Howdy folks! This is Joe Dyer again with a look into the world of Eternal Magic, primarily Legacy and Vintage. This go-around, we’re going to be looking at where the Legacy metagame is at in the very beginning of 2018, and looking ahead at what is going to be a big and promising year for Eternal Magic.

Legacy in 2018

The Legacy format in 2018 is still very early in the year so far, so not much has really changed all that much since the banning of Sensei's Divining Top

Grixis Delver

The top of the pack currently, Grixis Delver is a deck that focuses heavily on tempo and permission, establishing a threat (most commonly Delver of Secrets) and then protecting that threat to ride it to victory. Between paper and Magic Online results, Grixis Delver is sitting at a stunning 10.99% of the metagame, and it’s definitely one of the decks that one can expect to sit across from at larger events.

Grixis Delver, like all Legacy decks, rewards tight play and time and effort put into learning the lines of the deck, which happens to be one of the major reasons that the deck is so popular on Magic Online. Grinding leagues with Grixis Delver can reinforce the lines heavily and helps make the Delver player a better player overall.

Let’s take a look at a sample list.

Grixis Delver - Competitive Legacy League 1/3/2018 (5-0)

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Gurmag Angler
1 True-Name Nemesis
2 Young Pyromancer
4 Brainstorm
1 Cabal Therapy
4 Daze
1 Dismember
1 Fatal Push
4 Force of Will
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Ponder
3 Spell Pierce
2 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland

2 Ancient Grudge
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Dread of Night
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Nausea
2 Pyroblast
2 Price of Progress
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Vapor Snag

Grixis in general is a very strong deck for anyone who’s looking to get into Legacy and be superbly competitive, since its a deck that can be quickly learned and can grind super well.

Sideboard options are varied with this deck, as are configurations of the main deck. It’s heavily recommended to find a play style that fits you when it comes to Grixis, since there are builds that favor cards like Cabal Therapy

Miracles

Ding, dong, the King is dead. Well, sort of. The banning of Sensei’s Divining Top

Miracles as a deck now leans heavier on its draw engine to find its answers, using cards like Portent

Miracles - MTGO Legacy Challenge 12/10/2017 (6-0)

2 Monastery Mentor
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Brainstorm
1 Council's Judgment
2 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Ponder
3 Portent
2 Predict
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Terminus
4 Counterbalance
2 Search for Azcanta
1 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
4 Island
2 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island

1 Council's Judgment
2 Disenchant
1 Entreat the Angels
3 Flusterstorm
1 Null Rod
3 Pyroblast
1 Snapcaster Mage
3 Surgical Extraction

As you can see, the new Miracles list are still very powerful, and still command quite a presence. Another card that occasionally shows up in these lists is Unexpectedly Absent

Powerful and still the control deck that people loved about it, Miracles continues to be developed and tuned by its “cabal” of highly dedicated and highly passionate players. If you like control decks at all, this is one deck to greatly consider.

Czech Pile (a.k.a. 4-Color Leovold)

A relatively “new kid on the block”, Czech Pile is fairly new to the Legacy scene, its existence coming to fruition at the end of 2016 with the release of Conspiracy: Take the Crown. Popularized by Tomas Mar (the infamous Czech the name comes from) as well as MTGO user pellenik, Czech Pile is just what it sounds like: A pile of the best cards in the Legacy format, held together by the power of Deathrite Shaman

To play Czech Pile is to experience extreme value. The deck is very good at grinding wins out on the back of its value package. The deck is all about answers, and navigating your opponent’s threats effectively. The downside of this plan is that decks that are extremely aggressive on life total (like Burn) can be so fast and completely ignore the card advantage that Czech build up. Its manabase is also one of the greediest in the format, so decks that play Blood Moon

Czech Pile - MTGO Legacy Challenge 12/10/2017 (6-0)

4 Baleful Strix
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
2 Fatal Push
4 Force of Will
3 Hymn to Tourach
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Lightning Bolt
4 Ponder
2 Thoughtseize
1 Badlands
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
2 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island

2 Blood Moon
2 Diabolic Edict
2 Flusterstorm
1 Forked Bolt
1 Hydroblast
1 Marsh Casualties
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Umezawa's Jitte

As you can see, Czech is a deck that seems nearly ready for anything, combining pure control with a value plan that is capable of grinding a game for ages. Suffice to say, if you’re playing a deck where the game ends up going long against Czech Pile, you’re probably not winning that game, since they will be able to answer every threat you throw at them based on sheer time alone.

This deck often draws a fair amount of controversy from people, since the deck’s capabilities rest heavily on the deck’s usage of Deathrite Shaman

Ad Nauseam Tendrils (ANT) - Storm

A truly noncreature centered deck, ANT is one of the format’s top combo decks. Resilient, powerful, and surprisingly easy to pick up make it one of the most attractive spell based combo decks. For the most part, as long as you can count to ten, you can generally play ANT.

ANT as a deck seeks to take the strategy of resiliency, usings it information gathering tools like Cabal Therapy

Storm - Competitive Legacy League 1/2/2018 (5-0)

1 Ad Nauseam
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Past in Flames
4 Ponder
3 Preordain
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
3 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island

1 Abrupt Decay
1 Bayou
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Dread of Night
1 Fatal Push
2 Flusterstorm
2 Ground Seal
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Massacre
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Tormod's Crypt

Storm’s largest worst matchups typically involve cards that either tax their ability to cast spells (like Death and Taxes does) or prevent them from casting them all together through cards like Chalice of the Void

If you like a deck that has no creatures, and can literally be played by yourself to learn how the deck works, then Storm is a great deck to get into. I mean that last part quite literally, you can goldfish Storm without an opponent to learn different ways to seek lines to combo off. You can even pretend your opponent has a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Eldrazi Stompy

Speaking of Chalice of the Void

That’s right, Eldrazi Stompy is a deck that plays much like other Stompy variants in the format, utilizing fast mana to lay down lock pieces to stop the opponent from doing things, but at the same time also makes great use of the Eldrazi creatures originally introduced in Oath of the Gatewatch. Thought-Knot Seer

Eldrazi Stompy - Competitive Legacy League 12/29/2017 (5-0)

4 Eldrazi Mimic
2 Endbringer
4 Endless One
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Reality Smasher
2 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Thought-Knot Seer
1 Walking Ballista
2 Dismember
2 Warping Wail
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Cavern of Souls
2 City of Traitors
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Eye of Ugin
1 Karakas
2 Mishra's Factory
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Wasteland
1 Wastes

2 All is Dust
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
3 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Warping Wail

Eldrazi is proactive and powerful, delivering threat after threat that not only seek an answer quickly, but are also capable of stripping answers with the exile from Thought-Knot Seer

One super important card that’s showing up now in the sideboards of these kinds of decks, and Stompy decks in general is Sorcerous Spyglass

R/G Lands

Lands! Lands! Lands! If you ever wondered what this deck was about, well that’s about the thick of it. It’s about Lands. Specifically, lands that do things with things, and some other lands that do stuff.

All joking aside, R/G Lands is a superb deck, filled with strong interaction and a powerful combo plan in the form of Thespian’s Stage

That being said, Lands can also play a fairly grindy game, using Wasteland

RG Lands - Competitive Legacy League 12/30/2017 (5-0)

4 Crop Rotation
4 Gamble
4 Life from the Loam
3 Punishing Fire
2 Warping Wail
4 Mox Diamond
3 Exploration
1 Manabond
1 Molten Vortex
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Bojuka Bog
3 Dark Depths
1 Forest
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Glacial Chasm
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
3 Maze of Ith
1 Sheltered Thicket
2 Taiga
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
4 Thespian's Stage
1 Tranquil Thicker
1 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath

1 Barbarian Ring
1 Drop of Honey
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Krosan Grip
1 Pithing Needle
2 Primeval Titan
1 Ramunap Excavator
4 Sphere of Resistance
1 Sylvan Library
1 Warping Wail

Lands as a deck is fun and grindy, with the occasional quick kill combo. Not to mention, Lands players are truly dedicated to their deck, always spending time to discuss card choices and sideboard construction. Other cards that have often seen play in Lands sideboard also include Tireless Tracker

If you have, I don’t know… a spare 3-4 grand laying around, Lands might be right up your alley, but act quickly since cards like Tabernacle and Mox Diamond

Other Established Meta Decks

While the previous decks are listed as “Decks to Beat”, this doesn’t mean that these are the only decks you’re going to run into at large events. Legacy is a varied format filled with a lot of archetypes, and these decks are things you’re going to end up seeing should you decide to build into and play the format.

• Sneak and Show
• Death and Taxes
• B/R Reanimator
• Elves!
• Stoneblade Variants

Since we already discussed a slight bit about Death and Taxes and B/R Reanimator in my last article, let’s focus on the other three.

Sneak and Show

Sneak and Show is at its core, a deck with a very linear and simple concept: primarily it seeks to resolve a plan of either casting Show and Tell super early or to resolve a Sneak Attack

The deck’s targets for this are the good old standbys of Griselbrand

Despite this fairly linear plan, the deck does not always get the nut of having a quick combo kill, and so the rest of the deck is constructed heavily around cantrips and countermagic to ensure the combo gets through when it does come down.

Sneak and Show - Competitive Legacy League 1/3/2018 (5-0)

3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Griselbrand
4 Brainstorm
1 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Gitaxian Probe
2 Intuition
1 Misdirection
4 Ponder
1 Preordain
4 Show and Tell
1 Spell Pierce
4 Lotus Petal
3 Omniscience
3 Sneak Attack
3 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
3 Flooded Strand
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Volcanic Island

2 Abrade
2 Defense Grid
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Pyroblast
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Wipe Away
2 Witchbane Orb
1 Wurmcoil Engine

As a combo deck of sorts, Sneak and Show's biggest predator just so happens to end up being decks like Delver. Because of the amount of permission that Delver decks run, they can very easily and often out-value the Sneak And Show player on their countermagic alone. This countermagic, backed up by a serious clock can put a real hamper in the Sneak and Show player’s game plan. In addition, Grixis Delver in particular has access to things like Cabal Therapy

Death and Taxes as well is also greatly difficult for Sneak and Show, thus its sideboard construction skews towards shoring up some of those matchups with cards like Grim Lavamancer

Elves!

Despite its creature focus and its crafty, clever name, Elves! (and yes we have to type it like that, it’s required) is actually a combo deck. Its primary combo piece? Its creatures. Elves! can make a ton of mana, and they can do it super quickly off the back of cards like Heritage Druid

In addition, Elves! boasts a draw engine that is actually better than 95% of most blue decks in the form of Glimpse of Nature

Without a doubt, Elves! is an extremely powerful and fast combo deck, and the list I’m sharing with it belongs to the venerable Julian Knab, widely renowned as one of the world’s best Elves! pilots.

Elves! - Competitive Legacy League 10/16/2017 (5-0)

1 Birchlore Rangers
2 Craterhoof Behemoth
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Dryad Arbor
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Quirion Ranger
1 Reclamation Sage
4 Wirewood Symbiote
2 Nissa, Vital Force
1 Crop Rotation
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Natural Order
2 Bayou
1 Cavern of Souls
2 Forest
4 Gaea's Cradle
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Pendelhaven
4 Verdant Catacombs

3 Abrupt Decay
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Choke
1 Karakas
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize

One very important piece of tech that Elves! players have readily adopted (Julian especially as one of the first adopters) is standard-legal Planeswalker Nissa, Vital Force

Elves! as a deck suffers greatly against other fast combo decks (like Storm) as well as against decks that can clear their field really well, so the deck often packs sideboard options for discard and extraction effects to clear the way.

Stoneblade Variants

Stoneblade variants are all very different in construction, but they all share one big defining aspect. They all play copies of Stoneforge Mystic

Stoneblade as a deck is primarily a Blue/White based construction, with a possible splash depending on what the pilot is looking to do with the deck. There are various different versions of the deck, ranging from pure UW to Esper to Bant, as well as moving into versions that play four copies of Deathrite Shaman

Regardless of variant, the deck’s game plan is relatively similar. Stick a Stoneforge and an equipment threat, typically a Batterskull

Esper Deathblade - MTGO Legacy Challenge 12/31/2017 (6-1)

4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 True-Name Nemesis
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Ponder
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
3 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
1 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland

2 Abrupt Decay
2 Flusterstorm
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Marsh Casualties
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Thoughtseize
1 Vendilion Clique

As you can see, despite the nomenclature that this is “Esper” Deathblade, the deck plays some number of green sources for Leovold and Deathrite Shaman

Moving On - The Fringe Territory

Beyond the decks listed above, Legacy continues to be somewhat of a wild west of play styles. From pure glass cannon decks like Belcher to the fairer side with decks like 4C Loam and Maverick, Legacy really does have something for every play style.

However, before we wrap up I want to point out at least two decks that have been slowly gaining somewhat in popularity that are worth mentioning: Dragon Stompy and Nyx Fit.

Dragon Stompy

Dragon Stompy is kind of a misnomer these days, since many versions of the deck don’t actually play many actual dragons anymore. The name originated from the earliest versions of the deck that played Rakdos Pit Dragon as the curve topper for the deck. Since then, the deck has been also labeled various names from Red Stompy to Big Red to Moon Stompy, but the deck’s game plan stays roughly the same. Establish a prison lock with Chalice of the Void

Dragon Stompy - Competitive Legacy League 12/03/2017 (5-0)

4 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Magus of the Moon
4 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Sin Prodder
3 Thunderbreak Regent
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
3 Trinisphere
4 Blood Moon
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
11 Mountain

2 Abrade
2 Dead // Gone
3 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Koth of the Hammer
1 Magus of the Moon
2 Sudden Demise
3 Thought-Knot Seer

Nyx Fit (Nic Fit Variant)

A deck that’s been slowing gaining a slight popularity, and very near and dear to my own heart, is Nyx Fit. Nyx Fit is a variant of the deck archetype Nic Fit, which operates on the axis of using Veteran Explorer

Nyx Fit, a name that came about due to the deck having once played Starfield of Nyx

And for those of you in the know at home, you probably know already that Academy Rector

Nyx Fit - Competitive Legacy League 11/29/2017 (5-0)

4 Academy Rector
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Veteran Explorer
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Collective Brutality
1 Diabolic Intent
3 Green Sun’s Zenith
4 Lingering Souls
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Cruel Reality
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Dovescape
3 Evolutionary Leap
1 Overwhelming Splendor
3 Pernicious Deed
2 Sylvan Library
2 Bayou
4 Forest
2 Phyrexian Tower
2 Plains
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
2 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath

1 Helm of Obedience
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Lost Legacy
1 Sandwurm Convergence
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
3 Thoughtseize
1 To the Slaughter
2 Toxic Deluge

Wrapping Up - 2018 Looking Fine!

So there we have it, the early view of Legacy in 2018. So far, not so much going on, but we still have sets coming out this year that might change that. Based on my initial review of Rivals of Ixalan, there isn’t a lot there that looks crazy good, but the best cards always have a way of surprising us, and with Dominaria on the horizon perhaps we will get something fun and playable.

Furthermore, this year has the potential to give us a much better view of the overall format than last year. Between all the team Grand Prix’s, the SCG team events, and FOUR Legacy Grand Prix’s not to mention Legacy being a part of the 25th Anniversary Pro Tour (as part of Team Trios Constructed) that is a lot of Legacy being played, and that’s not even mentioning big events like US Eternal Weekend’s NA Legacy Championships and Eternal Extravaganza. Between these this big events and Magic Online we’re going to get a much better picture of the format overall, which is great.

Next time, we’re going to switch gears and talk about where Vintage is at in 2018 and some further thoughts on the state of the format.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little foray into the Legacy metagame. If you have questions, concerns, gripes, complaints, or just want to chat about Legacy, please feel free to hit me up either on Twitter, or on Discord (under the username volrathxp) and I’ll be sure to give you some time.

Until then, keep on being cool cats, and keep on playing Eternal Magic.

Joe Dyer