Out of these 3 decks, what would you play?

[czeluff]

Hello to all,

I"m going to start buying actual cards for a Legacy deck...now I just have to decide which one I should devote money to.

The three choices (these are the three I LIKE the most):

1. Landstill
2. Deadguy Ale
3. Cephalid Breakfast

I'm really lookin to start getting into tournaments, so I want a tourney winner. Is there some sort of general outline for "what deck wins what" out of these 3? (Does Deadguy Ale always win/lose to Landstill/Cepahlid Breakfast).

Any help would be appreciated.

Added Thought: looking also at the LIFESPAN of the deck. I don't want to start building a deck and then have it completely fizzle within 3 months.

[Happy Gilmore]

Hello to all,

I"m going to start buying actual cards for a Legacy deck...now I just have to decide which one I should devote money to.

The three choices (these are the three I LIKE the most):

1. Landstill
2. Deadguy Ale
3. Cephalid Breakfast

I'm really lookin to start getting into tournaments, so I want a tourney winner. Is there some sort of general outline for "what deck wins what" out of these 3? (Does Deadguy Ale always win/lose to Landstill/Cepahlid Breakfast).

Any help would be appreciated.

Breakfast, its the cheepest and probably the most powerful of the three. Honestly I havn't seen Dead Guy win anything lately

[Sanguine Voyeur]

I think it's highly dependant on the meta, choose the one with the best matchups aginst the majority of the field.

For example; if there is nothing but Solidarty in your meta, Deadguy might be the better choice.

[Ewokslayer]

Breakfast or Landstill since they both contain alot of the same cards you can easily switch to the other later.
I would probably go with Breakfast as that can easily be transformed into Threshold later as well.

[DragoFireheart]

Play the one you can afford.

[Nihil Credo]

Cephalid Breakfast is probably the least metagame-dependant deck of the trio, since it's the only one with a proactive game plan. Until something causes everyone in your area to pack 4x Cursed Totems and Leylines of the Void, it will remain viable.

[Di]

Never, ever play a black deck at a tournament. Greatest Magical regret you can make. Threshold will remain at the top of the format for a very long time. It's probably the best investment you can make. I know it wasn't on your list, but considering how similar Threshold and Breakfast are, it's really easy to get them both at the same time. Breakfast is probably the best combo deck in the format deck currently, fwiw.

[zulander]

I'd play gagomy, but that's just me.

[Nightmare]

I'd play gagomy, but that's just me.Just you.

[DragoFireheart]

I'd play gagomy, but that's just me.

I hate the Negator. I have nightamares about dropping him and then watching a Shivan Meteor hit him.

IT'S MADNESS!

[AnwarA101]

Never, ever play a black deck at a tournament. Greatest Magical regret you can make.

I can't think of a time I regretted playing Red Death at a tournament, but I know of at least one person who regretted playing Eternal Garden vs. Iggy Pop at a tournament. :wink:

BTW, build Breakfast and you should be pretty close to Thresh anyway. Those two decks are really good. Don't build Deadguy. I'm not sure anyone plays it anymore.

[DeathwingZERO]

Never, ever play a black deck at a tournament. Greatest Magical regret you can make. Threshold will remain at the top of the format for a very long time. It's probably the best investment you can make. I know it wasn't on your list, but considering how similar Threshold and Breakfast are, it's really easy to get them both at the same time. Breakfast is probably the best combo deck in the format deck currently, fwiw.

Funny you mention not playing a black deck at a tournament....I remember somewhere recently a black deck seemed to hit finalists....Also, Thresh is very different playing styles compared to the 3 he listed, that would require much more work and time to get it down.

As far as the 3 choices are concerned, I'd agree with Breakfast, even being a former Landstill and Deadguy player.

The main reasons are obvious, as you'd have to decide on which LS version you want. Then once your there, you need the dual lands and fetchlands. Then the FoW, Crucible, etc. Breakfast by far is cheaper, and Deadguy is as well. If money is no object, I'd say you can probably get away with building both Cephalid and TES or something of that sort in comparison to just Landstill.

As far as tournament play is concerned, Deadguy has pretty much been dead for a while now. I ditched it about 8 months ago, after multiple playtest sessions over the 6 months I had it built was coming up with bad matchups against most of the format. It was just too slow, and too slow on it's proactiveness (Vindicate comes to mind here). If you plan on seeing anything from the current metagame at your shop, it's definitely the worst of the 3.

Landstill is a deck that requires a lot of dedication to your games and personal play. You need to keep an eye out on what they are playing, what bombs you know to counter, card draw spells to play and when, when to drop your manlands and swing with them, what to remove/destroy on their side if it actually hits, etc. This is one of those decks that's very unforgiving if you make crucial mistakes on draws and plays. I've had times where I was able to beat my opponent from a mistake on which split of a FoF to take, having the knowledge to pick the better one. So I suggest if you choose this one, to take a long time out to practice with it before it hits tournament tables.

Cephalid, being combo, requires you to play the combo tight. You pretty much don't care at all what your opponent plays, as long as it doesn't stop you. From there, you just play through till you hit your critical point, hit the oppponent with a discard spell or two, and swing for the win, so to speak. Much more cut and dry. Worst case scenario, you ditch the combo aspect and just play the creatures, beating down with them individually. As I'm a combo player at heart, I'd say if you like combo (even in the slightest), go with it. Unless there's specific hate in your meta to beat your combo of choice, it's pretty much a solid chance of beating most non-scale tournament meta's.

Hope this helps.

[URABAHN]

Hello to all,

I"m going to start buying actual cards for a Legacy deck...now I just have to decide which one I should devote money to.

The three choices (these are the three I LIKE the most):

1. Landstill
2. Deadguy Ale
3. Cephalid Breakfast

I'm really lookin to start getting into tournaments, so I want a tourney winner. Is there some sort of general outline for "what deck wins what" out of these 3? (Does Deadguy Ale always win/lose to Landstill/Cepahlid Breakfast).

Any help would be appreciated.

Added Thought: looking also at the LIFESPAN of the deck. I don't want to start building a deck and then have it completely fizzle within 3 months.

Breakfast, it's pretty damn good. It's fast, it runs 'goyf, and it's a combo deck!

[zulander]

Just you.

Yeah, I know.
<- Sad Panda :*(

Time to start spreading the love then huh?

[DeathwingZERO]

I don't want to ever play gagomy just because any way I pronounce the name of the deck it sounds like I'm trying to pass myself off as some kind of homersexual.

[Di]

Funny you mention not playing a black deck at a tournament....I remember somewhere recently a black deck seemed to hit finalists....Also, Thresh is very different playing styles compared to the 3 he listed, that would require much more work and time to get it down.

Surely that is a vaguery of perception. Black decks don't win.

More work to get Threshold? The sole differences between Breakfast and Threshold are like...10-12 commons? Oh noes! Also, time to get down? Please, a 3-year old could play the deck. It's by far one of the simplest decks to play in this format, right up there with Goblins.

[SuckerPunch]

Breakfast or Landstill since they both contain alot of the same cards you can easily switch to the other later.
I would probably go with Breakfast as that can easily be transformed into Threshold later as well.

I'm a UGW thresh player, never once ran into Cephalid Breakfast, not really sure how it works.

I keep hearing that thresh is the same shell as this deck except for a few commons.

Yet, the builds I see all play black and 2 Underground Seas.

So I'm wondering, is the black splash in this deck absolutely essential or would the combo work fine without playing black? I imagine that Black is only played to be able to hardcast Cabal Therapy in a pinch but it's not essential to the combo to be able to.

If I could play the deck without Underground Seas, I would love to make a transformational board so that my thresh deck transforms into this deck.

Please tell me this is possible and make my day. :)

[Tacosnape]

For what it's worth, 4C Landstill and Cephalid Breakfast can almost be built simultaneously. Look at the cards they both run:

Tundra
Underground Sea
Tropical Island
Flooded Strand
Polluted Delta
Force of Will

That's the majority of the expensive cards right there. So it wouldn't be hard, once you had all of those, to pick up the cards for both 4C Landstill and Cephalid Breakfast. And as long as you're getting the Tarmogoyfs, you could pick up the remaining easy targets for Threshold as well.

[Wallace]

Breakfast or Landstill since they both contain alot of the same cards you can easily switch to the other later.
I would probably go with Breakfast as that can easily be transformed into Threshold later as well.

Totally agree with Ewokslayer, Breakfast is really good and you can easly play Landstill if you don't like Breakfast. I don't recomend Dead Guy, has a few good match ups but I have found that I can't seem to get it to work very well with the current state of legacy.

[SuckerPunch]

So can Breakfast be built without playing Underground Seas or any black lands?

[Bovinious]

Not optimally, but sure you COULD. Though you'd lose the ability to hardcast Therapy, and lose Duress/Bob SB, which wouldnt be good.

[Bane of the Living]

Yes, the flashbacked Therapies dont even need black mana. Confidant an Duress are in the board but you might find replacements if you try hard enough.

Maybe some Orims Chants.

[Obfuscate Freely]

Just to reiterate: Breakfast is almost certainly the best choice.

The most important reason is that every expensive card in the deck is an absolute staple to own. Forces, blue duals, blue fetches, and Tarmogoyfs will always be playable in an upper-tier deck, whether Breakfast is that deck, or not. There is virtually no way you could ever regret the investment (unless you stopped playing, or they banned Tarmogoyf, or something).

As others have mentioned, there is already another extremely good deck that those cards go in (********), and the cards that aren't shared by the two decks are mostly pretty cheap.

If winning tournaments is more important to you than making a sound investment, I'm pretty sure that Breakfast is still the best choice. It's fantastically powerful, and proactive, which makes it very well-suited to unprepared metagames.

The deck could conceivably get temporarily hated out if your local playerbase is small enough (and you beat them with it enough), but you can always solve that problem by switching over to ******** for a week or two (and still beat them).

Now, Landstill wouldn't be a bad choice to build, because it forces you to get a lot of the same staples, but it also requires some less useful things like Crucible and Pernicious Deed. On top of that, I think Breakfast is the better deck. I would only pick Landstill if, for some reason, you really want to play a control deck.


So I'm wondering, is the black splash in this deck absolutely essential or would the combo work fine without playing black? I imagine that Black is only played to be able to hardcast Cabal Therapy in a pinch but it's not essential to the combo to be able to.

If I could play the deck without Underground Seas, I would love to make a transformational board so that my thresh deck transforms into this deck.

Please tell me this is possible and make my day. :)
You would lose Duress, Confidant, and Crippling Fatigue from the sideboard, as well as the ability to hardcast Therapy. None of those things are really essential, I guess. The combo would completely dominate the sideboard, though.

4x Nomads en-Kor
4x Cephalid Illusionist
2x Narcomoeba
1x Cabal Therapy
1x Dread Return
1x Sutured Ghoul
1x Dragon Breath
1x ?

[SuckerPunch]

Thank you for the post. That seems like one direction.

But the worldly tutors seem important.

I was going to maindeck them in thresh and refer to them as Goyf Tutors.

So I could effectively bring in 19 cards to Threshold. What then?

[Lego]

Start with Cephalid Breakfast, then get the pieces for Thresh, then get Landstill if you feel you need it. It won't be difficult to go from Breakfast to Thresh, and form there Landstill is only a few more cards. You'll have two of the best decks in the format, and Landstill is pretty good as well.

[czeluff]

just because i'm more of a combo player i'll get Cephalid first, then get the 10-12 other cards for Thresh. That's a great idea guys, thanks! Love the idea of technically having two decks.....

looks like some people have thought about sideboarding from one to another. is this a feasible option? swap out Cephalid Breakfast for UGW Thresh or Threshold game 2?????

cz

p.s. can some1 just quickly post the latest good builds for Thresh? (i'm assuming this deck plays UGW not UGR). much thanks to mtgthesource, a VERY good place for information.

p.s.s -
2 Underground Sea: $70
4 Aether Vial: $12
4 Tarmogoyf: $100
4 Worldly Tutor: $10
4 Force of Will: $75
4 Flooded Strand: $65
4 Polluted Delta: $70
3 Tropical Island: $60
4 Tundra: $100

Total: $562

Wow, this is a cheap Legacy deck? lol

[DeathwingZERO]

By no means is it cheap, but it's cheap and Tier status. TES by far and away is cheaper than that, but even that deck is putting you out a ton because of it's manabase, and that kinda locks you into straight up combo decks, rather than Cephalid and Thresh being so similar.

And as a lot have stated, those cards are pretty much all staples. While it seems like a hefty investement now, I can absolutely guarantee those cards will all hold in value for years to come, if not continue to steadily go up out of demand.\

PS. Those prices are all ridiculously highball, too. I know of multiple sources in my area where the decksets of blue based fetches only top at $55, and the blue duals can greatly vary in price depending on condition. Also, there's a few places I know of that can get you Goyf's at $80 for the deckset. These alone should scrap off about $100 of your listed value, at minimum.