Strixhaven Legacy League Review
Strixhaven brought a few new cards to Legacy, namely Expressive Iteration and Witherbloom Apprentice. Apprentice was incredibly exciting at the start, due to its potential to combo with Chain of Smog to instantly kill the opponent. Although the combo was initially incredibly popular, it quickly died out as Chain is simply a bad card without the combo, and Apprentice is mediocre at best without Chain.
Initially much more contested was Expressive Iteration. Some thought it was incredibly powerful card advantage and selection. Others thought it was far too clunky for a format as brutally efficient as Legacy. In the end, Iteration outlasted Witherbloom Apprentice.
Despite this, the STX Legacy League was won by GlassNinja on Goblin Tribal. His writeup on his tournament run does a great job going over the deck.
AFR Metagame Breakdown
Adventures in the Forgotten Realms and Modern Horizons 2 have since been released, and the latter has had major impacts on the format.
Decks to Watch Out For
Check out the Legacy League page to see the full list of decks for this season, or check out Dank_confidant’s metagame spreadsheet.
Death & Taxes
Don’t be fooled. Death & Taxes is not a White Weenie aggro deck. Instead, it’s a midrange or even control deck through and through. It aims to gain value over time with creatures such as Mother of Runes and Stoneforge Mystic. Meanwhile, it denies mana using Wasteland and Rishadan Port, overcoming the mana disadvantage with Aether Vial.
It plays a moderate disruption package with Spirit of the Labyrinth and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to further slow down opponents. Additionally, the deck has gotten a recent boon in Solitude, a powerful five drop that can also be cast for free in a pinch. It also works well with the midrange Yorion, Sky Nomad companion plan.
Death & Taxes was the most popular deck this season. Don’t count it out on making it to the finals.
UR Delver
Delver has always been a popular option in Legacy. However, thanks to Modern Horizons 2, it’s becoming much less popular, as the namesake Delver of Secrets is getting cut from so-called “Delver” decks. Dragon’s Rage Channeler and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer have overtaken Delver as the premier one drops of the format, and it’s unlikely that will change any time soon.
Aiming to play a powerful, cheap threat and protect it, Delver is the quintessential tempo deck of the format. Daze, Wasteland, and Force of Will are hallmarks of the strategy, trying to stop the opponent for just long enough for their threats to get across the finish line.
The aforementioned Expressive Iteration has helped Delver decks grind out in a longer game by providing much needed card advantage. Murktide Regent is one of the biggest threats in the format, and will close any game out in a hurry.
Standstill Control
Although Ragavan Standstill is the more popular variant these days, UWx Standstill Control is still a force to be reckoned with. This league there is the Bant list above, as well UW Standstill with Timeless Dragon.
Standstill gained a lot of ground with Modern Horizons 2. It requires you to be ahead on board when it’s cast to force your opponent to crack it. The other option is to take actions that don’t involve casting spells. Urza’s Saga fits that bill perfectly, and can make massive creatures without casting anything. Past versions of the deck had to rely on Mishra’s Factory, which although good, has fallen behind in quality compared to other cards in recent years.
Ragagaak
Every deck is better with Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, right? Although Snorx built the deck as a meme, it genuinely looks to be solid. As a one drop, it can even help return Vengevine from the graveyard easily.
Mana Laundering
“Money laundering is the generic term used to describe the process by which criminals disguise the original ownership and control of the proceeds of criminal conduct by making such proceeds appear to have derived from a legitimate source.”
Mana Laundering is intending to make tons of mana by utilizing Doubling Cube with everyone’s favorite Commander Lotus, Jeweled Lotus. Since mana doubled with Cube doesn’t have the same restrictions, Jeweled Lotus can be used to imitate an actual Black Lotus. Although the deck might not be the most competitive, its combo is rather clever and interesting.
Cards from AFR and MH2
| Card | Copies | Decks |
| Prismatic Ending | 20 | 6 |
| Urza’s Saga | 16 | 5 |
| Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer | 15 | 4 |
| Endurance | 14 | 5 |
| Solitude | 12 | 4 |
| Dragon’s Rage Channeler | 8 | 2 |
| Murktide Regent | 8 | 2 |
| Galvanic Relay | 8 | 2 |
| Unholy Heat | 4 | 2 |
| Kaldra Compleat | 4 | 4 |
| Timeless Dragon | 4 | 2 |
| Grief | 2 | 1 |
| Dress Down | 2 | 1 |
| Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth | 2 | 2 |
| Archon of Cruelty | 1 | 1 |
| Tourach, Dread Cantor | 1 | 1 |
| Aeve, Progenitor Ooze | 1 | 1 |
| Arcererak the Archlich | 1 | 1 |
| Wish | 1 | 1 |
Dragon’s Rage Channeler, Murktide Regent, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
DRC and Ragavan are likely the two best one drops in Legacy right now. They’re so good that Delver of Secrets is getting trimmed or cut entirely from the deck named Delver. Meanwhile, Murktide Regent is a massive flying beater, reminiscent of Tombstalker of days past. However, Murktide grows in multiples, and a single copy can be as large as an 8/8. This massive flying beater has proven to be a powerhouse in Delver, Standstill, and Stoneblade variants.
Since UR Delver has almost completely taken over Legacy, it’s safe to say that these three are the most impactful MH2 cards on Legacy. However, they are not as widely popular as the next card.
Prismatic Ending is the best removal spell printed since Swords to Plowshares was printed in Alpha. If a deck is white, it runs 4 Swords to Plowshares. Multicolor decks play White also run 2-3 Prismatic Ending (sorry, D&T). Being able to hit problematic artifacts and planeswalkers such as Chalice of the Void or Teferi, Time Raveler has earned the card an invaluable spot in many Legacy decks.
Saga has shown up the most in various Standstill decks, to build their board state without cracking their own Standstill. It’s also shown up in the ever popular Lands deck, as well as Ninjas which already played a handful of artifacts to power up the constructs.
Endurance immediately became a mainstay in every green deck in Legacy. Sporting a reasonable defensive body that can block Dragon’s Rage Channeler while being reasonable hate for graveyard strategies led to it being popular in maindecks and sideboards.
These two cards helped power up Death & Taxes to become one of the best decks in the format. Unlike Batterskull, Kaldra is a fast clock when D&T needs to close out the game. Solitude provides a powerful late game two for one, while accruing more value with Yorion, Sky Nomad and Flickerwisp.
My Pick to Win Legacy League
My first pick to win Legacy League this season is Captgouda on Death & Taxes. Although it’s safe to say Death & Taxes will do well when it’s the most popular deck, I call out Captgouda for being a particularly good player on the deck. With the upgrades from MH2, I think he can go the distance.
My second pick to win this season is the Legacy tournament organizer, Dank_confidant, who is one of the most decorated players that UOL has. He’s won every league except Standard at least once. Although Golos Cloudpost is an odd deck to pick for Legacy, if he can dodge enough spell-based combo, he’ll perform very well this season.
If you’d like to participate in a future UOL Legacy League, join our Discord and check out the #legacy-league channel, or see our Legacy page. It’s completely free and takes place on Untap.in, a website similar to Cockatrice where you can play any deck for free. You can read more about the League format here.
