Format: Legacy League
Legacy League, round 3! As a reminder, the way this works: We started in Golden Age (with SR Yuan-ti, Bard and a couple of others banned), and we’re banning every card of the winning team (except BACs) for the duration of the league.
Last week, the 1-2 punch of Jocasta and FUS Beholder knocked it out of the park, and won me the day. This week, though, I wanted to take out some nice big bruisers, without having to pay for them if possible. Time to get…
The Bridge Collector
The Team: Because Collector is using the Bifrost, which is a bridge. Get it? Bah…
Ok, the core of this team isn’t the win condition; it’s the way I get to it. I wanted to try a fun interaction between UC Collector and R The Bifrost. In short: activate Bifrost, field Collector, put a die in your Used Pile thanks to Collector, and immediately field it thanks to Bifrost. (this works because as the player controlling both effects, I choose the order in which they trigger) It’s a handy little trick that gives me a lot of flexibility and can give me a big guy instantly.
For it to work, though, I need some big baddies to use it with. Enter Red Dragon and Thanos. Red Dragon is a classic, and I figured he could allow me to double Bifrost’s effect, which could be hilarious. Plus, Red Dragon’s global makes it easier to buy Bifrost, which is a nice bonus. Thanos, on the other hand, can just obliterate the opponent if he gets blocked to trigger Overcrush; he’s the classic big stompie.
How do I get Thanos blocked though? It’s necessary for Overcrush to hurt. I could use a force block, but nah, that’s a bit too easy. Why not use Guardian of Faith? It can be used on my own character, makes the character “blocked” without a blocker, and will allow Thanos to deal monstrous damage. Just the threat of Guardian of Faith means my opponent has no choice but to block. And seeing as Guardian of Faith is in, another card deserves to make the team for laughs…
Another case of artistic double-dipping! Hey, at least this time, Dwarf Wizard makes for some fantastic control, which I need now that Hellblazer is banned.
As for the rest of the team, Kree Captain serves as an additional secondary strategy and a great discount global, and I put in the classic PXG for ramp. Black Widow’s global makes for nice removal (especially useful against SWitch), while the character gives me more offensive power (and a 2-cost, which I was missing until now). Black Widow also gives me fists, which I will need a fair bit. As for Cone of Cold, it serves to make Thanos even more lethal with its global, plus it gives me an additional removal tool.
With that said, on to the games!
Game 1:
I started off against Patch-Avengers. Yeah, the guy said, point blank, that he was bringing this team to get it banned. Green Goliath, Tsarina, all that nastiness. Problem is, my team was just as fast. He was stuck with not enough masks on turn 2 and bought Hulk; this messed up his bag, and gave me just the edge I needed. Collector + Bifrost worked, Red Dragon hit the field T3, and shenanigans started. He fielded Hulk and did a bit of damage with it, but I got it off the field courtesy of Widow’s global; this opened the door wide open for a massive Breath Weapon-fueled attack. I won on T5.
1-0
Game 2:
Bye. We had 5 players, and wanted to set up everyone to play everyone, so for that to work, I had a bye.
2-0
Game 3:
Time to face off against Hulk + Babs + Immortals. Yeah, that team can cause a lot of pain. He was in a bit of a no-win situation though: Babs doesn’t deal enough damage with my huge guys, and I can use Collector to get them on the field really quickly. I actually got to do a double Bifrost this game (use Bifrost with Red Dragon active), fielding 4 characters from Used in one turn. Needless to say, that was the last turn in the game, as I had more characters than he could stop (especially since I’d been using Widow’s global to thin his field). I won by dealing 40+ damage.
3-0
Game 4:
I went up against a Bolt burn team this time. Unfortunately for him, he had the nastiest, most annoying rolls. He had turns where he couldn’t buy anything. While my first turn was horrible (which meant I ended up purchasing Guardian of Faith), I managed to recover and start setting up. Seeing as Guardian of Faith was already out, Thanos was the first guy I got out with the Collector + Bifrost combo. The intimidation factor was real; knowing he had no choice but to block Thanos, he blocked with all he had. However, he still took massive damage as his characters had low toughness. This one was over pretty quick.
4-0
Game 5
For the final match of the night, time to face off against Immortals and Fixit. I have to admit: I wasn’t glad to be giving my opponent ramp and discounts to use Fixit with. However, I managed to get a nice opening, with Red Dragon hitting the field on T3, and Thanos showing up not long after. I kept my opponent’s offense at bay for a while (thanks Dwiz!), keeping up the pressure with Thanos and Red Dragon, and I later took advantage of a lean field, forced Hela to attack, and my opponent didn’t have enough blockers to stop me. I won.
5-0
Post-Mortem:
-Thanos + Guardian of Faith was a surprisingly potent combo. Who needs a force block when your opponent knows that if they don’t block, they’re just dead? It’s hard to understand how much pressure that puts on the opponent until you actually see it happen. Try it out.
-Red Dragon was my individual all-star though. Everything about it worked like a charm.
-Collector + Bifrost…holy heck that combo. This really feels like it should work in Modern somehow. Seeing a surprise Thanos or Red Dragon (would have to be switched out in Modern, of course) makes such a massive difference in the board state. You could use that combo with just about any big bruiser. OP Apocalypse, UC Obelisk, OP Thanos, Phoenix Force, the list goes on.
-If you run R Bifrost, always, always run some low cost characters. Having Kree Captains and Widows to buy (and immediately field) is always a good plan if you can’t get the big guys to come out.
Overall, this was a blast to run; if I can revisit the Bifrost + Collector combo in Modern sometime, I’d love to give it a second look. For now, though, I got this team banned. No Dwiz, no new Widow, no R Bifrost…Ouch, this just made team building for next week a heck of a lot more difficult.