So this is REAL Magic?

Legacy players will tell you that playing Legacy is “proper” Magic – a meta-game so vast as to be totally unpredictable from one tournament to another.  Some games can last as long as a normal standard game but many are over in 3 or 4 turns with a good opening hand.

I’m not a Legacy player – I feel I ought to be, but I used to play standard before there was such a thing and half the cards I used to play against in "standard" are banned in Legacy (Balance anyone).  Also to build a competitive Legacy deck will cost you a lot of money, the mana base alone will set you back £1,000!

Apparently these are expensive - especially if the border is black!

The traditional decks for legacy are quite different from those you will see every other month at FNM and have such titles as Stoneblade, Merfolk, Elves, Goblins, Dredge etc.  They play some of the most broken cards ever, Stone Forge Mystic, Sensei’s Divining Top, Force of Will, Wasteland, original dual lands and many more.  Each time a new set is produced each deck gets better and better toys to play with and gets tweaked accordingly.

So I can counter your s*!t with no mana on turn one - boy it sucks to be you...

So what has this got to do with FNM Relax I hear you ask?  When discussing the idea of FNM Relax with Jim Freeman there were two main goals I had in mind; to offer a genuine alternative to the current FNM (now FNM Elite) with regards of the diversity of formats and therefore chances to play cards and to make it as inclusive as possible.  People like playing with all the cards in their collection.  Legacy gives you the chance to do that.  Apart from the banned list everything goes, its Bob the Builder Magic – can you play it?  Yes you can!  It’s quite hard to get banned in Legacy, mainly as it is a format full to the brim with horribly broken cards already that a turn 2/3 Batterskull is not the end of the world (though might well be the end of the game).

Turn 2 seems fair, not!

Being FNM Relax I don’t expect to see people with full play sets of Wasteland or any of the dual lands or even a turn 3 combo which wins the game, the idea behind this format is for people to play the kind of decks that they play round the kitchen table without having to worry weather this card or that card is legal.

I have a deck.  I played it in standard up to rotation last October and it is really fun to play.  I’m not so sure it is always great fun to play against but it is great fun to watch it go off!  It involves the Eldrazi, and no it is not Eldrazi green although it does have green in it.  It also has 2 copies of Jace the Mind Sculptor in it. 

Nobody loves me - I'm so misunderstood!

As Mike Boon is so want to tell me Jace, TMS is not a “casual” card, I feel Mike thinks that casual is the same as "bad" - I disagree.  Just because you play casual or kitchen table magic does not mean that you want to play bad cards or that you don’t play any good ones.  Jace, TMS is one of the best cards that have ever been made in the history of MTG.  He has 4 abilities, 3 of which are really good effects that you want to use every turn especially his 0 ability to draw 3 put 2 back (Brainstorm) which is pretty much what I use him for exclusively in my deck. 

Great card - even better planeswalker ability!

Jace, TMS is a mythic rare and was banned for the last few months he was in standard because he was too good, as was Stone Forge Mystic.  Did I go out and pay £200 for a play set of Jace, TMS – no.  I was lucky enough to open him at the World Wake Pre-Release and then traded one off of my son (I owned half of it anyway in fact) for my share of 3 Vengevines. 

Vengie smash kill, have good time, no?

So my 2 copies of Jace, TMS come form trading and opening boosters – the 2 most common ways for casual players to get cards.  Casual players will happily play the most hideous of cards because they opened one in a booster, what they wont do is pay huge amounts of money for these cards either because they can’t afford it or they are just not that bothered.  Matthew played Ajani, Caller of the Pride in his Standard deck last week because it is a good card that he got in a booster.  Apparently making 39 2/2 cats against Esper mid range is good by the way...

How am I looking?  I'm looking good!

It may well be prudent at this point to actually look at the deck list and talk about what it does and how the cards in it have a strong synergy together.

Blue-Green Eldrazi Death Machine (Legacy)

This is actually a slightly earlier build of the deck...

4 Misty Rain forest

4 Eldrazi Temple

1 Eye of Ugin

2 Scalding Tarn

2 Verdant Catacomb

5 Island

7 Forest

25 Lands

1 Kozilek, the Butcher of Truth

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

1 Ulamog, The Infinite Gyre

4 Lotus Cobra

2 Primeval Titan

4 Birds Of Paradise

3 Fauna Shaman

3 Oracle of Mul Daya

1 Djinn of Wishes
_________________________________________________________________________
20 Creatures

2 Jace The Mind Sulptor
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
2 Time Warp
1 Temporal Mastery
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Pre-ordain
3 Explore
1 Omniscience
1 Genesis Wave
_________________________________________________________________________
15 Spells

Sideboard

3 Spellskite
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Vengevine
1 Conundrum Sphinx
1 Time Reversal
1 Tamiyo, the moon sage
1 Temporal Mastery 
1 Genesis Wave
1 Jace's Archivist
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter

This deck can look quite odd until you see it in action and understand what it does.  It basically has no interaction with the opponent and attempts to ramp at high speed into hard casting Eldrazi which then win you the game (play Emrakul - win).  It is very different from the traditional Eldrazi Ramp decks that were popular before rotation and does not try to trick Emrakul into play using something like Show and Tell or through the breach.

Never was a flavour text so fitting!

It does actually need to protect itself from really aggressive decks which is why the spellskites are in the sideboard.  Tamiyo is also a great card for slowing your opponent down and buying you the time you need to play the big three. 

All your bases belong to us!

If you can get a couple of Lotus Cobra into play and get them to stay there it does this really neat trick with a genesis wave.

Do not be fooled - I am the mana dork of your dreams...

Each land you hit with genesis wave comes into play giving a landfall trigger to your Lotus Cobras and making you lots of mana.  Add that to the fact that sac-lands can be used to fetch more lands with more landfall triggers and an 8 point Genesis wave can easily net you 12 mana to play something else afterwards.  This deck is immense fun to play and is quite fun to watch as it takes 2 turns in a row and does lots during each of them.  FNM Relax is all about having fun and playing your cards so brew up something crazy and come play some slightly more chilled Legacy on Friday 3rd August 2012 at Patriot Games Sheffield.  See you there...

WAIT!  You can't have an article about Legacy without me!  I AM LEGACY!!!