We’re only 6 weeks away from Eternal Masters! I’m soooo excited, I’ve been pinching pennies and saving up so I’ll be ready for when it’s time to spend all my money on booster boxes. I’m really hoping that this will be an opportunity for new players to get into Legacy who currently can’t afford it.
This week (with the help of Brew Corner’s Aaron Gazzaniga) I present a list of ten cards that will really help the format as reprints. I don’t necessarily believe Wizards will reprint all of these, but for Legacy’s sake I really hope that they do! I tried to only pick cards over ten dollars and cards that are currently in popular decks or in decks that were popular in the past. I wanted to pick cards that hit as many decks as possible to cover a variety of players as well as keep the format healthy and diverse. It took me a long time to cull this list down to only ten cards. I probably threw about 40 different cards at Aaron while I was writing this list, but I am extremely happy with where it ended up.
1. Karakas
I doubt there are a lot of people who think this card won’t be reprinted and I hope that they are correct. Karakas sees play in some of my favorite Legacy decks including Death and Taxes and most Post builds. It also sees play in Stoneblade and as a one-of in Deathblade. The card is currently running for around $140-150 dollars on TCGplayer. If you’re trying to build Death & Taxes (where you need 3) that’s 450 dollars. D&T is a great deck for new and old players alike—it’s a creature deck that can be fairly straightforward yet still challenging and complicated. You have to really understand interactions, watch your triggers, and think outside the box to be a truly successful D&T player.
2. Flusterstorm
This card sees play in every blue combo deck and the sideboard of every blue deck. It’s a good way to fight off storm for one mana. Because it has only been printed in a Commander set and as a judge promo, copies of Flusterstom cost about $60 each. That’s really expensive for a sideboard card that is necessary in so many decks to keep competitive against ANT (Ad Nauseam Tendrils) and TES (the Epic Storm).
3. Infernal Tutor
This is the only card on the list that goes in only one deck. Infernal Tutor is a $20 card from Dissension, so not the most urgent card to reprint, but I don’t see storm cards getting reprinted outside of a Masters set. Combo is important to keep the format healthy. Plus Storm is a fun deck that keeps getting its ass kicked in Modern. I want to see it healthy in a semi-affordable format (sorry Vintage).
4. Chalice of the Void
My only pet card that made it onto the list. We all know my love for Mudpost, a deck that helped me learn the format, which I think is a great entry point for players. It’s also considered one of the ‘cheaper’ legacy decks after Burn and Elves. The deck is pretty easy to learn the basics of and is fun once you get good at it. Chalice of the Void also sees play in Stax, a great prison deck that I would love to see played more frequently. On top of that it is also a sideboard card in Lands, a deck that needs as much help as it can to become more affordable. Chalice has seen one reprint in Modern Masters but is still $30-40 a copy, which adds up pretty fast.
5. Liliana of the Veil
This card probably helps the most decks. Liliana’s a three- or four-of in most of the decks she sees play in and is a cool $110 right now. You can easily find her in BUG Delver, Shardless BUG, Pox, Nic Fit, Dead Guy Ale and Jund. To say that she would make black mages of all styles happy is probably an understatement.
6. Rishadan Port
This card once again helps Death and Taxes and Lands. You’ll see I’m fighting a lot in this list to lower the price of D&T, a deck that I truly believe is a great entry point for new players and is a deck you can grow old with. It also helps Goblins, a creature deck that has fallen out of favor in recent years but is a good beginner point for players that love that super aggro style. Lastly, this card helps Lands, probably the most expensive deck in Legacy.
7. Aether Vial
I know I’m beating this Death & Taxes horse but Aether Vial also helps Merfolk, Dead Guy Ale, and Goblins. I’m trying to keep it fun, diverse and give new players a good entry point instead of only helping decks that take some time to master (like lands, storm, post, etc). Also this card is stupidly $40 dollars and a four-of in all the decks that run it so it feels necessary to print more.
8. Show and Tell
I almost didn’t include this. Aaron was the one who pointed it out to me. I always forget how many decks play this card—Omni, Sneak and Show, B/G 12 Post, and Reanimator all play Show and Tell. That’s crazy to me, but at least it explains why the card costs $50.
9. Imperial Recruiter
This is not a card that really sees any play currently but that’s because it’s $300 (or $200 for the Judge Promo). It’s a four-of in all the decks it’s played in and who wants to shell out $1200 dollars for one playset? That’s insane, even for Legacy—that kind of money is for vintage! I’m not the only one who wants this card to see a reprint of Imperial Recruiter based on the spikes in Aluren, one of the decks that it’s played in. You’ll also find it in Imperial Painter, a very fun deck that I’d love to see more of.
10. Dark Depths
I had to give Lands one more piece of help—that deck is too damn expensive and I don’t ever want to face a lands player who is on the Punishing Fire plan to kill me so I’m very pro Dark Depths seeing a reprint. It also sees play in Bant Knight, a deck that’s becoming more popular lately. I also think in limited it’d be really fun to see Dark Depths and Karakas in the same set (not really the point of this list but just a selfish Kate thought).
So with these ten cards I managed to hit Death and Taxes, a few different Post builds, Stoneblade, Deathblade, the sideboard of virtually every blue deck, Storm, Stax, Lands, BUG Delver, Shardless BUG, Pox, Nic Fit, Dead Guy Ale, Jund, Goblins, Merfolk, Sneak and Show, Omnishow, Reanimator, Aluren, Imperial Painter, and Bant Knight. It’s not a shabby list if I do say so myself and it’s pretty damn diverse.
I know you’ll still have to buy fetches and dual lands but anything to make Legacy even a little more accessible right? Being able to lower the barrier to this many decks could help so many different players walk into my favorite format and still keep it fresh. I’m sure Wizards put a lot of thought into this set—they know how important it is so I’m really looking forward to spoilers. If we’re lucky we’ll see a bunch of off my list!
Kate hails from Worcester MA and also does a bit of Card Altering. Check her Stuff out on Facebook! She mainly plays legacy and modern though will occasionally find herself playing EDH. She has recently succumbed to MTGO.