This week will begin a special four week run of Legacy decks from the past on both Brew Corner and the Spice Cabinet. The goal of this run is to look at some decks that we all may have loved but have forgotten about. The next few weeks Jerry and I will take a couple spicy decks and try to update them while discussing whether the deck became unviable in the metagame of that time and soon was forgotten, or whether new cards entering the card pool resulted in the deck being replaced by some new kid on the block.
Here we begin with Togless, which was a full-on Sultai control deck.
Togless October 12, 2008
| Lands (22) 1 Academy Ruins 1 Flooded Strand 1 Forest 2 Island 2 Lonely Sandbar 4 Polluted Delta 1 Swamp 4 Tropical Island 3 Underground Sea 1 Volrath’s Stronghold 2 Wooded Foothills Creatures (6) 1 Eternal Witness 4 Tarmogoyf 1 Tombstalker Spells (33) 4 Accumulated Knowledge 4 Brainstorm 4 Counterspell 2 Echoing Truth 1 Engineered Explosives 4 Force of Will 4 Intuition 1 Life from the Loam 3 Pernicious Deed 4 Spell Snare 2 Vedalken Shackles | Sideboard (15) 2 Blue Elemental Blast 2 Hydroblast 3 Krosan Grip 2 Nevinyrral’s Disk 3 Stifle 3 Tormod’s Crypt |
The deck has a lot of value between Accumulated Knowledge, Intuition, Pernicious Deed, and the utility lands to grind out the long game and win. So we have to ask: what happened to this popular control deck?
The answer is Zendikar. You will notice that the original lists were devoid of Misty Rainforest and our good friend Jace, the Mind Sculptor, both of which were added to the Legacy card pool and started appearing in top finishing decklists right as Togless decks began to disappear from top finishes.
In top finishes over the next year we begin to see a rise in Team America, which was a more removal-heavy control deck establishing a board of Tarmogoyf or Tombstalker to close a game quickly while using removing like Snuff Out and Ghastly Demise to clear the way. This tempo-style approach would soon see the printing of Delver of Secrets, which would easily slot in and start littering top eights as the aggro-control deck of choice.
Fast forward to 2013 and we begin to see the rise of a more midrange-style Sultai deck—formally known as Shardless BUG. This deck was all about value with new tools Shardless Agent alongside Abrupt Decay, which would push it right into the spotlight and immediately onto the radar of anyone playing competitive Legacy at the time.
Now that we have followed the progress of Sultai decks throughout the years, we can discuss card releases that may or may not affect a Togless revival. Since this original phasing out of Togless, a lot of other things have happened in Legacy that could prevent a revival of this archetype.
Since 2008 we have seen the printing of cards like:
Liliana of the Veil which generally keeps blue-focused control decks in check.
Rest in Peace which makes threats like Tarmogoyf terrible while also making Tombstalker nearly uncastable.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben which makes spell heavy control decks much less efficient and difficult to pilot through disruption like Rishadan Port and Wasteland.
Abrupt Decay which can punch through countermagic to kill every Tarmogoyf that you want to beat your opponent down with.
On the other hand we have also gotten some new cards that help an archetype like this thrive such as:
Abrupt Decay which can answer most everything your opponent wants to do in Legacy. While this card might have hurt an archetype like this, it also can be added to improve a Sultai control shell.
True-Name Nemesis is a very difficult creature to answer in Legacy—and the few answers to it are very counterable—which is the game we want to be playing.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor fits into a heavy control deck very well. Being able to drop this powerful planeswalker onto an empty or limited board generally spells dooms for your opponent. Pernicious Deed on board with a Jace is always great because Deed was printed before planeswalkers existed and very conveniently ignores their existence as a result.
Toxic Deluge is another option that came along with True-Name. Being able to wipe a board full of creatures with any range in converted mana cost is great. The cost of some life should generally be irrelevant given the nature of the deck.
Now that we have discussed the changes to the metagame and available card pool for BUG decks, I present you with Togless Returns:
Togless Returns
| Lands (22) 1 Academy Ruins 1 Bayou 1 Forest 2 Island 2 Lonely Sandbar 3 Misty Rainforest 4 Polluted Delta 1 Swamp 3 Tropical Island 3 Underground Sea 1 Wasteland Creatures (6) 2 Snapcaster Mage 1 Tombstalker 3 True-Name Nemesis Spells (32) 1 Abrupt Decay 4 Accumulated Knowledge 4 Brainstorm 4 Counterspell 1 Engineered Explosives 4 Force of Will 3 Intuition 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 1 Life from the Loam 3 Pernicious Deed 2 Spell Pierce 2 Spell Snare 1 Vedalken Shackles | Sideboard (15) 2 Abrupt Decay 1 Krosan Grip 1 Maelstrom Pulse 2 Pithing Needle 3 Stifle 3 Surgical Extraction 1 Umezawa’s Jitte 2 Vendilion Clique |
Initial Thoughts
I had the pleasure of taking a similar version of this deck out for a spin. Although I did not play it optimally, all my matches were close or I won convincingly. Aside from bad sideboarding against Miracles, and a few lines that I could have likely sequenced better, I felt very happy with the deck overall. I originally went down to two Counterspell and had a Divert and second Tombstalker. Accumulated Knowledge was as good as I remember it, often being able to draw at least two extra cards off one spell. Intuition was often amazing value and enabled me to find most anything I needed to gain an advantage.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor was great as always. A third or even fourth copy may be correct. Snapcaster Mage was an easy fit and an awesome follow up to an Intuition for three Accumulated Knowledge. Because we removed Eternal Witness for the more efficient Snapcaster Mage, I have replaced the Volrath’s Stronghold for Wasteland as a way to lock an opponent off non-basic lands in a match up like Delver, Lands, or Hex Depths.
Happy brewing to each and every one of you. If anyone has an idea for a brew that they would like to see, I will gladly take requests and challenges on Twitter. 🙂
Aaron Gazzaniga works part time at a game store and in his off time has been an avid magic player/brewer since 2003. Having begun in Odyssey Standard Block and always favoring control and prison style decks, we come to this moment in time where Aaron finally gets to talk about and share his ideas. If you want to contact Aaron tweet @aarongazzaniga