Spoiler Highlight: Electro, Assaulting Battery in Legacy

There's a spark in the air, dear Legacy community! As we move on with the Spider-Man spoiler season, get ready to get shocked: Electro, Assaulting Battery is, all at once, both a combo engine and a finisher.

Let's take a look at what he can offer us, Legacy players!

Legacy is home to multiple combo decks. Some might even say there are too many of them around! But some of them are also very different from one another.

There are decks that benefit from certain interactions that eventually win the game, though not on the spot (like Reanimator and Sneak and Show). Then, decks built entirely around a certain interaction and winning the game on the spot or the next turn (we can list here Oops All Spells, Cephalid Breakfast, and Doomsday). Finally, engine decks, that is, decks that constantly get cards and mana and win in different ways every time (you know you'll probably find your win condition along the way, but how exactly you'll do it is not set in stone, like simply milling your entire deck and bringing back Thassa's Oracle) - decks like Storm, High Tide, and Forge fit this definition.

When you build this last type of deck, you need to pick your options carefully. You'll need cards to make your engine work, like mana acceleration, card draw, and tutors, and win conditions.

Usually, you would rather not draw cards that end the game early on as you play your combo because they can significantly disrupt your flow or acceleration. For instance, if you need to create mana, the card you don't want most when you play Ponder is Tendrils of Agony. But if you don't play enough win conditions, you'll be more vulnerable to enemy disruption.

But what if your engine and finisher were a single card?

Red combo decks that create mana with cards like Ruby Medallion and Ral, Monsoon Mage, and then play a series of spells to create a truckload of mana have existed for a while. However, even these decks need cards like Wish or Burning Wish to find ways to actually win the game.

These cards might be incredibly versatile, but drawing more than one of them early on could disrupt you considerably as you play your combo. Particularly in a deck that needs practically each card in your hand. Being delayed by one turn could be the difference between winning and losing.

That's where our villain comes along! Electro, Assaulting Battery is similar to Ral because he gives you 1 mana whenever you play an instant or sorcery, but he costs one more mana, which can be an issue. However, once Electro is in play, your Rite of Flame (which doesn't benefit from Ruby Medallion and Ral, Monsoon Mage) and Manamorphose will create a truckload of mana. In turn, this will allow you to get more cards to find more mana and... Okay. You'll have a ton of mana, but you'll still need to kill your opponent eventually.

That's where our villain comes along! If you play a second Electro, Assaulting Battery, one of them will die because of the legendary rule, and his last ability will trigger. This way, you'll be able to throw all the mana you hoarded at your poor opponent's face and kill them.

Another great thing about Electro is that your list can always "fail" as you play the combo, and you might just be forced to pass your turn to try to find more resources in the next one. However, with Electro, all the mana you hoarded won't go to waste. You can simply save it for your next attempt, possibly on the next turn. And, if your opponent finds a way to kill you before you get to the next turn, his last ability is an out. With it, you can spend all that excess mana so that, at the very least, once you try to play your combo again, you'll need less resources to kill the opponent.

Straight away, I can see Electro finding space in Ruby Storm, which has been trying to come to Legacy from Modern. In our format, it is, somewhat, a budget list. Ancient Tomb is probably the most expensive card to get, but you can consider it an investment if you have just begun playing, considering it sees play in many lists.

Someone who is just trying their hand at Legacy and doesn't want to commit to the format entirely could just use Crystal Vein in its place and still have fun. The list will be less effective, though.

From the way I see it, Electro would replace the entire Wish / Burning Wish kit in this list, which means you could focus more on answering any issues Legacy can throw at you in your sideboard. As all the Rituals would be in the main deck, it would also be more redundant.

The goal behind this strategy is simple: stick one of your accelerators to the board (like Ral, Medallion, or Electro), play mana spells, and eventually resolve a Bonus Round to really get going. Then, get enough mana to play an Electro (or 2, if you don't have any in play yet) and use all this mana to deal 20 or more damage to your opponent.

This type of deck is often called a glass cannon: it can deal a lot of damage, but it is also very vulnerable. Legacy is home to a decent number of these decks, but I believe this new card could be enticing enough to make "mad scientist" players who enjoy testing out new things come out of their holes.

I confess I'm a bit surprised by the quality of the Spider-Man spoilers, at least so far. Whereas Final Fantasy was a bit limited when it came to Legacy, Spider-Man apparently has a lot of interesting things we can take advantage of (even in Vintage!). Electro, for instance, stood out to me instantly because it is the type of card that makes combo players quite excited.

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

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!