This Week in Legacy: One Month into 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're going to be diving into one full month of Legacy data from 2024! Daybreak Games has provided us some super awesome data, so it's really interesting stuff to dig into. In addition to that we've got a bunch of paper event stuff to look at as well as both Challenges from this past weekend.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Current State of Legacy - One Month into 2024
We're now one month into 2024, and with that, we have a whole bunch of Legacy data to look at! At the end of 2023, Daybreak Games surprised us with some changes to how data is published and started publishing all decklists for both Challenges and Preliminary events.
What this means for the Legacy Data Collection Project overall is that we're able to start tracking more than just Challenges. We are now tracking Challenges and Prelim data and with that we have close to around 1,300 results from just the month of January and the little bit of February. This is pretty cool! With this much data at our disposal, let's take a look at some of the graphical data!
Wildly enough over the past month and change, the most popular deck in the entire format has been Reanimator. This is very interesting, given in the past that this spot has almost always been taken up by a Tempo deck of some sort. Reanimator is quite popular because it has a lot of free wins due to its nature, and it's relatively straightforward to pilot which invites players newer to the format overall to the deck. To that end though, Reanimator's win rate is super reasonable at around 52.4% non-mirror.
Second here is Beanstalk Control, primarily the Non-Yorion variants. A good brunt of these is the BUG variants of the deck, which has proven itself to be quite strong overall. This deck leans on the fact that its manabase is a lot sturdier than the 4C Beans variants, and the 4C Beans variants also don't have cards like Triumph of Saint Katherine in it. Beanstalk decks are popular as one of the most popular control shells, but their win rate overall is slightly less than 50%. The deck is strong, but there are ways to attack it, it seems.
Grixis Delver follows this, with a little over 50% win rate. The deck has shown that it's still quite good overall and that the combination of Dragon's Rage Channeler and Orcish Bowmasters is very good, especially against decks trying to play Up the Beanstalk.
The big new development here is Turbo Muxus Goblins. After having received new cards like Broadside Bombardiers and the MTGO implementation of "Name Sticker" Goblin, this deck has taken off at rocket speed. These kinds of aggressive decks are generally very good when control decks are very popular, so it's not surprising to see it doing well right now. It's win rate is slightly over 50%, but this is a deck to keep an eye on. It's incredibly fast and low to the ground, which puts a lot of downward pressure on the format overall.
RUG Cascade is also quite popular at the moment, as the deck has done well at many high-profile events and proven how strong it is. Again, this deck sits at a little over 50% in terms of win rate, but it is quite a powerful deck and worth keeping an eye out for.
RUG Delver also continues to prove to be popular, which is a nice shift from the fact that both it and Grixis Delver have their own little strengths and weaknesses. RUG Delver being able to bypass Bowmasters a bit with Questing Druid's adventure half is quite good. The win rate is quite reasonable, close to 52% overall.
At the bottom of the cutoff is Boros Stompy. While this deck's overall win rate is a little less than 50%, much of that I think is attributed I believe to splash damage from the fact that other aggressive Stompy strategies like the Goblins deck are currently very good in Legacy. Still, this is a deck to remember it exists, especially because of the Initiative mechanic in general.
Right now, Legacy looks like it's in a really fun place. There's a Control deck as one of the better decks of the format but not overpowering, and the various Tempo decks of the format are pretty well split across the board, as well as the various Stompy strategies. There is a measure of concern when it comes to the Goblins deck, due to the exertion of pressure this deck exhibits onto the format overall, but it's possible that deck is reasonably handled by the metagame forces at work.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Legacy evolves further, especially with sets like Fallout and Modern Horizons 3 coming at some point.
SCGCon Hartford Legacy 1K 2/2/2024
This past weekend was SCGCon Hartford, with a Legacy 1K happening on the Friday of the event weekend. This event had 97 players in it! Pretty great turnout for a small 1K event.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
Grixis Delver was the most popular deck here, with Beanstalk right behind it. Both decks did very well overall. There are a bunch of Unknowns in this data set though because many paper decklists weren't turned in.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| Reanimator | 1st | Guilherme Campellon |
| Soul Cauldron Combo | 2nd | Ryan Mullens |
| Death and Taxes (Yorion) | 3rd | Sam Higgins |
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 4th | Patrick Cunningham |
| Red Stompy | 5th | Chad Murphy |
| Unknown Deck | 6th | LeoZhan |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 7th | T.J.Gullo |
| Unknown Deck | 8th | ShaunOB |
Kind of a cool Top 8 here. The event was won by Reanimator!
This is a solidly straightforward list here. The sideboard has some Shenanigans in it, and I don't mean the card. Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant is one heck of an interesting card to reanimate or put in off Show and Tell for sure.
The second-place finalist of the event was a cool Agatha's Soul Cauldron combo deck.
This list is super sick. Really leveraging the power of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker here alongside stuff like Goblin Welder. Really amazing deck for sure.
Bazaar of Boxes 10
Our good friends over at Bazaar of Boxes held another Legacy 1K event this past weekend in Tilburg! Big thanks to Michel of BoB for sending us a bunch of information on the event. You can check out all of Bazaar of Boxes' information over at their website. One super sick thing about this particular event was that there were plenty of cool alters + stickers by Kai Sawatari (sawatarix) of the Everyday Eternal Podcast being given out.
In addition, this event included a new competitive element called "The Brewers Cup" where the best brew of the day would be awarded a special mug titled "Brewers Cup" on it. This winner was decided by the tournament organizers, coverage crew, and judge team, and went to Raoul Selten for their sweet Dimir Midrange pile.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
Beanstalk decks were the most popular of the event, and it did very VERY well. Reanimator did great, as did Boros and Death's Shadow. Dimir Delver didn't do so hot overall despite a top finish.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 1st | Lars Broekhof |
| Reanimator | 2nd | Yannick Neleman |
| Death's Shadow | 3rd | Danny Sardjan |
| Boros Stompy | 4th | Paulo Joustra |
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 5th | Schrdr |
| Hive Mind Combo | 6th | Wannatog1 |
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 7th | Bjorn Keulemans |
| Dimir Delver | 8th | GuillermeF |
Lot of Beans in the Top 8 here, as that was the overall winner of the event.
The BUG Beans shell has proven itself to be quite strong overall, having access to a nice suite of removal and its threat density of Murktide + Bowmasters. This is a powerful deck to be playing right now.
In Second Place we had Reanimator.
Mono Black with a side of Depths coming in post-board? Be still my un-beating heart!
Also in this Top 8 we had some Boros Stompy action.
This is a solid-looking list for sure. I like the addition of Meltdown and Brotherhood's End out of the sideboard here. Brotherhood's End seems like a great way to mop up the mirror and other Red stompy decks.
Paper Event Announcement - Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy 13
We've got a paper event announcement to share! Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy 13 is returning to the Warp Gate in Columbus, OH on 3/16/2024. Entry is $55 and the prize pool is awesome as always.
You can find the announcement post here.
It's also worth noting that BCDL recently announced some expansion opportunities as Robert Wilson leaves Ohio and heads to Texas! You can find that big announcement here.
Legacy Challenge 2/3
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Saturday 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.
Delver decks were both at the top of the metagame in terms of popularity, and both Grixis/RUG had strong win rates. Reanimator also did very well, while Beanstalk (Non-Yorion) decks did okay. Dimir Delver did rather poorly here despite a top finish, while Lands and Black Midrange both did exceedingly well.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Grixis Delver | 1st | Kazuga |
| Doomsday | 2nd | clan |
| Beanstalk Control (Yorion) | 3rd | McWinSauce |
| Dimir Delver | 4th | JakeTMS |
| RUG Delver | 5th | PekkaChu |
| Black Midrange | 6th | _Shatun_ |
| RUG Delver | 7th | Baku_91 |
| RUG Delver | 8th | bjarnearne |
Quite a bit of Delver in this Top 8. In fact, the event was won by Grixis Delver.
The interesting aspect of note here is the addition of a single Preordain in the list, but also copies of Molten Collapse which is just the sweetest card. I like this list a lot.
In Second Place we had Doomsday.
Very straightforward Doomsday list here. March of Swirling Mist is a super unique way to turn off hate cards at instant speed by phasing them out.
Also in this Top 8 we had Yorion Beanstalk Control.
This list is sort of taking all of the stuff we expect out of Beanstalk + the 4C Ring Uro decks and slapping all of that together. It's very straightforward and clean in that regards.
At the bottom half of the Top 8 we had Black Midrange.
Stalactite Stalker has become such a cool card in enabling these Black Scam/Midrange decks to exist the way they do. It's really strong for sure.
Legacy Challenge 2/4
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the mid afternoon Sunday event. This event had 100 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. This data sheet is not complete due to not having all the round-by-round data, so all we have is metagame share data.
RUG Delver was the most popular deck here, followed by Beanstalk, Goblins, and Reanimator.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Riddlesmith Combo | 1st | Killabee |
| Red Stompy | 2nd | J.A.Eliso |
| RUG Delver | 3rd | toondoslav |
| Reanimator | 4th | ConnorM426 |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 5th | L4rss0n |
| Reanimator | 6th | Magic_Dads71522 |
| Hive Mind Combo | 7th | Dafne17 |
| Grixis Delver | 8th | kentaro_hokori |
This is a very interesting Top 8 for sure. At the end of the event it was Riddlesmith Combo that won.
This deck is super cool, and focused a lot harder on being mono-color than ever before (Ovalchase Daredevil doesn't count, it's never getting cast) which is interesting, but it makes a lot of sense to focus in on the game plan.
In Second Place we had Red Stompy.
Broadside Bombardiers is certainly a topic of discussion we touched on earlier. It's a really strong card and has really boosted these Red-aligned Stompy variants.
Further down the Top 8 we had Cephalid Breakfast.
Very clean and straightforward list here. This is a really good way to approach Breakfast right now, and this pilot has proved this deck's strength.
At the bottom of this Top 8 we had Hive Mind Combo.
Oh man this deck is so cool. I love everything about this.
Around the Web
- Brews of Paradise has a new episode! Check it out here.
- The Charlotte Legacy League has a new video on Goblins vs Sneak and Show. Check it out here.
- GreenSunsZenith.com has a video on 2012 Maverick in 2024. Check it out here.
- Is Stoneforge Mystic better than Bowmasters? StrassDaddy asks the question here.
- The Legacy Gambit is doing some 8Cast. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
BORBORYGMOS.
This Shadow+Stiflenought list is SICK.
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for continuing to support the column and join us next week as we continue our journey into Legacy!
As always you can reach me at all my associated links via my Link Tree! In addition, I'm always around the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the MTGLegacy Discord Server.
Until next time!
