Development in the Legacy format is currently making good use of the available card pool, and many archetypes are being explored. Some of the better decks run cards that are among the more expensive you will find in the format: they have as many as eight dual lands and / or eight fetchlands, and sets of Force of Will, Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Umezawa’s Jitte, Meddling Mage, Sinkhole, Reset, Intuition, and Moat. Obviously some decks can be a little expensive to build, but the good news is that there are inexpensive decks that are still good in a competitive Legacy environment.
The deck I will discuss today won the 2006 Dutch Legacy championship. It is a Green/White Aggro-Control deck, and has comfortable matchups against Goblins and Threshold. The Combo matchup is weaker in game 1, but there are already strong tools in the maindeck to fight it, and with a strong sideboard it is much improved. I have included Orim’s Chants in the sideboard because they serve this purpose so well, but the sideboard can be customized, either out of budget or metagame concerns.
Creatures (20)
Lands (25)
Spells (15)
Sideboard
The expensive cards in this deck are the four Savannahs and the Green fetchlands, of which I included six but the deck can survive on fewer if necessary. If you can’t obtain Orim’s Chants, then you should participate in discussion about the deck to discuss some suitable replacements.
This deck has several gameplans, which is one reason why it is so successful. It has big creatures, land destruction, graveyard recursion, creature removal, and even a combo that locks up the game. These elements are also all very efficient, and have great synergy with each other. Which strategy the deck pursues can depend on the matchup as well as what kind of draw the deck has. First, let’s look at the mana curve.
At one mana, the deck runs Llanowar Elves and Swords to Plowshares. These two cards are really setup cards, since they are used to prepare the deck for the turn 2 plays. There are also seven cycling lands, which can be considered turn 1 plays since they use up your mana on turn 1.
At two mana, the deck runs Wild Mongrel, Werebear, and Life from the Loam. These cards can be really powerful when the deck is functioning normally. Werebear and Wild Mongrel get big in the mid-game and provide a lot of attack power. Life from the Loam supports Wild Mongrel since you can discard lands to it, and then just get them back to use again.
At three and four mana we have some key cards. Terravore, Solitary Confinement, Armageddon, and Eternal Witness perform critical roles and take full advantage of the strong support base of the cheaper cards. Armageddon is one of the strongest cards in the deck. Its effect by itself is very good against almost every deck (it is not great against Threshold), but what’s better is that the deck barely suffers from casting it. Llanowar Elves, Werebear, and Life from the Loam all provide additional ways of producing mana and allow the deck to recover easily. Terravore is in here for basically one reason – it is the biggest creature for three mana in this format. Virtually every deck runs six or more fetchlands (including this one), and about half of the decks in the format run Wastelands (including this one), which boost this creatures power significantly. On top of these free advantages, this deck also runs seven cycling lands and four Armageddons, which end up making Terravore enormous. Solitary Confinement can lock your opponent out of the game with Life from the Loam recursion, and is one reason why this deck has such a good game against Goblins. It is also useful against Combo, but they have bounce so other effects are needed for that matchup. Eternal Witness is a pretty small compared to the rest of the creatures in this deck, but it recurs the most important cards in the matchup you are playing (such as Swords to Plowshares), and gives the deck a stronger game against permission strategies.
Let’s review the major interactions:
Llanowar Elves, Werebear, and Life from the Loam provide mana, which allow the deck to play more of its cards as well as supporting Armageddon. Life from the Loam is also a card drawing engine with the seven cycling lands in the deck.
Wild Mongrel and Terravore are simply very large creatures supported by the land destruction and land recursions strategies (you can also get your Terravore back with Genesis).
Swords to Plowshares and Solitary Confinement are strong tools to fight Aggro decks with, and are supported by the recursion of Life from the Loam and Eternal Witness.
With all of this recursion and mana-production, the deck is able to expend its resources in the early game trading one-for-one, since it will be able to buy back all of its cards when the mana production reaches full capacity. Even so, the efficiency of the threats still gives the deck a strong early game against Aggro, since they will have to fight through creatures pumped at instant speed as well as Swords to Plowshares. Surviving until the deck can exploit its higher mana production is the primary strategy, however, so it can focus its resources on fighting the opponent whenever they choose to attack. Aggro can still have a strong late game in Legacy, but with Armageddon and Solidarity confinement this decks’ is better, so focus on trading threats and resolving these cards. After sideboarding, Tivadar’s Crusade is obviously very good against Goblins, and you may want to bring in Null Rod since it shuts down Aether Vial and Tormod’s Crypt.
Against Aggro-Control, it is critical to produce a lot of mana in order to cast multiple threats every turn and maintain pressure on the opponent. If Aggro-Control can’t win off its early tempo boosts, it will suffer in the late game, so focus on mana production. Jotun Grunt is a strong anti-Threshold card, but it’s not an important strategy so there are only two in the sideboard. Krosan Grip is also important against B/R Suicide, where they will bring in Dystopia and Umezawa’s Jitte against you.
The Combo game is trickier, since they can go off quite early sometimes. Before games two and three, resolving a Confinement or Armageddon to buy time is important, but if they recover you may not have enough damage to end the game before they do. After sideboarding, cards such as Null Rod and Orim’s Chant give you more opportunities to disrupt the combo, which will buy you time to apply pressure. Recurring anti-combo cards with Eternal Witness is a key play. Orim’s Chant and Null Rod are the key cards to bring in here, and maybe even Krosan Grip to deal with Leyline of the Void.
Control is the rarest archetype, but if you do end up facing it I think the amount of recursion in this deck will be hard to deal with. Genesis will recur any creature, and Life from the Loam can recur Nantuko Monastery. Armageddon is also a game-breaking card if it resolves, and it can be recurred with Eternal Witness. I might side in Krosan Grip if they have an artifact or enchantment that is strong, such as Moat or Crucible of Worlds.
Overall, this deck performs quite well against the more popular Legacy decks, and is not expensive to build. The dual lands and fetchlands are the only expensive cards in the maindeck, but Savannah and Windswept heath are the cheapest duals and fetchlands so you should be able to get them at very good prices. If you can obtain a set of Orim’s Chants for the sideboard, I think you will have a very competitive deck, but you may be able to find some good substitutes for your sideboard depending on your budget and the environment you expect to play in. I encourage anyone building this deck to consult the existing forum discussion to come up with a good sideboard.
Join me next week to discuss another Legacy deck with a lot of bang for the buck!
Christopher Coppola
Machinus @ various websites and email servers