With the recently announced StarCityGames.com Invitational series, 2010 is shaping up to be a great year for Legacy. A year-long series of Legacy events in addition to the two Grands Prix and Legacy Worlds at GenCon means that the format is very likely to see a significant increase in interest and provide established players with a slate of great events to plan for and attend. This week, I’m presenting to you an idea I’ve been bouncing around for awhile: a 2010 Legacy Calendar, figuring in all the relevant dates and events for serious and casual players alike. I aimed to make it as complete as possible so that one may bookmark the page, print it off or enter it into their own calendar for use a timeline and reference guide. Some sections are repetitive, but are so because I intended this to be a reference sheet that wouldn’t require you to reread the entire article to remember why, as a Legacy player, certain events are relevant.
The Waning Days of 2009
Dec. 1: StarCityGames.com is holding a combined Standard/Legacy $5,000 event in Los Angeles at the beginning of January; if you’re attending that, this is the time to buy a plane ticket and make hotel reservations. The Dallas/Ft. Worth event is a week after Los Angeles, so it’s a good time to make travel arrangements for that, too. If you are planning to play in GP: Madrid of the late February StarCityGames.com Open in Richmond, VA, make travel arrangements now!
December 13: StarCityGames.com holds a two-day tournament in St. Louis with $5,000 up for Standard on Saturday and the same prize purse for Sunday in Legacy. With roughly two weeks from this article’s publication to the event, you should make plans for travel and lodging as soon as you can!
December 18: The new DCI Banned List for Legacy is announced, which will be effective January 1, 2010. This is a Friday and it’s my best approximation of when we’ll see the announcement. If it is on this date, it will be at 12:01am EST, meaning that it’s profitable to stay up until midnight or have a friend text you the results. Certain cards being banned or unbanned can fluctuate in price dramatically within two days or so of the announcement. The last cycle, we saw Entomb jump from $7 to the current $20, so it’s worth paying attention to the announcement if you’d like to pick up the cards before everyone else figures out they’re legal.
January
If you’re looking toward playing the March StarCityGames.com Open event in Indianapolis, IN or Orlando, FL, this is a good time to make hotel arrangements and get a plane ticket or carpool worked out.
Jan. 2-3: The SCG Open event in Los Angeles for Standard and Legacy; $5,000 is on the line for Legacy on Sunday. The event will be covered live, so tune into the coverage for entertainment and tips on what cards to stock up on and what decks to try out!
Jan. 9-10: Standard and Legacy comes to Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas for another $5,000 Open in the StarCityGames.com Open Series. Check out the live coverage online done by GGsLive for tips and tech on new Legacy decks.
Jan. 15-30: Spoilers for Worldwake come out in earnest; if you’re the speculative type, this is the time to pre-order cards that you think will see play in Legacy. This is also a time when spoiled cards can have dramatic impacts on Legacy, so being current on the exposed cards can help you pick up old, out-of-print cards that are synergistic with Worldwake.
Jan. 30: Worldwake Prerelease events occur, a great time to pick up the cards that you’d like from the set. This is particularly good for getting commons and uncommons that will see Legacy play.
February
Feb. 5: Worldwake on sale.
Feb. 27: Grand Prix: Madrid begins, marking the first Legacy Grand Prix of the year. This is relevant to New Worlders as well, since some of the decks you read about might break out of the event and spawn new archetypes in Legacy. Since Spain is five or more hours in the future compared to the New World, coverage will be up early in the day. This means that the astute reader who follows coverage can get deals on cards that turn out to be popular (this is coming from someone who bought their Grove of the Burnwillows at 1pm on Friday for a buck a pop after seeing them mentioned in coverage…).
Also on this weekend, StarCityGames.com hosts another stop in its Open Series in Richmond, VA. You’ll have a very rare opportunity to see coverage for two awesome Legacy events in one weekend! If you’re planning on playing on Sunday, you might even be able to scope some new decks out from Madrid to play in Richmond.
March
Mar. 13: Another StarCityGames.com Open in my backyard, Indianapolis, IN! Come out to play Standard on Saturday and Legacy on Sunday and get a signed copy of Legacy’s Allure from me.
Mar. 19: The DCI Banned List update goes live at 12:01am. As with the other Banned list announcements, this date is a matter of speculation at the time of publication. Stay up to check if anything has changed!
Mar. 27: Give the new lists from the Indy SCG Open a try at the StarCityGames.com Open in Orlando, FL! This is a corner of the country that rarely sees big Legacy action, so I expect a lot of readers from the area to go down and send in their reports!
April
If you’re thinking about attending the StarCityGames.com Open in Atlanta next month, get your travel arrangements worked out now!
Apr. 1: The internet goes stupid for a day. Expect amusing or annoying announcements and articles from every site on the internet. I suggest turning off your computer for a day and reading books instead. Incidentally, this is around the time that Rise of the Eldrazi spoilers will really heat up, so pay attention to them (at your risk, knowing that prank cards will certainly make their way to the spoiler lists) and begin tinkering with Rise cards in Legacy.
Apr. 17-18: Rise of the Eldrazi prerelease events. This is the time to get commons and uncommons from the third set in the Zendikar block and have a little fun with the new set.
Apr. 23: Rise of the Eldrazi goes on sale.
May
GenCon is in August; This is a good time to be looking at airline tickets and hotel rooms if you’d like to go to four days of gaming! Hotel rooms for the event can fill up months in advance, so this is not a bad time to get a room if you know you’re going. If you’re going to Philly next month for the StarCityGames.com Open, make arrangements now.
May 1: StarCityGames.com comes to Atlanta, Georgia for another Standard & Legacy Open stop. Meet Ludacris, navigate spaghetti junction, eat some Varsity and sling cards as you hang out in the jewel of the South.
June
At some point in the summer, Magic 2011 will be released. I’m pegging June as a good date to look for spoiler information and be ready for the set’s release.
Also, GenCon is only two months away; have you decided whether you’re going yet? If you’re planning on attending summer StarCityGames.com Open events, this is a good time to make those arrangements.
June 5: StarCityGames.com returns to the City of Brotherly Love for another stop in the Open Series!
June 12: Seattle, WA hosts a two-day event for the StarCityGames.com Open series. This is a seriously cool city in Wizards’ backyard and, like California and Florida, it hasn’t seen a whole lot of big Legacy events.
June 18: The tentative date for the DCI’s new announcement regarding the Legacy Banned List. Make sure you find out the results as soon as you can so you can scoop up good deals and trades!
June 26: St. Louis, MO is the stop for another StarCityGames.com Open event. If you’re in the Midwest, this is an easy location to get to, since all major highways eventually go through St. Louis (or so it seems).
July
Jul. 31: Grand Prix: Columbus begins, which will have a huge turnout. Pay attention to this event, like GP: Madrid, because the coverage and MTG blog can tell you what cards to scoop up before they become caught up in hype.
August
Aug. 5-8: GenCon 2010 in Indianapolis, IN will take place. I assume that the Legacy event will take part on Saturday. If you can possibly make it out, this is an excellent event to attend for both trading and playing purposes. It’s also the best time to participate in a Star Wars wedding.
Aug. 21: StarCityGames.com comes to the Mile High City for an Open event in Denver, CO. If you made it to St. Louis, this event is not too far away for serious road-trippers that live between the two cities. It’s also achievable from the Great Plains states. Come on out for some of the best beer in the country. Seriously.
Aug. 28: Minneapolis hosts another StarCityGames.com event for Legacy and Standard players. Play cards and get working-class beer while you enjoy Minneapolis at the warmest it will be for the whole year!
September
Concentrate on your schoolwork and make plans to attend the Boston StarCityGames.com event in November!
October
The “Lights” set will be released. I know nothing about the specific date at the time of publishing; as with other sets, check the spoilers early and often to make sure you’re able to buy cards that interact with the new set in Legacy at good prices!
Oct. 16: StarCityGames.com goes to Nashville for a Standard and Legacy weekend! Nashville is a manageable drive from Indianapolis and St. Louis, so it’s another stop to hit if you’re looking for points to get into the SCG invitational at the end of the year!
Oct. 19: The tentative date for any new updates on the DCI Banned List for Legacy. Get the results early so you can make sure you’re prepared for upcoming tournaments!
Oct. 31: StarCityGames.com hosts another weekend tournament, this time in Charlotte, NC. It’s a great place to be this time of year when the entire Midwest gets covered in cloudbanks.
November
Nov. 6: StarCityGames.com steps out in Boston, MA for a Legacy and Standard weekend. This is a fine location for East Coasters and Mid-Atlantic Legacy players to get one of their last shots at points for the Invitational at the end of the year!
Nov. 20: Baltimore is the very last stop for the StarCityGames.com Open Series for 2010. Get your last points to qualify and see your friends from The Wire!
December
Dec. 3: If you made the cutoff for the Invitational, come down to Richmond, VA to play in the culmination of the StarCityGames.com Open Series.
…
You’ll notice a lot of dates at the beginning of the calendar, with fewer as the year goes on. As new events and dates of interest come along, expect updates through forum posts on the feedback thread for this article. With so many Legacy events coming up, we’ll see a steady interest in the format that means that card prices will go up more quickly and stay up. For example, this is the best time to get your dual lands; they will not be any cheaper and they won’t be reprinted in any quantity that would affect the cost of your collection. It is also becoming ever more important to pay attention to new decks and strategies; for example, the Landfall mechanic has made Bloodghast a great tool in Dredge decks for Legacy and Vintage. Did you know that Undiscovered Paradise, an engine card for triggering Landfall in Eternal formats, is now ten dollars after being three dollars for years? A dedicated Legacy player should pay attention to rising card prices and stock up on the good cards before the tidal wave of hype inflates them for the Grand Prix and beyond.
If you have any more specific dates to add to the calendar, don’t hesitate to email me or post in the forums!
Until next week…
legacysallure at gmail dot com