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Main » Articles » The State of Legacy for Grand Prix DC

The State of Legacy for Grand Prix DC

Jarvis Yu
Posted on November 15, 2013
 Reddit

This upcoming weekend is the Grand Prix in Washington D.C. (well, it’s actually in Chantilly, VA).

In a format as diverse as Legacy is, it’s hard to claim any deck will make up more than five percent of the predicted metagame, but we can use the recent results of the StarCityGames Opens and Legacy Championships to take a look.

The most popular combo deck at the moment is Sneak and Show. Its most notable pilot is Hall of Famer William “Huey” Jensen:

"Sneak and Show by William Jensen"

The goal of the deck is to cheat a giant fatty into play (either Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or Griselbrand) via Sneak Attack or Show and Tell.

This can be achieved as early as turn one with a good draw—required are Ancient Tomb, Lotus Petal, Show and Tell, and a fatty.

With two Misdirection, three Spell Pierce, and four Force of Will, Huey chose to pack quite a bit of disruption to protect his combo and to disrupt other combo decks.

Pros: It’s an extremely fast deck that only requires two combo pieces. You can afford to run quite a few cantrips and disruption.

Cons: Emrakul is a worse fatty than Griselbrand, so if you’re forced to move in on Emrakul, a Karakas will beat you. Sometimes, Sneak Attacking Emrakul only deals the opponent 15 and doesn’t actually win the game. (Granted, this is an extremely narrow corner case.) Pithing Needle or Phyrexian Revoker (on Sneak Attack) with Karakas make winning the game extremely difficult. Humility is also quite good against you.

However, Huey addresses many of these problems with the sideboarded Echoing Truths.

I would also recommend reading his in-depth primer if you plan on playing the deck.

"R/U/G Delver by Ricky Sidher"

If you want a fast, aggressive deck that packs quite a bit of disruption, this is the deck for you. Notably, this list actually comes from Jacob Wilson (who happens to be great friends with Ricky Sidher). It is interesting to note that he eschewed True-Name Nemesis (partially because it does force you to run more lands, and it makes Daze a lot worse). I don’t particularly care for the sideboarded Jace, the Mind Sculptor since you never actually want four lands in play. Zuran Orb is also a peculiar one since it only seems that it comes in against burn.

Pros: It’s very difficult to play totally perfectly against this deck given the amount of disruption it has. The Stifle–Wasteland dilemma is difficult. Basically, people used to call the combination of Force of Will, Stifle, Daze, and Spell Pierce The Wall’ for good reason, and it invalidates a lot of decks that would like to play expensive spells.

Cons: Even though you top-deck action better than most other decks due to your low land count, a lot of your spells are extremely conditional. Rest in Peace shuts off eight of your threats (Nimble Mongoose and Tarmogoyf). Your mana is also your weak spot given that Wasteland is quite good against you.

"Esper Stoneblade by Jarvis Yu"

I played this in a local Legacy event last Sunday, going 4–1–1 in the Swiss rounds and splitting the Top 4. This deck presents a lot of interaction with your opponent. It has four Thoughtseize, four Force of Will, one Counterspell if the opponent is playing combo, and also four Swords to Plowshares and Engineered Explosives if the opponent is playing a creature deck.

True-Name Nemesis is quite a heavy-hitter with Equipment in this deck, and it won me a match against Miracles by stranding all of the opponent’s Swords to Plowshares in hand.

Pros: Stoneforge Mystic leads to a lot of free wins, as does Dark Confidant if they do not die on sight. Having eight must-kill 2-drops makes a lot of matchups a game of forcing the opponent to have it.

Cons: You suffer from The Rock syndrome of not having a completely obvious game plan at any given point. Basically, if you were to describe to a Legacy novice what your deck does, it would be very difficult to summarize it in one sentence. (This description is courtesy of Jason Ford.)

"Patriot Delver by Jason Abong"

This deck is another deck in the style of R/U/G Delver in that it packs a lot of disruption. The white splash gives you access to Stoneforge Mystic, Geist of Saint Traft, and Swords to Plowshares in the main deck.

Pros: It does have a better plan against other creature decks than R/U/G does given the presence of Equipment, more removal, and Grim Lavamancer. You are also quite good against the Delver mirror in post-boarded games since Rest in Peace trumps eight of R/U/G’s creatures.

Cons: Daze and Geist of Saint Traft with Equipment don’t really go well together given that Geist costs 3 mana. Similarly, you have problems against opposing Wasteland decks since you run a relatively low land count and all of your lands are nonbasics.

"Miracles by Joe Lossett"

Miracles is not as popular as it used to be (right after Avacyn Restored came out). But there’re quite a few things going for it at the moment. True-Name Nemesis looks pretty silly when your opponent has access to Supreme Verdict and instant-speed Terminus. Counterbalance with Sensei's Divining Top helps you soft-lock people out of games. Additionally, I love that Joe has six basic lands and a total of twenty-three lands. It means you are far less vulnerable to being Wastelanded out of games, which is the most common way for Miracles to lose.

Pros: It’s very good against creature decks. It has access to a combo that soft-locks people out of games. The mana base looks rock solid to me.

Cons: It’s very slow to win the game with sometimes. Your deck without Sensei's Divining Top has to lean on Brainstorm so hard.

"Death and Taxes by Ari Lax"

More like Death and Laxes, right? In all seriousness, Ari Lax won Legacy Championship in Philadelphia with this deck. Traditionally, decks with this many Plains haven’t been given a lot of respect, but there’s a lot to like about this deck.

Pros: The mana-denial aspect with four Rishadan Port and four Wasteland is difficult for a deck such as R/U/G or R/W/U Delver to overcome, given that they typically only have eighteen to nineteen mana sources. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben compounds the problem for combo decks.

Cons: You can’t beat a deck like Elves combo given how they are structured. Additionally, fast combo decks such as Dredge and Charbelcher have free reign to kill you whenever they want.

"U/R Delver by Osyp Lebedowicz"

Osyp had the privilege of losing to Ari in the finals of the Legacy Championships. I don’t think the matchup is that bad for him, but Mother of Runes is very difficult to deal with if he doesn’t have the removal spell on the critical turn.

Pros: Even though you give up a color compared to R/W/U or R/U/G, you gain a lot of power in cards such as Young Pyromancer and True-Name Nemesis (which you can afford to run since you have access to two basic Islands). Your conditional spells are live to at least make 1/1s if you have Young Pyromancer out.

Cons: You still do suffer a loss in power by not having a third color. In particular, you lose access to the best blue creature of all time: Tarmogoyf.

I would also like to see him have access to more Grim Lavamancers somewhere.

Last but not least:

"Elf Combo by Julian Knab"

Julian Knab managed to win the six-hundred-ninety-five-person main event at Baazar of Moxen in Paris a few weekends ago. His list is a bit different than the normal ones we’ve seen in that he eschews white for red to gain access to the underused-in-Standard Ruric Thar, the Unbowed. Ruric Thar is often better than Gaddock Teeg against an opposing combo deck because the opponent usually needs to cast more than three spells to win the game unless he or she is playing Sneak and Show.

Pros: Elves can out-grind a lot of attrition decks with the combination of Wirewood Symbiote and Elvish Visionary. You can also kill with Craterhoof Behemoth on turn three a shocking amount of the time without having to use Glimpse of Nature. I would classify Elves more as a Behemoth combo deck nowadays than as a Glimpse of Nature combo deck.

Cons: You lose to faster combo decks a lot of the time, which is why the sideboard has nine anti-fast-combo cards (three Cabal Therapy, two Thoughtseize, two Mindbreak Trap).

To Summarize

All in all, I think many of the decks above are good decks to choose for this weekend.

I would advise against Reanimator and Dredge since incidental graveyard hate is the highest it has been in quite a while. I am leaning toward Esper Stoneblade or some variant thereof (Deathblade and the like).

Thanks for reading, and if you have any comments, I’d be happy to respond to them here or on Twitter @jkyu06.

Jarvis

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TAGS articles, grand prix, strategy, metagame, constructed, deck lists, legacy, decks, jarvis yu, dc

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