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Main » Articles » 5 Decks You Can't Miss This Week

5 Decks You Can't Miss This Week

Carlos Gutierrez
Posted on November 7, 2014
 Reddit

Grand Prix New Jersey, featuring the Legacy format, is around the corner and I couldn't be more excited. Treasure Cruise may be the new big thing, but Legacy is still one of the deepest and most diverse formats Magic has to offer. This week we're gearing up for one of the most exciting Legacy events of the year with four sweet decks that are a little off the beaten path. So read on to find out what kind of awesome strategies Treasure Cruise enables, what Master of Waves can do in the new Standard, and how Commander Eesha fits in to Legacy.

Before we dive into Legacy, let's take a look at Standard. It's format dominated by midrangey threats like Siege Rhino, Wingmate Roc, and Mantis Rider, but that doesn't mean you're locked into playing one of those strategies. This week Matt Higgs put together an awesome aggressive alternative to these top tier Standard powerhouses:

UB Mill ? Khans of Tarkir Standard | Matt Higgs

This deck has a number of different gameplans, all of which have unique potential in this new Standard format. The primary gameplan is Altar of the Brood plus Master of Waves. If games are going to go reasonably long, then some combination of these cards will let you get pretty close to milling your opponent out. Random Singing-Bell Strikes and Dictate of Kruphixes will certainly help you get enough devotion, and any extra copies of Altar of the Brood or Master of Waves means you can mill in excess of 20 cards reasonably easily.

To back up that plan, you've got Ashiok as a plan against slower, more controlling decks. Ashiok is a threat that comes down early, contributes to your long-game plan of milling out your opponents, and can help generate card advantage and a board presence in those games that are all about attrition.

Worst case? Aggroing out your opponent with Master of Waves and Frost Lynx isn't a bad plan. Focusing in on these two creatures seems like a great place to be when most of the aggressive decks of the format can't realistically race a Master of Waves.

This deck has a lot of angles to attack from and seems like a blast to play. There's enough flexibility that I think there's a real potential here if you're looking for something sweet to take to your Friday Night Magic.

Let's delve into Legacy. Treasure Cruise may be the shiniest new toy we've seen in awhile, but that doesn't mean that's all the format has going on. We've seen a number of really interesting Ancient Tomb Stompy decks crop up over the last few weeks. Everything from Moggcatcher to Kalonian Hydra have shown up in these lists. DAPOKPOK thinks it's about time we saw a White take on Chalice of the Void, and I couldn't agree more.

Soldier Stompy ? Legacy | DAPOKPOK, 3-1 Legacy Daily Event

This deck has a lot of the standard Ancient Tomb openings. Chalice of the Void for one is the big one. Trinisphere is a possibility if you decide you're interested in such things. DAPOKPOK's deck is different though. He's focusing on Suppression Field and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben as backup to his Chalice of the Void, and beyond that is pushing a Soldier theme.

Enlistment Officer and Captain of the Watch can grind out cards. Preeminent Captain hits the board as early as turn one and is a veritable Goblin Lackey in this style of deck. Commander Eesha does a reasonable impression of True-Name Nemesis with the additional upside of blocking Griselbrand. Gustcloak Savior is interesting in that all your attacks are free. You get to see how your opponent decides to block before you have to decide to commit to your attacks or not.

The question is whether this deck can keep up with Treasure Cruise plus Lightning Bolt decks. Most of your cards are powerful, stand alone threats. Many of them are much more expensive than Lightning Bolt but still vulnerable to the cheap instant. It seems difficult to imagine this being able to consistently race Delver variants, but you should be well-positioned against other midrangey decks. There are many decks that had trouble beating Goblin Lackey into Siege-Gang Commander at other points in Legacy. Who's to say that Preeminent Captain into Captain of the Watch should be any different?

Treasure Cruise isn't the only delve spell in Legacy and it doesn't only fit in to Delver decks. Any deck with a pile of cheap cantrips and fetchlands is a great shell for these powerful draw engines, and SVKNOE has found a good control shell. Forget grinding out cards with Counterbalance and Sensei's Divining Top. You can just chain together insane delve spells to stay ahead the whole game.

[Cardlist Title= UWR Control ? Legacy | SVKNOE, 4-0 Legacy Daily Event]

If you're trying to beat an aggro deck, the best way accomplish that is to go just a little bit bigger. Just because that aggro deck is Blue doesn't mean the theory changes. SVKNOE has cut the Delvers and Monastery Swiftspears for more delve spells and answers. In a format full of Delver of Secrets and Treasure Cruises, you want to be the deck with even more efficient answers and more draw spells.

If you trade resources one-for-one, the first person to resolve a draw spell is going to be very far ahead. This deck has six draw spells plus Jaces at the top of the curve. Stoneforge Mystic into Batterskull is very difficult for the base Blue-Red decks to beat as long as you can protect it with your Misdirecitons and other counterspells.

On the whole, this deck seems like it occupies an interesting space between the Delver of Secrets decks and the Counterbalance decks. It may be that it's just big enough to overpower the aggressive decks and just fast enough to race the combo decks. Grand Prix New Jersey will be a great testing ground for this style of deck, and I can't wait to see if it comes out on top.

Of course, Treasure Cruise doesn't only power fair decks. There have been a number of takes on storm combo with Cruise and it slots right into the cantrip-based combo decks like Reanimator and Show and Tell. of course, it also powers new combo decks, like this one featuring Academy Rector.

[Cardlist title= Cruise Rector ? Legacy | Gotsjo]

So it's just another Omniscience/Show and Tell deck. Except that it's not. Academy Rector and Treasure Cruise give you enough haymakers to slog through a mountain of countermagic and discard and still come out on top. Academy Rector even gives you access to utility Enchantments to put into play like Form of the Dragon.

Plan A is to put Omniscience into play, either via Show and Tell or by sacrificing Academy Rector to Cabal Therapy. From there you can chain cantrips into Burning Wish. Burning Wish gets you Time of Need, which sets up Emrakul triggers to end the game. The backup plan is to just jam Show and Tell for Emrakul or Griselbrand, which has been a tried and true strategy in Legacy for the last several years.

The question is whether Academy Rector is better or worse than Sneak Attack. Cabal Therapy gives you extra disruption at the expensive of being more vulnerable to Wasteland. Your combo turns end up being just a little cheaper, since Sneak Attack plus activation costs five, but you have to give up all of the Ancient Tombs to fit in all of these extra colors.

Finally, Treasure Cruise could enable new tribal strategies. Goblins and Merfolk don't really put a ton of cards into the graveyard, but Slivers have been making a slight resurgence in response to the removal plus Treasure Cruise decks. This build seems like one of the best places to start:

[Cardlist title= Slivers - Legacy | BakedCake]

Crystalline Sliver and Syphon Sliver are a big deal in this format. If everyone is playing Lightning Bolt plus Treasure Cruise aggro decks, they're going to have more cards and they're playing more efficient cards. Your best bet is to just overpower them with raw synergy, and twelve lords is a difficult to overcome. There's a very narrow window where Lightning Bolt is a relevant removal spell, and Syphon Sliver makes it impossible for your opponents to realistically race your enormous squad.

It's been awhile since we've seen a non-Elves tribal deck take the format by storm, and I really hope that Treasure Cruise can give Slivers enough power to overwhelm the Delver decks. Is there space for a fair aggressive deck in this format dominated by combo and Delver of Secrets? I suppose we'll find out next weekend.

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TAGS articles, standard, constructed, current events, deck lists, legacy, decks, carlos gutierrez, 5 decks

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