Legacy: December Banlist Review

Legacy:

Psychic Frog is banned.

Vexing Bauble is banned.

Nadu, Winged Wisdom is not banned.

This is what we woke up to today, dear Legacy friends! Wizards of the Coast updated their banlist once again (Modern, in particular, got a lot of changes!), and, though it wasn't as bad as I expected - I thought they'd only ban Psychic Frog - it was a bit bittersweet. After all, the next few months will most likely only center around a certain problematic bird, and nothing else.

Let's try to understand what led us to this intervention.

Dimir Reanimator has been the strongest deck in Legacy since the beginning of the year, and it only got stronger after Psychic Frog came along. In August, Wizards of the Coast thought banning Grief was enough to deal with this deck, but today we know they missed their mark. Psychic Frog not only helped this deck stay at the top, but also made Dimir Aggro tier 1 and destroyed all other Tempo Blue versions. Grixis still saw some play, but Temur completely disappeared. Even more surprisingly, Psychic Frog started to show up in decks that never played creatures before, like Doomsday and 4-Color Control.

Meanwhile, Vexing Bauble became popular in Red Prison as an alternative to Chalice of the Void. These two lock pieces prevent your opponent from interacting with you in certain ways, but, unlike Chalice, you can use Vexing Bauble with Pyroblast / Red Elemental Blast, which were essential to deal with Psychic Frog. If this were all, Vexing Bauble would simply be a nuisance. However, it then started showing up in Combo decks, like Painter and Forge, as a way to prevent your opponent from interacting with you, considering most counterspells in Legacy cost 0 mana. Forge, in particular, stole the spotlight after the North American Eternal Weekend.

Finally, after causing trouble in Modern and Commander, where it was banned, Nadu, Winged Wisdom, which has been declared a design mistake by WotC, also started to make some noise in Legacy. In particular, Nadu Elves and Cephalid Breakfast started performing really well, and Cephalid Breakfast even won the Europe Eternal Weekend. The greatest issue with this card is that, besides its high power-level (which is actually not that distant from what you usually find in Legacy), it creates game patterns that don't align with WotC's goals. They don't want one-sided matches becoming the norm, and they also don't want to see so many triggered abilities in every match.

So, after the banlist was set for December 16th, the community anxiously waited.

Considering how relevant this card has been in the meta, and how similar creatures have been banned in the past (Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Dreadhorde Arcanist), the future of this problematic Frog seemed sealed before the banlist even came out.

It does a lot, all at the same time, and for very little mana. It pays for Force of Will's alternative costs, and also paid for Grief's alternative cost when it hadn't been banned yet. It is partially immune to damage-based removal. It has evasion, and enabling it isn't hard. It can put big cards in the graveyard so you can reanimate them later. It draws cards constantly in decks that usually don't create card advantage (Expressive Iteration was banned for that reason), and can end the game at once if you discard enough cards. Have you seen what happens when a Frog and a Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar are on the board?

There was no way it would survive this banlist. And it didn't.

Back in the day, Bauble was leaked before it was officially confirmed and, until we were certain it was actually coming, I wanted it to be fake. Its effect was simply too strong. When I first reviewed MH3, I said, "Vexing Bauble is set to be the most impactful card from Modern Horizons 3 in Legacy. It simply destroys one of the most important strategies in this format, namely 0-cost cards or cards with alternative costs (...). The fact it is an artifact means you can basically play it in any deck, and makes Play/Draw even more relevant than it is. After all, if you start playing, you'll be able to play 0-cost cards on turn 1 before you can deny your opponent this opportunity. (...) If I had to bet which card from this set will be banned, I'd bet on Vexing Bauble."

WotC's explanation for banning Vexing Bauble was that many decks that were performing really well were using it instead of using one of the main pillars in the game. Furthermore, you can also replace Bauble when it is no longer useful, which is just the icing on the cake.

Just like in Modern and Commander, where it was banned, Nadu started causing problems in Legacy. You don't need to be a genius to see that, after Psychic Frog leaves this format, there will be a power vacuum. And Nadu decks will be lurking around the corner, just waiting for the opportunity to take Legacy hostage. Everyone knew this. And, according to the latest banlist itself, Wizards of the Coast also knew this.

Still, they decided, this time, to not do anything about Nadu, which is just like when they didn't ban Psychic Frog with Grief, even down to the way they worded both announcements. According to them, "The recent success of Nadu variants, Cephalid Breakfast and Bant Green Sun's Zenith decks, has us keeping a close eye on Nadu, Winged Wisdom. For now, we believe today's changes should navigate the format into a more diverse and healthy position."

This didn't work for the Frog, and, honestly, I don't think it will work for Nadu.

Obviously, the greatest winners this time were Nadu decks, which, just like Neo in The Matrix, dodged several bullets at once. However, besides them (which will now have to accept they're targets and deal with it), decks like Red Prison, even without Bauble, and Eldrazi Aggro will probably be stronger. They already performed well against Nadu decks, but struggled against Psychic Frog, so they should be better now.

Prison should return to its roots, namely, Chalice of the Void, which cuts access to a fundamental part of the Nadu combo - Nomads En-Kor and Shuko. Furthermore, Fury is deadly against the Elves version.

Doomsday and Sneak and Show, on the other side, will also benefit from Reanimator's downfall and the rise of good matchups like Prison and Eldrazi.

Reanimator and Forge are still very powerful combos, and their original game plan remains unchanged, as its pieces were not banned. However, its defenses and escape routes will be much more vulnerable now. They should still be very relevant in this format.

Decks that play direct answers to Nadu's combo in their main deck, like Urza's Saga, which can get Pithing Needle, may gain more space. Blasts, despite now being less relevant because you don't have to deal with Psychic Frog anymore, are still an efficient answer against Nadu. Otherwise, you can expect the meta to take a while to settle and give us a sample of what the next few weeks will look like.

This is the end of our review - I'm still pumped with adrenaline after reading the new banlist, in fact. As someone who enjoys analyzing the whole format as a whole, this update could have been better, but it also could have been worse. I really thought they'd just ban Psychic Frog and leave us to deal with Forge/Nadu.

We'll still have to deal with Nadu for a few months until it becomes the memory of a card that should have never seen the light of day, as well as a lesson about designing cards in a time crunch. Apparently, they didn't learn much from Skullclamp, another card designed in a hurry that caused destruction wherever it went.

That being said, welcome to the new Legacy format! The King (Frog) is dead, long live the King (Bird)!

What did you think of these bans? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!