If you have been reading my articles, then you know that I really like decks off the beaten path, and until I get more familiarity with the cards I haven't seen in my 18 years away from the game, I prefer Standard. Yes, that means I played intensely from 1994 (when I was 13) to 2005. Yes, it means that I had and took the opportunity to trade a Black Lotus for a Sengir Vampire. Who could resist a 4/4 flyer that grows.

Remember, back then there was no indication of rarity on cards, no available pricing information, and I was 13... What did I know? I do recall the store clerk asking me if I was sure that I wanted to make that deal. Oh well.

Since I love off-beat builds, I often troll around various tournament results websites and meta-game trackers looking for interesting and high performing builds that nobody is playing. That brings me to a Four-Color Legends builds that took second in a MTGO 64-player challenge on January 7th. This player has played this deck six different times to good results, and while it hasn't caught on like the Esper Monastery Mentor deck, it has caught my eye.

You might notice from my first article that I threw one Slogurk into a 5-color janky legends deck. While I played the deck, Slogurk proved to be the overall hero of the deck. As a result, this deck with 4 Slogurk and 4 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire looks quite fun to me. Their build:

Four-Color Legends | LCI Standard | cftsoc3, 2nd Place MTGO Standard Challenge

• Creatures (22)
• 1 Ashnod, Flesh Mechanist
• 1 Ludevic, Necrogenius // Olag, Ludevic's Hubris
• 1 The Goose Mother
• 2 Ertai, Resurrected
• 2 Titania, Voice of Gaea
• 3 Glissa Sunslayer
• 4 Inti, Seneschal of the Sun
• 4 Rona, Herald of Invasion // Rona, Tolarian Obliterator
• 4 Slogurk, the Overslime

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Jace, The Perfected Mind

• Instants (4)
• 1 Cut Down
• 3 Go For The Throat

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Relic of Legends

• Lands (29)
• 4 Plaza of Heroes
• 4 Otawara, Soaring City
• 4 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 2 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 2 Copperline Gorge
• 2 Darkslick Shores
• 2 Deathcap Glade
• 1 Dreamroot Cascade
• 1 Forest
• 1 Xander's Lounge
• 1 Yavimaya Coast
• 4 Ziatora's Proving Grounds

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 2 Cut Down
• 2 Duress
• 1 Ertai Resurrected
• 1 Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness
• 2 Gix's Command
• 2 Jace, Perfected Mind
• 2 Pilfer
• 1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 1 Titania, Voice of Gaea

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What a weird looking deck, and I really despise playing 33 mana sources in a 60-card deck, but at least the legendary lands from Kamigawa are meant to be used solely for their channel effects and will smooth out the mana in a pinch. To me, this deck looks like it runs mainly on Slogurk in combination with Abandoned Mire. I also like having the one Jace so as to be able to replay him several times and mill the opponent out of the game.

The Slogurk will benefit from all of the lands put into the graveyard and of course, when Slogurk leaves play, you get to return three lands to your hand... That must be what Ashnod, Flesh Mechanist is in the deck for! That is exciting! You don't know how long I have looked at this list wondering why the heck that is there... It is a loose combo, and in most cases, you would probably prefer to just win the game.

The Relic of Legends in combination with Rona, Herald of Invasion // Rona, Tolarian Obliterator makes all of your legendary creatures cost 1 less thanks to Rona's untapping, heck if you make a copy of Rona with Ludevic, Necrogenius // Olag, Ludevic's Hubris, then you get a cost reduction of 2 on those legends.

As you might expect, I would like to see a different version of such a deck. I am unsure of how much I like the Relic of Legends, but as long as it is being played in the deck, then why not having something to ramp into, like Atraxa, Grand Unifier. Sure, there is no White in the current deck, but there are 8 White sources from the Relic and the Plaza. As long as Atraxa is being added, then maybe some additional card type variety would be prudent, and with White being added, then why not have at least 1 Jodah, the Unifier to make all of your legends cascade into additional legends (not to making them HUGE).

With the ease of returning lands from your graveyard to your hand through Slogurk, the Overslime, I don't see why you wouldn't throw at least one Argoth, Sanctum of Nature so as to merge with Titania, Voice of Gaea. The more I look at the deck and write about what is going on, the more that I like the build that cftsoc3 has settled on. There are things like adding Atraxa and Jodah that I think are easy changes, and looking at the list, I think there are too many Inti, Seneschal of the Sun, which is in turn forcing a higher concentration on Red in the mana base when I think that the deck will benefit greatly from being Blue, Black and Green with a little bit of a splash for Red and White.

The list below doesn't hold to as much of my thoughts up above, but as I was messing around with what everything should look like, this is the version I will test:

Five-Color Legends | LCI Standard | Moshe Mann

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
• 1 Inti, Seneschal of the Sun
• 1 Jodah, The Unifier
• 1 Soul of Windgrace
• 1 The Goose Mother
• 1 The Ancient One
• 2 Ertai, Resurrected
• 2 Titania, Voice of Gaea
• 3 Glissa Sunslayer
• 4 Rona, Herald of Invasion // Rona, Tolarian Obliterator
• 4 Slogurk, The Overslime

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 1 Nissa, Ascended Animist
• 1 Wrenn and Realmbreaker
• 1 Wrenn and Seven
• 2 Jace, The Perfected Mind

• Instants (4)
• 1 Cut Down
• 3 Go for the Throat

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 Relic of Legends

• Lands (28)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Argoth, Sanctum of Nature
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Field of Ruin
• 1 Yavimaya Coast
• 2 Darkslick Shores
• 3 Dreamroot Cascade
• 4 Otawara, Soaring City
• 4 Plaza of Heroes
• 4 Restless Cottage
• 4 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

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Of course, another strategy would be to take the core of legendary creatures in combination with Slogurk and Otawara and Takenuma and just building a Sultai, Black/Blue/Green deck might be viable and good. That isn't something that I really want to look at right now, and I am sure you have had enough of my thinking out loud.