Legacy has been on my mind quite a bit recently. I played in the StarCityGames Legacy Open in Baltimore last Sunday, and I posted a 6–3 record with Esper Deathblade. Lacking a fair amount of playtesting definitely cost me a match, and potential deck-building errors cost me the other two (leaving out Lingering Souls and playing a mirror match in which my opponent had it and I did not).

Past that, I think the new legend rule significantly changes how a lot of Legacy games will play out in the near future.

The first question I would ask: What are some of the cards that gain a tremendous value that aren’t legendary or planeswalkers? Vindicate being a flexible answer to virtually any permanent in Legacy makes it attractive to see what decks it can go in.

I think the most obvious shell is an update of Dark Maverick.

"Updated Dark Maverick"

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 4 Dark Confidant
• 4 Deathrite Shaman
• 4 Knight of the Reliquary
• 4 Mother of Runes
• 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

• Spells (16)
• 3 Swords to Plowshares
• 3 Vindicate
• 4 Green Sun's Zenith
• 4 Thoughtseize
• 2 Umezawa's Jitte

• Lands (23)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Plains
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 1 Scrubland
• 2 Bayou
• 2 Marsh Flats
• 3 Savannah
• 3 Verdant Catacombs
• 4 Wasteland
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 1 Karakas

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Vindicate
• 1 Life from the Loam
• 1 Gaddock Teeg
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Progenitus
• 4 Natural Order
• 4 Cabal Therapy
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 1 Swords to Plowshares

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A few things to note here: Progenitus is also a somewhat big winner here, especially with the downswing of W/U Miracles as a prominent deck. However, I would rather not have the Natural Order package in the main deck, but I do want it in post-boarded games against any fair deck (minus the ones that play Perish or Supreme Verdict).

Vindicate also works very well in conjunction with Wasteland to lock people out entirely of a single color, and it’s also a great catch-all. However, you cannot realistically run more than three Vindicates in your main deck because it is a slow card.

Another deck that has traditionally run Vindicate (and might want more) is Esper Stoneforge.

"Updated Esper Stoneforge"

• Creatures (7)
• 3 Snapcaster Mage
• 4 Stoneforge Mystic

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

• Spells (27)
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 3 Force of Will
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Supreme Verdict
• 2 Lingering Souls
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 3 Vindicate
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 1 Umezawa's Jitte

• Lands (23)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Island
• 1 Scrubland
• 2 Marsh Flats
• 3 Tundra
• 3 Underground Sea
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Karakas

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Force of Will
• 1 Disenchant
• 3 Rest in Peace
• 3 Geist of Saint Traft
• 1 Restoration Angel
• 2 Vendilion Clique
• 2 Cabal Therapy
• 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1 Perish

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Another important thing to note that might not be obvious now is that the Esper Stoneforge mirror might be more about board presence now, given the new rule for Jace, the Mind Sculptor. I expect a common situation to be: Both players have Batterskulled Germ in play while one player has a Jace in play. The other player takes his turn and unsummons the other player’s Germ to be able to attack Jace. So, a new line of play (that harkens back to the Caw-Blade eras of board presence) is to aggressively unsummon the Germ preemptively.

Another thought that comes to mind is: The real winners of the new legend rule are combo decks. Vindicate and slow answers (Oblivion Ring and the like) do nothing to combo decks.

And the new kid on the block is Omni-Clash.

"Omni-Clash by Drew Levin"

• Creatures (1)
• 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

• Spells (39)
• 3 Cunning Wish
• 3 Pact of Negation
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Force of Will
• 2 Gitaxian Probe
• 4 Enter the Infinite
• 4 Ponder
• 4 Preordain
• 4 Show and Tell
• 3 Dream Halls
• 4 Omniscience

• Lands (20)
• 10 Island
• 2 Misty Rainforest
• 4 City of Traitors
• 4 Scalding Tarn

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Defense Grid
• 4 Leyline of Sanctity
• 1 Intuition
• 1 Pact of Negation
• 1 Release the Ants
• 1 Rushing River
• 1 Sapphire Charm
• 1 Slaughter Pact
• 1 Trickbind
• 1 Eladamri's Call

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Looking at this deck, it is not completely obvious how to win the game.

The general game plan is to put Dream Halls or Omniscience into play (either via Show and Tell or by reaching 5 mana to cast Dream Halls). Once that happens, you cast Enter the Infinite to draw your entire deck, placing Emrakul, the Aeons Torn on top of your deck. You can then cast a bunch of backup Omnisciences and then proceed to cast Cunning Wish for Release the Ants. Assuming the opponent does not have a 15-drop (or something that costs more), you can cast Release the Ants as many times as needed to kill him or her.

If the opponent has Thalia, Guardian of Thraben out, you can set up a scenario in which you put Omniscience into play with 2 additional mana available and play Cunning Wish (+1 mana) for Eladamri's Call (+1 mana) for Emrakul.

The other main attraction of this deck is that Wasteland is not very good against it (it only has four City of Traitors as targets, and they often suicide themselves anyway on the critical turn).

Another build of this deck plays Research // Development and Laboratory Maniac in the ’board, but I don’t think that’s very good since it eats up another sideboard slot, and it only digs you out of a few corner-case situations that are unlikely to come up.

I am very excited to see what happens in upcoming Legacy events with the new rule. Lands with Thespian's Stage and Dark Depths fixes some of the problems I had with Lands before (being a slow deck to win with).

Thanks for reading, and I would appreciate any comments here or on Twitter @jkyu06.