In response to my letter to Wizards last week, Aaron Forsythe Twittered that there were good things on the way for Legacy. Obviously, Zendikar must be one of those things. With several cards spoiled already, the set is looking very interesting for our favorite format. In this week’s article, I’ll be talking about what’s out already and how it can fit into the format. Plus, at the end, I’ll talk about one of my favorite up-and-coming decks that might get a real boost from Zendikar.
Let’s talk about enemy fetchlands first, since they’ve generated so much interest and discussion already. We’ve been waiting seven years for these! I’m both excited and a little forlorn about them. On the upside, they open up a lot more design space and really complete a defining element of Legacy, the manabases. On the other hand, how much will they be used? Off the top of my head, BG Suicide, Rock decks, and Zoo will all benefit a good deal from these lands. Any UG deck also gets a huge boost, gaining effectively four more Tropical Islands to play with. In fact, UG can now build a manabase like this:
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 U/G Fetchland
4 U/R Fetchland
1 Tropical Island
Look at all that shufflin’! Jokes aside, these will have the effect of making Stifle better and Wasteland a bit worse. Also caught in the collateral damage is Blood Moon, which will be better if people go beyond the 8-10 fetchlands played in most decks lately but worse if they stick with that number and can access basic lands before they get Mooned. While those cards dip, Stifle will now have targets in essentially every deck, so a dedicated land destruction theme involving Stifle, such as what Canadian Threshold sports, becomes even better.
Perhaps my favorite thing about the new enemy fetchlands is that they reduce the number of dual lands needed to play Legacy. For example, BG Suicide can now be built with two Bayous instead of four. UG Threshold can operate on two Tropical Islands as well. This means that newer players can have a more realistic shot of building competitive decks if they play Standard as well or have access to the new fetches. With Tropical Island reaching astronomical prices, anything that alleviates the need for a full pack of them for Legacy seems good to me.
Next, let’s turn to one of the best storm hosers printed yet:
Mindbreak Trap
2UU
Instant – Trap
If an opponent cast three or more spells this turn, you may pay 0 rather than pay Mindbreak Trap’s mana cost.
Exile any number of target spells.
You’ll rarely ever pay the retail cost for this card, so let’s look at the alternate casting cost. First, there’s no requirement for anything remotely blue to fire this off. That means that it’ll fit into any deck out there. This is strictly a sideboard card against combo decks, as far as Legacy is concerned. It’s a mighty fine one, at that. For example, you can save this until the opponent has already put storm copies on the stack and then Exile every spell. That makes it better than Orim’s Chant, a go-to hoser that leaves the opponent with their kill card still in hand and maybe some fast mana cards left as well.
There are downsides to Mindbreak Trap, apart from the obvious and lame trap-related puns you’ll face in the next few months. It’s entirely possible for a deck with access to Ad Nauseam to completely avoid the card. Consider a turn from them that would start Dark Ritual, Ad Nauseam – now the opponent has upwards of a dozen more cards in hand and can probably either Duress out the trap or use Pact of Negation to win the counter-war. I predict that Mindbreak Trap will be an effective tool in stopping Storm combo, best used in conjunction with other cards as well. I see it having a great impact in the bad BG Rock builds I cook up, as Rock-style decks have a notoriously bad time dealing with a topdeck from the opponent. Mindbreak Trap gives players who have access to other anti-combo cards, like Ethersworn Canonist or Chalice of the Void, another angle to protect themselves.
Next, let’s look at the Goblins we’ve seen so far:
Warren Instigator
RR
Creature – Goblin Berserker
Double Strike
Whenever Warren Instigator deals damage to an opponent, you may put a Goblin creature card from your hand onto the battlefield.
1/1
Goblin Guide
R
Creature – Goblin Scout
Haste
Whenever Goblin Guide attacks, defending player reveals the top card of his or her library. If it’s a land card, that player puts it into his or her hand.
2/2
We’re seeing a new age of Goblins. I think Goblins has had an identity crisis in the past in Legacy in that it’s not very sure what it does. We’ve seen Goblins move into the background of Legacy in the past year, with those Engineered Plagues being aimed at Merfolk and Elves instead of the red dorks. Between these two cards, with Goblin Chieftain an honorable mention, we’re seeing goblins capable of more speed and brutality than we’ve encountered in Legacy before. Warren Instigator is the only really playable 2-drop goblin aside from Goblin Piledriver and can make a more consistent mana curve in Goblin decks.
We’ve already heard a lot about Instigator, so I’ll just leave it at this: he plays really well with others. The card may be a reason to run Rite of Flame in Goblins (or Skirk Prospector, if you want to stay thematic). It’s not some lordly amazing event if it gets in unblocked, but dropping out two of your favorite creatures is quite strong, especially if one is a Goblin Ringleader or Siege-Gang Commander. Moreover, it forces opponents to commit creatures early to the board that they might not be prepared to protect. For example, a Warren Instigator hitting the board would force an opposing CounterTop player to play out a Tarmogoyf to block, only to see it die to a Gempalm Incinerator the next turn. If that player had a little more time, their Goyf would be able to withstand that damage. I suppose what I’m saying is that the mere threat of an opponent going big on you with Warren Instigator might force you to do unfortunate things to stay alive.
Goblin Guide looks like an auto-add to Goblins, probably over the Mogg Fanatic spot that got a lot worse after M10. Because it has Haste, the Guide makes an opponent start the game at 18 life, which is no mean feat. The downside of the card can be advantageous in that it lets you know what they’ll be drawing the next turn. It also telegraphs what Counterbalance will hit at. Goblin Guide isn’t much fun when the opponent has Sensei’s Divining Top, but come on, they’re just drawing land! You’re attacking from the very first turn with a respectable dude! Goblins will welcome this card, though I’m not sure that the Goblin deck that plays it will be the Goblin deck we have currently.
Next, here are two lands that show a marginal potential for Legacy:
Emeria, The Sky Ruin
Land
Emeria, the Sky Ruin enters the battlefield tapped.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control seven or more plains, return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
T: Add W to you mana pool.
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Land
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle enters the battlefield tapped.
Whenever a Mountain enters the battlefield under your control, if you control at least five other Mountains, you may have Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle deal 3 damage to target creature or player.
T: Add R to your mana pool.
Both of these cards really push the long game in Legacy, which can be hard to do. Valakut is on the list because of the combination with Scapeshift that Patrick Chapin wrote about last week. Essentially, with seven lands, you can get five Mountains and two Valakuts with Scapeshift and then deal lethal damage to the opponent. It requires seven lands, five mountains still in your deck and a decent investment in green mana. I’m unsure if that’s actually sustainable in Legacy. Much like Tooth and Nail, Scapeshift becomes a one-card combo with Valakut. I don’t think it’ll be an amazing combination, but the “play one spell” strategy can now be merged more effectively with mana ramping like Sakura-Tribe Elder and Kodama’s Reach. Also, Scapeshift plays very well with Boseiju!
Emeria looks good if a Martyr of Sands deck would be possible in Legacy. I have a sense that such a deck, running all sorts of board control cards, would love something like Emeria for the lategame to bypass pesky cards from the opponent and make more use out of its mana every turn than pumping it into Proclamation of Rebirth. I’ve toyed around with Martyr to limited success before; with Emeria, the deck gains a tool that saves it substantial amounts of mana every turn that can instead, be poured into cards like Decree of Justice, Eternal Dragon or Elspeth, Knight-Errant. I don’t think the card will miraculously pull Martyr into the top tiers of Legacy, but it’s good for enterprising deckbuilders to consider.
Finally, two quick hits:
Scythe Tiger
G
Creature – Cat
Shroud
When Scythe Tiger enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you sacrifice a land.
3/2
Iona, Shield of Emeria
6WWW
Legendary Creature — Angel
Flying
As Iona, Shield of Emeria enters the battlefield, choose a color.
Your opponents can’t play spells of the chosen color.
7/7
Scythe Tiger is nicely designed; it forces players to consider whether they want to run extra lands in their Zoo deck so as to be able to play it or pass up one of the best one-drops around. It doesn’t play particularly well with Wild Nacatl, but it’s good to think about when you’re constructing an aggressive deck. As we saw with Nimble Mongoose, Shroud makes a creature a real pain to deal with in this format.
Iona is a good Dread Return target for Dredge. I’m not sure I’d always be able to pick the right color with Iona to maximum effect, though I’d think that Cabal Therapy would help tremendously to take a peek. Being able to land Iona against a monocolored deck is The Dream, but even cutting off things like Swords to Plowshares or enemy green creatures is power enough.
The New Face of UW Control
Now, for a deck I see as revolutionizing the UW control archetype: Planeswalkers. I’ve written about the deck before, but I wanted to give you an updated list from Yan Lampron, who won a 35-person event with it recently:
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Lightning Helix
2 Forbid
2 Humility
4 Ancestral Vision
3 Jace Beleren
3 Engineered Explosives
3 Spell Snare
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Decree of Justice
1 Ajani Vengeant
2 Cunning Wish
2 Crucible of Worlds
3 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
2 Island
2 Plains
2 Wasteland
3 Mishra’s Factory
1 Academy Ruins
1 Tolaria West
1 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
3 Volcanic Island
1 Plateau
Sideboard:
4 Meddling Mage
1 Misdirection
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Pulse of the Fields
1 Extirpate
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Pyroblast
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Path to Exile
1 Volcanic Fallout
Planeswalkers present an annoying prospect for the opponent, especially if their creatures have a hard time making contact. Yan’s deck can play a very frustrating game with Humility and Jace-backed Forbid, letting the Planeswalkers ramp up to their Real Ultimate Power abilities. Yan’s deck is a little daring in that he runs very few blue cards to support Force of Will and he’s chosen Ancestral Vision over the usual Brainstorm. However, this deck looks interesting and has a sort of quiet power that I like a lot.
Overall, I’m very pleased with how Zendikar looks so far. You can see the development team really getting into their groove, especially now that development isn’t just “make gold cards.” Landfall is a powerful ability that, with Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam, Legacy is prepared to make good use of. Join me next week as I talk Canadian Threshold with one of its star pilots!
Until next week…
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