Playing a ZEN draft in Legacy

Hello everybody!
I normally make my first article of each month a financial update article, when I talk about prices and trends, however I feel I have to discontinue that... Normally a normal article will take me 30-90 minutes to write and post up. However, the financial articles take me 6-8 hours to do, which is simply a time investment I cannot commit. Also, I often feel not much changes month-to-month for most standard cards, and the most volatile time, when financial insight is most important is over very short periods, most notably right after a pro tour and right after a set release. So basically, the update is always late. I will do market updates, but in a more specific manner, and more randomly.

That aside, I'm watching the legacy coverage on SCGlive all day today (because legacy is mono-awesome), and one deck in particular absolutely blew my mind! I don't have the deck list (and this article will be casually edited and updated if the deck list is officially released) but I saw enough cards that the majority of the main deck can be inferred. Basically, Dennis Taylor is playing a standard deck from Shards-Zendikar standard, adding a few good legacy cards, and as of this posting is 2-0-1. Check it out:

4x Goblin Guide
4x Steppe Lynx
4x Figure of Destiny
4x Zektar Shrine Expedition
4x Reckless Charge
4x Shard Volley
4x Chain Lightning
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Ranger of Eos
4x Plated Geopede

4x Ghost Quarter
4x Plateau
4x Arid Mesa
3x Mountain3x Plains
4x Flagstones of Trokair

Ghost Quarter in Legacy!!?? Yeah, that's not designed to attack your opponent's manabase, that's for the landfall triggers! A sweet card that also helps the landfall triggers is Flagstones of Trokair. Playing a second Flagstones is a triple landfall-turn. Also, with Shard Volley you get a landfall trigger in addition to a lightning bolt! This card is simply the stone cold nuts in a landfall boros deck! Consider:

T1 - Flagstones of Trokair, Steppe Linx
T2 - Mountain, Zektar Shrine Expedition, swing for 2 (4 if it was a fetchland)
T3 - Anything.... Flagstones of Trokair/Ghost Quarter, swing for 13+
T4 - IF the game goes this long, throw burn at face

Sounds like a good deck! The fact that Figure of Destiny is the WORST 1-drop in the deck is a good sign! Even Goblin Guide is outclassed by Steppe Lynx in this deck, and Goblin Guide is considered the best red 1-drop creature ever printed!

I'm watching the SCG Open coverage, and I'm really hoping this deck top-8s, because it very well could be the coolest deck to ever make Plateau actually relevant! This deck is VERY inexpensive (Plateau is the cheapest dual land at $50 a piece), and it looks to be VERY powerful and fast! Once you get past the Plateaus, here's how the deck prices out:

Goblin Guide (4, 16)
Flagstones of Trokair (4, 16)
Chain Lightning (12, 48)
Ranger of Eos (3, 6)
Arid Mesa (11, 44)
Figure of Destiny (7, 28)

So in total, the deck costs $342 from the ground up (without commons), and 200 of that comes from the 4 Plateau, which is a very easy dual land to trade for, because no one really wants it. Also, $50 of the deck comes from Chain Lightning, but you can cut $10 of that by going for the Fire & Lightning version. And even then, chain lightning isn't even THAT good. It is a fairly replaceable card by Lava Spike, if nothing else. The other expensive card is Arid Mesa, but that's a very recent card that frankly everyone should have still on hand. It was great in Standard, and is a staple in all eternal formats. So then, once we handle that $300 bundle, we have $50 left for this deck.... and they are all recent cards that most people will still have....

If you are looking to break into legacy and enjoy the red zone, then I highly suggest looking at Legacy Landfall Boros! That's all the time I have for now, until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack