Legacy has recently seen some strong printings in the last year, with cards like joining the format, but those printings also improved Cephalid Breakfast, making it better than it has ever been in Legacy.

This is where I am right now with the decklist, but keep in mind that the final 75 are still under development. There are some points where I’m very sure such as the amount of lands, but some slots like the countermagic selection aren’t that clear to me.

Card Choices and Basics: Mainboard

Manabase

We play 19 lands on top of and multiple cantrips including (OUAT). Do not cut lands from this deck. The cantrips are mostly there to find us the combo pieces, and every time we have to find a land without having the combo we will be in a very bad position to win the game. Besides that, the deck can be relatively mana hungry. is usually the default dual land we will fetch, but having up to 4 colors can make fetching sometimes a little bit tricky.

is a very good land in this deck, since countermagic is the most common form of disruption in Legacy. Keep in mind and share a Kor type! The other type that is often relevant to be shared is Wizard on both and . Post-sideboard, we will sometimes name Human or Rogue, but Kor and Wizard are the most common naming.

I’ve been trying 2 and 3 copies, but in a heavy version I prefer to run less Cavern, since drawing 2 can be awkward and it also doesn’t play well with any of the colored spells that aren’t creatures. With against a Delver deck, a common pattern with Cavern is to go for Basic into naming Kor, saving the white mana in our hand to use Stoneforge’s ability while having protection from .

One of the weakest cards in the deck to the point where I think the 4th copy isn’t exactly a lock, since I’ve played 3 and even 2 before. Nomads simply don’t do much if you can’t go for the combo, but drawing multiples isn’t exactly useless. Since having both creatures let us mill ourselves at instant speed, we can just play two copies of Nomads so we win the game as soon as the Cephalid hits the battlefield.

They say is one of the best cards in Legacy. It is certainly one of the best in a combo deck like this with a few dead draws. lets us get rid of awkward cards like or , and can also just turn unnecessary lands into new cards. The deck also has a lot of additional shuffling on top of the fetch lands, since both and provide additional shuffling effects.

Another cool play you can do is play as the first spell of the game, and in response, play . That way you can sculpt a lot your hand during the 1st turn.

I’m not a huge fan, but it is still a reasonable cantrip. You are not a control deck, so chaining cantrips won’t do much for you. That’s why I don’t like the idea of playing too many s, but requires a healthy blue card count, and is still the best blue card we can play on this slot. If you sideboard out , sideboarding out some copies is very reasonable.

is a card we don’t really want to see in our hand, since it’s part of the graveyard combo, but it is a reasonable spell on its own, since we already play some expendable bodies in the deck.

The key to play in this deck is to decide if we want to trying to defend from a threat, naming something like Oko, or hold it trying to hit their interaction, naming something like a . When in doubt, I think it’s better to go for their answers and ignore their threats, since the combo will likely win the game from any board state while they will surely eventually find a threat to end the game if we don’t kill them.

Therapy has two duties as a combo piece once your library has been milled. First, if your opponent didn’t have a chance to counter your combo pieces because you had or , will discard their countermagic. The second use is to discard or even if you happen to draw them, even though you can simply cast the Oracle for two mana if you are not under pressure.

Vial is a very important card against fair decks where both mana fixing and the fact that our creatures become uncountereable are relevant. While Vial used to be an easy 4-of, I think the lack of expensive cards on the maindeck makes 3 copies already enough, and I could potentially see going down to two if more non-Delver fair decks take a bigger spot in the metagame. It is also a much better card post sideboard when we add more creatures to the mix.

There’s a few tricks you can pull with Vial:

Tap the Vial, and then decide if you want to put something on the battlefield or not. The way works is that you choose in resolution, so don’t be rushed to put your creature card into the battlefield.

works is that you choose in resolution, so don’t be rushed to put your creature card into the battlefield. Put your into the battlefield on your upkeep so you get to shuffle your library before your draw step.

into the battlefield on your upkeep so you get to shuffle your library before your draw step. Put a creature that can sink damage to save your from a .

from a . You can also put your Vial trigger on the stack with two counters, tap it, and then add a counter. This is only relevant with post sideboard, as we play so many 2 CMCs.

post sideboard, as we play so many 2 CMCs. It is slightly better to activate and then respond with a cantrip if you are going to fire off a cantrip on your opponent’s turn and if it’s a situation where your could eat an / . For example, if you have a Vial on 2 counters and you plan to cast a /OUAT on your opponent’s turn, it is better to activate Vial, and then in response cast . That way, we deny our opponent the option to destroy our Vial in response to our , which would prevent us from putting into play a creature we would draw with that cantrip. This is extremely unlikely to matter at all, but it is free.

is basically an additional copy of

that can be fetched with

. It also makes

strong enough to fight against

You don’t need any other creature to combo off, since you can target the even if is already attached

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, but with this equipment we can only combo at sorcery speed, so it has a drawback.

is a very important card in this deck, since our fair element is built around this little Artificer. Most combo decks are mono-dimensional, meaning that if our opponent is able to stop the combo, we don’t have a good way to end the game. fetching a changes this paradigm, and puts our fair opponents in a position where they have to react to our , often meaning that we have a window to pull the trigger with our combo. This is particularly true against decks like Delver, where often presents a bigger threat than the combo itself. All of this is combined with the fact that can simply tutor for a while providing a body for for two mana, which is a fine rate.

also offers a way to make uncountereable with its activated ability, which is useful against both and countermagic.

can be sometimes awkward to draw in multiples, but the role it plays in the deck is so important that I would strongly advice against cutting a copy from the maindeck.

Also, as reminder, if you have 5 mana and you want to return to your hand and put it into the battlefield again with your Stoneforge, it is better to activate your Mystic first and then in response return your to your hand, since this way you play around your opponent killing your Mystic in response to activating the . It is, again, a free way to improve a situation, even if it doesn’t matter that often.

The best (1)(U) creature of all time? Sorry, !

The centerpiece of our combo and a card we’re always happy to see it in our starting hand. When we can’t combo off, this little Cephallid doesn’t do that much, but it often means we are one topdeck away of ending the game.

Small things you can do with a Cephalid:

in response to a removal to get rid of bad cards if you don’t have a way to shuffle your deck. Bonus points if you get a into play this way!

in response to a removal to get rid of bad cards if you don’t have a way to shuffle your deck. Bonus points if you get a into play this way! Mill for 3 on your opponent’s end step with its ability. This way you can get an occasional free or . You can also do this on your upkeep if you are tight on mana or the Illusionist had summoning sickness.

or . You can also do this on your upkeep if you are tight on mana or the Illusionist had summoning sickness. Blocking a or any ground creature you are facing by paying 3 mana. It is expensive, but games with this deck can be very grindy. If you have a and a on the battlefield, that’s good enough to contain a token!

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This is how we win the game. We don’t want to see those cards in our hand, but is the only one that we really don’t want to ever draw. The (2)(B)(B) cost is also the reason to run the second . It is not very common, but reanimating a combo piece is often a game winning play.

s are sometimes awkward to draw, but the fact that they are blue enables our s, and make them useful every time we draw that counterspell. + is also a fine end game. Build your own !

is a card we can simply cast and the scry 2 makes it so it’s usually a better draw than a . Naturally drawing can be relevant, since it is how we get there through graveyard hate, which is a massive improvement from previous win conditions. If your opponent has something like a , you can simply put Oracle into play by casting it or using Vial once you’ve milled your library and that will be enough to win the game.

works as a tutor for three mana that also has some additional uses, like blocking or being fodder. Even though I’ve liked this card a lot, specially in combination with , I think the power level of the deck and the whole format has gone up enough that I can’t justify playing too many copies of this card. Game 1, we often don’t really need to go that fast, so Recruiter provides consistency. Game 2 and 3, Recruiter can fetch and providing a whole different angle of attack, even if it’s not very efficient. It is a card you rarely want to draw in multiples, but I think it deserves a slot since it plays very well when things go wrong.

Banned in multiple formats, simply improves your consistency if all you care about are creatures and lands. We are playing a 2-card combo where both pieces happen to be creatures, so this card is perfect. Not having access to a is the easiest way to fizzle, so OUAT does a lot of work trying to dig for the first one. Drawing multiples is not ideal, but after playing a little with 4 and 2, I am now inclined to think 3 is the right number. Going up to 4 would increase the turn 2 kill percentage, but I think the diminishing returns would make the deck overall worse since casting it isn’t exactly easy. If you want to just speed up the deck and make it better against combo, adding the 4th OUAT instead of the 2nd Recruiter would be a reasonable change.

OUAT can also make you hit your land drops more often even without adding more lands to our deck. It is just simply an extremely good card that is very welcome to this archetype.

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The deck, as it is built right now, has 4 slots for interactive spells. The big issue with here is that whenever you don’t draw , you often just really don’t want to pay the cost, since exiling a combo piece or a is not ideal. The difference here compared to another combo decks like Sneak and Show is that we often have to use a lot of resources to keep having a fine gameplan, like playing , and this means we are often operating without many cards in hand. We also play a lot of non-blue cards, which doesn’t help. is still too good not to play and our best way to break a Combo Mirror.

is actually a concession against how most fair matchups play while still being a good card against other combo decks. There is one common fight on the stack on turn 1 where we land an , since our opponent will try to counter if they have a chance. On that spot, is better since it lets us protect our Vial without losing a card. The other big change we’ve seen in Legacy is the fact that there are more cards like or that are very good targets for against the fair decks. Their power level is much stronger, but also is their mana curve, and is a way to punish that.