How to begin ?

[GoSu Charlie]

Hey !

I like Legacy. I really do. But I everytime played only on MWS, building nearly every interesting deck and tried it out. But now I feel its time to invest to real cards and start to play tournaments. But I have huge problem - I have no idea which deck is the best choice to start build as 1st. I would love to play Esper Stoneblade, but tbh 2.5k $ is a lot of money. What do you think is good deck to start with ? I found affinity pretty cheap, but dunno, it seem kinda boring to me after few games. Storm with LED, duals and fetches is also like 1k $ manabase. I thought a lot about Dredge, which I really like to play and it looks ok for my budget (non-LED version) cuz there is no fetch lands and no old duals. But - do you think that Dredge is good deck to begin with ? Is playable nowadays after Deathrite Shaman and Rest in Piece in maindecks ?

THX 4 your opinions !

BTW : 1st post done, yay !

[Dia_Bot]

First of all you should think about what type of decks you enjoy playing because it really isn't worth spending money on a deck (type) which brings you no joy playing with.

I think Dredge is a fun deck to play but with deathrite shaman everywhere I wouldn't say it is ideal right now.
If I where to start Legacy I would probably buy a merfolk deck. The deck is strong enough that with correct play you can easily make top 8's (and gain your money back). Another big upside in playing merfolks is that the only expensive cards are 4 Force of Will and 4 Wastelands. The rest of the deck is really cheap (except for maybe mutavault which isn't really necessary in a budget version). It will cost you more then a (non LED) dredge deck but I think in the long run you will get more out of it because wastelands, FoW and Aether Vials are staples in the format.

Atleast this is my opinion. Good luck!

PS: I'm not a regular dredge player so my reasoning about dredge is based puriliy on recent top 8's.

[Star|Scream]

Well, how much money can you afford to spend?

[GoSu Charlie]

Well, how much money can you afford to spend?

Actually I dont have any, I can build even more expensive deck if it gonna be worth it longer build time, but Id prefer to build something faster = cheaper. Main criterium is that deck has to have long term investment price. I would like to avoid spending 1k to deck which gonna be useless after 2 editions, Id rather invest 2.2k and play the deck for 2 years if you see what I mean.

[MirrorMask]

Hi there. Welcome to the forum. If a budget deck is what you are looking for I am pretty sure that there is a thread somewhere(I ll try to find it for you) with some nice budget suggestions. If you are looking for a really competitive deck then unfortunately we are talking about 1k+ decks. Depending on the meta there are some fairly cheap decks that can crush the resistance:

Burn (100-150$)

Dredge (same as burn but very roflcopter pwnage in the right meta-easily a top deck)

Elves (also cheap, especially without Gaea's Cradles, no need for duals)

Merfolks (Lords go for 5$, Jitte and FOW are somewhat expensive, no need for duals)

Goblins (can be of medium price if you remove some expensive stuff but won't be that good)

Pox (without the expensive stuff is quite affordable, around 300$?)

Reanimator (mono B) (thoughtseize is quite expensive, not as strong as the Blue-Black version)

Affinity (cheap, fast, fun (maybe) but vulnerable, in the right meta is good)

Eva-Green (with duals and goyfs is somewhat expensive but you might be able to use shocklands, a mediocre deck but fun to play)

I hope this helps a bit


EDIT: Well as a guy above me said the meta is NOT favored for graveyard decks right now. Reanimator gets easily hit by the hate, then dredge

[Megadeus]

What was said about merfolk is great. It is a cheap deck and everything expensive is used allot in legacy

[Lemnear]

I would say, Start defining your favorite playstyle between Aggro/Control/Combo or a Mix of those, then browse archetypes which fell into the category (Canadian Thresh/RUG for example in the Aggro-Control section) and finally don't choose budget-options among archtype or cards because you'll burn money in the end

Edit: I would completely step back from anything that isn't blue or Black in it's core because it's not compeditive for long otherwise:

U/W Control, UG, Tempo and GB Rock are deck cores which are around for more than 10 years

[phazonmutant]

Feline has an excellent compendium of deck prices and results here: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?24023-40-Tier-Legacy-Decks-Lists-Singles-Prices-etc-To-be-updated-regularly(started-2012)
She also has a $500 and under deck compendium here: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?25253-Get-your-friend-s-into-the-format!-Legacy-viable-decks-averaging-500-00-amp-under!

[MirrorMask]

He won't waste money on all of the budget options. Shocklands for example can easily be traded-they are the mana base of Modern and the prices can only go upwards from this point. He just has to be careful.

Using black or blue, in general, is a good idea but not always true. Reanimator is an awesome deck , its blue AND black but with so much hate is useless and most of the time it has been this way (unfortunately). Colors and longevity aren't always connected. Its all meta depended.

[Joe Eigo]

I'd go with Candleless Spiral Tide and Merfolk in that order. Spiral Tide is really affordable if reduced to the most important stuff and it's really fun to play, if you like combo.

You will need 4x Force of Will for both decks.

For Spiral Tide you just need another 4x Time Spiral's, the rest is like common's and uncommon's or rare's of mediocre value (Preordain, Brainstorm, Ponder, Cunning Wish, Meditate, Turnabout, High Tide, Merchant Scroll, Blue Sun's Zenith and possible the Cloud of Faerie/Snap Engine if you have some space left). Then you add basic Island's and some blue fetches of any kind, which are just there to improve your brainstorms. To replace Flusterstorm's for protection you could use Spell Pierce as a start.

The next step could be Merfolk, which seems pretty strong right now. Since you already have the FoW's you'll have just to afford the expensive Manabase of Wasteland's and Mutavault's. At least the Lord's should be easy to get.

If i were you i'd not pick a deck like goblin's and go monored without any of the good mana denial lands and a splash to help out in week matchup's. Or Reanimator going Mono-Black and loose access to all the card's which make it playable..
That seem's really silly to me and would not make me happy in the long run...

[Lemnear]

He won't waste money on all of the budget options. Shocklands for example can easily be traded-they are the mana base of Modern and the prices can only go upwards from this point. He just has to be careful.

Using black or blue, in general, is a good idea but not always true. Reanimator is an awesome deck , its blue AND black but with so much hate is useless and most of the time it has been this way (unfortunately). Colors and longevity aren't always connected. Its all meta depended.

You can't ever be completely wrong in Legacy by running blue (FoW+Brainstorm) or Black (Thoughtseize, Hymn, Cabal Therapy for control-elements or Ritual, Infernal for Combo).

Reanimators problem is, that the most efficient Solution to graveyard hate like Deathrite Shaman and Co. is Show&Tell with S&T being a much stronger archtype itself.

[JamieW89]

Find out what type of playstyle you like and pick a deck that will remain strong and interesting for years (UWx Control, Ugr Tempo, UBx Storm Combo & BGx Midrange come to mind).

[Sturtzilla]

I would have to agree that you should identify the type of deck you want to play... after all you are going to be investing a good chunk of money into it. In line with that, you should definitely enjoy playing the deck you build. As I can attest from experience, some decks you will love and some will just not be the right fit. For me, I have really enjoyed playing U/R Delver, RUG, Esper Stoneblade, and a variety of different Miracle decks. On the other end of the spectrum, I have built, taken apart/sold/traded pieces and parts to Belcher, ANT, TES, Merfolk, Affinity, U/B Reanimator, and Burn. I found that while goldfishing Storm decks was easy and in local tournaments (5 or fewer rounds) Storm was awesome. I could just blow past most of these opponents; however, I came to the realization, that these are not decks I would want to play for 7-10 rounds. Just the sheer amount of math you have to do to incorperate your opponent's possible intereaction really turned me off to these decks. As for Burn and Merfolk the strategies were just too linear and easily disrupted for my taste. I will note that I had pretty reasonable successes with both Burn and Merfolk.

I have been very surprised at how Burn has been doing at my two local venues lately. With all of the duals around, Price of Progress is just a house these days. If I were forced to build a deck on a budget I think I would try to build U/R delver. It has game against just about everything in the format. You do need some fetches, but you wouldn't have to run Volcanic Islands. Steam Vents would probably be fine most of the time... or even a list with just all basics could work. Your expensive cards would be Force of Will and Snapcaster Mage. I think that is a deck that is worth some serious consideration.

[MirrorMask]

I'd go with Candleless Spiral Tide and Merfolk in that order. Spiral Tide is really affordable if reduced to the most important stuff and it's really fun to play, if you like combo.

You will need 4x Force of Will for both decks.

For Spiral Tide you just need another 4x Time Spiral's, the rest is like common's and uncommon's or rare's of mediocre value (Preordain, Brainstorm, Ponder, Cunning Wish, Meditate, Turnabout, High Tide, Merchant Scroll, Blue Sun's Zenith and possible the Cloud of Faerie/Snap Engine if you have some space left). Then you add basic Island's and some blue fetches of any kind, which are just there to improve your brainstorms. To replace Flusterstorm's for protection you could use Spell Pierce as a start.

The next step could be Merfolk, which seems pretty strong right now. Since you already have the FoW's you'll have just to afford the expensive Manabase of Wasteland's and Mutavault's. At least the Lord's should be easy to get.

If i were you i'd not pick a deck like goblin's and go monored without any of the good mana denial lands and a splash to help out in week matchup's. Or Reanimator going Mono-Black and loose access to all the card's which make it playable..
That seem's really silly to me and would not make me happy in the long run...

Yes that's true. I even said it; if you remove blue it isn't that efficient anymore. But what can you do if you really want to play the deck but don't have the real-life mana ($)? You just go mono black and build slowly towards the second color (blue).

[Monkey_Island]

Welcome to The Source!

Here are some very nice budget decks: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/articles/writer/spooky.html

Maybe you can buy/trade to build some of them, test them and then tune the ones you prefer by buying more expensive staples (fetches, wastes etc)?

[bfeingersh]

If you want to get into legacy on the cheap, make friends with legacy players. People invariably have extra cards/decks to lend and you can beg/borrow/steal decks to play tournaments (but don't steal, that is actually not a good idea)

Or pick up some non-blue duals, play with those and win tournaments that pay out blue duals to build stoneblade. I started with a set of scrublands and won seas and trops in various small tournaments over a year or so

[GoSu Charlie]

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions !

As deck type - I probably dont want to play control as 1st deck so my decision is between aggro and combo. Problem is I like both, therefore my 1st thought was Dredge. I dont have to kill T1 with storm and I dont want to kill you at 18th turn with Snapcaster's 9th attack in a row. I really like explosiveness possibility like Dread Return into Flame-Kin or Matron-Matron-Piledriver kill. I dont have to do it and can play it slowly, but I really like possibilty to kill asap if I get opportunity to do it.

Therefore I have to ask you guys again - is Dredge really bad choice ? No Duals, no Fetch lands, nothing really expensive (non-LED version) and it seems pretty well fit to my playstyle.

And what about Goblins ? Are they able to make results ?

Anyway I really appreciate Merfolk suggestion, FoW is pretty good investment anytime I guess and deck looks also aggresive. Change explosiveness for countering is something I can do if it would be necessary for success :).

THX !

[phazonmutant]

If you want to get into legacy on the cheap, make friends with legacy players. People invariably have extra cards/decks to lend and you can beg/borrow/steal decks to play tournaments (but don't steal, that is actually not a good idea)

Seconded on this. I started playing legacy by borrowing a friend's ANT deck (turns out, you can't use LED to pay for the Infernal Tutor in your hand...) and then borrowed cards for Splinter Twin and actually did ok, then continued borrowing cards/decks until I could afford a real deck.

Making friends is crucial to being able to play legacy and have some fun switching things up in my experience.

edit:

Therefore I have to ask you guys again - is Dredge really bad choice ? No Duals, no Fetch lands, nothing really expensive (non-LED version) and it seems pretty well fit to my playstyle.

And what about Goblins ? Are they able to make results ?

A guy at my store has top4'd probably 10 tournaments with his budget goblins that he's slowly been upgrading with Wastelands, Ports, etc. He still doesn't have duals, but the shocks seem to work ok for him. It's all about the meta. He's been able to tune his deck to beat what he expects to face.

The dredge threads are pretty active, why don't you go ask those guys? Generally though, you're going to find that mana dredge is too slow now without LEDs, but Manaless is a realistic option.

[.dk]

I know some people look down on it, but since you're looking for aggro or combo, a real choice to consider is some kind of burn variant. Legacy Burn can actually be a very good deck in the right meta. You could potentially start out with Mono-Red, and as you get access to more money/cards/prizes/etc. you could potentially branch out into UR Delver Burn as you start to acquire fetch lands, duals, Force of Will, etc. Price of Progress is no joke in a format like Legacy.

[Kuma]

I'll throw in a vote for Elves. The deck is very inexpensive to pick up, but it has incredible game versus the format. Its only bad matchups are Miracles, Storm and Show and Tell, but all of those matchups are winnable. It's not for everyone, but it's a strong contender and can be built for around $1,000, especially if you make some budget choices like 2 Gaea's Cradle and two Crop Rotation instead of a 3/1 split.

[Megadeus]

Yeah dredge is WAY more explosive with LEDs. I wouldnt build anything but LED dredge personally (if I were to build a dredge deck anyway). I think you are best off playing something monocolored that uses a lot of solid staples like Folk, Goblins, and D&T (though this is actually pretty expensive thanks to 4x Karakas). Either that or for fun try Nic Fit! You can build it budget for ~500 bucks probably

[Dan Turner]

It is sad that a budget deck is $500. I built solidarity and goblins for less then that when they were both DTB.

I would recommend to look at your play style and figure out what you like to play. Gets some games on MWS or in person with proxies and such. Find a deck that meats your play style and build a budget version at first and then build up. I would start with something like spiral tide/solidarity they are not the best decks but without candelabras/Force of will it should be within the lower range of legacy. Budget for a better card or 2 a month as you play. You will not win a lot starting out with a budget build but you will learn the deck inside and out and be able to make better choices. I recommend Solidarity because a lot of the expensive cards fit in perfectly with other decks such as merfolk etc in the case of FOW/Fetches.


I have a few players locally that play black/red goblins with shocklands it is not the best solution but it is a budget option since most of the shocks are pretty cheap atm. I run my elf/belcher deck with 2 stomping grounds I have the Taigas but no reason to use them since I don't actually play the lands most of the time. They are pretty much there just to improve my hits with Charbelcher. It is not the best deck to play tournament wise, but for our legacy/vintage group it works.

[mini1337s]

Locally, I'll normally recommend that a new player starts with Red Deck Wins, for a few reasons. It teaches the importance of timing, card quality, and card advantage, while remaining a fairly straightforward strategy. It also costs about $120 - $150 to build, so if you decide you don't enjoy the format, you aren't out much (it's easy to move for that price to).
It easily transitions into U/R Delver, where your major pickups are Force of Will (3-4), Wasteland, Zendikar fetches, and 3-4 Volcanic Islands (Roughly $800 worth of cards). U/R is nice because you now get to play a similar strategy, while adding control elements into your game.
U/R Delver can transition into Show and Tell variants from there (Show and Tell, Sneak Attack, "sol" lands, Griselbrands and Emrakul), RUG Delver (Trops and Goyf), Storm variants (Underground Sea and LED), etc.

[TheArchitect]

Dredge is still a good deck, however, its really hard to play well ESPECIALLY when your just getting into legacy. Half of the "skill" of dredge is knowing what deck your opponent is on and therefor the hate they will be bringing in and how you can play around it.


I would recommend either Elves or Burn.

Elves is still very powerful when build on a budget (mono green, only 1 cradle + crop rotations, etc.). Its explosive, and sometimes plays like an aggro deck, sometimes like a combo deck.

Burn is nice cause you can build a totally optimal list for 100$. However, most people find it very boring to play. However, its also really easy to slowly build into UR Delver burn, you only really need 2 Volcanic islands and fetchlands for it to work. Add Force of will when you can, however the deck doesn't really need FoW to be decent. Its only really there to help against combo so it is fine playing it for a while FoW-less. From UR Delver burn you can add tropical islands, wastelands, goyfs and build it into RUG Tempo as you get more staples/money. And then you have deck that has consistently been tier 1 and shares staples in common with a lot of other archtypes.

[Julian23]

My advice, join the Elves! It's one of the very best decks in the format + has the best cost/power ratio of all the Tier1 decks by far. There's a reason, most Elves decks are foil: they're incredibly cheap even in foil.

[DrJones]

Play a fine-tuned affinity deck. It's very cheap to get all the cards (except maybe Mox Opal) and you'll crush the current legacy meta even if you are the worst player in the universe. Etched Champion FTW! :smile:

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Instead of investing $400-600 in a budget deck that's not very good and never will be in all likelihood, and which contains few cards other decks use, I would say it's better to start developing a base of Legacy staples. Like, play Delver Burn with Steam Vents if you have to and work on piecing together a playset of Forces + some fetches, then pick up one Volc, then another, then a third, and then maybe look at adding white to build Patriot Act and so on.

If you want to play Legacy- actually play Legacy and not just play one given deck- you need to work on picking up the manabase, and probably Wastelands and Forces. Goyfs and Jaces too but this is a bad time to buy them I think.

[bfeingersh]

Seconded on this. I started playing legacy by borrowing a friend's ANT deck (turns out, you can't use LED to pay for the Infernal Tutor in your hand...) and then borrowed cards for Splinter Twin and actually did ok, then continued borrowing cards/decks until I could afford a real deck.

Making friends is crucial to being able to play legacy and have some fun switching things up in my experience.

Yeah, even as a person who has most of the stuff to play the format, I still regularly have to borrow cards. It's just unreasonable to own all 40 duals, plus playsets of wastelands, LEDs, goyfs, jaces, etc. I'd rather own some duals and all the tools to build a set of decks you enjoy (show and tell decks for me, because I am a terrible magic player and generally unlikeable person) and borrow things when you want to switch it up.

[SBGpinas]

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions !

As deck type - I probably dont want to play control as 1st deck so my decision is between aggro and combo. Problem is I like both, therefore my 1st thought was Dredge. I dont have to kill T1 with storm and I dont want to kill you at 18th turn with Snapcaster's 9th attack in a row. I really like explosiveness possibility like Dread Return into Flame-Kin or Matron-Matron-Piledriver kill. I dont have to do it and can play it slowly, but I really like possibilty to kill asap if I get opportunity to do it.

Therefore I have to ask you guys again - is Dredge really bad choice ? No Duals, no Fetch lands, nothing really expensive (non-LED version) and it seems pretty well fit to my playstyle.

And what about Goblins ? Are they able to make results ?

Anyway I really appreciate Merfolk suggestion, FoW is pretty good investment anytime I guess and deck looks also aggresive. Change explosiveness for countering is something I can do if it would be necessary for success :).

THX !

If you plan going with Dredge, I would highly suggest going with the Manaless variant. It's basically a version of Dredge that plays no lands except for the occasional Dakmor Salvage and/or Dryad Arbor. It is very competitive, even with Deathrite Shamans running about (any Dredge player knows that DRS isn't enough to stop them). It is also the version of Dredge that I would consider the most "unfair" because you play little to no spells, and you win. It does have a bad matchup vs. other Combo decks, but if your meta is not prepared for it, it's a great starter legacy deck that isn't that expensive.

Goblins are great in the right meta. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the best matchup against fair grindy decks like Jund. Still, I consider it to be one of the best aggro decks in Legacy. Wastelands and Rishadan Ports are kind of expensive though, so prepare to shell out a bit, but not too much to turn you off the format completely.

Merfolk is actually what people consider to be one of the better entry-level decks in the format. It has good matchups against combo, decent matchups against any form of Blue control, and doesn't lose automatically against fair, grindy decks. It is a bit more expensive than the other two I mentioned, because of FoW and Mutavault.

Finally, if you're really strapped for cash and just want a pick-up-and-play deck without breaking the bank, then Burn is your best option. It's not the greatest deck in today's meta, but the thing with Burn is, due to its linear design, it can win matchups it has no business winning.

Any of the above 4 are solid choices for someone starting out in Legacy. I wouldn't suggest Elves as a starter deck since it does take a while to master the deck because of the myriad of interactions available within - that, and playing it without Gaea's Cradle severely lowers its power.

Good luck with your choice!

[HammafistRoob]

Im not sure how being timewalked by ANY discard spell is unfair in your opinion. Also your basically playing Yugioh since you can't really afford to mulligan with the deck. On top of that you lose the game to any permanent hate(RiP, Grafcage, Leyline of the Void). IMHO manaless dredge is pretty terrible

[SBGpinas]

Im not sure how being timewalked by ANY discard spell is unfair in your opinion.

Hence why I encapsulated the word "unfair" in quotation marks. I mean it in the loosest sense.


Also your basically playing Yugioh since you can't really afford to mulligan with the deck.

Hence why you optimize lists to ensure that there's a Dredger in the opener Majority of the time.

Really, if you're going to make the argument that you have to not be unlucky to play the deck, then make that argument with every deck as every deck requires some degree of luck to not get creamed outright.


On top of that you lose the game to any permanent hate(RiP, Grafcage, Leyline of the Void).

Which Dredge deck doesn't fold to permanent hate?

Besides, if you actually read about the deck, it runs anti-GY hate in the sb.


IMHO manaless dredge is pretty terrible

We're all entitled to our own opinions, aren't we?

I am merely giving answers to his questions. To be perfectly honest, Any combo Dredge not running LED is pretty terrible as well, but I don't see you pointing that out.

I can make the argument that LED is one of the cornerstones of the deck that makes Combo Dredge a legitimate deck in today's meta, but that's not the point here. The point is that he was looking for a decent entry-level deck for starting Legacy without having to spend an arm and a leg on cards like LED, and all I did was provide the suggestion that Manaless Dredge is a viable option.

If you're going to go out and call ideas terrible, I might as well point out the following:


Combo Dredge without LED, while playable, is terrible
Elves without Gaea's Cradle, while playable, is terrible
Merfolk without Mutavaults and Wastelands, while playable, is terrible
Goblins without Wastelands and Rishadan Ports, while playable, is terrible


Here we have a deck that doesn't need to cut corners to be affordable, and I am offering it as a suggestion as an entry-level deck. Now do tell me why you think that is such a bad idea that you have to spend the time to single out my suggestion and reply with "IMHO manaless dredge is pretty terrible"?

[cogitoergosum]

Just make sure to use Ebay and resources like MTGS Sales forum to buy cards, you will save hundreds, if not $1000 dollars compared to buying retail.

[HammafistRoob]

1)Hence why I encapsulated the word "unfair" in quotation marks. I mean it in the loosest sense.

2)Hence why you optimize lists to ensure that there's a Dredger in the opener Majority of the time.
Really, if you're going to make the argument that you have to not be unlucky to play the deck, then make that argument with every deck as every deck requires some degree of luck to not get creamed outright.

3)Which Dredge deck doesn't fold to permanent hate?

4)Besides, if you actually read about the deck, it runs anti-GY hate in the sb.

5)I am merely giving answers to his questions. To be perfectly honest, Any combo Dredge not running LED is pretty terrible as well, but I don't see you pointing that out.

6)Here we have a deck that doesn't need to cut corners to be affordable, and I am offering it as a suggestion as an entry-level deck. Now do tell me why you think that is such a bad idea that you have to spend the time to single out my suggestion and reply with "IMHO manaless dredge is pretty terrible"?

1) Fair enough sir.

2)I don't understand your argument here. Every other deck has this thing you can do before the game called mulliganing. I didn't mention luck anywhere, just pure facts.

3) One that plays 11 or 12 1cc answers as well as 13-15 lands. You also have the ability to just race some hate(RiP and DRshaman) SPOILER!!!: LED Dredge

4) But is it anywhere near consistent? After siding they have a maximum 7 lands. You don't need to be a mathematics major to see gaping flaws in this sideboard strategy. In case you don't, I'll lay it out for you. Your opening hand MUST contain the following to combat a turn 1 hate piece(assuming you won game one and are on the draw)-
*1 of your 7 lands(iffy)
*1 of your 16 dredgers(easily doable, I agree with you here)
*1 of your 7 anti-hate pieces(iffy)

Now that you got all deees you still have to have some type of business and hope you don't dredge terribly. It does happen sometimes and it sucks so bad to lose a game after you have an amazing opening hand.

Don't get me wrong, it is a playable deck no doubt, especially if you're aiming for a low budget. The main problem I see here is the deck takes a huge understanding of the format. Perhaps, more importantly, knowing your specific metagame. Now in most cases people build on a budget because they're just breaking into the format. Burn is more straightforward and less likely to be a bad metagame choice. Manaless dredge is a high risk, high reward metagame deck.

5) We're all entitled to our own opinions aren't we? I didn't "point out" the fact that any version of combo dredge without LED is terrible because noone brought it up. But since you want to know so bad I will state my opinion. Any version of combo dredge in general is sub-optimal with or without LED. Something close to a quadlazer list is the way to go if you can't read a metagame before a tourney. If you can read a metagame pre tourney you will most likely come to the same conclusion anyways ,hence why I would choose it as the default.

6) Reread 4)

[luckme10]

Same advice now as 4 years ago.
Don't just collect singles.. start building a deck. If you don't know what deck:
1. start acquiring Force of Will and Wasteland to build Merfolk.
3. Build cheap side of merfolk, use proxies on tournaments if they let you.
4. Try black splash merfolk in green heavy meta, people love to see perish, back to basics, chill, etc.
5. Find merfolks flaws.
6. Work your way over to multicolored blue deck with core of Force of Will, Wasteland.
7. Find out that other deck that you are building still isn't as good as your cheap merfolk deck until it starts being worth the merfolk deck three times over.
8. Last item of trade: trade/sell aether vial and mutavaults from merfolk to finish building the blue based dual land deck..
If anything, this keeps your avenues open to seeing which multicolored blue deck you like after you've gotten used to how merfolk plays against these decks.

Q:How is this possible?

A:Here's the merfolk timeline:
-Tarmogoyf is printed
-Landstill the last great pillar of control based legacy fades to tarmogoyf and Canadian Thresh.
-Counterbalance Top makes the world unfun for thresh
-Merfolk vials around counterbalance top
-AnT dominates europe
-mystical tutor banned, Merfolk prevalent America wonders why.
-Merfolk eats AnT, combo doesn't like cursecatcher, never learn to play around daze.
-Zoo finishes Goblins, punishes Merfolk
-Wizard prints Vengevine. No one cares
-Caleb breaks format. Wizard bans survival of fitness, feels bad, prints green sun zenith, mental misstep.
-Widespread panic ensues about mental misstep creating a metagame where most of the top decks are blue.
-wizard bans mental misstep... Metagame essentially remains the same...
-With green sun zenith, Maverick emerges as DTB.
-Canadian "tempo" thresh returns with delver and tiago
-Maverick kills Zoo
-Maverick and Canada team up to end Merfolks long standing position as a top deck
-luckme10 buys 4 temporal mastery's at $30 each out of pure fear. Prices plummet. Luckme10 becomes discouraged with Magic.
-??
-luckme10 pokes head out to learn Landtax gets unbanned, now owes friend a steak dinner for losing a long withstanding bet.
-??
-Jund emerges in legacy seriously...wtf.
-Jund eats Maverick.
-Reincarnations of Jund, Cawblade, and Delver compete over who's the biggest douche, while people can't stop patting themselves on the back for the wonderful diverse metagame of legacy?!?
-luckme10 goes back into hibernation.

Present Day:
People start to realize that Merfolk is better equipped to beat Jund than it was with Maverick.
-Merfolk, as mono blue deck with aether vial, is essentially designed to use misdirection and divert to combat prominent discard and "uncounterable" removal and overall burn...
-People realize misdirecting a Hymm is usually game and is crippling for other discard.
-Merfolk hates lightning bolt, but divert and misdirection don't.
-merfolk still preys on greedy manabases.


In summary:
Love it or hate it, what the ak 47 is to the firearm community, merfolk was to legacy. Merfolk never took the elegant path, it was gritty, consistent and just reliable. It prayed on the unfair(AnT) and unfun(Counterbalance Top) decks, affordable for the poor, and gave them a fighting chance against the wealthy.

Whether people loved or hated merfolk, they realized that as long as an economical deck like merfolk existed as a Deck to beat, newer players had a platform to acquire some legacy staples and have a reliable deck to beat, play some good games, and all the while, transitioning into their more expensive dream decks. In a time of growth, Legacy was considered more inviting to play with Merfolk around.

Except Merfolk is still comparably cheap, and still offers that smooth transition to more expensive decks. Perhaps most importantly, in a backyard consisting of standard's greatest bullies, (->Cawblade, Jund) Merfolk is quietly seeing a resurgence, right, now. Merfolk is starting to reposition itself to prey on those decks with greedy landbases, doesn't rely on graveyard abuse, has historically favorable matchups against landstill style control, bug, combo so guess what...

Which deck is back in the top 8 for the month of april?
http://www.tcdecks.net/metagame.php?...y&fecha=2013-4


...Merfolk.

[bfeingersh]

Haha, nice post luckme.

[GoSu Charlie]

1.) THX to all who gave me their time and advices ! TYVM !

2.) I tested a lot of Dredge, but will not play it. Main deck DRS and RiP is too annoying/scary. I like Goblins, but I dont feel em enough competitive. I cant play Elves - I have no real reason, but I just dont like em. Weird personal feeling. Merfolks seems pretty nice.

3.) I get offer from friend which can lend me nearly any Legacy deck/card (he miss only 4 Goys, and main parts of Sneak and Show + has 1 Karakas = no D&T). I can play anything from Jund, Esper, Dredge, U/W Miracle, Affinity, Merfolks ... just anything ... Probably dream start to Legacy, right :) ?

4.) I started like RUG Delver (Strasburg Wilson version). Cards like Wasteland, Fow, Daze, U/G + U/R value gonna have its value forever + I feel comfortable to play it. Problem is I cant start with it cuz 0 Goyfs, but who knows ... Modern Masters is nearly here ... ;)

5.) THX again for all advices, you helped me a lot guys ! GL in your games, thank you very much !

Charlie