Two things are certain in life: death, and that UOL always has a bit of a strange metagame. After last season was won by Arsteel on The Epic Storm by taking out Dank_confidant on Cloudpost, we end up back where we started, with a UOL metagame breakdown. We’re looking at my favorite format once again in Legacy, and we’re once again looking at a really diverse metagame.
The Breakdown
With 23 different distinct decks represented and a whopping 26 players, we’re seeing another local-meta situation, though our local meta is distributed from New Zealand to Italy and everywhere in between.
Looking at a more macroarchetype breakdown, we see that we’re very shifted away from control strategies. For whatever reason, people have decided they’d rather monkey around this league. Let’s break down some interesting and popular choices.
Decks to Watch
Death and Taxes
Three competitors have decided to bring Yorion Taxes, and two of them are playing Urza’s Saga.
Urza’s Saga has slotted well into D&T, allowing for another way to abuse Aether Vial‘s avoidance of paying taxes mana alongside the classic Rishadan Port. It also provides another toolbox element, with Shadowspear and Retrofitter Foundry being the ideal targets. Taxes also naturally plays a good number of artifacts by default, buffing up Saga tokens beyond other decks’ except Affinity. These decks also pack plenty of ways to deal with and stop the number one Legacy menace: Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. Four Swords to Plowshares and Solitude maindeck offer permanent answers to the monkey, and even Mother of Runes can get in and trade off if need be.
Speaking of the monkey…
Delver
The number one deck by numbers and top 8 placements right now, UR Delver is present and a threat here as well. The archetype has gotten a ton of support over the last six months between Expressive Iteration from Strixhaven and Murktide Regent, Unholy Heat, Dragon’s Rage Channeler, and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer from Modern Horizons 2. Even Crimson Vow offered an upgrade in the form of a sideboard upgrade from Blazing Volley to End the Festivities. Our UR player decided to forgo this and opened themselves up a bit more to deadly x/1 wielding decks like D&T and Elves!.
Big Fit
On the opposite end of the competitive spectrum, we have one of my favorite Legacy shells: NicFit.
We’re looking at a Yorion, Sky Nomad pile again to start the big theme. Then we add in Keruga, the Macrosage as a potential way to draw a ton of cards. Vraska, Relic Seeker is our big planeswalker, while Primeval Titan, Thragtusk, and Restoration Angels round out big creatures. The only thing I’d really want to see more in this deck would be the inclusion of a Grist, the Hunger Tide or two, as that card seems tailor-made for the archetype. Overall, this is a sweet, sweet NicFit pile and everything I love about the archetype.
Infect
Speaking of archetypes I love (and love to hate), I decided to play Infect, mostly thanks to one of my local buddies. Burgoa, if you see this, you’re a horrible influence.
Glistener Elf, Invigorate, Berserk remains the classic threat of the deck. I added in 2 Prismatic Ending main to help get annoying cards out of the way, and Sylvan Library is always sweet in decks that are putting the pressure on the opponent. I decided on this mainly because I was looking for a last-minute scramble, and have some amount of experience on it. Vines of Vastwood appears well-positioned into a meta full of Prismatic Ending and other removal.
Minotaurs
Grab life by the horn, or maybe gore an opponent with one. It’s Minotaurs time!
Urza’s Saga and Fury have made this a deck you shouldn’t be the most surprised to see. It presents a legitimate threat on both the absurdly fast side of the spectrum with Didgeridoo into Moraug, Fury of Akoum or Sethron, Hurloon General being a turn 1 play and on the slower side, controlling the board with Fury to let the Urza’s Saga dominate. The ultimate play will be seeing if a Deathbellow Warcry can resolve, as that will end the game both incredibly quickly and with great style. Think Dragon Stompy, but with a potential combo-ish edge.
Aether Seeker
Speaking of style, I quite like our T.O.’s style with this brew.
Ephemerates, Soulherder, Spellseekers, and Eternal Witnesses form a very powerful card advantage engine. If this gets rolling, it will roll the opponent over from simply providing too good a lategame. Seeing as the last deck I played in our Legacy League was Bantstill, I’m quite a fan of this toolbox, slow, Bant-centric deck. It almost looks like a NicFit deck sans the Veteran Explorer package.
Food Chain Goblins
Speaking of decks I’ve played in Leagues past, this is the cousin deck to my championship deck. That’s right, it’s time for some Food Chain action.
This deck has some sweet ways to pop off. With a Food Chain out, it’s easy to start looping Goblin Matrons and Goblin Lackeys into pure card advantage and flood your opponent out. Conspicuous Snoop plus Boggart Harbinger and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker offers another combo line to instantly win the game. Finally, good ol Muxus, Goblin Grandee remains a terrifying presence, able to routinely put out 10+ power at once, draw cards, and immediately swing for lethal. Regular Goblins offers the ability to run over the top of any slow decks, but Food Goblins will instantly smother you when it leverages itself into a position to execute one of its combos.
Storm
Speaking of combos, we can’t have a true Legacy meta without the card Tendrils of Agony.
This is a sweet all-in Peer Into the Abyss list, featuring the full four copies of the powerful sorcery and 2 Solve the Equation to tutor for it. Two Thoughsieze provide the only way to clear a counter from hand, but 4 Force of Will and 3 Pact of Negation can force the combo through an opponent’s Force of Will. In a lot of ways, this reminds me of essentially the next evolution of ANT, in that it looks like it can set up a few turns in a row before popping off with near-certainty. While I love the work Bryant and the other TES guys do, I must admit some affinity for the slower storm decks. This scratches that itch wonderfully.
Elves!
The final deck I want to cover is one I think is among the best positioned in the current metagame, Ragavan Nimble Pilferer and all. You’ve seen the title here, you know it’s the little green men.
Elves! has been really well positioned into a metagame of Delver decks, especially since gaining Allosaurus Shepherd. Daze and Force of Will mean nothing now, and Glimpse of Nature ensures all 1:1 removal spells are moot. Veil of Summer has generally driven black fair decks down, meaning the most brutal hate piece they would normally face, Plague Engineer, is absent. They can play a fair-ish gameplan, simply attacking in for four to seven damage a turn, or they can pop off hard on turns two and three for a combo kill.
The other normal death knell to Elves! is a faster combo deck, which only Doomsday, Reanimator, and Peer Storm provide. That’s pretty good odds to dodge those predators, and Elves! will generally run over the rest of the field. Elves! is super well positioned into this metagame, in my opinion, and I would expect to see Petzku in the Top 8 at the end of the season.
And That’s a Wrap
This metagame represents a huge cross-section of Legacy, and it’s wide-open overall as to who does well and who does poorly. Once again, this will come down to preparation in gameplay and sideboards as well as matchup luck.
If you’d like to get involved in future seasons, check out our Discord and get someone to show you how to add the Legacy role so you don’t miss out on announcements.
Although our VOW Legacy League has already fired, if you’re interested in participating in a future tournament, check out our Get Started page. You can also follow our current season of Legacy on our Legacy format page. Currently, our Modern League signups close on Saturday, so sign up quick!
