Jumping into Paper Legacy

[Nynten]

So I've been playing legacy on Cockatrice for a while now, but I've been itching to hit the paper tournament scene. I've been squirreling away money and now have a decent chunk of cash. What should I be looking for? Is it worth it to invest in a set of Force of Wills? Wastelands? What can I build that will get me set with some of legacy's staple cards without too much cost from the other cards? How do I get into this format in paper magic?

[ESG]

So I've been playing legacy on Cockatrice for a while now, but I've been itching to hit the paper tournament scene. I've been squirreling away money and now have a decent chunk of cash. What should I be looking for? Is it worth it to invest in a set of Force of Wills? Wastelands? What can I build that will get me set with some of legacy's staple cards without too much cost from the other cards? How do I get into this format in paper magic?

In general, you should build what you most enjoy playing. Legacy is large and offers a lot of options, even if some of them aren't the best-positioned decks at a given time. I assume you've experimented with a lot of decks on Cockatrice. What do you like to play? Start there. Build a deck and run that. When you want a new challenge, or as your finances allow, build something else and enjoy mastering that. Everyone's financial situation is different, so do what works for you. Picking up Force of Will, Wasteland, the blue dual lands, and cantrip suite will give you the most options on what deck to play. Usually these first-timer posts involve people trying to get into the format with very little money. Your "decent chunk of cash" should make it easier for you to build into what you want at a quicker pace.

[Megadeus]

Not sure what your plan is deckwise, but I'd pick up wastelands personally.

[Quasim0ff]

Not sure what your plan is deckwise, but I'd pick up Force of Wills personally.

[sdematt]

If uncertain, Wastelands, Force of Wills, and fetches are never a bad thing.

[jrsthethird]

Zendikar fetches just spiked in price recently after being confirmed NOT in BFZ, so Khans fetches are the cheapest. You can build almost any deck with a decent set of off-color fetches with duals. Deltas are $20-25 on Ebay now, and the rest are cheaper. Heaths are at a $10 floor right now since they're in the Origins Clash Pack.

Duals, Forces, Wastes, and anything on the Reserved List is a safe investment and very liquid, so I wouldn't feel bad buying any of that. With the current state of the format, investing in a blue shell gives you the most options. Pick a blue shard/clan combo to start with and you have a bevy of 2-3 color decks that have a similar base, not to mention Omni-Tell/Merfolk w/splash options.

MTG Goldfish is a great site with loads of price data and trends, and you can see the total cost of any deck posted (TCGPlayer mid prices; Ebay is frequently cheaper). The recent Legacy meta is here:

http://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/legacy#paper

Omni-Tell will set you back about 2 grand, but you'll easily be able to change decks for a few hundred after that.

[Nynten]

Thanks for the replies.

My problem that I run into is that I don't have a ton more to spend after getting a set of Force of Wills. I can get a blue dual after that, but that's all for money cards. I've been thinking about getting a Tropical Island and a set of FoW and building a psuedo-threshold deck and slowly upgrading it. I love how the delver decks operate, but I can't quite figure everything to put in the deck.

If I can build a decent storm deck with just a Volcanic Island and Badlands, that's viable. Storm is a blast.

I've picked up all of the blue fetches from khans so I'm good there.

[Jay_Gatz]

Forces and a Trop are a good start for an infect deck which isn't a bad starting point for breaking into the format. Most of the expensive cards are staples and you can easily start off playing a few breeding pools if you need to.

[davelin]

If you have friends who play Legacy, borrow cards from them until you have the funds yourself. If you don't, develop a playgroup from whatever local stores, etc. you have around you. Work towards those staples that can be ported over to several decks that have been mentioned i.e. Forces, Wastelands, duals, etc.

[jrsthethird]

Thanks for the replies.

My problem that I run into is that I don't have a ton more to spend after getting a set of Force of Wills. I can get a blue dual after that, but that's all for money cards. I've been thinking about getting a Tropical Island and a set of FoW and building a psuedo-threshold deck and slowly upgrading it. I love how the delver decks operate, but I can't quite figure everything to put in the deck.

If I can build a decent storm deck with just a Volcanic Island and Badlands, that's viable. Storm is a blast.

I've picked up all of the blue fetches from khans so I'm good there.

I'm in the same boat you are actually. Plus I'm moving so I just signed a lease and bought a bed. I feel like an adult now. Weeee!

I haven't found the time to actually play paper yet, so I've been lazy at building a deck. I've been building a collection by buying decently priced lots on Ebay/craigslist, and selling some of it that I don't need (pimp/Modern/casual stuff). I'm working on shocklands right now since they're terrible replacements for dual lands; I don't care playing LGS events with a suboptimized deck, but hopefully moving to a new area I can meet new players and hopefully form a playgroup where I can borrow some of the more expensive cards.

FoWs + Trop is an awesome start for Infect. I might consider doing this too after I get a set of Forces now actually. Here's the 18th place list from Eternal Weekend:

http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/315006#paper

Cutting the Trops, Zen fetches, and SB Tundra, the deck is only $1100, only $666 after the playset of Forces. You can even cut the singleton Wasteland to shave it under $600 (IDK how good that even is, but for your purposes, you'll be fine). Breeding Pools seem sufficient for Trops; since you want to win early, you can forfeit a little in the long game for budget reasons. Flusterstorm is $64, cutting that makes you a tad weaker against Storm, but a helpful starting point. So you can get the whole deck for $500-600 after Forces, and work towards optimizing it. Then just one Trop will make you that much better, since most of the time you need a dual you'll be fetching it anyway.

[Nynten]

Forces and a Trop are a good start for an infect deck which isn't a bad starting point for breaking into the format. Most of the expensive cards are staples and you can easily start off playing a few breeding pools if you need to.

I haven't had much experience piloting infect, but I thought that it relied heavily on Berserk, a card that I wouldn't be able to afford after Force + Trop. If anybody is experienced with the deck I'd love their two cents.

[jrsthethird]

I haven't had much experience piloting infect, but I thought that it relied heavily on Berserk, a card that I wouldn't be able to afford after Force + Trop. If anybody is experienced with the deck I'd love their two cents.

I'm not too familiar either, but just from looking at recent lists, it's only a 2-of. I doubt cutting it is a good idea, but you can build the rest of the deck and work towards it.

The only cards in the deck that are more than $5 apiece are 4x Noble Hierarch, 4x Inkmoth Nexus, and 2x Berserk (or Sylvan Library, but it's a 1x SB in the list I posted). Everything else is rather cheap.

And I mentioned before, Ebay is great. All the prices I quoted in my last post are TCG mid, which has Force at $110, but if you focus on Ebay auctions you can get them for $75-85 apiece. You're saving $100 on the set right there.

[Jay_Gatz]

I haven't had much experience piloting infect, but I thought that it relied heavily on Berserk, a card that I wouldn't be able to afford after Force + Trop. If anybody is experienced with the deck I'd love their two cents.

Wouldn't really say it relies on Berserk, its only a 2-of in most lists and you can start out without it. Subbing in a card like Rancor would be a decent budget option.

[Nynten]

A quick and dirty infect list I put together based on the above list.

4 Glistener Elf
4 Blighted Agent
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
2 Berserk
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Spell Pierce
1 Stifle
4 Invigorate
3 Force of Will
2 Become Immense

4 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
2 Polluted Delta
1 Tropical Island
1 Pendelhaven
4 Forest
4 Island

Since I'm working with a budget this was my current list. I dont know if it's smarter to get Berserks now and Hierarchs/Inkmoths later or vice versa. I haven't been able to test against someone else but it's been fine to goldfish. I thought that having so few infect sources would be rough but all of the cantrips made it fine.

As always, any infect players feel free to chime in.

[MGB]

If you don't mind high variance decks you can always go the Ancient Tomb / City of Traitors route as well, which is significantly cheaper than any blue deck. Picking up those lands lets you play Painter, MUD, and various Stompy decks.

Another competitive non-blue option would be to go the Karakas / Wasteland route which will lead you to Death n Taxes and potentially Aggro Loam or Maverick. But if you sink all your money into those lands then you probably won't be buying duals for a while.

Then of course there are always fringe combo decks like Belcher and Dredge which you could buy into for a pittance.

[JamieW89]

I would consider getting into UR Delver, which is a good base to expand into the format. You can later expand into many directions such as UR Omnitell, URB Delver or Control, RUG Delver etc. You might not be able to get 4 Volcs + 4 FoWs at the start, but it still seems a decent choice to me. Just so many decks playing Volc, FoW, DTT + cantrips etc right now.

[Nynten]

I would consider getting into UR Delver, which is a good base to expand into the format. You can later expand into many directions such as UR Omnitell, URB Delver or Control, RUG Delver etc. You might not be able to get 4 Volcs + 4 FoWs at the start, but it still seems a decent choice to me. Just so many decks playing Volc, FoW, DTT + cantrips etc right now.

Would 4 Force + 1 Volcanic island plus cantrips, bolt, pyromancer+delver work?

[Richard Cheese]

I hope you mean Blue/Red "Painted Stone" Painter, not the $800 playset of Recruiters Painter.

Basically if you go for anything outside of _____ Delver or Miracles, you're going to end up with something expensive but with limited usage. ANT you're looking at $400 between LEDs and Tutors, and apparently Cabal Therapy is a $12 card now. Cities are $50 a pop and don't have that many homes...I guess the advantage is that very few decks run a full playset.

I think it depends on where you want to end up and how you want to get there. If you're going to consistently set aside money to invest in Legacy, start investing in the deck you want to end up playing. If you're hoping to work your way up on tournament winnings, start with something like Burn, Dredge or Belcher that's really cheap to put together, but will absolutely give you a good chance of getting into prize money. LEDs are also one of the bigger barriers to most of the combo decks.

Then you also have to consider whether or not you want to play Modern, which might make it worth going for something like Merfolk or Affinity that might be less powerful, but would have a lot of cross-format pieces.

[jake556]

My first few Legacy decks were Goblins and LED Dredge. Goblins is a ton of fun to play and competitive, LED Dredge got boring to me and also is really competitive. Mind you this was a few years ago before Port/Waste/LED were as high as they are now. Ports were $20, Wastes were around $30, LEDS were $30. :cry: Also Goblins sets you up to go right in D&T which was what I went to next and is also really good. I eventually got the itch and slowly collected most of the staples for the format.

Prices are insane now and I feel bad for anyone trying to get into Legacy paying these current prices. Tabernacle was ~$200, Forces were $45, fetches were ~$10-15, U duals were between $50 and $70 bucks. Crazy how prices have gotten.

[nedleeds]

I'd pick up 4 Brainstorms.

[Richard Cheese]

I'd pick up 4 Brainstorms.

https://media.giphy.com/media/YPIrsRqqO7oB2/giphy.gif

[Nynten]

I'd pick up 4 Brainstorms.
When I'm talking about picking up FoW and Blue Duals, it's safe to assume I've got Brainstorms...

[jake556]

I'd pick up 4 Brainstorms.

http://i.giphy.com/12Tt4U7hlXXaRa.gif