Fresh Legend Rule, Vintage Format

[GrandpaBelcher]

http://legitmtg.com/competitive/fresh-legend-rule-vintage-format/

Legit asked me to write an article on how the new legend rule will affect Vintage, so I did. There are probably some cases and aspects of the new rule I'm leaving out, so feel free to comment (there or here) and remind everyone.

I'm also hoping they'll publish some intro-level articles I wrote about getting started in Vintage, so show some support for the format so they know there's an existing readership.

[DubDub]

Quite consise.  Nice article.

I would have mentioned that Jace Beleren gets significantly worse, not that he saw play before, while other ways to deal with Jace get better, in particular REB/Pyroblast and Notion Thief.  They really should have found a way to put Notion Thief at less than four mana.

You could also talk more about new design space.  You mentioned Legendary duals, but it's also possible we could see a Planeswalker-clone now.

(I continue to believe this is a massive flavor-fail, but by choice you didn't touch on that topic.)

[MaximumCDawg]

The article was like a summary of the collective thoughts of The Mana Drain for the masses.  Go forth, our emissary!

Anyway, I was looking around for other ways to abuse DD other than Stage, and I was surprised at how very few cards there are that "become a copy of" something once they're in play.  Only one page on the gatherer.  I agree that this new rule suggests exploring that space much more aggressively. 

On balance, I think this is a great change.  Mechanically it doesn't close any doors, and it's opened a bunch of new ones.  Good show, WotC!

[A.-1.]

Quite consise.  Nice article.

Seconded. I had never heard of LegitMTG before today. Thanks for sharing, Nat.

[rilegard]

Many people from other forums complain about the legends change as a way to simplify this mechanic (and by the way the game), but I think the new ruling helps balancing (slightly) the start vs draw advantage.
Do you think that if DCI had decided that only the most recent legend prevails it would have balanced even more the start/draw dilemma?

[hashswag]

I think that would be a really interesting (but not necessarily good; I'm not sure) rule, but it could make blue mirror matches even more of a cold war with both players sandbagging Jaces, etc forever.   

[MaximumCDawg]

The new rule is fun in that it opens up new combinations without spoiling old ones.  So far, we have a few new game-winning combos:

Yosei + Followed Footsteps / Progenitor Mimic = Opponent never gets an untap step, his stuff is locked down fast.

Dark Depths + Thespian Stage = Colorless way to get your Marit Lage token.

Bladewing, the Risen / Sharuum + Clone (or equivalent) = arbitrarily large number of ETB or LTB triggers.  Differs from how these used to work because now the original legend remains on the battlefield the whole time.  Not sure if there's a way to abuse this that is different from how it used to work.

Aurelia, the Warleader + Clone (or equivalent) = Each clone gives you a new attack step.  (Godo + Concordant Crossroads can sub for Aurelia).  So, Aurelia + two Phantasmal Images is gg.

...and thats all I can find.  Anyone else find more?