With the 25th anniversary of Magic the Gathering coming up this year and accompanied multiple Team Trios Grand Prix there will be a bunch of people playing Legacy that likely have not played Legacy much or at all before.

For all of you and for those of you who just want to get into Magic’s grandest format without a restricted list I’d like to introduce you to some of the decks that let you play at the top while not knowing all the intricacies of the format that only comes with hundreds or thousands of games.

Playing Legacy can be a daunting proposition since the decision density is much higher then in other formats and starts on turn 1. Since a lot of spells in Legacy cost either 1 mana or can be cast for free it is common to have 10+ options on the first turn considering that with 《Wasteland》, Fetchlands and future cantrips the land sequencing is anything but trivial as well. There is some stigma attached to the format about being uninteractive turn 1 kills and the like, but in reality while turn 1 kills are possible they are usually very risky in the face of possible 《Force of Will》.

The most popular decks in Legacy are mostly very interaction heavy instead with Grixis Delver and Four Color Control being among the most played decks, followed by Miracles and different 《Leovold, Emissary of Trest》 shells. When games drag on and decision trees grow larger and more complex a player who doesn’t yet have the experience acquired over a long time can have trouble holding his own though.

So I will present 5 decks that I believe have a good shot of taking down a tournament while being relatively easy to learn in a short amount of time.

1. Turbo Depths

This is a deck all-in on the combo between 《Dark Depths》 and 《Thespian's Stage》 which became possible with the changes to the legend rule. When you copy 《Dark Depths》 with the 《Stage》 you get a second 《Dark Depths》 that didn’t come into play and therefore doesn’t have any ice counters. When you chose to keep that one to the legend rule you will get to sacrifice it to create a 20/20 indestructible flying creature at instant speed.

Between all the land searchers you have a lot of consistency as well as some bullet lands you can find with some more in the sideboard. 《Sylvan Safekeeper》 protects your 《Marit Lage》 from possible 《Swords to Plowshares》 or even 《Diabolic Edict》. 《Pithing Needle》 usually names 《Wasteland》 which is one of the premier ways to disrupt the combo for the opponent, since both combopieces are lands and therefore resilient to counterspells. 《Vampire Hexmage》 also combos with 《Dark Depths》 to make the token. 《Sejiri Steppe》 is a nice toolbox target for the land searchers to get through a flying blocker or, if you can use 《Crop Rotation》 in response, even counter a removal spell. The decks rounds out with some discard spells to punch a hole in the opponents defenses or slow down opposing combo decks.

A possible turn 1 20/20, but usually around turn 2 or 3 will just win a lot of games and this deck is incredibly consistent at doing just that with backup to boot. It is a very powerful strategy that has been gaining a lot of traction lately and is very hard to disrupt.

2. Sneak and Show

Sneak and Show has been a powerhouse of the format for a long time. There are different versions of this, some people like playing with 《Omniscience》, but I prefer to just perform your strategy as cleanly as possible. The plan is to cheat in one of the fatties with either 《Show and Tell》 or 《Sneak Attack》, hence the name. Usually having either in play will win the game. To set this up you have a lot of cantrips in 《Ponder》, 《Brainstorm》, 《Preordain》 and 《Gitaxian Probe》 as well as “Blue 《Demonic Tutor》“ in 《Intuition》. The rest of the deck is permission. Very straight forward, and very scary. The deck can easily show something large into play as early as turn 1 with counter backup.

Another strong aspect of this deck is the sideboard. A fast 《Blood Moon》 can be game over on its own in the right matchup. 《Pyroclasm》 is very strong and 《Boseiju, Who Shelters All》 might be the single best card against counterspell decks. Sequencing your cantrips is very important but you can usually ignore what your opponent does and just force through your own combo taking away some of the complexity.

I think this deck will be one of the more popular decks in the Trios events for these reasons and this is where 《Through the Breach》 comes in, since 《Show and Tell》 is a very dangerous card to play in the mirror. Whatever you end up playing, have a plan for this deck.

3. BR Reanimator

This deck also tries to cheat in a fatty as fast as possible. It trades some resilience in favor of more speed compared to Sneak and Show. That speed is impressive though. Revealing a turn 1 《Chancellor of the Annex》 to prevent 《Force of Will》 as well as having a large amount of discard which can in a pinch serve as a discard outlet as well to get one of your fatties in the graveyard. Once there you have 12 reanimation spells to get it into play and most of the time that will be good enough. Especially a turn 1 《Sire of Insanity》 just ends the game most of the time. While 《Deathrite Shaman》 is the most popular creature in Legacy it is usually to slow to stop this deck. The plan is very much to reanimate on turn 1, turn 2 at the latest if you have discard spells to buy a turn.

The Sideboard is full of anti-hate cards. Cards to stop the opposing sideboard cards, 《Crash》 and 《Abrupt Decay》 for 《Grafdigger's Cage》, 《Pithing Needle》 for 《Deathrite Shaman》 (as postboard games tend to slow down a little bit) and 《Reverent Silence》 for 《Leyline of the Void》. 《Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite》 and 《Iona, Shield of Emeria》 are bullets that just win the game on the spot in the right matchups (like Elves for the former and Storm for the latter).

This deck is basically the successor of 《Goblin Charbelcher》 decks of the past, since the speed is comparable while the resilience is higher as you can play more protection spells and have more redundancy. If you want a lot of time between rounds, this is your deck.

4. UR Delver

If you prefer playing regular creature magic and have some experience with this type of deck from Modern, this might be the deck for you. This is the most stream-lined of the many 《Delver of Secrets》 variants that run rampant in Modern. The big payoffs are 《Price of Progress》 and 《Bedlam Reveler》 both of which can just take the game, depending on the matchup.

You have a lot of removal and a lot of reach with some counterspells to slow down the combo decks. While the other 《Delver》 decks try to slow down the game with 《Wasteland》 and slowly chip away with 《Delver of Secrets》 this deck just goes for the throat letting you force your game more easily on your opponent. Most creatures in Legacy tend to either be very small or incredibly large so 《Lightning Bolt》 tends to kill almost everything in a pinch, although in UR delver doesn’t hesitate to point it directly at the opponent. With multiple Prowess threats with haste and multiple flyers you can get in a lot of unexpected damage and end games very fast compared to the other “fair” creature decks.

5. Infect

The last deck I will endorse for now is Infect. This is basically the high powered version of the deck that used to dominate Modern before the banning of 《Gitaxian Probe》. Legacy is less creature centric than Modern and therefore has less creature removal in general as well. Also 《Invigorate》 and 《Berserk》 are hugely powerful additions that the Modern deck didn’t have as well as the ubiquitous 《Brainstorm》《Force of Will》《Daze》 shell that most of the creature based tempo decks incorporate.

Infect is the fastest of the tempo style decks by a large margins with kills as early as turn 2. It sacrifices some interaction for this speed, but still has just enough to keep the combo decks in check for that one turn you are slower. If you acquired the skillset to play this deck in Modern you can port it very well into Legacy and it will serve you well. Most important for this deck in particular is knowing the current popular lists and the exact interaction they bring to the table so you don’t get blown out by a 《Diabolic Edict》 for example which has recently been gaining in popularity.

Conclusion

There are of course other decks in the format that might be well suited to a format novice, MUD comes to mind, or any of the 《Blood Moon》《Chalice of the Void》 variants, with or without 《Sneak Attack》, Eldrazi and many more. And while those decks can take a player to the top of a tournament I find they lack in consistency that will cost you during the course of a tournament. So if you are new to the format I would strongly suggest you take one of these decks for starters depending on your preference and skillset.

Consistency, power and interaction are the hallmarks of the Legacy format and most games will have both players exchanging resources starting on turn 1 in all the zones. Lands, aren’t safe, creature aren’t safe and neither are cards in hand or on the stack. You will have to fight tooth and nail on every axis, from every direction and never let your guard down for a second. It is, however, incredibly rewarding when you manage to wind your way through a tough game with myriads of decisions involved for both sides.

So if you have the chance to try this format out that showcases cards that are soon to be 25 years old, and still relevant today I strongly encourage you to do so.

Marc Tobiasch