Legacy is ever Enduring

[Joarthus1]

I want to possibly start writing for this site, so i figured i'd post a sample article of mine here, to see what people think:


Legacy is a format that, unlike many of the others (extended, limited, standard), changes very little, and also unlike standard (Jund can go die) or extended (Grapeshot Elves FTW), whatever you play can be good, as long as you know how to play it.

Anyway, i love legacy, it is by far my favorite format and i tinker around with it all the time. I also have a soft spot for the Enduring Ideal deck that made top 2 at Pro Tour Valencia, and have been determined to make it work in legacy for about a year now, as it no longer is functional in extended due to the saclands and solitary confinement rotating out.

I fiddled with many different builds, and i came up with a first that absolutely crushes anything that wants to deal 20 as fast as possible, like zoo, burn, and the like.

this was my first test build:

IDEALLY LEGACY, take 1

Land:

3 Sulfur Vent

4 Ancient Spring

3 Plateau

4 Tinder Farm

3 Tundra

2 Flooded Strand

4 Arid Mesa

Spells:

4 Mystical Tutor

4 Seething Song

4 Lotus Bloom

3 Paradox Haze

4 Enduring Ideal

4 Pentad Prism

1 Pernicious Deed

4 Orim's Chant

3 Form of the Dragon

3 Solitary Confinement

2 Dovescape

1 Honden of Seeing Winds

Sideboard:

4 Boseiju, Who Shelters All

4 Tormod's Crypt

4 Firespout

3 Pithing Needle.

With this deck, you can Ideal as soon as turn 3, off of a pentad prism + seething song, and quite often on turn 4. And as most of you know, as soon as you resolve an ideal, you win.

The one problem I had with the Valencia decklist that Andre Mueller played was the Sensei's Divining Tops. i really think they are out of place in Ideal and people were just sticking them in any deck they could.
Paradox haze is a much stronger choice, as it allows you to get 2 enchantments an upkeep, thus strengthening the deck against something like Venser, which although is not played in Legacy, you never know what you might run in to. It's pretty embarassing losing to a Ronom Unicorn on your Form of the Dragon >_<.

The second thing i did was cut the Burning Wish package for a Mystical Tutor package. I really consider the tutor to be the MVP of this deck, it's fantastic.
It can go get Orim's Chant against those pesky control decks, it can get Seething Song if you need that last boost of mana, it can grab Firespout after sideboarding (which is there to kill Gaddock Teeg), and it can even fetch the Ideal itself.

I was really happy with the matchups. I had never lost to burn, zoo, merfolk, enchantress, 38/42 land and reanimator.

The most popular deck in the format, Countertop, was a bit more troublesome, but only because of Force of Will and Daze which an Orim's chant took care of nicely and Boseiju crushed after SB.

All in all, i was happy with the list except for one thing.

Having 3 Paradox Hazes was bothering me. While nowhere near dead in multiples, and also possessing the ability to hardcast them quite easily, i never found myself needing more than one, so i changed 2 Paradox Haze to 2 Impulse. Yes, it's Impulse, the card that hasn't seen play in years and it's still really, really good. I was immensely happy with this list....

until i played against Ad Nauseam/Tendrils.

that deck can go off turn 2-3 consistently, something that Ideal cannot possibly do. It is weaker to any aggressive strategy, but on the whole is much more powerful, so after 20 playtest games against it, and a 1-19 record, I went over to the Dark Side.


THE DARK SIDE:


Land:

4 Underground Sea

1 Island

1 Swamp

4 Polluted Delta

3 Scalding tarn

1 Tundra

Spells:

4 Duress

1 Tendrils of Agony

2 Sensei's Divining Top

2 Ponder

4 Mystical Tutor

4 Lotus Petal

4 Lion's Eye Diamond

3 Infernal Tutor

1 Ill-Gotten Gains

4 Dark Ritual

4 Chrome Mox

4 Cabal Ritual

4 Brainstorm

2 Ad Nauseam

3 Orim's Chant

Sideboard:

1 Brain Freeze

3 Pact of Negation

2 Deathmark

3 Pithing Needle

4 Dark Confidant

2 Sadistic Sacrament


This list is my compilation of about 20 different lists that i looked at, from Bejamin Rhozon (SP?) in the finals of the team championships at worlds, to David Doh Ahn's list from the top 2 of GP: Madrid.

My sideboard is still up in the air, and i think there is much room for improvement there. The Deathmarks may seem a little odd, but they serve a great purpose: killing Gaddock Teeg. They can be Mystical tutored up, and serve as a great answer to the pesky 2/2.


For anyone who is unfamilliar with how this deck works, i'll give you the (sort of) simple version (this deck is obscenely hard to play well).

The goal is to ramp up to 5 mana and Ad Nauseam. This can be done in a few ways:

the Mystical tutor route - Mystical tutor for Ad Nauseam, Dark Ritual, or anything else you need to play it.

the Lion's Eye Diamond/Infernal Tutor route - You play infernal tutor and retain priority, then in response, you sacrifice Lion's eye diamond for 3 black mana. By the time Infernal Tutor resolves, you have no cards in hand and go get the lovely Ad Nauseam.

the drawing Ad Nauseam Route: You...draw it off the top, play dark ritual, lotus petals, etc etc.

Once Ad Nauseam resolves, you are looking for a few things, and this is when it gets extremely complicated and hard to play.

say your Ad Nauseam flips are this:

You are at 19 to start, with one Chrome Mox untapped imprinting Duress, and a black floating.


Sensei's Divining Top (18)

Dark Ritual (17)

Lotus Petal (17)

Scalding Tarn (17)

Tendrils of Agony (13)

Lion's Eye Diamond (13)

Ad Nauseam (8)

Mystical Tutor (7)

Lotus Petal (7)

Underground Sea (7)

Swamp (7)

Cabal Ritual (5)

Ill-Gotten Gains (1)

Assuming your opponent doesn't Lightning Bolt you, (or even Lava Dart you :P) it looks fairly difficult to go off with this hand, but if you understand the deck, it isn't very hard at all. What you want is a 10 or higher storm count, so all of the 0-cost spells should be played. Sacrifice the Lotus Bloom for blue, Mystical tutor for Tendrils of Agony, use the black floating to play Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual, play Sensei's Divining Top, spin it into Tendrils, and Tendrils for the win.

I highly recommend this deck, and though it is not cheap to make, it is such a powerhouse and will win you countless a tournament.

Let me know in the comments what you all thought of my article, and feel free to try out either of the decks i posted, modify them to make them better, and let me know how it turns out.

Wes

[Aidenn]

Very enlightening article. It was both fun and informative.

I too agree that the Ad Nauseam deck is the top competitor in Legacy - though I do not think anyone has figured out the most consistent deck list for it yet. It suffers from a huge hit or miss factor along with the potential to kill yourself. When I first saw this deck I immediately blew the dust off my printer and had an hour long proxy session, yielding safer artifacts and a less expensive price tag.

Culling the Weak along with Ornithopters and Shield Orbs really hit home after the turn 1 Mystical Tutor, and Urza's / Mishra's Baubles ensured that I drew Tendrils even after Nauseam took my life total to 1. Still, the turn 2 kill only happened 1 out of 4 games and turn 3 filled in another quarter, while not drawing Tutor or Nauseam yielded certain death.

The inconsistency is less of an issue with the Lion's Eye / Infernal Tutor combo I would presume, but when comparing this deck to something like Enchantress or a Counter-Top variant, I think it falls a little bit behind.

[Joarthus1]

Thanks! glad you liked it! i also wrote an article in the standard section, but it is easier just to go to the "Magic General" section - i post all of my articles there.