On July 2nd Wizards of the Coast posted their scheduled changes to Magic's banned and restricted lists that you can find here. For those who have not seen the update is as follows:

Those who have followed my content in the past probably could have predicted my reaction to this news. If you want to see it for yourself again though, you can watch it on this twitch clip.

Moving past the excitement that this news brings -- what does it actually mean for the format as a whole? We can't know for sure just yet, but today I am going to go through what I think are likely some of the best starting points for the format moving forward.

In my opinion, the biggest winners in this banning are not just the dedicated graveyard decks, but also the incidental graveyard value cards. To be specific, I would expect all of these cards to see a bit more play moving forward:

While it is going to take a good deal of testing to find exactly what is going to be optimal in our brave new Legacy world, if I had to pick a deck now that I expected to come out somewhere near the top I think my first pick would be Temur Delver.

For those who are unfamiliar, Temur Delver was the top tempo deck in Legacy before Grixis Delver took over and still managed to put up a few results afterward. For instance here is a list from the Top 4 of a recent SCG Legacy Classic:

Temur Delver -- Legacy | Michael Howe

• Creatures (10)
• 2 Hooting Mandrills
• 4 Delver of Secrets
• 4 Nimble Mongoose

• Instants (28)
• 1 Predict
• 1 Wild Slash
• 2 Dismember
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 2 Spell Snare
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Daze
• 4 Force of Will
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 4 Stifle

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Ponder

• Lands (18)
• 3 Tropical Island
• 3 Volcanic Island
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 4 Wasteland

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 True-Name Nemesis
• 1 Sylvan Library
• 2 Abrade
• 1 Ancient Grudge
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Flusterstorm
• 3 Pyroblast
• 2 Surgical Extraction
• 1 Life from the Loam
• 1 Barbarian Ring

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In addition to the variations that play Hooting Mandrills as an additional threat, there are also configurations that play Tarmogoyf:

Temur Delver -- Legacy | Jeff Hoogland

• Creatures (12)
• 4 Delver of Secrets
• 4 Nimble Mongoose
• 4 Tarmogoyf

• Instants (25)
• 1 Tarfire
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 2 Spell Snare
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Daze
• 4 Force of Will
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 4 Stifle

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Forked Bolt
• 4 Ponder

• Lands (18)
• 2 Polluted Delta
• 3 Flooded Strand
• 3 Misty Rainforest
• 3 Tropical Island
• 3 Volcanic Island
• 4 Wasteland

• Sideboard (13)
• 1 Ancient Grudge
• 1 Grafdigger's Cage
• 1 Invasive Surgery
• 1 Sulfuric Vortex
• 1 Red Elemental Blast
• 2 True-Name Nemesis
• 2 Pyroblast
• 2 Flusterstorm
• 2 Surgical Extraction

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I would be very surprised if this archetype did not quickly become the go to "tempo" deck in the format again. This deck functions by sticking an efficient threat and then protecting it with cheap / free counterspells while we quickly beat your opponent to death. When we play Delver of Secrets we want to use our counterspells to stop our opponent's removal spells. When we play Nimble Mongoose we want to use our counterspells to stop our opponent's potential blockers since Goose protects itself from removal.

Past Goyf and Mongoose, I am excited to play more copies of one of my favorite utility creatures in Legacy -- Knight of the Reliquary. The "classic" Knight of the Reliquary in Legacy is Maverick, a base creature deck.

I would probably dive into Maverick with something close to this:

Maverick -- Legacy | Jeff Hoogland

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Gaddock Teeg
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 1 Ramunap Excavator
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 1 Scryb Ranger
• 1 Tireless Tracker
• 2 Stoneforge Mystic
• 4 Knight of the Reliquary
• 4 Mother of Runes
• 4 Noble Hierarch
• 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

• Instants (4)
• 4 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Green Sun's Zenith

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Sylvan Library

• Artifacts (3)
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Umezawa's Jitte

• Lands (24)
• 1 Plains
• 2 Forest
• 1 Bayou
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 1 Gaea's Cradle
• 1 Horizon Canopy
• 1 Karakas
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Scrubland
• 2 Savannah
• 4 Verdant Catacombs
• 4 Wasteland
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Abrupt Decay
• 2 Choke
• 2 Ethersworn Canonist
• 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
• 2 Surgical Extraction
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 2 Zealous Persecution

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Even without Deathrite Shaman, I like a small Black splash for faster disruption against combo decks as well as Zealous Persecution for killing opposing copies of True-Name Nemesis. This archetype just plays good, honest Magic while having a land toolbox for Knight as well as a Green creature toolbox for Green Sun's Zenith.

If you love Knight of the Reliquary, but Maverick is just a touch too fair for your tastes, another decent Legacy deck that also gets to lean into Life from the Loam is this Four Color Control deck:

Four-Color Loam -- Legacy | Jeff Hoogland

• Creatures (12)
• 1 Gaddock Teeg
• 1 Ramunap Excavator
• 2 Scavenging Ooze
• 4 Dark Confidant
• 4 Knight of the Reliquary

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Liliana of the Veil

• Instants (6)
• 3 Abrupt Decay
• 3 Punishing Fire

• Sorceries (4)
• 2 Green Sun's Zenith
• 2 Life from the Loam

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Sylvan Library

• Artifacts (8)
• 4 Chalice of the Void
• 4 Mox Diamond

• Lands (27)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Badlands
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Cabal Pit
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Karakas
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Savannah
• 1 Scrubland
• 1 Taiga
• 1 Tranquil Thicket
• 2 Bayou
• 2 Windswept Heath
• 3 Grove of the Burnwillows
• 4 Verdant Catacombs
• 4 Wasteland

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 3 Leyline of the Void
• 2 Golgari Charm
• 2 Swords to Plowshares
• 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 1 Abrupt Decay
• 1 Garruk Relentless
• 1 Liliana, the Last Hope
• 1 Vindicate
• 1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

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This deck likes to lean into the power of Chalice of the Void to both punish both unfair decks and fair decks full of one mana spells.

If you are not looking to play fair, but instead want to try and take advantage of there being less graveyard hate around, I think Reanimator is likely the best tool for the job:

B/R Reanimator -- Legacy | Jeff Hoogland

• Creatures (10)
• 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1 Sire Of Insanity
• 4 Chancellor of the Annex
• 4 Griselbrand

• Instants (8)
• 4 Dark Ritual
• 4 Entomb

• Sorceries (20)
• 2 Collective Brutality
• 2 Unmask
• 4 Exhume
• 4 Faithless Looting
• 4 Reanimate
• 4 Thoughtseize

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Animate Dead

• Artifacts (6)
• 2 Chrome Mox
• 4 Lotus Petal

• Lands (12)
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Bayou
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 2 Badlands
• 3 Marsh Flats
• 3 Verdant Catacombs

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Abrupt Decay
• 1 Ancient Grudge
• 1 Archetype of Endurance
• 1 Collective Brutality
• 2 Duress
• 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1 Grave Titan
• 1 Inkwell Leviathan
• 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
• 1 Reverent Silence
• 2 Stronghold Gambit
• 1 Tidespout Tyrant

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This deck is capable of blisteringly fast starts, even through cards like Force of Will. While Deathrite Shaman was not disruption for 's fastest starts, it did hamper our slightly slower draws -- especially when paired with countermagic.

The last deck I wanted to touch on today is not a graveyard deck, but one I think that suffered a good bit from Deathrite Shaman existing -- Legacy Burn. Prior to Deathrite's existence, Burn was a deck that tried to prey on the fair decks. Such decks having a main deck way not only to empty their hand faster, but also incidentally gain life meant that Burn's best matchup became not all that good while Deathrite was legal.