Legacy was once the proud last bastion of Magic’s wild west. For a few years, it was a format where you didn’t have to metagame because the overwhelming diversity made it a trivial exercise. Oh, there were regional metagames, absolutely. Were Brainstorm decks the best? Always have been. But it was never like this. We could play whatever deck suited us, not worrying about what was “better,” only what was more fun. Sadly, that time is past us. Legacy is a grinder’s format now. That said, it’s not all bad—you have options on what deck you choose to battle with. Here are your choices if you want to win:
Creatures (11)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (23)
Spells (22)
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (23)
Spells (32)
Creatures (12)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (20)
Creatures (11)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (21)
Creatures (13)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (23)
Spells (20)
Truly, the pinnacle of diversity. Hey, at least you can pretend that Batterskull isn’t the best and try to play a non-Stoneforge Mystic strategy. Some of them do decently. I mean, you’re not casting a Demonic Tutor/Aether Vial/Baneslayer Angel split card, but doing that is for netdeckers. I’m sure we can find ways to not play Stoneforge Mystic!
Creatures (13)
Lands (19)
Spells (28)
Creatures (24)
- 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
- 4 Lord of Atlantis
- 4 Merrow Reejerey
- 4 Silvergill Adept
- 4 Cursecatcher
- 4 Coralhelm Commander
- 2 Phantasmal Image
Lands (21)
Spells (15)
Creatures (9)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (23)
Spells (25)
Creatures (11)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (24)
Spells (23)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (32)
Creatures (9)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (22)
Spells (27)
Creatures (9)
- 1 Platinum Angel
- 1 Blazing Archon
- 1 Angel of Despair
- 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
- 1 Terastodon
- 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
- 3 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
Lands (16)
Spells (35)
See, now that’s diversity.
…
…
What? What’s that? You don’t want to play Mental Misstep, either? You’ve got to be kidding me. You don’t even want to win, do you? Fine, how about this?
Creatures (3)
Lands (19)
Spells (38)
You get to beat up on all the snobs with their Stoneforge Mystics; you get to play no good Misstep targets of your own; and you even get the option to sideboard your own Missteps! Of course, given that you’re playing this deck to get away from the best counterspell in the format, I’m not sure why you’d want to throw it in your sideboard and defeat the whole purpose of your suboptimal deck choice. Then again, I’m not here to question your life decisions. Play your Hive Minds if that’s what makes you happy.
There is, I suppose, one last set of options for those of you who can’t, won’t, or refuse to learn how to [enjoy] cast[ing] Brainstorm. If Underground Sea is simply out of your price range, I genuinely feel for you. If you own black-bordered Bayous but not white-bordered Underground Seas, though, I have to admit that I don’t think I’ll ever quite understand you. Sorry about that. Anyway, here you go. Have fun casting not-Brainstorm. Freaks.
Creatures (16)
Lands (22)
Spells (22)
Creatures (28)
- 4 Ichorid
- 4 Golgari Grave-Troll
- 4 Golgari Thug
- 4 Stinkweed Imp
- 4 Phantasmagorian
- 4 Narcomoeba
- 4 Street Wraith
Lands (13)
Spells (19)
Creatures (23)
Lands (20)
Spells (17)
Creatures (14)
Lands (25)
Spells (21)
Creatures (15)
Lands (26)
Spells (19)
Creatures (14)
Lands (23)
Spells (23)
Well, that’s about all I’ve got for you. If you still don’t know what you want to play in your next Legacy event, go back to the top and just play the first list. It has a lot of play; it’s very powerful; and it gives you a lot of leeway to make plans. In fairness, so do a lot of the other decks. They just do a worse job of it.
If you really can’t bring yourself to play any of the above decks, though, I suppose I can give you my current list of a Legacy adaptation of Sam Black Infect deck from the top eight of Philadelphia:
Creatures (6)
Lands (17)
Spells (37)
The deck has a lot going on, and I’m not sure the cantrips are the best way to sculpt a good hand. It might be that the deck wants a more complex mana base—Lotus Petal, Mox Diamonds, Chrome Moxes, and so on—so that it can more reliably get a turn-two or turn-three kill. If that’s not where the deck ends up wanting to be, I could see Burning Wish and/or Cunning Wish entering the equation as a way to always have a turn-four kill with multiple layers of protection. I am very confident that Stifle is correct, since Wasteland is a gigantic problem for Inkmoth Nexus.
I owe Phillip Lorren credit for the inspiration for Gut Shot. When I watched him blow Ryan Rolen out of the Top 8 of Sunday’s event with his singleton Gut Shot on SCGLive, my jaw actually dropped. When I went to the drawing board for this deck, I realized that Gut Shot is exactly what a Legacy version of this deck needs to be viable—there are a lot of flying blockers in Legacy that are all-too-happy to trade with Inkmoth Nexus. Gut Shot takes care of them at a very reasonable price. If this deck is successful, I think that multiple Gut Shots may be the reason why.
If you have any questions about the lists, feel free to ask questions in the comments. The point of an article like this is not only to get you to think about what appeals most to your style of play, but also to force you to think about the subtle differences between each deck, what that means for its place in the Legacy metagame, and how card choices like Vendilion Clique, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Karakas, and Thoughtseize can make a real difference in how a matchup plays out. If you take nothing else away from this article, learn this lesson: never netdeck a 75-card deck. If you netdeck a 60-card deck, do so only after you understand why each card is exactly what it is. If you don’t take the time to have that baseline of comprehension, you may as well just play your games blindfolded—it will have the same end result.
I’ll be back next Thursday, hopefully with some very good news. I’ve got another article ready to go with just as many decklists as this one. The thing is, none of them have Mental Misstep in them…
Until next week,
Drew Levin
@drew_levin on Twitter