As we approach the middle of July, it’s safe to say that the dog days of summer and Magic are upon us. I’m sure all of you Legacy aficionados are waiting with baited breath for the latest core set to be released to the masses at prereleases around the world this weekend so you can stock up on that sweet, sweet M14 technology for your decks. If the summer heat hasn’t melted your brain yet, that last sentence may have. Let’s be honest, July and August are rough months to be a Planeswalker. Standard has become stale, there’s no Pro Tour excitement on the horizon, and all we’re getting is a lame core set full of chaff and reprints. Wizards couldn’t even give us something to talk about with their latest Banned and Restricted list update (for those that missed it, ZERO changes across the board). So, in this moment of boredom, we turn to Legacy in hopes of seeing something cool, but all we got was a RUG on RUG finals to follow up a week of Maverick winning and a week of a Blade deck winning…What is this, 2012? Fear not, though! Through the sweltering heat, I bring you my M14 quick hits for Eternal (or rather eternal; lowercase means we get to include Modern, and maybe stretch the list a bit). Up first we haaaaaaaave…
Alright, I guess all that white space and stalling didn’t get us to the beginning of Theros spoiler season, so I have to actually give you something. Let’s start with…
The Super Obvious!
Gee whiz, where can this guy go? In Standard, this Merfolk Wizard may end up being nothing more than a speed bump for Gruul mages, but in Aether Vial Fish decks, the Tidebinder will prove to be a very real hoser when she’s backed up by all her lords and flashed in for free. I actually think this card could see more play in Modern than Legacy, because we have Submerge in Legacy, and that card is bonkers. In Modern, Merfolk make up a somewhat fringe archetype, so maybe the Tidebinder could help solidify the power of Fish. The only downside (in Modern) is that Birthing Pod seems to be everywhere right now, so your opponent can just Pod away their bounded creature and laugh at you. Hey guys, it’s a core set! Lower your expectations!
Ah, to be a young pyromancer. I remember my days as a young pyromancer, setting off roman candles and lighting things on fire in my backyard. Oh, wait, no…I was a young pyromaniac. I just lit things on fire with matches and aerosol cans (it’s a wonder I still have all my fingers!); I never did anything that was actually cool, like pop out an army of Elementals. I know many a column has already been written about this young ginger, but he is just dying to be broken in the land of free spells, Phyrexian mana, and the Cantrip Cartel. You could go ahead and build around him, but you also could slot him into the Modern Storm deck to make up for some of the oomph it lost with the banning of Seething Song. This is the only new card in the set that I can see being a Legacy star. What’s a good over/under on how many copies of this card will appear in the top eights of Legacy Opens between now and Theros? Who wants to give me the over?
Going Deeper…
We obviously have a much better tool available in Legacy, in Goblin Bombardment, but this WILL see Modern play. It also screams, “Sam Black.” Hmm…doesn’t Sam Black write a column on the mothership? Could he have used his influence to get this thing printed? I call shenanigans!
Some people saw this and were probably thinking, “OMG TWELVE LLANOWAR ELVES FOR LEGACY ELVES!!” They were probably the same people that thought Beck meant eight Glimpse of Natures, but I have yet to see that deck materialize. The truth is, Legacy Elves doesn’t need twelve Llanowar Elves because they usually don’t even play anywhere close to the full eight that they’re currently allowed to. But Modern’s lack of Green Sun’s Zenith, and the sheer depth of Elves Legacy has access to, might want a couple copies of this card. Could this be the missing piece to make the Intruder Alarm Simic Elf deck (yes, I am on Team Alarm; screw Curio!) a real thing?
Now that we have eight Muscle Slivers in Modern, we might have a deck! Despite how crazy good Crystaline Sliver can be, I’m not sure Bant Slivers is a thing in Legacy, even with twelve Muscle Slivers.
A quick mention on the Scooze, this card will make waves in Modern, but it’s not going to be the dominant force that many people are making it out to be. How many copies of this card is too many? Unlike Deathrite, it is not some maindeckable piece of hate that you can feel good about running four copies of. Deathrite has far more utility, and the big kicker is that Deathrite’s abilities all require a tap to activate, so it’s not bad to have multiples. How many oozes do you ever want to see in a game? Maybe one? One ooze or two oozes eat things at the same rate. And sometimes, you will just have Scavenging Bear, which is terribly unexciting. This card is MUCH better in Legacy due to the presence of Green Sun’s Zenith, allowing you to run five or six copies yet never seeing it when you don’t want to.
And Just For Fun
I don’t have any real expectations for some crazy Shadowborn Apostle deck to break any formats, but I will give a high five to someone if they do something ridiculous by…I don’t know, using Aluren and Glimpse of Nature to poop out twenty (or eighteen, since I don’t know what you’re going to do with the two extras) of these guys and find Griselbrand and friends.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SOMEBODY PLEASE BREAK THIS! I know it’s a trap, but the Johnny in me just wants it to be good so, so badly. Copying a storm trigger probably isn’t good enough to run a card that does nothing by itself in a very tight engine deck. Maybe it can be decent in Stax? There is always cascade, but that is probably not worth running an otherwise do-nothing card for. You can speed up Ancestral Visions (or any suspended card). You can double-up on the hideaway lands, though I am not sure if you can use the activated ability to play both cards at once or if you have to play them one at a time. You can copy the delayed trigger on Epic. Ugh, someone do something awesome with this card, because I can’t promise that I’m not going to buy ALL the foil copies.