Gather round children for it is story time in the Spice Cabinet!!!
Today’s story is about a little boy who decided to build his very first ever Legacy deck! Hooray! While some of you may scoff at the thought of a little boy putting together a Legacy deck from scratch, keep in mind that in 2002 putting together a legacy deck was not such the undertaking it is today. So fortunately, this little boy was bounded only by his imagination in what he could do. Cardboard was cheap and plentiful.
Now of all the many wondrous things one could do in Legacy at the time, this little boy was focused on one combo in particular. No, not the Reanimator combo decks popular at the time. That would be dull and “net decky”. This little boy wanted “Spice”. He wanted Stasis.
The deck, in a nutshell, was three parts
- Lands
- Every counterspell ever
- Stasis + Tangle Wire + Chronatog
What. A. Combo…. follow closely and I’ll explain it. Stasis is in play, no one gets to untap, boo-hoo everyone is sad. Tangle Wire is in play, anything you were trying to stockpile is also now tapped. Chronatog is in play, the little boy skips his turn, he now no longer has to remove a fade counter from Tangle Wire, or pay upkeep cost on Stasis. That’s how the deck wins. The little boy skips all the rest of his turns, he then watches you take all of your turns and do nothing with them. You slowly proceed to deck yourself. One. Card. At. A. Time. The little boy then looks deeply into your eyes and quietly says “This is now eternity, you’re trapped in here with me…forever”.
Now children, I have told you this story today not because we are going to make a Stasis deck. No, that we shall save for another rainy day. I have told you this story because I wanted to show you a glimpse into the mind of a little boy whose idea of fun, is the horror story above. A little boy who grew up and brewed this deck.
The Participation Trophy
| Creatures (1) 1 Worldgorger Dragon Spells (37) 4 Animate Dead 4 Dance of the Dead 4 Entomb 4 Dark Ritual 4 Wheel of Sun and Moon 4 Helm of Obedience 4 Sporemound 4 Life and Limb 1 Divine Intervention 4 Abrupt Decay | Lands (19) 4 Temple of Malady 2 Temple of Silence 2 Temple of Plenty 4 Llanowar Wastes 3 Forest 4 Swamp |
I call this deck The Participation Trophy because like its namesake the deck says loud and proud “Nobody loses, which means everyone’s a winner!!!” This deck has one goal, to draw the game by creating an infinite loop. I honestly don’t think this deck could win a game if it tried, but you can make sure your opponent doesn’t win either.
Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead / Dance of the Dead
The classic and probably the most famous infinite loop. When you bring back Worldgorger Dragon with either Animate Dead or Dance of the Dead and everything you own disappears, including the Animate Dead. Which means Worldgorger dies due to the lack of enchantment and all your stuff comes back, including the Animate Dead. Then you wash, rinse, repeat. Worldgorger Dragon does his best impression of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day and you shuffle up for the next game. With Dark Ritual and Entomb this combo can pretty reliably go off on turn one just like the more traditional reanimator decks. This means my new life goal is to see just how many times I can cause the game to draw in a single match of a sanctioned event. I’m pretty optimistic, so I’m setting my benchmark at seven games.
Wheel of Sun and Moon + Helm of Obedience
The bad version of Rest in Peace plus Helm of Obedience! Instead of decking your opponent, you just keep putting the cards from the top of the library, onto the bottom of the library. F…O…R…E…V…E…R…
When both of these cards are in play they are nice, calm and happy. Best buds if you will. As soon as you play a land though, “these guys blow up faster than half a roll of mentos shoved into a 20oz diet Coke hand grenade, lobbed into the plush back seat of your friends brand new car”. You end up making infinite spore creatures one after another until both you and your opponent are crushed under their combined weight.
It’s a green/black deck. You need to survive long enough to make sure no one dies. Sometimes you need to remove on board hate like Rest in Peace so you can go off. If you wanted to cram one more infinite loop into the deck you could switch them out with Oblivion Ring. But let’s not get too greedy now.
Mana Base
I could try and fool myself into thinking this could be a competitive deck. Fill it with Bayous and Verdant Catacombs and other expensive real estate. But who am I kidding, this is a just for fun deck lets try to keep it budget. Truthfully, the scry effects on the temples are much needed in a deck with no form of card selection.
The Spicy 61st Divine Intervention
This would not be a true “Spice Cabinet” deck without a Spicy one of. Divine Intervention is a combo all on its own. All you have to do is pay eight mana, then wait two turns and the game is a draw. As easy as that. I have no idea if this will ever actually happen, but it does not matter. This card single handedly captures the essence of the deck, I would be crazy not to include it!
Honorable Mention
I just wrote about an Enlightened Tutor deck a few weeks ago, and I have another one with Phyrexian Dreadnought on the horizon. So I did not want to overload you guys with the white tutor. But if you wanted, you are already splashing white for Divine Intervention. Shaving some numbers of Helm of Obedience, Wheel of Sun and Moon, and Life and Limbs would be easy enough. Enlightened Tutor would increase the consistency and competitiveness of the deck by a measurable amount. But who wants that when you can just blind flip the combo off the top like a real baller? Hope you all enjoyed the article this week, I’ll see you around.
Jerry Mee is a Boston Native who has been playing Magic since Onslaught Block. Primarily a Legacy player, he cohosts the weekly Leaving a Legacy Podcast found on Mtgcast.com. He can be reached on Twitter at @Jmee3rd