Where Would I Start?
Legacy forum
Posted on March 26, 2015, 10:31 p.m. by CanadianShinobi
So, for a variety of reasons I've been becoming slightly more interested in perhaps entering into Legacy. Which is probably a strange idea since it's so expensive. However, I circumvent this (somewhat) because I play soley on MTGO where prices are often much cheaper.
Anyway, if I were to decide to jump into Legacy in the somewhat near future, where do you recommend I start?
Epochalyptik says... #4
You might want to look at the top decks on MTGTop8 or MTGGoldfish and see if any of them inspire you. I'm not saying you have to netdeck, but you can certainly see what's in vogue and whether you want to play with it or play around it.
March 26, 2015 10:37 p.m.
Miracles is considered to be the control deck of the format. You'll probably like it. Here is the mtgtop8 list of UW Miracles decks
March 26, 2015 10:43 p.m.
aeonstoremyliver says... #6
Any kind of Delver deck is nice for Tempo. I like to see Shardless Delver. It's kinda nasty.
For other Tempo and Stax builds there's MUD, 12 Post, Stone Blade variants, Abzan, Jund, Death and Taxes, and so forth. Legacy is a huge format with many viable decks and strategies. Miracles being one of the more difficult decks to pilot, or so I've heard.
March 26, 2015 11:45 p.m.
Delver us definitely easier to pilot than miracles, but miracles is a much more satisfying playstyle for control players
March 26, 2015 11:49 p.m.
CanadianShinobi says... #8
aeonstoremyliver yeah I looked at the Miracle lists and had no idea how the deck even worked. Stone Blade is Esper right? Are there any decent Sultai lists in the format?
March 26, 2015 11:51 p.m.
OtakulordAndrew says... #9
shardless sultai control, sultai midrange control, are all viable in modern.
March 26, 2015 11:56 p.m.
OtakulordAndrew says... #10
Shardless sultai might be a bit more aggressive then you would like in terms of it's creatures so you might prefer to lean towards a midrange sultai control build.
March 27, 2015 midnight
CanadianShinobi says... #11
OtakulordAndrew this is a legacy discussion. Not Modern.
March 27, 2015 12:07 a.m.
OtakulordAndrew says... #12
I realize that hence why I mentioned shardless sultai in reference to the legacy Shardless Agent sultai control build. Modern isn't the only format I play it's my preferred format but not my only format.
March 27, 2015 12:13 a.m.
OtakulordAndrew says... #13
I just realized that I accidently typed modern instead of legacy in my first post my apologies for the confusion.
March 27, 2015 12:16 a.m.
julianjmoss says... #14
I would do a lot of research, look at mtgtop8, read articles on legacy and watch videos on youtube. channel fireball has a lot of legacy stuff on youtube. Even though its expensive, you will be keeping your deck for a while or it retains its value so put a lot of thought into what you play.
March 27, 2015 12:29 a.m.
There are staples.
If you want to play a fair deck, Wasteland and Force of Will is where you start.
If you want to play an unfair deck, LED and petals.
March 27, 2015 2:32 a.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #16
RUG Delver is a really good place to start currently if you are playing online.
March 27, 2015 7:39 a.m.
aeonstoremyliver says... #17
Stoneforge Mystic can be used effectively in Abzan, Esper, and Bant, with Abzan and Esper being the better options, IMHO.
March 27, 2015 9:39 a.m.
CanadianShinobi says... #18
fluffybunnypants why do you suggest RUG over something like Grixis?
March 27, 2015 10:51 a.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #19
Grixis is meh. If you're doing Grixis, you're basically required to play 4 Color Delver.
RUG is basically just a quality deck that has game against almost everything.
March 27, 2015 11:16 a.m.
julianjmoss says... #20
As far as the format goes, RUG delver is a well established deck that consistantly top8's and only recently was usurped as the top deck in the format. It's playstyle is easy to figure out and grasp also as you get in the format and is good for figuring out what kind of decks you want to be playing
March 27, 2015 11:24 a.m.
CanadianShinobi says... #21
julianjmoss and fluffybunnypants
I've been looking at a few Esper Stoneblade lists, it looks to be more of my style. Also, I realize Force of Will is good and it's clearly a staple, but could you explain how it isn't just pure card disadvantage?
March 27, 2015 12:07 p.m.
Force of Will takes two cards to cast, itself and the blue card. Your opponent 2-1s you with it, thus it's not pure card advantage.
March 27, 2015 12:10 p.m.
CanadianShinobi says... #23
Slayne I said it was card disadvantage to cast FoW. Which is why I'm curious as to why it's a staple. Because it allows itself to be cast when tapped out?
March 27, 2015 12:17 p.m.
julianjmoss says... #24
It's not pure card advantage but in the format people will being doing unfair things like casting a show and tell on the second turn and it's pretty important to have a counterspell up without any mana. It's a check/balance
March 27, 2015 12:22 p.m.
Ah, I misread. It's a staple because you can cast it while tapped out. You're able cast your turn one Delver of Secrets Flip while still being able to disrupt your B/U reanimator opponent from getting a turn one Griselbrand. It's just too good not to have.
March 27, 2015 12:22 p.m.
CanadianShinobi says... #26
Oh good, my initial assessment of the card was correct then.
March 27, 2015 12:34 p.m.
OtakulordAndrew says... #27
Force of Will allows you to prevent turn 1 combos when your on the draw. It can also be useful in a few combo decks such as Food Chain where it puts your Misthollow Griffin in to exile for you.
March 27, 2015 2:13 p.m.
Force of Will is 2-for-1'ing yourself so you don't just lose the game. Pretty fair trade-off.
In addition to what others have said, I'd recommend picking up staples first. Force of Will and Wasteland are the two obvious ones if you like control. Lion's Eye Diamond if you enjoy combo. Show and Tell is another combo enabler for a plethora of decks. Rishadan Port is essential for any type of non-blue, non-combo aggro. And of course, ABUR dual lands.
I'm not sure what prices are like online, but my understanding certain cards (like Wasteland) have significant differences than their paper counterparts.
March 27, 2015 6:46 p.m.
If your looking to dip your toe in Legacy I would suggest going about it in one of two ways.
1, start buying up the expensive staple cards you'll need for a specific or general archetype. ie; Wasteland, Force of Will ect.
2, Start with a rather inexpensive deck that you still find fun to play and learn the format and what you would like to play. Legacy is really different from Modern and Standard in that there are more decks to play and more sub-types of archetypes you can play.
For me I started to play with Burn in Legacy, while Fish is another solid option for a cheaper deck that also can be played in Modern. So overall your not throwing money away on a deck that can only be played in legacy if you don't like it while exploring the format.
Now I have a lot of the blue staple cards but I'm still going back to my Burn deck more often then playing something else. It was just a happy fit for me, and while I'm slowly getting the cards I need for Esper. Having played against it a lot and proxying it myself to play with friends, I know that Esper is another deck I enjoy and spending money on it will not be a problem.
Here are some examples of both Burn and Fish decks for your consideration.
My own Burn deck:
Jund Deat-Burn Playtest
Legacy
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 29 VIEWSMtgtop8 Fish decks
March 30, 2015 6:09 a.m.
A lot of it depends upon whether you're looking to jump into serious tournaments or just play with some concepts. Honestly, the most fun I have with Legacy is taking deck concepts from older blocks or formats and reinventing them with access to a larger, more diverse pool of cards. You get to enjoy classic combos and synergies but get more mileage out of them (like Infect decks with Invigorate and Berserk!). Granted, some of these decks will inevitably fall short of competitive dominance in tourneys, but they can work amazingly well and if you have a knack for weird combinations and synergies then you can have a lot of fun exploring concepts.
Another thing to keep in mind is there are decks you can build for Legacy that are solid and don't break the bank. If you're looking to start playing tournaments before getting your playsets of Force of Will, Wasteland, Tarmogoyf, etc. then consider some mono-colored builds that might contain only one or two playsets of cards over $10-20 rather than a dozen+. Mono-red burn (I prefer creatureless but that's my jam, plus the most expensive card in the deck is Chain Lightning), Smallpox (3 Lilianas are the candy, the rest is Nether Spirit, Bloodghast, Thoughtseize and Hymn to Tourach), Mono-Green Elves (Emrakul is your big component, but other than that Glimpse of Nature is about the biggest thing you'll need a playset of). Hell, I saw a guy running a budget Death and Taxes which was almost identical to the D&T decks you see in tournaments except instead of running Rishadan Port he maindecked a playset each of Leonin Arbiters and Ghost Quarters - sure it was less reliable than tapping lands down, but it was an interesting approach to filling a niche that would have otherwise cost ~$300-350, and hardly anybody saw it coming.
Slayne says... #2
Miracles is probably my favorite deck so I recommend you start there, but it's pretty expensive if budget is an issue.
It really just depends on your playstyle because you literally play anything.
March 26, 2015 10:35 p.m.