This Week in Legacy: Legacy Metagame Review September 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 taking a look at where Legacy is right now, and where we think things are going before Eternal Weekend 2025 this year. In addition to that we've got some Challenges from last week to look at. We took a bit of a break last week, I was in the process of traveling back home from Seattle/Bellevue area for Everfree Northwest, and I was pretty exhausted and didn't want to push myself more than I already was.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Legacy in September 2025
With my break last week, I think it's a great time to take a look at some Legacy metagame data and where we are at the moment, with an eye towards what Eternal Weekend might bring. I have two major sets of curated data, one of which is the Legacy Data Collection's aggregate data and the H2H data. The H2H data technically now lives in my PowerBI Desktop app, but I'm looking at ways I will be able to publish that soon. I do have a sheet I keep up to date for this, but it's extremely cumbersome and loads very slowly.
That being said, let's look at some graphical data for metagame stuff first.
At its core, it feels like not a lot has changed since the last time we looked in on Legacy like this. While Tempo still remains the most metagame share in Legacy, those lines are slightly blurred by the fact that Dimir Reanimator is also a Tempo deck and a Graveyard deck and floats between those two roles interchangeably. That makes classifications a little difficult when decks blend these lines. I am considering a long term sort of "Hybrid Classification" to fit decks that may blur those lines, but realistically maybe Dimir needs to be moved into Tempo and not Graveyard? I am not sure if there's a great way to address this because there's good arguments either way.
That being said, Dimir Reanimator is the single most played deck in Legacy since 3/31/2025, at a whopping 915 copies in that timeframe (and growing every week). Overall this sample size shows a roughly 56.7% non-mirror win rate, with the LOW END of the "Wilson CI" (aka the low end of possible win rates) being at 54.29%. So at bare minimum, Dimir Reanimator's true win rate is at least at 54.29% and could be as high as 59%. It's clear that this deck is extremely problematic and what concerns me more than anything is that there will be no action taken until after Eternal Weekend (all three of them) which means that the entire rest of 2025 will be stuck with this deck. Unless something drastically changes within the next two sets (Spider-Man and Avatar: The Last Airbender) I don't know what will oust this deck from being the top dog. In fact, we'll be talking about how this deck specifically lines up against other popular decks in the format in a bit here.
Up there as well, but less popular than Reanimator by less than 400 copies is Dimir Tempo. This deck's win rate is currently well within standards of what we expect most decks to look like. It's a fair deck, and while it has some strong cards it's really just a variant of the Tempo strategy that is good at the moment. 51.4% non-mirror win rate really isn't that hateful, and yes it does share a bunch of cards with Reanimator like Tamiyo (a card I know I've seen people really discuss as possibly banworthy) the overall strategy of the deck seems right in line with Legacy.
Also right on the line but popular is Izzet Tempo. Since the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm there's a been a pretty big split in the deck's construction, with many pilots gravitating away from Questing Druid to Cori-Steel Cutter and a more linear direct approach. Still, this deck has a pretty reasonable win rate at 50% non-mirror and doesn't seem to insane.
Another deck that people definitely will continue to be talking about is Oops, and it really has dipped out of so many conversations realistically and it's not hard to see why. While there's some popularity to the deck, it's overall non-mirror win rate is right around 50.1% which is not really in line with needing to be banned. This is another deck we'll discuss how it matches up against other decks in the format, but I don't think Oops needs any action at the moment.
Red Stompy got a bit of a strange boost in the form of a rules change in Final Fantasy, allowing it to also become an Urza's Saga deck due to how effects like Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon interact with it now (including allowing a Saga on Chapter Two to continue to make constructs forever), but even that seems to have not made the deck insanely better at a 48.3% non-mirror win rate. Realistically I do not think Red Stompy is in a solid space right now. It does well occasionally in Challenges, but it does have some issues.
The Mystic Forge Combo deck (which is slowly reducing Mystic Forge anyways), got the biggest boost ever with the printing of Tezzeret, Cruel Captain, which has been a big boon to the deck. Despite it having some great finishes here or there, the deck still only has a roughly 52.3% non-mirror win rate, which puts it in a reasonable space as well. If you really want to metagame against this kind of deck you can, but the big reason it's doing great is that the sideboarding is primarily against Reanimator and space in sideboards is pretty tight.
Now let's look at some of the H2H data to see where decks are actually landing against each other, because I find that data to be quite interesting.
The biggest takeaway right off the bat here is just how powerful Dimir Reanimator looks against some of the most played decks in the format. Across this particular spread of popular decks, only D&T, Lands, Nadu, and Red Stompy have a positive matchup versus Dimir Reanimator, and even then nothing in that category ever goes below 40% versus those decks, meaning that in terms of pure pilot skill a skilled Dimir Reanimator pilot does have a better shot of beating a lesser skilled D&T player, or a lesser skilled Nadu player. The matchups where Dimir looks really good is stuff like Omni-Tell (75%), Oops (nearly 63%) and Sneak and Show (74.1%) but no other positive matchup besides Grixis Tempo (which is usually Dimir Tempo splashing red for blasts and Molten Collapse) goes below 55%. It is rather crazy to see.
Some other things we can glean here is that Lands does continue to look great. It's got a great matchup versus a lot of the top decks of the format like Dimir Tempo (and also a reasonably good matchup versus Dimir Reanimator), but also a lot of positives across the board.
Beans is popular here, but its win rates across the board are actually incredibly atrocious. 10% vs Eldrazi is rough.
D&T has some very strong win rates here across most of the format, with the worst ones being Mystic Forge and Doomsday.
There's a lot of really interesting things in this table, and I do think that it really does show how incredibly powerful Reanimator is and why it is so good.
My major concern in general for Legacy at the moment is that while there's some really cool things you can do, and decks like Mardu/Mono White Energy have popped up and are doing things, the shadow of Dimir Reanimator is what sits over all of Legacy still. I do think something will need to be addressed from the deck, and I do think it should either be one of the core cards like Reanimate or Entomb. That being said, I don't think anything will also happen that will necessitate emergency action and with the time frame of all three Eternal Weekends being close together and with the latter two having a set release before them (Avatar) there is a very slim possibility that affects the latter two, but I don't think it will.
I do think we are likely stuck with this metagame until 2026, which is unfortunate because I do think Legacy should not follow the RCQ schedules for ban windows, because it is not an RCQ format (same with Vintage). I very much hope that maybe something does happen, but the only major way I see anything really occurring there is if player attendance begins to wane heavily on MTGO and paper events.
What are your current thoughts on Legacy and the data presented? Feel free to share in the comments!
Legacy Challenge 32 8/27/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Wednesday event. This event had 43 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 it had a pretty solid looking win rate. Oops did very well here, as did Mystic Forge Combo. Izzet Tempo did not do well here at all.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Reanimator | 1st | xfile |
| Oops! All Spells | 2nd | 4FunNoWin |
| Red Stompy | 3rd | choutin |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 4th | Raydan |
| Oops! All Spells | 5th | Bawer |
| Jeskai Control | 6th | jibeta |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 7th | DethFrmAbove |
| Dimir Reanimator | 8th | Lord_Beerus |
Half the Top 8 was Reanimator and Oops, and in fact Reanimator won the event.
There isn't a ton of frills here. This is very much stock at this point, outside of maybe having a main deck graveyard hate piece.
In Second Place we had Oops.
Not a whole lot has really changed for this deck, realistically. The sideboard plan here still is some form of juke like Lotleth Giant or Goblin Charbelcher.
Legacy Challenge 32 8/29/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 43 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, surprise, the most played deck. It had a solid win rate here, but so did Dimir Tempo and the "Other Aggro" category which mostly contains Mardu Energy (will probably be working on a classification for that deck soon). Mystic Forge and Red Stompy also looked great.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Tempo | 1st | _INF_ |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 2nd | DethFrmAbove |
| Dimir Reanimator | 3rd | Maxtortion |
| Dimir Reanimator | 4th | C_S_W___ |
| Mardu Energy | 5th | KurlyTTV |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 6th | Raydan |
| Red Stompy | 7th | choutin |
| Mardu Energy | 8th | GzusReturned |
Very interesting Top 8 with two Mardu Energy in the mix. At the end of the event it was Dimir Tempo that won.
Definitely a solid list. You can see how much some decks are choosing to respect both Oops and Reanimator with main deck graveyard hate options.
In Second Place we had Mystic Forge Combo.
Tezzeret has continued to be an incredibly solid card for this deck. The overall value it generates is excessively high in both its untap and tutor modes. This deck is solid for sure. Perilous Snare is a sweet artifact Banishing Light effect.
Legacy Challenge 32 8/30/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday 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 was the most played deck and its win rate was super solid at a 61.54% non-mirror win rate. Mystic Forge, Dimir Tempo, and Jeskai Control all looked pretty good. Despite a FINALS appearance, Izzet Tempo's win rate was pretty bad.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Cephalid Breakfast | 1st | grindstone-cowboy |
| Izzet Tempo | 2nd | habsburger |
| Dimir Reanimator | 3rd | wiky |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 4th | musasabi |
| Grixis Control | 5th | Ark4n |
| Dimir Reanimator | 6th | fuya |
| Dimir Reanimator | 7th | nekoyama2 |
| Dimir Reanimator | 8th | _epinephrine |
Quite a bit of Reaniamtor. At the end of the event though, it was Cephalid Breakfast that won.
Very solid looking list here. As we noted before this deck has a pretty solid spread of matchups in the current format so it's great to see it do well.
In Second Place we had Izzet Tempo.
Questing Druid and Counterbalance is quite interesting. I am curious how Counterbalance feels at the moment, honestly. With all the top deck manipulation like surveil triggers and Bauble/Brainstorm, it might be very cool to play around with.
Legacy Challenge 32 8/31/2025 - 1
The fourth Challenge event of the week was the first Sunday event. This event had 34 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, with a win rate just on the line. Dimir Tempo looked good, as did Mystic Forge Combo.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono White Energy | 1st | Hamuda |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 2nd | kanican |
| Dimir Tempo | 3rd | iKhada |
| Dimir Reanimator | 4th | Ailien02 |
| Dimir Reanimator | 5th | ReformedPaolo |
| Sneak and Show | 6th | snoopy-magic |
| Dimir Reanimator | 7th | Munchlax446 |
| Red Stompy | 8th | SiL3nTGoaT |
Lot of Dimir Reanimator, but the event was won by Mono White Energy.
The biggest things here are new cards Starfield Shepherd, which can tutor up either Guide of Souls and Ocelot Pride for 1W, and Haliya, Guided by Light, which acts are more copies of Guide of Souls. Fun thing you can do with this card when warping it in, is you can cast her for Warp, cast Ocelot Pride, gain 2 life for that and then proceed to end step and order the triggers so that you make the cat token first before Haliya's draw trigger, so you will gain 3 life and draw a card before Haliya warps out. Pretty sweet tech.
In Second Place we had Mystic Forge Combo.
I mentioned Perilous Snare earlier, and it shows up again here. It's kind of cool since it lets you boost a creature at Max Speed but being a Banishing Light effect that can hit anything that Karn can tutor for is the real magic.
Legacy Challenge 32 8/31/2025 - 2
The final Challenge event of the week was the second Sunday event. This event had 55 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, and its win rate was pretty good. Cephalid Breakfast looked great here, as did Izzet Tempo and Oops. Both Dimir Tempo and Mystic Forge didn't look so hot here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Cephalid Breakfast | 1st | wiky |
| Simic Cloudpost | 2nd | TrueFuturism |
| Dimir Reanimator | 3rd | dag8 |
| Dimir Reanimator | 4th | L4rss0n |
| Jeskai Control | 5th | Egorable |
| Cephalid Breakfast | 6th | B-Carp |
| Oops! All Spells | 7th | HyuugaHeir |
| Mardu Energy | 8th | michaelvlevine |
Honestly, a pretty cool Top 8. At the end of the event it was Breakfast that won.
As we discussed earlier, this is a pretty reasonable deck right now. A control deck with a combo finish is very reasonable, and this sort of rides both lines and pivots well when it has to. In addition it really rewards pilot skill knowledge.
In Second Place we had Cloudpost.
What a really interesting version of Post. Being able to play Force of Will in your Cloudpost deck is kind of sick. Portent of Calamity is kind of a super sweet card for sure.
Around the Web
- TonyScapone has a video on Izzet Tempo. Check it out here.
- The Eternal Witnesses has a new episode. Check it out here.
- FIVE DECKS TO ATTACK THE META TODAY! YOU WON'T BELIEVE NUMBER THREE! DOCTOR'S HATE IT!
- Bryant Cook is Quantum Riddling in Doomsday. Check it out here.
- PunishingWaterfalls doing PunishingWaterfalls things. Check it out here.
- Everyday Eternal has a new episode. Check it out here.
- The Eternal Glory Podcast asking the question.... 'Where is White?'
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
Yorion Grixis!
Killabee doing Killabee things.
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!
