Legacy: Post-Banlist Review

Greetings, Legacy community! The latest bans are here, and the meta is on fire! Straightaway, we can tell that many players who had left this format aside, frustrated by the meta, have since returned, considering tabletop tournaments and Magic Online tournaments are a lot bigger now.

The other thing that happened is that the last bans have thrown this format into chaos because of the power vacuum they created. This first week without Entomb and Nadu, Winged Wisdom was full of new things and culminated with a Magic Online Showcase, a tournament with 289 players. Because of this tournament, we can now get a good grasp on the new meta.

The first thing we mentioned when we got the banlist was that 3 decks would come out on top and ahead of the others: Forge, Sneak n' Show, and Izzet Tempo.

The fear/respect inspired by Forge forced the meta to answer accordingly. Soon, lots of Null Rod and Consign to Memory flooded the format, and Forge was barred from the title of "best deck in the format", but it is still quite relevant. If at any point we let our guard down and let go of our protection against artifacts, it will be there, waiting.

Our other 2 predictions have just come true. Izzet Tempo is, a week after the bans, the main deck in the format.

Players are still debating what is the best way to build it, particularly regarding Delver of Secrets, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, and Cori-Steel Cutter. Around 40% of the lists with Cori don't use Delver, and around 15% of the lists use all three of these cards. One of the problems of playing Delver and Cori in the same deck is that your odds of blindly transforming Delver are smaller. After all, this way you'll play more artifacts that don't transform our Wizard into an Insect. As for Tamiyo, she is a bit more value-focused than tempo-focused, and many players don't believe this is the best way to build this archetype. But we can't deny that our dear creature/planeswalker is still one of the most powerful cards in Legacy. Nothing is set in stone yet, and no one knows for sure what the best build is.

As for Show and Tell, it was popular in both Sneak n' Show and Simic Omni-Tell, which plays this sorcery to cheat Omniscience into play. According to the most recent data, the version with green has performed the best in these confusing times.

But those aren't the only decks thriving right now. According to the data we have, after Izzet and Omni-Tell, the most popular decks are Oops All Spells, Dimir Tempo, and Eldrazi. Oops certainly saw its opportunity when the main deck with Thoughtseize and Force of Will stopped dominating the format, though it doesn't coast by against Izzet. Dimir Tempo inherited the Reanimator base but doesn't play "Atraxa on turn 2". Eldrazi grew with strings attached: it does great against Izzet, but it would rather not face Show and Tell.

And these are only the most popular lists.

So, right now, these are the most popular decks in the format, based on data from the main stats websites:

Izzet Tempo – 12%

Show and Tell (Sneak e Omni) – 10%

Oops All Spells – 5%

Dimir Tempo – 4.5%

Eldrazi – 4.5%

Mardu – 4%

Forge – 4%

Blue Post – 3%

Doomsday – 3%

Golgari Pox – 2.5%

Red Stompy – 2.5%

Lands – 2%

Grixis Tempo – 2%

Beanstalk Control – 1.5%

Jeskai Control – 1.5%

Cephalid Breakfast – 1.5%

Others – 36.5%

Look at these numbers. The 16 most popular decks in the format are roughly 63% of the format. At the Eternal Weekend, that is, before the latest bans, the top 16 most popular decks represented 72% of the format, and 4 archetypes dominated 40% of a tournament with almost a thousand players.

We have a lot of space to test out a lot of stuff, even decks that were affected by the latest bans. Some players are trying to make some versions of Reanimator work, while Cephalid Breakfast lost Nadu and returned to Stoneforge Mystic. Nadu midrange died slowly and painfully, but Cradle Control is still using lots of the same cards.

In the middle of all of this, we also welcomed Avatar: The Last Airbender, which already put a few cards on our radar: Meteor Sword is already seeing play with Stoneforge Mystic and Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd, Wan Shi Tong, Librarian has already popped up in a few control lists, and Badgermole Cub has been seen in Gaea's Cradle lists.

So, to truly understand what is going on, let's go through a few lists. I'll add below the lists from the latest Showcase Challenge, the most important tournament in Magic Online. Nearly 300 players competed at this event, so it's a good way to see what we can expect for the next few days:

Winner

The big winner brought the most popular archetype. Player "416FrowningTable" decided to give up Cori-Steel Cutter to play more aggressively. A card that has shown up in Izzet lists and popped up here too is Unable to Scream, a cheap answer against big, problematic creatures.

Runner-Up

If you thought Forge was dead, then think again. Player "kasa" brought the scariest deck post-bans all the way to the finals. This is the standard list, no secrets to it. Some players have been using Dusk Rose Reliquary as an answer they can tutor with Tezzeret, Cruel Captain to deal with the creatures in Show and Tell.

Top 4

The first deck in this Top 4 is the scary Oops, piloted by Marxelo. The main difference in the main deck is the Lively Dirge duo, which, for 6 mana, can be an extra Balustrade Spy. This sideboard, however, is super interesting. It essentially turns this deck into a monoblack aggro that can even play Initiative!

The second list in the Top 4 is Izzet Tempo with 4 Cori-Steel Cutter, but it still plays a pair of Delver of Secrets and a sneaky copy of Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student.

Top 8

Control is dead, long live control. Piloted by claudioh, here's a Bant Beanstalk Control. We can highlight the 4 copies of Quantum Riddler and the 3 Consign to Memory in the main deck.

Consign is, traditionally, a sideboard card, but it can target a lot more than just colorless decks, like Thassa's Oracle's ability or even Quantum Riddler's Warp, which it can counter.

Zodiacek brought Show and Tell, more particularly the Simic Omni-Tell version. It plays 4 Omniscience, which basically end the game if Show and Tell resolves.

Comrade1312 also brought Oops to this Top 8. This sideboard plays around what the opponent brings against you instead of turning this into another deck entirely, but it also brings one copy of Goblin Charbelcher, just in case.

The final list in this Top 8 is the deck that can't die! Player burrarun reanimated Reanimator and brought a very unusual list with the same tempo elements as pre-ban lists. Because Entomb is gone, they decided to play more "reanimatable" creatures, Tainted Indulgence as an way to put them in the graveyard instantly, and Abhorrent Oculus as an alternative game plan.

Bigger than any release this way, the November banlist update breathed some new life into Legacy. The format is on fire, and every day new lists show up, trying to break the meta.

Some decks lost space, like Red Stompy, for instance, and are waiting for a few other archetypes to show up to beat Izzet, like Lands, so that the rock-paper-scissors dynamic is complete and they can finally attack.

Personally, I'm still trying to find my place, but I am thoroughly enjoying watching the transformations.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!