Om nom nom Format

Merfolk seems to be the linchpin around which everything hinges in Legacy right now. It keeps Counterbalance in check while getting hosed by Zoo, and you'd better be ready for all three when you sleeve up. The CounterTop combo will never fall too far off the radar in a format where almost everything has to be fast, cheap, and therefore vulnerable to a vexing CB soft-lock, but Qasali Pridemage has made his own indelible mark on the format as well. Let's get to the lists:

To improve their game against aggro, Merfolk players are turning to a splash color. Often this is green for Tarmogoyf, but white remains a fair option as well, given Swords to Plowshares and the lifelinking Sejiri Merfolk, a playset of which took 2/178 in Italy.

There are a couple of cute decks out there running full sets of Counter/Top, and eventually killing you with Enlightened Tutor for the Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek combo. If you're not familiar, those last two cards have wrecked extended, because together they read "X: Gain X life. Produce X 1/1 flying artifact tokens. Go nuts. Seriously. Run wild with that shit."

One Thopter-combo build is grafted over a Landstill shell, (1st and 8th of 36 in Europe) and sports Diabolic Edict as an apparent out against Progenitus, as well as Iona naming white. That unfortunate situation sometimes occurs against not just Reanimator but also Survival and even Ichorid match-ups. Two things worth noting on that build: it can tutor for Humility, and packs zero copies of Counterspell.

Anyway, the other list seems more determined to get its combo online quickly, and sports Chrome Mox and Thirst for Knowledge to prove it. It took 1/178. Both builds are more than glad to work under Humility, though the latter reserves that option for the sideboard. A public service announcement: Humility could give a good goddamn about Qasali Pridemage, and is hilarious against Inkwell Leviathan. Picture that.

While I'm thinking about it, Cousin Chelsea has plans to proxy up an Enchantress list. This is about how the modern incarnation of the deck looks, but I have 20 Pegasus tokens if she ever misses the ponies from Sacred Mesa. And in case you wonder, Karakas is another answer for Iona on white. Shoo.

I think it's always helpful to have an Ad Nauseam/Tendrils of Agony list on hand, especially one that doesn't rock Lion's Eye Diamond or ridiculous Doomsday stacks and is therefore semi-possible for mediocre players to win with. All the better if said list can place 6/178.

People have been talking about breaking Metalworker for months, but this is the first list I've noticed that's come anywhere close; it still looks janky as all hell. Power Artifact this Staff of Domination, go ape-shit with Metalworker, draw my deck, tap your field, swing for infinite with Wake Thrasher and Stroke of Genius you beyond oblivion? Truly the work of a mad scientist.

What else? Loves me some mono-red Goblins. 5/62.

Oh, and in case you missed the memo: Stoneforge Mystic is in a lot of decks. It gears up hate bears you can't counter and goes 4/62, it makes persisting Kitchen Finks and fresh Bitterblossom tokens good and scary after a big sweep at 5/40, and is goddamn hilarious when you Lightning Greaves up an exalted Cold-Eyed Selkie and get the fuck in for three -- cards. Yeah, that seems like it'll get you 2/98.

Happy hunting!

We're going

to the Star City Open in Indianapolis next month.

I've long been a fan of Back to Basics in Legacy because it limits most decks to maybe three functional lands. In other words, it causes your opponent to stop playing Magic. A summer ago I went 3-2-1 in a Chicago 50-man playing Mono-Blue Control, maindecking four Back to Basics and four Propaganda. Aggro Loam and Domain Zoo haaaaated me; it was lovely. But I went to time a lot, and Mono-Red Goblins was a nightmare match-up. Further, Morphling just isn't good enough anymore.

This deck seems to address a lot of those complaints. Splash white but keep the Basics plan - Why didn't I think of that?

First thing I'm doing is cutting the Cunning Wishes for extra copies of Back to Basics, and probably dumping the Divining Tops for fourth copies of Fact or Fiction and Counterspell.

Past that, I get to board in Meddling Mage? Hell and damn yes. Plus the Sphinx is everything you pay 5 mana each turn to wish Morphling was, and I want to marry Elspeth.

In other news, this Pox deck seems exciting, although I've never been keen on Nether Spirit. "Ooh, my 2/2 with no abilities just won't go away, hahah, unless you're playing the most common removal spell in the format. What, Swords my guy? Aww..." I guess he chumps Tarmogoyf for awhile. Great. (I don't mean that. I do not think it is great at all. AT ALL.)

I mean, at the very least you could play Bloodghast instead...

Oh, and if like me you've been wondering whether that Vintage Selkie deck could find a viable port into Legacy, here's your answer.

Last thing: I don't really want to play Storm in Indianapolis, but if I were assembling a build for someone to test against, this would be it. No Lion's Eye Diamond, decent protection, and no ridiculously complicated kills using Doomsday or Ill Gotten Gains. In other words it's cheaper and easier to learn. Which is to say, in the hands of an idiot it's probably the more effective build.

That's what I love.

-Dan

Never Grow Old

I'm awfully excited about how cool Legacy suddenly is.

Anyway, here are the lists that have set my heart aflutter in anticipation of Indiana next month.

Generic Dragon-Stompy lives! Note the complete lack of Zoo in that Top 8; Magus of the Moon is worthless against an opponent running Lightning Bolt, and Qasali Pridemage could give a damn about basically a third of your deck. Good luck being the beatdown in That match-up, Dragon Stompy! Still a fun deck though. Anyway.

Ryan Hatcher doesn't even know how bad he wants to cuddle with this 42-man winning Legacy Death Cloud build.

Lots of strange choices going on in this Reanimator build, which apparently sports a semi-transformational sideboard. Interesting.

This looks like an update on BHWC Landstill from two or three years ago, mixed with Goyfstill. I like it because of its strong Cunning Wish count: zero. What I am saying is that I do not like Cunning Wish in Landstill.

I've built the Bitterblossom/Spellstutter Sprite/Terminate tempo deck three times now and each time I've been bored off my face. And each time someone adds a new tweak to lure me back: first it was Jitte and Firespout, and now they're incorporating Blightning and Vendilion Clique, the latter of which makes Riptide Laboratory a neat inclusion as well.

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In other news, have you checked the price on uncommon Legacy staples like Wasteland and Aether Vial? $20 and $10 respectively. Evidently you're lucky to pick up a Force of Will for under $30. So I hope you realized Legacy was cool awhile ago, because apparently a lot of other people have figured it out too, and are shopping accordingly.

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Oh, and speaking of eternal formats, have you seen the Bant deck in Vintage? First turn Hierarch, second turn Selkie, third turn Pridemage, draw three? Six representatives in the above-linked Top 8, from a 50-man. And then there's this Selkie deck, which won an event of 100+. It eschews UW for Red, giving it Magus of the Moon, Gorilla Shaman, and effectively a red Ancestral Recall with flashback in the form of Reckless Charge via Selkie. How's THAT for a 61st card?

Oh, and in case you wonder, no, Vintage is not too insanely good for Skullclamped Elves to just murder you.

So yeah, let's play for money. Jump, gypsy!
JUMP!

-Dan

Five months

without Apprentice was five months too long.

Both of the combo decks I goldfished today sport Stifle-Nought with FOW backup as an alternate "oops" win condition.

Let's play for money.