It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen a real toolbox creature deck in Legacy. Natural Order is more likely to get either Craterhoof Behemoth or Progenitus, and Green Sun’s Zenith decks are usually only playing one or two singletons in the maindeck, with a few more options coming in out of the sideboard. Since the banning of Survival of the Fittest, there hasn’t really been any interest in building a creature deck full of singletons. However, with creatures becoming more efficient and powerful year after year, it seems like there should be a way to make <a href = "http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?23898-Trade-Pod-(Tradewind-Rider-Birthing-Pod)/page8" target="_blank">it work</a>:

Five-Color Fauna Shaman - Legacy | Memories of the Time

• Creatures (32)
• 1 Baleful Strix
• 1 Gaddock Teeg
• 1 Magus of the Moon
• 1 Merieke Ri Berit
• 1 Peacekeeper
• 1 Phyrexian Revoker
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 1 Quirion Ranger
• 1 Renegade Rallier
• 1 Sanctum Prelate
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 1 Scryb Ranger
• 1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
• 1 Vendilion Clique
• 4 Mother of Runes
• 2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
• 2 Spell Queller
• 3 Birds of Paradise
• 3 Noble Hierarch
• 4 Fauna Shaman

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Nissa, Steward of Elements

• Instants (4)
• 4 Brainstorm

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Green Sun's Zenith

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Aether Vial

• Lands (15)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Bayou
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 1 Taiga
• 2 Savannah
• 2 Tropical Island
• 2 Windswept Heath
• 2 Wooded Foothills
• 3 Misty Rainforest

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Abrupt Decay
• 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
• 4 Force of Will
• 1 Garruk Relentless
• 1 Orzhov Pontiff
• 3 Rest in Peace
• 1 Rhox War Monk
• 2 Swan Song

Buy This Deck

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<a target="_blank" href="http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/Magic%3A+The+Gathering/Mother of Runes">

The key here is that this deck starts with four Mother of Runes, which help ensure that your creature engines are difficult to break up. Cards like Leovold, Emissary of Trest, Spell Queller, and Fauna Shaman are much more powerful when they are backed up by Mother of Runes, which are draws the removal spells which would have hit them or shuts off removal altogether.

If the format is slow enough that you have time to set up your creature toolbox, Fauna Shaman seems like an incredibly flexible engine that you can customize to fit your metagame. Green Sun’s Zenith means that you will consistently have access to your Fauna Shamans, Mother of Runes means that you have time to get one or more activations. All of this means that, given enough time and Scryb Rangers, you get to do all the unfair things that Survival of the Fittest was capable of doing. You can find Squee, Goblin Nabob and grind out control decks. You can combo off with Volrath’s Shapeshifter and Phage, the Untouchable or Iona, Shield of Emeria and Loyal Retainers. You can even leave your mana up and find Spell Queller or Vendilion Clique during your opponent’s turn. The tricks are limited only by your knowledge of the card pool.

If you’re looking for a midrangey toolbox deck, this seems like a fun place to start. There’s infinite room for innovation, given the high density of creatures that have the potential to be Legacy playable in the right circumstances. Besides, if your metagame is predictable enough, then there are opportunities to preboard for matchups you know you’ll see and then ensure that you can find the cards that can swing those matchups.

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