I. A Special Message
This column is intended to discuss competitive decks and community issues in Legacy. However, for two months in 2007, Legacy is on hiatus due to organizational oversights at Wizards of the Coast. Today, I am going to examine these events. Normal Legacy coverage will return in my next article.
II. Chronology of a Disaster
10/08/1996: Mirage is released.
06/23/1999: Urza’s Destiny is released.
06/30/1999: The official wording on Flash is changed so that it no longer works with Academy Rector.
09/01/2004: Legacy is created. The DCI’s banning choices are too conservative and many weak cards are on the list.
05/04/2006: Dissension is released. Combos are discovered that utilize Protean Hulk to win the game right away.
07/08/2006: Scott Johns publishes a long list of cards that will receive Gatherer updates in two days.
07/14/2006: Aaron Forsythe explains the Gatherer updates.
04/20/2007: The entry on Flash is changed in Gatherer. The previous eight years of errata that pertain to the old rulings are not removed, and no additional errata are added. No statements are made regarding the changes. Development on the broken Flash-Hulk combo immediately begins for several formats.
04/25/2007: The Flash deck is leaked on all public magic forums. Despite the circumstances, and the volume of questions, there is no response from Wizards of the Coast about the entry.
05/04/07: There is no mention of Flash in Aaron Forsythe column.
05/11/2007: With only a week before the Grand Prix, Aaron Forsythe makes the first official statement regarding the Oracle changes. Flash is declared legal with the original wording. Gatherer is changed to indicate an update on May 1st.
05/19/2007: Legacy players put down their Legacy decks, temporarily, and play a different format. Flash and anti-Flash battle it out at Grand Prix Columbus. Flash wins.
III. Grand Prix: Columbus
Just as the confusion over Flash was beginning, I started a three-week marathon of obligations and pre-planned events. I took my final exams, went on a week-long trip, and then moved into a new apartment. Before this event, I had only a couple of days to prepare my list and try to learn how to play the deck. I finished with a 6-3 record.
Creatures (9)
- 1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
- 1 Carrion Feeder
- 1 Karmic Guide
- 1 Body Snatcher
- 1 Benevolent Bodyguard
- 4 Protean Hulk
Lands (18)
Spells (33)
- 4 Brainstorm
- 4 Duress
- 4 Force of Will
- 4 Sleight of Hand
- 4 Impulse
- 4 Daze
- 3 Lim-Dul's Vault
- 1 Echoing Truth
- 4 Flash
- 1 Wipe Away
Sideboard
My first loss was to an Affinity deck with four maindeck Tormod’s Crypts and four maindeck Pithing Needle. He played three Tormod’s Crypts in the first game, and followed up with more hate in game 2.
My second loss was to a hate deck that I could have beaten, but I played poorly and threw away the match. I answered the Meddling Mages and Stifles, but I had not tested enough and lost to permission.
My third loss was to a Stax deck that got a little lucky against me. He won the die roll, and then opened with Chalice of the Void for one on turn 1, and then Chalice of the Void for two on turn 2. Before I could find Wipe Away, he cast a Chalice of the Void for three. His sideboard contained Leyline of the Void and Defense Grid, and I could not answer all of the hate in game 2.
The cantrips were really good all day, but my plan for beating anti-Flash decks was insufficient. If I were to play the deck again, I would strongly consider Green over Red.
Other than play around hate cards all day, I spoke with many players about the events happening in the format. Many months of preparation and deck tuning by talented players were wasted. The veteran players I spoke to objected to the unfairness of the card. Almost everyone played it, and those who didn’t were playing hate and expected to use it every round. Despite this gloomy situation, people were even more upset about the articles being written that were completely out of touch with the format.
IV. Misrepresenting Legacy
Last week, the largest Legacy tournament ever in the United States was forfeited to a degenerate deck. Significant potential for innovation and format definition was lost because of this. Given the rarity of official support for Legacy, this is disappointing and somewhat tragic. However, the most destructive thing to happen in the month before the Grand Prix was the way the format was misrepresented by players and writers with little or no experience playing tournament Legacy. Many opportunities to lead the format were squandered out of unfamiliarity with Legacy and the temptation to join the publicity craze.
Legacy is very different from Extended or Vintage, and is difficult or impossible to make sense of by comparison to those formats. Many players really did not understand the magnitude of this event and the effects it would later have on the Grand Prix. To those who do not play Legacy regularly, the power and degeneracy of Flash is not obvious. Because of this, the analysis of the situation from many players and writers with high profiles was incorrect. In my opinion, these erroneous responses have negatively affected Legacy. This misrepresentation of Legacy has misguided new players about the nature of the format, and it likely affected the attendance and composition of the Grand Prix. By suggesting that its veterans are paranoid, it has also given the format a reputation for being short-sighted. Now that the Grand Prix is over, it is easy to see for ourselves what really happened, but Legacy itself is still in remission.
Prior to Flash entering the format, Legacy was experiencing strong growth in the diversity and speed of Combo decks. Aggro-Control archetypes were also becoming more aggressive. One very encouraging trend was the adoption of anti-Goblin technology in basically every decklist. Legacy had evolved, on the large scale, and was incorporating strategic counters to fast Aggro strategies in almost all decks. Even Control decks were beginning to mature, as Combo and innovation overcame the Aggro presence. The introduction of a degenerate Control-Combo deck into the format eradicated the entire metagame. Tournament Legacy players now await the return of the format next month.
V. Policy
Wizards of the Coast could have prevented this from happening by including Legacy in their errata and banning discussions. I have played Magic long enough to know exactly where Eternal formats fit into Wizards’ business model, but when Vintage (zero pro events) gets DCI attention and Legacy (three pro events) does not, it is clear that something is awry. The removal of power level errata is important to Eternal players, but the DCI’s supervision is much more important, and is necessary for all format changes. It was the uncoordinated operation of Magic officials – in particular the unmonitored actions of the rules managers – that caused the catastrophe at Grand Prix: Columbus. It was unnecessary to reverse the errata so suddenly before such an important tournament, and in fact that was the worst time to do it.
Flash was originally errata’d because it created a broken deck in constructed magic with a creature that had a powerful leaves-play ability. Eight years later, Wizards of the Coast removes this safeguard, thereby allowing the same two cards to be legal in two Constructed formats. Given the history of this card, it is impossible that anyone could be ignorant of the effects restoring it would have. A very brief consideration by the DCI of the card’s effects would have revealed the extent of its degeneracy.
Legacy has passed sixteen B/R cycles and no changes have been made; that is the complete lifetime of the format. The power of unbanned cards and the weakness of the banned ones makes the current banned list incomprehensible. It is reasonable to assume that the DCI could figure this out, given a just a short period of time to examine the issue. Therefore, it must be the case that no time has been spent even reviewing banning decisions, and it is obvious that any discussion of Flash occurred too late to take action, under the reputation-building policy currently touted by the DCI.
The adherence to this policy for its own sake has hurt Legacy, but is has also considerably hurt the DCI. It would have been a strong step in the direction of reputation-building to take exception to this policy when it could have had such a beneficial effect on so many players and a needy format. The point of the DCI’s powers is to ensure fairness, fun, and diversity in Constructed formats; in this case, they acted directly in opposition to these goals in order to earn credibility for the future decisions made by this body, with no real guarantees as to the criterion on which they will be made. Legacy needed its review last month, but public relations took priority over one of the most egregious power level imbalances in the history of magic. Now, the Grand Prix is over and the best thing to do is to adopt a healthy policy for the future. After all of the bad publicity that Legacy has received over the past month, the DCI should make these changes:
1) Treat everything done by the rules team as if they were making new cards. That is what they are doing in every practical way that can affect tournament players. This means actually reviewing the changes before they are allowed to enter a format.
2) Actually review the Legacy banned list before quarterly announcements. As of nine month ago, there were six strong candidates for unbanning. There are likely more at this point.
In addition, it is necessary that Flash be banned tomorrow. The format will cease to exist if the DCI procrastinates with this particular announcement.
VI. A Player’s Responsibility
Wizards of the Coast has to make some changes, and those who write about magic should reconsider their standards of integrity. Even if you are in neither of these groups, you can still affect Legacy.
The Legacy community is in a unique position. It is somewhat similar to the way Vintage was several years ago. We are effectively still in the beta stage of development. Wizards of the Coast is waiting to see what we do and how the format will turn out. If you play the format, it is essential that you engage Wizards of the Coast about how to proceed. In order to ensure that proper care is taken, we must be critical in our analysis of the format and of policy, and we have to provide feedback to those with power. That means contacting specific people at Wizards of the Coast with our ideas about what is best for Legacy. It also means emailing writers and the people who employ them, and informing them about what they are doing right, and what they are doing wrong. The community needs to speak up about how it is being affected so that the dynamics of change can start to benefit us.