Introduction to Legacy WRITTEN BY Joseph Dyer

Good day, everyone! My name is Joseph Dyer, and I'm here to give you all an introduction to one of Magic's finest formats. That's right, it's an introduction to Legacy! This is the first in what will be a series of ongoing articles meant to provide players with a basic understanding of the format.

A bit of background on me: I have been playing Legacy for several years now, and while I wasn't around for the early birth of the format, I spend a massive amount of time analyzing, playing, and working with the format. I hope to provide more content for Legacy here, sharing both my knowledge and understanding of this great format.

With that, let's dive right in, shall we?

What is Legacy?





Legacy is an Eternal format, meaning that every set in the game is legal (with the obvious exceptions of Unglued and Unhinged) to use in deck construction. Because of this, Legacy's card pool is so deep that there are many powerful interactions that have risen to the forefront of the format. Brewing in Legacy is significantly more difficult than any other format in the game, because of how powerful the cards are.

Legacy is defined by a banned list that is updated at the same times as the other formats. The history of this list has been ultimately defined by powerful cards that were unhealthy for the format's existence. Cards such as Survival of the Fittest, Flash, Tolarian Academy, and Treasure Cruise/Dig Through Time have been parts of Legacy's history, for better or for worse.

Legacy is also (unfortunately) shaped in part by the existence of the Reserved List, a list of cards that Wizards of the Coast have said they will never reprint. The most important of these cards in Legacy are, of course, the 10 dual lands.

Legacy has many common misconceptions that players who have never played the format tend to perpetuate. Before we get started at looking at some lists and some of the more important interactions in the format, I'd like to take some time to address some of those.

Games Are Over by Turn One or Two

While it's true that there are decks in the Legacy format capable of killing an opponent or deciding the game on turn one or two, more often than not this isn't actually the case. These games are actually pretty rare, because of the interaction between these combo decks and the amount of disruption that exists in the format at large, namely [[Force of Will.]] On average, most games of Legacy can take anywhere from five to 10 turns or upwards of that, depending on the match-up. Up until the most recent changes to Modern, the average Legacy game actually would take longer to complete than a Modern game would!

To be Competitive You Have to Play Blue

While Blue is definitely a central and defining color of the format overall, in recent years we have seen many non-Blue decks breaking this barrier and proving once and for all that you don't necessarily need to play Blue to be a competitive player.

Non-Blue decks such as Death and Taxes, BR Reanimator, and Eldrazi Stompy are all decks that have put up serious results in the past few years. BR Reanimator even made a Top 8 appearance at Grand Prix Louisville! So while Blue decks are still going to be around in the format (and will probably always be good), there are many non-Blue options that can appeal to players who either don't like the color Blue (or can't afford Blue duals).

Legacy is Expensive

Well, this one is true. Legacy is expensive as an up-front cost to get into the format overall. There are many decks that run cards that are prohibitively expensive for newer players, specifically Reserved List cards like dual lands, Lion's Eye Diamond, and the like. Unfortunately, this is one thing about the format that does turn off a lot of people.

That being said, the best way to mitigate your up-front costs in getting into the format is to be sure that you want to make the purchase in the first place. In order to do this, you should be certain on the deck you want to play, either by playtesting it with friends through the use of proxies, or through a free online client (you can Google these). Get a feel for the deck, how it plays, how it wins, and how it loses. Do this process with different decks in the format; this not only helps you understand whether or not you would want to actually enjoy the format or not, but also which deck styles you prefer.

Once you've settled on a decklist, start acquiring pieces. See if your local events have ways to play with proxies for unsanctioned events to get more playtime in. Grind Standard/Modern events for store credit if you have the ability to, and use that credit to buy Legacy pieces. In the long run, you will have a deck that is playable for years, and won't change that often compared to how decks in both Modern and Standard do.

In the future, I will be writing an article on the topic of Legacy finance and the best ways to acquire pieces (and the dark side of this: Keeping an eye out for fakes).

I've heard this argument on and off for the several years I've played Legacy. One of the most common things that non-Legacy players like to point out about larger events is how many copies of Brainstorm appear in the Top 8/16/32 to try and use that as an argument against the diversity of Legacy. I've seen well-reasoned arguments on both sides of the fence of whether Brainstorm is healthy for the format or not, but having played with several archetypes that use Brainstorm in different ways, I don't really believe it is unhealthy at all. It's an extremely high-skill card, and strong cards like it deserve a place in the format.

As far as Force of Will is concerned, even in the presence of the card sometimes unfair strategies rise up and do well, so the motto of “Play Force or bust” isn't really that true anymore.

Diversity is one of those subjects that is, in the end, utterly subjective. One person will look at a format and decide it's not diverse when they see two or three Miracles lists in a Top 8 of an event, but others will point out the other lists in the room and how many other things were being played.

In all reality, the diversity of Legacy is incredibly huge. In the past year, we've seen incredibly diverse Top 8's from high-level events from Grand Prix and Star City Games Classics/Opens, and even U.S. Eternal Weekend threw us for a loop with the presence of a Jeskai Eldrazi build. The sheer number of decks that exist in the three percent to 10 percent range of meta share is very high, thanks to the fact that the format rewards skill and devotion to a deck's strategies over specific match-up skills.

At the end of the day, Legacy is a truly diverse format with many different archetypes that all reward pilot skill above all else.

Fair Decks vs. Unfair Decks

Legacy also has a concept that is referred to as “fair” vs. “unfair” when it comes to decks. Fair decks are builds that, while they use powerful cards, are fair in how they approach the game. For example, Delver variants are among the most common and popular fair decks that exist in the format. When you think about fair decks, Delver is the one most often thought about. It plays a fair game of Magic using tempo, resources, and individually strong cards, and often wins through combat.

Unfair decks, on the other hand, attempt to win the game through unfair means, usually through a combo of some sort, unfair mana acceleration, or cheap spells. The most common of the unfair decks is Storm. Storm attempts to win by utilizing cheap spells that allow it to play up to 10 spells in one turn, and then casting Tendrils of Agony to kill the opponent. Another common and more recent unfair deck is BR Reanimator, which uses a combination of fast mana and reanimation effects to try to Reanimate a large creature (usually Griselbrand) on turn one and win the game.

Important Cards in Legacy

Legacy is defined by many powerful cards, but there are several that are at its heart and are often seen as the most important cards in the format overall.

Force of Will



Probably the most important card in the entire format, Force of Will is the glue that holds Legacy together. In all reality, Force of Will is actually a pretty bad card; it's a counterspell that two-for-ones you to cast it. Against any of the format's fair decks, Force of Will is generally sideboarded out in post-board games because the card just isn't very good in those match-ups where resources matter.

Against unfair decks, however, Force of Will is the undisputed king (with the obvious exception of Storm). Force of Will stops many of these combo match-ups cold with a well-timed and well-placed Force, preventing the combo from going off or the critical spell from resolving. If Force of Will did not exist in the format, the entire format would likely be nothing but decks like Belcher or other decks that win on turn one or two without any disruption.

Brainstorm



One of the most efficient card-selection spells ever printed, I could write page after page after page on the strength of Brainstorm and how it is one of the most high-skill cards in Legacy.



Brainstorm is a card totally defined by player skill: It provides an incredible amount of card selection, and pairs well with fetch lands (a defining part of Legacy's manabase). For example, Brainstorm can put cards back that you don't want to see in upcoming turns, and then an activated fetch land will shuffle those cards away so that you can draw new cards.

Suffice to say, if you are playing Blue, you are likely going to be playing Brainstorm. Every deck uses the card a little differently, however. Delver uses it to set up Delver of Secrets flips, Miracles uses it to set up draws and to put cards back it wants on top for Counterbalance, and Storm uses it to filter draws and to locate the pieces it needs to start comboing off.

Wasteland



Let's face it: Legacy as a format is absolutely defined by the presence of numerous nonbasic lands. Dual lands, fetch lands, lands like Gaea's Cradle, City of Traitors, and Ancient Tomb; all run rampant in Legacy. Simply, the format is absolutely loaded with them.

Wasteland, as a card, punishes decks that are heavily reliant on nonbasics. As a land, it's uncounterable to get into play, and its ability can be activated at instant-speed, meaning it can remove a land at a critical junction if it needs to. Wasteland is so good that it allows decks like Delver to thrive by giving these decks access to mana denial and the ability to increase their own tempo throughout the game while reducing the other player's tempo at the same time.

And while there are decks that do run lots of basic lands—like Miracles—Wasteland still proves to be a good card by being able to deal with problem utility lands and duals in those match-ups.

Cabal Therapy



While not one of the most important cards in the format, Cabal Therapy is another one of Legacy's most skill-testing cards. In order to maximize effectiveness with the card, you need to either cheat into it with Gitaxian Probe, or you need to be able to identify on very little information what deck the opponent is playing and what cards may be in their hand.

Cabal Therapy is so strong that it's another card that I could probably write many pages on how to use it effectively.

Stoneforge Mystic



A card that is at the center of one of the format's more popular decks (Death and Taxes) is none other than Stoneforge Mystic, the one-time homewrecker of Standard. Stoneforge packages became so popular to build around that they spawned a whole sub-type of decks in Legacy (affectionately called Stoneblade or Deathblade for variants that utilize both her and Deathrite Shaman). These days, Stoneforge is mainly seen in Death and Taxes, where she surrounds herself with powerful equipment such as Batterskull, Sword of Fire and Ice, and Umezawa's Jitte. Though not as popular as they used to be, Stoneblade/Deathblade lists are still around, using Stoneforge to maximum effectiveness as a way to fetch equipment to give to superb threats like True-Name Nemesis and the like.

Delver of Secrets



Let's make no bones about it: Delver of Secrets isn't really a blue card. It is, however, one of the most powerfully aggressive one-drops ever created. Delver is so strong that on its own it developed several tempo-control archetypes based on its namesake, and utterly transformed certain decks like Canadian Threshold and Team America into the decks we know today as RUG Delver and BUG Delver. It is also at the forefront of the heavily popular Grixis Delver lists that combine Delver's air threats with cards like Young Pyromancer and Gurmag Angler for maximum go-wide value.

Deathrite Shaman



One of the most powerful mana dorks in existence, Deathrite's impact on the Legacy format is even more pronounced than the impact it had on Modern where it is now banned. Usually referred to as a “one-mana Planeswalker," Deathrite's abilities have allowed numerous decks to utilize its power. Used as a premier card in Shardless BUG, Grixis Delver, Elves, Nic Fit, and others in between, Deathrite is a central part of the format these days.

Swords to Plowshares



In a format such as Legacy, creature threats are incredibly high, and as such they require premier removal to deal with. Swords to Plowshares is one of the most common go-to removal spells in the format, simply because for one White mana it deals with nearly any threat in the format. The lifegain downside isn't typically a downside for decks that play this card as it isn't nearly as important as dealing with a game-ending threat like Griselbrand.

Chalice of the Void



In Legacy there are a lot of one-drop spells. The early turns of the game revolve so much around spells that cost one mana (Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Sensei's Divining Top, etc.) that Chalice of the Void has become the ultimate punishment card versus nearly every deck in the format. What makes Chalice even stronger in Legacy than other formats is that the ability to dump a Chalice for one on the first turn is even higher than it is in Modern due to the presence of lands like Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors or ramp like Mox Diamond. Suffice to say, against most of the field Chalice is an effective hate card that does exactly what it's intended. Chalice's presence in the format became a lot more important over the past year with the introduction of Eldrazi Stompy into the format.

Phyrexian Mana Spells: Gitaxian Probe / Surgical Extraction / Dismember



Phyrexian mana spells are also fairly omnipresent in Legacy. Sad that you can no longer play Gitaxian Probe in Modern? Well you can in Legacy! Gitaxian Probe is actually at the forefront of various combo decks such as Storm and Sneak and Show, to name a few. Surgical Extraction provides every deck in the format with a way to deal with graveyard-centric strategies, as well as gives decks without Force of Will a fighting chance against combo (through a combination of hand disruption and Surgical Extraction).

In addition, thanks to the newer presence of decks like Eldrazi and efficient creatures like Gurmag Angler, decks like Delver have had to adapt to deal with these threats by playing Dismember.

Beyond these three, however, you won't see much more of the Phyrexian mana spells (other than maybe Mutagenic Growth in Legacy Infect). Mental Misstep is banned, and most of the rest of the Phyrexian mana spells just aren't as good as these three are.

Lightning Bolt



I would be remiss if I did not at least talk about one Red card that this format does often play. While it's not the powerhouse litmus test that it is in Modern, Lightning Bolt is still a strong card that is often seen at the forefront of Legacy Burn. In addition, Bolt also tends to see play in decks like Grixis Delver and UR Delver.

Wrapping Up

Well, there we have it folks: An introduction to the Legacy format as it exists today. I hope you enjoyed it. Join me next time when we start delving (see what I did there) (Ed. note: *facepalm*) into the mysteries of the format's various archetypes, starting with the classic archetype of Control. That's right folks, we're gonna be talking about Miracles!

'Til next time.