Alternatives to duals?
Legacy Deck Help forum
Posted on May 24, 2016, 3:01 p.m. by ExpectDragons
I'm getting more interested in building a deck for legacy as my local LGS run's a legacy FNM once a month with another group at a nearby pub doing so as well, this month it's Legacy every week! They all get good turns out's and sometime's fall on the only night i can actually make my way over so it would be great to take part.
I'm quite drawn towards Stoneblade builds specifically in blue white however as is the case for most people who want to enter the format the dual lands are putting up quite the barrier. The obvious thing in any format you're preparing to drop some serious coin on is to build efficiently and duals are top of the list, but are the alternatives really that bad in the format? I mean if dual were banned (as many have argued they should be) suddenly mana bases would be more akin to modern but while duals are in picture shocks, fast lands etc are just unplayable?
Especially like to hear what people think on this when in two colours.
If you're on a budget, the best decks to play are 1 and 2 colors so you can run off of basics and fetchlands. Mono-Red Burn, U/W Miracles, Death & Taxes, and stompy variants fit into these categories.
As Coinman1863 mentioned, there's also combo decks that play low land counts so things like shocks are viable. In addition to 1/2-Land Belcher, there's also stuff like Leyline of the Void + Helm of Obedience that can get away with fast lands or pain lands.
May 24, 2016 4:03 p.m.
firesoftheforest17 says... #4
The problem with death and taxes is you need Karakas, Rishadan Port, And Wasteland, which add up to as much or more than duel lands.
May 24, 2016 4:08 p.m.
@firesoftheforest17: EMA is giving us Karakas and Wasteland reprints for sure. Rishadan Port may also be in the set. D&T will be more affordable at that point. They're going to be less expensive than Savannah, Badlands, Taiga, and Scrubland.
May 24, 2016 4:18 p.m.
ExpectDragons says... #6
@Coinman1863 i was actually looking at that list earlier :) think i might have a crack at it, replacing the dual with shocks. An idea that's floated around has been to create a format that's legacy minus the reserved list, although i don't think i'd go quite that far. Legacy minus the dual lands would be interesting to see.
Coinman1863 says... #2
Well, there really are no replacement for duals, most decks need them because the life loss is too great. Stoneblade is one of those decks where it is possible to do this. Most lists only run 2-3 Tundras, so that doesn't hurt you much. However, the rest of the deck is rather expensive. This list is relatively budget friendly, but the rest of the bits and pieces are still rather expensive.
And no, you want all of your lands to come in untapped, so none of the fast or checklands would be playable.
As a side note, both belcher and U/R delver could use shocks instead of duals if you were interested in that tact.
May 24, 2016 3:33 p.m.