Sneak Attack decks are nothing new to competitive MTG. The powerful Enchantment most commonly shows up in Legacy alongside Show and Tell and a multitude of card selection spells. The addition of Stock Up helped the Sneak and Show archetype improve even further.
Recently, though, one player made it to the finals of a 380-player Legacy event with a very unique Sneak Attack build. This deck eschews blue entirely, opting to stay mono-red and focus on some intriguing synergies.
You’ll even find a sweet Commander card in the mix that hasn’t had any notable Constructed finishes in quite some time! Seeing an innovative strategy have this level of success out of nowhere is really cool, especially in a format as powerful as Legacy.
Yggdrasil and Sneak Attack Join Forces
The core of this deck rests behind two key cards that allow you to cheat enormous haymakers into play and attack your opponent immediately. As mentioned, one of them is Sneak Attack. The goal with Sneak Attack is to put creatures into play with elite enters-the-battlefield triggers or attack triggers. This way, even though they go away at the end of your turn, you still gain a significant advantage.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is certainly the most devastating creature to put into play. Annihilator 6 is extremely difficult for the opponent to come back from, especially if you get it into play early. Atraxa, Grand Unifier is another top tier creature to cheat into play. There’s a good chance Atraxa will find you another creature to put on the battlefield, too.
You’ll even find a few copies of Koma, World Eater here. Koma lets you get in a big chunk of damage, and you’re left with a plethora of 3/3s to close the game with.
Notably, without a bunch of blue cantrips present, you need to have a backup plan for when you don’t draw Sneal Attack. That’s where Yggdrasil, Rebirth Engine enters the equation. Yggdrasil is a bit of a weird card, but the end goal with Yggdrasil is still to get a big Hasty threat on the battlefield.
When Yggdrasil enters, you get to exile all cards from your graveyard. So, if you’ve previously discarded Atraxa or Koma to Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, you’ll exile it with Yggdrasil and can pay four mana to put it into play tapped and attacking.
If you don’t have any bombs in your graveyard, there’s no need to fear. Yggdrasil comes with the ability to exile the top three cards of your deck each turn cycle. Eventually, you’re bound to exile a juicy creature to put into play.
A Sweet Alternative
In addition to enabling Yggdrasil quite nicely, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker also makes Fireflux Squad a legitimate win condition in this deck. Fireflux Squad was printed in Commander 2020 and is now getting its time to shine in a high-powered environment.
Alongside another attacking Creature, Fireflux Squad gives you the option of essentially converting that attacker into a random Creature from your deck. Assuming you’re exiling the Goblin Shaman token made by Fable, you’re guaranteed to upgrade to something more powerful. This could be another copy of Fireflux Squad, but the odds are in your favor that you’ll put Atraxa, Koma, or Emrakul onto the battlefield.
Djeru and Hazoret fills a somewhat similar role, and you don’t even need another attacker to get your trigger. In this case, you attack with Djeru and Hazoret, digging six cards deep for one of your three enormous legends. The downside is that you may whiff, but the upside of hitting Emrakul and casting it during your second main phase is incredible.
Both of these cards are Humans, meaning you can conveniently cast them off of Cavern of Souls. Having a way to sidestep Force of Will is essential.
Speed Kills
Speaking of Force of Will, because this deck doesn’t feature blue, you don’t gain access to Counterspells to disrupt opposing combo decks. As such, setting up your kill conditions quickly is super important.
That’s why you’ll find a plethora of ways to accelerate out your three, four, and five-mana plays. First and foremost, both Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors are four-ofs in this shell. Second, both Lotus Petal and Chrome Mox make an appearance. Together, casting a turn one Fable or Sneak isn’t out of the question.
The presence of Seething Song makes it more likely you can set up turn one wins via Sneak Attack. In sideboard games, you can even use your zero-mana Artifacts and Seething Song to cast Stormscale Scion as an alternate win condition. If your opponent holds their counter magic in hopes of hitting Sneak after you waste your mana acceleration, jamming Stormscale Scion may leave your opponent in rough shape.
A Fantastic Finish
While the choice of moving off the blue cards may seem questionable, there’s no denying the deck’s amazing finish in such a large event. This deck is fast and surprisingly attacks from a lot of different angles.
Against decks like Izzet Delver, Chalice of the Void is a nuisance for your opponent. Daze is relatively easy to play around with so many mana sources available, assuming you aren’t under a ton of pressure. At the same time, this deck is fast enough to race Nadu combo.
Without any Counterspells of your own, you are vulnerable to turn one kills out of Oops All Spells, but that’s not a huge deal. It’ll be exciting to see if this deck gains any additional traction in Legacy in the following weeks after such a dominant showing.