The new Legacy metagame

[Hanni]

This thread is for speculating about the new Legacy metagame following the April 24, 2017 banning of Sensei’s Divining Top.

I'll get it started off. I think many people will try playing their pet decks that were less or non viable in a Miracles meta, such as Maverick.

I also believe Elves is going to become a DTB again; every deck is going to need a plan for beating Elves.

[Crimhead]

This thread is for speculating about the new Legacy metagame following the April 24, 2017 banning of Sensei’s Divining Top.

I'll get it started off. I think many people will try playing their pet decks that were less or non viable in a Miracles meta, such as Maverick.

I also believe Elves is going to become a DTB again; every deck is going to need a plan for beating Elves.

Elves and all those speculative fair decks will be good fodder for Lands.

D&T maybe switches more to Imperial Taxes?

[Barachai]

Affinity has a reason to exist again; it is ready and able to shit all over fair decks, and can run chalice. Not sure if better than eldrazi of course

[supremePINEAPPLE]

I wouldn't be surprised if a UWx mentor or stoneblade list got popular in the wake of miracles departure. Card availability is a real thing for legacy so the people that don't ragequit or swap decks have to go somewhere.

[Crimhead]

Affinity has a reason to exist again; it is ready and able to shit all over fair decks, and can run chalice. Not sure if better than eldrazi of course

Dude - I wish!

[T-101]

Obviously there are huge ripple effects from Top that we won't fully understand for some time.

I'm sleeving up Maverick again. I think Storm will probably pick up, and like you mentioned, Elves. With that in mind, I'll probably hedge on more Zealous Persecutions, Null Rods, maybe an Engineered Plague, and some extra discard.

[jrw1985]

It'll be interesting.... I don't know how it will pan out. I want to say there will be more midrange-control, but that's already the direction the format was heading in with Miracles. I don't think there is another pure-control deck that will fill the void.

The collateral damage is difficult to account for as well. There are decks that are affected aside from Miracles. Painter, Nic Fit, fucking ANT.... They're all losing a valuable tool, but the end of Miracles is a much bigger format change overall.

[Julian23]

Some kind of Stoneblade becomes a deck again. Lots of other decks people were previously embarassed for holding on to become viable tier2 strategies again.

[CutthroatCasual]

There will be little reason not to play BGxx or BUGx decks now. They performed decently against Miracles as well as the rest of the metagame, and they're not going to lose to any of the jank that will come out because of the Miracles ban.

[supremePINEAPPLE]

There will be little reason not to play BGxx or BUGx decks now. They performed decently against Miracles as well as the rest of the metagame, and they're not going to lose to any of the jank that will come out because of the Miracles ban.

Says who? Stoneblade and mentor decks could totally be built to compete with pile, especially if they don't have to worry about terminus.

[CptHaddock]

Says who? Stoneblade and mentor decks could totally be built to compete with pile, especially if they don't have to worry about terminus.

Modern players who started playing legacy because of how wotc handles modern.

I think everyone has gathered that UBx is going to be the premier archetype. I think the most interesting thing about this change is that you are less forced to run decay now that counterbalance is no longer a real card. Obviously the decks that get hit the most are decks that are running top or ones that prey on miracles. SFM is a card again in decks that aren't d&t.

[Julian23]

Even more reason to watch the Legacy Premier League this season. We're having players resubmit new decklists!

[kungfugeek]

Even more reason to watch the Legacy Premier League this season. We're having players resubmit new decklists!

Whoa, will week one standings remain?

[Fjaulnir]

Even more reason to watch the Legacy Premier League this season. We're having players resubmit new decklists!

I was expecting the League to continue under the old rules/banlist, but in this light it seems indeed exciting to see what decks these guys will brew up!

[supremePINEAPPLE]

Modern players who started playing legacy because of how wotc handles modern.

People keep talking so much shit about how bad modern is but it's honestly the best it's been in years and was more fun for me to play than workshop vs mentor vintage. People just get so pissy about bans that they can't think straight. I'm confident that legacy will be more fun going forward even if it's sad that miracles got hit.

[NeckBird]

BUGx decks (Food Chain, Shardless, 4C Control, Noble Duke), Deathblade decks (Bant, Esper), combo decks (Elves, Show & Tell, Reanimator), and Delver decks (Grixis, 4C, BUG) will be most popular at first.

Price of Progress decks (UR Delver, Burn) are absolutely absurd too and may take a month or so to catch on, but I could see UR Delver being a top deck in the format especially if people start shaving an Abrupt Decay or two without Counterbalance being an issue.

BWx Stoneblade decks, maybe even Punishing Jund, might start getting played again just because Deathrite -> Hymn -> Liliana is actually quite good in this format, but they won't be Tier One by any means, just more viable strategies.

Then, people will realize that Deathrite Shaman is far more miserable of a card than Sensei's Top ever was and he'll be banned and we'll be having this same discussion again six months from now.

[KobeBryan]

BUGx decks (Food Chain, Shardless, 4C Control, Noble Duke), Deathblade decks (Bant, Esper), combo decks (Elves, Show & Tell, Reanimator), and Delver decks (Grixis, 4C, BUG) will be most popular at first.

Price of Progress decks (UR Delver, Burn) are absolutely absurd too and may take a month or so to catch on, but I could see UR Delver being a top deck in the format especially if people start shaving an Abrupt Decay or two without Counterbalance being an issue.

BWx Stoneblade decks, maybe even Punishing Jund, might start getting played again just because Deathrite -> Hymn -> Liliana is actually quite good in this format, but they won't be Tier One by any means, just more viable strategies.

Then, people will realize that Deathrite Shaman is far more miserable of a card than Sensei's Top ever was and he'll be banned and we'll be having this same discussion again six months from now.

There are many answers to drs. Cb and top on the other hand have like 4 things to answer it

[NeckBird]

There are many answers to drs. Cb and top on the other hand have like 4 things to answer it

I do agree with this, but one of those answers is playing Deathrite Shaman before your opponent. At a certain point people are going to come to the conclusion that the best way to beat Deathrite Shaman is just playing your own (assuming your playing a fair deck).

[Cire]

At first:

Less Miracles means less Moat which means more Eldrazi. Also no Counter-Top means less reason to be forced to run Decay so less BUGx lists. No more Terminus means more Aggro.

Later:

DRS and Decay are still fantastic so BUGx lists will return. But I think Eldrazi and Aggro will also remain strong.

[Crimhead]

I'm sleeving up Maverick again.

Here is the problem I see:

• Maverick was pushed out by Jund having a similar game but being generally better.
• Jund was pushed out by TNN Blade decks - about to explode again.
• Shardless is still a better version of Jund - especially against TNN or combo (counters).
• Aggro Loam is still a better KotR midrange deck on account of CotV against combo and cantrip decks.

I don't think Miracles has been what's holding Maverick down.

I'm no expert though (and I don't personally play midrange). I could very well be wrong. Also this is Legacy, where a tier two deck isn't that much worse than a tier one deck (the death of Miracles probably narrows this gap further). Best of luck!