Welcome all to another edition of Forcing the Will! This week I will be covering some important changes to the Banned and Restricted List and what this means to you especially you Reanimator and Ad Nauseam players out there. I will also be covering the current online Legacy meta showing which decks are doing well along with statistics for winning decks.
Let’s begin with some important news for Legacy players. The biggest news of the week is that WOTC (Wizards of the Coast) updated the Legacy Banned and Restricted List which can be found here. There are some major changes associated with the Banned and Restricted List let’s take a closer look at what’s going on.
Announcement Date: June 18, 2010
Effective Date: July 1, 2010
Magic Online Effective Date: July 14, 2010 (after the scheduled downtime)
Legacy
Mystical Tutor is banned.
Grim Monolith is no longer banned.
Illusionary Mask is no longer banned.
When I first saw this announcement I was rather shocked to see the list. I wasn’t expecting Mystical Tutor to get banned with this announcement, and after hearing this announcement the Legacy community was in an absolute uproar asking for an explanation. The week following the announcement WotC provided an explanation as to why they chose to ban Mystical Tutor which can be found here. Let me start of by saying that when I first entered the Legacy format I often wondered why Mystical Tutor wasn’t banned, for it was clearly a better version of Vampiric Tutor in many decks. Over time I came to accept the ruling and began to play decks that utilized it, and I was able to realize that the card was good but not absolutely broken as I first thought.
I believe WOTC’s explanation while understandable is not correct. Tom LaPille stated this in his article:
When we saw the Grand Prix—Madrid finals decks, a few of us got worried, jumped onto Magic Online, and started playing some Legacy with them. We were terrified by what we found. Although we were playing in the tournament practice room, which is hardly the same thing as a real tournament environment, we weren’t losing very many matches with either Reanimator or Ad Nauseam. In my case, I don’t recall losing any matches with either deck outside of a misclick while I was still learning the Ad Nauseam deck. The decks were just so strong that opponents not set up in their maindecks or that didn’t sideboard heavily against us couldn’t compete.
While both Reanimator and Ad Nauseam are strong decks basing a ban partly on results of games played in the tournament practice room isn’t a strong or valid argument. I play many games in the tournament practice room and I can safely say that the majority of the decks I face in the tournament practice room are not the same caliber as the decks I face in Legacy events. I have both played and faced these decks in many tournaments, and both decks can easily to beaten. If WOTC was trying to stop turn one wins in Legacy Mystical Tutor isn’t the card they should be worried about. Ad Nauseam Storm (ANT) will still be going off on Turn 1 fairly regularly without the help of Mystical Tutor, and will continue to be a contender in Legacy.
While many decks take a blow from this banning Reanimator takes the biggest hit of them all. Reanimator used Mystical to find key cards to enable the deck to successfully go off, or to be able to find an answer against an opponent’s set up. Reanimator utilized Mystical Tutor to help find single cards in the deck that were used to bounce an opponents permanent such as Leyline of the Void or to cheat a creature from their hand into play with Show and Tell. Regardless, the ban is in place and isn’t going anywhere so what can we do to replace Mystical Tutor in our decks? While there isn’t a card in Legacy that is equally as powerful as Mystical ,there is a wide range of options for a replacement. Let’s take a look at some options and what they can do for Legacy decks that used Mystical Tutor.
Personal Tutor — The first card that came to mind when I thought about a replacement for Mystical . It has the same cost as Mystical, but it has a few drawbacks. Personal Tutor is a sorcery making it less useful. The nice part about Mystical is that you could sit back on a fetchland and wait till the end of your opponents turn to cast it as to not give away which deck you were playing on your first few turns. The second downside to this card is that it can only tutor up a sorcery card whereas Mystical could target both sorcery and instant spells. This could potentially be added to Reanimator, but the card doesn’t get key cards such as Entomb, Force of Will, Chain of Vapors, and [card]Rushing River[card]. Overall I think this card will be a decent replacement, but not anything exceptional only time will tell how this card will perform.
Infernal Tutor — This card is an awesome in combination with Lion’s Eye Diamond making it a 4 of Demonic Tutor in Legacy. This card is already being run in Ad Nauseam Storm (ANT) as a 2 or 3 of, but now that Mystical Tutor is removed from the deck I believe that ANT should run 4 copies allowing the deck to have as many low-cost tutors as possible. Adding more copies of Ad Nauseam is not a great option for ANT since the deck doesn’t want to reveal a 5 mana spell. Infernal Tutor is definitely a 4 of in ANT now.
Grim Tutor — A more expensive version of Demonic Tutorat 1 generic and 2 Black mana as well as 3 life to get any card you want. The card is a bit too slow for Reanimator, but could fit into ANT. The downside with ANT is that you don’t want to lose life so that you can draw into more spells off your Ad Nauseam. The card could possibly work in Reanimator if the deck went back to using Dark Rituals. Grim Tutor would definitely have a bigger impact on the format if it wasn’t for the restricting casting cost and if the card was an instant instead of a sorcery. Being able to sit back until it’s your opponent’s turn to cast Grim Tutor would make it a better choice for Reanimator. Like Personal Tutor only time will show whether or not Grim Tutor will be a solid replacement for Mystical Tutor.
Beseech the Queen — Similar to Grim Tutor but with an even greater restricted mana cost, and that you can only fetch cards with mana costs equal or less than the number of lands you control. The combination of these two drawbacks makes Beseech the Queen extremely difficult to fit into most Legacy decks. I believe it won’t be replacing Mystical in any decks anytime soon.
Intuition — A card that already sees play in multiple Legacy decks and for good reason. With an easy casting cost of 2 generic and 1 Blue Mana you can sit back until the end of your opponent’s turn to cast it and search your deck for 3 of the same cards if you wanted to have a 100% guarantee to get that card placed in your hand. The only downside about that is that if your opponent manages to counter the spell you fetched you’ll only have 1 copy of that card left in your library and that’s if you were running 4 of them. While I think this card is great it’ll definitely have a hard time fitting into both Reanimator and ANT decks, but I do think Intuition will find its way into more Legacy decks.
Show and Tell — Not so much a replacement for most decks, but Reanimator can add more of these to the maindeck making Reanimator more of a Reanimator/Show and Tell hybrid. Show and Tell decks already run 4 of these so Reanimator would be the only deck I see replacing Mystical Tutor with Show and Tell. Reanimator runs a lone copy, but now that Mystical Tutor is gone 1 Show and Tell won’t be a good enough option against graveyard hate that an opponent already has on the board.
Buried Alive — Another deck specific card for Reanimator. Buried Alive is basically a triple Entomb just for creatures, but I don’t think Reanimator will be adding it as a replacement for Mystical. Buried Alive just doesn’t do enough to make it an efficient replacement, but as always I won’t disregard any card just because I don’t think it’s the best option.
Strategic Planning — A decent card that has been played for many years, but since Ponder was printed the card has seen less and less play. The card does seem to be decent in Reanimator as another copy of Careful Study with the addition of costing 1 more generic mana, but at the same time drawing 1 more card. I think Ponder will be a better option for most deck vs. Strategic Planning, but I think it fits better in Reanimator.
Lim-Duls Vault — Fitting strictly in decks that run both Blue and Black this card is going to impact Legacy more than before. Vault fits into both Reanimator and ANT as a way to tutor up any card on top of your library, but at the cost of life and gambling what 5 cards you will see over and over again. I believe this will be decent filler, but at the same time not a perfect replacement for Mystical Tutor.
Burning Wish — An old time favorite in Storm decks being able to fetch any sorcery card from your sideboard. I believe this card will see some play, but isn’t the answer for Reanimator decks. Burning Wish sees play in Belcher as well as Loam decks, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this card show up in ANT decks. Pick up your copy while they are cheap if you haven’t already.
Cunning Wish — A wish card that lets you retrieve any instant from your sideboard and bring it into your hand. For Reanimator this card could prove as a useful way to set 1 of cards into your sideboard and allow you to fetch any instant you need to combat your opponent. In ANT Cunning Wish will allow you to fetch an Ad Nauseam from your sideboard.
Ponder — A card that already sees major play in Legacy. Being able to see the top 3 cards of your library and manipulate them drawing the 1 card you want or shuffling your library and taking a gamble draw is quite useful. It allows you to dig into cards you need and if by chance there is nothing useful you can shuffle the cards away and reset the top of your library. This card is most certainly a strong replacement for Mystical Tutor, but not nearly as powerful. I expect to see both Reanimator and ANT builds trying this card out as a replacement.
Senseis Divining Top — This card fits into any deck and at a convenient mana cost of 1. Top allows you to manipulate your library to aid you in drawing the cards you need. This card is especially useful in combinations of shuffle effects such as the fetchlands. I could easily see Top appearing in more decks as a way to help get the cards players need in order to win. Some versions of Reanimator and ANT already play Top, but now I expect to see even more Tops in these versions of the decks.
Doomsday — A card that fits into ANT decks as an addition way to finish your opponents. This card already sees play in ANT decks, but ANT could be adding another copy into the deck to be more consistent with the Doomsday combo.
Ill-Gotten Gains — Already played in ANT decks this weak version of Yawgmoth’s Will will more than likely not be seeing more than 1 additional copy in the deck. As stated before ANT doesn’t want to lose large amounts of life with higher mana cost spells.
Dispel — Not necessarily a replacement card, but rather a protection card. Adding this card will help Reanimator and ANT have more options to protect themselves from counters as well as ways to counter opponents other spells such as Ad Nauseam. Like I said Dispel is not a replacement, but is a strong maindeck option.
Merchant Scroll — Similar to Personal Tutor for Blue instants, but instead of going on top of your library the card in placed directly into your hand. The card is also more restrictive being that you can only tutor up a Blue instant spell and a mana cost of 1 generic 1 Blue mana. I don’t see this card being a useful card in Reanimator or ANT.
The last 2 changes to the Banned and Restricted List are that both Grim Monolith and Illusionary Mask are both unbanned. Monolith is the card I am most excited to see unbanned, for it is useful in a variety of decks. I do wonder about the timing of this unbanning since we just receive Urza’s Legacy online. I often wonder if this was a way to spark more interest in the set to gain more sales, for the same thing happened with ME2 with Necropotence being unrestricted at the beginning of sales.
Regardless of conspiracies , Grim Monolith combos well with Voltaic Key as a way to get extra mana to cast those expensive spells such as Gifts Ungiven, Fact or Fiction, or any other spell that uses 3 or more generic mana. Tezzeret the Seeker decks will be the decks benefiting the most from this unbanning, and I expect to see players trying to find a way to abuse Monolith in their decks over the next few weeks.
On a smaller note Illusionary Mask was unbanned, but I don’t expect to see it warping the format anytime soon. Mask is used to cheat cards like Phyrexian Dreadnought into play, but why go through the hassle when we already have Stifle that does that for us already at a cheaper cost with the ability to help us out against our opponents as well. Regardless I would suggest picking up your copies of Illusionary Mask while they are cheap just in case.
Moving on lets take a quick look at the Legacy Daily Events that have fired since we last looked at the online Legacy metagame.
(4-0) UBgw Landstill
(3-1) Merfolk
(3-1) Ad Nauseam Storm (ANT)
(3-1) Bant (Natural Order)
(3-1) Zoo
(3-1) UB Merfolk
(4-0) Zoo
(3-1) UB Merfolk
(3-1) Zoo
(3-1) Reanimator
(3-1) Merfolk
(4-0) Thopter/Counterbalance
(3-1) Ad Nauseam Storm (ANT)
(3-1) Zoo
(3-1) Zoo
(3-1) Ad Nauseam Storm (ANT)
(3-1) New Horizon
(4-0) Zoo
(3-1) Red Deck Wins (RDW)
(3-1) UB Merfolk
(3-1) Ad Nauseam Storm (ANT)
(3-1) Thopter/Counterbalance
(3-1) Zoo
(4-0) Reveillark
(3-1) Death and Taxes (DnT)
(3-1) Survival Bant
(3-1) UGr Thresh
(3-1) UB Merfolk
(3-1) BG Deadguy Ale
(3-1) UW Merfolk
(3-1) Zoo
(4-0) UBgw Landstill
(4-0) Goblins
(3-1) Death and Taxes (DnT)
(3-1) UGr Thresh
(3-1) Ad Nauseam Storm (ANT)
(3-1) New Horizon
(4-0) UW Mefolk
(4-0) UBr Thresh
(3-1) Show and Tell
(3-1) Zoo
(3-1) Zoo
(3-1) Death and Taxes (DnT)
(3-1) UB Merfolk
(4-0) Zoo
(3-1) Survival Naya
(3-1) Goblins
(3-1) UBgw Landstill
(3-1) RB Goblins
(3-1) Aluren
(3-1) Survival Bant
(3-1) Zoo
(4-0) New Horizon
(3-1) UGr Thresh
(3-1) UGr Thresh
(3-1) Goblins
(3-1) Bant
(4-0) Ad Nauseam Storm (ANT)
(4-0) New Horizon
(3-1) Survival Bant
(3-1) Zoo
(3-1) Astral Slide
(3-1) Zoo
(3-1) UGr Thresh
(3-1) New Horizon
Now let’s break down this information and see which decks are performing well.
Top winning Legacy Decks
Deck Wins Percentage of Wins
1. Zoo 14 21.54%
2. Merfolk 9 13.85%
3. Ad Nauseam Storm (ANT) 6 9.23%
4. Thresh 6 9.23%
5. Bant (3 Survival Builds) 5 7.69%
6. New Horizon 5 7.69%
7. Goblins 4 6.15%
8. Landstill 3 4.61%
9. Death and Taxes (DnT) 3 4.61%
10. Thopter/Counterbalance 2 3.08%
11. Aluren 1 1.54%
12. Astral Slide 1 1.54%
13. Deadguy Ale 1 1.54%
14. Reanimator 1 1.54%
15. Red Deck Winds (RDW) 1 1.54%
16. Reveillark 1 1.54%
17. Show and Tell 1 1.54%
18. Survival Naya 1 1.54%
Total Decks: 65
Zoo and Merfolk are holding their spots from last time at roughly the same percentage of game wins. This should be a clear sign that these decks are winning at a constant rate, but that could also mean that players are playing these decks more than any other deck. These two decks are very solid decks in the format, and will be getting a boost from the banning of Mystical Tutor. It’s clear that Zoo is the most played deck in the format right now and rightfully so as the deck has been constantly winning Legacy events. It’s safe to say that both Zoo and Merfolk are strong options to play in Legacy events for the time being. If you are planning on playing Reanimator or ANT get in those Legacy events before the Mystical Tutor ban goes into effect on July 14, 2010.
That’s all the time we have for today folks. I have been out of town for the last month working on a job site, and I will continue to provide videos and decktechs when I return home this week. I hope you found this article insightful and useful on the new Banned and Restricted List changes as well as an idea of what’s going on in the Legacy Daily events. As always I appreciate any comments and feedback both positive and negative, and until next time may the Force of Will be with you!
Owen Robbins
Nice long list of posssible options for replacement cards. I also find the banning of Mystic a bit random. Though the other 2 cards I can see why.
Nice in depth article, keep them coming
a lot of those cards just cant compare at all with mystical tutor, i am interested in seeing what happens at PT amdsterdam.
i think having 1-2 copies of illusionary mask in the stiflenought decks would be good for when you cant find stifle, and it stays on the board so you can use stifle for something else if need be. seems like it would be nice in a deck such as conley’s from this past SCG 5k, which could benefit from an onboard dreadnought through mosswort bridge too
@ SaiDes: Thanks for the positive feedback glad you’re enjoying the articles. I look forward to doing more
@ Aznsilly: There isn’t any card that can match Mystical Tutor in Legacy at the moment, but rest assured these decks are not dead. We just have to watch the meta and see what is performing well. I did see a Dreadnought deck running mosswort bridges, but I don’t think Dreadnought is as good as it used to be. The artifact hate is everywhere even Zoo has maindeck Pridemages which makes it hard when so many players are running Zoo, but we’ll see what happens.
The Tom LaPille explanation is pretty lame especially when looking at your list of winning decks and seeing bth Zoo and Merfolk on top, neither of which run Mystical Tutor…
nice report, I see zoo is taking over legacy
You said to pick up mask while they are still cheap??? Have you seen the price of them!!? I think mask is a bad investment. Price tripled and has no where to go but down. It is not a good enough card to change any decks. I mean people will play around with it and maybe it will find a top 8 but eventually people will realize it is bad. Grim monolith on the other hand is a good buy even at its inflated price. That card will see lots of play and top 8s
This was a nice sum-up and I agree with most of it. I look forward to seeing how things change and what all happens, although i doubt *too* much will change.
I’m not too sad about the change, because lsv and other pro’s have mentioned that ‘if you’re not Tendrils or Reanimator, you’re doing it wrong’. This ought to shake that up a little.
@ ShardFenix: Exactly what I thought when I saw the announcement myself, but he did offer some valid arguments in his article as well.
@: Milkshake75: I wouldn’t necessarily say its taking over, but it’s relatively cheap to build and very successful. If you remember last month Death and Taxes was taking over and totally dropped off the radar for a few weeks. With time decks rotate depending on the meta.
@: zach5000: True they were about .30 before the announcement they are $1.00 now. That’s still very cheap in my book when looking at cards in Legacy. I was able to find foils for 1.00 each so its not hard to find them at all for cheap. Like I said in my article I don’t think Mask will be seeing much constructed play, but spending 2-4 bucks for a playset isn’t going to sink you in the hole. Grom Monolith on the other hand is still a bit overprices IMO, but will have a much larger impact than mask. I picked mine up already and suggest others do the same.
@ Zage: Thanks there are still many viable options for replacements, but I wanted to cover enough of the big contenders to give people and idea that the decks are by no means dead. I expected Tutor to get banned eventually it was only a matter of time. I will be expecting a lot more Zoo, Merfolk, New Horizon, and Landstill decks.