Hi everyone, welcome to this week’s Power and Toughness. Grand Prix Las Vegas is coming up, and those of us who are lucky enough to attend it will have the chance to play in up to three separate Grand Prix tournaments, all in different formats. This means that a lot of people, myself included, will likely be dabbling in formats they have little prior experience with.
Therefore, today’s article will not be an in depth look at any particular deck or strategic concept. Instead I will strive to give you, the reader, an overview of the more popular decks in Legacy. Hopefully this will provide players who are new to the format with some useful knowledge, and serve as an introduction to the top decks of the format. I have chosen to rely on data from MTGGoldfish to determine what the top decks are. While the Magic Online metagame isn’t necessarily the same as that of a large paper tournament such as GP Vegas, all of these decks are common enough that it should be well worth your time to learn about them.
Grixis Delver
Grixis Delver
Grixis Delver is currently the most played deck in Legacy. What’s interesting about Grixis Delver is how phenomenally well it performs in all different stages on the game. On the one hand it’s a Delver deck, fully capable of playing a tempo game with an early threat backed up by Daze and Wasteland. On the other hand it’s a collection of hyper-efficient spells. All of its noncreature spells cost one mana or less. In fact, depending on how you count Gurmag Angler, the deck plays a total of four cards maindeck that cost more than one mana. This allows it to play a very low land count, which in turn leads to it rarely running out of gas.
Four copies each of Brainstorm and Ponder helps ensure smooth draws, and the catch-all nature of its answers means it has game against just about anything.
How to beat it
Removal is always good against Grixis Delver, but it won’t do the trick by itself. Not only are many of the deck’s threats resilient to common spot removal spells such as Lightning Bolt and Fatal Push, but the deck’s low land count means you will most likely run out of gas before they do if all you do is trade one for one. If your plan is to kill all their creatures, you either need a way to gain card advantage or something that can help you take over the board.
Grixis Delver also has a sensitive mana base. If you can land Blood Moon or get Wasteland plus Life from the Loam going you will almost assuredly win, as long as you’re also successful in stabilizing the board. Chalice of the Void on one also locks them out of playing most of their cards, although post board they tend to have answers for it.
Ad Nauseam Tendrils (Storm)
ANT Storm
| Spells (46) 4 Dark Ritual 4 Cabal Ritual 4 Brainstorm 4 Ponder 4 Gitaxian Probe 4 Lion’s Eye Diamond 4 Lotus Petal 4 Infernal Tutor 3 Cabal Therapy 3 Duress 2 Preordain 1 Tendrils of Agony 1 Ad Nauseam 1 Dark Petition 1 Past in Flames 1 Empty the Warrens 1 Rain of Filth | Lands (14) 2 Underground Sea 1 Volcanic Island 2 Island 1 Swamp 4 Polluted Delta 3 Flooded Strand 1 Misty Rainforest Sideboard (15) 3 Chrome Mox 3 Fatal Push 2 Chain of Vapor 2 Tendrils of Agony 2 Hurkyl’s Recall 2 Echoing Truth 1 Cabal Therapy |
Ad Nauseam Tendrils is the premier combo deck in Legacy, and the most common version of Storm. It’s capable of winning as early as turn one, but usually goes off around turn 2.5. It has a couple of different routes to victory, but all of them involve chaining a bunch of spells together and then casting either Tendrils of Agony or Empty the Warrens with a lot of storm.
The cantrip suite of Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, and Gitaxian Probe helps sculpt the Storm player’s hand in the early turns until they’re ready to go off. They make Ad Nauseam Tendrils a tad slower than other storm based combo decks—but much more consistent.
Its two major engine cards are Ad Nauseam and Past in Flames. These are typically found with Infernal Tutor after the Storm player has strung a couple of rituals together. Ad Nauseam is the riskier of the two as it’s less predictable, and thus is normally only used when Past in Flames isn’t an option. But don’t be fooled by this. Resolving an Ad Nauseam from a high life total will give the Storm player a lot of cards, and almost always leads to a lethal Tendrils being cast.
Past in Flames allows for a deterministic kill, but has the downside of being vulnerable to graveyard interaction. A typical Past in Flames kill consists of them playing a bunch of rituals, tutoring for Past in Flames, then using it to flashback all the rituals and Infernal Tutor to find their one copy of Tendrils of Agony.
How to beat it
Countermagic, hand disruption, and permanent-based hate are all extremely helpful tools to have at your disposal when combating Storm. Their role however is not to beat, but to slow down the Storm player. Ad Nauseam Tendrils is an incredibly resilient combo deck, and given enough time it will find a way to break through your wall of Spell Pierces and Force of Wills. This is why it’s so crucial to simultaneously clock the Storm player. By limiting the window of time they have to win you force them to play on your terms, and that’s when your disruption will shine.
As a general rule, the more ways you have to interact with them the more time you can afford to give them. Just make sure you have a plan for how to either get them dead or lock up the game within a reasonable time frame.
Sultai Delver
Sultai Delver
| Creatures (13) 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Deathrite Shaman 4 Tamogoyf 1 Tombstalker Spells (27) 4 Brainstorm 4 Ponder 4 Daze 4 Hymn to Tourach 4 Force of Will 2 Fatal Push 3 Abrupt Decay 2 Liliana of the Veil | Lands (20) 4 Wasteland 2 Bayou 4 Underground Sea 1 Tropical Island 1 Verdant Catacombs 4 Polluted Delta 4 Misty Rainforest Sideboard (15) 2 Fatal Push 1 Flusterstorm 1 Invasive Surgery 2 Golgari Charm 2 Thoughtseize 2 Surgical Extraction 1 Abrupt Decay 1 Vendilion Clique 1 Toxic Deluge 1 Null Rod 1 Grafdigger’s Cage |
Sultai Delver aims to go slightly bigger than its Grixis cousin. Its creatures are bigger and beefier, and its spells just a tad more high impact. Unlike Young Pyromancer who has to remain in play for a while to generate an advantage, the presence of Tarmogoyf is felt as soon as it hits the board. Its size means it matches up very well against decks whose primary form of removal is Lightning Bolt, and also means it can go toe-to-toe with some of the bigger creatures of the format. This is especially important versus Eldrazi, as Tarmogoyf can easily hold of Thought-Knot Seers and sometimes even Reality Smashers. Tombstalker is another one of Sultai Delver’s creatures that will almost always be the biggest thing on the board in any fair matchup.
Abrupt Decay as the removal of choice means the deck is much better at fighting noncreature permanents once they’re already in play. Similarly, Liliana of the Veil provides the perfect answer to cards such as True-Name Nemesis and Gurmag Angler that would normally dominate the board against other Delver decks.
Hymn to Tourach is another main draw to the deck. Being forced to discard two cards—at random nonetheless—puts you significantly behind on cards and has the potential to lead to all sorts of awkward scenarios, such as having to discard your only two lands. Hymn to Tourach can really punish clunky decks.
How to beat it
If you’re playing a fair deck, make sure your removal can actually hit their Tarmogoyfs. If you’re the control deck in the matchup, make sure you have a good way to make up for lost card advantage. Baleful Strix does an excellent job at this while simultaneously trading with all of their threats except Deathrite Shaman. Jace, the Mind Sculptor is much better here as well, as they have neither Lightning Bolt nor Pyroblast to neatly answer it once it’s in play. Jace’s -1 ability also deals nicely with Tombstalker, and when Jace and Liliana face off against each other, Jace usually comes out on top.
They’re pretty reliant on the graveyard, so cards like Rest in Peace or Relic of Progenitus can do a pretty good job of weakening them. Much like Grixis Delver they also play no basic lands whatsoever, so Blood Moon is really good versus them. Just try not to jam it into open Abrupt Decay mana.
Miracles
On April 24, 2017 Wizards announced the banning of Sensei’s Divining Top in Legacy. The deck that had ruled the format for so long had finally fallen. Miracles, the king of Legacy, was pronounced dead. Well, it wouldn’t be a miracle if nobody came back from the dead, right?
Miracles
| Creatures (4) 3 Snapcaster Mage 1 Vendilion Clique Spells (36) 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 4 Brainstorm 4 Ponder 4 Portent 4 Predict 4 Force of Will 4 Terminus 3 Counterspell 3 Swords to Plowshares 1 Entreat the Angels 2 Unexpectedly Absent | Lands (20) 3 Tundra 5 Island 2 Plains 1 Karakas 4 Polluted Delta 4 Flooded Strand 1 Misty Rainforest Sideboard (15) 3 Flusterstorm 3 Ethersworn Canonist 2 Monastery Mentor 2 Containment Priest 1 Vendilion Clique 2 Surgical Extraction 1 Swords to Plowshares 1 Disenchant |
The old version of Miracles was part control deck, part prison deck due to how powerful the combination of Counterbalance and Sensei’s Divining Top was. New builds of Miracles eschew this prison element, instead becoming a pure control strategy. The source of Miracles’s power has always been its ability to control its draws thanks to all the library manipulation it plays. Terminus and Swords to Plowshares are great against creature decks, but terrible against spell based decks. The reverse is true for cards like Force of Will and Counterspell. All the Brainstorms and Ponders help the Miracles player ensure that they will draw the right half of the deck.
In addition to the aforementioned cantrips, new Miracles also plays four copies of Portent, which has the upside of being able to mess with the top of their opponent’s library. This allows for all sorts of shenanigans, such as keeping an opponent who missed their second land drop from drawing more lands. Four copies of Predict help the Miracles player stay ahead on cards until they can either land a Jace or resolve a massive Entreat the Angels to end the game in short order.
How to beat it
I strongly recommend having some way to gain card advantage, as otherwise you risk running out of gas too quickly against them. When playing against Miracles, you need to manage your resources well. If you overextend into a Terminus you will fall too far behind on cards. On the other hand, if you don’t put enough pressure on them they can utilize their life total as a resource and win with their superior endgame. There are a few decks in Legacy that are able to contend with Miracles on turn twenty, but most would rather not let things get that far.
You can try to lock them out of the game, as they are soft to cards such as Chalice of the Void and Choke, but with two maindeck copies of Unexpectedly Absent that plan is no guarantee for success. Planeswalkers tend to be good in the matchup, as they are difficult to answer once they’re in play and usually provide some sort of advantage right away, meaning that even if they decide to spend an Unexpectedly Absent on it you’ve come out ahead. Cards that invalidate their counter magic are also a fine option, which is why Cavern of Souls was a popular inclusion even in non-tribal decks for so long.
Of course, if you really want to beat Miracles, you should just play Goblins. Earwig Squad and Goblin Ringleader are really good against that deck. Or so I hear.
Sandro is a Magic player from Stockholm, Sweden. He’s been playing Goblins in Legacy for years. Follow him on Twitter @SandroRajalin