Welcome back to another Ideas Unbound. This year, I had the opportunity to play in two SCG Invitationals. For those who are unaware, the Invitational is a split format tournament. Each day you play 4 rounds of Standard and 4 rounds of Legacy. I play alot of Standard through the year, so that portion of the tournament has never concerned me. However, I have very little experience actually playing Legacy so I did very poorly in that portion of both events. I have resolved to not let this happen again.



For these two events I really just picked a Legacy deck early on, played a couple of games with it, and decided that was enough. For the first event that deck was Storm. I chose this deck because its more about focusing on your own game plan, plus I have experience with Combo decks. Unfortunately, Storm had won the SCG Open the week before and everyone was packing their Storm hate. I ended up 1-3 in the Legacy portion.

For the most recent event, I settled on Affinity. This decision was made mostly because I had 95% of the cards for it, and my friend and temporary roomate at the time had a copy built as well that I could use in a pinch. I'm not generally a fan of all-in aggro decks and I didn't know enough about the interactions and cards in the format to play effectively. I ended 3-5 in the Legacy portion.

As you can see, my results were terrible because I didn't properly prepare. When you consider half of the tournament is Legacy it was a huge misplay to not prepare more. I plan to attend the SCG Invitational in Charlotte early next year and I'm not going to let the Legacy portion defeat me again. I'm going to spend the next few months becoming very familiar with the Legacy format. I will be playtesting alot of Legacy and even writing about it from time to time. In order to playtest the format, I am going to be building a gauntlet of playtest decks and playing as much Legacy as possible. (Aside: I see a lot of players who shy away from proxies, but they are invaluable for playtesting. I don't own the cards for any of the decks I'm building so I will be proxying them.) My goal is to be familiar with all of the best decks in the format and make a decision much closer to the time of the event so I can adapt to an evolving metagame.

Today we are going to look at the 12 archetypes I am currently including in my gauntlet and do a general overview of each one including a recent decklist. These are the decks that make up most of the Legacy metagame, and should be a very thorough start for testing. (My guantlet is of course subject to change if the format shifts dramatically):

RUG Delver

Ricky Sidher - 1st
SCG Open Los Angeles - 11/03/2013

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Tarmogoyf

4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
1 Fire // Ice
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Pierce
4 Stifle
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder

4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland

Sideboard
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Zuran Orb
1 Sulfur Elemental
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Flusterstorm
2 Pyroblast
3 Submerge
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Life from the Loam
2 Rough // Tumble

RUG Delver is considered by many to be the best deck in Legacy and is a very popular archetype. It is basically a tempo deck that wants to land an efficient threat and then use a mana denial strategy to keep your opponent from doing anything.


The namesake of the deck, Delver of Secrets, is one of the most efficient threats ever printed. A 3/2 creature with flying for U is going to go a long way toward ending the game quickly if left uncontested. This deck plays 30 instants and sorceries meaning you have a 50% change of blind flipping it each turn. When you add Brainstorm and Ponder to the mix, the odds go way up, allowing you to ensure it flips almost every time.


Tarmogoyf and Nimble Mongoose round out the threat package. Both of these creatures have very good power/toughness to cost ratios. Tarmogoyf can easily come down as a 3/4 as early as turn 2 depending on how the game is playing out, and can reach values as high as 5/6 or even 6/7 in some matchups. This is going to put a pretty quick clock on your opponent. Nimble Mongoose may cap out at 3/3, but its Threshold gets activated pretty quickly in a deck full of Fetchlands, Wastelands, counterspells, and removal. It also has the bonus of Shroud making it much more difficult for your opponent to remove.


The spells in this deck are designed to keep your opponent from doing anything in the early turns while you beat them down. Stifle is basically a one mana Stone Rain against Fetchlands. Your opponent still has to sacrifice the Fetchland as part of the cost, but the ability to search for a land gets countered. The goal is to keep your opponent's mana low with a combination of Stifle and Wasteland, then use cheap counterspells to prevent them from playing any spells. You also have a small removal package to deal with any opposition your opponent may have resolved past your counterspells.

WUR Delver

Jason Abong - 5th
SCG Open Los Angeles - 11/03/2013

4 Delver of Secrets
2 Grim Lavamancer
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Geist of Saint Traft

1 Batterskull
4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Pierce
3 Stifle
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder

4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland

Sideboard
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Meddling Mage
2 True-Name Nemesis
1 Detention Sphere
2 Rest in Peace
2 Flusterstorm
2 Pyroblast
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Wear // Tear

While WUR Delver works along the same ideas as RUG Delver, it does play out differently enough that I have decided to include both in my gauntlet for now. With this deck, we see the same idea of resolving an efficient threat and then tempoing our opponent out of the game. We trade Tarmogoyf and Nimble Mongoose for Stoneforge Mystic and Geist of St. Traft. This can make the deck a little slower than it's RUG brother, but it does allow for a much better late game with Batterskull and Umezawa's Jitte.


We also see this deck has more efficient removal in the form of Swords to Plowshares. Swords is commonly regarded as the best removal spell in the format. It can take care of any creature of any size as long as it can be targeted. This allows you to save your counterspells for more resilient threats against creature decks and take care of anything else that slips through more easily. We also have the addition of Grim Lavamancer which provides us with a steady stream of damage. It also gives us the ability to control our own graveyard allowing us to disrupt opposing Deathrite Shamans and Tarmogoyfs.

Death and Taxes

Ari Lax - 1st
Eternal Weekend - 11/03/13

2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Fiend Hunter
3 Flickerwisp
2 Mangara of Corondor
3 Mirran Crusader
4 Mother of Runes
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

4 Aether Vial
1 Batterskull
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte

1 Cavern of Souls
1 Eiganjo Castle
2 Horizon Canopy
3 Karakas
8 Plains
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland

Sideboard
1 Cursed Totem
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Manriki-Gusari
1 Meekstone
1 Mindbreak Trap
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Rest in Peace
1 Serenity
1 Sunlance
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

Death and Taxes is essentially a White Weenie deck with a mana denial subplan similar to Delver's. This deck uses Aether Vial as a way to put its creatures into play. This allows them to enter at instant speed and avoid countermagic. Another benefit of this is that it lets you leave your mana open to either play additional threats or take advantage of Rishadan Port to lock down your opponent's mana. The combination of Port, Wasteland, and Thalia can make it very difficult for your opponent to play anything.


This deck also has a secondary focus of Mangara of Corondor. Mangara's ability is different from most creatures because he exiles himself as part of the ability and not part of the cost. This allows you to abuse the ability with things like Karakas. You can activate Mangara and with the ability on the stack, you can return him to your hand with Karakas. The ability will still resolve exiling the target. This combined with Aether Vial allows you to have a steady stream of removal if the game goes long.

Goblins

Joey Andrews - 4th
SCG Open Cleveland - 10/06/13

4 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Warchief
3 Mogg War Marshal
2 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Skirk Prospector
1 Stingscourger
1 Tin Street Hooligan

4 Aether Vial

3 Mountain
3 Arid Mesa
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Plateau
4 Rishadan Port
1 Taiga
4 Wasteland
3 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Mindbreak Trap
3 Pyroblast
3 Pyrokenesis
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

While Goblins is not a deck that is making the Top 8 of every Legacy Open like Delver, it is a deck that sees a lot of play, mostly because it is one of the more budget friendly decks in Legacy. For this reason, I'm including it in my list because I can expect to play against it at some point in my Legacy endeavors.


Goblins works on the basic principle of attack your opponent until they are dead. Seems pretty simple. The deck has a lot of tribal synergies and intricacies that make it a very powerful machine. Ringleader and Matron allow you to keep a constant stream of Goblins at the ready. Aether Vial and Goblin Lackey allow you to get them into play around countermagic. Incinerator functions as removal. All of the cards in the deck are like cogs in a giant Goblin machine that threats to run over your opponent.


Like Death and Taxes, we see a small mana denial play centered around Aether Vial and Rishadan Port. It doesn't take many turns of tapping down your opponent's land before they are just dead to Goblin alpha strikes. You will also see Thalia's in the sideboard which come in to enchance this plan. The only non-creature card in the main is Aether Vial and that should be coming down before Thalia hits the board anyway. (Hint: Thalia is much better when her ability is one-sided.)

Esper Stoneblade

Mark Ivazaj - 4th
SCG Open Los Angeles - 11/03/13

2 Baleful Strix
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 True-Name Nemesis

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Batterskull
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Ponder
3 Thoughtsieze
1 Vindicate

1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Flooded Strand
2 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
3 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
1 Academy Ruins
1 Karakas

Sideboard
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Meddling Mage
3 Rest in Peace
3 Flusterstorm
1 Path to Exile
1 Unexpectedly Absent
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Supreme Verdict

Esper Stoneblade is one of the few control decks that are heavily played in Legacy. The deck wants to use its resources to control the board while resolving a Stoneforge Mystic and killing you with equipment. Or, it will resolve Jace, the Mind Sculptor and fateseal you out of the game until they can use his ultimate to kill you.


The deck uses a few different tools to accomplish this goal. It had a decent mix of hand disruption, countermagic, and removal. This make it good against alot of decks in game one, but doesn't give it a clear edge over anything. If you draw the right mix of cards you need, then its wonderful. Otherwise you could be fighting an uphill climb. This is one of the reasons that so many peeople are drawn to it, though. It really doesn't have a bad matchup against anything because it has so many different options.

Sneak and Show

William Jensen - 2nd
SCG Open Los Angeles - 11/03/13

4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Griselbrand

4 Lotus Petal
4 Sneak Attack
4 Brainstorm
2 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
3 Spell Pierce
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
4 Show and Tell

3 Island
3 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Volcanic Island

Sideboard
3 Blood Moon
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Echoing Truth
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Through the Breach
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Pyroclasm


Sneak and Show is one of the best combo decks available in Legacy. The whole purpose of the deck is to use either Show and Tell or Sneak Attack to get one (or both) of your two creatures into play and kill the opponent. The deck is capable of doing this as early as turn one using Ancient Tomb and a Lotus Petal to cast Show and Tell.


Because the combo portion of the deck doesn't take up all that much room, the deck has the luxury of playing countermagic as well to back up the combo. This allows the deck to "go for it" with the knowledge that if you opponent has a counterspell or removal spell you can fight through it. The large showing of this deck at the Invitational just proves the power of this deck.

Elves

Chris Anderson - 7th
SCG Open Indianapolis - 10/27/13

1 Craterhoof Behemoth
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Elvish Mystic
4 Elvish Visionary
1 Fyndhorn Elves
3 Heritage Druid
1 Llanowar Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
1 Priest of Titania
4 Quirion Ranger
1 Regal Force
4 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader

4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Natural Order

2 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
2 Bayou
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Savannah
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Gaea's Cradle

Sideboard
2 Meekstone
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Viridian Shaman
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Progenitus
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Natural Order
3 Thoughtsize

Elves is an aggro deck, disguised as a combo deck. Alot of times, you can win by just attacking with your Elves. However, the deck also has a primary plan of generating tons of mana, drawing tons of cards, and killing you in one swing with a Craterhoof Behemoth. Some lists also play Ezuri to accomplish a similar goal.


The engine of the deck is based on Glimpse of Nature and Elivsh visionary to draw cards and Heritage Druid/Nettle Sentinel to generate lots of mana. Glimpse allows you to draw a card every time you play a creature, which this deck has plenty. Heritage Druid allows you to make mana with Elves that just came into play, and there are plenty of ways to untap your Elves in this deck to generate more mana. You also have ways to return your Elves to your hand, allowing you to replay them to draw more cards and tap for more mana. Eventually, you will resolve a Natural Order or Green Sun's Zenith to go get Craterhoof Behemoth and swing for a lot of damage.


As I mentioned before, sometimes you won't get a Glimpse or your opponent will play enough disruption to prevent you from generating enough mana to combo off. Its still entirely possible for this deck to win by swinging with 2/2 Nettle Sentinels and draining with Deathrite Shamans. This built in back up plan is one of the reasons the deck is so strong.

Storm

Mark Tocco - 6th
Eternal Weekend - 11/03/13

1 Ad Nauseam
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Lim-Dul's Vault
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Past in Flames
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
1 Tendrils of Agony

1 Badlands
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island

Sideboard
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Chain of Vapor
3 Dark Confidant
1 Empty the Warrens
3 Massacre
3 Xantid Swarm


Storm is another one of the major combo decks in Legacy. The basic premise of the deck is to play several mana producing spells and artifacts in one turn to generate a great deal of mana as well increasing the Storm count. Then you play an Infernal Tutor with no cards in hand to go get Tendrils of Agony and drain your opponent for victory. There is a middle step sometimes where you will search for Ad Nauseum instead, if you have not comboed enough to kill your opponent. Ad Nausuem allows you to get a critical mass of spells to complete your combo.


Unlike Sneak and Show, this deck doesn't have a lot of ways to protect it combo. Because there are so many pieces necessary for the combo, you don't have a lot of room for countermagic. It does play a small amount of hand disruption to help eliminate any opposing countermagic, but the combo can be disrupted easily if you are not careful.

Jund

Vidianto Wijaya - 3rd
SCG Open Los Angeles - 11/03/13

3 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Tarmogoyf

4 Liliana of the Veil

1 Sylvan Library
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Lightning Bolt
3 Punishing Fire
4 Hymn to Tourach
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Thoughtsieze

1 Forest
1 Swamp
3 Badlands
2 Bayou
3 Bloodstained Mire
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland
3 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Engineered Plague
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Golgari Charm
1 Pyroblast
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Chainer's Edict
2 Duress
1 Life from the Loam


Jund in Legacy works very similarly to Jund in other formats. It is a collection of efficient creatures, removal, and hand disruption. The only difference is that in Legacy the cards are all more efficient. You have access to Bloodbraid Elf and Dark Confidant which allows you to generate excellect card advantage. You have access to Hymn to Tourach, one of the best discard spells ever printed. You get to play Abrupt Decay and Maelstrom Pulse, which together handle some of the formats best cards.


Most lists also play the Punishing Fire engine to generate even more card advantage. Punishing Fire plus Grove of the Burnwillows gives you access to a recurring source of burn spells to make sure your opponent has no creatures, or even burn them out in the end game. This gives Jund a sort of inevitability that allows it to go over the top of the other aggro decks in the format.

Shardless BUG

Edward Warren - 11st
SCG Open Indianapolis - 10/27/13

2 Baleful Strix
4 Shardless Agent
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Tarmogoyf

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Liliana of the Veil

4 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
3 Force of Will
4 Ancestral Vision
2 Hymn to Tourach
2 Thoughtsieze

3 Bayou
2 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland

Sideboard
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Baleful Strix
1 Ashen Rider
2 Engineered Plague
1 Force of Will
2 Golgari Charm
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Hymn to Tourach
1 Thoughtsieze

Shardless BUG is a deck designed to generate card advantage. The main source of this card advantage comes from Shardless Agent. He functions like a cheaper Bloodbraid Elf allowing you to get a second spell for free. If that spell happens to be Ancestral Vision, then you are living the dream. Ancestral Vision does not have a mana cost, which means you cannot cast it like a normal spell. Normally, you would have to use its Suspend ability. However, because the Cascade ability allows you to cast the spell without paying a mana cost, you are allowed to immediately cast Ancestral Vision. A 2/2 for three mana that draws three cards is pretty ridiculous.


The rest of the deck is designed to be disruptive to your opponent's game plan. It has similar removal and hand disruption to Jund which it wants to play off of Shardless Agent. Because the deck plays blue though, it also has access to Brainstorm to filter through your deck, as well as Force of Will and Jace, the Mind Sculptor to continue to disrupt your opponent and generate card advantage. At some point, the deck will try to win by attacking with Tarmagoyf.

Reanimator

Robert Cucunato - 4th
SCG Open Indianapolis - 10/27/13

1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4 Griselbrand
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria

3 Lotus Petal
1 Animate Dead
4 Brainstorm
4 Entomb
4 Force of Will
4 Careful Study
3 Exhume
4 Ponder
4 Reanimate
2 Show and Tell
4 Thoughtsieze

2 Island
2 Swamp
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
2 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard
3 Pithing Needle
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Ashen Rider
1 Coffin Purge
2 Echoing Truth
2 Spell Pierce
1 Crippling Fatigue
2 Duress
2 Show and Tell


Reanimator is another combo deck along the same lines as Sneak and Show. The goal of the deck is to "cheat" an expensive creature into play. This deck does it by getting the creature into the graveyard first and then returning it to the battlefield. The deck has several ways to get the creatures into the graveyard. The best is Entomb because it allows you to select the creature you need at the time. If you draw one of your creatures though, you can discard it with either Careful Study or Thoughtsize. A lot of people don't realize that Thoughtsieze can target yourself. It's not a situation that is useful very often, but it is very relevant in this deck.


Most Reanimator lists play a variety of creatures so they can deal with whatever situation they come across. Iona is really good against the combo decks. Elesh Norn wrecks the aggro decks. Tidespout Tyrant is really good against the mirror and Sneak and Show decks allowing you to return their large creatures to their hand. The big downside is this deck can be very weak to graveyard disruption like Rest in Peace and Deathrite Shaman.

Painted Stone

Jacob Kory - 12th
SCG Open Los Angeles - 11/03/13

4 Painter's Servant
2 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Goblin Welder

3 Grim Monolith
4 Grindstone
1 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Intuition
1 Izzet Charm
1 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Mox Opal
3 Transmute Artifact

1 Great Furnace
3 Seat of the Synod
2 Island
1 Mountain
3 Ancient Tomb
1 City of Traitors
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Volcanic Island

Sideboard
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Spellskite
3 Flusterstorm
1 Pyroblast
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Venser, Shaper Savant


Painted Stone is another Legacy combo deck. The idea behind this deck is to use Painter's Servant and Grindstone to mill your opponent's entire library. The rest of the deck is designed to either assemble the combo or protect the combo. Also, Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast become very good removal spells/counterspells once everything in your opponent's deck is blue.


Some versions of this deck also play Imperial Servant to help assemble the combo. You also see some lists that play Blood Moon main with Simian Spirit Guide to try to cast it on turn 1. Turn 1 Blood Moon can be devastating against many decks in the format.

One thing to keep in mind with this deck. If your opponent has two or more Progenitus in their deck and you activate the Grindstone with Painter's Servant in play, the game will end in a draw. Eventually, you will mill all of their cards except the Progenituses and then those will continuously mill and shuffle in an infinite loop. Eldrazi work different because they are triggered. There, your opponent will mill their whole library then shuffle their graveyard back in to their library negating your combo.

Wrap Up

Bear in mind, there are still plenty of other decks in Legacy that I did not cover here today: Fish, High Tide, Maverick, etc. These decks are either similar to other decks on my list or not played enough to make it into my main guantlet. I do encourage you to study them a little if you plan to play Legacy because you are bound to run into them at some point and you will want to know how they operate.

Legacy is a very diverse format with a lot of interactions. It is not to be taken lightly as I have at the last two Invitationals. I do not get planned on getting burned a third time. I will be watching as much Legacy coverage as possible and including Legacy strategy as part of this column going forward. Hopefully, I can help you avoid the mistakes I made.

As always, thanks for reading.

Eddie Walker
@praethus on Twitter
praethus on MTGO (when I have a chance to play, lol)
praethus at gmail dot com