This week’s StarCityGames Open stopped by Providence, Rhode Island this past weekend and with it, a host of old decks with new cards. Let’s take a look at the breakdown:
Top 8:
RUG Delver, Goblins, and Esper Stoneblade don’t make any surprise appearances, of course, but the other five are pretty darn sweet.
Let’s start with the elephant in the room…err, Eldrazi in the room, 12-Post! Called “Turbo Eldrazi” by the creator of the deck (who is in fact, Jeremiah Rudolph himself if I am not mistaken), it’s enjoyed mild success in events in New England but never at a StarCityGames Open. 12-Post operates similarly to last Standard season’s Wolf Run Ramp, where it aims to land the one card combo, Primeval Titan, as fast as possible. Of course, cheating Primeval Titan out with Show and Tell is also pretty sweet, but nothing compared to showing in an Emrakul, Kozilek, or Ulamog.
The Pithing Needles maindeck are absolutely necessary in a format that revolves around Wasteland—losing upwards of five to six mana because of one card is devastating.
Not just used in High Tide anymore.
Overall, I’m glad that the Candelabra of Tawnos number has been shaved down to a mere one. That alone makes the deck a ton more affordable, and multiple Candelabras are often redundant anyway (getting 30 mana is fun but you don’t REALLY need the 30 mana…). While I would like to see 12-Post get more play in Legacy since it’s extremely fun, it really needs Wasteland to not be a thing in the format…which is pretty much impossible.
The Reanimator decklist is fairly standard, except for the Lotus Petals maindeck. I recall Drew Levin and his team adding Lotus Petals into their Reanimator lists for GP: Atlanta, so I’m assuming that this decklist is derived from that idea. Now that the fear of Griselbrand has subsided, I’m not so sure about Lotus Petal. Reanimator already suffers from inconsistency, so adding another element of variance is bound to screw you over every now and then.
Speaking of variance… Sea Stompy! The monoblue variant of the “Stompy” archetype (not the monogreen Berserk deck, but the Chalice of the Void/Ancient Tomb/Chrome Mox archetype), Sea Stompy received a small amount of fanfare when Illusory Angel was spoiled in the Planechase decks. However I’m actually a little more surprised to see Sword of War and Peace in the decklist than Illusory Angel. The lifegain from the “Peace” part of the Sword offsets Ancient Tomb and makes racing a bit better, but I still think that Sword of Fire and Ice is far better because of the card advantage. Unfortunately, Chalice of the Void decks have always suffered from consistency issues because Chalice of the Void is, for one, infinitely times better on the play than the draw, and also getting two mana on turn one AND having the Chalice of the Void in your opener isn’t very likely as far as percentages go. At least, the percentages aren’t where you would want a top tier deck to be.
After being absent last week at SCG: Cincinnati, Abrupt Decay makes two appearances in the Top 8 at Providence.
Finally, in the Top 8, we see not only one Abrupt Decay deck, but two Abrupt Decay decks! The two BUG decks cover both ends of the spectrum—an aggro version featuring Delver and a control version featuring Standstill (which I feel is an incorrect choice given the amount of turn one Delvers and Vials in the format). I’m not surprised to see the BUG Delver deck take a slightly slower, but more stable manabase in order to play Jace. It also forgoes Force of Will in favor of discard. Most fast combo decks usually don’t try to go off turn one against a blue deck anyway, so it’s a smart move. Against most fair decks, discard is better than Force of Will too.
The rest of the top Legacy decks are pretty sweet. NO RUG makes probably one of its first significant appearances since the banning of Mental Misstep. Legacy fringe stars such as Affinity, Nic Fit, and Pox (with Filth, nonetheless) make the top decks as well. Even though the event was won by RUG Delver, Legacy still shows off its diversity. Honestly, as long as you have the optimal configuration of your decklist, Legacy is still any man’s game. Case in point – the winning decklist at a Legacy event in Italy:
| Creatures (11) 4 Delver of Secrets 3 Guttersnipe 4 Nivmagus Elemental Spells (32) 2 Apostle’s Blessing 4 Brainstorm 4 Daze 1 Fling 4 Flusterstorm 3 Gigadrowse 4 Gut Shot 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Gitaxian Probe 2 Clout of the Dominus Land (17) 4 Island 3 Misty Rainforest 1 Mountain 4 Scalding Tarn 2 Volcanic Island 3 Wasteland | Sideboard (15) 2 Pyroblast 2 Magus of the Moon 2 Sulfur Elemental 2 Pithing Needle 2 Price of Progress 2 Pyroclasm 3 Surgical Extraction |
See you next time,
Jason
@mtgtwin1 on Twitter