[Discussion] Top 10 staples of Legacy at this time.

[The Rack]

In your guys opiniion what are the top 10 staples of Legacy throughout the format in all of its entirety. There are many possible cards out there but reasons would be great if added. My 10: (in no order)

1. Brainstorm
2. Lightning Bolt
3. Wasteland
4. Swords to Plowshares
5. Force of Will
6. Dark Ritual
7. Dark COnfidant
8. Stifle
9. Fetchland
10. Aether Vial

[Bovinious]

In no particular order:

Dual Lands
Fetch Lands
Force of Will
AEther Vial
Brainstorm
Daze
Tarmogoyf
Burning Wish
Empty the Warrens
Lion's Eye Diamond

[C.P.]

1. Dual Lands
2. Fetch Lands

These allows great flexibility in mana base, giving every decks in the format ability to have easy access to splash.

3. Force of Will

It probably is holding the format together. Keeps anything that's too fast in check.

4. Wasteland

While Duals and fetches are fueling multicolor, wastelands keeps them in check. The last extended season shows how messy the format would be without these.

5.Brainstorm

The best Draw spell in legacy.

6. Empty The Warrens
7. Tarmogoyf
8. Goblin lackey

Defines the threats in Legacy.

9. Swords to plowshares
10. Stifle

Cheap answers that you should be expecting from your opponent.

[Bardo]

Oh hell, why not...

(In no order, except for the first two and kidding on the last one.)

Onslaught Fetchlands
A/B/U/R Duals
Basic lands
Brainstorm
Swords to Plowshares
Lion's Eye Diamond
Tarmogoyf
Pithing Needle
AEther Vial
The 4-of Goblins
Mental Note

Something to that effect.

[scrumdogg]

1. Dual Lands
2. Fetch Lands

These allows great flexibility in mana base, giving every decks in the format ability to have easy access to splash.

3. Force of Will

It probably is holding the format together. Keeps anything that's too fast in check.

4. Wasteland

While Duals and fetches are fueling multicolor, wastelands keeps them in check. The last extended season shows how messy the format would be without these.

5.Brainstorm

The best Draw spell in legacy.

6. Empty The Warrens
7. Tarmogoyf
8. Goblin lackey

Defines the threats in Legacy.

9. Swords to plowshares
10. Stifle

Cheap answers that you should be expecting from your opponent.

Agreed with the exception of number 5, I would argue that Engineered Explosives is as important. Board control, especially non-specific baord control, helps to keep the format in check along with Force of Will.

[thefreakaccident]

the 10 single important cards; no order (and completely my opinion):
wasteland
force of will
Aether vial
krosan grip
swords to plowshares
tarmogoyf
LED
mountain
island

[raharu]

Again, no order:

Duress (although it is dead in a few MU's)
Force of Will
Lightning Bolt
Dual lands
Fetch lands
Cabal Therapy
Swords to Plowshares
Stifle
Tormod's Crypt
Burning wish

Note: Crypt was chosen because it pretty much is the best way to hate on a graveyard that is in every color.

[Tosh]

Mana Base:

• Fetchlands
• Dual Lands

General Staples:

• Brainstorm
• Force of Will
• Swords to Plowshares

Top Win Conditions:

• Tarmogoyf
• Empty the Warrens

Control:

• Crucible of Worlds
• Counterbalance/Sensei's Divining Top
• Dark Confidant

I didn't really count but those are the most important cards in Legacy ATM and IMHO. I wanted to add Basic Island but yeah...

[AngryTroll]

The lands are obvious
1) Duals
2) Fetches
And to a lesser extent, Wasteland

3) Force of Will

Cards that see play in many archetypes:

4) Brianstorm and assorted Cantrips (seriously...Portent, Serum Visions, and Mental Note/Predict see almost as much play as Bainstorm itself, and for the extra few dollars, they are well worth owning.)

5) Pyroclasm (Engineered Explosives)
I constantly find myself digging for more Pyroclasms...every deck that runs red has a few Pyroclasms in the board to deal with the Goblin Hoards, both Storm- and Lackey- powered.

6) Tarmogoyf

7) Swords to Plowshares

8) Nimble Mongoose
Mongeese are finding their way into more and more decks, besides just Thresh. If you run green, Mongoose will probably at least be tested in your deck.

9) Cabal Therapy

10) Lightning Bolt / Magma Jet

11) Pithing Needle, Stifle, Aether Vial, (Engineered Explosives appears here also)
All really strong support cards, flexible enough to be staples, but not as "powerful" as some of the above cards. Really, these may be the most important staples, right up there with the lands and the Forces.

The More Specific Cards:
All of these are staples, but are much more limited than the cards above that will at least be tested in almost any deck playing that color.

Lion's Eye Diamonds, Empty the Warrens, and Burning Wishes.
May be your number one staples, if you are a dirty combo player.

The Goblins
Again, for a stupid aggro player, these are going to top the list.

Meddling Mage
For the manipulative control players.

Pernicious Deed

For those of you that really hate judges: Humility. Seriously...how big, exactly, is that Golgari Grave Troll?

Crystaline Sliver
Volt and Pinder, I'm looking at you. I know you two run at least 27 in Meathooks.

[mikekelley]

I'm going to interpret this as 'cards you always should have access to'

Fetches
Duals
Force of Will
Swords to Plowshares
Lightning Bolt
Brainstorm
Pithing Needle
Dark Ritual
Stifle
Pernicious Deed

You play 1.5, you own these cards. There are a number of cards which are fantastic (Tarmogoyf, Vial, Meddling Mage, such and so forth) but they aren't absolutely necessary. The above I believe should be a 4x in every Legacy player's collection, if not all the duals than at least the blue duals. Pernicious Deed might not fit in that list but it is the best board sweeper ever printed and for that reason it just might be necessary.

[Maveric78f]

Lands :
Tropical Island
Polluted Delta

Creatures :
Dark Confidant
Goblin Lackey
Tarmogoyf

Instants :
FoW
Brainstorm

Sorceries :
...

Enchantments :
Pernicious Deed

Artifact :
Chalice of the Void
LED

[Phya]

1. Dual Lands
2. Fetch Lands
3. Tarmogoyf
4. Force of Will
5. Brainstorm
6. Swords to Plowshares
7. Wasteland
8. Dark Confidant
9. Burning Wish
10. Life from the Loam

[FoolofaTook]

The 10 cards I see most often:

1. Polluted Delta
2. Brainstorm
3. Force of Will
4. Bloodstained Mire
5. Pyroclasm
6. Goblin Lackey/Aether Vial (tie, both are in all the Goblin decks hereabouts)
7. Dark Ritual
8. Lion's Eye Diamond
9. Empty the Warrens
10. Wasteland

Fetchlands are more prevalent than duals because there are generally more of a specific fetchland in a deck than any of the specific duals it fetches.

The single most prevalent combo effect in my meta is Brainstorm-Fetchland.

[Pale Moon FTW]

When talking about the greatest stables I think you need to think of them as cards that are required to have if you want to play a color. E.g. if you want to play blue you will have to get Brainstorms and if you're playing it as the main color also FoW. The same goes for StP and Lightning Bolt in all cases except in VialGoblins. No matter how great Lackey and Goyf are they're not in every deck of their color and aren't top stables (though they're stables w/o doubt).

1. Blue Duals
2. Flooded Strand, Polluted Delta, Wooded Foothills
3. Force of Will
4. Brainstorm
5. Swords to Plowshares
6. Lightning Bolt
7. Tormod's Crypt
8. Pithing Needle
9. Engineered Explosives
10. Red Elemental Blast/Pyroblast

[Maveric78f]

Why not thinking of them as the ones you splash or build you deck for :
dark confidant (in fish or black thresh), tarmogoyf (in every thresh or whatever deck playing it, green is rarely the main colour), brainstorm (in blue gobs), daze (in blue gobs), life from the loam (how lovely would it be if lftl was blue or red ...), cabal therapy (terravore, lftl decks in general), chalice of the void (well you always have to build your deck around it), pernicious deed (landstill), ...

[Whit3 Ghost]

1. Duals
2. Fetches

Defining Threats

3. Goblin Lackey
4. Goyf
5. Empty The Warrens

Defining Answers

6. Force of Will
7. Swords to Plowshares
8. Stifle

Defining Utility

9. Brainstorm
10. Dark Ritual

[tivadar]

Well this should be easy, let's start off with the lands:

1. Fetchlands
2. Dual Lands (the originals)

Fetches are actually more important than duals in the current meta. They act as both mana of either color along with basic lands, which is big. There's also no need for more than 4 duals in any well-constructed deck. Now on to the control cards:

3. Engineered Explosives
4. Force of Will
5. Swords to Plowshares
6. Chalice of the Void
7. Lightning Bolt
8. Duress
9. Krosan Grip

These 7 are pretty much staples if you splash/can support them. There's no question that they're good in almost any deck that can handle them, or at the very least, in the board (in the case of chalice and a few others). They're either huge, on the whole, in the current meta, or just the best at what they do. Finally, the card advantage:

10. Brainstorm

He's the only one who makes it, remarkably outclassing anything else that might be able to. Confidant is overhyped and only useful in a rather narrow set of decks. Goyf is good, but also requires a bit of a strategy when playing him and is still very targetable. Wastelands are overrated in the current meta. It's good in goblins, but most decks are prepared for it. Pithing needle really is fairly narrow now, as is crypt.

[zulander]

Best Singles
Lands
1 Duals
2 Fetchs
3 Wastes

Draw
4 Brainstorm

Control
5 Force of Will
6 Daze
7 Lightning Bolt
8 Swords to Plowshares
9 Duress

Beats
10 Tarmogoyf

Cards that define decks
1. Empty the Warrens (Storm Combo)

2. Goblin Lacky (Goblins)

3. Life From the Loam (Loam Control)

4. Survival of the Fittest (Survival Combo)

5. Ill Gotten Gains (Iggy Pop)

6. High Tide (High/Spring tide

7. Reset (Solidarity)

8. Dark Confidant (Deadguy Ale)

9. Standstill (Landstill)

10. Pox/Arcbound Ravager (debatable slot)

These are in no particular order.

[Nightmare]

Tropical Island
Tundra
Volcanic Island
Underground Sea
Bayou
Taiga
Savannah

Flooded Strand
Polluted Delta
Windswept Heath
Wooded Foothills

Brainstorm

Every deck should run some combination of those cards. I don't care if I listed 12. Note that I intentionally left off the bad duals and the one set of Fetches that no one uses.

[Silverdragon]

1. Fetchlands (get them before you get your duals)
2. Duallands (obvious)
3. Wasteland (many think they are overrated but that doesn't mean they aren't essential)
4. Chrome Mox
5. Ancient Tomb
6. Brainstorm
7. Force of Will
8. Swords to Plowshares
9. Pithing Needle
10. Duress

At first I wanted to only list cards that build your manabase but most of the cards are more narrow than I first thought so colored cards made it onto my list. Basically if you play with blue you want to play BS and Force, same goes for Swords and Duress. Maybe Pithing Needle can be replaced by Engineered Explosives.