Explain this "Legacy" you speak of
Legacy forum
Posted on Jan. 26, 2015, 3:29 a.m. by Death_The_Kid
Explain Legacy to me. As in I want to understand its current meta. What decks are played. What CMC is the limit in most decks (as in modern wants CMC 3). I do not plan to play Legacy but I want to understand it. Thank you.
http://mtgsalvation.gamepedia.com/Legacy - is a source for what the format actually consists of and some of its history.
January 26, 2015 3:44 a.m.
Death_The_Kid says... #5
Are there any players I should look into? I know Greg Hatch plays and I actually love how he brews decks lol
January 26, 2015 4:12 a.m.
Most of the hall of famers at least dabble in the format, if not play it on a regular basis. Reid Duke, Bob Maher, Chris Pikula, LSV, Craig Wescoe...like...the list of usual Legacy suspects is huge.
January 26, 2015 4:18 a.m.
tyforthevenom says... #7
Sylvannos beat me to it, hell Tom Ross recently won with infect
January 26, 2015 4:30 a.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #8
Look into the following decks to get an idea of some of the busted stuff Legacy can do.
Delver (RUG, BUG, U/R)
Esper Deathblade
Reanimator
Sneak and Show
Elves
Miracles
Infect
There are dozens of other viable Legacy decks, but those are the ones you're most likely to see at a given tournament. I'm sure other friendly users will cover any other decks worth mentioning as T1-ish.
January 26, 2015 8:37 a.m.
tyforthevenom says... #9
You missed out burn, dredge and all 3 of the most common Storm decks
January 26, 2015 8:39 a.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #10
As for CMC of cards, it really depends on your deck. 1 and 2-drops are the cornerstones of the format, with Brainstorm being the best card by some margin. 3 and 4-drops are either extremely powerful removal spells (like Council's Judgment) or cards that literally just win the game (like Show and Tell or Natural Order).
January 26, 2015 8:43 a.m.
Death & Taxes is a thing. Wasteland should be expected. Basics should be played.
January 26, 2015 9:10 a.m.
mathimus55 says... #13
Ross Merriam plays(ed) elves to a "T". He's probably one of the most consistent legacy players. Very good storm player too. His articles on SCG are pretty on point. I like Brian Demars and Gerard Fabiano's insight too.
The easiest way to understand the format is just to read up on it as much as possible.
January 26, 2015 10:21 a.m.
No mention of Feline and her High Tide and Solidarity decks. She is basically the only person to play the deck, and successfully at that.
January 26, 2015 10:28 a.m.
julianjmoss says... #15
We don't talk about feline because I'm bitter about always being paired with her and losing. That being said, go to mtgtop8 and look at all the different decks. Legacy is a pretty diverse format
January 26, 2015 10:34 a.m.
Legacy has a lot of combo decks, and this should be expected due to the amount of cards you're able to use. Elves, variants of Storm, High Tide, and hell even Four Horseman used to be a thing. Also a lot of control decks, although aggro doesn't really seem to be a big part of the meta.
January 26, 2015 11:14 a.m.
tyforthevenom says... #17
noone mentioned how almost every tribe is to a point a viable option in legacy?
January 26, 2015 11:18 a.m.
julianjmoss says... #18
Because, elves is really the only successful tribe in the past year except one tournament with slivers? Merfolk is good and I think it did well this last weekend, but goblins, zombies and soldiers are all out dated and bad
January 26, 2015 11:21 a.m.
Yea, Elves is really the only deck that can recover if they get shut down early. Tabernacle does, of course, completely destroy the deck, but it beats Slivers, Merfolk, and Goblins as well.
January 26, 2015 11:23 a.m.
tyforthevenom says... #22
CAN BE... i'm not saying "they top 8 all the time" but like oops, doomsday and charbelcher they are capable of randomly coming top 8
January 26, 2015 12:37 p.m.
julianjmoss says... #23
Show me evidence of them top 8ing within the past 18 months. And I don't mean mtgo tournaments with two people in them. Show me compelling evidence because I have found none.
January 26, 2015 1:07 p.m.
tyforthevenom says... #25
Julianjmoss that would not be "random" any deck designed properly or piloted by the right person (or both) can top 8 in legacy purely from no one being ready to face it
January 26, 2015 1:21 p.m.
Most of the tribal decks haven't been putting up results because of Treasure Cruise. Goblin Ringleader isn't all that great when your opponent is packing Ancestral Recalls.
It will be interesting to see how Goblins, Fish, and Elves! do now that Treasure Cruise is banned, but I doubt there will be much difference. Elves! and Fish are the only two tribes who have really stood the test of time so long as Goblin Recruiter stays banned. Werewolf Prison is okay, just inconsistent. Oops! All Humans just rolls over dead to any sort of interaction. Slivers is just a bad version of Fish. Robots is just a shitty version of MUD. Zombies, Vampires, Soldiers, etc. etc. are all unheard of as far as high caliber tournaments go.
January 26, 2015 5:18 p.m.
legacy in a thread....
you lose to combo by turn 3.... you lose to delver by turn 5 after all your spells are countered... you lose to ridiculous things happening from the GY noone really understands...
if you arent playing that, artifacts or white creatures are ruining your day...
there ya go.
January 26, 2015 6:53 p.m.
tyforthevenom says... #28
And if you're against me just concede if you're not running get hate or back to nature
January 26, 2015 7:05 p.m.
@xzavierx: You only lose to combo on turn 3 consistently if your deck lacks any sort of interactive elements (such as removal or countermagic). Treasure Cruise just got banned so it's not like Delver can keep 1-for-1'ing you with counterspells. Anyone who's played the format with a competitive understands how Dredge works.
Shit, the best decks in the format are the fair ones...U/W Miracles, Stoneblade, Shardless BUG, etc.
January 26, 2015 7:20 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #30
Here's Legacy for you:
Cast Brainstorm, fail to figure out what to put back because all of your cards are so good, awkwardly leave the game and filter out Legacy games from your Cockatrice lobby to avoid any more of that nonsense.
January 26, 2015 9:13 p.m.
Watch Legacy matches on youtube, read some articles, watch streams on twitch, and I know you said you don't plan on playing it, but there's honestly no better way to learn something IMHO than getting hands on experience. You can read driving manuals all day, but it won't tell you how your car handles on certain roadways does it?
Legacy can be intimidating at first because from the slander the format receives of 'You die on turn 2 constantly and Emakruls are everywhere'. Once you actually start to learn the format you'll realize it's the superior format if you're looking for one that rewards deck familiarity and skill instead of flavor of the month formats like standard.
I mean, who likes being punished for having to use shocklands/painlands just so you can actually have a half-way decent mana base?
January 27, 2015 8:12 a.m.
tyforthevenom says... #32
If you want an idea of the decks you might see you can check my profile I've got a few popular lists on there
Also try test games on xmage or similar programs
erabel says... #2
...You want someone to explain the entire Legacy metagame to you in one thread? Like, not saying that no one is able to, but I feel there are easier ways to do your research?
MTGTop8.com is a decent place to start, at any rate. See which decks and which archetypes are doing well at the moment, and see which cards are being run.
January 26, 2015 3:37 a.m.