Introduction

Pro Tour Minneapolis marked not only the 25th anniversary of the Pro Tour, but also the return of Legacy to the big stage of competitive Magic. Both my teammates were barely born 25 years ago, so logically they both looked in my direction when we were distributing the formats.

Digging deeper into Legacy made me really fall in love with the format. I feel it has that sweet spot of having a big enough variety of viable strategies, while having enough general answers, that each game will not feel like a pairing lottery where the matchup plays a major factor into deciding the final result.

The problem with Legacy is its high entry barrier due to the cost of some of the cards. If you are interested in expanding your Modern collection into Legacy (without the person who just gets 4 《Chain Lightning》 to their Modern burn deck), this article might be for you, take a look!

Start Online!

Image Copyright : Wizards of the Coast

Magic Online is on a difficult spot right now. I’ve seen people advocating that it will eventually die in very few years with the growth of MTG Arena, but I disagree. While I can see where this concern comes from, I also believe it is still a big enough source of revenue for WoTC so they are not likely to stop supporting it anytime soon.

I also think that it is still the best place to actively play eternal formats like Modern, Legacy and especially Vintage. The cards are super affordable and you have the Format Challenges every weekend that provide you a nice tournament experience on a regular basis. League games start at a reasonable pace and now you can even get to play on MOCS and Mythic Tabletop Championships by simply grinding these formats.

By playing online, you can get a feel on what the format looks like without spending too much money on it (ideally, even profiting from it!). You can trade a full deck from another at minimal cost and in a question of minutes you are ready to jump in another league. This way you will get an idea of what decks you like the most, which will be very important when it comes to spend big money on IRL Legacy goodies.

Get the Staple Commons and Uncommons

The core of the Legacy decks are usually not that expensive. It is the price of small part that usually makes the price prohibitive (read mana bases). Owning most of the deck makes it easier to switch from one deck to another without having to commit immensely to the big money cards. The Legacy community in general is super welcoming and will have your back if you need a card or two, but you should get to choose the art you want, and you can make sure that you don’t play with mismatched cards.

I was lucky enough to already own some nice-looking copies of most of these cards from my old extended collection, but with the release of new sets like the Masters editions, Commander, Battlebond and Conspiracy as well as some theme decks, all these cards became so cheap that you really have no reason to not have a playset on your brand new Legacy binder. I will go ahead and use the somehow polemic #sponsored to tell you that Hareruya has some Legacy sales quite often and you can take those opportunities to get some bargains.

This is a list that I think you should definitely have. If I forgot any and it’s cheap, you probably should get it too.

White

Blue

Black

Red

Others (Multicolored, Artifact)

Get 《Force of Will》 and 《Wasteland》 (and Probably a Couple of 《Flusterstorm》)

Go ahead and check the Top 8 of the last Legacy Challenge. I guarantee you that whenever you read this, at least 5 of the 8 decks will run either one or both cards.

These 2 (or 8) were the first “big” investments I made. I traded some extra copies of 《Snapcaster Mage》 I had laying around and I don’t regret one bit. These cards are always useful to have and trust me, even with the best network, you will be having problems finding these when a big tournament comes around.

Now that you are already spending some money on 《Force of Will》, get also 2 copies of 《Flusterstorm》. Likely, if your deck plays 《Island》 it will run a couple of those on the sideboard. Its effect is pretty unique and with the reprint in Iconic Masters, its price became pretty affordable.

《Force of Will》 and 《Wasteland》 are also such staples that it is not likely that its price changes much even with a reprint in new sets.

Get Those Reprints!

This will not be as easy (read cheap) as getting all the commons and uncommons and will not be as “safe” as the 《Force of Will》 and 《Wasteland》, so it will require you to have already some idea of what path you are going to take as a Legacy player.

Either way, the Masters sets provided the market with many Legacy staple rares that are now pretty affordable. A good example of this is my favorite deck, Death and Taxes. While its core has more rares than the regular blue control or tempo decks, the reprints of 《Rishadan Port》 and 《Karakas》 made all the cards of the deck very affordable and step by step, without any big investment, you will find yourself with a Tier 1 Legacy deck.

Spending Big Money

Now, this part involves a little more commitment, because you will be spending much more money per card than what you are used to in other formats. The good news is that because these cards are on the reserved list (in case you don’t know, a card on the reserved list cannot be reprinted in future sets) and such Legacy stables, its price will most likely increase in time, so it will end up being a nice small investment rather than a liability.

Ideally you will want to aim for at least 2 copies of each blue dual land and a single copy of all the others. The combination of dual lands, fetch lands and basic lands can most of the time be adjusted to a bare minimum of dual lands needed to make the deck work.

Cards like 《City of Traitors》, 《Gaea’s Cradle》 and 《Lion’s Eye Diamond》(LED) are also reserved listed, which makes the investment on those a pretty safe choice as well. The difference from those to the dual lands is that you will be investing big money in a much smaller group of decks. 《Lion’s Eye Diamond》 for example, it plays a big role in Storm, but not much else. Therefore, make sure you are really committed to that deck before spending your resources there, while getting some dual lands could give you much more flexibility to switch between decks in the future.

Also, while dual lands are not going to be banned, fast mana may be. The cards themselves won’t lose much value due to the reserved list, but you might need to find another deck.

My Decks

Right now I have sleeved Death and Taxes, Death’s Shadow and Reanimator, but because I focused more on getting the core of the blue decks, I am able to build decks like Miracles, Grixis Delver, Stone Blade or the brand new 《Buried Alive》+《Arclight Phoenix》 deck within a reasonable amount of cards missing that I can easily borrow from a friend, or simply just proxy if the tournament allows.

Conclusion

Legacy is super fun and I totally recommend you give it a try. Each decision you make plays an important role on the outcome of the game. The strategies are diverse, but the solutions and responses are good and adequate.

Magic Online is a very good place to play Legacy. The cards are very cheap and you can find good tournaments all the time.

The entry barrier is high, but if managed correctly, it can be dealt like the other formats. The more expensive cards that are reserved listed can be seen as nice investment, because its price will likely increase, as long as you don’t let Marcio Carvalho shuffle them 🙂

Goncalo Pinto @u_mad_bro_mtgo on Twitter