Discussion Forum

The Legacy Format

This format, simply put, has too many broken cards. Another thread is titled "Play or Draw?" In the Legacy tournament format you have to go first.
Only a blue Mage, who utilizes "Force of Will", can risk going second. Can you believe it - Force of Will is a $40 card? We should have collected a hundred of those back when we could afford them. White has Abeyance, but it cost 1W, and cannot stop Charbelcher first turn or Recussion that plays first.
Mono color decks, except blue, really have no chance against certain decks.
Recently, in two small tournaments (6 matches total) my deck amazingly went 50% - I won 3 matches and lost 3 matches.
There are such a variety of decks out there that it is a matter of match-ups as a sideboard can only hold so many answers.
A Goblin Charbelcher deck can win first turn, and can even still do so after taking a mulligan- drawing one less card.
If you are playing a mono color deck, other than blue, certain decks simply destroy you. A creature based deck, for example, can toss it in after a recursion deck plays a second turn Blazing Archon. (Creatures can't attack). And worse than that is the creature that prevents you from playing your color of spells- Iona, Shield of Emeria Magic. I guess my sideboard needs a card that makes all spells colorless in response! A first turn artifiact to remove the card from their graveyard could be added to the sideboard - Tormod's Crypt or Relic of Progenitus.
Another deck, based on enchantments hurt me. I sideboarded enchantment removal and actually removed the enchantment which gives all the other enchantments "shroud" - Greater Auramancy. I destroyed one, then he charmed for another and had another already in hand. So he cast two more and the game was over since I could not remove/target any enchantments. The he dropped Solitary Confinement - and could draw two cards whenever he played an enchantment to get around its drawback. That was followed by sigil of the Empty Throne. So I will need to sideboard Tranquility and try to win before they "reanimate" their enchanments from the graveyard with.
So here is a sideboard for mono-colored decks in Legacy:
Tranquility 4x (Enchantment Decks)
Relic of Progenitus 4x (Re-animator)
Leyline of Lifeforce 4x (control - Force of Will, etc.)
So that leaves 3 slots.
Are there any artifacts that cause loss of life to an apponent, rather than deal damage, and cost three or less to cast?
Posted 17 June 2010 at 15:03

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6 replies

Legacy isn't as fast as you think, it just doesn't leave much room for mistakes. Every turn counts. As you said, starting is important (even for blue) but it's not like you can't win when you don't.
As for cost, playing competitive magic is expensive regardless of format. Standard is the most expensive format of them all. If you play standard for a couple of years you will have put in so much money that you could have bought a vintage deck or a couple of legacy decks.

Legacy hurts your wallet when you get into it but once you are there it's pretty stable and it's much more about the pilot of the deck then about the deck. We have a small group of people that play legacy and it's always the same guy who gets into the top 4 at almost every tournament. He's just the best player of our group. He is been playing 4 color Landstill for years and that same deck still does the job.

As for Force of Will, it might seem like a power house and it is but it is a very difficult card to play. At the cost of 2 cards playing force really hurts your card advantage and limits your chances of winning the match. You have to play it to realize this. It's more then simply playing force and winning.

You are right about mono colored decks being to limited. Even mono blue control isn't that great. It has troubles with decks like goblins.

Some good advice my friend gave me when getting into legacy is to play a fast aggro deck. It's the best way to learn the meta. Goblins for instance is a good deck to start with and it's a deck that has been good for ages, it just doesn't change much. Once you have the cards you're good to go for a long time.
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Posted 21 June 2010 at 07:58

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Vintage is worse, "Stax" actually stands for $T4KS which means "The 4 Thousand Dollar Solution". The name is literal.
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Posted 21 June 2010 at 16:59

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the main issue i have with the formats is that once something is out of Extended it kinda dies....because the only formats those cards are playable are vintage/legacy but it seems like those formats are dominated by the broken cards from the first 3-4 sets.

won't anyone think of the poor Onslaught orphans?
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Posted 23 June 2010 at 14:54

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I fell for that once... then someone cast Vindicate and I came to my senses.
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Posted 23 June 2010 at 22:06

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yes but that is the upsight to legacy as well, once you have those old cards the newer sets have little or no impact on the meta. Once you have a good deck you can play it for years with little or no extra expenses to keep it up to date.
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Posted 24 June 2010 at 07:17

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[QUOTE=Seth]yes but that is the upsight to legacy as well, once you have those old cards the newer sets have little or no impact on the meta. Once you have a good deck you can play it for years with little or no extra expenses to keep it up to date.[/QUOTE]

Amen to that!

I've recently started try to build a tournament competitive standard deck...... it cost me $150 bucks (which at the time I thought was expensive) till I played it in a tourney and in one match faced Elspeth/ Gideon Jura / and baneslayer angel .... those three cards exceeded the combined price of my deck of 60 cards, and he was running 4 of each.... suffice it to say he was terribly upset when I beat him. My legacy decks I've had built since the 90's cost me nothing and can hold their own in a tourney. The major difference is in the standard format you pretty much know exactly what to expect... Jund.... Dredgevine.... Conscription.... and can build a side board to fight it. In Legacy the sky is the limit on what types of decks that you can face and who knows what you'll hit, I kinda like it like that.
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Posted 05 July 2010 at 16:09

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