From the very beginning, it was clear that Edge of Eternities was going to be a set that celebrated Magic: The Gathering’s past, while also charting out its future. Classic creature types, specifically Kavu and Baloth, were confirmed even before any cards were. When we finally got the full set only two Baloths actually made the cut, but turns out it was a serious case of quality over quantity. In a recent MTG Legacy League, both of these Baloths formed part of a 5-0 Gruul Ramp list.
Edge of Eternities has been unusually successful in eternal formats, but even so, this is surprising. The new Baloth cards looked more like Commander fodder than serious players. Heck, one literally came in the World Shaper Commander precon. Now that they’re out in the wild, however, the results speak for themselves. Whether this is a genuine new meta player or just a fun gimmick remains to be seen. In any case, it’s great fun to see such unexpected cards in one of Magic’s toughest formats.
Gruul Ramp In MTG Legacy
Before we get to the new Baloths themselves, we need to break down the core of this Gruul Ramp deck for MTG Legacy, because the rest is all fairly new as well. The deck comes to us via Koike, and it doesn’t really resemble anything else we’ve seen in Legacy recently.
At a base level, this is a deck about abusing Veteran Explorer. This is a one-drop that, on death, lets both players fetch up two basic lands and put them into play untapped. While this seems symmetrical at first, most Legacy decks only run one or two basics. Some, like the artifact Storm decks, don’t run any at all. This means you’ll get much more value out of this than your opponent will, since you run nine total basics yourself.
In order to trigger Explorer’s effect early, the deck runs a pair of hyper-efficient sacrifice outlets. Greater Gargadon costs just one red mana, and is hard to interact with since it comes down via Suspend. Flare of Cultivation can sacrifice Explorer for free, and even gets you more basics at the same time.
Since Explorer is so important for the deck’s setup, it also runs a couple of ways to access it more easily. Break Out lets you dig six cards deep for a copy, and put it right into play to boot. If you don’t hit Explorer, this can grab a few of the deck’s other key cards, too. Koike also runs the ol’ reliable Green Sun’s Zenith, to bring Explorer into play for just two mana.
Once you’ve found and used a copy or two of Explorer, you should be way ahead of your opponent mana-wise. At this point, Gruul Ramp is ready to move into its endgame.
Bring On The Baloths
This is where the new Baloths come in. Koike’s Gruul Ramp list for MTG Legacy is, ultimately, a very mana-intensive Combo deck. It needs a lot of lands to deploy its threats, and wants to sacrifice those lands to enable the main combo line itself. The new Baloths, Frenzied and Prime, both support and enable the combo.
The heart of the winning combo here is Terror of the Peaks. This burns your opponent each time a creature enters under your control. The deck also runs two creatures that generate big bodies easily: Baloth Prime and Titania, Protector of Argoth. These two make 4/4s and 5/3s, respectively, whenever you sacrifice a land.
Paired with Sylvan Safekeeper, which lets you cash in all of your lands for free at instant speed, you have a very easy kill. Greater Gargadon, which we used earlier to set up our mana in the first place, also fills the same role.
Even with an Explorer or two, this combo will still take a couple of turns to fully assemble. This alone is an obstacle to success, never mind the high chance that your opponent is running countermagic to stop your key plays. This is where Frenzied Baloth, comes in. It prevents your opponent from countering your creatures, which really protects the combo. It also turns off damage prevention, which lets the deck kill through protection from The One Ring.
Outside of the core combo, this deck also runs some spicy tech pieces. Endurance, as always, is great against Dimir Reanimator, but you can also use it to recycle your sacrificed lands so you can grab them with another Explorer later. Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate rounds things out, serving as a kind-of card draw engine that can also tutor up a combo piece easily with that -2.
Real Legs In Legacy?
Overall, Koike’s Gruul Ramp deck is far from your usual MTG Legacy fare. It abuses a mostly-forgotten ramp piece to power an unusual combo win. A 5-0 League win isn’t a Pro Tour top eight, by any means, but it is an encouraging sign for the deck going forward.
Looking at the list, Gruul Ramp is actually fairly well-placed against the big players right now. Mono-Red Stompy in particular, which relies on Blood Moon effects to shut down its opponents, does basically nothing against a deck as basic-heavy as this. It can sometimes win through raw aggression, of course, but its biggest edge is gone in this matchup.
Dimir Reanimator is another nice matchup for the deck. Endurance gives you a clean answer to a lot of its power plays, and Frenzied Baloth can help you stave off Daze and Force of Will. With limited removal in the main deck, Reanimator won’t always be able to get Baloth off the board. In such cases, there’ll be little to stop you from rolling out your combo win before they even really get going.
Izzet Delver is where things get tricky. While they don’t run a lot of basics, they do have plenty of cheap interaction. This means they’ll be able to deal with Frenzied Baloth easily, and keep the rest of your combo under control from there. They also have the potential for huge early pressure, which can be hard for Gruul Ramp to recover from. As with most Combo decks, it’s not particularly interactive.
While its metagame potential is a mixed bag, it’s refreshing to see such an innovative deck do well, especially in Legacy.
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