanimator | 6th | DInglis |
| Lands | 7th | DeathWrongShaman420 |
| RUG Delver | 8th | TheGrimLavamancer |
Fairly interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event, it was RUG Delver that won.
The trend of RUG Delver slowly going back to Izzet is interesting. The only green cards here being Questing Druid is quite a thing. It is neat seeing things like main deck Counterbalance for sure.
In Second Place we had Naya Depths.
Mawloc as a card in the main here is pretty sweet. Being able to fetch it off GSZ and have it clean up something small is pretty cool indeed. I also like seeing Echoing Deeps here.
Also in this Top 8 we had Goblins.
Very straightforward and solid list here. This is generally what we've come to expect from Goblins.
Legacy Challenge 32 3/31
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the 32 player Sunday Challenge. This event had 46 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
RUG Delver was again quite popular, and it had some strong top finishes here despite the win rate being dragged down a little. UB Reanimator didn't do so hot here, while Boros and BR Reanimator did well.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Boros Stompy | 1st | SHAKELION |
| BR Reanimator | 2nd | Magic_Dads71522 |
| RUG Delver | 3rd | MestariMatt |
| RUG Delver | 4th | Guyver1 |
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 5th | BaconLettuceTomato |
| Beseech Storm | 6th | Eureka22422 |
| RUG Delver | 7th | jiaohongchen |
| BR Reanimator | 8th | kthanakit26 |
Quite a bit of RUG and BR Reanimator here, but at the end of the event it was Boros Stompy that won.
Main deck Unlicensed Hearse is pretty cool. This is a strong looking list overall. Having Bombardiers is quite good at the moment.
In Second Place we had BR Reanimator.
Very solidly straightforward list. This has a bit of Tin Fins technology in the form of Shallow Grave which is super cool to see.
Further down the Top 8 we had Beanstalk Control.
Straight SIMIC BEANSTALK?! This is sweet. Cards like Commandeer are so cool with Beanstalk. Also, Hooting Mandrills?! Super sweet.
Legacy Challenge 64 3/31
The last Challenge event of the weekend was the 64 player Challenge on Sunday. This event had exactly 64 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
RUG, Beanstalk, and UB Reanimator were all super popular, and while all three of these had some top finishes, their overall win rates were medium at best. Lands did well here, as did Goblins and Grixis Delver.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Doomsday | 1st | wonderPreaux |
| UB Reanimator | 2nd | HJ_Kaiser |
| Grixis Delver | 3rd | silviawataru |
| Goblins (Turbo Muxus) | 4th | oosunq |
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 5th | handsomePPZ |
| Lands | 6th | DeathWrongShaman420 |
| RUG Delver | 7th | M_4 |
| Mono Black Reanimator | 8th | Roodslay |
This is a neat Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Doomsday that won.
This is a really solid-looking list for sure. Main deck Stifle is interesting for sure. I like the sideboard juke of Laboratory Maniac. That is cool.
In Second Place we had UB Reanimator.
Very clean and straightforward here. This is certainly a powerful deck, but is the format already adjusting to it? Not sure, but it seems like it.
Further down the Top 8 we had Lands.
I like the Punishing Fire builds. It seems like a strong version of the deck, but I definitely miss Elvish Reclaimer. That card is so powerful.
Legacy Showcase Qualifier 3/31
The weekend's final event was the Legacy Showcase Qualifier for the end of this past MTGO season. This is an invitation-only event from players who qualified via the Showcase Challenges as well as the Last Chance Qualifier events. This event had 29 players qualified for it, battling for qualification to the MOCS and an RC invite.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
This is a very small and sort of targeted metagame, so RUG Delver being the most popular deck is a lack of surprise. It did well here too, while it seems like Goblins did poorly, but it had a strong top finish. Meanwhile, Beanstalk decks were under-represented overall but did exceptionally well. These metagames are always very strange, so it's not super surprising.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 1st | ecobaronen |
| Beanstalk Control (Yorion) | 2nd | McWinSauce |
| RUG Delver | 3rd | duke12 |
| Goblins (Turbo Muxus) | 4th | Mav40121 |
| RUG Delver | 5th | Baku_91 |
| RUG Delver | 6th | JUJUBEAN__2004 |
| Red Stompy | 7th | badgods |
| Naya Depths | 8th | Eldhrimr |
Definitely a very Showcase Qualifier Top 8 here for sure. At the end of the event it was Non-Yorion Beanstalk that won.
This variation gets to lean hard on the bigger threats like Murktide and Triumph of Saint Katherine, with a four-color slant of having Bowmasters and the ability to play Leyline Binding. Definitely an interesting list.
In Second Place we had a Yorion based Beanstalk deck.
Bit bigger list overall, allowing it to play cards like Forth Eorlingas! and Witherbloom Command, with a main deck Carpet of Flowers being a powerful metagame call for these kinds of small metagames. Most players in these events are going to be on blue, so it makes good sense.
Further down the Top 8 we had Red Stompy.
These lists continue to look very good. The sideboard is pretty sweet here. Canoptek Scarab Swarm is such a great card in general.
Around the Web
- Florida Legacy Club has some backpack FNM coverage. Check it out here.
- Everyday Eternal has a new episode about 4Seasons. Check it out here.
- TonyScapone has some prowess kills! Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook plays his list from SCG Con in a league. Check it out here.
- The Legacy Gambit is HAMMER TIME. Check it out here.
- Brian Coval plays Boros "Game Actions" (Basically imagine all of the extra stuff like Initiative, Monarch, Sticker Goblin, etc. etc. etc.) Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
Scion of Draco is always cool.
Golgari Nic Fit featuring Chain of Smog Combo!
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!
