At Worlds 2007, I posted a 6-0 result in the Legacy portion with Aggro-Loam. Ever since, I’ve been in love with the Legacy format. Not that I play Legacy every week or so… it’s just that every time I do play it, it feels like I’m playing a complete different level of Magic.
Things haven’t changed. Legacy is still very fun to play, and the decks just are the next level (Blue). I started my testing for my latest Legacy tournament with the U/g/r Turbo-threshold deck from David Chaplin at Grand Prix: Chicago. I played some games against Ad Nauseam and Counterbalance-Top, and was winning pretty much everything. The only thing that bothered me about the deck was that it only had 8 creatures, and that sometimes you just didn’t draw them. Adding a pair of Quirion Dryads really helped, and I was really satisfied with the deck. That was until I played against Merfolk. With 4 Fire/Ice, 4 Lightning Bolt, and several Pyroclasms and Red Elemental Blasts after boarding, I thought I couldn’t lose this matchup. Turned out I could. The only games I was winning were those where I got double Nimble Mongoose in the first few turns backed up with enough removal. Unfortunately, that doesn’t come up too often, and in most of the other games I couldn’t keep up with the cheap efficient fish backed up with free counters and card draw. After 20 games I decided to change decks. This is the decklist I ran at the tournament:
Creatures (18)
Lands (19)
Spells (23)
Sideboard
The list doesn’t differ a lot from the usual Merfolk list in Legacy. The most important changes are the three maindeck Threads of Disloyalty. Most decks don’t run Brainstorm either, but I’ll get into that later. First I’d like to take a look at the matches I played. I hadn’t played Legacy in more than a year, so almost every deck I encountered was new to me.
Round 1versus Goyf Sligh.
Goyf Sligh is basically Red Deck Wins with a small Green splash for 4 Tarmogoyf and Kird Ape. Before the tournament, I asked several people what my bad matchups were, and the consensus was that all Red decks (Burn, Goblins, Goyf Sligh) were pretty bad for Merfolk.
Of course, I won 2-0 pretty easily. Game 1 I won on the back of my maindeck Threads of Disloyalty, and in game 2 I was at three life when I resolved and equipped a Jitte to my 3/3 Mutavault, winning shortly after. Had I equipped my Merrow Reejerey instead of my Mutavault, I would have lost to Magma Jet on the Reejerey into a burn spell. Plays like these are pretty logical if you are familiar with the format, but I didn’t really know his deck was running Magma Jet. The reason I equipped Mutavault instead of the Reejerey was because I thought he was running Red Elemental Blasts (which he wasn’t).
Round 2 versus BGW Rock with Recurring Nightmare
Legacy is probably the only format in which Rogue decks can be just as good as Tier 1 decks. The format is so diverse that you can build decks around almost any card (be it Survival of the Fittest, Smokestack, Phyrexian Dreadnought, or whatever else). In this round I had to play some weird Rock deck featuring Recurring Nightmare, Unearth, and other goodies. For reference, here is Kasper Euser’s list:
3 Bayou
2 Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author]
2 Savannah
2 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Forest
4 Polluted Delta
4 Windswept Heath
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Eternal Witness
4 Dark Confidant
1 Shriekmaw
2 Thoughtseize
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Recurring Nightmare
3 Pernicious Deed
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Unearth
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
Sideboard
4 Orim’s Chant
4 Duress
4 Krosan Grip
3 Extirpate
This deck is obviously huge against any Red deck, and should also be great against combo with 4 Therapy, 2 Thoughtseize, 4 Witness, and 4 Duress after board. I had the feeling his matchup against Merfolk was pretty bad though, despite running Pernicious Deed and Swords to Plowshares. Threads of Disloyalty and Standstill were definitely the MVP’s in this matchup. In the end, I won 2-1 thanks to a huge Back to Basics in game 2 and a fast draw in game 3.
Round 3 versus Turbo-Threshold.
I knew from testing that this matchup was pretty good, and it also showed during the games.
Game 1 showcased the problem I also had when playing Turbo-Threshold, as my opponent didn’t draw a creature and I just killed him with double Cursecatcher. Game 2 I got down Back to Basics, and when I countered his Red Elemental Blast, the game was pretty much over.
Round 4 versus ANT (Ad Nauseam Tendrils)
This was a very nice match, which I won in 3 close games. I felt like this matchup was in his favor, but that might have been because this guy really knew what he was doing, while I had no idea until he resolved his Ad Nauseam in game 1. The most memorable thing about this match was game 1, where my opponent resolved his Ad Nauseam with exactly three mana left… but flipped only one mana spell before he had to stop because he was too low on life. I was holding double Daze and still had a Cursecatcher in play at that moment, so when he played his Cabal Ritual I was able to counter it. I couldn’t kill him in the next turn though, so on his next turn he just emptied his hand (he had drawn several Brainstorms and Ponders with his Ad Nauseam), and killed me with just enough spells.
During this match I found out that I had literally zero sideboard cards against this deck, and I was running 3 completely useless Threads maindeck. I had to side in Relic of Progenitus, just so I could cycle it when I drew it.
Round 5 versus Dreadtill
Dreadtill is basically a bad Threshold deck, as it runs the same cheap counters but tries to win games with Dreadnought plus Stifle instead of Goyf and Mongoose. My opponent was also running Isochron Scepter which, fortunately for me, never resolved.
Both games weren’t really close, as the only thing he did was cast 2/2s for three mana (Trinket Mage) and activate his Top, while I was playing 5/5 unblockable guys on my turn (gotta love Lord of Atlantis).
Round 6: Intentional Draw + Ice Cream.
Round 7: Intentional Draw
… after playing 2 games, which I won pretty easily. At first I didn’t want to draw because I was making Top 8 anyway, but when my opponent countered my Daze with a Red Elemental Blast, I knew it was a good plan to give this guy his first (and last?) Top 8.
Quarterfinals versus Turbo-Threshold.
Once again, the games weren’t really close, as the little fish were just too fast and he couldn’t enough creatures.
Seven matches, and only once did I have to feeling the matchup wasn’t in my favor. Most of the time, my Merfolk were just too fast, and the card advantage of Standstill was so huge that even if my opponents were able to kill my first few creatures I would just deploy some more stupid Fish and kill them shortly thereafter.
Semi-finals, versus the same opponent as Round 4, with ANT.
I wasn’t really happy to play this guy again, as I had the feeling I got lucky in round 4. Game 1 I had to mulligan, and my six cards weren’t really good. I could play a Turn 2 Standstill (with a Cursecatcher in play), but decided to wait until I had some more pressure, as I didn’t want to give him too much time to find the right pieces. On turn 3 I was able to add some pressure with a Reejerey, and when he didn’t kill me on his turn I felt quite confident when I resolved my Standstill. On the next turn he broke the Standstill, and unfortunately I only drew one counter, which I had to waste on his Orim’s Chant. I couldn’t really complain about only drawing one counter, as Daze wouldn’t have helped me, and with only 4 Force of Will, chances were low I’d draw two so early in the game.
Game 2 was pretty much the complete opposite of game 1. This time I did get the fast clock and killed him on turn 4 while still holding a Force of Will. It was amazing to see how explosive a deck full of 1/1s and 2/2s could be thanks to those 8 Lords. At the beginning of turn 3 I had Vial, Cursecatcher and a Silvergil Adept in play, and I was able to kill my opponent on turn 4 thanks to double Reejerey and Lord of Atlantis.
In game 3 I mulliganed once again, but my hand was pretty good (Cursecatcher, Brainstorm, a Lord, and some lands). Pretty good… if I got to play a land, that is. But sometimes, my dearest readers, you just get killed on turn 0 in Legacy.
Land, Lotus Petal (1), Dark Ritual (2), Cabal Ritual (3), Lion’s Eye Diamond (4), Chrome Mox (5) imprint nothing, Infernal Tutor (6) for Ill-Gotten Gains (7+8+9), repeat, get Tendrils(10) with Infernal Tutor, deal exactly 20 damage.
This was a pretty sad way to exit a tournament, if you ask me.
Before I go, I’d like to talk a bit more about this deck, and why I think it’s one of the best decks in Legacy.
First of all, you’ve got 18 super-efficient, cheap creatures. In Standard, the weakest link of the Merfolk deck was Cursecatcher, but things are different in Legacy. In Legacy, people don’t run 26 lands, like Five-Color Control does. Most decks just rely on Brainstorm and Ponder to find their second land, so Cursecatcher becomes a 1/1 hard counter most of the time, and when he doesn’t you still got Daze and Wasteland. Silvergil Adept is obviously just the nuts, and sometimes you don’t even need a second Merfolk as Aether Vial lets you play him for free. Four Reejerey and four Lord of Atlantis make the deck really fast, and the Islandwalk actually matters in Legacy, whereas it hardly did anything in Standard. On top of that, you get two Wake Thrasher to steal games that take a bit longer. It’s good to know that you can tap your Aether Vial even if you don’t have anything to play, just to make your Thrasher bigger. Also, flashing a Wake Thrasher in play end of turn… Notice that these 18 cards are the only ones that you could also play in Standard.
3 Daze and 4 Force of Will: the big problem I always had when playing Merfolk in Standard was that when your opponent had the cheap removal for your first few creatures, your deck was playing a bunch of stupid cards like Sage’s Dousing and Stonybrook Banneret, and you had no way to protect your early creatures as you were always tapped out. In Legacy, people not only play less removal, but you also get a way to protect yourself when you are tapped out, in the form of Daze and Force of Will.
4 Standstill, 4 Aether Vial: I put these two together because these are the cards what make this deck so efficient. Standstill is pretty much always “draw three,” and Aether Vial is what makes this deck faster than any other creature deck in this format, and it also gives you a way to beat decks with a lot of counters.
3 Threads of Disloyalty: As I said earlier, most Merfolk lists don’t run these maindeck, but I was surprised by the power of them when playing with my Threshold deck against Merfolk. Suddenly, the Threshold deck didn’t have 8 ways to win. It only had 4 (Nimble Mongoose), as Tarmogoyf joined the enemy 50% of the time.
4 Brainstorm, 1 Echoing Truth: These are the only cards I felt didn’t fit in. Brainstorm is obviously a very good card (if not the best card in Legacy right now), but I never wanted to draw it. On top of that, it let me play five fetch lands, which I didn’t like either as it meant unnecessary damage against your worst matchups (Burn and Goyf Sligh). Echoing Truth was bad for me all day, and I sideboarded it out in every single matchup.
The sideboard:
3 Back to Basics: It doesn’t really matter that you run 7 non-basics yourself, as in the matchups where you board in this card (against Loam decks, Rock decks, and Turbo-Thresh), resolving Back to Basics should mean Good Game no matter what.
3 Relic Of Progenitus: An auto-include in your sideboard if you’re not running Tarmogoyf or Life from the Loam yourself.
3 Hydroblast, 1 Blue Elemental Blast: Against Burn, Goyf Sligh, Goblins, and Turbo-Threshold.
2 Divert: I didn’t sideboard it a single time, but it was there against Black decks with Sinkhole and Hymn to Tourach. I do believe they are unnecessary though, as those matchups should be in your favor anyway.
3 Umezawa’s Jitte: For the mirror, and against Red decks.
That pretty much covers everything from the deck. If I had to play a Legacy tournament tomorrow, I’d run the following list:
Creatures (18)
Lands (19)
Spells (23)
I removed the Echoing Truth and a single Threads of Disloyalty for two Jitte in the maindeck, mainly because I wanted to put 4 Chalice of the Void in the sideboard. Moving the Jittes to the maindeck meant I had two extra sideboard slots. I’m still unsure about the Brainstorms, but I think it’s better to keep them as with two Threads and two Jitte you risk drawing the wrong cards in the wrong matchup. Being able to shuffle them away with Brainstorm is a huge advantage, and it definitely makes the deck more consistent.
Thanks for reading.
Marijn