Deck of the Week: Legacy Mono-Red Sneak Attack
With a Legacy CT rapidly approaching
and a just-concluded weekend of good Legacy data available, it makes sense to feature something from Magic’s Best Format© as this week’s Deck of the Week.
It could have been a creature deck now that the banning of Sensei’s Divining Top has made them more viable; it could have been a fair tempo deck such as Delver.
It could have been a combo deck such as Storm, which is undergoing a bit of a renaissance. Or even U/B Landstill, which made top 8 of the SCG Classic last weekend in Louisville.
Or, it could have been something that revolves around abusing fast mana to cheat big dumb animals into play.
Spoiler alert: It’s that last one.
Mono-Red Sneak Attack, by Kasey Walton
4th place, SCG Tour Louisville Team Constructed Open
Obviously incorrect spelling of “Kasey” aside, this deck has a lot going for it, as evidenced by the fact that Kasey played five turns — not games, turns — in winning rounds 5 and 6. Let’s break it down.
Acceleration
Oh look, Simian Spirit Guide is
enabling something degenerate. Who would’ve thought such a thing?
The mana monkey is an obvious choice here for multiple reasons. It can enable a turn 1 Blood Moon or Chalice for 1 in conjunction with Lotus Petal and the Sol lands. It would even be relatively easy to have a turn 1 Chalice for two with an Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors, Lotus Petal and a Spirit Guide. Or you could cast Chandra, plus her to get two red mana, then cast Chalice for 1. I can only imagine the look on an opponent’s face if you get to snap off that turn 1 on the play.
But when it comes down to it, SSG, Petal and Seething Song are mainly intended to power out Sneak Attack early and get down to the business of gettin’ your opponent dead. Seething Song just happens to produce the exact amount of mana needed to either cast and activate Sneak Attack or cast Through the Breach. Doing either of those things on turn 1 via Sol land—Petal/Guide—Song seems entirely fair.
Business
The reason it’s, to put it politely,
not the slightest bleeping bit fair, is the creature package in this deck looks like it was settled upon by saying “Here’s a bunch of fundamentally unfair creatures, here’s a random number generator with a range of 1-4. Go nuts.”
There was probably more thought put into it than that, but seriously, folks: Inferno Titan is the most fair creature in the deck, and Inferno Titan can “only” ding your opponent for 12 if you can Breach it into play on turn 1. Oh, and it also has firebreathing if you find yourself with a bunch of extra mana available.
Griselbrand is still busted. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is still busted. Worldspine Wurm is busted, because it’s a 15/15 trampler that leaves 15 power in play when it dies. I suppose it can be exiled with Swords to Plowshares to avoid a Wurm infestation, at the low cost of “here, have enough life for two Griselbrand activations.”
Disruption
Like a lot of Legacy decks that involve going full-blown stompy on your opponents, this deck is at least something of a Chalice of the Void deck. As previously mentioned, Chalice for 1 or 2 on turn 1 isn’t hard.
Blood Moon’s stock has spiked since Top was banned, because Miracles was a deck that didn’t worry about Blood Moon in the slightest. Now that Miracles is off the scene and a bunch of decks with complicated manabases will be en vogue again, Blood Moon gets much better.
Trinisphere out of the sideboard is another blowout against certain decks, because tripling the cost of something like Brainstorm is unmanageable.
There’s no way to kill creatures and no hand disruption in a deck such as this, so things like Chalice, Blood Moon and Trinisphere are the best options. But they’re good options, because there are a lot of match-ups where all this deck needs is to buy a turn to win.
Land
Nine lands in this deck can produce two mana, which greatly increases the chances of going off on turn 1 or 2. But there are times when you will happily shut off your own Sol lands with Blood Moon, because all you’ll ever need is red mana. Sure, it slows you down some when you can only tap an Ancient Tomb for a single red instead of two colorless, but why does that matter if your opponent literally can’t cast anything?
Simian Spirit Guide helps fuel the explosive starts, as do Lotus Petal and Seething Song. Consider this opening hand: Two Spirit Guides, Lotus Petal, Seething Song, Sneak Attack, Griselbrand, Emrakul. You can drop Griselbrand into play off of Sneak Attack, draw 14 cards to find another source of red mana, then cheat in Emrakul to swing for 22. Without a land in your opener.
Sideboard
One of the most fun aspects of Legacy is coming up with super hateful sideboards, and this deck certainly has one of those. The four copies of Trinisphere shut down cantrips and other cheap spells, buying you a turn or two if you need them. Magus of the Moon gives you two more Blood Moon effects, and they can’t be hit with enchantment removal.
If creature decks are going to be a thing again, they’ll probably be weak to Kozilek’s Return, so having access to three copies is reasonable. Fiery Confluence can also serve as a sweeper in a pinch.
Ashen Rider is pretty great to have in hand when your opponent resolves a Show and Tell, even if they’re going to be putting an Emrakul of their own into play. Faerie Macabre is another creature that will never be cast, but provides utility; being able to discard it to get rid of problematic cards in graveyards gives you a way to deal with Reanimator and Dredge decks.
Finally, there’s a copy of Pyromancy, which is awesome in a deck that runs seven cards with converted mana cost of eight or higher (and another four that cost six). IF your opponent has something such as Ensnaring Bridge in play, or a Karakas to shut down your Emrakul/Griselbrand from attacking, you can always just play the odds of sending 15 damage to the dome.
Wrap up
Legacy is a format that allows for broken things, and this deck thrives on that. While it may be a bit more of a glass cannon than the Show and Tell decks due to less card advantage and no Force of Will backup, the raw power of going off on turn 1 helps make up for it.
The deck has a couple of other advantages as well. First, it’s pretty straightforward to play; even someone who’s new to the format can pick it up and figure out the game plan without too much trouble. (That’s not to say that playing it well is easy, of course.)
The other is that it’s relatively — relatively — inexpensive. No fetch lands or dual lands, no Tarmogoyf, no Force of Will, no Jace or Flusterstorm, and so on. Chalice of the Void and City of Traitors are both expensive, but not as expensive as the manabase for something such as Sultai Control would be.
All in all, this deck has a lot going for it, and it’s worth considering if you’re looking to make the jump into Legacy or looking for a new deck.
Deck of the Week is a breakdown of an interesting deck from the previous week in Magic. Email questions, comments and deck suggestions to claughman@gmail.com.
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