I. World Championship?
July was a very productive month for Legacy deckbuilders and players, as I reviewed in my previous article. August has had many fewer tournaments and so the continuing trends are more difficult to establish. Approximately 160 players attend the annual Legacy world championship a week ago, but you wouldn’t know this from reading magicthegathering.com. One would think that since Legacy only gets one sponsored event a year, and given that the tournament organizer is itself Wizards of the Coast, someone would show up to the event to find out what happened. As far as I know, this is the first time since 2002 that an officially sanctioned Eternal tournament has been ignored by Wizards of the Coast. This is especially confusing since the Vintage tournament received nice coverage last month. They could have easily enlisted any number of writers in our outside of their organization just to document the event and publish the decklists. If Wizards of the Coast is considering not covering their own tournaments in the future, I hope they will make this known so that someone else can make an effort to record the event.
So, as a service to those who are interested, here are the top four decklists from the championship:
1st, Countersliver
4 Crystalline Sliver
4 Sinew Sliver
4 Muscle Sliver
4 Winged Sliver
3 Hibernation Sliver
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Aether Vial
4 Flooded Strand
1 Windswept Heath
1 Polluted Delta
3 Tundra
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Mutavault
1 Plains
1 Island
Sideboard:
4 Planar Void
3 Stifle
4 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Harmonic Sliver
2 Krosan Grip
2nd, Boros
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Savannah Lions
4 Goblin Legionnaire
3 Jotun Grunt
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Chain Lightning
4 Price of Progress
4 Magma Jet
3 Fireblast
4 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Plateau
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Windswept Heath
2 Flooded Strand
Sideboard:
4 Vexing Shusher
1 Jotun Grunt
3 Shattering Spree
3 Pyrokinesis
2 Pithing Needle
2 Disenchant
3rd, Belcher
4 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Burning Wish
3 Empty the Warrens
3 Infernal Tutor
1 Plunge into Darkness
3 Manamorphose
4 Tinder Wall
4 Rite of Flame
4 Dark Ritual
4 Seething Song
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Land Grant
1 Bayou
1 Taiga
Sideboard:
4 Xantid Swarm
3 Shattering Spree
2 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Infernal Tutor
1 Cave-In
1 Thoughtseize
4th, Elves
4 Sylvan Messenger
4 Wolf-Skull Shaman
3 Skyshroud Elite
4 Imperious Perfect
3 Wirewood Herald
4 Wren’s Run Vanquisher
3 Llanowar Elves
3 Fyndhorn Elves
3 Quirion Ranger
1 Caller of the Claw
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Heritage Druid
1 Chameleon Colossus
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Gaea’s Cradle
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
9 Forests
Sideboard:
4 Krosan Grip
4 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Pithing Needle
4 Umezawa’s Jitte
II. Control Decks
Other than Gencon, there were some other decently sized tournaments which may illuminate the format’s continuing evolution. One of the major themes of recent Legacy changes has been the increasing popularity of Blue-based Control decks, such as Landstill and Intuition Control. Almost every large tournament in the last month had a deck like this in the top 8. This deck won a 65-player tournament in Hamburg:
UWB Landstill
2 Eternal Dragon
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
2 Cunning Wish
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Decree of Justice
3 Wrath of God
2 Humility
4 Standstill
2 Crucible of Worlds
3 Engineered Explosives
1 Academy Ruins
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
4 Mishra’s Factory
2 Plains
3 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author]
1 Tolaria West
4 Tundra
1 Wasteland
Sideboard:
4 Meddling Mage
3 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Enlightened Tutor
3 Extirpate
1 Hydroblast
1 Pulse of the Fields
1 Return to Dust
1 Slaughter Pact
Another Blue-based Control deck won a 48-player tournament in Paris:
Intuition Control
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Tombstalker
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
3 Intuition
3 Spell Snare
1 Life from the Loam
4 Pernicious Deed
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Academy Ruins
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
2 Lonely Sandbar
3 Mishra’s Factory
4 Polluted Delta
4 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
1 Wasteland
Sideboard:
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Darkblast
3 Extirpate
4 Hydroblast
3 Smother
1 Raven’s Crime
2 Tormod’s Crypt
These decks are not substantially different from previous incarnations, but their success as a consistent phenomenon indicates that the format is adapting to Counterbalance and that decks which can handle a very diverse range of threats are more likely to succeed.
III. Control Tactics
Last month the tournament results indicated that some of Threshold’s bad matchups were becoming very popular and having a significant effect on the composition of tournaments. Besides Landstill, the main decks were Aggro-Loam, Dreadnought, Ichorid, and Survival. These decks remain popular, but there are a few cards which are now receiving even more attention than before.
In order to design decks that are good against Threshold, one either needs a strategic advantage or very good tactical weapons. A deck like Goblins does not have a strategic advantage against modern Threshold decks that play very large finishers and efficient removal such as Pyroclasm or Engineered Plague, so Goblins must rely on strong individual cards like Warren Weirding and Wasteland and their synergy with the rest of the deck. Another card which is very good tactically against Threshold is Standstill, and this card is one of the biggest reasons why Landstill is good against Threshold. It fits in with Landstill’s strategy of enabling late-game cards, but it also happens to just be a very good card to play against Threshold early in the game. This tactical strength is good enough that Standstill is beginning to see play in other decks, even ones that don’t share the strategic plan that Landstill has. Dreadnought decks have already incorporated Standstill and its support cards, and have become more successful. Aggro-Control decks in general are now experimenting with the card and it seems to be working. Standstill in turn emphasizes two very important nonbasic lands, Wasteland and Mishra’s Factory, which allow a deck to interact with the opponent without playing spells, act as answers for each other, and push much bigger manabases. Consider this deck from the top 8 of the championship tournament:
Faeries
4 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
3 Wasteland
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Mutavault
1 Island
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Trygon Predator
4 Bitterblossom
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Smother
4 Standstill
3 Aether Vial
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
Sideboard:
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Hydroblast
3 Extirpate
3 Engineered Plague
3 Annul
3 Threads of Disloyalty
This isn’t really a tribal deck at all, as Bitterblossom + Spellstutter Sprite is the only interaction in the deck that involves the creature type Faeries, but this shell could conceivably support more Faeries in place of Trygon Predator or even a non-creature spell. This deck runs both Standstill and Aether Vial, two cards which are strong against Threshold in particular and Counterbalance decks in general. Mutavault is basically a Mishra’s Factory that can interact with Spellstutter Sprite. This style of deck is generally well understood and would even be considered less efficient than Threshold in a previous era, but Aether Vial is becoming a much more important card in this environment.
Traditionally, Aether Vial was best abused in Legacy with a deck full of expensive Goblins. However, I think this card is much more than just a Goblin enabler. It is played in Cephalid Breakfast and accelerates and protects the combo in that deck. Many Affinity decks use the card since it also accelerates the affinity mechanic, although Affinity decks are very lightly played. It is also being played in Aggro-Control decks such as Faeries, Countersliver, and obviously Fish-like decks. Aether Vial is a conditional but powerful card, but the strategy of doubling mana production for creatures has been little used outside of Goblins in Legacy. However, the tactical value of the card is increasing dramatically with the preponderance of Counterbalance and Standstill, which are sometimes even played in the same deck.
Aether Vial is good against the Aggro-Control decks that attempt to dominate the early game since it can play around the cheap permission and play tricks with combat math, but it is also good against the Control decks which target a more developed board position and which have trouble dealing with one-drops and uncounterable threats in the early game. This Aether Vial deck recently won an 80-player tournament hosted by legacyitalia.it, defeating a UWB Landstill deck in the finals:
UW Fish
3 Jötun Grunt
4 Meddling Mage
3 Serra Avenger
4 Silver Knight
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Standstill
4 Aether Vial
3 Umezawa’s Jitte
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
4 Mishra’s Factory
1 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
4 Tundra
4 Wasteland
Sideboard:
3 White Knight
2 Disenchant
2 Circle of Protection: Green
3 Energy Flux
3 Threads of Disloyalty
2 Pithing Needle
This is a straightforward Fish deck, with Aether Vial, Umezawa’s Jitte, and the typical Blue and White disruption cards. What makes these developments interesting is that it is now tactically beneficial to include Standstill, Wasteland, and Mishra’s Factory into designs which are not necessarily Control decks, and Aether Vial into decks which are not Aggro. For example, Dreadnought made third place at the Hamburg tournament, and Countersliver made third place at the Paris tournament.
IV. Still an Open Field
This is not the whole story, of course. Other decks with less interaction with this set of Blue cards are changing and performing well. In particular, the Exploration decks have been seeing more play (one version won the Canadian Legacy championship, which incidentally was covered online), and Goblins is still showing up in small numbers but doing well for its representation. Generally top 8s are very diverse, and those with two or three of the same deck are the exception. Although it is more difficult to analyze the format’s patterns when there is no dominant design problem and fewer tournaments, I do still find Combo decks to be underplayed for their potential, but it may be that Blue Control and Aggro-Control have not been fully normalized by decks like Ichorid and Aggro-Loam.