MTG Salvation

@Weltkrieg

Infernal Contract is a card which I've tested extensively before I put this deck away in box, in order to give more focus on my Zoo deck which was needing funds at that time. Most of the time a resolved IC will allow storm damage near 30, which easily kill most unprepared decks. Using IC makes getting past counterspells a lot harder though, because it cost 3 mana. I lost almost all test games where IC got countered. So I stopped using it and went back to using Sign in Blood.

And yes, I've played the majority of combo decks in Legacy at this point I think. I've never played a deck built similarly to this one, so I've just been thinking about it in terms of SI, which is somewhat similar (no big draw engines, just lots of rituals and smaller draw spells). My Gitaxian Probe suggestion was based off how awesome I found the card to be in PSI, but it may not be as good here.

@Admiral_Arzar

SI is Spanish Inquisition, right? But what is PSI?
Gitaxian Probe actually works OK in my testings, but needed to take them out for main deck protection.

This is how my deck looks like right now.
Will be replacing Combust with Sudden Shock once my order from SCG arrive.



The turn that I combo is usually turn 4, but good opening hands will allow a turn 2 kill. And going for an army of Goblins with Empty the Warrens on turn three is also lethal against some decks. So far, the cards that often cause me to lose the game are artifacts - Ethersworn Canonist, Null Rod and Thorn of Amethyst. So my sideboard has 3 Hurkyl's Recall.

Just in case you want to see, this is how it performs in testing against some decks. I don't intend to bring it to a serious competition, but it's fun to use against friends and sometimes against random people I meet who want a casual legacy game.

Also, if you're testing Combust I would recommend Sudden Shock instead. It kills non-white bears and also dodges Mother of Runes protection due to Split Second.

@Admiral Arzar

Thanks much, I honestly didn't know about Sudden Shock.
There are games vs. Death and Taxes where I've become helpless because the Canonist is protected by Mother of Runes. Looking at your signature, you seem to be a veteran in using combo decks.

Quote from weltkrieg

Unless you're looking at a sorcery, magma jet is my preference for killing hate bears. that said, I think nearly every hate bear has one thing in common...they're white. Why not burning wish for deathmark and be done with it?

Magma Jet is good. But I generally prefer Combust, because decks that use Canonist in my meta are usually UW Stoneforge decks with plenty of countermagic.

Finally, three cheers for Sac-Lands! We're now part of -spooky-'s sticked "Legacy on a Budget" primer in the Rogue Decks section!

Nice to see that there's a bit of promotion for the deck.
Haven't done much testing because I was busy with my Reanimator.

Test game vs. a fast Tempered Steel deck with Argentum Armor

Game 1: Storm for 10 goblins on Turn 3, but he manage to equip the Argentum Armour using Quest for Holy relic to a Vault Skirge which won him the game.

Game 2: I storm for 22 damage on Turn 2 and that's it.

Game 3: He mull repeatedly, and concede.

I have omitted dual lands, as you can see, because this is a budget thread, and in a deck like this, they are particularly overrated.

If you look at the recent decklists that placed well (first post of Legacy Affinity thread), dual lands are not used at all.
Glimmervoid usually does a better job than a dual land anyway.

I would suggest that you add 2 more Thoughtcast, and a few Etched Champions would go well with Cranial Plating and counters from Ravager.

Diligent Farmhand, used it a lot for blocking years ago.

Perhaps some Basilisk Collars (they aren't very expensive) in place of Daze?
It will allow your smaller creatures to trade with a larger one, and gain you life as well.

The banning of Mental Misstep might be good for us.
I haven't tested extensively yet, but looks like it's easier to resolve a Silence or Orim's Chant now that Misstep is gone.

@fables429

Based on your sideboard, your meta seems to have a lot of combo.
What's the 4 Serum Powder for though?

Quote from fables429

That doesn't always work when almost all your mana sources are Artifacts. A resolved Null Rod means you won't be able to cast a Nature's Claim.

I am just hoping more people don't side in Null Rod's, it really wrecks you. Unless you "Thoughtseize" or Spell Snare it?

You can still tap a mox, or use a drum to float G for Nature's Claim in response to casting of Null Rod.
Always need to have one G source untapped though.

Having Glimmervoids also help.

They could have at least skipped printing a new hoser for us..

At S.O.M block they printed Creeping Corrosion along with the new staples. In Innistrad it seems we only get the problem card.

@Alcarin

I guess Wotc won't be content if there isn't a version of Null Rod for Modern format. But it has side effect on Legacy too. Those who can't afford or find Null rods can now have a card with similar effect.

Quote from Alcarin

I hope it means there is an artifact in the set that just screams "Use me in Affinity" :|

Unfortunately, what they gave us is another null rod.

I thank the people who posted tournament reports on this page, congratulations on your good performance.

Really nice info, currently building this deck and I learned some things espescially on how to combat Dredge and the mirror. The Sphinx seems to be quite useful, so I'm going to add it to my build as well. My meta is currently filled with Stoneblade (almost all variants but the UW version is the most common), Burn, and Reanimator decks.

Quote from Blynx

To be honest, I am surprised ANYONE would run Signal Pest, they are not flying creatures, and cannot defend against quick aggro.

I personally run Steel Overseer. It is just better in everyway.

At the first post of this thread there's a list of Top 16's, those decklists all had 4 Signal Pest.


@Alcarin

Is your deck still doing ok without the Thoughtcasts? I tried removing those from my deck sometime ago, but I put them back after the deck felt "rusty" - as in too slow without the card advantage from the 4 Thoughtcast.

@kwatog

Faerie Macabre is my personal choice against that deck, because the ability of the faerie can't be countered by their counterspells (FoW, Daze, Mental Misstep).