Introduction to Legacy

Hi and welcome to this article. This is my first one, so please be kind.

Today, I will try to introduce the actual legacy metagame to you starting with the “Big Three”. For me, at the moment, there are 3 dominating decks in Legacy: Maverick, StoneBlade and Canadian Threshold.

Canadian Threshold

Canadian Threshold is a blue-red-green aggro-control deck and is also the most played deck in legacy right now. Basically, you put into play a [mtg_card]delver of secret[/mtg_card] and/or a [mtg_card]nimble mongoose[/mtg_card] and hope that he will be able to ride all the way to the victory. This deck plays the tempo part of the game, protects its little nasty monsters with alternative counters like [mtg_card]force of will[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]daze[/mtg_card] and kills the opponent’s creatures with bolt, [mtg_card]fire//ice[/mtg_card] or [mtg_card]forked bolt[/mtg_card].

If you want to play in a legacy tournament, you really need to be ready to face this deck. Gaudenis Vidugiris won the last legacy GP playing this list:

[d title=”Canadian Threshold by Gaudenis Vidugiris” style=”embedded”]
Lands
4  Misty Rainforest
4  Scalding Tarn
3  Tropical Island
3  Volcanic Island
4  Wasteland

Creatures
4  Delver of Secrets
4  Nimble Mongoose
1  Scavenging Ooze
3  Tarmogoyf

Spells
4  Brainstorm
4  Daze
2  Fire // Ice
4  Force of Will
3  Lightning Bolt
4  Ponder
4  Spell Pierce
2  Spell Snare
3  Thought Scour
[/d]

As you can see, there are 12 creatures to apply a fast beatdown, 11 cantrips to improve card quality, 5 burn spells, 14 cheap counters and 18 lands including 4 wasteland which are not really lands.

That list is pretty standard but there are a lot of room for customization.

Firstly you will play between 12 and 14 counters and you have good pretenders for those slots. A playset of FoW seems obvious and Daze is also a 4 of. Spell Pierce is probably better than Spell Snare at the moment because Tarmogoyf, Dark Confidant and Counterbalance are less present than one year ago.

Secondly Stifle is a card that can perfectly fit in this deck. It backs up the mana denial plan with wasteland and it denies miracle card as well as all “comes into play” effects. I really like the versatility of this card.

Maverick

The second deck of the metagame is Maverick which is some kind of white-green control deck based on creatures. I really enjoy the list that Kibler played in Atlanta two weeks ago.

[d title=”Maverick by Kibler” style=”embedded”]
Lands
1  Dryad Arbor
3  Forest
1  Gaea’s Cradle
2  Horizon Canopy
2  Karakas
1  Mishra’s Factory
1  Plains
4  Savannah
4  Wasteland
4  Windswept Heath

Creatures
1  Aven Mindcensor
1  Fauna Shaman
4  Knight of the Reliquary
1  Linvala, Keeper of Silence
4  Mother of Runes
4  Noble Hierarch
3  Qasali Pridemage
3  Scavenging Ooze
1  Scryb Ranger
4  Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Spells
4  Green Sun’s Zenith
4  Swords to Plowshares
2  Umezawa’s Jitte
1  Elspeth, Knight-Errant
[/d]

  • [mtg_card]Mother of Runes[/mtg_card] rules the board, dodges combat damages and denies spot removals.
  • [mtg_card]Thalia [/mtg_card]slows down your opponent and is naturally backed up by wastelands.
  • [mtg_card]Scavenging Ooze[/mtg_card] is a beater, protects you from dredge and prevents the Canadian Threshold player to reach threshold.
  • [mtg_card]Knight of the Reliquary[/mtg_card] is also a beater like Scavenging Ooze and gives you access to utility lands like [mtg_card]horizon canopy[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]karakas[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]maze of ith[/mtg_card] and multiple copies of [mtg_card]wasteland[/mtg_card].
  • [mtg_card]Fauna Shaman[/mtg_card] gives you access to utility creatures like [mtg_card]Aven Mindcensor[/mtg_card], Linvala, Scryb Ranger or [mtg_card]Stoneforge Mystics[/mtg_card] which can grab you any quality equipment.

Every creature in this deck is a nightmare and [mtg_card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/mtg_card] is the glue which provides consistency. Backed up by [mtg_card]Swords to Plowshares[/mtg_card], the deck is really solid and has tons of options every turns.

StoneBlade

Finally to close this brief review in legacy, I have to talk about StoneBlade. This is a blue-white control deck featuring [mtg_card]Stoneforge Mystics[/mtg_card] sometimes splashing black for discard or red for red elemental blasts. Nowadays the most current version is the one splashing black for [mtg_card]Inquisition of Kozilek[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Thoughtseize[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Lingering Souls[/mtg_card]. Let’s have a look at Tom Martell’s version of GP Atlanta.

[d title=”StoneBlade by Tom Martell” style=”embedded”]
Lands
3 Flooded Strand
2 Island
2 Karakas
2 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
1 Swamp
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea

Creatures
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Vendilion Clique

Spells
1 Batterskull
4 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Lingering Souls
2 Ponder
1 Spell Pierce
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Terminus
1 Thoughtseize
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Vindicate
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

[/d]

This deck abuses [mtg_card]Stoneforge Mystics[/mtg_card] which allows you to fetch and to put (or rather to cheat) into play your [mtg_card]Batterskull[/mtg_card]. This game plan is mainly protected by some counters and some discard spells and you benefit from [mtg_card]Swords to Plowshares[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Lingering Souls[/mtg_card] to buy you time.

You have also access to [mtg_card]Snapcaster Mage[/mtg_card] who is always awesome. He can carry equipments and offers you a removal (Swords), card advantage (inquisition/brainstorm) or protection (spell pierce/counterspell).

And finally, Jace the Almighty planeswalker that can win you games just by himself. I think it’s useless to say anything more about Jace because Jace is… well… Jace.

Those 3 decks are the main ones of legacy. The rest of the decks to beat is composed of Sneak and Show (a deck that cheats Emrakul and/or Griselbrand into play), Reanimator (a deck that cheats Griselbrand and other fatties into play), Dredge and Miracle Control.

Thanks for reading,

Azrael