SCG Open Report Follow-up: The State of Legacy

I'd like to start this article by saying that I am not a Legacy player.  I have likely played under 20 Legacy events in my life, with the vast majority of those being weekly Get Your Game On events when the top 4 split after playing an unexciting 4 or 5 rounds.  I have previously chosen to write about Legacy as little as possible, since the format is not important at a PTQ level and other Rusty contributers (aka Gandhi) are much better equipped to tell you about the format than I am.

However, after witnessing what was going on at the SCG Legacy Open I decided to write down my full view of Legacy as a format.  Of the people that were playing in the event, the vast majority of them had very little idea what was going on in the format.  Whether it was Ari's opponent who had to ask him what he meant by the phrase "storm count" or the fact that one of my opponents was playing enchantress, it simply bewilders me that someone would drive several hours to pay $30 for a 9 round tournament where they have no real idea what's going on.

I'll admit that in Ann Arbor (and southeastern Michigan in general), Legacy is a much more popular format than most anywhere else in the Midwest, and the quality of players at Get Your Game On is relatively high (in fact, 3 Game On regulars made top 16 in Indi and another 2 made top 32).  This doesn't change the fact that most decks people are playing in Legacy can be vastly improved upon.




Let's begin with a listing of the categories of decks I think exist within Legacy.
1. Pure combo
2. Combo with protection
3. Fast aggro
4. Synergistic aggro
5. Control
6. Decks that punish opponent's mistakes

If you don't believe a deck fits into one of these categories, it probably isn't worth playing.  Realistically, the only reasons I can see for wanting to play a deck in Legacy are that it fits into one of the above categories.  The format is broad enough where you can choose a deck based on your own preferences and play style, but your deck either has to be as fast as possible (divided into aggro or combo), as good at stopping your opponent as possible, extremely difficult to disrupt, or very good at punishing your opponent for screwing up.

With that said, its time to break down the categories a little further.

1. Pure Combo
"Best" Choice:  U/B Storm
"Less Good" Options:  4 Color Storm, Dredge, Belcher, Elf Combo

This is the choice if you want the end the game as quickly as possible.  If your opponent can't stop you, they might not get a 2nd turn.  As realistically, all of these decks average close to a turn 2 kill, I believe straight U/B Storm is the best option simply based on it being the least vulnerable to commonly played disruption cards (Force of Will, Wasteland, targeted discard).  Here's Ari's most recent storm list from his top 16 finish at the SCG Open.

Lax Storm | The Rusty Machete

0 Creatures:  

43 Spells:  
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
4 Infernal Tutor
2 Grim Tutor
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony

17 Lands:  
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
2 Verdant Catacombs
3 Island
2 Swamp

15 Sideboard:  
2 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Confidant
1 Ad Nauseam
3 Chain of Vapor
2 Rebuild
1 Tendrils of Agony
2 Thoughtseize

For those of you not aware of how this deck works, you start the game with some draw spells to set up your hand, Duress/Thoughtseize to make sure its safe, then you go off.  Playing a bunch of mana generating spells, then a tutor set up the end game of either Ill-Gotten Gains (you just loop to add the last few spells for storm), just playing 10 spells including the Tendrils of Agony (usually you Infernal Tutor for Infernal Tutor some number of times given enough mana), or casting Ad Nauseam to draw enough cards that killing them is fairly easy.

Counterspells of various types are obviously an issue for this deck, since if your tutor, Ad Nauseam, or IGG gets countered you're left with basically no hand and nothing but lands on board.  Discard spells are also good against storm just as they are good against almost any combo deck.  However, the 12 draw spells and 6 discard spells the storm deck has are pretty good at stopping your opponent from disrupting your combo, so 1 for 1 answers aren't as good vs. U/B storm as they are against other combo decks.

The best way to beat these strategies is to employ difficult to beat trumps such as Counterbalance or Leyline of Sanctity.  There exist plenty of cards that, when in play, make it impossible for storm to kill you, but Chain of Vapor and Rebuild allow the Storm player to still kill you eventually.

Overall, the best way to fight pure combo decks is a fast clock backed up by enough disruption to allow you to live long enough to kill them (assembling Counter-top counts as killing them).  Slow control decks won't get there since Storm will be able to set up to kill you eventually.


2. Combo with protection
"Best" Choice: Show and Tell/Sneak Attack
"Less good" Options: Reanimator, Hive Mind, Painter/Grindstone, High Tide

Although not as fast as the pure combo decks, these decks contain significant protection for their combo to make it much more difficult to answer.  Here, I believe Show and Tell is the best choice simply due to the fact that the creatures you're putting into play are the most difficult to answer threats possible and therefore you have the best chance of winning once you've combo'd.

Here is my current list (note that it is slightly different from what I posted in my tournament report)

Show Me What You Got | The Rusty Machete

10 Creatures:  
4 Emrakul
4 Progenitus
2 Simian Spirit Guide

29 Spells:  
4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
3 Intuition
4 Force of Will
4 Daze

21 Lands:  
3 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Island
1 Mountain

15 Sideboard:  
3 Blood Moon
3 Firespout
3 Pyroblast
1 Echoing Truth
1 Wipe Away
2 Threads of Disloyalty
2 Vendilion Clique

I added an extra Island instead of a Spirit Guide both because I felt the 21st land was necessary and to give an extra blue source.  Vendilion Clique out of the board is good both as solid disruption as well as a way to get rid of extra copies of combo pieces in your hand.  It also makes killing with Sneak Attack easier, which is always nice.

The downside to a deck like this is that it is a slower combo deck, making it legitimately possible to lose a race.  You are still very ahead of any deck trying to play fair, but dying on turn 2 or 3 is possible.  Thankfully you have counters to try to prevent a quick death.

Overall, this deck is likely favored against almost every deck you can expect to play against.  However, you don't have as lopsided matchups as pure combo, so there's a realistic chance to lose at any time (as evidenced by my loss to Zoo).

3. Fast Aggro
"Best" Choice: Burn Zoo
"Less Good" Options: Regular Zoo, Mono-red Burn, various G/W decks

These are the decks that simply don't care what their opponent is trying to do.  The zoo decks have many creatures that go a long way towards winning by themselves, therefore making single answers less good than against the combo decks.  However, since you have no legitimate way to interact with your opponent's strategy, you will have a tough time beating any combo decks.

Burn Zoo is by far the fastest of the fast aggro.  With less unconditional removal and no Knights of the Reliquary you are slightly behind to decks that do have those cards, but the added speed makes you significantly better against every other deck in the format, with a legitimate chance to race combo and the ability to kill control before they can set up anything.
Here's a sample list:

Burn | The Rusty Machete

20 Creatures:  
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Goblin Guide
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Grim Lavamancer

19 Spells:  
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Rift Bolt
4 Fireblast
2 Price of Progress
1 Sylvan Library

21 Lands:  
4 Arid Mesa
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Taiga
3 Plateau
2 Mountain
1 Forest

15 Sideboard:  
4 Path to Exile
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Sulfuric Vortex
2 Price of Progress
2 Oblivion Ring

This is likely the deck I would recommend to anyone first entering the format.  You really don't have to care what your opponent is doing, just play your cards and kill them as quickly as possible.  You have a full 16 1-drops and 18 burn spells, making it reasonable for your opponent to die completely out of nowhere.  The sideboard contains even more burn with extra copies of Price of Progress and Sulfuric Vortex and answers to anything that might cause issues.

Overall the most straightforward decks in the format, fast aggro decks are always a solid choice unless you expect a high amount of combo decks.

4. Synergistic Aggro
"Best" Choice: Goblins
"Less Good" Options: Merfolk, Affinity, Elf Aggro

Much as the name suggests, these decks are trying to exploit some powerful synergy in order to make for a better deck in combat.  Here my vote is for Goblins simply because I believe it has the best synergies between Goblin Lackey, Ringleader, and Matron along with the power of Aether Vial.

Here's the list that made top 8 in Indianapolis in the hands of Phil Jones:

Goblins | The Rusty Machete

31 Creatures:  
4 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Matron
3 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Mogg War Marshal
2 Seige-Gang Commander

7 Spells:  
3 Warren Weirding
4 Aether Vial

22 Lands:  
4 Badlands
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
5 Mountain

15 Sideboard:  
1 Goblin Chieftain
1 Goblin Piledriver
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
3 Leyline of the Void
3 Mindbreak Trap
3 Pyroblast
3 Pyrokinesis

Individually, none of the goblins hit very hard, but Ringleaders make sure you never run out while Incinerators and Warren Weirdings clear the way for Piledrivers to hit for double digits.  A turn 1 Goblin Lackey can get out of hand extremely quickly and Aether Vial is just as good on the first turn.  Rishadan Ports and Wastelands provide a small amount of disruption to give you time to build up quite an impressive army.

Overall, these decks have the potential for a more powerful late game than other aggro decks, but take longer to get going and without a large board presence their individual cards are fairly weak.

5.  Control
"Best" Choice: Counterbalance
"Less good" Options: Landstill, Stax, Lands

Here we get to the category of decks that don't actually care when they kill their opponent.  They simply want to make it impossible to lose the game.  Counterbalance is the best choice against most decks since once your opponent can't resolve spells its pretty tough to lose, although vs. decks with varying mana costs the actual Counter-top lock is less good.

Here is Ben Wienburg's list that just won in Indianapolis

Counterbalance | The Rusty Machete

8 Creatures:  
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Trinket Mage

30 Spells:  
2 Firespout
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Spell Snare
4 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterbalance
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Pithing Needle
1 Engineered Explosives

22 Lands:  
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Flooded Strand
3 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island

15 Sideboard:  
2 Firespout
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Krosan Grip
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Spell Pierce
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress

4 Counterbalance, along with 4 Top and Trinket Mages give you the best chance of assembling the combo as early as possible.  Swords, Firespouts, and Explosives deal with creatures that enter play, and Force of Will helps stops any shenanigans in the meantime.  Once the game is locked up, Tarmogoyf ends the game quickly, but realistically a single Trinket Mage or even Jace will kill your opponent once you have control.

Control can always be built to beat certain strategies, but you are always going to be weak to something.  The current Counterbalance lists are weak to Merfolk and Goblins, and fast Zoo draws are tough to beat as well. However, you can easily tune your deck to beat whatever decks you feel are going to be most popular if you know a local metagame well.

6. Decks that punish misplays
"Best" Choice: Merfolk
"Less Good" Options: Rogue Decks, New Horizons

Again the name is pretty obvious.  These decks are legitimately terrible if your opponent knows what's going on, but they are good at forcing less competent opponents to make mistakes and good at capitalizing on those mistakes.  Merfolk is the best here, since between Wasteland and Daze (and to some degree Cursecatcher, Stifle, and Spell Pierce) you can punish people for having poor mana bases.  In addition, Standstill is a rather tough card to play against if you're unexperienced (just look at Brad Nelson in the top 8 of GP Columbus).  Add in Aether Vial and various Lords making combat more complicated and Merrow Reejerey tricks and Merfolk is fully capable of smashing anyone who is unprepared.

Here's Alex Bertoncini's list from the Indianapolis top 8

Merfolk | The Rusty Machete

25 Creatures:  
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Merfolk Sovereign
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
1 Sower of Temptation

13 Spells:  
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Aether Vial
1 Spell Pierce

22 Lands:  
13 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Wasteland
1 Mishra's Factory

15 Sideboard:  
2 Back to Basics
4 Hydroblast
1 Spell pierce
3 Submerge
2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Llawan, Cephalid Empress

Obviously, these types of decks get worse the more experienced you expect your opponents to be.  I wouldn't recommend any of the decks in this category for a large tournament, but for a small event where you can expect a lot of newer players, Merfolk is a great choice.



So there you have it.  That is my list of the only decks I believe are reasonable choices for a Legacy event.  Feel free to voice your complaints and disagreements, and I'll do my best to address them.