[Article] Unlocking Legacy - Setting Our Sights on the Future

[Zach Tartell]

Link (http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/14074.html)

Future Sight opens up a lot of design doors, from artifacts that cost colored mana to play to Enchantments that can attack for damage. With over a hundred new cards soon to enter the Legacy cardpool, which ones are going to make a lasting impact? How many won't measure up?


Storming up for twelve Goblins on the first turn, while normally unicorns-serving-me-rainbow-ice-cream-awesome, becomes unworkable if that plan requires Summoner's Pact to work.

[Happy Gilmore]

Well done on the article. But I will mention that if Thresh boards correctly it can win through CotV. I have done so many times. Chalice in the MD on the other hand....in that case I better resolve Sensei's Divining Top first turn.

[Alfred]

Keep in mind that the Mountains created by it are nonbasic, so things like Wasteland and Price of Progress still have great targets. It is a potent splash for B/R Disruption decks as well.

You spoke about this in the Magus of the Moon section. The wasteland bit is a bit of a gaffe. You might want to edit that if you can.

[hi-val]

Yep, I realized that : ) Replace Wasteland with Skyshroud War BEATS instead!

[Alfred]

Yep, I realized that : ) Replace Wasteland with Skyshroud War BEATS instead!

You mean Skyshroud Elite right?

[Zach Tartell]

Well, this is the first article that addressed Enchantress, though only in one sentence, and complretly worse thatn I'm spelling right now. Fetchable lands > pain lands. And you can't put a sprawl on them.

Otherwise a very nice article. I think that he addressed alot of the new cards pretty well, and gave some pretty awesome insight (I hadn't thought about using the storyteller in alluren). I'll give it a B or so. Good work, keep it up.

[Di]

You mean Skyshroud Elite right?

No (http://sales.starcitygames.com/carddisplay.php?product=9101)

[xsockmonkeyx]

This article was very informative and enjoyable to read. Keep up the good work. *affixes happy face sticker to article*

[Pinder]

The same thing is true for the Slivers in this set. While they're going to appeal to a lot of casual players, these Slivers offer nothing playable. Slivercycling is too expensive and poison counters will never accumulate in time to kill an opponent where normal damage would not. Wizards has to print fair versions of Slivers these days, and that means Legacy isn't going to get many stunners.


This is so true it hurts. Slivers gets crap, and Thresh gets Tarmogoyf. Is there no justice?

[hi-val]

Well, this is the first article that addressed Enchantress, though only in one sentence, and complretly worse thatn I'm spelling right now. Fetchable lands > pain lands. And you can't put a sprawl on them.

Otherwise a very nice article. I think that he addressed alot of the new cards pretty well, and gave some pretty awesome insight (I hadn't thought about using the storyteller in alluren). I'll give it a B or so. Good work, keep it up.

Thanks for the criticism. My point is that not all of the Savannahs can be replaced, obviously, but that perhaps room can be made in the deck for 1-3 Canopies alongside them. It's not either-or; heck, this is the first non-awful GW dual land in a long time, and I think it's Legacy playable. Maybe even 4 Savannahs, 4 Canopies is the right call. I defer to someone who is more learned at Enchantress than I am. Perhaps it can replace basic Plains.

SWB is a little pet card of mine, held over from a 5-color(format) aggro deck. They are beastly in that format but although I desperately want them to be good in this one, they are not.

With Tarmogoyf, first: how many people are going to mispronounce its name? Second, is there a Threshless Threshold deck to be had? Even Thresh-minimized? 4 Mages, 4 Tarmogoyfs and maybe Hierarchs or something else would be an interesting thought experiment. It really minimizes the effect of graveyard hate.

[Happy Gilmore]

Thanks for the criticism. My point is that not all of the Savannahs can be replaced, obviously, but that perhaps room can be made in the deck for 1-3 Canopies alongside them. It's not either-or; heck, this is the first non-awful GW dual land in a long time, and I think it's Legacy playable. Maybe even 4 Savannahs, 4 Canopies is the right call. I defer to someone who is more learned at Enchantress than I am. Perhaps it can replace basic Plains.

SWB is a little pet card of mine, held over from a 5-color(format) aggro deck. They are beastly in that format but although I desperately want them to be good in this one, they are not.

With Tarmogoyf, first: how many people are going to mispronounce its name? Second, is there a Threshless Threshold deck to be had? Even Thresh-minimized? 4 Mages, 4 Tarmogoyfs and maybe Hierarchs or something else would be an interesting thought experiment. It really minimizes the effect of graveyard hate.

Tarmogoyf plus Tomb Stalker conflict very little with each other. With only three cards in your yard and a couple in your opponets Tarmogyf can easily be a 5/6. I personally have never been a fan of MD mage, to each his own. I will say that Tarmogoyf is going to greatly improve the goblin match. Droping him turn two against lacky is just insane. Not having to trade a good card (bolt/Swords/Goose) for lacky is amazing.

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

I defer to someone who is more learned at Enchantress than I am. Perhaps it can replace basic Plains.

I was considering this, and then I remembered they printed Blood-Moon-On-Legs. So probably not unless he turns out to be a dud.


No mention of Epochrasite = :(

That guys looks awesome with some kind of Vial-Welder goodness.

[Pinder]

No mention of Epochrasite = :(

That guys looks awesome with some kind of Vial-Welder goodness.

Or even Transmute Artifact. Not that that's a terribly great way to abuse it, but this card is just begging to be broken. I can see it with Reshape in Extended....

edit: Hell, even with Exhume/Unearth/Reanimate/etc.

[hi-val]

I was considering this, and then I remembered they printed Blood-Moon-On-Legs. So probably not unless he turns out to be a dud.


No mention of Epochrasite = :(

That guys looks awesome with some kind of Vial-Welder goodness.

I read, I think Bleiweiss', review on Epocraasite and I severely undervalued the card. It IS a guy that's going to be coming back every third turn for 2 mana and turn into a 4/4. There's also not a lot most decks can be doing to stop it permanently doing that. One seems OK, but having 2 looping back looks really nuts. Is there a deck that could use this? I could see something packing Damn of God and other global sweepers and just planning on this guy coming back again and again to clean up. Good call on bringing my attention back to that.

Pinder, do you think there's any room left with Sliver design? Even their new big guy, Coat of Arms Sliver, doesn't break any new ground. What would a Sliver have to look like for you to put it into Slivers these days? I don't know that there are any more playable while not broken Slivers left to print.

[xsockmonkeyx]

When they printed Sinew Sliver they necroed us pretty hard core and I never expected them to print another good sliver in this block.

A new Sliver would have to be either: 1 mana (probably U or W) and bestow something more relevent than +0/+1 (and flanking I guess); 2 mana and give something better than first strike, flying, +1/+1, untargetability; or 3-4 mana and gives something that absolutely wins the game. Any of these type of Slivers would not see print most likely, not to mention in our colors.

There is most certainly room for innovation. There are plenty of good slivers out there. Playable yet not broken are Talon Sliver, Hibernation Sliver, and to a lesser extent Sidewinder, Essense Sliver.

Also someone needs to break Aether Vial with slivers. Sliver mechanic + Vial is very enticing.

[Pinder]

Pinder, do you think there's any room left with Sliver design? Even their new big guy, Coat of Arms Sliver, doesn't break any new ground. What would a Sliver have to look like for you to put it into Slivers these days? I don't know that there are any more playable while not broken Slivers left to print.

I suppose you're right about that. But there are some really important aspects that the deck wants that it's missing. Namely, some way to generate card advantage that doesn't cost 5 mana. Synapse Sliver has an amazingly relevant ability to the deck, but it's way too expensive to use. One of the reasons Goblins is so good is because there's a Goblin for everything. Slivers thrive on a similar utility. I just think Wizards needs to stop printing 3/3's. Seriously, the whole point of Slivers is that they share, they don't need to be huge to begin with. If they just shaved 2 P/T of of Synapse Sliver and 2 mana off the cost, it would be great. You can bet your ass we'd be running a 1/1 for 1UU with that ability. They need to stop making Slivers flashy, and start making them functional. But they're afraid to do that because it's very easy to push the envelope too far. I just really hope they follow up on the noncreature Sliver permanents (check the errata on Harmonic and others, every instance of 'creature' on every sliver has been changed to 'permanent'). I think there's a lot of room for not totally broken innovation in that.



Also someone needs to break Aether Vial with slivers. Sliver mechanic + Vial is very enticing.


This is not hard at all. Aether Vial just belongs in a sliver Aggro deck, not Aggro-Control. RGW aggro slivers with Vial could get pretty retarded. Off the top of my head:

Muscle Sliver
Sinew Sliver
Spined Sliver
Plated Sliver
Sidewinder Sliver
Hunter Siver (don't underestimate Provoke+Flanking)
Talon Sliver
Essence Sliver (things this expensive are more realistic with Vial)
Heart Sliver

And it would also give you access to a nice removal suite a la Swords, Helix, and Bolt. A light splash of blue for Crystalline (which is easily doable with Vial around to smooth your color requirements), and RGWu Vial Slivers could be a beast. A beast that loses to combo G1 and absolutely cries when WoG and Damnation come to the party, but a beast nonetheless.


When they printed Sinew Sliver they necroed us pretty hard core and I never expected them to print another good sliver in this block.

Don't forget Harmonic. I had my doubts, but that little guy is a house in the right circumstances. I'm just glad he wasn't a 4/4 for 4WGG or some stupid shit like that.

[TheMightyQuinn]

It does add to the critical mass of Dredge cards, though. It might also find a home in a Cephalid Life deck, where one mills out their library with Nomads En-Kor and Cephalid Inkshrouder to power up a Dread Returned Sutured Ghoul.

This is a total nitpick, but Cephalid Illusionist is needed for the combo to work. I've been toying with this kind of deck for a while now, and Future Sight defininately gave it some goodies. Its fun, but sadly gets its lunch money taken by StP. The article was cool; analyzing new sets always interests me.

[hi-val]

Yeah someone else pointed that out to me, Inkshrouder is used in FEB, and it's the only other freaking Cephalid that ever gets played, so I got totally mixed up : )