The relevance of formats changes quite rapidly. Standard is an ever-changing format that can be difficult to keep up with, and then just like that it becomes irrelevant (like it currently is for another week or so). The same can be said of most Pro Tour Qualifier formats (looking at you, Pro Tour Amsterdam Extended!)
But the great thing about Eternal formats is that they’re always relevant because few things change, and rotations don’t take place. Legacy, especially, is consistently relevant due to the StarCityGames.com Open Series.
So this week, we’re going to talk about my favorite format: Legacy!
Vengevine Survival looks to be all the rage these days and rightfully so. It has a broken draw that almost no deck can beat (turn 2 Vengevine, thanks!), and it takes advantage of Survival of the Fittest better than any other deck in the format.
The deck has left such a huge stamp on the format that players are no longer just copying the deck; they’re updating it! Some have tried adding Intuition. Others have cut blue altogether. And the brave have tried splashing other colors to solve problems. Alex Hatfield, a Legacy specialist, had probably the most interesting approach:
Creatures (28)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Wild Mongrel
- 4 Arrogant Wurm
- 4 Basking Rootwalla
- 4 Elvish Spirit Guide
- 4 Tarmogoyf
- 4 Vengevine
Lands (17)
Spells (15)
The other deck taking up a huge part of the metagame is Merfolk. Merfolk has many shapes and sizes that everyone needs to be aware of.
Tomoharu Saito won Grand Prix Columbus playing Merfolk
with a
black splash for Perish and Engineered Plague. Current StarCityGames.com Open Series Player of the Year, Alex Bertoncini,
played Merfolk
splashing green for Tarmogoyf and Trygon Predator. Just this past weekend at StarCityGames.com Legacy Open: Baltimore, Paul Lynch took the title home playing Merfolk with a white splash:
Creatures (19)
Lands (20)
Spells (21)
The point is: Merfolk’s here to stay. Get used to playing against it.
The metagame – and it’s pretty tough to have a metagame in a format of thirty or so decks – currently looks like this:
-
Vengevine Survival
- Merfolk
- Some form of Counterbalance
-
Painter
(I’ll throw Ken Adams a bone here)
From my vantage point, it looks like creature decks are really beginning to take over. Merfolk is busy keeping combo and control in check, and it looks like Vengevine Survival is a more explosive and resilient Zoo deck.
Normally this is where I’d tell you why
Belcher
is the best to be playing, but I don’t believe that to be true. Shocking, I know!
The deck you should be playing right now – and the deck I’ll be playing at my Black Lotus tournament in Seattle this weekend – has a certain shade of red to it.
Creatures (30)
- 4 Goblin Matron
- 4 Goblin Lackey
- 4 Goblin Warchief
- 1 Goblin Sharpshooter
- 3 Goblin Piledriver
- 4 Gempalm Incinerator
- 2 Siege-Gang Commander
- 4 Goblin Ringleader
- 4 Mogg War Marshal
Lands (24)
Spells (6)
Sideboard
Yep. Boring ole Goblins. First, the housekeeping notes:
1) Three Goblin Piledrivers. This isn’t a typo. The only deck that Goblin Piledriver truly shines against is Merfolk. It’s laughably bad against Vengevine Survival, Zoo, and the mirror. It cannot be cut altogether due to its importance in the Merfolk matchup. However, shaving one – and I’ve considered cutting another – is the right call for the current metagame.
2) Goblin Sharpshooter is the silver bullet of choice. I’ve tried a few other cards in this slot, but none have had as great of an impact as Sharpshooter. Goblin Pyromancer is too high variance. Goblin Chieftain rarely does enough (not to mention I never tutor for him with Goblin Matron). The high-impact Goblins like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Wort, Boggart Auntie are poor natural draws. No other card has the effect that Goblin Sharpshooter provides, and the fact that it shoots down Noble Hierarchs, Basking Rootwallas, Grim Lavamancers, and Vendilion Cliques, as well as various Merfolk, solidifies my decision. I’ve left home without it once and regretted it. I’ll never make that mistake again.
3) Twenty-four land. A lot of lists I’ve seen run so few lands. Goblins is an aggro deck that has a lot of uses for its mana. Between casting its spells, cycling Gempalm Incinerator, activating Siege-Gang Commander, blowing up non-basics with Wasteland, or mana-screwing an opponent with Rishadan Port, Goblins makes the most of its mana every turn. Skimping on land and relying so heavily on Aether Vial and Goblin Lackey is a mistake.
4) Two Relics of Progenitus and two Tormod’s Crypts. I don’t want be locked out by a single Pithing Needle due to lazy deckbuilding.
When creature decks are as rampant as they are right now, Goblins is the natural trump. Goblins is a creature deck that plays as a control deck against other creature decks. Goblins plays the attrition game incredibly well while generating card advantage via Goblin Ringleader, Goblin Matron, and Gempalm Incinerator.
I’m truly surprised that I haven’t seen more Goblin decks doing well in the past weeks. Not only do Goblins have a great matchup against Merfolk, but after doing some testing this weekend, I’ve found that it has a very positive matchup against Vengevine Survival.
The Vengevine Survival matchup is mostly dependent on what the Survival player’s plan is for that game and how well you can adapt to it. If they’re on the Wild Mongrel + discard Vengevine + discard Basking Rootwalla draw, you have natural trumps to that plan with Mogg War Marshal buying you time and Gempalm Incinerator likely getting great value.
The bigger issue for Goblins – and every other deck – is an active Survival of the Fittest. An active Survival of the Fittest is going to pump out too many Vengevines too quickly, and once Wonder finds its way to the graveyard, the game is all but over.
Fortunately, Goblins has a lot of different ways to interact with Vengevine Survival. Both of our one-drops (Aether Vial and Goblin Lackey) demand an answer immediately. Goblin Lackey is the easier of the two for the opponent to handle if it resolves, as they can play a Basking Rootwalla to trade with it, but that’s a good trade in my book. If that Basking Rootwalla is being cast on turn 1, it isn’t fueling a broken Vengevine draw. Without a broken Vengevine draw, they really can’t beat you.
Mogg War Marshal was put into the deck to buy time against Zoo, but it also serves that purpose admirably against Vengevine Survival. Mogg War Marshal is rarely going to kill an opponent directly. It does most of its damage indirectly because it allows you to get to your more broken cards while retaining a high life total. It’s nice that it assists Goblin Piledriver so nicely, but that’s just icing on top.
The rest of the Goblins are serviceable in this matchup, but they aren’t going to light the world on fire. However, it’s important to note that Goblins has never been a deck about individual prowess. In conjunction, Goblins is an incredibly difficult deck to beat, and that’s the goal in each creature-oriented matchup. A Goblin Warchief here. A Goblin Ringleader there. Then the board really starts to get cluttered, which is just the way we want it.
As for game 2 and 3, not much changes on their end, but a lot changes on ours. Perish finds its way into our deck as a board sweeper while both Warren Weirdings and a Goblin Piledriver hit the sidelines.
We already know why Goblin Piledriver is poor (*cough*, no blue creatures, *cough*), but Warren Weirding demands a slight explanation.
Warren Weirding is often utilized to kill a big creature that’s blocking the road. However, against Vengevine Survival, our tribal Chainer’s Edict is often going to catch a stray Noble Hierarch or Basking Rootwalla instead of the main offenders: Vengevine and Wild Mongrel. Worse yet, a Vengevine Survival player may be more than happy to sacrifice a Vengevine just to bring it back. These are easy to side out, now aren’t they?
Merfolk is a pretty easy matchup, as you have a natural trump to their entire strategy in Goblin Piledriver. This is another attrition battle, but our cards are just better than theirs. Goblins takes better advantage of Aether Vial, has more card advantage because of Goblin Ringleader and Goblin Matron, has a better end game because of Siege-Gang Commander, and has a more broken draw available due to turn 1 Goblin Lackey. I’ve found this matchup to be a cakewalk, but it’s important to mulligan appropriately.
For sideboard, I like to board out four Goblin Lackeys on the draw for three Pyrokinesis and the fourth Goblin Piledriver. Goblin Lackey is hard to hit with on the draw due to Mutavault, Silvergill Adept, Cursecatcher (if they leave it in), and Lord of Atlantis. The cards we’re boarding in are all high impact. While nothing is as impactful as hitting with a Goblin Lackey, the cards we board in will consistently get the job done while Goblin Lackey will not.
You can opt to leave Goblin Lackey in if you’re on the play, but there’s a slight risk. I expect most Merfolk decks to have a way to handle a Goblin Lackey on the draw. Whether it be Force of Will, Cursecatcher, Hydroblast, or a splashed Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile, I don’t expect them to be drawing dead to our favorite 1/1.
I think that explains pretty well how to beat the two frontrunners of the format. If combo decks were bigger, I wouldn’t really consider playing Goblins, but with Merfolk keeping them in check, it seems foolish not to play the red men right now. They have positive matchups against the two most popular decks in the format and have a very interactive matchup against Counterbalance. (Read: the lock isn’t a lock against us, whereas it is against most other aggressive decks.)
Consider Goblins for your next Legacy tournament. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
Next week
: Scars of Mirrodin chit-chat!
Until next week, keep enjoying the new writers we’ve brought to the website. It’s a great time to be reading StarCityGames.com, and I’m very happy to be a contributor. That means someone out there really likes what I have to say on a weekly basis, and for that I’m grateful!