Legacy

Grand Prix: Atlanta

More than anything else, the Grand Prix this past weekend was defined by what didn’t happen: Not one copy of Griselbrand (or Land Tax) made it into the Top 8. Since the banned-and-restricted announcement, people were claiming that Griselbrand was too good and that the deck would perform extremely well. While the reanimator deck did perform quite well (it was the second most played deck on Day 2 after Maverick), the format was able to respond adequately and keep the deck from stealing the show as people played more copies of Karakas and more copies of sideboarded graveyard hate in general (almost every deck in the Top 8 played sideboard Surgical Extractions). The most interesting deck from the weekend was Sam Black’s Zombies deck (with Goblin Bombardment) that became the obvious breakout deck to be talked about on Twitter as it just looks fun.

"Sam Black’s Legacy Zombies"

• Creatures (18)
• 3 Blood Artist
• 4 Bloodghast
• 4 Carrion Feeder
• 4 Gravecrawler
• 3 Tidehollow Sculler

• Spells (22)
• 1 Tragic Slip
• 4 Cabal Therapy
• 4 Faithless Looting
• 4 Lingering Souls
• 4 Thoughtseize
• 3 Goblin Bombardment
• 2 Bitterblossom

• Lands (20)
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Undiscovered Paradise
• 2 Marsh Flats
• 3 Badlands
• 3 Bloodstained Mire
• 3 Polluted Delta
• 3 Scrubland
• 3 Verdant Catacombs

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Dark Confidant
• 1 Darkblast
• 2 Disenchant
• 2 Go for the Throat
• 2 Perish
• 2 Pithing Needle
• 3 Surgical Extraction
• 1 Vindicate

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Gaudenis won the event with a pretty traditional R/U/G list (but note the inclusion of a sideboarded Gilded Drake for the Griselbrand match).

"Gaudenis’s R/U/G"

• Creatures (12)
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 3 Tarmogoyf
• 4 Delver of Secrets
• 4 Nimble Mongoose

• Spells (30)
• 2 Fire // Ice
• 2 Spell Snare
• 3 Lightning Bolt
• 3 Thought Scour
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Daze
• 4 Force of Will
• 4 Spell Pierce
• 4 Ponder

• Lands (18)
• 3 Tropical Island
• 3 Volcanic Island
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Wasteland

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Cursed Totem
• 1 Gilded Drake
• 1 Pyroblast
• 1 Red Elemental Blast
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 4 Submerge
• 3 Surgical Extraction

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One thing I never understood about R/U/G lists is why they don’t run a singleton Taiga to be less vulnerable to Wastelands, so if you know why that is, feel free to comment about it.

SCG: Seattle

The Top 8 metagame of the SCG Open was much more diversified (but is probably a worse indication of the actual Legacy metagame). What’s most surprising is that Merfolk, a deck that’s been on the fringe of playability as of late, was the only archetype to put two people into the Top 8 in addition to being the deck played by eventual winner Ian Kendall.

"Legacy Merfolk"

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Sower of Temptation
• 2 Phantasmal Image
• 4 Coralhelm Commander
• 4 Cursecatcher
• 4 Lord of Atlantis
• 4 Merrow Reejerey
• 4 Silvergill Adept
• 1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

• Spells (16)
• 1 Dismember
• 4 Daze
• 4 Force of Will
• 3 Standstill
• 4 Aether Vial

• Lands (20)
• 3 Island
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 2 Flooded Strand
• 2 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Mutavault
• 4 Underground Sea
• 4 Wasteland

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Grafdigger's Cage
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 2 Pithing Needle
• 1 Tormod's Crypt
• 1 Dread of Night
• 2 Hydroblast
• 3 Submerge
• 1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
• 2 Perish

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Standard

SCG: Seattle

Of course, the deck that garnered the most talk from this event (especially after Mutilate was announced as a reprint) is the mono-black deck that made Top 8.

"Standard Mono-Black"

• Creatures (9)
• 2 Grave Titan
• 2 Wurmcoil Engine
• 4 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Griselbrand

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 2 Liliana of the Veil
• 3 Karn Liberated

• Spells (21)
• 2 Doom Blade
• 2 Go for the Throat
• 2 Increasing Ambition
• 2 Sever the Bloodline
• 3 Black Sun's Zenith
• 2 Batterskull
• 4 Pristine Talisman
• 4 Sphere of the Suns

• Lands (25)
• 19 Swamp
• 3 Buried Ruin
• 3 Cavern of Souls

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Mimic Vat
• 3 Nihil Spellbomb
• 2 Ratchet Bomb
• 2 Hex Parasite
• 2 Spellskite
• 1 Curse of Death's Hold
• 1 Go for the Throat
• 1 Black Sun's Zenith
• 2 Distress

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I have no idea whether this deck is good, but it hasn’t been picked up on Magic Online by many players, so I’m tempted to say that it’s about as good as it looks (sorry people, unless R&D reprints Cabal Coffers, we won’t see a Tier 1 mono-black deck ever again). In addition to the mono-black deck, another interesting deck that made Top 8 (that has slowly and surely been gaining popularity online) is Zombie Pod.

"Zombie Pod"

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Butcher Ghoul
• 1 Manic Vandal
• 1 Phyrexian Obliterator
• 1 Zealous Conscripts
• 2 Falkenrath Aristocrat
• 4 Blood Artist
• 4 Diregraf Ghoul
• 4 Geralf's Messenger
• 4 Gravecrawler
• 2 Perilous Myr
• 2 Phyrexian Metamorph

• Spells (11)
• 2 Go for the Throat
• 3 Tragic Slip
• 2 Mortarpod
• 4 Birthing Pod

• Lands (23)
• 12 Swamp
• 3 Woodland Cemetery
• 4 Blackcleave Cliffs
• 4 Dragonskull Summit

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Nihil Spellbomb
• 2 Ratchet Bomb
• 1 Gloom Surgeon
• 2 Phyrexian Obliterator
• 2 Altar's Reap
• 2 Doom Blade
• 1 Surgical Extraction
• 2 Bonfire of the Damned

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I don’t really understand how the copies of Woodland Cemetery are worth it in a deck with eleven spells that cost 1 (I’d just replace them with three more swamps or three Caverns), but the deck is favored against Delver and other control decks. R/G aggro winning the whole event is quite interesting, as the deck is not favorable against Delver with Restoration Angel, but maybe this player had some new innovation to deal with it that I didn’t notice.

Pro Tour Qualifiers

There were six PTQs reported on the Pro Tour: Return to Ravnica info page this week.

The results generally speak for themselves, and there are no really interesting results besides the G/U ramp deck, which looks kinda underpowered when compared to more traditional Wolf Run Ramp.

"G/U Ramp"

• Creatures (11)
• 4 Frost Titan
• 4 Primeval Titan
• 3 Solemn Simulacrum

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Karn Liberated

• Spells (21)
• 2 Vapor Snag
• 3 Whipflare
• 4 Ponder
• 4 Rampant Growth
• 4 Temporal Mastery
• 4 Sphere of the Suns

• Lands (27)
• 1 Mountain
• 3 Island
• 5 Forest
• 1 Inkmoth Nexus
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 2 Evolving Wilds
• 3 Cavern of Souls
• 3 Sulfur Falls
• 4 Glimmerpost
• 4 Hinterland Harbor

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Batterskull
• 2 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Karn Liberated
• 1 Naturalize
• 1 Surgical Extraction
• 4 Wurmcoil Engine
• 2 Zealous Conscripts

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– Chris Mascioli

@dieplstks on Twitter