This Week in Legacy: The Bird is the Word
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 what Modern Horizons 3 is doing to Legacy since it's release. I am back after a week off, and I felt talking about the prior week's event was pretty moot with MH3 imminently releasing last week, as well as getting prepped for the first MTGO Creator Showdown event last Saturday. We have a lot of cool stuff to look at with MH3, and a bunch of Challenges showcasing all the new decks.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Modernizing Legacy - MH3 and it's Impact on Legacy
Modern Horizons 3 is here, and the effect it's already having on the metagame is already very real. In fact, so real that I've seen a lot of chatter firmly centered on two diametrically opposed cards.
Both Nadu and Necrodominance are very much on a real radar in the format at the moment, as Nadu is showcasing itself in several differing shells, from Cephalid Breakfast builds to a very focused Bant Stoneblade variant using cards like Springheart Nantuko and Field of the Dead to even seeing play in shells like Bant Maverick. The value of the Bird Wizard is exceedingly real. It's hard to deal with as a 3/4 with flying, and even attempting to remove it could lean into scenarios where cards like Nomads en-Kor can flood the board with creatures with the Nantuko or Field in play, making the targeted removal against Nadu even worse.
We've seen iterations on this in both Non-Yorion and Yorion builds, as Danny Batterman took down a local event to him with a big Yorion build (playing Pre-War Formalwear no less). Yorion seems even more insane with Nadu, since you can blink Nadu and all your other nontoken creatures and then you can Nomads again in your end step when they come back as new objects.
There's a lot of very real discussion happening about this Bird Wizard for sure. It's being recognized as something of a powerhouse and has rejuvenated multiple strategies like Bant Stoneblade, Breakfast, and even traditional Elves has been seen playing it. It's a powerful card and something to keep an eye out for.
On the other half of this equation, we have Necrodominance. We had a lot to say about this card, and so far with the limited data from the week before, the very focused all-in Necro deck is not proving to live too much up to the hype, but the deck is exceedingly wild and can run out some really powerful Turn 1 kills, making it one of the more interesting and also difficult to play all-in combo decks of the format at the moment.
The very awkward part of this deck for me and my own experience playing it is the mana. The mana this deck needs is stretched thin. There are some turns this deck needs to make BBB, 1U, and some combination of 1G/R in the same turn, and that is really stretching it hard. When the deck does its thing, it's incredibly cool, and sometimes it has some strong protected wins, but if you have an unprotected win and you're stopped by anything like Force of Will or a taxing spell, then rebuilding from that is incredibly difficult.
The other big surprise out of this set is the rise of ELDRAZI again as an archetype in Legacy.
These Eldrazi decks are a lot different and very similar to how they used to look back in the day, but having a lot of new options has been able to push these decks hard. We've even seen some variants of this in red for stuff like Eldrazi Linebreaker.
However, as we will see with this past week's Challenges, while a lot of really cool fringe and interesting decks got cards out of this set that seem very interesting and stuff, the top tier decks simply managed to absorb cards that look even better. Namely Scam and Rescaminator both getting cards like Psychic Frog.
Rescaminator has proven very early on that the deck still has the power level to smash the format on its side, revisiting the conversations around whether or not Grief is a bannable card or not over and over. It is rather unfortunate to see, but the deck is insanely strong and it just simply got some better cards and some more interesting action, and it sits in this nice space where it creates a rough tension on the format right now.
However, that being said, it is early and we're only a week in. We're still figuring out things and I'm interested to see where all these weird new MH3 strategies take us. From stuff like Disruptor Flute to Glaring Fleshraker, there's a ton of cool new cards that aren't just Nadu or Necro to be messing around with, so get out there and check out all the sweet and interesting stuff!
Legacy Challenge 32 6/12/2024
The first Challenge event of the week was the very first one with Modern Horizons 3 legal. It had 45 players thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
UB Reanimator was still the most insanely popular deck of the event at 20% of the metagame with a solid over 64% win rate. Cephalid Breakfast also did very well, and newcomer Necrodominance Combo didn't do that well at only three pilots and only one of those in Top 16 (at 15th).
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| UB Reanimator | 1st | nahuel10 |
| Colorless Cloudpost | 2nd | Filho_do_MOL |
| Red Stompy | 3rd | Jumba |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 4th | GuiBonella |
| UB Reanimator | 5th | Sven745 |
| Stoneblade | 6th | McWinSauce |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 7th | Carroz |
| Mono Black Reanimator | 8th | Roodslay |
Wildly interesting Top 8 here. As we mentioned, UB Reanimator did so well, and it won the event.
This is a very stock-looking list prior to MH3, as we will see throughout this week some things with this deck definitely change.
Our first look at some very real MH3 cards though comes in our Second Place finalist on Cloudpost.
Disruptor Flute was not a card that was fully on my radar for this set, but it looks super sweet in a deck like this where it can shut off things, and being Flash speed helps a bunch. Sowing Mycospawn also looks really good here, being both a ramp card and a Strip Mine effect (THAT EXILES).
Also in this Top 8 we had Cephalid Breakfast.
We definitely discussed Nadu a lot in this article before this. This is a solid approach to this deck and looks quite good.
Legacy Challenge 32 6/14/2024
The second Challenge of the week was the Friday event. This event had 35 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 datasheet here.
Again, UB Reanimator took top spot, with a very good-looking win rate. Cephalid Breakfast continued to look great. The Necrodominance deck made one Top 8 here, but it's overall win rate was dragged down by the other player, at a very small 2 player sample size.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| UB Reanimator | 1st | Munchlax446 |
| UB Reanimator | 2nd | 567konner |
| Doomsday | 3rd | Eureka22422 |
| Pox | 4th | pokerswizard |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 5th | MisterAsiago |
| UB Reanimator | 6th | Naisirc |
| Necrodominance Combo | 7th | Maxtortion |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 8th | sakuragi21722749 |
Quite a bit of Reanimator here, with the finals being two UB Reanimator decks.
The first list is much more stock prior to MH3, although the implementation of Dauthi main and Bowmasters in the sideboard is interesting. The Second Place list though is very interesting as we are starting to see how MH3 is impacting this deck with cards like Psychic Frog and another interesting development in main deck FOUR copies of Brazen Borrower, which deals with a lot of different things. This is certainly interesting technology.
Also in this Top 8 we had the Necrodominance deck.
We talked about this deck a lot earlier as well. I think this deck is interesting but it certainly has its varianced moments. Curious to see how this one plays out long term.
Legacy Challenge 32 6/15/2024
The third Challenge was the early morning Saturday event. 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 datasheet here.
Again UB Reanimator was super popular, but it rode the middle of the line in this event. The deck that looked the overall best was none other than ELDRAZI.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Eldrazi | 1st | acydcytryk |
| Ruby Storm | 2nd | Peppembr |
| UB Reanimator | 3rd | Naisirc |
| Death and Taxes (Yorion) | 4th | yoshiwata |
| Red Stompy | 5th | Locutus79 |
| Dimir Scam | 6th | trunks132 |
| Eldrazi | 7th | Mogged |
| Red Painter | 8th | kanican |
Oh my god, I feel like I'm back in 2016 again! Eldrazi winning a Challenge? YES.
This deck got a bunch of new stuff to play around with from MH3. Cards like Sowing Mycospawn, but also stuff like It That Heralds the End and Glaring Fleshraker all look very good. Devourer of Destiny is also super interesting to set up your first draw which is insane in post-board games. I love this deck a bunch, it's so cool.
In Second Place we had RUBY STORM.
The biggest upgrade here is the addition of Ral, Monsoon Mage as a Goblin Electromancer effect in mono-red, but also the randomness of potentially flipping at a point where you can ultimate him is groovy. Vexing Bauble and to a larger extent Urza's Saga also play a huge role here in having disruption plus a potential backup plan if things go wrong with Construct tokens.
Also in this Top 8 we had Dimir Scam.
I am thrilled that Psychic Frog is seeing play. It seems like an incredibly cool card for these shells. Also sideboard access to a Blood Moon-like effect in Harbinger of the Seas (making Islands is not so bad for this deck) is really cool.
Legacy Challenge 32 6/16/2024
The fourth event was the early morning Sunday event. This event had 47 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 datasheet here.
UB Reanimator was popular again, with an over 50% win rate. Eldrazi suffered as did Cephalids, while Red Stompy looked great.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Red Stompy | 1st | Jumba |
| Oops! All Spells | 2nd | medvedev |
| Grixis Delver | 3rd | _INF_ |
| UB Reanimator | 4th | GzusReturned |
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 5th | Tomko303 |
| Necrodominance Combo | 6th | UrzaEnjoyer |
| RUG Delver | 7th | dag8 |
| UB Reanimator | 8th | kasa |
Very nice looking Top 8. At the end of the event it was Red Stompy that won.
What MH3 cards? Who need em?! Rabble Rabble smash!
In Second Place we had Oops! All Spells.
A predominantly Mono Black variant is interesting, leaning on the fact that the deck can now play a bunch more MDFC bolt lands thanks to MH3. Boggart Trawler and Fell the Profane make for some interesting additions to the deck, and being able to Scam at the same time is reasonable.
Also in this Top 8 we had Grixis Delver.
More Psychic Frog! This card seems like gas with Dragon's Rage Channeler for sure. Also being able to pitch cards through something like Chalice for a bigger threat and feeding your eventual Murktide without using mana every turn to cast cards into a Chalice seems gross.
Legacy Challenge 64 6/16/2024
The final Challenge event of the weekend was the 64-player Sunday event. This event had 76 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 datasheet here.
UB Reanimator was still popular and despite a Top 8 appearance, it's overall win rate was pretty low. Grixis Delver did quite well here as did Red Stompy. Oops! All Spells was also very popular.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Colorless Cloudpost | 1st | TrueFuturism |
| Dimir Scam | 2nd | dganev |
| Dimir Delver | 3rd | silviawataru |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 4th | susurrus_mtg |
| UB Reanimator | 5th | random_deck |
| Grixis Delver | 6th | JUJUBEAN__2004 |
| Lands | 7th | beware_the_water |
| Doomsday | 8th | wonderPreaux |
Quite an interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Cloudpost that won.
This list continues to look even more sweet every time I gaze upon it. Having two copies of Urza's Tower to turn on with Planar Nexus is really sweet.
In Second Place we had BUG Scam.
Uro and Psychic Frog seems quite interesting together, not going to lie. This is a really sweet list.
Also in this Top 8 we had Doomsday.
The real tech here is four copies of Vexing Bauble. If your pile includes having a Bauble in play after you Doomsday, I think you're winning.
Around the Web
- Maxtortion has a video on NADU INFECT. Check it out here.
- 1MrLee has a video on Cloudpost and Emry. Check it out here.
- The Eternal Glory Podcast has a new episode out on MH3. Check it out here.
- Douges has a video on Nadu Maverick. Check it out here.
- ALL of Eternal Durdles Set review videos are now in one video. Check this massive undertaking out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
TAINTED PACT.
Mono White Blink is sweet.
4C LOAM.
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!
