Legacy: No Changes in the Format - What Does This Mean?

Hello, beloved Legacy fans! According to Wikipedia, "Pax Romana (Latin for "Roman peace") was a roughly 200-year-long timespan of Roman history which is identified as a period and golden age of increased and sustained Roman imperialism, relative peace and order, prosperous stability, hegemonic power, and regional expansion".

Well, this week bans (and unbans!) were announced for Modern and Pioneer, but, for Legacy, there was only one message: "No Changes". I hereby decree the Pax Legatum!

Legacy, as it's expected of a format with the power level it has, goes through rough times quite frequently. For years and years, the standard was having (add here a combination of colors – Temur, Sultai, Jeskai, Izzet) Delver on top as the isolated Tier S leader, with broken decks eventually rising and having their key-cards banned. However, the gravity center around which this format orbited was the nucleus of Force of Will, Brainstorm, Ponder, Lightning Bolt, Wasteland and Daze. Several bans hit this deck without ever coming close to pushing it down from its throne.

All this changed when the Initiative Nation attacked. The arrival of White Plume Adventurer & company was the first real threat to this king's dominance in Legacy, and a vastly diverse format started to converge in a metagame with 2 archetypes. The March 2023 bans - Expressive Iteration and White Plume Adventurer - finally broke Legacy apart, and this format came out of this ordeal without a clear and dominant leader on top.

The arrival of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth created numerous concerns, because the most hyped-up card for this format delivered everything it promised to: Orcish Bowmasters.

This card came and soon established itself as one of the most influential cards in the meta, and also pushed a few popular decks to the side, such as Death & Taxes and Elves. There was a certain concern that it could break this format's fragile balance, but what happened instead is that, even though they are powerful, these Orcs were just one of the various strong cards this set brought. This card helped establish a new power equilibrium, with Troll of Khazad-dûm, The One Ring and Forth Eorlingas! standing out.

Wilds of Eldraine came along, and, with it, three new active members arrived to this format: Up the Beanstalk, Questing Druid and Beseech the Mirror. This Beanstalk showed its face in a handful of archetypes, but the most important ones were various versions of Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath decks, fulfiling the Wizards prophecy that Leyline Binding would one day be a relevant card in Legacy. As for the Druid, it filled the space left by the Expressive Iteration ban, bringing Temur Aggro (Canadian Threshold) decks back to the top of the meta, be it in versions with the good old Delver of Secrets, and more Midrange lists, also using Up the Beanstalk. Finally, consulting the Mirror served to bring Storm decks back into vogue, in addition to boosting monoblacks based on the Leyline of the Void and Helm of Obedience combo.

Lost Caverns of Ixalan had a smaller impact in Legacy, but, even then, it was useful to put two traditional archetypes (which were rapidly decreasing in popularity) back on the radar: Broadside Bombardiers has already become a fundamental piece in Red Prison (Moon Stompy), and brought a new version of the Goblins deck, fueled by _____ Goblin and Muxus, Goblin Grandee, back into the spotlight.

And, in the middle of all that, this format remains varied, and no deck can say with certainty that it is its absolute leader. Just look at the Eternal Weekend Europe 2023, played by 713 players: 22 archetypes had more than 1.25% presence, but none was above 8%, and there were 7 archetypes in top 8 (and even the repeated decks were variations with and without Delver in Temur Aggro).

Recently, a meme about being an indecisive player facing what to use at the Eternal Weekend (America) went viral - "Legacy Problem: picking a deck, considering everything works. Vintage problem: picking a deck, because nothing works". Jokes aside, I confess it has been a long time I've seen a format with space for almost everything. Indeed, a few traditional decks have lost some space, but most decks (even the ones way below at the bottom of Tier D) are competitive, and on a good day can win any tournament.

Unlike other formats that are more recent (yes, I'm calling Modern recent!), Wizards tends to interfere with Legacy less, usually only taking action when the problem is almost unmanageable. Cards such as Wrenn and Six, Arcum's Astrolabe and Oko, Thief of Crowns were able to run wild (for too long) until they were pushed out of circulation. However, ever since the last round of bans in March, Wizard's understanding is that not only has this format gone down the path they want it to, but it could even absorb a card that was banned ever since Legacy was born being unbanned: Mind's Desire.

There have been many whispers online saying that Orcish Bowmasters is under scrutiny due to its impact in this format, but, ever since the release of Wilds of Eldraine, even this card's presence went down slightly. Blue Tempo decks are divided between Temur and Grixis; Death's Shadow and Dimir Scam lost a bit of space, and even 4 or 5-color Control lists no longer use this card unanimously - we can find lists with Forth Eorlingas!, with Orcish Bowmasters, with The One Ring and lists with all of these mixed up. It is a fact these Orcs are the most relevant card released in 2023 for this format, but, by far, it doesn't dominate Legacy as other cards that are banned have, such as White Plume Adventurer, Flash, Survival of the Fittest or Lurrus of the Dream-Den.

Therefore, I believe it was no surprise when Wizards announced they decided not to make any changes this time. But this doesn't mean there aren't yellow flags we should keep an eye out for in the future that might bring considerable consequences. Particularly as Modern Horizons 3 is predicted to be released in 2024, and this is a set that can break this format, be it because of its absurd cards, or new interactions.

So, at this moment, the cards I believe can be monitored, besides the Orcs themselves, are: Reanimate, Dragon's Rage Channeler, Murktide Regent and Thassa's Oracle.

The black spell gained some traction when Troll of Khazad-dûm came along, and is no longer a tool only for Reanimators. It also brought Modern's "Scam" to Legacy, enabling devastating openings with the Troll or with Grief.

Dragon's Rage Channeler stole Delver of Secrets' spot as the best aggressive 1-drop in this format, and can be considered in case Temur/Grixis goes out of control. Murktide Regent would be the second card to consider in this situation, as it was considered when Expressive Iteration ended up being cut.

Thassa's Oracle is a card that, for me, will always be alarming as long as it is legal, because it overly simplifies the way through various Combo decks - Oops, Doomsday, Cephalid - get their victories, freeing up space for these decks to dedicate themselves to protecting their combo and/or finding their key-pieces. For now, it hasn't gone out of control, but this Merfolk is always on the verge of being broken.

We are living through an unusual peaceful period in Legacy, considering it persisted through the last 4 big releases (March of the Machine, Lord of the Rings, Wilds of Eldraine and Lost Caverns of Ixalan). For now, we can only speculate about future changes, and, as usual, a fraction (which I see as minimal right now) of players believe this format needs external intervention immediately.

It is my understanding that Legacy's metagame has been able to self-adjust to the changes created by the latest sets. As this always happens naturally, I don't see the need for Wizards to interfere in the matter. I think the important thing to do right now is just to enjoy this moment and play what you like, because there is a good chance you'll be successful with it!

Cheers and see you next time!