2025 Eternal Weekend Legacy Championship Top 8 Tournament Report

Written by Eric Ratkowski

The 2025 Eternal Weekend was awesome. I’ve always enjoyed them, but added some special sauce this year: winning a bunch.

First, I have to thank my lovely partner, who would die if she knew she was mentioned here. Nonetheless, when it was time to drive to Pittsburgh, she rolled her eyes and said “Sure, leave your pregnant wife to go play a card game.”

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Gratitude

Second, I want to express gratitude to the community as a whole. There was much talk this year about how we, as individuals, interact with each other and how that fits into a larger context. No community is perfect, but we can all take responsibility for ourselves and do what we can to exist in kind fellowship. We can scream at each other about how to handle outliers or we can enact the kind of affinity we want to see:

Matt Ivans wrote a great article that captures what I saw — a person I consider a friend, a specific type of Magic friend, that I see at spaced intervals, offering to lend me expensive cards just as a shared in-joke.
Steve S used his non-playing Day Two to look after friends. He consistently asked me if I needed anything.
Community leaders Mike R, Evran, Max G, Romario, Zac, Roland, and David K tirelessly bring people together — organizing meals and checking in.
There were old and new friends near and far: Gabe, Shane, Scott, Brian, Chris, David M, Matt, Zach, Jared, Johan, Adam W, Andrews J and H, Koby, Stephen, Nam, Rory, Devin, Landis, Max C, Phil, Patrick, Parker, Samantha, Michael, Teddy, Greg, David T, plus an infinite number of others I can’t possibly name supporting each other in a weekend of joy.
All of my opponents were professional and pleasant.

Does that all sound a bit maudlin? Yes. Is it why most go to Eternal Weekend? Also yes.

My original goal for the Legacy Championship was to better my previous years' 5-4 finishes. Leading up to the event, with the discourse surrounding inclusion, I set another goal: be friendly and respectful to all my opponents, regardless of my results. There’s variance in the game, but not in that; I can control that. I think I am always polite, but I can shut down or be abrupt if I’m not handling my shit.

Preparation

Leading up to Legacy Champs, I tried several decks. Classic Turbo Doomsday is my brand, but it faces an uphill fight in a field of Force of Will, Daze, Thoughtseize, and Wasteland. I had success with try-hard UB Reanimator, but never much fun, especially in grindy post-board games.

My oldest love is Lands. I played in several paper events to moderate results. Four years ago, I switched from Lands to Doomsday after a horrible slog in Philadelphia at an SCG event where I went to time in seven of nine rounds. That was not where I wanted to be for a GP-style tournament.

I trophied with Nadu Breakfast, with some additional good finishes online. I wanted to play some combination of the broken cards in the discussion for bans (e.g., Entomb, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Nadu, The One Ring), not unplayable cards like Nethergoyf or Plains.

Earlier this year, I wrote an article after winning a local 1K tournament with UB Entombsday. I brewed a new version (i.e., I added Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student to the main) and continued to do well. There were tweaks: a third monster, Consider mainboard, more disruption in the sideboard. I brough this to 2025 Eternal Weekend:

UB Entombsday

4 Underground Sea
1 Undercity Sewers
1 Swamp
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Entomb
4 Reanimate
2 Animate Dead
1 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
2 Archon of Cruelty
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Thoughtseize
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
3 Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
4 Dark Ritual
3 Lotus Petal
1 Consider
2 Brazen Borrower

Sideboard

This is mostly the UB shell everyone knows: Brainstorm, Ponder, Daze, Force of Will, Thoughtseize, Underground Sea, Polluted Delta, and Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student. From there, the typical package of Entomb, Reanimate, Animate Dead, and Brazen Borrower is close to stock.

This list includes fast mana in Dark Ritual and Lotus Petal instead of the grind potential of Wasteland and Murktide Regent. It has broken opening hands. Here are the important numbers:

2 Archon of Cruelty

I sometimes played Griselbrand in the third monster spot, or second Atraxa. I wanted a third monster because the deck is dangerously low on win conditions against Swords to Plowshares. Atraxa is vulnerable to Karakas, and Griselbrand is problematic with a dwindled life total. In the end, Archon functioning as a removal spell was critical. I hardcast Archons twice, nearly thrice, on the weekend.

3 Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student

I won several trophies with 4 Tamiyo. However, in this deck, the game, hopefully, does not last long. Redundant Tamiyo are not as helpful as they may be in grindier builds.

1 Consider

This card moved in and out of the 75. It is a clear signal that Doomsday is in the list. However, there’s only one surveil land, and having an additional way to put a creature in the graveyard can be useful. At worst, it is a mediocre cantrip that the opponent will never fight over. I flipped Tamiyo twice off Consider.

3 Lotus Petal

I experimented with one less fetch and the fourth Petal. Petals make Atraxa draws better, but are terrible top decks. After flooding on fast mana one too many times, I cut the fourth Petal.

Earlier this year, I played Personal Tutor sideboard, but Tamiyo as additional action made it obsolete. Instead, the sideboard additions are Force of Negation and Duress, which are mostly play/draw dependent.

With those changes, I headed to Pittsburgh with UB Entombsday and mono-G Lands in my backpack. I was still unsure what I would play. On Friday, I arrived at the hall too late to play the high-roller event, won by an unrepentant MTGO grinder and I surely would have lost to Eureka 7s. Instead, I entered some side events.

Side Event One

Lands WW

My first opponent, a nice player, remembered playing against me on Doomsday in 2024. They mentioned Doomsday is their pet deck. They died in confusion both games.