I'll go ahead and say it: I love combo. It might be the mathematician in me, but looking at the intricacy of a deck and trying to fit the pieces together has always appealed to me much more than "creature smash." Maybe this is why I like Legacy so much; it's the place where combo thrives. Legacy lets us have all sorts of broken toys to play with, then keeps them in check nicely with unfair counter magic.

There are a crazy range of decks in Legacy that can all be called "combo," but unfortunately, some of them do not quite survive the rotation to Overextended. Let's take a look at some of the combo decks in the more degenerate format.

One of the most effective decks in terms of simply putting up numbers is ANT. Ad Nauseam Tendrils is a storm deck, pure and simple, which uses card drawing to sculpt the perfect hand, then uses Ritual-type effects to do things that can only be described as "degenerate." Here is Ari Lax's storm list from a recent $5K:

[cardlist]

[Spells]

4 Preordain

4 Duress

4 Infernal Tutor

4 Ponder

2 Thoughtseize

4 Lion's Eye Diamond

4 Brainstorm

1 Tendrils of Agony

1 Ad Nauseam

2 Grim Tutor

4 Lotus Petal

4 Cabal Ritual

4 Dark Ritual

1 Ill-Gotten Gains

[/Spells]

[Lands]

3 Island

2 Swamp

4 Polluted Delta

2 Underground Sea

4 Misty Rainforest

2 Verdant Catacombs

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

1 Shelldock Isle

2 Thoughtseize

3 Chain of Vapor

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

1 Ad Nauseam

1 Trickbind

2 Rebuild

4 Doomsday

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

As we can see, there are a few problems. For starters, Lion's Eye Diamond, one of the most unfair cards in existence, is not legal in the format. This takes away a lot of the bite from the Infernal Tutors. Additionally, Ill-Gotten Gains is out, which is a big part of our combo, as well as a potent weapon against control decks. Lotus Petal is also missing, though we could try to offset that loss with Chrome Mox to some extent, or perhaps dipping into Red. Last, Grim Tutor is out, and we have precious few replacements for a card like that. Note that there are also some big issues with the sideboard. Doomsday being illegal forces us to find another plan against some of the rough control decks. Fortunately, we can go back to the Dark Confidant sideboard plan if necessary.

Next up, we have Doomsday. This deck can have some very explosive draws, but again is hampered by some of the key components being pulled from the format. Before we dive into what's missing, let's look at a common list:

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

1 Cloud of Faeries

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

2 Duress

4 Force of Will

4 Lim-Dul's Vault

2 Sensei's Divining Top

1 Solitary Confinement

1 Ponder

4 Thoughtseize

4 Brainstorm

3 Stifle

1 Lotus Petal

4 Show and Tell

2 Dark Ritual

4 Doomsday

[/Spells]

[Lands]

1 Swamp

1 Island

2 Shelldock Isle

3 Polluted Delta

3 Flooded Strand

1 Tundra

1 Scrubland

4 Underground Sea

4 Marsh Flats

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

4 Engineered Plague

1 Plains

4 Leyline of the Void

2 Damping Matrix

1 Nihil Spellbomb

1 Wipe Away

1 Snap

1 Peacekeeper

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

Doomsday actually loses significantly more than ANT, starting with the namesake card. There might be a replacement or two in sight, perhaps something involving Leveler. The supplemental cards are almost as important as Doomsday itself. Show and Tell could buy the Doomsday player another way to create a monster out of nowhere, and Force of Will offered some key protection. With both of those gone, we need to turn to something cutesy, perhaps Through the Breach. Force of Will clearly has no easy replacement, but Pact of Negation might be worth taking a second look. Last, we lose Lim-Dul's Vault, one of the best pieces of filtering possible. Like ANT above, a Red splash might do some good for this deck.

Next up, we have one of the most explosive decks in the format, Belcher. Goblin Charbelcher may be the very definition of glass cannon. In a well-prepared metagame, Charbelcher can get crushed, but if the hate is simply not there, the deck can have some of the most overpowering starts in Legacy. Let's look at a common list for the two-color version:

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

4 Simian Spirit Guide 4 Elvish Spirit Guide 4 Tinder Wall [/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Goblin Charbelcher 4 Land Grant 4 Seething Song 4 Rite of Flame 3 Manamorphose 4 Lotus Petal 4 Lion's Eye Diamond 4 Desperate Ritual 3 Empty the Warrens 4 Dark Ritual 4 Chrome Mox 4 Burning Wish

[/Spells]

[Lands]

1 Taiga 1 Bayou [/Lands]

[Sideboard]

1 Empty the Warrens 1 Pyroclasm 3 Duress 1 Hull Breach 1 Tendrils of Agony 4 Xantid Swarm 4 Ingot Chewer

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

The sideboard is completely intact, as is the wish package. There are a few cards we are missing that might be difficult to replace. Tinder Wall could certainly become a Wild Cantor-type card, and I'm certain that Cabal Ritual and possibly Pyretic Ritual can find a home in this deck. Losing Elvish Spirit Guide hurts, but it is possible to get around with some more early accelerants. Additionally, many of the older versions of this deck ran Street Wraith for some added card draw at the cost of cycling for a Shock. This could be a solid addition to some versions. Will the deck be able to survive the loss of Lion's Eye Diamond? I honestly have my doubts, but I'm willing to try!

Next, I'd like to discuss one of the more recent successful lists, High Tide combo. High Tide involves yet another Storm-type situation, with the person piloting the deck casting a critical number of spells and then ending the game with either Brain Freeze or in other cases Blue Sun's Zenith. I find myself quite partial to this deck. Let's see what a typical list looks like:

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

2 Preordain

4 Force of Will

4 Candelabra of Tawnos

4 Merchant Scroll

2 Mind Over Matter

4 High Tide

3 Cunning Wish

4 Ponder

1 Blue Sun's Zenith

4 Brainstorm

3 Meditate

3 Turnabout

4 Time Spiral

[/Spells]

[Lands]

12 Island

2 Polluted Delta

2 Flooded Strand

2 Misty Rainforest[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

1 Echoing Truth

3 Pact of Negation

4 Repeal

1 Blue Sun's Zenith

1 Brain Freeze

1 Meditate

1 Intuition

1 Wipe Away

1 Rebuild

1 Turnabout[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

The problem with High Tide as a combo deck is that almost everything is gone! I had originally considered a subtle variation with Bubbling Muck, but that's gone, too! Couple that with the fact that we lose Time Spiral and Meditate, and the deck is looking to be in quite poor shape. I think that a Storm-based deck comparable to this is possible in Throwback, but I believe we need to pick a stabler base. I'm thinking of a more consistent variant of the High Tide combo decks that were Standard-legal (as a bonus, here's an old list I pulled from the archives):

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

1 Maga, Traitor to Mortals

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

4 Drift of Phantasms

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Sensei's Divining Top

4 Heartbeat of Spring

1 Boomerang

4 Early Harvest

4 Muddle the Mixture

4 Remand

1 Compulsive Research

1 Invoke the Firemind

4 Kodama's Reach

1 Recollect

1 Weird Harvest

[/Spells]

[Lands]

10 Forest

10 Island

1 Mountain

1 Swamp

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

3 Iwamori of the Open Fist

1 Keiga, the Tide Star

2 Meloku the Clouded Mirror

1 Pyroclasm

3 Savage Twister

1 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Vinelasher Kudzu

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

We can certainly improve on this list, but it does provide us an excellent place to start!

The last Legacy combo deck I'd like to mention is Elves!

Elves! is a fairly popular deck that always seems to be poised on the outer edges of Tier 1. Counterbalance and some of the other trickier control cards (particularly Chalice of the Void) are very good at keeping a deck packed with one- and two-drops from being effective. Let's look at a common Legacy build:

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

1 Regal Force 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn 2 Quirion Ranger 2 Elvish Archdruid 3 Wirewood Symbiote 3 Birchlore Rangers 3 Elvish Visionary 3 Priest of Titania 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Heritage Druid 4 Nettle Sentinel

1 Mirror Entity [/Creatures]

[Spells]

1 Crop Rotation 2 Cloudstone Curio 2 Chord of Calling 3 Summoner's Pact 4 Glimpse of Nature [/Spells]

[Lands]

1 Pendelhaven 1 Gaea's Cradle 2 Bayou 2 Savannah 3 Verdant Catacombs 3 Windswept Heath 5 Forest [/Lands]

[Sideboard]

2 Cabal Therapy 2 Burrenton Forge-Tender 2 Umezawa's Jitte 3 Tormod's Crypt 3 Thorn of Amethyst 3 Krosan Grip

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

This is the most updated list I've seen placing in an event, and it's clearly in need of an overhaul. The raw power of Green Sun's Zenith is missing, and we could definitely use as many extra fetch effects as possible with Priest of Titania no longer being legal. I would also love to see a Mosswort Bridge or two in our final sixty. The bridge sometimes just lets you pull wins out of nowhere, with an instant-speed Mirror Entity or Elf Lord of some kind, not to mention the possibility of the dream Hideaway, Emrakul.

I know that there are certainly more fringe combo decks than those I have listed. Show and Tell decks, Dream Halls, and to a lesser extent Sneak Attack are all archetypes in their own right. That being said, none of those decks really have comparable replacements for their key components, and therefore I have omitted them. If you believe that those lists can work, I would love to see some ideas in the comments or the forums! Join us next week when I tackle the few Extended combos and do a little brewing with two of my favorite combo decks from years past.