I’m itching to talk about Conspiracy – I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on a couple copies of Council’s Judgment – but I really want to wait
until the full spoiler is out, so we’ll have to wait a little bit longer for that one. So instead of talking about new cards, I’d like to do a little
applied theory today. I’d like to start off with a short recap of metagaming 101 and lead that into a look at the forces currently shaping the metagame
before moving into a detailed description of a deck that seems amazingly well-positioned right now. I hope you’re game, so let’s go right ahead and jump
in.

Metagaming 101

There are basically two ways to approach Legacy (and most other formats for that matter):

You can play a deck that has a powerful yet flexible plan and tools to react to almost any threat being posed. This generally results in a deck that has a
lot of play to it and reasonably even matchups against almost anything the format could throw at you. Typical examples of these types of strategies are
Delver-Tempo decks, Miracles, and the different Blade archetypes. Decks with these qualities are a great choice for someone who plays Legacy regularly, but
doesn’t want to devote the time and effort to figuring out the current state of the metagame they can expect at the next event they want to play.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have metagame predators – decks with amazing matchups against part of the field and weak ones against others. Decks
such as Imperial Painter can punish metagames with high concentrations of nonbasic land-centric manabases. Super-fast combo like Belcher provides a tool to
rebalance the metagame if too few people decide to play reactive strategies involving Force of Will – when the blue decks start cutting Force to hedge in
grindy mirrors is generally a good time for that one. Dredge and Reanimator truly perform when players skimp on their graveyard hate. You get the idea. So
what is the correct predator for a metagame like the one we can see right now, one in which inherently fair (by Legacy standards), highly disruptive decks
with reasonably long-term gameplans (Team America aka BUG Delver and Miracles, in this particular case) are top dog?

There are two elements we need to look at to answer that question. The more obvious one is that of the exploitable weaknesses among the top dogs. Clearly,
if you want to hit the metagame hard, you’ll want to aim firmly for the glass jaw. To truly be able to do that successfully, however, another question is
of even more importance: What gets pushed out? Which holes in the metagame are opened up exactly because these types of decks are on top of the food chain
right now? This question is oh so important because Legacy is diverse. You can’t just build a deck that beats the two or three most successful decks at the
moment because those decks will make up maybe a quarter to – at the most – a third of the field. And to punish any type of strategy, you need to make
sacrifices in some other matchups. Knowing which archetypes are most likely to be kept in check by the big guys informs us where to sacrifice that
percentage.

Taking A Look-See

So let’s shortly take stock of the metagame. The best performing decks throughout the last month seem to have been Miracles, Team
America, and Death and Taxes; followed by RUG Delver, Deathblade, and Shardless BUG. As mentioned above, all of these decks are highly disruptive and plan
for the game to go on until at least Turn 5 under usual circumstances. So what does that mean for us assuming we want to play the metagame-game?

Well, we need a deck that stands up well to disruption being lobbed at it from all angles. Mana denial, hand disruption, heavy countermagic, the
Counterbalance lock, and hatebears are all a big part of what we need to expect to run into. On the other hand, all of these decks tend to finish the game
reasonably slow and/or with a creature-based assault, meaning we have time to go over the top with a stronger lategame plan. So we want a deck that doesn’t
care too much about countermagic, can defend its lands from a Wasteland attack, doesn’t care too much if its hand is ripped to shreds, and can implement an
overwhelming endgame plan before a reasonably slow creature-based clock can finish the game. Well, that sure explains why Miracles is doing well – that was
a pretty accurate description of the deck just now, after all. It seems what we’re really looking for is a deck that can “out-miracle” Miracles.*

*Aside: The other option would be to try and go under these decks with heavy early-game aggression to reduce the effectiveness of early disruption and
overwhelm these decks before they can really get going. I’m not a huge fan of this plan in Legacy right now, as Terminus, Tarmogoyf, True-Name Nemesis, and
Stoneforge Mystic combined with Counterbalance-Top, can make the game quite hostile to truly aggressive strategies very early on. We might just be missing
correctly built aggro-decks, though – something to think about.

So now that we know what kind of strategy we’re looking for, let’s look at what it is we can skimp on. Which decks are hit the hardest by the current
disruption overload? I’d say combo decks. Now, don’t get me wrong, Legacy’s combo decks are quite powerful and resilient and they are essentially
impossible to truly hate out to the point of becoming unplayable. You can discourage all but the most dedicated combo players from going there by running
exactly Team America and Miracles, however – and that’s what we’re seeing.

Understanding the Predator

So that’s what we’re looking for: A deck that can store its resources in play and topdeck well (to survive the discard), keep Wasteland in check (because
of the Delvers and Death and Taxes), play through or ignore countermagic and even the Counterbalance soft-lock, fight hatebears and buy time against
creatures – all with the goal of implementing an over the top endgame plan that will beat any fair strategy. We want the trade-off for these abilities to
be a weakness to dedicated fast combo decks. In short, we kind of want something that can play a little like an Entreat-heavy Miracles list with mana ramp
instead of the stack-interaction. Luckily for us, that deck already exists:

12 Post

Jeremiah Rudolph

3rd Place at Star City Games Legacy Open on 05-25-2014

Legacy

Creatures (6)

• 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
• 1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 4 Primeval Titan

Lands (22)

• 4 Tropical Island
• 1 Karakas
• 4 Cloudpost
• 1 Glacial Chasm
• 2 Vesuva
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Eye of Ugin
• 4 Glimmerpost

Spells (32)

• 4 Sensei's Divining Top
• 4 Brainstorm
• 3 Show and Tell
• 1 Forest
• 2 Island
• 2 Moment's Peace
• 2 Candelabra of Tawnos
• 4 Crop Rotation
• 3 Pithing Needle
• 4 Repeal
• 3 Expedition Map

Sideboard

• 2 Ensnaring Bridge
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 3 Mindbreak Trap
• 4 Phyrexian Revoker
• 2 Karn Liberated
• 3 Swan Song

Cloudpost, aka Turbo Eldrazi, is a deck I’ve really liked ever since I first saw it. The idea of tapping lands for half-a-dozen mana apiece just appeals to
my love of broken things. Jeremiah’s list seems like a great starting point to look at. First and foremost, Jeremiah is one of, if not the person pushing
for and developing the deck in Legacy, so we’re likely looking at cutting edge technology. Second, he just played this list to a Top 4 finish in last
weekend’s SCG Legacy Open, so clearly, it does work. Let’s take a look under the hood so that we can check if it really does all we want it to do.

First thing’s first: What the deck really tries to do is to amass a bunch of Glimmerposts and Cloudposts to establish an overwhelming mana advantage by
Turn 4 or 5 that will then rapidly snowball into a hardcast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (and, presumably, a game win). To enact this plan, the deck has full
playsets of both Loci, Vesuva to make more of them, and Expedition Map and Crop Rotation to straight up search for them. Brainstorm, Sensei’s Divining Top,
and Repeal also help out on this front simply by allowing you to see more cards (hence giving you more shots at drawing ‘Posts).

Once that starting position is set up, Candelabra of Tawnos and Primeval Titan can then serve to super-charge the engine and go completely nuts, at which
point all that digging and land search can start to concentrate on locating either Eye of Ugin or one of the Eldrazi to finish the game off. More than
three-quarters of the maindeck cards are dedicated to enable this plan.

So what we’re looking at is a deck that uses – uncounterable, hard to discard – lands to ramp up towards an insane mana supply that can then abuse a lot of cheap library manipulation in order to set up an uncounterable endgame before opposing Planeswalkers or Entreat the Angels have time to
fully kick in. Because land-based acceleration leaves you with a lot of mana to work with and Sensei’s Divining Top is hard to get rid of, the deck is well
set up to beat heavy discard strategies (check). Lands can’t be countered and Emrakul doesn’t care about those blue cards either (check). The hatebears we
have – other than minority players such as Aven Mindcensor and Leonin Arbiter (before the first post starts tapping for two, at least) – don’t really slow
this strategy down much at all (check). Counterbalance is annoying because it can shut down the land-tutors, but it is hardly crippling in the long run or
after Turn 4 (check).

That leaves one glaring weakness: Wasteland. Destroying Cloudpost’s Cloudposts (ka-ching) is a solid way to cripple the deck. You can fight back somewhat
through Crop Rotation – sacrificing the targeted land – or just find more Cloudposts than your opponent can Wasteland, but that plan is rather unreliable
as Wasteland is usually accompanied by cheap countermagic or Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. So what do you do? You play Pithing Needle, that’s what. I sang
the praises of Needle a couple of weeks ago already, so I don’t believe
“having” to play Pithing Needle is much of a cost at all. In this specific deck, it is the most effective tool to blank the one way most fair decks have to
really fight back. Note that blind-naming Wasteland with a turn one Needle is not only a viable line here, but often it is the default play. Clearly,
Cloudpost is well setup to survive the storm of disruption we’re currently likely to encounter.

So with heavy disruption draws and most of the Miracles strategy as a whole taken care off, what else are we likely to lose to? Dying before our mana
engine really gets to work comes to mind. While Cloudpost is poised to weather the disruption in the long run, it can easily end up being slowed down by a
couple of turns as a result. With an estimated Turn 4 or 5 until the deck can usually can kick into high gear even undisrupted, being slowed down a turn or
two means you could easily just die to a bunch of Delver attacks or a couple of hatebears swinging in turn after turn. There are two ways to work around
that. Slow down the attacks – so you’re back on track to go endgame and making their threats not matter – or accelerating your endgame through other means.

Cloudpost does both. Those repeals I mentioned before are incredible tools against Delver of Secrets and Batterskull (or at least the Germ Token). They
won’t deal with them permanently, but they’ll buy at least two, sometimes more, turns of breathing room at no loss of card economy. Moment’s Peace does
largely the same thing. You get two free turns to make land drops no matter how much power the opponent has on the board.

The land tutors are proxies for additional defensive options as well. Crop Rotation and Expedition Map can buy time and get your mana going by finding
Glimmerposts (assuming you already have at least one Cloudpost to profit), but can just as easily find Glacial Chasm. It may set your land count back, but
it won’t touch your Cloudposts (unless you want it to, for some reason). It also buys multiple turns all on its own, especially when protected from
Wasteland by Pithing Needle (what a nice “coincidence”) and can be kept alive even longer by amassing Glimmerposts. Against the decks you’re likely to see
right now, Cloudpost’s defensive set up seems excellent.

As for accelerating your own game plan, we have Eldrazi in this deck, as well as a six-drop that will get you far ahead if it ever enters play and probably
win straight up if you get to untap with it in Primeval Titan. How does just playing the perfect ritual to get these out on Turn 3 sound for speeding up?
Yes, I’m talking about Show and Tell. While something like Sneak and Show uses the ability to dump fatties for three mana as its main strategy, in this
particular deck it’s the perfect back up plan. When everything goes according to plan, they’re a perfectly serviceable tool to implement the main plan
faster by ramping out a Titan for three mana. When things are going badly, that same three mana Titan is a great way to turn things around. First, if
you’re under pressure, you’re probably facing a strategy that will have some trouble with the 6/6 body alone. Add to that the amounts of life you can gain
of Glimmerpost if necessary, and you have an incredible stabilizing tool that also requires an immediate answer as your mana will spiral out of control
much faster than it’s supposed to otherwise.

In short, Cloudpost has a game plan that will trump every other fair deck if given the time and the tools to buy said time against all likely opponents.
Sounds good so far. So what are the trade-offs?

Well, look at that maindeck. There is absolutely no on-stack interaction. There is a single Bojuka Bog to Crop Rotation for but no other graveyard hate.
And there’s a single Karakas to stop Emrakul and Griselbrand (once again, a good target for Crop Rotation and Expedition Map) but nothing else to deal with
opposing fat if the Legends land isn’t good enough. In short, if it’s not a permanent (or the graveyard), Cloudpost won’t touch it. Sure sounds as if
dodging fast combo is our number one priority – but as we established before, that’s exactly the trade-off we’re looking to make, relying on our own prey
to protect our soft spot by both making those decks unappealing to play and giving them losses throughout the tournament; hopefully, we won’t have any.

The other thing that looks somewhat concerning is Blood Moon. It shuts off our mana production after all, completely crippling our game plan. Luckily
enough, we have a counter-plan. Between three basics, four Fetches and three Expedition Maps, it’s reasonable to assume that we can establish blue mana
even under Blood Moon if it doesn’t happen on Turn 1, and the Enchantment doesn’t keep us from playing Cloudposts (as non-basic Mountains, for the time
being). In addition, the main Blood Moon deck – Imperial Painter – can’t actually profit rapidly because the Eldrazi in our deck prevent their combo from
doing anything (a little justice for what Blood Moon does to us). Once there is a sufficient number of ‘posts in play, Repeal can easily come to the rescue
and spontaneously re-enable our broken mana. Basic Island also casts Show and Tell, conveniently enough, so there’s always that out, too.