So the first week of November is in the record books for Legacy. Per the usual, StarCityGames.com held their regular Open Series event, this time in St. Louis. One hundred and sixty two players dove into the Legacy portion of the event, but only one player could claim victory—and that was Kendal Guthrie with RUG Delver.
This was the Top 8:
- 2 RUG Delver (Kendal Guthrie (Winner)| Ben Robinson)
- RIP Miracles
- Bant
- High Tide
- Reanimator
- Esper Stoneblade
- Deadguy Ale
A few surprises in this Top 8. First off is Caleb Durward’s RIP Miracles deck. A twist off of the UW Miracle control decks that have popped up recently, it adds Rest in Peace as a maindeck tool to not only stop graveyard-based strategies like Reanimator or Dredge, but also act as a lock with Energy Field or a win condition with Helm of Obedience. Rest in Peace is quite simply a very powerful tool. Looking at the rest of the Top 8, Rest in Peace affects every deck in some way (though High Tide and Deadguy Ale are very marginal). This makes Rest in Peace not only an excellent sideboard card, but an excellent maindeck card.
Secondly, Bant made its first Top 8 in quite awhile. While it boards into a Natural Order package, the maindeck is pretty similar to a Maverick list that cuts most of the Green Sun’s Zenith targets for counterspells and Jace. The counterspells give the deck a much better edge against Maverick’s public enemy number one: Terminus. Simply said, the Terminus decks have knocked Maverick out of Tier 1 status because it can be so very difficult to apply enough pressure to force a Terminus and still have enough gas to keep going, especially if the Terminus player has Sensei’s Divining Top to keep digging. It’s certainly a smart idea to just cut the crap and just counter the Terminus instead of trying to rebuild each time.
Finally, Deadguy Ale reaches the Top 8 as well! Liliana is a very powerful tool against these Miracle decks, and Deadguy Ale is just the perfect deck to utilize all of her abilities. Dark Confidant and Lingering Souls make her discard much easier to manage, and her edict effect is, well, an edict effect. The inclusion of Godless Shrines and Isolated Chapels are certainly interesting, but it makes sense, given you want to cast Liliana, Mirran Crusader, and Tidehollow Sculler in the same deck. The Deathrite Shamans in the deck also give the deck a pretty good non-discard turn one play, and also gives quite a bit of reach, as well as getting some value out of cards discarded to Liliana. The one Bayou also gives him the ability to gain life, which can be slightly relevant given Dark Confidant’s inclusion in the deck.
Speaking of Deathrite Shaman, Jupiter Games’ NELC was held this past weekend, and guess what won it all?
- 2 Deathrite Junk (winner)
- High Tide
- Elves
- The Epic Storm
- Goblins
- Scapeshift Rock
- UW Stoneblade
Deathrite Junk not only wins the event, but also takes second place. This Top 8 is pretty darn different than the StarCityGames.com Open: St. Louis Top 8, which is always nice, since we get to see a whole new smattering of decks.
What I’m a little more interested in is the Scapeshift Rock deck. It’s a Nic Fit deck (that is, a deck that utilizes the Veteran Explorer/Cabal Therapy interaction to ramp up into higher cost spells) that also contains red for Valakut, Burning Wish, and Scapeshift. What I like about Nic Fit is that it has the entire possibility of playing off-the-wall creatures because it can ramp up pretty easily. When I played it for awhile, I included cards like Garruk, Primal Hunter, Thragtusk, and Sun Titan. I’ve seen creatures like Kokusho and Baneslayer Angel even make the maindeck. Casting these cards in Legacy is a blast.
So continuing on with that tradition, this Scapeshift Rock deck uses not only Huntmaster of the Fells, but Bonfire of the Damned. It seems a little loose but totally fun (especially with Sensei’s Divining Top in the deck). It kills Nimble Mongoose with ease, wipes out Goblins, Elves, and Merfolk easily, and clears the Maverick board, save for the Knight of the Reliquary.
Here’s the decklist in all its glory:
| Creatures (15) 4 Veteran Explorer 3 Huntmaster of the Fells 2 Thragtusk 1 Wood Elves 1 Primeval Titan 2 Eternal Witness 2 Sakura-Tribe Elder Spells (22) 4 Burning Wish 4 Cabal Therapy 3 Pernicious Deed 4 Green Sun's Zenith 2 Scapeshift 3 Sensei's Divining Top 2 Bonfire Of The Damned Lands (24) 4 Taiga 1 Volrath's Stronghold 2 Forest 2 Valakut, The Molten Pinnacle 2 Verdant Catacombs 3 Mountain 2 Swamp 1 Stomping Ground 2 Bayou 3 Badlands 1 Snow-Covered Forest 1 Phyrexian Tower | Sideboard (15) 1 Damnation 1 Pulverize 1 Firespout 2 Slaughter Games 1 Maelstrom Pulse 3 Thoughtseize 1 Scapeshift 1 Duress 1 Innocent Blood 3 Red Elemental Blast |
I feel like Recurring Nightmare should have a place in the deck. It has sick synergy basically every creature in the deck. Huntmaster of the Fells, Thragtusk, Veteran Explorer, and even Primeval Titan all benefit from Recurring Nightmare. Plus, returning an Eternal Witness to play, grabbing a Pernicious Deed or even Bonfire of the Damned is so very nasty.
What should I play?
I’m pretty sure Goblins is the deck to be playing right now. The UW Miracle decks and RUG Delver decks are doing a great job at punishing combo decks (except for High Tide for some reason), and since Goblins beats up these two decks (Cavern of Souls and AEther Vial are big game), it seems like a pretty reasonable deck to play.
If the Rest in Peace version of Miracles don’t pick up steam, I would certainly expect Dredge to be a decent deck to play at an event, since people think graveyard strategies aren’t viable considering Rest in Peace and Deathrite Shaman are in the format.
And finally, as I stated last week, Nic Fit seems pretty sweet. Try and Counterbalance a Primeval Titan. I dare you.
Jason Abong
@mtgtwin1 on Twitter