Understanding the Legacy Metagame, part 3: Unfair Decks

I tend to put unfair decks into 3 categories: Non-blue Combo, Blue Combo, and Staxx decks.

Non-blue Combo

These decks typically go for speed over consistency.

Belcher - I already discussed Belcher in the first post so I'll keep this brief. Basically, you either win very quickly, or you don't win at all.

Elves - This deck is a bit of an oddity. It runs more creatures than your average aggro deck, but it's definitely a combo deck. You win by casting Glimpse of Nature, then casting a truckload of elves, then casting Craterhoof Behemoth. You generate obscene mana with Gaea's Cradle, as well as Heritage Druid. The real powerhouse of the deck is Nettle Sentinel, which, in conjunction with Heritage Druid and Birchlore Rangers, makes a lot of mana very quickly. This is one of the hardest decks in the format to pilot; it's very unforgiving to screwups, but very rewarding to skilled play. Plus, even if they counter your Craterhoof Behemoth, you're left with like 30 elves just sitting there waiting to untap and attack.

Blue Combo

Blue combo runs cantrips. Lots of cantrips. It runs Brainstorm, Ponder, Gitaxian Probe, and sometimes it even runs Preordain. Besides that these decks don't have much in common, but they do play surprisingly similar.

Sneaky Show - Sneaky show gets its name from Sneak Attack and Show and Tell. The deck is very straightforward; you play cantrips and sculpt you hand, then you cast Sneak Attack or Show and Tell, then you win with your big creature. Sometimes you get Griselbrand and draw 14 cards before you win, other times you just get Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and smash their board. A very strong deck and a fairly easy deck to pilot, this is the deck that popularized the term "unfair."
The Epic Storm (TES) - Deriving its name from the Vintage deck "The Perfect Storm," which itself gets its name from the storm mechanic and the movie by the same name, TES wants to play nine spells in one turn and then cast Tendrils of Agony for 20 damage. It accomplishes this by casting Ad Nauseum and drawing like 20 cards, then casting them all. It can't run more than one Ad Nauseum though, or else the you might take too much damage from Ad Nauseum! So it only runs one, and it fetches that singleton AN by casting Infernal Tutor. But what if you can't get Hellbent? Not to worry, Lion's Eye Diamond has you covered! What sets TES apart from old school storm decks like IGGy Pop and Spanish Inquisition is that it protects itself with Cabal Therapy and Duress mainboard to rip those pesky counterspells out of your opponent's hand.
Now if you're clever, you were probably wondering what you do when you don't have enough life safely cast Ad Nauseum. The answer is Burning Wish! You Burning Wish for Past in Flames and storm out of what's in your graveyard.
This deck is super fun and very resiliant, even to hand disruption and counter spells. The one card it has monumental trouble beating game 1 is Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, but that's what Chain of Vapor is for.
High Tide - High Tide is a very cool deck, and I'm throwing it in here because it's one of my favorites, even though it's neither tier 1 nor particularly popular. (The only top player who ever does well with it is Feline Longmore, and she is the definitive High Tide master.) High Tide wins by playing maybe as many islands as it can, then casting its namesake card, then making obscene amounts of mana with Candelabra of Tawnos and Time Spiral and Turnabout and then casting Blue Sun's Zenith for huge numbers and forcing your opponent to draw their whole deck and promptly lose. It's hard to explain all the nuances of this deck so I suggest watching Feline play it. Here's an example.

Staxx

The original legacy Staxx deck was monowhite and ran Somestack, Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, and several ways to play those cards on turn 1, usually City of Traitors and/or Mox Diamond. That deck's not very good anymore but there are similar decks out there that are pretty good. These decks are also relatively cheap. None of them are tier 1 since they're too inconsistent, but they're still worth a mention.

Red Stompy AKA All In Red AKA Dragon Stompy - Go back and look at the manabases of the decks in this post and the last one. You'll notice that very few of them run any basic lands. Now look at Blood Moon. Now think of how devastating a turn 1 Blood Moon would be against BUG delver. The truly ridiculous part of Blood Moon is that there is one red card in the entire game that can answer it: Chaos Warp. That means that if you don't counter it, and you don't run basic lands, you cannot cast nonred cards for the rest of the game. And if you don't run red... well, you lose. Chalice of the Void and Trinisphere are also devastating on turn one.

Red Stompy is the only really playable Staxx style deck at the moment, but there are other really janky variants like Sea Stompy (monoblue, runs sea drake) and green stompy (runs green sun's zenith and elvish spirit guide).

The problem with these decks is that if you're winning, your opponent isn't playing, which is kinda rude in my opinion. But to each his own. If you like decks that lock your opponent out of the game you can also look into Pox, which is a more fair deck that's usually mono black and runs Smallpox and Pox.

Understanding the Legacy Metagame, part 2: Fair Decks

I like to divide fair legacy decks into 4 categories: Tempo, Aggro, Midrange, and Control. These aren't always cut and dry but it's a good way to think about it.

Tempo

I described the tempo strategy earlier as the Mr. Miyagi, go with the flow, find an opening and strike kind of playstyle, so I won't repeat it. Personally, I love tempo decks; they just feel right to play. It used to be tricky to differentiate between tempo decks and aggro decks, but now it's pretty easy. If the deck runs Delver of Secrets, it's probably tempo. Other things they all share is low threat density (RUG runs only 12 creatures) and lots of cantrips (brainstorm, ponder, sometimes even preordain). Stifle is a dead giveaway that a deck is tempo. Some high tier examples:

RUG Delver - You run 18 lands, 12 creatures, and lots of spells. Also known as Canadien Threshold. RUG runs a heavy mana denial plan with 4 wasteland and 4 stifle. (Stifle can counter Fetchland activations, which can sometimes completely shut your opponent off of mana.)
BUG Delver - In my opinion, the best deck in the format, but that's highly subjective and I readily admit that I could easily be wrong. This deck straddles the line between tempo and midrange, but I'll throw it in with tempo. You clear threats with Abrupt Decay and sometimes Liliana of the Veil, both of which you easily cast with Deathrite Shaman, then you win with Delver or goyf. Some lists run Dark Confidant for card advantage, others run True-Name Nemesis for an evasive finisher. My favorite version runs Tombstalker, but it's all up to preference. The common theme is Delver, Goyf, Hymn to Tourach, Wasteland, Daze, Force of Will, Abrupt Decay, Ponder, and, of course, Brainstorm.

Aggro

Aggro just goes for the kill. It's not as popular as it used to be, but aggro still exists.

Burn - God do I hate this deck. When someone plays burn, there are no winners, only survivors. It's mono red, and it flings spells and creatures at your face until you die. It's also dirt cheap, with competitive builds for as low as $100. If you want a deck to just start playing legacy, this is worth considering, but be forewarned, it's no fun for anyone; there's very little thought and interaction here. Oddly enough, Burn straddles the line between fair and unfair; sometimes it feels like a combo deck that wins on turn 4, other times it feels like a true aggro deck.
Merfolk - I will always have a soft spot in my heart for merfolk. Merfolk is a cool deck because it's definitely straight aggro, you run lots of small creatures that do big damage, but it's blue so it doesn't get blown out by combo. This is a great first deck for legacy because it's relatively cheap (it's not a budget deck, but it's not that expensive either) and damn powerful. It wins by dropping merfolk lords that can't be countered via Cavern of Souls and Aether Vial. These lords all buff each other to make huge 4/4 or 5/5 fish, and due to Lord of Atlantis and Master of the Pearl Trident they are often unblockable (blue is the most popular color after all). You also play a full set of True-Name Nemesis which wins even without any buffs. Remember to always make sure you can cast Force of Will in case your opponent drops Toxic Deluge or Terminus or something; you can race a goyf, but you need creatures to do that.

Midrange

The major weakness of aggro decks is that you have to play lots of dudes, so a well timed Terminus can blow you out of the water. Midrange decks prefer to play higher costed creatures that can win on their own, so that even if they die you have more threats in your hand. In essence, where an aggro deck tops its curve at 3 mana and centers itself on 1 or 2 mana cards, a midrange deck tops its curve at 4 mana and plays mostly 2-3 mana threats. Another key difference is that aggro decks typically want to turn all their creatures sideways every turn, but midrange decks are more into board presence and board control. If you're having trouble deciding if a deck is aggro or midrange, look at the land count. Aggro decks rarely go above 20 lands, but midrange decks rarely go below 22.

Jund - In my eyes, Jund is the midrange deck. Your early plays are stuff like Thoughtseize and Hymn to Tourach to protect you by disrupting your opponent. Then you drop a goyf or a Dark Confidant to generate board presence or card advantage. Then you grind out the win with Deathrite Shaman or Punishing Fire + Grove of the Burnwillows. Jund is designed to beat the Delver meta. Since it runs 4 Deathrite Shaman and 23 lands, it doesn't care too much about wasteland and stifle (yeah, mana denial hurts you, but it hurts RUG way more; they only run 18 lands!). And let me tell you, you have not lived until you have cast Bloodbraid Elf and cascaded into Hymn to Tourach. If that doesn't win you the game, nothing will.
Shardless BUG - This deck is so cool. The core synergy of Shardless BUG is Shardless Agent and Ancestral Vision. See, since you can't hardcast Ancestral Vision, its converted mana cost is considered to be 0. This means that if you cascade into it, it's a free 3 cards. The card advantage is so real. This deck is all about just churning out card advantage until you drown your opponent in cards. It's not uncommon for this deck to have a full hand while your opponent is in topdeck mode. You could call this deck control, and you wouldn't really be wrong either, but it feels more like a midrange deck to me, so I'm throwing it in this section. Like I said, the categories are fuzzy. My favorite thing about this deck is that it runs Jace, the Mind Sculptor. I know I said this was a fair deck, but that card is absolutely unfair. Jace on an empty board is basically game over. Very fun, versatile deck.

Control

Everyone knows control! You counter spells (sometimes with the original Counterspell), you kill creatures, you stall the board until you can slowly win with an evasive beater. In the olden days it was Serra Angel, but these days it's Batterskull, True-Name Nemesis, Entreat the Angels, or Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

Miracles - This deck gets its name from the interaction between Sensei's Divining Top and Terminus and Entreat the Angels. It used to be called Countertop because of the nigh unbeatable Counterbalance + Sensei's Divining Top lock. The list I linked is really cool because it doesn't run any creatures mainboard, but it does run them in the sideboard, so you trick your opponent into siding out their removal only to be staring down some creatures game 2. Be forewarned: Miracles can make games last for a loooooong time. It's not unheard of for the first game to last 40 minutes and the second game to go to time without a winner.

Death and Taxes - For some reason some people insist on calling D&T aggro, but I can assure you it is not; it is monowhite control through and through. This deck has a lot of layers to its strategy which I'm not that familiar with, but its creator, Finn, has a very informative primer on mtgsalvation.com which you can find here.

Understanding the Legacy Metagame, part 1

All legacy decks can be divided into two overarching categories: Fair Decks and Unfair Decks.

The terms "fair" and "unfair" have nothing to do with the power of the deck, but rather the playstyle. As I understand it, a fair deck plays magic the way it was intended to be played. You play one land per turn, you (mostly) pay mana for your spells, you cast creatures, you attack with creatures, and you win by reducing your opponent from 20 life to 0. In a word, fair decks are interactive.

Example 1: RUG delver. RUG is a tempo deck. It wins by casting efficient creatures (Delver of Secrets, Nimble Mongoose, and Tarmogoyf), then killing opposing creatures (Lightning Bolt, Forked Bolt, Fire/Ice) and countering opposing spells (Daze, Force of Will, Spell Pierce) to generate temporary advantage, AKA "tempo." RUG makes sure it has the cards it needs to do this by running a full suite of Ponder and Brainstorm. I like to envision RUG's playstyle as a Mr. Miyagi sort of thing. You throw your opponent off balance, create brief openings, and strike where you can. You don't go all out aggro, and often times you hold your threats in your hand and don't play them until you need them.

Example 2: Zoo. Zoo plays creatures. It plays fast creatures, like Wild Nacatl, Tarmogoyf, and Goblin Guide, and sometimes Experiment One. It can also play big creatures, like Loxodon Smiter and Knight of the Reliquary. Zoo doesn't hold threats in its hand (except against a deck that runs board wipes). Zoo doesn't care about tempo. Zoo plays creatures, then it turns the sideways. If RUG is Mr. Miyagi, Zoo is Robocop. You run in guns out and kill everything. Fun! But zoo also runs Bolt, Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile, and occasionally Lightning Helix (I've even seen Fireblast).

So despite vastly different playstyles, they share a key element: they interact. You make plays based on what your opponent is doing, you give your opponent options, all that jazz.

Unfair decks are large non-interactive. Unfair decks don't play by the conventions. They don't care about their mana curve, they don't care about the board state, and they usually win very quickly and all at once. The best example of an unfair deck is Dredge.

Dredge doesn't play normal magic. Everything a normal deck does, dredge does the opposite. See, a normal magic deck wants to draw cards into their hand, but dredge wants to mill cards into its graveyard, which it accomplishes via cards with the dredge ability (Golgari Grave Troll). (No, it does not run the card dredge.) A normal deck wants to keep your creatures alive and kill your opponent's creatures, but not dredge! Dredge wants put Bridge from Below in its graveyard, then sacrifice its own creatures without ever killing its opponent's! Now here's the kicker: Dredge barely even casts spells! Since you don't need to cast a spell to discard a card (you can just draw past 7 cards and discard on end step), dredge can feasibly dump its whole library into its yard without spending a single mana. In fact, the only spell it needs to cast is Dread Return (targetting a big creature in the graveyard), which it flashes back by sacrificing three Narcomebas, which, by the way, it doesn't ever need to cast. Dredge is an unfair deck because it doesn't play normal magic, so normal decks have trouble interacting with it.

Dredge isn't the best deck in legacy. It's not even a tier 1 deck. But it is an unfair deck.

You can then subdivide fair and unfair decks into more categories.

Introduction and Common Misconceptions

Legacy is an incredibly complicated and strategically rewarding format, and it is criminally underplayed by the greater MTG community. With fetchlands are being reprinted in KTK, now is a great time to get into the format if you're interested. If you're an MTG veteran, but haven't ever played a Legacy game, I highly recommend you read at least this post; even if you never intend to play legacy it's nice to know a bit about it so you don't seem dumb misinformed around Legacy players.

By the way, I am by no means an expert. I play a lot of legacy, I could talk for hours about it, and I probably know more than most about it, but just about everything I write is going to be opinion, so take it with a grain of salt.

Note: this is gonna be a lot easier to read if you download AutocardAnywhere.

First thing's first:

Embarrassingly Common Misconceptions About Legacy 

 

1. Legacy is a turn one format. 

No. Not even a little bit.
There are only a few major decks in legacy that even attempt to consistently win on turn one, the most famous among these being Belcher. Belcher attempts to win by using cards like and Rite of Flame and Lion's Eye Diamond to cast and activate Goblin Charbelcher (the namesake of the deck) as soon as possible. This is almost always a garaunteed win because the deck only runs one land and instead relies on alternate sources of mana to combo off.
Here's the thing: Belcher sucks. It really does. It's inconsistent and easy to disrupt. Even if belcher gets the dream matchup where its opponent doesn't run any hand disruption or counterspells there's a very real chance that it fizzles and doesn't go off because comboing off on turn 1 is really, really hard. The truth is a lot of belcher games play draw-go for the first few turns before they draw a lethal hand.
Combo in legacy is strong, don't get me wrong; it's just not turn 1 strong.

In fact, legacy games tend to go on far longer than standard games in my experience. Miracles, a top tier control deck, will play games that last 45 minutes. Even aggressive decks like RUG delver often have to grind out wins on turn 10. Jund, arguably the grindiest deck in the game, wins many games on the back of Deathrite Shaman burn. While many decks have the potential to just randomly end games on turn 4, it's not a particularly common occurrence.

By the way, if any of these terms are gibberish to you now, all will be revealed later; just bear with me.

2. If you don't run blue, you lose to combo.

Force of Will certainly helps the combo matchup, but don't think it's the only defense against combo. If you ever pilot a storm deck, there is so god damn much nonblue, maindeck combo hate in the format, it's unbelievable. Off the top of my head: Thalia, Guardian of Thraben; Cabal Therapy; Thoughtseize; Hymn to Tourach; Karakas (a very popular combo deck uses Show and Tell to cheat Emrakul, the Aeons Torn into play on turn 3, Karakas kills this strategy); Eidolon of the Great Revel; even Deathrite Shaman and Scavenging Ooze can be used to hate out most combo decks. And that's maindeck! Game 2 you have to fight through Ethersworn Canonist, Rest in Piece, Choke, Duress,
even the occasional Mindbreak Trap (side note: don't run Mindbreak Trap).

This doesn't mean combo is bad; it just means combo is surprisingly hard to play, even against decks with no counterspells.

 

3. Force of Will is an overpowered card.

The truth is, Force is an unbelievably terrible card against fair decks. Blue decks have to run it to fight unfair decks like storm or Show and Tell, but when I'm on RUG delver and my opponent is on BUG delver Force is the first card I side out. Paying two cards to counter one spell is just awful, and you have to be 100% certain that letting the card resolve will hurt you more than countering it. Casting Force of Will is like punching yourself in the balls to avoid being stabbed in the throat.

By the way, when I say "fair" and "unfair" I'm not just griping, those are widely used terms in legacy. The precise definition varies from person to person but I'll to that later.

 

4. People play blue for Force of Will

People play blue for Brainstorm, the actual best card in legacy, and one of the most nuanced. There is no feeling quite like a mainphase brainstorm with a fetchland in hand (for the uninitiated, you draw three, tuck two cards you don't need, then shuffle them away). Brainstorm is one sexy, sexy card.

Ever wonder why decks like RUG run more fetchlands than they do actual lands? It's because of brainstorm (and Nimble Mongoose, but mostly brainstorm). Ever wonder why High Tide, a mono blue combo deck, runs fetchlands? That's right: brainstorm (and Sensei's Divining Top, but mostly brainstorm).

For example, most storm decks are primarily UB. They run black for Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Infernal Tutor, Ad Nauseum, you know, the meat of the deck. They run blue for brainstorm and ponder. Without blue, these decks would be pretty bad. With blue, they're tier 1. Brainstorm is that strong.

 

5. Tarmogoyf is the best creature ever printed.

You can definitely argue that Tarmagoyf is the best creature in legacy, it's not as cut and dry as many people make it out to be. I think a lot modern players assume that goyf is as good in legacy as it is in modern, which isn't really the case. There are a couple of reasons for that:

• It relies on the graveyard, so it can be shrunk by cards like Rest in Piece and Deathrite Shaman, both of which see more play in legacy than modern
• It has no evasion so it gets blocked by Lingering Souls and True-Name Nemesis for days
• Removal is a lot better in legacy, so a goyf often eats a Swords to Plowshares. Even Abrupt Decay is more dangerous in legacy since mana is so much more consistent
• Submerge is a popular sideboard card, and it's one of the strongest tempo plays you can make in legacy

Now I will say this: goyf has the most efficient body in legacy in terms of stats per mana. But that doesn't even make it the most efficient beater in legacy! In my experience, Delver of Secrets usually gets in for more damage than goyf.

You're probably wondering: If it's not goyf, what is the best creature in legacy? Well, in my opinion, it's Deathrite Shaman. That card does everything. It gives you mana, it does damage, it gains life, it shrinks opposing goyfs, it exiles Reanimate targets, it exiles Snapcaster Mage targets, it exiles Lingering Souls, and it has an efficient body. I don't know what Wizards was thinking when they made DRS.

 

6. Legacy is pay to win.

Ok, yeah, legacy is really expensive. There's no cheap tier 1 deck. I'm not gonna pretend like you can beat good players on top tier decks with a $100 deck.

However.

You can make a solidly tier 2 deck, and learn the nuances of it, and be a very competitive legacy player without spending much more than a tier 1 modern deck. In fact, a good player on a budget Nic Fit list is gonna beat a bad player on a BUG Delver list (one of the most expensive decks in the game, damn you Underground Sea) more often than not.

Plus a semi-decent player playing Burn can pull out random tournament wins if he gets lucky enough. You're gonna learn over the course reading this blog that I hate burn with a passion. I'll get to that later though.