By Derek Gallen
Justin and I are in a cab bound for another late night slinging spells at my Brooklyn apartment, indulging my desire to participate in the Legacy format while the cab pushes through a torrential rain. Over the years Justin has committed copious energy to Legacy and takes pleasure in facilitating others who are unable to breach the buy-in to dip their toes into the format. And while I had played a lot of kitchen-table, heavily proxied Legacy decks or borrowed a friend’s deck to jam games in-between Cube draft marathons, I had yet to actually sit down and run a four-round Legacy tournament at the LGS. I wanted to play Legacy competitively more than any other format. Not only did I get to play with older cards, but the speed and complexity of Legacy, the card-for-card power level, seemed terrifying as it did mouthwatering.
Justin was pressing the issue with me: what deck would be best for me, with my play style and unfamiliarity with the format? “I wanna play Delver decks,” I stressed. Having enjoyed a strong tempo game since the days of Cursed Scroll Sligh and RUG Madness, Delver appeared ostensibly to be the pinnacle of tempo strategies. A one-mana three-power flier backed by aggressive resource denial and disruption? Yes, please! And already the back of my mind thrusted memories of running a half-proxied UWR Deck into improper sequencing, deplorable brainstorming, and revealing Wastelands to whiffed Delver triggers before me.
“It’s a hard deck to play, and even harder to master,” Justin proclaimed. Okay, then, what do I do? Where to begin? “The one card in Legacy that acts as a safety net for wigs for african american women unfamiliarity with the format and misplays is Abrupt Decay. You should start there,” he said. I watched the rain on the window and listened as he rattled off several deck possibilities before butting in with, “If I’m gonna pick a deck, I should probably pick one and stick with it as I learn the format.” I remembered my newfound obsession with Liliana of the Veil and Dark Confidant and told him those were the cards I wanted to play. They worked so beautifully together. Upon professing my love for the black duo we decided on a deck choice, and we decided I would be playing Punishing Jund.
The next day, another Legacy-centric friend, Evan, delivered to me his proxied-up Jund list and we immediately sat down and started running the gauntlet. I fawned over the elegant interactions of the deck and reveled in the excitement of cascading Bloodbraid Elf. The deck was true midrange, a construct I was not accustomed to before the modern era of Magic. The 1990s supported powerful combo decks and control decks, and the closest thing to midrange I ever played was the original Living Death deck that used Survival of the Fittest, Recurring Nightmare, and its namesake card to great effect. It ramped from the early game, took control of the mid-game, and closed out the late game with its earned advantages. Sure, I loved that deck, and played it through most of its Standard legality, but I thrived on heavy control strategies such as Counter Phoenix, Forbidian, and Upheaval/Psychatog; or combo strategies like Dream Halls, Oath, or Prosperous Bloom. And hell, then there were the tempo decks I mentioned earlier! So where did midrange place itself in my experiences? Barely anywhere, as the baseline for the human hair glueless full lace wigs strategy hadn’t quite materialized before my departure from the game. I considered the midrange strategy to be a strong tenant of modern-era Magic and, believing that, I had to play it to understand it, because eventually I had to know how to beat it.
Justin had a list of his own, and I compared it to the chunk Evan had handed me. After a week or two of goldfishing the card interactions and running some of the match-ups, I settled on this list:
Punishing Jund
| Creatures (16) 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Dark Confidant 4 Deathrite Shaman 3 Bloodbraid Elf 1 Scavenging Ooze Spells (21) 4 Thoughtseize 4 Liliana of the Veil 3 Hymn to Tourach 3 Abrupt Decay 3 Punishing Fire 2 Lightning Bolt 1 Golgari Charm 1 Sylvan Library | Lands (23) 4 Verdant Catacombs 3 Wasteland 3 Badlands 2 Bloodstained Mire 2 Wooded Foothills 2 Bayou 4 Grove of the Burnwillows 1 Forest 1 Mountain 1 Swamp Sideboard (15) 2 Pyroblast 2 Red Elemental Blast 1 Ancient Grudge 1 Dread of Night 1 Krosan Grip 2 Engineered Plague 2 Surgical Extraction 1 Life from the Loam 1 Golgari Charm 1 Scavenging Ooze 1 Firespout |
I ran this list at a Monday-evening Legacy tournament and went 3-1, beating Goblins, U/B Tez, and BUG Delver before losing in the final round to Storm. As it turned out, the deck was fantastic against other fair, creature-based decks, but had little game against a linear, redundant combo deck.
I was happy with the build, and was ready to start laying down track, but now there was the hard part: acquiring the cards. You see, I had to borrow the deck in order to play it, as I had few, if any, cards on hand, after trading in my tiny binder for Melira Pod. That’s where Justin comes in: His collection is wonderfully expansive and, unlike myself, he never got rid of his old cards. What’s more, instead of enjoying his collection in private, he very willfully lends it out to friends, sometimes as many as three decks’ worth of cards in a single night, just so others can enjoy the format he loves so much, even if only for brief moments. He saw the Legacy format as beautiful, powerful, and unreasonably expensive, and his disgust with card prices continuing to rise led him to spread the love of his favorite Magic format. It took three people to put my Jund deck together that night, and since then I have been accumulating, slowly and piece by piece, the cards necessary to run it every week. Until then, I will continue to borrow the cards I still deem out of reach.
On to a recent report: I had been brewing with some ideas for a Junk list and shared them with Justin last week which resulted in a mutual effort to try something fun and altogether mid-range-y that could cast Vindicate. I wanted to stretch my mind outside the Jund box for a moment, to see if I was capable of putting something together that could perform well. After discussing card choices with Justin, I sent him a list. The juxtaposed list he sent back was a mere three or four cards off from mine! We put our heads together and came up with the build that I ran at our Monday-evening Legacy tournament last week. What follows is a lesson in holding one’s commitment to the same deck:
Abrupt Dismay
I was looking forward to siding into the Natural Order package. But unfortunately Justin forgot he had traded away two of his Natural Orders, so the whole idea had to be tabled. We settled on putting another four random cards in there, another Zealous Persecution, another Scavenging Ooze, an Engineered Plague, and a Gaddock Teeg. Whatever the case may be, it wasn’t as potent a strategy as Natural Order out of nowhere which, looking back, I should have just run in the maindeck to give it another angle to punch out.
After staying late at work and running from the train to make round one on time, Justin and I furiously sleeved the deck and counted the cards, and I barely had time to settle into myself before the first match.
ROUND 1 vs. TONY LOMAN ON BUG
Tony is an eternal-format regular and an excellent player. His BUG list was Delver-less and played a more controlling build that finished with Tarmogoyf. Game one I keep a hand low on interaction, multiple Bobs, and a fistful of lands, including the one-off Bojuka Bog that would haunt me all night. Tony gets down two early Tarmogoyfs, stops my attacks with a Baleful Strix, and disrupts my action with double Force of Will. I side like so:
– 2 Hymn to Tourach
+ 1 Abrupt Decay
+ 1 Scavenging Ooze
I wanted more spot removal for his dudes, and the second Ooze was good game against Tarmogoyf and opposing Deathrite Shamans. Game two was a grindfest that had us trading resources without either of us getting an advantage for some time. The big play was when Tony attacked with his 4/5 Tarmogoyf, Creeping Tar Pit, and Baleful Strix into my active Knight of the Reliquary, Dryad Arbor, and Scavening Ooze. I block the ‘Goyf with my Dryad Arbor, activate Scavenging Ooze with the Arbor, then sacrifice the Arbor to the Knight, digging up Wasteland and wasting his Creeping Tar Pit, taking no damage and growing Knight big enough to brick his ‘Goyf. Eventually, Lingering Souls and Scavenging Ooze got me there. At the start of game three we had only nine minutes left in the round. “Play faster,” said Tony. I agreed, and we crashed through game three at lightning speed. Again, we blew up each other’s resources—but this time, as the dust settled and we were both hellbent and it was anybody’s game, Tony topdecked two Creeping Tar Pits that creeped in uncontested.
0-1 (1-2)
ROUND 2 vs. JOE RETALENTO ON ELVES
Joe was a sweet man and a careful player. After he went Nettle Sentinel on turn one, I knew my game plan was to keep his board clear and hope to remove any Natural Orders from his hand. I kept a sketchy hand game one, where my only lands were Bojuka Bog, Cavern of Souls, and Wasteland. So awkward! As I dragged my feet, Joe went off turn three with Craterhoof Behemoth, and we got to sideboarding:
+1 Abrupt Decay
+1 Gaddock Teeg
I don’t like Hymn against a deck that can refill its hand easily, and Liliana seemed really bad against a creature-dense deck like Elves. I’d rather have spot removal, Zealous for board wipes, and E-Plague for a soft lock. It unfortunately didn’t matter in game two, as I mulled to five on the play and had to keep a hand where my only land was … yup, you guessed it, BOJUKA BOG! We finished in just a few minutes and then spent the rest of the round just jamming more games. My deck was drawing terribly. I think I won one of those for-fun games, and even then I was racing a Progenitus. Joe was quite competent with his deck. Justin came over to watch us play, and was shocked to discover there were multiple Elves players in the room. Our LGS was not usually so combo-oriented. “How long you been on Elves?” Justin asked. “Tonight,” replied Joe. Brutal.
0-2 (0-2)
ROUND 3 vs. ZAC CLARK ON GIFTS
Fellow Hipsters of the Coast writer Zac Clark! We laughed as we sat down to face in other in round three, as we were delighted to play against each other in the 0-2 bracket. Zac said he was borrowing cards from Justin also, and had a brew he wanted to try out instead of the usual RUG Delver. It turns out Zac is so enamored with Gifts Ungiven in Modern that he just had to try it in Legacy. His deck was surprisingly fun to play against, and we had a blast. Game one Zac triple Wastelanded me and had little to follow up with after I wasted his only color-producing land on turn four. I get enough momentum to quickly close out the first game and we go to the board:
– 2 Hymn to Tourach
+1 Thoughtseize
+1 Gaddock Teeg
I knew I needed another Swords, as Zac was bent on his Gifts package, which fetched Griselbrand or Iona, Shield of Emeria and Unburial Rites. Game two was a long, grindy game that ended with Zac pulling ahead, his graveyard completely exiled from Bojuka Bog. I Swords-ed his Griselbrand and in response he drew 14 cards. I think he eventually won with Snapcaster Mages. Game three I mulled to six on the play but my hand was acceptable enough to put quick pressure on Zac, and once I got a big Knight on the table he quickly scooped up.
1-2 (2-1)
ROUND 4 vs. MATT STAPLETON ON PAINTED STONE
Matt was as stone-faced as his deck choice. I tried to lighten the mood with a quip and a laugh but he was bent towards my destruction. I had no idea what he was on. He won the die roll, played a Mountain and passed. My beautiful Bojuka Bog was my only turn one play. Turn two he drops an Ancient Tomb and Blood Moons me. I stared at my hand and wondered how the hell I can ever beat that card so early. Matt then slams a Kargan Dragonlord and smashes me with his pet dragon. Sideboard:
-3 Liliana of the Veil (noticing a pattern of what I needed to side out?)
+3 Duress
+1 Abrupt Decay
+2 Krosan Grip
+1 Thoughtseize
I didn’t know this match-up well enough, but I knew what he was up to, so I stuffed in all the spot hand disruption and artifact/enchantment removal my deck would allow itself. I just needed to not get mooned early and I would have a fighting chance against his annoying little combo. Yet in game two I kept a hand without any disruption; perhaps I was slightly on tilt after getting mooned game one, and I wasn’t thinking so clearly. I play Bojuka Bog turn one: “EXILE YOUR GRAVEYARD!” I proclaim. Matt just blinks at me and moons me turn two. I have Bob out and rip an Umazawa’s Jitte, thinking I’ll have a chance. With his Painter’s Servant on blue, he blasts my Jitte, then plays Grindstone and I pack it up.
“I got mooned!” I yell over to Justin.
“Happens.”
1-3 (0-2)
A miserable performance. Maybe if I drew better I’d have had a chance. Maybe if I had played Jund I’d have performed better, or would at least had felt better about losing with “my” deck of choice instead of a brew. In any case, I’m still dedicated to playing midrange for the time being and, starting next week, I will be running Jund in Legacy on a consistent basis. Back to what I know. What is it they say about eternal formats? The more familiar you are with your deck, the better your chances of performing well at any given tournament. Stick with it. That’s my motto now.
Next week I’ll go over my current Pod List in Modern and what I’ve been up to with sideboarding and how the deck will change with the introduction of M15!
Derek prefers all things black leather, but dislikes rolling dice when resolving Hymn to Tourach. Cannot be terrored. Effects that prevent or redirect damage cannot be used to counter this loss of life.