Dominaria in Legacy

It’s been a long time since I have been as excited for a new set as I am for Dominaria. The flavor is a huge hit for me, the mechanics are interesting, and there are so many exciting and bizarre new cards. While not many new cards usually break into a format as powerful as Legacy, Dominaria has enough cards that could fit the mold of a Legacy playable card. Today I am going to go over a number of cards from this set that look like they have a chance at seeing play. Not all of these will be all-stars, but I think with the right shell a lot of these have a chance of either spawning a new archetype, or working their way into a pre-existing one.

Goblin Chainwhirler

This card seems like a shoe-in for Goblins, likely replacing Sharpshooter. A 3/3 first strike creature is a totally acceptable body, and the ability is critical for dealing with Monk and Elemental tokens. Sharpshooter has more on-board impact as the game goes on, but being a 1/1 that needs to untap for any effect makes it less desirable. I could see this card being just a 1-of to search up with Matron, but the body and board impact might lead people to playing this in larger numbers.

Squee, The Immortal

A completely different type of Goblin, Squee acts as an additional copy of Eternal Scourge in Food Chain decks. These decks are usually Sultai, and Misthollow Griffin usually gets the nod over Eternal Scourge, so Squee might have to prove himself first. But having 2 redundant 3-mana creatures to enable the combo seems like it could be meaningful, and could even spawn a new version of the deck. With Goblin Recruiter banned, it seems unlikely that Food Chain Goblins will come back, but if it does, Squee will be the centerpiece.

Mox Amber

While this is the strangest Mox to date, it’s still a Mox. There are a ton of cheap Legendary creatures and Planeswalkers to pair this with in Legacy, and the ability to accelerate without having to sacrifice a card in hand could be huge. Here’s a short list of cards that already see play which could go well with Mox Amber:

• Leovold, Emissary of Trest
• Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• Dack Fayden
• Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
• Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• Liliana of the Veil
• Liliana, the Last Hope
• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• Gaddock Teeg

I think with this list alone there is likely a deck for Mox Amber, and there are a lot more niche-playable Legends already in the format. Playing Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy to activate Mox Amber and cast a Lightning Bolt is a huge tempo swing. Using that to accelerate into Chandra could be a big game in a UR Control deck. I’m not exactly sure where it will end up, but I think passing up a Mox could be a huge mistake, and it’s definitely worth looking into.

Damping Sphere

While this looks kind of like a prison card, it really isn’t. Prison decks are one of the two archetypes that are hurt the most by this, so it’s unlikely that this will be cast off of Ancient Tombs any time soon. This is an acceptable anti-Storm card, and a relatively bad anti-Prison card, so i’m not sure that this will find its place in Legacy. The problem against Storm is that it doesn’t slow down their ability to dig for answers by not taxing their first spell. Prison decks, on the other hand, don’t really need to tap their Sol Lands for too much mana after the first two turns of the game, and the scary cards they play come down way before Damping Sphere. If there’s a deck that has trouble against both Prison and Storm, or if Cloudpost becomes a well-represented archetype, I could see this getting some sideboard play, but as it stands, it’s mostly worth just keeping on your radar and out of your decks.

Cast Down

Removal has gotten a lot better in Legacy over the years, so the days of Go for the Throat and Smother are behind us. That being said, this kills almost every creature worth killing, and gives decks that have trouble killing Gurmag Angler a relatively efficient answer. I can definitely see Sultai control including this in some number between main deck and sideboard to supplement Fatal Push and Abrupt Decay. At the very least, between this and Fatal Push Black decks have gotten a huge bump in its removal suite in the past 2 years.

Karn, Scion of Urza

While 4 mana Planeswalkers have a large hurdle to overcome in Legacy, Karn gets to sidestep that hurdle relatively well. Being colorless means that any deck with Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors can cast him pretty easily, and he attacks fair decks from a totally different dimension then they are used to. The combination of card advantage engine and serious threat makes Karn a force to be reckoned with, and I think he’ll be a staple of the Prison deck’s 75 going forward.

Wizard’s Lightning

While Legacy does have both Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning, it also has a fair amount of Wizards that are good enough to see play. An aggressive enough Wizard deck could want Lightning Bolts number 9-12, so I don’t think this is too much of a stretch. It’s even possible that there’s a Flash version of a Wizard deck, and that deck would likely choose this over Chain Lightning, so it’s definitely worth keeping Wizard’s Lightning on deck and taking a second look at some Legacy Wizards.

Flame of Keld

There’s already a somewhat all-in Mono Red Storm deck, and this looks like it could see some play there. Setting up with mana rocks, discarding Past in Flames, and attempting to go off in 2 turns doesn’t sound too bad, but the face of this card is definitely a huge cost to pay. Perhaps this gets included in smaller numbers as a sort of back-up plan post-combo, but even that sounds kind of iffy.

The Flame of Keld also has some consideration in Dredge, but it is very likely much too slow for that. In addition, the 3rd chapter has almost no value in Dredge, so if the Flame of Keld is going to break in, I think Storm will be its route.

Lich’s Mastery

Ok, so this is a stretch, but Lake of the Dead and Dark Ritual already see some amount of play, and this card is totally bizarre. There are a ton of hoops to jump through, and I don’t think they’re even worth jumping through, but this card is weird enough to look at. I have no idea what a mono-black lifegain Lich deck would look like, and I don’t know if it can ever beat a Daze, but trust me, I want it to exist, so i’ll include this as my hopeful pick.

Dominaria is Awesome

I think this is a great set, not just for any specific format, but for Magic in general. While I haven’t been in love with the borders in Magic lately, I think just about every other new direction is excellent, and really reinvigorates my love of all things Magic. I hope this set has some impact on Legacy, and can really change things up a little bit, but it’s hard to tell right now. Regardless, i’m looking forward to the future and will definitely be trying out a few of these for myself!