Black Red Aggro

Deck by Paddan

The foundation of this deck looks a lot like Deadguy Ale but instead of using white for efficient and versatile removal it goes full aggro with cards like Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning. As with Deadguy Ale the creature base is made up by the usual black suspects, meaning Black Knight, Hypnotic Specter and Juzam Djinn.

The combination of black and red also gives this deck access to the powerful Sedge Troll. As with most other Juzam decks, those with a tight budget can use Su-Chi instead of Juzam Djinn, or you can choose to build the deck lower to the ground by skipping the 4-drops altogether and instead playing cheaper creatures.

Reanimator

Deck by Gajol

Reanimating fatties is a strategy as old as the game itself; and if something is as old as the game itself of course you can build a deck based on it in 93/94. The game plan is the same as with any other reanimation deck in any other format, you just use different cards. That means that you first of all need a discard outlet to put a creature in your graveyard. Then you also need some cards that let you put creatures from your graveyard onto the battlefield.

The cards that you have at your disposal for the second part of the combo are Animate Dead, Resurrection, All Hallows Eve and to a lesser extent Hell’s Caretaker and Reincarnation. To bin your fatties, you can use cards like Jalum Tome, Bazaar of Baghdad and Mind Bomb. Just mix and match as you see fit to make up you deck. When it comes to the big monsters there are some problems as most of the big creatures in this format have horrible downsides. But some examples of creatures that you can use are Nicol Bolas, Chromium and Shivan Dragon.

Another reanimation target is the humongous Colossus of Sardia, but then you also need a plan for how to untap it. A couple of cool and interesting ideas that have been used in the past is getting another one with Transmute Artifact or sacrificing the monster with the card Sacrifice to end the opponent with a big Fireball, or to cast another Colossus of Sardia.

The Machine/Coffin Combo

Deck by Hardy

These two decks share the same idea, are quite similar and sometimes use the same cards so we'll bunch them together here. The idea is to reset the counters on the creatures Triskelion and Tetravus, so you'll be able to swarm the board with 1/1 creatures or just shoot the opponent in the face for a lot of damage.

Coffin Combo utilizes Tawnos Coffin for this purpose as it remembers the amount of counters on the creatures it exiles. Therefore, the creature returns with both three new counters and the ones it had when it was exiled.

The Machine instead uses Hell's Caretaker to reanimate the creatures over and over again and use the counters on them between each repetition. That's about it. The rest is up to you!

Trick Deck

Deck by Hardy

This deck is all about resolving an Underworld Dreams and then letting your opponent draw themselves to death. Of course that would take some time if you don't help them on their way, therefore you play cards like Wheel of Fortune, Winds of Change and sometimes also Howling Mine. If you want, you can also pair the Howling Mine with Relic Barrier.

The deck usually complements the main plan with a bunch of Lightning Bolts which can be used both as creature removal or for extra reach so that you can finish of the opponent after Underworld Dreams has done its thing.

Sometimes this decks contain a couple of creatures for another angle of attack but it can also be built completely without creatures so you can play a couple of The Abyss.

The Void

Deck by "oldschool"

This deck revolves around the card Nether Void and as with many other decks on this site The Void can be built in many different ways. Nether Void itself is a extremely powerful enchantment from Legends that makes everyone pay an extra three generic mana for all of his or her spells. This usually stops the opponent from playing spells and if you don't play spells you usually lose.

Of course the enchantment also affects you but as you know it's coming you can build your deck around it. One way is to combine Nether Void with a lot of land destruction, making the deck play a lot like Ponza but later locking the opponent out of the game completely by dropping a Nether Void.

Another way to build it is with cards like Dark Ritual and Mana Vault to power out the Nether Void even before the Opponent has three mana. Mana Vault is also quite good after the Nether Void has hit the table as you can untap it every other turn and cast expensive spells the other turns.

You can also choose to not play that many expensive spells so you can function even with the Nether Void in play. As with most prison style decks the deck run few wincons and one of the best is of course Mishra’s Factory as it doesn't cost any mana.

Ponza

Deck by Roland Johansson

The one archetype that WOTC hates more than anything else is without a doubt land destruction. That means that they sadly nowadays never ever print good land destruction cards.

Fortunately for us, things were quite different in the 90's and WOTC printed a bunch of nice land destruction cards in 1993 and 1994. Those cards are exactly what the Ponza deck is all about! Ponza is usually a black, red and green deck that include playsets of Sinkhole, Stone Rain and Ice Storm.

The deck's plan is simple, stop your opponent from playing magic by destroying his or her lands. The rest of the deck and the wincons differ but Dark Rituals and evil black creatures is a common way to go. Another card that could be considered is Crumble as it lets the deck destroy moxes as well.

Artifact Toolbox

Deck by Mg

This is a toolbox deck that is based around artifacts and its namesake card, Transmute Artifact. It uses Transmute Artifact and a bunch of different artifacts, mostly one ofs, to always be able to have a good answer to whatever the opponent is doing. As this format contains a lot of powerful artifacts the possibilities are endless, but some of the more common ones are Mirror Universe, Triskelion, Icy Manipulator, Jayemade Tome, Ivory Tower and City in a Bottle.

The two most common ways to build this deck is either mono blue or black and blue. The main reason for playing black is the card Guardian Beast. The beast helps you keep your artifacts intact by making them indestructible, but it also gives you access to two powerful combos. The first combo is with Chaos Orb as it lets you flip the orb without the orb being destroyed. The second combo is with Nevinyrral's Disk and lets you blow up all of your opponents permanents while all your artifacts, including the disk, stays on the table.

Distress

Deck by Mg

Distress is a deck with a very fitting name, because if you meet this deck, you will surely feel a lot of distress. The deck uses cards like Underworld Dreams, Warp Artifact, Pestilence and Black Vise to slowly bleed out the opponent instead of beating down with creatures.

To be able to slowly bleed someone out the deck of course need to stop the opponent from doing his or her thing. This is usually accomplished by playing Sinkhole, Icy Manipulator, Nevinyrral's Disk, The Abyss, City in a Bottle and the above mentioned Pestilence.

The deck often also uses the card draw engine of Relic Barrier and Howling Mine as both cards also serves other purposes, like tapping down Mishra's Factory and dealing damage with Underworld Dreams.

Machine Head

Deck by Freespace

If someone tells you they are playing Machine Head it could actually mean a couple of things as the deck archetype isn't set in stone, but one thing is certain and that is that it involves Juzam Djinns.

As there is no clear definition of Machine Head it is a little bit hard to write about but it usually involves big creatures like Erhnam Djinn and Juzam Djinn combined with Birds of Paradise to ramp into them. Other cards you usually see in this archetype are Dark Ritual and Elves of Deep Shadow for even more ramp.

It's also not unusual to splash a third color or maybe even two. First of all, you can splash red for Lightning Bolts and Sedge Trolls, or you can splash white to top the curve with Serra Angels and have access to white's amazing removal. Of course you can also splash blue for power, but that's about it.

Last but not least, on card you can play if you really want to hit the opponent hard is Berserk, some decks even play a complete playset.

The Abyss

Deck by Sehl

The Abyss is one of the most powerful cards from Legends and it is the bane of most creature decks in the format. But here's the thing, The Abyss has a small "loop hole" and that is what this deck is built around. Usually you only put The Abyss in a deck completely without creatures, but this deck does the exact opposite and plays a whole bunch of creatures.

The Abyss’ ”loop hole” is that it actually doesn't kill all creatures, instead it leaves artifact creatures alone. Therefore, this deck plays 2 - 4 The Abyss to kill all of the opponent's creatures, and then it utilizes Su-Chi, Juggernaut and other artifact creatures that don’t care about The Abyss to smash the opponent's face.

That is the foundation of this deck and what other cards to fill the deck whit is completely up to you. A couple of examples are Sinkholes, Underworld Dreams, blue splash for power or maybe a red splash for Lightning Bolts and other burn spell.

Troll Disco

Deck by Troll Disco

The Troll part in the name stands for the powerful Sedge Troll, and Disco stands for the disk with tentacles, Nevinyrral's Disk. The decks game plan is to use the disk to blow up the world, except for your trusty trolls that is. The Trolls instead regenerate to fight another day and continues to beat your opponent senseless while all of his or her stuff has been blown to pieces.

That is the core of this deck, but other than that you can build it quite differently using either classic beaters like Hypnotic Specter or go all in on regenerating creatures like Uthden Troll and Clay Statue. If you want you can also splash blue for more control elements if you don't think the disk is enough.

Deadguy Ale

Deck by Andreas Rosén

Deadguy Ale is probably the most famous midrange deck in the format and also one of the most resilient. The power of the deck comes from combining great and diverse threats with a plethora of removal for whatever the opponent does. The aggressive part of the deck consists of threats like Juzam Djinn, Hypnotic Specter and Underworld Dreams, often combines with Dark Ritual to deploy them as fast as possible.

The threats are backed up by some of the most efficient removal in the format in the form of Disenchant and Swords to Plowshares. It's also not unusual for the deck to play Sinkholes to attack the opponent on one more angle and sometimes you can see lists splashing red which gives it access to Lightning Bolt for more removal and Red Elemental Blast for better game against blue decks.

Mono Black

Deck by Erland

A deck that is more evil than this is hard to get. If you meet a player that has been playing since the early days, chances are the mono black deck is the deck they have the most vivid memory of. This deck plays all of the good black creatures paired with format power house Underworld Dreams to attack the enemy on two angles.

One card the mono black player seldom leave home without is the black boon, Dark Ritual, a card which allows for classic plays like a turn one Hypnotic Specter or turn two Juzam Djinn. Budget versions of this deck usually trades the crazy expensive Juzams for Su-Chi which also allows them to play City in a Bottle in the sideboard. Another card worth mentioning is Sinkhole, a card that sometimes can win games by itself.