“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.“
Jack London
It is almost as if Legacy is a brand new format. When Flash became public knowledge everyone worked exclusively on Flash and anti-Flash decks, and after the Grand Prix there seemed to be a sense of hesitation in deck development, because the intense Grand Prix preparations were over. More than that, deckbuilding for the week after the Grand Prix was a sort of crap shoot; do you bet on Flash being banned or not while you test and build decks? Alright, Flash is banned: back to work. With the banning of Flash, the unbanning of Mind over Matter and Replenish, and the release of Future Sight, it is as if Legacy is completely new. This article is simply my observations and conclusions while navigating the new Legacy.
While I was predicting that there would be no changes to the Banned List, Flash getting banned does not surprise me. Personally I do not think I care either way, and at least this way none of us have to listen to the arguments about Flash anymore. What I find most interesting is that Flash got banned, and Goblins remained unscathed. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think that Goblins deserves to have any components banned from it, but I also do not think that Flash deserved to get banned either. The banning of Flash seems to depend more on the potential power Future Sight brings to the archetype. Aaron Forsythe headlined his article with the pithy tagline “We banned it… What did you expect?” but he asserts that he does not think Flash ruined the Grand Prix. From his article: “Now that the dust has settled, it’s clear to me that the Grand Prix was not ruined – attendance was remarkable, there was a reasonable diversity of decks in the Top 8, and there were plenty of interesting decisions to be made at both the deckbuilding and game play levels.” Aaron goes on to argue that Flash was ultimately format-warping and it did take a large number of Top 8 slots. However, I have a few points to present.
Flash took three Top 8 slots; this is pretty good but not startling. I do not think anyone would be up in arms if Iggy Pop or Belcher had taken three Top 8 berths, especially if Iggy Pop took two and Belcher took one. Sadin’s decklist is radically different from the other two Flash builds that took slots at the Grand Prix; it is unfair to directly compare them. Definitely no one would have called it that unusual if Goblins had put three players into the Top 8. People being up in arms about Flash taking three slots but barely blinking an eye when Goblins puts two or three into Top 8s consistently stinks of confirmation bias.
The other thing I find interesting is how well Goblins did. One player made Top 8 and at least two more lurked in the Top 16. Jonathan Sonne’s build is not available online, but Owen Turtenwald did not metagame his build to account for Flash, and Jeff Folinus made the single concession of maindeck Leyline of the Void, while leaving the rest of the deck unchanged. Yes, this is a metagame call, but no more so than maindeck Goblin Tinkerer, Pyrokinesis, Tormod’s Crypt, Disenchant, Swords to Plowshares, or other maindeck metagame cards players have fit into Goblins. Flash did outperform Goblins at the tournament, but it did not outperform Goblins by a ridiculous degree. Leaving Goblins alone but banning Flash suggests that a large reason for banning Flash is because of the addition of Future Sight.
The last issue I want to address in this section of the article is the notion that Flash warped or distorted the metagame. In my last article I took a lot of heat for saying, “When I raised these arguments before, the criticism came back that the only decks that are performing well are combo decks, Flash decks, and Blue and Black disruptive decks; supposedly that is not healthy for the format. But honestly with storm cards and things like Dark Ritual, Diminishing Returns, Infernal Tutor, Ill-Gotten Gains, and Goblin Charbelcher legal, did people honestly think that Elves! was going to be a defendable metagame choice?” Side note: Richard Feldman, did you play an Elf deck intentionally to prove me wrong? Mad props, sir… mad props. But let’s look at Richard Feldman deck; he’s starting Ancient Tombs for acceleration and has the option of turn 1 Chalice for one, turn 2-3 Chalice for two, as well as Duress and Leyline of the Void, backed up by Mesmeric Fiend. In a world where Flash isn’t around, Leyline can easily become something like Trinisphere or even Ravenous Baloth. Is it unbelievable to believe that this deck was not influenced in the least bit by Flash? Sure, it was created to hate on Fish and Flash decks, but plenty of similar decks were suggested prior to Flash (I know, because I could not make any of them work). When you make this sort of analysis, you have to separate good disruption cards from dedicated anti-Flash cards. Leyline of the Void is pretty single-minded in focus (except in Iggy), but Duress is pretty good against most of the format. Anyway, enough said about Flash. In return we get two new toys to play with: Replenish and Mind Over Matter.
Replenish is pretty obvious in what it does; while I am sure there are new tricks available, the core of the deck is pretty obvious and similar to past incarnations. Atop the core of Force of Will, Brainstorm, and Replenish, two different approaches arise: a combo-oriented with Attunement, Careful Study, and the PandeBurst combo, and a control oriented build with Propaganda, Energy Field, Parallax Wave. The second build kills by Opalescence, since Opalescence requires fewer slots, and can occasionally just rawdog into Opalescence plus enchantments without Replenish. The problem is that neither build seems all that overwhelming; it seems like the DCI are doing their jobs properly… Replenish just seems fair. Testing against Goblins has not been incredibly promising. Putting a few Parallax Waves and Attunements onto the table as creatures is not necessarily enough to beat Goblins. They can chump a few or kill them with Gempalm Incinerators and swing back for lethal damage. You would think Parallax Wave would be good against Gempalm Incinerator, but it has the potential to kill a Parallax Wave anyway. If they waste all their counters stopping the Incinerator it makes it easier for Goblins to win using attrition over the long-term. There is an internal conflict while playing: the Replenish player has to race to cast Replenish quickly but late enough that they have a stocked graveyard. This is accompanied by an internal conflict while deckbuilding; fewer enchantments makes the deck more consistent but worse when Replenish is cast. The worst possible thing to do is to cast and resolve Replenish and lose anyway because you could only bring a few things back with it. For this reason I think I favor a build that wins with Pandemonium and Saproling Burst; why bother trying to set up victory with Opalescence when you could simply win? The problem is that there are plenty of other very good enchantments that you want to play: Attunement, Energy Field, even Parallax Wave and Parallax Tide. I think the right way to go is to build a PandeBurst build that has the other helpful enchantments and can just happen to win with Opalescence. The numbers are nowhere close to being right, but I think I’d start my testing here:
4 Brainstorm
3 Intuition
3 Attunement
4 Force of Will
2 Propaganda
2 Ghostly Prison
4 Parallax Wave
4 Replenish
3 Opalescence
3 Pandemonium
3 Saproling Burst
4 Flooded Strand
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Tundra
3 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Plains
8 Island
3 Chrome Mox
There is a tendency to fill Replenish decks with all kinds of uncastable cards: Privileged Position, Form of the Dragon, Dovescape just to name a few. The problem is that they are just that: uncastable.
Mind Over Matter is more interesting; it costs 2UUUU. Form of the Dragon, which in many cases wins the game without external assistance, costs only one more mana: 4RRR. There are two conflicts with building your deck around Mind Over Matter. If it takes too many resources to put Mind over Matter into play, you do not have enough gas left to win the game (a problem with Recycle in Legacy), and if Mind Over Matter is too slow, you are better off just putting Form of the Dragon into play and protecting it.
So what can you use to break this card? You need to find an artifact, creature or land that it is particularly advantageous to untap. With any sort of Tim, 1 card = 1 damage. This is less damage potential than Tendrils but you can do it for free; then again Seismic Assault + Life from the Loam does that much, much better. On the other side of the power spectrum, Mind Over Matter + Arcanis the Omnipotent allows you to draw your entire deck… and it only costs 12 mana! Urza’s Blueprints + Mind Over Matter allows you to filter through your deck at a cost of 12 mana as well.
For reference, old High Tide with Mind Over Matter looked something like this:
4 High Tide
4 Time Spiral
4 Stroke of Genius
3 Mind over Matter
2 Force Spike
4 Force of Will
2 Merchant Scroll
3 Intuition
4 Counterspell
2 Turnabout
4 Impulse
20 Island
4 Thawing Glaciers
But that was in an environment without Reset. I cannot fathom wanting to pay six for Mind Over Matter when I could pay two for Reset. The main problem is that Time Spiral was both an untap and a draw spell; nowadays if you want you have to go to Diminishing Returns for the draw and Candelabra of Tawnos/Turnabout for the untap. Still, Mind Over Matter untapping Candelabra of Tawnos is incredibly powerful. The real question is if the deck can be made to win faster than current Reset High Tide. The instant-speed build is much more resistant to hate, so the only incentive for moving to the more vulnerable sorcery-speed build is if it can win faster. And if you are already prepared to win at sorcery speed, you have the option of branching out into things like Gaea’s Cradle or that cycle, although it is dubious that any of them are as good as simply casting High Tide. Heartbeat of Spring and Mana Flare can also serve as backups to High Tide, and they open up Early Harvest as an option (although a poor one, considering High Tide’s need for Islands and Early Harvest’s need for basic lands). The real incentive to splashing Green would be Farseek, which helps you get more Islands by turn 3. Remember that in this deck, turn 3 is the goal you are aiming for; if you cannot win turn 3, just play High Tide.
Street Wraith: what an interesting card. One of the things that makes it fun to me is that it joins the exclusive All or Nothing club. Like Leyline of the Void and a few other cards before it, you either want to run 4 or 0. If running one Street Wraith is correct it is because the free deck shrinkage and manipulation is worth the cost, and this means that more increases the benefit. If it’s wrong you don’t want fewer like some other cards; you want none. In many ways the card is comparable to Brainstorm. Everyone already understands the benefits of the card, but about disadvantages? First off, it makes mulligan decisions extremely difficult simply because it introduces another unknown into the equation. I have seen plenty of marginal hands with a Street Wraith or two where depending on the card you draw with it, the hand is either very good or very poor. This is the similar to effect that Brainstorm has on mulliganing where hands dramatically improve or worsen depending on the top of your library.
Unlike Vintage, the loss of 2 life is very relevant in Legacy. Not only are aggro decks extremely prevalent but the decks simply are not as fast. Too many players win games at less than 5 life for me to easily recommend Street Wraith. The one advantage I would point out that may not be immediately relevant is that you can cast Street Wraith, and that is often a good idea. Not only can few creatures beat a 3/4 in combat, but he evades, making it more easily to race or put your opponent in range of a lethal Tendrils.
So what decks want Street Wraith? I think Threshold, High Tide, Iggy Pop, The Epic Storm, Goblins, and Belcher are the common decks that need to seriously consider the card. Of those I personally feel that only Iggy and Belcher actually want to run Street Wraith… Goblins might, but I have doubts. The Epic Storm already trades life for cards in a more refined fashion through tutors like Plunge into Darkness. When one life allows you to see one more card, paying two life for a card is simply unacceptable. High Tide definitely does not want to run Street Wraith. It has more efficient ways to convert life into cards (simply by passing turns, or through Meditate). It also runs a more efficient cantripping suite, but more importantly, High Tide tends to be slow. It’s a fair bet that if the High Tide player runs 4 Street Wraith that they will see two or three while going off. Four or six life can equate to an entire turn of attacking; in other words the combined life loss from Street Wraiths is simply too much for High Tide to bear.
Does Threshold want Street Wraith? If U/G/W and U/G/R Threshold switches to Tarmogoyf, I think Street Wraith is a good consideration. It will easily boost Tarmogoyf and it helps smooth out your draws. The question is not whether Street Wraith is good but whether Street Wraith is better than any of the alternatives, and I do not think so. In sixteen-cantrip builds, Street Wraith might be better than Portent or Predict, but it definitely does not replace any of the core 12 cantrips (Brainstorm, Serum Visions, Mental Note). The other concern is the life loss versus Goblins. This issue is too early to determine. Tarmogoyf dramatically changes the way the Goblins matchup plays out, and the Goyf might make Goblins favorable enough to sustain the loss of a few points of life. It’s far too early to tell, since none of the builds are stabilized. The burgeoning U/G/B build seems like it would most want Street Wraith because it can actually cast the monster against Goblins, but ironically this is the Threshold build that least wants Street Wraith. Any deck with Dark Confidant simply cannot afford the extra life loss, either from cycling the Street Wraith or — worse – flipping Street Wraith over with Bob.
Street Wraith in Goblins? This is probably the most difficult question to answer. If you were going to fit it in, you would cut a basic Mountain, two of the metagame slots (Goblin Tinkerer/Tin-Street Hooligan/Pyrokinesis/whatever) and either a third metagame slot or a Siege-Gang Commander. First off, this makes your Ringleaders slightly worse; you will average one to two Goblins per Ringleader instead of two to three. You also cannot benefit by actually casting Street Wraith, which means at low life totals they will blank. The other problem is that by cutting creatures for draw you make the deck slightly less explosive and slightly more consistent, both because of the cards you cut and because your creature percentage is lower overall. You also cannot run other metagame cards in the maindeck (Chalice of the Void Goblins anyone?) and the life loss can be a problem in the mirror. My most significant concern is that increasingly Goblins as a slower, consistent deck simply is becoming untenable due to the speed of the format. Belcher, IGGy and TES can all punish Goblins for a slow or even average draw. Even so, drawing cards and thinning your deck is really good; many players play fetchlands in Goblins for exactly that reason. If you were going to run Street Wraith in Goblins I would only recommend it for more advanced players. Good Goblins players will naturally have an edge in the mirror to make up for the life loss, and no difficulty metagaming. If you’re not good with Goblins, stick to the 32 Goblins, 4 Vial, 24 land configuration, but if you’re good with the deck, try Street Wraith.
I think only one deck in the format wants Pact of Negation: Iggy Pop. TES and Belcher both run Empty the Warrens in addition to their primary kill mechanism, and Pact of Negation isn’t good if you need to attack twice to win. UU is also extremely difficult for both of those decks to make; if it required 3BB or 3RR it might be feasible to pay for Pact next turn, but not in Blue. Those decks are also already hardened against Force of Will. The candidate for Pact of Negation needs to be a deck that will definitely win the turn it casts it and a deck that is vulnerable to counterspells. Iggy plays very straight-forward: 1) Get Leyline out. 2) Cast Ill-Gotten Gains. 3) Win. Steps one and three are very easy to accomplish, but resolving Ill-Gotten Gains against Threshold is a very difficult task because they run more counters than Iggy does its namesake. Pact of Negation evens the odds. Plus Pact of Negation better protects you while going for the two Tendrils plan. I would take Mike Bomholt’s most recent list and try to fit in Pacts. I’d start by cutting the Empty the Warrens and then start trimming the Intuitions and Mystical Tutors.
Tarmogoyf is probably the most obvious Threshold card. It almost unanimously replaces Werebear in Threshold, but my question was whether you finally had enough good creatures in Threshold to have a favorable Goblins matchup. Part of the problem was that most Threshold creatures could not come out to block Goblins and not die before turn 4. Tarmogoyf is almost guaranteed to be a 1/2 when you play it, and it can take down Lackey or Fanatic without dying. Playing a 2/3 by turn 2 that Goblins simply cannot kill is a good way to blunt the Goblin offensive, especially with counters to stop Ringleader. The version of Threshold I am testing replaces the last four slots (either the 13th-16th cantrip or the 4 Meddling Mage) with Tarmogoyfs and leaves Werebears in the deck.
The last card to look at is Bridge from Below. This card is ridiculous in just about every other format ever, but it seems like chaf in Legacy. Is it a problem with Legacy or just that we have not found an optimal build of Ichorid? During testing we found that you had no problems making a lot of guys, but Goblins disrupted you too easily with Mogg Fanatic and Gempalm Incinerator. Ichorid already had trouble racing Goblins, and trading Ashen Ghouls for more creatures that die to Mogg Fanatic seems a bad way to position yourself in the metagame.
Now that we have looked at so many different cards, what does it all mean? The new format adds Replenish and gives Ichorid a small boost, but we are left with the undisputed best deck: Goblins. It’s time to put away your Flashes and find decks that beat Goblins again. Iggy Pop makes some gains with both Street Wraith and Pact of Negation. Expect Belcher to also be out in force since it made its major debut during the early days of Flash. Not quite back to business though. The Legacy metagame was never really in a stable equilibrium. Threshold was dramatically under-represented relative to the metagame presence of its natural prey: combo. Ironically, now combo is on the definite upswing; Iggy was on the rise before Flash, and the rise of Belcher swings the balance even more towards combo. So what is the right deck to play? Personally I think my U/W/R deck is well positioned; I am still tweaking the deck to compete in the current metagame, but it already has the combo-wrecking Meddling Mages and Orim’s Chants in the sideboard, as well as a positive Goblins matchup game 1. Aluren and U/G/R Threshold with Top/Counterbalance are both good choices. And before the Grand Prix, Doug Linn suggested Vial Goblins with maindeck Chalice of the Void.
Kevin Binswanger
“Anusien”
[email protected]