On Wednesday Wizards announced the pro tour schedule for 2018, and August next year we’re getting a team trio pro tour. What does this mean? It means for the first time in Magic history we will have the chance to both see and play Legacy at the pro tour. This is amazing news for the Legacy community, and I’m incredibly excited to see it happen. The pro tour is not like any other Magic tournament, and I look forward to seeing what happens when the best Magic players in the world put their minds together to work on Legacy. Will we see brilliant and innovative ideas in the form of new decks, or existing strategies masterfully tuned to beat the expected metagame? I don’t know what the format is going to look like a year from now at the pro tour, but I can’t wait to find out.
But the fact that Legacy is awesome is not the only reason to be excited about this announcement. Team tournaments are a lot of fun, and if there’s anything better than to play Magic it’s getting to play Magic alongside your friends. Oh, and the Modern pro tour is back! Furthermore, Wizards also announced the Grand Prix schedule for the first half of next year, and you bet there’s a lot to look forward to! For starters, the Legacy GP in Europe is back (see you in Birmingham, everyone), but there also seems to be somewhat of a focus on team events leading up to August’s team pro tour. This means there will be a total of eight Grand Prix next year featuring Legacy as a main event format. These are exciting times to be a Legacy player, especially for those of us looking to go pro.
2018 is still months away however, and a lot can happen before then. For now, let’s focus on what’s currently going on in the format. The last time we took a closer look at the metagame was right before Grand Prix Vegas, and it seems it has since evolved. A quick look at the data from MTGGoldfish shows us how the metagame shifted. While this information doesn’t tell us everything, especially now that Wizards has decided to reduce the number of deck lists being posted, it can still tell us something about where the format is headed.
Below are the nine most popular decks from right before GP Vegas, as well as the top nine decks of today. The decks that have since disappeared or appeared from the top nine are in bold text, to highlight changes in the metagame.
Top 9 Legacy decks from to MTGGoldfish in early June
Grixis Delver
Storm
Sultai Delver
Miracles
Sneak & Show
Death & Taxes
Elves!
BR Reanimator
Deathblade
Top 9 Legacy decks from to MTGGoldfish today
Grixis Delver
Four Color Leovold or ‘Czech Pile’
Death & Taxes
Storm
Miracles
Jeskai Stoneblade
Sultai Delver
Reanimator Depths
Turbo Depths
The biggest change we see here is the disappearance of Bant and Esper Deathblade. Before the GP, Bant Deathblade was considered one of the strongest options, perhaps even the second best deck in the format after Grixis Delver. So what happened to it? I don’t know, but it’s interesting to note that it seems to have dropped significantly in popularity in just over a month’s time. While Sneak & Show, Elves, and BR Reanimator have all disappeared from the top 9, they’re still present further down the list at 2-3% of the meta, so their drop in popularity is not as noteworthy nor likely as significant. Now, let’s take a look at the decks that have since entered into the top nine, starting with Czech Pile.
Czech Pile
Four Color Leovold, or “Czech Pile” is currently second on the list. While the deck has been performing well for quite some time, it’s interesting to see it taking up so much of the metagame now. One important thing of note is the presence of the basic lands, namely Island and Swamp in these lists. Before, this version was less common, and Blood Moon was usually a surefire way to beat them. If your plan for the matchup is reliant on Blood Moon locking them out of the game, I’d strongly advise testing the matchup some more to see if that approach is still solid, or if you need to adapt.
Jeskai Stoneblade
Jeskai Stoneblade has been performing well recently. These latest builds are reminiscent of the old blue-white Stoneblade lists, as both lean quite heavily towards the control end of the aggro-control spectrum. With plenty of basic lands and an abundance of removal spells, this deck seems well equipped to combat the delver menace. Perhaps this is also where all the Deathblade players went. In any case, it looks like the Stoneblade players have adapted. Now it’s our turn to adapt, lest we wish to fall behind.
Reanimator Depths
| Creatures (10) 4 Vampire Hexmage 3 Grave Titan 2 Griselbrand 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria Spells (29) 4 Entomb 4 Exhume 4 Reanimate 4 Dark Ritual 4 Thoughtseize 3 Collective Brutality 1 Unburial Rites 1 Chrome Mox 4 Lotus Petal | Lands (21) 4 Dark Depths 4 Thespian’s Stage 4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 Scrubland 3 Snow-Covered Swamp 2 Verdant Catacombs 1 Marsh Flats 1 Polluted Delta 1 Lake of the Dead Sideboard (15) 1 Tidespout Tyrant 1 Massacre 1 Lake of the Dead 4 Pithing Needle 2 Duress 2 Surgical Extraction 1 Seal of Cleansing 1 Lost Legacy 1 Coffin Purge 1 Dread of Night |
Next up on the list is a, shall we say, very different deck. Reanimator Depths features Dark Depths alongside both Thespian’s Stage and Vampire Hexmage, as well as a reanimator package. As if that wasn’t enough things going on in one deck, this deck also plays some number of Lake of the Dead, which alongside Dark Ritual can help hardcast your Grave Titans (or sometimes even Griselbrand).
Sadly, I haven’t had a chance to play against this deck yet, but I admit it does look super sweet! I wager this is a deck that will catch a lot of people off guard. When a deck is capable of doing very powerful things it will win games seemingly out of nowhere, and this deck can do multiple such things! For my next playtesting session, Reanimator Depths is definitely on the list of matchups I want to find a plan for.
Turbo Depths
| Creatures (11) 4 Vmpire Hexmage 4 Elvish Spirit Guide 3 Sylvan Safekeeper Spells (26) 4 Thoughtseize 4 Duress 4 Sylvan Scrying 4 Crop Rotation 4 Lotus Petal 3 Expedition Map 3 Pithing Needle | Lands (23) 4 Dark Depths 4 Thespian’s Stage 4 Verdant Catacombs 3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 3 Bayou 1 Swamp 1 Forest 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Ghost Quarter 1 Sejiri Steppe Sideboard (15) 4 Abrupt Decay 4 Sphere of Resistance 3 Sylvan Library 2 Surgical Extraction 1 Karakas 1 Pithing Needle |
Last but not least we have Turbo Depths. The goal of this deck is to get a Marit Lage token into play as quickly as possible. It too plays both Thespian’s Stage and Vampire Hexmage to combo with Dark Depths, but here we also see Sylvan Scrying, Crop Rotation, and Expedition Map as additional ways to find either Dark Depths or Thespian’s Stage (or any other land for that matter).
It plays fast mana in the form of Lotus Petal and Elvish Spirit Guide, and a bunch of disruption to protect the combo. Sylvan Safekeeper and Sejiri Steppe help protect the token once it’s in play. Thoughtseize and Duress can clear the way for the combo by taking any Swords to Plowshares or Force of Will your opponent might have. Finally there’s Pithing Needle, which is there mainly as a way to beat Wasteland, but can also be utilized to great effect against cards like Karakas, Liliana of the Veil, and Jace the Mind Sculptor, just to name a few.
Current lists look quite similar to what we’re used to seeing from this deck. But if the latest trend persists and it keeps putting up results, it may very well be worth it to give this deck a second look in order to make sure you’re sufficiently prepared for it.
Sandro is a Magic player from Stockholm, Sweden. He’s been playing Goblins in Legacy for years. Follow him on Twitter @SandroRajalin