Builds for Legacy Lost - Part 1

Welcome back folks. With this past weekend being the official release of Legacy Lost, my friends and I cracked open a box and set out to get some working builds for these swanky new Rulers. Spoiler alert: Our box was simply awful. From our pre-release the previous weekend we collectively opened Sol and a Full Art Valentina. From our box, we opened Sol and a Full Art Valentina. So triggered. Luckily though our LGS also opened a few boxes and pulled the remaining Rulers that we needed. Among the four of us we had all 5 Rulers claimed, where I took Glorius and Lilias as the only person doubling down. I figured I'd share our builds on here, since the community as a whole still seems to be in the stage of figuring out how to optimize these guys, plus I need content.

Faria/Inheritance

J/Ruler: Glorius, Masked Crusader // Faria, Ruler of Divine Beasts

Resonators:
4x Divine Beast of Attoractia
4x Shining Kirin
4x Tama, Familiar of Holy Wind
4x Sacred Elf
4x Beast of Holy Light
4x Sacred Beast of Wind
3x Invisible Flame
3x Pricia, Beast Queen in Hiding
3x Amaterasu, Guide of Light
1x Sacred Komainu

Non-Resonators:
2x Laevateinn, the Demon Sword
2x Faria's Summon
2x Seal of Wind and Light

Stones:
4x Pricia's Memoria
4x Magic Stone of Gusting Skies
2x Magic Stone of Heat Ray

This list went through a LOT of revisions over the course of the weekend, and it's going to be subject to plenty more in the following weeks. The original draft of the deck didn't have Tama's or Sacred Elves, and ran slightly different ratios of the other cards. From the get-go, it was obvious that this deck had pacing issues. Prior to the Elves and Familiars the deck lacked a turn 1 play, and given how it's primarily an aggro deck, a slow start meant a bad start. You had to get a Divine Beast or Pricia out the turn before you did Judgment, so they could swing the following turn with an Inheritance buff. Putting them out early, though, meant letting them sit there and eat removal without protection. The deck curved out around 4-5 mana once you flip, and it definitely felt like the deck was starved for mana, thus I introduced Sacred Elves.

A couple of games after that, while the deck felt like it had more early mana, it still died out if the game went on for too long since only Shining Kirin replaces itself when used, so Faria ran out of steam pretty quick. Amaterasu was also near useless, since I didn't have a wide board to revive her with. I added in Tama's to see if he could let me keep up in advantage, while providing a good rest target for Amaterasu, and tweaked the ratio's to what they are now. I also added in the Invisible Flames, since blocker removal seemed pretty imperative to what the deck was trying to do. I contemplated Rachel, since she's a more efficient form of removal, but her UU hard cast cost meant I would HAVE to use Faria's free Inheritance to play her most of the time, which I didn't want to risk.

In the future, I plan on testing out how Ratatoskr works. Running him will give me a solid Turn 1 play, a good target for Amaterasu's revival, and he'll let me quickcast my resonators instead of letting them eat removal for a turn before they become useful. The Heat Rays might become Blasting Waves, for a consistent Turn 1 Green source, and I may swap Sacred Elves for Wind Sprites so I can have Turn 2/3 access to Beast of Holy Light for protection. Sacred Komainu will also come out in favor of a 4th Amaterasu, and I will probably test out Artemis Bows in combination with Invisible Flame.

Nine-Tailed Fox/Chimeras

J/Ruler: Lilias Petal, Agent of Salvation // The Nine-Tailed Fox

Resonators:

4x Red Riding Hood

4x Tama, Familiar of Holy Wind

4x The Executioner

3x Riza, First of the Dead

3x Melder, Last of the Dead

2x Lilias Petal's Assistant

2x Monkey Trapped in Life

Non-Resonators:

4x Space-Time Anomaly

4x Artemis, the God's Bow

3x Nameless Mist

3x Charlotte's Water Transformation Magic

2x Curse of the Kyuubi

1x Horn of the Sacred Beasts

1x Deathscythe, the Life Reaper

Stones:

4x Killing Stone

3x Magic Stone of Dark Depths

3x Magic Stone of Deep Wood

Side Deck:

1x Ammit, Beast of Gluttony

2x The Manticore

2x Griphon, Racing Across Darkness

My original theory-build for this guy had Alice's Castling, to turn Manticore and Griphon into Captain Hook and Izanagi, respectively. In original testing the deck functioned way better than any of us expected it to, being a lot faster and stronger than we imagined. As inconsistent as the Castling engine was, in addition to the fact that I didn't use it once, it didn't affect the deck in the slightest. Granted, the deck was fundamentally stronger than anything else we were testing, so results were definitely skewed. I finally took the engine out (after forgetting 2-3 times since I was mostly testing Faria) in favor of the 2 Monkeys, 3 Riza, and 3 Melder. The deck works even better. We pitted it against our builds for Lumia, Sol, and Valentina, and honestly there was no competition.

The deck judgments as early as turn 2. My rule of thumb was judgment the turn after I saw a Killing Stone, provided I had Chimera material. With all the 1-drops, though, sitting on 1 stone was easy. With Energize, you could play a Monkey turn 1 and then Red Riding Hood the next, while keeping one stone, then making Griphon and propelling up to 3 mana. You don't lose a beat with this deck no matter when you judgment. Reactively making Chimeras to deal with anything you don't like, usually at the end phase so they have pseudo-swiftness, means you don't lose any tempo. The slew of control spells let's you stay afloat if you don't see a Killing Stone for a while, and the Stealth engine gives you an alternate win condition and a way to stay in the game until you hit a Killing Stone.

My favorite play was having 2 resonators, eating them to make a Chimera, and while the effect is on the chase, flipping a Riza since the field is temporarily empty. It turned 2 weenies into 3+ massive bodies at a moment's notice. The stupid amount of ramp Griphon gives you makes Curse of the Kyuubi deadly, and the Space-Time + Bear Magic + Artemis Bow package gives you easy removal. The deck is fast, flexible, and has answers to just about everything. I've seen a lot of Chimera spam decks, but just as many control-based builds, and I think I'll be sticking with the control core. Lilias, while strong, has some obvious side board cards that can completely destroy him, so a more prepared list makes sense to me.

Lumia/Cthulhus

This will be the last deck for this article; I'll put up the Valentina and Sol lists this Thursday/Friday. I'm including this one today because it's really more of a half-list, since we never actually tested it. My friend who got the Lumia section of the box couldn't stick around to test much, due to this week being exam weeks for Universities, and he hadn't really prepared a list for her beforehand. Not to mention she kind of got the worst support in the set. This was a list we conjured up once we were satisfied with everything else, and honestly, Lumia is one of the more difficult brews if only because she is so open-ended without very many good ends.

J/Ruler: Lumia, the Fated Rebirth // Lumia, Saint of the Crimson Lotus

Resonators:

4x Guinevere, the Jealous Queen

4x Rukh Egg

4x Lancelot, Knight of Matt Damon

4x Nyarlathotep, the Crimson Radiance

3x Azathoth, Hunter of Reality

3x The Seven Dwarves

2x Hector de Maris, the Acolyte of Matt Damon

Non-Resonators:

4x Dance of Shadows

4x Meeting of Light and Fire

3x Crimson Ray

3x Blood Boil

2x Lumia's Judgment

Stones:

4x Awakened Magic Stone, The Earth

4x Magic Stone of Scorched Bales

2x Magic Stone of Heat Ray

So yeah, a little unconventional. The big idea is to get Azathoth into the grave via Guinevere (possibly Soul Hunt too, depending on whatever edits we make) and then cast Dance of Shadows to bring him back. You'll blink him with Lumia's Ruler skill, which will free him from Dance's effect, reset him Limit counters, and recover him to block the following turn and proc his effect. The key here is to abuse rulings and the fact that there is a priority sequence after when "At the end of the turn" effects trigger. You'll use Dance of Shadows in this priority sequence, so when it says "Remove it from the game at the end of turn", it won't happen until the end of the next turn. This gives Azathoth pseudo-swiftness going into your turn, since he was played at the end of the opponent's turn, allowing you to attack with him, thus resting him and making him a legal target for Lumia's Ruler ability.

The Seven Dwarves are a really strong target for her blink ability too, since they're immune to damage so long as they have counters, and you can just blink them to reset their counters if they ever get low. Lancelot is just a solid aggro resonator, and you can pump him with Blood Boil or Hector. Blinking him with Lumia's ability at the end of turn will save him from dying to Blood Boil, and once you've judgmented Lumia, you can blink Hector to get a 400 pump each turn.

Again, this is just a theory-craft build. It works well in our heads, but we're planning on testing it out this weekend and seeing for sure how viable it is. If nothing else, it's definitely a fun idea that I encourage everyone else to try their hand at. Lumia is definitely one of the most flexible Rulers in the set, and she's just waiting for something to make her amazing.

There you have it! Three decks down, two to go. I'll put up the Valentina and Sol lists this Thursday, and report any changes we make to these decks over the weekend in the following week. I hope everyone is having as much fun testing these new cards as we are!