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Main » Articles » Impacting Legacy with NPH

Impacting Legacy with NPH

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Posted on May 5, 2011
 Reddit

Hello. My name is Liam Kane, hailing from Los Angeles, California, and I am addicted to Storm decks. I am usually found wielding The Epic Storm.

New Phyrexia is one of the most format-changing sets ever to be printed with regard to Legacy. In my opinion, it will be as format-changing to Legacy as Worldwake was to Vintage. At the heart of all this change, there is one card. Mental Misstep.

Mental Misstep

Mental Misstep poses an interesting predicament for Storm players, because it doesn't counter our business spells, but can easily keep us from going off. If the Adam Barnellos or Drew Levinses of the world are correct and every Legacy deck is now fifty-six cards, playing a deck that has problems going off through Mental Misstep doesn't seem like a grand idea. This is not to say that Mental Misstep will be killing Dark Ritual decks, but it does make those decks a lot more inconsistent. Although Misstep doesn't counter Infernal Tutor, Burning Wish, or Ad Nauseam, having our Brainstorms, Ponders, Dark Rituals, and Rite of Flames turned off is extremely annoying. This leaves me with three options: play a Storm deck that is more resilient to Mental Misstep; play a deck that ignores Mental Misstep; and play a deck that greatly profits from Misstep's being printed. Many people will try slamming these into decks like Zoo or Goblins. I think that is incorrect; life is actually a relevant resource. You have to keep 1 or more not to lose, and a lot of decks in Legacy are trying to make your life total less than that as fast as they can. Helping them out is not what you want to be doing. However, people will try it anyway, and they will complain when they rip Mental Misstep off of the top instead of something that advances their game plan.

Due to my personal play style, I will either end up playing a Storm deck or a deck that can abuse Mental Misstep the most.

Storm

In a world without Mental Misstep, I was playing one of these two lists:

"TES"

"ANT"

While both of these might still be viable, I think moving toward a less vulnerable list while the hype is up should prove to be a strong move, which makes me want to tune the ANT list over the TES list since it relies less on its 1-drops.

The most vulnerable part of ANT is the fact that it runs so few business spells and relies so much on its cantrips to find them, but that can easily be fixed. As far as extra business spells, the only one I really like is Burning Wish. I know Ari Lax and a few others advocate Grim Tutor, but that really cuts off Ad Nauseam in a big way. One of the things I need to ask myself is, what do I want to cut to add the Wishes? Let's try this:

−2 Chrome Mox

−1 Preordain

−1 Ad Nauseam

−1 Infernal Tutor

−2 Verdant Catacombs

+4 Burning Wish

+1 Volcanic Island

+2 Bloodstained Mire

Wait! I just took out two business spells after saying that I wanted to increase the number of business spells!? The rationale behind that is that I want Burning Wish to be an actual business spell without having to run Empty the Warrens (which requires more Red sources) or Diminishing Returns (which is far too risky with sixteen lands and zero Chrome Moxes), so I have to move the Infernal to the sideboard. Chrome Moxes are just the easiest things to cut, especially since I'm adding in an extra land. The Ad Nauseam is no longer needed to meet a threshold of business spells, and flipping Ad Nauseam off Ad Nauseam can be very lethal. Last, the Preordain got the ax due to it being Missteppable and not being Ponder or Brainstorm or Dark Ritual.

Adding Burning Wish allows us to naturally draw more business spells since we went from six to eight, which is still more than Ari's list with seven, while maintaining enough cantrips and fetch lands to power up Cabal Rituals. Keep in mind that Burning Wish is also a solid play on turn two to get your Infernal Tutor, but be careful about exposing your Volcanic Island to Wastelands.

Our sideboard will also have a massive working-over to accommodate Burning Wish. The biggest loss is Xantid Swarm. I am not taking them out because the deck can no longer support it, but because Blue decks now have eight answers to him without having to board in removal. That is absolutely crushing to Xantid Swarm. Also, our anti-hate should not be vulnerable to Mental Missteps. Keeping that in mind, the first changes will look like this:

−4 Xantid Swarm

−1 Krosan Grip

−1 Tropical Island

−2 Chain of Vapor

+1 Tendrils of Agony

+1 Infernal Tutor

+1 Ill-Gotten Gains

+1 Meltdown

+1 Pyroclasm

+1 Hurkyl's Recall

+2 Echoing Truth

The 2cc answers we added to dodge Mental Missteps out of decks with hatebears; everything else is fairly basic. Keep in mind that Iggy loops with Burning Wish cost the same amount of mana as those with Grim Tutor.

With all the changes made, the list should look like this:

"ANT 2.0"

Keep in mind that Doomsday now becomes a card that you can go off with; here are the most relevant piles (this is straight off The Source):

Non-Pass-the-Turn Piles:

Hand requirements: Brainstorm and any two cards

Mana required: uu

Storm count: 7

Doomsday pile: Brainstorm, two Lion's Eye Diamonds, Ponder, Tendrils of Agony

Note 1: If the Ponder in the pile (i.e., the fourth card) is replaced with Ill-Gotten Gains, you have the same requirements for 10 Storm count.

Note 2: If in addition to the Ill-Gotten Gains change, you change the Tendrils of Agony for a Burning Wish, you have the same requirements for 11 Storm count.

Hand requirements: Brainstorm, any two cards, and any cantrip

Mana required: u

Storm count: 8

Doomsday pile: Lotus Petal, Brainstorm, two Lion's Eye Diamonds, Ponder, Tendrils of Agony

Note 1: If the Brainstorm in the pile (i.e., the fourth card) is replaced with Ill-Gotten Gains, you have the same requirements for 11 Storm count.

Note 2: If in addition to the Ill-Gotten Gains change, you change the Tendrils of Agony for a Burning Wish, you have the same requirements for 12 Storm count.

Pass-the-Turn Piles:

Hand requirements: Infernal Tutor and any card

Mana required: 1ub

Storm count: 10

Doomsday pile: Brainstorm, two Lion's Eye Diamonds, Ill-Gotten Gains, Tendrils of Agony

Note: If the extra card in your hand is Ponder, you have the same pile for Storm count 10 but for only uu as mana requirement.

Hand requirements: Ponder and one extra card

Mana required: uu

Storm count: 9

Doomsday pile: Brainstorm, two Lion's Eye Diamonds, Ill-Gotten Gains, Tendrils of Agony

Note 1: If the extra card you have in hand is Ponder, you have exactly the same pile but for Storm count of 10.

Note 2: If you replace the Tendrils of Agony for a Burning Wish, you have the same pile but for Storm count of 10. Note that with a hand of double Ponder in this case, you'll have a Storm count of 12.

This is an example of how you can make some modifications in the piles by exchanging the order of some cards.

Modification of the double Ponder pile (interesting to keep in mind):

Hand requirements: Ponder and Tendrils of Agony

Mana required: uu

Storm count: 10

Doomsday pile: Brainstorm, two Lion's Eye Diamond, Ill-Gotten Gains, Ponder

Keep in mind that any pile that requires Ponder can use Preordain instead.

Taking Advantage of Mental Misstep

Merfolk is the deck that gains the most from Mental Misstep, with Team America and Bant Aggro coming in a close second. The reasons are that they are both decks that do not rely on 1-drops, but they both have huge problems with 1-drops like AEther Vial, Swords to Plowshares, and Xantid Swarm, among others.

As an aside, the fact that those three decks gain the most from a card like Mental Misstep leads me to believe that people who think that control is going to make a comeback have not looked at these Blue aggro decks. That, paired with the fact that Counterbalance decks are becoming absurdly expensive, leads me to believe that we shall not be seeing a lot of Blue decks that aren't using Lord of Atlantis.

With what I believe will be a rise in Merfolk, I do not want to be playing a deck that cannot beat Merfolk, so Team America seems like a poor choice. On a personal note, I have never been successful with a Green/White creature deck, so I will try adapting Merfolk to the post-NPH metagame.

I think a good place to start with is Alex Bertoncini's winning list from Boston:

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

1 Sower of Temptation

2 Merfolk Sovereign

4 Coralhelm Commander

4 Cursecatcher

4 Lord of Atlantis

4 Merrow Reejerey

4 Silvergill Adept

2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

1 Spell Pierce

4 Daze

4 Force of Will

4 AEther Vial

[/Spells]

[Lands]

13 Island

1 Mishra's Factory

4 Mutavault

4 Wasteland

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

2 Llawan, Cephalid Empress

2 Hydroblast

2 Spell Pierce

3 Submerge

3 Relic of Progenitus

2 Umezawa's Jitte

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

The first thing I want to do is make room for four Mental Missteps. Since I expect a lot of people to do the same, using Missteps to protect your Vial and still having some to protect your Lords from Swords seems like a solid plan. I have never been a fan of Sovereign. Ever. To me, it always seemed that it was just a filler card that also helped when your good Lords got burned, sent farming, their throats ripped out, squashed in a variety of ways, or send into exile. Now we have access to a better card that fills a similar role, while also just being awesome when your opponent doesn't have removal, although it is a much worse top-deck. Another thing is that I always felt like I was being flooded with twenty-one lands, so I will definitely not follow in his footsteps and go to twenty-two lands. Last, I think Misstep is a straight upgrade to Pierce in Game 1, so that can go out as well.

−2 Merfolk Sovereign

−1 Spell Pierce

−1 Island

+4 Mental Misstep

Although this change might seem small, it actually sets up Merfolk to dominate for a while. This makes Merfolk much more resilient to the problems it once faced—namely, burn, Swords, and Grim Lavamancer, while making it more proactive against combo by allowing it to tap out whenever. Merfolk crushes control decks so hard that it's really not funny. If you don't believe me, go ahead and try playing a Blue-based control deck against the fish. You will end up agreeing with me.

Although Mental Misstep helps in Merfolk's fight against Red, your sideboard still needs to be geared to helping with that matchup. Here is what I recommend:

1 Sower of Temptation

3 Submerge

1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

2 Umezawa's Jitte

2 Hydroblast

3 Relic of Progenitus

3 Llawan, Cephalid Empress

As you can see, not a lot changed with the sideboard; the Kira is there because we can devote more to the aggro matchup, since we have fewer dead cards against combo. The three Llawans might seem like too many, but I really don't want to lose to the mirror.

Cards in NPH That Aren't Mental Misstep

If Mental Misstep were the only card in New Phyrexia that was going to impact Legacy, we would all be very excited. However, there are more cards for us to explore!

Dismember is an interesting new Black removal spell. Read that again; I said it was a Black removal spell. People are going to try playing the new Phyrexian cards in decks that can't realistically cast them, and then wonder why they keep losing to aggro. Look at this as more of a scaling Snuff Out than as a removal spell for every color. Team America finally has a card that kills Tarmogoyf, Dark Confidant, Arcbound Ravager, and Tombstalker. That in and of itself is huge. That being said, I would not play more than two in any list.

Beast Within gives Combo Elves an answer to every single permanent that could potentially give them a fit. Also, it makes another deck a serious contender in this new metagame, due to the fact that it ignores Mental Misstep fairly well.

"NO Stompy"

The basic idea is that you want to be able to disrupt your opponent while having a threat to bash his skull in with. Beast Within can be both disruption and a threat, which is exactly what this deck needed. I can just imagine how much fun it will be to cast a Trinisphere, followed by destroying all your opponent's lands with Wastelands and turning his basics into Beasts while protecting your life total with a Tarmogoyf. Did I mention that on top of being able to disrupt with Trinisphere and bash your opponent's face in with Tarmogoyfs, this deck can easily cast a turn-two Natural Order into Progenitus? However, the traditional Stompy problem has yet to be solved: How does this deck get any consistency? Beast Within helps, but you are still very much at the mercy of your deck.

Surgical Extraction is the reason that I have not spoken about any Loam decks thus far. Ever deck now has an answer to Vengevines, Life from the Loam, and specific graveyard combos such as Cephalid Breakfast and Reanimator. Anyone who thinks this will be enough to stop Dredge by itself is in for a nasty surprise. Also, there is a school of people who think that this kind of effect is amazing against Storm. It rarely is, so unless you are taking out literal dead cards, this is not worth it.

Cards That People Think Will Impact Legacy, But Really Won't

Sword of War and Peace probably will not show up in Legacy too often. I don't actually think that this is better to draw than something like Jitte or Fire and Ice; all it has to offer is the protection, which still doesn't get past Tarmogoyf in Legacy.

Gitaxian Probe is another card that people seem to think is better than it actually is. Not many decks want a Street Wraith effect, but I guess if you do, this is better than Wraith at times, while making it counterable makes it worse at other times. All in all, this is the type of card that is either ridiculously broken or extremely bad/ I think it is more on the bad end of things.

I originally thought Phyrexian Obliterator would be insane, but on further consideration, I'm left feeling a little empty about it. The fact that it costs bbbb is keeping it from becoming an infestation, and maybe even playable. Not much to be said about this beyond what has been said. If you can make it work, I guess that it might be good, but then you are playing mono-Black in a format that doesn't really care about too many Black spells.

I wanted Mutagenic Growth to spawn a new archetype in Legacy. In fact, had Mental Misstep not been printed, it might have been very good, but as it stands, this type of deck crumbles to Misstep, which is not something you can afford in Legacy any longer.

Going ahead, I will probably be playing Merfolk. I feel it gains the most while losing the least, which is not something that can be said for a lot of decks. These are always the most exciting times to be playing Legacy. Very rarely do we get to see the format start again, and I for one am excited to see where all the pieces fall.

Follow me on Twitter: @stormisfair

TAGS articles, constructed, legacy

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