Post-Breach Musings

[[Underworld Breach]] is banned! Though it was in Legacy for just a short time, it proved to be an incredibly dominant and format warping card. Obviously my analysis of the card and its power level were flawed, but some of the ideas were correct. [[Underworld Breach]] was not a [[Yawgmoth’s Will]] in that it did not really function as an engine card. The deck worked more like Flash-Hulk, where it just put a couple of cards together and won the game. The [[Silence]] protection package was one that was much more effective than any that were proposed at the time of writing the article.

Regardless, [[Underworld Breach]] has proved that it is too good for Legacy and that is good news for The EPIC Storm! [[Silence]] is a very hard card to play against with the disruption package of [[Defense Grid]], [[Veil of Summer]], and [[Chain of Vapor]]. Combined with a fall in opposing decks playing [[Veil of Summer]], [[Thoughtseize]] was added back to the main deck to help combat this menace. There were stranger contortions that were considered (main deck [[Empty the Warrens]]), but given the banning, none of them had to ever see the light of day.

Where does Legacy and The EPIC Storm go from here?

What got worse?

With [[Underworld Breach]] banned, the entire deck is dead. This was not a simple “nerf” ban; it eliminated the strategy from Legacy. For everyone else, this amounts to cutting or changing the sideboard slots that were devoted to Breach. Sideboards will likely contain fewer copies of [[Deafening Silence]], [[Rest in Peace]], and other hard hitting anti combo cards. There are not many decks that lose a lot of stock in the metagame because nothing had such a good Breach match up as to become dominant as the anti meta deck.

What sees more play?

The metagame could reverts to where it was before Theroes: Beyond Death was printed. The incentives to be UGx control based are still very strong. [[Oko, Thief of Crowns]], [[Veil of Summer]], and [[Ice-Fang Coatl]] are all a very strong base for a fair blue deck. They are also joined by [[Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath]] as a flex slot to help go over the top of other fair decks. As these decks come back, predators such as [[Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis]] strategies will become much better again, especially because the overall amount of graveyard hate in the format will likely decrease. The other deck that gets a large boost is UG Omni-Tell. This deck was largely suppressed by the fact that [[Underworld Breach]] was a better version of the deck.

The [[Silence]] – [[Veil of Summer]] – [[Thoughtseize]] triangle that dominated the Breach format would likely been broken as there was no previous deck that reasonably can pick up [[Silence]]. There have been rumblings in the [[Doomsday]] community that they might be the deck to pick up [[Silence]]. [[Thassa’s Oracle]] is a buff to the deck because it makes the [[Doomsday]] piles much easier. [[Doomsday]] also had a terrible match up against [[Underworld Breach]] due to [[Brain Freeze]] easily milling them out post [[Doomsday]].

So what does The EPIC Storm do?

There is no reason to revert to a previous deck list straight away. The combination of playing both [[Veil of Summer]] and [[Thoughtseize]] has proven to be incredibly potent, and I do not predict all of the copies of [[Thoughtseize]] leaving anytime soon. In terms of main deck changes, a single copy [[Empty the Warrens]] is being considered over the [[Echo of Eons]]. [[Echo of Eons]] has been the default secondary engine main deck since the switch to [[Wishclaw Talisman]] because it is an engine that does not require any time (turns) or life to win the game. This is particularly effective against other combo decks and decks that can race a lot of goblins. The other major benefit is that it allows aggressive mulligan as starting at five cards then drawing back up to seven is a nice benefit. It is less consistent than other engines, however, and does give the opponent those cards as well. Having a card with a converted mana cost of six in the deck increases the standard deviation of the average converted mana cost as well. This is an issue with [[Ad Nauseam]], where safe flips stop happening 2-4 cards earlier than it would otherwise.

There are a lot of strengths in having a main deck [[Empty the Warrens]]. The number of wrath effects in main decks, such as [[Plague Engineer]], have decreased overall. This makes resolving a [[Wishclaw Talisman]] stronger than it would be without the [[Empty the Warrens]]. Once the [[Wishclaw Talisman]] is on the table, going off through a [[Force of Will]] becomes relatively trivial as it is only five mana to tutor for [[Empty the Warrens]]. The other benefit is that it opens up a sideboard slot. Having to play four copies of [[Empty the Warrens]] in the sideboard is a real cost, and having another slot opens up possibilities of more narrow and more powerful cards.

The sideboard has a ton of possible changes that could be made. Cards like [[Carpet of Flowers]] start to make more sense in a world with more fair blue decks. Instead of going under Delver decks with [[Empty the Warrens]], TES goes over them with so much mana that the soft permission spells stop mattering. If [[Chalice of the Void]] has a rise in popularity, [[Crash]] could make a return, especially with enchantment hate likely seeing a trend downwards.

[[Xantid Swarm]] and [[Hope of Ghirapur]] are both cards that the TES team is considering. One of the main issues is sideboard space. These cards are both very potent in against control decks and Sneak & Show. Depending on how the metagame evolves, [[Hope of Ghirapur]] especially could become a sideboard card again. One sneaky thing that is in testing is a sideboard basic [[Island]]. This is mostly a card to help with the Delver matchups where resolving cantrips even through a [[Wasteland]] is important. Being able to sit on a couple of basics can help beat soft permission spells as well.

Personally, I am a fan of [[Carpet of Flowers]] even though it can appear to be low impact. Here are a couple of lists as starting points post ban:

Starting Point Post Ban