Design a diverse metagame!

[Vastros]

So I'm running a proxy tournament to get interest in legacy up with magic players I know and you know, make cash and win hopefully. I'm proxying out a bunch of decks using magiccards.info (so they arent scrubby proxies), and I wanted the imput of the community. Everyone is welcome to proxy out a deck but I want to be able to provide for people. I guess the question comes down to: If you could design your metagame to be fair and balanced, what would it be?

Current decks in the pool

Combo:
Sneak and Show
Elves!
someone* might* be proxying out reanimator

"control"
Esper Stoneblade
Death and taxes


Aggro
Death and Taxes (repeat)
Jund


What would you add to make it fair and diverse? what at 12 total decks? 15 total decks?

[Einherjer]

Let's take 15 decks - that would be my guess for a diversed Legacy metagame at the current standards (don't cry because it's blue)

1 Canadian Threshold
1 Team America
1 Patriot
1 Esper Stoneblade
1 Miracle Control
1 Shardless BUG
1 BUG Landstill
1 Sneak Attack
1 OmniTell
1 Ad Nauseam Tendrils
1 The Epic Storm
1 Death and Taxes
1 Elves
1 Jund
1 Maverick


If you have those 15 decks for your playgroup a perfect playexperience for Legacy is guaranteed. You'll have all the aspects of the format represented.

Greetings

[Echelon]

RUG, lands.dec, Imperial Painted Servant, ANT & High Tide?

Gives you all kinds of stuff to fool around with.

[Grand Superior]

Notable omissions include Delver tempo and Storm combo. I'd add Canadian Threshold and Ad Nauseam Tendrils to that list. You also might want UW Miracles for the purest form of control.

Oddballs like Dredge and Belcher might be good to have too, though they might serve to scare people away from the format.

[Vastros]

1 Canadian Threshold
1 Team America
1 Patriot -> Presenting under the name "star spangled slaughter".
1 Esper Stoneblade -> in
1 Miracle Control -> Was definately thinking this.
1 Shardless BUG
1 BUG Landstill
1 Sneak Attack -> in
1 OmniTell -> Different enough from Sneak/Show to run?
1 Ad Nauseam Tendrils -> I don't want to make the decks too complex for newer players, and I think 2 or 3 would rage quit XD.
1 The Epic Storm -> See ANT
1 Death and Taxes -> in
1 Elves -> in
1 Jund -> in
1 Maverick -> Whyso? Isnt the common consensus is that mav is dead?
Dredge/Oops/Hermit -< Boogeymen are annoying for new learners, tiliters, and people who don't understand sideboarding.

[Einherjer]

Maverick isn't dead. It was in the DtB-Session a few (1 or 2) months ago. It's not the best deck but still a valid choice.
I understand your reasoning for Storm.
Sneak and Omni... well atleast the postboardgames play out radically different - so it might be worth a try.

Greetings

[Vastros]

Maverick isn't dead. It was in the DtB-Session a few (1 or 2) months ago. It's not the best deck but still a valid choice.
I understand your reasoning for Storm.
Sneak and Omni... well atleast the postboardgames play out radically different - so it might be worth a try.

Greetings

Its unfortunate with storm but true. And I wonder how they will do with SBing. I have faith but ehhhh.... Most of the group is people who 1. havent played for years and want to get back in or 2. Never played before.

[Einherjer]

All they need is a couple of good players who crush them - but tell them what they did wrong and help them getting better :)

Greetings

[Vastros]

All they need is a couple of good players who crush them - but tell them what they did wrong and help them getting better :)

Greetings

Not trying to be an egotistical twat... but thats me, the control player who says no and with the shithead luck to topdeck counters just at the right time whenever needed. But thats never in tournaments so as soon as I throw down the money I'm sure that wont stick XD

[DragoFireheart]

MUD
Fish
Other stuff.

[ahg113]

Missing Goblins.

Just for the heck of it, add Burn.

To truly show off the format, you need more than island dual, Brainstorm and FoW. While that is consistently the strongest, it's not the only flavor out there.

(not good decks but showing variety)
Pox
Stompy
Belcher
Doomsday
Enchantress (Parfait)

[YamiJoey]

Burn is a great replacement for Storm. A similar feel, but you at least get to pretend to play Magic before you lose.

[twndomn]

Combo:
1 Sneak Attack
1 OmniTell
1 Ad Nauseam Tendrils or TES
1 Griselbrand Storm (tin-fin)

Aggro:
1 Burn
1 Goblin
1 Dredge

Everything else:
1 BUG Delver
1 WUR Delver
1 Esper blade
1 Shardless BUG or Death Blade
1 Merfolk
1 Death and Taxes
1 Miracle
1 Jund

Some decks are harder to pilot than the others. You need dedicate person to study those decks in-depth, for at least 1 month.

[kiblast]

Just do what Einherjer said. I think that's a really accurate metagame description. Also if everybody knows the deck pool and has 100% accurate information regarding meta, you just leave sideboards empty so everybody can choose his sideboard plans. God I'd love to play in this environment.

[Philipp2293]

I'm curious why gravebased strategies have been mostly neglected in this thread - as far as I'm aware the last 3 or 4 SCG opens have been won either by Lftl Decks or Reanimator.

[FTW]

If you could design your metagame to be fair and balanced, what would it be?


Goblins
Elves
Merfolk
Zoo
Death and Taxes
Landstill
Aggro Loam
Lands
Dredge
Enchantress
CounterTop Miracles
Nic Fit
Eva Green
Team America
Burn
Geddon Stax
Reanimator
Canadian Thresh
NO RUG
Jund
Next Level Bant
TES
ANT
Spiral Tide

Sounds diverse. Many of those would be tier 2 decks but could still compete against the others.

You could get that meta by banning Delver, Show and Tell, Griselbrand, Deathrite Shaman, Rest in Peace, Punishing Fire, Stoneforge Mystic and TNN. Not saying any of those should be banned in Legacy. Just talking about getting a diverse metagame...

[twndomn]

I'm curious why gravebased strategies have been mostly neglected in this thread - as far as I'm aware the last 3 or 4 SCG opens have been won either by Lftl Decks or Reanimator.

If you look at my list, 4 out of 15 has heavy graveyard utilization
Combo:
1 Ad Nauseam Tendrils or TES (past in flame)
1 Griselbrand Storm (tin-fin) (self-explain)

Aggro:
1 Dredge (self-explain)

Everything else:
1 Jund (P-Fire, DRS)

You want to keep it at around 25%, any higher might cause a 15 unique meta to tilt. Loam decks are certainly within consideration, but its popularity is restricted due to lack of Tabernacle in real life.

[FTW]

Loam decks are certainly within consideration, but its popularity is restricted due to lack of Tabernacle in real life.

You could fix this by allowing some number of Proxies. This would also allow Jund to board into Chains and UW decks to run Moat. Could be funny/fun.