Legacy Deck Tech - Yorion Esper Vial: 80-Card Toolbox!

Hello, Legacy folks, happy new year to you all! Let's start our 2024 by analyzing a deck that brings a new makeup to one of the most traditional cards in Legacy: Aether Vial.

The list presented today, which got top 4 in a Magic Online Super Qualifier on December 28th, is Yorion Esper Vial, a deck that seems to be the love child between Death & Taxes and Esper Humans. It lets go of the former's Prison elements (Rishadan Port, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben) and the latter's tribal synergy abusing Cavern of Souls to gain flexibility and use both Orcish Bowmasters and a true toolbox upheld by Recruiter of the Guard. However, there are still enough blue cards to bank Force of Will.

This deck is basically made of an Aether Vial and Recruiter of the Guard core, the best blue, white and black cards available in the market - Brainstorm, Force of Will, Swords to Plowshares and Orcish Bowmasters, and as many options for any situation (tutorable through Recruiter of the Guard) as you can possibly add to an 80-card deck!

The list presented brings most of this archetype's common cards, but it is also quite common to find in these lists cards like Extraction Specialist, Fblthp, the Lost, Flickerwisp, Geist of Saint Traft, Hullbreacher, Palace Jailer, Passageway Seer and Spellseeker.

A notable card in this list is Gilded Drake, an answer to monsters coming from the graveyard, through Show and Tell, Dark Depths and even simply Murktide Regent. It is important to note that this deck has many ways of reusing this Drake, be it by returning it to your hand or just blinking (exiling and returning) it.

Finally, this deck has many triggered abilities to create a lot of value from the card which is the reason this deck has 80 cards: Yorion, Sky Nomad.

With 80 cards in total and 34 different cards in this list, you'll rarely see hands that look alike with this deck, so it is critical to understand which type of path the hand offered to you points to, and if that option is adequate.

Is it a hand to focus on Aether Vial? Is it more of a control hand, with counters and removals? Is it a hand that curves creatures and finished the game by creating extra value with Yorion, Sky Nomad? Or is it a mixture of all of this, but an incoherent mixture? Let's see some options.

Starting hands:

This hand is fantastic: you have Vial, Brainstorm with a Fetch Land to go after fuel for your artifact, and Skyclave Apparition and Force of Will to deal with issues. Verdict: Easy keep.

Now, this hand is riskier because the mana isn't as stable, but we can use Wasteland as a mana source if that's the case. Verdict: Risky keep, Brainstorm will need to work for it!

This is hand is a "trap". It seems interesting because it has plays on turn 1 and mana to play the rest. But it is too slow and doesn't play anything relevant on turn 2. It's best to find something more proactive. Verdict: Mulligan that looks like a keep.

When I mentioned paths, I meant cases like this hand, which screams "control". It is slow, but Brainstorm can correct any mistakes and 2 Force of Will can avoid disasters. If you know what your opponent is playing, it is easier to decide if you keep it or return it, but, in a vacuum, it is quite a risky hand that I, personally, tend to keep. Verdict: Very risky keep.

In a Yorion deck, the cards in the sideboard tend to be less efficient because they will be diluted into 20 extra cards. Therefore, ideally, they'll either add redundancy to effects that you already have in the main deck, or be "Silver Bullets" - cards that resolve specific things and can be tutored, in this case, by Recruiter of the Guard.

Like so, we have Force of Negation to reinforce the Force of Will and Prismatic Ending kit, and Plague Engineer to play alongside Swords to Plowshares.

Lavinia, Azorius Renegade, Opposition Agent and Meddling Mage are useful to play against Combo decks.

Other common options for the sideboard are Containment Priest, Deafening Silence, Loran of the Third Path, Sheoldred’s Edict, Spell Pierce and Thoughtseize.

Grixis / Temur / 4C Delver

Aether Vial is the most important card in this matchup because it not only ignores Daze and Force of Will, but also allows you to play even if your mana base is attacked by Wasteland. Gilded Drake is your best answer against Murktide Regent and Plague Engineer naming Humans kills both Delver of Secrets' front side and a Dragon's Rage Channeler without Delirium. Post-side, the inefficient Force of Wills come out to open up space for more useful cards.

In:

Out:

Reanimator

You're practically already all set against them due to the presence of Gilded Drake in the main deck, besides several Exile effects or effects that return creatures to the hand. Many of your creatures that are tutorable through Recruiter of the Guard aren't centered around this opponent and come out so your answers can come in.

In:

Out:

Boros Initiative

They have Cavern of Souls and, even with Wasteland, your counters will hardly hit what you want to hit. Orcish Bowmasters and Baleful Strix offer ways to contest Initiative. Post-side, Magus of the Moon is a terrible threat, specially if it is uncounterable - Aether Vial might have to work double time in this match. Gilded Drake doesn't have good targets, and that's why some of them will be benched.

In:

Out:

Uro Control

This is another deck that heavily struggles against Aether Vial, even though they can access Prismatic Ending to deal with your artifact. A good portion of the removals in your main deck aren't very useful and, in Solitude's case, are quite inefficient. For this reason, these cards open up space in the games with a sideboard for cards that, even though they won't target this opponent specifically, might be useful.

In:

Out:

Dimir Shadow / Dimir Scam

The greatest danger in this matchup is your hand being demolished by Grief and not having any answers for a fast Troll of Khazad-dûm, but fortunately this deck has several ways of dealing with it. Wasteland and Daze are a problem in games in which Aether Vial doesn't show up. Against lists with Death's Shadow, you can remove more Force of Wills to add more Prismatic Ending.

In:

Out:

Due to the decline of Death & Taxes, Goblins migrating to the Stompy version, and Merfolks, Humans and Slivers disappearing from the map, this deck has stood its ground as one of the best options to abuse Aether Vial in this format. It is still a terrible card for blue decks.

See you next time!