There are many MTG players who love the Legacy format, but it’s very difficult to get into. This is primarily thanks to the sky-high prices of Reserved List cards. Spending $2000 or more on just four lands is incredibly discouraging. As a result, it isn’t easy to get people out and playing Legacy on a weekly basis.
Considering that many Legacy decks can require a small loan to build, a decline in popularity may not be too surprising. Add on the fact that this format has minimal tournament support from Wizards of the Coast, and getting a huge player base out for Legacy consistently can prove to be difficult. As a result, even Face-to-Face Games, Canada’s premier MTG circuit, has largely stopped its Legacy support at tour weekend stops.
Sadly, many Legacy events across North America are experiencing similar collapses. When larger organizations cannot find a reason to run events for formats that need support, it’s left to the individual to create the support that these formats need. That’s exactly what led Jim Monolith to create Legacy of the North.
What is Legacy of the North?
Legacy of the North is a grassroots organization that resides in the greater Toronto area. Starting as just a Facebook page and a passionate group of individuals who wanted to keep Friday Night Legacy alive, Legacy of the North has turned into a massive community.
With a mission to keep Legacy alive in the area, and beyond, Legacy of the North has created their very own tournament circuit. This includes weekend events, weekly events, and larger events hosted by the organization into a tournament gauntlet. Alongside their own events, Legacy of the North is also trying to promote Legacy play across the wider Ontario area. To do this, they’ve created a points system that tracks Legacy events and allows players to qualify for an end-of-season championship.
This end-of-season championship is another interesting twist on the traditional MTG tournament structure. Not only do players compete for bonus prizes, but there’s a one-against-one showdown against the reigning Legacy of the North champion. The ultimate victor of this event gets their name on the massive Grim Monolith-inspired trophy that you can see above.
While Legacy of the North currently affects just Ontario and has expanded to the Buffalo area, Jim wants to grow the tournament circuit to affect all of North America. The inspiration is something similar to Paupergeddon in Europe—a massive MTG tournament celebrating a format that isn’t directly supported by Wizards of the Coast competitive play anymore. He believes that, by combining efforts with other grassroots MTG organizations across North America, this goal can be accomplished.
Making Legacy Accessible
One of Legacy’s biggest pitfalls is its accessibility. Once you have all the expensive pieces, keeping up is not difficult. That said, thanks to the Reserved List and Commander legality for many of these cards, getting into Legacy is prohibitively expensive. As a result, all of Legacy of the North’s events are proxy-friendly. This allows players to compete in Legacy events without needing to worry about affording multiple thousand-dollar dual lands.
Many may believe that by allowing proxies, Legacy of the North is not supporting the local game stores that are hosting its events. This couldn’t be any further from the truth. While talking with Jim, he shared an observation with us. The LGS’s partnering with Legacy of the North, Enter the Battlefield in Newmarket, Ontario, found that there was a ton of demand to buy real Legacy cards, including Dual Lands, during their events:
Jim Monolith
“Proxies have been a pivotal factor in growing Legacy of the North to what it is today. All LOTN events are 100% proxy friendly! We have found that once someone realizes how much fun the format is and once they have a place that runs weeklies they have no problem investing the money to replace the proxies in time.”
Allowing proxies grants players an entry point to experience Legacy firsthand without investing in it. If they enjoy the format, most players will want to own the real cards naturally. This has allowed Legacy of the North to support LGSs that are, in turn, supporting the Legacy format.
Legacy is Still in Trouble
Sadly, despite the efforts of passionate players like Jim, Legacy still doesn’t get the love it deserves. The recent record-breaking turnout at North America’s Eternal Weekend event hosted by CardTitan proves that a lot of players want to play the format. That said, getting consistent turnouts to Legacy events outside of Eternal Weekend is proving difficult.
Even if we’ll never be playing Legacy Regional Championship Qualifiers, there’s no reason why North America can’t create a Legacy circuit of its own. Jim wants to connect with all of the Legacy leaders across the continent to create something that the North American Magic scene hasn’t seen before. If you want to work with Jim, contact him on Legacy of the North’s official website.
