My Very First Legacy Experience

I’ve never been a fan of legacy as a Magic: the Gathering format. To be completely honest, I never played it and I knew very little about it. All i knew was the fact that it was second oldest format, with almost all of the cards allowed in deckbuilding (except this banned list).

Couple of weeks ago Legacy tournament was held in our local gaming store. I was present but didn’t intend to play. Suddenly, there was a deck available with no pilots ready to navigate it. They asked me if I wanted to play. I pondered a bit and decided to give it a shot. Sure – I didn’t knew anything about the format and I considered myself an easy prey for our local legacy players, but my general love for the game and ever-readiness to play a game of Magic whenever, wherever helped me to sign up for this tournament.

My weapon of choice for this occasion? Merfolks!

We wrote about this deck 2 times in the past here and here and with reason – this deck is very, very powerful. This is the faeries deck in legacy. THE very best aggro control you can find throughout Magic: The Gathering history. All you need is an Eather Vial + free counterspells and you’re ready to go. And by “go” i mean “destroy them mercilessly”. I played first version of it (with small exception I didn’t play Standstill; sometimes it’s too clumsy in this deck, often you need to hardcast your fish people).

I sifted through the deck, tried to grasp all interactions available, read some cards multiple times, all in all I tried to get acquainted with the deck I’ve never played in my life in the format I’ve also never ever played before. Tough task.

I sit down against my first round opponent and then pure magic starts to happen. It was like cards were playing themselves: Aether Vial turn 1, Daze your early threat, Force of will big spell and Mental Misstep crucial Crop Rotation while beating you into a pulp with merfolks. It showed me it’s power right out of the gates.

Round 2 I play against TEPS combo. Curscecatcher, Cursecatcher, hit you, go, hit you, go. When he tried to combo out I had just the right amount of counterspells between cards in my hand and on my side of the battlefield to stop him right in his tracks.

My next round was the deciding one. I’m going to win some prizes or I’m going home empty handed. And I’m playing against fellow control player with U/W Stoneforge Mystic control, one of the most popular legacy decks. My main advantage is overwhelming ground forces which, if I can cover them with counterspells, can easily win me the game. That was just the case: Eather Vial on turn one, and some Mutavaults in play allowed me to never tap out again. Lord of Atlantis + opponents islands was the winning combination as well.

After this win I was through to the semi-finals where we split the prizes with every player winning one Wasteland.

This experience was magnificent! Winning prizes is nice and all, but Legacy was such an amazing and interesting format to play I kept wondering how come I didn’t play it before. There are bunch of different decks, different strategies, equally distributed aggro, control and combo tactics; interactions, synergies and fun times for everyone and all!

I can not finish this article without saying that this could easily be Magic’s healthiest format right now. With Standard still shaken from first bannings after many years, Modern whose banned list grow longer and longer every day, and extended which no one plays anymore, Legacy is Magic’s brightest light and greenest meadow.

Until next time!

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