I don't think stompy is that different from MUD. Stompy just tries to Blood Moon you instead of 3sphere, I consider it a gimmicky deck. MUD is a much more iconic choice for a gauntlet.
Modern player here : I've dived into Legacy a couple of times with Burn, but didn't like it (played it also in Modern and sold my deck). In Modern, I run Ad Nauseam and Living End, so:
- I'm only interested in non-interactive decks.
- I'm sold on combo decks.
These are my two main criteria for building a real Legacy deck. The deck could be a non-combo deck, but it has to be non-interactive : I don't want to interact with my opponent.
My friend is running ANT and he suggested me Manaless Dredge as being the most non-interactive deck in the format.
Modern player here : I've dived into Legacy a couple of times with Burn, but didn't like it (played it also in Modern and sold my deck). In Modern, I run Ad Nauseam and Living End, so:
- I'm only interested in non-interactive decks.
- I'm sold on combo decks.
These are my two main criteria for building a real Legacy deck. The deck could be a non-combo deck, but it has to be non-interactive : I don't want to interact with my opponent.
My friend is running ANT and he suggested me Manaless Dredge as being the most non-interactive deck in the format.
Any thoughts guys? Thanks!
Due to how early Legacy decks can interact with things like Force of Will, you'll need to decide what level of interaction meets your needs. As an example of what I mean by this: Yes, ANT kills with a beautiful non-interactive combo, but it runs a lot of discard to interact with the opponent to clear the way. The more resilient the combo deck, the more it will be able to interact in order to play through the hate (hence ANT and Omnitell being two of the most resilient combo decks -- ANT has discard and Omni has countermagic).
If you want absolutely zero interaction, you're going to essentially be forced into the glass cannon decks:
-"Oops! All Spells" will flip its deck over on turn 1 with Balustrade Spy/Undercity Informerfor the kill
-Charbelcher mixes it up with Goblin Charbelcher and Empty the Warrens to kill the opponent on the first turn or make enough goblins to make it impossible for them to match your clock ("I have 16 goblins on turn one. What are you going to do before they kill you?"
-Spanish Inquisition takes Charbelcher, decides that the EtW plan isn't decisive enough and goes all in on killing on the first turn. It runs 8 Infernal Contract and kills with Belcher or Tendrils of Agony.
If you're okay with some interaction:
You might do well with TES. TES is the faster (but less resilient) take on storm compared to ANT (to draw an analogy to Modern: TES is like Twin that always jams it on turn 4. ANT is if they are instead able to wait and go off on T5 with dispel backup).
If you're okay with moderate interaction (on the combo deck scale):
Omnitell, ANT and almost any combo deck in the format is an excellent option. The world is your oyster - just don't choose Solidarity (that is the one "true" combo deck (no back-up plan) that I'd label "Heavy interaction").
If you really just want to play a different game than your opponent, you might be okay with these:
-Mono-Red Moggcatcher jams a fast Blood Moon or other similarly oppressive card and then uses the window to establish a lock on the game or beat down on the helpless opponent. Dragon Stompy, Soldier Stompy, and Sea Stompy are different takes on this plan.
-Enchantress interacts with the opponent and establishes a lock, but is typically not able to be meaningfully interacted with by opponents (because they might at most have like 2 council's judgement or 4 abrupt decay squaring off against your entire deck.
-MUD, 12-Post, and Nic Fit all interact as well, but they bring to the table something that most legacy decks don't want to believe exist - cards costing more than 6 mana. If you want to jam something big and let your opponent figure it out from there, these might be good for you.
-Dredge creates really weird situations where it's interacting by casting cabal therapy and the opponent is interacting back by hoping to block or intentionally kill their own dudes. Most decks just can't interact with you meaningfully (in game1), and you play something radically different from normal magic.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
Thank you so much for all these clarifications : it's been so helpful to categorize the decks on the interactive / non-interactive spectrum. I've looked at Oops, All Spells! and fell in love with it as I really don't want any interactions. I've looked at Spanish Inquisition also, which seems very nice, but also seems more established, but the price might be too high for me. How is Oops, All Spells! in terms of competitivity? Is it reliable? I've seen a couple of lists that did top 8, one that ended up 5th out of 296 players in an SCG Open event.
Thank you so much for all these clarifications : it's been so helpful to categorize the decks on the interactive / non-interactive spectrum. I've looked at Oops, All Spells! and fell in love with it as I really don't want any interactions. I've looked at Spanish Inquisition also, which seems very nice, but also seems more established, but the price might be too high for me. How is Oops, All Spells! in terms of competitivity? Is it reliable? I've seen a couple of lists that did top 8, one that ended up 5th out of 296 players in an SCG Open event.
Cheers!
The glass cannon decks tend to be better for large tournaments than small (people won't know you as the guy against whom they need to mulligan to Force of Will/other hate).
You will need to acknowledge a number of games are going to come down to them having Force of Will or relevant hate and you just losing to it. Even with the format being as blue as it is, this is actually not a terrible gamble (refer to Charbelcher pulling off an undefeated Day1 at Kyoto), but it is a cost to playing the glass cannon decks.
As far as consistency, Oops is probably the most consistent and fastest of the Turn1 decks. It also gets hit by the broadest swath of hate (You lose to both Force of Will AND Leyline of the Void, for example).
Charbelcher is less consistent on the Turn1 kills but it doesn't lose to grave hate and has the option to go for weak combos if it doesn't have a full kill (8 goblins on Turn1 is often good enough). It can lose to random fair things like Stoneforge Mystic into batterskull with some of its weaker Empty the Warrens hands though (and I've also definitely won some games against them via Turn 2 Izzet Staticaster >.< ).
Spanish Inquisition rivals Oops on consistency of pure turn 1 kills, but it has the unfortunate side effect of uncertainty with those combos (You need to gamble on Draw4s hitting very often) and the "minor" downside that if you fizzle, you almost certainly have killed yourself and will die on your next upkeep to a Summoner's Pact trigger.
If you enjoy goldfishing and testing your problem-solving skills, Spanish is the most rewarding of the three, but I think you're best off with either Oops or Belcher on pure competitive edge for large events (especially because they minimize the opportunities for pilot error relative to SI -- And note, this comes from someone who has SI built in paper).
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
Hello.. I would like to get into combo. I'm a huge fan of Bx(y) decks since Urza's Saga. Mostly played the Rock/junk blade/nic fit/jund.
Things about combo:
- what's the difference between ANT and TES? Both decks are about 80%same. There's also Doomsday but...something does not fits me there...
- long time ago I played mono B reanimator. It was a tons of fun! But now it's my last option.
- Dredge looks fun and I think thats it! LEDless
- Combo for me was always enchantress with words of wind and so on
But give me advice please
ANT and TES are differentiated by gameplan. TES is going to be somewhere between half a turn and a full turn faster than ANT, but it sacrifices a lot of resiliency to accomplish this. ANT takes it a little slower but is able to fight through hate a LOT better.
Mono-Black Reanimator is extremely fringe right now, but it has put up some results. I seem to remember one took down a GPT at Kyoto earlier this year.
If you play primarily in a local meta, I'd avoid dredge. It's a good deck in large tournaments, but in small ones where everyone gets a sense of what others are playing, it can quickly get hated out as people metagame against it. On an unrelated note, I much prefer LED dredge to any other variant -- it's much faster and more resilient to hate in my experience.
Lastly, depending on your budget, you might want to check out Aluren. It's the one combo deck that has significant overlap with the BG(x) decks that you've been piloting so far. It's rather fringe, but I've been experiencing some very heartening results with it.
It's kind of comedic when OmniTell plays Show and Tell and Aluren shows up suddenly a turn early and with the cards in hand to go off.
I have been playing casual MTG for a while, and I have recently decided I would get into tournament play since a few events are coming up around me. I think Legacy does have some potential even though about 90 % of my decks are banned in it.
Idea #1: I was thinking of a cheap spell that could let me play creatures for free so i could try to one shot as fast as possible. e.g Recurring Nightmare
I would also need cards that could allow me to discard massive creatures.
Idea #2 this one is a little slower, and it relies on massive amounts of either 0 cost creatures or 1 mana creatures so gaea's cradle could work properly.
Hi, I'm a new legacy player. I played a lot of modern on cockatrice with mostly rogue brews. I have no staples (a product of playing mostly rogue brews), but I do have one Leyline of Sanctity if that helps (which I doubt.) My maximum budget is $400, and I like playing combo or control. I am generally a blue Mage, but I'm aware that blue is the most expensive color in this format. I have experience playing manaless dredge and sac lands tendrils. Any suggestions on deck would be appreciated.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I don't always play modern, but when I do, I play Grixis. Or some random combo deck I picked up. Or tron. Or Taking Turns. Or...
Hey guys, saw the conversation was about Oops All Spells, which is the deck I came to ask about.
I've been playing OAS on cockatrice and been having a lot of fun. Yes, some games you lose to a FOW or draw nothing, but I've been doing pretty okay in general, especially with a transformational sideboard into Charbelcher (in: 4 Charbelcher 4 LED 3 Tinder Wall 4 Spoils of the Vault). However, would this be worth taking to GP Seattle? I may be able to get my hands on a family friend's Deathblade deck, but if not, I need something to take. I also identify as a Spike, and love to win. Charbelchers are pricey, but I may be able to eek out a playset of them if the deck is really worth it.
Also, I play GR Tron in modern, so I have some of the pieces for Cloudpost (i.e. Emrakul, Karn, Ugin, etc) and I can't imagine it would be too hard to get some of the other parts (i.e. Primeval Titan, the non-dual lands). However, it also runs stuff like SaT and FoW, could I do without them? And how would a budget MUD deck be? Thanks.
Charbelcher is quite good in a large tournament environment when it's impossible for the whole room to see what you're playing. This goes for all the turn 1 combo decks.
Deathblade is a good deck, but it's pretty hard to pilot correctly. There are a lot of decisions to make, and it's not always easy to get the right mana sources to cast the right spells at the key moment. Although the individual cards in the deck are very powerful, it's not something you can pick up and do reasonably well with in a large tournament.
There are mono green and green/white variants of Cloudpost in Legacy, and they are both pretty good. They aren't as good against combo decks as the UG version because they don't have countermagic. However, they are just as good (if not better) against everyone else. I personally prefer the GW versions. There is a good discussion of this deck and its variants over on The Source.
A budget MUD deck would have to be one that didn't play Metalworker and City of Traitors, the most expensive cards in the deck, right? Cutting these removes much of what makes the deck good, and I wouldn't even try it. Skimping on City of Traitors reduces the probability of T1 Chalice of the Void, and this play is responsible for a huge portion of the deck's victories. Cutting Metalworker reduces the deck's explosiveness to the point where it's not really able to win at combo speed anymore. I think that you'd be left with a sluggish and non-disruptive aggro deck. Burn would surely be better.
Another modern player here who has garnered an interest in Legacy after watching a few streams and tournaments. I'll preface this whole thing by saying that budget isn't a huge issue. I'm a college student living in a dorm with an on-campus job, so I have a combination of expendable income and an incredible amount of time to save up for cards/decks.
I'm a control player at heart, so the first deck to really catch my attention was Miracles. I've done a some playtesting with it on XMage, and have enjoyed what I've gotten to do with it so far. Other opinions on the deck are welcome, along with other thoughts in general. I don't have a ton of experience with it, but what I have played has been fun.
The second deck I've played a bit with on XMage was the Lands deck. It was fun, but I'm not 100% sold on it yet. There were games that just seemed to last for an absolute eternity that consisted of nothing more than me using a combination of Ports, Mazes, and the Tabernacle to throw my opponent a giant middle finger for turns on end before I finally drew into something that could win me the game. I'm not opposed to this, but if you actually own/play the deck I would love to hear from you about it.
The third and final deck I'm really considering is ANT. I absolutely LOVE my modern UR Storm deck, so naturally I'm interested in storm in Legacy. I've only gotten a few games under my belt with ANT, but it seems just as fun as UR Storm is in modern. Again, if you play the deck, I'd LOVE to hear from you.
I'm not completely limiting myself to those three decks though. I also have a playset of Birthing Pods that are now useless in modern. I've seen a Pod deck in Legacy that used Veteran Explorer, among other things. If you play that deck or have knowledge about it I would be very interested in hearing from you. If you have your own personal pet deck that you'd like to evangelize, I'd also be open to hearing about that as well.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks WUBEsper ControlBUW URStormRU RGForest BelcherGR
To-Do List WModern Death and TaxesW WLegacy Death and TaxesW
Starchild, I think Miracles is probably the best deck of those to invest in long term. It's very conducive to personal tuning and it's been a consistent performed for quite some time. Your interests in decks seem to match mine fairly closely, and I cannot recommend Miracles enough.
Even with that said though, I'd recommend you use this opportunity on XMage to branch out and try some of the spicier decks of the format before locking in. Below are a couple decks that might strike your fancy, given what you've described as your interest. I recommend you give them a whirl before circling back to Miracles. I will try to explain a bit, aided by my own experiences (since I tend to pilot a lot of these "just around the fringe of the format" decks where I feel the deck is competitive but offers me an opportunity to leverage a knowledge or experience differential) and because I think I have a decent understanding of what you might enjoy:
Aluren - I'm currently focusing my play in paper on this as I work on tuning it for GP Seatle. The best thing I can compare it to is Pod from Modern, but build in the ability to kill on turn 3 at instant speed (after resolving Aluren) and generally meeker creatures. It's a weird sort of combo-midrange that demolishes Miracles and most combo decks, but it's a bit weak to delver.
Solidarity - This is my pick for merging your control side with your storm side. Like Modern storm, this is more of an engine combo than a "count to ten" combo, but it's built to be entirely at instant speed. This lets you play a strange control game (albeit with a narrower interest in what's going on), except you're always holding the last optional "counterspell" of "Kill you in response". It's the bluest deck that I've ever piloted and it remains one of the most difficult decks I've ever experienced (you will use every single phase and step of the opponent's turn and do the craziest contortions of stack manipulation. In that line, it sets you up more than any other deck for what I crave as a control player: stack wars. To give you an idea, I've attached a picture of one of the sweeter stacks I've experienced with it (I was the top player, and the bottom player happened to be on the next deck I mention).
BUG Control - this is the first on this list that I don't currently play and haven't played in the past. This lets you develop creatureless or nearly creatureless control behind walkers such as JTMS. This deck is not the same as the controlly midrange BUG decks like Shardless BUG. Spoilered is an example list from before Dig Through Time (a current list would likely need updating to include Dig)
Lands - I know that this is on your list already, but I'm guessing you're playing the R/G build. The RUG(x) builds go more controlling with Intuition packages, Tolaria West, and Academy Ruins. I suppose fair warning is in order: every build of Lands has a reasonably large number of games where it durdles to the max as it slowly assembles a hard lock on the opponent's mana. If you've been averse to those games already, the RUG lists actually have more of those games than the RG builds.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
The most important choice you make, if you're going into a blue deck, is what duals to buy. These will form the backbone of not only this first deck, but many other decks to come. No one plays the same deck forever. It might make sense to plan to buy into the deck with the duals most readily used in other interesting decks, so the collection naturally blossoms in a direction you enjoy.
Miracle will give you Tundras and Volcanic Islands. You'll get Jaces which are pretty narrowly used nowadays, Forces that are in pretty much everything, and a few cards relatively specialized towards Miracles. You might want a Karakas and some Vendilion Cliques, maybe some Snapcaster Mages, and 1-2 Flusterstorms. I understand some folks are doing things with Monastery Mentor and Cavern of Souls these days also.
When you want to expand in a different direction, WUR Delver or WUR Stoneblade are available. Either will require a few more cards. Beyond that, you're looking at increasing the number of Volcanic Islands and pushing into that family of decks.
You can do this sort of analysis for several different starting decks, even getting pretty detailed down to the exact number of each dual land and what precisely it will allow you to play. Then, of course, the metagame changes... but blue always seems to be on top. That sort of comparison is what I'd suggest making. It'll reveal that Lands, for instance, with all its fantastic power, is a very narrow deck to own. The expensive pieces aren't used in many other decks.
While I think I'm going to focus on Miracles in the long term, I've actually really enjoyed playing around with the Aluren deck on XMage, and so that will probably go up on the block once I finish a few Modern decks and Miracles.
What are your thoughts on just building up staples before I begin actually building decks? I wouldn't mind waiting to play Legacy while building up a sizable amount of "staple" cards for the decks I'm interested in, since I have two Modern decks that I'm in love with at the moment (Storm and Esper Control).
I figured that the duals would be a deciding factor for future decks that I end up playing, and that actually IS a bit of a problem here. I got the chance to borrow a friend's Esper Deathblade deck to play at a local event recently, and really enjoyed the deck. I'm borrowing a Miracles deck to play at another event this Saturday, and I'm pretty excited to actually get to play the deck at a paper event, even if its only a local thing. Right now though, I'm still leaning pretty heavily towards Miracles. It has been a blast to play online, and I'm figuring it will be even better in paper.
While I think I'm going to focus on Miracles in the long term, I've actually really enjoyed playing around with the Aluren deck on XMage, and so that will probably go up on the block once I finish a few Modern decks and Miracles.
What are your thoughts on just building up staples before I begin actually building decks? I wouldn't mind waiting to play Legacy while building up a sizable amount of "staple" cards for the decks I'm interested in, since I have two Modern decks that I'm in love with at the moment (Storm and Esper Control).
I figured that the duals would be a deciding factor for future decks that I end up playing, and that actually IS a bit of a problem here. I got the chance to borrow a friend's Esper Deathblade deck to play at a local event recently, and really enjoyed the deck. I'm borrowing a Miracles deck to play at another event this Saturday, and I'm pretty excited to actually get to play the deck at a paper event, even if its only a local thing. Right now though, I'm still leaning pretty heavily towards Miracles. It has been a blast to play online, and I'm figuring it will be even better in paper.
Duals tend to be the gatekeeper on Legacy decks. Personally, I would advise getting in on one deck and then letting yourself expand outward.
Getting your set of FoWs with your first deck is also a major plus, since it opens up the entire blue sphere of the format.
Miracles is great here because UWR is one of the more common colour trios. This means that even if you end up wanting to change, you've got Delver, Golddigger/Stoneblade, and Mentor at your fingertips on the lands that your already own. Miracles is also nice in that it's a deck that can function with a range between 5-7 duals for the tricolour lists (meaning you're not hard-locked into a certain number acquired before you can start getting paper experience. It also can run on as few as 3 duals if you're running a of the 2-colour variant (I often bring up the option of Back to Basics for people just starting to buy into the deck).
My darling Aluren is both a great and terrible choice for buying in. On the one hand, it sets you up with a great set of lands and FoWs (and the lands really put you just LEDs away from something like ANT). On the other hand... Imperial recruiters cost as much as goyfs and they only see play in a small handful of decks.
I don't think you should just jump into grabbing all the staples prior to getting a playable deck. Legacy is a super deep format, and it can be easy to lose site of why you're going through the trouble if you're chasing such a massive acquisition goal before experiencing the fruits of your labours.
So yeah, my advice of "try the spicy things out" is always true, but I wholeheartedly support getting into Miracles and I think it's a deck that will really fulfill what you're looking for in the format.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
Looking at my collection, I've been pleasantly surprised to find I have the creature, and mostly, the spell base for GWB Maverick. Before I shell out for the Wastelands, the few duals the deck runs, and Jitte, I wanted to ask peoples opinion on the deck. I know it's had limited success, as I've seen it in later rounds of SCG events, but how has it been recently?
Dark Maverick is an interesting proposition right now. I haven't tested it in a long time, but the deck is legitimate. Maverick has a whole summer named after it, and the deck was on the radar for a good bit longer than that.
Any Maverick list that tries to crack the current metagame has a few questions placed before it. Can the particular build go 50/50 or better against Miracles? Can it put up those numbers without surrendering ground against Omnitell? Can it hold its ground against the newest generation of Delver decks?
Currently the "Maverick" deck might be Aggro Loam although it isn't really Aggro Loam: it looks more like a Maverick deck that has switched its Green Sun's Zenith and Mother of Runes for Mox Diamond and Chalice of the Void. It still plays Gaddock Teeg and Knight of the Reliquary though, so to me that'll always be Maverick.
Traditionally, Maverick has done well against tempo decks, but I don't know if that is still true against the midrange-focused Dig Through Time Delver lists that have been cropping up. The question needs to be reexamined. It certainly had trouble with the Miracles lists before Monastery Mentor appeared in them, and that may or may not be still the case. I personally believe Maverick to be a reasonably good fair deck to play against Omnitell. It has a quicker clock than DnT and can drop down Qasali Pridemage off of Show and Tell... possibly killing the Omniscience if Thalia and/or Ethersworn Canonist were also doing their thing. Savannahs have fallen in price a good deal from their peak, so that's good news.
All in all, Maverick is an awesome deck that many people enjoy playing. It's been a very long time since it was tier 1, and I don't know how it would fare in the current meta. Savannah, Scrubland, and Bayou will lock you into this archetype pretty thoroughly if you get all of them, so I'd want to complete my own investigation before buying if it were me. There are a few other nontrivial cards to acquire too, like Sylvan Libraries and possibly equipment.
@Starchild, go for Miracles then. It's a wonderful deck. You'll always get your value out of tournament fees because you spend every moment actually playing!
Just make sure you Top quickly, remember what cards are there, and don't agonize over it too much. Visualizing what I want/need in the current position before I look helps me a lot. I suggest practicing the mirror match if you can. If you think it's awesome, then Miracles is the deck for you, 100%.
Thanks for your opinion! Reading through the deck thread, people claim it's in it's element in a meta full of fair decks. I'm certainty going to research the deck a bit more, thank god for youtube!
I have no experience with legacy at all, and the only competitive experience i have is with modern living twin.
I want to put together a legacy deck just to have one, and i hate simple decks. i thoroughly enjoy playing convoluted decks that are hard to pilot.
i dont have much money to port to legacy due to needing to pay for school. any suggestions?
For a convoluted deck on the cheaper side, I think I'd choose Spanish Inquisition or Solidarity.
Solidarity is significantly more expensive now than it used to be due to Cunning Wish and Flusterstorm spiking, but the deck is still not backbreaking, especially since I'm assuming you already have blue fetches (doesn't matter which) and 2 snapcasters. The pricy cards from the deck are mostly Force of Will, Flusterstorm, Snapcaster Mageand to a lesser extent, Reset and Cunning wish. This is one of the most intense decks that I've ever played, and even though I pilot it "well", I would rate myself as only playing it at 60% of optimum (at best). It's a combo deck that is nearly impossible to productively fishbowl because everything you do is defined by the opponent and how you maneuver around them on the stack. At the same time, the deck rewards you if you can remember the order of everything you bottom off of Dig Through Time, Impulse, and Opt, sometimes making it possible for you to know order of the bottom 18+ cards of your deck and make decisions accordingly. This is widely regarded as one of the most difficult decks in the history of the format, and I have to agree with its reputation.
Spanish Inquisition goes in the opposite direction. This is a Turn 1 glass cannon deck that involves a lot of math on percentages since you're running 8 of the black 3mana draw4s. You'll need 4 Lion's Eye Diamond, 1 Bayou, 4 Summoner's Pact, 4 Infernal Tutor, and 4 Cruel bargain as the pricy(ish) cards. If you go this route, I strongly recommend keeping it simple with the stock Bg list with Tendrils & Belcher as the only kills.
I've been pretty unimpressed with Sacland tendrils, but i suppose it's an option. I don't think it will reward you with the same wins or complexity of the above two.
Regardless of what you choose, I recommend pacing yourself. You can pick up a deck piece-by-piece over an extended period of time, and that can relieve the financial stress of trying to pull off everything overnight. Do note that while Solidarity is more expensive than Solidarity, its pricy pieces are generally more transferable to other decks and also are easier to liquidate if you ever exit the format.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
I have no experience with legacy at all, and the only competitive experience i have is with modern living twin.
I want to put together a legacy deck just to have one, and i hate simple decks. i thoroughly enjoy playing convoluted decks that are hard to pilot.
i dont have much money to port to legacy due to needing to pay for school. any suggestions?
For a convoluted deck on the cheaper side, I think I'd choose Spanish Inquisition or Solidarity.
Solidarity is significantly more expensive now than it used to be due to Cunning Wish and Flusterstorm spiking, but the deck is still not backbreaking, especially since I'm assuming you already have blue fetches (doesn't matter which) and 2 snapcasters. The pricy cards from the deck are mostly Force of Will, Flusterstorm, Snapcaster Mageand to a lesser extent, Reset and Cunning wish. This is one of the most intense decks that I've ever played, and even though I pilot it "well", I would rate myself as only playing it at 60% of optimum (at best). It's a combo deck that is nearly impossible to productively fishbowl because everything you do is defined by the opponent and how you maneuver around them on the stack. At the same time, the deck rewards you if you can remember the order of everything you bottom off of Dig Through Time, Impulse, and Opt, sometimes making it possible for you to know order of the bottom 18+ cards of your deck and make decisions accordingly. This is widely regarded as one of the most difficult decks in the history of the format, and I have to agree with its reputation.
Spanish Inquisition goes in the opposite direction. This is a Turn 1 glass cannon deck that involves a lot of math on percentages since you're running 8 of the black 3mana draw4s. You'll need 4 Lion's Eye Diamond, 1 Bayou, 4 Summoner's Pact, 4 Infernal Tutor, and 4 Cruel bargain as the pricy(ish) cards. If you go this route, I strongly recommend keeping it simple with the stock Bg list with Tendrils & Belcher as the only kills.
I've been pretty unimpressed with Sacland tendrils, but i suppose it's an option. I don't think it will reward you with the same wins or complexity of the above two.
Regardless of what you choose, I recommend pacing yourself. You can pick up a deck piece-by-piece over an extended period of time, and that can relieve the financial stress of trying to pull off everything overnight. Do note that while Solidarity is more expensive than Solidarity, its pricy pieces are generally more transferable to other decks and also are easier to liquidate if you ever exit the format.
This won't be do-able. By using his money for school, I'd assume he is doing Tafe, or going to a University. Both are expensive and a lot of the time I found my mates who I was going with to Uni were living off 2-minute noodles with no leftover income. Assuming this is the case, the most budget deck I could think of that was tricky and rewards pilot skill was Sacland Tendrils. Tendrils also has 3 builds he can follow, with $200 being the most expensive list, when he could build it for $75 on the cheap.
Because of FoW and Snaps, Solidarity is out of the question in a Uni scenario, and LED for Inquistion is a no go for it's price alone. To help give us a clearer picture, how much can you afford to spend on luxuries during school?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
This won't be do-able. By using his money for school, I'd assume he is doing Tafe, or going to a University. Both are expensive and a lot of the time I found my mates who I was going with to Uni were living off 2-minute noodles with no leftover income. Assuming this is the case, the most budget deck I could think of that was tricky and rewards pilot skill was Sacland Tendrils. Tendrils also has 3 builds he can follow, with $200 being the most expensive list, when he could build it for $75 on the cheap.
Because of FoW and Snaps, Solidarity is out of the question in a Uni scenario, and LED for Inquistion is a no go for it's price alone. To help give us a clearer picture, how much can you afford to spend on luxuries during school?
at this point in time, i do not know how much money i have to spend. all i know is that i would be able to accumulate a deck over a period of time. i already have snaps, and i almost have a full set of all the KTK fetches.
and no offense to the Spanish Inquisition, Sacland Tendrils, or Solidarity, but storm decks are pretty boring for me. they all seem to do literally the same thing over and over via their own unique means. i have been testing on cockatrice with SI, and it seems like a good bit of fun, but it doesn't seem like it is for me. i want a deck that is truly convoluted, something that requires immense concentration and thought. i see that SI and Solidarity are moderately hard to play, but they don't seem difficult enough for me.
EDIT: I just had a look at a version of Spanish Inquisition that runs burning wish, and that adds a level of extra thought and difficulty, so I think that deck seems about as right for me as there can be.
Thanks for all the help! I'm going to start slowly building this deck! might take me a long long time, but I'm gonna do it!
Burn
Elves!
Deadguy Ale (BWg)
The Gate
Pox
Manaless Dredge
Affinity
Death & Taxes
That's it. No blue decks. No Brainstorm. What would be the easiest way to win in such a meta? There's no blue decks, but the hatebears are real.
I like that deck against anything in the list except DnT, and an appropriately tuned sideboard helps a lot with that matchup.
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730
Modern player here : I've dived into Legacy a couple of times with Burn, but didn't like it (played it also in Modern and sold my deck). In Modern, I run Ad Nauseam and Living End, so:
- I'm only interested in non-interactive decks.
- I'm sold on combo decks.
These are my two main criteria for building a real Legacy deck. The deck could be a non-combo deck, but it has to be non-interactive : I don't want to interact with my opponent.
My friend is running ANT and he suggested me Manaless Dredge as being the most non-interactive deck in the format.
Any thoughts guys? Thanks!
Aggro: Naya Burn RWG
Combo: Scapeshift RG
Control: Jeskai Control UWR
Legacy
Control: Miracles UW
Aggro: Burn R
If you want absolutely zero interaction, you're going to essentially be forced into the glass cannon decks:
-"Oops! All Spells" will flip its deck over on turn 1 with Balustrade Spy/Undercity Informerfor the kill
-Charbelcher mixes it up with Goblin Charbelcher and Empty the Warrens to kill the opponent on the first turn or make enough goblins to make it impossible for them to match your clock ("I have 16 goblins on turn one. What are you going to do before they kill you?"
-Spanish Inquisition takes Charbelcher, decides that the EtW plan isn't decisive enough and goes all in on killing on the first turn. It runs 8 Infernal Contract and kills with Belcher or Tendrils of Agony.
If you're okay with some interaction:
You might do well with TES. TES is the faster (but less resilient) take on storm compared to ANT (to draw an analogy to Modern: TES is like Twin that always jams it on turn 4. ANT is if they are instead able to wait and go off on T5 with dispel backup).
If you're okay with moderate interaction (on the combo deck scale):
Omnitell, ANT and almost any combo deck in the format is an excellent option. The world is your oyster - just don't choose Solidarity (that is the one "true" combo deck (no back-up plan) that I'd label "Heavy interaction").
If you really just want to play a different game than your opponent, you might be okay with these:
-Mono-Red Moggcatcher jams a fast Blood Moon or other similarly oppressive card and then uses the window to establish a lock on the game or beat down on the helpless opponent. Dragon Stompy, Soldier Stompy, and Sea Stompy are different takes on this plan.
-Enchantress interacts with the opponent and establishes a lock, but is typically not able to be meaningfully interacted with by opponents (because they might at most have like 2 council's judgement or 4 abrupt decay squaring off against your entire deck.
-MUD, 12-Post, and Nic Fit all interact as well, but they bring to the table something that most legacy decks don't want to believe exist - cards costing more than 6 mana. If you want to jam something big and let your opponent figure it out from there, these might be good for you.
-Dredge creates really weird situations where it's interacting by casting cabal therapy and the opponent is interacting back by hoping to block or intentionally kill their own dudes. Most decks just can't interact with you meaningfully (in game1), and you play something radically different from normal magic.
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
إن سرقت إسرق جمل
Level 1 Judge
My Cube for use with 6th ed. Rules
Cheers!
Aggro: Naya Burn RWG
Combo: Scapeshift RG
Control: Jeskai Control UWR
Legacy
Control: Miracles UW
Aggro: Burn R
You will need to acknowledge a number of games are going to come down to them having Force of Will or relevant hate and you just losing to it. Even with the format being as blue as it is, this is actually not a terrible gamble (refer to Charbelcher pulling off an undefeated Day1 at Kyoto), but it is a cost to playing the glass cannon decks.
As far as consistency, Oops is probably the most consistent and fastest of the Turn1 decks. It also gets hit by the broadest swath of hate (You lose to both Force of Will AND Leyline of the Void, for example).
Charbelcher is less consistent on the Turn1 kills but it doesn't lose to grave hate and has the option to go for weak combos if it doesn't have a full kill (8 goblins on Turn1 is often good enough). It can lose to random fair things like Stoneforge Mystic into batterskull with some of its weaker Empty the Warrens hands though (and I've also definitely won some games against them via Turn 2 Izzet Staticaster >.< ).
Spanish Inquisition rivals Oops on consistency of pure turn 1 kills, but it has the unfortunate side effect of uncertainty with those combos (You need to gamble on Draw4s hitting very often) and the "minor" downside that if you fizzle, you almost certainly have killed yourself and will die on your next upkeep to a Summoner's Pact trigger.
If you enjoy goldfishing and testing your problem-solving skills, Spanish is the most rewarding of the three, but I think you're best off with either Oops or Belcher on pure competitive edge for large events (especially because they minimize the opportunities for pilot error relative to SI -- And note, this comes from someone who has SI built in paper).
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
إن سرقت إسرق جمل
Level 1 Judge
My Cube for use with 6th ed. Rules
It's kind of comedic when OmniTell plays Show and Tell and Aluren shows up suddenly a turn early and with the cards in hand to go off.
Idea #1: I was thinking of a cheap spell that could let me play creatures for free so i could try to one shot as fast as possible. e.g Recurring Nightmare
I would also need cards that could allow me to discard massive creatures.
Idea #2 this one is a little slower, and it relies on massive amounts of either 0 cost creatures or 1 mana creatures so gaea's cradle could work properly.
I have 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and 4 Liliana of The Veil that I figured were not that good when I played casual, but maybe in Legacy they could be worth using.
If there are any better Legacy deck strategies that are just unknown to me you can suggest any of those if you want.
I've been playing OAS on cockatrice and been having a lot of fun. Yes, some games you lose to a FOW or draw nothing, but I've been doing pretty okay in general, especially with a transformational sideboard into Charbelcher (in: 4 Charbelcher 4 LED 3 Tinder Wall 4 Spoils of the Vault). However, would this be worth taking to GP Seattle? I may be able to get my hands on a family friend's Deathblade deck, but if not, I need something to take. I also identify as a Spike, and love to win. Charbelchers are pricey, but I may be able to eek out a playset of them if the deck is really worth it.
Also, I play GR Tron in modern, so I have some of the pieces for Cloudpost (i.e. Emrakul, Karn, Ugin, etc) and I can't imagine it would be too hard to get some of the other parts (i.e. Primeval Titan, the non-dual lands). However, it also runs stuff like SaT and FoW, could I do without them? And how would a budget MUD deck be? Thanks.
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
Deathblade is a good deck, but it's pretty hard to pilot correctly. There are a lot of decisions to make, and it's not always easy to get the right mana sources to cast the right spells at the key moment. Although the individual cards in the deck are very powerful, it's not something you can pick up and do reasonably well with in a large tournament.
There are mono green and green/white variants of Cloudpost in Legacy, and they are both pretty good. They aren't as good against combo decks as the UG version because they don't have countermagic. However, they are just as good (if not better) against everyone else. I personally prefer the GW versions. There is a good discussion of this deck and its variants over on The Source.
A budget MUD deck would have to be one that didn't play Metalworker and City of Traitors, the most expensive cards in the deck, right? Cutting these removes much of what makes the deck good, and I wouldn't even try it. Skimping on City of Traitors reduces the probability of T1 Chalice of the Void, and this play is responsible for a huge portion of the deck's victories. Cutting Metalworker reduces the deck's explosiveness to the point where it's not really able to win at combo speed anymore. I think that you'd be left with a sluggish and non-disruptive aggro deck. Burn would surely be better.
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730
Another modern player here who has garnered an interest in Legacy after watching a few streams and tournaments. I'll preface this whole thing by saying that budget isn't a huge issue. I'm a college student living in a dorm with an on-campus job, so I have a combination of expendable income and an incredible amount of time to save up for cards/decks.
I'm a control player at heart, so the first deck to really catch my attention was Miracles. I've done a some playtesting with it on XMage, and have enjoyed what I've gotten to do with it so far. Other opinions on the deck are welcome, along with other thoughts in general. I don't have a ton of experience with it, but what I have played has been fun.
The second deck I've played a bit with on XMage was the Lands deck. It was fun, but I'm not 100% sold on it yet. There were games that just seemed to last for an absolute eternity that consisted of nothing more than me using a combination of Ports, Mazes, and the Tabernacle to throw my opponent a giant middle finger for turns on end before I finally drew into something that could win me the game. I'm not opposed to this, but if you actually own/play the deck I would love to hear from you about it.
The third and final deck I'm really considering is ANT. I absolutely LOVE my modern UR Storm deck, so naturally I'm interested in storm in Legacy. I've only gotten a few games under my belt with ANT, but it seems just as fun as UR Storm is in modern. Again, if you play the deck, I'd LOVE to hear from you.
I'm not completely limiting myself to those three decks though. I also have a playset of Birthing Pods that are now useless in modern. I've seen a Pod deck in Legacy that used Veteran Explorer, among other things. If you play that deck or have knowledge about it I would be very interested in hearing from you. If you have your own personal pet deck that you'd like to evangelize, I'd also be open to hearing about that as well.
WUBEsper ControlBUW
URStormRU
RGForest BelcherGR
To-Do List
WModern Death and TaxesW
WLegacy Death and TaxesW
Even with that said though, I'd recommend you use this opportunity on XMage to branch out and try some of the spicier decks of the format before locking in. Below are a couple decks that might strike your fancy, given what you've described as your interest. I recommend you give them a whirl before circling back to Miracles. I will try to explain a bit, aided by my own experiences (since I tend to pilot a lot of these "just around the fringe of the format" decks where I feel the deck is competitive but offers me an opportunity to leverage a knowledge or experience differential) and because I think I have a decent understanding of what you might enjoy:
Aluren - I'm currently focusing my play in paper on this as I work on tuning it for GP Seatle. The best thing I can compare it to is Pod from Modern, but build in the ability to kill on turn 3 at instant speed (after resolving Aluren) and generally meeker creatures. It's a weird sort of combo-midrange that demolishes Miracles and most combo decks, but it's a bit weak to delver.
Solidarity - This is my pick for merging your control side with your storm side. Like Modern storm, this is more of an engine combo than a "count to ten" combo, but it's built to be entirely at instant speed. This lets you play a strange control game (albeit with a narrower interest in what's going on), except you're always holding the last optional "counterspell" of "Kill you in response". It's the bluest deck that I've ever piloted and it remains one of the most difficult decks I've ever experienced (you will use every single phase and step of the opponent's turn and do the craziest contortions of stack manipulation. In that line, it sets you up more than any other deck for what I crave as a control player: stack wars. To give you an idea, I've attached a picture of one of the sweeter stacks I've experienced with it (I was the top player, and the bottom player happened to be on the next deck I mention).
BUG Control - this is the first on this list that I don't currently play and haven't played in the past. This lets you develop creatureless or nearly creatureless control behind walkers such as JTMS. This deck is not the same as the controlly midrange BUG decks like Shardless BUG. Spoilered is an example list from before Dig Through Time (a current list would likely need updating to include Dig)
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
2 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Innocent Blood
2 Life from the Loam
2 Thoughtseize
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Envelop
2 Flusterstorm
2 Golgari Charm
4 Surgical Extraction
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Thoughtseize
1 Toxic Deluge
Lands - I know that this is on your list already, but I'm guessing you're playing the R/G build. The RUG(x) builds go more controlling with Intuition packages, Tolaria West, and Academy Ruins. I suppose fair warning is in order: every build of Lands has a reasonably large number of games where it durdles to the max as it slowly assembles a hard lock on the opponent's mana. If you've been averse to those games already, the RUG lists actually have more of those games than the RG builds.
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
إن سرقت إسرق جمل
Level 1 Judge
My Cube for use with 6th ed. Rules
Miracle will give you Tundras and Volcanic Islands. You'll get Jaces which are pretty narrowly used nowadays, Forces that are in pretty much everything, and a few cards relatively specialized towards Miracles. You might want a Karakas and some Vendilion Cliques, maybe some Snapcaster Mages, and 1-2 Flusterstorms. I understand some folks are doing things with Monastery Mentor and Cavern of Souls these days also.
When you want to expand in a different direction, WUR Delver or WUR Stoneblade are available. Either will require a few more cards. Beyond that, you're looking at increasing the number of Volcanic Islands and pushing into that family of decks.
You can do this sort of analysis for several different starting decks, even getting pretty detailed down to the exact number of each dual land and what precisely it will allow you to play. Then, of course, the metagame changes... but blue always seems to be on top. That sort of comparison is what I'd suggest making. It'll reveal that Lands, for instance, with all its fantastic power, is a very narrow deck to own. The expensive pieces aren't used in many other decks.
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730
While I think I'm going to focus on Miracles in the long term, I've actually really enjoyed playing around with the Aluren deck on XMage, and so that will probably go up on the block once I finish a few Modern decks and Miracles.
What are your thoughts on just building up staples before I begin actually building decks? I wouldn't mind waiting to play Legacy while building up a sizable amount of "staple" cards for the decks I'm interested in, since I have two Modern decks that I'm in love with at the moment (Storm and Esper Control).
I figured that the duals would be a deciding factor for future decks that I end up playing, and that actually IS a bit of a problem here. I got the chance to borrow a friend's Esper Deathblade deck to play at a local event recently, and really enjoyed the deck. I'm borrowing a Miracles deck to play at another event this Saturday, and I'm pretty excited to actually get to play the deck at a paper event, even if its only a local thing. Right now though, I'm still leaning pretty heavily towards Miracles. It has been a blast to play online, and I'm figuring it will be even better in paper.
WUBEsper ControlBUW
URStormRU
RGForest BelcherGR
To-Do List
WModern Death and TaxesW
WLegacy Death and TaxesW
Getting your set of FoWs with your first deck is also a major plus, since it opens up the entire blue sphere of the format.
Miracles is great here because UWR is one of the more common colour trios. This means that even if you end up wanting to change, you've got Delver, Golddigger/Stoneblade, and Mentor at your fingertips on the lands that your already own. Miracles is also nice in that it's a deck that can function with a range between 5-7 duals for the tricolour lists (meaning you're not hard-locked into a certain number acquired before you can start getting paper experience. It also can run on as few as 3 duals if you're running a of the 2-colour variant (I often bring up the option of Back to Basics for people just starting to buy into the deck).
My darling Aluren is both a great and terrible choice for buying in. On the one hand, it sets you up with a great set of lands and FoWs (and the lands really put you just LEDs away from something like ANT). On the other hand... Imperial recruiters cost as much as goyfs and they only see play in a small handful of decks.
I don't think you should just jump into grabbing all the staples prior to getting a playable deck. Legacy is a super deep format, and it can be easy to lose site of why you're going through the trouble if you're chasing such a massive acquisition goal before experiencing the fruits of your labours.
So yeah, my advice of "try the spicy things out" is always true, but I wholeheartedly support getting into Miracles and I think it's a deck that will really fulfill what you're looking for in the format.
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
إن سرقت إسرق جمل
Level 1 Judge
My Cube for use with 6th ed. Rules
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
Any Maverick list that tries to crack the current metagame has a few questions placed before it. Can the particular build go 50/50 or better against Miracles? Can it put up those numbers without surrendering ground against Omnitell? Can it hold its ground against the newest generation of Delver decks?
Currently the "Maverick" deck might be Aggro Loam although it isn't really Aggro Loam: it looks more like a Maverick deck that has switched its Green Sun's Zenith and Mother of Runes for Mox Diamond and Chalice of the Void. It still plays Gaddock Teeg and Knight of the Reliquary though, so to me that'll always be Maverick.
Traditionally, Maverick has done well against tempo decks, but I don't know if that is still true against the midrange-focused Dig Through Time Delver lists that have been cropping up. The question needs to be reexamined. It certainly had trouble with the Miracles lists before Monastery Mentor appeared in them, and that may or may not be still the case. I personally believe Maverick to be a reasonably good fair deck to play against Omnitell. It has a quicker clock than DnT and can drop down Qasali Pridemage off of Show and Tell... possibly killing the Omniscience if Thalia and/or Ethersworn Canonist were also doing their thing. Savannahs have fallen in price a good deal from their peak, so that's good news.
All in all, Maverick is an awesome deck that many people enjoy playing. It's been a very long time since it was tier 1, and I don't know how it would fare in the current meta. Savannah, Scrubland, and Bayou will lock you into this archetype pretty thoroughly if you get all of them, so I'd want to complete my own investigation before buying if it were me. There are a few other nontrivial cards to acquire too, like Sylvan Libraries and possibly equipment.
@Starchild, go for Miracles then. It's a wonderful deck. You'll always get your value out of tournament fees because you spend every moment actually playing!
Just make sure you Top quickly, remember what cards are there, and don't agonize over it too much. Visualizing what I want/need in the current position before I look helps me a lot. I suggest practicing the mirror match if you can. If you think it's awesome, then Miracles is the deck for you, 100%.
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
I want to put together a legacy deck just to have one, and i hate simple decks. i thoroughly enjoy playing convoluted decks that are hard to pilot.
i dont have much money to port to legacy due to needing to pay for school. any suggestions?
Sacland Tendrils. It costs under $200 and is pretty fun if you enjoy storm mechanics. It rewards deck building skills and ordering.
U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
EDH:
G Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Fighting for Rivendell
WU Brago, King Eternal, Long Live the King
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Worship the Dragon
Solidarity is significantly more expensive now than it used to be due to Cunning Wish and Flusterstorm spiking, but the deck is still not backbreaking, especially since I'm assuming you already have blue fetches (doesn't matter which) and 2 snapcasters. The pricy cards from the deck are mostly Force of Will, Flusterstorm, Snapcaster Mageand to a lesser extent, Reset and Cunning wish. This is one of the most intense decks that I've ever played, and even though I pilot it "well", I would rate myself as only playing it at 60% of optimum (at best). It's a combo deck that is nearly impossible to productively fishbowl because everything you do is defined by the opponent and how you maneuver around them on the stack. At the same time, the deck rewards you if you can remember the order of everything you bottom off of Dig Through Time, Impulse, and Opt, sometimes making it possible for you to know order of the bottom 18+ cards of your deck and make decisions accordingly. This is widely regarded as one of the most difficult decks in the history of the format, and I have to agree with its reputation.
Spanish Inquisition goes in the opposite direction. This is a Turn 1 glass cannon deck that involves a lot of math on percentages since you're running 8 of the black 3mana draw4s. You'll need 4 Lion's Eye Diamond, 1 Bayou, 4 Summoner's Pact, 4 Infernal Tutor, and 4 Cruel bargain as the pricy(ish) cards. If you go this route, I strongly recommend keeping it simple with the stock Bg list with Tendrils & Belcher as the only kills.
I've been pretty unimpressed with Sacland tendrils, but i suppose it's an option. I don't think it will reward you with the same wins or complexity of the above two.
Regardless of what you choose, I recommend pacing yourself. You can pick up a deck piece-by-piece over an extended period of time, and that can relieve the financial stress of trying to pull off everything overnight. Do note that while Solidarity is more expensive than Solidarity, its pricy pieces are generally more transferable to other decks and also are easier to liquidate if you ever exit the format.
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
إن سرقت إسرق جمل
Level 1 Judge
My Cube for use with 6th ed. Rules
This won't be do-able. By using his money for school, I'd assume he is doing Tafe, or going to a University. Both are expensive and a lot of the time I found my mates who I was going with to Uni were living off 2-minute noodles with no leftover income. Assuming this is the case, the most budget deck I could think of that was tricky and rewards pilot skill was Sacland Tendrils. Tendrils also has 3 builds he can follow, with $200 being the most expensive list, when he could build it for $75 on the cheap.
Because of FoW and Snaps, Solidarity is out of the question in a Uni scenario, and LED for Inquistion is a no go for it's price alone. To help give us a clearer picture, how much can you afford to spend on luxuries during school?
U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
EDH:
G Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Fighting for Rivendell
WU Brago, King Eternal, Long Live the King
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Worship the Dragon
at this point in time, i do not know how much money i have to spend. all i know is that i would be able to accumulate a deck over a period of time. i already have snaps, and i almost have a full set of all the KTK fetches.
and no offense to the Spanish Inquisition, Sacland Tendrils, or Solidarity, but storm decks are pretty boring for me. they all seem to do literally the same thing over and over via their own unique means. i have been testing on cockatrice with SI, and it seems like a good bit of fun, but it doesn't seem like it is for me. i want a deck that is truly convoluted, something that requires immense concentration and thought. i see that SI and Solidarity are moderately hard to play, but they don't seem difficult enough for me.
EDIT: I just had a look at a version of Spanish Inquisition that runs burning wish, and that adds a level of extra thought and difficulty, so I think that deck seems about as right for me as there can be.
Thanks for all the help! I'm going to start slowly building this deck! might take me a long long time, but I'm gonna do it!