Welcome back for August’s London Legacy Monthly report! After last month’s great return Callum and I decided we would let Claude off for a month so he could go and Top 8 GP… I suppose this means he will be missing a future event for a Pro Tour.

Surprising, considering the EV we offer at LLM events 😉 !

London Legacy Monthly Metagame - August 2018

Deck No. of Players Deck No. of Players UB Shadow 4 Grixis Faeries 1 Goblins 3 Grixis Painter 1 BR Reanimator 2 Lands 1 Eldrazi Post 2 Ice Station Zebra 1 Eldrazi Stompy 2 Maverick 1 RUG Delver 2 Mentor Stompy 1 Miracles (1 Esper) 2 Nic Fit 1 Sneak and Show 2 Punishing Maverick 1 Aggro Loam 1 Tin Fins 1 Aluren 1 TITI 1 BG Pox 1 Stax 1 BUG Delver 1 Tezzerator Pod 1 Dredge 1 UW Stasis 1 Elves 1

With seven no-shows on the day we were down to a slightly disappointing 38 players, but an increase on unique deck choices! With 71% of the field not copying another player the true variety of Legacy continues to be on show in London. I think this is going to be a feature of our events in the future. While one can metagame in much more general terms, the sheer variety of of decks makes it a very good idea to think about bringing a deck with broadly solid matchups rather than a bunch of 70% and 20% matchups.

BBD says it best when describing current Grixis Delver,

Grixis Delver isn’t anything flashy, but what it does have is power, consistency, and resiliency. I tend to believe that even though Legacy is a format where many degenerate things are possible, decks that boast those three traits end up coming out on top time and time again, year after year.

Last months top deck, Goblins, lost one of their players, and surprisingly, considering the mauling it received in the swiss rounds last time out we still have a couple of brave RUG Delver players. There might be some hope for these Delver stalwarts with a RUG player making Top8 at GP Richmond and if they feel like moving back to the dark side Grixis Delver is apparently the best deck again… *ominous music*

Combo has taken a chunk of the meta share from both aggro and control this month.

If you are worried about your combo matchups, unfortunately this portion of the meta is fairly evenly split between grindy creature decks and fast graveyard decks, making it hard to attack a large portion of the field. Having said this, decks like Aluren and Tezz Pod are not ones played week in week out (except by Jamie) and stalwarts like Reanimator and Dredge will be. So if you had to make a choice I would always hedge on the graveyard hate over the more niche interaction right now. Especially with the format still relatively young.

Last weeks prediction that UB Shadow would be the flavour of month proved correct and I would think that it will still be the most played deck in September’s event. Shadow’s Top8 conversion rate was great and there are still plenty of people who will want to give the deck a try, myself included. The deck also put two players in the Top16 at GP Richmond so it is certainly here to stay.

If LLM players do like to pick a new deck for every event, then a few of them might look towards Grixis Control. This was the deck piloted by many of the pro teams at the pro tour and had 3 players running it in the top 16 of GP Richmond. The other option for a more adventurous or dedicated legacy player will be Miracles. Both the Monastery Mentor and non mentor version made the Top 8 of the GP. These lists seem to converge more and more with Back to Basics turning up in both lists. The card seems very, very good right now.

The final lists I wanted to mention for next months players revolve around an old friend. Firstly, Owen Turtenwald’s UW Delver/Stoneblade. I’m not sure if this deck is actually just a bit mediocre and Owen is one of the best players of all time of if in fact Stoneforge Mystic is back. With games going long against control a recursive threat such as Batterskull seems pretty good right now, as does the ability to run a bunch of basics in his two colour deck. Julian Knab has also been to the SFM party recently, extolling the virtues of Maverick in recent streams and articles.

The Swiss rounds were dominated by UB Shadow with one lucky 12 pointer squeezing into the top 8. Fortunately for some, a couple of our Top16 players had to run off quickly so we made it all the way down to 21st and 23rd place before we could fill their spots! A good reason to hang around at the end just a little bit, especially if you are not sure you made it!

The Top16 prizes were split between Amar and Oliver! Well done guys

The Top 8

With 75% of Shadow players in the room in the top 8 the odds were very good for the deck. Unfortunately, only one of them could make it past the Quarter finals as Aston and Mario on Goblins and Punishing Mav respectively defeated Michael and Juan Carlos playing Shadow. Diego, yet again playing Sneak and Show (will he never learn?), was beaten by Callum running the only rogue deck to make it into the Top8. And, setting up a thrilling Semifinal, Callum would play Nic, the final Shadow player after he defeated Matthew.

I’ll let Callum take over for his next match.

Semis vs Nic on UB Shadow

G1 – We both had fine starts, my hand was mostly cantrips but after all the wheel spinning of 3 Brainstorms and 2 Ponders I was never able to find a Swords to Plowshares. I promptly got run over by more of a Zoo draw with more threats than disruption, so even if a Plow had shown up it might not have been enough. G2 – I got Thoughtseized a few times but Nic couldn’t find a threat before I found a Swords and kept from keeping a creature on the board. I made my land drops and played a Back to Basics on turn 5 through two Dazes. This bought me all the time in the world to play Jace, Teferi and Fact of Fiction to close the game.

G3 – a nailbiter! Again we both have fairly decent hands. I was able to Flusterstorm a turn 2 Hymn to Tourach after he opened with Delver of Secrets. I had Swords for his bigger threats but was getting chipped away by the Delver. After getting Hymned and Thoughtseized a few times, the match came down to me with a Back to Basics out, locking down Nic’s mana, a Thing in the Ice on two counters and no cards in hand at a measly 1 life vs the Delver. I ripped a Ponder but found three dead cards so had to shuffle. Nic cut me to another Ponder which flipped the Thing, bounced the Delver and making it an Abyss with him at 4 life. Better lucky than good, though the deck was filled with things that trigger the Thing…

Mario’s Punishing deck surprisingly lost game 1 to Aston’s Goblins but after a few mulligans Aston couldn’t keep up with the higher card quality from the Maverick deck when already down on cards.

Finals – Callum vs Mario

Mario opened with Noble Hierarch into a Knight of the Reliquary which Callum countered. With a hand full of Ponders he span his wheels for a while, failing to find a Swords but did get a Sapphire Medallion followed by a Back to Basics down. Mario already had an answer in Quasali Pridemage for either at any time though, and alongside two Hierachs was attacking for five a turn with three exalted triggers. Callum used some Snapcaster Mages to flash back Ponders, developing his mana and finally found a white source on turn six. The Snaps jumped in the way to chump block until he landed a Jace, then a Teferi. Mario however fought back with a Stoneforge Mystic getting Sword of Fire and Ice. There was a crucial turn where Mario could go for lethal with Pridemage with the Sword attached after ‘vialing’ it in with SfM. Callum still hadn’t found a Plow, but if he did it would be a complete blowout as both B2B and Medallion would live as well as not pushing through any damage. Mario took the more careful like and decided to equip the Sword to a Hierarch and still attack with the Pridemage. However, this let Callum throw another Snapcaster into combat and trade off with the Pridemage, going down to 3 life from the Hierarch hit. Untapping with both Planeswalkers and a Medallion, Callum found a Thing in the Ice. Getting a bit creative he Force of Willed a Ponder to flip the Thing in the same turn. Thanks to Back to Basics it does the job and Mario could only deploy one creature each turn, which Jace -1 took care of while the flipped Thing closed the game in three turns.

Game two much less close. Finding all 4 Plows in his first 20 cards, a Sapphire Medallion throwing out an early Jace protected by Force and Mario had no chance of getting into the game.

Congratulations to the winner of London Legacy Monthly August, Callum Smith and finalist Mario Espinosa!

Top 8 Decklists

1st – Callum Smith

Sapphire Control

2nd – Mario Espinosa

Maverick

3rd – Nic Genieis

UB Shadow

4th – Aston Ramsden

Goblins

5th – Matthew Johnson

Ice Station Zebra

6th – Michael Yearby

UB Shadow

7th – Diego Massone

Sneak and Show

8th – Juan Carlos Jara

UB Shadow

Spice corner

This month I wanted to just show the deck that came 9th, missing the Top8 by a few % points. Adam has been slowy building and tweaking his Nic Fit lists of the past year and this one is starting to look really well tuned AND a lot of fun to play!

I love the toolbox nature of this deck and who wouldn’t love jamming down a quick Ugin, the Spirit Dragon or Sandwurm Convergence!?

Rector Fit - Adam Williams

I hope everyone had a great time at LLM August, Callum and I certainly did (but it will be nice to have Claude back again, shhh don’t tell him)

Tickets for the next event can be found over at http://www.londonlegacymonthly.com/shop/

See you next time!

Thomas Kellock

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