This Week in Legacy: Eternal Extravaganza 6 and MKM Milan

This Week in Legacy Dredge 12Post UR Delver Storm Elves Miracles Aluren

Welcome to another This Week in Legacy. There's a big week of results ahead, with MKM Milan and Eternal Extravaganza having just taken place. I'll be breaking down the Top 8 of each of these events, the interesting decks, and a few other bits of data. Let's dive in!

Eternal Extravaganza 6

Eternal Extravaganza is one of the larger events on the American Legacy calendar, and despite coming up a little short this time around, with only one-hundred-and-seventy or so people participating, the tournament was still a great gathering of some of the best Legacy players around. The Top 8 broke down thusly:

The winner, Miracles. And it should look a little familiar:



Predict Miracles is looking to be almost the default in the current metagame. I've already covered how it can grind incredibly well and blank opposing Abrupt Decays with its sleek main deck and sideboard featuring no removal-magnets like Monastery Mentor. It does sacrifice some fast wins, however, which are appreciated particularly against combo decks where Counterbalance isn't assured to be good, such as against Sneak & Show, and hence I wouldn't be surprised to see Griseldad and Emrakul tick up, particularly online, where Predict Miracles is particularly flourishing. Also interesting is that Bob Huang, devotee of Delver of Secrets for many of his tournament finishes, also placed with Miracles, showing a lot of faith in this new build. Expect this deck as the new default to be fighting against, but I wouldn't be surprised if many Miracles players crossing over to this version opt for some Mentors in the sideboard after being so accustomed to the Monk in most typical builds for some time now.

On to more interesting decks... Aluren!

The Recruiter-less Aluren decks are slowly starting to make their way into Paper Magic after the incredible success they've been having Online for quite some time now. Tyler ended up with a pretty typical mixture of idiots, filling out his flex slots with Glint-Nest Crane that is becoming one of the more popular options. Tyler did find room for an interesting flex land, however:

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In combination with value creatures like Agent, Strix and others, this land can completely out grind many fair decks, while also regrowing dead combo pieces, like Cavern Harpy once the Aluren player is ready to combo off.

4c Control, like Aluren, was another more niche deck that reached the Top 8, and interestingly neither list incorporated Leovold, Emissary of Trest into their main deck and looked very closely towards Kevin King's list I featured last week. Find each of the Top 8 lists here and here. These 4c Control lists are looking like the premier shell for Fatal Push and Snapcaster moving forward, allowing the deck to play a purely Blue-Black early game, rather than lean on the previously cumbersome Bolt.

Find all the Top 8 lists here, and don't forget to look through the Twitch archives for the replays of EE6 that you can find here.

MKM Milan

Eternal Extravaganza 6, although brimming with high-calibre players and a reasonably diverse Top 8, did not bring any new spicy concoctions to light, however. But across the Atlantic Ocean there was a few interesting lists that found themselves of the Top 8 of MKM Milan as well as popped up as Trial-winning lists. Let's look at the Top 8 first:

The first-placing list of the tournament was Marius Hausmann, who I already covered a few weeks ago, on his Walking Ballista-touting Food Chain list. Although we've seen this package be trimmed into one involving Trinket Mage and a bevy of other main deckable utility artifacts, Marius opted to just play a full four Ballista, showing how much credit he gave the flexibility of the card. You can find a deck tech, and his list, here.

The more interesting lists were the Blue-Red Delver and 12Post Eldrazi lists, however, which deviated much from what one would expect.

This list, to me, includes an incredible amount of interesting technology. It reminds me of the the MUD list I featured some time ago, featuring Metalwork Colossus, but replaces all the artifact-based synergies with huge, monstrous Eldrazi that can be powered out by all the ramp. This is not like a typical 12Post deck either. There is no Expedition Map within this list, and the deck is not slow out of the gates against combo thanks to Trinisphere, Chalice, and a full pack of Thought-Knot Seer. This deck, unlike current Eldrazi decks that have always focused on being super aggressive, instead slants itself to have an obnoxiously powerful, uncounterable end game, which may be a smart direction to go, with Reality Smasher looking so unappealing with the variety of BUG decks currently in the format.

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The sideboard of this list is even more ready to play a controlling role against the creature decks of the format, taking advantage of Oath of the Gatewatch removal Warping Wail and Spatial Contortion in addition to the already potent All Is Dust in the main.

The next deck to highlight is Blue-Red Delver:

The mana base of this list is very much along the lines of the Blue-Red Prowess versions of the deck we have seen, but the creature suite says otherwise. Despite zero Wastelands in this list and a huge complement of burn in Bolt, Forked Bolt, some Chain Lightning and Price of Progress (Price being probably the biggest reason for no Wasteland), the creatures in this list are quite controlling. Grim Lavamancer replaces Monastery Swiftspear in this list as an excellent way to clean away small creatures, double up with burn to kill large ones, or just be an evasive clock. Young Pyromancer, even without Cabal Therapy, is quite potent in this shell as the usual token-generating machine. And no controlling creature suite could be complete without True-Name Nemesis. If anything, it seems this list's primary benefits over other Delver variants is the rock-solid mana and access to Lavamancer, who crowds out access to Delve spells (I'd love to find room for a Set Adrift!) and even has dissynergy with Snapcaster Mage.

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I'm also a huge fan of Eidolon of the Great Revel in the sideboard of this deck. Hatebears like Meddling Mage are something only the defunct Jeskai Delver had access to, but Blue-Red Delver has one of the few mana bases that can support the walking Pyrostatic Pillar. Also interesting is Roast. I'd expect this slot to typically be reserved for a card like Submerge, but with Eldrazi and Angler in the format the clunky-looking Roast feels a little more acceptable. All the more reason for Tombstalkering people, I guess.

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Lastly, GP-winner Rodrigo Togores also found his way into Milan's Top 8. With Storm, naturally, but with some exciting technology:

The first thngs that pop out are the main deck Abrupt Decays, which are certainly a nod to wanting to maneuver into a Grinding Station plan even pre-board, which is understandable considering Miracles large presence currently.

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The next interesting piece of technology is the singleton Burning Wish. I expect this card is to make the deck more "business" heavy, though I'm not sure how this functions with the boarding in more Tendrils plan too. It certainly puts a lot of strain on the sideboard and what cards you can move in and out. Worth it for a singleton? I suppose so, especially when it can be virtually many cards.

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Lastly, the truly unseen spice, Culling Scales.

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This card is great for being a permanent answer to CounterTop, and also, although somewhat conditionally, dealing with hatebears. I've seen craziness like Teferi's Realm before, and this is along the same lines for a repetitive anti-permanent card.

Conclusion

This wraps up This Week in Legacy for this week! Again, some shout-outs and articles you should be looking at:

If you want some more content from me, I have a big report on my run with Canadian Threshold at Duals to Protect the Jewels, as do some other D&T-touting Melbourne locals. Find those on The Salt Mine site.

'Til next time!

Sean Brown

Email: sean_brown156@hotmail.com

Reddit: ChemicalBurns156

Twitter: @Sean_Brown156

What I'm Playing This Week

I'm still on the Dredge train. Between persistent assignments and other commitments, I've found some time to burn money on Magic Online, finishing off my LEDs and Gemstone Mines and have been running with this:

I've been flip-flopping between Petals and Force of Wills, but in all honesty I should try and figure out a sideboard plan I can feel comfortable with, as I've found this the hardest component of the deck. I'm still in the "plenty of losing" portion of my experience with LED Dredge, with plenty of mistakes being made along the way. But once things "click," which can only be done with time and practice, I look forward to bashing in with hordes of Zombies while blind-Therapying like a pro.

The Spice Corner

Elves not as you'd expect it. With a much more fragile mana base, this BUG Elves list features not only everyone's favourite new Blue Elf Leovold, but also features everyone's pet favorite, Coiling Oracle. He's an Elf too! Among other things. Also found are Daze and sideboard Flusterstorm, to make the dream of "tempo Elves'' a possibility.