I'm the guy that posted the original Legacy list on Reddit. This seems like the best spot I've found to keep working on this deck to make it better, so I wanted to weigh in. Off the bat I want to say that the excitement around the list has been amazing. Is it a deck that is built for fun? Yes. Is it a deck that is some how better than it seems like it should be? Also yes. Does that make it top tier? Not currently, but the potential card pool for this is huge, so I'm not ruling it out with future printings, discovered cards, etc. At the moment could this be a good FNM deck, keep you at about even in leagues or potentially spike a 5-0? Yes. I'm basically about 50%, but I don't track things super intensely. I'm hoping you all can keep brewing and helping to develop this. My goal currently is to optimize it for winning, and that's what some of this post is about. But I think it's paramount to remember that this deck is for fun, so please remember that if you want to try something I suggest against, just try it anyway. Have the fun. And learn with me. It's part of the journey.
Content
If you want to see some content, I'm trying to aggregate it a little and cross post it here and on reddit.
Anzid's VOD here: https://www.twitch.tv/anzidmtg/v/1144859495?sr=a&t=57s
AnziD posted one on Channelfireball: https://strategy.channelfireball.com...g-anuraag-das/
He posted another one to his youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LeY...annel=anzidmtg
Thraben U has also featured the deck twice: First one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMt3...annel=ThrabenU
Second one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgmD...annel=ThrabenU
Current list
My current list that I just went 5-5 with over two leagues.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4322396#paper
I have been going a similar direction to what you all have been suggesting independently. The Recruiter + Grist plan is slow, and while absolutely awesome, can be hard to cast off of our mana. I am keeping it in the list to make sure that win is available for long grindy games or instances of having to face an ensnaring bridge, moat, etc. This deck has gone more toolbox against fair matchups, and that allows me to free the sideboard up for combo. I'm doing a lot better against combo, like I've pulled some matches against doomsday, and the EPIC Storm feels like it went from bad to slightly unfavorable (maybe even). But I do think I over did the tool box here.
Cards that Underperformed
The plague engineers do so little against many of the decks I bump into routinely, and sometimes they are too slow or not quite impactful enough against elves, which is really where I want them to shine. I think they are still good enough for the sideboard or something, but 2 in the main was too much.
Karrthus was also a little dissappointing for me. Was it awesome to turn 3 someone out of no where? Absolutely. I got an excellent raging from opponent when I pulled it off. Was I almost always wanting coat of arms instead, yes sadly. This really came up the most against a delver player that was running Urza's saga for some reason, and they found cage. This shut down my Magda outright. Plus the ability to flash coat in as a combat trick is sweet. Having said that, I don't love coat either. The pool of cards is so big here as the second magda target that I feel like something better must be out there.
Cards that Overperformed
One card that has been overperforming has been brainstorm. Of course that card is amazing in legacy, so it shouldn't be surpring. With the revamped manabase I think I would play more. I like having two spellstutters. Those guys have been great, but you don't want too many because they are weak bodies and while you're going up on card advantage, it's hard to capitialize beyond the tempo gain often. Imperial recruiter was great for me, but I think I'd keep him at 1 copy. He effectively allows you to pyre a 2 drop changeling into an immediate Magda, which is great. Two in the main would be reasonable if you wanted to go with like a wizards/dwarfs approach as I do out of the sideboard here. Karakas was great too for obvious reasons.
Some things I've learned along the way
I have gotten a lot of requests to try various things, and I've done my best to try to incorporate a lot of them. Here's some stuff I've tried.
1. Thalia over Valiant - This was an interesting exercise, because it taught me two things. First, Thalia is cool, but when you add her to this list you are really increasing the X/1 count. This makes us really vulerable to a lot of pyroclasm type effects. Second, this got me really thinking about Valiant Changeling and while I do not love the card, I have a lot of respect for it. It does a surprisng amount of work. He hits super hard, he dodges deathtouching birds and snakes, he evades CMC related removal ( like abrupt decay, prismatic ending, or fatal push), it means that if they pyroclasm our team we still crunch in, and he sets up emperions/other 8 drops off the pyre. So I guess where I'm getting at is that it's a tough cut, and I wouldn't recommend going below 3.
2. The 1 drops - I will on occassion shave the 1 drops down to 7, but it's so brutal having an opener without a 1. I've seen some folks here going up to more than 8 and that might ultimately be right. I like the automotons over the outcasts. Being able to block is huge, and so is the colorless manacost. But also I'll mention I've seen people try time sieve as the second Magda target and autmotons let you do this. Second, if you have a Canonist out you can cast two spells.
3. Scourge of Valkus / Reaper King - So these guys are awesome as magda targets, and I actually tried a dragon chain with Pyres so I could get the Scourge one time. Both of these are reasonable, but the issue is often that it takes a lot of effort to get magda's first hit and often we want to spam the board when we can. A mothdust into magda, often lets us deploy another changeling that turn, or maybe two. We want to do this when we can because if they untap they may kill our magda and we want to be ahead on tempo. But if magda survives and we can search up one of these guys, we are suddenly in a spot where we have no more guys to trigger our Scourge or Reaper King. Having said that, this deck is about doing sweet things, so I wouldn't fault anyone for going this way.
4. Utvara Hellkite - Another sweet Magda target. This one I think is a bit of a victim of awkward timing from games I've played. Usually magda turns require tapping out before the combat step via mothdust or by attacking. So this guy often comes in and sits for a turn before we get activations out of him. At 6 toughness that means that he's double boltable or unholy heatable, so we might not even get a chance to make summoning sick dragons.
5. Dwarf Wizards and the Value of Realmwalker - So I did take a totally different approach and go with a dwarf wizards deck https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4322455#paper. The idea was to make things better against combo and to make the manabase better. I've seen some suggestions of similar takes here. This went 1-4, beating combo, and it otherwise did not feel very good, but I did learn some things. First, what I learned is that a lot of those cards can beat combo, which was hopefully the case, and so many are now in the sideboard. But I also learned about dwarf bugs by trying to do dwarf wizards. Part of what dwarf bugs does is synergizes well. Our pieces all work together in surprising ways. Dwarf Wizards did not. I ended up having a lot of dead air. I've seen some people critique the Dwarf Bugs list because they feel it's too magda heavy. Well this verison truly is too magda heavy. Dwarf Bugs does 4 things, which is kind of crazy to think about. It beats, it magda/pyres cheats emperions, it recuiter + realmwalker cannons, and it does the grist recuiter combo. Somehow the strength of the deck is the diversity of the angles of attack even though conventional wisdom is to do one or two things really well. When we go in a lot of different directions, it's hard for opponents to know what to swords, and as long as we're doing it smoothly, we can get away with it. This dwarf wizards verison, and I think Thraben U's second video, show me the necessity of realmwalker and recruiter. Without it, people just kill the magda's and the valiant changelings and we lose, because all we have left are 1/1s.
6. Pyre is a necessary evil - I've seen a lot of people critique the speed of pyre, and I think that's fair. Having 2 in hand feels pretty bad, and I do think that 4 is incorrect for sure. But I also don't hate having the first pyre. It's not just get emperion on turn 4, but it's also get Canonist on 3, which can be the difference maker. It lets us play some bullets, but if we go down too far on them, then our bullets have no way to be gotten. So I'm leaning towards 3.
Matchups in my experience
It's getting late as I write this so I'll keep this brief. Posting from the Goldfish website, I'll take some of the top decks. Feel free to ask for details if you have quesitons.
Delver - I find this matchup fun, and I think it's pretty even, but might be slighly unfavorable. I do bring in the spell stutters and I will bring in leylines if they seem heavy on the DRCs and Murktides.
Death and Taxes - I think this might be slightly unfavorable at the moment, but I think I'm 2-3 against them or so. I think this matchup could be hedged against if it became a problem.
Lands - I like this matchup. I would say it's slightly favorable. Leylines turn off loam and punishing fire. So if you can stop the 20/20 from killing you, you can usually get there. I find these matches really fun too.
Snow Miracles/AnziD's 4 color midrange/Control - I like this matchup and feel it is favorable. I think I am about 4-2 against it. Our vials and caverns are hard for them to navigate, and they have a lot of 1-for-1 removal. So dwarven recruiter does work here. If we get terminused, we can recruiter + Realmwalker again. It often feels like the only thing I care about is uro, which I think could be fixable by adding surgicals to the board.
Elves - Slightly unfavorable. They can go fast. I'm probably about 3-5 against them with the various versions over time. I think if I wanted to beat them regularly we'd need a few copies of something like electrickery.
Doomsday - A horrendous matchup is now slightly unfavorable I would guess, but I don't have a ton of matches since revamping the sideboard.
Reanimator - Even. They can get there, but leyline does work. If we get emperion out, they really don't have much to get out from there.
Jeskai Ragavan - Even. I enjoy this matchup. If they end up murktiding we are in trouble, but magus of the moon can just crush them before that happens.
Knight of the Reliquary Decks - A commentor once mentioned that he felt this matchup was unwinable. I disagree. I would say it is slightly favorable. Again, it is how can we counteract a 20/20. But between mothdusts, emperion, and now karakas, it's not that difficult to do. Leylines out of the board turn the rest of their gameplan off. I think the big thing here is that they have to commit a lot of resources to assemble a 20/20, and so if we can foil their plan we are up big on card advantage.
Epic Storm / Storm - So I haven't seen ANT in a while, but that matchup was good from the get go. Mariners just shut them down as they have no way to stop him in game 1. That's not really the case for Epic Storm, as they can get Peer and sometimes even pay for the mariner or Veil the triggers away. The new sideboard has really helped though. Put your meddling mage on Burning Wish and they have a tough time from there given the other hatebears or Force of Wills that you'll find. I'd say we're still probably slightly unfavored since they will likely take game one. But this particular matchup was pretty bad for a while, so I'm glad I'm picking some wins up.
Other things I feel we are favorable against that I bump into: 1) Maddness (3-0); 2)Crashing Footfalls (3-0) 3) Oops all Spells 4) BUG or UG Zenith or CoCo Decks 5) Red Prison (I haven't played the version that has more creatures though, which looks tougher).
Other things I feel we are not favorable against that I bump into: 1) Karn Echoes (though we can beat the 4xSai verisons without Karn) 2) Burn (holy moly this felt bad) 3) Sneak and Show (but Aphetto Grifter has helped a surprsing amount).
Other things I feel are about even against that I bump into: 1) Aluren 2) Food Chain 3) Slivers 4) Hogaak