Control-based Psychatog has broken every format since the card’s printing in Odyssey block. To this day, despite numerous upheavals in its respective formats, Tog remains a top tier deck in Extended, taking First Place at Grand Prix: Los Angeles; and, in Vintage, taking Second Place at the most recent Waterbury, where it lost to Grow-a-Tog, of all things. But Psychatog’s absence in Legacy is perplexing.
Kevin walks us through the evolution and execution of Flame Vault Stax, one of Legacy’s most durable weapons. He urges us to take arms and play this at the forthcoming Duel for Duals at Grand Prix: Richmond…
Red/Green Turboland? WTF? Isn’t Turboland supposed to be U/G with stuff like Gush, now banned in Legacy? What are you spewing, Mr. X? You must be one crazy old fart, let me tell you.
Yeah, so?
It’s been rather weird, how this deck came together. It’s entirely my own creation, so I will take credit for its success.
Part Legacy, part Standard, part Extended, part Limited. Part tournament report, part issues rant, part humor submission. Part travelog, part guide to parenting. All John F. Rizzo… putting the “yum!” back in “Premium.”
The deck I designed four months ago existed in a different environment. Since then, Legacy has evolved. Threshold decks are much more popular, but other archetypes are beginning to demonstrate consistency and strength. Control decks are evolving beyond Landstill; Blue/White Angel Control and Red/White Rift Control appear to be a consistent presence in the metagame. Gamekeeper and IGGy Pop are well-developed combo decks that have put up good finishes. All these changes mean Angel Stax needs to undergo some modifications as well in order to remain competitive.
The guy that’s been pushing this deck since its inception reviews the Days of the Mongoose that took place recently in France. Can Threshold keep the top slot in the Legacy format? Check out what Dan has to say for possible answers.
In case you missed it, Gabriel Nassif has been posting results again. He finished 12th at Pro Tour: Los Angeles and 12th again at Grand Prix: Lille recently. Today he covers his deckbuilding hits and misses and discusses just how close he was to breaking the Legacy format with Solitary Confinement.
Dissatisfied with the current crop of Legacy decks, Sean took his own homebrew to Philadelphia with no byes and finished just short of Day 2. What deck did he play and why does he think more players should look into it? The answers are only a click away.
Originally I was planning on skipping Grand Prix: Philly and instead spending time working on the Extended format for Grand Prix: Charlotte in December. This all changed when I realized I’d be qualified for Pro Tour: Honolulu on rating. “No Constructed Magic until February?” I thought to myself. Just then I came to the realization that Grand Prix: Philadelphia was technically not a Constructed tournament, but it affected Eternal ratings. Immediately I started making phone calls, checking class syllibi and by the end of the week, my flight was booked. Now then… What the hell is good in Legacy?
I’m going to start this article the only way I can to keep it interesting – most of you have probably heard of me, not for what I’ve accomplished, but rather for what I’ve disrupted. At PTNO of 2003, team Your Move Games had an awesome Goblins deck that comboed off with a little-known enchantment from Mercadian Masques called Food Chain. It could kill on turn 2 and absolutely blindside whoever was expecting a more normal Goblins deck… if it wasn’t for the fact that everyone at the tournament already knew about it. That was because of me.
Hi, I’m Ben. Nice to meet you.
Landstill doesn’t make Top 8, but still produces a respectable finish. Solidarity hated out. Suicide Black Revisited makes it to the final. Flame Vault is awesome but super-hard to play. And you all mocked me. Shame on you.
The man on the Meddling Mage takes you behind the scenes on the deck development for his B/W homebrew at Philadelphia and then details the story of yet another Grand Prix second place finish.
It will take some time to unpack and understand the results of Grand Prix: Philadelphia. Two Goblins decks, one Lion’s Eye Diamond/Auriok Salvagers combo, three aggro-control Threshold decks, a Black/White disruption deck, and a Lightning Rift cycling deck is a Top 8 that nobody could have predicted. To the passing observer, the Top 8 decklists will suggest a metagame and an environment that did not exist, so today I’m going discuss Legacy in general, the metagame, and the Flame Vault deck variations in some detail.
Why should you read this final part of a four-part series discussing Legacy Threshold decks? Because this past weekend, at the first Legacy Grand Prix ever, no less than three Threshold decks appeared in the Top 8, suddenly catapulting this archetype into “Deck to Beat” status, that’s why.
Here it is, folks: the Legacy statistics breakdown from July to October. The results are in, the votes are tallied, and there’s one deck that is the big winner by a considerable margin. From the tournament data, it’s a Tier unto itself. What is it? To find out, you’re gonna have to click the link.
