Since our last article, Wizards of the Coast made an unexpected announcement and banned Wrenn and Six from Legacy! While the general consensus was that Wrenn and Six made the format toxic, no one thought that Wizards of the Coast would act on it for a long time, similar to what happened with Sensei’s Divining Top and Deathrite Shaman. With any ban, there is always a period of turbulence in the meta, but so far I have seen a noticeable increase in Stompy decks and Jeskai/Bant control decks. For now, I haven’t made any changes to the 75, but I have heard of other players playing an increased amount of Echoing Truth and Hope of Ghirapur. Let’s jump into our scenarios!
Special GuestFrederik Pape
Frederik is a Legacy enthusiast from Hamburg, Germany. He started to play the game in a time where cards like Sneak Attack and Show and Tell where still standard legal and has never lost the passion for the game. Nowadays, you mostly find him playing Legacy tournaments all over the world. The combination of traveling, making friends, and of course the competition playing magic itself make it a unique hobby for Frederik. He was able to make day 2 at both Legacy Grand Prix in Chiba and Prague in 2016 with Grixis Pyromancer, he’s also known to dabble with Dredge. Frederik has a preference for unfair decks so chances are high that you are facing a horde of early Zombie Tokens or Goblin Tokens when you play against him. If you’ve have met Frderik, you know he’s the guy who loves Japanese foil cards with gold signatures on them!
Deck List
Main Deck
Sideboard
SITUATION No. 1 – Ad Nauseam Tendrils (ANT)
Despite the name, Ad Nauseam Tendrils (ANT) is a Past in Flames deck at heart. ANT looks to either set up a deterministic Past in Flames kill or a natural Storm kill. With cards like Past in Flames, Cabal Ritual, Tendrils of Agony, and Dark Petition in the main deck, casting Ad Nauseam is often seen as a liability. I would attribute about 50 percent of my wins against ANT to failed Ad Nauseam flips from my opponent. In this matchup, we need to keep an extremely fast or an extremely disruptive hand. Typically, ANT packs about 7-8 discard spells, so it is also wise to play out your Lion’s Eye Diamonds before they get discarded!
HOW I SIDEBOARDED:
-2 Ponder +2 Tormod’s Crypt
We are currently in game two on the draw. Our opponent played a Tropical Island and a Lion’s Eye Diamond. We drew a Mox Opal for turn, which allows us the option to play Ad Nauseam this turn. Would you go for it here? Are you more concerned about a Flusterstorm or a Veil of Summer?
Special Guest
Frederik Pape
I would go for an Ad Nauseam here. A Flusterstorm from the ANT player would be a blowout, but we would still have four permanent mana sources left over. We could run into a Veil of Summer, which they represented by leaving a Tropical Island open or a Brainstorm to protect against discard. I’m quite positive that we will find a discard spell in our Ad Nauseam to check if the coast is clear before attempting a kill. A downside from playing into the Veil of Summer might be going too low with our Ad Nauseam (let’s say to six for example). The ANT player could kill us with a mini-Tendrils of Agony with just a Dark Ritual and an Infernal Tutor in their hand. I can’t see an upside for waiting. Chances are high that the ANT player will play a discard spell in the next few turns to protect their combo or to try and spoil our plans. With no Brainstorm to hide our best combo engine in form of the Ad Nauseam. What some people tend to overlook is that even with our opponent having a Veil of Summer we still have the chance to cast Grapeshot for 20!
#TEAMTES
Josh Hughes
I think I would 100 percent go for it here. In my recent experience playing against ANT, it seems like they have more copies of Veil of Summer than copies of Flusterstorm, so that is what I would play around here. I could be wrong though!
Bryant Cook
I’m not playing around Flusterstorm. There are at most two copies of Flusterstorm so the probability isn’t super high that our opponent has it. If they do, it’s something I accept and attempt to rebuild, which is even better with four permanent mana sources in play! Post-Ad Nauseam I would Grapeshot over Tendrils of Agony due to Veil of Summer.
AJ Kerrigan
I am concerned about Flusterstorm, but they don’t play that many copies and this bluff is so free for our opponent, especially with any Brainstorm. Veil of Summer isn’t too concerning to me since first of all I don’t think they would play out Lion’s Eye Diamond to play around discard if they had Veil of Summer. Even if you assume that’s just a mistake or automatic action, we can probably Grapeshot here fairly often. I don’t really feel like waiting gets us anywhere meaningful at all, and just gives our opponent a chance to kill us.
Anthony LaVerde
I would jam Ad Nauseam. ANT only usually plays two copies of Flusterstorm, and it’s not like the game gets better for you the longer it goes. Assuming Ad Nauseam resolves, just make sure to play around Veil of Summer by casting a discard spell after the Ad Nauseam and/or going for a Grapeshot kill if they cast Veil of Summer.
Landon Sworts
I would go for it this turn. Sitting around just gives the opponent the chance to assemble their own combo in the coming turns. Flusterstorm or Veil of Summer is definitely a coin flip. My gut tells me Veil of Summer, but that read could purely be rooted in optimism. Regardless, I say we jam.
Alex Poling
I would go for Ad Nauseam here. This line doesn’t care about Veil of Summer. I think trying to win now has a higher chance of winning the game than waiting to find a discard spell in case the opponent has a Flusterstorm. It could take several turns and during that time the opponent could just win the game or find discard spells. I don’t want to try and play that game against ANT.
Daniel Lee
I would go for Ad Nauseam here. Our opponent has taken a mulligan and did not fetch, so there’s no guarantee that the Tropical Island bears any association to the spells in their hand. Most Ad Nauseam lines give us enough gas to go for a Grapeshot kill anyhow, so we can play around Veil of Summer.
Alex McKinley
I am going for it here based on a couple of factors. The Lion’s Eye Diamond played by the opponent suggests that their hand may just kill us quickly with something like an end of turn Brainstorm. Our hand does not get that much better and is incredibly weak to a discard spell. I also personally do not like playing around Flusterstorm out of ANT. It is only a two of and generally hard to play around because of time constraints. A lot of time playing around Flusterstorm will give the ANT player too much time to go off. In this specific scenario, I would try to play around Veil of Summer and would cast a discard spell before a Burning Wish.
SITUATION No. 2 – BURN
Burn’s ultimate goal is to play very efficient creatures like Monastery Swiftspear or Goblin Guide while slinging spells at our face. Burn also has a very efficient turn two anti-Storm creature in their main deck that we need to play around in Eidolon of the Great Revel. The key here is keeping an explosive hand that can go off very quickly. If all of that wasn’t stressful enough, you also need to be very careful not to go too low on your Ad Nauseam. Each untapped Mountain represents a potential three damage, and two Mountains can be sacrificed to Fireblast to deal four damage. That is a potential 10 damage on turn two if they have two untapped lands.
We are currently in game one. We made eight Goblin Tokens and are currently in the process of trying to race our opponent, who is currently offering to trade their Eidolon of the Great Revel for two of our Goblin Tokens. It appears that the opponent is locked behind their Eidolon of the Great Revel. Would you block here?
Special Guest
Frederik Pape
Games against an early Eidolon of the Great Revel are always a pain! If we decide not to block and swing with our team, the burn player would take another six damage from our attack if they continue attacking with the Eidolon of the Great Revel. With the potential of our opponent blocking their own spells, we will have around another 4-5 draw steps at least (presenting a 10-turn clock with the Eidolon of the Great Revel together with some cantrips we might need to cast from the Mox Opal which we have to play the two copies of Lion’s Eye Diamond) to find either an Infernal Tutor or Burning Wish for the kill. We don’t have to fear any Smash to Smithereens on our artifact mana in game one, so playing out the Mox Opal and the pair of Lion’s Eye Diamond to cast a drawn cantrip. The only problem I see is if we fail to draw the Infernal Tutor or Burning Wish, we might get to the point where the Burn player might even fire an own Lightning Bolt on their own Eidolon of the Great Revel to go to one life and then kill us with their burn spells in hand.
#TEAMTES
Josh Hughes
At this point, we have definitely lost the Goblin Token race, but the good news is, we are a single tutor away from winning! I think because of this, I would block here with three Goblin Tokens. I want to take as little damage as possible until I can find a “tutor effect.”
Bryant Cook
I would block with all four Goblin Tokens. There isn’t a world where the difference between nine and six life matters here. How you win this game is by drawing an action spell into Tendrils of Agony or even another Empty the Warrens, and how you start down this path is removing Eidolon of the Great Revel from the board. You could swing in for three putting them to six, but following that you’re in an awkward stalemate where another creature can actually start putting them ahead.
AJ Kerrigan
In these situations, from the pure line of assuming your opponent is smart but not too smart, it’s hard to justify a block since they offered you the opportunity. These Goblin Tokens may not seem like they are winning the game as it stands, but I actually think if we just take a few more draw steps and let them continue to hit us, we’ll always have the option available. We can also possibly set up a Grapeshot kill that wins through Eidolon of the Great Revel. Blocking this turn is only really better if you think our opponent will stop giving us the free option at some point, but their hand would have to be weird for that to be any time soon I suspect. Being at 18 life also survives four Lightning Bolt effects and a Fireblast, which is just about the maximum amount of damage our opponent could do without losing the game. I think it’s close to free to take the hit here and reevaluate next turn based on our draw step.
Anthony LaVerde
I would just let the damage through as this feels like our opponent has more creatures in hand. We need to draw Infernal Tutor or Burning Wish to win anyways, and can win through an Eidolon of the Great Revel even if our opponent Lightning Bolts us twice and also has a Fireblast. If we do block and our opponent has more creatures or another Eidolon of the Great Revel, we’re just putting them in a better wboard position by blocking. Also, even if our opponent does play a second Eidolon of the Great Revel, we are still in a position to kill them by drawing an Infernal Tutor or Burning Wish while staying out of Fireblast range. Not to mention, keeping Eidolon of the Great Revel in play right now is almost worse for our opponent than us.
Landon Sworts
I would not block here. Eidolon of the Great Revel isn’t a problem for us at our current life total. We can likely even cast a small Tendrils of Agony if we were to draw Burning Wish with there Ediolon of the Great Revel in play without dying. I generally try to make blocking decisions based on keeping our clock as fast and effective as possible. In my opinion, the more Goblin Tokens that we have access to for attacks the better!
Alex Poling
I would not block here. I don’t think there’s much hard in going to 18. If the opponent was willing to trade this turn, they will the following turn as well. There’s no harm in taking another draw step or two for more information before deciding whether we need to trade or just attack.
Daniel Lee
A good bit of advice to remember, if your opponent is offering you a trade, they may know something you don’t. For example, the fact that their Eidolon of the Great Revel is hurting them far more than it is hurting you at the moment. I say we take the two damage, then swing back to get three damage through, putting them to six life. If they keep attacking with just the Eidolon of the Great Revel, we win that race. If we get them low, then they just never cast a spell again, and we win that race too.
Alex McKinley
I am blocking here with all of the Goblin Tokens. Four Goblin Tokens are not enough to race the opponent, and even though they appear to be locked under their Eidolon of the Great Revel, they are much more likely to kill with their creatures because we can not end up blocking them. Our hand is also super explosive and any cantrip or tutor effect off the top likely leads to a direct kill.
SITUATION No. 3 – MIRACLES
With the latest banning of Wrenn and Six, Miracles is making a comeback! The recent addition of Mystic Sanctuary, Oko, Thief of Crowns, and Veil of Summer has given Miracles a ton of new cards to experiment with. It isn’t nearly as feasible to try to play the long game against Miracles because they will crush us with card advantage. We want to beat Miracles before they can stabilize.
HOW I SIDEBOARDED:
-1 Chrome Mox + 1 Defense Grid
In this game, we tried to bait a Counterspell from our opponent by casting Burning Wish. Burning Wish resolved, so we grabbed an Echo of Eons with two copies of Lion’s Eye Diamond already in hand. On our fourth turn, we drew an Infernal Tutor. After playing both copies of Lion’s Eye Diamond, to which our opponent refused to reveal what was on top of their library, we then attempted to cast Infernal Tutor. We know that the opponent has a Force of Will in hand, and they chose to not reveal what was on top of their library or counter our Infernal Tutor. What would you do here?
Special Guest
Frederik Pape
When I first looked at this situation, I was overthinking it a lot here. With the resolved Burning Wish and Lion’s Eye Diamond, the first idea was that you can’t grab a Duress, and we need to get the Defense Grid as the top card’s converted mana cost should be one if the Miracle’s player really let’s us resolve spells with zero and two as their converted mana costs. What I see is that our opponent had to fetch to cast their Counterbalance so the top card of their library should be unknown. The choice should still be to get the Defense Grid. It is a “must-counter” target, and our opponent still has a green mana open for a possible second Veil of Summer. The spot will still be a difficult situation even after our resolved Echo of Eons as our opponent has a fresh seven cards which may contain a Force of Will or the Veil of Summer which got shuffled back into their library.
#TEAMTES
Josh Hughes
Since the opponent didn’t reveal to Counterbalance on a zero converted mana cost or a two casting cost spell, I would assume that they have a spell with the mana cost of one on top of their deck. Since the opponent still has a Force of Will in hand, I think the only option is to get a Defense Grid to bait out the Force of Will. Then we should be able to Echo of Eons.
Bryant Cook
This seems like a no-brainer; get Defense Grid and flashback Echo of Eons. I do think, however, that a mistake was made by cracking the second Lion’s Eye Diamond for black when it should’ve red mana and likely into Empty the Warrens versus a Miracles deck with no white mana. If they decide to Force of Will the Infernal Tutor at this point, you flashback Echo of Eons floating instead of just if you had to cast Defense Grid.
AJ Kerrigan
The opponent can’t have a two on top since they could’ve effectively locked us. My best guess is that they have a card with a converted mana cost of one or a five on top. Getting Ad Nauseam loses to the Force of Will anyway, but we could get a discard spell. I think the likelihood that their top card is a spell with a converted mana cost of one given their non-reveals is super high, though it’s not clear to me how they know their top card from what’s in the situation. Perhaps they are just a maniac. That said, getting Defense Grid and casting it and then casting Echo of Eons is probably our safest line that hedges against the top being a one while protecting from a Force of Will.
Anthony LaVerde
I think I would have cracked the pair of Lion’s Eye Diamond for instead of the used here, as Empty the Warrens basically wins the game here. As for the situation as it is now, I would grab Defense Grid. With Infernal Tutor resolving, we know our opponent does not have a two converted mana cost spell on top of their deck, which makes it safer than grabbing a Thoughtseize to take care of the Force of Will. Another option is Ad Nauseam, but it’s basically a five-mana Duress at this point, which is another reason to we should have made with one of the two copies of Lion’s Eye Diamond.
Landon Sworts
I would choose Defense Grid. If the top card of the opponent’s library has a converted mana cost of one, we are in the clear to cast Defense Grid and still spin the wheel this turn. The opponent will likely be forced to Force of Will our Defense Grid but it’s their defenses are down it will give us a window to cast our copy of Echo of Eons from the yard and attempt to put ourselves in a winning position.
Alex Poling
I would tutor for Defense Grid and play it. There’s definitely not a two on top of their library, so this would make them use their Force of Will on Defense Grid. Then, I would flashback Echo of Eons and hope there’s not a six-mana spell on top of their library. I think Defense Grid is better than a discard spell because there could be a one on top of their deck and they could have two copies of Force of Will.
Daniel Lee
Call me paranoid, but I think I go for Defense Grid here. Our opponent very likely has a one-mana-cost card on top of their deck, so Defense Grid will likely bait out the Force of Will. Whether it does or it doesn’t, then we can cast Echo of Eons via Flashback with one mana floating. This is ideal if Defense Grid resolved, but serves to refill our hand with gas either way.
Alex McKinley
Given the list of extensive spells that the opponent has let resolve this turn, my instinct is that there is a card with a converted mana cost of one on top of their library. Because of this, I want to get the Defense Grid with Infernal Tutor. The opponent will likely have to Force of Will it and at that point, flashback Echo of Eons becomes available. To back up a little bit, I think there is also an argument for cracking a Lion’s Eye Diamond for red mana instead of black mana and considering Empty the Warrens as a tutor target. Given the lack of white mana from the opponent, they might not have enough time to set up a Terminus.
I am very excited to see where the meta shakes out in the next few weeks. There have been some pretty amazing cards printed recently, that have been overshadowed by Wrenn and Six. Until next time, keep storming!
