This Week in Legacy: Eternal Mania Weekend 2025
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of This Week in Legacy! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're going to be diving into two large paper events from Eternal Mania 2025, continuing the coverage from last week at the same weekend ELM was held at. In addition, I've got some cool updates on H2H Data, in addition to some Challenges including a Showcase Qualifier.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Eternal Mania 2025
As we noted last week, I am covering the major events from Eternal Mania 2025 this week. This major event was held in Hasselt, Belgium alongside the European Legacy Masters events. This weekend had two large Legacy events going on, which I will be covering below.
Friday Event
The first major event of the weekend was the Friday Legacy event. This event had a solid 129 players in it, thanks to the data we collected from the event on SpiceRack.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator was the most played deck of the event by a lot, but its overall win rate was just below 50%. Lands did exceedingly well, as did Omni-Tell and Jeskai Control.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| Lands | 1st | Daniel Peretz |
| Dimir Tempo | 2nd | Anže Jeromel |
| Lands | 3rd | Natan Caballero |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 4th | Johan Larsson |
| Eldrazi | 5th | Erick Krul |
| 8Cast | 6th | Jon Robredo |
| Beanstalk Control (Non-Yorion) | 7th | Michael Kammer |
| Jeskai Control | 8th | Noah Wulfhorst |
Honestly, this is a fairly diverse Top 8 overall. Good representation by varying decks, including some Control representation. At the end of the event, it was Lands that won in the hands of Daniel Peretz.
Main deck Sphere Lands is something I haven't seen in a hot minute. This is really solid looking. I also just absolutely dig Talon Gates of Madara in this lists. It's such a solid clean answer to so many things, and in a pinch you can Wasteland it, buy it back with Loam and then either put it into play instant speed or replay it.
In Second Place we had Dimir Tempo.
Not much of a crazy frill going on here, but main deck Nihil Spellbomb sure is a thing. Have been seeing this a lot over the Dimir decks for sure.
Saturday Event
The second major event of the weekend was the Main Legacy event on Saturday. This event had a solid 228-player turnout, which is pretty cool to see.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator was again the most played deck of the event by more than half, and its win rate was just above 50%. Mystic Forge, Izzet, Cradle Control all looked very good here. Lands seemed to be just below 50%, while both Jeskai Control and Beanstalk seemed to suffer.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| Izzet Tempo | 1st | Hampe214 |
| Doomsday | 2nd | Ferid Mahdi |
| Stiflenought | 3rd | Jorge Chica |
| Red Stompy | 4th | Ingo van Bochove |
| Nadu Midrange Combo | 5th | Clément Rieutort |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 6th | Benjamin R |
| Dimir Reanimator | 7th | Manuel Drudi |
| Dimir Reanimator | 8th | Tobias Andersson-Wipf |
This is another fairly interesting Top 8. Fair bit of combo, but also some tempo and Stompy. At the end of the event, it was Izzet Tempo that won.
Oh heck, I haven't seen a Submerge in a sideboard in who knows how long. That's pretty sweet.
In Second Place, we had Doomsday.
The One Ring is a really interesting thing here, and also a singleton copy of Locust Spray?! No Street Wraith?!? Tendrils of Agony?!?!??!?!?!? What a wild list. I'm loving it with every little bit I look at it.
Update on Legacy Data Collection Project H2H Data
I've been doing a lot of work lately on some of the data formatting of the data within the Legacy Data Collection Project, most notably the data that allows us to glean Head to Head (H2H) data. This is data that tells us how good or bad a deck did against another deck over time. With a lot of work done on this, I was able to get all of the data from 4/2/2025 through this past weekend's events (8/17/2025) loaded into a database and pulled into PowerBI Desktop to be able to do some actual visualization/reporting on it.
I then took what decks had numbers higher than 100 distinct copies within the data set, and filtered those into an H2H matrix which we see below.
There is some interesting things to glean here. Primarily, Dimir Reanimator's matchups seem to be very good for it across the board, with only a few matchups being below 55-50% (notably those matchups are Lands, Nadu Midrange, and Red Stompy (right at the line of 50%)). This to me says a lot about Dimir Reanimator's position in Legacy. It also says a lot to me about decks like Lands, which seems to have a very reasonable and solid matchup across this board as well, while having a strong Dimir Reanimator matchup.
This is definitely interesting data to me, and I'm working on a way to also bring this into a public viewing space that isn't just based in PowerBI Desktop, but I am updating it on a regular basis now so that I can keep sharing and reporting on it.
Legacy Challenge 32 8/13/2025
The first regular Challenge event was the Wednesday event. This event had 40 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator and Oops were the two most played decks, but while Dimir's win rate was incredibly good, Oops' was sitting around 43.75%. Eldrazi did extremely well here, while all the other decks above the cutoff were in the middling to poor range.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Reanimator | 1st | GzusReturned |
| Eldrazi | 2nd | Capitano_CL |
| 8Cast | 3rd | Meltiin |
| Eldrazi | 4th | WadeB |
| Dimir Reanimator | 5th | Wizard_2002 |
| Nadu Midrange Combo | 6th | Srogers90 |
| Dimir Tempo | 7th | Joyfulwaffle |
| Izzet Tempo | 8th | xfile |
Fair bit of Reanimator, Tempo, and Combo along with both Eldrazi players in the event. At the end it was Reanimator that won.
I do think we are at the stage of main decking graveyard hate for the mirror. It definitely feels like it. Ghost Vacuum is such a sweet sideboard card, though.
In Second Place we had Eldrazi.
Oh man I can absolutely imagine how brutal it is to have your Sire of Seven Deaths discarded then reanimated. B-R-U-T-A-L Brutal.
Legacy Challenge 32 8/15/2025
The second regular Challenge event was the Friday event. This event had 41 players in it, thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator was the most played deck of the event, and its win rate was quite good despite only having one Top 8 appearance. D&T however, was the breakout star here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Death and Taxes - BW (Yorion) | 1st | adamwasmo |
| Death and Taxes - BW (Yorion) | 2nd | yoshiwata |
| Izzet Tempo | 3rd | Lord_Beerus |
| Red Stompy | 4th | chanel-santini |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 5th | Harry1232 |
| Red Stompy | 6th | Mogged |
| Mono White Energy | 7th | DominiqueTutor |
| Dimir Reanimator | 8th | jono mizer |
Pretty interesting Top 8 overall. At the end of the event, it was a finals of Death, Taxes, and Overlord of the Balemurk.
I think the biggest differences here is that the winning list is playing two maindeck Containment Priest. which is very good against the myriad of Reanimator/Oops and other graveyard decks at the moment. Combined with some of the harder graveyard hate like Leyline of the Void it is interesting. I am sure this mirror is a very intricate thing, to be honest. It's always looked like a very skill based mirror.
Legacy Challenge 32 8/16/2025
The third regular Challenge event was the Saturday event. This event had 59 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Izzet Tempo was the most played deck and it had a strong win rate here, but so did Dimir at one less copy. Dimir Tempo seemed to suffer quite a bit, while there was a lot of turbulence across the rest of the decks above the cutoff. Beanstalk's numbers were not promising at all.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Reanimator | 1st | jono mizer |
| Sneak and Show | 2nd | FynnOfBlood |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 3rd | musasabi |
| Jeskai Control | 4th | jibeta |
| Nadu Midrange Combo | 5th | Ark4n |
| Death and Taxes - BW (Yorion) | 6th | yoshiwata |
| Izzet Tempo | 7th | habsburger |
| Mardu Energy | 8th | Alpinco |
Fairly interesting Top 8. At the end of the event, it was Dimir Reanimator that won.
Pretty standard list all around here. Not much else to really see.
In Second Place we had Sneak and Show.
Solid looking list here. Stock Up is definitely a very strong card for these lists. Also Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is kind of a sweet inclusion here. Not something typically seen in these lists.
Legacy Challenge 32 8/17/2025 - 1
The fourth regular Challenge event was the first Sunday event. This event had 37 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator was again the most played deck here, and its win rate was very good. Dimir Tempo had a Top 8 but its overall win rate was poor.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Reanimator | 1st | _Batutinha_ |
| Mardu Energy | 2nd | unemployment |
| Dimir Tempo | 3rd | EmperorOppai |
| Red Painter | 4th | uburdub |
| Dimir Reanimator | 5th | AmadeusPro |
| Elves | 6th | Testacular |
| Paradoxical Outcome | 7th | Chris_McNasty |
| Saga Storm | 8th | Kuranari-Jackpa |
Pretty interesting Top 8. At the end of the event it was again Dimir Reanimator that won.
Fairly stock looking list at this point. Not much to look at here.
In Second Place we had Mardu Energy.
This deck is pretty cool. I love the ability to create tokens and leverage Cabal Therapy with this, along with using tokens to deal damage with Goblin Bombardment.
Legacy Challenge 32 8/17/2025 - 2
The final regular Challenge event was the second Sunday event. This event had 72 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator was the most played deck of the event, but its overall win rate was not very good. Izzet Tempo had a strong presence and win rate here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Izzet Tempo | 1st | aplapp |
| Omni-Tell | 2nd | MoMo321 |
| Saga Storm | 3rd | Vlautscher |
| Red Stompy | 4th | alopcas |
| Yorion Stompy | 5th | Carroz |
| Eldrazi | 6th | MdvWin |
| Naya Stompy | 7th | kozz27 |
| Orzhov Blink | 8th | jankyb |
Kind of a cool Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Izzet Tempo that won.
I think the days of Questing Druid Izzet are gone at this point. Cori-Steel Cutter is such a powerful card that it's certainly done a lot for this deck and its construction.
In Second Place we had Omni-Tell.
Very streamline and powerful list. Mistrise Village in the sideboard is very good.
Legacy Showcase Qualifier 8/17/2025
This weekend was the Showcase Qualifier event for the Premier Play season. This is an invitation only event that is populated by players who make Top 8 of the Showcase Challenges, as well as players who win any Last Chance events. The winner of this event goes on to receive an invitation to the MOCS and an upcoming Pro Tour. This event had exactly 32 players in it.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Reanimator was the most played deck of the event and it was a very strong win rate overall. Red Stompy also did very well. These events often tend to be very inbred due to the fact that they are so small and invitation only, so players tend to work with the deck specializations they have within this space and often directly metagame against what the other players may be playing.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Death and Taxes - BW (Yorion) | 1st | adamwasmo |
| Red Stompy | 2nd | choutin |
| Nadu Midrange Combo | 3rd | pagan20 |
| Sneak and Show | 4th | snoopy-magic |
| Dimir Reanimator | 5th | Alpha_Omega |
| Dimir Reanimator | 6th | 416FrowningTable |
| Mono Green Cloudpost | 7th | Patxi |
| Dimir Reanimator | 8th | Skpchino |
Very interesting Top 8. At the end of the event it was D&T that won.
D&T to me seems like a strong pick for this event. Being able to predict what your opponents might be on and adjust to that is what the deck does best in a lot of ways.
In Second Place we had Red Stompy.
This is a solid looking list. It's interesting how much the rules change for Urza's Saga has impacted the deck's construction. It's very cool seeing the evolution of it.
Around the Web
- IN RESPONSE has a new episode. Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook is going Cosmogoyf in Doomsday. Check it out here.
- StrassDaddy is playing some Maverick. Check it out here.
- Sam Dams has a video talking about Bant Control in Eternal Mania. Check it out here.
- JamesKisau is consulting the Stars in Grixis Control. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
Loam Pox is sweet.
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for continuing to support the column and join us next week as we continue our journey into Legacy!
As always you can reach me at all my associated links via my Link Tree! In addition I'm always around the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the MTGLegacy Discord Server.
Until next time!
