Hello boys and girls, I hope everyone had a blast at their Prereleases! I’m sure a lot of you are brewing some crazy new deck, which I’ll
be excited to see. However, today I’m going to share with you the deck I’ll (most likely) be playing for SCG Orlando.
Before we start I have a small rant. Many people tell you not to brew — that it’s horrible, you should instead just play an established top
deck, and Ali plays the best decks evar he is so awesome. I regret to inform you that only that last statement is true. You see, you learn so much by
playing different cards. It allows you to see angles you wouldn’t normal see. Playing with a different deck will not only give you a feel for how
the deck works, it will teach you what the best plays against that deck are. Sometimes going rogue just means switching out 6-8 cards, or splashing a
color, seemingly minor changes which can, nonetheless, lead to huge success. For recent examples, see Darkwing Duck and Angry Birds. On the other hand
going rogue can mean playing a brand new deck that nobody has seen before. The deck may not be the best deck but the edge you gain is huge. You will
frighten your opponents since they will have no idea what you are doing, they will not know how to sideboard against you, or better yet they will
sideboard incorrectly against you. Just remember that when you’re going rogue, you should (usually) aim to beat the current metagame.
While I’m ranting I just have one more quick rant.
Christian Valenti and I were talking at the last open and he told me how he was always just going to play the best deck from now on because he felt
like he would have more success with a known and tested deck. I can’t fault him for that, if he feels he will place better with the best deck
that’s awesome and I am happy for him. I want to see my friends do well at tournaments. And if you have friends who want to see
you fail at tournaments, just a heads up, they are probably not your friends.
Okay, okay, enough ranting onto what I will play in Orlando!
For the standard portion I have put a little twist ye Ole Turboland!
Creatures (13)
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (29)
Spells (14)
A ramp deck that ramps into big blue creatures? How odd! Everyone knows that green ramp decks have an issue once a few of their game-ending threats are
dealt with. The Turboland deck tries to overcome this by adding busted cards, like Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
In addition to the best Planeswalker, you get to play Consecrated Sphinx and…
People have doubted Consecrated Sphinx in the past, but I think it’s her time to shine. She’s a serious threat that, if not dealt with
immediately, will ensure your victory. She doesn’t put a serious clock on your opponent like most big threats do, but when you have infi mana,
it’s dangerous to let your opponent draw a billion cards.
As for my boi, Jin-Gitaxias — The argument for Jin is that you’ll never be able to cast him. He’s obviously ridiculous if you can get
him in play, but according to all you nay-sayers, that’s impossible. Turboland disagrees! This deck wants at least one “Cruel
Ultimatum” style card that just ends the game upon resolution. It’s like Vendilion Clique, Iona, and Ancestral Recall got together and
after one crazy night of partying Iona got knocked up. Jin destroys their entire hand — your opponent will no longer have anything to cast, while
you draw a new hand every turn. AND the best part is he is super sexy like myself. (I mean have you seen who Star City uses to model their shirts for
them?) Jin-Gitaxias is the end all threat Turboland has been looking for.
Beast Within is an insane card! This deck doesn’t get to abuse its full potential since the beast can be a minor threat, but it’s what you
need to deal with
planeswalkers
 other Jaces, man lands, annoying equipment and Pyromancer Ascension.
Karn Liberated has been the loosest card in this deck he probably spent too much time with Golem Artisan. I feel like the card is pretty powerful but
he’s been kind of lack luster thus far. I wanted a card that has the ability to be removal and a game-ending card. Since Karn is able to fill
both of these roles, he’s not getting cut quite yet, but I can see cutting him for an Avenger of Zendikar or another Jin.
Yes, this list is playing 29 lands. In order to stay ahead, you have to ensure that you’ll make all your land drops. Plus, you’ll want to
make sure that you get full use out of Oracle of Mul Daya.
As for the sideboard we want more ways to deal with Caw-Blade, Pyromancer/Splinter Twin, super aggressive decks, and the random classic U/W or U/B
Control decks.
3 Naturalize
2 Spell Pierce
1 Deprive
3 Mental Misstep
2 Jace Beleren
4 Obstinate Baloth
This board is composed to beat what I think the new metagame will bring. The only time you want three Naturalize is when you’re battling against
pure combo decks like Splinter Twin and Pyromancer, this will give you seven answers to their shenanigans. I’d probably only bring in one against
Caw-blade unless you just saw a ton of equipment and creatures that they’ll land quickly.
Mental Misstep is good against any aggressive deck that relies on their one-drops to push through a lot of damage. I mean, come on, what’s a red
deck without Goblin Guide? The deck is already horrible to begin with, but once you can easily answer their best card the deck becomes a joke.
It’s also not awful against decks packed with Preordains, Gitaxian Probes, and Spell Pierces *cough* Ascension *cough*. Against the aggressive
decks, the Baloths will help keep you afloat later in the game.
This deck should already have a fairly decent control match up; however, I added a few Jace Beleren to help lock it up post sideboard.
I’m excited about this deck and hopefully I will perform well with it in Orlando!
All right, Day 1 is out of the way for now. Day 2 is an entirely different story! I originally thought about playing my Standard deck, but adding
Exploration instead of Oracle, adding a few more lands, perhaps some Mana Bonds, maybe taking out the creatures, adding Life From the Loam, Future
Sight, Horn of Greed and maybe an Intuition or two, but then I decided to just play the same deck that earned me a Top 8 in the Charlotte Open.
Here’s the current list I’m looking at for Legacy.
Creatures (19)
- 4 Metalworker
- 1 Sundering Titan
- 4 Lodestone Golem
- 4 Wurmcoil Engine
- 4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
- 1 Myr Battlesphere
- 1 Blightsteel Colossus
Lands (16)
Spells (25)
I really liked the feel of this deck from the Charlotte Open. I would change a few things though. I don’t really want to be playing Chalice of
the Void in the main deck. It’s really only good on the play or against combo decks. I also only want one Staff of Domination. The card is
insanely powerful in this deck, but you never want to see more than one.
I’m also interested to see how Karn Liberated performs in this deck. With the degenerate amounts of mana ramp in this deck you can realistically
cast Karn on turn two. A huge problem I found with this deck was that you couldn’t destroy your opponent’s permanents. Karn gives you the
ability to do this and do it quickly.
I decided that since I was adding one planeswalker, I might as well add THE Planeswalker. This is the new list that I’m testing.
Creatures (18)
- 4 Metalworker
- 1 Sundering Titan
- 4 Lodestone Golem
- 4 Wurmcoil Engine
- 4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
- 1 Blightsteel Colossus
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (18)
Spells (21)
Ah! Jace, you’re just too good! With this list we have the ability to go infinite with Metal Worker + Staff of Domination and we can also use
Academy Ruins to go Mindslaver lock someone. The latter combo could end up being too cute in which case we cut the Academy Ruins and Mindslaver for the
last Thoughtcast and a second Top. Also, a lot of people will be packing Mental Missteps; which only hits Voltaic Key and the lone Top in this deck.
I’ve had a lot of fun playing this deck, but then again, I can’t really imagine a deck with a Mindslaver lock in it that I wouldn’t
enjoy playing…
As with every new set, the formats will shift a bit. Even with all the hype Mental Misstep is receiving I don’t expect Legacy to be completely
warped into the radically new format that everyone is saying it will become. Don’t get me wrong, the card is good. However, I don’t expect
it to completely alter the format. I predict only controlling blue decks will want it. You’re going to look awfully silly turn 2 and up when you
aren’t playing blue and realize you just made a Mental Misstep.
As for Standard, this is the best time for rogue decks. New concoctions will have a chance to shine, and perhaps emerge as a tier one deck. My greatest
hope is that we’ll see a format that doesn’t put 32 Jace, the Mind Sculptors in every top 8. Until next time kiddos — keep
brewin’ and most importantly have fun!
Ali-Gitaxias
P.S. Personally I’m getting tired of this pestering caw noise. Somebody please shoot the damn birds.