Help Getting into Legacy

Legacy Deck Help forum

Posted on Jan. 21, 2016, 8:58 a.m. by TheHelvault

So, I've been looking into legacy for a long time, and I like the idea of longer games and more intricate combos, and the synergy makes me happy.

I want to build a legacy deck, preferably under $1000, for the first time. Some things I like:

  • Watching people suffer when lands are destroyed (Armageddon is in like 5 of my edh decks)

  • Playing Green/White and splashing black sometimes

  • Restore Balance combos

  • Land Tax :3

I'm far from an expert on the format, and even Legacy for Dummies would probably be too advanced for me. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

GlistenerAgent says... #2

Maverick is a reasonable choice. Look it up on MtGtheSource.com or somewhere else. It's a Knight of the Reliquary deck that likes Wastelanding your opponent to death and beating down.

January 21, 2016 9:13 a.m.

kengiczar says... #3

One thing you should know is that LD doesn't hurt most of the combo decks because they either use Moxen or can combo off by T3 fairly reliably, with T1 at the earliest. (Dredge can T1 and I am sure there's at leas 1 other deck that can.)

If you like to watch people suffer you should probably play Chalice of the Void and cast it for either or + for 1 counter. This shuts down either the moxen and even cards like Pact of Negation or all of the one drops like Swords to Plowshares, Mental Misstep, Lightning Bolt and Deathrite Shaman.

Super Jank Land Hate
Show

January 21, 2016 9:21 a.m.

GlistenerAgent says... #4

Legacy.

January 21, 2016 9:38 a.m.

kengiczar says... #5

oops my bad XD

the good news is you can run all 4 Chalice of the Void in legacy. Super hate FTW!

January 21, 2016 9:52 a.m.

TheHelvault says... #6

kengiczar So lets say I go super hate route. What staples do I need to run? How can I incorporate Restore Balance effectively? What do I need to look out for?

January 21, 2016 10:31 a.m.

kengiczar says... #7

Eh to be honest I don't know much at all about Legacy having never made a legacy deck or played in a tourney. For Suspend in general though being able to cast them via a cascade spell eliminates the wait time/suspend counters. I would think Restore Balance would be rather hard to pull off.

For stax though Channel Fireball recently made an article here for a deck using lots of artifacts. Part of the deck involves playing Wasteland with Crucible of Worlds activating the Wasteland turn after turn after turn : )

January 21, 2016 10:39 a.m. Edited.

grumbledore says... #8

Cascade is fun with suspend

January 21, 2016 10:41 a.m.

grumbledore says... #9

Basically if you want to keep the price < 1k and stil run combo, manaless dredge is probably your best bet. Legacy is expensive. You can run shocks in place of ABUR duals, but they honestly kinda suck in that format.

January 21, 2016 10:50 a.m.

smackjack says... #10

Look up Armageddon Stax. Its a pretty fun deck if you like to watch your opponent suffer. Also, my own build Tipping the scale is pretty cruel :).

January 21, 2016 11:32 a.m.

Servo_Token says... #11

January 21, 2016 11:47 a.m.

kyuuri117 says... #12

Sneak n' Show/Omnitell/Belcher/Storm/Dredge(mana-less or otherwise) can all go off turns 0 (as in, you're on the draw and haven't had a turn yet) through 3 very, very easily. Reanimator goes off turn 2. Elves goes off turns 3-4, and is not bothered by land destruction in the slightest. Not too familiar with Tin-Fins, but i'm pretty sure it's just a bastardized version of Reanimator and Storm and is quite fine only having one land, and goes off turn 2.

Painter's Combo goes off turn 3+, and might be bothered by land destruction if you can actually play your spell. They have 8+ one mana counterspells, so GL with that.

As far as the fair decks go, Delver variants are the most popular, and regularly win the game with 1-2 lands on the field, as they run 4 wastelands themselves as well as 4 copies of Daze. Mass Land destruction would not bother them at all.

Merfolk and Death and Taxes both use 4 Aethervials, so while mass land destruction might bother them, it's not the end of the world. Merfolk also has 12 counterspells so you probably wouldn't even get to play it.

Death/Stoneblade, and Shardless Bug would be the most bothered by a turn 4 mass land destruction spell. However, if either managed to land a True-Name Nemesis or LotV before you wipe the lands, your game is over.

MUD wouldn't care if you wiped their lands as most of the lands in the deck produce 2-4 mana anyway, and they can just rebuild quickly. Plus, by the time turn 4 comes around, the cost of Armageddon is probably going to be 5-6cmc due to their stax effects.

Lands and Miracles are the control decks of the format. The Lands player would actively laugh at you for playing Armageddon against them, and Miracles... well, if it resolved, it would hurt them. But it's very hard to resolve anything against them.

Lastly, Loam Pox variants... well, they'd also laugh at you.


Building a $1000 deck is very possible, but you can't build it on land destruction. Every deck in the format has been built to either A) take advantage of wasteland, or B) be resilient to it. Armageddon Is meant to be a game ending spell, and it just wouldn't end the game against any of the popular decks in the format.

If you want a cheap deck, build Belcher. It can be hated out rather easily, but it's inexpensive and wins very quickly if nobody expects it.

January 21, 2016 1:54 p.m. Edited.

TheHelvault says... #13

My First Legacy: Armageddon Stax sooo how does this look? I'm running it around Trinisphere (which is so disgusting in legacy, I had to run it XD).

January 21, 2016 5:47 p.m.

grumbledore says... #14

are you looking to play legacy just for fun, or to be competitive?

January 21, 2016 10:33 p.m.

kengiczar says... #15

Oooh Trinisphere looks nice.

January 21, 2016 11:22 p.m.

TheHelvault says... #16

scrotality mostly for fun. I'm in no position to build this right now, but when I do, I'll start looking to be competitive.

January 22, 2016 8 a.m.

kyuuri117 says... #17

You have no win con in the main board and magus of the tabernacle will kill itself after you armageddon if you don't have a mox diamond on the board.

January 23, 2016 1:48 a.m.

wmarti185 says... #18

There might be a vulnerability in the number of steps you need to go through to get a win condition. If I had seen someone play this deck previously, I would be sure to throw a few Pithing Needle or Leyline of the Void in from my sideboard. A few counters could also really put the hurt on you.

February 1, 2016 10:22 p.m.

This discussion has been closed