After writing about Limited for a few weeks, it seems like people would prefer my thoughts on Constructed. Right before Pro Tour: Kyoto is not the best time for me to talk Standard, since I clearly don’t want to be too open about what I am testing, no matter how badly it is going. Did I mention I am not a big fan of Standard? What I am a fan of, and don’t mind talking about, is Legacy. I like any format where Force of Will is legal, and with Grand Prix: Chicago coming up just a week after Kyoto, Legacy is more relevant now than it is normally. It may seem odd to go from refusing to discuss Standard before a Standard Pro Tour to talking about Legacy right before a Legacy GP, but there is quite a difference between a Pro Tour and a Grand Prix. The Grand Prix will have a much larger field, and is for smaller stakes, both of which make me less concerned about writing about decks I am considering for the event. I would rather not have a field of 350 Pro Tour competitors privy to a deck I have been testing, but the 900 or so that are showing up at the Grand Prix are welcome to it. Plus, the deck I want to talk about isn’t really hidden information, especially given that I have been playing it in Classic on MTGO.
It may come as no surprise that the first deck I gravitate towards in Legacy involves Counterbalances and Sensei’s Divining Tops. I was pretty disappointed when the Top was banned in Extended, although I don’t think it was unwarranted. Given the (t)opportunity to play the always awesome Counterbalance plus Top combination, I will probably do so. I played NLU last time it was legal, at GP: Philly last year, and I played Counterbalance at the last two Legacy events I played in, which were the side event on Sunday at PT: Hollywood and the side event at GP: Rimini. I even played the same deck I am discussing today at the Hollywood event, and although I didn’t win, David Ochoa had success at that event with the same 75. Enough durdling about, let me ship the list, since that’s really what people want out of articles anyway (I kid, I kid).
Creatures (5)
Lands (22)
Spells (34)
A few things to note about this list:
I like basic lands. I don’t know if this is from years of playing Vintage, but I have a deep appreciation for lists that can play a ton of basic lands. I just hate losing to nonsense like Blood Moon or Wasteland, and ensuring that you can reliably drop a basic the first two or three turns of the game goes a really long way in avoiding losing to these types of cards. Legacy even has Price of Progress to worry about, and this list has a large amount of basics/fetches which help get around that as best you can. I realize that Wasteland is still good against your Factories, but being able to play your first few turns unmolested is quite nice, especially since you don’t need Factories until later anyway. You also can load up on some Stifles to stop these lands from killing your Factories, all courtesy of the best land in Magic, basic Island.
Phyrexian Dreadnought plus Stifle is a combination that I originally resisted playing. It is just about the opposite of the kind of thing I like, a two-card combo where one of the pieces is almost dead by itself and the other is a bit situational. I say that Dreadnought is only “almost” dead since playing a Nought and Swords’ing it is definitely a legitimate play, and one I have made often. One-and-a-White to gain 12 is pretty good against decks like Burn, since you are trading your two cards for their 3 or 4. Stifle is situational, but as I played more Legacy I came around. Just about every deck plays fetchlands or Wastelands or both, and having the combination of Stifle plus Daze plus Wasteland really puts pressure on opposing manabases, which often buys you time to set up the Counterbalance lock. Add to all this that Stifling a Nought provides a really fast clock, and I grudgingly accept playing some kind of unreliable cards in my deck. You do need to kill them some how, and although sometimes Trinkets and Factories can take it home, having the option to just bash is nice. It was a process, and it took a lot of playing plus the Ocho yelling at me to be convinced, but trust me that if I am willing to play the Dreadnought/Stifle combo than it has some merit at the very least. I would say I am one of the last people to put such a combo in a deck, although I am pretty sure GerryT and PV are still not convinced. They hate dead cards even more than I do, which is saying something.
Trinket Mage is a surprisingly good engine, even though it only has three targets in the maindeck. The sad fact that a 2/2 body can provide a ton of utility isn’t news to those of us who follow Eternal formats, and even some who don’t, as Trinket has had his time in the sun during Extended seasons. I tried a Seat of the Synod for a while, but this deck has such a low curve that by the time you can cast Trinket Mage you rarely want another land. Opening yourself up to more Wasteland effects plus artifact destruction seems like a pretty bad idea for such little gain.
Spell Snare is good in a deck that has few low sorcery drops, as there are no Dark Confidants, Ponders, Nimble Mongeese, or Tarmogoyfs demanding your mana during your mainphase. It in fact serves as one of your tools to stop such cards, which helps out quite a bit in the Counterbalance mirrors.
Swords to Plowshares plus Force of Will are really to clean up any messes that Counterbalance plus Top can’t handle, since Legacy is such a wide format that Counterbalance often runs into very odd casting costs. Good luck Counterbalancing a Tombstalker from Team America, or a Myr Enforcer out of Affinity. Luckily, we have the best removal spell ever printed on our hands, and a well-timed Swords deals with all sorts of nonsense. Similarly, Force of Will (likely the best counter, although Mana Drain can be much more abusive) deals with the few high-cost spells most opponents have available. Legacy is such a fast format that most decks can’t afford to have too many expensive spells, but have room for a few. Ideally, you Counterbalance the cheap ones and Daze or Force the expensive ones.
Talking about what Counterbalance can’t deal with leads into the next issue, which is what role decks like this have in the metagame. For most of the people at GP: Chicago, I presume that Next Level Blue was their most applicable experience in terms of Counterbalance, which although better than no experience, does come with some pitfalls. Unlike the Extended version of this deck, Counterbalance decks in Legacy can’t really rely on getting down Counterbalance and completely locking their opponent out. As I mentioned before, decks will be running spells based on getting around Counterbalance, whether that comes in the form of “cheap spells with expensive casting costs” like Tombstalker or Myr Enforcer or just legitimately high casting cost spells. Once you get above two mana, you can’t reliably Counterbalance much, although finding a three-drop isn’t impossible between fetchlands and Brainstorms. As a result, Counterbalance decks in Legacy don’t for the most part plan on locking the opponent out completely, but have Counterbalance as a way to keep the opponent off their primary plan and let whichever kill condition you choose finish the job. This deck has Dreadnought, other decks play Tarmogoyfs plus Mongoose or Dark Confidant, and some decks have the Painter’s Servant plus Grindstone combo as the finisher of choice. Without trying to define Counterbalance decks as a specific archetype in the Aggro to Control spectrum, suffice it to say that viewing them as pure control is misleading.
Legacy is by far too vast a format for me to go over each opposing deck in detail, but I will outline the important facts you need to know about your opponent’s deck and how this deck adapts based on them.
1) What casting costs are present in the deck?
In order to maximize your Counterbalance, you really want to have a good idea of what mana costs you can expect from opponents. One common line of play is to play a Brainstorm on turn 1 and a Counterbalance on turn 2, which if you don’t use a fetchland as your second land, lets you set up what casting cost Counterbalance will hit during their second or third turn, depending on who was on the play. To really make this play good, you should have an idea of what the common spells they are likely to cast are, especially if you have the full range of decisions for what card to put back between a one-drop, a two-drop, and a three-drop. Against some decks you may even want a land on top, if you suspect them to be relying on Lion’s Eye Diamond or Pact of Negation (Summoner’s Pact out of Elves is a zero-drop, but having a one on top is clearly better against Elves).
2) What outs does the deck have to a fast Dreadnought?
Against decks like Burn or Affinity, the turn 2 Nought is almost impossible for them to beat, particularly if you are on the play. Even if I didn’t have Force or Daze backup, I would run it out against decks like that. On the other hand, against a deck similar to this that has Swords, Engineered Explosives, Force of Will, Daze, running out the fast Nought is pretty bad. You would rather save Stifle for their lands or wait until you have the Counterbalance up to protect the Nought. Of course there are no hard and fast rules in Magic, so sometimes running out the Nought is your best chance of winning the game even against a deck that has a lot of answers, but that is a decision only experience can really bring.
3) What is the opposing deck doing for mana disruption?
The presence of Stifle, Wasteland, Daze, and Blood Moon effects all can change how you play your opening turns. Against a deck with Stifles but no Wastelands, playing Tundra is safer than Flooded Strand, but that is reversed against something like Goblins that has Wastelands. Also, if you are on the draw against a deck with Rishadan Port, playing and not using a fetchland on turn 1 can allow you to make your two-drop on turn 2 without worry. I would assume that if your opponent leads with a Blue fetchland (are there really any other kinds?) you should play around Stifle as best you can, as Stifle is more common in Blue decks than Wasteland. Many Red-based decks have Wastelands, or even more importantly, some have Magus of the Moon. Here you want to crack your fetches for basics as soon as possible, and slowroll Tundras or Factories until you either need them or have a Stifle handy. Particularly against Magus, using a Strand to get your basic Plains is very important, since that turns on your Swords or Engineered Explosives with x = 3, which are your best outs. Killing them with a Dreadnought is also acceptable.
4) What are the early plays you should expect?
You have some situational counterspells (Daze and Spell Snare), not to mention Stifle, and valuing them appropriately is key. Knowledge of what your opponent is trying to do is very important in deciding whether or not to play a Top on turn 1 or leave up Stifle, and other such decisions. This sounds basic, but you have all these very specific counterspells so knowing what threats the bad guy is presenting is crucial when deciding whether or not to Daze or Spell Snare their two-drop. You don’t have much margin for error, since if you Daze their two-drop and then can’t use Spell Snare on something like a Crucible of Worlds, you are in for a world of hurt. Likewise, Snaring a Tarmogoyf then having another two-drop on turn 3 played is quite annoying as well. Some decks have a ton of two-drops, so Dazing one and keeping Snare is better, whereas some decks have a higher curve and maybe only one or two different two-mana spells. Knowing which is which needs to happen as soon as possible.
5) Can they do anything under Standstill?
Standstill is awesome, but it can easily backfire if you don’t know the opposing deck well enough. If they have no choice but to break it because their deck contains no Wastelands or Mishra’s Factories or the like, then playing a Standstill when you have zero Factory and zero Wasteland in hand is fine. Regardless if you don’t have one now, you will at some point, and if your opponent refuses to break the Standstill that often just favors you more and more. I love dropping turn 1 Top and turn 2 Standstill, and then just making land drops that aren’t Mishra’s Factories. People seem to think that because I don’t have a Factory in play that they don’t need to break the Standstill, and that’s exactly what I want. If I am Topping, I am almost assuredly going to keep hitting land drops and keep getting farther ahead. I have even gone so far as to not play a Factory on purpose if I have a bunch of other lands, since my opponent was already missing land drops and I wanted to be further ahead. However, if you are playing against a deck like Merfolk, dropping a Standstill in such a manner can be disaster, as they have the full set of Mutavaults and Wastelands, and can easily just draw more than you. That isn’t to say that you can’t play Standstill against decks with their own manlands, just be aware of what the risks are. I don’t like playing a Standstill unless I have multiple Wasteland/Factories against decks with them, and that is assuming they have zero of each in play at the time. Breaking your own Standstill is the ultimate in awkward plays, and I have avoided doing so thus far.
It might seem like I am belaboring the point here about what to do in the first few turns, what with which lands to play and what spells to use, but I would say that managing your first two turns is one of the more difficult things for non-Eternal players to get used to when transitioning into the format. You play your first land wrong and get Stifled or Wasted, and your whole game is done. If you can afford it, playing around opposing Dazes is good too, since you can blank multiple cards in their deck by just being a little patient. Even getting full value out of Brainstorm is important, which was one of the things I missed most when they restricted it in Vintage. Don’t get me wrong, it deserved to go, much like Top in Extended, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoying abusing it (much like Top in Extended). I hate Brainstorming without access to a fetchland, and often will not Brainstorm on turn 1 because of that. If you Brainstorm turn 1, you are guaranteed to draw one of the cards you put back, whereas if you wait until two you can shuffle them both away. This deck doesn’t play Ponder, but if it did I would almost always Ponder turn 1 over Brainstorming.
I figure I should also justify why I like this over something like Chapin’s 2007 Worlds deck or some other Counterbalance deck. There are a few things I like about playing this list, but much like any choice, they come with tradeoffs.
– The manabase is definitely cleaner, as you are almost Mono-Blue splash White, and have access to a ton of basics. The exchange of course is that you get less options in terms of spells, as you no longer have access to Thoughtseize, Duress, Engineered Plague, Tarmogoyf, Nimble Mongoose, or any other Green or Black spell.
– Standstill and Mishra’s Factory provide a good card draw mechanism and some solid blockers. Having actual card draw is nice, as most Counterbalance decks just run card manipulation. Standstill makes trading Forces and Swords with your opponent’s cards a winning proposition, at the cost of taking up land slots with colorless land. Mishra’s Factory is good for what it is, and provides a meaty 3/3 blocker, but you are forced to play a much higher land count to accommodate all your colorless lands. This, combined with less card manipulation leads to more flooding than other versions of Counterbalance would experience.
– Dreadnought is faaaaast. Turn 2 Nought is insanely hard to race with an aggro deck, particularly on the play. The downside is that Tarmogoyf is always a 4/5 or greater, and with much less work. Goyf dodges removal spells, is harder to EE, and costs you less if he dies. Also, if you need your Stifles for your opponent’s cards (or just don’t draw them), Noughts can just rot in your hand.
– Stifle plus Wasteland can lead to some fast blowouts. Some games, you are on the play and hit them with a Stifle and then a Wasteland, and suddenly the game is effectively over. Having the capability to exploit weak mana draws is really nice, and also makes your Dazes more effective than they would be in a non-mana disruptive Counterbalance deck. On the other hand, Stifle and Wasteland can both be quite situational, and are pretty bad draws in the midgame. Chapin’s Next Level Threshold/Counterbalance deck has almost no dead draws of this kind, since it is just value cards and eschews anything too situational.
In the interests of full disclosure, I certainly am not set on playing this, nor am I saying it is clearly better than other choices. I do happen to like it, and think that it does what it does quite well. It is a very streamlined deck, and is definitely set up well to exploit the basic truths about the format (everyone plays cheap spells, fetchlands, nonbasics). I didn’t mention a sideboard, since I hate putting out a list with a sideboard that is almost never going to be right for any given tournament. What I can do is provide cards that are good in this particular deck’s sideboard, since that seems more useful.
Blue Elemental Blast/Hydroblast
A mix is best, in case of nonsense like Meddling Mage or Extirpate or Cabal Therapy, although I suppose Mage is pretty unlikely to show up in decks you would board these against. Good against Burn, Goblins, Painter’s Servant decks that play a bunch of Red Blasts.
Oblivion Ring
As sad is it sounds, O-Ring is decent in Legacy, since it answers just about everything (except Progenitus!). Eating Crucibles, Tombstalkers, Moat, Chalice of the Void, all sorts of nonsense, O-ring is good since you never know what to really expect in such a large format.
Kataki, War’s Wage
Affinity is a deck, and you probably have trouble without this particular Spirit on your side.
Tormod’s Crypt/Relic of Progenitus
Dredge is also a deck, and you definitely will have trouble without any of these to rely on. Note that both Dredge and Affinity can lose to random turn 2 Dreadnought, although Dredge probably won’t.
Engineered Explosives
More is better, particularly against some of the tribal decks like Elves or Merfolk.
Pithing Needle
Stops a whole host of unwelcome cards, Aether Vial being pretty high on the list. Trinket Mage makes Needle a possible one or two of with some hope of seeing it regularly. I have a full set of these in Classic, seeing as Necropotence is still unrestricted there. It’s nice to not having to deal with turn 1 Necro with Force/Daze backup, which makes me fill up my sideboard with mostly futile answers to that problem.
Wrath of God
This seems really expensive, but if you don’t splash a color for Pyroclasm or Firespout, you may have problems with the really explosive tribal nonsense. Plus, if people ACTUALLY intend on Natural Order’ing out Progenitus, mise well Wrath them.
Threads of Disloyalty/Sower
Various Control Magic effects can be pretty devastating against Goyfs, which are your prime targets.
That covers a lot of the more common sideboard cards, although there are assuredly many many more that are viable. I enjoyed talking about Legacy, especially since it really is only something people want every two years at this rate.
LSV