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Thread: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

  1. #1

    Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Hello guys, Im currently thinking about spending a couple of hundreds for some MtG cards. I started playing again with the Top ban and borrowed most of the expensive duals and Force of Will for tournaments. I started MtG in 2009 and mainly played Legacy. I think in Legacy, the cards and mechanics I like to play is in Legacy and I see Magic as a Legacy kind of game. Legacy was always the most fun for me with also the most statisfaction. Still I am a student and earn around 700€ a month I have to spend for rent and food. I dont have the possibility to buy myself a larger pool. I played Ur Delver till now and it is by far my favorite deck. But 3 Volcanic Island and 4 Force of Will seem way to much for me. I had to work on that build at least 6-8 months to finally own all cards. Then with Ur I wouldnt even play a DtB which frustrates me and paying an other couple of hundreds for Underground Sea is just not possible, no matter how much I think it trough. Also I would only earn 2 Legacy decks with this investment (Burn and Ur Delver) which seems such a bad deal in general. Because of this I am thinking about moving to Modern. I allready tried Modern and didnt really enjoy it. Still with 300-400€ I would own a large Urx/Rbx pool which I could play with. Also people told me that coming from Legacy to Modern will be a downgrade but Modern for itself is a very diverse a interesting format with its own mechanics. Also in my area there a pretty large Modern tournaments but just small Legacy events which also speaks for Modern. Thats why Im not really sure what to do now. I wish I could play Legacy but I dont have the money. And even if I had the money for Legacy my living condition does NOT allow me to spend it on MtG cards. Ill say my budget is up to 300-400 € for the next 4-5 months. What would you guys suggest me to do?

    Thanks

  2. #2

    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    My suggestion is to stay with Legacy since you seem to enjoy it. Legacy is a great format, with plenty of interaction, and it would be quite sad to move to a less enjoyable format (especially with jace unban lul), only for money reasons. You said you were borrowing cards to play UR. Why not continuing borrowing ? I mean, if you have some money to spend, you can buy FoW playset (quite cheap at the moment) and/or one volcanic island. With this small investment, your deck will be playable (with basics) without borrowing cards, and you can still ask cards you miss to your mates for big tournaments. If you are a good player, you will win cards in tournaments, and hopefully duals lands. It's not such a big deal to wait one or two years to get the complete deck right ? I built my deck from scratch in 3 years like this. Just with the money i spent in tournaments fees.

  3. #3
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    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Legacy has a greater chance of being relevant for longer. Your cards will generally appreciate over time. Buying into certain packages of cards will give you multiple decks that only need small investments to finish (ie Lion's Eye Diamond can be used to build both Storm variants and Dredge, two totally different decks.) The format rewards deck familiarity and even has room for brewing on occasion. Manabases are brutal, low played duals like Plateau are $70 while Underground sea is $450. Fetches necessary.

    Modern, while being less expensive to buy into, is more volatile. Cards will likely appreciate over time, especially if they cross over into Legacy like Snapcaster Mage and Liliana of the Veil. Sometimes a ban hammer, or unban recently, will make some cards irrelevant after being relevant for a long time (Splinter Twin, Birthing Pod are both examples of bans.) The format has a lot of room to brew currently because of the shakeup, but it will settle out faster than legacy with defined tier decks that will dictate the format. Manabases are downright cheap, most shocklands around $10-12, but fetches are still necessary. Some of the fastlands like Blooming Marsh are only $5 while Blackcleave Cliffs topped $40 recently due to Bloodbraid being unbanned.

    I say Legacy, because in my humble opinion, it's more interactive with everybody doing powerful things. There are so many fringe decks that take advantage of a certain mix of top decks/metagame and the format adjusts slowly, which makes whatever deck you choose relevant most of the time. Again, investing in a package of cards (like blue dual lands, LED/tutors, Force of Will, etc.) can give you options that allow you to keep in the format even if its hostile to your main deck.
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  4. #4

    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    You should remember that this is a forum primarily concerned with legacy so expect at least some bias in the answers. However, I do agree with what the previous two posters said but would like to add that its not reasonable to approach MTG with budget considerations in the first place because if you do you're in for some frustration most of the time, at least if you try to perform competitively. That's something you should probably keep in mind.

  5. #5

    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Buy into Modern. Barring a significant change in WotC's policies, Legacy will go the way of Vintage sooner rather than later.

    Modern will give you more games, more tournaments, a larger playerbase to interact with, and a couple hundred bucks there goes a lot farther than it does in Legacy.

  6. #6
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    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Sell kidneys; buy Underground Seas!

    protip: they don't have to be your kidneys...

    Others have said, expect bias replies from this forum. I bought my first deck over a 18 month period, roughly budgeting $100 a month with Christmas and Birthday gifts to myself for the duals over budget. It was a long time but the deck was still relevant once it was complete. Still relevant today years and years later. Don't let the "goes the way of Vintage" people scare you, the only way Legacy will collapse is if it all collapses and we have our very own Black Tuesday.
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  7. #7

    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Quote Originally Posted by morgan_coke View Post
    Buy into Modern. Barring a significant change in WotC's policies, Legacy will go the way of Vintage sooner rather than later.

    Modern will give you more games, more tournaments, a larger playerbase to interact with, and a couple hundred bucks there goes a lot farther than it does in Legacy.
    From my experience legacy and modern don't differ that much anymore in terms of its costs. I was in OP's situation as well a few months ago after I had sold out years ago and considered investing in modern too but honestly I had to laugh at the prices people are willing to pay for crap like Fulimnator Mage etc. nowadays. And all that despite modern still being a format where you're killed by cc4 combos and manabases that solely comprise nonbasics because the best counterspell or LD available is mana Leak or Stone Rain respectively.

    Rather than legacy I see modern go the vintage way right now tbh.

  8. #8

    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Quote Originally Posted by Erdvermampfa View Post
    From my experience legacy and modern don't differ that much anymore in terms of its costs. I was in OP's situation as well a few months ago after I had sold out years ago and considered investing in modern too but honestly I had to laugh at the prices people are willing to pay for crap like Fulimnator Mage etc. nowadays. And all that despite modern still being a format where you're killed by cc4 combos and manabases that solely comprise nonbasics because the best counterspell or LD available is mana Leak or Stone Rain respectively.

    Rather than legacy I see modern go the vintage way right now tbh.
    Modern has record numbers, official support, PTs/GPs, they reprint everything expensive in MM sets, and it's banlist is much more actively managed by WotC, including removing cards. Not sure what you're talking about other than just what it smells like inside your own butt.

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    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Quote Originally Posted by morgan_coke View Post
    Modern has record numbers, official support, PTs/GPs, they reprint everything expensive in MM sets, and it's banlist is much more actively managed by WotC, including removing cards. Not sure what you're talking about other than just what it smells like inside your own butt.
    I have to agree...modern seems to have more tournaments than legacy.

  10. #10

    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Quote Originally Posted by morgan_coke View Post
    Modern has record numbers, official support, PTs/GPs, they reprint everything expensive in MM sets, and it's banlist is much more actively managed by WotC, including removing cards. Not sure what you're talking about other than just what it smells like inside your own butt.
    Well Wizards' treatment of other formats has shown that being neglected by them is actually a rather good thing for a format so I would consider this an additional advantage of legacy over modern. For example have you ever had the experience where your favorite deck which you have invested sweat and tears into all of sudden gets banned? The absence of bannings in legacy is a privilege. Thanks for the insult though.

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    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Quote Originally Posted by morgan_coke View Post
    Modern has record numbers, official support, PTs/GPs, they reprint everything expensive in MM sets, and it's banlist is much more actively managed by WotC, including removing cards. Not sure what you're talking about other than just what it smells like inside your own butt.
    +1

    I feel the same way. Modern is one of the most popular formats ATM, even with the new shake-up.
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    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Buy into Modern. Borrow to play Legacy.

    You can buy into Legacy after you have graduated, found a job, and have disposable income at a higher level.

    Also consider, Modern has a much larger playerbase than Legacy. You might move away after college and find a job who knows where. I bet there will be a Modern scene wherever you end up. But it's not necessarily promised that there will be a Legacy scene.

    Also also, in 5 years, who knows what will happen with Legacy. Maybe it goes the way of Vintage and card prices become unreasonable. And the playerbase dies out. We really have no guarantees.

    But with Modern, you know WOTC are going to do their best to keep prices lowish with reprints and all that. I'm thinking about buying into Modern too for all of the above reasons. Even though I have Legacy stuff.
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  13. #13

    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Buy into modern and brew budget decks and/or borrow in legacy. Given your budget and annoyance at ur delver not being a dtb this seems obvious...what deck would you play if not ur delver?

  14. #14

    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Playtest Modern in free online games (Cockatrice, xmage) and find a deck you like. If you're lucky enough the card pool of this deck may even overlap with the pool of some Legacy decks (Burn has many similar slots and is tier1, Dredge is pretty good in Modern and also uses some cards from the Legacy version, there's a Death's Shadow port of the Modern deck into Legacy, Eldrazi Tron has many cards in common with Legacy's Eldrazi Stompy and so on). If you grind enough you can slowly get staples and build into what you want over time.

    Thing is, Modern is the highest followed format recently, being the most watched streamed format in quite some time. It's getting bigger and bigger attention from WotC like someone already said here and that may be a bad thing if your deck gets banned out, but there's almost always something you can build into with your pool after bans. Just watch out for the meta changes since Jace and BBE unban will probably impact the format in a warping way.

  15. #15

    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    The way I see Modern is the following.
    In the beginning people wanted to play Modern as a Legacy Light format but they figured out that the questions are way stronger then the answers and they started complaining. All the complaining leads to a pretty long, I say way to long, ban list.
    After all the dust off the bannings settled we ended with with a Standard Plus format. Modern players just want to play a bit stronger Standard and that is what Modern turned into in my opinion.

    It seems like you really like Legacy a lot so I would say just keep borrowing and then buy a card here and there when you got the money for. I know it is frustrating, I also been there, but in the end it is very rewarding.
    I got into Legacy a couple months ago after playing Modern for about 5 years straight.
    After I started playing Legacy I started to enjoy playing magic again. Don`t get me wrong Modern is a great format but all the talks about banning things was getting on my nerves. Just take a look at mtg salvation. The community their is just toxic as can be. When a deck wins a GP or PT they scream like maniacs that cards or even whole decks need to be banned.
    I had two decks banned from under me, one became useless the other one was still viable but the enjoyment got out of it for me. I love playing Dredge and those are the only two decks I have left, one for Legacy and one for Modern.

    What I`m trying to say is that Modern is a fun format to play your deck will not be playable, atleast when it is a Tier 1 deck, for a lot longer then about a year. The bannings happen a lot more then you would like and everytime you are holding your breath when an announcement pops up. It is just not a fun relaxing environment to be in.
    The only reason I`m keeping my Modern deck around is because Modern is a widely played format and it does not matter where you go you can always find people and tournaments to play with and in.

  16. #16
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    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Lots of good advice in this thread.

    If you decide to continue with Legacy, buy the Forces. Those are indispensable. For the mana, use shocklands, fetchlands, and basics until you can save enough for some heavily played duals. The first dual is the most important, and the fourth is potentially not even necessary. Most of the lands can be ported between Legacy and Modern, so you could play both formats, assuming you wanted to play the same color combinations.

    Because of reprints, Modern prices fluctuate more than Legacy prices. This means you will have windows of opportunity to grab cards at discounted prices. Pay attention when WOTC prints a Masters set, or 25, which is coming up shortly.

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    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    From my experience it is good to buy in to legacy.
    The cards will retain their value, when in modern you have a roller coaster, especially now, when they reprint everything.

    When I started coming back to MtG. I was lucky enough to still have some dual lands from old days, but no Fetchs.

    I will suggest to overlap Modern and Legacy.
    Focus on decks that share most of the cards with their modern counterpart Jund, D&T, Merfolks, Eldrazi, Miracles, Shadow, Maverick… so you can save money on most of the cards.
    You start with shocklands (you might already have some)and slowly buy duals. One every month if you cannot afford a Dual this month, because your daughter wants something, you can still use your shocks and enjoy both formats. You will have a small handicap, but winning with a deck that is a substitute of the original form should make you proud. If you are good at the game you will win some staples.

    Unfortunately some decks only exist in their own format (Lands/Tron).
    If your area has a weekly legacy and 3 times per week modern. Go for modern and slowly buy in to legacy, still playing both format.

    Unless you are a bandwagoner and play only the best deck at the moment. I am sorry, but it will cost you a fortune.

  18. #18

    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Thank you for all your answers and input, I do appreciate this a lot :) I also think about investing money into cards which I can sell one time when I don't play anymore. Since Legacy dual lands are very stable in their price I might just invest into Volcanic Island and Forces to own my Ur Delver and borrow more Duals for big tournaments. Till then I will probably play with Steam Vents to just keep playing Legacy, I do can afford a playset FoW right now though.

    Thing is I was looking into Modern the whole night and testing it out, it is not a format I really enjoy. My heart beats when playing Daze and FoW, all this weak cantrips with Serum Visions and Opt to not even play a Delver is just not my style. Can't really say much about it than I don't enjoy playing it. Also I'm very skilled in Legacy and probably one of the better players out there since all of my attention always went to Legacy and never to different formats so I will keep it that way and hope every 3-4 months to invest into a dual land. So my plan will be to buy in the next 3-4 months 4 FoW and 1 Volcanic Island which should be doable for me. Till then I keep continuing borrow cards or play with Steam Vents instead. Since our Legacy community consists of 15-20 players maximum on FNM I will ask before playing if we count Steam Vents as Volcanic Islands, I think 90% of the player base should be fine with it since I allready seen it being done.

    If one day Legacy will completely die and no player base will play it anymore I will sell the stuff for cheaper and then move to Modern. But until then I just play the format I really love. Thanks for the help folks, see you in the forum :)

  19. #19

    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Quote Originally Posted by IamHANDSOME View Post
    Thank you for all your answers and input, I do appreciate this a lot :) I also think about investing money into cards which I can sell one time when I don't play anymore. Since Legacy dual lands are very stable in their price I might just invest into Volcanic Island and Forces to own my Ur Delver and borrow more Duals for big tournaments. Till then I will probably play with Steam Vents to just keep playing Legacy, I do can afford a playset FoW right now though.

    Thing is I was looking into Modern the whole night and testing it out, it is not a format I really enjoy. My heart beats when playing Daze and FoW, all this weak cantrips with Serum Visions and Opt to not even play a Delver is just not my style. Can't really say much about it than I don't enjoy playing it. Also I'm very skilled in Legacy and probably one of the better players out there since all of my attention always went to Legacy and never to different formats so I will keep it that way and hope every 3-4 months to invest into a dual land. So my plan will be to buy in the next 3-4 months 4 FoW and 1 Volcanic Island which should be doable for me. Till then I keep continuing borrow cards or play with Steam Vents instead. Since our Legacy community consists of 15-20 players maximum on FNM I will ask before playing if we count Steam Vents as Volcanic Islands, I think 90% of the player base should be fine with it since I allready seen it being done.

    If one day Legacy will completely die and no player base will play it anymore I will sell the stuff for cheaper and then move to Modern. But until then I just play the format I really love. Thanks for the help folks, see you in the forum :)
    No problem!

    Glad to see you made up your mind and I don`t think Legacy will die out anytime soon.
    From what I`m seeing online and at my store is that people are joining Legacy more then leaving it. This year is also a pretty good year with more support from Wizards so who knows what the future will bring.

  20. #20
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    Re: Buying into Legacy or Modern?

    Quote Originally Posted by IamHANDSOME View Post
    But until then I just play the format I really love. Thanks for the help folks, see you in the forum :)



    There it is. The answer was in your heart all the time.

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