Written by Scott Nissen
The June 30, 2025, banned and restricted (B&R) announcement is on the horizon. Legacy has a sea of uncertainty washing over it. I’m going to discuss the format and its current problems.
I am relatively new to the Legacy scene. I started around the release of Double Masters 2022 (2XM). I became enamored with Legacy for its cards too powerful to exist in younger formats. I fell in love with the format after pulling an Emrakul, The Aeons Torn from 2XM packs and realizing Legacy was the one format I could use it.
Despite the lack of control, the Legacy metagame is healthy. However, there are changes that could make it better. Three cards — Entomb, Balustrade Spy, and Undercity Informer — receive more ire from the community than is deserved. Here's the case defending these cards and why banning other offenders would more likely elevate control's metashare.
Entomb Is a Sacred Cow
I am biased toward Entomb. I play BG Reanimator and know this may cause some to dismiss my opinions. Banning Entomb would be catastrophic for the reanimator archetype, but there is a strong case for Entomb remaining in the format beyond that.
If Entomb were banned, BR Reanimator and UB Reanimator strategies would homogenize to function. Without Entomb, BG and Mono-black variants would cease to exist. Many point to Faithless Looting and Careful Study as solutions to dumping creatures into the graveyard, but they are too weak for current Legacy.
An Entomb ban would be a larger problem for BR Reanimator than it would for UB Reanimator, which is the current boogeyman of the format. BR Reanimator runs Faithless Looting, but without the suite of Ponder and Brainstorm to help ensure looting effects can put creatures into the graveyard, I fear BR variants would go extinct. The result would be an increase in UB Reanimator pilots, who would not have powerful enough alternatives.
An Entomb ban would also increase UB Tempo strategies, since the same cards comprise most of their shells. Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Murktide Regent, Ponder, Brainstorm, Force of Will, Daze, Wasteland, Fatal Push, Thoughtseize, and Brazen Borrower are all staples of both decks.
A Reanimate ban could help slow UB Reanimator down without killing turbo versions, since Reanimate is the lone one-mana reanimation effect.
Oops, All Spells! vs. Unfun Allegations
Unfun games are cause players to disengate from the format. Oops, All Spells! is often unfun to play against. Aside from first-turn kills that don't allow for reasonable counterplay, Oops, All Spells! is resiliant enough to win through multiple pieces interaction due to their expanded 'manabase' with the Modern Horizons 3 modal-double-faced cards.
Oops, All Spells! can be frustrating to play against but I don't believe it should be completely removed from the format. There are numerous unfun ways to lose games that strip players' agency.
For example, Wasteland cutting a lone mana source can end a game on the first turn if a second land is not available. Chalice of the Void can effectively Mind Twist a player before they got a turn. Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, or Trinisphere on turn one can lock a player out before they take a game action. The list goes on.
Aside from what is fun and what isn't, Oops, All Spells! 50% win rate that merit a ban. Oops, All Spells!'s 50% winrate nor its 4% metashare* can reasonably be considered oppressive. Oops, All Spells!'s strategy being unfun for some does not constitute a ban.
*According to MTGTop8, Oops, All Spells! has a 4% meta share at the time of this article's publication.
How Does Control Reemerge?
According to Cyrus Bales' (Crucible of Words) June 12 article, Legacy's macro-archetype breakdown is hovering around these percentages.
- Combo — 55% | 54% as of June 19.
- Aggro — 32% (including tempo and Death & Taxes) | no change.
- Control —13% | 14% as of June 19.
Despite the 1% increase in the week since, Control's metashare remains at record lows. Part of the Wizards of the Coast's (WotC) rationale for banning Sowing Mycospawn was due to it being considered the main culprit for pushing control out of the meta.
There are other reasons for control seeing abysmal play rates. Current combo and tempo decks oppress control due to their sheer number of must-answer threats. To boon control, several bans in combination with several unbans could reinvigorate control.
Ban Recommendations
Here are three potential bans I recommend:
Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
Tamiyo is the most played card outside of the xerox shell (Ponder and Brainstorm) and requires no deckbuilding cost. Tamiyo fits any strategy as an individually powerful card that offers resources all strategies want — card draw, card selection via its minus ability, a win condition via its ultimate.
Tamiyo allows tempo decks to Regrow instants and sorceries at a cheaper rate than Snapcaster Mage and without significant deckbuilding cost like Mystic Sanctuary. Tamiyo is valuable in control shells as well, but the current split of macro-archetypes suggest Tamiyo is better in combo and tempo shells.
Orcish Bowmasters
Orcish Bowmasters, while not overly powerful, acts as a pseudo lock piece against control and tempo decks. It punishes digging for answers and compels control players to lean on less powerful, more expensive options like Rakshasa's Bargain and Stock Up to find answers without losing signifcant portions of their lift total. While those cards are good, their playability is largely due to not being punished by Orcish Bowmasters.
The best answer to an Orcish Bowmasters is Orcish Bowmasters — a play pattern reminiscent of Mental Misstep. Orcish Bowmasters' presense in a format limits diversity by soft-banning one-toughness creatures.
The One Ring
The One Ring is uniquely powerful and a redundant play pattern. The demonstrably optimal way to pilot The One Ring accrue overwhelming card advantage and then offset the downside by casting another copy of The One Ring.
The One Ring generates so many cards at so little a cost. It hurts control by being singularly more powerful than any other card advantage available. The protection ability The One Ring provides shuts off counterplay, including Orcish Bowmasters and discard spells, like Thoughtseize.
Meaningful Potential Unbans
Mana Drain
Undoubtedly, unbans could help control's prevalence. Mana Drain could allow control to sneak wins in different ways; Forth Eorlingas! and The One Ring, should it remain unbanned.
Deathrite Shaman
Deathrite Shaman could allow control and midrange strategies a win condition that provides early graveyard disruption.
Conclusion
Entomb, while extremely strong, is not more egregious than other available combo options in the format. Banning Entomb would likely stifle archetype diversity.
Oops, All Spells!, while often unfun, doesn’t have a win rate high enough to warrant a ban and and should be allowed to exist in Legacy. Control remains heavily unfavored in current Legacy, and that will persist post B&R if cards that limit control’s ability to have meaningful games are left unbanned.
Several unbans could help control and midrange regain presence by giving them tools to either turbo out impactful plays or access to alternate win conditions.
About the Author
Scott Nissen, a.k.a. unagi, is an avid enjoyer of expensive plastic and cardboard rectangles. He's played Legacy since 2022, starting with an extreme budget version of Sneak and Show with Crystal Vein and Misdirection.
Legacy is his favorite constructed format because it allows for self-expression through playing powerful cards that can't be cast anywhere else.
Shout out to the Dallas Legacy scene, specifically Boardwalk Games, for keeping paper Legacy al
