[Article] Special Announcement and Unlocking Legacy #1

[Anusien]

Here at The Mana Drain, we are pleased to announce the start of a weekly Legacy column at Star City Games.* Machinus (Chris Coppola), Bardo (Dan Spero), Hi-Val (Doug Linn) and myself (Kevin Binswanger) will each be providing one Legacy article a month to Star City Games on a weekly rotation.* Every Thursday will feature a new Unlocking Legacy by one of the four of us, or a potential guest writer*.* The start of the series is Chris Coppola's "The Building Blocks of Legacy"!

"In this article, I draw on my experience as a Legacy deckbuilder and player and discuss the foundational cards of the format. I also emphasize the importance of creative deckbuilding and suggest some methods for creating new decks."

If you have any suggestions or comments, please leave them either here or in the SCG forums.* Please leave feedback over at SCG; this is one of the ways they can judge how well people like us.

* If you are interested and have something exciting to write about, please drop one of us a line through PM.

[mikekelley]

Finally, some solid and regular legacy material. Great job.

[Mirrislegend]

Thank the gods. It's about damn time.

One thing though. The title "Unlocking Legacy" gets me a little skittish. It sounds like it's teaching Legacy to non-Legacy players. I hope this isnt so, because otherwise we'll end up with a fiasco similar to Magic Academy. I pray that as a player who understands Legacy, both in deckbuilding and in playing, I'll be able to learn from these pieces.

[blarknob]

It sounds like it's teaching Legacy to non-Legacy players. I hope this isnt so, because otherwise we'll end up with a fiasco similar to Magic Academy.

Attracting new players is pretty much never a bad thing. I think it is very important to aim this at a non legacy audience. It will improve the quality of the player base, bring in new ideas, and ensure the longevity of the format.

I know people are attached to their meta and community but if you want legacy to have any kind of relevance then we need to encourage outside players to pick up the format.

[Anusien]

Thank the gods. It's about damn time.

One thing though. The title "Unlocking Legacy" gets me a little skittish. It sounds like it's teaching Legacy to non-Legacy players. I hope this isnt so, because otherwise we'll end up with a fiasco similar to Magic Academy. I pray that as a player who understands Legacy, both in deckbuilding and in playing, I'll be able to learn from these pieces.

I agree, to a certain extent. It turns out that it's really really difficult to pick an article title; brainstorming and voting on articles took more time than actually writing a couple of articles.

Anyway, I definitely feel that we have something coming for all types of players. Chris's article was very theoretical and more aimed at a beginning player, where my article next week is about deck testing methods, and details a very powerful and new deck. With a rotation like we have, I think you'll find something for everything. But by all means, if you have any suggestions or requests, please let us know.

[Atwa]

I think this is a great idea, and somehow I feel it's about time we (as the Legacy community) are finally getting some recognition as a serious Magic audience.

I must say the article was pretty good, it explained the basic concepts of our format in a way every person who understands a bit of magic, can understand. Gaining more souls for the format is always a good thing.

However I must say I have the same fears as Mirrislegend has. Explaining our format from scrach is a good thing, but be sure you take it to a higher level after some time. People who already play Legacy will find the pieces booring after a while, and I am sure the people who'll start format, will also lose interest if the articles will stay at the level they are now.

I hope the four of you will be able to keep things interesting for the audience as the time goes, since noboby is waiting for another Magic Adademy disaster. I am very happy Starcitygames.com is willing to support the Legacy community by printing a weekly article, but I fear they'll stop supporting as soon as the audience for the articles starts to decrese.

I wish you luck with finding new and relevant subjects every 4 weeks, and I want to thank you guys for the effort you'll put into writing the articles. This might be the big chance to finally be taken serious by a bigger crowd.

[Bardo]

One thing though. The title "Unlocking Legacy" gets me a little skittish. It sounds like it's teaching Legacy to non-Legacy players.

Believe me, the title means absolutely nothing. Anusien is also right, we literally spent more time debating over the title of the column than writing the articles. :) This is hopefully the worst sort of thing we'll need to deal with as a group. Basically, Flores took "Legacy's Allure" for one of his articles a while back and that's what fucked us.

We had a couple of other nominations for a column name, but "Legacy Unlocked" won out, somehow or the other. The details are still a little fuzzy.

I am very happy Starcitygames.com is willing to support the Legacy community by printing a weekly article, but I fear they'll stop supporting as soon as the audience for the articles starts to decrese.

Meh, no one knows. If they want to drop us, so be it--at least we gave it a shot. But I'm sure we have a slot until after GP: Columbus. After that point, well, it's hard to say.

I wish you luck with finding new and relevant subjects every 4 weeks, and I want to thank you guys for the effort you'll put into writing the articles. This might be the big chance to finally be taken serious by a bigger crowd.

Note that this is a weekly column--every Thursday we'll have a new article. Once we get through the rotation, we'll also be open to running guest pieces. So if you have a 1.5 article that is burning to get out of you, let any one of us know and we'll see if we can work it in.

Attracting new players is pretty much never a bad thing. I think it is very important to aim this at a non legacy audience. It will improve the quality of the player base, bring in new ideas, and ensure the longevity of the format.

I know people are attached to their meta and community but if you want legacy to have any kind of relevance then we need to encourage outside players to pick up the format.

Right. I mean, we need to address a couple of different audiences. The hardcore crowd that frequents MTS and TMD/TML daily and the Extended or Vintage guy that has a passing interest and may become a good Legacy player. Anyway, not all articles will be for the hardcore crowd, but the writing will become very dull, for us, if we don't write highly detailed articles for format devotees as well.

I'm doing my best to write my articles with both audiences in mind--to be engaging to outsiders, but also relevant to insiders. It's not an easy line. :)

[Atwa]

Note that this is a weekly column--every Thursday we'll have a new article. Once we get through the rotation, we'll also be open to running guest pieces. So if you have a 1.5 article that is burning to get out of you, let any one of us know and we'll see if we can work it in.

I knew, but since you'll rotate each week, you'll be writing one piece a month, that's what I was refering to.

I'm doing my best to write my articles with both audiences in mind--to be engaging to outsiders, but also relevant to insiders. It's not an easy line. :)

That's the way to go. Unfortunatly I don't have the experience nor the time to help writing (not to speak of the 'laguage barrier'), but I'll try to feed you guys with some Dutch data, like tournament reports. This way you can try to make the articles a little more global orrientated. It really bothered me with the Vintage articles, most of the strategies/decklists were for an American meta. Maybe you can ask people like Eladriel, Tao, Lukas Preuss and Alex_van_R to do the same. That's almost half of Europe.

Again, thank you guys and good luck.

[Hoojo]

I just finished the first article and I liked it. It's good to know that I can check SCG every Thursday now for a Legacy article.

[URABAHN]

Thank the gods. It's about damn time.

One thing though. The title "Unlocking Legacy" gets me a little skittish. It sounds like it's teaching Legacy to non-Legacy players. I hope this isnt so, because otherwise we'll end up with a fiasco similar to Magic Academy. I pray that as a player who understands Legacy, both in deckbuilding and in playing, I'll be able to learn from these pieces.

I am hoping, praying for articles on the level of the Standard and Sealed Premium. Every couple months I see another boring "Intro to the Legacy Format" article that makes me want to rake out my eyes. The article on Magic-League.com is a good example.

[Complete_Jank]

If you have any suggestions or comments, please leave them either here or in the SCG forums.* Please leave feedback over at SCG; this is one of the ways they can judge how well people like us.

Hmm, well I don't think I should like you, but even then if I did, I can't leave feedback, you banned me from SCG forums.

I'm not saying I didn't ask for it, but the guy I was arguing with was a complete idiot. Guess as long as I am banned my feedback is one feedback you won't be receiving, but it's only one person and most disagree with what I have to say anyways right?

[Machinus]

Legacy is still a young format, even though there is high level magic to discuss. There is much development to be done, and I hope this column is a part of that process. We're going to be unlocking the format in the future, not explaining the previous innovations.

My article was written at a basic level, but we have plenty of competitive content. In fact, I'm sure most of the articles will deal with tournament Legacy. Don't be worried!

[Anusien]

Hmm, well I don't think I should like you, but even then if I did, I can't leave feedback, you banned me from SCG forums.

I'm not saying I didn't ask for it, but the guy I was arguing with was a complete idiot. Guess as long as I am banned my feedback is one feedback you won't be receiving, but it's only one person and most disagree with what I have to say anyways right?

For what it's worth, I don't make banning decisions. You're still welcome to leave feedback here or on TMD or through PM; we'd still love to know what you think and if you have any suggestions.

[Complete_Jank]

For what it's worth, I don't make banning decisions. You're still welcome to leave feedback here or on TMD or through PM; we'd still love to know what you think and if you have any suggestions.

I'm sure you don't, but I'm sure that you bring attention to where you think it is needed, and someone else pulls the trigger.


I'll probably read them, but don't really expect anything good except from the ones by Machinus and Hi-Val, I think they both have a good knowledge of the format, and respect their thoughs on things. As for Bardo, I don't know about Bardo, I am not familure with him. The articles I have read of yours had good subjects, but not anything worth reading by an experienced player. This is probably because they were written for people that know nothing about Legacy.

Don't get me wrong, I know it sounds like I am attacking you but I am not. You are a good guy as far as I know, and seem pretty likeable from the time I met you, and I think you mean well. You have lots of knowledge to share. I just think you miss things at times when they are right there in front of you.

[Bardo]

Well, you've probably read my stuff at one point or another. I've written twelve articles on Legacy since the format was created. Most of them are excellent.

[xsockmonkeyx]

Well, you've probably read my stuff at one point or another. I've written twelve articles on Legacy since the format was created. Most of them are essential.

Fixed

[hi-val]

I don't really trust Hi-Val, it feels like he's phoning it in a lot of the time.



In all srsnss, I'm writing like 50,000 words for my article. It'll be a great one to print out and read on the can, it should take awhile to read.

[Ewokslayer]

In all srsnss, I'm writing like 50,000 words for my article. It'll be a great one to print out and read on the can, it should take awhile to read.

I thought that was why people invented laptops and wireless internet.
If not to simultaneously surf the web and drop a deuce then what is the point of all this technology?

[Finn]

It'll be a great one to print out and read on the can

Actually, that is precisely what I intend to do. I was unaware that others did this.

[Complete_Jank]

Well, you've probably read my stuff at one point or another. I've written twelve articles on Legacy since the format was created. Most of them are excellent.

Nope, never, I looked. I don't ream many articles as most of them are junk from what I've seen, and reading Junk is a waste of ones time.

I did like the link you posted though, I had to laugh at the Prosbloom article. I still contend that I was the first to create that deck.

I don't really trust Hi-Val, it feels like he's phoning it in a lot of the time.

In all srsnss, I'm writing like 50,000 words for my article. It'll be a great one to print out and read on the can, it should take awhile to read.

I'll see if I can get my printer to print on toilet paper, that way I'll save trees and clean my ass at the same time.