Is Legacy a Wasteland?

Magic: The Gathering · by Matt Chow · January 10, 2025

Is Legacy healthy? If not, how do we fix it?

Video originally published to YouTube on Jan. 8, 2025.

As an engaged and involved player, I find much of the discourse about Legacy's health frustrating. I might be terminally online, and while I’d like to touch grass, it’s winter in Canada, and I don’t like the cold.

I want to explore the health of Legacy and her discourse holistically. 

In Mid-December 2024, a banned and restricted (BnR) update from Wizards of the Coast (WotC) banned Vexing Bauble and Psychic Frog. They mentioned that they are keeping an eye on Nadu and Winged Wisdom, and that either Entomb or Reanimate is another possible target. They opted for Psychic Frog instead.

Legacy, What Is It?

Before I delve into my perspectives on format and discourse health, I want to define Legacy as objectively as possible.

The only current official definition I can find for Legacy is from the Wizards of the Coast formats hub page:

The card pool encompasses all Magic: The Gathering (MTG) sets, with the exception of cards that have been banned from the format. The rules are objective. The banned list is also objective, as we can clearly define what is banned.

Let’s take a look at the full Legacy banned list and categorize the cards for ease of understanding. The full list is objective, but evaluating the cards and the reasons for their bans inherently involves a degree of individual perspective and bias.

There are a couple of quick categories we can knock out: cards that include the Ante, Stickers, Attractions, Conspiracy, and Dexterity mechanics are blanket-banned.

There are also cards banned due to being culturally offensive with themes, tropes, or stereotypes that were maybe acceptable at the time they were printed, but are not in the context of today’s social norms.

The above categories are banned in all constructed two-player formats, including Modern and Vintage. This is a fact, even if you’re an edge-lord who thinks you should be allowed to play Invoke Prejudice. If you think that, go outside, even though it’s winter.

I think there are two-and-a-half to three remaining categories important to consider when discussing the Legacy banned list.

Power 9, Old-School, & Modern Era Cards

The Power 9 are the most powerful and iconic cards in the entire game; they are banned in Legacy due to power level.

Tutors

Of the cards from the 90s, many are banned; most are also restricted in Vintage. Efficient and unconditional tutors increase deck consistency to a level where much of the game's variance is significantly reduced. Examples include Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal, Mystical Tutor, and Survival of the Fittest.

Fast Mana, Card-Advantage Engines, & Mana Cheats

Lots of reusable fast-mana effects are also banned, including Mishra’s Workshop, Sol Ring, and Mana Crypt.

The next category is overwhelming card advantage engines. There is a range from Bazaar of Baghdad to Yawgmoth’s Bargain to Wheel of Fortune and Windfall, to Necropotence.

There's a class of cards that cheat big things into play, including Tinker, Flash, Oath of Druids, and Channel.

Dexterity, Quality of Life, & Outliers

A couple of cards that are simply too much hassle, like Goblin Recruiter and Shahrazad, which require too much work to resolve.

The remaining cards from this era are Earthcraft, Frantic Search, Mana Drain, and Mind Twist. These didn’t cleanly fit into the prior categories and, depending on perspective, are the only cards from the era that could be considered for an unban.

Modern Era

Of Modern Era cards that have been banned, there are three categories: card advantage, design mistakes, and cards that are too good when paired with Daze or Ancient Tomb.

Card Advantage & Engines

The banned card advantage cards are Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, and Expressive Iteration. The banned engines are Wrenn and Six, Skullclamp, and Underworld Breach.

Design Mistakes

Design mistakes include the Phyrexian mana spells Mental Misstep and Gitaxian Probe, each of which could be played in any deck, the companions, including Lurrus of the Dream-Den and Zirda, the Dawnwaker, and the most busted planeswalker of all time: Oko, Thief of Crowns.

Then, there are cards that unintentionally change the rules of the game, such as Arcum’s Astrolabe and Vexing Bauble.

There are cards that become oppressive when paired with existing iconic Legacy cards. So far, most of these have been cheap threats that snowball advantage, and are too good when paired with Daze or Ancient Tomb plus Chrome Mox and Lotus Petal. White Plume Adventurer is the poster child for the latter.

Outliers

{Sensei’s Divining Top} and {Grief} don’t fit cleanly into any of these categories. Each created poor gameplay patterns — spinning top endlessly or being double {Thoughtsize} on turn one.

I expect any future banned cards to slot into one of the above categories.

Legacy Is Iconic and Eternal

Moving past the existing banned list is a more subjective area, and where the quality of discourse matters most. We now know what Legacy is objectively; we have the rules, but we don’t necessarily know what Legacy means.

Thematically, Legacy is iconic; it’s eternal. These are words WotC uses to describe the format. 

To me, “iconic” means players can play with many of the game's most famous cards like Lightning Bolt, Swords to Plowshares, Force of Will, Dark Ritual, Wasteland, and the revised dual lands. They have a feeling of weight and of historical significance.

Would the format have a dramatically different metagame if we could only play with chocklands instead of dual lands? I think it’d be more similar, but it would