Oh Crap Oh Goodness

I have no idea why Steven got rid of this blog's awesome Gaddock Teeg profile picture looking all haggard and metal.  I was not consulted.
Anyway.

You probably didn't need the ol' Sexy Team of Dudes to tell you the printing of Batterskull promoted Stoneforge Mystic from powerful to bonkers in Legacy.  (If in fact you did need that, well, why are we talking?  To bring you up to speed, this year something called Mental Misstep happened for awhile, then went away.  Good catching up!)

Of late, on top of SFM, you also have two smallish blue guys steering the format: Snapcaster Mage and Delver of Secrets.  Personally I feel Snapcaster is good but overplayed, but then I've been putting off dropping a hundred stupid dollars on a set because, after all, he's "just" a rare.
Delver of Secrets on the other hand ($0.25) seems really fun, and has heralded a new incarnation of Tempo Thresh (1/129). Similarly: 1/40.  Yep.  I'm looking forward to sleeving this up, though a bit wary, because it demands flawless play in the first few turns.  Judging when to hold U open for Stifle or Spell Snare and when to instead risk running a Delver out with limited protection may distill a whole game down to one pivotal either/or, and for loose-playing bastards like me that is frightening.

But as far we're concerned with beating men down while denying them resources, there are other games in town: I'm in love with G/W Maverick like this: T8/94.  I've long thought Aven Mindcensor was underplayed, and in conjunction with repeated Wastelands via Knight of the Reliquary it's just criminal.  Basically the only card you can't tutor out immediately is Swords to Plowshares, but with Maze of Ith at the KotR's disposal, as well as potentially using Green Sun's Zenith to get an early StP back with Eternal Witness, well... you've got options.  Also, as I understand it, untapping and reusing KotR via Scryb Ranger does not remove it from combat.  Oh, and did you see this one extra-crazy build featuring Birthing Pod?  T8/129.  Jesus.

Now might be a good time to also note how Scavenging Ooze has been catching on, even in unexpected places (Aggro Loam, T8, SCG Vegas).  Having game against Ichorid pre-board is a hell of a thing, and the Ooze lends all types of edge in a million other match-ups as well, even if it is ridiculous that one card costs $20ish when the whole Commander pile it's from retails around $30.

Other tangent: A lot of the dudes we're talking about today (Snapcaster, Stoneforge, Delver, etc along with a slew of others lower on the radar) have something in common, and that is they all die to Punishing Fire.  The combo with Grove of the Burnwillows got a big-up for Legacy in some control deck with I think Counterbalance in late contention at some Star City last month, but as you'd expect, what's cranking my personal tractor is the Worlds Finalist Incorporating It In Maverick.  Note the big 24 land, including maindeck Bojuka Bog there.

The combo is also spicing up your more conventional Zoo list (T16 SCG Vegas) in profound and exciting ways that Kavu Predator doesn't seem to mind (T8/129) at all.  Seems.  Fun.

Wrapping up, I don't get why Burn keeps making T16s at StarCity and the like, but it do.  Yesterday I picked up four Goblin Guides for $4 (thanks Chuck!) so I may just have to sleeve up a Sligh, but these slopes can prove slippery: I recently built Soul Sisters thinking it wouldn't require any cards I was using elsewhere, only to find myself snapping up still more Elspeths and Stoneforge Mystics (I'm now into double-digit territory on SFMs) in order to tune it.
And no, there is no ranking Legacy Soul Sisters list to link there; I looked.

I mention always needing more Stoneforges only because part of me worries: doesn't this list (T8/129) look a lot like what got SFM banned in Standard?  It's played alongside everything from Hymn to Tourach to Force of Will to Tarmogoyf.  You can argue that just means it's being widely adopted, but that argument didn't save Skullclamp.  Or Mental Misstep.

-Dan