Five well tuned Monocolored Legacy decks that play well against each other.

[Captain Hammer]

I need help building a monocolored legacy battlebox. A battlebox is a set of decks designed to be played against each other but that also reflect the format they come from well, so you can take them to a local card shop and get some games in with friends. Battleboxes are a blast and a great way to entice players to try a new format. I already did that in pauper (it’s a blast) and I would love to do the same in legacy.

The decks should be monocolored (duals and fetches are expensive and shuffling is boring) and should be decently powerful featuring lots of legacy staples but also well balanced to play against each other.

Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am considering...
Death and Taxes
Mono Blue Delver
Suicide Black/Gate
Dragon Stompy
Mono Green Stompy/Natural Order Deck

...but I don't know if these are the best choices, will play well against each other, and I have no idea how best to built the delver or Suicide Black lists to keep up with the other decks.

For reference, here is monocolored pauper battlebox I put together that I want to replicate in legacy...

Mono Black Control

19 Swamp
4 Barren Moor

4 Chittering Rats
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
3 Cuombajj Witches
1 Gurmag Angler
1 Crypt Rats
2 Thorn of Black Rose

4 Chainer's Edict
4 Sign in Blood
3 Victim of Night
2 Disfigure
2 Dead Weight
1 Geth's Verdict
1 Pestilence
1 Tendrils of Corruption

Mono Blue Tempo

17 Island

4 Faerie Miscreant
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
2 Augur of Bolas
1 Spire Golem

4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Counterspell
3 Daze
2 Snap
2 Gush
2 Mutagenic Growth
2 Vapor Snag
1 Bonesplitter

Mono Red Sligh

17 Mountain

4 Foundry Street Denizen
4 Mogg Conscripts
4 Jackal Familiar
4 Burning Tree Emissary
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Goblin Cohort
4 Mudbrawler Cohort
4 Valley Dasher
3 Goblin Heelcutter

4 Lightning Bolt
2 Reckless Abandon
2 Fireblast

Mono Green Stomp

17 Forest

4 Burning Tree Emissary
4 Nest Invader
4 Nettle Seninel
4 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
3 Quirion Ranger
3 Silhana Ledgewalker
3 Vault Skirge
2 River Boa

4 Elephant Guide
4 Hunger of the Howlpack
4 Rancor
4 Vines of Vastwood

Mono White Heroic

15 Plains
2 Secluded Steppe

4 Akroan Skyguard
4 Lagonna-Band Trailblzer
3 Deftblade Elite
4 Seeker of the Way
2 Sacred Cat

4 Cartouche of Solidarity
4 Cho-Manno's Blessing
4 Ethereal Armor
4 Hyena Umbra
4 Mutagenic Growth
3 Emerge Unscathed
2 Defiant Strike
1 Lifelink

As an aside, pauper is the single greatest magic format that has ever existed. And all the decks can be built for just pennies. More people should be playing it.

[Fox]

MonoU Delver, DnT, Enchantress, Pox, Burn. If DnT too good, Soldier Stompy

[Tylert]

DNT is not at its best against monocolored decks...
TO be tested toroughly

[Echelon]

You can build Elves!, High Tide, Burn and Pox for starters. MUD as 6th "colour"?

[schweinefettmann]

Specific type of high tide?

Solidarity (reset) folds to most archetypes (including pox) and springtide costs more than building most multicolored decks (time spiral and candelabras).

Mono U tempo with a heavy stifle-counter id imagine is the way to go. SCM, TNN, cliques, delvers.

For monoB, maybe trainwreck?


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[Captain Hammer]

Thank you all.

Mother of Runes probably makes DnT insane vs monocolored decks. Then again, Wasteland and Port lose their impact so it might not be too bad.

Mono Black doesn’t have many decent options. Train Wreck looks too uninteractive for a battlebox. Pox will be probably get wrecked. Mono Black Reanimator is probably the best option.

Red will likely be repped with Dragon Stompy (with some Moons swapped out for Burning Wish and a Wishboard). Burn is boring to play and goblins would make it a bit too similar to my modern and pauper red battlebox decks.

Green is the color with the fewest viable options. Elves or Turbo Eldrazi are probably the best options.

OmniTell and Wizards are probably the strongest monoblue decks right now but Delver is just so damn fun. If I could find an optimal Mono Blue Delver that matches up well with other legacy decks, I will probably go that route.

[Ace/Homebrew]

Red will likely be repped with Dragon Stompy (with some Moons swapped out for Burning Wish and a Wishboard). Burn is boring to play and goblins would make it a bit too similar to my modern and pauper red battlebox decks.
Any number of Moons is terrible in a mono-colored battlebox... Dragon Stompy is designed to pretty on greedy mana bases and hyper efficient mana curves.

Plus City of Traitors is expensive and if you aren't running 4 you're doing it wrong.

Ruby Storm might be your best alternative.

[Chronatog]

I need help building a monocolored legacy battlebox. A battlebox is a set of decks designed to be played against each other but that also reflect the format they come from well, so you can take them to a local card shop and get some games in with friends. Battleboxes are a blast and a great way to entice players to try a new format. I already did that in pauper (it’s a blast) and I would love to do the same in legacy.

The decks should be monocolored (duals and fetches are expensive and shuffling is boring) and should be decently powerful featuring lots of legacy staples but also well balanced to play against each other.

Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am considering...


Goblins, Merfolk, and Elves would be very thematic for your battlebox.

[Captain Hammer]

Goblins, Merfolk, and Elves would be very thematic for your battlebox.

Yes but the ideal battlebox features a nice mix of strategies.

One Chalice/Stax deck (Dragon Stompy playing Goblin Matron and Burning Wish instead of Moons), one aggro deck (Elves), one combo deck (Monoblack Reanimator), one tempo deck (Monoblue Delver) and one death and taxes deck seems like a good mix of different strategies representative of the legacy meta.

Will they be well balanced against each other, that I’m curious about.

Also, is this the optimal Monoblack Reanimator list?

14 Swamp

4 Chancellor of the Annex
4 Griselbrand
1 Tidespout Tyrant or Iona
1 Ashen Rider
1 Grave Titan

4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
4 Entomb
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Animate Dead
4 Unmask
4 Thoughtseize
3 Cabal Therapy

[PirateKing]

Are you keeping to some EDH color purity or will all decks have access to Surgical Extraction from the side?
Iona against 4 other monocolor decks seems pretty good.

[Captain Hammer]

Are you keeping to some EDH color purity or will all decks have access to Surgical Extraction from the side?
Iona against 4 other monocolor decks seems pretty good.

They will access to Surgical. Yeah thats why I am considering not playing Iona in the Reanimator list, because it would make the games too lopsided in a monocolor battlebox.

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

A mono green Enchantress deck could look like this, if you're interested https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1512822#online

[Captain Hammer]

A mono green Enchantress deck could look like this, if you're interested https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1512822#online

Thank you. The list looks awesome. More interred and fun than Elves, I think it will be repping green in the battlebox.

Along the same lines, I did some research and MonoBlack Reanimator actually looks very strong...

18 Swamp
2 Lake of the Dead

4 Grave Titan
2 Massacre Wurm
2 Griselbrand
1 Iona

4 Dark Ritual
4 Entomb
4 Reanimate
4 Animate Dead
2 Exhume

4 Thoughtseize
3 Collective Brutality
2 Hymn to Tourach
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Unmask
1 Cabal Therapy

Third turn, tap two swamp to float BB, play Lake of Dead and sac both swamp to hardcast Grave Titan/Massacre Wurm while dodging Graveyard hate, Wasteland, Karakas and Blood Moon. Each subsequent swamp generates 5 mana in combination with Lake of the Dead.

It’s also a lot more interactive and fun to play/play against than traditional Reanimator making it the perfect choice for this battlebox.

[Zombie]

Wouldn't a Cradle-less pile of elves work just fine as the green option? You'd need some creative sideboard options, but should be fine?

[Mr. Safety]

Your mono-blue delver deck just got a boost with the new flying salamander. Pretty hot tech.

[Captain Hammer]

Your mono-blue delver deck just got a boost with the new flying salamander. Pretty hot tech.

Yes, it's a great card and a much needed addition to make mono blue delver viable.

I've already built the decks, they are...

Aggro Ramp: Colorless Eldrazi Post

Aggro Combo: Mono Green Elves (Wish Enchantress, Mono Green Devotion Aggro utilizing Natural Order or Beast Stompy were viable options in this format but sadly, they're not)

Aggro Control: Death and Taxes

Board Control: Dragon Stompy (Plays Burning Wish and Goblin Matron in lieu of Blood Moon and Magus for the purpose of this battlebox. Yes, this could have easily been Goblins, Burn or Pheonix but that would make the battlebox too aggro and combo heavy, plus I love Moon Stompy)

Aggro Tempo: Mono Blue Delver

Pure Combo: Mono Black Reanimator (abusing Lake of the Dead to hardcast Grave Titan on turn three as a backup plan)

The Delver list will get overhauled to utilize this guy.

I'm planning to update it to...

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Flying Salamander
1 Cryptic Serpent
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 True-Name Nemesis

4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
4 Thought Scour
4 Stifle
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
1 Preordain
1 Vapor Snag
1 Dismember
1 Snap
1 Spell Snare
1 Spell Pierce
1 Counterspell
1 Mental Note

4 Wasteland
14 Island/Fetchlands


I wanted the deck to maximize the number of solid 1 ofs in the deck when appropriate because this facilitates more interesting games in the battlebox.