Need help to make the 93/94 Winds of Chains deck Legacy playable
Legacy forum
Posted on Jan. 15, 2025, 11:25 a.m. by ChaosJester
I am about to receive my forth Chains of Mephistopheles and would like to transport that 93/94 Old School archetype to the legacy format and want to adapt it more or less to the current meta without removing the Winds of Change shell from that deck.
The deck does not have to be highly competitive. I just want to play it mostly in my LGS or smaller tournaments for fun.
I would appreciate it, if the Legacy community here could help me by improving this unique deck.
Thank you very much!
This is the deck for now: Legacy Winds of Chains
ChaosJester says... #3
jethstriker Oh Yeah Buddy, you Said it! And in my opinion Chains have deserved more than just being a sideboard card :D.
Thank you very much for your help, which I really appreciate! Regarding the Tutors: do you have any good and not so slow alternative for the banned tutors?
Thanks a Bunch!
January 16, 2025 6:56 a.m.
I think most of the legal tutors in Legacy aren't very good (Legacy is a VERY fast format at this point), but if you are okay with 3 mana tutors you can look at Transmute effects, some of them are available in mono-Black. These tutors come stapled to what is almost always a terrible spell (Brainspoil might be the worst removal spell I've actually played), but they let you find anything at that spell's MV. I think the one you'd want in here is Shred Memory, this also lets you exile something if you really need that (it's even an Instant speed exile effect), I find graveyard hate needs to be in the mainboard or your sideboard, ymmv.
I second adding some duals, I would think even 1 would help, especially because Blood Moon will just turn them into Mountains anyways, so if they replaced Mountains you'd be fine.
Would Liliana's Caress make any sense? I love Rack decks and I have often wondered about Caress, but I don't have the forced draw your deck can provide, Caress + Anvil is 2 damage each upkeep, and it goes up for each extra card they have to pitch. I don't use any Caress atm in my Rack deck, but mostly because it's pricey and the one copy I have is in my Discard EDH deck already!
Maybe x1 Quest for the Nihil Stone? If your deck is working correctly the opponent very quickly has no cards, meaning this will be very quickly turned on, and 5 damage per upkeep from 1 card for {B} seems worth a look.
I'm a bit curious what happens if someone resolves a good creature before you can lock them out of cards, I run ~16 ways that interfere with creatures in my own Legacy Rack deck, but I admittedly don't lock them out of cards!
Good luck with your list, it looks like a lot of fun!
January 16, 2025 10:08 a.m.
jethstriker says... #5
It's hard to suggest a good tutor for your color combination. I really want to suggest to splash white for Enlightened Tutor because it can find anything you need in this deck. But if its not possible for you, I'm thinking of Profane Tutor, Grim Tutor, or Beseech the Queen.
"I'm a bit curious what happens if someone resolves a good creature before you can lock them out of cards"
I think his plan is to land Ensnaring Bridge against Creature based decks.
January 16, 2025 10:23 a.m.
I can see the Bridges and use them myself, but it's a x3 in the list, and if he's tutoring for it he could be dead by then in Legacy vs Aggro (in my experience). I run a different style of Rack deck in Legacy, it's possible our experiences are very different, but I make use of both Edicts and Bontu's Last Reckoning to suppress creatures. I think Reckoning wouldn't work for him, it's too bad they never printed an Instant speed Innocent Blood, the 2 mana versions are getting spicy, but they're still 2 mana.
January 16, 2025 10:54 a.m.
ChaosJester says... #7
DreadKhan Thanks a Lot for your Feedback! In Commander and Casual Games, Transmute is my absolute favorite ability to bring my janky combo pieces together haha.
In this case, I fully agree with you that the unbanned tutors are not that great. However, I think Beseech the Mirror could have a place in that Artefakt based deck.
As for the Option to use mass Removals against creature Heavy Decks: I initially decided to play Ensnaring Bridge over mass relovals because I thought it would fit into the overall artefact based approach of that deck and would synergize well with Urza's Saga. Now I have realized that I would restrict myself because an empty hand with a huge construct and the Bridge would be awful for me haha.
Regarding Liliana's Caress and Quest for the Nihil Stone: would it be not better to play Shrieking Affliction instead?
January 16, 2025 3:32 p.m.
ChaosJester says... #8
Thank you for the suggestion to include white for Enlightened Tutor, jethstriker. I think I will playtest the deck a few times with Beseech the Mirror and will include white if I realize that it is too slow. Do you think Urza's Saga is absolutely necessary in today‘s Legacy format?
jethstriker says... #2
This deck is a pain to deal with if you're piloting a Xerox shell, haha. Some of my thoughts:
I'm not sure of Ancient Tomb in this deck. Maybe a package of Lake of the Dead + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth might serve you better.
Since you only have Winds of Change as the red card in the mainboard, and you already have Lotus Petal, I think it's better to have a single or two Badlands than to play Mountains. You already have Chains, you can afford a Badlands.
Maybe include more tutors to reliably find your prison pieces.
January 16, 2025 4:41 a.m.