I played the weirdest deck in the room at Eternal Weekend North America 2025

[TinkerRobot]

This was my first Eternal Weekend. I have been playing Legacy since about 2012, but I haven’t really played in any large tournaments since the Grand Prix circuit went away. I considered sleeving up Entombs since I was a bit of a Reanimator specialist in the era of StarCity Opens. However, I also figured this might be my last Eternal Weekend, and I wanted to brew a bit and play a fun deck.

In the Friday Night Double Up side event I played Death’s Shadow. After flying in Friday afternoon, I had just enough time to play one side event. Death’s Shadow has been a pet deck of mine for years, and it’s always a joy to play in a combo heavy metagame.

1 Brazen Borrower
1 Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
4 Death's Shadow
2 Delver of Secrets
3 Murktide Regent
4 Orcish Bowmasters
2 Fatal Push
4 Force of Will
2 Hymn to Tourach
3 Ponder
1 Preordain
4 Brainstorm
2 Snuff Out
4 Daze
4 Thoughtseize
1 Polluted Delta
1 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Undercity Sewers
1 Underground Sea
4 Wasteland
3 Watery Grave

1 Brazen Borrower
1 Consign to Memory
1 Damping Matrix
2 Dauthi Voidwalker
1 Dress Down
2 Force of Negation
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Hydroblast
1 Narset, Parter of Veils
1 Null Rod
1 Plague Engineer
1 Sudden Edict
1 Surgical Extraction

Round 1 - Zach on Doomsday 2-1
This was a close match against a player who ended up making Top 32 of the main event. Running two copies of Hymn to Tourach in the main deck might be a bit of a meme, but it was really good here.

Round 2 - Josh on BUG Beans 2-1
Beans, or any of the Quantum Riddler/Blink decks are a nightmare for tempo. I certainly had to get a bit lucky to win this match.

Round 3 - Peter on Omnitell 2-1
I’ve had mixed feelings about the 1-of Narset, Parter of Veils in the sideboard, but it pulled an incredible amount of weight here. Narset won me game two by shutting off cantrips. Then when I saw it in my opening hand G3, I knew to keep. I cast it on turn 4, with four lands in play, when my hand was Force, Force, blue card, blue card, Daze. Then Narset’s -2 found a Thoughtseize and my opponent scooped before I could cast it.

After going 3-0 in my only side event before the Saturday main event, I was seriously considering playing Death’s Shadow on Saturday to pick on combo players. However, as I really came to Pittsburgh with the intention of playing a brew in the Legacy Championship, I decided to do just that.

North America Legacy Championship 2025

Back in 2023, CrusherBotBG came in 2nd place of a Legacy Challenge with a take on the Modern/Pauper deck 8 Blast. This list has morphed so much from that blueprint, that it’s hardly recognizable, but that was the inspiration for this deck. It’s become another pet deck of mine over the past two years, and I’ve really spent hours toiling over each slot. I have always wanted to build decks in Legacy that lean as aggressive as possible and let me turn creatures sideways every turn.

I’ve joked with friends that Cybermat is my invitational card. Around the time the Doctor Who set was released, I was looking for a card to be Patchwork Automatons number 5 through 8, and Cybermat jumped out at me. Yes, it’s really bad against Orcish Bowmasters. No, it is not on Magic Online. But it attacks for an awful lot of damage, and skulk is surprisingly relevant, especially against Reanimator. Every single player I cast it against had to read it. I love that.

4 Ornithopter
4 Patchwork Automaton
4 Cybermat
1 Furnace Hellkite
1 Hope of Ghirapur
4 Galvanic Blast
1 Ghost Vacuum
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Lotus Petal
1 Cori-Steel Cutter
4 Mox Opal
1 Shadowspear
4 Retrofitter Foundry
4 Shrapnel Blast
3 Mountain
2 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Great Furnace
4 Urza's Saga
4 Wasteland

1 Blood Moon
3 Disruptor Flute
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Haywire Mite
1 Pithing Needle
4 Pyroblast
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Unlicensed Hearse

Round 1 - Mike on Bant Beans 2-1
8 Blast isn’t a very good Blood Moon deck, but the one Moon in the board was really excellent here. My opponent ended up scooping with nine cards in hand. Multiple copies of Beanstalk and Solitude don’t line up super well into two Retrofitter Foundries pumping out dorks every turn.

Round 2 - Brad on UB Reanimator 2-0
I played against Reanimator seven times in this event, which was even a bit more than I expected. I came prepared with the main deck Ghost Vacuum, and four more pieces of grave hate post board. 8 Blast also largely ignores Tamiyo. I just have to cross my fingers and hope no Lhurgoyfs emerge from the barrows.

Round 3 - Nick on UB Reanimator 2-1
Atraxa is cool and all, but when Urza’s Saga is pumping out 8/8s, you’ll usually be okay. That’s a big reason I’ve chosen Shadowspear over Lavaspur Boots. I don’t think you can run both.

Round 4 - Jacob on GW Depths 0-2
If you can manage to bolt and blast away all the Dryad Arbors, Elvish Reclaimers, and the like, this is actually a reasonable matchup. However this was the first round I experienced the downsides of playing a nonblue deck. My hands just didn’t line up, and I really felt the repercussion of not playing a, y’know, real deck.

Round 5 - James on BUG Reanimator 2-1
James was running a sweet build, that if I recall correctly, was Mono Black, but with Chain of Smog combo and Show and Tell in the sideboard. These were fun games. Ghost Vac OP.

Round 6 - Mark on Mystic Forge 2-0
Mystic Forge is the matchup I was most afraid of. Let’s be honest: they’re the better Ancient Tomb deck, by a lot. This was probably the luckiest I got on the weekend. At one point I had attacked my opponent down to 10 before they landed an Ensnaring Bridge. Fortunately, I untapped and cast two Shrapnel Blasts.

Round 7 - Giovanni on UB Reanimator 0-2
Ended up only going 4-3 vs Reanimator in the event because of games like this. Sometimes they’re just a turn faster.

Round 8 - Skyler on UB Reanimator 2-0
But sometimes I won the die roll.
It was really cool to make Day 2 of my first Eternal Weekend. I appreciate my team for their support.

Round 9 - JP on UB Reanimator 0-2
It is the best deck in the format, after all.

Round 10 - Hyun on UB Reanimator 0-2
On Sunday, I was a bit more jittery than the day before. I probably could’ve played these games better.

Round 11 - Alvin on NO Elves 2-0
Some version of Natural Order. Both games my opponent cast a mana dork on turn 1 and I cast a removal spell on turn 1. Bolt the Bird, as it were.

Round 12 - Jaeden on Mystic Forge 0-2
I was less lucky against Forge the second time around.

Round 13 - Ron on Breakfast 2-0
It might not seem intuitive, but Nadu variants are really favorable match ups.

Round 14 - TJ on Breakfast 2-1
In game 3, I got to live the dream of exiling my opponent’s Urza’s Saga with Haywire Mite.

Round 15 - Eric on Painter 0-2
My teammate Tyler and I had a flight out booked for Sunday afternoon. So I had a predicament. I could either drop to fly out after round 14, or stay for round 15, but I’d have to find another way home at the last minute. Huge shout out to my friend Claire who came in 29th place with Esper Dragons and came in clutch, giving me a lift. Unfortunately, I missed the flight for nothing, as I lost this Painter match in about 5 turns.

Going forward I wouldn't change much about the list. When Cori-Steel Cutter was printed, I thought it might be a 3- or 4-of, but it had underperformed so I cut down to one. I think it's time to cut the last one, and just play another Lightning Bolt.

In the end, I made a minimum cash at 115th, with a record of 9-6. This probably isn’t the sort of finish that warrants a tournament report, but then again, I wanted to encourage others to feel free to play their brews in Legacy. I truly think Legacy is still the most brew/rogue deck friendly format. Also I wanted to post on MTGTheSource for the first time in years. I was rocking a The Source playmat at the event, after all.

[PirateKing]

Excellent report!

I was also there representing with a Source playmat. Saw a few other mats (might have even been you lol), I even saw an OG with the card arts before the c&d letter from Hasbro.
Amazing run with a nifty brew, always a great reminder however "solved" people think this format is, you can still sit down day 2 and see this across from you and get bumped from prizes.

Thanks for the good read.

[ESG]

I was rocking a The Source playmat at the event, after all.

What a baller! Love to see this deck pop up again. I remember watching Anuraag Das pair into this deck on his stream a few years ago and get smooshed. That might have been CrusherBot doing the crushing.

[ntropy]

Round 15 - Eric on Painter 0-2
My teammate Tyler and I had a flight out booked for Sunday afternoon. So I had a predicament. I could either drop to fly out after round 14, or stay for round 15, but I’d have to find another way home at the last minute. Huge shout out to my friend Claire who came in 29th place with Esper Dragons and came in clutch, giving me a lift. Unfortunately, I missed the flight for nothing, as I lost this Painter match in about 5 turns.

For what it's worth, our flight from Pittsburgh to NYC was delayed by the weather at JFK to the extent that I missed the connector to Hartford and had to take a train/bus/rideshare combo to get home to MA, so the ride with Claire was likely less stressful....