Introduction

Did you know that the sky truly is falling and there is not a thing that any of us can do about it? Sorry to tell you, folks, but until Survival of the Fittest is banned, some people are going to keep playing that card and ruin the game for everyone. That means you're not going to be able to play Affinity, because it uses zero cards that interact with your opponent. On that same note, you're not going to really be able to play Burn either, as it is just a bit slower. Tempo Thresh is still using awful cards, so that one gets counted out as well. All of those decks that could never beat storm, control, Goblins, Merfolk or Zoo don't just have a new single deck that they cannot beat, there is an entire archetype that they have little hopes of beating.

Survival's basic game plan is to resolve Survival of the Fittest, oftentimes with no draw or tutor effects and very little permission, and then Execute some combo. Survival of the Fittest singlehandedly enables dozens of lesser combos, but recently a few have emerged that are mana efficient enough to work:

1. Vengevine + Basking Rootwalla
2. Necrotic Ooze + Phyrexian Devourer and Triskelion in the Graveyard
3. Loyal Retainers + Iona, Shield of Emeria OR Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

The Vengevine Approach

This is by far the most common and most problematic aspect of the current blend of Survival decks. Most of the decks use this and that is why it is so important to understand how it works and what it is weak against.

The first step for these decks is always going to be to attempt to resolve a Survival of the Fittest; this is the condition under which the deck functions optimally. Madness decks such as any U/G blend and many G/W builds aren't entirely dependent on landing Survival, but it is still the primary win condition for them. They can use Wild Mongrel and Basking Rootwalla to enable any Vengevine in your hand on the turn you play Wild Mongrel. Assuming the deck is running optimally, the Survival player has played a Noble Hirearch on turn one and Survival on turn two, which allows for an activation of Survival of the Fittest on the second turn. Leading into potentially four mana being open on turn three, which can lead in to two more Vengevine in the Graveyard and two Basking Rootwalla in play, which leads to three Vengevine in play. Attacking for 12 and then 18 is the final step.

"U/G Madness Survival"

• Lands (21)
• 1 Island
• 3 Forest
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 4 Wasteland
• 2 Windswept Heath
• 4 Tropical Island
• 1 Gaea's Cradle
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 4 Misty Rainforest

• Spells (15)
• 2 Daze
• 4 Force of Will
• 2 Umezawa's Jitte
• 4 Survival of the Fittest
• 3 Stifle

• Creatures (23)
• 4 Noble Hierarch
• 3 Trygon Predator
• 1 Wonder
• 1 Waterfront Bouncer
• 3 Wild Mongrel
• 4 Vengevine
• 1 Memnite
• 4 Basking Rootwalla
• 2 Aquamoeba

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Progenitus
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 1 Waterfront Bouncer
• 2 Faerie Macabre
• 2 Scryb Ranger
• 2 Krosan Grip
• 1 Spell Pierce
• 1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
• 4 Natural Order

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This is a pretty standard build of the deck. Pay extra close attention to the sideboard which features Natural Order. With so much hate aimed at this deck's graveyard plan, having a solid win plan that is entirely not dependent on the graveyard is obviously going to be a huge asset. Natural Order provides a one-card combo. While the deck does often struggle to both land a green creature and play Natural Order, while balancing its ability to still play Survival in a threatening way, when the planets align, the presence of Natural Order is often enough to loot wins from the unexpecting corpse of the last opponent. When playing against this deck, knowing how you are going to combat the Vengevine plan is the top priority. Knowing that the deck is likely going to board in a sideboard plan (and this is the easiest) is going to act as blow-out prevention.

The Necrotic Ooze Approach

In the long line of Survival-based combos that win the game, Necrotic Ooze has proven itself to be the cheapest and most linear that a deck can really ask for at a compact three cards. The attractiveness of the combo is increased greatly by the fact that the opponent can never get priority to kill the Ooze if it is on the table with both Triskelion and Phyrexian Devourer in the graveyard. How does it work?

Like all of the combos presented today, the opponent is going to need to resolve a Survival of the Fittest for this one to have a good chance of getting off the ground. From here, you Survival away Triskelion and Phyrexian Devourer en route to getting Necrotic Ooze, which conveniently comes down the turn after you would be fetching for all three of those cards. Necrotic Ooze will allow the opponent to pay zero to Remove the top card of his library, putting X +1/+1 counters on itself, and then Remove those counters to kill a player. If someone attempts to use Swords to Plowshares or the like, you can simply do it again, and provided that there are enough cards in the library to rack up the mana cost to kill the opponent, there isn't a good way to stop this once it gets going.

This is the list of Ooze Survival that Jesse Hatfield placed 7th with in Star City Games' Legacy Open in Charlotte:

"Ooze Survival"

• Lands (20)
• 4 Bayou
• 4 Savannah
• 4 Verdant Catacombs
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 3 Forest
• 1 Scrubland

• Creatures (24)
• 4 Basking Rootwlla
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Elvish Spirit Guide
• 2 Necrotic Ooze
• 1 Noble Hierarch
• 1 Phyrexian Devourer
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Tarmogoyf
• 1 Triskelion
• 4 Vengevine
• 4 Wild Mongrel

• Spells (15)
• 4 Enlightened Tutor
• 1 Lion's Eye Diamond
• 1 Shield Sphere
• 4 Survival of the Fittest
• 4 Thoughtseize
• 1 Umezawa's Jitte

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Big Game Hunter
• 3 Carpet of Flowers
• 1 Choke
• 1 Etersworn Cannonist
• 2 Extirpate
• 1 Faerie Macabre
• 2 Nature's Claim
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 1 Seal of Primordium
• 1 Tormod's Crypt
• 1 Umezawa's Jitte

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Gerry Thompson played a more stream-lined build of the deck to a respectable 2nd place finish in Boston, seemingly replacing the Wild Mongrel with Fauna Shaman and playing more mana producing creatures over the flex slots such as the maindecked Jitte. The dedication to the combo has its merits but I Wonder if the long term potential of the deck leans a lot more heavilyon being prepared for an alternate, graveyardless win in the main.

The Loyal Retainers Approach

Presented last because it is the version of Survival that Legacy has had the longest time to deal with, the fact that it is still desirable in a day of incredibly fast wins displays the real power of this combo. Expectedly, this combo begins by playing Survival of the Fittest. The next step is to throw away any creature and get Loyal Retainers and the Legendary creature that you wish to return. Play Loyal Retainers, if it resolves you an activate Survival of the Fittest, pay the cost of discarding a creature and before passing priority, and swap the Retainers for either Iona or Emrakul, even with both the Emrakul and Survival effects on the stack.

"G/W Survival"

• Lands (17)
• 1 Plains
• 4 Forest
• 4 Savannah
• 4 Horizon Canopy
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Spells (15)
• 1 Shield Sphere
• 1 Umezawa's Jitte
• 4 Survival of the Fittest
• 4 Lion's Eye Diamond
• 4 Enlightened Tutor
• 1 Chrome Mox

• Creatures (28)
• 4 Elvish Spirit Guide
• 4 Noble Hierarch
• 1 Tarmogoyf
• 1 Wispmare
• 4 Wild Mongrel
• 1 Loyal Retainers
• 4 Vengevine
• 4 Basking Rootwalla
• 4 Arrogant Wurm
• 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 1 Umezawa's Jitte
• 1 Tormod's Crypt
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Gaddock Teeg
• 1 Seal of Cleansing
• 1 Ethersworn Canonist
• 3 Faerie Macabre
• 1 Choke
• 2 Krosan Grip
• 2 Carpet of Flowers

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This is the build of Survival that Christopher Coppola took to Top 16 at SCG Nashville last month. This deck is very combo oriented, much more so than the G/W builds. The recent revisions of the deck cut the number of Lion's Eye Diamond down to just a singleton, like in the Ooze combo list, to make way for some more versatility. The Stoneforge Mystic package lets the game play the midrange aggro deck far better than either Ooze or U/G Madness, and the white creatures add a lot of strength and open up a lot of options. The archetype still is wide open for work to be done to optimize it, and it will be interesting to see what becomes of the combination.

Bant Survival

Bant Survival played this combo along with an aggro plan over the spring and the deck put up some fine results. When Rise of the Eldrazi released there was an initial rush to see how it could fit into Legacy and many of the initial builds were close to the U/G and U/G/W builds of Survival that we see now. The Rhox War Monk and and the flex slot were replaced with Basking Rootwalla and Vengevine, but this was at a time when Bant Survival wasn't doing very well, even with the new power boost of Emrakul and Vengevine, due to the optimization of Reanimator. With the metagaming of the U/G lists to start playing a counter suite and removal of its own, I Wonder if we can expect to see a trend of these decks to be moving away from the all-in versions that we've been seeing and making a move back to the more balanced Bant Survival lists with some Brainstorm and Spell Snare over some of the weaker creatures and Stifle. I'd really like to see if this archetype makes a comback as the Survival decks start playing against more hate and are thus a bit less combo oriented.

Treatment and Remedy: Effective Strategies Against Survival

Treatment

I just read Adam Barnello's article on the matter literally as I sat down to write this section, and he is right on a lot of points. What is effective against these decks has been somewhat well known in the Legacy circles for quite some time, and was the major reason why Survival was seldom playable in the first place. With the influx of new interest and a relative lack of Survival being played in the last few yearst, there seems to be a lot of confusion over what really does work.

The first card we should be looking at is Extirpate. This has been an excellent card to fight the U/G decks as once the Vengevine are gone, they are going to really struggle to win a creature war, even with the ability to put all four Basking Rootwalla on the table at once. However, as Survival decks move away from the very linear plan of putting Vengevine onto the table, Extirpate becomes significantly less effective. Once you've dealt with a single threat, they opponent is then able to reload into the secondary combo, be it Necrotic Ooze, Loyal Retainers, etc. Things will get far worse against the G/W builds which would probably win the Attrition war with creatures like Knight of the Reliquary, Stoneforge Mystic and even in many cases, Mother of Runes.

Pithing Needle is a much more attractive option for many reasons. Firstly, any deck can play i,t which means that you're not constricting yourself into black and its sub-optimal creatures. It is as effective on turn one as it is on the turn after an early Survival. Survival decks are going to struggle to deal with it. Two of the lists that were posted above run a maindeck Wispmare, but none of them have the ability to handle Needle game one, and the options for game two are quite limited.

Adam discusses Perish and Hibernation to some degree. Perish is likely a poor call against any of these decks as the Vengevine are likely going to be reloaded on the next turn. Hibernation, on the other hand, was a card that we saw in Paul Lynch's sideboard in Baltimore, when he defeated U/G madness. I wasn't highly impressed with the card there and I'm a bit weary of this, but it gives Merfolk a lot of options, (although the results that I've seen suggest that Merfolk is actually favored against Survival.)

I've always felt that one of the most under-utilized cards in Legacy is Aven Mindcensor, and now that the card is finally seeing some play I'm pretty excited about it. The Rock and Survival decks with access to white are both playing it, and I hope that it splashes into decks like U/W Tempo, which I think is one of the best fits for the card. Yes, I'm actually implying and now saying that U/W Tempo may be a fine metagame choice, although I would strongly consider metagaming the deck a bit more than just Aven Mindcensor. I fear that there may be a number of people that are using Mindcensor ineffectively. The card doesn't work without disruption or permission of some sort, and frankly will only work when paired with something that can back it up considering how frail it is, this is the same rule with any hatebear. Mindcensor isn't a cold answer to Survival, but a blowout preventer for once the game is stabilizing in your favor. Aggro Loam isn't too big in America, but I think that this is a fine option for Aggro-Loam decks, for because it can even Splash against combo. In fact, just this last week I watched a poor T.E.S. player succumb to one with an Infernal Tutor on the stack.

Another anti-combo card to reconsider is Ethersworn Cannonist. I don't know if people have really looked at how she naturally prevents Vengevine from entering the Battlefield, though admittedly this can be gotten around with Memnite or Shield Sphere. Cannonist should actually shine against the decks who are looking away from using Vengevine for game two and want to press another combo, as she will prevent them not only from casting a protection spell and then the combo piece that they need to resolve, but in fact, everything they do will be much slower and will be able to fall to Counterspell. The added bonus from this sort of speed loss should really be nothing to scoff at, as it can give you the additional time to find more material to turn your road block into a barricade. Even more so than Aven Mindcensor, Ethersworn Cannonist has a great potential to come in against other decks and really be a problem.

Spell Snare and Spell Pierce are both excellent foils to the Survival plan because they can be cast on the draw, and on the play will avoid an incoming Daze. Spell Snare is ideal here because it will be able to counter Survival of the Fittest regardless of how much mana they have open, but it is lacking against some other decks. Spell Pierce has a broader variety of spells it can hit, but obviously isn't able to handle some of the big problem ones, such as Tarmogoyf and Qasali Pridemage. The biggest problem with Spell Pierce is that it is not a hard counter, so eventually (and perhaps even rather quickly), the opponent is going to be able to pay for Spell Pierce, especially when it targets something as low cost as Survival. To efficiently combat Survival of the Fittest decks, we really need to see a shift in decks playing these cards which, while perhaps not the dream answer to the card, promote control and aggro-control strategies that have an excellent track record against Survival.

Peacekeeper is something that I've spent quite some time discussing the Glory of, and it is actually still a fine foil to the decks with an aggro plan as well as splashing against a surprising number of other decks. The limitations of Peacekeeper are clearly how frail it is and the fact that only control decks are going to have effective access to it. Even considering that Peacekeeper is killed by every piece of removal in the format, it is important to consider that it much easier to protect a Peacekeeper in the later turns than it is to keep a Survival off the table, as control decks are generally going to be gaining a lot more ground as games go on. Peacekeeper also ensures that if the opponent can't stick a Survival, then they will not be able to rely on winning with attacking with terrible creatures., meaning that all of your resources can be dedicated to stopping any future combo they attempt to set up and protecting Peacekeeper until Jace comes along to win.

Very much in the same vein as Peacekeeper, Humility is clearly a card that only control decks are going to be able to access, but it is one of the most powerful effects in Legacy. Humility has traditionally been a very strong foil to Survival based decks because they are looking at playing not only a high density of creatures for mana and as their primary threats, but all utility slots are going to be accessible through Survival as well, Wispmare, Necrotic Sliver, Qasali Pridemage, Viridian Zealot, Stern Proctor. Over the years the gauntlet of creatures that kill an artifact and/or enchantment has really been run in Survival shells, and Humility preys on all of them. Even when a Survival player knows it's coming, their options are rather limited for what cards to bring in. Krosan Grip is actually at an all-time low for effectiveness, driving people away from even using it anymore, and non-Krosan Grip answers to Humility are either subject to permission or creatures and thus entirely ineffective. Even when a Survival deck does bring in Krosan Grip, they must find what is likely a two-of in a deck that is very likely playing no draw spells or access to any filtering outside of Survival of the Fittest. Humility seldom wins the game on its own, so it's best to pair it with Mishra's Factory, Elspeth and perhaps Decree of Justice. Humility causes more concessions than any card that I play on a regular basis because people are left to fight an Uphill Battle in what was likely an already steep fight.

Failed Treatment

Survival's rise is a big change for Legacy. It happened rather rapidly and it is great to get a discussion going about what works against Survival in the metagame. However, I think that it is incredibly important to really shine a light on the cards that will not help to combat an effective Survival player. The most important cards to discuss are in the tier that includes all of the traditionally best cards to use in the format, because they would replace themselves or were the cheapest option. I'm speaking directly of Tormod's Crypt and Relic of Progentius. Sure, they are cheap and effective against other decks, but I can't think of a single competent player that is willing to throw his win condition into your answer without a Krosan Grip in hand. If the Survival player has landed Survival of the Fittest, then you're in a position where the opponent is still able to press the advantage in a slower form, perhaps just hard casting Vengevine that were Survivialed for with Basking Rootwalla. Many decks just have a hard time handling that as it is, probably even more so post-board when the threat density of a deck is often reduced.

However, what if the opponent is using another win? Sure you can Crypt away a few Vengevine with their triggers on the stack, but, Necrotic Ooze and Loyal Retainers are entirely able to sidestep that because you'll never get priority to use your card if the opponent Execute his combo competently properly. Keep in mind, this is assuming that the opponent is going to be using a graveyard-based combo. Many of the Survival builds have an aggro plan as well, and while the U/G plan is often mocked, the G/W plan is at or above par for a mid-range deck with access to Knight of the Reliquary, Tarmogoyf and in many cases Mother of Runes. U/G decks commonly go into a Natural Order sideboard plan, which is something that all splashes have access to. Additionally, it isn't that hard to fit in a Grindstone-based win that you can Survival for, although it is a bit more mana intensive than we've see for other combos.

Remedy

Adam Barnello and a lot of normally sensible guys have started discussing seriously discuss banning Survival of the Fittest. Adam Barnello even points to its dominance in Star City event's top eights to prove his point. What none of these players seem to want to do is to take a harder look at the wider metagame, specifically in Europe where Vengevine Survival doesn't have a stranglehold on the tournament scene, the numbers say it all

LCL September - 105 players, 1 U/G Vengevine in top 8

LCL October - 100 players, 1 Ooze Survival, 1 G/W Vengevine in top 8

Landfall 2 - 121 players, 2 Vengevine decks in the top 8

Eternal Weekend (Spain) - 293 players - 2 in the top 8

Open Last Chance CDF Legacy (France) - 178 players 0 in the top 8

Though it would be too tedious to name many more, there are several other 50+ and even 100+ player events with no copies of Survival of the Fittest in the top eight. Not just one or two, but these events far outnumber those that do have blends of Survival in the top eight..

Star City events have traditionally produced the least diverse results and are responsible for the over-valuing of some of the weaker decks in Legacy. A prime example of this point is the Lands deck. Lands is a very powerful rogue deck that is sometimes able to storm an event, but it has a very glass cannon approach, much like Goblin Charbelcher (another deck that got a lot of undue attention from the Star City series.) It can't really hold up to people knowing about it, let alone metagaming against it. Everyone got on board with this and started treating Lands as a tier one deck when that was never, ever the case. It was sickening to hear commentary from people who had very little experience with the format keep regurgitating the line, "It's strange how the deck that does the most broken things in Legacy just uses lands." Even Stephen Menendian got trapped in this, going as far to say that it was not only the best deck in the format but was going to win the Grand Prix over Reanimator. Well, many of those players hiveminded over the misconception that Lands.dec was by far the strongest choice and took it to Columbus, where they found out just how broken of a deck it is. It doesn't work, and little has been said about the deck since. (R.I.P. 43 Lands.dec, someone still loves you.)

Sampling from one tournament series is a terrible means to determine what decks are top tier, let alone which cards are prime for a ban. If that was the policy on smaller scale events I'm sure that Humility or Tendrils of Agony would have been banned a long time ago. If we're going to seriously talk about banning a card, let's not have a repetition of the Mystical Tutor bonanza and instead take a hard look and see if the deck in question is dominating the Legacy metagame as a whole, and not just see if it's the newest attraction in a traveling circus. I feel that this is a great analogy on multiple levels, primarily that the same people tend to show up with whatever special talent they have. A banning of Survival of the Fittest impacts not only the Star City series but every other Legacy event in America, Brazil, Europe and Asia as well, so it's probably important to show that it has dominance on a wider scale and that competent metagaming is not enough to beat this deck, as would be the case if something like Oath of Druids existed.

So, while we have the deck in the environment we can either stop playing until the deck goes away through either a banning or more natural terms, terms, or (my personal preference), we can play. Aside from discussing cards that decks can play to shore up their match against these new blends of Survival decks on the horizon, the easiest way to beat this deck is going to be to prey on its weaknesses, which I assure you it has. These decks pack a very light disruption suite so one of the easiest ways to beat them is simply to win faster. Despite what we saw in the Grand Prix top eight, even the U/G build is rather soft to Storm. Control decks have traditionally preyed upon Survival and this is still the case, as was reported in Boston. I don't have first-hand experience with it, but I'm told that both Goblins and Merfolk are favorable against it, and with competent tweaking with the deck in mind that ‘favorable' rating can e improved even further.. Rock decks are all right, but I grimace every time I see a mid-range deck because they don't excel at any specific role. There are real options available for every archetype, even Zoo, which is the deck that Vengevine has been marauding out of the format. (But honestly. how long was attacking with a 3/3 on turn two going to be amazing in Legacy?)

Conclusion

I don't have the highest hopes for it, but I am really pulling for Leveler heads to surface on this matter and to at least grant three more months with Survival of the Fittest. The way in which Mystical Tutor was handled sort of gives me hope, because no one was asking for it to be banned, nor was anyone expecting it. Perhaps with there being such an outcry, Wizards will turn a deaf ear until we can come to a larger consensus on the matter. The good news is that the Star City Open series is done for the year so there won't be anymore people attending ho have no interest or desire in attempting to beat what is potentially the most common deck in the series.

Next week I'll hopefully pick up where I left off, discussing some deck uilding pitfalls. assuming that a pressing issue such as this doesn't present itself. Until then, I hope that you're able to look at this situation with a wider view than those at Star City Open series and come to your own conclusions regarding Survival of the Fittest's future in Legacy, even if it differs from my own.

Adam, I only used Survival 64 times in this article, which was even longer than your article, so you still have the record.

~Christopher Walton

im00pi at Gmail for Electronic Mail

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