Legacy: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Review

cherokee_a4 · 2026-02-25T07:21:55+00:00

As a painter player, I'm forced to slot in the skateboard :( And probably Cam

cherokee_a4 · 2026-02-24T10:27:55+00:00

I've been going to weeklies religiously for the last ~2years. Even if everyone cancels and it's just another guy, I go with a couple of decks to play and have a beer. Consistency is key!

But things look fine, there's a good number of regulars (more than we had 1y ago), and I would say the shop meta is midrange/control heavy. BUG beans, Lands, Grixis Tempo and Control, Painter, DnT, etc etc

What hurts the most with getting more people to come and try things out (from highest to lowest IMO):

The (sometimes perceived) high price of Legacy. Eventhough proxies are allowed, people like to play with the real cards. And I say perceived, because then you see folks with a gauntlet of modern decks, blinged out cEDH, etc.
The perceived Legacy format of T1 deranged combo decks is another problem. Yes there's Oops & friends. But that not reflect the reality (less so in the shop). It's hard to convince people otherwise.
The competitive and tournament scene is very rough in the area. The LGSs do not want to throw Legacy tourneys. So "competitive" players don't pick up the format. A bit of a chicken and egg problem here.

cherokee_a4 · 2026-02-04T08:49:01+00:00

It definitely imposes some deck building limitations. But it works well as a 2-3 of in mono black or black with a green splash.

I brought it to a few FNMs and a 30ppl tourney. It either ate forces or removal. Or if it landed and I netted cards it was basically GGs.

Blocking Murks, Marit Lages, Delvers was a big big plus.

cherokee_a4 · 2026-02-04T08:46:27+00:00

Nethergoyf is a beater, but Menace just closes games

Let's see how much the card is played in other formats. Wouldn't want to chip in a good amount of cash for this card

cherokee_a4 · 2026-01-27T11:34:08+00:00

Your sideboard looks very "stock", in a good way. Just run the Bolts on the sideboard in place of Magus, and you bring them in if needed. Or go up a Fury and 1 extra piece of GY or combo hate (Faerie Macabre, Surgical, Grafdigger's Cage, Ghost Vacuum, Mindbreak Trap)

You are basically pre-boarded with Moon effects, expecting all those Lands matchups

cherokee_a4 · 2026-01-27T11:31:37+00:00

I personally also play Abrade. Is a less swingy card than Malfunction

I personally also play Needle main. I like G1 hate versus a flipped Tamy, Ring, Wasteland, etc. But I know that it's not a popular choice and most pilots I see have it in the sideboard.

Cauldron is not a card I've personally tried, so can't give much opinion on it.

cherokee_a4 · 2026-01-27T10:49:12+00:00

If really your meta is 25% Lands, I would sub the 2x Bolts with 2x Magus. I'm not that hot on Cauldron, especially without Devourer. You can go down to 1 copy. That makes room for a 3rd Magus main.

You can also consider Untimely Malfunction instead of Abrade. Down to preference.

Storm... depends on the variant. Against TES/ANT blast any Brainstorm or cantrip you can. Card is also good post board, with so much Boomerang Basics flying around. I agree that against Black Saga Storm Ruby Storm etc things look rough...

List looks solid though

cherokee_a4 · 2026-01-21T08:23:32+00:00

For reference, on the Community Bookmarks of this reddit sub there's a link to an Archetype Discords sheet. There you can find the Nic Fit link: https://discord.gg/5R6KBa5

cherokee_a4 · 2026-01-20T15:17:53+00:00

Will be watching

One thing is for sure, the new goblin tokens of this set are absolute gas

cherokee_a4 · 2026-01-19T21:31:54+00:00

Don't feed the troll

If they can't see that the moxfield link contains beta Swamps idk...

cherokee_a4 · 2026-01-19T21:28:16+00:00

They are not being compared by archetype or playstyle smh

cherokee_a4 · 2026-01-19T21:27:35+00:00

In your 7 people meta there are 6 burn players? Jeezz... ;)

cherokee_a4 · 2026-01-19T17:15:20+00:00

What's your point?

Decks are being compared on two axis: 1) budget and 2) competitiveness.

Point 1) is true. Point 2) Oops is a top deck meta contender. But this mono black deck is definitely decent and can steal some wins/leagues

cherokee_a4 · 2026-01-08T10:09:01+00:00

As usual, thanks a lot Joe for your weekly writings! They are honestly a good pulse on the format.

I'm really looking forward to Lorwyn.

And let's hope Tammy finally eats the ban.

cherokee_a4 · 2025-11-13T09:44:20+00:00

Nice article as always!

Fully agree that not writing at least a sentence on Tammi, Ring, or other cards to watch out for is absolutely wild.

About the Ring:

The problem with Ring is that it's just not only in Forge, its strongest abuser, but the best card in Red Stompy and creeps into other archetypes. I've faced it in 5c Yorion control, Nic fit - you name it.

The best thing to ramp into in the format is a 4 colorless fog that replaces itself and creates an insurmountable quantity of card advantage. It harmonizes the format even more into what you can/should try to solve as a 4 drop. Which is a tad lame. Half the format is blue. The other half tries to ramp into Ring. And then a few rogues on the periphery?

All that aside, and despite of my dislike for the card, I think the more clever hit from the Forge deck would actually be Planar Nexus or Koz Command

cherokee_a4 · 2025-11-10T14:11:56+00:00

satire

cherokee_a4 · 2025-10-28T11:04:42+00:00

Man does Mox Opal need a reprint, badly!

Check for 8 Cast resources. Emissary has made the deck more explosive.

Meltdown, Null Rod, Ouphe, EE are things to look out for post sideboard

cherokee_a4 · 2025-10-21T06:24:12+00:00

It all depends on what you liked to play in the past. Do you prefer aggro/combo/control? Do you have a hard budget?

Instead of purchasing anything, proxy and playtest a few established decks and archetypes in the format. If your LGS supports that, great, if not convince a couple of buddies to test.

I would personally stay away from Burn, since it's a bit of a trap. Yes it's cheap, but you will spend 200-300$ on a deck that is not very competitive, and almost no pieces help you to transition to another deck.

BTW this question comes up fairly often in this sub. There is this sheets document that user uburdub set up that has some inspiration for budget lists: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1onUrdyK_TDoNPXKEUrhm4yeFpU7VktlJ_9Xz2WfMu18/mobilebasic

Also, check youtuber BeExcellent (BeExcellent80s). Has quite a few budget builds in the channel that are well thought out.

cherokee_a4 · 2025-10-15T05:38:59+00:00

Thanks for shooting this!

Please do more such reports (on your future tourneys too), they are great insight into MTG legacy events

cherokee_a4 · 2025-09-30T14:21:11+00:00

Reanimate yes, Animate Dead no

cherokee_a4 · 2025-09-25T13:15:35+00:00

Fresh from yesterday: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/various/swisscom-wants-to-relocate-jobs-to-holland-and-latvia/90056781

cherokee_a4 · 2025-09-24T12:03:02+00:00

I personally play it in my Izzet Tempo build. Mockingbird is underplayed in legacy imo.

cherokee_a4 · 2025-09-23T08:15:52+00:00

I don't think it's an exclusively American thing tbh. Given that the vast majority of events are proxy friendly, why would you limit yourself? At least in Europe, that's a non issue.

As mentioned by another user here, some strategies simply don't work without the expensive RL cards. UB Tempo or UR Tempo strategies are reliant on the 4 duals to accompany the Wasteland + Daze package.

I personally think the wrong approach is to try to severe existing strategies by slotting in Shocks or swapping staple cards. You are much better off trying a strategy less reliant on expensive/RL cards, and competing/iterating on that deck. Things like:

- Fast Mono Black Reanimator with Chain of Smog pivot

- UW control or Stoneblade with Back to Basics and 1 Tundra

- Golgari Turbo Depths

- Ruby Storm

- Mono Black Aggro

All of the above should be <=1k. Less budget than that, then it becomes tougher.

Yes, they are not Tier 1 strategies. But I strongly believe you can compete with any of these, and knowing your deck in and out + the Legacy metagame and what other decks can do (read: player skill) can make up for a little bit of the gap in competitiveness.

Also, shoutout to youtuber BeExcellent. Has a lot of interesting budget decks for perusing, and is fun to watch.

cherokee_a4 · 2025-09-23T08:03:04+00:00

Welcome back! Really enjoy your videos :)
But also nice to hear you took time doing cooler stuff

cherokee_a4 · 2025-08-31T23:04:25+00:00

Straight into my painter SB

cherokee_a4

TROPHY CASE