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Far Wanderings: Legacy’s Allure

Hello and welcome back to another article of Far Wanderings! Today we will go through one of Magic’s oldest and powerful formats:Legacy! Together with it’s variety, certain misconceptions of the format as well as the cost of it as a whole. 

The main reason why Far Wanderings is on the topic of Legacy today is due to the fact I’ve been thinking a lot about Legacy. Many know that Legacy is definitely not a cheap format, and I’ve been itching to get back to a 60 card constructed format for quite a while now. Firstly, I would like to talk about the misconceptions many people have with Legacy

1. Legacy is ridiculously expensive, making it the format for rich peeps/collectors to play in

2. Legacy is an unfair format where combo decks are engineered to kill opponents on Turn 1.

3. People will lose often in Legacy if they don’t play blue, since Legacy is a blue-dominated format and the game’s best Counterspells are legal in Legacy.

First off, Legacy is an expensive, but it’s not ridiculously expensive to the point where that old man who’s been playing for 20 years in your shop being the only person who can afford Legacy. Secondly, Turn-1 kills are a thing in Legacy, but not to the point where it happens everytime. Lastly, not playing Blue is not the end of playing in Legacy, the metagame is very diverse and contains many top tier decks not playing Blue or have many fair decks outside of Blue.

Most people with this mindset of Legacy are not thinking of what Legacy looks like, but more towards Vintage. Where decks cost 5 digits, Turn 1 kills are very common and the entire set of Power 9 are somewhat legal. Also, Blue is very very popular in Vintage due to the fact that Standstill/Gush/Mental Misstep are all legal in Vintage but banned in Legacy.

What is Legacy really like though?

Legacy is often a format questioned by most players by a measure of it’s worth, cost as well as variety of decks played. I’ll admit that Legacy’s meta is quite stale, and rarely changes dramatically with the release of every new set(exceptions such as Delver and Eldrazi). Thus, most players familiar with the format enjoy it due the fact it isn’t as fast-paced as Modern/Standard. They can sit back, slowly construct their deck and be extremely familiar with different matchups. Decks in Legacy are also very well known for not having an expiry date on them, making the format worth the money for many players. 

Despite it’s stale metagame, Legacy is much more diverse than you think. There would normally be a couple of usual suspects in the format, Miracles, Death and Taxes, Storm and Delver variants just to name a few, but Legacy has a habit repeatedly seen in the past where decks not seen very often do well in events. This is due to the fact that a large amount of decks, although not very well known, have the same power level as the Top Tier decks. It’s mostly a matter of being at the right time, attacking the meta when it least expects or prepared for it. 

Legacy also is also home to many many strong Blue cards that people love/hate to play. However, there are many many decks that perform very well despite not having Blue:

A fine example of certain Tier decks not playing Blue:

Death and Taxes

Eldrazi

4C Loam

Elves

Not playing Blue does not necessarily put any player at a disadvantage in Legacy, but more of a good challenge to me :)

Legacy’s cost

I mentioned earlier about Legacy being not as costly as Vintage. It is however very costly for players who don’t have a huge collection or a lot of money. One reason why Legacy is still in the region of 4 digits or high 3 digits to play is due to the Dual Lands. 

Dual Lands are extremely important in Legacy. This is mainly because they are fetchable and unlike Shocklands, they require no life to use straightaway. However, there are a few other lands that really cost you to cut a fair bit of your wallet.

The bad part is that all these lands(small exception for Wasteland) share the same problems with one another, and that is they are all on the Reserved List. They would probably not see a reprint again and when the demand increases on cards with low supply, so does their price tag.

Most of the other staples in the format cost $100 a playset at the most, but lands tend to cost way more than that $100 mark :/

Good tips to get started in Legacy

The following tips are meant for new players tempted to start in Legacy. although I’m not a Legacy player, these are tips that have been passed down for many years are definitely useful for any new player getting into the format today.

1. Save $$$

Now this might sound like something like kid’s advice, but believe me - saving money is a really huge part of getting started in Legacy, a good way to do so would be making a change jar or committing to dip $30-$60 a month into your “Legacy Fund”.Another small piece of advice following this up would be to avoid spending money on cards not related to your “Legacy Fund”, as this delays a lot in your entry into Legacy.

2. Proxy/Playtest online

Decks in Legacy are by no means cheap, but proxying a deck before buying the actual pieces for it in Paper provides valuable understanding of the deck as a whole. The same applies to playtesting a deck on an online platform such as Xmage or Cockatrice. Proxying saves a lot of money and provides invaluable experience for new/experienced players looking to build any Legacy deck.

3. Borrow decks

Borrowing decks is quite a common sight in today’s standards. It provides a hands-on experience for many new players, for those unsure on what deck to play, borrowing decks might be a good idea. Another upside of borrowing decks would be the fact that you have an actual deck to participate at your store’s Legacy tourney, this would give you a better understanding of your store’s metagame as well as the strengths/weaknesses of other decks in the format. It also opens you up to playgroups/communities who enjoy playing Legacy :D

4. Budget Replacements

Although I wouldn’t highly recommend this tip, it does seem to work for different people/decks sometimes. One fine example would be replacing Duals with Shocks. Although not ideal for some decks due to land flexibility or the life loss makes it risky, Shocks do save a lot of money and players can find themselves upgrading to Duals later. 

Conclusion/What I’m building 

That is all for today’s Far Wanderings, Legacy is a very fun, powerful and explosive format. Most experienced players would often describe it as Magic’s greatest format and that it brings a lot of nostalgia to different people. Despite it’s cost and slow movement, Legacy somehow manages to intrigue players both old and new to the format. As for me, I’ve also decided to dive into the format with a more straightforward approach.

Yes..it is Legacy Burn! I can’t really afford the staples in the format as a student, but Burn is a good place to start for anyone on a smaller budget as well as throwing fire at people’s faces :D

Once again, thank you for reading this week’s Far Wanderings, do share what decks you enjoy playing most in Legacy, and I’ll catch you later!