Building Community: For the Love of Legacy

Magic: The Gathering · by Phil Blechman · January 22, 2025

Those who have played Magic: The Gathering (MTG) for 20-plus years have probably found their niche within the game. Be it as a kitchen table casual, a Friday Night Magic (FNM) grinder who evolved to a competitive tournament player, or a format enthusiast building support for the format they prefer.

At various points over the decades, I have fallen into all three of these archetypes and several others. The one that has stuck which I want to delve into deeper is cultivating a local Legacy scene. That is exactly what I, with help from others, have done.

For those passionate about Legacy, we know its struggles. In many a yesteryear, Wizards of the Coast's (WotC) organized play and the Star City Games (SCG) Open circuit supported Legacy via large events worth traveling for. These events gave dedicated Legacy players competitive purpose that meant something within the community at large. As Magic's focus turns to Standard, Modern, Pioneer, and Commander, there has not been sufficient support for Magic’s older eternal formats. Thus, community itself must shoulder the responsibility.

Regional tournament organizers like Buffalo Chicken Dip Legacy, The Oklahoma Land Run, and, formerly, The Legacy Pit holding larger tournaments are critical to Legacy's competitive paper ecosystem. These events are well attended by those who travel far and wide to cast their Brainstorms, Ponders, and Force of Wills. These events fuel the smaller scale, more localized scenes.

For me, it’s the weekly Wednesday night events at my local game store, Golden Fang Games in Port Richey, FL. My close friends at Golden Fang and a few other local players expressed the need for a more significant local Legacy event to further fuel the competitive ecosystem. Allowing proxies helped remove financials as a limiting factor for some players who wanted to join, increasing the size of the player base.

After the early success of Wednesday night legacy, we created The Florida Legacy League (FLL), which features a points system for attendance and match wins, a leaderboard, and the possibility to earn free entry into quarterly tournaments to win dual lands and Reserve List staples; providing 100% of entry fees in store credit to top finishers.

Our community of Legacy players is the most dedicated to Magic I’ve seen. I can't imagine players committed to younger formats like Modern putting in the same effort or dedication when WotC provides them plenty of high-level competition opportunities.

Legacy is special. It’s up to us, the deck specialists, podcasters, organizers, and community-at-large to keep it moving. Eternal Weekend is amazing, but it’s the only Legacy support WotC provides. If you are a Legacy player without a reliable place to play the format, I encourage you to put in the effort of finding your community and building a local Legacy scene together. Take it from someone who did — it's worth it.

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Featured image: Tocasia's Welcome by Johan Grenier