Gilbert City Championships Preview

It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? It’s a little hard to believe that the 2015 Legacy Series concluded nearly four months ago. It’s also a little hard to believe that the 2016 Legacy Series is right around the corner! In the meanwhile, Legacy has been chugging along, with a ton of events during the winter of 2015 that will surely define the first City Championships on January 9th at Desert Sky Games.
If you missed the announcement, view the structure of the 2016 Legacy Series here!

So what can we expect in two weeks? Let’s take a look at the events that’s happened since the 2015 Legacy Series Masters.

2015 Legacy Series Masters

The 2015 Legacy Series Masters saw twenty of Arizona’s best Legacy players duke it out for the prestigious title. In the end, Kyle Henriksen took home the prize with Miracles:

Spells (37) 4 Brainstorm 4 Sensei's Divining Top 4 Swords to Plowshares 2 Pyroblast 4 Counterbalance 2 Counterspell 2 Council's Judgment 2 Entreat the Angels 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 1 Supreme Verdict 3 Force of Will 3 Terminus 3 Dig through Time Lands (23) 4 Flooded Strand 4 Scalding Tarn 2 Arid Mesa 3 Tundra 1 Volcanic Island 5 Island 3 Plains 1 Mountain

Sideboard (15) 2 Red Elemental Blast 2 Flusterstorm 1 Rest in Peace 1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy 1 Ethersworn Canonist 1 Wear // Tear 1 Izzet Staticaster 2 Vendilion Clique 2 Blood Moon 1 Keranos, God of Storms 1 Terminus

View the 2015 Legacy Series Masters coverage here.

However, the release of Battle for Zendikar shook up not only the plane of Zendikar, but the format of Legacy as well:

A year later, and two of the most influential Legacy cards in Khans of Tarkir are now banned – it’s almost like we’re back in square one again. Also, Black Vise is now legal again. But unfortunately for it, this announcement is all the press the little torture machine is going to get this year.

GP Seattle

GP Seattle was the first major look at Legacy post-Dig Through Time. After 15 rounds of grueling Legacy action, we saw the following Top 8:

• 1 Lands
• 2 Grixis Delver
• 1 Miracles
• 1 Reanimator
• 1 Aluren
• 2 Shardless BUG

Jarvis Yu took down the event, piloting Lands:

Spells (25) 4 Life from the Loam 4 Gamble 4 Crop Rotation 4 Punishing Fire 4 Mox Diamond 4 Exploration 1 Manabond Land (35) 2 Tranquil Thicket 4 Thespian’s Stage 4 Rishadan Port 4 Wasteland 1 Riftstone Portal 1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale 1 Windswept Heath 2 Verdant Catacombs 1 Wooded Foothills 1 Forest 2 Taiga 4 Grove of the Burnwillows 4 Dark Depths 3 Maze of Ith 1 Glacial Chasm

Sideboard (13) 1 Karakas   1 Bojuka Bog   4 Krosan Grip 1 Molten Vortex   4 Sphere of Resistance   2 Choke

Also, a shout out to Masters Top 8 competitor Gary Wong for finishing in the Top 8 of this event!

View the GP Seattle coverage here.

SCG New Jersey

A couple weeks later, we saw Legacy in the limelight of the SCG Open Series as Legacy was the main open format in New Jersey. The Top 8 of this event was as follows:

• 1 4c Loam
• 2 Storm
• 2 Miracles
• 1 Lands
• 1 Elves
• 1 Grixis Delver

While a relatively known quantity in Europe, 4c Loam hasn’t really had a major breakthrough in the states. But with one of its roughest matchups gone (OmniTell), could it become a viable choice in today’s Legacy metagame? Tom Keating certainly thought so, and he took 4c Loam to an SCG Open victory.

Creatures (11) 4 Dark Confidant 4 Knight of the Reliquary 1 Scavenging Ooze 1 Gaddock Teeg 1 Dryad Arbor Spells (24) 4 Chalice of the Void 4 Mox Diamond 2 Sylvan Library 4 Abrupt Decay 3 Punishing Fire 2 Green Sun’s Zenith 2 Life from the Loam 3 Liliana of the Veil Lands (25) 1 Forest 1 Badlands 2 Barren Moor 2 Bayou 3 Grove of the Burnwillows 1 Maze of Ith 1 Savannah 1 Scrubland 1 Taiga 1 Tranquil Thicket 4 Verdant Catacombs 4 Wasteland 2 Windswept Heath 1 Karakas

Sideboard (15) 1 Ethersworn Canonist 1 Containment Priest 1 Reclamation Sage 1 Engineered Plague 3 Leyline of the Void 1 Golgari Charm 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 1 Garruk Relentless 1 Maelstrom Pulse 2 Thoughtseize 1 Toxic Deluge

View the SCG: New Jersey coverage here.

Players’ Championship

Finally, the conclusion of the 2015 SCG Open Series saw sixteen of their top performers battle it out in three different formats: Standard, Modern, and Legacy. While it may be a little misleading to see the Top 8, it’s always interesting to see what players take into a tiny, highly-competitive metagame:

• 2 Death and Taxes
• 1 BUG Delver
• 1 Merfolk
• 1 Storm
• 1 Elves
• 1 RUG Delver
• 1 Grixis Delver

Jim Davis took down the event, piloting this BUG Delver deck:

Creatures (16) 3 Dark Confidant 4 Deathrite Shaman 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Tarmogoyf 1 True-Name Nemesis Spells (26) 3 Abrupt Decay 4 Brainstorm 4 Daze 2 Disfigure 3 Force of Will 3 Spell Pierce 3 Stifle 4 Ponder Lands (18) 4 Flooded Strand 4 Scalding Tarn 3 Tropical Island 3 Underground Sea 4 Wasteland

Sideboard (15) 1 Pithing Needle 1 Winter Orb 1 Divert 1 Flusterstorm 1 Force of Will 1 Go for the Throat 1 Murderous Cut 2 Surgical Extraction 1 Vendilion Clique 1 Maelstrom Pulse 2 Marsh Casualties 2 Thoughtseize

View the 2015 Players’ Championship coverage here.

Winner’s Circle

So out of these three major events since the banning of Dig Through Time (or unbanning of Black Vise if you choose to view it that way), we see the cumulative Top 8s as such:

• 4 Grixis Delver
• 3 Storm
• 3 Miracles
• 2 Lands*
• 2 Shardless BUG
• 2 Elves
• 2 Death and Taxes
• 1 BUG Delver*
• 1 Merfolk
• 1 RUG Delver
• 1 Reanimator
• 1 Aluren
• 1 4c Loam*

*denotes a win

So, in conclusion? Well, I think the apt saying is “the more things change, the more things stay the same.” While OmniTell has undoubtedly been pushed out of the metagame, Shardless BUG is back after Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time were the better card advantage engines.

How do you think these results and bannings will affect Arizona’s metagame? The only way to find out is to attend the Gilbert City Championships on January 9th at Desert Sky Games! View the fact sheet here.

Hope to see you all there,

Jason Abong

@mtgtwin1 on Twitter