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This Week in Legacy: April Metagames

by Joe Dyer // Apr 17, 2024

Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of This Week in Legacy! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we are diving into another monthly metagame vibe check as to where we are with Legacy as of late. I am still pondering on doing another Round Table article, likely in May here. In addition we've got a BUNCH of new Challenges in addition to the old Challenges to cover as well as an SCG CON 1K Legacy event from last weekend. I will note that due to the increased number of Challenges, I'm going to be shortening the number of decklists from each one to the 1st/2nd place and one other from the Top 8, mainly for conciseness.

Without further ado, let's dive right in!

The April Metagame Vibe Check

We are yet again looking at the current state of Legacy after yet another month into 2024. As of this week, we have a little over 4,000 entries from Challenge events since the beginning of 2024. This is such a solid amount of data, thanks to the amount of data Daybreak Games has provided to us but also the new Challenge events they have added keep providing more data. You can find the aggregate sheet for this data set here.

Let's take a look at the graphical data for the format.

Tempo decks are still among the most popular decks in Legacy at the moment, a quite large 21.5% of the metagame being taken up by those decks. This includes things like Grixis Delver, RUG Delver, and Dimir Scam at the moment.

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The current most played archetype in Legacy however is the myriad of Up the Beanstalk decks. These decks all centralize on utilizing Up the Beanstalk as a draw engine and can be present in numerous variants. The most popular of these is the Non-Yorion variants, which don't use Yorion, Sky Nomad as a Companion. These decks are often 4-5 color, but sometimes just straight BUG colors. Despite Beans decks having a popular presence in the format, the overall win rate of the deck is incredibly mediocre at 47.2% non-Mirror. These decks are often popular because they appeal to a wide range of players, but they have some key aspects of the deck that can be attacked, such as the effect of Wasteland on the average manabase.

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Grixis Delver is the second most played deck of the format over time, with a fairly small range between it and Beans. The pure Grixis variants are in positions where they are between playing actual Delver of Secrets and cutting it for other things. This deck seems to be in a rather reasonable place right now, due to the fact that it has cards like Orcish Bowmasters. Cards like Molten Collapse were a solid new addition to the deck overall and it's win rate is a fairly reasonable 51.3% non-mirror win rate.

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The Turbo Muxus variant of Goblins is also very heavily played at the moment, thanks due in part to the card "Name Sticker" Goblin and Broadside Bombardiers. More than anything, Bombardiers has had the biggest impact on red Ancient Tomb shells in general, but being a Goblin also has made it invaluable to the Goblins deck, which has turned into a more aggressive strategy overall. The current win rate of this deck is not too insane at a 51.3% non-mirror win rate, as it seems there are ways to beat this deck very reasonably if you are looking to do so.

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The current big "boogeyman" of the format is the UB Reanimator aka "Rescaminator" deck that has been at the forefront of topical discussion about Legacy as a format lately. This deck has a lot of strong angles to it, allowing it to sideboard juke into more tempo-esque strategies while still keeping a possible hammer like Atraxa around in case the opponent doesn't go so hard on graveyard interaction, creating a mini mind game out of it. This deck's win rate is really reasonable at a 54.7% non-mirror win rate, but at the same time, this deck has actually been dropping off in the more recent weeks, I think as more people have figured out how to beat the deck and the format warping back around to readjust itself. It will be incredibly intriguing to see where this goes because this deck legitimately caused conversations over wanting to ban cards like Grief.

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Rounding out the Top 5 decks of the current format, the RUG Delver shell has continued to undergo many changes over time, and most of those changes involve pretty much reducing most of the green cards in the mix of the deck to where these decks are barely known as RUG Delver anymore. The only green card they tend to play at this point in time is Questing Druid and even then they are only on 2-3 copies of the card overall. This deck has a more moderate win rate at a 50.7% non-mirror win rate.

Below the Top 5 is a smattering of different decks from BR Reanimator shells, Lands, Red Stompy, and Boros Stompy. Of these decks below the Top 5, decks like Lands and Dimir Scam have very strong +50% win rates and seem to be in a strong position overall. I do believe that the format is beginning to shift a bit again, and likely will slowly shift around these top decks for a bit at least until the release of Modern Horizons III. As much as it seems like cards like Grief are problematic in the format, I can't quite pin down a really good reason other than subjective fun reasoning to get rid of the card right now, especially with the format slowly cycling around on those shells and finding holes in them.

Furthermore, I also still don't believe there should be any action on cards like Orcish Bowmasters. I have certainly enjoyed the presence of the card in the format overall, as it has introduced some clever and unique heuristics to playing with cantrips, and more cards that punish the cantrip cartel are always nice to have, especially when one of the most popular decks in the format is drawing a huge amount of cards thanks to Up the Beanstalk.

It's also less clear to me whether or not anything should be done about Up the Beanstalk in general. It only really goes in one major archetype and that's control, and while it seems as powerful as cards like Expressive Iteration were, the win rates of the control shells overall say a lot about how powerful it is. I do still think the card can be extremely snowball-heavy when you have more than one in play, but I feel like there are answers to these decks, and especially if we get even more answers to cantrips in the future.

For now, I'm pretty happy with Legacy and where it stands, and I always tend to prefer to let the format grow and change. We'll keep checking in month to month, and we'll also be doing a Round Table at some point so we can see how the rest of the Legacy community is feeling on this.

SCG CON Atlanta Legacy 1K 4/14/2024

This past weekend in Atlanta was SCG CON Atlanta, and Sunday at that event was a 1K Legacy event. This event had 46 players in it! Pretty sweet turnout.

You can find all of the recorded decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.

D&T and Grixis Delver were very popular and both did quite well overall. UB Reanimator seemed to suffer hard here.

Let's take a look at the Top 8. The Top 8 was split entirely so it wasn't played out, so we're just looking at what decks are in the Top 8.

Deck Name	Placing	Player Name
RUG Cascade	Top 8	Taylor Raflowitz
Death and Taxes (Yorion)	Top 8	Josh Bearden
Death and Taxes (Yorion)	Top 8	Roland Chang
Golgari Depths	Top 8	mgray24
Black Midrange	Top 8	Christopher Sommerfield
Grixis Delver	Top 8	Sean McGlohon
8Cast	Top 8	Jon Beckom
Doomsday	Top 8	Devin Rodgers

Seems like an overall solid Top 8 here. Pretty cool range of decks for sure.

Legacy Challenge 32 4/10

One of our first new Challenge events now occurs on Wednesdays! This event had 45 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.

You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here. We didn't have full matchup data for this event so all we have is metagame share.

Grixis Delver ended up being the most popular deck here by a small amount, while the rest of the event was mostly Goblins, Stompy, RUG, and Beans.

Let's take a look at the Top 8.

Deck Name	Placing	MTGO Username
Mystic Forge Combo	1st	HouseOfManaMTG
Beanstalk Control (Yorion)	2nd	McWinSauce
Goblins (Turbo Muxus)	3rd	medvedev
Grixis Delver	4th	Graciasportanto
Goblins (Turbo Muxus)	5th	boytriton
Lands	6th	kasa
RUG Delver	7th	Misplacedginger
Naya Aggro	8th	jstancikii

Honestly a pretty interesting and diverse Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Mystic Forge Combo that won.

This deck is always incredibly impressive when it's able to do its thing. Its game plan is pretty straightforward for the most part though.

In Second Place we had Yorion Beans.

Solid looking list overall here. I like the implementation of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker here as a card that can help generate any color of mana. Doorkeeper Thrull in the sideboard is also sweet.

At the bottom of the Top 8 we had a sweet Naya list.

All the minor pieces of this deck come together in an interesting way for sure. I like that it's a Knight of the Reliquary deck but also has things like Bolt/Plow, etc. It's a neat looking deck all around.

Legacy Challenge 32 4/12

The second Challenge we're covering is the first of the new Friday evening/Saturday morning Challenges (it ends up finishing on Saturday due to the time frame of starting at 8PM EST on Fridays). This event had 48 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.

You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.

Large spread of decks at the top here, but most of them did medium/poorly. Goblins seemed alright. At the bottom spread though it was The EPIC Storm that did incredibly well here.

Let's take a look at the Top 8.

Deck Name	Placing	MTGO Username
Beseech Storm	1st	romariovidal
Doomsday	2nd	wonderPreaux
The EPIC Storm	3rd	Bryant_Cook
Beseech Storm	4th	Eureka22422
Cephalid Breakfast	5th	BDPSteve
Mono Black Reanimator	6th	TheGrimLavamancer
The EPIC Storm	7th	Vivarus
RUG Delver	8th	PekkaChu

Holy Combo Batman! This Top 8 was just stacked with so much combo. At the end of the event it was our good friend Romario Neto on Beseech Storm.

Oh neat, this definitely is much more like the more older school Black Saga Storm lists we were seeing last year even before the printing of Beseech the Mirror. I have to wonder if people are just sleeping on this as a deck to be honest. It looks like a really interesting list.

In Second Place we had Doomsday.

Strong looking list overall here. Nice spread of various disruptive spells to stop the opponent from disabling your primary game plan.

As noted, The EPIC Storm did very well, with two of its results coming from two of the deck's strongest proponents. Let's look at the higher placing one from Bryant Cook himself.

Looks like a very solid and powerful list here. The singleton Song of Creation to get with Beseech the Mirror is super cool. The card does so much when you're able to just draw your deck with it.

Legacy Challenge 32 4/13

The first weekend Challenge was the early morning Saturday event. This event had 56 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.

You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.

RUG Delver was quite popular and it performed very well here. Lands, Beans, and D&T also all did very well.

Let's take a look at the Top 8.

Deck Name	Placing	MTGO Username
RUG Delver	1st	JPA93
Goblins (Turbo Muxus)	2nd	choutin
Black Midrange (Golgari Scam)	3rd	aooaaooa
Death and Taxes (Yorion)	4th	JackieBrown
Lands	5th	Granham
RUG Delver	6th	ARAPAKO
UB Reanimator	7th	DInglis
Red Stompy	8th	LasVegasChaos

Fairly interesting Top 8 here overall. At the end of the event it was RUG Delver that won.

Again these decks continue to trend to where the only actual green card in the deck is Questing Druid. I have to wonder if this is the overall future of "RUG" Delver as a whole or if it will swing back the other way at some point.

In Second Place we had Goblins.

Very straightforward and solid aggressive list here. I like the Agatha's Soul Cauldron here, it seems pretty cool to pair with Broadside Bombardiers.

Also in this Top 8 we had Golgari Scam.

Predominantly a black midrange pile, this deck is playing a bunch of cards that are really strong in Legacy right now.

Legacy Challenge 32 4/14

The next Challenge on the weekend was the new early morning Sunday event. This event had 54 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.

You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.

Goblins and RUG Delver were the two most popular decks with both having strong win rates, while Black Midrange piles also did very well. Not doing well here was Grixis Delver and Lands.

Let's take a look at the Top 8.

Deck Name	Placing	MTGO Username
Black Midrange	1st	Flossed
Goblins (Turbo Muxus)	2nd	choutin
Boros Stompy	3rd	SHAKELION
Dimir Scam	4th	kobayui
Goblins (Vial)	5th	Geodude_Jared
RUG Delver	6th	mhc2cd40
Stiflenought	7th	Maxtortion
Soul Cauldron Combo	8th	UrzaEnjoyer

Quite and interesting Top 8 here for sure. At the end of the event it was Black Midrange that won.

Again, these Black Midrange piles just get to play a lot of good cards right now. This is even using black-centric Surveil lands to possibly mill something like a Troll or etc to reanimate it. Quite interesting for sure.

In Second Place we again had Goblins.

Pretty close to the same list this user did well with the previous event. Unlicensed Hearse seems like a rather strong card right now.

At the bottom of this Top 8 here we had Stiflenought.

BUG Stiflenought seems quite interesting. I also really like the Legolas's Quick Reflexes here to use a Dreadnought to clear out a blocker and not be able to be destroyed at the same time.

Legacy Challenge 64 4/14

The final Challenge event of the weekend was the 64 player Sunday event. This event had 71 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.

You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here. We didn't have match up inputs for this one, so only metagame share.

Beans and RUG were the most popular deck here, followed by Goblins and Grixis.

Let's take a look at the Top 8.

Deck Name	Placing	MTGO Username
UB Reanimator	1st	HJ_Kaiser
Lands	2nd	Granham
Doomsday	3rd	wonderPreaux
Grixis Delver	4th	davy2892
Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion)	5th	toplop
Goblins (Turbo Muxus)	6th	Gabaman
Grixis Delver	7th	JakeTMS
Red Stompy	8th	J.A.Eliso

Definitely an interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was UB Reanimator that won.

This is the big boogeyman of the format it seems right now, but this past week's events didn't really do so hot for it. I wonder if we are starting to see a real shift on this deck.

In Second Place we had Lands.

I definitely am pleased with these Sphere Lands lists. They seem quite strong overall.

At the bottom of the Top 8 we had Red Stompy.

This is a very strong list. Broadside Bombardiers is such a powerful card in the current format.