Hello and welcome to another edition of Forcing the Will.  Today I am going to break down the top played decks as well as show which decks are winning in this crazy Meta as well as my deck of choice for this upcoming week.  Sadly I am not able to present any type of video for you guys for two reasons.  Number one I won’t have my account back until Monday, and Number Two my Uncle passed away in a tragic accident this week and I was not feeling well enough to make a video.  So plan on seeing more Legacy videos next time around!

So let’s start out by examining the most played decks in the Meta.  Since MTGO tends to be more accessible than paper it is not surprise that the Meta has been shifting around like crazy.  Each week brings new results and new decks to battle the winning decks of the previous week which gives us a Meta that shifts around much more than paper.  Also, Legacy players online don’t have all the tools that paper players have in Legacy so some decks are nonexistent online, but with time we will be able to acquire all the tools needed to mirror paper.  Here is the list of the top 10 decks played in Legacy at the moment:

Top 10 decks played in Legacy

1. Goblins

2. Death and Taxes (DnT)

3. Countertop

4. Zoo

5. Ad Nauseaum Storm (ANT)

6. Reanimator

7. Dredge

8. Merfolk

9. Landstill

10. Thopter

Looking through the Top 10 list it becomes apparent that the top played archetype in the format are still aggro decks.  This should come as no surprise as these decks are usually the cheapest decks in the format to build; however, this doesn’t mean that these Aggro decks should be underestimated by any means.  Aggro decks can pack a powerfully fast punch to the face and if they are not dealt with immediately they can easily overwhelm an opponent, and can hinder certain decks such as Ad Nauseam Storm or even Reanimator where life is essential for casting their spells.  Control decks take the next spot in the format, and that shouldn’t be a surprise either seeing as how ANT and Reanimator have been major contenders as of late.  These Control decks become very powerful as the game goes on, and if Aggro or Combo decks aren’t able to do the job in the first 4-5 turns then the outcome is largely in favor of the Control deck.  Shortly behind Control we have our Combo decks which are sitting about midfield at the moment.  Initially when Legacy began online I thought that these combo deck would be the deck of choice, but as history shows it was not the case.  The Combo decks did however become more played further into the season, but they have been struggling a bit these last few weeks.

Next up we have a list of all the tournaments that have taken place from 5/4/2010 to 5/12/2010. We will cover the decks that have won prizes in these tournaments as well as breakdown the top performing decks from this time period.

Legacy Daily – 5/4/2010

(4-0) Landstill

(3-1) Dredge

(3-1) Death and Taxes

(3-1) Thopter

(3-1) Reanimator

(3-1) Thopter/Painter

(3-1) UGR Control

Legacy Daily – 5/4/2010

(4-0) Death and Taxes

(3-1) Zoo

(3-1) Ad Nauseam Storm

(3-1) Bant Aggro

(3-1) Zoo

(3-1) Bant Aggro

(3-1) Ad Nauseam Storm

Legacy Daily – 5/6/2010

(4-0) Aggro Loam

(3-1) Goblins

(3-1) Red Deck Wins

(3-1) Landstill

(3-1) Aggro Loam

(3-1) CounterTop

Legacy Daily – 5/6/2010

(4-0) Zoo

(3-1) Astral Slide

(3-1) Landstill

(3-1) Death and Taxes

(3-1) Thopter/Landstill

Legacy Daily – 5/7/2010

(4-0) Red Deck Wins

(3-1) Landstill

(3-1) Landstill

(3-1) CounterTop

(3-1) Death and Taxes

Legacy Daily – 5/8/2010

(4-0) Goblins

(3-1) Death and Taxes

(3-1) Goblins

(3-1) Deadguy Ale

(3-1) Landstill

Legacy Daily – 5/9/2010

(4-0) Landstill

(3-1) Zoo

(3-1) Goblins

(3-1) Bant Aggro

(3-1) Death and Taxes – Black Splash

(3-1) Zoo

Legacy Daily – 5/10/2010

(4-0) Merfolk

(3-1) Enchantress

(3-1) Show and Tell

(3-1) Landstill

(3-1) Death and Taxes

Legacy Daily  – 5/12/2010

(4-0) Landstill

(3-1) Affinity

(3-1) Astral Slide

(3-1) CounterTop

(3-1) Goblins

So what does this all mean?  Well lets break down the winning decks into a list so we can see which decks are performing well in these tournaments.

Top winning Legacy Decks

Going through the tournament results there is a deck named Landstill that has clearly been winning the most.  Now Landstill has been around for quite some time and the deck is extremely good, but one thing that is different with these newer Landstill versions from previous versions is the new tool they have acquired Jace, the Mind Sculptor.  Jace has added a new element to the Landstill deck and its impact is starting to show on the meta.  The basic concept of Landstill is to stop your opponent from playing early threats via counters and removal and dropping Mishras Factory while playing Standstill to try to make the opponent play a spell in order to refuel your hand.  If the opponent manages to kill off your Factories we have our Crucible of Worlds to bring our factories back to fight for us once we have cleared a path.  Let’s take a look at one of these Landstill decks.

Legacy Landstill

Lands (24) 4 Flooded Strand 1 Island 4 Mishras Factory 4 Polluted Delta 1 Scrubland 2 Tropical Island 2 Tundra 2 Underground Sea 4 Wasteland Spells (32) 4 Brainstorm 4 Counterspell 2 Crucible of Worlds 3 Daze 4 Force of Will 2 Innocent Blood 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 4 Pernicious Deed 3 Stifle 4 Swords to Plowshares Sideboard (15) 4 Engineered Plague 3 Hydroblast 4 Leyline of the Void 2 Mindbreak Trap 2 Tormods Crypt

Click the arrow to download the above deck in .txt format

(To load a .txt deck into Magic: Online’s Deck Editor, click “Load”, select “Local Text Deck”, find the location of the downloaded deck file and double-click the deck.)

You will notice first of all that this deck runs 0 creatures. The reason is simple and it’s what gives the deck its name Landstill. The deck uses Mishra’s Factory to attack for the win in most cases; however, Jace, the Mind Sculptor can also win the game if attacking with the Factories no longer becomes an option. Regardless the deck is great at combating all other decks in the meta. Lets break this deck down versus other archetypes!

First off Aggro is everywhere! I mean look at it the those low costing beaters are everywhere, but that shouldn’t worry Landstill as long as we have our tools at our disposal. The Aggro decks are going to try to lay some fast beats on us, but luckily for us we have a toolbox full of options against our opponents. Let’s say our opponent plays first and tries to lay down a pesky 1 mana spell such as Æther Vial we can simply pitch a card and use Force of Will to stop them from playing the threat and let us get to our turn without worry. Even if they cast a creature on Turn 1 we can wait patiently till our turn to cast a Path to Exile or an Innocent Blood. We also have our Daze and Counterspell to deal with spells we don’t want sticking around.  If the Aggro deck starts growing an army of rampant angry face smashers we can lay down a Pernicious Deed to clear the board and make our opponents cry in agony across our digital screens!  HAHA don’t you just love that I know I do.  If we are playing a deck such as Zoo we can use our Wastelands to mess with their mana.  For our sideboard we can bring in Hydroblast and Engineered Plague to help deal with their threats depending on what the opponent is playing.  For our Dredge opponents we simply board in Leyline of the Void and Tormods Crypt.

For Combo the deck is just as deadly.  We have early counters such as Force of Will, Daze, and Counterspell to stop them from combing or getting their key pieces.  We can also lay down our Standstill to refuel our hand to help combat the Combo decks.  We also have our Stifle which can kill off a storm count and leave us relatively unharmed.  From our sideboard we will more than likely be boarding in our Mindbreak Trap to kill off any type of combo they hope to cast on us.

Following in the wake of Landstill, we have 3 Aggro decks that are taking the top spots in Legacy Tournaments.  Death and Taxes has been doing especially well in the format as of late.  We have a jumbled mix of winning decks once we drop from the top 4 with different types of Control, Combo, and Aggro.  So what should a player be playing in this meta?  Well I will tell you what I will be playing as well as what deck not to play.

My deck of choice as of right now is clearly Landstill this is why I broke down the deck for you and I will be providing a video decktech for you once I get my account back on Monday.  The deck is just good against every matchup.  Looking from the list the toughest match for this deck is the mirror match, but with practice a player can easily learn how to overcome the mirror.  I do however expect players to start fighting this deck and finding answers to wreck this deck, but for now I would suggest playing it until the meta makes another shift.  BUT IT COSTS SOOOO MUCH!  Yes, I hear you.  I know the deck is expensive and I understand it isn’t in everyone’s budget so the next deck I would choose to play is Death and Taxes.  Death and Taxes has a variety of variety of tools to deal with decks and the deck is extremely cheap as Legacy decks go.  Let’s have a quick look at a deck.

Death 'n' Taxes

Creatures (24) 4 Benevolent Bodyguard 2 Burrenton Forge-Tender 4 Flickerwisp 1 Goldmeadow Harrier 3 Jotun Grunt 3 Mangara of Corondor 4 Serra Avenger 3 Stoneforge Mystic Other Spells (14) 4 Aether Vial 3 Oblivion Ring 1 Sword of Fire and Ice 1 Sword of Light and Shadow 4 Swords to Plowshares 1 Umezawas Jitte Lands (22) 4 Karakas 2 Mishras Factory 12 Plains 4 Wasteland Sideboard (15) 1 Aura of Silence 2 Enlightened Tutor 3 Ethersworn Canonist 1 Pithing Needle 1 Relic of Progenitus 2 Silence 2 Stillmoon Cavalier 1 Wheel of Sun and Moon 2 Wing Shards

Click the arrow to download the above deck in .txt format

This is a typical version of Death and Taxes.  I won’t spend time going through the deck now since I have that in store for my next article.  I will tell you that this deck has been seeing a Black splash as of late and I prefer the White/Black version of this deck over the White versions for a few reasons.  It allows you to play Dark Confidant to help restock your hand, and Tidehollow Sculler to disrupt your opponent’s strategy.  The White/Black version also allows you to add cards to the sideboard like Duress, Engineered Plague, Revenous Trap[/card], Perish, and Leyline of the Void just to name a few.  Such a White/Black version of death and taxes can be found here.

One last thing before I go: I would HIGHLY and I mean HIGHLY suggest you don’t play Dredge right now.  The deck is cheap, fast, and it wins; however, the hate for Dredge right now is all over the place.  It’s a Dredge players nightmare out there, and yes, we will get an occasional skilled/lucky Dredge player who will come out on top but it won’t be easy.  Look at the results from all the people that brought Dredge to play; only 1 was able to win money.  That should tell you something right there folks, and that is not to play Dredge until the meta has shifted or the hate has died down some.

I apologize for not taking the time to breakdown more of the decks, but rest assured I plan on covering each individual deck as I see fit.  My family has been such a mess with my Uncle’s unexpected death that it has been taxing on me, and finding time to sit down and write about Legacy with a clear mind was not easy.  I will return with my videos as well for those who like to watch the decks in action.

I would also like to take a moment and ask my readers to tell me which decks they would like for me to cover.  Granted, I won’t be able to please everyone, but if I can get an general idea from my viewers I would gladly comply.  I would also like to try something new.  I would like my viewers to e-mail me questions they may have about the format, decks, rules, cards, and just about anything else you can think of for Legacy.  I will take a question that I like and breakdown that question and try to answer it to the best of my abilities.  You can contact me at studowen@hotmail.com for now.  Please make sure you let me know you’re from MTGO ACADEMY in the title of the e-mail so I don’t discard the e-mail.  I will be setting up a new e-mail account for my viewers, but for now you can contact me there.  As always please leave any comments, insights, thoughts, ideas, or questions you have good or ill and I will do my best to answer them.

Until next time…

May the Force of Will be with you!

Owen