This weekend is Grand Prix Washington DC! I’m very excited to be the Morning Sides Lead for both Saturday and Sunday. Thanks to this role, I’ve been copied on lots of emails from the awesome folks at SCG, including an email to someone who’s Head Judging a Legacy Challenge event this weekend. Only one problem…this person hasn’t head judged a major Legacy event before.

No problem — that’s what the Legacy Format Guide is for, right?

Well, one small problem. That guide, while awesome, was last updated in October 2014. Although Legacy doesn’t change all that much, I can think of a couple things that have changed in the format since then.

So, without further ado, I’d like to present a summary of the most important changes to Legacy over the past 15 months, and their common rules/policy interactions. Enjoy!

New Deck: Colorless Eldrazi

This deck leans on a variety of “Sol lands” (lands that produce 2 mana) to quickly present efficient, disruptive, and resilient threats like Reality Smasher and Thought-Knot Seer. Similar to Shops decks in Vintage, the deck also has a prison element to it, using cards like Chalice of the Void, Thorn of Amethyst, and/or Trinisphere to capitalize on their mana advantage and lock the opponent out of the game.

• Thought-Knot Seer‘s second triggered ability is detrimental.
• City of Traitors has a detrimental trigger, but be careful not to intervene until the player has clearly passed priority (e.g. by casting a creature) and Out-of-Order Sequencing can no longer apply.
• The cost reduction from Eye of Ugin is applied before Trinisphere’s effect checks a spell’s cost. Trinisphere (almost) always wins.
• For a Phyrexian mana symbol, paying life instead of mana means you have not paid mana. Thus, if a player can’t produce black mana, casting Dismember through Trinisphere costs three generic mana and four life.
• Warping Wail is not a colorless Eldrazi spell (especially relevant for Eldrazi Temple).
• Painter’s Servant naming any color shuts off Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin.
• Pithing Needle can name any card, including lands, but never affects mana abilities. Phyrexian Revoker cannot name lands, but does turn off mana abilities.
• Endbringer‘s first ability is not a trigger, even if players think it is.

Deck Update: Death and Taxes

Containment Priest is a powerful option for white decks that want to “play fair.” While usually perceived as hate for an opposing strategy, the card also impacts several of of Death and Taxes’ own cards. Notably, a D&T player’s own Aether Vial becomes useless with Containment Priest in play, while the creature exiled by Flickerwisp will be exiled permanently. Be mindful!

Other Updates

• Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time are banned.
• Delve and convoke are now considered mana payments. Notably, this means these abilities now get around Trinisphere. (It also means you can’t “over-delve” or “over-tap” by exiling more cards/tapping more creatures than the appropriate mana symbols.)
• When instructed to name a card, you may name one half of a split card, but not both. Only the chosen name is referenced. Example 1: If Tear is chosen for Meddling Mage, Wear can still be cast. However, the fused split spell Wear and Tear cannot be cast, since one of its names is Tear. Example 2: Delver of Secrets is chosen for Runed Halo. Damage dealt by Insectile Aberration (Delver’s transformed face) is not prevented.

Have I missed anything? What rulings would you add to this list? Let everyone know in the comments!

P.S. Although I plan on adding these to the wiki at some point, I wouldn’t object if someone else beats me to it.