Legacy WastePox

It seems that I'm on a roll with decklists this week, and one for every format no less! We have already discussed the card that I'm trying to implement into Legacy - Waste Not. As I mentioned in the article last week, this was the community-created card that the MTG community created last year. Without further ado, here's a decklist featuring Waste Not:

Mono Black Waste Not/Pox

Creatures - 3

3 Bloodghast

Spells - 30

3 Waste Not

4 Dark Ritual

4 Hymn to Tourach

3 Inquisition of Kozilek

3 Thoughtseize

4 Smallpox

3 Cabal Therapy

4 Sinkhole

2 Innocent Blood

Planeswalkers - 4

4 Liliana of the Veil

Lands - 23

4 Wasteland

4 Verdant Catacombs

4 Marsh Flats

11 Swamp

This list heavily relies on Waste Not, so I'm not sure how well overall it will function. However, if you can get a nut hand of Dark Ritual into Waste Not + a discard spell, you could potentially empty your hand on turn 1 and leave your opponent with nothing relevant in their hand. For example, let's say you draw the following 7-card hand:

Swamp

Wasteland

Dark Ritual

Waste Not

Thoughtseize

Hymn to Tourach

Innocent Blood

If your opponent does not counter the initial Dark Ritual or the Waste Not, it's going to be very hard to come back from the beating your hand will take. That line of play would go something like:

Swamp > Dark Ritual > Waste Not > Thoughtseize > Draw a Card. 

Next turn, you Hymn to Tourach and just go off.

Now like most Pox lists it will suffer heavily from lack of countermagic, especially in the recent Delver-heavy meta. Like the other lists I posted this week though, it is just a cool idea that came to mind after Waste Not was spoiled.

Let me know what you think about this list in the comments below!

The Legacy Archive

After writing my full-length article titled Breaking Into Legacy: A How-To, it dawned on me that it would be nice for my readers to see all the Legacy content that I have posted since this blog started. There have been Top 5 posts, deck construction posts, and much more, and as always there is more to come.

Today, I just wanted to give you links and brief descriptions of each of the most relevant Legacy-related posts I have put up since the inception of this blog.

To Ban or Not To Ban? Brainstorm

This post relates to the recent SCG Top-8 in Columbus where 6 of the top 8 decks featured Delver, and 7 out of the 8 decks featured 4 copies of Brainstorm. The internet was in a kind of uproar that week, and thoughts about banning Brainstorm in Legacy ran rampant. This article goes over my opinions on whether or not it should happen, and why.

Top 5 Cards in Legacy

Not sure which cards to be playing in Legacy right now? This post goes over what I believe to be the 5 most powerful spells in the format right now, and rationale behind each of them. Brainstorm was not included in this list however, for obvious reasons.

Shardless Order vs other BUG Variants

Gerry Thompson, the innovator of the Shardless BUG archetype, goes into detail in his article for StarCityGames about a new BUG-colored deck he wants to try in Legacy. This post goes over my thoughts on the deck, and whether or not it would be a good call in the meta right now.


So there you have it, as time goes on I will add more posts to the Legacy archive, but hopefully this list will keep your cravings for content at bay for now!


[Class Purpose: Sneeze post]

The Scoops Phase - Check out our full-length articles!

If you haven't already checked out our section on full-length articles, you can find it above!

All of the articles linked there are hosted on our parent site, scoopsmagic.webs.com, home of The Scoops Phase. As of right now you can access our newest full-length article on GP Chicago, and in the next week or so you should be able to access our first selection of Vintage Masters draft videos with myself and Anthony Harrison. The segment is called "Drafts and Drafts", where we do a draft of a set MTGO (Magic the Gathering Online) or via CubeTutor.com while drinking a few beers and commentating over it.

In the near future, we also hope to have weekly content for each format. This would include weekly articles for Standard, Modern, and Legacy, with video content like drafts or deck-techs on occasion as well. These articles will be written primarily by myself, but Anthony Harrison and a few other individuals have agreed to write content as well. It seemed that the best way to deliver quality content was to diversify the opinions of those writing the articles, and while I think I have a pretty good grasp on Legacy, there are other people who are much better suited to write about Standard or Modern.

Anthony Harrison and myself have even discussed building Legacy and Vintage decks on MTGO so we can stream the “daily” events that are hosted each day, and optimally we would pick one day a week to stream.

There is a lot coming in the next few weeks, and we hope that you enjoy it all. For now, I recommend  you visit our site and check out the article about GP Chicago.

You can find it by clicking the following link: GP Chicago: A Mishap

If there are any specific kinds of content you are looking to see, please let me know!



(Class Purpose: Promote your own website)

[Legacy] Shardless Order vs other BUG Variants

As a BUG Delver player myself, I have often looked at other BUG variants to see what the optimal choice would be if I were to bring my Underground Seas and Brainstorms to an SCG Open.

Here is my current BUG Delver list, for reference: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/bug-delver-04-03-14-1/

Gerry Thompson, who is often known for innovating the "Shardless BUG" archetype, has recently introduced a new decklist that takes the existing shells of both Shardless BUG and Combo Elves and combines them into one crazy deck.

The deck functions by using mana accelerants like Deathrite Shaman and Noble Hierarch to cast an early Shardless Agent, allowing for a more impressive board presence early on. It then ops to cast Natural Order and retrieve Craterhoof Behemoth as soon as it has enough dudes to make a lethal attack against your opponent. In addition to this interaction, the deck packs a hand destruction suite of Thoughtseize, Hymn to Tourach, and Inquisition of Kozilek to ensure your opponent can't deal with your threats after getting that Craterhoof online.

Here is a link to Gerry Thompson's full article on SCG's website: http://www.starcitygames.com/article/28649_Daily-Digest-Shardless-Naturally.html


The deck seems solid. I really like to see cards like Scavenging Ooze and Edric, Spymaster of Trest getting Legacy play, as they are both incredibly powerful cards. Edric allows for so much card advantage that if you get 2-3 attacks in your opponents will just fold to the card advantage alone.

Would this deck do well at a large event? I think right now it would probably not be the greatest meta call, particularly because combo elves has been doing some Top-8 work over the past few weeks and most people probably have some hate planned for these types of decks (think Grafdigger's Cage).

Let me know what you think about Gerry's list in the comments below!


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Top 5 Cards to be Playing in Legacy (other than Brainstorm!)

TOP 5 CARDS TO BE PLAYING IN LEGACY

Hello all! Today we will be talking about the Top 5 cards to be playing in Legacy right now. This will be a relatively short post, but will go over the cards that have been making the largest impact on the format over the past few months! Unlike most lists, there is no particular order to these cards, and (obviously) this is a subjective opinion. Also, we will leave Brainstorm off of this list for obvious reasons. That being said, here are my picks for the top 5!

Delver of Secrets

Ok, ok. I'm a little biased for a few reasons. 1) I play Delver in Legacy and LOOOOOOVE it. 2) This card has single-handedly dominated the Legacy Opens for the past few months. As we discussed in last week's article about the potential banning of Brainstorm and discussing it's heavy impact on flipping Delver very frequently, it's no wonder the card is amazing. (Side note: to read that article, click here!) 

Show and Tell

Show and Tell is a crazy card. There, I said it. Might even be too good for the format. It enables the Sneak & Show archetype ( Sneak and Show - 10th Place SCG Columbus), and even helps decks like Reanimator off the board. 

Umezawa's Jitte

Jitte is another great example of a crazy card. Partnered with spells like True-Name Nemesis, it's damn-near impossible to stop. Even without the help of the 3/1 powerhouse, decks like BUG Delver, Stoneblade, and many more benefit from the removal, life gain, and pump that this card offers.

Stoneforge Mystic

Stoneforge Mystic has become a format staple since it was printed back in 2010, and has been allowing turn 2-3 Batterskulls ever since. While most prominent in the Stoneblade archetype ( Esper Stoneblade - 10th Place SCG Open Las Vegas), it has also been seen in the U/W Miracles sideboard as of late against the aggressive matchups, or just to act as a pseudo transformational sideboard. Either way, the card is a power house.

Deathrite Shaman

Sometimes called the "1-Mana Planeswalker", Deathrite Shaman has really made a name for itself across Legacy (and Modern too, pre-banning). Mana acceleration, life gain, and damage all wrapped in to a low-CMC package makes this card undeniably amazing.

What do you think? Are these cards as powerful as I make them out to be? Let me know in the comments below!

(Class purposes: List post)

To Ban or not to Ban? - Brainstorm

There seems to be an uproar over the past few days since the Top-8 finish for the SCG Open in Columbus this past weekend featured 6 Delver decks. You can see the decklists for this event here.

Since this event, I've heard many people in the MTG community talking about banning Brainstorm from the Legacy format. My immediate reaction was "HELL NO! They will never ban Brainstorm in Legacy!"After thinking about it and discussing it with my friend Anthony Harrison, there are a few truths about Brainstorm that people cannot argue with:

1. Playing a non-Brainstorm deck in Legacy puts you inherently at a disadvantage.
2. Blue decks are effectively 56 card decks with 4 required Brainstorm slots already taken.
3. Brainstorm was deemed "too powerful" for Vintage, the format that allows for the Power 9 to be played (albeit restricted, but even so). 
4. Brainstorm is one of the most complicated spells to play properly. 

Personally, I do not want Brainstorm to be banned. As a veteran BUG Delver player, I cringe at the thought of not being able to guarantee my Delver of Secrets flipping on Turn 2 off a Brainstorm with Delver's trigger on the stack.

But the question arises: Is Brainstorm too powerful for Legacy? Vintage players thought that Brainstorm was safe from banning back in 2008, and thankfully it was only restricted. When looking at the Vintage format today, many of us cringe to think what it would be like with un-restricted Brainstorms. It. Would. Be. Chaos. 

Cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor can be cast on Turn 1 thanks to the Moxen and Black Lotus, but a 4 mana investment to Brainstorm is much more fair than 1 mana. 

My argument for not banning Brainstorm actually stems from the fact that it is restricted in Vintage: If it is still partially legal in Vintage with cards like Yawgmoth's Will and Time Vault in the format, it only seems far that since we are casting spells no where near as powerful it should stay unbanned.

As for right now, my opinion still stands that it should not be banned, but given the above evidence, I would not be surprised if Wizards eventually decided to un-sleeve Brainstorm in Legacy for a while.