Sometimes, even if a Magic card is powerful, it takes some work in order to maximize it. Not every strong card is able to find a home right away. It can take some time and effort to find a good shell for the card to fit in.
This has been the case with Glarb, Calamity’s Augur. Glarb is a really sweet design and a fan-favorite Frog, but it has mostly fallen by the wayside in Constructed. Yet, just recently, the card made a splash in Legacy of all places!
That’s right. A cool take on Domain Zoo in Legacy makes great use of the unique legend, as well as some other potent synergies you won’t find in Modern. Let’s take a closer look at what this deck is trying to accomplish and the upside Glarb has in the archetype.
The Zoo Plan
- Mana Value: G/W, G/U, B/G, R/G
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Enchantment
- MTG Sets: Murders at Karlov Manor
- Card Text: If Leyline of the Guildpact 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.
Like typical Domain Zoo decks that used to see quite a bit of Modern play, you’ll find a very strong synergistic pair of cards in the form of Leyline of the Guildpact and Scion of Draco. Obviously, if you can start the game with Leyline out, Scion of Draco is guaranteed to cost a measly two mana. You don’t even have to crack your Fetchlands to set things up, which can help you play around Wasteland.
The biggest thing that Leyline does, though, is that it makes your Scions all colors. So, Scion isn’t just a 4/4 flier. It now has trample, first strike, vigilance, lifelink, and most importantly, hexproof. If your opponent wants to kill Scion, they first have to get Leyline off the table.
Leyline does have the downside of being a poor topdeck. Luckily, Brainstorm can help you shuffle away excess copies you draw in the middle of the game. Simply put Leyline back on top of your deck, shuffle with a Fetchland, and you’re good to go.
As is traditional in Domain builds, Leyline Binding also plays a crucial role. Leyline Binding can answer anything you need in a super efficient manner. From Orcish Bowmasters to Marit Lage tokens, Leyline Binding cleans up it all.
A Different Approach
- Mana Value: 1G
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Card Type: Enchantment
- MTG Sets: Wilds of Eldraine
- Card Text: When Up the Beanstalk enters the battlefield and whenever you cast a spell with mana value 5 or greater, draw a card.
Unlike usual Domain Zoo decklists in Modern, this version is more structured around card advantage and synergies. You won’t find any creatures like Territorial Kavu here. Instead, to help give you an advantage in grindy games, Up the Beanstalk and Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student make their presences felt.
Up the Beanstalk is a nice value engine. Scion and Leyline Binding both trigger the elite enchantment. Up the Beanstalk also does a good job negating the downside of Force of Will, allowing you to draw a card even when you cast it for zero mana.
Tamiyo spits out Clues, though your main goal with Tamiyo is to try to transform it. Resolving Brainstorm is the easiest path to doing so. Otherwise, your best bet is to use Ponder and Up the Beanstalk to get you there in conjunction with your draw step.
To help keep Tamiyo alive, Swords to Plowshares is a premier source of removal. Tamiyo’s -3 can rebuy Swords to Plowshares when applicable, which is a good option to have.
Unique Synergies
- Mana Value: BGU
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 2/4
- Card Type: Legendary Creature- Frog Wizard Noble
- MTG Sets: Bloomburrow
- Card Text: Deathtouch. You may look at the top card of your library any time. You may play lands and cast spells with mana value 4 or greater from the top of your library. Tap: Surveil 2.
Looking at the decklist, the most intriguing cards that jump out at you are without a doubt Glarb and Broadside Bombardiers. Both cards appear as two-ofs in the deck. Thanks to your high density of cantrips, though, finding these unique three-drops isn’t too difficult.
Both cards shine in different spots. Glarb is surprisingly strong in this deck at pulling you even further ahead on cards. Between Glarb’s surveil ability and Ponder and Brainstorm letting you manipulate the top of your deck, you’re bound to play some cards off the top.
Glarb is beefy enough to survive Lightning Bolt, and the longer it lives, the more of an advantage it creates. You are limited to only playing spells that specifically cost four or more from the top of your deck, but Leyline Binding, Force of Will, and Scion all meet the criteria.
Broadside Bombardiers, on the other hand, does a nice massive Fireball impression when paired with Scion. After attacking with Bombardiers and Scion, you’re free to fling Scion and send 14 damage straight to your opponent. This is nearly lethal by itself. As long as you can connect with Scion once or twice, this can be a way to win the game out of nowhere.
When you don’t draw Scion, Bombardiers is admittedly not the best, which is a big reason why it’s only a two-of. It still works favorably with Tamiyo’s Clue production at least, so it’s not necessarily a dead card.
Controlling Your Destiny
- Mana Value: 6BB
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 6/6
- Card Type: Creature- Archon
- MTG Sets: Modern Horizons 2, Modern Horizons 3 Commander, Duskmourn Commander
- Card Text: Flying. Whenever Archon of Cruelty enters the battlefield or attacks, target opponent sacrifices a creature or planeswalker, discards a card, and loses 3 life. You draw a card and gain 3 life.
Overall, the main appeal to this deck is that you get to play a controlling gameplan, but you simultaneously have access to a great one-two punch in Leyline plus Scion that can steal games. Scion naturally evades almost every removal spell even out of Dimir, assuming you don’t let an Archon of Cruelty get reanimated.
Dimir tempo and mono-red Stompy, two of the best decks in Legacy, aren’t prepared to remove Leyline once it hits the board. So, a Scion with hexproof and lifelink will likely do the trick. Swords to Plowshares and Leyline Binding then keep any massive threats, such as Murktide Regent, off the table.
Where you can certainly run into trouble is when you don’t draw Leyline. You have a very greedy manabase to enable casting Scion and your mishmash of different colored permanents on curve. This means you are quite vulnerable to Wasteland.
Given how popular Delver decks are right now, playing this strategy that is built to stabilize and win the long game does have some appeal. You just have to be careful with your mana in the face of land destruction, especially because you have a lot of different one-of dual lands that can get blown up. Seeing Glarb succeed in an all-powerful format like Legacy is awesome, and we hope the trend continues.