SMM 2024 Legacy Metagame analysis

Let’s start with looking at the top 8, which is a pretty good resume of the particular meta of this SMM. Firstly, congratulations to Luca Fessia who has won the finals with a Bant Nadu decklist. The rest of the top 8 shows a prevalence of the House Dimir with 4 decks in it, divided in the archetypes Dimir Tempo and U/B Reanimator, both lists running a playset of Psychic Frog, a new legacy staple we’ll talk more about later.

There were still some places for three decks, the well-known Cradle Control and Dredge but also an original Gruul Initiative list. 

We can notably see that none of the decks that made it to the top 8 this year are the same that reached it last year. This shows the diversity of this format but also the concerns of many players on his ongoing power creep due to the recent Modern Horizons printings with some decks relying mostly on those freshly printed cards to overcome their opponent. Last but not least, let’s salute the great performance of Ramon Hegi that made it up to the top 8 for the second year in a row. 

Metagame

Despite the ban of Grief, the U/B Reanimator package keeps being played and is massively represented by 10 decks. The meta stays still very diversified with over 48 different decklists and a lot of homemade brews that reached honorable win rates. The Death’s Shadow and Burn decks seem to have totally disappeared this year. 

Review of the played Cards

The most played card of this Sunday is by far Force of Will with 192 played copies, followed by Brainstorm at 188 copies. The supremacy of blue-based decks is continuing. The Commander Decks designed cards have also found a sunny place in legacy as shown by the uses of Triumph of Saint Katherine, Poxwalkers, Toxicrene, Barrowgoyf and Pyrogoyf in many decks. 

Pictures of Undercity Sewers and Thundering Falls

About the new survey lands that shine in Modern: They see play in Legacy in many decks but mainly as one-off, the Dual Lands are by far still prefered.

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Pictures of Psychic Frog, Consign to Memory and Vexing Bauble.

Concerning the cards that caught the attention, we can think of the now famous Psychic Frog that seems to shake up legacy. 92 copies were played in 23 decks and because of the variety of players using it, its win rate reached „only“ 52,63%. This card is clearly a new staple that reinforces the already strong U/B combinations.

A new card, also from Modern Horizons 3, has seen a lot of play : Consign to Memory. With a lot of inclusions in sideboard and sometimes main deck, as a look-a-like copy of Stifle in the Stiflenought deck for exemple, this card offers a lot of versatility and uses, against Eldrazi Aggro, Cloudpost, Painter or Thassa’s Oracle builds for exemple. 

Finally, let’s talk about Vexing Bauble, also coming straight out of MH3. This card has been played in 53 copies total, from Painter to Eldrazi Aggro players and gives a big advantage against the control decks. The ability of sacking it for a draw at any moment reinforces playing it in decks that play 0 mana cards as well.

Before finishing this report, I want to thank the team of the SMM for the great tournament they organized for us but also the 88 Legacy players that took part in this event. The Swiss Legacy community keeps growing and I love it. See you next year for the legacy SMM 2025 and until then, don’t forget to keep some Pyroblast up your sleeves.

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