[Free Article] Legacy: Keeping up with the Joneses

[voltron00x]

In this article, I take a look at how Mental Misstep is enabling the return of traditional control (read: non-CB/Top) to Legacy. I consider what Counterbalance decks can do to stay relevant due to the flood of Merfolk decks, and talk about what cards to think about sideboarding for and against Merfolk. I also talk about Dredge - why has the deck made such a strong resurgence, and where is it headed now?

And, a special section tracking the results of non-blue Mental Misstep at the last SCG Open and BoM 5.

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/21909_The_Long_And_Winding_Road_Legacy_Keeping_Up_With_The_Joneses.html

[Tammit67]

For those that do not want to run white, I'd consider adding dawnstrider as effective folk hate. While more vulnerable to pithing needle, it doesn't care nearly as much about bounce.

Great article Matt!

[OurSerratedDust]

Good read, Matt. Which deck would you play if you had to go to a tournament tomorrow? Would it be affinity?

[voltron00x]

Good read, Matt. Which deck would you play if you had to go to a tournament tomorrow? Would it be affinity?

I would lean towards Landstill with Peacekeepers until the format shows me it has caught up.

Playing Zoo with Teeg, Sylvans, no Price of Progress, and lots of anti-blue cards, wouldn't be so bad, either.

Affinity is a good deck, but random folks are still packing some mean hate (Energy Flux, Null Rod), so like with Dredge, you have to be willing to take random losses to folks that came prepared (or over-prepared).

[Shawon]

Matt, I think two advantages of using Llanowan over Peacekeeper with regards strictly to the Merfolk matchup are 1) Merfolk can't use Sower as an out to Llanowan but it can against Peacekeeper and 2) if Llanowan gets removed in any fashion, Merfolk can't alpha strike you unlike with Peacekeeper. Did you consider these in your article?

[Tammit67]

Matt, I think two advantages of using Llanowan over Peacekeeper with regards strictly to the Merfolk matchup are 1) Merfolk can't use Sower as an out to Llanowan but it can against Peacekeeper and 2) if Llanowan gets removed in any fashion, Merfolk can't alpha strike you unlike with Peacekeeper. Did you consider these in your article?

Peacekeeper is the better option if you are not running other creatures. While bounce and sower are problems, you run peacekeeper so you (playing control) can have a better game plan agianst fish and give yourself time to set up other nails in the coffin. By the time they can effectively answer peacekeeper, you will either have a ton of counterspells or an effective answer to a sower. All the control deck needs is time, and peacekeeper can do that more effectively than Llawan, who can be vialed around and is much harder to resolve.

Also peacekeeper is not so narrow as to only apply to merfolk. While Llawan is a foil to progenitus strategies, peacekeeper can play that role in a pinch as well as being relevant elsewhere.

Keep in mind I think the author was speaking more from a hardcore control shell, where the combat step is not how the deck wins. If you have a deck for of KotR and Tarmogyf, Llawan and Jitte are of course better option. But for pure control, I think there is no better option than Peacekeeper

[sdematt]

I just wanted to make sure, did you leave a blank space at this part purposefully?


"Viewing the Results of Mental Misstep Aggro and Mental Misstep Goblins to Date"


The End.

If so, good job :)

-Matt

[Destroying Angel]

A very solid article. I have to agree with the author's observation of the significance of 'trump cards' in a control deck. Thopters differs from traditional control decks such as Landstill in that card advantage pales in significance beside cars which are able to single handily shut down a strategy. As such, I'm surprised that peacekeeper didn't get more attention following the restriction of survival.

sdematt: I'm pretty certain that the final segment is deliberately blank. While the criticism is not a surprise, the author presents the results most eloquently.

[Gui]

You forget to mention that Dredge is a deck which speciality is to Rise from Grave and make the Dead Walk, so that's why it's never dead. :D

[CorpT]

Check your links to Gerry and Drek articles. Don't seem to be working.

[PhantomLotus]

What's the Deal with Dredge? Seriously, does anyone know? I was pretty sure that deck was catastrophically and categorically bad in this format. Well, that's not really true. This is one time my overemphasis for dramatic effect came back to haunt me.

Matt, I love your articles and in general you're extremely insightful, but your Dredge hating was not "overemphasis for dramatic effect." It was oversight, mis-analysis, or whatever you want to call it. I think that if you go back and re-read your article, you'll see that. Dredge is a real deck and always has been -- it just waxes and wanes in viability, like many decks. I guess that the moral is that you can't win 'em all in terms of analysis and predictions, but don't "crawfish away" * from your mistakes when you make them.

*(As we sometimes say here in the South -- crawfish swim backwards, in case you weren't aware.)

Now for a compliment :)


While I tried to caution readers against overestimating the penetration of Mental Misstep in Legacy beyond blue decks, I hope that I was able to do so in a way that didn't minimize how powerful this card actually is when played on-color.

I think that your article on Mental Misstep was right on target. Hell, the prediction in your closing paragraph was basically spot on:


I think that Mental Misstep is a great card for blue decks in the format, especially Merfolk and Counterbalance/Top, and one that will see play mostly in decks that are already blue. I would be surprised to see a non-blue deck with Mental Misstep in the Top 8 of Grand Prix Providence. My gut feeling is that the “colorless” aspect has been overstated. I do think we'll see four decks playing Misstep in the Top 8 of the GP, as the card is very good and gives players incentive to move back to base-blue control strategies.

A great example of your insight into the Legacy metagame -- and why I read your articles. Keep up the good work :)

[voltron00x]

Just wanted to clarify something re: Dredge... I know the deck, in a vacuum, isn't "bad". If you ever run into me at a tournament, ask to see the Dredge stack I have on me at all times. It lets me convert my Vintage Dredge into any version of Legacy Dredge, and it's 100% foil (outside of things like Bazaar of Baghdad, Firestorm, Undiscovered Paradise, and others you can't get in foil). I really like Dredge. I do.

The problem is, the format was really, really hostile to it for almost a full year. That made it a bad deck... to play. But not a "bad deck". And so, I made two mistakes.

One, I didn't differentiate the fact that the deck was a bad deck to play from the deck just being bad, period. Two, people didn't play the combo I expected to see, or as much of any combo, period. For example, I really thought there'd be way more TES than there ever was. That deck is so explosive when no one is playing CB/Top, yet people gravitated towards High Tide, ANT, Painted Stone - "slower" (relatively speaking) combo decks. Decks that aren't as likely to beat Dredge, especially LED Dredge.

If I was really trying to shy away from being wrong, I wouldn't have written that section at all. I'd have just pretended I never said anything. Plenty of folks have done that with regard to Legacy (see: Zoo, Merfolk, etc). I was definitely wrong - just not about what Legacy Dredge is, and is not. It's exactly what I think it is and loses to exactly what it always has. It just so happened that people didn't play those decks, and continue not to do so, and that I didn't clarify and say "Dredge is bad... right now, because of the metagame", I just said "Dredge is BAD!", period, and that wasn't really how I felt, it just makes for better reading. Which is ironic b/c I wrote something saying how people always do that and it's a mistake.

Anyway I appreciate the feedback!

[Rico Suave]

I've had Peacekeeper on the board and Sower of Temptation resolve many times, yet have never lost to it. Jace bouncing the Sower is tremendously frustrating for them, as are a whole variety of cards like spot removal, Stifle, or even just a 2nd copy of Peacekeeper.

[Tammit67]

I've had Peacekeeper on the board and Sower of Temptation resolve many times, yet have never lost to it. Jace bouncing the Sower is tremendously frustrating for them, as are a whole variety of cards like spot removal, Stifle, or even just a 2nd copy of Peacekeeper.

It is more of a worry if they vial it in at your endstep, but I agree sower is not a good answer to peacekeeper