When I first started learning magic my friends taught me the fundamentals and then (not so kindly) went straight into teaching me legacy. It’s their favorite format and it’s popular in my city but I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I spent several weeks just watching tournaments at my local store before I finally picked up a deck and started playing there. I tried a couple of different decks before someone handed me Mudpost. It was love at first Trinisphere.

Mudpost is an excellent deck to learn how to play legacy with. It is extremely straightforward but still has lots of different lines of play that you can learn to take advantage of as your skill level improves. Best of all the deck really gives you a lot of flexibility in the 75 to tailor the deck to your preferences. I’ve been playing the deck on and off for over a year now and this is one of my favorite lists that I’ve run so far.

Mudpost by Aaron Gazzaniga

This list is a bit different than most, mainly because it doesn’t run Forgemasters. I’ve tested the deck with Forgemasters and I’ve found that I prefer this build. I feel that while it is not as explosive in the short game that the deck is more likely to get there in the long game. Playing Cavern of Souls over Wastelands also makes the deck stronger against blue decks and guarantee that eventually one of my creatures will land. In addition Eye of Ugin helps me find creatures since the deck has infamously bad card draw (which is a major reason why Kozilek is mainboard instead of Emrakul).

Ugin was snap bought the minute he was spoiled and I immediately jammed him into the deck. It’s hard to lose a game against most decks once he lands. There are few feelings greater than locking out your opponent with Chalice of the Void and Trinisphere and then quickly following up with an Ugin. The deck also has the ability to get him out as early as turn 2 which really makes a big difference against Aggro Decks, a matchup that was previously more challenging.

Chalice and Trinisphere are really the strongest parts of the deck. Getting down both during turns one and two can shut down a majority of decks such as Elves, Burn, ANT, and most Delver lists. Those match-ups can be tough because they have a very quick clock but landing those two pieces force your opponent to remove one or both pieces before they can cast the spells they need to kill you. Ugin has also helped in the Elves and Delver matchups, making it much harder for them to keep creatures on board.

Miracles tends to be an easy win since it draws the game out so long. They give you plenty of time to get enough mana to cast any number of large creatures in your deck. In addition there are very few things in the list they can counter with Counterbalance and some of the decks threats have cast triggers and are uncounterable making their counterspells dead. And with Pithing Needle and Chalice it’s easy to shut off Top, Ponder and Brainstorm.

The hardest matchup in the current Meta is Omnitell. A quick Trinisphere can slow their ability to dig and interact but it doesn’t completely shut them down. Having Spine of Ish Sah or Emrakul in hand can also make the match up much better. If you already have Trinisphere out and you put in your Emrakul off the Show and Tell they aren’t able to do anything else. With Trinisphere out they will most likely not be able to follow up with any spells and you will get the first attack with Emrakul. Uba Mask is also a great sideboard piece for the matchup especially when combined with Trinisphere. However, without the perfect hand the matchup can be very hard to win.

The biggest problem with the deck and the reason I often find myself taking a break from Mudpost is that the deck can be wildly inconsistent. You are often at the mercy of your top deck. The deck has almost no card draw (Staff of Domination, Trading Post and Kozilek). I have experimented with several cards over the last year trying to improve the deck’s lack of card advantage. This includes Sensei’s Diving Top, Bottled Cloister, Staff of Nin and Coercive Portal. I found Bottled Cloister and Coercive Portal to be my favorite. Bottled Cloister is great because it protects you from discard, however it stings pretty badly if someone casts Council’s Judgement which is why I’ve mostly settled on Coercive Portal. In legacy it’s virtually a guaranteed card every turn and since it is a 4 drop there is very little removal for it.

Despite the deck’s inconstancies I doubt I’ll ever stop going back to Mudpost from time to time and maybe one day I’ll get lucky and Wizards will print the card draw that I’ve been looking for.