While attention is on Modern in the wake of the bans and unbans that promise to shake up the format, that’s not the only game in town. Legacy tournaments at MagicFest Atlanta and the SCG Syracuse loom on the horizon. It is time for the grinders to focus on a format where you could have been studying the blade for years. For example:
Azorius Stoneblade, by Daryl Ayers
| Creatures (11) 4 Stoneforge Mystic 4 Snapcaster Mage 3 True-Name Nemesis Planeswalkers (6) 3 Narset, Parter of Veils 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor Spells (23) 1 Umezawa’s Jitte 1 Batterskull 4 Brainstorm 4 Ponder 4 Swords to Plowshares 1 Path to Exile 4 Force of Will 1 Force of Negation 2 Spell Snare 1 Spell Pierce | Lands (20) 4 Flooded Strand 4 Scalding Tarn 1 Arid Mesa 1 Tundra 1 Volcanic Island 6 Island 2 Plains 1 Mountain Sideboard (15) 1 Sword of Fire and Ice 1 Nahiri, the Lithomancer 2 Containment Priest 3 Surgical Extraction 2 Red Elemental Blast 1 Blue Elemental Blast 1 Pyroblast 1 Path to Exile 1 Council’s Judgment 1 Force of Negation 1 Supreme Verdict |
Over the long lifespan of Legacy, you can see the same patterns recur again and again. It goes like this: people make fun of Stoneblade for being bad, Tundra is nowhere to be seen for a few months, and then everyone “in the know” quietly shuffles up Stoneblade for the next big event. Right now we are entering the last phase of that cycle once more. It would not shock me to see as many Stoneforge Mystics in the Legacy Classic as the Modern one in Syracuse.
Why now? The answer helps to explain some other decks’ roles in the metagame. As Wrenn and Six reshaped the format around itself, certain classes of deck rose up as a response. I argued in my previous article that Dark Depths strategies were perfectly placed to exploit the polychromatic piles that took over for a brief moment. Legacy expert Julian Knab took this to the extreme, but the package is showing up in more conventional shells too:
Maverick Depths, by Rodrigo Togores
This deck displays an awareness of the levelling games happening now in the format. Swords to Plowshares and Tomik, as well as Karakas/Wasteland with Knight of the Reliquary and Elvish Reclaimer punish opposing Depths decks. Giver of Runes over Mother of Runes and a decreased emphasis on mana creatures reduces this deck’s vulnerability to Wrenn and Six and Plague Engineer.
Maverick Depths does all of this while doing its best to be a Depths deck in its own right. It doesn’t have the blisteringly fast kills of BG Depths or Lands, but can create insurmountable board states that more closely resemble a prison deck while retaining the versatility of a deck with Green Sun’s Zenith and a bevy of land searchers.
Meanwhile, old reliable BG Depths is still putting up good results:
Golgari Depths, by Bob Huang
| Creatures (11) 4 Elvish Reclaimer 4 Vamire Hexmage 2 Dark Confidant 1 Sylvan Safekeeper Spells (22) 4 Mox Diamond 1 Sylvan Library 4 Thoughtseize 3 Duress 4 Abrupt Decay 4 Crop Rotation 2 Sylvan Scrying | Lands (27) 4 Verdant Catacombs 4 Urbog, Tomb of Yawgmoth 4 Dark Depths 4 Thesppian’s Stage 2 Wasteland 2 Nurturing Peatland 2 Bayou 1 Snow-Covered Swamp 1 Snow-Covered Forest 1 Sejiri Steppe 1 Karakas 1 Bojuka Bog Sideboard (15) 1 Dryad Arbor 2 Plague Engineer 2 Sylvan Safekeeper 1 Liliana, the Last Hope 3 Surgical Extraction 2 Pithing Needle 3 Hymn to Tourach 1 Assassin’s Trophy |
Turbo, slow, medium, and everything-in-between Depths is at the top of the format once again. Elvish Reclaimer is a substantial boost for these decks, promising to assemble Dark Depths plus Thespian’s Stage by itself given enough time, while doubling as a beefy threat when you have to get scrappy. It’s also an automatic line of defense against Diabolic Edict—one of the few removal spells that non-white decks use to fend off Marit Lage.
Meanwhile, a fast combo backed up by discard along with targeted sideboard hate is a strong recipe against decks like Storm or Show and Tell that people turn to when the fair decks are too focused on each other. Force of Vigor is a big boon against Red Prison—the natural entry point to the format for many people—and any other Blood Moon deck. Playing Dark Depths under a Moon effect and then removing the Moon without needing colored mana gives you a 20/20 the easy way.
Depths has always preyed on Delver and the artist formerly known as Czech Pile. The Stage-Depths combo gets around the permission that makes up most of their disruption, stops the pressure they have on board (so it’s harder for them to win the race by a turn and they can’t develop their board as easily because they have to respect the threat of the combo), and laughs at the likes of Lightning Bolt and Fatal Push.
By contrast, the Tundra matchups often felt like an uphill slog for Depths. Swords to Plowshares is a clean answer to Marit Lage as well as any creature backup plans. Their sturdier manabases make them more resistant to Wasteland (a bigger deal now that Reclaimer offers a Wasteland lock) and allows them to play cards like Back to Basics that can be highly annoying. The return of Stoneblade is worrying for anyone looking to sleeve up Depths in a few weeks; by the time you do, it may not be the smart choice it seems now.
A big selling point of the Four Color decks is their adaptability: their kaleidoscopic manabase lets them cast whatever they want while the usual suspects of Brainstorm and Ponder let them find it consistently. The main innovation on the Snow subtheme came from the Toronto Legacy braintrust and its associates, as seen in Lucas Cruz’s and Daryl Ayers’s Top 8 finishes at the SCG Team Open in Philadelphia. Ayers’s explanatory article is necessary reading for anyone trying to understand the deck or its impact on Legacy.
As the format changes, so does the deck. Edgar Magalhaes showed up to the Face to Face Showdown with this beauty:
Four-Color Control, by Edgar Magalhaes
| Creatures (3) 3 Snapcaster Mage Planeswalkers (9) 4 Wrenn and Six 3 Narset, Parter of Veils 2 Jace, the Mind Scuptor Spells (26) 4 Arcum’s Astrolabe 4 Brainstorm 4 Ponder 4 Force of Will 2 Force of Negation 1 Spell Snare 4 Swords to Plowshares 1 Council’s Judgment 1 Supreme Verdict 1 Sevinne’s Reclamation | Lands (22) 4 Flooded Strand 4 Scalding Tarn 1 Arid Mesa 1 Tundra 1 Volcanic Island 1 Tropical Island 1 Savannah 1 Plateau 2 Snow-Covered Island 1 Snow-Covered Mountain 1 Snow-Covered Plains 2 Wasteland 1 Cephalid Colisseum 1 Lonely Sandbar Sideboard (15) 2 Vendilion Clique 2 Surgical Extraction 2 Veil of Summer 2 Pyroblast 1 Red Elemental Blast 1 Hydroblast 1 Blue Elemental Blast 1 Humility 1 Supreme Verdict 1 Ancient Grudge 1 Return to Nature |
The presence of Swords to Plowshares alongside the Wrenn and Six plus Wasteland lock makes this a much scarier opponent for any speed of Depths. Humility is a great way to shut the door on any creature combo deck, and it is even better against Depths now that they are loading up on Abrupt Decay to answer Wrenn reliably.
This version is a little worse against True-Name Nemesis with the loss of Plague Engineer. And without Decay or Kolaghan’s Command respectively, Stoneforge Mystic and Back to Basics are more of a nuisance.
You might decide to play another game entirely. The top tables at the Team Open in Richmond were a sea of Griselbrands.
BR Reanimator, by Collins Mullen
| Creatures (10) 4 Griselbrand 4 Chancellor of the Annex 1 Grave Titan 1 Ashen Rider Spells (36) 4 Lotus Petal 4 Dark Ritual 4 Animate Dead 4 Reanimate 4 Entomb 4 Exhume 4 Unmask 4 Thoughtseize 4 Fathless Looting | Lands (14) 4 Bloodstained Mire 3 Polluted Delta 2 Marsh Flats 2 Badlands 3 Swamp Sideboard (15) 4 Pyroblast 2 Shenanigans 3 Coffn Purge 2 Abrade 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria 1 Archetype of Endurance 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 1 Magus of the Moon |
In a format that largely forgot about graveyard decks, Reanimator is always lurking around the corner threatening to take an event by storm. The London Mulligan improved Reanimator more than maybe any other deck, ensuring a successful and protected reanimation on the first or second turn with worrying consistency. This archetype is also open to further iteration:
UB Reanimator, by Ethan Gaieski
| Creatures (9) 4 Griselbrand 4 Chancellor of the Annex 1 Tidespout Tyrant Spells (37) 4 Lotus Petal 1 Chrome Mox 4 Careful Study 3 Daze 4 Dark Ritual 3 Animate Dead 4 Reanimate 4 Entomb 3 Exhume 4 Unmask 3 Thoughtseize | Lands (14) 4 Bloodstained Mire 4 Polluted Delta 1 Marsh Flats 3 Underground Sea 1 Bayou 1 Swamp Sideboard (15) 4 Reverent Silence 2 Carpet of Flowers 3 Show and Tell 2 Abrupt Decay 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria 1 Blazing Archon 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 1 Ashen Rider |
Flashing back Faithless Looting rarely makes the difference, while Show and Tell is the best possible pivot against hard hate like Leyline of the Void—or Chalice of the Void and other void-related problems. Thoughtseize and Unmask guarantee that Show and Tell’s symmetry won’t backfire, a luxury that the actual Show and Tell decks don’t enjoy:
Show and Tell, by Jonathan Anghelescu
| Creatures (8) 4 Griselbrand 4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn Spells (33) 4 Lotus Petal 2 Omniscience 4 Sneak Attack 4 Show and Tell 4 Braintstorm 4 Ponder 3 Preordain 4 Force of Will 4 Spell Pierce | Lands (19) 4 Scalding Tarn 1 Polluted Delta 1 Flooded Strand 1 Misty Rainforest 3 Volcanic Island 3 Island 1 Mountain 3 Ancient Tomb 2 City of Traitors Sideboard (15) 1 Karn, Scion of Urza 1 Vendilion Clique 2 Tormod’s Crypt 2 Sorcerous Spyglass 2 Pyroclasm 2 Abrade 1 Echoing Truth 1 Flusterstorm 1 Red Elemental Blast 1 Pyroblast 1 Hydroblast |
Legacy perennial Sneak and Show continues to pop up in Top 8s—sometimes even in someone else’s hands! As the Delver decks got larger but slower, and Wrenn and Six and Plague Engineer pushed Death & Taxes to the margins; Sneak was able to catch people by surprise. The return of old-school Depths and Stoneblade may mess with Sneak’s positioning, but it’s hard for it to be a terrible choice.
For a format this old, where some of the same cards have been staples for over a decade, Legacy is churning remarkably fast right now. I hope this brief snapshot is still useful as we head back into high stakes Legacy!