Raccoon MTG Precon Commander Dominates Competitive Constructed Event

While the barrier to entry in a format as powerful as Legacy is extremely high, every now and again, a card makes a competitive splash that surprises us. This was certainly the case today, when a four-color Zoo deck abusing the power of a Precon Commander made the finals of a Magic Online Legacy Challenge. This Raccoon legend packs a punch and deserves recognition.

Breaking Bello, Bard of the Brambles

Like most traditional Modern Zoo shells, this Legacy variant piloted by Takizawa gets a lot of its mileage from Leyline of the Guildpact Leyline of the Guildpact If this card is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield.
Each nonland permanent you control is all colors.
Lands you control are every basic land type in addition to their other types. . The upside of having perfect mana at the start of the game is high, as it fully reduces the cost of Leyline Binding Leyline Binding Flash
Domain — This spell costs {1} less to cast for each basic land type among lands you control.
When this enchantment enters, exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls until this enchantment leaves the battlefield. and even lets you save your Fetchlands to play around Wasteland Wasteland {T}: Add {C}.
{T}, Sacrifice this land: Destroy target nonbasic land. . Of course, you also get the reward of pairing the enchantment with Scion of Draco Scion of Draco Domain — This spell costs {2} less to cast for each basic land type among lands you control.
Flying
Each creature you control has vigilance if it's white, hexproof if it's blue, lifelink if it's black, first strike if it's red, and trample if it's green. to make an untargetable monster.

This is where Bello, Bard of the Brambles Bello, Bard of the Brambles During your turn, each non-Equipment artifact and non-Aura enchantment you control with mana value 4 or greater is a 4/4 Elemental creature in addition to its other types and has indestructible, haste, and "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card." comes in, capable of turning your Leyline of the Guildpact and your Leyline Binding into 4/4 Indestructible beaters. Bello also acts as card advantage by connecting with these cards, minimizing the downside of drawing multiple Leyline of the Guildpacts.

Bello’s main weakness is that it’s vulnerable to removal spells like Lightning Bolt Lightning Bolt Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to any target. , but the combination of Scion and Leyline protects the Raccoon easily. Plus, you can always use Force of Will Force of Will You may pay 1 life and exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target spell. or Force of Negation Force of Negation If it's not your turn, you may exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target noncreature spell. If that spell is countered this way, exile it instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard. to save the legend. Remember, you can always pitch excess Leyline copies to these counterspells, too.

With access to Force of Will, Scion, and Leyline Binding as expensive spells that can be cast at a big discount, this deck also gets to abuse Up the Beanstalk Up the Beanstalk When this enchantment enters and whenever you cast a spell with mana value 5 or greater, draw a card. . This enchantment ensures you never run out of gas and helps find Bello in a timely manner. Quantum Riddler Quantum Riddler Flying
When this creature enters, draw a card.
As long as you have one or fewer cards in hand, if you would draw one or more cards, you draw that many cards plus one instead.
Warp {1}{U} then makes it even easier to churn through your library if you get low on cards.

Addressing a Notable Weakness

Naturally, as a deck that draws lots of extra cards, this strategy’s biggest strength is its grinding potential. Many of the best decks in Legacy, including Dimir Tempo and Izzet Delver, have no good answers to a resolved Up the Beanstalk. With Leyline Binding and Swords to Plowshares Swords to Plowshares Exile target creature. Its controller gains life equal to its power. staving off pressure, it’s easy to overwhelm the opponent with a resource advantage.

At the same time, Bello gives you a much better chance to close games quickly than more typical Beanstalk Control decks. This is a huge boon against combo shells like Reanimator and Doomsday Doomsday Search your library and graveyard for five cards and exile the rest. Put the chosen cards on top of your library in any order. You lose half your life, rounded up. that require you to end the game in a timely manner, even with counterspells in the deck.

Unfortunately, this deck isn’t foolproof, and it has other weaknesses to keep in mind. Your reliance on drawing extra cards, for example, does leave you vulnerable to Orcish Bowmasters Orcish Bowmasters Flash
When this creature enters and whenever an opponent draws a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, this creature deals 1 damage to any target. Then amass Orcs 1. . Going down the Leyline and Bello route isn’t all upside, either, since you do open the door for hate cards like Force of Vigor Force of Vigor If it's not your turn, you may exile a green card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Destroy up to two target artifacts and/or enchantments. to completely wreck your game plan.

Nonetheless, this deck clearly still has what it takes to compete, as indicated by its second-place Challenge finish. It’s cool to see a card primarily known for Commander make its presence felt in Legacy, and we look forward to seeing if it continues to put up good results.

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