Legacy

Ancestral Memories: Time Keeps On Ticking…

Have you ever opened a pack of cards hoping you hit that chase rare, the best card around only to look down at the card and be completely devastated? The answer to this question is of course yes, it’s something that happens to everyone who has ever opened packs. The positive side is that Wizards has gotten increasingly better over the years to make sure that this happens less and less and tries to ensure that all cards are playable. You’ll still open the occasional [Card]Venser’s Journal[/Card] every now and then but generally the rare quality is such that they can be played in constructed decks.

This was not always the case though. In the past many sets had a heap load of bad rares that were generally god awful. Even Tempest and Urza block had their share of them, though to a lesser extent than say Masques block, which I prefer to think of as a set full of uncommons that the printers mistakenly printed rare and Wizards just rolled with it.

So what do you do with the bad rares you open? It depends, some people put them in their binder with everything else, some people throw them away or give them to whoever is around and some make hats with them! But what about the magic player just starting out, the person with very few cards, who only has whatever was opened in their first ten booster packs to build a deck around. To them they’re not great, but they fill the role of the extra slots required in a player’s mono color deck who wants to avoid having to dip into another color. Sometimes, they even try and build a deck around it. Hello [Card]Naked Singularity[/Card]!!

Those were some of the best times playing magic, before I became jaded and thought myself above keeping every card I open in a pack. I even kept every Fallen Empires card I opened and if you want a set with bad rares, that’s the set to check, I mean [Card]River Merfolk[/Card] was a rare in Fallen Empires but reprinted at common in Masters Edition on MTGO. I still kept it and build decks that contained it. Every card could be played no matter what, making me from the very beginning, a Johnny.

That being said there were still cards I abhor opening as I inherently do not like being at a disadvantage thanks to one of my cards. When I build a deck, every card has a purpose, every card is there because I need and want it and I do not like throwing cards away, which is one of the reasons I’ve always had a problem with [Card]Force of Will[/Card], yes its good but I need this card I’m removing. This brings us to problem child number one, the major reason I bought Visions packs one time and never again, to avoid opening this card as my rare.

So what was this card?

[Card]Chronatog[/Card]. I may be incorrect on the number but I believe when Visions was available we bought up 10 packs in one shot. Now we got [Card]Desertion[/Card], [Card]Archangel[/Card] and [Card]Vampiric Tutor[/Card] but we also got three copies of Chronatog and to kids building decks that generally either bash face or do cool stuff ala [Card]Pandemonium[/Card] and [Card]Phyrexian Dreadnought[/Card], +3/+3 for skipping a turn is a terrible effect. Even now it seems terrible but as a Johnny player I should never turn my back on a card, which is why I want to build a deck that features the [Card]Atog[/Card]’s time travelling brother.

The first part every deck builder needs when working on a new deck is a shell or package that will win us the game, everything outside that shell will be lands and support cards but the inside is what will get us there. So with the Chronatog’s ability there are two courses of action we can take; either we can go the route of a package that punishes your opponent for each one of his turns (a black vise effect) or something along the lines of a stasis package. Going through my head I can’t help but want [Card]Underworld Dreams[/Card] for the [Card]Black Vise[/Card] effect however triple black is not something I want in a blue deck so let’s head down the [Card]Stasis[/Card] path.

Now the problem with Stasis is that unless your opponent’s cards are tapped, Stasis will not prove to be as effective so we need something to tap down cards. As much as it would be nice tapping down a Jace as it comes into play with [Card]Orb of Dreams[/Card], the safer route is to go the [Card]Frozen Aether[/Card] route. Added bonus is we can implement an [Card]Enlightened Tutor[/Card] package to make fetching even easier. The problem is that the deck needs a win condition and decking your opponent is not viable when cards like [Card]Emrakul, the Aeons Torn[/Card] is being played, even having a hard lock of Chronatog, Stasis, Frozen Aether in play with [Card]Force of Will[/Card] support. Painter’s Stone is better.

As it turns out, the shell is starting to resemble the Turbo Stasis deck from long ago and that was only viable because [Card]Necropotence[/Card] was legal. My inner Johnny feels redeemed; maybe I was right to forget about Chronatog all those years ago. If only there was a card that could do the whole stasis thing but make it a one sided effect, it’s time to use The Gatherer, it’s like a deck builders thesaurus. While [Card]Rising Waters[/Card] and [Card]Hokori, Dust Drinker[/Card] bear a nice similarity to Stasis, we need something more tangible… more stagnant?

Back when Judgment was legal I had two competitive standard decks; one was [Card]Solitary Confinement[/Card]/[Card]Genesis[/Card] and the other was [Card]Mist of Stagnation[/Card], which provides lock possibilities. I realize it seems weird to start with one card and absolutely want it and then toss it aside for something else but Legacy brewing requires a large amount of flexibility and a decent recognition for when a card or concept has potential and when it should be left behind. Trust me, I know, I still can’t leave [Card]Dream Halls[/Card] behind. I keep trying some crazy combination only to be disappointed in the end.

I realize we are a couple of paragraphs in but I think we have found an idea, it is time to brew with [Card]Mist of Stagnation[/Card] as our central card. So we want to keep the [Card]Enlightened Tutor[/Card] package and I’m going to keep both [Card]Orb of Dreams[/Card] and [Card]Frozen Aether[/Card] around. It’s best to keep your options open and since each card can be searched up with Enlightened Tutor, I’ll keep them all around for now.

Of course there is the caveat of having to deal with [Card]Mist of Stagnation[/Card]’s untap rule as it is equal for both sides, also you have to untap permanents equal to the cards in your graveyard so if you don’t have enough permanents you have to untap your opponent’s stuff. Essentially if there is a way for your opponent to have an empty graveyard then the hard lock is on. So the natural options are things like [Card]Tormod’s Crypt[/Card] or [Card]Leyline of the Void[/Card] type effects but one isn’t constant and one is black and we’ve ruled out dipping into a third color.

If only there is a card that is constantly making sure you’re opponent’s graveyard is empty that is either white or blue. It turns out there is and if you don’t know what it is, take a moment to look it up on the gatherer, knowing how to search on the gatherer can make a world of difference in deck building and remember this is Legacy, even I don’t know every card.

So what card keeps your opponent’s graveyard empty? [Card]Wheel of Sun and Moon[/Card]. By targeting your opponent every card he discards, loses, etc… will never end up in his graveyard and since the untap step is not an actual step with a phase, it is impossible to have some shenanigans going on. It would also be wise to include a copy or two of some graveyard hate for those cards that get through in the early game.

So now we have what essentially amounts to a hard lock. We just need to build around it. Let’s start with a win condition that complements the Enlightened Tutor package; [Card]Thopter Foundry[/Card] and [Card]Sword of the Meek[/Card]. It might not be flashy but it fits our color combination. I also like the [Card]Stuffy Doll[/Card]/[Card]Guilty Conscience[/Card] Felix tried to build a deck around, as once the lock is in place you have more than enough turns to find an answer.

Here’s the breakdown of what has been assembled so far, I’ve included four of everything as the numbers can be cut down later to be more accommodating.

[Deck Title=Misty Wheel (or Something) By William Blondon]
[Lands]15 Island 15 Plains[/Lands]
[Spells]4 Enlightened Tutor 4 Frozen Aether 4 Guilty Conscience 4 Intuition 4 Mist of Stagnation 4 Orb of Dreams 4 Stuffy Doll 4 Sword of the Meek 4 Thopter Foundry 4 Tormods Crypt 4 Wheel of Sun and Moon[/Spells]
[Sideboard]15 Chronatog[/Sideboard][/Deck]

Time to discuss mana bases, the deck is a two color deck that relies strictly on White and Blue mana to run so the first addition is [Card]Tundra[/Card] and [Card]Flooded Strand[/Card] which are the fetch and dual land which serve both blue and white. Wasteland isn’t right for this deck as we want an opponent’s graveyard to be empty but instead [Card]Rishadan Port[/Card] can be a possibility for locking out your opponent. I think 24 lands is where you want to be with this deck but at the same time have an extra fetch land or two for additional thinning of the deck. The remaining land slots in the deck will be filled by basic lands.

Last the deck needs to be rounded out by the support staples to complement the deck. Within the colors of White we have [Card]Swords To Plowshares[/Card] and with Blue we have [Card]Force of Will[/Card], [Card]Brainstorm[/Card], [Card]Ponder[/Card], [Card]Mental Misstep[/Card] and [Card]Memory Lapse[/Card]. The Memory Lapse is some experimental tech I want to try as instead of countering the spell and sending it to the graveyard the card is placed on top of the library, satisfying the wish to have as little cards in your opponent’s graveyard as possible before the lock as well as [Card]Time Walk[/Card]ing your opponent.

Now that I have a shell and general appearance of a deck, it is time to run through the deck list and begin sending cards to the chopping block to whittle down the deck to 60 cards. Some of the cards are easy cuts that any one can spot and others are more obscure that require some playing with and testing to see which cards work best in combination. Now I’ve already done a bit of both so we should be able to get it down in one pass through but first here is where the deck currently stands.

[Deck Title=Misty Wheel By William Blondon]
[Lands]4 Arid Mesa 4 Flooded Strand 15 Island 4 Misty Rainforest 15 Plains 4 Rishadan Port 4 Tundra[/Lands]
[Spells]4 Brainstorm 4 Enlightened Tutor 4 Force of Will 4 Frozen Aether 4 Guilty Conscience 4 Intuition 4 Memory Lapse 4 Mental Misstep 4 Mist of Stagnation 4 Orb of Dreams 4 Ponder 4Relic of Progenitus 4 Stuffy Doll 4 Sword of the Meek 4 Swords To Plowshares 4 Thopter Foundry 4 Tormods Crypt 4 Wheel of Sun and Moon[/Spells]
[Sideboard]15 Chronatog[/Sideboard][/Deck]

Right now the card count stands at 122 cards so now begins the process of chopping based on initial impressions of how I want the deck to run. Additionally I have been testing the deck or inferior version of the deck on MTGO and have been posting more wins then losses. This is to be taken with a grain of salt as it is the casual rooms but normally my decks crash and burn, only picking up their first win against a 500 card deck that seems to be playing 400 lands, thank you [Card]Dream Halls[/Card].

The first place to start is the mana base which I want to come in around 24 lands. Based on MODO testing I’m playing 22 lands and there are certainly games where I would like more plus I’m only running four fetches and the deck is in definite need of more shuffle effects. I think 8 fetch lands is correct and the deck is certainly more blue centric than white centric so I would go with a divide of 1 [Card]Arid Mesa[/Card], 4 [Card]Flooded Strand[/Card] and 3 [Card] Misty Rainforest[/Card]. Additional I think running 14 non-basics and 10 basics is the correct break down so I’ll cut two [Card]Rishadan Port[/Card] but keep the 4 [Card]Tundra[/Card]. Last for the 10 basics I’m thinking the split of 5 and 5 is right as there are more ways to fetch blue than white and the [Card]Wheel of Sun and Moon[/Card]’s double white is something that is necessary to take into account.

[Deck Title=Misty Wheel By William Blondon]
[Lands]1 Arid Mesa 4 Flooded Strand5 Island 3Misty Rainforest 5 Plains 2 Rishadan Port 4 Tundra[/Lands]
[Spells]4 Brainstorm 4 Enlightened Tutor 4 Force of Will 4Frozen Aether 4Guilty Conscience 4 Intuition 4 Memory Lapse 4 Mental Misstep 4 Mist of Stagnation 4 Orb of Dreams 4 Ponder 4Relic of Progenitus 4 Stuffy Doll 4 Sword of the Meek 4 Swords To Plowshares 4 Thopter Foundry 4 Tormods Crypt 4 Wheel of Sun and Moon[/Spells]
[Sideboard]15 Chronatog[/Sideboard][/Deck]

Based on my MTGO testing [Card]Frozen Aether[/Card] generally works better than [Card]Orb of Dreams[/Card], so the orb is cut. [Card]Tormod’s Crypt[/Card] should definitely be cut and the [Card]Relic of Progenitus[/Card] should be halved as one copy is good to deal with anything that may get by the Wheel, while ensuring you don’t get overloaded. When an opponent’s graveyard is empty, having 3 in play does nothing special.

Same goes for the Thopter/Sword combo, you want to have more than one since there is no way to return it from your graveyard but more than two just becomes redundant so again slash both of those card’s quantities in half. This combo is also far superior to the [Card]Stuffy Doll[/Card]/[Card]Guilty Conscience[/Card] combo so those two cards are gone.

You may have noticed up to this point that there is one huge omission in my deck that should be fixed now. The deck is missing [Card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/Card] and two copies of Jace at that. With the deck playing the full play set of [Card]Enlightened Tutor[/Card], having a full play set of [Card]Intuition[/Card] seems redundant so I think they should be cut down to two copies.

As for the central pieces, with two different tutor packages available, playing a full play set of each is not a necessity and in fact drawing multiple copies of each will cause no end to your grief. I think the right call is 3 Mist, 2 Orb and 3 Wheel. Usually I would go for the 2 Wheel plan but in MTGO testing, there was a large portion of people who would concede when I landed a turn 2 Wheel so if you can get free game wins in game one of a match, I’ll take them.

Last is what can be referred to as the blue spell package. One note is that since [Card]Force of Will[/Card] is 140 tickets on MTGO and even KYT isn’t that baller, I needed to find a replacement card for Force. This is where the copies of [Card]Memory Lapse[/Card] came from. They worked better than [Card]Counterspell[/Card] and since you’re usually employing it as a stall to be able to land your lock piece the next turn it works quite well. Since, in real life I do have access to Forces, I would cut the Lapses down to two although if you wanted to replace these with [Card]Remand[/Card], I think it can be equally viable.

As already mentioned in previous articles I am a fan of 3 [Card]Force of Will[/Card] so three is where its going to be at. I like the 4 [Card]Brainstorm[/Card] but the [Card]Ponder[/Card] in testing have been less than stellar however instead of removing them completely I’ll cut it down to one copy. Last is [Card]Swords to Plowshares[/Card] which has been stellar in testing against what seems like a constant stream of [Card]Stoneforge Mystic[/Card] decks so I like the four copies as they stand. Here is where the deck currently stands:

[Deck Title=Misty Wheel By William Blondon]
[Lands]1 Arid Mesa 4 Flooded Strand 5 Island 3 Misty Rainforest 5 Plains 2 Rishadan Port 4 Tundra[/Lands]
[Spells]4 Brainstorm 4 Enlightened Tutor 3 Force of Will 2 Frozen Aether 2 Intuition 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 2 Memory Lapse 4 Mental Misstep 3 Mist of Stagnation 1 Ponder 2 Relic of Progenitus 2 Sword of the Meek 4 Swords To Plowshares 2 Thopter Foundry 3 Wheel of Sun and Moon[/Spells]
[Sideboard]15 Chronatog[/Sideboard][/Deck]

So the deck currently stands at 64 cards which means its time to proxy the deck up and see what does and does not work. To save time let’s fast forward a bit to the point where all of this has been taken care of and here are my notes on how the deck runs.

Not having access to [Card]Mental Misstep[/Card] on MTGO, definitely did not reveal the whole picture and when you’re trying to set your opponent back, the Misstep works much better in the deck than the [Card]Memory Lapse[/Card]. The reasons is that unless you’re mana is being tapped for a combo piece or something to access a combo piece, it just feels like you’re wasting time and although it seemed good on MTGO, the games where I drew Lapse, in testing, I would just wish it wasn’t there so those are gone.

This is always the toughest part of my deck building process as it involves the most difficult decisions; which are the last two cuts to be made to the deck. Looking over the cards in front of me, I can’t help but keep turning to the support cards in the deck and thinking they should be the cards to be cut down.

I think it would be safe to remove one copy of [Card]Rishadan Port[/Card] as it is only a minor help in the overall strategy and the difference from 24 to 23 lands does not feel like it would make a significant impact. I think the same can be said for [Card]Relic of Progenitus[/Card], in the end it is between cutting one copy of this and one copy of the Wheel but the Wheel has been so good in testing I cannot bring myself to cut it.

The deck naturally bins a lot of cards so extra help on that front isn’t needed and anything you want to get you can get with the Tutor so [Card]Intuition[/Card]s are just overkill. Which brings us to 58 cards and all the shuffle effects in the deck need to be put to good use so the addition of two copies of [Card]Sensei’s Divining Top[/Card] are in order, I believe. Ah, 60 cards. This is what it looks like:

[Deck Title=Misty Wheel Chronology By William Blondon]
[Lands]1 Arid Mesa 4 Flooded Strand 5 Island 3 Misty Rainforest 5 Plains 1 Rishadan Port 4 Tundra[/Lands]
[Spells]4 Brainstorm 4 Enlightened Tutor 3 Force of Will 2 Frozen Aether 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 4 Mental Misstep 3 Mist of Stagnation 1 Ponder 1 Relic of Progenitus 2 Senseis Divining Top 2 Sword of the Meek 4 Swords To Plowshares 2 Thopter Foundry 3 Wheel of Sun and Moon[/Spells]
[Sideboard]15 Chronatog[/Sideboard][/Deck]

The first thing you will notice is, the sideboard needs to be completely changed. Now I thought of keeping one copy of [Card]Chronatog[/Card] in the deck as the card is the original building block for the deck but instead I changed the name to include a mention indirectly to the blue guy.

The first card to include in the sideboard is [Card]Peacekeeper[/Card]. The reason is simple; since the deck contains zero creatures everyone will board out any creature hate against the deck in favor of more relevant cards, which makes it the perfect time to board in a creature and a creature that will halt any of your opponent’s creature shenanigans if not answered.

The main hate I see coming in for the deck are cards like [Card]Reverent Silence[/Card], [Card]Krosan Grip[/Card] and [Card]Qasali Pridemage[/Card]. To combat this, the best answer would be [Card]Karmic Justice[/Card] as the permanents you’ll be able to destroy can potentially set your opponent back further then yourself, giving you time to recover.

The sideboard should also contain the fourth copy of [Card]Force of Will[/Card] and the second and third copy of [Card]Relic of Progenitus[/Card]. As well as three if not four copies of [Card]Mindbreak Trap[/Card] as the deck will need time to set up it’s lock leaving it vulnerable to combo decks like ANT/TES and Belcher which can go off turn 1.

I think the sideboard should probably look something like this though having never actually played the deck against an opponent who is not me, I could not tell you what match ups are particularly bad or what cards you want to watch out for. That being said here is my best guess as to the appropriate sideboard:

– 3 [Card]Peacekeeper[/Card]
– 2 [Card]Karmic Justice[/Card]
– 1 [Card]Force of Will[/Card]
– 2 [Card]Relic of Progenitus[/Card]
– 3 [Card]Mindbreak Trap[/Card]
– 3 [Card]Pithing Needle[/Card]
– 1 [Card]Open The Vaults[/Card]

So here is the first attempt at a decklist:

[Deck Title=Misty Wheel Chronology By William Blondon]
[Lands]1 Arid Mesa 4 Flooded Strand 5 Island 3 Misty Rainforest 5 Plains 1 Rishadan Port 4 Tundra[/Lands]
[Spells]4 Brainstorm 4 Enlightened Tutor 3 Force of Will 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 4 Mental Misstep 3 Mist of Stagnation 2 Orb of Dreams 1 Ponder 1 Relic of Progenitus 2 Senseis Divining Top 2 Sword of the Meek 4 Swords To Plowshares 2 Thopter Foundry 3 Wheel of Sun and Moon[/Spells]
[Sideboard]1 Force of Will 2 Karmic Justice 3 Mindbreak Trap 1 Open The Vaults 3 Peacekeeper 3 Pithing Needle 2 Relic of Progenitus[/Sideboard][/Deck]

The question I have for you now is this; what do you think of this deck? Having played when Judgment was in the standard and extended metagame, [Card]Mist of Stagnation[/Card] was a powerful card when placed in the right deck and could easily shut your opponent out. The issue was the deck was slow and it played spells whose goal was to stem the bleeding until you could get your lock pieces in place, though it was inconsistent at doing both. Fast forward to today and if someone gave me this list without any back story I would think that someone built a deck around some bargain bin rare they found.

The thing many people do not realize is every rare is a bargain bin rare without having a deck to exist as a part of. Today however, where every card is overanalyzed to the point where prices are in part based on potential as much as they are on performance. [Card]Gideon Jura[/Card] is less expensive than [Card]Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas[/Card] even though Gideon has far better results than Tezzeret. Also, not to provide financial analysis but, Gideon is being reprinted in the core set and with Tempered Steel showing up the most at the Pro Tour this past weekend, it’s a good bet post rotation “Gideon Steel” will find a spot to exist and thrive post rotation, so a play set while they’re on the cheap might not be a bad idea.

Back to Legacy and what needs to be determined about the deck is whether the cards that exist in Legacy are capable of stemming the bleeding long enough and consistently enough to get your lock pieces in place. I would like to be able to give you a definite answer in the affirmative however that is not a possibility at this stage, so instead I’ll make a comparison with a deck that currently exists: Countertop.

The obvious similarities are the colors of the deck and as such they play similar support cards. Their lock pieces are different however. Countertop plays [Card]Sensei’s Divining Top[/Card] and [Card]Counterbalance[/Card] to form a soft lock on your opponent where as MWC (I “acronymed” the deck name) plays [Card]Mist of Stagnation[/Card] as a soft lock and then using support cards creates a hard lock. The other main problem is the cost of the cards as Countertop can have its lock down by turn 2 with no mana acceleration; MWC needs a longer clock to accomplish this.

Unlike decks like [Card]Dream Halls[/Card] and [Card]Hive Mind[/Card], it also doesn’t allow for winning the game the turn it hits play almost every time. The one advantage, if you call it that, the deck has displayed in testing is the first few turns your opponent is relatively unaware of what is happening and is spending most turns playing around some lock pieces you have as he figures that it is best to ignore your presence, so come turn five with that fifth land, there is often a time you can drop the Mist into play with your opponent tapped out after having attack. And remember, even if your opponent beats you down to one life, dropping the Mist and creating a hard lock wins you the game.

Now I don’t expect anyone to run out and build this deck and try and maximize it to its fullest potential. In fact, most may glance at it briefly and walk away to something else but the entire point of the article was to look at deck brewing in Legacy. Most will net deck something, change a couple cards from only well known staples and not give it a second thought but in Legacy you have access to almost every single card ever printed for the game of Magic. So every single binder of old cards or shoe box is a collection of cards that can be built into a Legacy deck. Next time you have a chance, look through those old collections as you might find a card with some unique ability or cool attribute and think to yourself, this would be a cool idea to build a deck around and you would be right. If you don’t believe me, check out your Commander Release events this weekend as every single person in those room will have built decks or be playing decks based on cool ideas which is something that makes Commander just like Legacy a great format to play. So if you have a day free this weekend check out your local store for the Commander event because even if you don’t have a deck and don’t want to buy one of the new Commander decks, there will be people who have no qualms over lending you a deck to enjoy the format they love.

Let me know what you think about the deck and the article in the comments, I’ll read every one and until next time: Have Fun Playing Magic!

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