AuthorDoug Linn

Monday, July 27th – Doug pits the currently-hot Dreadstill up against a Bant CounterTop list with Qasali Pridemages and other hot technologies to see which one reigns supreme. After playing several matches, Doug selected three choice games to illustrate several tactical decisions throughout the matchup. Can Dreadstill effectively lock up Bant’s mana? Can the Bant CounterTop deck soft-lock one of the premiere Counterbalance decks? Find out in this week’s Legacy’s Allure!

Tuesday, July 21st – With GenCon less than a month away, serious Legacy players should be preparing for what they will be playing in the Legacy World Championships next month. Doug looks at new strategies on the rise, highlighting cards like Vendilion Clique and Natural Order that are becoming much more popular. Get several proven decklists and some new and experimental ones that are worth a look, all in this week’s Legacy’s Allure!

Tuesday, July 14th – Goblins, Merfolk, Elves – tribal decks are on the rise again in Legacy, but one family seems to have been left out. Slivers, a historically good tribe, see less and less play every week. Is this a function of other decks being better, the cards losing power over time, or other factors? In this week’s article, Doug considers several theories to explain the downturn in Slivers, accounting for both in-game and out-of-game considerations. Check out these explanations in this week’s Legacy’s Allure!

Tuesday, July 7th – In less than two weeks, M10 will debut, bringing many new cards into the Legacy cardpool and opening up a lot of room for enterprising deck designers. This week, Doug reviews the set, which has many solid roleplayers in it, and presents new directions for existing and potential Legacy decks with M10. Check out how Doom Blade stacks up to existing removal, and whether Merfolk can ditch its plebes and run only Lords in this week’s Legacy’s Allure!

Tuesday, June 30th – Last weekend’s incredibly successful Legacy $5k in Boston produced an excellent Top 16, with many old favorites and some new builds coming out to play. This week, Doug takes a look at every list in the T16, comparing similar builds and discussing the advantages of the newest tech across the board. Find out about Planeswalker Landstill and the newest sideboards in from that over-the-border favorite, Canadian Threshold!

Tuesday, June 23rd – Inspired by Olivier Ruel and Sam Stoddard’s articles reviewing their stumbling blocks in the game, Doug takes a look this week at the challenges that hold him back from advancing in the game. With both general and Legacy-specific points, Doug tackles issues that many Legacy players face, both pre-game and in-game. Find out how you can enhance your play skills and win more Legacy games in this week’s article!

Tuesday, June 16th – The StarCityGames.com $5000 Legacy tournament is this weekend, so Doug discusses the best choices for the Grand Prix-size event! Check out the predicted metagame and what decks are poised to take advantage of it. Get some of the freshest lists from recent large events around the world, as well as an update of the Lorescale Coatl deck that Doug wrote about several weeks ago!

Tuesday, June 9th – The Legacy Banned list includes over sixty cards, the longest banned list of any format in Magic. Doug proposes nearly a dozen cards that could and should come off of the Legacy Banned list. Read why Doug considers unbanning cards that few people will play is a worthwhile endeavor and why some cards that used to have a lot of bite are tame by today’s standards. Get the evaluations before the June Banning announcements and weigh in with your opinion as well!

Tuesday, June 2nd – This week, Doug looks at how you can organize your own Legacy event and create a grassroots Legacy community in your area. He takes you from the reasons why you should host an event to the advertising, organizing, and hosting the actual tournament. What kinds of prizes should you give out? What makes for a good tournament venue? How can you create tourney-goers who eagerly await your next event? Get general tips as well as Legacy-specific advice in this week’s Legacy’s Allure!

Tuesday, May 26th – After weeks of talking about how Lorescale Coatl might make a big splash in Legacy, Doug finally gets around to making his own Coatl deck. Inside, find out why he abandons “natural” choices like Sensei’s Divining Top and instead, dips into Magic history for a different take on aggro-control. How can such a deck beat formidable problems in the format like Swords To Plowshares and Sower of Temptation? Can a player hitch their star to a fragile winged snake and fly it in to victory? Find out inside!

Tuesday, May 12th – What cards are getting hotter in the Legacy metagame? How have some cooled down? Doug goes over the impact that Lorescale Coatl will have on the format and what cards might get a second (or first!) life in the maindecks and sideboards of decks all around the format. Check out if Threads of Disloyalty is still as strong as ever or if we should be looking at different enchantments instead. Check out Doug’s “stock evaluations” for the newest Legacy tech!

Monday, May 4th – While it’s near-impossible to test against every deck in Legacy, deckbuilders can still stress-test their lists against several decks to see how they handle the common opposing strategies they’ll run into. See the six decks Doug thinks you need to test against and what your testing results will reveal. Can your new list hang with decks that grind you out in the lategame or slam you from the first turn forward? Is it better suited for the top tables of a big event or the kitchen table with friends? Read this article and then put your newest list through the wringer!

Tuesday, April 28th – This week, Doug considers two new cards from Alara Reborn with the potential to revolutionize the Legacy metagame. He uses the analysis strategies that Patrick Chapin first discussed several weeks ago to debate the playability and impact of some newly-spoiled cards, but that’s not all! Doug also shines light on three cards that have been around for years but haven’t found a home in Legacy… perhaps until now!

Tuesday, April 21st – Though often ignored by Legacy players, BG Suicide decks are quite powerful and pack some of Legacy’s strongest threats and disruption. This week, Doug breaks down nearly two dozen tournament-proven lists and distills out a composite BG Suicide deck that’s suitable for any Legacy event. Check out the common sideboard options of the deck, along with commentary on whether common boarded cards should be played at all. Channel your inner Spike with a Dark Ritual and Hypnotic Specter as Doug lays out this recent riff on an ancient archetype!