Legends: Play-in & Round of 128
Series Preview
Ready to see a lot of really terrible creatures battle it out for a set championship? It’s time for Legends – an ancient set best remembered for introducing multicolored cards: in the form of ridiculously expensive, mostly vanilla creatures that had probably the coolest names bar none in the history of Magic.
I have honestly no idea how this one is going to play out. I can’t even recall any creatures introduced in Legends that could be considered above the curve by any measure. For that reason, I think that any cheap creature – no matter how terrible they are by today’s standard – is going to have a fair shot at going deep here.
Adding to all that, this is by far the largest tournament we’ve had to date – at a whopping 151 creatures. I’m excited to see which random creature I’ve never heard of is going to emerge from this chaos.
Let’s go!
Play-in Rounds
(106)
A close one. Keepers gets 6 damage in before the first Guardians comes down, but Guardians stabilize from there. The double-Keepers on Turn 6 puts some added pressure, but isn’t quite enough; Guardians holds on at 2 life.
(107)
Here we’ve got the creature that looks like John Travolta vs. the 1/2 creature with the epic name that would suggest something at least five times as big.
Devouring Deep gets six damage in to start, but the pitiful 1 damage per attack is just too little once the first Travolta comes down.
(108)
The inaugural poison creature gets a few counters down early, but quickly gets overwhelmed by the power of the Beasts.
(109)
Marble Priest has a lot of text for what’s essentially a vanilla (read: wall-hosing) 3/3. In any case, it easily overpowers the Cobra.
(110)
The Slug does have a way to push damage past the blockers. But the fact that the ability costs an outrageous five mana means it doesn’t help much once Tobias starts taking over.
(111)
They trade, but Cat Warriors come down a turn earlier on the draw, so the death of the Spirit is inevitable. Forestwalk helps here, but isn’t needed.
(112)
The first plainswalker (which long precedes the first Planeswalker) easily blows past the 0-power Ghosts.
(113)
Walls can’t attack and the Dragonfly has evasion, so it’s only a matter a time (though you’d think a wall of dust would be able to stop a puny dragonfly).
(114)
Now I know why they discontinued those combat pingers. They make the combat math extremely complicated. Making the face-off between the Archers and a vanilla 2/2 a rather convoluted one the solve.
In short, we know that the Archers can defend indefinitely (double-block a horseman and use them to ping another attacker), it comes down to whether D’Avenant can push any damage through.
However, the fact that every attack requires tapping two Archers to kill a horseman (one to be blocked, one to ping) means that there is no way for them to run an advantageous attack without being counter-attacked to death the next turn.
Sleepy Hollow wins this one by default.
(142)
Throwing down two Mummies a turn starting from Turn four (before the first Night Stalker comes down) is just too much to handle. That redirection ability doesn’t help the Night Stalker at all, since it’s either equivalent to a block (redirect to a non-blocking Stalker) or it kills a Night Stalker (redirect to a blocking Stalker).
(141)
The 0-power Kobolds chumps away as Lost Soul eventually takes them down.
(117)
This one is also a bit tricky.
The Falcon’s strategy is simple. Always attack (given evasion plus vigilance). Then start chumping to keep alive if a victory is in sight.
With Walking Dead, the plan is to attack before casting anything for the turn, and always regenerate if possible (because 1 mana to keep a Walking Dead > 2 mana and a card to cast a Walking Dead).
If Zephyr Falcon keeps attacking without ever blocking until needed, it’ll lose. After Turn six, both decks will be at 7 life. Next turn, eight Walking Dead will attack, two Falcons have to block. This leaves only six Falcons left, which leaves them 1 damage short of winning (they’ll lose by numbers to the Walking Dead next turn).
Any alternate strategy where the Falcon blocks a Walking Dead on Turn six or before won’t help. Although the regeneration cost prevents casting another Walking Dead that turn (slowing down that deck as a trade-off for the Falcon dying), it’s still not enough for the Falcon to sneak through that 20th point of damage before the Walking Dead does.
(118)
Not as exciting a match as the last one, as it’s two cards that literally do nothing. Kobolds wins by default.
(119)
The Vultures can only start double-blocking (trading 1-for-1 and thus start putting carrion counters down) on Turn 4, at which point they’re already down to 11 life. The accumulation of counters from there is just slow, and the Wolves do barely enough to win.
(137)
The Wall can only chump away as Monster eventually takes over.
(121)
The accumulation of Leprechauns does 17 damage before the first Boars comes down.
(122)
It’s a stalemate, and the Effigy’s inability to attack for anything means the Apes win by default.
(123)
The Clergy outnumber the offenseless wall and eventually take it.
(124)
Another default win. The invulnerability of the Wall means it can match each shot by De Niro one for one.
(125)
The Bats cast new creatures on Turn 1, 2, and 4; and use the rest of the mana to pump and kill with evasion. The Brownie, with probably the most pointless ability in the entire game, can’t do much to stop that.
(126)
The evasion of the Sprites slowly bring down the big and slow thing; with some late chumping to handle those one-every-two-turns attacks.
(127)
The Wolf Pack is slightly tougher, so it just waits things out until it overwhelms those un-enchanted Enchanted Beings.
(128)
The original Kithkin scores a default win over the 2-power creature that can’t attack.
Round of 128
(1)
Old Scottish Dude is bigger than the Kithkin, and takes it down eventually.
(2)
The 2/2 flying, first-striker (stats which can never be reprinted thanks to the Reserved List) evades the Wolf Pack for an easy win.
(3)
The two-mana (and 30-cent) Sprites get through with 13 damage before seven-mana (and $130) Hazezon, and his Sand Warrior buddies, even see the light of day.
The first upset of a high-seed, unquestionably awesome multicolored legend that we’ll see today. But definitely not the last.
(4)
This one is a pure race. And the Bats’ evasion, convenient ability to use the excess mana to pump, and chumpability on the last turn earns it the win over Gwendlyn.
(5)
Defender on the draw equals default loss.
(6)
Ra, ra, Rasputin, lover of the Russian queen, there was a cat that really was gone…
But seriously, what is it with these legendary creature names? And what plane did all these guys come from?
In any case, the fast Clergy already get 17 damage through before the first Old Russian Guy comes down.
(122)
Just to one-up that, the Grizzly Bears stand-in ends this game before Bolas (probably the most recognizable all the creatures in this set) can even come down.
(8)
She may not be as strong has her Jitte, but Umezawa outclasses the Leprechaun and takes it easily.
(9)
If it goes on the aggressive, Adun runs out of gas pretty quickly (even with that recursive ability) against the much bigger Moss Monster.
Moss Monster can just wait it out, then attack with a big swarm that forces a whole bunch of chump blocks, and wrap it up shortly after.
(10)
Evangela’s extra point of toughness means it can stall out the Wolves indefinitely.
(11)
Finally, a big legend that is actually on curve! It completely annihilates the pitiful Kobolds.
(12)
Default win.
(13)
The Master has to trade with the Soul for the first few turns. But once at eight mana, it can start generate two Wolves of the Hunt each turn to trade with two Lost Souls. The Master of the Hunt wins out on card advantage.
(143)
See Nicol Bolas’s loss above. I feel like we’re gonna see the same story for all these super-famous Elder Dragon Legends.
(15)
The Horseman can’t get much going before the Swamp King takes over.
(16)
The cheaper dragonfly trades and eventually overwhelms the more expensive Queen – that First Strike isn’t even needed.
(17)
Keep trading until it wins by default.
(18)
The Egyptian pharaoh holds on at 2 life before fully stabilizing.
(19)
Yeah, I’m starting to think those Elder Dragon Legends weren’t very good.
(20)
The Caretaker’s cool ability doesn’t do anything here as the much bigger Priest eventually takes over.
(21)
Asmadi is slow to come down, and the protection from red for the Beast handles the rest.
(22)
Pumping that single Bee and attacking with it ends things pretty quickly.
(23)
Between the Guardians’ red-hosing and that serious upkeep cost, the Kobold Lord stands no chance.
(24)
Multiple Halfdanes (which I suppose makes a Fulldane) > a single (albeit huge) Ooze.
(25)
That upkeep cost means only one Palladia-Mors in play for several turns, during which time the Leviathian does the final damage.
(26)
Keep trading until Ragnar wins with numbers.
(27)
Starting from Turn six, the card draw leads to two Xira per turn (vs. only one Blacksmith). Xira eventually wins on sheer numbers.
(28)
It costs five to cast the Berserker and four to bounce. Once two Elementals get onto the battlefield, the Berserker is essentially hard-locked. Unless Time Elemental decides to block for some reason (seriously, why is that effect even there?).
(29)
Default win for the Phoenix over the wall with the extremely descriptive name.
(30)
The cheaper Bartel trades its way to victory.
(31)
Tor Wauki has the same issue here vs. The Wretched that D’Avenant Archer did vs. Headless Horseman. Any profitable attack requires tapping down a bunch of other Tor Wauki for their range strike. As such, this red-black Archer legend has no way of pushing any meaningful damage through without facing a lethal counterattack.
(32)
So much cool art wasted with these legends… Livonya with its first strike totally outclasses Sivitri in battle.
(33)
Yes, I’m letting ante creatures participate in this tournament. There’s nothing inherent about this format that prevents them from functioning like any normal creature; and any “spirit of the rules” considerations don’t really apply when it’s one guy playing virtual cards against themselves.
(Caveat: Those anteed cards don’t get added to the winner’s deck for next round.)
It doesn’t matter so much here, though. Since the Efreet is able to block even an activated Wall.
(34)
The 5/5 Viking legend beats the 3/3 Babylonian legend. Nebuchadnezzar’s discard ability comes in way too late to matter.
(35)
Having thirteen creatures in play before the opponent has one is usually a recipe for success. Not in the case of 0-power Kobolds, though.
(36)
Seeing as Wood Elemental is widely regarded as the worst creature in the history of Magic, it’s safe to say they don’t win this one.
(37)
Man, I love these names.
Hunding is much bigger here, and it just rampages over old Boris.
(38)
That’s…actually a really powerful ability on Rubinia. And using that, she can take control of every Pavel Mailiki on the field for an easy win.
(39)
Unlike D’Avenant and Tor Wauki, this range-striker has a much easier time. Caleria’s high toughness and three-damage combat shots is enough to stop any Frost Giant offense.
(40)
I think it’s a testament to how bad the creatures were in this set that Mold Demon is actually somewhat competitive in this battle. Ultimately, though, all that swamp-sacrificing means that Sir Shandlar will eventually overwhelm it.
(41)
Tuknir gets her (evasive) 20 damage in before Kasimir gets his.
(42)
Without any plains to “use counters” on, the Gnomes are literally a vanilla 1/1 for four. Old Barktooth takes them down easily.
(43)
The Horror is big, but is upkeep cost means that there can only be one on the battlefield at a time. The Mountain Yeti badly outnumbers it.
(44)
Somehow, the 1/1 for three with no relevant abilities (though that ability is pretty nasty in normal Magic) wins this one. The Legionnaire is just too slow.
(45)
They trade. Johan wins by default.
(46)
Gabriel can stabilize in time here, as Floral Spuzzem – despite its apparent artifact-destroying sentience – is too slow of a clock.
(47)
The larger Riven Turnbull overpowers its way to victory here.
(48)
Finally, a battle here that actually requires some strategy (excluding all those range-striker battles, which are just mind-numbingly boring).
The play for Carrion Ants is to cast a second creature on Turn five, while swinging for 1. From there, it swings for 6 on Turn six. Then it swings for 3 on Turn seven while casting another creature (Lucrezia won’t block under threat of a big pump). Turn eight, the two Lucrezia will trade with two Ants (each pumped four times). Turn nine, another 5 damage and another Ant.
Finally, Turn ten, the two Lucrezia are forced to block each of the ant attackers, who each get pumped five times to kill them both. And from there, the Ants will always have enough mana to destroy any and all Lucrezia blockers.
(49)
Default.
(50)
Evasion and cheaper.
(51)
Swedish Giant vs. Craw Giant.
It is not in Craw Giant’s interest to attack right away, as each trade gives Axelrod a 2-damage swing. Craw Giant only wants to attack if it can win that turn. The soonest they can do that is with 20 Craw Giants.
However, before Craw Giant reaches that number, Axelrod will reach a point where it can attack for lethal. That number is 11.
If 11 Swedish Giants attack into 12 Craw Giants, the Craw Giant can single-block ten of them and double-block the last one. For each single-blocked Axelrod, 2 damage will be dealt (1 from Trample, 1 from death trigger). 2 times 10 equals 20, and that’s enough for the kill.
(52)
Man, those upkeep costs back in the day were harsh.
The Island-sacrificing requirement for the Elder Spawn means that they can never have more than two on the battlefield. And if they ever get two on the battlefield…they’ll never be able to cast another Spawn (even if one dies).
The Lady of the Mountain takes advantage of that to win by numbers.
(53)
The Wurm is bigger than the Werewolf, and the Werewolf clock is too slow. And that’s game.
(54)
Not only is the Evil Eye unblockable, but it also has a big advantage on defense; as a double-block kills the Stangg and its twin, while the Eye survives. But the effective double-casting on Stangg each turn also presents a formidable offensive force. Which one wins out?
Evil Eye’s strategy should be to keep their two Eyes as blockers on Turn 6, deterring a double-Stangg attack next turn. Then, on Turn 7, they will attack for an unblockable 3, leaving behind a double-blocking pair. If Stangg attacks back*, they’ll get 11 damage through while losing a pair of twins. From there, the Eye can just attack for 9, leave that one blocker to survive the four-Stangg counterattack, then attack next turn for the finishing blow.
*If Stangg doesn’t attack back on their Turn eight, they won’t be able to do enough damage next turn to win it anyways.
(55)
Zero power Wombat can do nothing.
(56)
Tanaka vs. Ramirez. A battle we saw a lot of during those Yankees-Red Sox clashes back when Hanley played in Boston.
And as with that baseball confrontation, Ramirez is the on the offensive side here (Tanaka, even with Banding, is too small to attack advantageously into the bigger Ramirez). Since each Ramirez requires three Tanaka blockers to trade (four to kill), all Ramirez needs to do is wait until sufficient numbers have built up and swing in – forcing the typical chump or die.
(57)
A close one. Riders aggressively attacks, leaving just enough chumpers to survive the final counterattack and hit back with lethal.
(58)
Thanks to the Oracle change making Kobold Taskmaster…well, a Kobold; it gets exponentially more powerful. The Taskmaster and is able to swing for a total of 30 damage a full two turns before the first Bronze Horse can be cast.
(59)
The Angel’s evasion gives it the edge here.
(60)
Although half her size, the Manticore is cheaper and has evasion. As such, it deals the exact 20 just before Jasmine can strike back with the same.
(61)
We’ve spoken at length about the “interesting” flavor for all these legends, but the Kobolds in this set are worth mentioning as well. Their art was definitely…unique, to say the least.
With the Drill Sergeants growing to some infinite toughness, it can swing with impunity even as the Takahashi blockers come down. Their extra numbers allows a few damage to get through every turn; while the offensive pressure prevents the old Japanese legend from even trying a counter-attack.
Eventually, the persistent 1/X (trampling!) Kobold strikes finish things off.
(62)
Wall stalls, wins by default.
(63)
The Drake’s evasion allows it to end things in due course. The Psionic Entity’s suicidal ability doesn’t do much good, seeing as it needs to do it twice to kill a Drake.
(64)
What was it with WotC an their fixation with Walls back in the day? In any case, Sentinel wins it by default versus the defender.
Onto the Round of 64…